CN116097890A

CN116097890A - Communication equipment, data transmission method and device

Info

Publication number: CN116097890A
Application number: CN202080103539.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 朱元萍; 罗海燕
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-09-16
Filing date: 2020-09-16
Publication date: 2023-05-09
Also published as: WO2022056708A1

Abstract

The application provides a communication device, a data transmission method and a data transmission device. The communication equipment is used for judging the destination address of the data transmitted by the first access technology terminal; the communication device is further configured to, when determining that the destination address of the data is the second access technology terminal, transmit the data transmitted by the first access technology terminal to the second access technology terminal without going through a base station and a core network device connected to the communication device when determining that the first access terminal transmits the data to other terminals; wherein the first access technology terminal and the second access technology terminal are connected to a communication device. According to the method and the device, not only can the access of the diversified home terminal equipment to the network be realized, but also the service of the diversified home terminal equipment interaction local exchange can be supported.

Description

Communication equipment, data transmission method and device

Technical Field

The present application relates to communication networks, and more particularly, to a communication device, a method and an apparatus for data transmission.

Background

In recent years, global broadband access network construction has been greatly developed, and broadband popularity has been gradually increased. Current indoor broadband access technologies, still based on fixed broadband (FBB), include, for example, fiber to the x (FTTx), asymmetric digital subscriber line (asymmetric digital subscriber line, ADSL), cable television (cable) access, and the like. Various video related applications and other emerging multimedia services have increasingly high requirements on network capability rate, and conventional wired connection modes, such as ADSL, may not meet the speed-up requirement of broadband services, and thus need to be improved by deploying a large amount of optical fibers.

However, in old urban areas or remote areas with wide and thin land, the cost of line reconstruction and optical fiber laying is high, the construction cost is high, and the network operators cannot accept the wireless broadband access (wireless broad band/wireless to the X, WBB/WTx) is also an alternative indoor broadband access technology.

In some indoor scenarios, such as indoor scenarios of home environments, where the terminal device has multiple different access technologies, how to support the services exchanged locally by the home terminal device with multiple access technologies is a problem to be solved.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication device, a data transmission method and a data transmission device, so that home terminal equipment capable of supporting diversified access technologies can exchange locally exchanged services.

In a first aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device is configured to determine a destination node of a service data unit SDU of the first access technology terminal; the communication device is further configured to, when the destination node of the SDU is a second access technology terminal, transparently transmit the SDU to the second access technology terminal without going through a base station and a core network device connected to the communication device; wherein the first access technology terminal and the second access technology terminal are connected to the communication device.

The communication device determines, for example, the destination node of the service data unit SDU of the first access technology terminal, i.e. the destination node representing the data transmitted by the communication device determining the first access technology terminal, or the communication device determining to which device the data transmitted by the first access technology terminal are addressed.

Illustratively, the destination node of the SDU is a second access technology terminal, i.e. the destination node representing the SDU transmitted by the first access technology terminal is a second access technology terminal, or the SDU transmitted by the first access technology terminal is addressed to the second access technology terminal.

The communication device may be an access point in a room, or the communication device may be a chip or a system of chips or circuitry configured in an access point in a room, for example.

The first access technology terminal is, for example, connected to the communication device, meaning that the first access technology terminal accesses the communication device via the first access technology, or that the first access technology terminal establishes a communication connection with the communication device via the first access technology. The second access technology terminal is connected to the communication device, which means that the second access technology terminal accesses the communication device through the second access technology, or that the second access technology terminal establishes a communication connection with the communication device through the second access technology.

By way of example, a first access technology terminal and a second access technology terminal may be understood as a first home terminal and a second home terminal. For example, the first access technology terminal and the second access technology terminal are terminal devices (e.g., home terminals) that access using different access technologies. In one example, the first access technology terminal is a home terminal supporting a 3GPP access technology and the second access technology terminal is a home terminal supporting a non-3 GPP access technology. It should be understood that terminals with the same access technology are also suitable for the present application when they interact.

For example, transparent transmission may mean that the communication device may forward SDUs of a first access technology terminal directly to a second access technology terminal, at least the application layer of the communication device does not need to parse the SDUs.

Illustratively, the destination node includes one or more of the following: a communication device, a second access technology terminal, a base station and/or a core network device connected to the communication device.

Based on the technical scheme, the first access technology terminal and the second access technology terminal can be connected to the communication equipment, and when the first access technology terminal and the second access technology terminal interact services, for example, when the first access technology terminal sends SDU to the second access technology terminal, the SDU can be forwarded through the communication equipment without passing through a base station and core network equipment, so that the terminals of different access technologies can interact local services. In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, it may be designed that different access technology terminals may access the communication device, for example, the first access technology terminal and the second access technology terminal may both be connected to the communication device, that is, the first access technology terminal and the second access technology terminal may both be communicatively connected to the communication device, so that access to a network by a diversified terminal device (such as a home terminal) may also be supported.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the communication device is further configured to: forwarding the SDU to the base station or the core network equipment under the condition that the destination node of the SDU is the base station or the core network equipment; or, in the case that the destination node of the SDU is the communication device, the communication device parses the content of the SDU.

In an example, the destination node of the SDU is a base station, that is, the destination node representing the SDU transmitted by the first access technology terminal is a base station, or the SDU transmitted by the first access technology terminal is addressed to the base station.

In another example, the destination node of the SDU is a core network device, that is, the destination node representing the SDU transmitted by the first access technology terminal is a core network device, or the SDU transmitted by the first access technology terminal is addressed to the core network device. Specifically, in this example, for example, the communication device may forward the SDU to the base station first and then to the core network device by the base station.

In yet another example, the destination node of the SDU is a communication device, i.e. the destination node representing the SDU transmitted by the first access technology terminal is a communication device, or the SDU transmitted by the first access technology terminal is addressed to a communication device.

Based on the technical scheme, the communication equipment can perform corresponding processing according to the destination node of the SDU transmitted by the first access technology terminal.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the communication device is specifically configured to: and judging the destination node of the SDU according to the identification and/or service type indication of the destination node carried by the first access technology terminal.

Wherein the service type indication is used for indicating whether the service type of the SDU is a local service or a non-local service.

The service type indication carried by the first access technology terminal is a local service, or the service type indication carried by the data is a local service, which may indicate that the data is a service transmitted to the communication device, or that the destination node of the data is the communication device; or may represent that the data is a service transmitted to other terminal devices, or that the destination node of the data is another terminal device. In particular, the identification of the destination node in connection with the data carrying may be further determined.

For example, the service type indication carried in the first access technology terminal is a non-local service, or the service type indication carried by the data is a non-local service, which may indicate that the data is a service transmitted to the base station or the core network device, or that the destination node of the data is the base station or the core network device.

The traffic type indication may be implemented by a field of x bits, x being an integer greater than or equal to 1, for example. Taking 1 bit as an example, the value of the 1 bit field is '0', which represents local service; the 1-bit field has a value of "1" indicating non-native traffic.

It should be appreciated that the identity of the destination node may be indicative of the destination node of the SDU, which is not limited to identifying the corresponding node as the destination node of the SDU. For example, the destination nodes of the SDUs are different and the identity of their corresponding destination nodes may be the same. For example, when the identifier of the destination node is a communication device, the destination node of the SDU may be the communication device itself, or may be a base station and/or a core network device connected to the communication device. Further, it is not limited as to which destination node of the SDU is, for example, determined in conjunction with a traffic type indication, and, for example, also determined by a further indication.

Based on the technical scheme, the communication equipment can determine the corresponding destination node according to the identification and/or the service type indication of the destination node carried by the first access technology terminal, and then route the SDU to the destination node.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the communication device is specifically configured to: judging the destination node as the communication equipment under the condition that the identification of the destination node is the identification of the communication equipment and the service type indicates local service; or, in the case that the identifier of the destination node is the identifier of the communication device and the service type indicates a non-local service, determining that the destination node is the base station or the core network device; or if the identifier of the destination node is the identifier of the second access technology terminal, judging that the destination node is the second access technology terminal.

Based on the above technical solution, in the case that the identifier of the destination node is the identifier of the communication device, it may be further determined, according to the service type indication, whether the SDU transmitted by the first access technology terminal is transmitted to the communication device itself or to the base station and/or the core network device.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the communication device is further configured to: and receiving a message carried on a public signaling radio bearer and sent by the first access technology terminal, wherein configuration information required for transmitting the message carried on the public signaling radio bearer is predefined by a protocol, or the configuration information required for transmitting the message carried on the public signaling radio bearer is preconfigured by the communication equipment.

Illustratively, the configuration information required to transmit the message carried on the common signaling radio bearer includes quality of service (quality of service, qoS) information, such as a QoS identification, required for the message carried on the common signaling radio bearer.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the communication device is further configured to: judging whether the first access technology terminal needs to authenticate in the core network or not; and sending indication information to the base station under the condition that the first access technology terminal does not need to be authenticated by the core network, wherein the indication information is used for indicating that the first access technology terminal is a reliable device.

By way of example, a reliable device is meant a device that does not require authentication at the core network. The core network authentication, that is, the identity authentication and authorization of the device accessing the network are performed by the core network, and only after passing the authentication, one device can access the network.

Based on the above technical solution, the core network can be prevented from performing additional authentication on the terminal device (i.e., the terminal device that does not need to authenticate in the core network, for example, authentication that has passed through the communication device or an authentication device built in the communication device, or device authentication has been completed in an authentication device of the internet via the communication device), so that the overhead and time delay caused by the authentication can be saved.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the communication device is further configured to: and acquiring a corresponding relation, wherein the corresponding relation comprises a corresponding relation between the radio bearer identification of the first access technology terminal and the radio bearer identification of the second access technology terminal.

The radio bearer of the first access technology terminal may, for example, represent a radio bearer between the first access technology terminal and the communication device. The radio bearer of the second access technology terminal may, for example, represent a radio bearer between the second access technology terminal and the communication device.

Illustratively, the communication device obtains the correspondence relationship, which can be understood as the communication device maintains the correspondence relationship.

Based on the above technical solution, the communication device may maintain a correspondence between radio bearer identifiers of a plurality of terminal devices, for example, a correspondence between radio bearer identifiers of a first access technology terminal and radio bearer identifiers of a second access technology terminal, so that the communication device may forward, between different terminal devices, a local service interacted between the terminal devices according to QoS requirements corresponding to the service. Thus, communication performance can be improved as much as possible.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the communication device is specifically configured to: receiving quality of service parameters of radio bearers of the first access technology terminal and the second access technology terminal from the base station, and generating the correspondence based on the quality of service parameters of radio bearers of the first access technology terminal and the second access technology terminal; or receiving the information of the corresponding relation sent by the base station.

It should be understood that the generation of the correspondence may also be understood as determining the correspondence.

Based on the above technical solution, the communication device may determine the correspondence by itself, or may determine the correspondence by the base station and indicate the correspondence.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the communication device is specifically configured to: and receiving the SDU transmitted by the first access technology terminal at a first protocol layer of the communication equipment, wherein the configuration information of the first protocol layer of the communication equipment is configured by the communication equipment or the configuration information of the first protocol layer of the communication equipment is configured by the base station.

In one example, the configuration information of the first protocol layer of the communication device is configured by the communication device. That is, the communication device may configure the configuration information of the first protocol layer itself, or the configuration information of the first protocol layer may be generated by the communication device itself.

Based on the above technical solution, the communication device may generate the configuration information of the first protocol layer itself, or may also be the configuration information generated by the base station and indicating the first protocol layer.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the configuration information of the first protocol layer of the communication device includes one or more of: the identification of a first protocol layer of the communication device, the identification of a first protocol layer of the first access technology terminal, the correspondence between the layer 2 identification of the communication link and the first protocol layer identification of the first access technology terminal, the correspondence between the radio bearer of the first access technology terminal and the service quality of the communication link, and the correspondence between the radio bearer identification of the first access technology terminal and the radio bearer identification of the second access technology terminal; wherein the communication link is a link through which the communication device communicates with the first access technology terminal.

In a second aspect, a method of data transmission is provided. The method may be performed by the communication device or may be performed by a chip or a system of chips or circuits configured in the communication device, which is not limited in this application.

The method may include: the communication equipment receives service data units SDU transmitted by a first access technology terminal; the communication equipment judges a destination node of the SDU; in the case that the destination node of the SDU is a second access technology terminal, the communication device does not pass through a base station and a core network device connected with the communication device, and transmits the SDU to the second access technology terminal; wherein the first access technology terminal and the second access technology terminal are connected to the communication device.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, in a case where a destination node of the SDU is the base station or the core network device, the communication device forwards the SDU to the base station or the core network device; or, in the case that the destination node of the SDU is the communication device, the communication device parses the content of the SDU.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the first access technology terminal carries an identification and/or a traffic type indication of the destination node; the communication device judging a destination node of the SDU, comprising: and the communication equipment judges the destination node of the SDU according to the identification of the destination node and/or the service type indication.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, in a case that the identifier of the destination node is an identifier of the communication device and the service type indicates a local service, the communication device determines that the destination node of the SDU is the communication device; or, in the case that the identifier of the destination node is the identifier of the communication device and the service type indicates a non-local service, the communication device determines that the destination node of the SDU is the base station or the core network device; or in the case that the identifier of the destination node is the identifier of the second access technology terminal, the communication device judges that the destination node of the SDU is the second access technology terminal.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: the communication device receives a message carried on a common signaling radio bearer sent by the first access technology terminal, and configuration information required for transmitting the message carried on the common signaling radio bearer is predefined by a protocol, or is preconfigured by the communication device.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: the communication equipment judges whether the first access technology terminal needs to be authenticated in the core network or not; and under the condition that the first access technology terminal does not need to be authenticated by the core network, the communication equipment sends indication information to the base station, wherein the indication information is used for indicating that the first access technology terminal is a reliable device.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: the communication device obtains a correspondence, where the correspondence includes a correspondence between a radio bearer identification of the first access technology terminal and a radio bearer identification of the second access technology terminal.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the obtaining, by the communication device, a correspondence includes: the communication device receives the quality of service parameters of the radio bearers of the first access technology terminal and the second access technology terminal from the base station, and generates the correspondence based on the quality of service parameters of the radio bearers of the first access technology terminal and the quality of service parameters of the radio bearers of the second access technology terminal; or the communication equipment receives the information of the corresponding relation sent by the base station.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the communication device receives SDUs transmitted by the first access technology terminal, including: the communication device receives the SDU at a first protocol layer of the communication device, wherein configuration information of the first protocol layer of the communication device is configured by the communication device, or the configuration information of the first protocol layer of the communication device is configured by the base station.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the configuration information of the first protocol layer of the communication device includes one or more of: the identification of a first protocol layer of the communication device, the identification of a first protocol layer of the first access technology terminal, the correspondence between the layer 2 identification of the communication link and the identification of the first protocol layer of the first access technology terminal, the correspondence between the radio bearer of the first access technology terminal and the service quality of the communication link, and the correspondence between the radio bearer identification of the first access technology terminal and the radio bearer identification of the second access technology terminal; wherein the communication link is a link through which the communication device communicates with the first access technology terminal.

In a third aspect, a method of data transmission is provided. The method may be performed by the terminal device, or may be performed by a chip or a chip system or a circuit configured in the terminal device, which is not limited in this application. In the following, a terminal device is mainly taken as a first access technology terminal as an example.

The method may include: a first access technology terminal connected to a communication device, and the first access technology terminal connected to a base station and a core network device through the communication device; the first access technology terminal sends a service data unit SDU to the communication equipment, wherein the first access technology terminal carries an identifier of a destination node and/or a service type indication, and the identifier of the destination node and/or the service type indication is used for determining the destination node of the SDU.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, in a case that the identifier of the destination node is an identifier of the communication device and the service type indicates a local service, the destination node of the SDU is the communication device; or in the case that the identifier of the destination node is the identifier of the communication device and the service type indicates a non-local service, the destination node of the SDU is the base station or the core network device; or in the case that the identifier of the destination node is the identifier of the second access technology terminal, the destination node of the SDU is the second access technology terminal.

With reference to the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the method further includes: the first access technology terminal sends a message carried on a common signaling radio bearer to the communication device, configuration information required for transmitting the message carried on the common signaling radio bearer is pre-defined by a protocol, or configuration information required for transmitting the message carried on the common signaling radio bearer is pre-configured by the communication device.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, there is a correspondence between a radio bearer identification of the first access technology terminal and a radio bearer identification of the second access technology terminal.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided an apparatus for data transmission for performing the method provided in the second or third aspect above. In particular, the apparatus may comprise means for performing the method provided by the second or third aspect.

In a fifth aspect, an apparatus for data transmission is provided, comprising a processor. The processor is coupled to the memory and operable to execute instructions in the memory to implement the method of the second aspect and any one of the possible implementations of the second aspect. Optionally, the apparatus further comprises a memory. Optionally, the communication device further comprises a communication interface, and the processor is coupled with the communication interface, and the communication interface is used for inputting and/or outputting information. The information includes at least one of instructions and data.

In one implementation, the apparatus is a communication device. When the apparatus is a communication device, the communication interface may be a transceiver, or an input/output interface.

In another implementation, the device is a chip or a system-on-chip. When the device is a chip or a system-on-chip, the communication interface may be an input/output interface, an interface circuit, an output circuit, an input circuit, a pin, or related circuitry, etc., on the chip or system-on-chip. The processor may also be embodied as processing circuitry or logic circuitry.

In another implementation, the apparatus is a chip or a system of chips configured in a communication device.

Alternatively, the transceiver may be a transceiver circuit. Alternatively, the input/output interface may be an input/output circuit.

In a sixth aspect, an apparatus for data transmission is provided, comprising a processor. The processor is coupled to the memory and operable to execute instructions in the memory to implement the method of the third aspect and any one of the possible implementations of the third aspect. Optionally, the apparatus further comprises a memory. Optionally, the apparatus further comprises a communication interface, the processor being coupled with the communication interface, the communication interface being for inputting and/or outputting information. The information includes at least one of instructions and data.

In one implementation, the apparatus is a terminal device. When the apparatus is a terminal device, the communication interface may be a transceiver, or an input/output interface.

In another implementation, the apparatus is a chip or a system of chips configured in a terminal device.

A seventh aspect provides a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a communication apparatus, causes the communication apparatus to implement the second or third aspect and the communication method in any possible implementation of the second or third aspect.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause a communication apparatus to carry out the communication method provided by the second or third aspect.

A ninth aspect provides a communication system comprising the first access technology terminal and a communication device as described above; or, the method comprises the first access technology terminal, the second access technology terminal and the communication equipment; or comprises the first access technology terminal, the second access technology terminal, the communication equipment, the base station and/or the core network equipment.

Drawings

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a home network system architecture suitable for use in embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a home bandwidth access network suitable for use in embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 3 shows a schematic diagram of an IAB system suitable for use in embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 4 is an example of a user plane protocol stack architecture of a multi-hop IAB network.

Fig. 5 is an example of a control plane protocol stack architecture of a multi-hop IAB network.

Fig. 6 shows a schematic diagram of a user terminal as a relay node.

Fig. 7 is an example of a user plane protocol stack architecture of a user terminal as a relay node.

Fig. 8 is an example of a control plane protocol stack architecture of a user terminal as a relay node.

Fig. 9 shows a schematic diagram of a fixed network terminal accessing a 5GC through a fixed network.

Fig. 10 is a schematic block diagram of a method of data transmission provided according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 11 shows a possible protocol stack architecture for U2N traffic transmission suitable for the embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 12 shows a protocol stack architecture suitable for local traffic transport possibilities in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 13 shows a possible flow for a home terminal adapted for an embodiment of the present application to access a network via HAP.

Fig. 14 shows a schematic flow chart of a method of data transmission suitable for use in embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 15 is a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 16 is another schematic block diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 17 is a schematic block diagram of a terminal device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 18 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The technical solution of the embodiment of the application can be applied to various communication systems, for example: home network, fifth generation (5th generation,5G) system or New Radio (NR), long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, LTE frequency division duplex (frequency division duplex, FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (time division duplex, TDD), etc. The technical scheme of the embodiment of the application can also be applied to side link communication. For example, the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application may also be applied to: device-to-device (D2D) communication, machine-to-machine (machine to machine, M2M) communication, machine type communication (machine type communication, MTC), and communication in a car networking system. The communication modes in the internet of vehicles system are collectively called V2X (X represents anything), for example, the V2X communication includes: the vehicle communicates with the vehicle (vehicle to vehicle, V2V), the vehicle communicates with roadside infrastructure (vehicle to infrastructure, V2I), the vehicle communicates with pedestrians (vehicle to pedestrian, V2P) or the vehicle communicates with the network (vehicle to network, V2N), etc.

To facilitate an understanding of the embodiments of the present application, a communication system suitable for use in the embodiments of the present application will be described in detail with reference to fig. 1 and 2.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a home network system architecture suitable for use in embodiments of the present application. As shown in fig. 1, in the system architecture, it may include: home terminal equipment (home user equipment, HUE), indoor access points (home access point, HAP), 5G base stations (e.g. NR base stations (next generation Node B, gNB)), base stations in a 4G network (e.g. evolved Node B (eNB)), 5G core (5G core,5 gc), 4G core network (e.g. evolved packet core (evolved packet core, EPC)). The individual network elements are briefly described below.

1、HUE

HUEs, home terminals or simply home terminals. The home terminal apparatus or terminal apparatus mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as a User Equipment (UE), an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile apparatus, a user terminal, a wireless communication apparatus, a user agent, or a user device. The HUE or UE in the embodiments of the present application may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet (Pad), a computer with a wireless transceiving function, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in unmanned driving (self driving), a wireless terminal in telemedicine (remote media), a wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in transportation security (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in smart city (smart city), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), and so on. The embodiments of the present application are not limited to application scenarios.

As shown in fig. 1, the HUE may be connected to the HAP through a Home Access (HA) link. It should be understood that the HA link is only a name for distinction, and the name does not limit the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application.

2、gNB

The gNB is a 5G base station supporting HAP nodes. The 5G base station may be a gNB, or may also be 5G, such as NR, a transmission point (TRP or TP) in a system, one or a group (including multiple antenna panels) of antenna panels of a base station in the 5G system, or may also be a network node, such as a BaseBand Unit (BBU), or a Distributed Unit (DU), which forms the gNB or the transmission point, which is not limited thereto.

In some deployments, the gNB may include a Centralized Unit (CU) and DUs. CU and DU can be software-formed or virtualized, and radio access network functions requiring flexible combination can be run in CU, such as higher layer functions of service data adaptation protocol (Service Data Adaptation Protocol, SDAP) layer, packet data convergence protocol (Packet Data Convergence Protocol, PDCP), radio resource control (Radio Resource Control, RRC), etc.; while RAN functions that are strongly related to hardware and have high real-time requirements may run in DUs, such as the radio link layer control protocol (Radio Link Control, RLC) layer, physical layer (PHY), media intervening control layer (Media Access Control, MAC), etc. under-layer functions. It should be appreciated that the above-described partitioning of CU and DU processing functions is merely an example, and may be performed in other manners, and embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto.

The CU and the DU are connected through a communication interface, for example, an F1 interface. The CU is also connected to the core network device through a communication interface, for example, an NG interface (specifically, an N2 interface of the control plane or an N3 interface of the user plane, etc.).

In one possible design, a gNB may include one or more gNB-DUs, as well as one gNB-CU. One gNB-DU is connected to one gNB-CU, which can be connected to a plurality of gNB-DUs. The gNB-CU and the gNB-DUs to which it is attached appear to the other gNB and 5GC as one gNB.

Furthermore, in some deployments, a CU (e.g., gNB-CU) may include a Centralized Unit-user plane (CU-UP) and a Centralized Unit-control plane (CU-CP). Where the CU-UP and CU-CP may be on different physical devices. There may be an open interface between the CU-UP and the CU-CP, which may be referred to as the E1 interface. Meanwhile, each of the CU-UP, the CU-CP and the DU can have respective interfaces, for example, the interface between the CU-CP and the DU can be called as an F1-C interface, and the interface between the CU-UP and the DU can be called as an F1-U interface.

It should be understood that the architecture shown in fig. 1 is merely an exemplary illustration and is not limiting in this regard. For example, a gNB may also include one CU-CP, one or more CU-UP, and a plurality of DUs. As another example, in some deployments, the gNB may also include active antenna elements (active antenna unit, AAU).

As shown in fig. 1, the gNB may be connected to a 5G core (5G core,5 gc) when the HAP node operates in a Stand Alone (SA) mode. Wherein the gNB-CU-CP may be connected to a control plane network element in 5GC, such as an access and mobility management function (access and mobility management function, AMF) network element, through a NG control plane interface. Wherein the gNB-CU-UP may be connected to a user plane network element in 5GC via a NG user plane interface, such as a user plane function (user plane function, UPF) network element.

The AMF network element is mainly used for mobility management, access management, etc., such as user location update, user registration network, user handover, etc. The AMF may also be used to implement other functions in the mobility management entity (mobility management entity, MME) than session management. Such as lawful interception, or access authorization (or authentication), etc. The UPF network element may be responsible for forwarding and receiving user data in the terminal device. The UPF network element may receive user data from a Data Network (DN) and transmit the user data to a terminal device through an access network device. The UPF network element may also receive user data from the terminal device via the access network device and forward the user data to the data network. The transmission resources and scheduling functions in the UPF network element that serve the terminal device are managed and controlled by the SMF network element.

3、eNB

The eNB is a base station in a 4G network. As shown in fig. 1, when the HAP node operates in NSA mode (or EN-DC mode), the eNB may act as a primary base station of the HAP, and the gNB may act as a secondary base station. The eNB may connect to the EPC through an S1 interface (including an S1 user plane interface, and an S1 control plane interface), such as to a Serving Gateway (SGW). The eNB and the HAP can be connected through an LTE Uu air interface, and the eNB and the gNB can be connected through an X2 interface.

4、5GC

The 5GC, i.e. the 5G core network, may for example comprise the following key logical network elements or functional entities: AMF network elements, session management function (session management function, SMF) network elements, UPF network elements, policy control function (policy control function, PCF) network elements, and unified data management (unified data management, UDM) network elements, etc. The 5GC may be used for authentication, mobility management, protocol data unit (protocol data unit, PDU) session (PDU session) management, etc. for the terminal device.

5、EPC

The EPC, i.e. the 4G core network, may for example comprise the following network elements or functional entities: a public data network (public data network, PDN) gateway (gateway) entity, a mobility management entity (mobility management entity, MME), an SGW, a packet data network gateway (packet data network gateway, PGW), etc. The EPC may be used for authentication, mobility management, PDN connection management, etc. of the terminal device.

6. HAP node

The HAP node may be used to provide access services to the child node or UE. The HAP node may be one of a network device or a terminal device having a forwarding function or the above-mentioned function of providing access service to the child node or the UE, or may be an independent device, which is not limited. The HAP node may be, for example, a customer premises device (customer premises equipment, CPE), a home gateway (residential gateway, RG), or the like, as examples. It should be understood that the naming of the HAP node does not limit the scope of protection of the embodiments of the present application, and the naming used to represent the same function in the future is applicable to the embodiments of the present application. For convenience of description, the HAP node is mainly exemplified below.

It should be understood that the system architecture applied to the embodiments of the present application is merely illustrative, and the network architecture applicable to the embodiments of the present application is not limited thereto, and any network architecture capable of implementing the functions of the respective network elements described above is applicable to the embodiments of the present application.

It should also be understood that the network elements AMF, SMF, UPF, SGW, PGW and the like described above can be understood as network elements for implementing different functions in the core network, for example, network slices can be combined as required. The core network elements can be independent devices or integrated in the same device to realize different functions, and the specific form of the network elements is not limited in the application.

It should also be understood that the above designations are merely defined to facilitate distinguishing between different functions and should not be construed as limiting the present application in any way. The present application does not exclude the possibility of employing other naming in 5G networks as well as other networks in the future. For example, in a 6G network, some or all of the individual network elements may follow the terminology in 5G, possibly by other names, etc. The names of interfaces between the network elements in fig. 1 are only an example, and the names of interfaces in the specific implementation may be other names, which are not specifically limited in this application. Furthermore, the names of the transmitted messages (or signaling) between the various network elements described above are also merely an example, and do not constitute any limitation on the function of the message itself.

It should also be understood that the network device mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may be any device having a wireless transceiver function. The apparatus includes, but is not limited to: an eNB, a Home base station (e.g., home evolved NodeB, or Home Node B, HNB), a BaseBand Unit (BBU), an Access Point (AP) in a wireless fidelity (Wireless Fidelity, WIFI) system, a wireless relay Node, a wireless backhaul Node, a transmission Point (transmission Point, TP), or a transmission receiving Point (transmission and reception Point, TRP), etc., may also be 5G, e.g., NR, a gNB in a system, or a transmission Point (TRP or TP), one or a group (including multiple antenna panels) of antenna panels of a base station in a 5G system, or may also be a network Node constituting a gNB or a transmission Point, e.g., a BaseBand Unit (BBU), or DU, etc.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a home broadband access network suitable for use in embodiments of the present application. As shown in fig. 2, for a home terminal, the home terminal may communicate with a customer premises equipment through a wired/wireless local area access link, or may communicate with a server located in the internet through a wired/wireless broadband access link.

In recent years, global broadband access network construction has been greatly developed, and broadband popularity has been gradually increased. With the advent of various video related applications and other emerging multimedia services, there is an increasing demand for networks capable of providing rate, and therefore, wireless broadband access (wireless broad band/wireless to the X, WBB/WTTx) is also an alternative indoor broadband access technology.

In an indoor scenario of a home environment, terminal devices have a plurality of different access technologies, such as LTE-enabled, or 5G mobile terminal devices, and also a number of terminal devices other than the third generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project,3GPP) networks, other access technologies are used, such as WiFi or WLAN, zigbee, bluetooth (bluetooth), ultra Wide Band (UWB), radio frequency identification (radio frequency ientification, RFID), etc. These home terminals have on the one hand a need to communicate with a network, for example with a server located in the internet; on the other hand, there is also a local intercommunication requirement between some home terminals.

To facilitate understanding of the embodiments of the present application, the following first briefly describes backhaul access backhaul integration (integrated access and backhaul, IAB) technology referred to in the present application.

In the 5G technology, 3GPP introduces an access backhaul integrated (Integrated access and backhaul, IAB) technology, where both an access link (access link) and a backhaul link (backhaul link) adopt a wireless transmission scheme, so that dependence on fiber deployment in the backhaul link can be avoided.

In an IAB network, a Relay Node (RN), or an IAB node (IAB node), may provide a radio access service for a terminal device, and service data of the terminal device may be connected to a host node (IAB node) by one or more IAB nodes through a radio backhaul link. In the embodiments of the present application, the IAB Donor may also be referred to as a host node (Donor node) or a host base station (Donor gnob, dgNB).

The IAB node may consist of a mobile terminal (mobile termination, MT) part and a DU part. When the IAB node faces to the father node, the IAB node can be used as a terminal device, namely, the role of MT; when an IAB is towards its child node (which may be another IAB node, or a generic UE), it is considered a network device, i.e. takes on the role of a DU. Wherein, the MT part of the IAB node has part or all of the functions of the UE.

The host base station may be an access network element with a complete base station function, or may be in a form of CU and DU separated, that is, the host node is composed of a centralized unit of the host base station and a distributed unit of the host base station. The home base station is connected to a core network (e.g., to a 5G core network, 5 GC) network element serving the UE and provides wireless backhaul functionality for the IAB node. For ease of description, the centralized unit of the host node will be referred to simply as a donor CU (or directly as CU), and the distributed unit of the host node will be referred to simply as a donor DU, wherein the donor CU may also be in a form in which the Control Plane (CP) (herein abbreviated CU-CP) and the User Plane (UP) (herein abbreviated CU-UP) are separated. For example, a CU may consist of one CU-CP and one (or more) CU-UP.

In the current standard discussion of 5G, multi-hop networking may be employed in an IAB network. Furthermore, considering the requirements of reliability of traffic transmission, the IAB node may be enabled to support dual connectivity (dual connectivity, DC) or multiple connectivity (multi-connectivity) to cope with anomalies that may occur in the backhaul link. For example, the link is interrupted or blocked (blocked), load fluctuation and other anomalies, so that the reliability guarantee of transmission is improved. Thus, there is at least one transmission path consisting of multiple links between the UE served by the IAB node and the IAB node. On one transmission path, a plurality of nodes, such as UEs, one or more IAB nodes, and an IAB node (if the IAB node is a CU and DU separated form, it also includes an IAB-donor-DU part and an IAB-donor-CU part), each IAB node regards a neighboring node providing access and backhaul services to it as a parent node, and accordingly, each IAB node may be regarded as a child node of its parent node.

And (3) link: a path between two adjacent nodes in a path may be represented.

Access link: may represent a link between a terminal device and a base station, or between a terminal device and an IAB node, or between a terminal device and a hosting DU. Alternatively, the access link includes a radio link used when a certain IAB node performs communication with its parent node as a common terminal equipment role. When the IAB node takes the role of common terminal equipment, no backhaul service is provided for any child node. The access links include an uplink access link and a downlink access link. In this application, the access link of the terminal device is a wireless link, so the access link may also be referred to as a wireless access link.

Backhaul link: the link between the IAB node and the parent node may be represented when the IAB node is acting as a wireless backhaul node. When the IAB node is used as the wireless backhaul node, the wireless backhaul service is provided for the child node. The backhaul links include an uplink backhaul link and a downlink backhaul link. In the present application, the backhaul link between the IAB node and the parent node is a wireless link, so the backhaul link may also be referred to as a wireless backhaul link.

Parent and child nodes: each IAB node treats the neighboring nodes for which wireless access service and/or wireless backhaul service are provided as parent nodes (parent nodes). Accordingly, each IAB node may be considered a child node (child node) of its parent node.

Alternatively, a child node may also be referred to as a lower node, and a parent node may also be referred to as an upper node.

As shown in fig. 3, the parent node of IAB node 1 is IAB donor, IAB node 1 is a parent node of IAB node 2 and IAB node 3, IAB node 2 and IAB node 3 are both parent nodes of IAB node4, and the parent node of IAB node 5 is IAB node 3. The uplink data packet of the UE may be transmitted to the host site IAB node via one or more IAB nodes, and then sent by the IAB node to the mobile gateway device (e.g., the user plane function UPF in the 5G core network). And the downlink data packet of the UE is received by the IAB node from the mobile gateway equipment and then is sent to the UE through the IAB node. Wherein there are two available paths for data transmission between UE1 and the host base station. Path 1: terminal 1→iab node4→iab node 3→iab node 1→host node, terminal 1→iab node4→iab node 2→iab node 1→host node. The transmission of the data packet between the terminal 2 and the host node has three available paths: terminal 2→iab node4→iab node 3→iab node 1→a host node, terminal 2→iab node4→iab node 2→iab node 1→a host node, and terminal 2→iab node 5→iab IAB node 2→iab node 1→a host node.

It should be understood that the IAB networking scenario shown in fig. 3 is merely exemplary, and that there are many other possibilities in the multi-hop and multi-connection combined IAB scenario, for example, the IAB donor in fig. 3 and the IAB node under another IAB donor form a dual connection to serve a terminal device, etc., which are not listed here.

Several possible ways of accessing the terminal device in the prior art are presented below.

Mode 1 is an IAB technology-based solution.

In the prior art, in the case where the IAB networking scenario shown in fig. 3 is an IAB independent (SA) networking scenario, both the IAB node and the UE establish a connection with the network through an air interface of the NR network.

In the current discussion of IAB networks, it is determined to introduce a new protocol layer in the wireless backhaul link, and a backhaul adaptation protocol (backhaul adaptation protocol, BAP) layer, which is located above the RLC layer, may be used to implement functions such as routing of data packets in the wireless backhaul link, and bearer mapping.

Fig. 4 and 5 are examples of a user plane protocol stack architecture and a control plane protocol stack architecture, respectively, of a multi-hop IAB network. An F1 interface needs to be established between the IAB node (DU part of the IAB) and the host node (or IAB-donor-CU). The user plane protocol includes one or more of the following protocol layers: a general packet radio service tunneling protocol user plane (general packet radio service tunneling protocol user plane, GTP-U) layer, a user datagram protocol (user datagram protocol, UDP) layer, an internetworking protocol (internet protocol, IP) layer, and the like. The control plane protocol includes one or more of the following: f1application protocol (F1 application protocol, F1 AP) layer, stream control transmission protocol (stream control transmission protocol, SCTP) layer, IP layer, and the like.

The F1 interface refers to a logical interface between a DU portion of an IAB node and a host node (or a donor-CU or a donor-DU), and the F1 interface may also be referred to as an F1 interface, herein, for description, the F1 interface is collectively referred to as an F1 interface, and the naming thereof does not limit the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application. The F1 interface supports user plane protocols (F1-U/F1 x-U) and control plane protocols (F1-C/F1 x-C). The protocol layer of the F1 interface represents the communication protocol layer over the F1 interface.

Further, in relation to the protocol architecture shown in fig. 4 or fig. 5, the meaning of the other respective protocol layers is: a packet data convergence protocol (packet data convergence protocol, PDCP) layer, an L2 layer (layer 2), an L1 layer (layer 1), a radio link control (radio link control, RLC) layer, a medium access control (medium access control, MAC) layer, a Physical (PHY) layer, and a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) layer. Wherein the L2 layer is a link layer. Illustratively, the L2 layer may be a data link layer in the open communication system interconnection (open systems interconnection, OSI) reference model. The L1 layer may be a physical layer. Illustratively, the L1 layer may be a physical layer in the OSI reference model.

In the conventional mode 1, interface management, management of an IAB-DU, UE context-related configuration, and the like can be performed between an IAB node and an IAB host through a control plane of an F1 interface. Through the user plane of the F1 interface, the functions of user plane data transmission, downlink transmission state feedback and the like can be executed between the IAB node and the IAB host.

However, in the conventional mode 1, only the radio access technology using the NR network is considered for the Uu interface of the access link portion, and if the IAB network is introduced into the indoor scenario, although the access network service can be provided for the terminal device supporting the NR, the access service cannot be provided for other types of terminals other than the 3 GPP. In addition, the IAB node is currently unable to provide local traffic switching services for UEs accessing the node.

Mode 2 is based on the scheme of relay UE.

As shown in fig. 6, in the 3GPP network, one terminal device (e.g., denoted as a relay UE) may serve as a relay node for another terminal device (e.g., denoted as a remote UE) accessing the wireless network, and provide relay services for the other terminal device accessing the network. A D2D connection is established between a relay UE (relay UE) and a remote UE (remote UE), and the D2D connection may use a PC5 interface defined by 3GPP for communication, or may use other inter-terminal direct communication technologies, such as bluetooth, wiFi, and so on. A 3GPP air interface access link, e.g., an LTE air interface link, is established between the relay UE and the radio access network (radio access network, RAN) device.

In mode 2, the relay UE serves as a layer 2 relay for the remote UE to access the network. Assuming that the D2D connection employs a non-3 GPP access technology, fig. 7 and 8 show protocol stack diagrams of the user plane and the control plane, respectively. It can be seen that in existing mode 2, the relay UE provides layer 2 transmission functions for user plane and control plane messages of the remote UE. The eNB serves as a PDCP layer anchor point of the remote UE at a user plane and serves as an RRC layer anchor point of the remote UE at a control plane. The remote UE is visible to the network side.

However, in the existing mode 2, the UE provides the remote UE with the network access scheme as the layer 2 relay, and although it is considered that the access link between the remote UE and the relay UE may be a non-3 GPP technology, in this technology, local traffic exchange between the remote UEs is not considered. And in the existing mode 2, there is a lack of providing a more specific scheme design in the case where the remote UE is a terminal device other than 3 GPP.

Mode 3, scheme of convergence of fixed and mobile networks.

In 3gpp r16, a problem of convergence of fixed and mobile networks (wireless wireline convergence) is studied, and in this problem, how to unify and merge a conventional fixed network access network and a mobile communication network into a 5G-based mobile core network (5 GC) is mainly considered. As shown in fig. 9, there are approximately three kinds of fixed network terminals (5G-RG, FN-RG, 5G cable UE) that need to access the 5GC through the fixed network.

1) A home gateway (residential gateway, RG) supporting 5G NAS functionality, i.e. 5G-RG.

The 5G-RG performs the same function as the UE by being called fixed radio access (fixed wireless access, FWA) when accessed through the 3GPP access. When 5G-RG passes through the wired access network, a fixed network gateway (such as a wireless-access gateway function, W-AGF) supporting an N2 interface is introduced, and the topological position of the fixed network gateway is equal to that of the NG RAN of 3 GPP. The 5G-RG and the W-AGF may establish a PPPoE connection and access the 5GC via the W-AGF. Control plane signaling and user plane data at the wired access network side can be transmitted through the PPPoE connection.

2) A home gateway that does not support 5G NAS functionality, such as a Legacy gateway (Legacy-RG), or a fixed network RG (FN-RG).

FN-RG establishes Legacy fixed network connection with W-AGF, such as PPPoE connection. On the control plane, the W-AGF replaces FN-RG, generates and interacts NAS and AS signaling, and completes registration and PDU session establishment. On the user plane, the W-AGF serves as a relay (relay) function, and uplink/downlink data are respectively transmitted in the fixed network connection and the PDU session.

3) A home terminal accessing a 5G core network through a home gateway (including a 5G-RG and a legacy RG) is able to support a 5G UE (5G capable UE) (e.g., a 5G mobile/PC, etc.).

The 5G capable UE uses the architecture and the scheme of the trusted non-3 GPP or the untrusted non-3 GPP, takes the 5G-RG/Legacy-RG as an access point, and accesses the 5G network through the access TNAP/N3 IWF.

The scheme described in the above mode 3 is applicable to the interaction of NAS messages between indoor terminal equipment supporting 5G and a core network by accessing to the 5G core network through a fixed or mobile access network. However, the scheme of the above-described mode 3 does not support providing a local service switching service for indoor terminal devices, and if the terminal devices access to the legacy RG through a non-3 GPP access technology, the quality of service (quality of service, qoS) of service transmission cannot be guaranteed.

The foregoing description is provided for simplicity of description of several ways commonly used in the art, and is not limited by the specific reference to the description of the prior art. As can be seen from the above-described several ways, in the existing schemes, some only NR radio access technologies are supported, and some do not consider the scenario in which home terminals interact locally exchanged services.

In view of this, the present application provides a scheme, so that in some networks, such as home networks, through a unified communication architecture, not only can diversified home terminals be supported to access to the network, but also diversified home terminals can be supported to interact locally exchanged services.

The following mainly exemplifies a home network, and details various embodiments provided herein are described with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be appreciated that the schemes of the following embodiments are not limited to a home access scenario, but may also be applied to a non-home scenario. The aspects of the embodiments described below may also be used in other indoor settings such as factories, office environments, laboratory environments, campus environments, and the like. The schemes of the following embodiments may be used in any environment with diverse terminal devices and local traffic transmission requirements.

Fig. 10 is a schematic interaction diagram of a method 1000 for data transmission according to an embodiment of the present application. The method 1000 may include the following steps.

At 1010, the communication device receives a service data unit (service data unit, SDU) transmitted by the first access technology terminal.

It is appreciated that in step 1010, a terminal accessed via a first access technology (e.g., denoted as a first access technology terminal) transmits a data packet to a communication device, which receives the data packet. The communication device is, for example, denoted as an access point HAP (or CPE, etc.) in the room. The first access technology terminal represents a terminal that accesses using the first access technology. There are many forms regarding the terminal, for example, in a home scenario, it may be a home terminal; in other scenarios, such as a factory scenario, a terminal in the factory scenario may be used, which is not limited. For ease of understanding, the following description will mainly take, as an example, a home terminal, or a home terminal accessed using the first access technology. For terminals in other scenarios, the schemes of the embodiments of the present application may still be used.

In the embodiment of the present application, SDUs may also be understood as data or data packets, or services, etc. The communication device receives SDUs transmitted by the first access technology terminal, which may also be understood as receiving data or data packets transmitted by the first access technology terminal, or may also be understood as receiving traffic transmitted by the first access technology terminal. Hereinafter, data packets will be mainly exemplified for the sake of unity.

It is understood that an SDU refers to an SDU of a protocol layer that represents the payload of a data packet of the protocol layer. For example, the protocol layer may be a first protocol layer (e.g., an adaptation layer) mentioned in the embodiments of the present application, that is, an SDU is an SDU of the first protocol layer (e.g., an SDU is an SDU of the adaptation layer).

1030, in case the destination node of the SDU is a second access technology terminal, the communication device transparently passes the SDU to the second access technology terminal without going through a base station and a core network device connected to the communication device, wherein the first access technology terminal and the second access technology terminal are connected to the communication device.

The first access technology terminal and the second access technology terminal may be understood as home terminals that are accessed using different access technologies. In an example, the first access technology terminal is a home terminal supporting a 3GPP access technology, i.e. communication between the first access technology terminal and the communication device may be performed through a wireless interface of the 3GPP access technology. By way of example and not limitation, the wireless interface of the 3GPP access technology can include, but is not limited to: uu interface based on LTE system, uu interface based on NR system, PC5 interface, etc. In yet another example, the second access technology terminal is a home terminal supporting a non-3 GPP access technology, i.e., the second access technology terminal communicates with the communication device via an interface of the non-3 GPP access technology. By way of example and not limitation, interfaces of non-3 GPP access technologies can include, but are not limited to: wiFi, WLAN, zigbee, ziwave, bluetooth (Bluetooth), UWB, RFID, etc., or an ethernet-based wired interface, etc. In the embodiments of the present application, an access technology is used to represent an access technology used by a terminal to access a communication device.

The communication device does not pass through the base station and the core network device connected with the communication device, and transmits SDU to the second access technology terminal, or the communication device passes through the base station and the core network device connected with the communication device, and transmits the data transmitted by the first access technology terminal to the second access technology terminal, namely, when the first access technology terminal sends the data packet to the second access technology terminal, the data packet can be forwarded through the communication device, and the data packet does not need to pass through the base station and the core network device. The transparent transmission may indicate that the communication device may directly forward the data packet of the first access technology terminal to the second access technology terminal, and the communication device does not need to parse the data packet. Specifically, for example, the application layer, the IP layer, etc. of the communication device need not parse the data packet. Taking the system shown in fig. 1 as an example, when the HUE1 sends a packet to the HUE2, the HUE1 may send the packet to the HAP, and the HAP forwards the packet to the HUE2 without going through the base station or the core network device.

In this embodiment of the present application, the communication device (such as HAP) may not only adapt to the terminal device with multiple access technologies, or the communication device may support multiple access technologies, and the communication device may route the data packet transmitted by the terminal to the destination node corresponding to the data packet.

Optionally, the method 1000 may further comprise step 1020.

1020, the communication device determines a destination node for the SDU.

In the embodiment of the present application, for distinction, the destination node or the destination address corresponding to the SDU is represented by the destination node. The destination node of the SDU, i.e. the destination node or destination address to which the SDU corresponds, or to which device the SDU is transferred.

Optionally, the destination node may include one or more of the following: other home terminals (e.g., second access technology terminals), the communication device itself, the gNB, core network devices. That is, the communication device may route SDUs sent by the home terminal to other home terminals, or to the gNB, or to itself (e.g., parse the content of the SDUs itself).

It should be appreciated that the foregoing is mainly illustrative of the first access technology terminal and the second access technology terminal, which is not limited thereto. For example, the communication device may also connect to a greater number of terminals, or the communication device may also connect to terminals of a greater number of access technologies.

For ease of understanding, the following description will be mainly given by way of example of HAP and home terminals. It should be understood that the nomenclature does not limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

For brevity, the following description will be mainly given by taking a home terminal sending a data packet as an example, where all the data packets mentioned below may be replaced by SDUs transmitted by the first access technology terminal in the method 1000.

For example, a communication protocol layer (i.e. a first protocol layer) may be added to the HAP, through which the terminal device of multiple access technologies may be accessed, and a data packet transmitted by the terminal may be routed to a destination node corresponding to the data packet. Regarding the communication protocol layer, on the one hand, through the communication protocol layer, terminal devices accessing different access technologies can be realized; on the other hand, through the communication protocol layer, it is possible to implement a service interaction between terminal devices of different access technologies, which is described in detail below in connection with the content of aspect 2.

In some scenarios, such as an IAB network-based wireless backhaul architecture, an indoor access point HAP (or CPE) may be considered as a special type of IAB node, according to embodiments of the present application. The extension is performed in the access link part, that is, a communication protocol layer (i.e., a first protocol layer, such as an Adapt layer) is newly added in the HA link, so that through a unified communication architecture, not only can home terminals with different access technologies be adapted, such as home terminals supporting 3GPP access technologies or home terminals supporting non-3 GPP access technologies, but also multiple services, such as services from the home terminals to the network side and service interaction between the home terminals, can be supported.

By way of example, and not limitation, the communication protocol layer may be an adaptation layer (adaptation layer). Hereinafter, for brevity, the adaptation layer is simply referred to as the adaptation layer. The configuration of the Adapt layer is described in detail below.

Hereinafter, for convenience of description, data from a home terminal to a network side is referred to as data of a U2N service, and data between different home terminals within at least one HAP service range without passing through a base station and a core network is referred to as data of a local (local) service.

The following describes the architecture of the protocol stack shown in fig. 11 and fig. 12, respectively, for U2N traffic transmission and possible protocol stack architecture for local traffic transmission.

1. A U2N traffic transmission possible protocol stack architecture.

Fig. 11 shows one possible protocol stack architecture. As shown in fig. 11, the protocol stack of the U2N service transport includes an upper layer protocol layer, an intermediate HAP management layer, and a lower layer protocol layer.

The upper protocol layer may include a PDCP layer. In the control plane, the upper protocol layer may further include an RRC layer. The upper layer protocol layer is a protocol layer that is peer-to-peer between the home terminal and the base station.

The intermediate HAP management layer can refer to an F1 interface protocol layer in the CU-DU separation architecture. The intermediate HAP management layer may support both the user plane and the control plane. Illustratively, the user plane protocol layers of the HAP management layer may include one or more of an IP layer, a UDP layer, and a GTP-U layer. Optionally, the user plane protocol layer of the HAP management layer further includes a PDCP layer and/or an IP Security (IPsec) layer. Illustratively, the control plane protocol layer of the HAP management layer may include one or more of an IP layer, an F1AP layer, and an SCTP layer. Optionally, the control plane protocol layer of the HAP management layer further comprises one or more of a PDCP layer, an IPsec layer and a data packet transport layer security (datagram transport layer security, DTLS) layer. Reference may be made in particular to the user plane and control plane protocol layers of the F1 interface between the IAB node and the home base station illustrated in fig. 4 and 5.

The lower protocol layer mainly comprises a BAP protocol layer, an L2 protocol layer of an HB link and an L1 protocol layer of the HB link. For ease of description, the L2 protocol layer of the HB link is abbreviated HB L2 and the L1 protocol layer of the HB link is abbreviated HB L1. The HB L2 part is provided with an RLC layer and a MAC layer, and HB L1 is a physical layer PHY based on NR air interface.

The lower protocol layer mainly comprises an adaptation layer, an L2 protocol layer of an HA link and an L1 protocol layer of the HA link. For convenience of description, the L2 protocol layer of the HA link is abbreviated as HA L2, and the L1 protocol layer of the HA link is abbreviated as HA L1. The protocol layers of HA L1 and HA L2 may depend on the communication technology adopted by the HA link. For example, if the HA link adopts a communication manner based on a wireless local area network (wireless local area network, WLAN), the protocol layer corresponding to the HA L2 may include a MAC layer of IEEE 802.11 series technology, and the protocol layer corresponding to the HA L1 may include a PHY layer of IEEE 802.11 series technology. As yet another example, if the HA link adopts a communication manner based on a wireless personal area network (wireless personal area network, WPAN), the protocol layer corresponding to the HA L2 may include a MAC layer of IEEE802.15 series technology (for example, bluetooth technology corresponding to IEEE802.15.1, or Zigbee technology corresponding to IEEE802.15.4, etc.), and the protocol layer corresponding to the HA L1 may include a PHY layer of IEEE802.15 series technology. It should be appreciated that in part of the HA link, the Adapt layer is an optional protocol layer. For example, when the HA link employs a 3GPP radio access technology (radio access technology, RAT), the adaptation layer may not be needed; when the HA link employs non-3 GPP radio access technologies, an adaptation layer is required.

2. Local traffic transport possible protocol stack architecture.

Based on the HAP node in the embodiment of the present application, service interaction between home terminals (such as service interaction between the first access technology terminal and the second access technology terminal) may be supported. Regarding the business interactions between home terminals, at least the following two ways can be included.

In one possible way, a D2D direct link may be established between two home terminals, so that communication between the two home terminals may be directly performed through the D2D link. For example, a direct communication link based on a PC5 interface may be established between two home terminals, or a direct transmission link based on a WiFi direct technology may be established between two home terminals, or a direct transmission link based on bluetooth/zigbee may be established between two home terminals.

In yet another possible manner, the two home terminals may communicate by means of a HAP for relay forwarding, such as the communication protocol stack shown in fig. 12. In some cases, a direct link may not be established between two home terminals, e.g., the distance between the two home terminals is too far; or shielding exists between two home terminals, and the signal quality of the direct link is poor; or the access technologies supported by the two home terminals are different, etc. Under the condition that a direct link cannot be established between two home terminals, but the requirement of interaction data still exists between the two home terminals, a communication path between the two home terminals can be provided by a relay forwarding mode through the HAP. In addition, the Adapt layer is also an optional protocol layer on the HA link.

Take two home terminals as examples, for example, denoted HUE1 and HUE2. As shown in fig. 12, there is a peer PDCP protocol layer between the HUE1 and HUE2, and the HUE1 and HUE2 may perform local service interaction through HAP. HAP and HUE1 may communicate based on HA links, and HAP and HUE2 may also communicate based on HA links. It should be understood that the HA link between HAP and HUE1 and the HA link between HAP and HUE2 may use the same communication technology or different communication technologies, which is not limited.

The foregoing describes, in connection with fig. 11 and fig. 12, a possible protocol stack architecture for U2N service transmission and local service transmission, based on the foregoing architecture, for a terminal device executing a U2N service, since peer protocol layers of a PDCP layer and an RRC layer are both in a gNB, it is possible to control a handover procedure based on the RRC layer and ensure service continuity based on forwarding of a PDCP layer packet in a process of moving indoors and outdoors, so as to further ensure service continuity of moving the terminal device indoors and outdoors.

It should be understood that fig. 11 and 12 are merely exemplary illustrations, and are not limited in this regard.

Embodiments of the present application are described below in conjunction with several aspects. The following matters may be used alone or in combination, and are not limited thereto.

In aspect 1, a home terminal accesses a network through HAP.

When the home terminal accesses the network, such as accessing the gNB, the core network and the like, the home terminal can access the network through the assistance of the HAP and use network resources.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present application, before the home terminal establishes the RRC connection with the gNB, both the home terminal and the HAP may obtain a set of corresponding configuration information in advance, where the configuration information may be used to transmit a message that needs to be transmitted when the home terminal establishes the RRC connection with the gNB. For example, the configuration information may be used to transmit messages corresponding to the uplink common control channel, e.g., the configuration information may be used for transmission of one or more of the following: RRC setup request (rrcsetup request) message, RRC reestablishment request (RRCReestablishmentRequest) message, RRC resume request (rrcresamerequest) message, etc.; as another example, the configuration information may be used to transmit messages corresponding to a downlink common control channel, such as RRC setup (RRCSetup) messages and/or RRC reject (rrcrreject) messages. It is to be understood that the foregoing is merely illustrative and not restrictive. For example, a set of corresponding configuration information may be obtained in advance, and any configuration information may be used as long as the message is used for transmitting a message that needs to be transmitted when the home terminal establishes an RRC connection with the gNB.

The pre-obtained configuration information includes, for example, configuration information required to transmit messages carried on a common signaling radio bearer (signaling radio bearer, SRB). For example, the configuration information obtained in advance includes configuration information required for transmitting a message carried on SRB0, such as QoS information required for a message carried on SRB 0. Hereinafter, for brevity, configuration information required to transmit a message carried on SRB0 is noted as a configuration corresponding to SRB 0. The home terminal transmits an RRC setup request message to the gNB, the RRC setup request message being transmitted based on a configuration corresponding to SRB0 obtained in advance.

Wherein the configuration information (e.g., configuration corresponding to SRB 0) obtained in advance may be predefined according to a protocol, and configured on the home terminal and HAP. Alternatively, the configuration information (e.g., the configuration corresponding to SRB 0) obtained in advance may be configured by the HAP itself, and after the HAP is generated, the configuration information (e.g., the configuration corresponding to SRB 0) is sent to the home terminal.

By the embodiment of the application, the configuration corresponding to the SRB0 can be obtained in advance before the home terminal establishes the RRC connection with the gNB, so that the message which is sent by the home terminal and needs to be borne on the SRB0 can be transmitted, such as the message which is borne on the SRB0 and is convenient for transmitting the RRC establishment request of the home terminal and the like.

A possible flow of home terminals accessing the network via HAP is described below in connection with fig. 13. The method 1300 shown in fig. 13 may include the following steps.

1310, hap accessing a network, performing authentication in the network.

Regarding the procedure of HAP access to the network, it may be a way of referring to the access network of the IAB node. For example, in one possible manner, the HAP accesses the network in the manner of a terminal device, and then establishes an F1 connection between the HAP and the gNB.

Alternatively, the HAP may also indicate to the network that it is a HAP or CPE, i.e. it is a device that can provide access to the home terminal. For example, after the gNB knows that the HAP is a device capable of providing access to the home terminal, some configuration may be performed for the HAP, such as configuring an Adapt layer of the HAP for the HAP.

1320, the home terminal establishes a connection with the HAP, and the HAP performs initial access control.

The home terminal may establish a connection with the HAP through various access technologies. In one possible way, the home terminal may establish a connection with the HAP through an access technology established by the 3GPP organization. Access technologies established by the 3GPP organization may include, for example, but are not limited to, one or more of the following: LTE Uu interface, NR Uu interface, sidelink (sidelink), etc. In yet another possible way, the home terminal may establish a connection with the HAP through an access technology established by a non-3 GPP organization. Access technologies not specified by the 3GPP organization may include, for example, but are not limited to, one or more of the following: wiFi, WLAN, zigbee, ziwave, bluetooth, UWB, RFID, etc.

Optionally, after the home terminal establishes a connection with the gNB, e.g., in step 1330, the HAP or the home terminal may inform the gNB of the access technology (e.g., wiFi, WLAN, zigbee, ziwave, bluetooth, UWB, RFID, etc.) employed by the home access link between the HAP and the home terminal.

In one example, the HAP informs the gNB of the communication technology employed by the home access link between the HAP and the home terminal. In this example, the information may be carried in a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) message or an F1 interface application layer protocol (F1 application protocol, F1 AP) message sent by the HAP to the gNB. As yet another example, the home terminal informs the gNB of the communication technology employed by the home access link between the HAP and the home terminal. In this example, this information may carry an RRC message addressed to the gNB at the home terminal.

The HAP performs initial access control for the home terminal. For example, the HAP may authenticate with the home terminal. For example, the HAP may authenticate with the home terminal by a link authentication scheme based on a shared key (Shared key authentication) in the WLAN. Further, the authentication server may authenticate the home terminal. For example, after link authentication, the home terminal is authenticated by the authentication server by popping up a Portal (e.g., portal) and then inputting a user name and a password. As another example, after link authentication, an authentication method based on an extended authentication protocol (extensible authentication protocol, EAP) and the like are performed with the authentication server. The authentication server may be co-deployed with the HAP, or the authentication server may be integrally provided in the HAP, which is not limited.

Alternatively, the HAP may assign a home terminal's local identity (local identifier of HUE, LID-HUE). The home terminal's local identification may be used to identify the home terminal within the home network.

Alternatively, the HAP may send its own local identity to the home terminal. The local identity of the HAP (local identifier of HAP, LID-HAP) may be used for routing or addressing when traffic is transferred between the home terminal and the HAP.

After the home terminal establishes a connection with the HAP, it may establish a connection with the gNB.

1330, the home terminal initiates an RRC establishment procedure to the gNB.

Alternatively, step 1330 may be performed in case the home terminal has the capability to establish an RRC connection with the network, or alternatively, has the capability to access a 5G access network.

Specifically, in this step 1330, the following steps may be included.

1. The home terminal sends an RRC setup request message to the gNB.

Specifically, the home terminal transmits an RRC setup request message to the gNB via the HAP. That is, the home terminal transmits an RRC setup request message to the HAP, and the HAP forwards the RRC setup request message to the gNB. In one possible implementation, the HAP may encapsulate an RRC setup request message of the home terminal in an uplink F1AP message, and transmit the RRC setup request message to the gNB via an F1 interface carried on a backhaul link between the HAP and the gNB. For example, when the HAP encapsulates the RRC message of the home terminal in an uplink F1AP message, the F1AP message may carry an identifier for identifying the home terminal on the F1 interface between the HAP and the gNB, and an identifier of SRB0, and then transmit to the gNB via the F1 interface carried on the backhaul link between the HAP and the gNB.

Alternatively, the RRC setup request message is transmitted based on configuration information obtained in advance. In one example, the pre-obtained configuration information includes a configuration corresponding to SRB0 (i.e., configuration information required to transmit messages carried on SRB 0). That is, the RRC setup request message is transmitted based on a configuration corresponding to SRB0 obtained in advance.

In order for the home terminal to smoothly transmit the RRC setup request message to the HAP and be recognized by the HAP, a set of corresponding configurations, such as a configuration corresponding to SRB0, is required between the home terminal and the HAP. The configuration corresponding to SRB0 may be used to transmit RRC messages, such as RRC setup request messages, RRC reestablishment request messages, etc., carried on SRB 0.

Wherein the configuration information (e.g., configuration corresponding to SRB 0) obtained in advance may be predefined according to a protocol, and configured on the home terminal and HAP. Alternatively, the configuration information (e.g., the configuration corresponding to SRB 0) obtained in advance may be configured by the HAP itself, and after the HAP is generated, the configuration information (e.g., the configuration corresponding to SRB 0) is sent to the home terminal. For example, after step 1320, the HAP generates a configuration corresponding to SRB0 and transmits to the home terminal.

Alternatively, on the HA link between the home terminal and the HAP, the configuration corresponding to SRB0 may include a QoS identification corresponding to SRB0 on the HA link. The QoS identification may be, for example, any of the following: a payload compression protocol (payload compression protocol, PCP) field of a virtual local area network (virtual local area network, VLAN) tag, a virtual local area network identification (VLAN ID), an ethernet type (EtherType), a differentiated services code point (differentiated services code point, DSCP), an IP priority (IP Precedence), an access type (AC) in WLAN, an EXP field of a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) multi-protocol label switching, IP quintuple information (protocol type, source IP address, destination IP address, source port number, destination port number), source MAC address information, destination MAC address information, or other additional tags that may be used to indicate QoS requirements.

When the home terminal sends the RRC message carried on SRB0 to the HAP, one or more of the following may be carried in the adaptation layer of the HA link: identification of SRB0, local identification of HAP (LID-HAP), local identification of home terminal (LID-HUE). The identifier carrying the SRB0 may be used for adding the HAP to the F1AP message carrying the home terminal uplink RRC message.

After receiving the RRC establishment request message from the home terminal, the gNB processes and responds based on the RRC establishment request message.

2. The gNB sends an RRC setup message to the home terminal.

Specifically, the gNB sends an RRC setup message to the home terminal via the HAP. That is, the gNB sends an RRC setup message to the HAP, and the HAP forwards the RRC setup message to the home terminal. In one possible implementation, the gNB may encapsulate the RRC setup message in a downlink F1AP message and send the RRC setup message to the HAP, which forwards the RRC setup message to the home terminal. For example, the RRC setup message sent by the gNB to the HAP may include an identification of the home terminal on the F1 interface and an identification of the SRB0, so that the HAP may send the RRC setup message to the home terminal through the home access link. For example, the HAP may add an identity of SRB0 of the home terminal and/or a local identity of the home terminal LID-HUE in header information of the Adapt layer when the HAP transmits the RRC message to the home terminal. In addition, the HAP may further add a QoS tag corresponding to the home terminal SRB0, for example, the HAP adds a QoS tag corresponding to the home terminal SRB0 in a link layer protocol header corresponding to the home link.

3. The home terminal sends an RRC setup complete (rrcsetup complete) message to the gNB.

Specifically, the home terminal transmits an RRC setup complete message to the gNB via the HAP. That is, the home terminal transmits an RRC setup complete message to the HAP, and the HAP forwards the RRC setup complete message to the gNB.

The RRC setup complete message of the home terminal is carried on SRB 1. For example, the home terminal may transmit to the HAP on the HA link via a QoS tag corresponding to SRB1 (or a QoS tag corresponding to SRB 1). The QoS tag corresponding to SRB1 may be predefined by a protocol, or may be configured by HAP to the home terminal, or may be carried by the gNB in step 2 and sent to the home terminal in a downlink RRC message, which is not limited.

Through the steps, the home terminal establishes RRC connection with the gNB.

1340, the home terminal performs authentication in the network.

Alternatively, the HAP may determine whether the home terminal needs authentication authorization in the core network.

In the embodiment of the application, the authentication and authorization of the home terminal in the core network at least includes the following two cases.

In one case, the home terminal needs to perform authentication in the core network.

For example, the HAP determines that the home terminal needs authentication and authorization in the core network. In this case, there are many ways for the home terminal to perform authentication in the core network, and embodiments of the present application are not limited. For example, if the home terminal needs authentication in the core network, after the step 1340, the gNB may forward a non-access stratum (non access stratum, NAS) message of the home terminal to a network element (e.g., an access management function AMF) in the core network, based on which the core network may perform a procedure of authenticating and authenticating the home terminal, so that the home terminal completes authentication in the core network (e.g., a 5G core network).

In yet another case, the home terminal does not need to perform authentication in the core network.

For example, the HAP determines that the home terminal does not need authentication authorization in the core network. In this case, the HAP may send indication information to the gNB, where the indication information is used to indicate to the gNB that the home terminal does not need to perform authentication, or the indication information is used to indicate to the gNB that the home terminal is a reliable device, that is, a home terminal device that does not need to be authenticated in the core network. That is, for some home terminals that do not need authentication and authentication in the 5G core network (e.g., have passed authentication by HAP or authentication devices built in HAP, or have completed device authentication in authentication devices of the internet via HAP), HAP may send indication information to the gNB (e.g., in step 1330), indicating that the home terminal device does not need to perform an authentication procedure again in the core network. By the method, the core network can be prevented from carrying out additional authentication on the home terminal equipment (namely, the home terminal equipment which is not authenticated in the core network), so that the expenditure and time delay caused by authentication can be saved.

In a possible implementation manner, the indication information may be carried in an F1AP message sent by the HAP to the gNB, for example, the indication information may be carried in an uplink F1AP message corresponding to the home terminal (e.g., the F1AP message in step 3 above, i.e., an F1AP message used by the HAP to transmit an RRC setup complete message of the home terminal to the gNB). In yet another possible implementation, the indication information may be carried in an RRC message sent by the HAP to the gNB.

Through the above steps, the home terminal can access the network via the HAP and communicate.

It should be understood that the various steps described above are merely exemplary illustrations and are not limiting in this regard. For example, step 1330 and step 1340 may not be included.

It should also be understood that the size of the sequence number of each step does not mean the order of execution, and the order of execution of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic. For example, step 1330 and step 1340 may be combined.

The scheme that the home terminal accesses the network through the HAP is described above in connection with aspect 1, and the scheme that the home terminal performs service transmission is described below in connection with aspect 2.

In aspect 2, the home terminal performs service transmission.

Considering the network architecture proposed in the present application, supporting the transmission of U2N traffic between the home terminal and the network, and local traffic within the home network, the transmission of both types of traffic may need to be transmitted via HAP.

For the HAP, the HAP receives a data packet sent by the home terminal, and at least includes the following three scenarios:

scene 1: the data packet sent by the home terminal is a data packet of local service sent to the HAP itself;

scene 2: the data packet sent by the home terminal is a data packet of a U2N service forwarded to the gNB through HAP;

Scene 3: the data packets transmitted by the home terminal are data packets forwarded to other home terminals via the HAP.

It will be appreciated that for local traffic between home terminals, communication may be via a communication link between home terminals, in which case HAP forwarding is not required.

In the embodiment of the application, the HAP needs to have the capability of assisting the home terminal in transmitting the service data or signaling to the network side, needs to have the capability of forwarding the service data or signaling between different home terminals, and also needs to have the capability of interacting the service data or signaling with the home terminals. Therefore, at least the following two problems can be solved by introducing an Adapt layer in the data transmission of the HA link: the routing of the data packets is protocol adapted between the upper protocol layer (PDCP layer) and the lower protocol layer of the HA link.

1. With respect to routing of data packets.

One possible way is to introduce the identity of the destination node in the Adapt layer. In this way, the HAP may route the data packet according to the identity of the destination node. For example, for U2N traffic, the identity of the destination node may be the identity of the HAP when transmitting from the home terminal to the HAP. For another example, for local traffic transmission of the home network, assuming that the HUE1 is to send a packet to the HUE2 via HAP, the identifier of the destination node may be the identifier of the HUE 2.

2. Protocol adaptation is performed between an upper protocol layer (PDCP layer) and a lower protocol layer of the HA link.

The home terminal may be configured with a mapping relationship of QoS identities from Radio Bearers (RBs), which may be signaling radio bearers SRBs or data radio bearers (data radio bearer, DRBs), to the HA links. In order to meet the quality of service requirements of different types of services of the terminal device, one or more radio bearers are introduced in the wireless network, wherein the radio bearers comprise DRB and SRB and are used for transmitting different types of service data (comprising control plane signaling and user plane data) between the home terminal and the base station.

When the home terminal sends the data packet, the PDU of the PDCP corresponding to the radio bearer is encapsulated in an adaptive layer, the radio bearer identification of the home terminal is added in the header information of the adaptive layer, the mapping from the radio bearer to the QoS identification of the HA link is executed on the data packet in the adaptive layer, and then the QoS requirement of the data packet transmission can be ensured on the basis of the specific QoS identification in the L2 of the HA link.

Three examples are presented below in connection with the three scenarios described above, respectively.

Alternatively, the HAP may determine which scenario belongs to according to the traffic type of the data packet and/or the identity of the destination node.

In example 1, in the case that the data packet carries the identification of the HAP, and the service type indication is used to indicate that the service type of the data packet is the local service, the HAP may parse the content of the data packet itself. For example, the Adapt layer of the HAP receives a data packet sent to itself, and may submit the data packet to an upper protocol layer of the Adapt layer.

After the HAP receives the data packet sent by the home terminal, at the Adapt layer of the HA link, if the identifier of the destination node is the HAP's own identifier, the HAP needs to further distinguish whether the data packet is a data packet of the local service transmitted to the HAP's own by the home terminal or a data packet of the U2N service that needs to be forwarded to the gNB via the HAP. In this regard, the determination may be made by a traffic type indication carried in the Adapt layer of the data packet. Specifically, in example 1, the Adapt layer of the HAP receives a data packet with an address of the Adapt layer as its own destination from the home terminal, and the service type carried in the data packet indicates that the service is local service, and after removing the header of the Adapt layer, the HAP may submit the SDU of the Adapt layer to its own upper protocol layer (e.g. IP layer, or application layer, etc.).

In example 2, in the case that the packet carries the identity of the HAP and the service type indication is used to indicate that the service type of the packet is U2N service, the HAP forwards the packet to the gNB.

After the HAP receives the data packet sent by the home terminal, at the Adapt layer of the HA link, if the identifier of the destination node is the HAP's own identifier, the HAP needs to further distinguish whether the data packet is a data packet of the local service transmitted to the HAP's own by the home terminal or a data packet of the U2N service that needs to be forwarded to the gNB via the HAP. In this regard, the determination may be made by a traffic type indication carried in the Adapt layer of the data packet. Specifically, in example 2, the Adapt layer of the HAP receives a data packet with the target address of the Adapt layer as its own from the home terminal, and the service type carried in the data packet indicates that the service is U2N service, then the HAP may remove the header of the Adapt layer, submit the SDU of the Adapt layer to its own F1 interface protocol layer (such as GTP-U protocol layer, or F1AP protocol layer), and transmit the SDU to the gNB after processing of the F1 interface protocol layer.

Example 3, the data packet carries the identifier of the other home terminal, and the HAP forwards the data packet to the other home terminal.

After the HAP receives the data packet sent by the home terminal, the data packet is forwarded to the corresponding destination node (i.e. other home terminals) at the Adapt layer of the HA link if the identification of the destination node is the identification of other home terminals.

Taking HUE1 and HUE2 as examples, after receiving a packet of HUE1, if it is determined that the packet is to be forwarded to HUE2, an RB Identifier (ID) of HUE1 carried by an Adapt layer in the received packet is replaced with an RB ID of HUE 2. In addition, the HAP may map the data packet to the QoS identifier of L2 between the adapted layer and the HUE2, and further, the HAP may send the data packet to the HUE2 through the HA link between the HAP and the HUE 2.

Alternatively, the HAP may maintain a correspondence of RB IDs between different home terminals, for example, a correspondence between RB IDs of terminals of a first access technology and RB IDs of terminals of a second access technology. Specifically, for the local service of the transit home network, the HAP may maintain a correspondence relationship with the RB IDs between different home terminals.

The correspondence relationship between RB IDs among home terminals maintained by HAP can be obtained at least by any one of the following means.

1) The HAP itself generates (or otherwise determines) the correspondence of RB IDs between home terminals.

For example, the HAP determines a correspondence of RB IDs between different home terminals based on QoS parameters of radio bearers of the different home terminals received from the gNB, and maintains the correspondence. Taking HUE1 and HUE2 as examples, if there are similar QoS parameters for RB1 of HUE1 and RB2 of HUE2, the HAP may configure RB1 of HUE1 and RB2 of HUE2 as corresponding radio bearers when there is a need to exchange data between HUE1 and HUE 2.

2) The HAP obtains the correspondence of RB IDs between home terminals from the gNB.

For example, the gNB determines a correspondence relation of RB IDs between different home terminals, and transmits information of the correspondence relation to the HAP, and the HAP maintains the correspondence relation. Taking HUE1 and HUE2 as examples, the configuration information sent by the gNB to the HAP may include a correspondence between RB1 of HUE1 and RB2 of HUE 2.

In the embodiment of the application, the mapping relation of the RB IDs between home terminals maintained by the HAP can enable the HAP to forward the local service interacted between the home terminals between different home terminals according to the QoS requirements corresponding to the service. Thus, communication performance can be improved as much as possible.

It should be understood that the foregoing is merely illustrative, and in the foregoing examples 1 to 3, the HAP specific processing procedure may perform corresponding processing according to the actual communication situation, which is not limited thereto.

The scheme of service transmission by the home terminal is described above in connection with aspect 2. By the embodiment of the application, the HAP can distinguish the two types of services under the condition of supporting the transmission of the U2N service and the local service at the same time so as to perform different processing.

The configuration of the Adapt layer is described below in connection with aspect 3.

Aspect 3, configuration of the adapt layer.

1. Configuration of the Adapt layer of HAP.

The configuration of the Adapt layer of the HAP may be generated by the HAP itself, i.e. the HAP itself configures the configuration of the Adapt layer of the HAP. Alternatively, the configuration of the Adapt layer of the HAP may be configured by the gNB and sent to the HAP by the gNB, e.g. the gNB sends the configuration of the Adapt layer of the HAP to the HAP via an RRC message or an F1AP message.

For HAP, the configuration of the Adapt layer may include, for example, but is not limited to, one or more of: the method comprises the steps of identifying an Adpt layer of the HAP, identifying an Adpt layer of a home terminal, corresponding relation between an L2 identification of the home terminal on an HA link and the Adpt layer identification, corresponding relation between a wireless bearing of the home terminal and QoS identification of the HA link, and corresponding relation between RBs of different home terminals.

2. And configuring an adaptation layer of the home terminal.

The configuration of the Adapt layer of the home terminal may be configured by the HAP to the home terminal. Alternatively, the configuration of the Adapt layer of the home terminal may be configured by the gNB to the home terminal, e.g. the gNB configures the home terminal through an RRC message.

The Adapt layer configuration of the home terminal may include, for example, but is not limited to, one or more of: the method comprises the steps of identifying an Adpt layer of HAP, identifying an Adpt layer of a home terminal, corresponding relations between RB of the home terminal and QoS identification of an HA link, identifying an Adpt layer of other home terminals, and corresponding relations between L2 identification of the HA link and the Adpt layer identification of other home terminals.

The scheme of the configuration of the Adapt layer is described above in connection with aspect 3. By the embodiment of the application, the HAP and the home terminal can acquire the configuration of the adaptive layer, so that the subsequent service transmission can be conveniently carried out.

The above description of aspects 1 to 3 describes that the home terminal performs service transmission through the HAP access network, the home terminal, and the Adapt layer configuration, and the contents of the above aspects may be used alone or in combination. For ease of understanding, a possible complete flow is briefly described below in connection with fig. 14, as an example. The method 1400 shown in fig. 14 may include the following steps.

1410, hap accesses a network, in which authentication is performed.

Step 1410 is similar to the specific process of step 1310 in method 1300 above. Since step 1310 has been described in detail in method 1300 above, details are not repeated here for brevity.

1420, the home terminal establishes a connection with the HAP, which performs initial access control.

Step 1420 is similar to the specific process of step 1320 in method 1300 above. Since step 1320 has been described in detail in method 1300 above, details are not repeated here for brevity.

1430, the home terminal sends a data packet to the HAP.

One possible scenario is that the home terminal sends a packet of local traffic to the HAP itself. In this scenario, method 1400 may include step 1441 as follows.

1441, after the hap removes the head of the adpt layer, the SDU of the adpt layer is delivered to its own upper protocol layer.

For example, the data packet carries the HAP identifier, and the service type indication is used to indicate that the service type of the data packet is local service. The Adapt layer of the HAP receives a data packet with the target address of the Adapt layer as the own data packet from the home terminal, and the service type carried in the data packet indicates local service, so that the HAP can remove the head of the Adapt layer and deliver the SDU of the Adapt layer to the own upper protocol layer (such as an IP layer or an application layer).

In yet another possible scenario, the data packet sent by the home terminal is a data packet of a local service sent to the HAP itself. In this scenario, method 1400 may include step 1442 as follows.

1442, the hap forwards the packet to the gNB.

For example, the data packet carries the HAP identifier, and the service type indication is used to indicate that the service type of the data packet is U2N service. The Adapt layer of the HAP receives a data packet with the target address of the Adapt layer as the own data packet from the home terminal, and the service type carried in the data packet indicates the U2N service, after removing the header of the Adapt layer, the HAP may submit the SDU of the Adapt layer to the own F1 interface protocol layer (for example, GTP-U protocol layer, or F1AP protocol layer), and after processing by the F1 interface protocol layer, the SDU is transmitted to the gNB.

In yet another possible scenario, the data packet sent by the home terminal is a data packet of a local service sent to the HAP itself. In this scenario, method 1400 may include step 1443 as follows.

1443, the hap forwards the data packet to other home terminals.

The other home terminals may include one home terminal or a plurality of home terminals, which is not limited.

For example, after the HAP receives a data packet sent by the home terminal, the HAP forwards the data packet to a corresponding destination node (i.e. other home terminals) at an Adapt layer of the HA link if the destination node is the identity of the other home terminals. Taking HUE1 and HUE2 as examples, after receiving a packet of HUE1, if it is determined that the packet is to be forwarded to HUE2, the RB ID of HUE1 carried by the Adapt layer in the received packet is replaced with the RB ID of HUE 2. In addition, the HAP may map the data packet to the QoS identifier of L2 between the adapted layer and the HUE2, and further, the HAP may send the data packet to the HUE2 through the HA link between the HAP and the HUE 2.

Alternatively, the HAP may maintain a correspondence of RB IDs between different home terminals. Specifically, reference may be made to the description in aspect 2 above, and for brevity, no further description is provided here.

It should be understood that the various steps described above are merely exemplary illustrations and are not limiting in this regard. For example, prior to step 1430, the home terminal may also initiate an RRC establishment procedure to the gNB, in particular, reference step 1330 in method 1300. As another example, the home terminal may also perform authentication in the network, specifically, reference step 1340 in method 1300.

It should be understood that in some of the above embodiments, the home scenario is mainly described as an example, but this is not limiting to the present application, and any environment with multiple access technology terminals and local traffic transmission requirements is suitable for the embodiments of the present application.

It should also be appreciated that in some of the above embodiments, SDUs are exemplified, the meaning of which will be understood by those skilled in the art. SDUs may also be replaced with data, for example.

It should also be appreciated that in some of the embodiments above, the destination node of the SDU and the destination node of the data are sometimes used interchangeably, both of which are used to represent the destination node of the data, or to which device the data is transmitted.

It should also be understood that in some of the foregoing embodiments, the terminals with different access technologies are mainly exemplified, and it should be understood that the terminals with the same access technology are also applicable to the schemes of the embodiments of the present application, for example, the terminals with the same access technology may also use the schemes of service transmission provided by the embodiments of the present application.

It should also be understood that in some of the above embodiments, the technology of accessing a terminal to a communication device is denoted as access technology, and it should be understood that the naming thereof does not limit the scope of protection of the embodiments of the present application. For example, the access technology may be replaced by an access scheme.

Based on the above technical solution, the wireless backhaul architecture based on the IAB network may treat the indoor access point HAP (or may be referred to as CPE) as a special type of IAB node. The extension is performed in the access link part, that is, a communication protocol layer (i.e., a first protocol layer, such as an Adapt layer) is newly added in the HA link, so that a unified communication architecture can be realized, so that not only can a home terminal with multiple access technologies be adapted, such as a home terminal supporting a 3GPP access technology or a home terminal supporting a non-3 GPP access technology, but also multiple services, such as service interaction between the home terminal and a network side, can be supported.

The various embodiments described herein may be separate solutions or may be combined according to inherent logic, which fall within the scope of the present application.

It will be appreciated that in the foregoing embodiments of the methods and operations implemented by a terminal device (e.g., a home terminal or HAP), the methods and operations implemented by a network device (e.g., HAP or base station) may be implemented by a component (e.g., a chip or circuit) that may be used in the terminal device, or the components (e.g., a chip or circuit) that may be used in the network device.

The method provided in the embodiment of the present application is described in detail above with reference to fig. 3 to 14. The following describes in detail the communication device provided in the embodiment of the present application with reference to fig. 15 to 18. It should be understood that the descriptions of the apparatus embodiments and the descriptions of the method embodiments correspond to each other, and thus, descriptions of details not described may be referred to the above method embodiments, which are not repeated herein for brevity.

The above description has been presented mainly from the point of interaction between the network elements. It will be appreciated that each network element, e.g. the transmitting device or the receiving device, in order to implement the above-mentioned functions, comprises corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules for performing each function.

The embodiment of the application may divide the function modules of the transmitting end device or the receiving end device according to the above method example, for example, each function module may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The integrated modules may be implemented in hardware or in software functional modules. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the division of the modules is schematic, which is merely a logic function division, and other division manners may be implemented in actual implementation. The following description will take an example of dividing each functional module into corresponding functions.

Fig. 15 is a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 1500 includes a transceiver unit 1510 and a processing unit 1520. The transceiver unit 1510 may implement corresponding communication functions, and the processing unit 1510 is configured to perform data processing. The transceiving unit 1510 may also be referred to as a communication interface or a communication unit.

Optionally, the communication device 1500 may further include a storage unit, where the storage unit may be used to store instructions and/or data, and the processing unit 1520 may read the instructions and/or data in the storage unit, so that the communication device implements the foregoing method embodiments.

The communications apparatus 1500 may be configured to perform the actions performed by the communications device (e.g., HAP) in the above method embodiments, where the communications apparatus 1500 may be the communications device (e.g., HAP) or a component configurable in the communications device (e.g., HAP), the transceiver 1510 is configured to perform the operations related to the transceiver on the communications device (e.g., HAP) side in the above method embodiments, and the processing unit 1520 is configured to perform the operations related to the processing on the communications device (e.g., HAP) side in the above method embodiments.

Alternatively, the communication apparatus 1500 may be configured to perform the actions performed by the first access technology terminal (e.g. the home terminal) in the above method embodiment, where the communication apparatus 1500 may be the first access technology terminal (e.g. the home terminal) or a component that may be configured on the first access technology terminal (e.g. the home terminal), the transceiver unit 1510 is configured to perform the operations related to the transceiver on the first access technology terminal (e.g. the home terminal) side in the above method embodiment, and the processing unit 1520 is configured to perform the operations related to the processing on the first access technology terminal (e.g. the home terminal) side in the above method embodiment.

As a design, the communication apparatus 1500 is configured to perform the actions performed by the communication device (e.g. HAP) in the embodiments shown in fig. 10 to 14, and the processing unit 1520 is configured to: judging a destination node of a service data unit SDU of the first access technology terminal; the transceiver unit 1510 is configured to: in the case that the destination node of the SDU is the second access technology terminal, the SDU is transmitted to the second access technology terminal without going through the base station and the core network device connected to the communication apparatus 1500; wherein the first access technology terminal and the second access technology terminal are connected to the communication device 1500.

As an example, the transceiver unit 1510 is further configured to: forwarding SDU to the base station or the core network equipment under the condition that the destination node is the base station or the core network equipment; alternatively, the processing unit 1520 is further configured to: in the case where the destination node is the communication apparatus 1500, the content of the SDU is analyzed.

As yet another example, processing unit 1520 is specifically configured to: and judging the destination node of the SDU according to the identification and/or service type indication of the destination node carried by the first access technology terminal.

As yet another example, processing unit 1520 is specifically configured to: in the case that the identifier of the destination node is the identifier of the communication device 1500 and the service type indicates the local service, determining that the destination node is the communication device 1500; or, in the case that the identifier of the destination node is the identifier of the communication apparatus 1500 and the service type indicates a non-local service, determining that the destination node is a base station or a core network device; or if the identifier of the destination node is the identifier of the second access technology terminal, judging that the destination node is the second access technology terminal.

As yet another example, the transceiving unit 1510 is further configured to: the configuration information required for transmitting the message carried on the common signaling radio bearer is predefined by the protocol or is preconfigured by the communication device 1500.

As yet another example, processing unit 1520 is also configured to: judging whether the first access technology terminal needs to authenticate in a core network or not; in case the first access technology terminal does not need to authenticate at the core network, the transceiver unit 1510 is further configured to: and sending indication information to the base station, wherein the indication information is used for indicating that the first access technology terminal is a reliable device.

As yet another example, the transceiving unit 1510 is further configured to: and acquiring a corresponding relation, wherein the corresponding relation comprises a corresponding relation between the radio bearer identification of the first access technology terminal and the radio bearer identification of the second access technology terminal.

As yet another example, the transceiver unit 1510 is specifically configured to: receiving the service quality parameters of the radio bearers from the first access technology terminal and the second access technology terminal of the base station, and generating a corresponding relation based on the service quality parameters of the radio bearers of the first access technology terminal and the service quality parameters of the radio bearers of the second access technology terminal; or receiving the information of the corresponding relation sent by the base station.

As yet another example, the transceiver unit 1510 is specifically configured to: the SDU is received at the communication protocol layer, wherein the configuration information of the communication protocol layer is configured by the communication device 1500 or the configuration information of the communication protocol layer is configured by the base station.

As yet another example, the configuration information of the communication protocol layer includes one or more of: the identifier of the communication protocol layer of the communication apparatus 1500, the identifier of the communication protocol layer of the first access technology terminal, the correspondence between the layer 2 identifier of the communication link and the identifier of the communication protocol layer of the first access technology terminal, the correspondence between the radio bearer of the first access technology terminal and the quality of service of the communication link, and the correspondence between the radio bearer identifier of the first access technology terminal and the radio bearer identifier of the second access technology terminal; wherein the communication link is a link through which the communication apparatus 1500 communicates with the first access technology terminal.

The communication apparatus 1500 may implement steps or processes corresponding to those performed by a communication device (e.g., HAP) in the method embodiments of the present application, and the communication apparatus 1500 may include means for performing the method performed by the communication device (e.g., HAP) in the embodiments illustrated in fig. 10-14. And, each unit in the communication device 1500 and the other operations and/or functions described above are respectively for realizing the corresponding flow in the embodiments shown in fig. 10 to 14.

Wherein, when the communication device 1500 is used to perform the method 1000 in fig. 10, the transceiver unit 1510 may be used to perform

steps

1010 and 1030 in the method 1000, and the processing unit 1520 may be used to perform step 1020 in the method 1000.

When the communication device 1500 is used to perform the method 1300 in fig. 13, the transceiver unit 1510 may be used to perform the step 1330 in the method 1300, and the processing unit 1520 may be used to perform the steps 1310, 1320 in the method 1300.

When the communication device 1500 is used to perform the method 1400 in fig. 14, the transceiving unit 1510 may be used to perform steps 1430, 1442, 1443 in the method 1400, and the processing unit 1520 may be used to perform steps 1410, 1420, 1441 in the method 1400.

It should be understood that the specific process of each unit performing the corresponding steps has been described in detail in the above method embodiments, and is not described herein for brevity.

As another design, the communication device 1500 is configured to perform the actions performed by the first access technology terminal (e.g. home terminal) in the embodiments shown in fig. 10 to 14, and the processing unit 1520 is configured to: is connected to the communication equipment and is connected to the base station and the core network equipment through the communication equipment; the transceiver unit 1510 is configured to: the SDU is transmitted to the communication device, wherein the communication means 1500 carries an identification and/or a service type indication of the destination node, which is used for determining the destination node of the SDU.

As an example, in the case that the identifier of the destination node is the identifier of the communication device and the service type indicates the local service, the destination node of the SDU is the communication device; or in the case that the identifier of the destination node is the identifier of the communication device and the service type indicates the non-local service, the destination node of the SDU is a base station or a core network device; alternatively, in the case where the destination node is identified as the identifier of the communication apparatus 1500, the destination node of the SDU is the communication apparatus 1500.

As yet another example, the transceiving unit 1510 is further configured to: the method comprises the steps of sending a message carried on a common signaling radio bearer to the communication device, the configuration information required for transmitting the message carried on the common signaling radio bearer being predefined by a protocol, or the configuration information required for transmitting the message carried on the common signaling radio bearer being preconfigured by the communication device.

As yet another example, the radio bearer identification of the communication apparatus 1500 has a correspondence relationship with the radio bearer identification of the second access technology terminal.

The communication apparatus 1500 may implement steps or procedures corresponding to those performed by a first access technology terminal (e.g., home terminal) in the method embodiments of the present application, and the communication apparatus 1500 may include means for performing the method performed by the first access technology terminal (e.g., home terminal) in the embodiments shown in fig. 10 to 14. And, each unit in the communication device 1500 and the other operations and/or functions described above are respectively for realizing the corresponding flow in the embodiments shown in fig. 10 to 14.

Wherein, when the communication device 1500 is used to perform the method 1000 in fig. 10, the transceiver unit 1510 is used to perform step 1010 in the method 1000.

When the communication device 1500 is used to perform the method 1300 in fig. 13, the transceiver unit 1510 may be used to perform the step 1330 in the method 1300, and the processing unit 1520 may be used to perform the step 1320 in the method 1300.

When the communication device 1500 is used to perform the method 1400 in fig. 14, the transceiver 1510 can be used to perform the step 1430 in the method 1400, and the processing unit 1520 can be used to perform the step 1420 in the method 1400.

The processing unit 1520 in the above embodiments may be implemented by at least one processor or processor-related circuit. The transceiver unit 1510 may be implemented by a transceiver or transceiver-related circuitry. The transceiving unit 1510 may also be referred to as a communication unit or a communication interface. The memory unit may be implemented by at least one memory.

As shown in fig. 16, the embodiment of the application further provides a communication device 1600. The communication device 1600 comprises a processor 1610, the processor 1610 being coupled to a memory 1620, the memory 1620 for storing computer programs or instructions and/or data, the processor 1610 for executing the computer programs or instructions and/or data stored by the memory 1620 such that the method of the above method embodiments is performed.

Optionally, the communication device 1600 includes one or more processors 1610.

Optionally, as shown in fig. 16, the communication device 1600 may also include a memory 1620.

Optionally, the communications device 1600 may include one or more memories 1620.

Alternatively, the memory 1620 may be integrated with the processor 1610 or separately provided.

Optionally, as shown in fig. 16, the communication device 1600 may also include a transceiver 1630, the transceiver 1630 being used for receiving and/or transmitting signals. For example, processor 1610 is configured to control transceiver 1630 to receive and/or transmit signals.

As an option, the communication apparatus 1600 is configured to implement the operations performed by a communication device (e.g., HAP) in the above method embodiments.

For example, processor 1610 is configured to implement the processing-related operations performed by the HAP in the above method embodiments, and transceiver 1630 is configured to implement the transceiving-related operations performed by the HAP in the above method embodiments.

Alternatively, the communication device 1600 is configured to implement the operations performed by the first access technology terminal (e.g., home terminal) in the above method embodiments.

For example, the processor 1610 is configured to implement operations related to processing performed by the home terminal in the above method embodiment, and the transceiver 1630 is configured to implement operations related to transceiving performed by the home terminal in the above method embodiment.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication device 1700, where the communication device 1700 may be a terminal device or a chip. The communication apparatus 1700 may be used to perform the operations performed by the home terminal in the above-described method embodiments.

When the communication apparatus 1700 is a terminal device, fig. 17 shows a simplified schematic structure of the terminal device. As shown in fig. 17, the terminal device includes a processor, a memory, a radio frequency circuit, an antenna, and an input-output device. The processor is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, controlling the terminal equipment, executing software programs, processing data of the software programs and the like. The memory is mainly used for storing software programs and data. The radio frequency circuit is mainly used for converting a baseband signal and a radio frequency signal and processing the radio frequency signal. The antenna is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are mainly used for receiving data input by a user and outputting data to the user. It should be noted that some kinds of terminal apparatuses may not have an input/output device.

When data need to be sent, the processor carries out baseband processing on the data to be sent and then outputs a baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit, and the radio frequency circuit carries out radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and then sends the radio frequency signal outwards in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is sent to the terminal equipment, the radio frequency circuit receives a radio frequency signal through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal, and outputs the baseband signal to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data. For ease of illustration, only one memory and processor are shown in fig. 17, and in an actual end device product, one or more processors and one or more memories may be present. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or storage device, etc. The memory may be provided separately from the processor or may be integrated with the processor, which is not limited by the embodiments of the present application.

In the embodiment of the present application, the antenna and the radio frequency circuit with the transceiver function may be regarded as a transceiver unit of the terminal device, and the processor with the processing function may be regarded as a processing unit of the terminal device.

As shown in fig. 17, the terminal device includes a transceiving unit 1710 and a processing unit 1720. The transceiver unit 1710 may also be referred to as a transceiver, transceiver device, etc. Processing unit 1720 may also be referred to as a processor, processing board, processing module, processing device, etc.

Alternatively, a device for implementing a receiving function in the transceiver 1710 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device for implementing a transmitting function in the transceiver 1710 may be regarded as a transmitting unit, i.e., the transceiver 1710 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. The transceiver unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, transceiver circuitry, or the like. The receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, or receiving circuit, among others. The transmitting unit may also sometimes be referred to as a transmitter, or a transmitting circuit, etc.

For example, in one implementation, the processing unit 1720 is configured to perform the processing actions on the home terminal side in fig. 10 to 14. For example, the processing unit 1720 is configured to perform the processing steps in fig. 10 to 14; the transceiving unit 1710 is used to perform transceiving operations in fig. 10 to 14.

It should be understood that fig. 17 is only an example and not a limitation, and the above-described terminal device including the transceiving unit and the processing unit may not depend on the structure shown in fig. 17.

When the communication device 1700 is a chip, the chip includes a transceiver unit and a processing unit. The receiving and transmitting unit can be an input and output circuit or a communication interface; the processing unit may be an integrated processor or microprocessor or an integrated circuit on the chip.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication device 1800, and the communication device 1800 may be a communication device or a chip. The communications apparatus 1800 can be configured to perform the operations performed by a communications device (e.g., HAP or gNB) in the method embodiments described above.

When the communication apparatus 1800 is a communication device. Fig. 18 shows a simplified schematic diagram of the communication device structure. The communication device includes a portion 1810 and a portion 1820. The 1810 part is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals and converting the radio frequency signals and baseband signals; the 1820 portion is mainly used for baseband processing, control of network devices, etc. Portions 1810 may generally be referred to as a transceiver unit, transceiver circuitry, or transceiver, etc. Section 1820 is typically a control center of the network device, and may be generally referred to as a processing unit, for controlling the network device to perform processing operations on the network device side in the above-described method embodiment.

Section 1810, which may also be referred to as a transceiver or transceiver, includes an antenna and radio frequency circuitry, wherein the radio frequency circuitry is primarily used for radio frequency processing. Alternatively, the device for implementing the receiving function in the 1810 part may be regarded as a receiving unit, and the device for implementing the transmitting function may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, the 1810 part includes the receiving unit and the transmitting unit. The receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, or a receiving circuit, etc., and the transmitting unit may be referred to as a transmitter, or a transmitting circuit, etc.

The 1820 portion may include one or more boards, each of which may include one or more processors and one or more memories. The processor is used for reading and executing the program in the memory to realize the baseband processing function and control of the base station. If there are multiple boards, the boards can be interconnected to enhance processing power. As an alternative implementation manner, the multiple boards may share one or more processors, or the multiple boards may share one or more memories, or the multiple boards may share one or more processors at the same time.

For example, in one implementation, the transceiver unit of portion 1810 is configured to perform the steps related to the transceiver performed by the communication device in the embodiments shown in fig. 10 to 14; section 1820 is used to perform the processing related steps performed by the communication device in the embodiments illustrated in fig. 10-14.

It should be understood that fig. 18 is only an example and not a limitation, and the above-described communication device including the transceiving unit and the processing unit may not depend on the structure shown in fig. 18.

When the communication device 1800 is a chip, the chip includes a transceiver unit and a processing unit. The receiving and transmitting unit can be an input and output circuit and a communication interface; the processing unit is an integrated processor or microprocessor or integrated circuit on the chip.

The present application also provides a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer instructions for implementing the method performed by the first access technology terminal (e.g., home terminal) or the method performed by the communication device (e.g., HAP) in the above method embodiments.

For example, the computer program when executed by a computer, enables the computer to implement the method performed by the first access technology terminal (e.g. home terminal) or the method performed by the communication device (e.g. HAP) in the above-described method embodiments.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to implement the method performed by a first access technology terminal (e.g. home terminal) or the method performed by a communication device (e.g. HAP) in the above method embodiments.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication system, which comprises the first access technology terminal (such as a home terminal) and the communication device (such as HAP) in the above embodiment; alternatively, the communication system includes the first access technology terminal (e.g., home terminal), the second access technology terminal (e.g., home terminal), and the communication device (e.g., HAP) in the above embodiments; alternatively, the communication system comprises the first access technology terminal (e.g. home terminal), the second access technology terminal (e.g. home terminal), the communication device (e.g. HAP), the base station and/or the core network device in the above embodiments.

It will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity, explanation and beneficial effects of the relevant content in any of the above-mentioned communication devices may refer to the corresponding method embodiments provided above, and are not repeated here.

In the embodiment of the application, the terminal device or the network device may include a hardware layer, an operating system layer running above the hardware layer, and an application layer running above the operating system layer. The hardware layer may include a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), a memory management unit (memory management unit, MMU), and a memory (also referred to as a main memory). The operating system of the operating system layer may be any one or more computer operating systems that implement business processing through processes (processes), for example, a Linux operating system, a Unix operating system, an Android operating system, an iOS operating system, or windows operating system, etc. The application layer may include applications such as a browser, address book, word processor, instant messaging software, and the like.

The present embodiment does not particularly limit the specific structure of the execution body of the method provided in the present embodiment, as long as communication can be performed in the method provided in the present embodiment by running a program in which the code of the method provided in the present embodiment is recorded. For example, the execution body of the method provided in the embodiment of the present application may be a terminal device or a network device, or may be a functional module in the terminal device or the network device that can call a program and execute the program.

Various aspects or features of the present application can be implemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques. The term "article of manufacture" as used herein may encompass a computer program accessible from any computer-readable device, carrier, or media.

Among other things, computer readable storage media can be any available media that can be accessed by a computer or data storage devices such as servers, data centers, etc. that contain one or more integration of the available media. Usable (or computer readable) media may include, for example, but are not limited to: magnetic media or magnetic storage devices (e.g., floppy disks, hard disks (e.g., removable disks), magnetic tape), optical media (e.g., compact discs, CDs), digital versatile discs (digital versatile disc, DVDs), etc.), smart cards and flash memory devices (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memories (EPROMs), cards, sticks, or key drives, etc.), or semiconductor media (e.g., solid-state disks (SSDs), etc., U disk, read-only memory (ROMs), random access memories (random access memory, RAMs), etc., various media that may store program code.

Various storage media described herein can represent one or more devices and/or other machine-readable media for storing information. The term "machine-readable medium" may include, but is not limited to: wireless channels, and various other media capable of storing, containing, and/or carrying instruction(s) and/or data.

It should be appreciated that the processors referred to in the embodiments of the present application may be central processing units (central processing unit, CPU), but may also be other general purpose processors, digital signal processors (digital signal processor, DSP), application specific integrated circuits (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), off-the-shelf programmable gate arrays (field programmable gate array, FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, or the like. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

It should also be understood that the memory referred to in the embodiments of the present application may be volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an electrically Erasable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be random access memory (random access memory, RAM). For example, RAM may be used as an external cache. By way of example, and not limitation, RAM may include the following forms: static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct memory bus RAM (DR RAM).

It should be noted that when the processor is a general purpose processor, DSP, ASIC, FPGA or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware components, the memory (storage module) may be integrated into the processor.

It should also be noted that the memory described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the above-described division of units is merely a logical function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or may be integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not performed. Furthermore, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be through some interface, device or unit indirect coupling or communication connection, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described above as separate components may or may not be physically separate, and components shown as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed over a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to implement the solution provided in the present application.

In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated in one unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated in one unit.

In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof.

When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in accordance with embodiments of the present application are produced in whole or in part. The computer may be: a general purpose computer, a personal computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, a server, a network appliance, or other programmable device, etc. Computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another. With respect to computer readable storage media, reference may be made to the description above.

The foregoing is merely specific embodiments of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions easily conceivable by those skilled in the art within the technical scope of the present application should be covered in the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims and the specification.

Claims

A communication device, comprising:

the communication device is configured to determine a destination node of a service data unit SDU of the first access technology terminal;

the communication device is further configured to, when the destination node of the SDU is a second access technology terminal, transparently transmit the SDU to the second access technology terminal without going through a base station and a core network device connected to the communication device;

wherein the first access technology terminal and the second access technology terminal are connected to the communication device.
The communication device of claim 1, wherein the communication device is further configured to:

forwarding the SDU to the base station or the core network equipment under the condition that the destination node of the SDU is the base station or the core network equipment; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

and analyzing the content of the SDU under the condition that the destination node of the SDU is the communication equipment.
The communication device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it is specifically adapted to:

and judging the destination node of the SDU according to the identification and/or service type indication of the destination node carried by the first access technology terminal.
A communication device according to claim 3, characterized in that the communication device is specifically adapted to:

judging the destination node of the SDU as the communication equipment under the condition that the identification of the destination node is the identification of the communication equipment and the service type indicates local service; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

judging the destination node of the SDU as the base station or the core network equipment under the condition that the identifier of the destination node is the identifier of the communication equipment and the service type indicates non-local service; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

and judging the destination node of the SDU as the second access technology terminal under the condition that the identification of the destination node is the identification of the second access technology terminal.
The communication device according to any of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the communication device is further adapted to:

and receiving a message carried on a public signaling radio bearer and sent by the first access technology terminal, wherein configuration information required for transmitting the message carried on the public signaling radio bearer is predefined by a protocol, or the configuration information required for transmitting the message carried on the public signaling radio bearer is preconfigured by the communication equipment.
The communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the communication device is further adapted to:

judging whether the first access technology terminal needs to authenticate in the core network or not;

and sending indication information to the base station under the condition that the first access technology terminal does not need to be authenticated by the core network, wherein the indication information is used for indicating that the first access technology terminal is a reliable device.
The communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the communication device is further adapted to:

and acquiring a corresponding relation, wherein the corresponding relation comprises a corresponding relation between the radio bearer identification of the first access technology terminal and the radio bearer identification of the second access technology terminal.
The communication device according to claim 7, characterized in that it is specifically adapted to:

receiving quality of service parameters of radio bearers of the first access technology terminal and the second access technology terminal from the base station, and generating the correspondence based on the quality of service parameters of radio bearers of the first access technology terminal and the second access technology terminal; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

And receiving the information of the corresponding relation sent by the base station.
The communication device according to any of the claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the communication device is specifically adapted to:

and receiving the SDU transmitted by the first access technology terminal at a first protocol layer of the communication equipment, wherein the configuration information of the first protocol layer of the communication equipment is configured by the communication equipment or the configuration information of the first protocol layer of the communication equipment is configured by the base station.
A method of data transmission, comprising:

the communication equipment receives service data units SDU transmitted by a first access technology terminal;

the communication equipment judges a destination node of the SDU;

in the case that the destination node of the SDU is a second access technology terminal, the communication device does not pass through a base station and a core network device connected with the communication device, and transmits the SDU to the second access technology terminal;

wherein the first access technology terminal and the second access technology terminal are connected to the communication device.
The method of claim 10, wherein the step of determining the position of the first electrode is performed,

in the case that the destination node of the SDU is the base station or the core network device, the communication device forwards the SDU to the base station or the core network device; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

And under the condition that the destination node of the SDU is the communication equipment, the communication equipment analyzes the content of the SDU.
The method according to claim 10 or 11, wherein the communication device determining the destination node of the SDU comprises:

and the communication equipment judges the destination node of the SDU according to the identification and/or the service type indication of the destination node carried by the first access technology terminal.
The method of claim 12, wherein the step of determining the position of the probe is performed,

in the case that the identifier of the destination node is the identifier of the communication device and the service type indicates a local service, the communication device determines that the destination node of the SDU is the communication device; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

in the case that the identifier of the destination node is the identifier of the communication device and the service type indicates a non-local service, the communication device determines that the destination node of the SDU is the base station or the core network device; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

and under the condition that the identifier of the destination node is the identifier of the second access technology terminal, the communication equipment judges that the destination node of the SDU is the second access technology terminal.
The method according to any one of claims 10 to 13, further comprising:

the communication device receives a message carried on a common signaling radio bearer sent by the first access technology terminal, and configuration information required for transmitting the message carried on the common signaling radio bearer is predefined by a protocol, or is preconfigured by the communication device.
The method according to any one of claims 10 to 14, further comprising:

the communication equipment judges whether the first access technology terminal needs to be authenticated in the core network or not;

and under the condition that the first access technology terminal does not need to be authenticated by the core network, the communication equipment sends indication information to the base station, wherein the indication information is used for indicating that the first access technology terminal is a reliable device.
The method according to any one of claims 10 to 15, further comprising:

the communication device obtains a correspondence, where the correspondence includes a correspondence between a radio bearer identification of the first access technology terminal and a radio bearer identification of the second access technology terminal.
The method of claim 16, wherein the communication device obtaining the correspondence comprises:

the communication device receives the quality of service parameters of the radio bearers of the first access technology terminal and the second access technology terminal from the base station, and generates the correspondence based on the quality of service parameters of the radio bearers of the first access technology terminal and the quality of service parameters of the radio bearers of the second access technology terminal; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

and the communication equipment receives the information of the corresponding relation sent by the base station.
The method according to any one of claims 10 to 17, wherein,

the communication device receives SDUs transmitted by a first access technology terminal, comprising:

the communication device receives the SDU at a first protocol layer of the communication device, wherein configuration information of the first protocol layer of the communication device is configured by the communication device, or the configuration information of the first protocol layer of the communication device is configured by the base station.
The method of claim 18, wherein the configuration information of the first protocol layer of the communication device comprises one or more of:

The identification of a first protocol layer of the communication device, the identification of a first protocol layer of the first access technology terminal, the correspondence between the layer 2 identification of the communication link and the identification of the first protocol layer of the first access technology terminal, the correspondence between the radio bearer of the first access technology terminal and the service quality of the communication link, and the correspondence between the radio bearer identification of the first access technology terminal and the radio bearer identification of the second access technology terminal;

wherein the communication link is a link through which the communication device communicates with the first access technology terminal.
A method of data transmission, comprising:

a first access technology terminal connected to a communication device, and the first access technology terminal connected to a base station and a core network device through the communication device;

the first access technology terminal sends a service data unit SDU to the communication equipment, wherein the first access technology terminal carries an identifier of a destination node and/or a service type indication, and the identifier of the destination node and/or the service type indication is used for determining the destination node of the SDU.
The method of claim 20, wherein the step of determining the position of the probe is performed,

In the case that the identifier of the destination node is the identifier of the communication device and the service type indicates a local service, the destination node of the SDU is the communication device; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

in the case that the identifier of the destination node is the identifier of the communication device and the service type indicates a non-local service, the destination node of the SDU is the base station or the core network device; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

and in the case that the identifier of the destination node is the identifier of the second access technology terminal, the destination node of the SDU is the second access technology terminal.
The method according to claim 20 or 21, characterized in that the method further comprises:

the first access technology terminal sends a message carried on a common signaling radio bearer to the communication device, configuration information required for transmitting the message carried on the common signaling radio bearer is pre-defined by a protocol, or configuration information required for transmitting the message carried on the common signaling radio bearer is pre-configured by the communication device.
The method according to any one of claims 20 to 22, wherein,

and the radio bearer identification of the first access technology terminal and the radio bearer identification of the second access technology terminal have a corresponding relation.
An apparatus for data transmission, comprising: at least one processor for performing the method of any one of claims 10 to 23.
A computer readable storage medium, having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a communication device, causes the communication device to perform the method of any of claims 10 to 23.