CN116347533A

CN116347533A - Network switching method, device, equipment and medium

Info

Publication number: CN116347533A
Application number: CN202111601866.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张志荣; 李志军; 谢伟良; 李鹏; 张新
Original assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Current assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Priority date: 2021-12-24
Filing date: 2021-12-24
Publication date: 2023-06-27

Abstract

The embodiment of the disclosure provides a network switching method, device, equipment and medium, and relates to the technical field of communication. The method comprises the following steps: monitoring a first network rate of a first network to which the terminal device is currently connected; if the first network rate meets the switching trigger condition, determining whether the terminal equipment meets the access condition of the second network; if the access condition is met, switching the terminal equipment to a second network or controlling the terminal equipment to work in a dual-protocol stack activation working state; a second network rate of the second network is determined, and the terminal device is determined to operate in the second network or the first network based on the second network rate and the first network rate. According to the technical scheme of the embodiment of the disclosure, the UE is adaptively and intelligently switched between 4G and 5G according to the actual network rate of the 4G and 5G, namely, the dynamic switching between 4G and 5G based on the user rate is realized, and the intelligent switching between the 4G and 5G dual protocol stacks and the single protocol stack is compatible.

Description

Network switching method, device, equipment and medium

Technical Field

The disclosure relates to the technical field of communication, and in particular relates to a network switching method, a network switching device, electronic equipment and a computer readable medium.

Background

Currently, 4G (4 th generation mobile networks, fourth generation mobile network technology) is in maturity and 5G (5 th generation mobile networks, fifth generation mobile network technology) is evolving on a large scale.

In one technical solution, in order to migrate a user from a 4G network to a 5G network, a 5G network (frequency point) priority is generally set to be higher than a 4G network (frequency point) priority. However, since the frequency of the 5G network will be generally higher than that of the 4G network, the coverage of the 5G network is smaller than that of the 4G network, and when the 5G SA (stand alone network) signal is weak or the signal is weak but the switching threshold of the 5G network to the 4G network is not satisfied yet, the situation that the 4G rate is higher than the 5G rate will occur due to the fact that the 5G network is preferentially kept, which causes the problem that the user has signals under the 5G network but the 5G network rate is not as good as the 4G network rate.

Therefore, how to avoid the problem that there is a signal in the 5G network (the 5G-to-4G handover threshold is not reached) but the 5G network rate signal is not as good as the 4G network rate becomes a technical problem to be solved.

It should be noted that the information disclosed in the above background section is only for enhancing understanding of the background of the present disclosure and thus may include information that does not constitute prior art known to those of ordinary skill in the art.

Disclosure of Invention

An objective of the disclosed embodiments is to provide a network switching method, apparatus, electronic device and computer readable medium, so as to at least avoid the problem that there is a signal (the 5G to 4G switching threshold has not been reached) under the 5G network, but the 5G network rate is not as high as the 4G network rate to some extent.

Other features and advantages of the present disclosure will be apparent from the following detailed description, or may be learned in part by the practice of the disclosure.

According to a first aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a network switching method, including: monitoring a first network rate of a first network to which the terminal device is currently connected; if the first network rate meets the switching trigger condition, determining whether the terminal equipment meets the access condition of a second network; if the access condition is met, switching the terminal equipment to the second network or controlling the terminal equipment to work in a dual-protocol stack activation working state; determining a second network rate of the second network, and determining that the terminal device is operating in the second network or the first network based on the second network rate and the first network rate.

According to a first aspect, in an example embodiment, the determining a second network rate of the second network, determining that the terminal device is operating in the second network or the first network based on the second network rate and the first network rate, comprises: monitoring a second network rate of the terminal equipment in the second network, and controlling the terminal equipment to execute one of the following steps based on the second network rate and the first network rate: continuing to remain with the base station of the second network; switching back to a base station of the first network; the single protocol stack operating under the second network activates the operating state; and activating a working state of a single protocol stack working under the first network.

According to a first aspect, in an example embodiment, the second network rate includes a second uplink rate and a second downlink rate, and the controlling the terminal device performs one of the following steps, including: if the uplink rate of the second network is greater than the uplink rate of the first network and/or the downlink rate of the second network is greater than the downlink rate of the first network, the network reservation timing value is self-increased; if the network reservation timing value is greater than or equal to a preset time threshold value, continuing to reserve the base station in the second network or controlling the terminal equipment to work in a single protocol stack activation working state of the second network; and if the network reservation timing value is smaller than the preset time threshold value, controlling the terminal equipment to switch back to the base station of the first network or controlling the terminal equipment to work in a single protocol stack activation working state of the first network.

According to a first aspect, in an example embodiment, the first network rate comprises a first uplink rate and a first downlink rate, the method further comprising: if the first uplink rate is smaller than an uplink rate threshold value and/or the first downlink rate is smaller than a downlink rate threshold value, the network switching count value is increased automatically; and if the network switching count value is greater than or equal to a preset count threshold, determining that the first network rate meets the switching trigger condition.

According to a first aspect, in an example embodiment, the determining whether the terminal device meets an access condition of the second network includes: acquiring a measurement report of the terminal equipment in a neighboring cell base station of a second network; and determining whether the terminal equipment meets the access condition of the second network according to the measurement report.

According to a first aspect, in an example embodiment, the obtaining a measurement report of the terminal device at a neighboring base station of the second network includes: transmitting measurement control information to the terminal equipment through a base station of the first network; and receiving a measurement report generated by the terminal equipment for measuring the neighbor base station of the second network.

According to a first aspect, in an example embodiment, the first network is a 5G network and the second network is a 4G network.

According to a second aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a network switching apparatus, including: the first rate monitoring module is used for monitoring a first network rate of a first network to which the terminal equipment is currently connected; an access condition judging module, configured to determine whether the terminal device meets an access condition of a second network if the first network rate meets a handover trigger condition; the switching control module is used for switching the terminal equipment to the second network or controlling the terminal equipment to work in a dual-protocol stack activation working state if the access condition is met; and the switching judging module is used for determining a second network rate of the second network and determining that the terminal equipment works in the second network or the first network based on the second network rate and the first network rate.

According to a second aspect, in some example embodiments, the handover decision module comprises: the second rate monitoring module is used for monitoring a second network rate of the terminal equipment in the second network, and the control executing module is used for controlling the terminal equipment to execute one of the following steps based on the magnitude of the second network rate and the first network rate: continuing to remain with the base station of the second network; switching back to a base station of the first network; the single protocol stack operating under the second network activates the operating state; and activating a working state of a single protocol stack working under the first network.

According to a second aspect, in some example embodiments, the second network rate includes a second uplink rate and a second downlink rate, the control execution module is further to: if the uplink rate of the second network is greater than the uplink rate of the first network and/or the downlink rate of the second network is greater than the downlink rate of the first network, the network reservation timing value is self-increased; if the network reservation timing value is greater than or equal to a preset time threshold value, continuing to reserve the base station in the second network or controlling the terminal equipment to work in a single protocol stack activation working state of the second network; and if the network reservation timing value is smaller than the preset time threshold value, controlling the terminal equipment to switch back to the base station of the first network or controlling the terminal equipment to work in a single protocol stack activation working state of the first network.

According to a second aspect, in some example embodiments, the first network rate comprises a first uplink rate and a first downlink rate, the apparatus further comprising: the switching counting module is used for automatically increasing a network switching counting value if the first uplink rate is smaller than an uplink rate threshold value and/or the first downlink rate is smaller than a downlink rate threshold value; and the switching condition determining module is used for determining that the first network rate meets the switching trigger condition if the network switching count value is greater than or equal to a preset count threshold.

According to a second aspect, in some example embodiments, the access condition determination module comprises: a measurement report acquisition unit, configured to acquire a measurement report of the terminal device in a neighboring cell base station of a second network; and the access condition judging unit is used for determining whether the terminal equipment meets the access condition of the second network according to the measurement report.

According to a second aspect, in some example embodiments, the measurement report acquisition unit is further configured to: transmitting measurement control information to the terminal equipment through a base station of the first network; and receiving a measurement report generated by the terminal equipment for measuring the neighbor base station of the second network.

According to a second aspect, in some example embodiments, the first network is a 5G network and the second network is a 4G network.

According to a third aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer readable medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements a network switching method as described in the first aspect of the above embodiments.

According to a fourth aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided an electronic device, comprising: one or more processors; and a storage device for storing one or more programs, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to implement the network switching method according to the first aspect of the embodiment.

The technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the disclosure can comprise the following beneficial effects:

in some embodiments of the present disclosure, based on the network rate of the terminal device in the first network, for example, the 5G network, switching between the first network and the second network, optimized switching between the 4G and 5G heterogeneous system networks based on the network rate can be achieved, the problem that signals exist under the 5G network but the 5G network rate is not as good as the 4G network rate is avoided, the network performance is improved, and the network operation and optimization cost is reduced.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the disclosure.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the disclosure and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that the drawings in the following description are merely examples of the disclosure and that other drawings may be derived from them without undue effort. In the drawings:

fig. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of an application scenario implementing a network handover method of some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram of an application scenario of a network handover method implementing further example embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 3 illustrates a flow diagram of a network handover method according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 4 shows a flow diagram of a network handover method embodying further example embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 5 illustrates a schematic configuration of a network switching device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

Fig. 6 illustrates a schematic structure of an electronic device in an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

Example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the exemplary embodiments may be embodied in many forms and should not be construed as limited to the examples set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of the example embodiments to those skilled in the art.

Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. In the following description, numerous specific details are provided to give a thorough understanding of embodiments of the disclosure. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the disclosed aspects may be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, devices, steps, etc. In other instances, well-known methods, devices, implementations, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the disclosure.

The block diagrams depicted in the figures are merely functional entities and do not necessarily correspond to physically separate entities. That is, the functional entities may be implemented in software, or in one or more hardware modules or integrated circuits, or in different networks and/or processor devices and/or microcontroller devices.

The flow diagrams depicted in the figures are exemplary only, and do not necessarily include all of the elements and operations/steps, nor must they be performed in the order described. For example, some operations/steps may be decomposed, and some operations/steps may be combined or partially combined, so that the order of actual execution may be changed according to actual situations.

Fig. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of an application scenario implementing a network handover method of some example embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to fig. 1, the application scenario 100 is a scenario in which a first network and a second network, i.e., an NR (New Radio)/LTE (Long Term Evolution ) network, are not co-located, and the application scenario 100 may include a network device 110, a network device 120, and a terminal device 130, where the network device 110 and the network device 120 may be devices that communicate with the terminal device (or referred to as a communication terminal or a user terminal).

Network devices

110, 120 may provide communication coverage for a particular geographic area and may communicate with terminal devices located within the coverage area.

Optionally, the network device 110 is a network device such as a base station or the like in a first network such as a 5G network, and the network device 120 is an evolved base station (Evolutional Node B, eNB or eNodeB) in a second network such as an LTE (Long Term Evolution ) system.

At least one terminal device 130 is located within overlapping coverage of

network device

110, 120. The terminal device 130 is a user terminal supporting a first network and a second network. It should be noted that, the terminal device 130 may be a portable computer, a smart phone, a vehicle-mounted terminal, a tablet computer, or the like.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram of an application scenario of a network handover method implementing further exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to fig. 2, the application scenario 200 is a scenario in which a first network and a second network are co-sited, for example, NR/LTE co-sited, and the application scenario 200 may include a network device 210 and a terminal device 220. Wherein the network device 110 is a NR/LTE co-sited base station or a DSS (Dynamic Spectrum Sharing ) base station. The DSS base station is a base station which is used for realizing flexible scheduling according to the load condition of a user by dynamically sharing a frequency spectrum and simultaneously opening two systems of 4G and 5G networks.

In an example embodiment of the present disclosure, a method for intelligent switching between 4G and 5G heterogeneous systems is provided, in which the terminal device 130 is adapted to switch between a first network, for example, a 5G network, and a second network, for example, an actual network rate of the 4G network, so that optimal switching between the 4G and 5G heterogeneous systems based on a user rate (user experience) can be implemented, thereby avoiding a problem that signals exist under the 5G network but the 5G network rate is not as good as that of the 4G network, improving network performance, and reducing network operation and optimization costs.

Hereinafter, technical solutions in exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 3 illustrates a flow diagram of a network handoff method according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The execution subject of the network switching method provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure may be a computing device with computing capabilities, such as the network devices in fig. 1 and 2. The network switching method includes steps S310 to S340, and the network switching method in the exemplary embodiment is described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to fig. 3, in step S310, a first network rate of a first network to which a terminal device is currently connected is monitored.

In an example embodiment, the first network is a 5G network and the terminal device is a NR/LTE dual mode terminal. The terminal equipment performs communication service under the NR base station, and when the terminal equipment moves to an overlapped coverage area of the first network and the second network, the first network Rate of the first network currently connected with the terminal equipment is periodically monitored by a Rate Monitor rate_monitor in a preset period.

In step S320, if the first network rate satisfies the handover trigger condition, it is determined whether the terminal device satisfies the access condition of the second network.

In an example embodiment, the first network rate includes a first uplink rate and a first downlink rate, and it is determined whether the first network rate satisfies a handover trigger condition according to the first uplink rate and the first downlink rate. For example, if the first uplink rate is less than an uplink rate threshold and/or the first downlink rate is less than a downlink rate threshold, the network switch count value is incremented by 1; and if the network switching count value is greater than or equal to the preset counting threshold value, determining that the first network rate meets the switching trigger condition.

Further, in an example embodiment, the second network is an LTE network, and a measurement report of the terminal device in a neighboring cell base station of the second network is obtained; and determining whether the terminal equipment meets the access condition of the second network according to the measurement report. For example, an RSRP (Reference Signal Receiving Power, reference signal received power) in a measurement report of a neighboring LTE base station of the LTE network is obtained, and if the RSRP is greater than a predetermined value, it is determined that the terminal device satisfies an access condition of the second network.

In step S330, if the access condition is satisfied, the terminal device is switched to the second network or the terminal device is controlled to operate in the dual protocol stack activation operating state.

In some example embodiments, if the terminal device supports the dual protocol stack operation state and it is determined that the terminal device meets the access condition of the second network, the terminal device is controlled to operate in the LTE/NR dual protocol stack activation operation state through the first network/second network Coordinator, i.e., the N/L Coordinator. The active working state of the LTE/NR dual protocol stack indicates that the terminal equipment keeps the active state of the LTE/NR dual protocol stack, and can receive data from the LTE base station and the NR base station at the same time.

In other example embodiments, if the terminal device does not support dual protocol stack operation and it is determined that the terminal device meets an access condition of a second network, e.g., an LTE network, the terminal device is handed over to the LTE base station through the N/LCoordinator.

In step S340, a second network rate of the second network is determined, and the terminal device is determined to operate in the second network or the first network based on the second network rate and the first network rate.

In an example embodiment, monitoring a second network rate of the terminal device at the second network, controlling the terminal device to perform one of the following steps based on the magnitude of the second network rate and the first network rate: a base station that is subsequently maintained in the second network; switching back to the base station of the first network; the single protocol stack operating under the second network activates the operating state; and a single protocol stack active operating state operating under the first network.

Further, the second network rate includes a second uplink rate and a second downlink rate, and the controlling the terminal device performs one of the following steps, including: if the uplink rate of the second network is greater than the uplink rate of the first network and/or the downlink rate of the second network is greater than the downlink rate of the first network, the network reservation timing value is self-increased; if the network reservation timing value is greater than or equal to the preset time threshold value, continuing to reserve the base station in the second network or controlling the terminal equipment to work in a single protocol stack activation working state of the second network; if the network reservation timing value is smaller than the preset time threshold value, the control terminal equipment is switched back to the base station of the first network, or the control terminal equipment works in a single protocol stack activation working state of the first network.

According to the technical scheme in the example embodiment of fig. 3, based on the actual network rate of the terminal device in the first network, for example, the 5G network and the second network, intelligent switching is performed between the first network and the second network, so that optimal switching between the 4G and 5G heterogeneous system networks based on the network rate can be realized, the problem that signals exist under the 5G network but the 5G network rate is not as good as the 4G network rate is avoided, the network performance is improved, and the network operation and optimization cost is reduced.

Further, according to the technical solution in this example embodiment, on one hand, when the 5G SA is weaker or weaker but the 5G-to-4G switching threshold is not satisfied yet, the problem of poor user experience (i.e. the 5G rate is not as good as the 4G rate) is effectively solved; on the other hand, the network performance of the 5G/5G+ independent networking can be improved, and the network operation and optimization cost is reduced; in still another aspect, the control terminal is switched from the dual-protocol stack activation working state to the single-protocol stack activation working state, so that the power consumption of the terminal can be further reduced.

Fig. 4 shows a flow diagram of a network switching method implementing further example embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to fig. 4, in step S410, NR uplink/downlink user data is transmitted between terminal 302 and NR base station 304.

In an example embodiment, an NR/LTE dual mode terminal 302 (UE) performs up and down traffic under an NR base station 304.

In step S412, if the uplink rate of NR is smaller than the uplink threshold and/or the downlink rate of NR is smaller than the downlink threshold, the switch count value is increased until it is greater than or equal to N.

In an example embodiment, when the Rate Monitor, that is, the Rate Monitor, of the terminal 302, that is, the UE 302, monitors the uplink Rate < rateul_threshold of the NR network and/or (and/or the rule may be set as required) the downlink Rate < ratedl_threshold, the switch Count value, that is, rateless_count, is incremented by one, and when the rateless_count reaches N times (the N value may be configured, for example, 3 times, 6 times, 12 times, etc.), the terminal UE reports the rateless_count to the N/L Coordinator 306, that is, the N/L Coordinator, and the Rate Monitor and the N/L Coordinator are newly added modules.

In step S414, the terminal 302 reports the switch count value to the N/L coordinator 306.

In step S416, the N/L coordinator 306 transmits a measurement and control issue request to the NR base station 304.

In an example embodiment, the N/L coordinator 306 informs the NR base station 304 to send measurement control to the UE.

In step S418, the NR base station 304 issues measurement control information to the terminal 302.

In step S420, the terminal 302 measures and generates a measurement report.

In an example embodiment, the terminal 302, i.e. the UE, measures the neighbor LTE base stations and generates a measurement MR report.

In step S422, the terminal 302 reports a measurement report to the NR base station 304.

In an example embodiment, the terminal 302, i.e., the UE, reports measurement reports to the NR base station 304, which NR base station 304 receives the UE measurement reports.

In step S424, the N/L coordinator 306 makes a handover decision or dual protocol operation.

In an example embodiment, if the access condition of the LTE network is satisfied, the N/L coordinator 306 decides to have the UE switch to the LTE base station 308 or the UE operate in the LTE/NR dual protocol stack active operating state. For example, if the terminal device does not support the dual protocol stack working state and it is determined that the terminal device meets the access condition of the LTE network, the terminal device is switched to the LTE base station through the N/L Coordinator; if the terminal equipment supports the dual-protocol stack working state and the terminal equipment is determined to meet the LTE access condition, the N/L Coordinator is used for controlling the terminal equipment to work in the LTE/NR dual-protocol stack activation working state.

In step S426, RRC reconfigures.

In step S428, the terminal 302 performs an LTE random access procedure.

In an example embodiment, the terminal 302, i.e., the UE, randomly accesses to the LTE base station 308.

In step S430, RRC reconfiguration is completed.

In step S432, LTE uplink/downlink user data is transmitted between the terminal 302 and the LTE base station 308.

In step S434, if the uplink rate of LTE is greater than the uplink threshold and/or the downlink rate of NR is greater than the downlink threshold, the reserved timing value is increased until K is greater than or equal to K.

In an exemplary embodiment, the terminal 302, i.e. the UE uplink_monitor module, monitors the uplink and downlink rates of the LTE network again, and when the uplink Rate and/or the downlink Rate of the LTE network > the uplink Rate and/or the downlink Rate of the NR network (recorded before the handover) and the retention Time value, i.e. the retention Time keep_time, is not lower than K seconds (K seconds is a transitional period, where the K value is configurable such as 3 seconds, 5 seconds, 10 seconds or 30 seconds, etc.), proceeds to step S434.

In step S436, the terminal 302 reports a reservation timing value to the N/L coordinator 306.

In an example embodiment, the UE reports keep_time to the N/L Coordinator.

In step S438, the N/L coordinator 306 makes a reservation/switch back decision or single protocol stack operation.

In an example embodiment, the N/L coordinator 306 decides whether to have the UE stay in the LTE base station 308 or switch back to the NR base station 304 or operate in the LTE single protocol stack active operating state or the NR single protocol stack active operating state. For example, if the network reservation timing value is greater than or equal to the predetermined time threshold, the base station of the LTE network is continuously reserved, or the terminal device is controlled to operate in a single protocol stack activation operating state of the LTE network; if the network reservation timing value is smaller than the preset time threshold value, the control terminal equipment is switched back to the base station of the NR network, or the control terminal equipment works in a single protocol stack activation working state of the NR network.

Further, in the example embodiment, the above steps are continuously circulated, so that the dynamic switching between 4G and 5G based on the user rate is realized, not only is the user experience improved, but also the network performance is improved, and the network operation and optimization cost is reduced.

According to the technical scheme in the example embodiment of fig. 4, on one hand, the intelligent, flexibility and applicability of the switching are improved based on the dynamic switching between the 4G network and the 5G network in the self-adaption of the actual network rate of the UE between the 4G network and the 5G network; on the other hand, intelligent switching between 4G and 5G based on user rate is realized, intelligent switching between 4G and 5G double protocol stacks and single protocol stack is compatible, user rate is improved, and power consumption is reduced; in yet another aspect, network performance is improved and network operation and optimization costs are reduced.

The network switching method in the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to two specific embodiments.

Example 1

S11, performing uplink and downlink service on an NR base station by an NR/LTE dual-mode terminal (UE);

step S12, when a Rate Monitor Rate_monitor of the UE monitors that the uplink Rate < RateUL_Threshold or the downlink Rate < RateDL_Threshold of the NR network, a switching Count value RateLess_Count is increased by one, and when the RateLess_Count reaches a preset number of times, for example 3 times, the UE reports the RateLess_Count to an N/L Coordinator, namely an N/L Coordinator;

and S13. The N/L Coordinator informs the NR base station to send measurement control to the UE, the UE measures and reports the LTE base station of the neighboring cell, and the NR base station receives the UE measurement report.

S14, if the LTE network access condition is met, the N/L Coordinator decides to switch the UE to the LTE base station or the UE works in the LTE/NR dual-protocol stack activation working state.

For example, if the terminal equipment UE does not support the dual protocol stack operating state and it is determined that the UE meets the access condition of the LTE network, the UE is switched to the LTE base station through the N/L Coordinator; if the UE supports the dual-protocol stack working state and the UE is determined to meet the access condition of the LTE network, the terminal equipment is controlled to work in the LTE/NR dual-protocol stack activation working state through the N/L Coordinator.

Step S15, the UE randomly accesses to the LTE base station.

And S16. The Rate_monitor module on the UE monitors the uplink and downlink rates of the LTE network again, and when the uplink Rate or the downlink Rate of the LTE network is greater than the uplink Rate or the downlink Rate (recorded before switching) of the NR network, the retention Time value, namely the retention Time keep_Time, is 10 seconds, and the next step S17 is carried out.

Step S17. The UE reports keep_Time to the N/L Coordinator.

Step S18.N/L Coordinator decides to keep the UE in LTE base station or to operate the UE in LTE single protocol stack active operation state.

For example, if the network reservation timer value keep_time is greater than or equal to the predetermined Time threshold, the base station remaining in the LTE network is continued, or the terminal device is controlled to operate in a single protocol stack active operating state of the LTE network.

Step S19, continuously cycling, and realizing dynamic switching between 4G and 5G based on user rate.

Example two

And S21, performing uplink and downlink service on an NR base station by using an NR/LTE dual-mode terminal (UE).

Step S22, when the Rate Monitor of the UE monitors the uplink Rate < RateUL_Threshold and the downlink Rate < RateDL_Threshold of the NR network, the switching Count value RateLess_Count is increased by one, and when the RateLess_Count reaches 5 times, the UE reports the RateLess_Count to the N/L Coordinator N/L Coordinator.

And S23. The N/L Coordinator informs the NR base station to send measurement control to the UE, the UE measures and reports the LTE base station of the neighboring cell, and the NR base station receives the UE measurement report.

And S24, if the access condition of the LTE network is met, the N/L Coordinator decides to switch the UE to the LTE base station or the UE works in an LTE/NR dual-protocol stack activation working state.

Step S25, the UE randomly accesses to the LTE base station.

In step s26, the ue uplink_monitor module monitors the uplink and downlink rates of LTE again, and when the uplink Rate and downlink Rate of LTE < uplink Rate and downlink Rate of NR (record before handover), the retention Time value, i.e. retention Time keep_time, is 20 seconds.

Step S27. The UE reports the keep_Time to the N/L Coordinator.

Step S28.N/L Coordinator decides to let UE switch to NR base station or let UE work in NR single protocol stack active working state.

For example, if the network reservation timer value keep_time is smaller than the predetermined Time threshold, the control terminal device switches back to the base station of the NR network, or the control terminal device operates in the single protocol stack active operating state of the NR network.

Step S29, continuously cycling, and realizing dynamic switching between 4G and 5G based on user rate.

According to the technical solutions of the first and second embodiments, on one hand, the problem of poor user experience (i.e., the 5G rate is not as high as the 4G rate) is effectively solved when the 5G SA is weak or weak but the 5G-to-4G switching threshold is not satisfied yet; on the other hand, the network performance of the 5G/5G+ independent networking can be improved, and the network operation and optimization cost is reduced; in still another aspect, the control terminal is switched from the dual-protocol stack activation working state to the single-protocol stack activation working state, so that the power consumption of the terminal can be further reduced.

It is noted that the above-described figures are merely schematic illustrations of processes involved in a method according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, and are not intended to be limiting. It will be readily appreciated that the processes shown in the above figures do not indicate or limit the temporal order of these processes. In addition, it is also readily understood that these processes may be performed synchronously or asynchronously, for example, among a plurality of modules.

The following describes an embodiment of an apparatus of the present disclosure that may be used to perform the network handover method described above in the present disclosure.

Fig. 5 illustrates a schematic configuration of a network switching device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to fig. 5, there is provided a network switching apparatus 500 including: a first rate monitoring module 510, configured to monitor a first network rate of a first network to which the terminal device is currently connected; an access condition determining module 520, configured to determine whether the terminal device meets an access condition of a second network if the first network rate meets a handover trigger condition; a switching control module 530, configured to switch the terminal device to the second network or control the terminal device to operate in a dual-protocol stack activation operating state if the access condition is satisfied; a handover decision module 540, configured to determine a second network rate of the second network, and determine that the terminal device operates in the second network or the first network based on the second network rate and the first network rate.

In some example embodiments, the handover decision module 540 includes: the second rate monitoring module is used for monitoring a second network rate of the terminal equipment in the second network, and the control executing module is used for controlling the terminal equipment to execute one of the following steps based on the magnitude of the second network rate and the first network rate: continuing to remain with the base station of the second network; switching back to a base station of the first network; the single protocol stack operating under the second network activates the operating state; and activating a working state of a single protocol stack working under the first network.

In some example embodiments, the second network rate includes a second uplink rate and a second downlink rate, and the control execution module is further to: if the uplink rate of the second network is greater than the uplink rate of the first network and/or the downlink rate of the second network is greater than the downlink rate of the first network, the network reservation timing value is self-increased; if the network reservation timing value is greater than or equal to a preset time threshold value, continuing to reserve the base station in the second network or controlling the terminal equipment to work in a single protocol stack activation working state of the second network; and if the network reservation timing value is smaller than the preset time threshold value, controlling the terminal equipment to switch back to the base station of the first network or controlling the terminal equipment to work in a single protocol stack activation working state of the first network.

In some example embodiments, the first network rate includes a first uplink rate and a first downlink rate, the apparatus further comprising: the switching counting module is used for automatically increasing a network switching counting value if the first uplink rate is smaller than an uplink rate threshold value and/or the first downlink rate is smaller than a downlink rate threshold value; and the switching condition determining module is used for determining that the first network rate meets the switching trigger condition if the network switching count value is greater than or equal to a preset count threshold.

In some example embodiments, the access condition determination module includes: a measurement report acquisition unit, configured to acquire a measurement report of the terminal device in a neighboring cell base station of a second network; and the access condition judging unit is used for determining whether the terminal equipment meets the access condition of the second network according to the measurement report.

In some example embodiments, the measurement report acquisition unit is further to: transmitting measurement control information to the terminal equipment through a base station of the first network; and receiving a measurement report generated by the terminal equipment for measuring the neighbor base station of the second network.

In some example embodiments, the first network is a 5G network and the second network is a 4G network.

Since each functional module of the network switching apparatus of the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure corresponds to a step of the foregoing exemplary embodiment of the network switching method, for details not disclosed in the embodiments of the network device of the present disclosure, please refer to the foregoing embodiments of the network switching method of the present disclosure.

It should be noted that although in the above detailed description several modules or units of a device for action execution are mentioned, such a division is not mandatory. Indeed, the features and functionality of two or more modules or units described above may be embodied in one module or unit in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Conversely, the features and functions of one module or unit described above may be further divided into a plurality of modules or units to be embodied.

Furthermore, although the steps of the methods in the present disclosure are depicted in a particular order in the drawings, this does not require or imply that the steps must be performed in that particular order or that all illustrated steps be performed in order to achieve desirable results. Additionally or alternatively, certain steps may be omitted, multiple steps combined into one step to perform, and/or one step decomposed into multiple steps to perform, etc.

From the above description of embodiments, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the example embodiments described herein may be implemented in software, or may be implemented in software in combination with the necessary hardware. Thus, the technical solution according to the embodiments of the present disclosure may be embodied in the form of a software product, which may be stored in a non-volatile storage medium (may be a CD-ROM, a U-disk, a mobile hard disk, etc.) or on a network, including several instructions to cause a computing device (may be a personal computer, a server, a mobile terminal, or a network device, etc.) to perform the method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a computer storage medium capable of implementing the above method is also provided. On which a program product is stored which enables the implementation of the method described above in the present specification. In some possible embodiments, the various aspects of the present disclosure may also be implemented in the form of a program product comprising program code for causing a terminal device to carry out the steps according to the various exemplary embodiments of the disclosure as described in the "exemplary methods" section of this specification, when the program product is run on the terminal device.

The program product may take the form of a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) and comprises program code and may be run on a terminal device, such as a personal computer. However, the program product of the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and in this document, a readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

The program product described above may take the form of any combination of one or more readable media. The readable medium may be a readable signal medium or a readable storage medium. The readable storage medium can be, for example, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or a combination of any of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the readable storage medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable disk, a hard disk, random Access Memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), optical fiber, portable compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

The computer readable signal medium may include a data signal propagated in baseband or as part of a carrier wave with readable program code embodied therein. Such a propagated data signal may take any of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. A readable signal medium may also be any readable medium that is not a readable storage medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

Program code for carrying out operations of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, C++ or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computing device, partly on the user's device, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computing device, partly on a remote computing device, or entirely on the remote computing device or server. In the case of remote computing devices, the remote computing device may be connected to the user computing device through any kind of network, including a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN), or may be connected to an external computing device (e.g., connected via the Internet using an Internet service provider).

In addition, in an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, an electronic device capable of implementing the above method is also provided.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various aspects of the present disclosure may be implemented as a system, method, or program product. Accordingly, various aspects of the disclosure may be embodied in the following forms, namely: an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining hardware and software aspects may be referred to herein as a "circuit," module "or" system.

An electronic device 600 according to such an embodiment of the present disclosure is described below with reference to fig. 6. The electronic device 600 shown in fig. 6 is merely an example and should not be construed to limit the functionality and scope of use of embodiments of the present disclosure in any way.

As shown in fig. 6, the electronic device 600 is in the form of a general purpose computing device. Components of electronic device 600 may include, but are not limited to: the at least one processing unit 610, the at least one memory unit 620, and a bus 630 that connects the various system components, including the memory unit 620 and the processing unit 610.

Wherein the storage unit stores program code that is executable by the processing unit 610 such that the processing unit 610 performs steps according to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure described in the section "exemplary methods" of the present specification. For example, the processing unit 610 described above may perform the operations as shown in fig. 3: step S310, monitoring a first network rate of a first network to which the terminal equipment is currently connected; step S320, if the first network rate meets the switching trigger condition, determining whether the terminal equipment meets the access condition of the second network; step S330, if the access condition is satisfied, switching the terminal equipment to a second network or controlling the terminal equipment to work in a dual-protocol stack activation working state; step S340, determining a second network rate of the second network, and determining that the terminal device operates in the second network or the first network based on the second network rate and the first network rate.

The processing unit 610 may also perform the network switching method in the embodiments described above.

The storage unit 620 may include readable media in the form of volatile storage units, such as Random Access Memory (RAM) 6201 and/or cache memory unit 6202, and may further include Read Only Memory (ROM) 6203.

The storage unit 620 may also include a program/utility 6204 having a set (at least one) of program modules 6205, such program modules 6205 including, but not limited to: an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data, each or some combination of which may include an implementation of a network environment.

Bus 630 may be a local bus representing one or more of several types of bus structures including a memory unit bus or memory unit controller, a peripheral bus, an accelerated graphics port, a processing unit, or using any of a variety of bus architectures.

The electronic device 600 may also communicate with one or more external devices 690 (e.g., keyboard, pointing device, bluetooth device, etc.), one or more devices that enable a user to interact with the electronic device 600, and/or any device (e.g., router, modem, etc.) that enables the electronic device 600 to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication may occur through an input/output (I/O) interface 650. Also, electronic device 600 may communicate with one or more networks such as a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), and/or a public network, such as the Internet, through network adapter 660. As shown, network adapter 660 communicates with other modules of electronic device 600 over bus 630. It should be appreciated that although not shown, other hardware and/or software modules may be used in connection with electronic device 600, including, but not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, data backup storage systems, and the like.

From the above description of embodiments, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the example embodiments described herein may be implemented in software, or may be implemented in software in combination with the necessary hardware. Thus, the technical solution according to the embodiments of the present disclosure may be embodied in the form of a software product, which may be stored in a non-volatile storage medium (may be a CD-ROM, a U-disk, a mobile hard disk, etc.) or on a network, including several instructions to cause a computing device (may be a personal computer, a server, a terminal device, or a network device, etc.) to perform the method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure.

Furthermore, the above-described figures are only schematic illustrations of processes included in the method according to the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, and are not intended to be limiting. It will be readily appreciated that the processes shown in the above figures do not indicate or limit the temporal order of these processes. In addition, it is also readily understood that these processes may be performed synchronously or asynchronously, for example, among a plurality of modules.

Other embodiments of the disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the disclosure disclosed herein. This application is intended to cover any adaptations, uses, or adaptations of the disclosure following, in general, the principles of the disclosure and including such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice within the art to which the disclosure pertains. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the disclosure being indicated by the following claims.

Claims

1. A method of network switching, the method comprising:

monitoring a first network rate of a first network to which the terminal device is currently connected;

if the first network rate meets the switching trigger condition, determining whether the terminal equipment meets the access condition of a second network;

if the access condition is met, switching the terminal equipment to the second network or controlling the terminal equipment to work in a dual-protocol stack activation working state;

determining a second network rate of the second network, and determining that the terminal device is operating in the second network or the first network based on the second network rate and the first network rate.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network rate comprises a first uplink rate and a first downlink rate, the method further comprising:

if the first uplink rate is smaller than an uplink rate threshold value and/or the first downlink rate is smaller than a downlink rate threshold value, the network switching count value is increased automatically;

and if the network switching count value is greater than or equal to a preset count threshold, determining that the first network rate meets the switching trigger condition.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the determining a second network rate for the second network, determining that the terminal device is operating in the second network or the first network based on the second network rate and the first network rate, comprises:

monitoring a second network rate of the terminal device at the second network,

controlling the terminal device to execute one of the following steps based on the magnitudes of the second network rate and the first network rate:

continuing to remain with the base station of the second network;

switching back to a base station of the first network;

the single protocol stack operating under the second network activates the operating state; and

and activating the working state of a single protocol stack working under the first network.

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein the second network rate comprises a second uplink rate and a second downlink rate, and wherein the controlling the terminal device based on the magnitude of the second network rate and the first network rate comprises:

if the second uplink rate of the second network is greater than the first uplink rate of the first network and/or the second downlink rate of the second network is greater than the first downlink rate of the first network, the network reservation timing value is self-increased;

If the network reservation timing value is greater than or equal to a preset time threshold value, continuing to reserve the base station in the second network or controlling the terminal equipment to work in a single protocol stack activation working state of the second network;

and if the network reservation timing value is smaller than the preset time threshold value, controlling the terminal equipment to switch back to the base station of the first network or controlling the terminal equipment to work in a single protocol stack activation working state of the first network.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein said determining whether the terminal device satisfies the access condition of the second network comprises:

acquiring a measurement report of the terminal equipment in a neighboring cell base station of the second network;

and determining whether the terminal equipment meets the access condition of the second network according to the measurement report.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the obtaining the measurement report of the terminal device at the neighboring base station of the second network comprises:

transmitting measurement control information to the terminal equipment through a base station of the first network;

and receiving a measurement report generated by the terminal equipment for measuring the neighbor base station of the second network.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the first network is a 5G network and the second network is a 4G network.

8. A network switching apparatus, comprising:

the first rate monitoring module is used for monitoring a first network rate of a first network to which the terminal equipment is currently connected;

an access condition judging module, configured to determine whether the terminal device meets an access condition of a second network if the first network rate meets a handover trigger condition;

the switching control module is used for switching the terminal equipment to the second network or controlling the terminal equipment to work in a dual-protocol stack activation working state if the access condition is met;

and the switching judging module is used for determining a second network rate of the second network and determining that the terminal equipment works in the second network or the first network based on the second network rate and the first network rate.

9. A computer readable medium, on which a computer program is stored, characterized in that the program, when executed by a processor, implements the network handover method according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

10. An electronic device, comprising: one or more processors; storage means for storing one or more programs which when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to implement the network handover method of any of claims 1 to 7.