CN117062000A

CN117062000A - Communication control method and communication device

Info

Publication number: CN117062000A
Application number: CN202210487917.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 孙陶然; 吴义壮; 崔洋
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-05-06
Filing date: 2022-05-06
Publication date: 2023-11-14
Also published as: WO2023213183A1

Abstract

The application discloses a communication control method and a communication device, which are used for accurately determining other terminal equipment with a position binding relation with the terminal equipment to be controlled under the scene of realizing communication control on the terminal equipment based on the relative position information of the terminal equipment, so that the accuracy and flexibility of communication control such as access control or service control on the terminal equipment can be improved. In the method, a first network element acquires control indication information of a first terminal device from a second network element; the first network element determines a target terminal device from at least one second terminal device or a plurality of third terminal devices according to the relative position information of the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device or the plurality of third terminal devices; and the first network element performs communication control on the first terminal equipment according to the target terminal equipment.

Description

Communication control method and communication device

Technical Field

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

Background

With the development and application of high-precision positioning technology, more and more scenes need high-precision positioning technology to improve management and production efficiency. For example, through a high-precision positioning system, real-time high-precision position information, navigation attitude, speed information, precise time information and the like can be provided for the unmanned aerial vehicle; alternatively, by the high-precision positioning service, automatic driving, indoor navigation, or the like can be realized. And, with the development of semiconductor technology, terminal devices have more and more forms. Since different terminal devices have different functions and different application scenarios, in some scenarios, the relative distance between the terminal devices becomes a non-negligible consideration. For example, in some hazardous industrial settings, the proximity of such settings does not allow other devices to operate, avoiding communication interference. For another example, in the inspection process of the unmanned inspection vehicle, the inspection device and the measuring device on the vehicle are accurately installed on the unmanned vehicle, so that the accuracy of the measured data can be ensured.

At present, access control or service control on terminal equipment cannot meet the requirements of some current control scenes. Therefore, how to improve the accuracy and flexibility of access control or service control for terminal equipment is worthy of research.

Disclosure of Invention

The communication control method and the communication device in the embodiments of the present application are used to accurately determine other terminal devices having a position binding relationship with the terminal device to be controlled in the scenario of implementing communication control on the terminal device based on the relative position information of the terminal device, so as to improve the accuracy and flexibility of communication control such as access control or service control on the terminal device.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication control method. The method comprises the following steps: the first network element acquires control indication information of the first terminal equipment from the second network element; if the control indication information comprises equipment identifiers of a plurality of second terminal equipment, the first network element determines target terminal equipment from at least one second terminal equipment according to relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the at least one second terminal equipment in the plurality of second terminal equipment; and the first network element performs communication control on the first terminal equipment according to the target terminal equipment.

In the method, the core network device can select or reselect a target terminal device (which can be simply referred to as "binding UE" in the present application) for a terminal device (UE) according to the control indication information, so that communication control of the UE based on the binding UE can be realized. Compared with the mode that the core network equipment can only realize communication control on the UE through the absolute position information of the UE in the related art, the method provided by the application not only can expand more application scenes, but also can select or re-appropriately bind the UE for the UE, thereby improving the precision and flexibility of communication control on the UE, meeting more service requirements of service scenes and the like.

In one possible design, the determining, by the first network element, the target terminal device from the at least one second terminal device according to the relative location information of the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device of the plurality of second terminal devices includes: the first network element sequentially acquires relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the second terminal equipment according to the priorities of the plurality of second terminal equipment; and if the relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the second terminal equipment meets the control condition further included in the control instruction information, determining that the second terminal equipment is the target terminal equipment.

In the design, the first network element judges whether the second terminal equipment can be used as the target terminal equipment one by one based on the equipment priority, and can ensure the processing of the second terminal equipment with higher priority, so that a better processing effect can be obtained. For example, if the first network element selects the target number of target terminal devices for the UE, and if the target number of target terminal devices is screened when the target number of target terminal devices is selected according to the device priority, the subsequent judgment is not required to be continued, so that the processing efficiency of the first network element can be improved.

In one possible design, the determining, by the first network element, the target terminal device from the at least one second terminal device according to the relative location information of the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device of the plurality of second terminal devices includes: the first network element acquires a plurality of pieces of relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the plurality of pieces of second terminal equipment; the first network element determines at least one piece of relative position information meeting control conditions further included in the control instruction information from the plurality of pieces of relative position information; and the first network element determines target relative position information from the at least one piece of relative position information according to the priority of the second terminal equipment, and the first network element determines the second terminal equipment corresponding to the target relative position information as target terminal equipment.

In the design, the first network element can also firstly obtain the relative position information of the first terminal device and the plurality of second terminal devices together, and after obtaining the plurality of relative position information, the first network element can select the binding UE according to the priority, for example, the target terminal devices with the target number can be selected from high to low according to the priority, so that the binding UE based on the higher priority can be realized, and a better control effect on the UE can be realized.

In one possible design, the control conditions include at least one of the following: the relative distance between the first terminal device and the second terminal device is within a preset distance range; the relative direction of the first terminal device and the second terminal device is within a preset direction range.

In one possible design, different second terminal devices correspond to the same or different control conditions.

In the design, different control conditions can be configured for different second terminal devices according to actual service scene requirements, so that the accuracy of selecting target terminal devices can be improved, and various requirements of an actual scene can be met.

In one possible design, the first network element performs communication control on the first terminal device according to the target terminal device, including: the first network element sends first indication information to a strategy control function network element according to the target terminal equipment, wherein the first indication information is used for making or updating a service strategy of the first terminal equipment; the first network element acquires the service policy from the policy control function network element, and performs communication control on the first terminal device according to the service policy.

In the design, the corresponding service strategy is configured for the UE based on the target terminal equipment, so that the requirements of actual service scenes can be better met. In addition, in the embodiment of the application, if the determined target terminal equipment is different, different service strategies can be configured for the UE, so that a more suitable control effect for the UE is obtained.

In one possible design, the first network element obtains the relative position information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device by the following measurement method, including: the first network element acquires first position information of the first terminal equipment and second position information of the target terminal equipment, and determines the relative position information according to the first position information and the second position information; or the first network element acquires the relative position information measured by the first terminal device or the relative position information measured by the target terminal device.

In one possible design, before the first network element obtains the relative location information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device, the method further includes: and the first network element determines a measurement mode for acquiring the relative position information.

In the design, corresponding measurement modes can be selected for different service scenes, so that the requirements of actual service scenes can be better met, and the control effect on the UE is improved.

In one possible design, before the first network element obtains the relative location information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device, the method further includes: the first network element acquires access and mobile management network element identifiers corresponding to the target terminal equipment from a unified data management network element; the first network element sends positioning request information to a third network element, wherein the positioning request information comprises access and mobile management network element identifiers corresponding to the target terminal equipment; the access and mobility management network element identifier corresponding to the target terminal device is used for acquiring second position information of the target terminal device or relative position information measured by the target terminal device.

In one possible design, the method further comprises: the first network element subscribes relative position information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device to a third network element; the first network element determines that the updated relative position information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device no longer meets the control condition included in the control instruction information; and the first network element determines a reselection target terminal device according to the control condition included in the control indication information.

In the design, the control of the first terminal equipment can be updated in time by subscribing the relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the target terminal equipment, so that the accuracy and timeliness of the communication control of the first terminal equipment can be ensured.

In one possible design, the method further comprises: the first network element determines that no target terminal equipment meeting the control condition exists; and the first network element processes the communication of the first terminal equipment according to the processing instruction further included in the control instruction information.

In one possible design, the first network element is a session management network element; the processing the communication of the first terminal device according to the processing instruction included in the control instruction information includes one or a combination of the following processing: releasing the established session or deactivating the established session; sending alarm information to the first terminal equipment or the target terminal equipment; transmitting position information to the first terminal device or the target terminal device; according to the safety release instruction, first instruction information is sent to the first terminal equipment, wherein the first instruction information is used for instructing the first terminal equipment to carry out safety release on the session; and updating the session policy of the first terminal equipment.

In one possible design, the first network element is an access and mobility management network element; the processing the communication of the first terminal device according to the processing instruction included in the control instruction information includes one or a combination of the following processing: deregistering the completed registration or deactivating the completed registration; sending alarm information to the first terminal equipment or the target terminal equipment; transmitting position information to the first terminal device or the target terminal device; according to the safety release instruction, first instruction information is sent to the first terminal equipment, wherein the first instruction information is used for instructing the first terminal equipment to carry out safety release on the session; updating the mobility policy of the first terminal device.

In one possible design, if the first network element is a session management network element, the third network element is a location management function network element or an access and mobility management network element; if the first network element is an access and mobility management network element, the third network element is a location management function network element.

In one possible design, before the first network element obtains the control indication information of the first terminal device from the second network element, the method further includes: the first network element receives request information sent by the first terminal device, wherein the request information is used for requesting services managed by the first network element or requesting access to a network served by the first network element; the first network element performs communication control on the first terminal device according to the determined target terminal device, and includes: allowing the first terminal device to use the service managed by the first network element or allowing the first terminal device to access the network served by the first network element.

In this design, a possible scenario is given in which the first network element performs communication control on the first terminal device. Communication control of the first terminal equipment is achieved based on relative position information among the terminal equipment, and the requirement of more actual service scenes can be met.

In one possible design, the method further comprises: and if the first network element determines that the target terminal equipment does not exist, the first terminal equipment is not allowed to use the service managed by the first network element or is not allowed to access the network served by the first network element.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication control method, including: the first network element acquires control indication information of the first terminal equipment from the second network element; if the control indication information comprises information for indicating a target area range, the first network element determines target terminal equipment from at least one third terminal equipment according to the relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the at least one third terminal equipment in the target area range; and the first network element performs communication control on the first terminal equipment according to the target terminal equipment.

In the method, the core network device can indicate the UE identity possibly serving as the binding UE directly through the control indication information, and can indicate the characteristics of the UE possibly serving as the binding UE in an indirect indication mode, such as indicating the target area range, so as to indicate that the UE in the target area range is possibly serving as the binding UE.

In one possible design, the determining, by the first network element, the target terminal device from the at least one third terminal device according to the relative location information of the first terminal device and the at least one third terminal device within the target area range includes: the first network element sequentially acquires the relative position relation between the first terminal equipment and the at least one third terminal equipment according to the priority of preset parameters; and if the relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the third terminal equipment meets the control condition further included in the control instruction information, determining that the third terminal equipment is the target terminal equipment.

In the method, in the uncertain scene of the alternative UE possibly serving as the binding UE, in order to obtain better processing effect, whether the alternative UE can serve as the processing sequence of the binding UE or not can be determined by indicating the priority of other preset parameters.

In one possible design, the determining, by the first network element, the target terminal device from the at least one third terminal device according to the relative location information of the first terminal device and the at least one third terminal device within the target area range includes: the first network element acquires a plurality of pieces of relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the plurality of pieces of third terminal equipment; the first network element determines at least one piece of relative position information meeting control conditions further included in the control instruction information from the plurality of pieces of relative position information; and the first network element determines target relative position information from the at least one relative position information according to the priority of the preset parameter, and the first network element determines a third terminal device corresponding to the target relative position information as target terminal device.

In one possible design, before the first network element determines the target terminal device from the at least one third terminal device, the method further includes: and the first network element takes the terminal equipment meeting the first condition in the target area range as the third terminal equipment according to the first condition further included in the control indication information.

In one possible design, the first condition includes at least one of the following information: terminal device type and terminal device capabilities.

In the method, the processing efficiency of determining the binding UE can be improved by increasing the screening condition of the candidate UE. In this way, when the core network device selects the bound UE for the UE, it can determine part of the UEs within the target area, without determining all the UEs within the target area, so that the processing time for determining the bound UE can be reduced.

In one possible design, the control conditions include at least one of the following: the relative distance between the first terminal device and the third terminal device is within a preset distance range; the relative direction of the first terminal device and the third terminal device is within a preset direction range.

In one possible design, different third terminal devices correspond to the same or different control conditions.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication control method, including: the third network element receives a positioning request message sent by the first network element; if the positioning request message comprises the equipment identification of the first terminal equipment and the equipment identifications of a plurality of second terminal equipment, the third network element acquires a plurality of relative position information in the first terminal equipment and the plurality of second terminal equipment according to the positioning request information; the third network element sends the plurality of relative position information to the first network element.

In the method, the network element with the positioning management function can assist the first network element to realize the selection of the binding UE for the UE, so that the processing efficiency of the selection of the binding UE for the UE can be improved.

In one possible design, the positioning request information further includes indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate that the relative position information is requested.

In one possible design, the obtaining, by the third network element, relative location information of the first terminal device and the second terminal device includes: the third network element obtains the relative position information measured by the first terminal device or obtains the relative position information measured by the second terminal device; or the third network element acquires the first position information of the first terminal device and the second position information of the second terminal device, and determines the relative position information according to the first position information and the second position information.

In one possible design, the first network element corresponds to the first terminal device, and the positioning request message further includes access and mobility management network element identifiers corresponding to the plurality of second terminal devices respectively; the third network element obtains the relative position information measured by the first terminal equipment through the access and mobile management network element corresponding to the first terminal equipment; or the third network element obtains the relative position information measured by the second terminal equipment according to the access and mobile management network element identifier corresponding to the second terminal equipment; or the third network element obtains the first position information through the access and mobile management network element corresponding to the first terminal equipment, and obtains the second position information according to the access and mobile management network element identifier corresponding to the second terminal equipment.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication control method, including: the third network element receives a positioning request message sent by the first network element; if the positioning request message comprises a device identifier of a first terminal device and information for indicating a target area range, the third network element acquires at least one piece of relative position information of the first terminal device and at least one third terminal device in the target area range according to the positioning request information; the third network element sends the at least one relative position information to the first network element.

In one possible design, the obtaining, by the third network element, relative location information of the first terminal device and the third terminal device includes: the third network element obtains the relative position information measured by the first terminal device or obtains the relative position information measured by the third terminal device; or the third network element acquires the first position information of the first terminal device and the third position information of the third terminal device, and determines the relative position information according to the first position information and the third position information.

In one possible design, the first network element corresponds to the first terminal device, and the positioning request message further includes access and mobility management network element identifiers corresponding to the plurality of third terminal devices respectively; the third network element obtains the relative position information measured by the first terminal equipment through the access and mobile management network element corresponding to the first terminal equipment; or the third network element obtains the relative position information measured by the third terminal equipment according to the access and mobile management network element identifier corresponding to the third terminal equipment; or the third network element obtains the first position information through the access and mobile management network element corresponding to the first terminal equipment, and obtains the third position information according to the access and mobile management network element identifier corresponding to the third terminal equipment.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communications device, where the communications device may have a function of implementing a first network element in any one of the possible designs of the first aspect or the first aspect, or implement a function of a first network element in any one of the possible designs of the second aspect or the second aspect, implement a function of a third network element in any one of the possible designs of the third aspect or the third aspect, or implement a function of a third network element in any one of the possible designs of the fourth aspect or the fourth aspect. The device may be a device or may be a chip included in a device.

The functions of the communication device may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by executing corresponding software by hardware, where the hardware or software includes one or more modules or units or means (means) corresponding to the functions.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes a processing module and a transceiver module in a structure, where the processing module is configured to support the apparatus to have a function of implementing the first network element in the first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the first aspect, or implement the function of the first network element in the second aspect or any one of the possible designs of the second aspect, implement the function of the third network element in the third aspect or any one of the possible designs of the third aspect, or implement the function of the third network element in the fourth aspect or any one of the possible designs of the fourth aspect. The transceiver module is configured to support communication between the apparatus and other communication devices, for example, when the apparatus is a third network element, the transceiver module may receive positioning indication information from the first network element. The communication device may also include a memory module coupled to the processing module that holds the program instructions and data necessary for the device. As an example, the processing module may be a processor, the communication module may be a transceiver, and the storage module may be a memory, where the memory may be integrated with the processor or may be separately provided from the processor.

In another possible design, the device may include a processor and may also include a memory. The processor is coupled to the memory and operable to execute the computer program instructions stored in the memory to cause the apparatus to perform the method of any one of the above aspects or any one of the possible designs of aspects. Optionally, the apparatus further comprises a communication interface, the processor being coupled to the communication interface. When the apparatus is a core network device, the communication interface may be a transceiver or an input/output interface; when the apparatus is a chip included in a core network device, the communication interface may be an input/output interface of the chip. Alternatively, the transceiver may be a transceiver circuit and the input/output interface may be an input/output circuit.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip system, including: a processor coupled to a memory for storing programs or instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the system-on-a-chip to implement the method of any one of the above aspects or any one of the possible designs of aspects.

Optionally, the system on a chip further comprises an interface circuit for interacting code instructions to the processor.

Alternatively, the processor in the chip system may be one or more, and the processor may be implemented by hardware or software. When implemented in hardware, the processor may be a logic circuit, an integrated circuit, or the like. When implemented in software, the processor may be a general purpose processor, implemented by reading software code stored in a memory.

Alternatively, the memory in the system-on-chip may be one or more. The memory may be integral to the processor or separate from the processor. For example, the memory may be a non-transitory processor, such as a read only memory ROM, which may be integrated on the same chip as the processor or may be separately provided on different chips.

In a seventh aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program or instructions which, when executed, cause a computer to perform the method of any one of the aspects or any one of the possible designs of the aspects described above.

In an eighth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product which, when read and executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any one of the above aspects or any one of the possible designs of aspects.

In a ninth aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication system, including: a first network element for performing any of the possible designs of the first or second aspect described above, and a third network element for performing any of the possible designs of the third or fourth aspect described above.

The advantages of any of the second to ninth aspects are specifically referred to the advantages of the various possible designs of the first aspect, and are not described herein.

Drawings

Fig. 1a is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of a communication system to which the present application is applicable;

fig. 1b is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of a (wireless) access network device to which the present application is applicable;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of a 5G communication system to which the present application is applicable;

fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a method for acquiring UE location information;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of an interaction flow of a communication control method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5a is a schematic flow chart of acquiring control indication information according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5b is a second flowchart of a method for obtaining control indication information according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6a is a schematic diagram of an application scenario of a communication control method according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 6b is a second schematic diagram of an application scenario of a communication control method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7a is a schematic diagram of an interaction flow for obtaining relative position information according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7b is a second schematic diagram of an interaction flow for obtaining relative position information according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8a is a schematic diagram of a scenario in which relative position information is measured according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8b is a second schematic diagram of a scenario in which relative position information is measured according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8c is a third exemplary diagram of a scenario in which relative position information is measured according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9a is a second schematic diagram of an interaction flow of a communication control method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9b is a third application scenario diagram of a communication control method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10, fig. 11, or fig. 12 are schematic structural diagrams of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

Embodiments of the present application will be described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The technical solution of the embodiment of the present application may be applied to various communication systems, such as a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, an LTE frequency division duplex (frequency division duplex, FDD) system, an LTE time division duplex (time division duplex, TDD), a fifth generation (5th generation,5G) mobile communication system, or a New Radio (NR) system, or to future communication systems or other similar communication systems.

Fig. 1a is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of a communication system to which the present application is applicable. According to the third generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project,3GPP) protocol standard requirements, the network architecture comprises four components, namely a terminal equipment (UE), AN Access Network (AN), a core network (core), and a Data Network (DN), wherein the access network may be a radio access network (radio access network, RAN).

The terminal equipment, (radio) access network and core network are the main parts forming the network architecture, and can be logically divided into two parts, namely a user plane and a control plane, wherein the control plane is mainly responsible for the management of the mobile network, and the user plane is mainly responsible for the transmission of service data. Illustratively, as shown in fig. 1a, in the 5G communication system, a Next Generation (NG) 2 reference point is located at a (radio) access network control plane and a core network control plane, and a NG3 reference point is located at a (radio) access network user plane and a core network user plane, and a NG6 reference point is located at a core network user plane and a data network.

The following describes the various components of the network architecture in detail.

1. The terminal equipment is equipment with a wireless receiving and transmitting function, is an entrance for interaction between a mobile user and a network, can provide basic computing capacity and storage capacity, displays a service window for the user, and receives operation input of the user. The terminal device may communicate with the core network or the data network via a (radio) access network, exchanging voice and/or data with the (radio) access network. Illustratively, in a 5G communication system, a next generation terminal device (NextGen UE, NG UE) may employ a New Radio (NR) technology to establish a signal connection and a data connection with a (radio) access network, thereby transmitting control signals and traffic data to the network.

By way of example, the terminal devices may include wireless terminal devices, mobile terminal devices, device-to-device (D2D) terminal devices, internet of vehicles (vehicle to everything, V2X) terminal devices, machine-to-machine/machine-type communication (machine-to-machine-type communications, M2M/MTC) terminal devices, internet of things (internet of things, ioT) terminal devices, subscriber units (subscriber units), subscriber stations (subscriber station), mobile stations (mobile stations), remote Stations (APs), remote terminals (access terminals), user terminals (user terminals), user agents (user agents), user equipment (user devices), or the like. For example, the terminal device may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer (Pad), a computer with a wireless transceiver function, a portable, pocket, hand-held, a mobile device built in the computer, etc. Also for example, the terminal device may be a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in an industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in a self driving (self driving), a wireless terminal in a teleoperation (remote medical surgery), a wireless terminal in a smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in a transportation security (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in a smart city (smart city), a wireless terminal in a smart home (smart home), a terminal device in a future evolved public land mobile communication network (public land mobile network, PLMN), or a vehicle device in V2X, a customer premise equipment (customer premises equipment, CPE), or the like. As another example, the terminal device may also be a personal communication services (personal communication service, PCS) phone, cordless phone, session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol, SIP) phone, wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) station, personal digital assistant (personal digital assistant, PDA) or the like.

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

The terminal device may be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, hand-held, wearable or vehicle-mounted; can also be deployed on the water surface (such as ships, etc.); but may also be deployed in the air (e.g., on aircraft, balloon, satellite, etc.). The embodiment of the application does not limit the specific technology, equipment form, application scene and name adopted by the terminal equipment.

2. The wireless access network is deployed at a position close to the terminal equipment, provides a network access function for authorized users in a specific area, and can determine transmission tunnels with different qualities according to the level of the users, the service requirements and the like to transmit user data. The (wireless) access network can manage and reasonably utilize own resources, provide access service for the terminal equipment according to the requirement, and is responsible for forwarding control signals and business data between the terminal equipment and the core network.

The (radio) access network has (radio) access network equipment deployed therein for accessing the terminal equipment to the radio network. The (radio) access network device may typically be connected to the core network by a wired link, e.g. a fibre optic cable. The (radio) access network device may also be referred to as RAN device/node, or base station.

Illustratively, the (wireless) access network device may include a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB) in an LTE system or an evolved LTE system (LTE-Advanced), a next generation NodeB (gNB) in a 5G communication system, a transmission reception point (transmission reception point, TRP), a Base Band Unit (BBU), an Access Point (AP) in a wireless local area network (wireless local area networks, WLAN), an access backhaul integrated (integrated access and backhaul, IAB) node, a base station in a future mobile communication system or an access node in a WiFi system, and so on. The radio access network device may also be a module or unit that performs the functions of the base station part, such as a Centralized Unit (CU) or a Distributed Unit (DU).

For example, in one network structure, the (radio) access network device may be a CU node, or a DU node, or a (radio) access network device comprising a CU node and a DU node, as shown in fig. 1b, which is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of a (radio) access network device to which the present application is applicable. The CU node is used for supporting protocols such as radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC), packet data convergence protocol (packet data convergence protocol, PDCP), service data adaptation protocol (service data adaptation protocol, SDAP) and the like; the DU node is used to support radio link control (radio link control, RLC) layer protocols, medium access control (medium access control, MAC) layer protocols, and physical layer protocols.

The (wireless) access network device may be deployed on land, including indoor or outdoor, hand-held, wearable or vehicle-mounted; can also be deployed on the water surface (such as ships, etc.); but may also be deployed in the air (e.g., on aircraft, balloon, satellite, etc.). The embodiment of the application does not limit the specific technology, equipment form, application scene and name adopted by the (wireless) access network equipment. In the embodiments of the present application, the (radio) access network device may be simply referred to as AN Access Network (AN) device, and, unless otherwise specified, the access network devices hereinafter may be all (radio) access network devices.

3. The core network is responsible for maintaining subscription data of the mobile network, managing network elements of the mobile network, and providing session management, mobility management, policy management, security authentication and other functions for the terminal equipment. The method specifically comprises the following steps: providing network access authentication for the terminal equipment when the terminal equipment is attached; when the terminal equipment has a service request, network resources are allocated to the terminal equipment; updating network resources for the terminal equipment when the terminal equipment moves; providing a quick recovery mechanism for the terminal equipment when the terminal equipment is idle; releasing network resources for the terminal equipment when the terminal equipment is detached; when the terminal device has service data, a data routing function is provided for the terminal device, such as forwarding uplink data to the data network, or receiving downlink data from the data network and forwarding to the (radio) access network, for transmission to the terminal device.

4. And the data network is used for providing business services for the users. In actual communication, the client is usually located in a terminal device, and the server is usually located in a data network. The data network may be a private network, such as a local area network, or an external network not under the control of an operator, such as the Internet (Internet), or a proprietary network co-deployed by an operator, such as a network providing IP multimedia network subsystem (IP multimedia core network subsystem, IMS) services.

Fig. 2 shows a more specific network architecture to which embodiments of the present application are applicable, which may be a network architecture of a 5G communication system. As shown in fig. 2, the network architecture includes a terminal device, an access network device, various types of core network elements/functional entities, and a data network.

Wherein the core network user plane comprises user plane functions (user plane function, UPF). The core network control plane includes, but is not limited to: an access and mobility management function (access and mobility management function, AMF) network element, a session management function (session management function, SMF) network element, an authentication server function (authentication server function, AUSF) network element, a network slice selection function (network slice selection function, NSSF) network element, a network opening function (network exposure function, NEF) network element, a network function warehousing function (network function repository function, NRF) network element, a policy control function (policy control function, PCF) network element, a unified data management (unified data management, UDM) network element, an application function (application function, AF) network element, a location management function (location management function, LMF) network element, a network slice authentication and authorization function (network slice specific authentication and authorization function, NSSAAF) network element.

Specifically, the AMF network element is mainly responsible for access management and mobility management of the terminal device, for example, for state maintenance of the terminal device, reachability management of the terminal device, forwarding of non-mobility management access stratum (MM NAS) messages, and forwarding of session management (session management, SM) N2 messages.

The SMF network element is mainly responsible for session management in the mobile network, including setting up a session for the terminal device, allocating and releasing resources for the session, where the resources include session quality of service (quality of service, qoS), session routes, forwarding rules, etc. For example, an internet protocol (internet protocol, IP) address is assigned to the terminal device, a UPF network element providing a message forwarding function is selected, etc.

The UPF network element is mainly responsible for connecting an external network, executing user data packet forwarding according to a routing rule of the SMF, sending uplink data to a data network or other UPF network elements, and sending downlink data to other UPF network elements or access network equipment.

The AUSF network element is mainly responsible for performing security authentication of the terminal device.

The NSSF network element is mainly responsible for selecting the appropriate network slice for the traffic of the terminal device.

The NEF network element controllably exposes part of the functionality of the network to the application.

The NRF network element is mainly responsible for providing storage function and selection function of network function entity information for other network elements.

The PCF network element is mainly responsible for user policy management, including policy authorization, service quality and generation of charging rules, and issues corresponding rules to the UPF network element through the SMF network element to complete installation of the corresponding policies and rules.

The UDM network element is mainly responsible for managing user data, including subscription information, context, policy information, etc. It should be noted that although not shown temporarily in fig. 2, a unified data repository (unified data repository, UDR) network element may also be included in the network architecture shown in fig. 2, and that the functionality of the UDM network element may be implemented through interaction with the UDR network element. The UDR network element is used for storing data required by the UDM network element when executing operation, and the UDM network element is used for interacting with other network elements. In actual implementation, the UDM network element and the UDR network element may be two independent physical entities, and the UDR network element may also be integrated in the UDM network element, which is not limited.

The AF network element is mainly responsible for providing service data of various applications for control surface network elements of the communication network of an operator or obtaining data information and control indication information of the network from the control surface network elements of the communication network.

The LMF network element is mainly responsible for carrying out positioning request management and positioning resource allocation during positioning service.

The NSSAAF network element is mainly responsible for authentication and authorization of network slices, and can interact with an authentication, authorization and accounting server (authentication, and accounting server, AAA-S) through an authentication, authorization and accounting proxy (and accounting proxy, AAA-P).

As an example, in the network architecture shown in fig. 2, the interface between the terminal device and the AMF network element is referred to as an N1 interface, the interface between the access network device and the AMF network element is referred to as an N2 interface, the interface between the access network device and the UPF network element is referred to as an N3 interface, the interface between the UPF network element and the SMF network element may be referred to as an N4 interface, and the interface between the UPF network element and the data network is referred to as an N6 interface. Of course, in future communication systems, the names of these interfaces may be unchanged or may be replaced by other names, as the application is not limited in this regard.

In future communication systems, such as sixth generation (6th generation,6G) communication systems, the network element or device may still use its name in fourth generation (4th generation,4G) or 5G communication systems, or other names; the functions of the above network elements or devices may be completed by one independent network element, or may be completed by a plurality of network elements together, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

In practical deployment, the network elements may be co-located. For example, the access and mobility management function network elements may be collocated with the session management function network elements; the session management function network element may be co-located with the user plane function network element. When two network elements are combined, the interaction between the two network elements provided by the embodiment of the application becomes the internal operation of the combined network element or can be omitted.

It should be noted that, the core network control plane may adopt a service architecture, each control plane network element is connected to a service bus, and interaction of the control plane network elements adopts a service calling manner to replace a peer-to-peer communication manner in the traditional core network architecture. In the service architecture, the control plane network element can open services to other control plane network elements for calling by the other control plane network elements. In point-to-point communication, a specific set of messages exists in the communication interface of the control plane network element, and the messages can only be used by the control plane network elements at two ends of the interface in communication.

It should be noted that the network elements/functional entities in the various possible network architectures may be network elements in hardware devices, software functions running on dedicated hardware, or virtualized functions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform). Alternatively, the network element or the functional entity may be implemented by one device, or may be implemented by a plurality of devices together, or may be different functional modules in one device, which is not specifically limited in the embodiment of the present application.

The network architecture and the service scenario described in the embodiments of the present application are for more clearly describing the technical solution of the embodiments of the present application, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solution provided by the embodiments of the present application, and those skilled in the art can know that, with the evolution of the communication system architecture and the appearance of the new service scenario, the technical solution provided by the embodiments of the present application is applicable to similar technical problems.

The terms "system" and "network" in embodiments of the application may be used interchangeably. "plurality" means two or more, and "plurality" may also be understood as "at least two" in this embodiment of the present application. "at least one" may be understood as one or more, for example as one, two or more. For example, including at least one means including one, two or more, and not limiting what is included. For example, at least one of A, B and C is included, then A, B, C, A and B, A and C, B and C, or A and B and C may be included. Likewise, the understanding of the description of "at least one" and the like is similar. "at least one of" or the like means any combination of these items, including any combination of single item(s) or plural items(s). For example, "at least one of A, B, and C" includes A, B, C, AB, AC, BC, or ABC. "and/or", describes an association relationship of an association object, and indicates that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B, and may indicate: a exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone. The character "/", unless otherwise specified, generally indicates that the associated object is an "or" relationship.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, the ordinal terms such as "first," "second," etc., according to the embodiments of the present application are used for distinguishing a plurality of objects, and are not used for defining the order, timing, priority, or importance of the plurality of objects, and the descriptions of "first," "second," etc. do not necessarily define the objects to be different.

Currently, the application of high-precision positioning technology is more and more. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly important to acquire highly accurate position information of a terminal device. Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of an interaction flow for obtaining UE location information. By way of example, the application scenario illustrated in fig. 3 may include the following interaction flow:

entity 1 in step 301a, 5G core network (5G core network,5GC) may initiate a location service request to an AMF network element. For example, entity 1 may be a gateway mobile location center (gateway mobile location center, GMLC), and the originating location service request may specifically be requesting location services of the target UE, e.g. location, etc.

Step 301b, the AMF network element determines a location service request for the target UE. For example, the AMF network element may locate the target UE when the target UE makes an emergency call.

Step 301c, the UE initiates a location service request to the AMF network element. For example, if the UE needs to communicate based on location services, it is generally required to request location services from an AMF network element.

It should be noted that any of steps 301a to 301c may be used as a trigger condition for requesting the location service of the UE.

Step 302, the AMF network element may forward the location service request to the LMF network element.

Step 303a, the LMF network element may initiate a positioning procedure with node 1 in the NG-RAN; such as making positioning measurements or transmitting position assistance data, etc. The node 1 may be, for example, a gNB. Optionally, if the positioning mode adopted by the LMF network element needs the coordination of the NG-RAN, the LMF network element may interact with the node 1 in the NG-RAN to implement the positioning process for the target UE. It can be appreciated that if the positioning method adopted by the LMF network element does not need the coordination of the NG-RAN, no interaction with the node 1 in the NG-RAN is required.

Step 303b, the LMF network element may initiate a positioning procedure with the UE; such as making a position estimate or making a positioning measurement, etc. Optionally, if the positioning manner adopted by the LMF network element requires cooperation of the UE, the LMF network element may request assistance from the UE to implement the positioning process. It can be appreciated that if the positioning mode adopted by the LMF does not require coordination by the UE, no assistance needs to be requested from the UE.

Step 304, the LMF network element returns a location service response to the AMF network element. For example, the location service response may include: location service success, or location service failure, or location estimation of UE.

Step 305a, corresponding to the triggering scenario of step 301a, the AMF network element returns the location service response message to entity 1 in 5 GC.

Step 305b, corresponding to the triggering scenario of step 301b, the AMF network element processes the location service request according to the location service response.

Step 305c, corresponding to the triggering scenario of step 301c, the AMF network element returns the location service response message to the UE.

In combination with the above, in the process of acquiring the location information of the UE described in fig. 3, the communication control of the core network to the UE in the related art may be generally based on the absolute location information of the UE. Because the control manner of performing communication control based on the absolute position information of the UE cannot meet the requirements of some current control scenarios, it is also considered that communication control of the UE is performed based on the relative position information of the UE and another UE (also referred to as "binding UE" in the embodiment of the present application). Therefore, it is worth studying how to accurately determine the bound UE related to the UE.

In view of this, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication control method. In the method, a network element in the core network may select or reselect a bonded UE from a plurality of candidate UEs. Furthermore, the network element in the core network can perform communication control on the UE based on the relative position information of the UE and the binding UE, so that the precision and flexibility of the communication control on the UE can be improved, and the service requirements in more application scenes can be met. The method and the device can predefine one or more alternative UEs related to the UE and preset in the control indication information, or can also be based on a preset target area range, and then the UE can be screened from the target area range to be used as the alternative UE.

The following describes a communication control method provided in the embodiment of the present application in detail. It should be noted that, in the following embodiments, communication control is performed on the first terminal device by using a network element in the core network as an example. In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, if the network element in the core network also needs to perform communication control on the target terminal device, the implementation process of performing communication control on the target terminal device may refer to the process of performing communication control on the first terminal device, which is not described in detail herein. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, a network architecture based on a 5G communication system is used, and network elements such as a first network element, a second network element, a third network element, and the like are introduced by taking corresponding network elements in the 5G communication system as examples; it can be appreciated that the technical solutions provided by the embodiments are equally applicable as the system architecture evolves and new business scenarios arise.

Fig. 4 is an interaction flow diagram of a communication control method according to an embodiment of the present application. The interaction flow may include:

s401, the first network element acquires control indication information of the first terminal device from the second network element. The control instruction information may be preconfigured in the second network element, or the control instruction information may be generated by the second network element for the first terminal device.

A possible triggering scenario is that if the first network element receives the request information sent by the first terminal device, the first network element may acquire control indication information of the first terminal device from the second network element based on the request information. Wherein the request information may be used to request a service managed by the first network element or may also be used to request access to a network served by the first network element. The network served by the first network element may include one or more slices, and if the first network element includes a plurality of slices, the first terminal device may request to access one slice in the first network element. It can be appreciated that, if the first network element does not allow the first terminal device to access the requested slice, the first terminal device cannot access the slice, but does not affect the first terminal device to access other slices served by the first network element.

The first network element may be an AMF network element, or an SMF network element, for example. Alternatively, the request information sent by the first terminal device may be that the UE starts a PDU session establishment procedure after the UE has been registered in the core network. The method can be implemented as a session establishment request sent by the UE to the AMF network element; the AMF network element may then forward the session establishment request sent by the UE to the SMF network element for continued processing. Alternatively, the request information sent by the first terminal device may be a slice request that the UE requests to access the AMF network element.

The second network element may be a UDM network element, or an AF network element, or a PCF network element, for example. The control instruction information can be preconfigured in the second network element, and when the first network element obtains the related information of the first terminal equipment from the second network element, the control information can be carried in the related information of the first terminal equipment. In the embodiment of the application, the AMF network element or the SMF network element responds to the request information of the UE, and can acquire the subscription information of the UE from the UDM network element, or acquire the extensible authentication protocol (extensible authentication protocol, EAP) information from the AF network element, or acquire the strategy control information from the PCF network element.

In an alternative embodiment, the control indication information may be carried in subscription information of the UE. For example, fig. 5a is a schematic flow chart of obtaining control indication information according to an embodiment of the present application. Wherein, fig. 5a may include the following interaction flow:

step 501, a target terminal device (hereinafter, may be simply referred to as "UE 0") establishes a session; wherein the UE0 is already registered in the network. For example, before the first network element performs communication control on the first terminal device, the target terminal device corresponding to the first terminal device may already have a session established in the core network. And in the process of establishing the session of the target terminal equipment, the binding function of the target terminal equipment can be started, so that the communication control of the first terminal equipment according to the target terminal equipment is realized.

It may be appreciated that, before the first terminal device determines the target terminal device, one or more alternative terminal devices that may be target terminal devices of the first terminal device may each open a binding function to implement a target terminal device (also referred to as a "binding UE" in the embodiment of the present application) that may be a first terminal device; wherein, if the relative position information of the candidate terminal device for starting the binding function and the first terminal device meets the control condition in the control indication information, the candidate terminal device can be determined to be bound with the UE. The binding function of the alternative terminal device can be implemented as a binding function for starting the alternative terminal device, wherein the binding function can be implemented as a PDU session type (session type) message which can be used for marking that the session is used for starting the alternative terminal device in the process that the alternative terminal device initiates the session establishment request; alternatively, the PDU session type message may be pre-stored in the context information of the candidate terminal device managed by the UDM network element, or pre-stored in the AF network element or the PCF network element. In this way, the first network element determines to start the binding function of the alternative terminal device through a request of the alternative terminal device or a pre-configuration mode of the network element of the core network. In addition, the candidate UE may also mark the terminal equipment type of the candidate UE while the binding function is started, for example, the PDU session type message may carry the terminal equipment type.

Step 502, a first terminal device (hereinafter referred to as "UE1" in the embodiment) initiates a session establishment request to an AMF network element, and the AMF network element forwards the session establishment request of UE1 to an SMF network element. Wherein the UE1 is already registered in the network.

In step 503a, the SMF network element obtains subscription information of UE 1. The subscription information of the UE1 may carry control instruction information of the UE 1.

In another alternative embodiment, the control indication information may also be carried in an EAP message of the UE. For example, fig. 5b is a schematic flow chart of another method for obtaining control instruction information according to an embodiment of the present application. Wherein, fig. 5b may include the following interaction flow:

step 501, UE0 establishes a session.

Step 502, the UE1 initiates a session establishment request to the AMF network element, and the AMF network element forwards the session establishment request of the UE1 to the SMF network element. Wherein the UE1 is already registered in the network.

Step 503b, UE1 performs secondary authentication. For example, if the UE1 needs to interact with the third party service network, the core network element for managing the UE1 generally needs to request the secondary authentication from the AF network element, and if the secondary authentication passes, the UE1 may continue to implement data access or data processing on the third party service network; if the secondary authentication is not passed, the UE1 cannot continue to perform data access or data processing on the third party service network.

Step 504b, the SMF network element obtains the EAP message of UE 1. If the secondary authentication of the UE1 passes, the EAP message of the UE1 may carry the control instruction information of the UE 1. For example, the EAP message may be an EAP success (success) message.

In addition, in other optional embodiments, the control indication information may also be carried in a policy control message of the UE, or may also be carried in other messages, which is not limited by the present application.

In addition, the first network element may further obtain the control indication information of the first terminal device from the local storage, where the second network element may be understood as the first network element itself, that is, the second network element may also be an AMF network element or an SMF network element. It is to be understood that the second network element may also be another network element, for example, any network element or functional entity that may be extended in a future communication system and may store a control indication message, which is not limited in the present application.

Optionally, the control instruction information may include a communication control condition, where the communication control condition is used to instruct a network element of the core network whether to start communication control on the first terminal device. For example, if the communication control condition indicates to start communication control, the first network element starts a communication control flow for the first terminal device; and if the communication control condition indicates to close the communication control, the first network element does not perform the communication control flow of the first terminal equipment, or if the first network element is performing the communication control on the first terminal equipment, stopping the communication control flow of the first terminal equipment.

S402a, the control indication information comprises equipment identifiers of a plurality of second terminal equipment, and the first network element determines target terminal equipment from at least one second terminal equipment according to relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the at least one second terminal equipment in the plurality of second terminal equipment.

In some possible scenarios, to facilitate selection or reselection of a bonded UE for a UE, a list of possible candidate UEs for the bonded UE may be preconfigured for the UE. In the embodiment of the application, when the control indication information is pre-configured, the equipment identifiers of a plurality of candidate UEs can be configured in the control indication information. That is, the control indication information may include device identifiers of a plurality of second terminal devices, which may be a plurality of candidate UEs of the first terminal device. For example, if the second network element is a UDM network element, the device identity of the second terminal device may be represented by a user permanent identity (subscription permanent identifier, SUPI) of the terminal device. For another example, if the second network element is an AF network element, the device identity of the second terminal device may be represented by a general public subscription identifier (generic public subscription identifier, GPSI) of the terminal device; after the core network device receives the GPSI identifier of the second terminal device, the core network device may acquire a correspondence between the GPSI and the SUPI from the UDM network element, so that the GPSI identifier is replaced by the SUPI identifier, so as to facilitate processing of the core network device. It should be noted that, the present application is not limited to the representation form of the device identifier of the second terminal device, and other possible forms may also be applicable to the embodiment of the present application, for example, the second terminal device identifier may also be other terminal device identifiers that are customized in advance, etc.

In the embodiment of the present application, for any second terminal device, if the first network element determines that the relative position information of the first terminal device and the second terminal device meets the control condition further included in the control instruction information, it is determined that the second terminal device is a target terminal device. Therefore, whether the candidate UE satisfies the condition of binding the UE or not can be judged through the relative position information of the UE and the candidate UE, so that the binding UE can be selected or reselected from a plurality of candidate UEs.

Illustratively, the control conditions may include, but are not limited to, at least one of the following:

1) The relative distance between the first terminal device and the second terminal device is within a preset distance range.

Alternatively, the preset distance range may be less than a preset distance threshold; at this time, if the relative distance between the second terminal device and the first terminal device is smaller than the preset distance threshold, the second terminal device may be determined to be the target terminal device, whereas the second terminal device may not be determined to be the target terminal device.

Alternatively, the preset distance range may be greater than or equal to the preset distance threshold; at this time, if the relative distance between the second terminal device and the first terminal device is greater than or equal to the preset distance threshold, the second terminal device may be determined to be the target terminal device, whereas the second terminal device may not be determined to be the target terminal device.

2) The relative direction of the first terminal device and the second terminal device is within a preset direction range. For example, the preset direction range may be a preset direction angle related to a certain standard direction (for example, north-right, south-right, front-right, etc.) related to the first terminal device. For example, if the second terminal device is present in the preset direction range, the second terminal device may be determined as the target terminal device, whereas the second terminal device may not be determined as the target terminal device.

In a possible example, if the control condition includes the above-mentioned preset distance range and preset direction range, the control condition may be that the relative distance between the first terminal device and the target terminal device is greater than or equal to 1 meter, and the relative direction between the first terminal device and the target terminal device is within a range of 90 ° right in front of the first terminal device.

It should be noted that different second terminal devices correspond to the same or different control conditions, and may be set according to an actual scenario during implementation. For example, the second terminal devices of the same type may correspond to the same control conditions, and the second terminal devices of different types may correspond to different control conditions.

In addition, the first network element may further obtain priorities of the plurality of second terminal devices from the control instruction information, or from a local storage or an automatic generation manner, etc. Based on the priorities of the plurality of second terminal devices, the following multiple determination manners of determining the target terminal device can be respectively implemented, as follows:

the determining manner A1, the first network element may sequentially obtain, according to priorities of the plurality of second terminal devices, relative position information of the first terminal device and the second terminal device (may be simply referred to as "UE2" in each embodiment below), and determine whether the second terminal device may be a target terminal device.

Optionally, if the first network element determines that one or more target terminal devices are determined for the first terminal device according to the indication of the control indication information or a preconfigured policy, etc., the first network element may not continuously obtain the relative position information of the remaining undetermined second terminal devices after determining that the one or more target terminal devices are found according to the priorities of the plurality of second terminal devices.

For example, the priority of UE2-1 is 1 st priority, the priority of UE2-2 is 2 nd priority (the 1 st priority is higher than the 2 nd priority), and it is determined to select one target terminal device (hereinafter, may be referred to as "bound UE" in each example). The first network element can firstly acquire the relative position information 1 of the UE1 and the UE2-1, and if the UE2-1 can be used as the binding UE of the UE1 according to the relative position information 1, the relative position information of the UE1 and the UE2-2 does not need to be continuously acquired; otherwise, if it is determined that the UE2-1 cannot be used as the binding UE of the UE1, the relative position information 2 of the UE1 and the UE2-2 is continuously acquired, and whether the UE2-2 can be used as the binding UE of the UE1 is determined.

Determining a mode A2, wherein the first network element can also acquire a plurality of pieces of relative position information of the first terminal device and the plurality of pieces of second terminal devices; then, the first network element determines at least one piece of relative position information satisfying a control condition further included in the control instruction information from the plurality of pieces of relative position information. It may be appreciated that in this manner of determination, the first network element may first obtain the plurality of location information together, and then select at least one relative location information satisfying the control condition from the plurality of location information.

And the first network element determines target relative position information from the at least one piece of relative position information according to the priority of the second terminal equipment, and the first network element determines the second terminal equipment corresponding to the target relative position information as target terminal equipment.

For example, the first network element first acquires the relative position information 1 of UE1 and UE2-1 together, and acquires the relative position information 2 of UE1 and UE 2-2. Then, if the first network element can determine that the relative position information 1 and the relative position information 2 both meet the control condition, based on the priority of the UE2-1 being the 1 st priority and the priority of the UE2-2 being the 2 nd priority (the 1 st priority is higher than the 2 nd priority), the first network element can preferentially select the UE2-1 as the binding UE of the UE 1.

By way of example, in embodiments of the present application, an alternative UE may be preconfigured for the UE based on the following possible scenarios. It is to be understood that embodiments of the present application are not limited to the following possible scenarios. Comprising the following steps:

the position binding relation among the scene A1, the first terminal equipment and the second terminal equipment can be better communication effect when the relative position information of the two terminal equipment is relatively close. Wherein the first terminal device may be preconfigured with the alternative terminal device from the terminal devices having a positional binding relationship with the first terminal device.

For example, the first terminal device may be an intelligent door lock, the second terminal device may be a terminal device for intelligent unlocking (e.g., a mobile phone, a bracelet, etc.), and the target terminal device may be a second terminal device in an unlockable range of the intelligent door lock. It can be understood that although each second terminal device has unlocking capability, the second terminal device can be unlocked when the control condition is met by setting, so that the safety of the intelligent door lock is ensured. For example, the intelligent door lock is allowed to be unlocked only when the intelligent door lock is close to the terminal equipment for intelligent unlocking (such as is in an unlocking range); in contrast, if the second terminal device configured in advance is not detected within the unlockable range of the intelligent door lock, the intelligent door lock may be set to be not unlockable or set to be unlocked by other means.

In this way, when the first network element performs communication control on the intelligent door lock, it may be determined whether the terminal device for intelligent unlocking that satisfies the control condition exists based on the relative positional relationship between the intelligent door lock and the terminal device for intelligent unlocking. And then realizing communication control of the intelligent door lock of the first terminal equipment, thereby improving unlocking safety of the intelligent door lock.

When the position binding relation among the scene A2, the first terminal equipment and the second terminal equipment is that the relative position information of the two terminal equipment is relatively close, communication interference or potential safety hazards and the like can be generated. Or when the relative position information of the two terminal devices is not close to each other, a better communication effect can be achieved or potential safety hazards are prevented.

For example, in some hazardous industrial settings, the proximity of such settings does not allow other devices to operate, avoiding communication interference. In this scenario, the first terminal device may be a hazardous industrial device, the second terminal device may be a general industrial device included in the industrial area, and the target terminal device may be a general industrial device that is closer to the hazardous industrial device among the general industrial devices. When the first network element performs communication control on the dangerous industrial equipment, if it is determined that common industrial equipment with the distance smaller than the safe working range exists, the dangerous industrial equipment can be controlled to stop working or send an alarm and the like. Thereby ensuring the working safety of dangerous industrial equipment.

It should be noted that the above scenario is only an example shown in the present application, and in a specific implementation, the location binding relationship between the first terminal device and the second terminal device may also include other scenarios. For example, the first terminal device and the second terminal device are not suitable for a position binding relationship which is too close and too far, and the like, and can be set according to an implementation scene in specific implementation.

In the embodiment of the present application, the device identifier of the second terminal device may be represented, but is not limited to, as any one of the following forms: user permanent identity (subscription permanent identifier, SUPI), IP address, media access control address (media access control address, MAC), custom identity.

And S402b, if the control instruction information comprises information for indicating a target area range, the first network element determines target terminal equipment from at least one third terminal equipment according to the relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the at least one third terminal equipment in the target area range.

In some possible scenarios, to facilitate selecting or reselecting a bonded UE for a UE, a target area range may also be preconfigured for the UE. In the embodiment of the present application, when the control instruction information is preconfigured, a target area range may be preselected for the UE, and information for indicating the target area range may be configured in the control instruction information. For example, the target area may be a circumferential area with the UE as the center and the specified distance threshold as the radius, and in this case, the information indicating the target area may be the circumferential radius (e.g. 5 meters), and after the first network element analyzes the area identifier, the first network element may screen other UEs included in the circumferential area with the UE as the center and the radius of 5 meters. For another example, the target area range may also be a serving cell (cell) or a Tracking Area (TA) where the UE is located, where the information for indicating the target area range may be a cell identifier or a TA identifier. It should be noted that, the present application is not limited to the form of information for indicating the target area range, and other possible forms may also be applied to the embodiment of the present application, for example, the information for indicating the target area range may also be a plurality of specific position coordinates, and the target area range may be an area range surrounded by a plurality of specific position coordinates, or the like.

In this way, the first network element may screen at least one third terminal device existing in the target area range after parsing the target area range from the control indication information, and may select or reselect a binding UE for the UE from the at least one third terminal device.

Furthermore, in order to improve efficiency and accuracy of selecting or reselecting the bound UE, a first condition may be preconfigured in the control indication information, and the first network element may further use, as the third terminal device, a terminal device in the target area that meets the first condition according to the first condition further included in the control indication information. Illustratively, the first condition includes, but is not limited to, at least one of the following information: terminal device type and terminal device capabilities.

For example, in the target area of the first terminal device, only some types of terminal devices will affect the communication control of the first terminal device, while other types of terminal devices will not affect, and then it is not necessary to consider all types of terminal devices in the target area. For example, the UE1 may be an intelligent sweeping robot, the target area range may be an indoor map, and the terminal device type may be a mobile terminal device (such as other sweeping robots), so that the communication control of the intelligent sweeping robot may only consider the influence of the mobile terminal device, and does not need to consider the influence of the fixed terminal device; in this scenario, the communication control to the UE1 may be to avoid collision with other sweeping robots, or the like.

As another example, the capability of the terminal device may be to turn on a binding function, have a mobile capability, have a voice capability, or the like for the terminal device, and the preset capability may be set according to an actual scenario. For example, assuming that the first terminal device is a voice-type terminal device, only a terminal device that also has voice capability will affect the first terminal device within a target area of the first terminal device, and a terminal device that does not have voice capability will not affect the first terminal device, it is not necessary to consider all terminal devices within the target area, and the terminal device that has voice capability within the target area is screened as the third terminal device.

In the embodiment of the present application, for any third terminal device, if the first network element determines that the relative position information of the first terminal device and the third terminal device meets the control condition further included in the control instruction information, it is determined that the third terminal device is a target terminal device. Therefore, whether the candidate UE satisfies the condition of binding the UE or not can be judged through the relative position information of the UE and the candidate UE, so that the binding UE can be selected or reselected from at least one candidate UE. The control conditions may refer to the content described in S402a, and are not described herein. It should be noted that different third terminal devices correspond to the same or different control conditions, and may be set according to an actual scenario during implementation. For example, the same type of third terminal device may correspond to the same control condition, and different types of third terminal devices may correspond to different control conditions.

In addition, in order to determine the target terminal device from at least one third terminal device, the first network element may also obtain the priority of the preset parameter from the control instruction information, from a local storage or an automatic generation mode, or the like. Wherein, the preset parameters can include, but are not limited to, the following parameters: load, distance. For example, if the third terminal device is bound to the other plurality of terminal devices, indicating that the load of the third terminal device is high, it may be determined that the priority of the third terminal device is low. Then, based on the priority of the preset parameter, determining the target terminal device from the at least one third terminal device may include the following determination methods:

determining a mode B1, and sequentially acquiring the relative position relationship between the first terminal device and the at least one third terminal device (hereinafter, may be simply referred to as "UE 3") by the first network element according to the priority of the preset parameter; and then, if the relative position information of the first terminal device and the third terminal device meets the control condition further included in the control instruction information, determining that the third terminal device is the target terminal device.

For example, assume that the preset parameter is the number of UEs bound to UE3, the higher the number of bound UEs, the lower the priority, and the lower the number of bound UEs, the higher the priority. It should be noted that, if UE3 binds one or more UEs, the first network element may update and store the binding relationship between UE3 and the one or more UEs. For example, the first network element may obtain the binding relationship between the UE3 and the one or more UEs from the subscription information of the UE3, and further determine the number of UEs bound by the UE 3. Taking the UE3-1 unbound UE and the UE3-2 bound 2 UEs as examples, it may be determined that the priority of the UE3-1 is higher than the priority of the UE3-2, the first network element may first obtain the relative position information 1 of the UE1 and the UE3-1, and if it is determined that the UE3-1 may be used as the bound UE of the UE1 according to the relative position information 1, it is not necessary to continuously obtain the relative position information of the UE1 and the UE 3-2; otherwise, if it is determined that the UE3-1 cannot be used as the binding UE of the UE1, the relative position information 2 of the UE1 and the UE3-2 is continuously acquired, and whether the UE3-2 can be used as the binding UE of the UE1 is determined.

Determining a mode B2, wherein the first network element can also acquire a plurality of pieces of relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the plurality of pieces of third terminal equipment; then, the first network element determines at least one piece of relative position information satisfying a control condition further included in the control instruction information from the plurality of pieces of relative position information. It may be appreciated that in this manner of determination, the first network element may first obtain the plurality of location information together, and then select at least one relative location information satisfying the control condition from the plurality of location information.

And the first network element determines target relative position information from the at least one relative position information according to the priority of the preset parameter, and the first network element determines a third terminal device corresponding to the target relative position information as target terminal device.

For example, the first network element first acquires the relative position information 1 of UE1 and UE3-1 together, and acquires the relative position information 2 of UE1 and UE 3-2. Then, if the first network element can determine that the relative position information 1 and the relative position information 2 both meet the control condition, the first network element can preferentially select the UE3-1 as the binding UE of the UE1 based on the priority of the UE3-1 being higher than the priority of the UE 3-2.

By way of example, in embodiments of the present application, the target area range may be preconfigured for the UE based on the following possible scenarios. It is to be understood that embodiments of the present application are not limited to the following possible scenarios. Comprising the following steps:

scene B1, the first terminal device works in conjunction with a plurality of other terminal devices.

For example, fig. 6a is a schematic diagram of an application scenario of a communication control method provided in an embodiment of the present application. In the field of unmanned technology, in the process of driving an unmanned vehicle fleet as shown in fig. 6a, vehicles contained in the vehicle fleet need to keep a safe driving distance from other vehicles in the vehicle fleet, and cannot be separated from the vehicle fleet. In this scenario, in order to ensure workshop communication and control of the unmanned vehicle fleet, for any one of the unmanned vehicles in the unmanned vehicle fleet, a target area range of the unmanned vehicle fleet may be preconfigured in the control instruction information of the unmanned vehicle. And, the control instruction information of the unmanned vehicle may further be preconfigured to further include that the terminal device type is an unmanned vehicle, and the control instruction information of the unmanned vehicle may further be preconfigured to further include a relative distance range between unmanned vehicles. In this way, the first network element can determine other unmanned vehicles in the unmanned vehicle team according to the control indication information, and then realize communication control on the unmanned vehicles according to the other unmanned vehicles in the unmanned vehicle team.

Scene B2, a first terminal device risk avoiding scene or a communication avoiding scene.

For example, fig. 6b is a schematic diagram of another application scenario of a communication control method provided in an embodiment of the present application. In unmanned aerial vehicle technical field, if two unmanned aerial vehicles collide at the flight in-process, then can lead to serious result, consequently when controlling unmanned aerial vehicle, can consider realizing communication control based on unmanned aerial vehicle that target area within range contained to can avoid the risk that target area within range unmanned aerial vehicle collides. In this scenario, for the unmanned aerial vehicle, the control instruction information of the unmanned aerial vehicle may be preconfigured to include a target area range centered on the unmanned aerial vehicle. And the control instruction information of the unmanned aerial vehicle can be further preconfigured to further comprise that the type of the terminal equipment is the unmanned aerial vehicle. In this way, the first network element may control the indication information to determine other unmanned aerial vehicles that are closer to the unmanned aerial vehicle, and then implement communication control on the unmanned aerial vehicle according to the other unmanned aerial vehicles, for example, the communication control may be avoiding operation control or the like.

Based on the content introduced in S402a and S402b, the first network element may acquire the relative position information of the first terminal device and the alternative terminal device in a plurality of measurement manners; the first network element may determine the measurement mode according to the indication of the control indication information or the local measurement policy, and the application is not limited thereto. It will be appreciated that in the embodiment shown in S402a, the alternative terminal device is the second terminal device; and, in the example shown in S402b, the alternative terminal device is a third terminal device. For example, the first network element may determine whether the relative position information of the first terminal device and the alternative terminal device may be measured according to the local positioning capability, and if the relative position information cannot be measured, the first network element may send positioning request information to the third network element, for example, the first network element may be an AMF network element, and the third network element may be an LMF network element; and the third network element may also determine whether the relative position information of the first terminal device and the alternative terminal device may be measured according to the local positioning capability, and if the relative position information cannot be measured, the positioning request information may be sent to other network elements, for example, the first network element may be an SMF network element, the third network element may be an AMF network element, and the other network elements may be LMF network elements.

Measurement mode 1, respectively obtaining first position information of the first terminal device and second position information of the alternative terminal device, and then determining the relative position information according to the first position information and the second position information.

An optional scenario, the first network element may directly obtain the first location information from the first terminal device and obtain the first location information from the alternative terminal device. In another optional scenario, the first network element sends positioning request information to a third network element, where the positioning request information is used to obtain first location information of the first terminal device and second location information of the alternative terminal device respectively; or, the positioning request information may be further used to request the relative position information of the first terminal device and the alternative terminal device, and the third network element may acquire the relative position information in the measurement mode 1 according to a local measurement policy or an indication of the positioning request information, and return the relative position information to the first network element.

For example, if the first network element is an SMF network element, the third network element may be an LMF network element or an AMF network element; if the first network element is an AMF network element, the third network element may be an LMF network element. The present application is not limited to the measurement method of the absolute position information. The absolute position information may be expressed in terms of latitude and longitude and the level, or may be expressed in other possible forms, and the present application is not limited thereto.

Based on the embodiment shown in S402a, the AMF network elements respectively corresponding to the at least one second terminal device and the first terminal device may be the same or different, or the AMF network elements corresponding to part of the second terminal devices and the AMF network elements corresponding to the first terminal device are not completely the same. For example, after the first network element obtains the device identifier of at least one second terminal device from the control instruction information of the first terminal device, the first network element may also obtain the AMF network element identifier corresponding to each second terminal device from the UDM network element. In the embodiment of the application, a first network element can acquire absolute position information measured and reported by each second terminal device through an AMF network element corresponding to each second terminal device, and acquire absolute position information measured and reported by the first terminal device through the AMF network element corresponding to the first terminal device.

Optionally, if the first network element sends positioning request information to the LMF network element, the positioning request information may further include an AMF network element identifier corresponding to the second terminal device; the AMF network element identifier corresponding to the second terminal device is used for acquiring second position information of the second terminal device. It can be understood that the LMF network element may determine, by itself, an AMF network element corresponding to the first terminal device according to the first network element; for example, if the first network element is an AMF network element, the LMF network element may determine that the first network element is an AMF network element corresponding to the first terminal device.

Alternatively, if the first network element sends the positioning request information to the AMF network element, the first network element may send the positioning request information to the corresponding AMF network element directly according to the AMF network element identifier corresponding to the second terminal device, where the positioning request information may be used to request absolute location information of the UE2 or relative location information measured by the UE 2. It can be understood that when the first network element obtains absolute position information of the UE1 or relative position information measured by the UE1, positioning request information may be sent to an AMF network element corresponding to the UE 1; the first network element may determine an AMF network element corresponding to the UE1 based on a communication request of the UE1 in the core network, and the like. The AMF network element corresponding to the first terminal device may be determined by itself according to the first network element.

For example, referring to fig. 7a, an interactive flow chart for acquiring relative position information according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. The interaction flow may include:

in a possible scenario, the first network element may be an SMF network element and the second network element may be a UDM network element, where the first network element may perform the following step 701a.

Step 701a, the SMF network element obtains subscription information of a first terminal device (UE 1) from the UDM network element, where the subscription information of the UE1 includes AMF network element identifiers corresponding to at least one second terminal device (UE 2) respectively. Alternatively, the AMF network elements corresponding to the at least one UE2 may be AMF network element identifiers corresponding to all UE2, or may also be AMF network element identifiers corresponding to UE2 having different AMF network elements with the AMF network element of UE1, which is not limited in the present application. In this scenario, the subscription information of the UE1 may include control indication information of the UE1, and the AMF network element identifiers corresponding to the at least one UE2 respectively may be configured in the control indication information or may also be configured independently in the subscription information of the UE 1. It may be understood that the control instruction information of the UE1 further includes, but is not limited to: device identifiers and control conditions corresponding to the plurality of UEs 2.

In another possible scenario, the second network element may also be an AF network element, where the first network element may perform the following steps 701b1 to 701b2.

Step 701b1, the SMF network element obtains an EAP message from the AF network element. The EAP message may include control indication information of the UE 1. The control instruction information of the UE1 includes, but is not limited to: device identifiers and control conditions corresponding to the plurality of UEs 2.

Step 701b2, the SMF network element sends an acquisition message to the UDM network element, where the acquisition message is used to request AMF network element identifiers corresponding to at least one second terminal device (UE 2), and the acquisition message includes: and the equipment identifiers corresponding to the plurality of UE2 and the indication of the AMF information for serving the UE2 are obtained. After receiving the acquisition message, the UDM network element determines, according to the device identifiers corresponding to the plurality of UEs 2 and the indication of the AMF information for acquiring the service of the UEs 2, the AMF network element identifiers corresponding to at least one UE2 respectively, and returns the AMF network element identifiers to the SMF network element.

The difference from step 701a is that in this scenario, the SMF network element may obtain control indication information of the UE2 and AMF network element identifiers corresponding to at least one UE2 respectively from different network elements. In this way, the network element of the core network can realize the communication control of the UE1 based on the core network where the UE1 is located and the third party service network.

Step 702, the SMF network element requests the AMF network element 1 corresponding to the UE1 to determine a target terminal device (binding UE). For example, in a scenario that the UE1 requests the SMF network element to establish a session, the SMF network element may forward information such as control indication information obtained from the UDM network element or from the AF network element and the UDM network element, and AMF network element identifiers corresponding to at least one UE2, to the AMF network element 1 corresponding to the UE 1. After the AMF network element 1 receives the request for determining the binding UE from the SMF network element, the relative location information of the UE1 and the UE2 may be acquired, and the binding UE may be determined from the plurality of UEs 2 based on the relative location information of the UE1 and the UE 2.

Step 703, the AMF network element 1 may request the LMF network element to assist in determining the target terminal device. In one possible scenario, after the AMF network element 1 receives the request from the SMF network element for determining to bind to the UE, it may be determined whether the relative location information of the UE1 and the UE2 may be measured according to the location capability; if the AMF network element 1 does not acquire the positioning capability of the UE1 or the UE2, or the positioning capability of the AMF network element 1 cannot meet the positioning requirements of the UE1 and the UE2 (for example, the positioning accuracy cannot be met, the indicated measurement mode is not supported, etc.), the AMF network element 1 may send positioning request information to the LMF network element. Wherein, the location request information may include: the method comprises the steps of requesting an LMF network element to acquire relative position information of the UE1 and the UE2, wherein the UE1 comprises equipment identification, the UE2 comprises equipment identification, AMF network element identification corresponding to at least one UE2 and indication information.

Alternatively, the SMF network element may also directly request the LMF network element to assist in determining the target terminal device. Illustratively, the SMF network element may send location request information to an LMF network element. Wherein, the location request information may include: the method comprises the steps of requesting an LMF network element to acquire relative position information of the UE1 and the UE2, wherein the UE1 comprises equipment identification, the UE2 comprises equipment identification, AMF network element identification corresponding to at least one UE2 and indication information.

In addition, in some possible scenarios, for example, no LMF network element is deployed in the core network, the first network element may also assist in determining the target terminal device through the AMF network element. For example, if the first network element is an SMF network element, the SMF network element may request the AMF network element to assist in determining the target terminal device. For another example, if the first network element is an AMF network element, the AMF network element may determine the target terminal device locally.

Based on the above various examples, it may generally be determined whether the second terminal device may be a target terminal device based on the relative location information of the first terminal device and the second terminal device. In view of this, the LMF network element or the AMF network element may assist in determining the relative location information of the first terminal device and the second terminal device.

Step 704a, the LMF network element obtains absolute location information of the UE1 from the AMF network element 1 corresponding to the UE 1.

Step 704b, the LMF network element obtains the absolute location information of the UE2 from the AMF network element 2 corresponding to the UE 2.

From step 704a and step 704b, the LMF network element may implement measurement of absolute location information of UE1 and absolute location information of UE2 through different AMF network elements corresponding to UE1 and UE2, respectively. Then, the LMF network element may calculate, based on the absolute location information of UE1 and the absolute location information of UE2, obtain the relative location information of UE1 and UE2, determine, based on the relative location information, whether UE2 may be a target terminal device, and then return the determined target terminal device to the first network element. Or the LMF network element can calculate the relative position information of the UE1 and the UE2 based on the absolute position information of the UE1 and the absolute position information of the UE2, then the relative position information is returned to the first network element, and the first network element determines the target terminal equipment according to the relative position information. Or the LMF can also directly return the absolute position information of the UE1 and the absolute position information of the UE2 to the first network element, and the first network element calculates the relative position information of the UE1 and the UE2 and determines the target terminal equipment. The application is not limited to a specific implementation.

Based on the embodiment shown in S402b, at least one third terminal device is in the same target area range as the first terminal device and thus generally corresponds to the same AMF network element. At this time, the first network element may directly request the AMF network element or the LMF network element corresponding to the UE1 to assist in determining the target terminal device, and the specific determining manner may refer to the interaction flow shown in fig. 7a, which is not described herein.

Measurement mode 2, obtain the relative position information measured by the said first terminal equipment, or the relative position information measured by the said alternative terminal equipment. Wherein, the first network element may directly request the first terminal device to measure the relative position information; or may also request measurement relative position information directly from the alternative terminal device. Or, the first network element may further send positioning request information to a third network element, where the positioning request information is used to request relative location information measured by the first terminal device or relative location information measured by the alternative terminal device. Or the first network element sends positioning request information to a third network element, wherein the positioning request information is used for requesting relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the alternative terminal equipment, and the third network element acquires the relative position information by adopting the measurement mode 2 and returns the relative position information to the first network element.

For example, if the first network element is an SMF network element, the third network element may be an LMF network element or an AMF network element; if the first network element is an AMF network element, the third network element may be an LMF network element. The present application is not limited to a measurement method of the relative position information. The location information may be represented by longitude, latitude, and level, or may be represented by other possible forms, which are not limited in the present application.

Based on the embodiment shown in S402a, the AMF network elements respectively corresponding to the at least one second terminal device and the first terminal device may be the same or different, or the AMF network elements corresponding to part of the second terminal devices and the AMF network elements corresponding to the first terminal device are not completely the same. For example, after the first network element obtains the device identifier of at least one second terminal device from the control instruction information of the first terminal device, the first network element may also obtain the AMF network element identifier corresponding to each second terminal device from the UDM network element. Optionally, the first network element may instruct, through AMF network elements respectively corresponding to the second terminal devices, each second terminal device to respectively measure and report relative position information between the first terminal device and the second terminal device. Alternatively, if the first network element sends positioning request information to the third network element, the positioning request information may further include an AMF network element identifier corresponding to the second terminal device; the AMF network element identifier corresponding to the second terminal device is used for requesting the second terminal device to measure the relative position information. It can be appreciated that the third network element may determine the AMF network element corresponding to the first terminal device according to the first network element.

For example, referring to fig. 7b, another interactive flow chart for acquiring relative position information according to an embodiment of the present application is shown.

In the steps 701a to 703, the content of the embodiment corresponding to fig. 7a is referred to, and will not be described herein.

Step 704c, the LMF network element obtains the relative position information measured by the UE2 and corresponding to the UE1 from the AMF network element 2 corresponding to the UE 2.

Step 704d, the LMF network element obtains the relative position information of the UE2 measured by the UE1 from the AMF network element 1 corresponding to the UE 1.

The LMF network element may select measurement mode 1 shown in fig. 7a or measurement mode 2 shown in fig. 7b to perform positioning measurement according to an instruction in the control instruction information or information such as a local measurement policy. In addition, if the measurement method 2 shown in fig. 7b is selected for positioning measurement, the implementation corresponding to step 704c or the implementation corresponding to step 704d may be selected for positioning measurement according to the instruction in the control instruction information or the information such as the local measurement policy.

In addition, in some possible scenarios, for example, no LMF network element is deployed in the core network, the first network element may also assist in determining the target terminal device through the AMF network element. For example, if the first network element is an SMF network element, the SMF network element may request the AMF network element to assist in determining the target terminal device. For another example, if the first network element is an AMF network element, the AMF network element may determine the target terminal device locally. For example, the first network element instructs, through the AMF network element 1 corresponding to the UE1, the UE1 to measure the relative position information of each UE 2; and the first network element indicates, through the AMF network element 2 corresponding to each UE2, each UE2 to measure the relative position information with the UE 1.

Based on the embodiment shown in S402b, at least one third terminal device is in the same target area range as the first terminal device and thus generally corresponds to the same AMF network element. At this time, the first network element may directly request the relative location information from the AMF network element or the LMF network element corresponding to the UE 1.

Based on the above implementation, several possible measurement manners in which the terminal device measures the relative position information with other terminal devices are described below in connection with fig. 8a to 8 c.

By way of example, taking the measurement of relative position information by the first terminal device as an example, fig. 8a is a schematic diagram of a scenario for measuring relative position information according to an embodiment of the present application, where the relative position information may be represented as a relative distance. The first terminal device may receive positioning request information of a network element (such as an LMF network element or an AMF network element or an SMF network element) of the core network, and start a procedure for measuring relative position information. In practice, the first terminal device may send a ranging signal to the second terminal device (or the third terminal device), and the second terminal device (or the third terminal device) may immediately feed back the ranging signal after receiving the ranging signal. In this way, the first terminal device may measure the relative distance of the first terminal device and the second terminal device (or third terminal device) based on the time of flight (TOF) of the signal. For example, fig. 8b is another schematic diagram of a scenario of measuring relative distance, tof=tprop= (around-pattern)/2, according to an embodiment of the present application; the relative distance can then be derived from the product of the TOF and the speed of light.

As another example, taking the measurement of the relative position information by the first terminal device as an example, fig. 8c is a schematic diagram of still another scenario of the measurement of the relative position information according to an embodiment of the present application. The relative position information may be represented as a relative direction at this time. The receiver included in the first terminal device may receive, through the antenna, a signal transmitted from the transmitter included in the second terminal device (or the third terminal device), and may measure an angle of arrival of the signal with respect to the reference direction, so that a relative direction of the second terminal device (or the third terminal device) and the first terminal device may be obtained based on the angle of arrival with respect to the reference direction.

It should be noted that, the first terminal device or the second terminal device (or the third terminal device) may also measure the relative position information by other measurement methods, for example, may also measure the relative position information by a physical direct link (such as sidelink), ultra Wideband (UWB), and the application is not limited thereto.

In another example, if the first network element sends the location request information to the LMF network element, the LMF network element may obtain the relative location information by, but not limited to, the following location method: time of arrival observed time difference (observed time difference of arrival, OTDOA), assisted global navigation satellite system (A-GNSS) assisted global navigation satellite system (ASSIED-global navigation satellite system), uplink time of arrival difference (uplink time difference of arrival, UTDOA).

In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, after the first network element determines the target terminal device according to the relative position information, the first network element may subscribe the relative position information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device to the third network element. Optionally, if the first network element determines that the updated relative position information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device no longer meets the control condition included in the control indication information, the first network element may determine whether to reselect the target terminal device according to the control condition included in the control indication information. It can be understood that, if the target terminal device is reselected, the implementation process of the reselecting the target terminal device may refer to the content described in the foregoing embodiment, which is not described herein. If the target terminal device is not reselected, the third network element may notify the first network element that the relative position information between the first terminal device and the target terminal device no longer satisfies the control condition included in the control instruction information, that is, exceeds the area range indicated by the control condition.

For example, the first network element may send a subscription indication to a third network element, which may include, but is not limited to, one or a combination of the following information: control conditions contained in the control indication information, device identification of the UE, device identification of the binding UE, monitoring frequency (or monitoring conditions), and reselection indication. The third network element can periodically measure the relative position information of the UE and the binding UE according to the monitoring frequency; or the third network element may also measure the relative position information of the UE and the binding UE according to a monitoring condition, for example, the monitoring condition may be that when the UE or the cell or TA of the binding UE is monitored to be switched, the relative position information of the UE and the binding UE is triggered to be re-measured. The reselection indication is used for indicating whether the target terminal equipment needs to be reselected or not if the relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the target terminal equipment no longer meets the control condition in the control indication information.

And if the first network element determines that the target terminal device meeting the control condition does not exist any more, or if the target terminal device does not meet the control condition any more and the target terminal device is not reselected any more, the first network element may process the communication of the first terminal device according to a processing instruction further included in the control instruction information; or the communication of the first terminal device may be further processed according to a processing manner indicated by the policy control message obtained from the PCF network element. It will be appreciated that if the first network element has established a communication for the UE based on the bonded UE determined for the UE (e.g. established a session or access slice), the communication that the UE has established may be processed if the first network element determines that the bonded UE is no longer present.

Alternatively, if the binding UE closes the binding function, it may also trigger whether to reselect the target terminal device; for example, if the third network element or the first network element monitors that the binding UE closes the binding function, it may determine whether to reselect the target terminal device according to the local storage policy or the indication in the control indication information. For example, if the binding UE sends a session release request to the AMF network element, the AMF network element determines, according to the session release request, that the binding UE releases a PDU session type message for opening the binding function, then it may be determined that the binding UE closes the binding UE; for another example, if the SMF network element monitors that the session release of the bound UE is successful, the SMF network element may instruct the AMF network element to start the procedure of re-binding the UE. In addition, if the target terminal equipment does not need to be reselected or is not reappeared to the new target terminal equipment; the AMF network element may receive a PDU session type message of the binding UE sent by the SMF network element. The first network element may also process communications established for the UE based on the binding of the UE; for example, if the bonding UE opens the bonding function through the PDU session, the bonding UE is indicated to close the bonding function after releasing the PDU session for opening the bonding function.

In an alternative example, if the first network element is an SMF network element; the SMF network element processes the communication of the first terminal device according to the processing instruction (or the policy control message acquired from the PCF network element) included in the control instruction information, and may include, but is not limited to, one or a combination of the following processes: releasing the established session or deactivating the established session; sending alarm information to the first terminal equipment or the target terminal equipment; transmitting location information to the first terminal device or the target terminal device, for example, transmitting absolute location information of the target terminal device to the first terminal device or transmitting absolute location information of the first terminal device to the target terminal device; according to the safety release instruction, first instruction information is sent to the first terminal equipment, wherein the first instruction information is used for instructing the first terminal equipment to carry out safety release on the session; and updating the session policy of the first terminal equipment.

In another alternative example, if the first network element is an AMF network element; the AMF network element processes the communication of the first terminal device according to the processing instruction (or the policy control message acquired from the PCF network element) included in the control instruction information, which may include, but is not limited to, one or a combination of the following processes: deregistering the completed registration or deactivating the completed registration; sending alarm information to the first terminal equipment or the target terminal equipment; transmitting position information to the first terminal device or the target terminal device; according to the safety release instruction, first instruction information is sent to the first terminal equipment, wherein the first instruction information is used for instructing the first terminal equipment to carry out safety release on the session; updating the mobility policy of the first terminal device.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, whether the second terminal device (or the third terminal device) is determined as the target terminal device or not, after the first network element obtains the relative position information, the relative position information of the first terminal device and the second terminal device (or the third terminal device) may also be subscribed according to the actual scene requirement. In this way, the first network element may timely re-target the terminal device according to the updated relative position information of the first terminal device and the second terminal device (or the third terminal device). For example, if the first network element subscribes to the second terminal device with higher priority and changes to be the target terminal device, the first network element may trigger or request to reselect the target terminal device, that is, reselect the second terminal device with higher priority as the target terminal device; and then the first network element can perform communication control on the first terminal equipment according to the reselected target terminal equipment.

In the above embodiment, the first network element may subscribe to the relative location information with an AMF network element or an LMF network element.

S403, if the first network element determines that the target terminal equipment exists, performing communication control on the first terminal equipment according to the determined target terminal equipment.

In an optional embodiment, the first network element sends first indication information to the PCF network element according to the target terminal device, where the first indication information is used to formulate or update a service policy of the first terminal device. And then, the first network element acquires the service policy from the PCF network element, and performs communication control on the first terminal equipment according to the service policy. For example, if the target terminal device determined by the first network element is different, the service policy formulated or updated by the PCF network element for the first terminal device may be the same or different. For example, the PCF network element may formulate or update different service policies based on different reference parameters of different target terminal devices; the reference parameter may be, for example, a terminal device type, or a load condition, or relative position information, etc.

If the first network element is an SMF network element, the service policy may be a session policy, and the session policy may include: quality of service (quality of service, qoS) control policy, charging policy, N6 control policy, etc. for the session established by UE 1. For example, if the target terminal device is UE2-1, the service policy specified by the PCF may be session policy 1; if the target terminal device is UE2-2, the service policy specified by the PCF may be session policy 2. Further, the service policies may also include, for example, but are not limited to, one or a combination of the following policies: confirm transmission mode (acknowledged mode, AM) policy, move-only initiated connection (mobile initiated connection only, MICO) policy.

If the first network element is an AMF network element, the service policy may be a mobility policy. The mobility policy may include, but is not limited to: radio access technology (radio access technology, RAT)/frequency selection priority (RAT/frequency selection priority, RFSP) index, location area restrictions, aggregated maximum bit rate (aggregate maximum bit rate, AMBR) information, SMF selection information, session management (session management, SM) policies, MICO policies, etc. For example, if the target terminal device is UE2-1, the service policy specified by the PCF may be mobility policy 1; if the target terminal device is UE2-2, the service policy specified by the PCF may be mobility policy 2.

In another optional embodiment, the first network element may also send second indication information to the NEF network element according to the target terminal device, where the second indication information is used to formulate or update a service requirement; and the first network element acquires the service requirement of the NEF network element, and performs communication control on the first terminal equipment according to the service requirement. For example, if the first network element is an SMF network element, the service requirement may be a session requirement corresponding to the session of the first terminal device, for example, a quality of service (quality of service, qoS) requirement, etc.

In other optional embodiments, if the first network element receives the request information sent by the first terminal device. Wherein the request information may be used to request a service managed by the first network element or may also be used to request access to a network served by the first network element.

Illustratively, the communication control performed by the first network element on the first terminal device may be implemented as follows: allowing the first terminal device to use the service managed by the first network element; for example, the first terminal device is allowed to establish a session or to activate a session, such as a PDU session. Or the communication control of the first network element to the first terminal device may be further implemented as: allowing the first terminal device to access a network served by the first network element; for example, allowing the first terminal device to register with a network served by the first network element, or activating the first terminal device to register with a network served by the first network element; wherein the network of services may consist of a plurality of slices, and the communication control of the first network element by the first terminal device may also be implemented as a slice allowing the first terminal device to access a request, or as a slice activating registration of the first terminal device.

As another example, if the first network element determines that the target terminal device does not exist, the communication control of the first network element on the first terminal device may be implemented as follows: the first terminal equipment is not allowed to use the service managed by the first network element; for example, the first terminal device is not allowed to establish a session or the first terminal device is allowed to establish a deactivation session; and if the first network element allows the first terminal equipment to establish the deactivation session, when the first network element determines that the target terminal equipment exists again, the deactivation session can be activated. Or the communication control of the first network element to the first terminal device may be further implemented as: the first terminal equipment is not allowed to access the network served by the first network element; for example, the first terminal device is not allowed to register with the network (or slice) served by the first network element, or is allowed to register but set to a deactivated state. Alternatively, the communication control of the first network element to the first terminal device may be further implemented as: allowing the first terminal device to use the service managed by the first network element or allowing the first terminal device to access the network served by the first network element, but formulating or updating a service policy, formulating or updating a service requirement, etc. according to the situation that the target terminal device is not present.

The first network element may determine, according to the indication of the allowed access in the control indication information, to allow the first terminal device to use the service managed by the first network element/allow the first terminal device to access the network where the first network element is located. Or the first network element may determine, according to the access prohibition indication in the control indication information, that the first terminal device is not allowed to use the service managed by the first network element/is not allowed to access the network (or slice) served by the first network element.

The first network element may determine a specific manner of performing communication control on the first terminal device according to a control manner in the control instruction information.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, it may also be determined that there is no target terminal device that satisfies the control condition of the control instruction information, or there is no scene of the target terminal device when the target terminal device is reselected, if the first network element sends the positioning request information to the third network element, the third network element determines whether there is the target terminal device. At this time, the third network element may return, to the first network element, indication information for indicating that the target terminal device does not exist; and the indication information can also comprise relative position information measured by a third network element. In this way, the first network element may determine, according to the indication information, whether the target terminal device exists or whether the control condition is adjusted or whether communication control is performed on the UE directly based on the absolute location information of the UE, after waiting for the preset time period.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, the first network element may store one or more information related to the implementation process of the method provided by the present application as a context of the UE, or instruct other network elements to store the context, or so on. For example, if the first network element is an SMF network element, the SMF network element may store or update the context of the first terminal device according to the target terminal device after determining the target terminal device of the first terminal device, or may further instruct the AMF network element to store or update the context of the first terminal device (UE) according to the target terminal device (binding UE). Wherein the one or more information may include, for example, but not limited to: device identification of binding UE, identification of UE, binding relation of position of UE and binding UE, identification of PDU session type message of binding UE, etc.

For a better understanding of the method provided by the embodiments of the present application, the steps of the embodiment shown in fig. 4 are described in detail below in connection with specific embodiments. The first network element may be an SMF network element or an AMF network element; it should be noted that, the first network element may be another network element/functional entity capable of implementing communication control on the first terminal device, or a network element/functional entity in a future communication system, etc., and for convenience of understanding, the following embodiments will be described taking an SMF network element or an AMF network element as an example.

Fig. 9a is a flowchart of a communication control method according to an embodiment of the present application. Taking the first network element as an SMF network element as an example, the method may include three main phases: a control instruction information acquisition stage, a target terminal equipment determination stage and a communication control stage. The method can comprise the following steps:

first, the control instruction information acquisition stage

As shown in fig. 9a, the step of obtaining control indication information may comprise a step 501, a step 502, a step 503a (or steps 503b-504 b). The specific implementation of steps 501 to 504b may refer to the descriptions of fig. 5a and 5b in the foregoing embodiments, and are not described herein.

Optionally, after step 501, the method may further include:

step 900, the SMF network element performs service control on the candidate UE. In the embodiment of the application, the core network equipment can not only control the communication of the UE based on the relative position information, but also realize the communication control of the UE based on the absolute position information according to the requirements of actual scenes. For example, the UE may generally implement multiple types of service processing, where the first type of service processing is in a scenario that UE1 and the candidate UE have a location binding relationship, and the core network device may perform communication control based on relative location information on the first type of communication request by UE 1; and the second type of service processing is that the alternative UE locally realizes service processing and has no position binding relation with other UEs. Therefore, in the scenario that the core network device performs communication control on the UE1, communication control on the alternative UE and the UE1 based on the absolute position can also be implemented. For example, in a scenario where the alternative UE requests to establish a session, the communication control of the core network device to the alternative UE may be service control.

(II) determining the stage of the target terminal device

Step 901, the SMF network element (AMF network element or LMF network element) determines a target terminal device from at least one alternative UE (e.g. the second terminal device or the third terminal device in the previous embodiment). Wherein, based on the content described in the foregoing embodiments for S402a and S402b, in an alternative example, if the control indication information includes device identifiers of a plurality of second terminal devices, the first network element determines a target terminal device from at least one second terminal device of the plurality of second terminal devices according to relative position information of the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device; in another optional example, if the control indication information includes information for indicating a target area range, the first network element determines a target terminal device from at least one third terminal device in the target area range according to relative position information of the first terminal device and the at least one third terminal device. The SMF network element determining the target terminal device may mainly include the following implementation flows:

the scenario a1, SMF network element directly sends positioning request information to the alternative UE and/or UE 1. It will be appreciated that at this point the SMF network element may obtain the relative location information locally and determine the target terminal device.

Optionally, the SMF network element acquires first location information from the UE1 and acquires second location information from the candidate UE, and determines the relative location information according to the first location information and the second location information; and then determining whether the alternative UE can be used as the target terminal equipment according to the relative position information.

Alternatively, the SMF acquires the relative position information measured by the UE1, or acquires the relative position information measured by the alternative UE; and then determining whether the alternative UE can be used as the target terminal equipment according to the relative position information.

The scene a2 and the SMF network element directly send the positioning request information to the AMF network element or the LMF network element. It may be appreciated that at this time, the SMF network element may request the AMF network element or the LMF network element to assist in acquiring the relative location information, and then the SMF network element may determine the target terminal device according to the relative location information. In addition, the SMF network element may further instruct the AMF network element or the LMF network element to adopt a measurement mode through the positioning request information.

The LMF network element receives the positioning request information, and may determine a measurement mode according to the indication of the positioning request information; or if the positioning request information does not indicate the adopted measurement mode, the LMF network element can select the adopted measurement mode based on the local measurement strategy. Alternatively, the LMF network element may use the direct measurement mode or the indirect measurement mode in the foregoing embodiment. In addition, if the location request information further indicates an AMF network element identifier of the candidate UE, the LMF network element may perform location measurement by adopting a direct measurement mode or an indirect measurement mode according to the AMF network element identifier of the candidate UE and the AMF network element corresponding to the UE 1.

In another example, the AMF network element receives the positioning request information, and may determine the measurement mode according to the indication of the positioning request information; or if the positioning request information does not indicate the adopted measurement mode, the AMF network element may select the adopted measurement mode based on a local measurement policy. Alternatively, the AMF network element may use the direct measurement mode or the indirect measurement mode in the foregoing embodiments; or the AMF network element may further forward the location request information to the LMF network element, and the processing flow after the LMF receives the location request information may refer to the foregoing example. In addition, if the location request information further indicates an AMF network element identifier of the alternative UE, the AMF network element may further request the AMF network element of the alternative UE for second location information of the alternative UE according to the AMF network element identifier of the alternative UE, if the AMF network element adopts an indirect measurement manner; alternatively, if the direct measurement mode is adopted, the AMF network element of the candidate UE may also request the relative location information measured by the candidate UE. Or, the SMF network element may directly send positioning request information to the AMF network element corresponding to the candidate UE according to the AMF network element identifier corresponding to the candidate UE indicated in the control indication information, where the positioning request information is used to request absolute location information of the candidate UE or relative location information measured by the candidate UE.

The scene a3 and the SMF network element directly send positioning request information to the AMF network element or the LMF network element, wherein the positioning request information can also be used for indicating to determine target terminal equipment. It can be understood that at this time, the SMF network element may request the AMF network element or the LMF network element to assist in determining the target terminal device; the SMF network element may then obtain the target terminal device directly from the AMF network element or the LMF network element.

In this scenario, the AMF network element or the LMF network element may further determine the target terminal device, in addition to obtain the relative position information, and then directly return to the SMF network element to the determined target terminal device. The SMF network element may perform communication control on the first terminal device directly based on the target terminal device.

It should be noted that, the specific implementation manner of acquiring the absolute position information or the relative position information in each scene may refer to the foregoing embodiment, and will not be described herein.

(III) communication control stage

Step 902a, the SMF network element formulates a service policy of the first terminal device according to the target terminal device.

Illustratively, the SMF network element may send the first indication information to the PCF network element. After the PCF network element receives the first indication information, a service policy of the UE1 is formulated according to the target terminal device. It will be appreciated that the PCF network element may formulate different service policies for UE1 according to different target terminal devices.

The SMF network element may obtain a formulated service policy from the PCF network element, and then perform communication control on the UE1 according to the service policy.

Step 902b, the SMF network element establishes a session successfully according to the target terminal device.

Step 903, the SMF network element subscribes to relative position information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device.

Illustratively, based on the various scenarios introduced in step 901, the SMF network element may subscribe locally or with the AMF network element or with the LMF network element. Illustratively, the SMF network element may send a subscription indication to the AMF network element or the LMF network element, which may include, but is not limited to, one or a combination of the following information: the control condition contained in the control instruction information includes a device identifier (such as SUPI) of the first terminal device, a device identifier of the target terminal device, a monitoring frequency (or a monitoring condition), and a reselection instruction; the AMF network element or the LMF network element can periodically measure the relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the target terminal equipment according to the monitoring frequency; the reselection indication is used for indicating whether the target terminal equipment needs to be reselected or not if the relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the target terminal equipment no longer meets the control condition in the control indication information.

Step 904, the SMF network element (AMF network element or LMF network element) determines that the updated relative position information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device no longer meets the control condition included in the control indication information, and determines whether the target terminal device needs to be reselected. Illustratively, based on the various scenarios introduced in step 901, the SMF network element may locally determine or instruct the AMF network element to determine or instruct the LMF network element to determine whether to reselect the target terminal device. It can be appreciated that the SMF network element (AMF network element or LMF network element) may or may not reselect the target terminal device according to the control conditions in the control indication information. If it is determined that the target terminal device is reselected, the AMF network element or the LMF network element may be instructed to reselect the target terminal device by the reselection indication included in the subscription indication, and the following steps 905a and 905b are continuously performed.

In addition, if the AMF network element or the LMF network element determines that the target terminal equipment needs to be reselected, and reselects the target terminal equipment, the AMF network element sends indication information for indicating the switching target terminal equipment to the SMF network element; and if the target terminal equipment is not reselected, sending indication information for indicating that the target terminal equipment is not reselected to the SMF network element. If the AMF network element or the LMF network element determines that the target terminal device does not need to be re-targeted, the indication information that the updated relative position information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device no longer satisfies the control condition included in the control indication information may be returned to the SMF network element.

In step 905a, if a new target terminal device is reselected, the SMF network element updates the service policy of the first terminal device. Illustratively, the SMF network element may send the first indication information to the PCF network element again. After the PCF network element receives the new first indication information, the service policy of the UE1 is updated according to the reselected target terminal device.

The SMF network element may further obtain an updated service policy from the PCF network element, and then adjust to control communications of the UE1 according to the updated service policy.

In step 905b, if no new target terminal device is reselected, the SMF network element processes the established session. For example, the SMF network element may control the processing indication in the indication information to process the established session, such as a release session, a secure release session, or a deactivation session.

Fig. 9b is another flowchart of a communication control method according to an embodiment of the present application. Taking the first network element as an AMF network element as an example, UE1 requests to access a network served by the AMF network element. The network served by the first network element may include one or more networks, and if the network includes a plurality of networks, the network served by the UE1 requesting to access the AMF network element may be one of the networks; alternatively, the network served by the first network element may include one or more slices, and if a plurality of slices are included, the network served by the UE1 requesting access to the AMF network element may be specifically one of the slices served by the AMF network element. Taking UE1 requesting access to a slice as an example in the following embodiments, the method may also include three main phases: a control instruction information acquisition stage, a target terminal equipment determination stage and a communication control stage. The method can comprise the following steps:

First, the control instruction information acquisition stage

Step 501', alternative UE registers in the network.

Optionally, in step 900', the AMF network element performs access control on the candidate UE. Similar to the implementation process of step 900, in the scenario where UE1 accesses the slice, the communication control of the core network device on the alternative UE may be access control.

Step 502', UE1 requests access to the network or slice.

Step 503a', the AMF network element obtains the subscription information of UE1 from the UDM network element. The subscription information of the UE1 may carry control indication information, where the second network element is a UDM network element.

Step 503b', UE1 performs slice authentication.

Step 504b', the AMF network element obtains the EAP message of UE1 from the UDM network element. The EAP message may carry control indication information, where the second network element is an AF network element.

It can be understood that the AMF network element may acquire the control indication information from the UDM network element or the AF network element, and the specific acquisition manner may be determined according to the actual configuration.

(II) determining the stage of the target terminal device

Step 901', the AMF network element (or LMF network element) determines the target terminal device from at least one alternative UE (e.g. the second terminal device or the third terminal device in the previous embodiments). The determination of the target terminal device by the AMF network element may mainly include the following implementation flows:

The scenario b1 and the AMF network element directly send positioning request information to the alternative UE and/or the UE 1. It can be appreciated that at this time the AMF network element may obtain the relative location information locally and determine the target terminal device.

Optionally, the AMF network element obtains first location information from the UE1 and obtains second location information from the candidate UE, and determines the relative location information according to the first location information and the second location information; and then determining whether the alternative UE can be used as the target terminal equipment according to the relative position information.

Alternatively, the AMF acquires the relative position information measured by the UE1, or acquires the relative position information measured by the alternative UE; and then determining whether the alternative UE can be used as the target terminal equipment according to the relative position information.

In addition, if the location request information further indicates an AMF network element identifier of the alternative UE, the AMF network element may further request the AMF network element of the alternative UE for second location information of the alternative UE according to the AMF network element identifier of the alternative UE, if the AMF network element adopts an indirect measurement manner; alternatively, if the direct measurement mode is adopted, the AMF network element of the candidate UE may also request the relative location information measured by the candidate UE.

The scene b2 and the AMF network element directly send positioning request information to the LMF network element. It may be appreciated that at this time, the AMF network element may request the LMF network element to assist in acquiring the relative location information, and then the AMF network element may determine the target terminal device according to the relative location information. In addition, the AMF network element can also instruct the measurement mode adopted by the LMF network element through the positioning request information.

The LMF network element receives the positioning request information, and may determine a measurement mode according to the indication of the positioning request information; or if the positioning request information does not indicate the adopted measurement mode, the LMF network element can select the adopted measurement mode based on the local measurement strategy. Alternatively, the LMF network element may use the direct measurement mode or the indirect measurement mode in the foregoing embodiment. In addition, if the location request information further indicates an AMF network element identifier of the candidate UE, the LMF network element may perform location measurement by adopting a direct measurement mode or an indirect measurement mode according to the AMF network element identifier of the candidate UE and the AMF network element corresponding to the UE 1. The local measurement policy of the LMF network element may be obtained by the PCF network element or may be prestored.

The scene b3 and the AMF network element directly send positioning request information to the LMF network element, wherein the positioning request information can also be used for indicating the determination target terminal equipment. It can be understood that at this time, the AMF network element may ask the LMF network element to assist in determining the target terminal device; the AMF network element may then obtain the target terminal device directly from the LMF network element.

In this scenario, the LMF network element may further implement determination of the target terminal device in addition to obtaining the relative location information, and then directly return to the AMF network element to the determined target terminal device. The AMF network element may perform communication control on the first terminal device directly based on the target terminal device.

(III) communication control stage

And step 902a', the AMF network element formulates a service policy of the first terminal device according to the target terminal device. For example, the AMF network element may send the first indication information to the PCF network element. After the PCF network element receives the first indication information, a service policy of the UE1 is formulated according to the target terminal device. It will be appreciated that the PCF network element may formulate different service policies for UE1 according to different target terminal devices.

The AMF network element may obtain a formulated service policy from the PCF network element, and then perform communication control on the UE1 according to the service policy.

And step 902b', the AMF network element successfully accesses the slice according to the target terminal equipment.

Step 903', the AMF network element subscribes to the relative position information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device. Illustratively, the AMF network element may subscribe locally or with the LMF network element based on the various scenarios introduced in step 901.

Step 904', the AMF network element (or LMF network element) determines that the updated relative position information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device no longer satisfies the control condition included in the control indication information, and reselects the target terminal device. Illustratively, based on the various scenarios introduced in step 901', the AMF network element may locally determine or instruct the LMF network element to determine whether to reselect the target terminal device. It can be appreciated that the AMF network element (or LMF network element) may or may not reselect the target terminal device according to the control condition in the control indication information. If it is determined to reselect the target terminal device, the following steps 905a 'and 905b' may be continued.

If a new target terminal device is reselected, step 905a', the AMF network element updates the service policy of the first terminal device. For example, the AMF network element may send the first indication information to the PCF network element again. After the PCF network element receives the new first indication information, the service policy of the UE1 is updated according to the reselected target terminal device.

The AMF network element may further obtain an updated service policy from the PCF network element, and then adjust to perform communication control on the UE1 according to the updated service policy.

In step 905b', if no new target terminal device is reselected, the AMF network element processes the registered slice. For example, the AMF network element may control the processing instruction in the instruction information to process the registered slice, such as a release slice, a security release slice, or a deactivation slice.

By the method provided by the application, the core network equipment can select or reselect the binding UE for the UE according to the control indication information, so that the communication control of the UE based on the binding UE can be realized. Compared with the mode that the core network equipment can only realize communication control on the UE through the absolute position information of the UE in the related art, the method provided by the application not only can expand more application scenes, but also can select or re-appropriately bind the UE for the UE, thereby improving the precision and flexibility of communication control on the UE, meeting more service requirements of service scenes and the like.

Based on the same technical concept as the method embodiment, the embodiment of the present application further provides a communication device, please refer to fig. 10, which is a schematic structural diagram of the communication device provided in the embodiment of the present application, and the communication device 1000 includes: a transceiver module 1001 and a processing module 1002. The communication device may be adapted to implement the functionality relating to the first network element in any of the method embodiments described above. The communication means may be the first network element or a chip or a circuit comprised in the first network element. In one alternative embodiment, among others,

the transceiver module 1001 is configured to obtain control indication information of the first terminal device from the second network element; if the control instruction information includes device identifiers of a plurality of second terminal devices, the processing module 1002 is configured to determine a target terminal device from at least one second terminal device according to relative position information of the first terminal device and at least one second terminal device of the plurality of second terminal devices; the processing module 1002 is further configured to perform communication control on the first terminal device according to the target terminal device.

In one possible design, the processing module 1002 is configured to, when determining, from the at least one second terminal device, a target terminal device according to the relative location information of the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device of the plurality of second terminal devices, specifically: sequentially acquiring relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the second terminal equipment according to the priorities of the plurality of second terminal equipment; and if the relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the second terminal equipment meets the control condition further included in the control instruction information, determining that the second terminal equipment is the target terminal equipment.

In one possible design, the processing module 1002 is configured to, when determining, from the at least one second terminal device, a target terminal device according to the relative location information of the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device of the plurality of second terminal devices, specifically: acquiring a plurality of pieces of relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the plurality of pieces of second terminal equipment; determining at least one piece of relative position information satisfying a control condition further included in the control instruction information from the plurality of pieces of relative position information; and determining target relative position information from the at least one piece of relative position information according to the priority of the second terminal equipment, and determining the second terminal equipment corresponding to the target relative position information as target terminal equipment.

In one possible design, the processing module 1002 is configured to, when performing communication control on the first terminal device according to the target terminal device, specifically: sending first indication information to a strategy control function network element according to the target terminal equipment, wherein the first indication information is used for making or updating a service strategy of the first terminal equipment; and acquiring the service policy from the policy control function network element, and performing communication control on the first terminal equipment according to the service policy.

In one possible design, the processing module 1002 is configured to obtain the relative position information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device by using the following measurement method, including: acquiring first position information of the first terminal equipment and second position information of the target terminal equipment, and determining the relative position information according to the first position information and the second position information; or, acquiring the relative position information measured by the first terminal device or the relative position information measured by the target terminal device.

In one possible design, the processing module 1002 is further configured, before obtaining the relative location information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device, to: and determining a measurement mode for acquiring the relative position information.

In one possible design, the transceiver module 1001 is further configured to obtain, from a unified data management network element, an access and mobility management network element identifier corresponding to the target terminal device before obtaining the relative location information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device; transmitting positioning request information to a third network element, wherein the positioning request information comprises access and mobile management network element identifiers corresponding to the target terminal equipment; the access and mobility management network element identifier corresponding to the target terminal device is used for acquiring second position information of the target terminal device or relative position information measured by the target terminal device.

In one possible design, the transceiver module 1001 is further configured to subscribe, to a third network element, relative location information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device; the processing module 1002 is further configured to determine that the updated relative location information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device no longer meets the control condition included in the control instruction information; and determining the reselection target terminal equipment according to the control conditions included in the control indication information.

In one possible design, the processing module 1002 is further configured to determine that there is no target terminal device that meets the control condition; and processing the communication of the first terminal equipment according to the processing instruction further included in the control instruction information.

In one possible design, the first network element is a session management network element; the processing module 1002 is configured to, when processing the communication of the first terminal device according to the processing instruction included in the control instruction information, include one or a combination of the following processes: releasing the established session or deactivating the established session; sending alarm information to the first terminal equipment or the target terminal equipment; transmitting position information to the first terminal device or the target terminal device; according to the safety release instruction, first instruction information is sent to the first terminal equipment, wherein the first instruction information is used for instructing the first terminal equipment to carry out safety release on the session; and updating the session policy of the first terminal equipment.

In one possible design, the first network element is an access and mobility management network element; the processing module 1002 is configured to, when processing the communication of the first terminal device according to the processing instruction included in the control instruction information, include one or a combination of the following processes: deregistering the completed registration or deactivating the completed registration; sending alarm information to the first terminal equipment or the target terminal equipment; transmitting position information to the first terminal device or the target terminal device; according to the safety release instruction, first instruction information is sent to the first terminal equipment, wherein the first instruction information is used for instructing the first terminal equipment to carry out safety release on the session; updating the mobility policy of the first terminal device.

In one possible design, the transceiver module 1001 is configured to receive, before obtaining control indication information of a first terminal device from a second network element, request information sent by the first terminal device, where the request information is used to request a service managed by the first network element or to request access to a network served by the first network element; the processing module 1002 is configured to, when performing communication control on the first terminal device according to the determined target terminal device, specifically: allowing the first terminal device to use the service managed by the first network element or allowing the first terminal device to access the network served by the first network element.

In one possible design, the processing module 1002 is further configured to, if the first network element determines that the target terminal device does not exist, not allow the first terminal device to use the service managed by the first network element or not allow the first terminal device to access the network served by the first network element.

In another optional implementation manner, if the control indication information includes the content in the scene corresponding to the information for indicating the target area range, the specific implementation manner may refer to the content in the foregoing implementation manner, which is not described herein again.

It should be noted that, the processing module 1002 involved in the communication apparatus 1000 may be implemented by at least one processor or a processor related circuit component, and the transceiver module 1001 may be implemented by at least one transceiver or a transceiver related circuit component or a communication interface. The operation and/or function of each module in the communication device is to implement the corresponding flow of the method shown in fig. 4 to 9b, respectively, and is not described herein for brevity. Optionally, the communication device may further include a storage module, where the storage module may be used to store data and/or instructions, and the transceiver module 1001 and/or the processing module 1002 may read the data and/or instructions in the access module, so that the communication device implements a corresponding method. The memory module may be implemented, for example, by at least one memory.

The storage module, the processing module and the transceiver module may exist separately, or may be integrated in whole or in part, for example, the storage module and the processing module are integrated, or the processing module and the transceiver module are integrated, etc.

Fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of another structure of a communication device according to an embodiment of the application. The communication apparatus 1100 may be configured to implement functions corresponding to the core network device (e.g., the first network element or the third network element) in the above method embodiment, where the communication apparatus 1100 may be the core network device or an apparatus capable of supporting the core network device to implement the corresponding functions in the above method embodiment.

The communication device 1100 may include a processor 1101, a communication interface 1102, and a memory 1103. The communication interface 1102 is used to communicate with other devices through a transmission medium, and the communication interface 1102 may be a transceiver, or may be an interface circuit such as a transceiver circuit, a transceiver chip, etc. The memory 1103 is configured to store program instructions and/or data, and the processor 1101 is configured to execute the program instructions stored in the memory 1103, thereby implementing the method in the above-described method embodiment. The memory 1103 is optionally coupled to the processor 1101, which is an indirect coupling or communicative connection of devices, units, or modules, which may be in electrical, mechanical, or other form for information exchange with the devices, units, or modules.

In one embodiment, the communication interface 1102 may be specifically configured to perform the actions of the transceiver module 1001, and the processor 1101 may be specifically configured to perform the actions of the processing module 1002, which are not described herein.

The specific connection medium of the communication interface 1102, the processor 1101, and the memory 1103 is not limited to the embodiment of the present application. In the embodiment of the present application, the memory 1103, the processor 1101 and the communication interface 1102 are connected through a bus 1104 in fig. 11, where the bus is indicated by a thick line, and the connection manner of other components is only schematically illustrated, but not limited to. 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. 11, but not only one bus or one type of bus.

Fig. 12 is a schematic diagram of another structure of a communication device according to an embodiment of the application. The communications apparatus 1200 can be configured to implement the functionality described above in any of the method embodiments involving a core network device (e.g., the first network element or the third network element). The communication apparatus 1200 is specifically a core network device, such as a base station.

The core network device 1200 includes: one or more DUs 1201 and one or more CUs 1202. The DU 1201 may include at least one antenna 12011, at least one radio frequency unit 12012, at least one processor 12013, and at least one memory 12014, among others. The DU 1201 is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals, converting radio frequency signals into baseband signals, and processing partial baseband signals.

The CU 1202 may include at least one processor 12022 and at least one memory 12021. The CU 1202 is mainly configured to perform baseband processing, control a base station, and the like. The CU 1202 is a control center of the base station and may also be referred to as a processing unit. For example, the CU 1202 may be configured to control the base station to perform the operations or steps corresponding to the first network element in the methods shown in fig. 4 to 9 b.

CU 1202 and DU 1201 may communicate via an interface, where the Control Plane (CP) interface may be Fs-C, such as F1-C, and the User Plane (UP) interface may be Fs-U, such as F1-U. The DU 1201 and CU 1202 may be physically located together or may be physically located separately (i.e., a distributed base station), and are not limited thereto.

Specifically, baseband processing on the CU and the DU may be divided according to protocol layers of the wireless network, for example, functions of a PDCP layer and above are set on the CU, and functions of a protocol layer (for example, RLC layer and MAC layer, etc.) below the PDCP layer are set on the DU. For another example, a CU implements the functions of RRC, PDCP layer, and a DU implements the functions of RLC, MAC, and Physical (PHY) layer.

Optionally, the core network device 1200 may include one or more radio frequency units (RUs), one or more DUs, and one or more CUs. Wherein the DU may include at least one processor 12013 and at least one memory 12014, the ru may include at least one antenna 12011 and at least one radio frequency unit 12012, and the cu may include at least one processor 12022 and at least one memory 12021.

In an embodiment, the CU 1202 may be configured by one or more boards, where the multiple boards may support a single access indicated radio access network (such as a 5G network) together, or may support radio access networks of different access schemes (such as an LTE network, a 5G network, or other networks) respectively. The memory 12021 and processor 12022 may serve one or more boards. That is, the memory and the processor may be separately provided on each board. It is also possible that multiple boards share the same memory and processor. In addition, necessary circuitry may be provided on each board.

The DU 1201 may be formed by one or more single boards, where the multiple single boards may support a single access indicated radio access network (such as a 5G network), or may support radio access networks of different access schemes (such as an LTE network, a 5G network, or other networks). The memory 12014 and processor 12013 may serve one or more boards. That is, the memory and the processor may be separately provided on each board. It is also possible that multiple boards share the same memory and processor. In addition, each single board can be provided with necessary circuits.

The embodiment of the application also provides a chip system, which comprises: a processor coupled to a memory for storing programs or instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the system-on-chip to implement the method of the corresponding core network device in any of the method embodiments described above.

Alternatively, the processor in the system-on-chip may be one or more. The processor may be implemented in hardware or in software. When implemented in hardware, the processor may be a logic circuit, an integrated circuit, or the like. When implemented in software, the processor may be a general purpose processor, implemented by reading software code stored in a memory.

Alternatively, the memory in the system-on-chip may be one or more. The memory may be integral with the processor or separate from the processor, and the application is not limited. The memory may be a non-transitory processor, such as a ROM, which may be integrated on the same chip as the processor, or may be separately provided on different chips, and the type of memory and the manner of providing the memory and the processor are not particularly limited in the present application.

The system-on-chip may be, for example, a field programmable gate array (field programmable gate array, FPGA), an application specific integrated chip (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), a system on chip (SoC), a central processing unit (central processor unit, CPU), a network processor (network processor, NP), a digital signal processing circuit (digital signal processor, DSP), a microcontroller (micro controller unit, MCU), a programmable controller (programmable logic device, PLD) or other integrated chip.

It should be understood that the steps in the above-described method embodiments may be accomplished by integrated logic circuitry in hardware in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The steps of the method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be embodied directly in a hardware processor for execution, or in a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor for execution.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein computer-readable instructions which, when read and executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any of the method embodiments described above.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product which, when read and executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any of the method embodiments described above.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication system, which comprises: a first network element and a third network element for performing any one of the possible methods of the above method embodiments.

It is to be appreciated that the processors referred to in the embodiments of the present application may be CPUs, as well as other general purpose processors, DSP, ASIC, FPGA or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, or the like. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

It should also be understood that the memory referred to in embodiments of the present application may be volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable ROM, an erasable ROM, an electrically erasable ROM, or a flash memory, among others. The volatile memory may be random access memory (random access memory, RAM) which acts as an external cache. By way of example, and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as static random access memory, dynamic random access memory, synchronous dynamic random access memory, double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory, enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory, synchronous link dynamic random access memory, and direct memory bus random access memory.

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

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

It should be understood that the various numbers related to the various embodiments of the present application are merely for convenience of description, and the size of the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes or steps does not mean the order of execution, and the order of execution of the processes or steps should be determined by the functions and inherent logic thereof, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

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

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

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

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

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

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied essentially or in a part contributing to the prior art or in a part of the technical solution in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, comprising several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a core network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, etc.

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

Claims

1. A communication control method, characterized by comprising:

The first network element acquires control indication information of the first terminal equipment from the second network element;

if the control indication information comprises equipment identifiers of a plurality of second terminal equipment, the first network element determines target terminal equipment from at least one second terminal equipment according to relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the at least one second terminal equipment in the plurality of second terminal equipment;

and the first network element performs communication control on the first terminal equipment according to the target terminal equipment.

2. A communication control method, characterized by comprising:

if the control indication information comprises information for indicating a target area range, the first network element determines target terminal equipment from at least one third terminal equipment according to the relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the at least one third terminal equipment in the target area range;

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first network element determining a target terminal device from at least one of the plurality of second terminal devices based on the relative location information of the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device, comprises:

The first network element sequentially acquires relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the second terminal equipment according to the priorities of the plurality of second terminal equipment;

and if the relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the second terminal equipment meets the control condition further included in the control instruction information, determining that the second terminal equipment is the target terminal equipment.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the first network element determining a target terminal device from at least one third terminal device within the target area according to the relative location information of the first terminal device and the at least one third terminal device, comprises:

the first network element sequentially acquires the relative position relation between the first terminal equipment and the at least one third terminal equipment according to the priority of preset parameters;

and if the relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the third terminal equipment meets the control condition further included in the control instruction information, determining that the third terminal equipment is the target terminal equipment.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first network element determining a target terminal device from at least one of the plurality of second terminal devices based on the relative location information of the first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device, comprises:

The first network element acquires a plurality of pieces of relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the plurality of pieces of second terminal equipment;

the first network element determines at least one piece of relative position information meeting control conditions further included in the control instruction information from the plurality of pieces of relative position information;

the first network element determines target relative position information from the at least one relative position information according to the priority of the second terminal equipment;

and the first network element determines the second terminal equipment corresponding to the target relative position information as target terminal equipment.

6. The method according to claim 2, wherein the first network element determining a target terminal device from at least one third terminal device within the target area according to the relative location information of the first terminal device and the at least one third terminal device, comprises:

the first network element acquires a plurality of pieces of relative position information of the first terminal equipment and the plurality of pieces of third terminal equipment;

The first network element determines target relative position information from the at least one relative position information according to the priority of the preset parameter;

and the first network element determines the third terminal equipment corresponding to the target relative position information as target terminal equipment.

7. The method according to claim 2, 4 or 6, wherein before the first network element determines the target terminal device from the at least one third terminal device, the method further comprises:

and the first network element takes the terminal equipment meeting the first condition in the target area range as the third terminal equipment according to the first condition further included in the control indication information.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first condition comprises at least one of the following information: terminal device type and terminal device capabilities.

9. The method according to claim 3 or 5, wherein the control conditions comprise at least one of the following conditions:

the relative distance between the first terminal device and the second terminal device is within a preset distance range;

the relative direction of the first terminal device and the second terminal device is within a preset direction range.

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that different second terminal devices correspond to the same or different control conditions.

11. The method according to any of claims 1 to 10, wherein the first network element performs communication control on the first terminal device according to the target terminal device, comprising:

the first network element sends first indication information to a strategy control function network element according to the target terminal equipment, wherein the first indication information is used for making or updating a service strategy of the first terminal equipment;

the first network element acquires the service policy from the policy control function network element, and performs communication control on the first terminal device according to the service policy.

12. The method according to any of the claims 1 to 11, wherein the first network element obtains the relative position information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device by means of the following measurement method, comprising:

the first network element acquires first position information of the first terminal equipment and second position information of the target terminal equipment, and determines the relative position information according to the first position information and the second position information; or,

The first network element acquires the relative position information measured by the first terminal device or the relative position information measured by the target terminal device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein before the first network element obtains the relative location information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device, the method further comprises:

and the first network element determines a measurement mode for acquiring the relative position information.

14. The method according to claim 12 or 13, wherein before the first network element obtains the relative location information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device, the method further comprises:

the first network element acquires access and mobile management network element identifiers corresponding to the target terminal equipment from a unified data management network element;

the first network element sends positioning request information to a third network element, wherein the positioning request information comprises access and mobile management network element identifiers corresponding to the target terminal equipment; the access and mobility management network element identifier corresponding to the target terminal device is used for acquiring second position information of the target terminal device or relative position information measured by the target terminal device.

15. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 14, further comprising:

the first network element subscribes relative position information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device to a third network element;

the first network element determines that the updated relative position information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device no longer meets the control condition included in the control instruction information;

and the first network element determines a reselection target terminal device according to the control condition included in the control indication information.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises:

the first network element determines that no target terminal equipment meeting the control condition exists;

and the first network element processes the communication of the first terminal equipment according to the processing instruction further included in the control instruction information.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first network element is a session management network element;

the processing the communication of the first terminal device according to the processing instruction included in the control instruction information includes one or a combination of the following processing:

Releasing the established session or deactivating the established session;

sending alarm information to the first terminal equipment or the target terminal equipment;

transmitting position information to the first terminal device or the target terminal device;

according to the safety release instruction, first instruction information is sent to the first terminal equipment, wherein the first instruction information is used for instructing the first terminal equipment to carry out safety release on the session;

and updating the session policy of the first terminal equipment.

18. The method according to claim 15, wherein the first network element is an access and mobility management network element;

deregistering the completed registration or deactivating the completed registration;

Updating the mobility policy of the first terminal device.

19. The method according to any of the claims 14 to 18, wherein if the first network element is a session management network element, the third network element is a location management function network element or an access and mobility management network element;

if the first network element is an access and mobility management network element, the third network element is a location management function network element.

20. A communication control method, characterized by comprising:

the third network element receives a positioning request message sent by the first network element;

if the positioning request message comprises the equipment identification of the first terminal equipment and the equipment identifications of a plurality of second terminal equipment, the third network element acquires a plurality of relative position information in the first terminal equipment and the plurality of second terminal equipment according to the positioning request information;

the third network element sends the plurality of relative position information to the first network element.

21. A communication control method, characterized by comprising:

if the positioning request message comprises a device identifier of a first terminal device and information for indicating a target area range, the third network element acquires at least one piece of relative position information of the first terminal device and at least one third terminal device in the target area range according to the positioning request information;

The third network element sends the at least one relative position information to the first network element.

22. The method according to claim 20 or 21, wherein the positioning request information further comprises indication information, the indication information being used for indicating that the relative position information is requested.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the third network element obtaining the relative location information of the first terminal device and the second terminal device comprises:

the third network element obtains the relative position information measured by the first terminal device or obtains the relative position information measured by the second terminal device; or,

the third network element obtains the first position information of the first terminal device and the second position information of the second terminal device, and determines the relative position information according to the first position information and the second position information.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the first network element corresponds to the first terminal device, and wherein the positioning request message further includes access and mobility management network element identifiers corresponding to the plurality of second terminal devices, respectively;

The third network element obtains the relative position information measured by the first terminal equipment through the access and mobile management network element corresponding to the first terminal equipment; or,

the third network element obtains the relative position information measured by the second terminal equipment according to the access and mobile management network element identification corresponding to the second terminal equipment; or,

the third network element obtains the first position information through the access and mobile management network element corresponding to the first terminal equipment, and obtains the second position information according to the access and mobile management network element identifier corresponding to the second terminal equipment.

25. A communication apparatus, the apparatus comprising at least one processor coupled with at least one memory:

the at least one processor configured to execute a computer program or instructions stored in the at least one memory to cause the apparatus to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 19 or to cause the apparatus to perform the method of any one of claims 20 to 24.

26. A communication device comprising a processor and an interface circuit;

The interface circuit is used for interacting code instructions or data with the processor;

the processor is for performing the method of any one of claims 1 to 19 or the processor is for performing the method of any one of claims 20 to 24.

27. A computer readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed, cause the method of any one of claims 1 to 19 to be implemented or cause the method of any one of claims 20 to 24 to be implemented.