CN116347547A

CN116347547A - Access network switching method, device, communication equipment and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN116347547A
Application number: CN202111598154.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 唐小勇; 朱磊; 游正朋; 赵立君; 种璟; 李颖; 吕世忠
Original assignee: China Mobile Communications Group Co Ltd; China Mobile Chengdu ICT Co Ltd
Current assignee: China Mobile Communications Group Co Ltd; China Mobile Chengdu ICT Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-12-24
Filing date: 2021-12-24
Publication date: 2023-06-27

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention provides an access network switching method, an access network switching device, communication equipment and a storage medium. The method comprises the following steps: the terminal equipment receives a switching rule sent by the network equipment, and based on the switching rule, performs switching of the access network when the condition is met, or sends a switching request for switching the access network to the network equipment when the condition is met.

Description

Access network switching method, device, communication equipment and storage medium

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method and apparatus for switching access networks, a communication device, and a storage medium.

Background

Since the third generation partnership project (3GPP,3rd Generation Partnership Project) access networks (e.g., 5G networks) and non-3 GPP access networks will coexist for a long period of time and in some application scenarios need to support dynamic handoff of a terminal between different network types, the current handoff standards are not perfect.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve the existing technical problems, the embodiment of the invention provides an access network switching method, an access network switching device, communication equipment and a storage medium.

In order to achieve the above object, the technical solution of the embodiment of the present invention is as follows:

in a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides an access network handover method, where the method includes:

the terminal equipment receives a switching rule sent by the network equipment, and based on the switching rule, performs switching of the access network when the condition is met, or sends a switching request for switching the access network to the network equipment when the condition is met.

In the above scheme, the access network includes a 3GPP access network and/or a non-3 GPP access network.

In the above scheme, the method further comprises: and the terminal equipment receives the strategy information sent by the network equipment, and measures the access network based on the strategy information to obtain a measurement report.

In the above scheme, the policy information at least includes access network type and/or measurement configuration information.

In the above scheme, the measurement configuration information includes at least one of the following:

measuring a category; the measurement class includes at least wireless signal measurements and/or network performance measurements;

a measurement object;

measuring an index;

measuring a period;

measurement report configuration;

and a measurement event, wherein the measurement event represents that at least one corresponding measurement index meets a first preset condition.

In the above solution, the measuring the access network based on the policy information includes:

in the case that the measurement category is the wireless signal measurement, the terminal equipment measures an accessed access network based on the measurement configuration information and/or measures an access network which can be measured and is not accessed based on the measurement configuration information;

and under the condition that the measurement category is the network performance measurement, the terminal equipment measures the accessed access network based on the measurement configuration information.

In the above scheme, the method further comprises: and the terminal equipment sends the measurement report to the network equipment.

In the above scheme, the terminal device receives policy information sent by the network device, including:

the terminal device receives policy information sent by the network device through radio resource control (RRC, radio Resource Control) signaling, non-Access-Stratum (NAS) signaling, or internet protocol (IP, internet Protocol) signaling.

In the above scheme, the switching rule includes at least one group of mapping relations between the access network types and the switching conditions.

In the above scheme, the switching condition includes at least one of the following: measuring event, application identification, access domain name, location information of terminal equipment, and time window information.

In the above scheme, the switching rule further includes a constraint condition, where the constraint condition includes at least one of the following: geographic area restrictions, time restrictions, public land mobile network (PLMN, public Land Mobile Network) restrictions.

In the above solution, the performing, based on the handover rule, handover of the access network when a condition is satisfied, or sending, to the network device, a handover request for handover of the access network when the condition is satisfied, includes:

when the terminal equipment detects that a first switching condition in the switching rule is met, switching to a first access network corresponding to a first access network type corresponding to the first switching condition is executed, or a first switching request is sent to the network equipment, wherein the first switching request is used for requesting switching to the first access network; the first switching condition is any one of the switching conditions included in the switching rule.

when the terminal equipment detects that a first switching condition in the switching rule is met and a first limiting condition corresponding to the first switching condition is met, executing switching to a first access network corresponding to a first access network type corresponding to the first switching condition, or sending a first switching request to the network equipment, wherein the first switching request is used for requesting switching to the first access network; the first switching condition is any one of the switching conditions included in the switching rule.

In the above scheme, the handover request includes an access network type for requesting access; the method further comprises the steps of: the terminal equipment receives indication information sent by the network equipment, wherein the indication information is used for indicating whether to switch to an access network corresponding to the access network type.

In the above scheme, the terminal device receives a switching rule sent by the network device, and the switching rule includes: the terminal equipment receives the switching rule sent by the network equipment through RRC signaling, NAS signaling or IP signaling.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides an access network handover method, where the method includes:

the network device sends a switching rule to the terminal device, wherein the switching rule is used for the terminal device to execute switching of the access network when the condition is met, or is used for the terminal device to send a switching request for switching the access network to the network device when the condition is met.

In the above scheme, the method further comprises: and the network equipment sends strategy information to the terminal equipment, wherein the strategy information is used for the terminal equipment to measure the access network.

a measurement object;

measuring an index;

measuring a period;

measurement report configuration;

In the above scheme, the method further comprises: and the network equipment receives the measurement report sent by the terminal equipment.

In the above scheme, the sending, by the network device, policy information to the terminal device includes: and the network equipment sends policy information to the terminal equipment through RRC signaling, NAS signaling or IP signaling.

In the above scheme, the switching rule further includes a constraint condition, where the constraint condition includes at least one of the following: geographic area restrictions, time restrictions, PLMN restrictions.

In the above scheme, the method further comprises: the network equipment receives a switching request sent by the terminal equipment, wherein the switching request comprises an access network type for requesting access;

and the network equipment decides whether to switch to the access network corresponding to the access network type based on the measurement report, and sends indication information to the terminal equipment according to a decision result, wherein the indication information is used for indicating whether to switch to the access network corresponding to the access network type.

In the above scheme, the network device sends the switching rule to the terminal device, including: and the network equipment sends a switching rule to the terminal equipment through RRC signaling, NAS signaling or IP signaling.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides an access network switching apparatus, where the apparatus includes: a first communication unit and a first processing unit; wherein,,

the first communication unit is used for receiving a switching rule sent by the network equipment;

the first processing unit is configured to perform handover of an access network when a condition is satisfied based on the handover rule, or send a handover request for handover of an access network to the network device through the first communication unit when the condition is satisfied.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides an access network switching apparatus, where the apparatus includes: and the second communication unit is used for sending a switching rule to the terminal equipment, wherein the switching rule is used for executing switching of the access network when the terminal equipment meets the condition, or is used for sending a switching request for switching the access network to the network equipment when the terminal equipment meets the condition.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a computer readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, the program when executed by a processor implementing the steps of the network handover method according to the first aspect or the second aspect of the embodiment of the present invention.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a communications device, including a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and capable of running on the processor, where the processor executes the program to implement the steps of the network handover method according to the first aspect or the second aspect of the embodiment of the present invention.

The embodiment of the invention provides an access network switching method, a device, communication equipment and a storage medium, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the terminal equipment receives a switching rule sent by the network equipment, and based on the switching rule, performs switching of the access network when the condition is met, or sends a switching request for switching the access network to the network equipment when the condition is met. By adopting the technical scheme of the embodiment of the invention, the terminal equipment decides to execute the switching of the access network (namely, the terminal equipment makes a decision on the self-decision switching) based on the switching rule sent by the network equipment, or sends the switching request (namely, the network equipment makes a decision on the switching) for switching the access network to the network equipment, thereby solving the problem of dynamic switching of the terminal between different network types (such as a 3GPP access network and a non-3 GPP access network) in certain application scenes.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an alternative architecture for 3GPP and non-3 GPP network convergence;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an ATSSS technology architecture;

fig. 3 is a flowchart of a method for switching an access network according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of an overall technical scheme of an access network handover method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a second flow chart of an access network switching method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of an interaction flow of an access network handover method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a second schematic diagram of an interaction flow of an access network handover method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a composition structure of an access network switching device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a second component structure of an access network switching device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of a hardware composition structure of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The invention will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific examples.

The technical scheme of the embodiment of the invention can be applied to various communication systems, such as: global system for mobile communications (GSM, global System of Mobile communication), long term evolution (LTE, long Term Evolution) or 5G systems, etc. Alternatively, the 5G system or 5G network may also be referred to as a New Radio (NR) system or NR network.

By way of example, the communication system to which the embodiments of the present invention are applied may include network devices and terminal devices (may also be referred to as terminals, communication terminals, etc.); the network device may be a device in communication with the terminal device. Wherein the network device may provide communication coverage for a range of areas and may communicate with terminals located within the areas. Alternatively, the network device may be a base station in each communication system, such as an evolved base station (eNB, evolutional Node B) in an LTE system, and also such as a base station (gNB) in a 5G system or an NR system.

It should be understood that a device having a communication function in a network/system in an embodiment of the present application may be referred to as a communication device. The communication device may include a network device and a terminal having a communication function, where the network device and the terminal device may be the specific devices described above, and are not described herein; the communication device may also include other devices in the communication system, such as a network controller, a mobility management entity, and other network entities, which are not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

It should be understood that the terms "system" and "network" are used interchangeably herein. The term "and/or" is herein merely an association relationship describing an associated object, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, may represent: a exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone. In addition, the character "/" herein generally indicates that the front and rear associated objects are an "or" relationship.

The terms first, second and the like in the description and in the claims, are used for distinguishing between similar objects and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the data so used may be interchanged where appropriate such that embodiments of the present application described herein may be capable of operation in sequences other than those illustrated or described herein, for example. Furthermore, the terms "comprises," "comprising," and "having," and any variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not necessarily limited to those steps or elements expressly listed but may include other steps or elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

Before explaining the access network switching method according to the embodiment of the present invention, a simple explanation is first given to a network architecture to which the embodiment of the present invention is applied.

The fifth generation mobile communication technology (5G,5th Generation Mobile Communication Technology) is used as a new generation communication technology, and the characteristics of large bandwidth, low time delay, high reliability and wide connection are utilized to provide necessary network foundation support for vertical industry application, so as to promote intelligent upgrading of various industries and intelligent interconnection of everything. But currently, local area networks and internet of things based on Wi-Fi, bluetooth, wired, zigbee, long Range Radio (Long Range Radio) and other network types have been commonly deployed in various industries, and due to cost, usage habit and other considerations, it is impossible for various industries to completely replace the existing network with a 5G network in a short period of time. Thus, within each industry, 5G networks will coexist with other types of networks for a long period of time. If the terminal of the 5G network is in an isolated state with the terminals of other networks, the goal of 5G everything interconnection cannot be realized, so that the integration of the 5G network with other types of networks is imperative.

In order to achieve convergence of the 5G network and other networks, a designer of the 5G communication specification defines a framework for fusing the 3GPP network and the Non-3GPP network, and the Non-3GPP network can access the 5G core network based on various network elements such as a Non-3GPP interworking function (N3 IWF, non-3GPP InterWorking Function), a Trusted Non-3GPP gateway function (TNGF, trusted Non-3GPP Gateway Function), and a wired access gateway function (W-AGF, wireline Access Gateway Function).

Illustratively, FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an alternative architecture in which 3GPP and non-3GPP networks are converged; as shown in fig. 1, an N3 IWF-based connection is between a 3GPP Access (3 GPP Access) and a Non-trusted Non-3GPP Access (un-trusted Non-3GPP Access).

Based on the above-mentioned converged architecture, the 3GPP further defines an access traffic Splitting, switching, and Splitting (ats, access Traffic Steering, switching, splitting) technology, and the architecture diagram thereof is shown in fig. 2: the User Equipment (UE) includes a multiplexing control protocol (MPTCP, multiPath Transmission Control Protocol) function (MPTCP functionality) and an ats s Low-layer function (ats s-LL functionality, ats s-Low-Layer functionality), and the UE may access the 3GPP network and/or the non-3GPP network through the MPTCP function and/or the ats s-LL function. The user plane function (UPF, user Plane Function) includes an MPTCP proxy function (MPTCP Proxy functionality) for handling the user plane of 3GPP Access (3 GPP Access) and/or Non-3GPP Access (Non-3 GPP Access) of the UE.

The ats technique enables an enhancement to the convergence of a 3GPP access network with a non-3 GPP access network by:

the UE can access the 3GPP and the non-3 GPP networks simultaneously by creating a Multi-access protocol data unit (MA PDU, multi-Access Protocol Data Unit) session, thereby improving the access bandwidth;

when one of the 3GPP access network and the non-3 GPP access network has no signal coverage or fails, the UE can select the other network to access, so that the overall network reliability is improved;

the performance measurement function (PMF, performance Measurement Functionality) on the UPF can monitor the performance data of two types of networks, and the dynamic allocation of the terminal access strategy can be realized based on the data system, so that the existing network resources can be more fully utilized.

After the UE creates the MA PDU, the UE receives the ats rules from the session management function (SMF, session Management Function), including the pattern of traffic distribution over the 3GPP network and the non-3 GPP network, currently defining four patterns:

master and slave modes: the 3GPP access network and the non-3 GPP access network are accessed as a main and standby mode, the flow defaults to use the main access, and when the main access is not available, the main access is switched to the standby access; when the main access is available again, the flow is switched back to the main access;

Minimum latency mode: traffic is directed to an access mode with a minimum Round Trip Time (RTT); determining RTT of the 3GPP access and the non-3 GPP access between the UE and the UPF through measurement;

load balancing mode: load balancing between the two accesses is achieved by configuring the flow percentages sent by the 3GPP access and the non-3 GPP access; furthermore, if one access becomes unavailable, all traffic will switch to another available access;

priority mode: all traffic is directed to a high priority access mode until the access is determined to be congested. Furthermore, when high priority access is not available, all traffic is handed over to low priority access.

An access network discovery and Selection rule (ANDSP, access Network Discovery & Selection Policy) is a rule for controlling a UE to discover and select a non-3 GPP access network, which may be provided to the UE by the network.

Currently, an ANDSP contains only rules for a UE to select a wireless local area network (WLAN, wireless Local Area Network) access network, simply referred to as WLAN Selection Policy (WLANSP) or WLANSP rules. Other types of non-3 GPP access network selection rules are not specified.

Wherein each WLANSP rule comprises: rule identifier, one or more sets of WLAN selection criteria, rule validation area, rule validation time, rule priority, roaming rules, etc.

Each set of WLAN selection criteria includes: standard priority, home network indication, preferred roaming partner list, minimum backhaul threshold, maximum BSS load value, required prototype port tuple, SP exclusion list, preferred SSID list, etc.

Currently, within each vertical industry, 3GPP access networks (e.g., 5G networks) and non-3 GPP access networks will coexist for a long period of time, and in some application scenarios it is desirable to support dynamic switching of terminals between different network types, for example:

business scenario 1: in some scenes with strict requirements on network continuity and speed, such as hospitals with 5G networks and Wi-Fi networks covered at the same time, in the process of transferring critical patients in the hospital from a ward to an operating room, medical terminals need to continuously upload patient sign data, image data and the like to a monitoring platform, but the period may be far in route and span floors and elevator in and out, so as to ensure that the network is smooth, the terminals need to be dynamically switched between the 5G networks and the Wi-Fi networks according to factors such as network signal strength, network performance and the like, and the service continuity is maintained;

business scenario 2: with the continuous development and popularization of the internet of things technology, a scene that multiple wireless access technologies are cooperatively used due to complementation of advantages and disadvantages is more and more common. Such as: the 5G and Wi-Fi can provide high speed but high power consumption, and the 5G/Wi-Fi and the LoRa have low power consumption and wide coverage, so the 5G/Wi-Fi and the LoRa can be complementarily used cooperatively in an end-to-end solution from the edge to the cloud, and a terminal needs to be supported to switch between the LoRa and the 5G/Wi-Fi in certain scenes, such as a video monitoring scene, a camera is accessed to the LoRa network with low power consumption in most of the time, and when the camera detects actions, the camera starts to record videos and simultaneously switches to the Wi-Fi or the 5G network to upload the videos to the cloud.

Moreover, the WLAN switching standard in the current WLANSP is imperfect, and cannot meet the increasingly more multiple network type dynamic switching scenarios, for example, related standards such as signal measurement (power, quality, etc.) and network performance (connection stability, time delay, speed, etc.) need to be increased;

in addition, WLANSP is only defined at present, and selection and switching rules of other non-3 GPP access networks are not defined, so that the requirements of industries such as the above-mentioned service scenario 2 cannot be completely met.

Based on this, the following embodiments of the present invention are presented.

The embodiment of the invention provides an access network switching method which is applied to terminal equipment. Fig. 3 is a flowchart of a method for switching an access network according to an embodiment of the present invention; as shown in fig. 3, the method includes:

step 101: the terminal equipment receives a switching rule sent by the network equipment;

step 102: based on the switching rule, switching of the access network is executed when the condition is met, or a switching request for switching the access network is sent to the network equipment when the condition is met.

In this embodiment, the access network includes a 3GPP access network and/or a non-3 GPP access network.

In this embodiment, the switching rule is a rule for the terminal device to perform access network switching, and in other embodiments, the switching rule may also be called another name capable of implementing the above function, which is not limited in this embodiment.

In some optional embodiments, the terminal device receives a handover rule sent by the network device, including: the terminal equipment RRC signaling, NAS signaling or IP signaling receives the switching rule sent by the network equipment.

In this embodiment, the network device may send the switching rule to the terminal device through the existing procedure (for example, the access network procedure, etc.), through the above RRC signaling, NAS signaling, or IP signaling, or may send the switching rule to the terminal device through the additional RRC signaling, NAS signaling, or IP signaling outside the existing procedure, which is not limited in this embodiment.

In this embodiment, the terminal device decides to perform handover of the access network (i.e., the terminal device makes a decision by itself) based on a handover rule sent by the network device, or sends a handover request for handover of the access network (i.e., the network device makes a decision to switch) to the network device, so as to solve the problem of dynamic handover of the terminal between different network types (e.g., the 3GPP access network and the non-3 GPP access network) in some application scenarios.

In some alternative embodiments of the invention, the method further comprises: and the terminal equipment receives the strategy information sent by the network equipment, and measures the access network based on the strategy information to obtain a measurement report.

In this embodiment, the policy information is used to instruct the terminal device to perform measurement on the network environment, and in other embodiments, the policy information may also be referred to as other names capable of implementing the above functions, for example, measurement policy information, measurement policy, etc., which is not limited in this embodiment.

In order to enable the network and the terminal equipment to comprehensively evaluate the real-time state of the fusion network environment where the terminal equipment is currently located, the real-time state is used as a decision basis for switching the access network, and the terminal equipment performs real-time measurement on the access network according to the strategy information. Wherein, the policy information at least comprises policy information for measuring wireless signals and/or policy information for measuring network performance.

It should be noted that, the above access network may not only include an access network to which the terminal device has been currently accessed, but also include an access network to which the terminal device has not been currently accessed but can be measured.

In some alternative embodiments, the policy information includes at least access network type and/or measurement configuration information.

Wherein the access network type indicates the access network type to be measured by the terminal device.

Optionally, the access network type in the policy information may be indicated at least by one of the following ways: bit map (bitmap), sequence number (or number), character string.

TABLE 1

Optionally, the measurement configuration information includes at least one of:

measuring a category; the measurement category is used for indicating the measurement category corresponding to the strategy information, and the measurement category at least comprises wireless signal measurement and/or network performance measurement;

a measurement object; a target address for indicating a target object to be measured, such as a frequency band of wireless signal measurement, a network performance measurement, or the like;

measuring an index; a measurement index for indicating a measurement object to be measured;

measuring a period; the interval duration between two adjacent measurements can be in millisecond level, second level and the like, and the embodiment does not limit the measurement period;

measurement report configuration;

Illustratively, the measurement metrics may include a signal strength class measurement metric, an electromagnetic interference class measurement metric, a network performance class measurement metric, and so on. Wherein the signal strength class measurement index includes, but is not limited to, at least one of: the power, quality, predicted transmission rate and the like of the received signals are used for providing the basis for switching the access network for the terminal equipment with higher requirements on service continuity; electromagnetic interference type measurement metrics include, but are not limited to, at least one of: signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio, out-of-band interference value, in-band interference value, etc., for providing a basis for switching access networks for terminal devices sensitive to electromagnetic interference; network performance class measurement metrics include, but are not limited to, at least one of: the network connection stability, the uplink rate, the downlink rate, the RTT and the packet loss rate are used for providing the basis for switching the access network for the terminal equipment with higher requirements on the end-to-end performance of the network. The above is only an example of measurement index classification, and the embodiment is not limited thereto, and other measurement index classification manners may be within the scope of the present invention.

The measurement report is an report that the terminal device collects, collates and calculates the measurement results and reports the measurement results to the network; the measurement report configuration includes, but is not limited to, at least one of the following information: reporting rules for reports (e.g., rules for periodic reporting or event triggered reporting), reporting formats, etc.

By way of example, a measurement event is an event triggered when a measurement result meets a certain condition, typically the result of one or more measurement indicators is calculated to be higher or lower than a corresponding threshold value, such as: when the power of a received signal of a certain class is lower than a certain threshold value, triggering a corresponding certain measurement event is indicated.

In some optional embodiments, the measuring the access network based on the policy information includes: in the case that the measurement category is the wireless signal measurement, the terminal equipment measures an accessed access network based on the measurement configuration information and/or measures an access network which can be measured and is not accessed based on the measurement configuration information; and under the condition that the measurement category is the network performance measurement, the terminal equipment measures the accessed access network based on the measurement configuration information.

In this embodiment, for wireless signal measurement, a terminal device performs measurement on a wireless signal of a multi-access network received by the terminal device and reports the wireless signal to the network; the measurement target may be an access network to which the terminal device has been currently accessed, or may be an access network to which the terminal device is currently in its coverage area but is not accessed. The wireless signal measurement can enable the network side to sense the current wireless signal state of the terminal equipment, in addition, the network side can comprehensively sense the overall wireless signal distribution state fused by the current multi-access network by receiving the measurement result reported by the multi-terminal equipment, and the information can be used as the basis of the switching decision of the terminal equipment access network.

For network performance measurements, the terminal device performs measurements on the network performance of the multi-access network and reports to the network, the measurement target having to be the access network to which the terminal device has currently been connected. Exemplary network types include wired access networks and wireless access networks, among others. The network performance measurement can enable the network to sense the current network performance state of the terminal equipment, meanwhile, the network can comprehensively sense the overall network performance state fused by the current multi-access network by receiving the measurement result reported by the multi-terminal equipment, and the information can be used as the basis for the switching decision of the terminal equipment access network.

In some examples, the manner in which network performance is measured may be: the network appoints the target address, namely the target address which is sent by the terminal equipment and is related to the network performance measurement, or the target address is carried in the measurement configuration information, the terminal equipment sends the measurement message to the target address through the appointed access network and receives feedback, and the network performance is determined according to the feedback message condition of the measurement message.

In some alternative embodiments, the method further comprises: and the terminal equipment sends the measurement report to the network equipment.

In this embodiment, the network device sends policy information for implementing measurement on the network environment to the terminal device, and the terminal device implements measurement on the specified index of the specified measurement object according to the measurement information, and reports the measurement result to the network device based on the indication in the policy information.

In some optional embodiments, the terminal device receives policy information sent by the network device, including: and the terminal equipment receives the strategy information sent by the network equipment through RRC signaling, NAS signaling or IP signaling.

In this embodiment, the network device may send policy information to the terminal device through the existing procedure (for example, access network procedure, etc.), through the above RRC signaling, NAS signaling, or IP signaling, or may send policy information to the terminal device through additional RRC signaling, NAS signaling, or IP signaling outside the existing procedure, which is not limited in this embodiment. Alternatively, the policy information and the above-mentioned switching rule may be transmitted through the same signaling, or may be transmitted through different signaling, which is not limited in this embodiment.

In some alternative embodiments of the invention, the handover rule includes a mapping of at least one set of access network types and handover conditions. The terminal device may execute switching to the access network type corresponding to the switching condition when detecting that a certain switching condition is satisfied, or send a switching request for switching to the access network type corresponding to the switching condition to the network device.

The access network type is used for indicating the type of the access network to be accessed by the terminal equipment. The above access network type may be indicated by at least one of the following: bit map (bitmap), sequence number (or number), character string. Reference is specifically made to table 1.

The switching condition indicates a triggering condition for switching the terminal equipment to the corresponding access network type.

In some alternative embodiments, the switching condition includes at least one of: measuring event, application identification, access domain name, location information of terminal equipment, and time window information.

Optionally, based on the handover rule, performing handover of the access network when a condition is met, or sending a handover request for handover of the access network to the network device when the condition is met, including: when the terminal equipment detects that a first switching condition in the switching rule is met, switching to a first access network corresponding to a first access network type corresponding to the first switching condition is executed, or a first switching request is sent to the network equipment, wherein the first switching request is used for requesting switching to the first access network; the first switching condition is any one of the switching conditions included in the switching rule.

Wherein: the measurement event indicates that the terminal equipment detects a certain measurement event in the network transmission capacity measurement process. The corresponding switching rule indicates: when a specified measurement event is detected, switching to a corresponding access network type. Exemplary application scenarios may include: and in a common coverage area of the 5G network and the Wi-Fi network, when the terminal equipment detects that the 5G signal strength is lower than a certain threshold value, switching to the Wi-Fi access network.

The application identifier represents an identifier corresponding to the appointed application. The corresponding switching rule indicates: and switching to the corresponding access network type when the specified application is started on the terminal equipment. Exemplary application scenarios may include: when the terminal equipment starts the application of the Internet of things, switching to the LoRa access network type; when the terminal device starts a video transmission application, it switches to Wi-Fi or 5G access network type. The application identification can be implemented in various ways, such as ID or character string, for example: the application identification is represented by "operating system id+application ID", or by "application name+provider name".

The access domain name represents a specified domain name. The corresponding switching rule indicates: and switching to the corresponding access network type when the terminal equipment needs to access the designated domain name. Exemplary application scenarios may include: when the terminal equipment accesses the local domain name of the park, accessing a Wi-Fi local area network; when the terminal equipment accesses the Internet domain name, the 5G network is accessed. The access domain name may be implemented as a fully qualified domain name (FQDN, fully Qualified Domain Name) or a regular expression representing a domain name rule.

The location information of the terminal device indicates a specified location (e.g., geographic location). The corresponding switching rule indicates: and when the terminal equipment is in the appointed geographic position, switching to the corresponding access network type. Exemplary application scenarios may include: devices accessing to a Wi-Fi local area network are deployed in a certain geographic area and used for key services (such as a wireless tele-operation room), and when other terminal devices enter the area, the devices are switched to access to a 5G network in order to avoid interference to the devices. The UE location may be implemented as a Tracking Area (TA), a geographic location (e.g., latitude and longitude+altitude), an address (e.g., city+street+building name+floor+house number), etc.

The time window information indicates a specified point in time or time range. The corresponding switching rule indicates: and the terminal equipment is switched to the corresponding access network type in the appointed time window. Exemplary application scenarios may include: in the common coverage area of 5G and Wi-Fi, when the daily service is busy, a part of terminal equipment is appointed to access the 5G network in order to avoid Wi-Fi network congestion. Implementations of the time window may be for a period of time of a day (e.g., 8:00-17:00), etc.

In some optional embodiments of the invention, the switching rule further comprises a constraint comprising at least one of: geographic area restrictions, time restrictions, PLMN restrictions.

In this embodiment, a certain constraint may exist in the switching rule, that is, the switching rule is applicable only when the constraint is satisfied; when the constraint is not satisfied, the switching rule fails. Thus, the switching rule further comprises a constraint comprising at least one of: geographic area restrictions, time restrictions, PLMN restrictions.

Optionally, based on the handover rule, performing handover of the access network when a condition is met, or sending a handover request for handover of the access network to the network device when the condition is met, including: when the terminal equipment detects that a first switching condition in the switching rule is met and a first limiting condition corresponding to the first switching condition is met, executing switching to a first access network corresponding to a first access network type corresponding to the first switching condition, or sending a first switching request to the network equipment, wherein the first switching request is used for requesting switching to the first access network; the first switching condition is any one of the switching conditions included in the switching rule.

The geographical area limitation condition indicates that the switching rule is only applicable when the terminal equipment is in a specified geographical area. Exemplary application scenarios may include: staff members have their own terminal devices within an industry hospital area (e.g., doctor's cell phone within a hospital) to follow a specified intra-campus access network switching rule, but the switching rule fails when the terminal moves out of the campus. The geographic area constraints may be implemented as a TA, geographic range (e.g., latitude and longitude + altitude + radius), address (e.g., city + street + unit name), etc.

The time limitation condition means that the switching rule is only applicable within a specified time window. Exemplary application scenarios may include: and setting a specific access network switching rule in a certain major event communication guarantee period, and automatically invalidating the switching rule after the event is ended. Implementation of the time limitation may be a specific date (e.g., 2021, 8, 15, and 2021, 9, 15), a time period of a day (e.g., 8:00-17:00), etc.;

the PLMN limiting condition refers to a switching rule only applicable when the terminal equipment accesses the specified PLMN range. Exemplary application scenarios may include: the handover rule is only applicable when the terminal device is within the Home PLMN (HPLMN) range, and is automatically disabled when the terminal device roams out of the HPLMN range.

An example of a handover rule of this embodiment may be shown with reference to table 2, for example, when the terminal device detects that the received signal strength indication (RSSI, received Signal Strength Indication) of Wi-Fi is greater than-60 dbm, it is determined that a wireless signal measurement event is detected, triggering a handover to a Wi-Fi access network type.

TABLE 2

In some optional embodiments of the invention, the handover request includes an access network type requesting access; the method further comprises the steps of: the terminal equipment receives indication information sent by the network equipment, wherein the indication information is used for indicating whether to switch to an access network corresponding to the access network type.

In this embodiment, when a condition is met, a terminal device sends a switching request for switching an access network to the network device, and after the network device determines whether the terminal device can access a corresponding access network based on overall state comprehensive judgment of a current multi-access converged network, the terminal device sends indication information to the terminal device, where the indication information is used to indicate whether the terminal device is switched to the access network corresponding to the access network type; and the terminal equipment performs switching of the access network based on the indication information.

Referring to fig. 4, an embodiment of the present invention is based on a multi-access network convergence architecture of a 3GPP access network and a non-3 GPP access network, on one hand, a switching policy is sent to a terminal device through a network device, so that the terminal device makes a decision to perform switching of the access network (i.e., the terminal device makes a decision to switch by itself), or a switching request for switching the access network (i.e., the network device makes a decision to switch by itself) is sent to the network device, and on the other hand, policy information (measurement policy information) is sent to the terminal device through the network device, so that the terminal device can implement radio signal measurement and/or network performance measurement based on the policy information, so as to be used as a decision basis for switching the access network.

Based on the above embodiment, the embodiment of the present invention further provides an access network switching method, which is applied to a network device. Fig. 5 is a second flow chart of an access network switching method according to an embodiment of the present invention; as shown in fig. 5, the method includes:

step 201: the network device sends a switching rule to the terminal device, wherein the switching rule is used for the terminal device to execute switching of the access network when the condition is met, or is used for the terminal device to send a switching request for switching the access network to the network device when the condition is met.

The access network switching method of the present embodiment is applied to a network device, which may be an access network device (for example, a base station), a mobile edge computing (MEC, mobile Edge Computing) server, or the like, and the present embodiment does not limit the type of the network device.

In some alternative embodiments, the network device sends a handover rule to a terminal device, including: and the network equipment sends a switching rule to the terminal equipment through RRC signaling, NAS signaling or IP signaling.

In some alternative embodiments of the invention, the method further comprises: and the network equipment sends strategy information to the terminal equipment, wherein the strategy information is used for the terminal equipment to measure the access network.

Wherein the access network type indicates the access network type to be measured by the terminal device. The access network type in the policy information may be indicated by at least one of the following: the bitmap, the sequence number (or number), and the character string are specifically shown in table 1.

Optionally, the measurement configuration information includes at least one of:

measuring a category; the measurement class comprises at least radio signal measurements and/or network performance measurements;

measurement report configuration;

In some alternative embodiments of the invention, the method further comprises: and the network equipment receives the measurement report sent by the terminal equipment.

In this embodiment, the network device sends policy information for implementing measurement on the network environment to the terminal device, and the terminal device implements a policy on a specified index of a specified measurement object according to the measurement information, and reports a measurement result to the network device based on an indication in the policy information.

Optionally, the network device sends policy information to the terminal device, including: and the network equipment sends policy information to the terminal equipment through RRC signaling, NAS signaling or IP signaling.

Optionally, the switching condition includes at least one of: measuring event, application identification, access domain name, location information of terminal equipment, and time window information.

In some alternative embodiments, the switching rules further comprise a constraint, the constraint comprising at least one of: geographic area restrictions, time restrictions, PLMN restrictions.

In some alternative embodiments of the invention, the method further comprises: the network equipment receives a switching request sent by the terminal equipment, wherein the switching request comprises an access network type for requesting access; and the network equipment decides whether to switch to the access network corresponding to the access network type based on the measurement report, and sends indication information to the terminal equipment according to a decision result, wherein the indication information is used for indicating whether to switch to the access network corresponding to the access network type.

In this embodiment, when a condition is met, the terminal device sends a switching request for switching access networks to the network device, and after the network device determines whether the terminal device can access a corresponding access network based on the overall state comprehensive judgment of the current multi-access converged network, the terminal device sends indication information to the terminal device, where the indication information is used to indicate whether the terminal device switches to the access network corresponding to the access network type.

The following describes an access network handover method according to an embodiment of the present invention with reference to a specific example.

Example one

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of an interaction flow of an access network handover method according to an embodiment of the present invention; as shown in fig. 6, the method includes:

step 301: the network device sends the handover rules and policy information to the UE.

The meanings and contents of the switching rules and policy information may be specifically described in the foregoing embodiments, and are not described herein.

Step 302: and the terminal equipment performs measurement based on the strategy information to obtain a measurement report.

Here, the terminal device performs measurement on the specified index of the specified measurement object according to the measurement information, and obtains a measurement result; optionally, the terminal device may also send a measurement report to the network device based on the indication in the policy information.

Step 303: and the terminal equipment performs switching of the access network when the conditions are met based on the switching rules and the measurement reports.

In this embodiment, according to the measurement result, in combination with the switching rule shown in table 2, when the switching condition is satisfied, the terminal device performs switching to the access network corresponding to the access network type corresponding to the switching condition.

Example two

Fig. 7 is a second schematic diagram of an interaction flow of an access network handover method according to an embodiment of the present invention; as shown in fig. 7, the method includes:

step 401: the network device sends the handover rules and policy information to the UE.

Step 402: and the terminal equipment performs measurement based on the strategy information to obtain a measurement report.

Step 403: the terminal device sends a handover request for switching the access network to the network device when the condition is satisfied based on the handover rule and the measurement report.

Here, the terminal device sends a handover request for switching the access network to the network device when the handover condition is satisfied, according to the measurement result, in combination with the handover rule as shown in table 2.

Step 404: and the network equipment comprehensively judges according to the overall state of the network, decides whether the terminal equipment switches the access network, and sends indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the indication information is used for indicating whether to switch to the access network corresponding to the access network type.

The network device comprehensively judges the overall state of the network according to the measurement report reported by each terminal device, and decides whether the terminal device switches to access the network.

Based on the above embodiment, the embodiment of the present invention further provides an access network switching device. Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a composition structure of an access network switching device according to an embodiment of the present invention; as shown in fig. 8, the apparatus includes: a first communication unit 11 and a first processing unit 12; wherein,,

the first communication unit 11 is configured to receive a handover rule sent by a network device;

the first processing unit 12 is configured to perform handover of an access network when a condition is satisfied based on the handover rule, or send a handover request for handover of an access network to the network device through the first communication unit 11 when the condition is satisfied.

In some optional embodiments of the invention, the access network comprises a 3GPP access network and/or a non-3 GPP access network.

In some optional embodiments of the present invention, the first communication unit 11 is further configured to receive policy information sent by the network device;

the first processing unit 12 is further configured to measure the access network based on the policy information, and obtain a measurement report.

In some alternative embodiments of the invention, the policy information includes at least access network type and/or measurement configuration information.

In some alternative embodiments of the invention, the measurement configuration information includes at least one of:

a measurement object;

measuring an index;

measuring a period;

measurement report configuration;

In some optional embodiments of the invention, the first processing unit 12 is configured to, in a case where the measurement class is the radio signal measurement, measure an access network that has been accessed based on the measurement configuration information, and/or measure an access network that can be measured and that has not been accessed based on the measurement configuration information; and measuring the accessed access network based on the measurement configuration information under the condition that the measurement category is the network performance measurement.

In some alternative embodiments of the present invention, the first communication unit 11 is further configured to send the measurement report to the network device.

In some optional embodiments of the present invention, the first communication unit 11 is configured to receive policy information sent by the network device through RRC signaling, NAS signaling, or IP signaling.

In some alternative embodiments of the invention, the handover rule includes a mapping of at least one set of access network types and handover conditions.

In some alternative embodiments of the invention, the switching condition includes at least one of: measuring event, application identification, access domain name, location information of terminal equipment, and time window information.

In some optional embodiments of the present invention, the first processing unit 12 is configured to perform handover to a first access network corresponding to a first access network type corresponding to a first handover condition when the first handover condition in the handover rule is detected to be satisfied, or send a first handover request to the network device, where the first handover request is used to request handover to the first access network; the first switching condition is any one of the switching conditions included in the switching rule.

In some optional embodiments of the present invention, the first processing unit 12 is configured to perform handover to a first access network corresponding to a first access network type corresponding to a first handover condition when a first handover condition in the handover rule is detected to be satisfied and a first constraint condition corresponding to the first handover condition is satisfied, or send a first handover request to the network device, where the first handover request is used to request handover to the first access network; the first switching condition is any one of the switching conditions included in the switching rule.

In some optional embodiments of the invention, the handover request includes an access network type requesting access; the first communication unit 11 is further configured to receive indication information sent by the network device, where the indication information is used to indicate whether to switch to an access network corresponding to the access network type.

In some alternative embodiments of the present invention, the first communication unit 11 is configured to receive a handover rule sent by a network device through RRC signaling, NAS signaling, or IP signaling.

In the embodiment of the invention, the device is applied to the terminal equipment. The first processing unit 12 in the device may be implemented in practice by a central processing unit (CPU, central Processing Unit), a digital signal processor (DSP, digital Signal Processor), a micro control unit (MCU, microcontroller Unit) or a programmable gate array (FPGA, field-Programmable Gate Array); the first communication unit 11 in the device can be realized in practical application through a communication module (including a basic communication suite, an operating system, a communication module, a standardized interface, a standardized protocol and the like) and a receiving and transmitting antenna.

The embodiment of the invention also provides an access network switching device. Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a second component structure of an access network switching device according to an embodiment of the present invention; as shown in fig. 9, the apparatus includes: a second communication unit 21, configured to send a handover rule to a terminal device, where the handover rule is used for the terminal device to perform handover of an access network when a condition is satisfied, or is used for the terminal device to send a handover request for handover of an access network to the network device when the condition is satisfied.

In some alternative embodiments of the present invention, the second communication unit 21 is further configured to send policy information to the terminal device, where the policy information is used for the terminal device to measure the access network.

A measurement object;

measuring an index;

measuring a period;

measurement report configuration;

In some alternative embodiments of the present invention, the second communication unit 21 is further configured to receive a measurement report sent by the terminal device.

In some alternative embodiments of the present invention, the second communication unit 21 is configured to send policy information to the terminal device through RRC signaling, NAS signaling, or IP signaling.

In some alternative embodiments of the invention, the apparatus further comprises a second processing unit 21;

The second communication unit 21 is further configured to receive a handover request sent by the terminal device, where the handover request includes an access network type that requests access;

the second processing unit 21 is further configured to determine whether to switch to an access network corresponding to the access network type based on the measurement report, and send, to the terminal device, indication information according to a decision result, where the indication information is used to indicate whether to switch to the access network corresponding to the access network type.

In some alternative embodiments of the present invention, the second communication unit 21 is configured to send the handover rule to the terminal device through RRC signaling, NAS signaling, or IP signaling.

In the embodiment of the invention, the device is applied to network equipment. The second processing unit 21 in the device can be realized by CPU, DSP, MCU or FPGA in practical application; the second communication unit 21 in the device can be realized in practical application through a communication module (including a basic communication suite, an operating system, a communication module, a standardized interface, a standardized protocol and the like) and a receiving and transmitting antenna.

It should be noted that: in the access network switching apparatus provided in the above embodiment, only the division of each program module is used for illustration, and in practical application, the processing allocation may be performed by different program modules according to needs, that is, the internal structure of the apparatus is divided into different program modules, so as to complete all or part of the processing described above. In addition, the embodiment of the access network switching device and the embodiment of the access network switching method provided in the foregoing embodiments belong to the same concept, and specific implementation processes of the embodiment of the method are detailed in the embodiment of the method, which is not repeated herein.

Based on the above embodiment, the embodiment of the invention also provides a communication device. Fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of a hardware composition structure of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 10, the communication device includes a memory 32, a processor 31, and a computer program stored in the memory 32 and capable of running on the processor 31, where the steps of the access network handover method applied to a terminal device are implemented when the processor 31 executes the program; alternatively, the processor 31 implements the steps of the access network handover method applied to a network device when executing the program.

Optionally, the communication device further comprises at least one network interface 33. Wherein the various components of the communication device are coupled together by a bus system 34. It is understood that the bus system 34 is used to enable connected communications between these components. The bus system 34 includes a power bus, a control bus, and a status signal bus in addition to the data bus. But for clarity of illustration the various buses are labeled as bus system 34 in fig. 10.

It will be appreciated that the memory 32 can be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, and can include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. Wherein the nonvolatile Memory may be Read Only Memory (ROM), programmable Read Only Memory (PROM, programmable Read-Only Memory), erasable programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM, erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), electrically erasable programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM, electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), magnetic random access Memory (FRAM, ferromagnetic Random Access Memory), flash Memory (Flash Memory), magnetic surface Memory, optical disk, or compact disk Read Only Memory (CD-ROM, compact Disc Read-Only Memory); the magnetic surface memory may be a disk memory or a tape memory. The volatile memory may be random access memory (RAM, random Access Memory), which acts as external cache memory. By way of example, and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as static random access memory (SRAM, static Random Access Memory), synchronous static random access memory (SSRAM, synchronous Static Random Access Memory), dynamic random access memory (DRAM, dynamic Random Access Memory), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM, synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (ddr SDRAM, double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory), enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (ESDRAM, enhanced Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory), synchronous link dynamic random access memory (SLDRAM, syncLink Dynamic Random Access Memory), direct memory bus random access memory (DRRAM, direct Rambus Random Access Memory). The memory 32 described in embodiments of the present invention is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

The method disclosed in the above embodiment of the present invention may be applied to the processor 31 or implemented by the processor 31. The processor 31 may be an integrated circuit chip with signal processing capabilities. In implementation, the steps of the above method may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware in the processor 31 or by instructions in the form of software. The processor 31 may be a general purpose processor, DSP, or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware components, or the like. The processor 31 may implement or perform the methods, steps and logic blocks disclosed in embodiments of the present invention. The general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor or the like. The steps of the method disclosed in the embodiment of the invention can be directly embodied in the hardware of the decoding processor or can be implemented by combining hardware and software modules in the decoding processor. The software modules may be located in a storage medium located in a memory 32 and the processor 31 reads information from the memory 32 to perform the steps of the method described above in connection with its hardware.

In an exemplary embodiment, the communication device may be implemented by one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASIC, application Specific Integrated Circuit), DSP, programmable logic device (PLD, programmable Logic Device), complex programmable logic device (CPLD, complex Programmable Logic Device), FPGA, general purpose processor, controller, MCU, microprocessor, or other electronic element for performing the aforementioned methods.

In an exemplary embodiment, the present invention also provides a computer readable storage medium, such as a memory 32 comprising a computer program executable by the processor 31 of the communication device to perform the steps of the method described above. The computer readable storage medium may be FRAM, ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash Memory, magnetic surface Memory, optical disk, or CD-ROM; but may be a variety of devices including one or any combination of the above memories.

The embodiment of the invention provides a computer readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, which when executed by a processor, implements the steps of the access network switching method applied to a terminal device; alternatively, the program when executed by the processor implements the steps of the access network handover method applied to the network device.

The methods disclosed in the several method embodiments provided in the present application may be arbitrarily combined without collision to obtain a new method embodiment.

The features disclosed in the several product embodiments provided in the present application may be combined arbitrarily without conflict to obtain new product embodiments.

The features disclosed in the several method or apparatus embodiments provided in the present application may be arbitrarily combined without conflict to obtain new method embodiments or apparatus embodiments.

In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. The above described device embodiments are only illustrative, e.g. the division of the units is only one logical function division, and there may be other divisions in practice, such as: multiple units or components may be combined or may be integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not performed. In addition, the various components shown or discussed may be coupled or directly coupled or communicatively coupled to each other via some interface, whether indirectly coupled or communicatively coupled to devices or units, whether electrically, mechanically, or otherwise.

The units described as separate units may or may not be physically separate, and units displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units; some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present invention may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may be separately used as one unit, or two or more units may be integrated in one unit; the integrated units may be implemented in hardware or in hardware plus software functional units.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that: all or part of the steps for implementing the above method embodiments may be implemented by hardware associated with program instructions, where the foregoing program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, and when executed, the program performs steps including the above method embodiments; and the aforementioned storage medium includes: a removable storage device, ROM, RAM, magnetic or optical disk, or other medium capable of storing program code.

Alternatively, the above-described integrated units of the present invention may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium if implemented in the form of software functional modules and sold or used as separate products. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention may be embodied in essence or a part contributing to the prior art in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, including several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the methods described in the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a removable storage device, ROM, RAM, magnetic or optical disk, or other medium capable of storing program code.

The foregoing is merely illustrative of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art will readily recognize that variations or substitutions are within the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. An access network switching method, the method comprising:

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the access network comprises a third generation partnership project, 3GPP, access network and/or a non-3 GPP, access network.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

and the terminal equipment receives the strategy information sent by the network equipment, and measures the access network based on the strategy information to obtain a measurement report.

4. A method according to claim 3, characterized in that the policy information comprises at least access network type and/or measurement configuration information.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the measurement configuration information comprises at least one of:

a measurement object;

measuring an index;

measuring a period;

measurement report configuration;

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the measuring the access network based on the policy information comprises:

7. A method according to claim 3, characterized in that the method further comprises:

and the terminal equipment sends the measurement report to the network equipment.

8. A method according to claim 3, wherein the terminal device receives policy information sent by the network device, comprising:

and the terminal equipment receives the strategy information sent by the network equipment through Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, non-access stratum (NAS) signaling or Internet Protocol (IP) signaling.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the handover rule comprises a mapping of at least one set of access network types and handover conditions.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the handover condition comprises at least one of: measuring event, application identification, access domain name, location information of terminal equipment, and time window information.

11. The method according to claim 9 or 10, wherein the switching rules further comprise a constraint, the constraint comprising at least one of:

geographic area restrictions, time restrictions, public land mobile network PLMN restrictions.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein the performing handover of the access network when a condition is satisfied or transmitting a handover request for handover of the access network to the network device when a condition is satisfied based on the handover rule comprises:

13. The method according to claim 11, wherein the performing handover of the access network when a condition is satisfied or transmitting a handover request for handover of the access network to the network device when a condition is satisfied based on the handover rule comprises:

14. The method according to claim 7, wherein the handover request includes an access network type for which access is requested; the method further comprises the steps of:

the terminal equipment receives indication information sent by the network equipment, wherein the indication information is used for indicating whether to switch to an access network corresponding to the access network type.

15. The method according to claim 1, wherein the terminal device receives a handover rule sent by a network device, comprising:

the terminal equipment receives the switching rule sent by the network equipment through RRC signaling, NAS signaling or IP signaling.

16. An access network switching method, the method comprising:

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the access network comprises a 3GPP access network and/or a non-3 GPP access network.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises:

And the network equipment sends strategy information to the terminal equipment, wherein the strategy information is used for the terminal equipment to measure the access network.

19. The method according to claim 18, characterized in that the policy information comprises at least access network type and/or measurement configuration information.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the measurement configuration information comprises at least one of:

a measurement object;

measuring an index;

measuring a period;

measurement report configuration;

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises:

and the network equipment receives the measurement report sent by the terminal equipment.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the network device sending policy information to the terminal device comprises:

the network device sends policy information to the terminal device through Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, non-access stratum (NAS) signaling or Internet Protocol (IP) signaling.

23. The method of claim 16, wherein the handoff rules include a mapping of at least one set of access network types and handoff conditions.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the handover condition comprises at least one of: measuring event, application identification, access domain name, location information of terminal equipment, and time window information.

25. The method according to claim 23 or 24, wherein the switching rules further comprise a constraint comprising at least one of:

26. The method of claim 21, wherein the method further comprises:

the network equipment receives a switching request sent by the terminal equipment, wherein the switching request comprises an access network type for requesting access;

27. The method of claim 16, wherein the network device sends the handover rule to the terminal device, comprising:

and the network equipment sends a switching rule to the terminal equipment through RRC signaling, NAS signaling or IP signaling.

28. An access network switching apparatus, the apparatus comprising: a first communication unit and a first processing unit; wherein,,

29. An access network switching apparatus, the apparatus comprising: and the second communication unit is used for sending a switching rule to the terminal equipment, wherein the switching rule is used for executing switching of the access network when the terminal equipment meets the condition, or is used for sending a switching request for switching the access network to the network equipment when the terminal equipment meets the condition.

30. A computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program, characterized in that the program when executed by a processor realizes the steps of the method according to any of claims 1 to 15; or,

Which when executed by a processor carries out the steps of the method of any one of claims 16 to 27.

31. A communication device comprising a memory, a processor and a computer program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, characterized in that the processor implements the steps of the method of any of claims 1 to 15 when the program is executed; or,

the processor, when executing the program, implements the steps of the method of any one of claims 16 to 27.