CN116506826A

CN116506826A - Communication method, device and system

Info

Publication number: CN116506826A
Application number: CN202210057946.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 赵鹏涛; 李岩; 朱方园
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-01-19
Filing date: 2022-01-19
Publication date: 2023-07-28
Also published as: WO2023138452A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method, which comprises the following steps: the access and mobility management function network element receives tracking area information of the first device from the first network device; the access and mobility management function network element stores the association relationship between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment; in case the second network device serves the first device, the access and mobility management function network element deletes the association between the tracking area information of the first device and the first network device. The first device may be a vehicle-mounted relay device VMR, so the technical solution of the present application proposes a mobility management solution for the first device VMR, so as to more accurately perform mobility management on the UE.

Description

Communication method, device and system

Technical Field

The embodiment of the application relates to the field of communication, and more particularly relates to a communication method, a communication device and a communication system.

Background

To meet the ultra-high capacity requirements of the fifth generation (the 5th generation,5G) mobile communication system, high frequency small station networking is the mainstream. The high-frequency carrier has poor propagation characteristics, serious shielding attenuation and poor coverage range, so that a large number of small stations are required to be densely deployed. Accordingly, the cost of providing optical fiber backhaul for these large numbers of densely deployed small stations is high, and the construction difficulty is high, so that an economic and convenient backhaul scheme is required. In addition, from the aspect of wide coverage requirement, network coverage is provided in some remote areas, the deployment difficulty of optical fibers is high, the cost is high, and flexible and convenient access and return schemes are also required to be designed. The access backhaul integration (integrated access and backhaul, IAB) technique provides a solution to the above-mentioned problems.

The in-vehicle relay (vehicle mounted relay, VMR) supports wireless relay related functions, and compared with the existing IAB mechanism, the VMR has mobility, and the existing IAB node is a fixed relay on the ground, so the VMR in the present application can also be understood as a mobile IAB node. In the mobile scenario of the VMR, the network side may not obtain the correspondence between the UE and the base station, that is, the network side may not perform mobility management on the UE more accurately.

Based on this, the present application proposes a mobility management scheme for the first device VMR, so as to more accurately perform mobility management on the UE.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a mobility management scheme aiming at a first equipment VMR, so that a network side can more accurately perform mobility management on UE.

In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, the method comprising: the access and mobility management function network element receives tracking area information of the first device from the first network device; the access and mobility management function network element stores the association relationship between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment; in case the second network device serves the first device, the access and mobility management function network element deletes the association between the tracking area information of the first device and the first network device.

It should be understood that the first device may be an in-vehicle relay VMR or may be a UE served by the VMR, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

Based on the technical scheme, when the first equipment is accessed to the first network equipment, the access and mobility management function network element stores the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment. When the first equipment is switched from the first network equipment to the second network equipment, the mobile management function network element stores the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the second network equipment, and deletes the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment stored before, so that the network side can timely know that the network equipment associated with the first equipment is changed from the first equipment to the second network equipment, and further, when the network side needs to page the first equipment and/or the UE served by the first equipment, the network side can accurately locate the second network equipment, the situation that the network side pages the first equipment and/or the UE served by the first equipment does not occur, and the network side indicates the first network equipment to send paging information is avoided, so that the network side can more accurately perform mobility management on the UE, and resource waste is avoided.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the access and mobility management function network element connects the first network device and the second network device, the method further includes: the access and mobility management function network element receiving tracking area information of the first device from a second network device; the access and mobility management function network element stores association between tracking area information of the first device and the second network device. Based on the technical scheme, the network side can timely acquire the network equipment associated with the first equipment, so that the network side can more accurately perform mobility management on the UE.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the deleting, by the access and mobility management function network element, an association relationship between tracking area information of the first device and the first network device includes: the access and mobility management function network element deletes association between the tracking area information of the first device and the first network device in response to the tracking area information of the first device received from the second network device. Based on the technical scheme, the network side can timely acquire the network equipment associated with the first equipment, so that the network side can more accurately perform mobility management on the UE.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: the access and mobility management function network element receives first indication information from the first network device; the access and mobility management function network element deleting association relation between tracking area information of the first device and the first network device, including: and the access and mobility management function network element deletes the association relationship between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment according to the first indication information. Based on the technical scheme, the network side can timely acquire the network equipment associated with the first equipment, so that the network side can more accurately perform mobility management on the UE.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the first indication information includes identification information of the second network device. Based on the technical scheme, the network side can timely acquire the network equipment associated with the first equipment, so that the network side can more accurately perform mobility management on the UE.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the access and mobility management function network element connects the first network device, the method further includes: the access and mobility management function network element sends first registration information to a unified database network element, wherein the first registration information is used for registering association relation between tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment to the unified database network element. Based on the technical scheme, the network side can timely acquire the network equipment associated with the first equipment, so that the network side can more accurately perform mobility management on the UE.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: the access and mobility management function network element sends first request information to the unified database network element, wherein the first request information is used for requesting the unified database network element to delete the association relation between the tracking area information of the first device and the first network device. Based on the technical scheme, the network side can timely acquire the network equipment associated with the first equipment, so that the network side can more accurately perform mobility management on the UE.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: the access and mobility management function network element sends first query information to the unified database network element, wherein the first query information is used for querying the network element of the unified database network element for network equipment associated with tracking area information of the first equipment; the access and mobility management function network element receives first response information sent by the unified database network element, wherein the first response information comprises identification information of the second network device. Based on the technical scheme, the network side can timely acquire the network equipment associated with the first equipment, so that the network side can more accurately perform mobility management on the UE.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the first device includes an in-vehicle relay device VMR.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the tracking area information of the first device does not change as the access location of the first device changes.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, the method comprising: the access and mobility management function network element receives tracking area information of the first device from the second network device; the access and mobility management function network element root stores the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the second network equipment; the access and mobility management function network element sends second registration information to the unified database network element, wherein the second registration information is used for registering the association relation between the tracking area information of the first device and the second network device to the unified database network element.

Based on the technical scheme, when the first equipment is switched from the first network equipment to the second network equipment, the mobile management function network element stores the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the second network equipment, registers the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the second network equipment with the unified database network element, so that the network side can know that the network equipment associated with the first equipment is changed from the first equipment to the second network equipment in time, and further when the network side needs to page the first equipment and/or the UE served by the first equipment, the second network equipment can be accurately positioned, the condition that the network side indicates the first network equipment to send a paging message when the network side pages the first equipment and/or the UE served by the first equipment does not occur, and the network side can more accurately manage mobility of the UE and avoid resource waste.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the first device includes an in-vehicle relay device VMR.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the tracking area information of the first device does not change with a change in an access location of the first device.

In a third aspect, a communication method is provided, the method comprising: the network device obtains tracking area information of the first device from the first device; the network device sends tracking area information of the first device to a connected access and mobility management function network element.

It should be noted that the network device may be a first network device or a second network device. When the first equipment is accessed to the first network equipment, the first network equipment sends tracking area information of the first equipment to an access and mobility management function network element connected with the first network equipment, so that the access and mobility management function network element connected with the first network equipment stores association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment; when the first equipment is accessed to the second network equipment, the second network equipment sends tracking area information of the first equipment to an access and mobility management function network element connected with the second network equipment, so that the access and mobility management function network element connected with the second network equipment stores association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the second network equipment.

Based on the technical scheme, the network side can timely know that the network equipment associated with the first equipment is changed from the first equipment to the second network equipment, and further when the network side needs to page the first equipment and/or the UE served by the first equipment, the second network equipment can be accurately positioned, the condition that the network side indicates the first network equipment to send paging information when the network side pages the first equipment and/or the UE served by the first equipment cannot occur, and therefore mobility management can be conducted on the UE more accurately by the network side, and resource waste is avoided.

With reference to the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the method further includes: the network device sends first indication information to a connected access and mobility management function network element, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating to delete the association relation between the tracking area information of the first device and the network device. Based on the technical scheme, the network side can timely acquire the network equipment associated with the first equipment, so that the network side can more accurately perform mobility management on the UE.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the first device includes an in-vehicle relay device VMR.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the tracking area information of the first device does not change with a change in an access location of the first device.

In a fourth aspect, a communication method is provided, the method comprising: the unified database network element receives second registration information from the first access and mobility management function network element, wherein the second registration information is used for registering the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the second network equipment; and the unified database network element stores the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the second network equipment according to the second registration information. The unified database network element receives first query information from a second access and mobility management function network element, wherein the first query information is used for querying network equipment associated with tracking area information of the first equipment; the unified database network element sends first response information to the second access and mobility management function network element, the first response information including identification information of the second network device.

It should be noted that the first access and mobility management function network element may be a VMR AMF network element with VMR registration, and the second access and mobility management function network element may be a UE AMF network element with UE registration.

Based on the technical scheme, the unified database network element can timely inform the network equipment associated with the second access and mobility management function network element and the first equipment, so that the network side can timely know that the network equipment associated with the first equipment is changed from the first equipment to the second network equipment, and further when the network side needs to page the first equipment and/or the UE served by the first equipment, the second network equipment can be accurately positioned, the condition that the network side indicates the first network equipment to send paging information when the network side pages the first equipment and/or the UE served by the first equipment does not occur, and therefore the network side can more accurately carry out mobility management on the UE, and resource waste is avoided.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the method further includes: the unified database network element receives first registration information from the first access and mobility management function network element, wherein the first registration information is used for registering the association relationship between tracking area information of first equipment and first network equipment; and storing the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment according to the first registration information. Based on the technical scheme, the network side can timely acquire the network equipment associated with the first equipment, so that the network side can more accurately perform mobility management on the UE.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the method further includes: the unified database network element receives first request information from the first access and mobility management function network element, wherein the first request information is used for requesting to delete the association relation between the tracking area information of the first device and the first network device. Based on the technical scheme, the network side can timely acquire the network equipment associated with the first equipment, so that the network side can more accurately perform mobility management on the UE.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the first device includes an in-vehicle relay device VMR.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the tracking area information of the first device does not change with a change in an access location of the first device.

In a fifth aspect, an access and mobility management function network element is provided, comprising: a receiving unit configured to receive tracking area information of a first device from the first network device; the processing unit is used for storing the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment; in the case that the second network device serves the first device, the processing unit deletes association between tracking area information of the first device and the first network device.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in certain implementations of the fifth aspect, the access and mobility management function network element connects the first network device and the second network device, and the receiving unit is further configured to: receiving tracking area information for the first device from a second network device; the processing unit is further configured to: and storing the association relation between the tracking area information of the first device and the second network device.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in certain implementations of the fifth aspect, the processing unit is specifically configured to: and deleting the association relation between the tracking area information of the first device and the first network device according to the tracking area information of the first device received from the second network device.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in certain implementations of the fifth aspect, the receiving unit is further configured to: responsive to receiving first indication information from the first network device; the processing unit is specifically used for: and deleting the association relationship between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment according to the first indication information.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in certain implementations of the fifth aspect, the first indication information includes identification information of the second network device.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in certain implementations of the fifth aspect, the access and mobility management function network element connects the first network device, the access and mobility management function network element further includes: and the sending unit is used for sending first registration information to the unified database network element, wherein the first registration information is used for registering the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment to the unified database network element.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in certain implementations of the fifth aspect, the sending unit is further configured to: and sending first request information to the unified database network element, wherein the first request information is used for requesting the unified database network element to delete the association relationship between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in certain implementations of the fifth aspect, the sending unit is further configured to: sending first query information to the unified database network element, wherein the first query information is used for querying the network equipment associated with the tracking area information of the first equipment to the unified database network element; the receiving unit is further configured to: and receiving first response information sent by the unified database network element, wherein the first response information comprises the identification information of the second network equipment.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in certain implementations of the fifth aspect, the first device includes an in-vehicle relay device VMR.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in certain implementations of the fifth aspect, the tracking area information of the first device does not change with a change in an access location of the first device.

In a sixth aspect, an access and mobility management function network element is provided, comprising: a receiving unit configured to receive tracking area information of a first device from a second network device; the processing unit is used for storing the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the second network equipment; and the sending unit is used for sending second registration information to the unified database network element, wherein the second registration information is used for registering the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the second network equipment to the unified database network element.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in some implementations of the sixth aspect, the first device includes an in-vehicle relay device VMR.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in some implementations of the sixth aspect, the tracking area information of the first device does not change with a change in an access location of the first device.

In a seventh aspect, there is provided a network device comprising: a receiving unit configured to obtain tracking area information of a first device from the first device; and the sending unit is used for sending the tracking area information of the first equipment to the connected access and mobility management function network element.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in certain implementations of the seventh aspect, the sending unit is further configured to: and sending first indication information to the connected access and mobility management function network element, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating to delete the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the network equipment.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in certain implementations of the seventh aspect, the first device includes an in-vehicle relay device VMR.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in some implementations of the seventh aspect, the tracking area information of the first device does not change with a change in an access location of the first device.

In an eighth aspect, a unified database network element is provided, including: a receiving unit, configured to receive second registration information from a first access and mobility management function network element, where the second registration information is used to register association between tracking area information of the first device and the second network device; and the processing unit is used for storing the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the second network equipment according to the second registration information. The receiving unit is further configured to receive first query information from a second access and mobility management function network element, where the first query information is used to query a network device associated with tracking area information of the first device; and the sending unit is used for sending first response information to the second access and mobility management function network element, wherein the first response information comprises the identification information of the second network equipment.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in certain implementations of the eighth aspect, the receiving unit is further configured to: the unified database network element receives first registration information from the first access and mobility management function network element, wherein the first registration information is used for registering the association relationship between tracking area information of first equipment and first network equipment; the processing unit is further configured to: and storing the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment according to the first registration information.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in certain implementations of the eighth aspect, the receiving unit is further configured to: and receiving first request information from the first access and mobility management function network element, wherein the first request information is used for requesting to delete the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in some implementations of the eighth aspect, the first device includes an in-vehicle relay device VMR.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in some implementations of the eighth aspect, the tracking area information of the first device does not change with a change in an access location of the first device.

A ninth aspect provides an access and mobility management function network element, comprising: at least one processor, a memory and a transceiver, the memory for storing instructions for the access and mobility management function network element to communicate with other devices, the stored instructions being executed directly or indirectly by the at least one processor so that the access and mobility management function network element may perform the method of the first aspect, the second aspect or any optional implementation of the first aspect.

In a tenth aspect, there is provided a network device comprising: at least one processor, a memory for storing instructions for the network device to communicate with other devices, and a transceiver, the stored instructions being executed directly or indirectly by the at least one processor so that the network device can perform the method of the third aspect or any optional implementation of the third aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a unified database network element, comprising: at least one processor, a memory and a transceiver, the memory for storing instructions for the unified database network element to communicate with other devices, the stored instructions being executed directly or indirectly by the at least one processor so that the unified database network element can perform the method of the fourth aspect or any optional implementation of the fourth aspect.

In a twelfth aspect, there is provided a chip system comprising: at least one processor configured to execute stored instructions such that an access and mobility management function network element may perform the method of the first aspect, the second aspect, or any optional implementation of the first aspect.

In a thirteenth aspect, there is provided a chip system comprising: at least one processor configured to execute stored instructions such that a network device may perform the method of the third aspect or any optional implementation of the third aspect.

In a fourteenth aspect, there is provided a chip system comprising: at least one processor configured to execute stored instructions such that a unified database network element can perform the method of the fourth aspect or any optional implementation of the fourth aspect.

In a fifteenth aspect, there is provided a computer storage medium storing program instructions that, when executed, enable an access and mobility management function network element to perform the method of the first aspect, the second aspect or any of the alternative implementations of the first aspect.

In a sixteenth aspect, there is provided a computer storage medium storing program instructions that, when executed, enable a network device to perform the method of the third aspect or any of the alternative implementations of the third aspect.

In a seventeenth aspect, there is provided a computer storage medium storing program instructions that, when executed, enable a unified database network element to perform the method of the fourth aspect or any of the alternative implementations of the fourth aspect.

In an eighteenth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed, enable an access and mobility management function network element to perform the method of the first aspect, the second aspect or any of the alternative implementations of the first aspect.

A nineteenth aspect provides a computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed, enable a network device to perform the method of the third aspect or any alternative implementation of the third aspect.

In a twentieth aspect, a computer program product is provided, the computer program product comprising instructions that, when executed, enable the method in the fourth aspect or any alternative implementation of the fourth aspect to be performed with a unified database network element.

In a twenty-first aspect, a system is provided, the system comprising an access and mobility management function network element as described in the first aspect, the second aspect or any optional implementation of the first aspect; and/or a network device as described in the third aspect or any optional implementation of the third aspect; and/or a unified database network element as described in the fourth aspect or any optional implementation of the fourth aspect.

Drawings

Fig. 1 shows a schematic architecture of a basic 5G system 200.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic architecture diagram based on a servitization interface.

Fig. 3 shows a schematic structure of the gNB with CU-DU separation.

Fig. 4 shows a schematic diagram of data transmission by a terminal device through a two-hop data Backhaul (BH).

Fig. 5 shows a schematic flow chart of a communication method 500 adapted to scenario one provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 6 shows a schematic flow chart of a communication method 600 adapted to scenario two according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 7 shows a schematic flow chart of a communication method 700 provided in a further embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 8 shows a schematic flow chart of a communication method 800 provided in a further embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 9 shows a schematic flow chart of a communication method 900 provided in a further embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 10 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 11 is a schematic view of yet another apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 12 is a schematic view of yet another apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 13 is a schematic view of yet another apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of an apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

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

The technical solution of the embodiment of the application can be applied to various communication systems, for example: global system for mobile communications (Global System of Mobile communication, GSM), code division multiple access (Code Division Multiple Access, CDMA), wideband code division multiple access (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, WCDMA) systems, general packet Radio service (General Packet Radio Service, GPRS), long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) systems, LTE frequency division duplex (Frequency Division Duplex, FDD) systems, LTE time division duplex (Time Division Duplex, TDD), universal mobile telecommunications system (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System, UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, wiMAX) communication systems, future fifth generation (5th Generation,5G) systems or New Radio, NR) systems, and the like.

The terminal device in the embodiments of the present application may refer to a user device, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user apparatus. The terminal device may also be a cellular telephone, a cordless telephone, a session initiation protocol (Session Initiation Protocol, SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (Wireless Local Loop, WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (Personal Digital Assistant, PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication capabilities, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a terminal device in a future 5G network or a terminal device in a future evolved public land mobile network (Public Land Mobile Network, PLMN), etc., as the embodiments of the application are not limited in this respect.

The network device in this embodiment of the present application may be a device for communicating with a terminal device, where the network device may be a base station (Base Transceiver Station, BTS) in a global system for mobile communications (Global System of Mobile communication, GSM) or code division multiple access (Code Division Multiple Access, CDMA), a base station (NodeB, NB) in a wideband code division multiple access (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, WCDMA) system, an evolved base station (eNB or eNodeB) in an LTE system, a wireless controller in a cloud wireless access network (Cloud Radio Access Network, CRAN) scenario, or the network device may be a relay station, an access point, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a network device in a future 5G network, or a network device in a future evolved PLMN network, etc., which is not limited in this application.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic architecture of a basic 5G system 100. As shown in fig. 1, the system 100 includes: PCF, AMF, session management function (session management function, SMF), radio access network (radio access network, RAN), unified data management (unified data management, UDM), data Network (DN), user plane function (user plane function, UPF), UE, application function (application function, AF), and/or unified data store (unified data repository, UDR). Optionally, the following functions (not shown in fig. 1) may also be included in fig. 1: a network slice selection function (network slice selection function, NSSF), an authentication server function (authentication server function, AUSF), a capability open function (network exposure function, NEF), or a network storage function (NF repository function, NRF).

Wherein, the main functions of each network element are described as follows:

1. terminal equipment

The terminal device in the embodiment of the present application may be: a User Equipment (UE), a Mobile Station (MS), a Mobile Terminal (MT), an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user equipment, etc.

The terminal device may be a device providing voice/data connectivity to a user, e.g., a handheld device with wireless connectivity, an in-vehicle device, etc. Currently, some examples of terminals are: mobile phone (mobile phone), tablet, notebook, palm, mobile internet device (mobile internet device, MID), wearable device, virtual Reality (VR) device, augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) device, wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), wireless terminal in unmanned (self-driving or autopilot), wireless terminal in teleoperation (remote medical surgery), wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), wireless terminal in transportation security (transportation safety), wireless terminal in smart city (smart city), wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), cellular phone, cordless phone, session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol, SIP) phone, wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) station, personal digital assistant (personal digital assistant, PDA), handheld device with wireless communication function, public or other processing device connected to wireless modem, vehicle-mounted device, wearable device, terminal device in future 5G network or evolving land communication terminal (public land mobile network), and the like, without being limited to this embodiment.

By way of example, and not limitation, in embodiments of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. The wearable device can also be called as a wearable intelligent device, and is a generic name for intelligently designing daily wear by applying wearable technology and developing wearable devices, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothes, shoes and the like. The wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the clothing or accessories of the user. The wearable device is not only a hardware device, but also can realize a powerful function through software support, data interaction and cloud interaction. The generalized wearable intelligent device includes full functionality, large size, and may not rely on the smart phone to implement complete or partial functionality, such as: smart watches or smart glasses, etc., and focus on only certain types of application functions, and need to be used in combination with other devices, such as smart phones, for example, various smart bracelets, smart jewelry, etc. for physical sign monitoring. Furthermore, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may also be a terminal device in an internet of things (internet of things, ioT) system.

2. Radio access network

The radio access network is an access network implementing an access network function based on a wireless communication technology. The wireless access network can manage wireless resources, provide wireless access or air interface access service for the terminal, and further complete the forwarding of control signals and user data between the terminal and the core network.

As an example and not by way of limitation, the radio access network may be an evolved NodeB (eNB or eNodeB) in an LTE system, may also be a radio controller in a cloud radio access network (cloud radio access network, CRAN) scenario, or the access device may be a relay station, an access point, a vehicle device, a wearable device, and an access device in a 5G network, or an access device in a future evolved PLMN network, etc., may be an Access Point (AP) in a WLAN, may be a gNB in an NR system, and embodiments of the present application are not limited.

3. Access and mobility management function network element

The access and mobility management function network element is mainly used for mobility management, access management and the like, and can be used for realizing other functions besides session management in the functions of a mobility management entity (mobility management entity, MME), such as legal interception, access authorization (or authentication) and the like, and is also used for transferring user policies between the UE and the PCF. In the embodiment of the application, the method and the device can be used for realizing the functions of the access and mobile management network elements.

4. Session management function network element

The session management function network element is mainly used for session management, network interconnection protocol (internet protocol, IP) address allocation and management of terminal equipment, selecting a manageable user plane function (user plane function, UPF) network element, a termination point of a policy control and charging function interface, downlink data notification, and the like. In the embodiment of the application, the method and the device can be used for realizing the function of the session management network element.

5. User plane functional network element

The user plane function network element can be used for packet routing and forwarding, qoS parameter processing of user plane data, and the like. User data may be accessed to a Data Network (DN) through the network element. In the embodiment of the present application, the function of the user plane network element may be implemented, for example, when a session is established on a different UPF, the service experience of the UE may also be different, so the SMF is required to select a suitable UPF for the session of the UE.

6. Policy control network element

The policy control network element is used for guiding a unified policy framework of network behavior, and provides policy rule information for control plane function network elements (such as AMF, SMF network elements, etc.). The method is mainly responsible for policy control functions such as charging, qoS bandwidth guarantee, mobility management, UE policy decision and the like aiming at session and service flow levels. In this embodiment of the present application, PCFs to which the AMF and the SMF are connected correspond to an AM PCF (PCF for Access and Mobility Control) and an SM PCF (PCF for Session Management), respectively, and in an actual deployment scenario, the PCF entities may be the same PCF entity or two different PCF entities.

7. Network element with network capability opening function

The network capability opening function network element is used to open services and network capability information (such as a terminal location, whether a session is reachable) provided by the 3GPP network function to the outside, etc.

8. Application function network element

The application function network element is mainly used for transmitting the requirement of the application side on the network side, such as QoS requirement or user state event subscription. The AF may be a third party functional entity or may be an application service deployed by an operator, such as an IMS voice call service. For the application function entity of the third party application, when interacting with the core network, authorization processing may be performed through the NEF, for example, the third party application function directly sends a request message to the NEF, the NEF determines whether the AF is allowed to send the request message, and if the validation is passed, the request message is forwarded to the corresponding PCF or unified data management (unified data management, UDM).

9. Unified data management network element

The unified data management network element is mainly used for unified data management, and supports authentication trust status processing, user identity processing, access authorization, registration and mobility management, subscription management, short message management and the like in a 3GPP authentication and key negotiation mechanism.

10. Unified data storage network element

The unified data storage network element is mainly used for the access function of subscription data, policy data, application data and other types of data.

11. Data network

The data network refers to a specific data service network accessed by the UE, for example, a typical DN includes internet, IP multimedia subsystem (IP multimedia subsystem, IPMS).

In the above architecture, the respective interface functions are described as follows:

n7: and the interface between PCF and SMF is used for issuing PDU session granularity and service data flow granularity control strategy.

N15: and the interface between the PCF and the AMF is used for issuing UE strategies and access control related strategies.

N5: and the interface between the AF and the PCF is used for issuing application service requests and reporting network events.

N4: the interface between SMF and UPF is used for transferring information between control plane and user plane, including control plane-oriented forwarding rule, qoS control rule, flow statistics rule, etc. issuing and user plane information reporting.

N11: an interface between the SMF and the AMF for conveying PDU session tunnel information between the RAN and the UPF, conveying control messages sent to the UE, conveying radio resource control information sent to the RAN, etc.

N2: and an interface between the AMF and the RAN, which is used for transmitting radio bearer control information and the like from the core network side to the RAN.

N1: the interface between the AMF and the UE, access independent, is used to deliver QoS control rules etc. to the UE.

N8: the interface between the AMF and the UDM is used for the AMF to acquire subscription data and authentication data related to access and mobility management from the UDM, and the AMF registers the current mobility management related information of the UE from the UDM.

N10: and the interface between the SMF and the UDM is used for the SMF to acquire session management related subscription data from the UDM, registering the current session related information of the UE from the UDM, and the like.

N35: and the interface between the UDM and the UDR is used for the UDM to acquire the user subscription data information from the UDR.

N36: and the interface between the PCF and the UDR is used for the PCF to acquire the policy related subscription data and the application data related information from the UDR.

N52: an interface between the UDM and the NEF for the NEF to open network capabilities to third party application functions, such as third party application functions subscribing to reachability events for all users in a particular group through the NEF to the UDM.

In addition, the NEF has direct interfaces with the AMF and the SMF, respectively corresponding to an N29 interface and an N51 interface (for simplifying the illustration, not shown in the above figure), for opening the network capability of the operator to the third party Application functional entity, where the former can be used for the NEF to subscribe to the AMF directly for corresponding network events and update the user configuration information, and the latter can be used for updating the Application configuration data on the SMF/UPF, such as packet flow description information (packet flow description, PFD) corresponding to the Application ID.

It should be understood that the network architecture applied to the embodiments of the present application is merely an exemplary network architecture described from the perspective of a conventional point-to-point architecture and a service architecture, and the network architecture to which the embodiments of the present application are applicable is not limited thereto, and any network architecture capable of implementing the functions of the respective network elements described above is applicable to the embodiments of the present application.

It should be understood that the names of interfaces between the network elements in fig. 1 are only an example, and the names of interfaces in the specific implementation may be other names, which are not specifically limited in this application. Furthermore, the names of the transmitted messages (or signaling) between the various network elements described above are also merely an example, and do not constitute any limitation on the function of the message itself.

The network element may also be referred to as an entity, a device, an apparatus, a module, or the like, and the present application is not particularly limited. Also, in this application, for ease of understanding and explanation, a description of network elements is omitted in some descriptions, for example, SMF network elements are abbreviated as SMF, in which case, the "SMF" is understood as an SMF network element, and hereinafter, description of the same or similar cases is omitted.

It will be appreciated that the network elements or functions described above may be either network elements in a hardware device, software functions running on dedicated hardware, or virtualized functions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform). Alternatively, the network element or the function may be implemented by one device, or may be implemented by a plurality of devices together, or may be a functional module in one device, which is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present application.

It should also be understood that in the communication system shown in fig. 1, the functions of the respective constituent network elements are merely exemplary, and that not all the functions are necessary when the respective constituent network elements are applied in the embodiments of the present application.

In addition, the naming of each network element (such as PCF, AMF, etc.) as included in fig. 1 is only one name, and the name does not limit the function of the network element itself. In 5G networks and other networks in the future, the above-mentioned network elements may also be named, which is not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application. For example, in a 6G network, some or all of the above network elements may use the terminology in 5G, and other names may also be used, which is generally described herein and not described in detail herein.

It should be further noted that, in fig. 1, communication between network elements of the control plane function is described by taking a non-service interface as an example, but the protection scope of the embodiment of the present application is not limited. Those skilled in the art will understand that each network element of the control plane function in fig. 1 may also communicate through a service interface, for example, the service interface provided by the AMF to the outside may be Namf; the servitization interface provided by the SMF may be Nsmf; the service interface provided by the UDM to the outside can be Nudm, and the service interface provided by the AF can be Naf; the server interface provided by the PCF may be Npcf, etc.

The network elements in fig. 1 are reference point-based architectures, and are not limited to the embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 2 presents a schematic architecture diagram based on a servitization interface. As shown in fig. 2, the architecture includes: NSSF, AUSF, UDM, NEF, NRF, PCF, AF, AMF, SMF, UE, RAN, UPF, DN. In fig. 2, the service interface provided by NSSF to the outside may be Nnssf, the service interface provided by NEF to the outside may be Nnef, the service interface provided by NRF to the outside may be Nnrf, and the service interface provided by AMF to the outside may be Namf; the servitization interface provided by the SMF may be Nsmf; the service interface provided by the UDM to the outside can be Nudm, and the service interface provided by the AF can be Naf; the service interface provided by PCF to the outside can be Npcf, the service interface provided by AUSF to the outside can be Nausf, and the service interface provided by CHF to the outside can be Nchf; the interface between the control plane functions and the RAN and UPF is a non-service interface. The UE is connected with the AMF through an N1 interface, and is connected with the RAN through a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) protocol; the RAN is connected with the AMF through an N2 interface, and the RAN is connected with the UPF through an N3 interface; the UPF is connected with DN through N6 interface, and at the same time, UPF is connected with SMF through N4 interface. The related description may refer to the 5G system architecture (5G system architecture) in the standard, and the connection relationship of the architecture 300 is not described herein for brevity.

To facilitate understanding of the embodiments of the present application, a procedure of establishing a PDU session connection and PDU session management for a UE is first briefly described using a 5G network as an example.

In the 5G network, the 5G network provides a data exchange service for the UE and DN network, which is called a PDU connection service. The UE obtains a PDU connection service by initiating a PDU session establishment request to the mobile network. The network side provides a PDU connection service by maintaining a PDU session for the UE.

To achieve data exchange between the UE and the DN network, the UE needs to establish a DNN-based PDU session (signaling plane flow) using a PDU connection service provided by the mobile network. The establishment of a PDU session involves two basic procedures: the UE registers a network access flow to the mobile network, and requests to establish a PDU session flow to the network, which belong to a signaling plane interaction flow between the UE and the mobile network.

The general UE registration procedure can be described simply as: the UE sends a registration request to the AMF through the (R) AN, and the AMF acquires subscription data from the specific UDM according to the user identification. The network side finally confirms that the UE is allowed to access the network through a series of authentication and authorization operations, at the moment, the AMF responds to the UE registration request and issues relevant strategy information to the UE, and the UE completes network registration residence. The network side AMF maintains the registration network access information of the UE and carries out mobility management on the UE.

After the UE completes registration and network access, a PDU session establishment request can be initiated to acquire the PDU connection service of the network. The general PDU session establishment procedure can be described simply as: the UE sends PDU session establishment request to AMF through RAN, AMF selects SMF to provide session service for UE, saves the corresponding relation between SMF and PDU session, and sends session establishment request to SMF, SMF selects corresponding UPF to establish user plane transmission path for UE, and distributes IP address for it.

In the PDU Session management process of the UE, the SMF interacts with the UPF through an N4 interface to control the UPF to create, modify and delete the corresponding UE N4 Session (N4 Session/PFCP Session) so as to realize the control of UPF processing data messages. The SMF issues various data packet processing rules to the UE N4 session in the UPF to complete the control of UPF processing data packets. After the UPF receives the external data message, the message is matched according to the data message matching rule issued by the SMF, and the message is forwarded according to the forwarding rule.

In NR technology, an access network device (e.g., a gNB) may be formed of one gNB Centralized Unit (CU) and one or more gNB Distributed Units (DUs). The gNB-CU and gNB-DU are different logical nodes, and may be deployed on different physical devices or on the same physical device.

The gNB adopts a CU-DU separation structure as shown in figure 3, the gNB-CU and the gNB-DU are connected through an F1 interface, the gNB-CU and the 5G core network are connected through an NG interface, and the gNB are connected through an Xn interface. The Xn interface comprises an Xn-C interface and an Xn-U interface, wherein the Xn-C interface is used for transmitting control plane signaling between two gNBs, and the Xn-U interface is used for transmitting user plane data between the two gNBs. The interface between the gNB and the UE is referred to as the Uu interface (i.e., the interface between the UE and the gNB-DU). The terminal equipment accesses the gNB-CU through the gNB-DU. A Physical (PHY) layer/medium access control (media access control, MAC) layer/radio link control (radio link control, RLC) layer peer to peer with the terminal device is located on the gNB-DU, and a packet data convergence protocol (packet data convergence protocol, PDCP) layer/radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) layer/service data adaptation protocol (Service Data Adaptation Protocol, SDAP) layer peer to peer with the terminal device is located on the gNB-CU.

It should be appreciated that the protocol layers present on the above-described gNB-DU and gNB-CU are only one possibility, and that other possibilities are possible, such as: the PHY layer/MAC layer peer to terminal device is located on the gNB-DU, the PDCP layer/RRC layer/SDAP layer peer to terminal device is located on the gNB-CU, and meanwhile, the RLC layer peer to terminal device is also located on the gNB-CU, which is not limited herein.

For the control plane, in the Uplink (UL) direction, the gNB-DU encapsulates the RRC message generated by the terminal device in an F1 application protocol (F1 Application Protocol, F1 AP) message of the F1 interface, and sends the RRC message to the gNB-CU. In the Downlink (DL) direction, the gNB-CU encapsulates the RRC message in the F1AP message and sends the RRC message to the gNB-DU, and the gNB-DU extracts the RRC message from the F1AP message and maps the RRC message to a signaling radio bearer (Signalling Radio Bearer, SRB) corresponding to the Uu interface and sends the signaling radio bearer to the terminal device.

For the user plane, in the UL direction, the gNB-DU maps data packets received from the terminal device on the data radio bearer (Data Radio Bearer, DRB) of the Uu interface into corresponding general packet radio service tunneling protocol (General Packet Radio Service Tunnelling Protocol, GTP) tunnels for transmission to the gNB-CU. In the DL direction, the gNB-CU maps the data packet of the terminal equipment into a corresponding GTP tunnel and sends the data packet to the gNB-DU, the gNB-DU extracts the data packet of the terminal equipment from the GTP tunnel, and maps the data packet to a DRB corresponding to a Uu interface and sends the data packet to the terminal equipment.

The 5G communication system provides more stringent requirements for various performance indexes of the network in all directions. For example, the capacity index is improved by 1000 times, the coverage requirement is wider, the ultra-high reliability and ultra-low time delay are realized, and the like. Thus, an access backhaul integration (Integrated Access And Backhaul, IAB) technique was introduced.

In an IAB network, as shown in fig. 4, a Relay Node (RN), or may also be referred to as an IAB Node (IAB Node), may provide wireless access and wireless backhaul services for a user equipment. Specifically, the service data of the ue is connected by the IAB node to an IAB hosting node (IAB node) through a wireless backhaul link, and the IAB hosting node (IAB node) may also be referred to as a hosting IAB node (donor IAB) or an IAB hosting base station. In the NR system, the IAB host base station may be a host next generation base station (donor nodeb, dgNB), and in the LTE system (or 4G system), the IAB host base station may be a host evolved base station (donor eNodeB, deNB). Of course, the IAB host node may also be abbreviated as: gNB, eNB or IAB donor.

The IAB donor may also employ CU-DU separation architecture, as shown in fig. 4, namely: the IAB donor consists of two parts, namely an IAB donor CU (or also called a donor CU) and an IAB donor DU (or also called a donor DU), wherein the interface between the IAB donor CU and the IAB donor DU is an F1 interface. The IAB node may be composed of a Mobile Terminal (MT) unit and a Distributed Unit (DU). The IAB-MT may also be referred to as IAB-UE, has the functions of the terminal device, mainly performing operations similar to those of the terminal device. The IAB-DU has part of the functions of the base station and mainly performs operations similar to those of the base station.

For IAB donor, the donor DU functions similarly to the gNB-DU in NR, and the donor CU functions similarly to the gNB-CU in NR.

For the IAB node, the function of the IAB-DU is similar to that of the gNB-DU in NR, and the IAB-DU provides access service for the connected node, wherein the connected node of the IAB-DU can be terminal equipment or other IAB nodes. The IAB-MT is similar to the terminal device for providing data backhaul. The IAB node accessed by the terminal device may be referred to as an access IAB node, and the IAB node on the path between the access IAB node and the IAB node is referred to as an intermediate IAB node. For example, the terminal device accesses IAB node2 (IAB node 2), then IAB node2 is referred to as an access IAB node, and IAB node1 is referred to as an intermediate IAB node.

Fig. 5 and fig. 6 are schematic flowcharts of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application, and it should be noted that, during a movement process of a first device, the first device is switched from a first network device to a second network device, and the following two scenarios may exist. Wherein fig. 5 corresponds to scenario one described below, and fig. 6 corresponds to scenario two described below.

Scenario one, during a movement of a first device from a first network device to a second network device, the access and mobility management function network element is not replaced, as shown in fig. 5, i.e. the access and mobility management function network element 1 (UE AMF1, VMR AMF 1) is connected to the first network device and the second network device.

In a second scenario, during the movement process of the first device from the first network device to the second network device, the access and mobility management function network element is replaced, as shown in fig. 6, from the access and mobility management function network element 1 to the access and mobility management network element 2. In other words, the access and mobility management function network element 1 (e.g. UE AMF1, VMR AMF 1) is connected to the first network device and the replaced access and mobility management function network element 2 (e.g. UE AMF2, VMR AMF 2) is connected to the second network device.

Fig. 5 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method 500 adapted to scenario one, which includes at least the following steps, according to an embodiment of the present application.

S510, the first network device sends tracking area information of the first device to the access and mobility management function network element 1, and accordingly, the access and mobility management function network element 1 receives tracking area information of the first device from the first network device.

For example, the first network device may be a donor gNB1, or may be a CU located in the first network device (for example, donor gNB 1), and the first device may be a vehicle relay VMR, or may be a UE served by the VMR, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

Taking a first network device as a donor gNB1 and taking the first device as a VMR as an example for explanation, the VMR interacts with the OAM through a user plane to obtain tracking area information of the VMR, then, a DU part (or as a DU) in the VMR interacts with a CU of the donor gNB1, and the tracking area information of the VMR is registered to the CU of the donor gNB1 through an F1 setup procedure, and at this time, the CU of the donor gNB1 updates a corresponding tracking area information list thereof.

Where the tracking area information is specific tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device, it is understood that during the movement of the first device, the tracking area information broadcast by the first device to the UE served by the first device is fixed, i.e. even if the first device switches from the first network device to the second network device (e.g. to another donor gNB 2), the tracking area information broadcast by the first device to the UE served by the first device is fixed, i.e. S-TAI. In another aspect, S-TAI may be allocated only to UEs served by VMR, and S-TAI may not be allocated when TAI is allocated to UEs served by non-VMR. Thus, S-TAI is VMR specific, or referred to as VMR specific. Furthermore, the S-TAI for different VMRs may or may not be the same, e.g., the S-TAI for different VMRs in different zones may be the same, while the S-TAI for different VMRs in the same zone may be different. For convenience of description, in the following description, S-TAI is used in place of tracking area information of the first device.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the UE served by the first device is an idle UE.

In one possible implementation, the tracking area information S-TAI of the first device may be carried in an update configuration message, or may be carried in another message, which should be understood that embodiments of the present application are not limited herein.

Optionally, in a possible implementation manner, the update configuration message may include indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate that the tracking area information is tracking area information of the first device. For example, the indication information may be VMR specific TA indication information for indicating that S-TAI is specific tracking area information of VMR.

In one possible implementation, the indication information may be represented using a shorter field, for example, when the field is 1bit, the field is "1", indicating that the indication information indicates that S-TAI is tracking area information of VMR; when this field is "0", it indicates that the indication information indicates that S-TAI is not tracking area information of VMR.

In one possible implementation, the indication information may also be implicit in tracking area information S-TAI, for example, when the network side (CN) divides the TAI, the specific range of TAI is used as the S-TAI of the dedicated VMR, that is, when the S-TAI belongs to the specific range of TAI, the S-TAI is indicated as the tracking area information of the VMR.

It should be noted that, the first device may be a vehicle-mounted relay VMR, or may be a terminal device (for example, UE on a mobile vehicle) that is carried on a mobile object, and the access and mobility management function network element 1 may be a first AMF network element (UE AMF 1) registered by the UE, or may be a second AMF network element (VMR AMF 1) registered by the first device. It should be understood that the embodiments of the present application are not limited in this regard.

S520, the access and mobility management function network element 1 stores the association relationship between the tracking area information of the first device and the first network device.

For example, after the access and mobility management function network element 1 receives the tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device sent by the first network device, that is, after the first network device informs all access and mobility management function network elements 1 connected with the first network device that there is a first device and the tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device in its jurisdiction, the access and mobility management function network element 1 stores the association relationship between the S-TAI of the first device and the first network device.

It should be understood that the association between the S-TAI of the first device and the first network device may be an association between the S-TAI and the gNB1, for example, an association between the S-TAI of the first device and the identification information (RAN ID 1) of the first network device (gNB 1), or an association between the S-TAI and the CU1 located in the gNB1, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

S530, in the case that the second network device serves the first device, the access and mobility management function network element 1 deletes the association relationship between the tracking area information of the first device and the first network device.

For example, during a movement of the first device, the first device switches from the first network device to the second network device, i.e. at this time, the serving network device of the first device changes from the first network device to the second network device, and in case the second network device serves the first device, the access and mobility management function network element 1 deletes the association relationship between the tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device and the first device.

It should be noted that fig. 5 corresponds to the scenario one described above, i.e., during the movement of the first device from the first network device to the second network device, the access and mobility management function network element is not replaced, i.e., the access and mobility management function network element 1 (UE AMF1, VMR AMF 1) is connected to the first network device and the second network device.

Optionally, before S530, the method may further include: s521, the second network device sends tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device to the access and mobility management function network element 1, and accordingly, the access and mobility management function network element 1 receives tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device from the second network device.

S522, the access and mobility management function network element 1 stores association between the tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device and the second network device.

It should be understood that the second network device may be a donor gNB2, or may be a CU2 located in the second network device (donor gNB 2), and the first device may be a vehicle relay VMR, or may be a UE served by the VMR, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

Taking the second network device as a donor gNB2 and the first device as a VMR for illustration, the VMR interacts with the OAM through the user plane to obtain tracking area information of the VMR, then, a DU part (or as a DU) in the VMR interacts with a CU of the donor gNB2, and registers the tracking area information of the VMR to the CU of the donor gNB2 through the F1 setup procedure, and at this time, the CU of the donor gNB2 updates its corresponding tracking area information list (TAI list).

For example, in the case where the access and mobility management function network element 1 (e.g., UE AMF1, VMR AMF 1) is connected to the first network device and the second network device in the first context, the access and mobility management function network element 1 (UE AMF1, VMR AMF 1) receives the S-TAI of the first device from the second network device, it can be understood that the second network device informs all access and mobility management function network elements 1 (e.g., UE AMF1 and VMR AMF 1) connected thereto that the tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device is included in its own associated TAI list. At this time, the access and mobility management function network element 1 (UE AMF1, VMR AMF 1) saves the association of the S-TAI of the first device with the second network device.

It should be understood that the association between the S-TAI of the first device and the second network device may be an association between the S-TAI and the gNB2, for example, an association between the S-TAI of the first device and identification information (RAN ID 2) of the second network device (gNB 2), or an association between the S-TAI and CU2 located in the gNB2, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, in a possible implementation manner, in the case of the first scenario, that is, in a case where the access and mobility management function network element 1 connects the first network device and the second network device, after the access and mobility management function network element 1 receives the S-TAI of the first device from the second network device, the access and mobility management function network element 1 learns that the serving network device of the first device is switched from the first network device to the second network device according to the identifier (for example, RAN ID 2) included in the S-TAI of the first device received from the second network device, at this time, the access and mobility management function network element 1 deletes the association relationship between the S-TAI of the first device and the first network device by using the S-TAI as an index.

Optionally, in one possible implementation manner, the method may further include: s523, the first network device sends first indication information to the access and mobility management function network element 1, and accordingly, the access and mobility management function network element 1 receives the first indication information from the first network device, where the first indication information is used to indicate deletion of association between tracking area information of the first device and the first network device.

For example, in the first scenario, that is, in a case where the access and mobility management function network element 1 (UE AMF1, VMR AMF 1) is connected to the first network device and the second network device, the access and mobility management function network element 1 (UE AMF1, VMR AMF 1) deletes the association relationship between the S-TAI of the first device and the first network device according to the received first indication information, where the first indication information includes an identifier (for example, RAN ID 1).

It should be noted that S523 may be performed prior to S521 and S522, or may be performed after S521 and S522, and it should be understood that the embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific execution sequence.

For example, in one possible implementation manner, step S523 may be triggered by the switching of the first device from the first network device to the second network device, that is, when the first device switches from the first network device to the second network device, the first network device is triggered to send first indication information to the access and mobility management function network element 1, to indicate that the association relationship between the S-TAI of the first device and the first network device is deleted.

In the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, when a first device accesses a first network device, the access and mobility management function network element 1 stores association between tracking area information of the first device and the first network device. When the first equipment is switched from the first network equipment to the second network equipment, the mobile management function network element 1 stores the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the second network equipment, and deletes the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment stored before, so that the network side can timely know that the network equipment associated with the first equipment is changed from the first equipment to the second network equipment, when the network side needs to page the first equipment and/or the UE served by the first equipment, the network side can accurately locate the second network equipment, and the situation that the network side sends a paging message when the network side pages the first equipment and/or the UE served by the first equipment does not occur, thereby enabling the network side to more accurately perform mobility management on the UE and avoiding the waste of resources.

Fig. 6 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method 600 adapted to scenario two according to an embodiment of the present application, the method at least includes the following steps.

S610, the first network device sends tracking area information of the first device to the access and mobility management function network element 1, and accordingly, the access and mobility management function network element 1 receives tracking area information of the first device from the first network device.

S620, the access and mobility management function network element 1 stores the association relationship between the tracking area information of the first device and the first network device.

It should be noted that S610-S620 are similar to S510-S520, and are not repeated here for brevity.

Optionally, after S620, the method may further include S621, where the access and mobility management function network element 1 sends first registration information to the unified database network element, and accordingly, the unified database network element receives first registration information from the access and mobility management function network element 1, where the first registration information is used to register association between tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device and the first network device with the unified database.

For example, the access and mobility management function network element 1 may be an access and mobility management function network element 1 (for example, VMR AMF 1) registered by the first device, where the VMR AMF1 is connected to the first network device, and the VMR AMF1 sends first registration information to a unified database network element, where the first registration information includes identification information (for example, a donor gNB1 ID or RAN1 ID) of the first network device, and the unified database network element registers, according to the first registration information, tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device and an association relationship of the first network device in a unified database.

It should be noted that fig. 6 corresponds to scenario two described above, namely, during the movement of the first device from the first network device to the second network device, the access and mobility management function network element is replaced, and as shown in fig. 6, the access and mobility management function network element 1 is replaced with the access and mobility management network element 2. In other words, the access and mobility management function network element 1 (e.g. UE AMF1, VMR AMF 1) is connected to the first network device and the replaced access and mobility management function network element 2 (e.g. UE AMF2, VMR AMF 2) is connected to the second network device.

S630, the second network device sends tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device to the access and mobility management function network element 2, and accordingly, the access and mobility management function network element 2 receives the tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device from the second network device.

S640, the access and mobility management function network element 2 stores association between the tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device and the second network device.

Taking the second network device as the donor gNB2 and the first device as the VMR for illustration, the DU part (or as one DU) in the VMR interacts with the CU of the donor gNB2, and registers the tracking area information of the VMR to the CU of the donor gNB2 through the F1 setup procedure, and at this time, the CU of the donor gNB2 updates its corresponding tracking area information list (TAI list).

In scenario two, i.e. in case the access and mobility management function network element 1 (e.g. UE AMF1, VMR AMF 1) is connected to the first network device and the changed access and mobility management function network element 2 (e.g. UE AMF2, VMR AMF 2) is connected to the second network device, the changed access and mobility management function network element 2 (UE AMF2, VMR AMF 2) receives tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device from the second network device, it is understood that the second network device informs all access and mobility management function network elements 2 (e.g. UE AMF2, VMR AMF 2) connected thereto that the tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device is included in the TAI list associated with itself. At this time, the access and mobility management function network element 2 (UE AMF2, VMR AMF 2) stores association relation between tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device and the second network device.

Optionally, after S640, the method may further include S641, where the access and mobility management function network element 2 sends second registration information to the unified database network element, and accordingly, the unified database network element receives second registration information from the access and mobility management function network element 2, where the second registration information is used to register association between tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device and the second network device with the unified database.

For example, at this time, the access and mobility management function network element 2 may be the access and mobility management function network element 2 (for example, VMR AMF 2) registered by the first device, where the VMR AMF2 is connected to the second network device, and the VMR AMF2 sends second registration information to the unified database network element, where the second registration information includes identification information (for example, a donor gNB2 ID or RAN2 ID) of the second network device, and the unified database network element registers, according to the second registration information, association relationship between tracking area information of the first device and the second network device in the unified database.

S650, the first network device sends first indication information to the access and mobility management function network element 1, and accordingly, the access and mobility management function network element 1 receives the first indication information from the first network device, where the first indication information is used to indicate to delete association between tracking area information of the first device and the first network device.

For example, in the second scenario, that is, in the case where the access and mobility management function network element 1 (UE AMF1, VMR AMF 1) is connected to the first network device, the access and mobility management function network element 1 (UE AMF1, VMR AMF 1) deletes the association relationship between the S-TAI of the first device and the first network device according to the received first indication information, where the first indication information includes the identity (e.g., RAN ID 1) of the first network device.

It should be noted that S650 may be executed before S630 and S640, or may be executed after S630 and S640, and it should be understood that the embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific execution sequence.

For example, in one possible implementation manner, step S650 may be triggered by the switching of the first device from the first network device to the second network device, that is, when the first device is switched from the first network device to the second network device, the first network device is triggered to send first indication information to the access and mobility management function network element 1, to indicate that the association relationship between the S-TAI of the first device and the first network device is deleted.

Optionally, in a possible implementation manner, the first indication information may further include identification information of the second network device. For example, in scenario two, the access and mobility management function network element 1 (e.g. UE AMF1, VMR AMF 1) receives first indication information from the first network device, where the first indication information further includes identification information (e.g. a donor gNB2 ID or RAN2 ID) of the second network device. That is, the first network device informs the access and mobility management function network element 1 (UE AMF1, VMR AMF 1) that the target network device for the first device handover is the second network device, and at this time, the access and mobility management function network element (UE AMF 1) registered by the UE determines, according to the identification information of the second network device in the received first indication information, UE AMF2 connected to the second network device to provide services for the UE, and context migration of the UE is performed between the subsequent UE AMF1 and the UE AMF 2.

Optionally, in the second scenario, the method may further include S660, where the access and mobility management function network element 1 sends first request information to the unified database, and accordingly, the unified database receives first request information, where the first request information is used to request the unified database to delete association between tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device and the first network device.

For example, the access and mobility management function network element 1 may be an access and mobility management function network element registered by a VMR (for example, VMR AMF 1), where the VMR AMF1 is connected to the first network device, and the VMR AMF1 sends the first request information to a unified database, and the unified database deletes association between tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device and the first network device according to the received first request information.

It should be noted that, in step S650, the step S650 may be used to trigger step S660, where the donor gNB1 sends first indication information to the VMR AMF1 and the UE AMF1, where the first indication information is used to indicate deletion of the association relationship between the first network device and the S-TAI, optionally, in one possible implementation manner, the first indication information may further include VMR identification information (e.g. VMR ID 1), where the VMR AMF1 determines that VMR is served by itself according to the VMR identification information (e.g. VMR ID 1), so as to trigger the VMR AMF1 to send a first request message to the unified database, to request the unified database to delete the association relationship between the first network device and the S-TAI.

It should be understood that step S660 may also be an optional step, i.e. the access and mobility management function network element 1 may not send a request message to the unified database requesting deletion of the association of the first network device and the S-TAI information. In a possible implementation manner, S641 may be used to trigger the unified database to delete the association between the first network device and the S-TAI information, in other words, when the VMR AMF2 registers the association between the second network device and the S-TAI with the unified database, the unified database will delete the association between the first network device and the S-TAI at this time.

Optionally, in the second scenario, the method may further comprise: s670, the access and mobility management function network element 1 sends first query information to the unified database, and accordingly, the unified database receives the first query information, where the first query information is used to query the unified database for a network device associated with tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device.

For example, the access and mobility management function network element 1 may be an access and mobility management function network element (for example, UE AMF 1) registered by the UE, where the UE AMF1 is connected to the first network device, and the UE AMF1 sends the first query information to a unified database, where the unified database determines, according to an S-TAI carried in the received first query information, that the network device associated with tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device is the second network device.

For another example, the UE AMF1 uses a generic query service of a unified database, where the UE AMF1 carries in the first query information that the query target type is gNB (or RAN), and the query index is S-TAI, so that the unified database determines that the network device associated with the tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device is the second network device.

It should be noted that, step S670 may be triggered by step S650, that is, after the UE AMF1 deletes the association relationship between the tracking area information of the first device and the first network device according to the received first indication information, it may be determined that the first device corresponding to the tracking area information leaves the first network device, where the UE AMF1 needs to learn a new network device associated with the tracking area information of the first device, and then the UE AMF1 sends first query information to the unified database to query which new network device associated with the tracking area information of the first device is.

S680, the unified database sends first response information to the access and mobility management function network element, and accordingly, the access and mobility management function network element receives the first response information, where the first response information includes identification information of the second network device.

In scenario two, the access and mobility management function network element 1 may be a UE-registered access and mobility management function network element (e.g. UE AMF 1), the UE AMF1 being connected to the first network device.

After the unified database determines that the network device associated with the tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device is the second network device, the unified database transmits first response information to the UE AMF1, where the first response information includes identification information (e.g., a donor gNB2 ID or a RAN2 ID) of the second network device, that is, the unified database informs the UE AMF1 that the network device associated with the tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device is the second network device.

It should be noted that S670 is an optional step, that is, when the access and mobility management function network element (e.g., UE AMF 1) may subscribe to the unified database in advance to a change situation of the network device associated with the tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device, and upon a change of the network device associated with the tracking area information (S-TAI) of the first device, for example, a change from the first network device to the second network device, the unified database directly sends the UE AMF1 first response information, that is, informs that the network device associated with the S-TAI of the first device is changed to the second network device.

In the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, when a first device accesses a first network device, the access and mobility management function network element 1 stores association between tracking area information of the first device and the first network device. When the first device is switched from the first network device to the second network device, the mobility management function network element 2 stores the association relationship between the tracking area information of the first device and the second network device, and the mobility management function network element 1 deletes the association relationship between the tracking area information of the first device and the first network device stored before and acquires the identification information of the second network device from the first network device. Through the technical scheme, the network side can timely know that the network equipment associated with the first equipment is changed from the first equipment to the second network equipment, and further when the network side needs to page the first equipment and/or the UE served by the first equipment, the second network equipment can be accurately positioned, the condition that the network side indicates the first network equipment to send paging information when the network side pages the first equipment and/or the UE served by the first equipment cannot occur, and therefore the network side can more accurately perform mobility management on the UE, and resource waste is avoided.

In order to facilitate understanding of the present application, in the following embodiments, description is made in place of the first device by unifying the in-vehicle relay VMR.

Fig. 7 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method 700 provided in the embodiment of the present application, and it should be noted that the method 700 mainly corresponds to scenario one described above, that is, during the moving process of the VMR from the donor gNB1 to the donor gNB2, the access and mobility management function network elements are not replaced, that is, the access and mobility management function network elements (for example, UE AMF, VMR AMF) are connected to the donor gNB1 and the donor gNB 2. The UE AMF and the VMR AMF may be the same AMF (i.e., interaction between the two AMFs may be achieved through internal interaction), or may be different AMFs. The following description will take an example in which the UE AMF and the VMR AMF are different AMFs. The method comprises at least the following steps.

In this embodiment, the UE served by the VMR is an idle UE.

S710, the VMR registers with the network (CN) and establishes a PDU session.

For example, VMR is registered in the network, and access and mobility management function network element VMR AMF provides services for VMR. The VMR establishes a PDU session so that the VMR communicates with the OAM system through the user plane, which returns specific tracking area information (S-TAI) for the VMR through the user plane to the VMR. Then, the VMR performs information interaction with the CU in the donor gNB1, and the VMR registers the S-TAI to the CU of the donor gNB1 through the F1 setup flow. At this time, CU1 of the donor gNB1 updates the corresponding TAI list.

S720, the donor gNB1 sends the S-TAI of the VMR to the UE AMF network element and the VMR AMF network element, and accordingly, the UE AMF network element and the VMR AMF network element receive the S-TAI of the VMR.

For example, since the current VMR communicates through the donor gNB1, the donor gNB1 sends the S-TAI of the VMR to the AMF with which it has established a connection. Whereas the AMF that has established a connection with the donor gNB1 includes the UE AMF and the VMR AMF, it can be understood that the donor gNB1 sends the S-TAI of the VMR to the UE AMF network element and the VMR AMF network element. The S-TAI of the VMR may be described with reference to FIG. 5 and will not be described again here.

For example, the donor gNB1 may send the S-TAI of the VMR to the UE AMF network element and the VMR AMF network element via a configuration update message 1. That is, the S-TAI of the VMR is included in the configuration update message 1.

Optionally, in one possible implementation manner, the configuration update message 1 includes S-TAI of the VMR and VMR indication information, where the VMR indication information is used to indicate UE AMF network elements and VMR AMF network elements that the S-TAI is specific tracking area information of the VMR. The donor gNB1 informs all AMFs (including UE AMFs and VMR AMFs) connected to the donor gNB1 that there is one VMR in its jurisdiction and the tracking area information (S-TAI) of the VMR through a configuration update message 1 (Ran configurationupdate 1).

Alternatively, in one possible implementation, the configuration update message 1 may include only S-TAI information of the VMR, that is, no VMR indication information. The S-TAI includes specific information, through which the UE AMF network element and the VMR AMF network element can identify that the S-TAI is specific tracking area information (S-TAI) of the dedicated VMR.

Optionally, in one possible implementation, the network side (CN) defines a TAI list specific to the VMR for the VMR, and then the UE AMF network element and the VMR AMF network element identify that the S-TAI is specific tracking area information (S-TAI) of the specific VMR according to the S-TAI being the TAI list.

It should be noted that, during the moving process of the VMR, the tracking area information broadcasted by the VMR to the UE served by the VMR is fixed, i.e. S-TAI. That is, even if the VMR switches from the donor gNB1 to the donor gNB2, the tracking area information (S-TAI) of the VMR is fixed.

S730, the UE registers in the network through the VMR, the UE AMF performs access and mobility management on the UE, the UE AMF is located in the area range of the S-TAI information according to the position information of the UE, and the UE is informed that the UE is served by the VMR, and at the moment, the UE AMF distributes the S-TAI as a TAI List of the UE. In contrast, if the UE AMF knows that the UE is not served by the VMR according to that the location information of the UE is not located in the area where the S-TAI information is located, the UE AMF allocates a TAI List for the UE that is not served by the VMR, and the TAI List does not include the S-TAI.

S740, VMR switches from the donor gNB1 to the donor gNB2.

For example, in the process of switching VMR from the donor gNB1 to the donor gNB2, the UE AMF network element and the VMR AMF network element are not replaced, in other words, the AMF network element to which the donor gNB1 is connected is the same as the AMF network element to which the donor gNB2 is connected, for example, the donor gNB1 connects the UE AMF1 and the VMRAMF1, and the donor gNB1 also connects the UE AMF1 and the VMRAMF1.

S750, the VMR registers the S-TAI obtained from the OAM system in the donor gNB2.

For example, the VMR performs information interaction with the CU in the donor gNB2, and the VMR registers the S-TAI with the CU2 of the donor gNB2 through the F1 setup procedure. At this time, CU2 of the donor gNB2 updates the corresponding TAI list.

S760, the donor gNB2 sends the S-TAI of the VMR to the UE AMF network element and the VMR AMF network element, and accordingly, the UE AMF network element and the VMR AMF network element receive the S-TAI of the VMR.

For example, since the current VMR communicates through the donor gNB2, the donor gNB2 sends the S-TAI of the VMR to the AMF with which it has established a connection. Whereas the AMF that has established a connection with the donor gNB1 includes the UE AMF and the VMR AMF, it can be understood that the donor gNB2 sends the S-TAI of the VMR to the UE AMF network element and the VMR AMF network element. The S-TAI of the VMR may be described with reference to FIG. 5 and will not be described again here.

For example, the donor gNB2 may send the S-TAI of the VMR to the UE AMF network element and the VMR AMF network element via the configuration update message 2. That is, the S-TAI of the VMR is included in the configuration update message 2.

Optionally, in one possible implementation manner, the configuration update message 2 includes S-TAI of the VMR and VMR indication information, where the VMR indication information is used to indicate that the UE AMF network element and the VMR AMF network element are specific tracking area information of the VMR. The donor gNB2 informs all AMFs (including UE AMFs and VMR AMFs) connected to the donor gNB2 that there is one VMR in its jurisdiction and the tracking area information (S-TAI) of the VMR through a configuration update message 2 (Ran configurationupdate).

Alternatively, in one possible implementation, the configuration update message 2 may include only S-TAI information of the VMR, that is, no VMR indication information. The S-TAI includes specific information, through which the UE AMF network element and the VMR AMF network element can identify that the S-TAI is specific tracking area information (S-TAI) of the dedicated VMR. Alternatively, in another possible implementation, the network side (CN) defines a TAI list specific to the VMR for the VMR, and then the UE AMF network element and the VMR AMF network element identify that the S-TAI is specific tracking area information (S-TAI) of the specific VMR according to that the S-TAI belongs to the TAI list.

S770, the donor gNB1 sends a configuration update message 3 to the UE AMF network element and the VMR AMF network element.

For example, the configuration update message 3 is used to instruct all AMFs (UE AMF network element and VMR AMF network element) connected to the donor gNB1 to delete S-TAI, or it can be said that the configuration update message 3 is used to instruct all AMFs connected to the donor gNB1 to delete association of S-TAI with the donor gNB1 or CU1 in the donor gNB1. At this time, the VMR AMF1 and the UE AMF1 delete the association relationship between the S-TAI of the VMR and the donor gNB1 according to the received configuration update message 3, where the configuration update message 3 includes the identifier of the donor gNB1 (for example, gNB ID 1). It will be appreciated that the donor gNB1 informs all AMFs connected to it that the jurisdiction of the donor gNB1 has left a VMR whose tracking area information is S-TAI. It means that all AMFs (UE AMF network element and VMR AMF network element) connected to the donor gNB1 are informed of the subsequent processing for VMR and UE corresponding to the S-TAI, and do not find the donor gNB1.

For example, when the network needs to page the UE served by the VMR and/or the VMR, the VMR AMF and/or the UE AMF network element can accurately locate to the donor gNB 2, and the situation that the VMR AMF and/or the UE AMF instructs the donor gNB1 to send the paging message will not occur when the network pages the UE served by the VMR, thereby avoiding wasting resources.

It should be noted that, step S770 may also be performed after step S740, and it may be understood that the VMR in step S740 is switched from the donor gNB1 to the donor gNB2, and the donor gNB1 in step S770 can be triggered to send a configuration update message 3 to the UE AMF network element and the VMR AMF network element, where the configuration update message 3 is used to indicate that the association relationship between the donor gNB1 and the S-TAI is deleted. It should be understood that embodiments of the present application are not limited in order of execution herein.

It should be understood that, the present application may also indicate the deletion of the association relationship between the donor gNB1 and the S-TAI information through other messages/information, and the configuration update message 3 is merely illustrative, which is not limited by the embodiment of the present application.

In the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, when the VMR accesses the donor gNB1, the AMF (e.g., VMR AMF, UE AMF) stores the association relationship between the S-TAI of the VMR and the donor gNB 1. When the VMR is switched from the donor gNB1 to the donor gNB2, the AMF (e.g., VMR AMF, UE AMF) deletes the association between the S-TAI of the VMR and the donor gNB1 stored before. Through the technical scheme, the network side can timely know that the network equipment associated with the VMR is changed into the donor gNB2, further when the network side needs to page the VMR and/or the UE served by the VMR, the donor gNB2 associated with the VMR can be accurately positioned, and when the network side does not page the VMR and/or the UE served by the VMR, the network side indicates other network equipment (such as the donor gNB 1) to send paging information, so that the network side can more accurately perform mobility management on the UE, and resource waste is avoided.

Fig. 8 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method 800 provided in the embodiment of the present application, it should be noted that, the method 800 mainly corresponds to scenario two described above, that is, during a handover of VMR from a donor gNB1 to a donor gNB2, an access and mobility management function network element is replaced, that is, the access and mobility management function network element (for example, UE AMF1, VMR AMF 1) is connected to the donor gNB1, and the access and mobility management function network element (for example, UE AMF2, VMR AMF 2) is connected to the donor gNB2, where UE AMF1 and VMR AMF1 may be the same AMF, UE AMF2 and VMR AMF2 may be the same AMF, (that is, interaction between two AMFs may be achieved through internal interaction), or may also be different AMFs. The following description will take an example in which the UE AMF and the VMR AMF are different AMFs. The method comprises at least the following steps.

In this embodiment, the UE served by the VMR is an idle UE.

S810, the VMR registers with the network (CN) and establishes a PDU session.

For example, VMR is registered in the network, and access and mobility management function network element VMR AMF1 serves VMR. The VMR establishes a PDU session so that the VMR communicates with the OAM system through the user plane, which returns specific tracking area information (S-TAI) for the VMR through the user plane to the VMR. Then the VMR performs information interaction with CU1 in the donor gNB1, and the VMR registers S-TAI to CU1 of the donor gNB1 through the F1 setup flow. At this time, CU1 of the donor gNB1 updates the corresponding TAI list.

S820, the donor gNB1 sends the S-TAI of the VMR to the UE AMF1 network element and the VMR AMF1 network element, and correspondingly, the UE AMF1 network element and the VMR AMF1 network element receive the S-TAI of the VMR.

For example, since the current VMR communicates through the donor gNB1, the donor gNB1 sends the S-TAI of the VMR to the AMF with which it has established a connection. Whereas the AMF that has established a connection with the donor gNB1 includes the UE AMF1 and the VMR AMF1, it can be understood that the donor gNB1 sends the S-TAI of the VMR to the UE AMF1 network element and the VMR AMF1 network element. The S-TAI of the VMR may be described with reference to FIG. 5 and will not be described again here.

For example, the donor gNB1 may send the S-TAI of the VMR to the UE AMF1 network element and the VMR AMF1 network element via the configuration update message 1. That is, the S-TAI of the VMR is included in the configuration update message 1.

Optionally, in one possible implementation manner, the configuration update message 1 includes S-TAI of the VMR and VMR indication information, where the VMR indication information is used to indicate that the UE AMF1 network element and the VMR AMF1 network element are specific tracking area information of the VMR. The donor gNB1 informs all AMFs (including UE AMF1 and VMR AMF 1) connected to the donor gNB1 that there is one VMR in its jurisdiction and tracking area information (S-TAI) of the VMR through a configuration update message 1 (Ran configurationupdate 1).

Alternatively, in one possible implementation, the configuration update message 1 may include only S-TAI information of the VMR, that is, no VMR indication information. The S-TAI includes specific information, and through the specific information, the UE AMF1 network element and the VMR AMF1 network element can identify that the S-TAI is specific tracking area information (S-TAI) of the dedicated VMR. Alternatively, in another possible implementation, the network side (CN) defines a TAI list specific to the VMR for the VMR, and then the UE AMF1 network element and the VMR AMF1 network element identify that the S-TAI is specific tracking area information (S-TAI) of the specific VMR according to that the S-TAI belongs to the TAI list.

S830, the UE registers in the network through the VMR, the UE AMF1 performs access and mobility management on the VMR, the UE AMF1 is located in the area where the S-TAI information is located according to the position information of the UE, and knows that the UE is served by the VMR, and at this time, the UE AMF1 allocates the S-TAI as a TAI List of the UE. In contrast, if the UE AMF1 knows that the UE is not served by the VMR according to that the location information of the UE is not located in the area where the S-TAI information is located, the UE AMF1 allocates a TAI List for the UE that is not served by the VMR, and the TAI List does not include the S-TAI.

S840, VMR switches from the donor gNB1 to the donor gNB2.

For example, in the process of switching VMR from the donor gNB1 to the donor gNB2, the UE AMF network element and the VMR AMF network element are replaced, in other words, the AMF network element to which the donor gNB1 is connected is different from the AMF network element to which the donor gNB2 is connected, for example, the donor gNB1 connects the UE AMF1 and the VMRAMF1, and the donor gNB2 connects the UE AMF2 and the VMRAMF2.

S850, the VMR registers the S-TAI obtained from the OAM system in the donor gNB2. It should be noted that S850 is similar to S750, and for brevity, this application is not repeated here.

S860, the donor gNB2 receives the S-TAI of the VMR from the UE AMF2 network element and the VMR AMF2 network element, respectively, from the UE AMF2 network element and the VMR AMF2 network element.

For example, since the current VMR communicates through the donor gNB2, the donor gNB2 sends the S-TAI of the VMR to the AMF with which it has established a connection. Whereas the AMF that has established a connection with the donor gNB1 includes UE AMF2 and VMR AMF2, it can be understood that the donor gNB2 sends S-TAI of VMR to the UE AMF2 network element and the VMR AMF2 network element. The S-TAI of the VMR may be described with reference to FIG. 5 and will not be described again here.

For example, the donor gNB2 may send the S-TAI of the VMR to the UE AMF2 network element and the VMR AMF2 network element via the configuration update message 2. That is, the S-TAI of the VMR is included in the configuration update message 2.

Optionally, in one possible implementation manner, the configuration update message 2 includes S-TAI of the VMR and VMR indication information, where the VMR indication information is used to indicate that the UE AMF2 network element and the VMR AMF2 network element are specific tracking area information of the VMR. For example, the donor gNB2 informs all AMFs (including UE AMF2 and VMR AMF 2) connected to the donor gNB2 that there is one VMR in its jurisdiction and the tracking area information (S-TAI) of the VMR through the configuration update message 2 (Ran configurationupdate 2).

Alternatively, in one possible implementation, the configuration update message 2 may include only S-TAI information of the VMR, that is, no VMR indication information. The S-TAI includes specific information, and through the specific information, the UE AMF2 network element and the VMR AMF2 network element can identify that the S-TAI is specific tracking area information (S-TAI) of the dedicated VMR. Alternatively, in another possible implementation, the network side (CN) defines a TAI list specific to the VMR for the VMR, and then the UE AMF2 network element and the VMR AMF2 network element identify that the S-TAI is specific tracking area information (S-TAI) of the specific VMR according to that the S-TAI belongs to the TAI list.

S870, the donor gNB1 sends a configuration update message 3 to the VMR AMF1 and the UE AMF1, and accordingly, the VMR AMF1 and the UE AMF1 receive the configuration update message 3 sent by the donor gNB 1.

For example, the configuration update message 3 is used to instruct all AMFs (UE AMF1 network element and VMR AMF1 network element) connected to the donor gNB1 to delete S-TAI, or it can be said that the configuration update message 3 is used to instruct all AMFs connected to the donor gNB1 to delete association relation of S-TAI with the donor gNB1 or CU1 in the donor gNB1. At this time, the VMR AMF1 and the UE AMF1 delete the association relationship between the S-TAI of the VMR and the donor gNB1 according to the received configuration update message 3, where the configuration update message 3 includes the identifier of the donor gNB1 (for example, gNB ID 1). It will be appreciated that the donor gNB1 informs all AMFs connected to it that the jurisdiction of the donor gNB1 has left a VMR whose tracking area information is S-TAI. It means that all the AMFs (UE AMF1 and VMR AMF 1) connected to the donor gNB1 know about the subsequent processing for VMR and UE corresponding to the S-TAI, and do not find the donor gNB1.

In a possible implementation manner, the configuration update message 3 includes identification information (e.g., a donor gNB2 ID) of the second network device, for example, the donor gNB1 notifies all AMFs (e.g., UE AMF1, VMR AMF 1) connected thereto that the target network device for VMR handover is the donor gNB2.

It should be noted that, step S870 may also be performed after step S840, and it may be understood that the VMR in step S840 is switched from the donor gNB1 to the donor gNB2, which can trigger the donor gNB1 to send the configuration update message 3 to the UE AMF1 network element and the VMR AMF1 network element in step S870. It should be understood that embodiments of the present application are not limited in order of execution herein.

S880, the UE AMF1 selects the UE AMF2 connected with the donor gNB2 to provide service for the UE according to the received identification information of the second network equipment included in the configuration update message 3.

It should be noted that, before S880, the donor gNB2 interacts with all the connected AMF network elements, including the UE AMF2 described above, but it should be noted that, before S880, it is not determined which specific AMF is to take over the UE AMF1 to serve the UE, i.e. before S880, it is not determined that the UE AMF2 is to serve the UE. However, since UE AMF2 is connected to the donor gNB2, the AMF of S-TAI receiving the VMR transmitted by the donor gNB2 in step S860 includes UE AMF2 determined later for the UE.

S890, UE AMF1 performs context migration with UE AMF2.

In one possible implementation, the UE AMF1 requests, through the namf_communication_creation_uecontext service, the UE AMF2 to establish a UE context, where the UE context includes indication information that the UE is served by the VMR, and specifically, the indication information may be a direct indication identifier.

As an example, if the indication identity information is set to "1" or "TRUE", it indicates that the UE is served by VMR; if the indication identity information is set to "0" or "FALSE", it indicates that the UE is not served by the VMR.

As yet another example, when the network side (CN) divides the TAI, it may be understood that when the TAI belongs to a specific S-TAI, it indicates that the S-TAI is tracking area information of the VMR, that is, the UE is served by the VMR. The AMF network element may determine that the UE is VMR-serviced by the UE based on the S-TAI of the UE.

Alternatively, in one possible implementation, the UE AMF 1 instructs the UE AMF 2 to acquire the UE context from the UE AMF 1 through the namf_communication_uecontext transfer service. The UE context includes indication that the UE is served by the VMR. And the indication information of the UE AMF 1 indicating that the UE AMF 2 obtains the UE context may further include identification information of the target AMF (e.g., UE AMF 1).

The indication information may be a direct indication identification information. For example, if the indication identifier information is set to "1" or "TRUE", it indicates that the UE is VMR-serviced; if the indication identity information is set to "0" or "FALSE", it indicates that the UE is not served by the VMR.

It should be noted that, step S890 is triggered by step S870, that is, after the UE AMF1 receives the configuration update message 3 of step S870, it is identified that the donor gNB1 no longer provides services for the VMR corresponding to the S-TAI, but the donor gNB2 provides services for the VMR. Since UE AMF1 cannot connect with the donor gNB2 (perhaps from a load balancing consideration), UE AMF1 selects a target UE AMF, UE AMF2, to serve the UE based on the donor gNB 2. Then, since UE AMF1 deduces that the UE corresponding to S-TAI has moved out of its service range, UE AMF1 needs to migrate the context of the corresponding UE to UE AMF2.

S8100, UE AMF2 requests SMF update corresponding SM context.

For example, the UE AMF2 requests the corresponding SMF network element to update the SM context of the PDU session according to the PDU session identification and the SMF information in the context information in S890, and the SMF replaces the UE AMF1 with the UE AMF2.

S8110, UE AMF2 assigns a temporary number (5G-globally unique temporary identifier, 5G-GUTI) identifying the user identity worldwide to the UE, initiates a 5G-GUTI update procedure, and registers with the UDM.

In the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, when the VMR accesses the donor gNB1, the VMR AMF and the UE AMF1 connected to the donor gNB1 store the association relationship between the S-TAI of the VMR and the donor gNB 1. When the VMR is switched from the donor gNB1 to the donor gNB2, the associated relation between the S-TAI of the VMR and the donor gNB1 stored before the VMR AMF1 and the UE AMF1 are deleted, and the identification Information (ID) of the donor gNB2 is known from the donor gNB 1. Through the technical scheme, the network side can timely know that the network equipment associated with the VMR is changed into the donor gNB2, further when the network side needs to page the VMR and/or the UE served by the VMR, the donor gNB2 associated with the VMR can be accurately positioned, and when the network side does not page the VMR and/or the UE served by the VMR, the network side indicates other network equipment (such as the donor gNB 1) to send paging information, so that the network side can more accurately manage the mobility of the UE, and resource waste is avoided.

Fig. 9 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method 900 provided in this embodiment of the present application, and it should be noted that, in the foregoing scenario two, that is, in the moving process of the VMR from the donor gNB1 to the donor gNB2, the method 900 mainly corresponds to replacing an access and mobility management function network element, that is, the access and mobility management function network element (for example, UE AMF1, VMR AMF 1) is connected to the donor gNB1, and the access and mobility management function network element (for example, UE AMF2, VMR AMF 2) is connected to the donor gNB2, where UE AMF1 and VMR AMF1 may be the same AMF, UE AMF2 and VMR AMF2 may be the same AMF, (that is, interaction between two AMFs may be implemented through internal interaction), or may also be different AMFs. The following description will take an example in which the UE AMF and the VMR AMF are different AMFs. The method comprises at least the following steps.

In this embodiment, the UE served by the VMR is an idle UE.

S910, the VMR registers with the network (CN) and establishes a PDU session.

It should be noted that S910 is similar to S810, and for simplicity, the disclosure is not repeated here.

S920, the donor gNB1 sends S-TAI and VMR identification information of the VMR (e.g., VMR ID 1) to the UE AMF1 network element and the VMR AMF1 network element, and accordingly, the UE AMF1 network element and the VMR AMF1 network element receive S-TAI and VMR identification information of the VMR (e.g., VMR ID 1).

For example, since the current VMR communicates through the donor gNB1, the donor gNB1 sends the S-TAI of the VMR to the AMF with which it has established a connection. Whereas the AMF that has established a connection with the donor gNB1 includes the UE AMF1 and the VMR AMF1, it can be understood that the donor gNB1 sends S-TAI and VMR identification information (e.g., VMR ID 1) of the VMR to the UE AMF1 network element and the VMR AMF1 network element. The S-TAI of the VMR may be described with reference to FIG. 5 and will not be described again here.

For example, the donor gNB1 may send the S-TAI of the VMR and VMR identification information (e.g., VMR ID 1) to the UE AMF1 network element and the VMR AMF1 network element via a configuration update message 1. That is, the configuration update message 1 includes the S-TAI of the VMR and VMR identification information (e.g., VMR ID 1).

Optionally, in one possible implementation manner, the configuration update message 1 includes S-TAI of the VMR, VMR indication information, and VMR identification information (for example, VMR ID 1), where the VMR indication information is used to indicate UE AMF1 network elements and VMR AMF1 network elements that the S-TAI is specific tracking area information of the VMR. The donor gNB1 informs all AMFs (including UE AMF1 and VMR AMF 1) connected to the donor gNB1 that there is one VMR in its jurisdiction and tracking area information (S-TAI) of the VMR through a configuration update message 1 (Ran configurationupdate 1).

Alternatively, in one possible implementation, the configuration update message 1 may also include only S-TAI information of the VMR and VMR identification information (e.g., VMR ID 1), that is, no VMR indication information. The S-TAI includes specific information, and through the specific information, the UE AMF1 network element and the VMR AMF1 network element can identify that the S-TAI is specific tracking area information (S-TAI) of the dedicated VMR. Alternatively, in another possible implementation, the network side (CN) defines a TAI list specific to the VMR for the VMR, and then the UE AMF1 network element and the VMR AMF1 network element identify that the S-TAI is specific tracking area information (S-TAI) of the specific VMR according to that the S-TAI belongs to the TAI list.

S930, the VMR AMF1 registers the association between the donor gNB1 and the S-TAI with the UDR, and accordingly, the UDR stores the association between the donor gNB1 and the S-TAI.

For example, the VMR AMF1 determines that the VMR is served by itself based on VMR identification information (e.g., VMR ID 1) in S920, so that the VMR AMF1 registers the association relationship between the donor gNB1 and the S-TAI to the UDR. The registration message includes a donor gNB1 ID (or RAN1 ID) and an S-TAI. And the other AMFs receiving the message in step S920 determine that they do not serve the VMR, and may not register the association relationship with the UDR.

Note that the registration message may not include the VMR ID.

It should be understood that the association relationship may be an association relationship between the donor gNB1 and the S-TAI of the VMR, or an association relationship between the CU1 located in the donor gNB1 and the S-TAI of the VMR, which is not limited herein in the embodiment of the present application.

S940, the UE registers in the network through the VMR, the UE AMF1 performs access and mobility management on the VMR, the UE AMF1 is located in the area where the S-TAI information is located according to the position information of the UE, and knows that the UE is served by the VMR, and at this time, the UE AMF1 allocates the S-TAI as a TAI List of the UE. In contrast, if the UE AMF1 knows that the UE is not served by the VMR according to that the location information of the UE is not located in the area where the S-TAI information is located, the UE AMF1 allocates a TAI List for the UE that is not served by the VMR, and the TAI List does not include the S-TAI.

S950, the VMR switches from the donor gNB1 to the donor gNB2.

S960, the VMR registers the S-TAI obtained from the OAM system in the donor gNB2.

It should be noted that S940-S960 are similar to S840-S860, and are not repeated herein for brevity.

S970, the donor gNB2 sends S-TAI and VMR identification information (e.g., VMR ID 1) of the VMR to the UE AMF2 network element and VMR AMF2 network element, and accordingly, the UE AMF2 network element and VMR AMF2 network element receive S-TAI and VMR identification information (e.g., VMR ID 1) of the VMR.

For example, since the current VMR communicates through the donor gNB2, the donor gNB2 sends the S-TAI of the VMR to the AMF with which it has established a connection. Whereas the AMF that has established a connection with the donor gNB2 includes the UE AMF2 and the VMR AMF2, it can be understood that the donor gNB2 sends S-TAI and VMR identification information (e.g. VMR ID 1) of the VMR to the UE AMF2 network element and the VMR AMF2 network element. The S-TAI of the VMR may be described with reference to FIG. 5 and will not be described again here.

For example, the donor gNB2 may send the S-TAI of the VMR and VMR identification information (e.g., VMR ID 1) to the UE AMF2 network element and the VMR AMF2 network element via the configuration update message 2. That is, the configuration update message 2 includes the S-TAI of the VMR and VMR identification information (e.g., VMR ID 1).

Optionally, in one possible implementation manner, the configuration update message 2 includes S-TAI of the VMR, VMR indication information, and VMR identification information (for example, VMR ID 1), where the VMR indication information is used to indicate the UE AMF2 network element and the VMR AMF2 network element that the S-TAI is specific tracking area information of the VMR. The donor gNB2 informs all AMFs (including UE AMF2 and VMR AMF 2) connected to the donor gNB2 that there is one VMR in its jurisdiction and the tracking area information (S-TAI) of the VMR through a configuration update message 2 (Ran configuration update 2).

Alternatively, in one possible implementation, the configuration update message 2 may also include only S-TAI information of the VMR and VMR identification information (e.g., VMR ID 1), that is, no VMR indication information. The S-TAI includes specific information, and through the specific information, the UE AMF2 network element and the VMR AMF2 network element can identify that the S-TAI is specific tracking area information (S-TAI) of the dedicated VMR. Alternatively, in another possible implementation, the network side (CN) defines a TAI list specific to the VMR for the VMR, and then the UE AMF2 network element and the VMR AMF2 network element identify that the S-TAI is specific tracking area information (S-TAI) of the specific VMR according to that the S-TAI belongs to the TAI list.

S980, the VMR AMF2 registers the association relation between the donor gNB2 and the S-TAI to the UDR, and correspondingly, the UDR stores the association relation between the donor gNB2 and the S-TAI.

For example, VMR AMF2 determines that VMR is served by itself based on VMR identification information (e.g., VMR ID 1) in S970, so that VMR AMF2 registers the association relationship of donor gNB2 and S-TAI to UDR. The registration message includes a donor gNB2 ID (or RAN2 ID) and an S-TAI. And the other AMFs that received the message in step S970 determine that they have not serviced the VMR, and do not register the association with the UDR.

Note that the registration message may not include VMR identification information (e.g., VMR ID 1).

It should be understood that the association relationship may be an association relationship between the donor gNB2 and the S-TAI of the VMR, or an association relationship between the CU2 located in the donor gNB2 and the S-TAI of the VMR, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

S990, the donor gNB1 sends a configuration update message 3 to the VMR AMF1 and the UE AMF1, and accordingly, the VMR AMF1 and the UE AMF1 receive the configuration update message 3 sent by the donor gNB1.

It should be noted that, step S990 may also be performed after step S950, and it may be understood that the VMR in step S950 is switched from the donor gNB1 to the donor gNB2, which can trigger the donor gNB1 to send the configuration update message 3 to the UE AMF1 network element and the VMR AMF1 network element in step S990. It should be understood that embodiments of the present application are not limited in order of execution herein.

S9100, VMR AMF1 sends a request message to UDR requesting that the UDR delete the association of the donor gNB1 and the S-TAI information. Correspondingly, the UDR receives the request message and deletes the association relation between the donor gNB1 and the S-TAI information according to the request message.

It should be noted that, in step S990, the step S990 may be used to trigger step S9100, where the donor gNB1 sends a configuration update message 3 to the VMR AMF1 and the UE AMF1, where the configuration update message 3 is used to indicate that the association relationship between the donor gNB1 and the S-TAI information is deleted. Optionally, in one possible implementation manner, the configuration update message 3 may include VMR identification information (e.g., VMR ID 1), where the VMR AMF1 determines that VMR is served by itself according to the VMR identification information (e.g., VMR ID 1), so as to trigger the VMR AMF1 to send a request message to the UDR, requesting the UDR to delete the association relationship between the donor gNB1 and the S-TAI information.

It should be appreciated that step S9100 may also be an optional step, i.e., VMR AMF1 may not send a request message to the UDR requesting that the UDR delete the association of the donor gNB1 and the S-TAI information. In one possible implementation, S980 may be used to trigger the UDR to delete the association between the donor gNB1 and the S-TAI information, in other words, when the VMR AMF2 registers the association between the donor gNB2 and the S-TAI with the UDR, the UDR will delete the association between the donor gNB1 and the S-TAI information.

The UE AMF1 sends a query message to the UDR for querying the network device associated with the S-TAI information, S9110. Accordingly, the UDR receives the query message.

For example, the UE AMF1 sends a query message to the UDR, which determines, according to the S-TAI carried in the received query message, that the network device associated with the tracking area information (S-TAI) of the VMR is a donor gNB2.

For another example, the UE AMF1 utilizes a universal query service of the UDR, where the UE AMF1 carries a query target type gNB (or RAN) in the query message, and the query index is S-TAI, so that the UDR determines that the network device associated with the tracking area information (S-TAI) of the VMR is a donor gNB2.

It should be noted that, step S9110 may be triggered by step S990, that is, after the UE AMF1 deletes the association relationship between the tracking area information of the VMR and the donor gNB1 according to the received configuration update message 3, it may be determined that the VMR corresponding to the S-TAI leaves the donor gNB1, where the UE AMF1 needs to learn about a new network device associated with the tracking area information of the VMR, and then the UE AMF1 sends a query message to the UDR to query which new network device associated with the tracking area information of the VMR is.

And S9120, the UDR sends a response message to the UE AMF1, wherein the response message comprises identification information (e.g. a donor gNB2 ID) of the second network equipment, and accordingly, the UE AMF1 receives the response message sent by the UDR.

And S9130, the UE AMF1 determines that the network equipment associated with the S-TAI is the donor gNB2 according to the received response message, and further selects the UE AMF2 connected with the donor gNB2 to provide service for the UE.

After the UDR determines that the network device associated with the tracking area information (S-TAI) of the VMR is the donor gNB2, the UDR sends a response message to the UE AMF1, where the response message includes identification information (e.g., a donor gNB2 ID or a RAN2 ID) of the donor gNB2, that is, the UDR informs the UE that the network device associated with the tracking area information (S-TAI) of the VMR is the donor gNB2.

It should be noted that, before S9130, the donorg nb2 interacts with all connected AMF network elements, including the UE AMF2 described above, but it should be noted that before S9130, it is not determined that a specific AMF serves the UE to take over for the UE AMF1, i.e. before S9130, it is not determined that the UE AMF2 serves the UE.

And S9140, the UE AMF1 and the UE AMF2 perform context migration. It should be noted that S9140 is similar to S890, and for brevity, the description of this application is omitted here.

It should be further noted that, step S9140 may be triggered by step S990 and step 9120, that is, after UE AMF1 receives configuration update message 3 of step S990, it is identified that the donor gNB 1 no longer serves the VMR corresponding to S-TAI. The UE AMF1 determines that the dnor gNB2 is currently used to provide services for the VMR according to the identification information of the dnor gNB2 included in the response message in step 9120, and since the UE AMF1 and the dnor gNB2 cannot be connected (perhaps due to load balancing considerations), the dnor gNB2 selects the target UE AMF, i.e., the UE AMF2, to provide services for the UE. Then, since UE AMF1 deduces that the UE corresponding to S-TAI has moved out of its service range, UE AMF1 needs to migrate the context of the corresponding UE to UE AMF 2.

S9150, UE AMF2 requests SMF update of the corresponding SM context.

For example, the UE AMF2 requests to the corresponding SMF network element to update the SM context of the PDU session according to the PDU session identifier and the SMF information in the context information in S9140, and the SMF replaces the UE AMF1 with the UE AMF2.

S9160, UE AMF2 allocates 5G-GUTI for the UE, initiates a 5G-GUTI update procedure, and registers with the UDM.

In the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, when the VMR switches from the donor gNB1 to the donor gNB2, the AMF (UE AMF2, VMR AMF 2) connected to the donor gNB2 registers the association relationship between the donor gNB2 and the S-TAI with the UDR, however, the VMR AMF1 connected to the donor gNB1 requests the UDR to delete the saved association relationship between the donor gNB1 and the S-TAI, and then the UE AMF1 connected to the donor gNB1 will learn from the UDR that the donor gNB2 is associated with the S-TAI. Through the technical scheme, the network side can timely know that the network equipment associated with the S-TAI of the VMR is changed into the donor gNB2, so that when the network side needs to page the VMR and/or the UE served by the VMR, the donor gNB2 associated with the VMR can be accurately positioned, and when the network side pages the VMR and/or the UE served by the VMR, the condition that the network side instructs other network equipment (such as the donor gNB 1) to send paging information can be avoided, and therefore the network side can more accurately perform mobility management on the UE, and resource waste is avoided.

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

It will be appreciated that in the foregoing embodiments of the method, the method and operations performed by each device or network element may also be performed by components (e.g., chips or circuits) of the corresponding device or network element.

The foregoing description of the solution provided in the embodiments of the present application has been mainly presented from various interaction points of view. It will be appreciated that each network element, e.g. the transmitting device or the receiving device, in order to implement the above-mentioned functions, comprises corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules for performing each function. Those of skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as hardware or combinations of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is implemented as hardware or computer software driven hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

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

It should be understood that the specific examples in the embodiments of the present application are intended only to help those skilled in the art to better understand the embodiments of the present application and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

It should be understood that, in various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the foregoing processes do not mean the order of execution, and the order of execution of the processes should be determined by the functions and internal logic thereof, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

The method provided in the embodiment of the present application is described in detail above with reference to fig. 5 to 9. The following describes in detail the apparatus provided in the embodiments of the present application with reference to fig. 10 to 13. It should be understood that the descriptions of the apparatus embodiments and the descriptions of the method embodiments correspond to each other, and thus, descriptions of details not described may be referred to the above method embodiments, which are not repeated herein for brevity.

Fig. 10 shows a schematic block diagram of an access and mobility management function network element 1000 according to an embodiment of the present application. It should be appreciated that the access and mobility management function network element 1000 comprises a receiving unit 1010, a processing unit 1020 and a transmitting unit 1030.

The receiving unit 1010 is configured to receive tracking area information of a first device from a first network device; the processing unit 1020 is configured to store association between tracking area information of the first device and the first network device; in the case where the second network device serves the first device, the processing unit 1020 deletes the association relationship between the tracking area information of the first device and the first network device.

In a possible implementation, the access and mobility management function network element connects the first network device and the second network device, the receiving unit 1010 is further configured to: receiving tracking area information for the first device from a second network device; the processing unit 1020 is further configured to: and storing the association relation between the tracking area information of the first device and the second network device.

In one possible implementation, the processing unit 1020 is specifically configured to: and deleting the association relation between the tracking area information of the first device and the first network device according to the tracking area information of the first device received from the second network device.

In one possible implementation, the receiving unit 1010 is further configured to: receiving first indication information from the first network device; the processing unit 1020 is specifically configured to: and deleting the association relationship between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment according to the first indication information.

In one possible implementation, the first indication information includes identification information of the second network device.

In one possible implementation, the access and mobility management function network element is connected to the first network device, the access and mobility management function network element further comprising: the sending unit 1030 is configured to send first registration information to a unified database network element, where the first registration information is used to register, with the unified database network element, association between tracking area information of the first device and the first network device.

In one possible implementation, the sending unit 1030 is further configured to: and sending first request information to the unified database network element, wherein the first request information is used for requesting the unified database network element to delete the association relationship between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment.

In one possible implementation, the sending unit 1030 is further configured to: sending first query information to the unified database network element, wherein the first query information is used for querying the network equipment associated with the tracking area information of the first equipment to the unified database network element; the receiving unit is further configured to: and receiving first response information sent by the unified database network element, wherein the first response information comprises the identification information of the second network equipment.

Fig. 11 shows a schematic block diagram of an access and mobility management function network element 1100 of an embodiment of the present application. It should be understood that the access and mobility management function network element 1100 comprises a receiving unit 1110, a processing unit 1120, a sending unit 1130.

The receiving unit 1110 is configured to receive tracking area information of a first device from a second network device; the processing unit 1120 is configured to store association between tracking area information of the first device and the second network device; the sending unit 1130 is configured to send second registration information to a unified database network element, where the second registration information is used to register, with the unified database network element, association between tracking area information of the first device and the second network device.

Fig. 12 shows a schematic block diagram of a network device 1200 of an embodiment of the present application. It should be understood that the network device 1200 includes a receiving unit 1210 and a transmitting unit 1220.

The receiving unit 1210 is configured to obtain tracking area information of a first device from the first device; the sending unit 1220 is configured to send tracking area information of the first device to a connected access and mobility management function network element.

In one possible implementation, the sending unit 1220 is further configured to: and sending first indication information to the connected access and mobility management function network element, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating to delete the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the network equipment.

Fig. 13 shows a schematic block diagram of a unified database network element 1300 according to an embodiment of the present application. It should be understood that the unified database network element 1300 includes a receiving unit 1310, a processing unit 1320, and a transmitting unit 1330.

The receiving unit 1310 is configured to receive second registration information from the first access and mobility management function network element, where the second registration information is used to register an association relationship between tracking area information of the first device and the second network device; the processing unit 1320 is configured to save association between the tracking area information of the first device and the second network device according to the second registration information. The receiving unit 1310 is further configured to receive, from a second access and mobility management function network element, first query information, where the first query information is used to query a network device associated with tracking area information of the first device; a sending unit 1330, configured to send first response information to the second access and mobility management function network element, where the first response information includes identification information of the second network device.

In one possible implementation, the receiving unit 1310 is further configured to: the unified database network element receives first registration information from the first access and mobility management function network element, wherein the first registration information is used for registering the association relationship between tracking area information of first equipment and first network equipment; the processing unit 1320 is further configured to: and storing the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment according to the first registration information.

In one possible implementation, the receiving unit 1310 is further configured to: and receiving first request information from the first access and mobility management function network element, wherein the first request information is used for requesting to delete the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment.

It should be understood that the above division of units in the communication device is merely a division of logic functions, and may be fully or partially integrated into one physical entity or may be physically separated. And the units in the communication device may all be implemented in the form of software calls via the processing element; or can be realized in hardware; it is also possible that part of the units are implemented in the form of software, which is called by the processing element, and part of the units are implemented in the form of hardware. For example, each unit may be a processing element that is set up separately, may be implemented integrally in a certain chip of the communication device, or may be stored in a memory in the form of a program, and the functions of the module may be called and executed by a certain processing element of the communication device. Furthermore, all or part of these units may be integrated together or may be implemented independently. The processing element described herein may in turn be a processor, which may be an integrated circuit with signal processing capabilities. In implementation, each step of the above method or each unit above may be implemented by an integrated logic circuit of hardware in a processor element or in the form of software called by a processing element.

In one example, the unit in any of the above communication devices or network elements may be one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the above methods, for example: one or more specific integrated circuits (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), or one or more microprocessors (digital singnal processor, DSP), or one or more field programmable gate arrays (field programmable gate array, FPGA), or a combination of at least two of these integrated circuit forms. For another example, when the unit in the communication device or network element is implemented in the form of a scheduler of processing elements, the processing elements may be general purpose processors, such as a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU) or other processor that may invoke the program. For another example, the units may be integrated together and implemented in the form of a system-on-a-chip (SOC).

Referring to fig. 14, a schematic diagram of a communication device is provided in an embodiment of the present application, which is configured to implement operations of an access and mobility management function network element, a network device, and a unified database network element in the above embodiment. As shown in fig. 14, the communication apparatus includes: processor 1410 and interface 1430, processor 1410 being coupled with interface 1430. Interface 1430 is used to enable communication with other devices. Interface 1430 may be a transceiver or an input-output interface. Interface 1430 may be, for example, an interface circuit. Optionally, the communication device further comprises a memory 1420 for storing instructions to be executed by the processor 1410 or for storing input data required by the processor 1410 to execute instructions or for storing data generated after the processor 1410 has executed instructions.

The method performed by the access and mobility management function element, the network device, and the unified database element in the above embodiments may be implemented by the processor 1410 calling a program stored in a memory (which may be the memory 1220 in the access and mobility management function element, the network device, and the unified database element, or an external memory). That is, the access and mobility management function network element, the network device, the unified database network element may include a processor 1410, and the processor 1410 may execute the method executed by the access and mobility management function network element, the network device, the unified database network element in the above method embodiment by calling a program in a memory. The processor here may be an integrated circuit with signal processing capabilities, such as a CPU. The access and mobility management function network elements, network devices, unified database network elements may be implemented by one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the above methods. For example: one or more ASICs, or one or more microprocessor DSPs, or one or more FPGAs, etc., or a combination of at least two of these integrated circuit forms. Alternatively, the above implementations may be combined.

In particular, the functions/implementations of the units of fig. 10-13 may be implemented by the processor 1410 in the communication device 1400 shown in fig. 14 invoking computer executable instructions stored in the memory 1420. Alternatively, the functions/implementation procedures of the processing units in fig. 10 to 13 may be implemented by the processor 1410 in the communication apparatus 1400 shown in fig. 14 calling computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 1420, and the functions/implementation procedures of the receiving units or transmitting units in fig. 10 to 13 may be implemented by the interface 1430 in the communication apparatus 1400 shown in fig. 14.

It will be appreciated that in the above described apparatus the processing unit comprises a processor coupled to a memory for storing computer programs or instructions or and/or data, and that the processor is for executing the computer programs or instructions and/or data stored in the memory, such that the method in the above method embodiments is performed.

It should also be understood that the division of the units in the above apparatus is merely a division of a logic function, and may be fully or partially integrated into a physical entity or may be physically separated. And the units in the device can be all realized in the form of software calls through the processing element; or can be realized in hardware; it is also possible that part of the units are implemented in the form of software, which is called by the processing element, and part of the units are implemented in the form of hardware. For example, each unit may be a processing element that is set up separately, may be implemented as integrated in a certain chip of the apparatus, or may be stored in a memory in the form of a program, and the functions of the unit may be called and executed by a certain processing element of the apparatus. The processing element, which may also be referred to herein as a processor, may be an integrated circuit with signal processing capabilities. In implementation, each step of the above method or each unit above may be implemented by an integrated logic circuit of hardware in a processor element or in the form of software called by a processing element.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication system, which comprises: the access and mobility management function network element, the network equipment and the unified database network element.

The embodiments of the present application also provide a computer readable medium storing a computer program code comprising instructions for performing the communication method of the embodiments of the present application in the above-described method. The readable medium may be read-only memory (ROM) or random access memory (random access memory, RAM), which the embodiments of the present application do not limit.

The present application also provides a computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed, cause an access and mobility management function network element, a network device, a unified database network element to perform operations corresponding to the access and mobility management function network element, the network device, the unified database network element of the above method.

The embodiment of the application also provides a system chip, which comprises: a processing unit, which may be, for example, a processor, and a communication unit, which may be, for example, an input/output interface, pins or circuitry, etc. The processing unit may execute computer instructions to cause a chip within the communication device to perform any of the communication methods provided in the embodiments of the present application described above.

Optionally, the computer instructions are stored in a storage unit.

Alternatively, the storage unit is a storage unit in the chip, such as a register, a cache, etc., and the storage unit may also be a storage unit in the terminal located outside the chip, such as a ROM or other type of static storage device, a RAM, etc., that can store static information and instructions. The processor mentioned in any of the above may be a CPU, a microprocessor, an ASIC, or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of the program of the above-mentioned feedback information transmission method. The processing unit and the storage unit may be decoupled and respectively disposed on different physical devices, and the respective functions of the processing unit and the storage unit are implemented by wired or wireless connection, so as to support the system chip to implement the various functions in the foregoing embodiments. Alternatively, the processing unit and the memory may be coupled to the same device.

It will be appreciated that the memory in embodiments of the present application may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile memory may be a ROM, a Programmable ROM (PROM), an erasable programmable EPROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory, among others. The volatile memory may be RAM, which acts as external cache. There are many different types of RAM, such as Static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct memory bus RAM (DR RAM).

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

It will be clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, specific working procedures of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to corresponding procedures in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not repeated herein.

In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices, and methods may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, e.g., the division of the units is merely a logical function division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, e.g., multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection via some interfaces, devices or units, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate units may or may not be physically separate, and units shown 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 application may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated in one unit.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied essentially or in a part contributing to the prior art or in a part of the technical solution, 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 perform all or part of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a random access Memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, or other various media capable of storing program codes.

The foregoing is merely specific embodiments of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily think about changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application, and the changes and substitutions are intended to be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of communication, comprising:

the access and mobility management function network element receives tracking area information of the first device from the first network device;

the access and mobility management function network element stores the association relationship between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment;

and in the case that the second network device serves the first device, the access and mobility management function network element deletes the association relationship between the tracking area information of the first device and the first network device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the access and mobility management function network element connects the first network device and the second network device, the method further comprising:

the access and mobility management function network element receives tracking area information of the first device from a second network device;

And the access and mobility management function network element stores the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the second network equipment.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the access and mobility management function network element deletes association between tracking area information of the first device and the first network device, comprising:

the access and mobility management function network element deletes association between tracking area information of the first device and the first network device in response to tracking area information of the first device received from a second network device.

4. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the method further comprises:

the access and mobility management function network element receives first indication information from the first network device;

the access and mobility management function network element deleting association relation between tracking area information of the first device and the first network device, including:

and deleting the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment according to the first indication information by the access and mobility management functional network element.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first indication information comprises identification information of the second network device.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the access and mobility management function network element connects the first network device, the method further comprising:

the access and mobility management function network element sends first registration information to a unified database network element, wherein the first registration information is used for registering association relation between tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment to the unified database network element.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the method further comprises:

the access and mobility management function network element sends first request information to the unified database network element, wherein the first request information is used for requesting the unified database network element to delete the association relation between the tracking area information of the first device and the first network device.

8. The method according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that the method further comprises:

the access and mobility management function network element sends first query information to the unified database network element, wherein the first query information is used for querying the unified database network element for network equipment associated with tracking area information of the first equipment;

The access and mobility management function network element receives first response information sent by the unified database network element, wherein the first response information comprises identification information of the second network device.

9. A method of communication, comprising:

the network equipment obtains tracking area information of a first equipment from the first equipment;

the network device sends tracking area information of the first device to a connected access and mobility management function network element.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

the network device sends first indication information to a connected access and mobility management function network element, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating to delete the association relation between the tracking area information of the first device and the network device.

11. A method of communication, comprising:

the unified database network element receives second registration information from the first access and mobility management function network element, wherein the second registration information is used for registering the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the second network equipment;

and the unified database network element stores the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the second network equipment according to the second registration information.

The unified database network element receives first query information from a second access and mobility management function network element, wherein the first query information is used for querying network equipment associated with tracking area information of the first equipment;

the unified database network element sends first response information to the second access and mobility management function network element, wherein the first response information comprises identification information of the second network device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

the unified database network element receives first registration information from the first access and mobility management function network element, wherein the first registration information is used for registering the association relationship between tracking area information of first equipment and first network equipment;

and storing the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment according to the first registration information.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the method further comprises:

the unified database network element receives first request information from the first access and mobility management function network element, wherein the first request information is used for requesting to delete the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment.

14. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, characterized in that the first device comprises an in-vehicle relay device VMR.

15. The method according to any of claims 1 to 13, wherein the tracking area information of the first device does not change with a change in the access location of the first device.

16. An access and mobility management function network element, comprising:

a receiving unit configured to receive tracking area information of a first device from the first network device;

the processing unit is used for storing the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment;

in the case that the second network device serves the first device, the processing unit deletes association between tracking area information of the first device and the first network device.

17. The access and mobility management function network element according to claim 16, wherein said access and mobility management function network element connects said first network device and said second network device,

the receiving unit is further configured to: receiving tracking area information of the first device from a second network device;

The processing unit is further configured to: and storing the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the second network equipment.

18. The access and mobility management function network element according to claim 17, characterized in that said processing unit is specifically configured to:

and deleting the association relation between the tracking area information of the first device and the first network device in response to the tracking area information of the first device received from the second network device.

19. An access and mobility management function network element according to claim 16 or 17, characterized in that,

the receiving unit is further configured to: receiving first indication information from the first network device;

the processing unit is specifically configured to: and deleting the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment according to the first indication information.

20. The access and mobility management function network element according to claim 19, wherein said first indication information comprises identification information of said second network device.

21. The access and mobility management function network element according to claim 16, wherein said access and mobility management function network element connects said first network device, said access and mobility management function network element further comprising:

The sending unit is used for sending first registration information to the unified database network element, wherein the first registration information is used for registering the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment to the unified database network element.

22. The access and mobility management function network element of claim 21, wherein,

the transmitting unit is further configured to: and sending first request information to the unified database network element, wherein the first request information is used for requesting the unified database network element to delete the association relationship between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment.

23. An access and mobility management function network element according to claim 21 or 22, characterized in that,

the transmitting unit is further configured to: sending first query information to the unified database network element, wherein the first query information is used for querying the network equipment associated with the tracking area information of the first equipment to the unified database network element;

the receiving unit is further configured to: and receiving first response information sent by the unified database network element, wherein the first response information comprises identification information of the second network equipment.

24. A network device, comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to obtain tracking area information of a first device from the first device;

and the sending unit is used for sending the tracking area information of the first equipment to the connected access and mobility management function network element.

25. The network device of claim 24, wherein the network device,

the transmitting unit is further configured to: and sending first indication information to the connected access and mobility management function network element, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating to delete the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the network equipment.

26. A unified database network element, comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive second registration information from a first access and mobility management function network element, where the second registration information is used to register association between tracking area information of the first device and the second network device;

and the processing unit is used for storing the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the second network equipment according to the second registration information.

The receiving unit is further configured to receive first query information from a second access and mobility management function network element, where the first query information is used to query a network device associated with tracking area information of the first device;

And the sending unit is used for sending first response information to the second access and mobility management function network element, wherein the first response information comprises the identification information of the second network equipment.

27. The unified database network element of claim 26 wherein,

the receiving unit is further configured to: the unified database network element receives first registration information from the first access and mobility management function network element, wherein the first registration information is used for registering the association relationship between tracking area information of first equipment and first network equipment;

the processing unit is further configured to: and storing the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment according to the first registration information.

28. The unified database network element of claim 27 wherein,

the receiving unit is further configured to: and receiving first request information from the first access and mobility management function network element, wherein the first request information is used for requesting to delete the association relation between the tracking area information of the first equipment and the first network equipment.

29. The apparatus according to any one of claims 16 to 28, wherein the first device comprises an in-vehicle relay device VMR.

30. The apparatus according to any of claims 16 to 28, wherein the tracking area information of the first device does not change with a change in the access location of the first device.

31. A communication device is characterized by comprising an access and mobility management function network element, a network device and a unified database network element,

the access and mobility management function network element being configured to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 8; or,

the network device being adapted to perform the method as claimed in claim 9 or 10; or,

the unified database network element for performing the method of any of claims 11 to 15.

32. A computer readable storage medium storing program instructions which, when executed, cause an access and mobility management function network element to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 8; or,

the instructions, when executed, cause a network device to perform the method of claim 9 or 10; or,

the instructions, when executed, enable a unified database network element to perform the method of any one of claims 11 to 15.