CN116801405A

CN116801405A - Communication method, device and equipment

Info

Publication number: CN116801405A
Application number: CN202210236314.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 丁辉; 周凯
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-03-11
Filing date: 2022-03-11
Publication date: 2023-09-22
Also published as: WO2023169011A1

Abstract

The application discloses a communication method, a device and equipment, which are used for reducing time delay. The method comprises the following steps: the AN device may adjust a first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal device to a second uplink resource according to the first time difference after acquiring the first information for indicating the first time difference, and send the first resource configuration information to the terminal device. Wherein, the first time difference is: the difference between the time when the terminal device can send the uplink message and the time when the terminal device is ready to send the uplink message; the first resource configuration information is used for indicating the second uplink resource. At present, the terminal device can periodically send AN uplink message through a periodic uplink resource scheduled by the AN device. By the scheme, the AN equipment can adjust uplink resources allocated to the terminal equipment according to the first time difference, so that the first time difference of the subsequent uplink messages is reduced, and the transmission delay of the subsequent uplink messages is further reduced.

Description

Communication method, device and equipment

Technical Field

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

Background

Currently, mobile communication systems (e.g., the fifth generation (the 5 ^th generation, 5G) mobile communication system) has been applied to the field of industrial sites. A large number of industrial devices (e.g., programmable logic controllers (programmable logic controller, PLCs), input/output (IOs), etc.) can access the network through a 5G mobile communication system.

For example, the IO device may communicate with the PLC through a 5G mobile communication system. When the IO device sends a message, after receiving the message from the IO device, a terminal device connected to the IO device may send the message for AN uplink resource pre-scheduled by the terminal device through AN Access Network (AN) device. The message may then be transmitted to the PLC via the access network device and the core network device.

In the field of industrial sites, messages related to control services need to be transmitted between industrial devices. And the control service has higher requirement on the real-time performance of the service, for example, the transmission delay of the message is required to be ten milliseconds or less.

Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a scheme that reduces latency.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method, a device and equipment, which are used for reducing time delay.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method. The method may be applied in the communication system shown in fig. 1 or fig. 2 below. The method comprises the following steps: the AN device may adjust a first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal device to a second uplink resource according to the first time difference after acquiring the first information for indicating the first time difference, and send the first resource configuration information to the terminal device. Wherein, the first time difference is: the difference between the time when the terminal device can send the uplink message and the time when the terminal device is ready to send the uplink message; the first resource configuration information is used for indicating the second uplink resource.

At present, the terminal device can periodically send AN uplink message through a periodic uplink resource scheduled by the AN device. By the method, the AN equipment can adjust the uplink resources allocated to the terminal equipment according to the first time difference, so that the first time difference of the subsequent uplink messages is reduced, and the transmission delay of the subsequent uplink messages is reduced.

In one possible design, the AN device may obtain first information indicating the first time difference by: the AN device receives first information from at least one of a terminal device, a control plane network element or AN application function AF. The design provides a plurality of ways for the AN equipment to acquire the first information, so that the AN equipment can flexibly acquire the first information.

In one possible design, the first uplink resource is a resource with a transmission period of the uplink message as a period; the AN equipment can advance the first uplink resource by N time units to obtain a second uplink resource; wherein N is a positive integer and the N time units are determined according to the first time difference. Alternatively, the N time units may be less than or equal to the first time difference. By the design, the AN equipment can adjust the uplink resources allocated to the terminal equipment according to the first time difference, so that the time for the terminal equipment to prepare to send the uplink message is closer to the uplink resources capable of sending the uplink message, the first time difference of the subsequent uplink message is reduced, and the transmission delay of the subsequent uplink message is further reduced.

In one possible design, the AN device may receive AN indication from the control plane network element to adjust the uplink resources scheduled for the terminal device before adjusting the first uplink resources scheduled for the terminal device to the second uplink resources according to the first time difference. With this design, the AN device can adjust uplink resources as needed based on the indication of the control plane network element.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method. The method may be applied in the communication system shown in fig. 1 or fig. 2 below. The method comprises the following steps: after acquiring the first information for indicating the first time difference, the terminal device may send the first information, so that the AN device adjusts the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal device to the second uplink resource. Wherein, the first time difference is: the difference between the time the terminal device can send the uplink message and the time the terminal device is ready to send the uplink message. After receiving the first resource configuration information from the AN device for indicating the second uplink resource, the terminal device may send the uplink packet through the second uplink resource.

At present, the terminal device can periodically send AN uplink message through a periodic uplink resource scheduled by the AN device. By the method, the AN equipment can adjust the uplink resources allocated to the terminal equipment according to the first time difference, and the terminal equipment sends the subsequent message according to the adjusted uplink resources, so that the first time difference of the subsequent uplink message is reduced, and the transmission time delay of the subsequent uplink message is reduced.

In one possible design, the terminal device may send the first information to at least one of AN device, a control plane network element, or AN AF. That is, the terminal device may send the first information directly to the AN device, or may send the first information to the AN device through at least one of the control plane network element or the AF. By the design, the terminal equipment can flexibly send the first information to the AN equipment.

In one possible design, the terminal device may receive an indication for instructing the terminal device to send the first information before sending the first information. By the design, the terminal equipment reports the first information after receiving the indication for indicating the terminal equipment to send the first information, so that the terminal equipment is prevented from reporting the first information all the time, network resources for reporting the first information can be saved, and electric quantity required by the terminal equipment for reporting the first information is saved.

In one possible design, the terminal device may also receive information indicating the first threshold; and when the first time difference is greater than or equal to a first threshold value, the terminal equipment transmits first information. When the first time difference is small, it may not be necessary to reduce the time delay by adjusting the first time difference. In the design, when the first time difference is greater than or equal to the first threshold value, the terminal equipment reports the first information, so that unnecessary reporting of the first information by the terminal equipment is avoided, network resources for reporting the first information can be saved, and electric quantity required by the terminal equipment for reporting the first information is saved.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method. The method may be applied in the communication system shown in fig. 1 or fig. 2 below. The method comprises the following steps: the AN device may adjust the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal device to a second uplink resource according to the estimated value of the first time difference after acquiring the second information indicating the estimated value of the first time difference, and transmit first resource configuration information indicating the second uplink resource to the terminal device. Wherein, the first time difference is: the difference between the time the terminal device can send the uplink message and the time the terminal device is ready to send the uplink message.

By the method, the AN equipment can adjust uplink resources allocated to the terminal equipment according to the estimated value of the first time difference, so that the difference between the time when the terminal equipment can send the uplink message and the time when the terminal equipment is ready to send the subsequent uplink message is smaller, the first time difference of the subsequent uplink message is reduced, and the transmission delay of the subsequent uplink message is reduced.

In one possible design, the terminal device may obtain the second information indicating the estimated value of the first time difference by:

mode one: the AN device receives second information from the user plane network element.

In the first aspect, the AN device may receive the second information from the user plane network element after sending the second resource configuration information to the terminal device. The second resource configuration information is used for indicating a first uplink resource, the first uplink resource comprises resources taking a sending period of an uplink message as a period, and the first uplink resource further comprises resources on a plurality of time units in at least one sending period.

Mode two: the AN device determines the second information.

In the second mode, the AN device may determine the second information according to a time of receiving M uplink messages from the terminal device through the first uplink resource after transmitting the second resource configuration information to the terminal device. Wherein M is an integer greater than or equal to 2. The second resource allocation information is used for indicating a first uplink resource, the first uplink resource comprises resources taking a sending period of an uplink message as a period, and the first uplink resource further comprises resources on a plurality of time units in at least one sending period.

By this design, the AN apparatus can flexibly acquire the second information indicating the estimated value of the first time difference.

In one possible design, when m=3, the AN device may determine the estimated value of the first time difference as: avg (a, b); thereby determining second information indicative of an estimated value of the first time difference. Wherein a=t1+ct-T2, b=t3-T2-CT; wherein Avg represents an averaging operation, T1 is a time of receiving a first uplink message of the M uplink messages, T2 is a time of receiving a second uplink message of the M uplink messages, T3 is a time of receiving a third uplink message of the M uplink messages, and CT is a transmission period. By the design, the AN equipment can accurately determine the estimated value of the first time difference.

In one possible design, the AN device may determine that the second uplink resource includes: a resource whose distance from the first resource is an integer multiple of the transmission period; the first resource is a resource obtained by advancing a resource on a first time unit of the plurality of time units by N time units, N is a positive integer, and the N time units are determined according to an estimated value of the first time difference. Alternatively, the N time units may be less than or equal to the first time difference. By the design, the AN equipment can adjust uplink resources allocated to the terminal equipment according to the estimated value of the first time difference, so that the time for the terminal equipment to prepare to send the uplink message is closer to the uplink resources capable of sending the uplink message, the first time difference of subsequent uplink messages is reduced, and the transmission delay of the subsequent uplink messages is further reduced.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method. The method may be applied in the communication system shown in fig. 1 or fig. 2 below. The method comprises the following steps: after obtaining the second information for indicating the estimated value of the first time difference, the user plane network element can send the second information to the access network AN equipment so that the AN equipment can adjust the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal equipment into a second uplink resource; wherein, the first time difference is: the difference between the time the terminal device can send the uplink message and the time the terminal device is ready to send the uplink message.

According to the method, the user plane network element sends the second information for indicating the estimated value of the first time difference to the AN equipment, so that the AN equipment can adjust uplink resources allocated to the terminal equipment according to the estimated value of the first time difference, the difference between the time when the terminal equipment can send the uplink message and the time when the terminal equipment is ready to send the subsequent uplink message is smaller, the first time difference of the subsequent uplink message is reduced, and the transmission delay of the subsequent uplink message is reduced.

In one possible design, the user plane network element may determine the second information according to a time of receiving M uplink messages from the terminal device; wherein M is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

Optionally, when m=3, the user plane network element may determine that the estimated value of the first time difference is: avg (a, b); determining second information indicative of an estimated value of the first time difference; wherein a=t1+ct-T2, b=t3-T2-CT; wherein Avg represents an averaging operation, T1 is a time of receiving a first uplink message of the M uplink messages, T2 is a time of receiving a second uplink message of the M uplink messages, T3 is a time of receiving a third uplink message of the M uplink messages, and CT is a transmission period.

By the design, the user plane network element can accurately determine the estimated value of the first time difference.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method. The method may be applied in the communication system shown in fig. 1 or fig. 2 below. The method comprises the following steps: the first communication device may send the first message after receiving the first indication after a first time period of the first message over the first QoS flow. The first indication comprises indication information of a first QoS flow.

By the method, the first communication equipment can delay and forward the message transmitted by the first QoS stream, so that the transmission time and time delay of the message are accurately controlled, and the effect of time delay optimization is achieved. In addition, in the method, the first communication equipment carries out delay forwarding based on the QoS flow, so that the air interface scheduling conflict generated when the uplink service flows of a plurality of communication equipment arrive at the same time can be avoided.

In one possible design, the first communication device may receive the first indication by one of the following implementations:

the implementation mode is as follows: the first communication device receives a first indication from a session management function network element.

The implementation mode II is as follows: the first communication device receives a message from a control plane network element or AF for requesting to establish or modify the second QoS flow; wherein the message may include a first indication.

By the design, the first communication device can conveniently acquire the first indication, so that the message received through the first QoS flow is delayed to be sent.

In one possible design, the first message may be used to trigger the sending of the uplink message. For example, the first message is an application preparation response in fig. 3 below, which may be used to trigger the IO device to send an upstream message. By delaying the sending of the first message, the sending of the uplink message by the IO device can be delayed and triggered, so that the time for the IO device to send the uplink message is delayed; in this way, the time when the terminal device receives the uplink message is delayed, so that the time when the terminal device can send the uplink message and the time difference (namely the first time difference) when the terminal device is ready to send the uplink message can be reduced, and the transmission delay of the uplink message can be further reduced. In addition, when the time for sending the uplink message by the IO device is delayed by delaying the first message, the IO device is not required to be changed, namely the IO device is not required to have the capability of adjusting the packet sending time, and the implementation is convenient.

In one possible design, the first communication device may receive information indicating the first duration from a control plane network element or AF before sending the first message. By means of the design, the first communication device can conveniently acquire the first time length.

In one possible design, the first communication device may determine the first time period based on the third information before sending the first message;

wherein the third information includes at least one of:

a first transmission delay;

the AN (access network) equipment sends uplink resources configured by the uplink message to the terminal equipment;

a period of uplink resources;

the time when the first message is received by the first communication equipment;

wherein the first transmission delay comprises: the method comprises the steps of transmitting delay between a first communication device and input/output (IO) devices for sending uplink messages, processing delay of the IO devices and transmitting delay between the IO devices and terminal devices.

By this design, the first communication device can determine the first time length, thereby saving time for transmitting information required for determining the first time length.

In one possible design, the first communication device may obtain the third information before determining the first time period based on the third information by one of:

mode 1: the first communication device receives third information from at least one of the AN device, the control plane network element, and the AF.

Mode 2: the first communication device obtains preconfigured third information.

By this design, the first communication device can flexibly acquire the third information.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus including means for performing the steps of any one of the above aspects.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, including at least one processing element and at least one storage element, where the at least one storage element is configured to store a program and data, and the at least one processing element is configured to read and execute the program and data stored by the storage element, so that the method provided in any one of the above aspects of the present application is implemented.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, including: AN apparatus for performing the method provided in the first aspect, and a terminal apparatus for performing the method provided in the second aspect.

In a ninth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, including: AN apparatus for performing the method provided in the third aspect, and a user plane network element for performing the method provided in the fourth aspect.

In a tenth aspect, embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method provided in any of the above aspects.

In an eleventh aspect, embodiments of the present application further provide a computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored therein, which when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform the method provided in any of the above aspects.

In a twelfth aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a chip, where the chip is configured to read a computer program stored in a memory, and perform the method provided in any one of the foregoing aspects.

In a thirteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a chip system, where the chip system includes a processor, and is configured to support a computer device to implement the method provided in any one of the foregoing aspects. In one possible design, the chip system further includes a memory for storing programs and data necessary for the computer device. The chip system may be formed of a chip or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

The technical effects that can be achieved by any one of the sixth aspect to the thirteenth aspect described above can be explained with reference to the technical effects that can be achieved by any one of the possible designs of any one of the first aspect to the fifth aspect described above, and the discussion will not be repeated.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of another communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a communication method between an IO device and a PLC according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a delay offset according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a flowchart of a first communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of uplink message transmission in the first communication method according to the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a flowchart of a second communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a flowchart of uplink message transmission in a second communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a flowchart of a third communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a flowchart of a fourth communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a fifth communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a flowchart of a sixth communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 13 is a flowchart of a seventh communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 14 is a block diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 15 is a block diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The application provides a communication method, a device and equipment, which are used for reducing time delay. The method, the device and the apparatus are based on the same technical concept, and because the principles of solving the problems are similar, the implementation of the device, the apparatus and the method can be referred to each other, and the repetition is not repeated.

By the scheme provided by the embodiment of the application, after the Access Network (AN) device obtains the first information for indicating the first time difference, the AN device can adjust the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal device into the second uplink resource according to the first time difference, and send the first resource configuration information to the terminal device. Wherein, the first time difference is: the difference between the time when the terminal device can send the uplink message and the time when the terminal device is ready to send the uplink message; the first resource configuration information may be used to indicate a second uplink resource. At present, the terminal device can periodically send AN uplink message through a periodic uplink resource scheduled by the AN device. By the scheme, the AN equipment can adjust uplink resources allocated to the terminal equipment according to the first time difference, so that the first time difference of the subsequent uplink messages is reduced, and the transmission delay of the subsequent uplink messages is further reduced.

In the following, some terms in the embodiments of the present application are explained for easy understanding by those skilled in the art.

1) Communication device, generally refers to a device having communication functions. By way of example, the communication device may be, but is not limited to, a terminal device, AN Access Network (AN) device, AN access point, a Core Network (CN) device, AN IO device, a PLC, etc.

2) Session, connection between terminal device, access network device, user plane network element and Data Network (DN) established for terminal device by session management network element in mobile communication system, for transmitting user plane data, such as protocol data unit (protocol data unit, PDU) session, between the terminal device and the DN.

The terminal device may establish one or more PDU sessions with a mobile communication system (e.g., a 5G communication system), in each of which one or more quality of service (quality of service, qoS) flows (flows) may be established.

Each QoS flow is used to transmit data of the same QoS requirement (reliability or latency) in one service. QoS flows may be identified by QoS flow identifications (QoS flow identifier, QFI).

3) Time unit, generally refers to the unit of time. Illustratively, the time units may be, but are not limited to, subframes (subframes), slots (slots), symbols, physical slots, available slots, and the like. Wherein the symbols may be time domain symbols (e.g., orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, OFDM) symbols) or the like.

4) Time slot (slot)

A slot may contain several symbols. For example, one slot may include 14 OFDM symbols; alternatively, one slot may contain 12 OFDM symbols; alternatively, one slot may contain 7 OFDM symbols.

The OFDM symbols in one slot can be all used for uplink transmission; the method can also be used for downlink transmission; and may be used partly for downlink transmission, partly for uplink transmission, and partly for flexible time domain symbols (which may be flexibly configured for uplink or downlink transmission). It should be understood that the above examples are illustrative only and should not be construed as limiting the application in any way.

The number of OFDM symbols a slot contains and the slot is used for uplink and/or downlink transmissions are not limited to the above examples for system forward compatibility.

5) In the downlink transmission direction, the network side (for example, the access network device or the core network) sends data to the terminal device; in the uplink transmission direction, the terminal device sends data to the network side.

In the embodiments of the present application, the number of nouns, unless otherwise indicated, means "a singular noun or a plural noun", i.e. "one or more". "at least one" means one or more, and "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or" describes an association relationship of an association object, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, may represent: a exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone. The character "/" generally indicates that the context-dependent object is an "or" relationship. For example, A/B, means: a or B. "at least one of" or the like means any combination of these items, including any combination of single item(s) or plural items(s).

In addition, it should be understood that in the description of the present application, the words "first," "second," and the like are used merely for distinguishing between the descriptions and not be construed as indicating or implying a relative importance or order.

In addition, "greater than or equal to" in the embodiments of the present application may be replaced with "greater than", "less than or equal to" and "less than" may be replaced with each other.

A communication system to which embodiments of the present application are applied will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 shows a possible architecture of a communication system to which the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application is applicable. As shown in fig. 1, the communication system includes three parts: terminal equipment (user equipment (UE) is illustrated in the figure), a mobile communication system, and a DN. The mobile communication system provides access service and connection service for the terminal equipment.

The terminal device is an entity capable of receiving and transmitting wireless signals at the user side, and needs to access the DN through a mobile communication system. Alternatively, the terminal device may act as a relay device for other data collectors or other terminal devices, so that these devices can communicate with the DN through the mobile communication system.

In the present application, the terminal device may also be referred to as UE, mobile Station (MS), mobile Terminal (MT), etc. Currently, examples of some terminal devices are: a mobile phone, a tablet, a notebook, a palm, a vehicle-mounted device, a customer terminal device (customer premise equipment, CPE), a mobile internet device (mobile internet device, MID), a wearable device, a Virtual Reality (VR) device, an augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in unmanned driving (self driving), a wireless terminal in teleoperation (remote medical surgery), a wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in transportation security (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in smart city, a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), and the like.

The mobile communication system can access at least one DN, and the same DN can also be accessed by at least one mobile communication system. Wherein, the mobile communication system can comprise AN AN and CN.

The network equipment deployed in the AN is AN equipment, and can be particularly responsible for the functions of wireless access, wireless resource management at AN air interface side, qoS management, data compression and encryption, user plane data forwarding and the like.

AN device acts as a node in a radio access network and may also be referred to as a base station, radio access network (radio access network, RAN) node (or device), access Point (AP). Currently, examples of some AN devices are: new generation Node bs (generation Node B, gNB), transmission reception points (transmission reception point, TRP), evolved Node bs (enbs), radio network controllers (radio network controller, RNC), node bs (Node bs, NB), base station controllers (base station controller, BSC), base transceiver stations (base transceiver station, BTS), home base stations (e.g., home evolved NodeB, or home Node bs, HNBs), or baseband units (BBU), etc.

In addition, in one network structure, the AN apparatus may include a Centralized Unit (CU) node and a Distributed Unit (DU) node. The structure splits the protocol layer of the AN device, the functions of part of the protocol layer are controlled in the CU in a centralized way, and the functions of the rest part or all of the protocol layer are distributed in the DU, so that the CU controls the DU in a centralized way.

The network elements deployed in the CN may be collectively referred to as CN devices. The CN equipment can access the terminal equipment to different data networks and perform services such as charging, mobility management, session management, user plane forwarding and the like. In mobile communication systems of different standards, there may be a difference in names of CN devices having the same function. However, the embodiment of the present application is not limited to a specific name of the CN device having each function. The following specifically describes the functions of the main network element in the CN, taking the CN in the 5G mobile communication system as an example. Network elements in a CN of a 5G mobile communication system can be classified into a control plane network element and a user plane network element.

The user plane network element comprises user plane functions (user plane function, UPF) mainly responsible for packet data packet forwarding, qoS control, charging information statistics, etc. The embodiment of the application can also be used for the following scenes: the field sensor and other devices are accessed to the core network through the UE and the AN, and data transmission is carried out on the user plane through the UPF.

The control plane network element is mainly responsible for business process interaction, data packet forwarding strategy and QoS control strategy and the like. The control plane network element mainly comprises: access and mobility management functions (access and mobility management function, AMF), session management functions (session management function, SMF), policy control functions (policy and charging function, PCF), application functions (application function, AF), unified data management (unified data management, UDM), network exposure functions (network exposure function, NEF) (not shown in the figure).

Wherein the PCF is mainly responsible for policy control. For example, the PCF may generate a control policy according to the request information of the AF, the operator policy, the user subscription information, etc., where the control policy may be used to control the behavior of the communication device in the network; the PCF may also issue control policies to other control plane network elements so that the other control plane network elements execute the corresponding policies.

The AMF is AN interface network element of the core network element and the AN equipment, and is mainly responsible for access management and mobility management of the UE. The AMF may perform access management and mobility management according to UE mobility and network selection policies provided by the PCF, e.g., responsible for state maintenance of the UE, reachability management of the UE, non-mobility management (mobility management, MM) non-access-stratum (NAS) message forwarding, etc.

The SMF is mainly responsible for session management of the UE. The SMF may perform session management based on the session provided by the PCF and the traffic flow control policy, e.g., manage establishment and deletion of PDU sessions, maintain PDU session context, etc.

The AF is mainly responsible for providing application side requirements for mobile communication systems (which may also be referred to as network side), e.g. QoS requirements for traffic flows, mobility requirements for UEs, etc.

The UDM is mainly responsible for subscriber subscription data management, subscriber identity management, etc.

The NEF is mainly responsible for providing a framework, authentication and interfaces related to the opening of network capabilities, transferring information between the network functions of the mobile communication system and other network functions.

DN is a network located outside the mobile communication system. For example, the DN may be a packet data network (packet data network, PDN), such as the Internet (Internet), an Internet protocol (Internet protocol, IP) Multimedia Service (IMS) network, some application specific data networks, ethernet, IP local network, etc., as the application is not limited in this regard. Multiple services can be deployed on DN, and data and/or voice services can be provided for terminal equipment.

In addition, fig. 1 shows the interaction relationship between each network element and the corresponding interfaces in the communication system, and the names and functions of the interfaces between each network element are as follows:

1) N7: an interface between the PCF and the SMF for issuing control policies for protocol data unit (protocol data unit, PDU) session granularity and traffic data flow granularity.

2) N15: and the interface between the PCF and the AMF is used for issuing a UE mobility control strategy and an access control related strategy.

3) N5: and the interface between the AF and the PCF is used for issuing application service requests and reporting network events. The application service request may carry the QoS requirements of the service for bandwidth, resource preemption priority, and the like. The network event may include, but is not limited to, a type of access for the wireless (e.g., 3rd generation (3rd generation,3G) or 4G, etc. access mode).

4) 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. The information of the user plane may include, but is not limited to: application information detected by the user plane, usage monitoring information, and the like.

5) N11: and the interface between the SMF and the AMF is used for transmitting user plane tunnel information between the AN equipment and the UPF, transmitting control information sent to the UE, transmitting radio resource control information sent to the AN equipment and the like.

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

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

8) 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.

9) 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.

10 N3): AN interface between AN device and a UPF for transmitting user plane data and the like between the AN device and the UPF.

11 N6): an interface between the UPF and DN for transferring data between the UPF and DN, etc.

Optionally, as shown in fig. 2, the communication system may further include, on the basis of the architecture shown in fig. 1: IO devices and PLCs. The IO equipment and the PLC can be used in the field of industrial field networks and other fields, and the application is not limited to the field. A specific description will be given of a newly added communication device in the communication system shown in fig. 2.

The IO equipment is an entity capable of receiving and transmitting signals and can communicate with the mobile communication system through the terminal equipment. For example, in a campus video surveillance scenario, the IO device may be an image capturing device. Each camera device can access the 5G network through the UE. The image pickup apparatus can periodically generate an input frame (i.e., I frame) with a large flow rate.

The IO device may communicate with the terminal device wirelessly, e.g., through wireless fidelity (Wireless Fidelity, wiFi), bluetooth, or wireless technology for an industrial field network; the IO devices may also communicate with the terminal devices in a wired manner.

The PLC may also be referred to as an IO controller (IO controller) and may be used to control IO devices. For example, the PLC may be used to control connection of the PLC to the IO device, control the IO device to provide an uplink message, and so on.

The communication system shown in fig. 1 is not limited to the communication system to which the embodiment of the present application is applicable. Therefore, the communication method provided by the embodiment of the application can be also applied to communication systems with various systems, for example: long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) communication systems, 5G communication systems, sixth generation (The 6th Generation,6G) communication systems, and future communication systems, car-to-anything (vehicle to everything, V2X), long term evolution-internet of car (LTE-V), car-to-car (vehicle to vehicle, V2V), internet of car, machine-like communication (machine type communications, MTC), internet of things (internet of things, ioT), long term evolution-machine-to-machine (LTE-machine to machine, LTE-M), machine-to-machine (machine to machine, M2M), internet of things, and The like. In addition, it should be further noted that, the name of each network element in the communication system is not limited in the embodiment of the present application, for example, in the communication systems of different systems, each network element may have other names; for another example, when multiple network elements are converged in the same physical device, the physical device may also have other names.

In order to facilitate understanding of the present application, the following description will be made with reference to the related art.

1. User plane QoS guarantee mechanism

The 5G mobile communication system can guarantee the quality of service of a service with a QoS Flow (QoS Flow) granularity. Specifically, when the SMF establishes a QoS Flow or modifies the QoS Flow, the SMF may send a QoS Flow identifier (QoS Flow Identifier, QFI) and a QoS Profile (QoS Profile) corresponding to the QFI to the AN device, and send the QFI and a corresponding QoS rule to the UE and the UPF, respectively. Among these, the QoS rules may include upstream/downstream packet filter sets (Packet Filter Set, which may include flow matching information) and matching priority (Precedence) information. When a downstream packet is received, the UPF may match the packet according to Packet Filter Set (flow matching information) and add the matched QFI to the header of the packet. When an uplink data packet needs to be sent, the UE may add the QFI matched with the uplink data packet to the header of the uplink data packet according to Packet Filter Set (flow matching information) in the QoS rule. When AN uplink data packet or a downlink data packet is received, the AN device can execute corresponding QoS guarantee on the data packet according to the QoS Profile corresponding to the QFI in the packet header.

2. Air interface scheduling mechanism

1. Traditional uplink scheduling principle: when uplink data needs to be transmitted, the terminal device transmits a scheduling request (scheduling request, SR) on a physical uplink control channel (physical uplink control channel, PUCCH). After receiving the SR, the AN device may send AN uplink grant to the terminal device. The terminal device may send uplink data at the location indicated by the uplink grant (i.e., the time-frequency resource indicated by the uplink grant).

In the conventional uplink scheduling process, the terminal device can only periodically transmit SR according to configuration; according to the protocol, the SR can be sent up to 80 milliseconds (ms) in maximum. Therefore, the time delay may be large by performing uplink data transmission through the flow.

2. Uplink prescheduling principle:

in order to reduce the uplink time delay, an uplink pre-scheduling function is introduced. In the uplink pre-scheduling procedure, the AN device may perform active grant on the terminal device, that is, the AN device may pre-configure uplink resources for the terminal device, without waiting for uplink grant after receiving the SR from the terminal device. Under the uplink pre-scheduling flow, even if the terminal equipment does not need to send uplink data, the AN equipment can actively authorize the terminal equipment, so that waste of uplink resources can be caused; and, the AN device may pre-configure the same uplink resources for multiple terminal devices, thereby introducing uplink interference.

3. Intelligent pre-configuration principle:

in order to avoid waste of uplink resources and uplink interference, an intelligent prescheduling function is introduced. This function may be triggered by downlink traffic. Specifically, after the AN device sends downlink data to the terminal device, the AN device may actively perform uplink authorization for the terminal within a certain time after sending the downlink data, in consideration of that the terminal device may perform corresponding feedback on the downlink data, thereby generating uplink data, and allocate uplink resources.

4. Uplink scheduling-free (also called grant scheduling-free) principle:

for the physical uplink shared channel (physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH), the third generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project,3GPP) protocol (e.g., release 15, R15 protocol) supports unlicensed scheduling. The AN equipment can periodically allocate unlicensed uplink resources for the terminal equipment; thus, when the terminal equipment needs to send the uplink data, the uplink data can be sent through the unlicensed uplink resource, so that the transmission delay of the uplink data can be reduced. Specifically, the AN device may send a first radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) signaling for configuring uplink scheduling-free resources to the terminal device; the AN device may then activate the configured uplink non-scheduled resources by sending a second RRC signaling or downlink control information (downlink control information, DCI) to the terminal device. After the uplink scheduling-free resource is activated, the terminal device can directly send uplink data on the uplink scheduling-free resource without sending AN SR or buffer status report (buffer status report, BSR) to the AN device, and can send the uplink data after receiving the uplink grant sent by the AN device, thereby achieving the purpose of shortening the time delay.

5. The downlink scheduling basic flow:

the AN equipment allocates downlink resources for the terminal equipment according to the channel state reported by the terminal equipment and combining with information such as UE capability and the like, and sends scheduling information for indicating the allocated downlink resources to the terminal equipment through a physical downlink control channel (physical downlink control channel, PDCCH). The AN equipment can send downlink data to the terminal equipment on the downlink resources allocated to the terminal equipment; and the terminal equipment determines the allocated downlink resource according to the scheduling information received from the PDCCH, receives downlink data on the downlink resource and demodulates the downlink data.

6. Downlink semi-persistent scheduling principle:

the AN device may send a third RRC signaling for configuring the periodic downlink resource to the terminal device and activate the periodic downlink resource by sending a PDCCH using a configuration scheduling radio network temporary identity (radio network temporary identifier, RNTI) (configured scheduling RNTI, CS-RNTI) identity to the terminal device. The PDCCH identified by the CS-RNTI may carry information required for scheduling the periodic downlink resource, and indicate that the downlink resource may be multiplexed according to a periodicity defined by radio connection control (radio resource control, RRC) (e.g., third RRC signaling). In addition, the configured downlink resource may also be deactivated by the PDCCH identified by the CS-RNTI, that is, the AN device may deactivate the periodic downlink resource by transmitting the PDCCH identified by the CS-RNTI to the terminal device.

3. Communication between IO devices and PLCs

The PLC may communicate with the IO devices through a mobile communication system (e.g., 5G core,5 gc). The communication process may include the following steps A1-A5:

a1: the IO device establishes connection with the PLC. For details, reference is made to S301-S308 in FIG. 3 below. And is not developed here.

A2: when an IO device sends an uplink packet (which may also be referred to as an uplink traffic flow, an uplink Real Time (RT) flow, an RT flow, or an uplink data packet, etc.), the IO device may send the uplink packet to a UE (hereinafter referred to as a first UE) connected to the IO device.

The IO device may periodically send an uplink message to the first UE. The period for the IO device to send the uplink message may be a Cycle Time (CT).

For details of step A2, reference is made to S309 in fig. 3 below. And is not developed here.

A3: after receiving the uplink message, the first UE may send the uplink message to the AN device through the periodic resources allocated by the AN device. The period of the periodic resource allocated by the AN device is the same as the period of the periodic sending of the uplink message by the IO device.

Alternatively, the AN device may allocate periodic resources by: the AN device may perform uplink pre-scheduling for the uplink message based on the request of AF or 5GC and send a configuration grant configuration (configured grant) message to the first UE. The configurable grant configuration message may include configuration information for indicating an uplink prescheduling resource, where the configuration information may include: period (which may be CT), time domain resources, frequency domain resources, modulation coding scheme, etc.

A4: the AN equipment sends the received uplink message to the UPF.

A5: the UPF sends the received uplink message to the PLC.

The UPF may send the uplink message to the PLC in one of the following ways.

1. The PLC acts as a DN, and thus the interface between the UPF and the PLC may be an N6 interface. The UPF may send the uplink message to the PLC via the N6 interface.

2. The PLC is connected to the mobile communication system through a UE (hereinafter, abbreviated as a second UE). The UPF may send the uplink message to the PLC through the UPF of the PLC side, the AN device, and the second UE.

In this method, the first UE may not be able to send the uplink message immediately after receiving the uplink message from the IO device. For example, after the first UE receives the uplink packet from the IO device at the first time, the uplink packet may be sent according to the uplink pre-scheduled time domain resource and the frequency domain resource configured by the AN device. Specifically, if the AN device configures resources at a second time after the first time for the first UE, the first UE may send the uplink packet at the second time. For another example, after the first UE receives the uplink packet from the IO device, preprocessing (e.g., adding a packet header) of the uplink packet is completed at a first time, and the uplink packet is sent at a second time configured by the AN device. Therefore, there is a time difference between the first UE preparing to send the uplink message and actually sending the message, thereby affecting the overall delay of the uplink message transmission.

4. Connection establishment process between IO device and PLC

Fig. 3 shows a connection establishment procedure between the IO device and the PLC. This process is described below in conjunction with fig. 3.

S301: the PLC (also referred to as an IO controller) sends a connection request (connection req) to the IO device for requesting connection between the PLC and the IO device.

S302: the IO device sends a connect response (connect rsp) to the PLC.

S303: the PLC sends a write request (write req) to the IO device. Wherein the write req may be used to request information to be transferred between the PLC and the IO device.

S304: the IO device sends a write response (write rsp) to the PLC.

S305: the PLC sends a parameter download end request (ParameterDownloadEnd req, prmEnd req) to the IO device.

S306: the IO device sends a parameter download end response (ParameterDownloadEnd rsp, prmEnd rsp) to the PLC.

S307: the IO device sends an application preparation request (ApplRdy req) to the PLC.

S308: the PLC sends an application preparation response (ApplRdy rsp) to the IO device.

Through S307 and S308, an application for communication between the IO device and the PLC is ready.

S309: the IO device sends a Control Request (CR) input to the PLC.

The CR input may include an uplink message.

In addition, after receiving the application preparation response, the IO device starts transmitting CR input to the PLC. In other words, the ready-to-application response may be used to trigger the IO device to send the CR input, i.e., trigger the IO device to send the upstream message.

S310: the PLC sends a CR output (output) to the IO device.

In addition, after receiving the application preparation response, the IO device may repeatedly perform S309 and S310 for the CT as a period, that is, the IO device may send the uplink message for the CT as a period.

4. Principle of delay skew (also called delay skew, clock skew)

There may be clocks in a plurality of communication devices that are used to determine time information. When clocks among the plurality of communication devices are not clock-synchronized, an initial phase of each communication device is different, and the phase may drift with time, which may cause a variation in delay offset between the communication devices. When the delay offset principle is applied to the communication system shown in fig. 2, the delay offset between the clock and the absolute time in the IO device and/or the PLC will be larger and larger. The delay offset between the clock of each IO device and the absolute time may drift monotonically, and the speeds of the delay offsets of the clocks of different IO devices relative to the absolute time may be different. In the example shown in fig. 4, one PLC may control 8 IO devices (i.e., 1 master and 8 slaves), the sending clock of the PLC is 1ms, the CTs of the 8 IO devices are all 8ms, and about 50 ten thousand CR input messages need to be sent. In fig. 4, the horizontal axis represents time, and the unit may be seconds(s); the vertical axis is the delay offset between the clock in the IO device and the absolute time (e.g., the clock of the PLC), which may be in milliseconds (ms). As shown in fig. 4, as time goes by, the delay offset of the clock in the IO device that is not clock-synchronized with respect to the absolute time is larger and larger; in this way, the delay offset between different communication devices may also be larger and larger. Therefore, the time deviation between the time when the IO device sends the uplink message according to the CT and the time when the AN device allocates the resources with the period of CT to the terminal device may be larger and larger, so that the difference between the time when the terminal device prepares to send the uplink message and the time when the terminal device can send the uplink message may also increase with time after the initial configuration is completed.

As described above, there is a time difference between the first UE preparing to send the uplink message and actually sending the message, thereby affecting the overall delay of the uplink message transmission. In order to reduce the delay, the time difference between the first UE preparing to send the uplink message and the actual sending message may be reduced.

A method of reducing this time difference is currently provided. Specifically, the AF may send time sensitive communication (time sensitive communication, TSC) assistance information (TSC assistance information, TSCAI) information to the AN device via 5 GC. The TSCAI information may include: TSC flow direction (e.g., upstream and/or downstream), period, traffic arrival time (i.e., burst Arrival time, e.g., the latest possible time for the first packet of a data burst to reach the AN device ingress for downstream data; and, e.g., the latest possible time for the first packet of a data burst to reach the UE egress for upstream data), time-to-live (ST). The AN device may then configure resources for the UE according to the TSCAI information, the characteristics of each flow, and the arrival time of the traffic flow, thereby reducing the time difference between the UE preparing to send the uplink packet and the actual sending packet.

However, the traffic arrival time contained in the above TSCAI information is an optional parameter in the 3GPP protocol. And, the parameter is determined by the SMF. Specifically, the SMF may determine the parameter according to the following information: the UPF measurement results of communication devices (e.g., terminal devices) inside or outside the mobile communication system, and measurement reports of communication devices inside or outside the mobile communication system. The above information may be obtained periodically. For example, the communication device periodically reports measurement reports. When the mobile communication system is not internally or externally provided with a clock system or when the 5GC and the terminal equipment do not enable clock synchronization, the time represented by the information obtained periodically deviates, and the accuracy of the parameter determined based on the time of deviation is not high. Therefore, the accuracy of the resources adjusted by the method is not high, so that the time delay may not be effectively reduced.

In addition, when uplink traffic flows of a plurality of UEs or a plurality of IO devices arrive at the same time, there may also be an air interface scheduling conflict.

The scheme provided by the application is described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method which can be applied to the communication systems shown in fig. 1-2. In the method, the AN device can adjust uplink resources scheduled for the terminal device according to the first time difference determined by the terminal device, so as to reduce the first time difference of subsequent uplink messages sent by the terminal device. The flow of the method will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart shown in fig. 5.

S501: the terminal device obtains first information for indicating a first time difference. Wherein, the first time difference may be: the difference between the time the terminal device can send the uplink message and the time the terminal device is ready to send the uplink message.

The time for the terminal device to prepare to send the uplink message may be, but not limited to, one of the following: the time when the terminal device receives the uplink message (for example, the time when the terminal device receives the uplink message from the IO device), and the time when the terminal device generates the uplink message (for example, the time when the terminal device receives the uplink message from the IO device and completes preprocessing the uplink message).

In some possible manners, the time that the terminal device can send the uplink message may be a time corresponding to an uplink resource after the terminal device prepares to send the uplink message. For example, when the terminal device prepares to send AN uplink message at 4ms, and the AN device schedules AN uplink resource at 3ms, 7ms, 11ms, 15ms, etc. for the terminal device, the time that the terminal device can send the uplink message may be the uplink resource at 7ms, 11ms, or 15 ms.

In other possible manners, the time when the terminal device can send the uplink message may be the time when the terminal device actually sends the uplink message. For example, the terminal device prepares to send AN uplink message at 4ms, the AN device schedules uplink resources at 3ms, 7ms, 11ms, 15ms, etc. for the terminal device, and the terminal device sends the uplink message at the uplink resources at 11ms, so that the time that the terminal device can send the uplink message is the uplink resources at 11 ms.

For example, as shown in fig. 6, when the terminal device receives the uplink packet 1 from the IO device at the Ta time and can send the uplink packet 1 at the Tb time, the terminal device may determine that the first time difference is Tb-Ta for the uplink packet 1.

The first information indicating the first time difference may be a value (for example, 3 ms) of the first time difference directly or may be information capable of indirectly indicating the first time difference (for example, when the information is the first value, the first time difference is 3 ms).

In addition, the sending period of the uplink message is the same as the period of the uplink resource acquired by the terminal equipment and used for sending the uplink message. For example, when the terminal device receives the uplink message from the IO device, the period (e.g., CT) of the IO device sending the uplink message is the same as the period of the uplink resource scheduled by the AN device for the terminal device. For another example, when the terminal device periodically generates the uplink message, the period of generating the uplink message by the terminal device (that is, the period of preparing the uplink message by the terminal device) is the same as the period of the uplink resource scheduled by the AN device for the terminal device.

S502: the terminal equipment sends first information to the AN equipment; accordingly, the AN device obtains the first information.

Alternatively, the terminal device may send the first information directly to the AN device, or may send the first information indirectly to the AN device (e.g., send the first information to the AN device through at least one of a control plane network element (e.g., SMF) or AF). Thus, the terminal device may send the first information to at least one of the AN device, the control plane network element or the AF. Accordingly, the AN device may receive first information from at least one of the terminal device, the control plane network element, or the AF. Wherein the AF may be an industrial field enabling service (industry field enable service, IFES).

In addition, the first information may be carried in an existing message (e.g., measurement report, etc.), or may be carried in a new message, which is not limited in the present application.

S503: and the AN equipment adjusts the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal equipment into a second uplink resource according to the first time difference.

The AN device may adjust the uplink resource scheduled for the terminal device according to the first time difference, so that the time between the periodic uplink resource scheduled for the terminal device and the time when the terminal device is ready to send the uplink message is closer, in other words, the difference between the time when the terminal device can send the uplink message and the time when the terminal device is ready to send the subsequent uplink message is smaller.

S504: the AN device sends first resource configuration information to the terminal device. The first resource configuration information may be used to indicate a second uplink resource. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the first resource configuration information.

The first resource configuration information may be carried in an existing message (for example, an RRC configuration (RRC configuration) message or an air interface configuration message) or may be carried in a new message, which is not limited in the present application.

S505: and the terminal equipment sends the uplink message through the second uplink resource.

For example, as shown in fig. 6, when the terminal device receives the uplink packet 2 from the IO device at Tc and can send the uplink packet 2 at Td, the terminal device may determine that the first time difference is Td-Tc for the uplink packet 2. The first time difference of the uplink message 2 is smaller than the first time difference of the uplink message 1.

By the method, the AN equipment can adjust uplink resources allocated to the terminal equipment according to the first time difference, so that the difference between the time when the terminal equipment can send the uplink message and the time when the terminal equipment is ready to send the subsequent uplink message is smaller, the first time difference of the subsequent uplink message is reduced, and the transmission delay of the subsequent uplink message is reduced.

Optionally, in S503, the AN device may adjust the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal device to the second uplink resource by:

the AN device may advance the first uplink resource by N time units to obtain a second uplink resource. Wherein N is a positive integer and the N time units are determined according to the first time difference. The first uplink resource is a resource having a transmission cycle (e.g., CT) of the uplink message as a cycle. Thus, the second uplink resource is also a resource having a transmission cycle of the uplink message as a cycle.

Alternatively, the N time units may be less than or equal to the first time difference.

By the method, the AN equipment can advance the first uplink resource by N time units to obtain the second uplink resource, so that the difference between the time when the terminal equipment can send the uplink message and the time when the terminal equipment is ready to send the subsequent uplink message is smaller, the first time difference of the subsequent uplink message is reduced, and the transmission delay of the subsequent uplink message is reduced.

Optionally, before S503, the method may further include: the AN device receives AN indication from the control plane network element to adjust uplink resources scheduled for the terminal device.

Wherein the control plane network element may be at least one of: SMF, AMF, PCF.

Optionally, the indication for adjusting the uplink resource scheduled for the terminal device may be a message or an information element in the message. Specifically, when the indication for adjusting the uplink resource scheduled for the terminal device is a cell, the indication for adjusting the uplink resource scheduled for the terminal device may multiplex the cell in the existing message or may be a new cell in the existing message. For example, the cell may be a first indication field, and when the value of the field is a second value, the AN device may be instructed to adjust uplink resources scheduled for the terminal device.

In addition, the AN device may receive AN indication from the control plane network element to adjust uplink resources scheduled for the terminal device in the process of establishing the QoS flow for transmitting the uplink message.

By the method, the AN device can adjust uplink resources scheduled for the terminal device according to the instruction of the control plane network element.

Optionally, before S502, the method may further include: the terminal device receives an indication for instructing the terminal device to transmit the first information.

The indication for instructing the terminal device to send the first information may be a message or a cell in the message. Specifically, when the indication for instructing the terminal device to transmit the first information is a cell, the indication for instructing the terminal device to transmit the first information may multiplex a cell in an existing message or may be a new cell in an existing message. For example, the cell may be a second indication field, and when the value of the field is a third value, the terminal device may be instructed to send the first information.

In addition, the terminal device may receive AN indication from the control plane network element or the AN device to adjust uplink resources scheduled for the terminal device in the process of establishing the QoS flow for transmitting the uplink message. Wherein the control plane network element may be at least one of: SMF, AMF, PCF.

By the method, the terminal equipment reports the first information after receiving the indication for indicating the terminal equipment to send the first information, so that the terminal equipment is prevented from reporting the first information all the time, network resources for reporting the first information can be saved, and electric quantity required by the terminal equipment for reporting the first information is saved.

Optionally, the method further comprises: the terminal device receives information indicating a first threshold. In S502, when the first time difference is greater than or equal to a first threshold, the terminal device transmits first information.

The information indicating the first threshold may be the first threshold directly or the information indicating the first threshold indirectly. The information indicating the first threshold may be included in an existing message or may be included in a new message, to which the present application is not limited.

In addition, the terminal device may receive information indicating the first threshold from the control plane network element in the process of establishing the QoS flow for transmitting the uplink packet. Wherein the control plane network element may be at least one of: SMF, AMF, PCF.

The application does not limit the execution sequence of the terminal equipment for receiving the indication for indicating the terminal equipment to send the first information and for receiving the information for indicating the first threshold value, and the terminal equipment can firstly receive the indication for indicating the terminal equipment to send the first information and then receive the information for indicating the first threshold value; or the information for indicating the first threshold value is received first, and then the indication for indicating the terminal equipment to send the first information is received; an indication for instructing the terminal device to transmit the first information and information for indicating the first threshold value may also be received simultaneously.

When the first time difference is small, it may not be necessary to reduce the time delay by adjusting the first time difference. In the method, when the first time difference is greater than or equal to the first threshold value, the terminal equipment reports the first information, so that unnecessary reporting of the first information by the terminal equipment is avoided, network resources for reporting the first information can be saved, and electric quantity required by the terminal equipment for reporting the first information is saved.

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method which can be applied to the communication systems shown in fig. 1-2. In the method, the AN device can adjust uplink resources scheduled for the terminal device according to the estimated value of the first time difference, so as to reduce the first time difference of subsequent uplink messages sent by the terminal device. The flow of the method will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart shown in fig. 7.

S701: the AN device acquires second information indicating AN estimated value of the first time difference. Wherein, the first time difference is: the difference between the time the terminal device can send the uplink message and the time the terminal device is ready to send the uplink message.

The specific content of the first time difference may refer to S501, which is not described herein.

Alternatively, the second information may be directly an estimated value (e.g., 3 ms) of the first time difference, or may be information indirectly indicating an estimated value of the first time difference (e.g., when the information is a fourth value, the estimated value of the first time difference is 3 ms).

S702: and the AN equipment adjusts the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal equipment into a second uplink resource according to the estimated value of the first time difference.

The AN device may adjust the uplink resource scheduled for the terminal device according to the estimated value of the first time difference, so that the time between the periodic uplink resource scheduled for the terminal device and the time when the terminal device is ready to send the uplink message is closer, in other words, the difference between the time when the terminal device is able to send the uplink message and the time when the terminal device is ready to send the subsequent uplink message is smaller.

S703: the AN device sends first resource configuration information to the terminal device. The first resource configuration information may be used to indicate a second uplink resource.

The specific content of S703 may refer to S504, and will not be described here. After S703, the terminal device may perform the operation of S505, which is not described here again.

Alternatively, in S701, the AN apparatus may acquire second information indicating the estimated value of the first time difference by one of the following ways.

Mode one: the user plane network element sends the second information to the AN device. Accordingly, the AN device receives the second information from the user plane network element.

Optionally, the first mode may include step B1 to step B3:

b1: the AN device sends second resource configuration information to the terminal device.

The second resource configuration information may be used to indicate a first uplink resource, where the first uplink resource includes a resource with a transmission period (e.g., CT) of the uplink message as a period. The first uplink resource may also include resources over a plurality of time units during at least one transmission period. Thus, in one transmission period (e.g., the first transmission period), the terminal device may have multiple uplink resources available for transmitting uplink messages; in a transmission period (e.g., a second transmission period) adjacent to the first transmission period, the terminal device may have an uplink resource for transmitting an uplink message.

Alternatively, the second resource configuration information may be carried in an existing message (e.g., RRC configuration message) or may be carried in a new message, which is not limited by the present application.

B2: the user plane network element may determine the second information according to a time of receiving M uplink messages from the terminal device through the first uplink resource, where M is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

A possible way for the terminal device to send an uplink message according to the first uplink resource is illustrated in the following with reference to fig. 8.

For uplink message 1: the terminal device may receive the uplink packet 1 at a Ta time before the first transmission period (e.g., receive the uplink packet 1 from the IO device), send the uplink packet 1 to the AN device on the first uplink resource of the first transmission period (i.e., at a Tb time), and then the AN device may send the uplink packet 1 to the user plane network element. The user plane network element may receive the uplink message 1 at time T1.

For uplink message 2: the terminal device receives the uplink message 2 (for example, receives the uplink message 2 from the IO device) at the ta+ct time in the first transmission period, and sends the uplink message 2 to the AN device on the uplink resource nearest to the ta+ct time in the first transmission period, and then the AN device may send the uplink message 2 to the user plane network element. The user plane network element may receive the uplink message 2 at time T2. Wherein.

For uplink message 3: the terminal device receives the uplink message 3 (for example, receives the uplink message 3 from the IO device) at ta+2×ct in the second transmission period, and sends the uplink message 3 to the AN device on AN uplink resource (i.e., tb+2×ct in the second transmission period), and then the AN device may send the uplink message 3 to the user plane network element. The user plane network element may receive the uplink message 3 at time T3.

In this way, the user plane network element may estimate the first time difference for the terminal device to send the uplink message through the periodic uplink resource by at least one of the following formulas: CT-T1+T2, T3-T2-CT. That is, the user plane network element may determine the estimated value of the first time difference according to at least one term of the above formula.

In order to estimate the first time difference more accurately, the user plane network element may determine an estimated value of the first time difference through a plurality of uplink messages. For example, when m=3, the user plane network element may determine that the estimated value of the first time difference is: avg (a, b);

wherein a=t1+ct-T2, b=t3-T2-CT;

where Avg represents an averaging operation, T1 is a time when a first uplink message (e.g., the uplink message 1) of the M uplink messages is received, T2 is a time when a second uplink message (e.g., the uplink message 2) of the M uplink messages is received, and T3 is a time when a third uplink message of the M uplink messages is received.

By the method, the user plane network element can more accurately determine the estimated value of the first time difference.

B3: the user plane network element sends the second information to the AN device.

The second information may be carried in an existing message or may be carried in a new message, which is not limited in the present application.

Mode two: the AN device determines the second information.

In this second mode, the AN device may perform steps C1 to C2:

c1: the AN device sends second resource configuration information to the terminal device.

The second resource configuration information may be used to indicate a first uplink resource, where the first uplink resource includes a resource with a transmission period of the uplink message as a period. The first uplink resource may also include resources over a plurality of time units during at least one transmission period.

Specific details of C1 may refer to B1, and will not be described here.

C2: the AN device may determine the second information according to a time of receiving M uplink messages from the terminal device through the first uplink resource, where M is AN integer greater than or equal to 2.

The specific content of the second information determined by the AN device may refer to B2, and only the user plane network element therein is replaced by the AN device, which is not described herein.

Alternatively, when m=3, the AN device may determine that the estimated value of the first time difference is: avg (a, b);

Wherein a=t1+ct-T2, b=t3-T2-CT;

wherein Avg represents an averaging operation, T1 is a time of receiving a first uplink message of the M uplink messages, T2 is a time of receiving a second uplink message of the M uplink messages, T3 is a time of receiving a third uplink message of the M uplink messages, and CT is a transmission period of the uplink messages.

In this way, the AN device can accurately determine the estimate of the first time difference.

Optionally, in S702, the AN device may adjust the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal device to the second uplink resource by:

the determining, by the AN device, the second uplink resource includes: the distance from the first resource is a resource that is an integer multiple of the transmission period (e.g., CT) of the uplink message. The first resource is a resource obtained by advancing a resource on a first time unit in the plurality of time units by N time units in a first transmission period. In other words, the AN device may advance the periodic uplink resource in the first uplink resource by N time units to obtain the second time unit. Wherein N is a positive integer, and the N time units are determined according to the estimated value of the first time difference.

Optionally, the N time units are less than or equal to the estimated value of the first time difference.

By the method, the AN equipment can advance the periodical uplink resource in the first uplink resource by N time units to obtain the second uplink resource, so that the difference between the time when the terminal equipment can send the uplink message and the time when the terminal equipment is ready to send the subsequent uplink message is smaller. In this way, when the terminal transmits the subsequent uplink message through the second uplink resource, the first time difference of the subsequent uplink message can be reduced, and the transmission delay of the subsequent uplink message can be further reduced.

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method which can be applied to the communication systems shown in fig. 1-2. In the method, the first communication device may delay sending the message according to the first indication. The flow of the method will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart shown in fig. 9.

S901: the first communication device receives a first indication. The first indication may include indication information of the first QoS flow.

Wherein the first communication device may comprise at least one of: user plane network element, AN equipment and terminal equipment.

Alternatively, the first indication may be used to indicate that a message (e.g., a first message) received through the first QoS flow is delayed to be sent. The indication information of the first QoS flow may be an identification of the first QoS flow.

The first indication may be a message or a cell in the message. Specifically, when the first indication is a cell, the first indication may multiplex a cell in an existing message (e.g., a message in a session establishment procedure or a session modification procedure), or may be a new cell in an existing message. For example, the cell may be a third indication field, and when the field takes a fifth value, the transmission of a message received through the first QoS flow may be delayed.

S902: the first communication device may send the first message according to the first indication after receiving a first time length of the first message through the first QoS flow. That is, after receiving the first indication, if the first packet is received through the first QoS flow, the first communication device sends the first packet after receiving the first time length of the first packet.

Optionally, in S901, the first communication device may receive the first indication by one of the following implementations:

Alternatively, the first communication device may receive a first indication from the session management function network element during establishment or modification of the first QoS flow.

The implementation mode II is as follows: the first communication device receives a message from a control plane network element or AF for requesting to establish or modify the second QoS flow; wherein the message includes a first indication. That is, the control plane network element or AF, upon requesting to establish or modify the second QoS flow, may instruct the first communication device to delay sending messages for the first QoS flow transmission associated with the second QoS flow.

Wherein the control plane network element may be at least one of: SMF, AMF, PCF; AF may be IFES.

Optionally, the first QoS flow is associated with the second QoS flow, which may mean that the packet transmitted by the first QoS flow is used to trigger the packet transmitted by the second QoS flow. For example, the message transmitted by the first QoS flow is an application preparation response, and the message transmitted by the second QoS flow is an uplink message sent by the IO device.

By the method, the first communication equipment can conveniently acquire the first indication, so that the message received through the first QoS flow is delayed to be sent.

Optionally, in an implementation scenario of the above method, the first packet is used to trigger sending of an uplink packet. In this way, the first communication device can delay triggering the sending of the uplink message by delaying the sending of the first message, so that the sending time of the uplink message can be controlled, and the transmission delay of the uplink message can be reduced.

For example, the first message is an application preparation response in the method shown in fig. 3, and the application preparation response may be used to trigger the IO device to send an uplink message. By delaying the sending of the first message, the sending of the uplink message by the IO device can be delayed and triggered, so that the time for the IO device to send the uplink message is delayed; in this way, the time when the terminal device receives the uplink message is delayed, so that the time when the terminal device can send the uplink message and the time difference (namely the first time difference) when the terminal device is ready to send the uplink message can be reduced, and the transmission delay of the uplink message can be further reduced. In addition, when the time for sending the uplink message by the IO device is delayed by delaying the first message, the IO device is not required to be changed, namely the IO device is not required to have the capability of adjusting the packet sending time, and the implementation is convenient.

Optionally, in S902, before sending the first message, the first communication device may determine the first time length by one of the following implementations.

Implementation 1: the first communication device may determine the first time period based on the third information.

Wherein the third information includes at least one of:

1. a first transmission delay, the first transmission delay may include: the method comprises the steps of transmitting delay between a first communication device and input/output (IO) devices for sending uplink messages, processing delay of the IO devices and transmitting delay between the IO devices and terminal devices.

2. The AN equipment sends uplink resources configured by the uplink message to the terminal equipment: for example, the AN transmits Initial resources (e.g., initial uplink prescheduling time, initial transmission time interval (transmission time interval, TTI) (Initial TTI)) of the periodic resources configured for the uplink message to the terminal device, and so on.

3. Period of uplink resource: the period may also be a transmission period (e.g., CT) of the uplink message.

4. The time at which the first message was received by the first communication device.

Alternatively, the first communication device may determine the first time period as: initiating tti+n CT-first transmission delay-time when the first message is received by the first communication device. Wherein n is a non-negative integer. By adjusting n, the Initial uplink pre-scheduling time allocated by the AN device is delayed by n periods and then later than (the first transmission delay+the time when the first communication device receives the first message), that is, the Initial tti+n×ct is greater than or equal to (the first transmission delay+the time when the first communication device receives the first message), so that the first duration capable of reducing the first time difference can be determined. Where n may be set such that (Initial tti+n×ct) is greater than or equal to the minimum value (first transmission delay+time when the first communication device receives the first message).

For example, the uplink resources configured by the AN device for sending the uplink message to the terminal device include uplink resources located at 3ms, 7ms, 11ms, 15ms and 19ms, where the period of the uplink resources is 4ms, and the sending period of the uplink message is also 4ms; the first transmission delay is 2ms; the time for the first communication device to receive the first message is 7ms. Thus, the terminal device can send the uplink message after 9ms at the earliest. After 9ms, the AN device allocates uplink resources at 11ms, 15ms, etc. to the terminal device. In order to send an uplink message on an uplink resource located at 11ms, therefore, the terminal device delays receiving the uplink message by at most 2ms; correspondingly, the first communication device may delay sending the first message for triggering the uplink message by at most 2 ms. Thus, the first duration may be a value of 2ms or less than 2 ms. Of course, the terminal device may also send the uplink message through other uplink resources, for example, send the uplink message through the uplink resource located in 15ms or 19 ms; at this point, the first communication device may delay 6ms or 10ms to transmit the first message, i.e., the first duration may be 6ms or 10ms.

In addition, in implementation 1, the first communication device may acquire the third information by one of:

Alternatively, the third information may be carried in an existing message or may be carried in a new message, which is not limited in this aspect of the application.

It should be understood that the first communication device may receive all of the third information from one of the AN device, the control plane network element, and the AF; part of the third information may also be received from one or more communication devices in the AN device, the control plane network element, and the AF, and other information in the third information may be received from other communication devices in the AN device, the control plane network element, and the AF.

Mode 2: the first communication device obtains preconfigured third information.

For example, the third information may be stored in the memory of the first communication device in advance, and the first communication device may acquire the third information by reading the memory.

Implementation 2: the first communication device may receive information from a control plane network element or an AF indicating the first duration.

The information for indicating the first duration may be the first duration directly or may indicate the first duration indirectly. The information indicating the first duration may be carried in an existing message (e.g., qoS flow setup/modification request) or may be carried in a new message, which the present application is not limited to.

Alternatively, the control plane network element or the AF may determine the first time period by the method in implementation 1, and may also receive information indicating the first time period from another communication device.

In addition, the present application does not limit the order of execution in which the first communication device receives the information for indicating the first time period and receives the first indication. For example, the first communication device may first receive information indicating the first duration and then receive the first indication; or the first indication is received first, and then information for indicating the first duration is received; information indicating the first duration and the first indication may also be received simultaneously.

Implementation 3: the first communication device obtains a preconfigured first duration.

For example, the first duration may be stored in a memory of the first communication device in advance, and the first communication device may obtain the first duration by reading the memory.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication method. The method may be applied in the communication system shown in fig. 1 or fig. 2. This method is one possible implementation of the method shown in fig. 5. The following description will take the terminal device as UE and AF as IFES as an example with reference to the flowchart shown in fig. 10.

S1001: UE initiates PDU session establishment procedure; in this way, the IO device connected to the UE may communicate with the PLC through the PDU session.

Alternatively, the UE may initiate the PDU session establishment procedure by sending a PDU session establishment request.

S1002: the IFES sends a policy grant request corresponding to the RT flow to the 5GC, which may be used to request establishment of a QoS flow for transmitting the RT flow (e.g., the QoS flow for transmitting the uplink message in fig. 5).

The RT flow may include an uplink message to be sent by the IO device.

Specifically, S1002 may include steps D1-D2:

d1: the IFES sends policy authorization requests to the PCF.

Wherein, the policy authorization request may include at least one of the following: flow description information, qoS requirements, air interface scheduling parameters (e.g., CT, ST), etc.

In addition, the policy grant request may further include an indication (also referred to as an offset (offset) reporting indication) for indicating the UE to report the first time difference. The specific content of the first time difference may refer to S501 in the method shown in fig. 5, which is not described herein.

Optionally, the policy authorization request may further include information for indicating the first threshold. The specific content of the information for indicating the first threshold may refer to the description of the information for indicating the first threshold in the method shown in fig. 5, which is not described herein.

D2: after receiving the policy authorization request, the PCF may send the policy to the SMF in the form of PCC rules. Wherein, the PCC rule may comprise at least one of the following: the method comprises the steps of flow description information, authorized QoS parameters, air interface scheduling parameters, an indication for indicating the UE to report a first time difference and information for indicating a first threshold value.

S1003: the 5GC sends a QoS flow establishment request to the AN device to request to establish a QoS flow corresponding to the RT flow.

Alternatively, the SMF may send the QoS flow setup request to the AN device. For example, the SMF may send the QoS flow setup request to the AN device after receiving the PCC rule and performing QoS flow binding according to the PCC rule (i.e., associating the PCC rule to AN existing or newly established QoS flow).

Wherein the QoS flow establishment request may be QoS configuration information (QoS Profile) transmitted by the SMF to the AN device in the QoS flow establishment/modification procedure. Wherein. The QoS configuration information may include at least one of: QFI, air interface scheduling parameters, qoS parameters.

In addition, in the QoS flow setup/modification procedure, the SMF may also send QoS rules (i.e., qoS Rule, e.g., QFI or traffic flow data (service data flow, SDF) description information, etc.) and QoS parameters (i.e., qoS Flow level QoS parameter, e.g., qoS parameters or offset reporting indication) of QoS flow level to the UE; transmitting to the UPF at least one of: packet detection rules (packet detection rule, PDR) (corresponding to flow description information), forwarding action rules (forwarding action rule, FAR), qoS enforcement rules (QoS enforcement rule, QER), usage reporting rules (usage reporting rule, URR) (corresponding usage statistics, charging rules, etc.), and the like.

Optionally, the offset report indication may also be carried in QoS rules.

S1004: the AN device performs upstream prescheduling based on the information from the SMF.

Optionally, the AN device schedules uplink resources with a period of CT for the UE.

S1005: the AN device may send information indicating AN uplink pre-scheduling resource (e.g., a first uplink resource in the method shown in fig. 5) to the UE through AN air interface configuration message.

The information for indicating the uplink pre-scheduling resource may include: uplink TTI information, i.e., time domain information of the uplink pre-scheduling resources. In addition, the information for indicating the uplink pre-scheduling resource may further include at least one of the following: frequency domain information of uplink pre-scheduling resources, coding mode and the like.

S1006: and the IO equipment sends an uplink message to the UE. Correspondingly, the UE receives an uplink message from the IO device.

For example, the IO device may send an uplink message to the UE after receiving the application preparation response.

S1007: the UE determines a first time difference. Wherein, the first time difference is: the difference between the time the terminal device can send the uplink message and the time the terminal device is ready to send the uplink message.

Alternatively, the UE may determine the first time difference according to the time when the uplink message is received and uplink resources (e.g., uplink TTI time) scheduled by the AN device for the UE.

S1008: and the UE sends first information for indicating the first time difference to the AN equipment according to the offset reporting indication.

The specific content of S1008 may refer to S502, and will not be described herein.

Alternatively, in S1008, when the UE receives the information indicating the first threshold, the first information indicating the first time difference may be transmitted to the AN device when the first time difference is greater than or equal to the first threshold.

S1009: the AN device adjusts the uplink pre-scheduling resource according to the first time difference, for example, adjusts the first uplink resource to be the second uplink resource.

The specific content of S1009 may refer to S503, and will not be described here.

S1010: the AN device transmits information for indicating the second uplink resource (i.e., the first resource configuration information in the method shown in fig. 5) to the UE.

The specific content of S1010 may refer to S504, and will not be described herein.

S1011: and each network element uses the second uplink resource to transmit the uplink message.

For example, the UE forwards the uplink message from the IO device using the second uplink resource.

Optionally, in the process of sending the uplink message by the IO device, the UE may repeatedly execute steps S1008 to S1010, so that the first time difference can meet the service requirement.

In some possible implementations, the IFES may also send the above-mentioned offset reporting indication to the UE through the AN device. For example, in S1003, the QoS configuration information includes an offset report instruction; then, the AN device may send AN offset report indication to the UE through AN air interface configuration parameter, where the air interface configuration parameter may be included in the air interface configuration message in S1005.

In the method, the UE can determine a first time difference and trigger the AN equipment to adjust the uplink pre-scheduling resource according to the first time difference, so that the difference between the time when the terminal equipment can send the uplink message and the time when the terminal equipment is ready to send the subsequent uplink message is smaller, the time delay of waiting to send the uplink message at the UE side (namely, the time delay of waiting to send the uplink message at the UE side) is reduced, and the transmission time delay of the subsequent uplink message is reduced, so that the service requirement of low end-to-end time delay is realized.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication method. The method may be applied in the communication system shown in fig. 1 or fig. 2. This method describes one possible implementation of the method shown in fig. 7. The following description will take the terminal device as UE and AF as IFES as an example with reference to the flowchart shown in fig. 11.

S1101: the UE initiates a PDU session establishment procedure.

The specific content of S1101 may refer to S1001, and will not be described here again.

S1102: the IFES sends a first message to the 5GC to establish a QoS flow for transmitting the RT flow (i.e., the uplink message in the method shown in fig. 7). In other words, IFES initiates the setup flow of the QoS flow through 5 GC.

Wherein the first message may include at least one of: flow description information, CT, ST, and AN indication (which may also be referred to as AN offset adjustment indication) for indicating that the AN device adjusts uplink resources scheduled for the UE. The first message may be a policy authorization request in the method shown in fig. 10.

S1103: the 5GC sends a second message to the AN device for establishing the QoS flow for transmitting the RT flow.

Wherein the second message may include at least one of: flow description information, CT, time ST, and offset adjustment indication. The second message may be a QoS flow setup request in the method shown in fig. 10.

S1104: the AN device transmits a response (ACK) message to the IFES through the 5 GC.

S1105: the AN equipment executes uplink pre-scheduling and allocates a first uplink resource for the UE.

The first uplink resource includes resources with the CT as a period, and in at least one period, the first uplink resource further includes resources on a plurality of time units. Wherein the resources on the plurality of time units may be resources on a plurality of adjacent time units. For example, the AN device allocates uplink resources with CT as a period to the UE, and allocates uplink resources of a plurality of slots to the UE near one time.

The present application does not limit the execution order of S1104 and S1105.

S1106: the AN device sends a first RRC configuration message to the UE.

The first RRC configuration message includes information for indicating the first uplink resource (i.e., the second resource configuration information in the method shown in fig. 7).

S1007: and the IO equipment sends an uplink message to the UE. Correspondingly, the UE receives an uplink message from the IO device.

S1108: after receiving the uplink message from the IO device, the UE selects uplink resources nearby from the first uplink resources and sends the uplink message to the AN device.

S1109: after receiving the uplink message from the UE, the AN device may adjust the uplink pre-scheduling resource according to the estimated value of the first time difference, for example, adjust the first uplink resource scheduled for the UE to the second uplink resource.

The method for determining the estimated value of the first time difference by the AN device may refer to the second mode in the method shown in fig. 7, which is not described herein.

S1110: the AN device sends a second RRC configuration message to the UE.

The second RRC configuration message includes information indicating the second uplink resource (i.e., the first resource configuration information in the method shown in fig. 7).

S1111: and each network element uses the second uplink resource to transmit the uplink message.

When the IO device periodically sends the uplink packet (i.e., the service corresponding to the uplink packet is in an operation state), due to possible clock drift in the communication device, the offset between the local time of each communication device (e.g., the IO device or the UE) and the initial scheduling time may be a problem that the offset becomes large, and at this time, steps S1106-S1110 may be repeatedly executed, so as to reduce the influence caused by the clock offset and reduce the offset of the first time difference.

Alternatively, the estimated value of the first time difference in S1109 may be notified to the AN device after the UPF calculation. At this point, the SMF may send an indication to the UPF that triggers the UPF to calculate an estimate of the first time difference. The UPF may calculate the estimate of the first time difference in a first way in the method of fig. 7. After calculating the estimated value of the first time difference, the UPF may directly send information indicating the estimated value of the first time difference to the AN device, or may send information indicating the estimated value of the first time difference to the AN device through a control plane network element (e.g., SMF).

By the method, the AN equipment can adjust uplink resources allocated to the UE according to the estimated value of the first time difference, so that the difference between the time when the UE can send the uplink message and the time when the UE is ready to send the subsequent uplink message is smaller, the first time difference of the subsequent uplink message is reduced (namely, the time delay of waiting to send the uplink message at the UE side is reduced), and the transmission time delay of the subsequent uplink message is reduced, so that the service requirement of end-to-end low time delay is realized.

In addition, in the method, the communication equipment at the network side can determine the estimated value of the first time difference, and the UE and the IO equipment do not need to carry out enhancement processing, so that the method is easy to realize.

In addition, the AN device may allocate a plurality of slot resources for the UE in one period when performing the uplink pre-scheduling, and determine a final uplink pre-scheduled resource based on the slot resources actually used by the UE. The AN device may adjust the accuracy of the estimate of the first time difference by adjusting the intervals between the plurality of slot resources, selecting AN appropriate interval according to the traffic demand such that the first time difference is within AN acceptable range (i.e., meets the traffic demand).

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication method. The method may be applied in the communication system shown in fig. 1 or fig. 2. The method describes a first possible implementation of the method shown in fig. 9, i.e. the AN device pre-schedules uplink resources for the UE; the time length (i.e., the first time length) for delaying the sending of the message is determined according to the pre-scheduled uplink resource. The following description will take the terminal device as UE, AF as IFES, and the first communication device as UPF as an example, referring to the flowchart shown in fig. 12.

S1201: the UE initiates a PDU session establishment procedure.

The specific content of S1201 may refer to S1001, and will not be described here again.

S1202: the IFES sends a policy grant request corresponding to the RT flow to the 5GC, which may be used to request establishment of a QoS flow (e.g., a second QoS flow in the method shown in fig. 9) for transmitting the RT flow.

The specific content of S1202 may refer to S1002, and the repetition is not described herein.

Furthermore, the IEFS may also send a reporting indication (which may also be referred to as AN uplink grant time subscription) to the 5GC, which may instruct the AN device to provide information of uplink resources scheduled for the UE (e.g., TTI scheduled by the AN device for the UE).

S1203: the 5GC sends a QoS flow setup request to the AN device.

The specific content of S1203 may refer to S1003, and the repetition is not repeated.

In addition, the 5GC may also send a reporting directive to the AN device.

S1204: after completing the uplink prescheduling, the AN device may send information to the IFES indicating uplink resources scheduled by the AN device for the UE (e.g., TTIs scheduled by the AN device for the UE).

The AN equipment can directly send information for indicating uplink resources scheduled by the AN equipment for the UE to the IFES; information indicating uplink resources scheduled by the AN device for the UE may also be indirectly transmitted to the IFES (e.g., information indicating uplink resources scheduled by the AN device for the UE is transmitted to the IFES through the control plane network element).

Optionally, the information for indicating uplink resources scheduled by the AN device for the UE may include at least one of: uplink scheduling-free time domain resource information (for example, AN initial TTI scheduled by AN apparatus for a UE) allocated by the AN apparatus for the QoS flow, frequency domain resource information, and the like.

S1205: the IFES may determine a first time period (also referred to as a delay time period) based on the third information.

Wherein the third information includes at least one of: and the AN equipment transmits uplink resources configured for the uplink message to the UE, wherein the period of the uplink resources is the time when the UPF receives the first message. The specific content of the third information may refer to the description of the third information in the method shown in fig. 9, which is not repeated here.

Optionally, the IFES may determine, according to the period (e.g., CT) and the initial TTI from the AN device, a time when the UE can send the uplink packet, and then determine, according to the transmission time (i.e., the first transmission delay) of the link, a time when the UPF forwards the packet, thereby determining the first duration. The specific content of the IFES determining the first duration may refer to implementation 1 in the method shown in fig. 9, which is not described herein.

S1206: the IFES sends information indicating the first duration to the UPF through the 5 GC.

Alternatively, the IFES may send a QoS flow setup/modification request for the first QoS flow to the UPF via the SMF. Wherein the QoS flow establishment/modification request may include at least one of: message matching rules and information for indicating the first duration. The first QoS flow is a QoS flow for which the transmitting application prepares a response.

S1207: the UPF receives an application prepare response (corresponding to the first message in the method shown in fig. 9) through the first QoS flow.

S1208: after receiving the first time length of the application preparation response, the UPF sequentially sends the application preparation response to the IO device through the AN device and the UE. That is, the UPF performs a delay forwarding process on an application preparation response through the first QoS flow.

Wherein the UPF may perform deferred forwarding according to the FAR. For example, the UPF maps an application preparation response received through the first QoS flow into a corresponding QoS flow on the N3 interface according to the FAR, and after receiving the first time of the application preparation response, sends the application preparation response through the corresponding QoS flow.

S1209: and the IO equipment sends an RT stream (corresponding to the uplink message in the method shown in fig. 9) to the UE according to the received application preparation response, so that the transmission of the uplink message is realized.

In some possible manners, the first duration may also be determined by a control plane network element (for example, SMF, AMF, or PCF), where the determined manner is the same as IFES, and will not be described herein. When the control plane network element determines the first time length, in S1204, the AN device sends information for indicating uplink resources scheduled by the AN device for the UE to the control plane network element; in S1205-S1206, IFES may be replaced with a control plane network element.

In other possible manners, the first duration may also be determined by the UPF, where the manner of determination is the same as the IFES, and will not be described herein. When the UPF determines the first time length, in S1204, the AN device transmits information for indicating uplink resources scheduled by the AN device for the UE to the UPF; in S1205, IFES may be replaced with UPF; s1206 is an optional step.

Optionally, in the method, the UPF may also be other communication devices for transmitting a message, for example, AN device or UE. At this time, in S1208, the UPF may map the application preparation response received through the first QoS flow into a corresponding QoS flow on the N3 interface through which the application preparation response is transmitted. The AN device or UE transmits the application preparation response after receiving a first time period after the application preparation response.

In the method, the UPF can delay sending the application preparation response, so that the IO equipment is triggered to send the uplink message in a delayed manner, namely the moment that the IO equipment sends the uplink message is delayed. In this way, the time for the UE to receive the uplink message is also delayed, so that the time difference between the time for the UE to send the uplink message and the time for the UE to prepare to send the uplink message can be reduced, that is, the first time difference is reduced, and further the transmission delay of the uplink message can be reduced, so as to realize the end-to-end low-delay service requirement.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication method. The method may be applied in the communication system shown in fig. 1 or fig. 2. The method describes a second possible implementation manner of the method shown in fig. 9, that is, the AN device determines, according to the time at which the IO device can send the uplink message, a duration (i.e., the first time) for delaying sending the message and AN uplink prescheduling resource. The following description will take the terminal device as UE, AF as IFES, and the first communication device as UPF as an example, referring to the flowchart shown in fig. 13.

S1301: the UE initiates a PDU session establishment procedure.

The specific content of S1301 may refer to S1001, and will not be described here again.

S1302: the IFES sends a policy grant request corresponding to the RT flow to the 5GC, which may be used to request establishment of a QoS flow (e.g., a second QoS flow in the method shown in fig. 9) for transmitting the RT flow.

The specific content of S1302 may refer to S1002, and the repetition is not described herein.

In addition, the IFES may also send a delay request for the first QoS flow to the 5 GC. Wherein the delay request may include: the indication information and the first indication of the first QoS flow indicate to delay sending messages received through the first QoS flow. Wherein the first QoS flow is a QoS flow associated with the second QoS flow. The association of the first QoS flow with the second QoS flow may refer to that the message transmitted by the first QoS flow may trigger the message transmitted by the second QoS flow.

S1303: the 5GC sends a QoS flow setup request to the AN device.

The specific content of S1303 may refer to S1003, and the repetition is not repeated.

In addition, the 5GC may also send indication information (e.g., QFI of the first QoS flow) of the first QoS flow and a first indication to the AN device to indicate a delay in sending the message received through the first QoS flow. The specific content of the first indication may refer to S901, which is not described herein.

S1304: the AN device transmits AN ACK message to the IFES through the 5 GC.

S1305: the AN device receives AN application preparation response (corresponding to the first message in the method shown in fig. 9) through the first QoS flow.

S1306: the AN device determines a first duration and uplink resources scheduled for the UE.

The manner in which the AN device determines the first time length may refer to implementation 1 in the method shown in fig. 9, which is not described herein.

For example, the AN device receives AN application preparation response through the first QoS flow at time T5. If the TTI in the time window T6 to T7 can be allocated for the second QoS flow for transmitting the uplink packet, the AN device may adjust n to make (t5+first transmission delay+n×ct) belong to the interval of T6 to T7, so as to determine the first duration for delaying the sending of the application preparation response.

Illustratively, the AN device receives a downlink message (e.g., AN application preparation response) over the first QoS flow at 3 ms. The AN device determines that initial uplink pre-scheduling resources can be allocated between 6ms and 8ms based on the information such as the local configuration information and the available resources. The first transmission delay is 2ms. Thus, the AN device may receive the uplink message sent by the UE at 5ms at the earliest. Then, there is no allocable uplink pre-scheduling resource at this time, and the earliest allocable uplink pre-scheduling resource is a time domain resource between 6ms and 8 ms. Thus, the AN device may determine that the first time period is 1 ms-3 ms, and allocate corresponding uplink pre-scheduling resources for the uplink packet, e.g., allocate resources between 6ms and 8ms as initial uplink time domain resources, and 4ms as a period.

Alternatively, the AN device may send information (e.g., uplink prescheduling configuration parameters) indicating the uplink prescheduling resources to the UE through AN air interface configuration message.

S1307: after receiving the first time of the application preparation response, the AN device sends the application preparation response to the IO device through the UE.

S1308: and the IO equipment sends an RT stream (corresponding to the uplink message in the method shown in fig. 9) to the UE according to the received application preparation response, so that the transmission of the uplink message is realized.

In the method, the AN device can delay sending the application preparation response, so that the IO device is triggered to send the uplink message in a delayed manner, namely, the moment that the IO device sends the uplink message is delayed. In this way, the time for the UE to receive the uplink message is also delayed, so that the time difference between the time for the UE to send the uplink message and the time for the UE to prepare to send the uplink message can be reduced, that is, the first time difference is reduced, and the transmission delay of the uplink message can be further reduced.

Based on the same inventive concept as the method embodiments of fig. 5 to 13, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device through fig. 14, which can be used to perform the functions of the relevant steps in the above-described method embodiments. The functions may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by software or hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above. The communication apparatus has a structure as shown in fig. 14, including a communication unit 1401 and a processing unit 1402. The communication apparatus 1400 may be applied to AN apparatus, a UPF, or a terminal apparatus in the communication system shown in fig. 1, or to AN apparatus, a UPF, or a UE in the communication system shown in fig. 2, and may implement the communication methods provided in the embodiments and examples of the present application. The functions of the respective units in the communication apparatus 1400 are described below.

The communication unit 1401 is configured to receive and transmit data.

When the communication apparatus 1400 is applied to a UPF or AN device (in a scenario where the AN device interacts with a network element in a core network), the communication unit 1401 may be implemented by a physical interface, a communication module, a communication interface, AN input-output interface. The communication device 1400 may be connected to a network cable or a cable through the communication unit, so as to establish a physical connection with other devices.

When the communication apparatus 1400 is applied to a terminal device and AN device (in a scenario where the AN device interacts with the terminal device), the communication unit 1401 may be implemented by a transceiver, for example, a mobile communication module. The mobile communication module may include at least one antenna, at least one filter, a switch, a power amplifier, a low noise amplifier (low noise amplifier, LNA), etc. The AN device can communicate with the accessed terminal device through the mobile communication module.

The processing unit 1402 may be configured to support the communication device 1400 to perform the processing actions described above in the method embodiments. The processing unit 1402 may be implemented by a processor. For example, the processor may be a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), but may also be other general purpose processors, digital signal processors (digital signal processor, DSP), application specific integrated circuits (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (field programmable gate array, FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. The general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, it may be any conventional processor.

In one implementation, the communication apparatus 1400 is applied to AN apparatus in the embodiment of the present application shown in fig. 5 or fig. 10. The specific functions of the processing unit 1402 in this embodiment will be described below.

The processing unit 1402 is configured to: acquiring first information for indicating a first time difference; wherein the first time difference is: the difference between the time when the terminal equipment can send the uplink message and the time when the terminal equipment is ready to send the uplink message; according to the first time difference, the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal equipment is adjusted to be a second uplink resource; transmitting first resource configuration information to the terminal device through the communication unit 1401; the first resource configuration information is used for indicating the second uplink resource.

Optionally, the processing unit 1402 is specifically configured to: the first information from at least one of the terminal device, control plane network element or AF is received via the communication unit 1401.

Optionally, the processing unit 1402 is specifically configured to: advancing the first uplink resource by N time units to obtain the second uplink resource; wherein N is a positive integer, and the N time units are determined according to the first time difference; the first uplink resource is a resource taking the sending period of the uplink message as a period.

Optionally, the processing unit 1402 is specifically configured to: before adjusting the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal device to the second uplink resource according to the first time difference, an indication from a control plane network element for adjusting the uplink resource scheduled for the terminal device is received through the communication unit 1401.

In an implementation manner, the communication apparatus 1400 is applied to a terminal device in the embodiment of the present application shown in fig. 5 or a UE in the embodiment of the present application shown in fig. 10. The specific functions of the processing unit 1402 in this embodiment will be described below.

A processing unit 1402 configured to: acquiring first information for indicating a first time difference; wherein the first time difference is: the difference between the time when the terminal equipment can send the uplink message and the time when the terminal equipment is ready to send the uplink message; transmitting the first information through the communication unit 1401; the first information is used for the AN equipment of the access network to adjust the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal equipment into a second uplink resource; receiving first resource configuration information from the AN device through the communication unit 1401; the first resource configuration information is used for indicating the second uplink resource; and sending an uplink message through the communication unit 1401 by using the second uplink resource.

Optionally, the processing unit 1402 is specifically configured to: the first information is transmitted to at least one of the AN device, a control plane network element or AN application function AF through the communication unit 1401.

Optionally, the processing unit 1402 is specifically configured to: before transmitting the first information, an instruction for instructing the terminal device to transmit the first information is received through the communication unit 1401.

Optionally, the processing unit 1402 is specifically configured to: receiving information indicating a first threshold value through the communication unit 1401; when the first time difference is greater than or equal to the first threshold value, the first information is transmitted through the communication unit 1401.

In one implementation, the communication apparatus 1400 is applied to AN apparatus in the embodiment of the present application shown in fig. 7 or fig. 11. The specific functions of the processing unit 1402 in this embodiment will be described below.

A processing unit 1402 configured to: acquiring second information for indicating an estimated value of the first time difference; wherein the first time difference is: the difference between the time when the terminal equipment can send the uplink message and the time when the terminal equipment is ready to send the uplink message; according to the estimated value of the first time difference, the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal equipment is adjusted to be a second uplink resource; transmitting first resource configuration information to the terminal device through the communication unit 1401; the first resource configuration information is used for indicating the second uplink resource.

Optionally, the processing unit 1402 is specifically configured to: transmitting second resource configuration information to the terminal device through the communication unit 1401; the second resource configuration information is used for indicating the first uplink resource, the first uplink resource comprises resources taking a sending period of the uplink message as a period, and in at least one sending period, the first uplink resource further comprises resources on a plurality of time units; determining the second information according to the time of receiving M uplink messages from the terminal equipment through the first uplink resource, wherein M is an integer greater than or equal to 2; or receiving the second information from the user plane network element.

Optionally, the processing unit 1402 is specifically configured to: when m=3, determining the estimated value of the first time difference as: avg (a, b); determining the second information indicative of an estimate of the first time difference; wherein a=t1+ct-T2, b=t3-T2-CT; wherein Avg represents an averaging operation, T1 is a time of receiving a first uplink message of the M uplink messages, T2 is a time of receiving a second uplink message of the M uplink messages, T3 is a time of receiving a third uplink message of the M uplink messages, and CT is the transmission period.

Optionally, the processing unit 1402 is specifically configured to: determining the second uplink resource includes: a resource having a distance from the first resource that is an integer multiple of the transmission period; the first resource is a resource obtained by advancing a resource on a first time unit in the plurality of time units by N time units, N is a positive integer, and the N time units are determined according to an estimated value of the first time difference.

In one implementation, the communication device 1400 is applied to the UPF of the embodiment of the present application shown in fig. 7 or 11. The specific functions of the processing unit 1402 in this embodiment will be described below.

A processing unit 1402 configured to: acquiring second information for indicating an estimated value of the first time difference; wherein the first time difference is: the difference between the time when the terminal equipment can send the uplink message and the time when the terminal equipment is ready to send the uplink message; transmitting the second information to AN apparatus through the communication unit 1401; the second information is used for the AN device to adjust the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal device to a second uplink resource.

Optionally, the processing unit 1402 is specifically configured to: determining the second information according to the time of receiving M uplink messages from the terminal equipment; wherein M is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

In one implementation, the communication apparatus 1400 is applied to the first communication device in the embodiment of the present application shown in fig. 9, or the UPF in the embodiment of the present application shown in fig. 12, or the AN device in the embodiment of the present application shown in fig. 13. The specific functions of the processing unit 1402 in this embodiment will be described below.

A processing unit 1402 configured to: receiving a first indication through the communication unit 1401; wherein, the first indication includes indication information of a first QoS flow; and according to the first indication, after receiving a first time length of a first message through the first QoS flow, sending the first message.

Optionally, the processing unit 1402 is specifically configured to: receiving the first indication from a session management function network element via the communication unit 1401; or, receiving a message for requesting to establish or modify a second QoS flow from a control plane network element or an application function AF through the communication unit 1401; wherein the message includes the first indication.

Optionally, the first message is used for triggering sending of an uplink message.

Optionally, the processing unit 1402 is specifically configured to: information indicating the first duration is received from a control plane network element or AF through the communication unit 1401 before the first message is sent.

Optionally, the processing unit 1402 is specifically configured to: before the first message is sent, determining the first duration according to third information;

wherein the third information includes at least one of:

a first transmission delay;

the period of the uplink resource;

wherein the first transmission delay includes: the transmission delay between the first communication device and the input/output (IO) device for sending the uplink message, the processing delay of the IO device, and the transmission delay between the IO device and the terminal device.

Optionally, the processing unit 1402 is specifically configured to: receiving, by the communication unit 1401, third information from at least one of the AN device, a control plane network element and AN AF before the first time period is determined based on the third information; or acquiring the third information which is configured in advance.

It should be noted that, in the above embodiments of the present application, the division of the modules is merely schematic, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation, and in addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated in one processing unit, or may exist separately and physically, or two or more units may be integrated in one unit. The integrated units may be implemented in hardware or in software functional units.

The integrated units, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as stand-alone products, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied in essence or a part contributing to the prior art or all or 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.) or a processor (processor) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to 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.

Based on the same technical concept, the embodiment of the present application provides a communication device through the illustration of fig. 15, which can be used to perform the steps related to the above-mentioned method embodiment. The communication device may be applied to AN apparatus, a UPF, or a terminal apparatus in the communication system shown in fig. 1, or may be applied to AN apparatus, a UPF, or a UE in the communication system shown in fig. 2, so as to implement the communication method provided in the foregoing embodiments and examples of the present application, and have the function of the communication device shown in fig. 14. Referring to fig. 15, the communication device 1500 includes: a communication module 1501, a processor 1502 and a memory 1503. Wherein the communication module 1501, the processor 1502 and the memory 1503 are interconnected.

Optionally, the communication module 1501, the processor 1502 and the memory 1503 are connected to each other through a bus 1504. The bus 1504 may be a peripheral component interconnect standard (peripheral component interconnect, PCI) bus or an extended industry standard architecture (extended industry standard architecture, EISA) bus, or the like. The buses may be classified as address buses, data buses, control buses, etc. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in fig. 15, but not only one bus or one type of bus.

The communication module 1501 is configured to receive and send data, and implement communication interaction with other devices. For example, the communication module 1501 may be implemented by a physical interface, a communication module, a communication interface, and an input/output interface.

The processor 1502 may be configured to support the communications device 1500 in performing the processing actions described above in the method embodiments. When the communication device 1500 is used to implement the method embodiments described above, the processor 1502 may also be used to implement the functions of the processing unit 1402 described above. The processor 1502 may be a CPU, but may also be other general purpose processors, DSP, ASIC, FPGA or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. The general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, it may be any conventional processor.

In one implementation, the communication device 1500 is applied to AN apparatus in the embodiment of the present application shown in fig. 5 or fig. 10. The processor 1502 is specifically configured to:

acquiring first information for indicating a first time difference; wherein the first time difference is: the difference between the time when the terminal equipment can send the uplink message and the time when the terminal equipment is ready to send the uplink message; according to the first time difference, the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal equipment is adjusted to be a second uplink resource; transmitting first resource configuration information to the terminal device through the communication module 1501; the first resource configuration information is used for indicating the second uplink resource.

In an implementation manner, the communication device 1500 is applied to a terminal device in the embodiment of the present application shown in fig. 5 or a UE in the embodiment of the present application shown in fig. 10. The processor 1502 is specifically configured to:

acquiring first information for indicating a first time difference; wherein the first time difference is: the difference between the time when the terminal equipment can send the uplink message and the time when the terminal equipment is ready to send the uplink message; transmitting the first information through the communication module 1501; the first information is used for the AN equipment of the access network to adjust the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal equipment into a second uplink resource; receiving, by the communication module 1501, first resource configuration information from the AN device; the first resource configuration information is used for indicating the second uplink resource; and sending, by the communication module 1501, an uplink message through the second uplink resource.

In one implementation, the communication device 1500 is applied to AN apparatus in the embodiment of the present application shown in fig. 7 or fig. 11. The processor 1502 is specifically configured to:

acquiring second information for indicating an estimated value of the first time difference; wherein the first time difference is: the difference between the time when the terminal equipment can send the uplink message and the time when the terminal equipment is ready to send the uplink message; according to the estimated value of the first time difference, the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal equipment is adjusted to be a second uplink resource; transmitting first resource configuration information to the terminal device through the communication module 1501; the first resource configuration information is used for indicating the second uplink resource.

In one implementation, the communication device 1500 is applied to the UPF of the embodiment of the present application shown in fig. 7 or fig. 11. The processor 1502 is specifically configured to:

acquiring second information for indicating an estimated value of the first time difference; wherein the first time difference is: the difference between the time when the terminal equipment can send the uplink message and the time when the terminal equipment is ready to send the uplink message; transmitting the second information to AN device through the communication module 1501; the second information is used for the AN device to adjust the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal device to a second uplink resource.

In one implementation, the communication device 1500 is applied to the first communication device in the embodiment of the present application shown in fig. 9, or the UPF in the embodiment of the present application shown in fig. 12, or the AN device in the embodiment of the present application shown in fig. 13. The processor 1502 is specifically configured to:

receiving, by the communication module 1501, a first indication; wherein, the first indication includes indication information of a first QoS flow; and according to the first indication, after receiving a first time length of a first message through the first QoS flow, sending the first message.

The specific function of the processor 1502 may refer to the description of the communication method provided in the above embodiments and examples of the present application, and the specific function description of the communication device 1400 in the embodiment of the present application shown in fig. 14 is not repeated here.

The memory 1503 is used for storing program instructions, data, and the like. In particular, the program instructions may comprise program code comprising computer-operating instructions. The memory 1503 may include RAM or may further include a non-volatile memory (non-volatile memory), such as at least one disk memory. The processor 1502 executes the program instructions stored in the memory 1503 and uses the data stored in the memory 1503 to implement the functions described above, thereby implementing the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application described above.

It will be appreciated that memory 1503 in fig. 15 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 EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be RAM, which acts as external cache. By way of example, and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double Data Rate SDRAM (Double Data Rate SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SLDRAM), and Direct RAM (DR RAM). It should be noted that the memory of the systems and methods described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

Based on the above embodiments, the present application also provides a computer program, which when run on a computer causes the computer to perform the method provided by the above embodiments.

Based on the above embodiments, the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein a computer program which, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform the method provided in the above embodiments.

Wherein a storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer. Taking this as an example but not limited to: the computer readable medium may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer.

Based on the above embodiments, the present application further provides a chip, where the chip is configured to read a computer program stored in a memory, and implement the method provided in the above embodiments.

Based on the above embodiments, the embodiments of the present application provide a chip system, which includes a processor for supporting a computer apparatus to implement the functions related to each device in the above embodiments. In one possible design, the chip system further includes a memory for storing programs and data necessary for the computer device. The chip system can be composed of chips, and can also comprise chips and other discrete devices.

In summary, the embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, apparatus, and device, where in the method, AN apparatus may adjust, according to a first time difference, a first uplink resource scheduled for a terminal apparatus to a second uplink resource after acquiring first information for indicating the first time difference, and send first resource configuration information to the terminal apparatus. Wherein, the first time difference is: the difference between the time when the terminal device can send the uplink message and the time when the terminal device is ready to send the uplink message; the first resource configuration information is used for indicating the second uplink resource. At present, the terminal device can periodically send AN uplink message through a periodic uplink resource scheduled by the AN device. By the scheme, the AN equipment can adjust uplink resources allocated to the terminal equipment according to the first time difference, so that the first time difference of the subsequent uplink messages is reduced, and the transmission delay of the subsequent uplink messages is further reduced.

In various embodiments of the application, where no special description or logic conflict exists, terms and/or descriptions between the various embodiments are consistent and may reference each other, and features of the various embodiments may be combined to form new embodiments based on their inherent logic.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that embodiments of the present application may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present application may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present application may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present application is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to the application. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the present application without departing from the scope of the application. Thus, it is intended that the present application also include such modifications and alterations insofar as they come within the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.

Claims

1. A communication method applied to AN access network AN device, comprising:

acquiring first information for indicating a first time difference; wherein the first time difference is: the difference between the time when the terminal equipment can send the uplink message and the time when the terminal equipment is ready to send the uplink message;

according to the first time difference, the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal equipment is adjusted to be a second uplink resource;

sending first resource configuration information to the terminal equipment; the first resource configuration information is used for indicating the second uplink resource.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining first information indicating a first time difference comprises:

and receiving the first information from at least one of the terminal equipment, a control plane network element or an application function AF.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first uplink resource is a resource with a transmission period of the uplink message as a period; according to the first information, adjusting the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal equipment to a second uplink resource, including:

advancing the first uplink resource by N time units to obtain the second uplink resource; wherein N is a positive integer, and the N time units are determined according to the first time difference.

4. A method according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein before adjusting the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal device to the second uplink resource according to the first time difference, the method further comprises:

and receiving an indication from a control plane network element for adjusting uplink resources scheduled for the terminal equipment.

5. A communication method applied to a terminal device, comprising:

transmitting the first information; the first information is used for the AN equipment of the access network to adjust the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal equipment into a second uplink resource;

receiving first resource configuration information from the AN device; the first resource configuration information is used for indicating the second uplink resource;

and sending an uplink message through the second uplink resource.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein transmitting the first information comprises:

And sending the first information to at least one of the AN equipment, a control plane network element or AN application function AF.

7. The method of claim 5 or 6, wherein prior to transmitting the first information, the method further comprises:

and receiving an indication for instructing the terminal equipment to send the first information.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein,

the method further comprises the steps of: receiving information indicating a first threshold;

transmitting the first information includes: and when the first time difference is greater than or equal to the first threshold value, transmitting the first information.

9. A communication method applied to AN access network AN device, comprising:

acquiring second information for indicating an estimated value of the first time difference; wherein the first time difference is: the difference between the time when the terminal equipment can send the uplink message and the time when the terminal equipment is ready to send the uplink message;

according to the estimated value of the first time difference, the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal equipment is adjusted to be a second uplink resource;

10. The method of claim 9, wherein obtaining second information indicative of an estimate of the first time difference comprises:

sending second resource configuration information to the terminal equipment; the second resource configuration information is used for indicating the first uplink resource, the first uplink resource comprises resources taking a sending period of the uplink message as a period, and in at least one sending period, the first uplink resource further comprises resources on a plurality of time units;

determining the second information according to the time of receiving M uplink messages from the terminal equipment through the first uplink resource, wherein M is an integer greater than or equal to 2; or receiving the second information from the user plane network element.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein when M = 3, determining the second information based on the time at which M uplink messages from the terminal device were received over the first uplink resource comprises:

determining an estimate of the first time difference as: avg (a, b);

determining the second information indicative of an estimate of the first time difference;

wherein a=t1+ct-T2, b=t3-T2-CT;

Wherein Avg represents an averaging operation, T1 is a time of receiving a first uplink message of the M uplink messages, T2 is a time of receiving a second uplink message of the M uplink messages, T3 is a time of receiving a third uplink message of the M uplink messages, and CT is the transmission period.

12. The method according to claim 10 or 11, wherein adjusting the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal device to the second uplink resource according to the estimated value of the first time difference comprises:

determining the second uplink resource includes: a resource having a distance from the first resource that is an integer multiple of the transmission period; the first resource is a resource obtained by advancing a resource on a first time unit in the plurality of time units by N time units, N is a positive integer, and the N time units are determined according to an estimated value of the first time difference.

13. A communication method applied to a user plane network element, comprising:

Transmitting the second information to AN access network AN device; the second information is used for the AN device to adjust the first uplink resource scheduled for the terminal device to a second uplink resource.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein obtaining second information indicative of an estimate of the first time difference comprises:

determining the second information according to the time of receiving M uplink messages from the terminal equipment; wherein M is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein when m=3, determining the second information according to the time of receiving M uplink messages from the terminal device comprises:

determining an estimate of the first time difference as: avg (a, b);

wherein a=t1+ct-T2, b=t3-T2-CT;

16. A communication method applied to a first communication device, comprising:

receiving a first indication; wherein, the first indication includes indication information of a first QoS flow;

and according to the first indication, after receiving a first time length of a first message through the first QoS flow, sending the first message.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein receiving the first indication comprises:

receiving the first indication from a session management function network element; or alternatively

Receiving a message from a control plane network element or an application function AF requesting to establish or modify a second QoS flow; wherein the message includes the first indication.

18. The method of claim 16 or 17, wherein the first message is used to trigger the sending of an uplink message.

19. The method of any of claims 16 to 18, wherein prior to sending the first message, the method further comprises:

and receiving information for indicating the first duration from a control plane network element or an AF.

20. The method of any of claims 16 to 18, wherein prior to sending the first message, the method further comprises:

Determining the first duration according to third information;

wherein the third information includes at least one of:

a first transmission delay;

the period of the uplink resource;

21. The method of claim 20, wherein prior to determining the first time period based on third information, the method further comprises:

receiving the third information from at least one of the AN device, a control plane network element, and AN AF; or alternatively

And acquiring the third information which is configured in advance.

22. A communication device, comprising:

a communication unit for receiving and transmitting data;

a processing unit for performing the method of any of claims 1-21 by means of the communication unit.

23. A communication system, comprising:

AN access network AN device for implementing the method according to any of claims 1-4;

terminal device for implementing the method according to any of claims 5-8.

24. A communication system, comprising:

AN access network AN device for implementing the method according to any of claims 9-12;

user plane network element for implementing the method according to any of claims 13-15.

25. A computer readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer readable storage medium has stored therein a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any of claims 1-21.

26. A chip, characterized in that the chip is coupled to a memory, the chip reading a computer program stored in the memory, performing the method of any of claims 1-21.