CN117412387A

CN117412387A - Communication method and communication device

Info

Publication number: CN117412387A
Application number: CN202210784091.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张柔佳; 孙飞
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-07-05
Filing date: 2022-07-05
Publication date: 2024-01-16
Also published as: WO2024007795A1

Abstract

In the communication method, when an access network device judges that a first PLMN selected by a terminal device is not a second PLMN used by the access network device when broadcasting parameter information based on network slice group identification, first identification information indicating the first PLMN and second identification information indicating the second PLMN are sent to a core network device, the core network device receives the first identification information and the second identification information, and if the network slice service indicated by the first network slice identification in the first PLMN is the same as the network slice service indicated by the second network slice identification in the second PLMN, a mapping relation between the first network slice identification and the first target network slice group identification is sent to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can acquire the parameter information about the first target network slice group identification from the parameter information based on the network slice group identification in the broadcasted second PLMN.

Description

Communication method and communication device

Technical Field

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

Background

The fifth generation (the fifth generation, 5G) mobile communication technology provides customized network services for users through end-to-end network slicing (network sliding), and provides services for users in a targeted manner through flexible allocation of network resources and on-demand networking, wherein the 5G virtualizes a plurality of logic subnets which have different characteristics and are isolated from each other on the same set of physical facilities.

In general, in some scenarios, after the terminal device determines the target network slice group identifier corresponding to the current service, parameter information based on the target network slice group identifier may be obtained from parameter information based on the network slice group identifier (for example, referred to as a slice group) broadcasted by the base station, and then some operations are performed based on the parameter information of the target network slice group identifier. Where the network slice group identity indicates a group of network slices (referred to as a network slice group), each network slice in the group having its own network slice identity and also having the same network slice group identity. The base station transmits cell reselection priority parameter information based on the network slice group identifier or random access parameter information based on the network slice group identifier, so that the terminal device can perform a cell reselection procedure based on the cell reselection priority parameter information of the network slice group identifier or a random access procedure based on the random access parameter information of the network slice group identifier.

However, when broadcasting parameter information based on network slice group identification, the base station generally uses network slice group identification information in a public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN) as a reference, and in a multi-operator core network (multiple operation core network, MOCN) mode, the identifiers of network slice groups or network slices in each PLMN corresponding to each operator network may be different, so that parameter information acquired from the broadcast by terminal devices using other PLMNs may be incorrect, thereby causing the terminal devices to fail to perform corresponding procedures.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method and a communication device, which can realize that terminal equipment selecting a first PLMN obtains correct parameter information from parameter information based on network slice group identification in a broadcasted second PLMN under a MOCN mode so as to execute a corresponding flow.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, applied to a core network device, the method including: receiving first identification information and second identification information from access network equipment, wherein the first identification information indicates a first Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) selected by terminal equipment, the second identification information indicates a second PLMN used by the access network equipment when parameter information based on network slice group identification is broadcast, and the first PLMN is different from the second PLMN; and sending first indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first indication information indicates a mapping relation between a first network slice identifier and a first target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN, the first target network slice group identifier is a network slice group identifier associated with the second network slice identifier in the second PLMN, and the first network slice identifier and the second network slice identifier indicate the same network slice service.

In this embodiment, the first PLMN refers to a public land mobile network selected by the terminal device, and the second PLMN refers to a public land mobile network or a reference public land mobile network used by the access network device when broadcasting parameter information based on network slice group identification.

In this embodiment, the first identification information indicates a first PLMN, the second identification information indicates a second PLMN, and the first PLMN and the second PLMN are different PLMNs.

In this embodiment, when the core network device receives the first identification information and the second identification information, for the first network slice identifier in the first PLMN, if the core network device determines that the network slice service indicated by the first network slice identifier also has a network slice identifier in the second PLMN (also referred to as a second network slice identifier in the present application), that is, the first network slice identifier in the first PLMN and the second network slice identifier in the second PLMN indicate the same network slice service, since the core network device side can know the network slice group identifier in each PLMN and the network slice identifier associated with each network slice group identifier in each PLMN, the core network device can further determine the network slice group identifier (also referred to as a first target network slice group identifier in the present application) associated with the second network slice identifier in the second PLMN.

In this embodiment, when determining the network slice group identifier associated with the second network slice identifier in the second PLMN, the core network device sends information (also referred to as first indication information in this application) indicating a mapping relationship between the first network slice identifier and the first target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN to the terminal device. It may be understood that after the terminal device selecting the first PLMN receives the mapping relationship indicated by the first indication information, if it is determined that the identifier of the network slice corresponding to the current service is the first network slice identifier, then the first target network slice group identifier may be determined based on the mapping relationship, so that when the access network device broadcasts the parameter information based on the network slice group identifier in the second PLMN, the terminal device may acquire the parameter information of the first target network slice group identifier from the broadcast, so as to ensure accuracy of the acquired parameter information, thereby executing a corresponding procedure.

With reference to the first aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the first indication information includes mapping information between a first network slice identifier and a second network slice identifier and mapping information between the second network slice identifier and a first target network slice group identifier in the second PLMN.

In this implementation manner, the first indication information sent by the core network device includes mapping information between the first network slice identifier and the second network slice identifier, and mapping information between the second network slice identifier and the first target network slice group identifier in the second PLMN. It may be appreciated that in this implementation manner, when the terminal device determines that the identifier of the network slice corresponding to the current service is the first network slice identifier, then the second network slice identifier may be determined based on the mapping relationship, and then the first target network slice group identifier may be determined based on mapping information between the second network slice identifier and the first target network slice group identifier, so as to obtain parameter information of the first target network slice group identifier from parameter information based on the network slice group identifier in the second PLMN broadcasted by the access network device.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the first indication information includes mapping information between the first network slice identifier and the first target network slice group identifier.

In this implementation manner, the first indication information sent by the core network device directly includes mapping information between the first network slice identifier and the first target network slice group identifier. It may be appreciated that in this implementation manner, when the terminal device determines that the identifier of the network slice corresponding to the current service is the first network slice identifier, the first target network slice group identifier may be determined directly based on the mapping relationship, so as to obtain the parameter information of the first target network slice group identifier from the parameter information based on the network slice group identifier in the second PLMN broadcasted by the access network device.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: and sending second indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the second indication information comprises a mapping relation between a third network slice identifier and a second target network slice group identifier, and the second target network slice group identifier is a network slice group identifier associated with the third network slice identifier in the first PLMN.

It will be appreciated that there may also be some network slice traffic where network slice identification information (also referred to herein as a third network slice identification) is present in the first PLMN but no network slice identification information is present in the second PLMN, in which case the core network device cannot find the network slice group identification information corresponding to the third network slice identification from the second PLMN. In view of this, in this implementation, when the core network device cannot find the network slice group identifier information corresponding to the third network slice identifier from the second PLMN, the indication information (also referred to as second indication information in this application) indicating the mapping relationship between the third network slice identifier and the second target network slice group identifier is sent to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can learn the network slice group identifier of the current third network slice identifier in the selected first PLMN.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: receiving first information from access network equipment, wherein the first information comprises network slice group identifiers of each PLMN in N public land mobile network PLMNs and network slice identifiers associated with each network slice group identifier in each PLMN, the N PLMNs comprise the first PLMN and the second PLMN, and N is a positive integer.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method, applied to an access network device, including: receiving first identification information from terminal equipment, wherein the first identification information indicates a first public land mobile network PLMN selected by the terminal equipment; transmitting the first identification information and second identification information to a core network device, wherein the second identification information indicates a second PLMN which is used by the access network device when broadcasting parameter information based on network slice group identification, and the second PLMN is different from the first PLMN; and broadcasting parameter information based on network slice group identification in the second PLMN.

In this embodiment, after the access network device receives the first identification information of the terminal device, if it is determined that the first PLMN indicated by the first identification information is different from the second PLMN, where the second PLMN is a PLMN referred to by the access network device when broadcasting parameter information based on network slice group identification, the first identification information indicating the first PLMN and the identification information indicating the second PLMN are sent to the core network device, so that the core network device can determine network slice group identification information corresponding to a network slice service indicated by a certain network slice identification in the first PLMN in the second PLMN.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: and sending third indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating the identification information of the PLMN applicable to the parameter information based on the network slice group identification or the identification information of the PLMN not applicable to the parameter information.

In this embodiment, when the access network device broadcasts the parameter information based on the network slice group identifier in the second PLMN, the access network device further sends, to the terminal device, identification information of a PLMN or identification information of an inapplicable PLMN for indicating that the parameter information of the network slice group identifier is applicable.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: and broadcasting parameter information based on a second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN, wherein the second target network slice group identifier is associated with a third network slice identifier, and the network slice service indicated by the third network slice identifier does not have a corresponding network slice identifier in the second PLMN.

It may be appreciated that when a certain network slice service (also referred to as a second network slice service in this application) exists in the first PLMN and there exists a network slice group identifier (also referred to as a second target network slice group identifier in this application) associated with the third network slice identifier, but the network slice service does not exist in the second PLMN, the terminal device selecting the first PLMN will not acquire the parameter information from the parameter information based on the network slice group identifier in the broadcasted second PLMN, and in this embodiment, the access network device also broadcasts the parameter information based on the second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN during broadcasting, so that the terminal device selecting the first PLMN may acquire the parameter information from the broadcasting during the second network slice service to execute a corresponding procedure.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: and sending first information to core network equipment, wherein the first information comprises network slice group identifiers of each PLMN in N Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMNs), and network slice identifiers associated with each network slice group identifier in each PLMN, the N PLMNs comprise the first PLMN and the second PLMN, and N is a positive integer.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication method, applied to a terminal device, including: receiving parameter information based on network slice group identification in a second Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) broadcasted by access network equipment; receiving first indication information from core network equipment, wherein the first indication information indicates a mapping relation between a first network slice identifier and a first target network slice group identifier in a first PLMN, and the first PLMN is a PLMN selected by terminal equipment; and when the network slice identifier corresponding to the first target service is determined to be the first network slice identifier, acquiring parameter information based on the first target network slice group identifier from the broadcast.

According to the communication method provided by the application, the terminal equipment can receive the mapping relation between the first network slice identifier in the first PLMN selected by the indication terminal equipment and the first target network slice group identifier in the second PLMN, wherein the mapping relation is sent by the core network equipment, and the second PLMN is a PLMN referenced when the access network equipment broadcasts parameter information based on the network slice group identifier in the second PLMN; then, for the terminal device, if it is determined that the network slice identifier corresponding to the current service in the first PLMN is the first network slice identifier, it may be determined that the network slice identifier of the current service in the second PLMN is the first target network slice identifier according to the mapping relationship indicated by the core network device, and then the parameter information based on the first target network slice identifier may be obtained from the parameter information based on the network slice identifier in the second PLMN broadcasted by the access network device.

With reference to the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the first indication information includes mapping information between the first network slice identifier and the second network slice identifier and mapping information between the second network slice identifier and the first target network slice group identifier in the second PLMN.

With reference to the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the first indication information includes mapping information between the first network slice identifier and the first target network slice group identifier.

With reference to the third aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the method further includes: receiving second indication information from the core network device, wherein the second indication information comprises a mapping relation between a third network slice identifier and a second target network slice group identifier, and the second target network slice group identifier is a network slice group identifier associated with the third network slice identifier in the first PLMN; and receiving parameter information based on the second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN broadcasted by the access network equipment.

With reference to the third aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the method further includes: when the network slice identifier corresponding to the second target service is determined to be the third network slice identifier, if the first indication information is based on determining that the second target service does not have the corresponding network slice group identifier in the second PLMN, the second target network slice group identifier is determined based on the second indication information; and acquiring parameter information based on a second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN from the broadcast.

With reference to the third aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the method further includes: and receiving third indication information, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating the identification information of the PLMN applicable to the parameter information based on the network slice group identification or the identification information of the PLMN not applicable to the parameter information.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication method, applied to a communication system, the method comprising: the access network equipment receives first identification information from the terminal equipment, wherein the first identification information indicates a first Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) selected by the terminal equipment, and when the first PLMN is judged not to be a second PLMN, the first identification information and second identification information are sent to the core network equipment, and the second identification information indicates a second PLMN used by the access network equipment when parameter information based on network slice group identification is broadcast; correspondingly, after receiving the first identification information and the second identification information, the core network device sends first indication information to the terminal device, wherein the first indication information indicates a mapping relationship between a first network slice identifier and a first target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN, the first target network slice group identifier is a network slice group identifier associated with the second network slice identifier in the second PLMN, and the first network slice identifier and the second network slice identifier indicate the same network slice service; the access network device broadcasts parameter information based on network slice group identification in the second PLMN.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the first indication information includes mapping information between the first network slice identifier and the second network slice identifier and mapping information between the second network slice identifier and the first target network slice group identifier in the second PLMN.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the first indication information includes mapping information between the first network slice identifier and the first target network slice group identifier.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the access network device sends first information to the core network device, the first information includes a network slice group identifier of each PLMN in N public land mobile network PLMNs, and a network slice identifier associated with each network slice group identifier in each PLMN, the N PLMNs include the first PLMN and the second PLMN, and N is a positive integer.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the core network equipment sends second indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the second indication information comprises a mapping relation between a third network slice identifier and a second target network slice group identifier, the second target network slice group identifier is a network slice group identifier associated with the third network slice identifier in the first PLMN, and the access network equipment broadcasts parameter information based on the second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN; correspondingly, when the terminal equipment determines that the network slice identifier corresponding to the second target service is the third network slice identifier, if the first indication information is based on determining that the second target service does not have the corresponding network slice group identifier in the second PLMN, the second target network slice group identifier is determined based on the second indication information, and the parameter information based on the second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN is obtained.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: and the access network equipment sends third indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating the identification information of the PLMN applicable to the parameter information based on the network slice group identification or the identification information of the PLMN not applicable to the parameter information.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication apparatus applied to a core network device, the apparatus including: a receiving module, configured to receive first identification information and second identification information from an access network device, where the first identification information indicates a first public land mobile network PLMN selected by a terminal device, and the second identification information indicates a second PLMN used by the access network device when broadcasting parameter information based on network slice group identification, and the first PLMN is different from the second PLMN; and the sending module is used for sending first indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first indication information indicates a mapping relation between a first network slice identifier and a first target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN, the first target network slice group identifier is a network slice group identifier associated with the second network slice identifier in the second PLMN, and the first network slice identifier and the second network slice identifier indicate the same network slice service.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the first indication information includes mapping information between the first network slice identifier and the second network slice identifier, and mapping information between the second network slice identifier and the first target network slice group identifier in the second PLMN.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the first indication information includes mapping information between the first network slice identifier and the first target network slice group identifier.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the sending module is further configured to: and sending second indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the second indication information comprises a mapping relation between a third network slice identifier and a second target network slice group identifier, and the second target network slice group identifier is a network slice group identifier associated with the third network slice identifier in the first PLMN.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the receiving module is further configured to: receiving first information from access network equipment, wherein the first information comprises network slice group identifiers of each PLMN in N public land mobile network PLMNs and network slice identifiers associated with each network slice group identifier in each PLMN, the N PLMNs comprise the first PLMN and the second PLMN, and N is a positive integer.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication apparatus, applied to an access network device, including: a receiving module, configured to receive first identification information from a terminal device, where the first identification information indicates a first public land mobile network PLMN selected by the terminal device; a sending module, configured to send the first identification information and second identification information to a core network device, where the second identification information indicates a second PLMN used by the access network device when broadcasting parameter information based on network slice group identification, and the second PLMN is different from the first PLMN; the sending module is further configured to broadcast parameter information based on a network slice group identifier in the second PLMN.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the sending module is further configured to: and sending third indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating the identification information of the PLMN applicable to the parameter information based on the network slice group identification or the identification information of the PLMN not applicable to the parameter information.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the sending module is further configured to: and broadcasting parameter information based on a second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN, wherein the second target network slice group identifier is associated with a third network slice identifier, and the network slice service indicated by the third network slice identifier does not have a corresponding network slice identifier in the second PLMN.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the sending module is further configured to: and sending first information to core network equipment, wherein the first information comprises network slice group identifiers of each PLMN in N Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMNs), and network slice identifiers associated with each network slice group identifier in each PLMN, the N PLMNs comprise the first PLMN and the second PLMN, and N is a positive integer.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a communication apparatus, applied to a terminal device, including: the receiving module is used for receiving parameter information based on network slice group identification in a second Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) broadcasted by the access network equipment;

the receiving module is further configured to receive first indication information from a core network device, where the first indication information indicates a mapping relationship between a first network slice identifier and a first target network slice group identifier in a first PLMN, and the first PLMN is a PLMN selected by the terminal device; and the processing module is used for acquiring parameter information based on the first target network slice group identifier from the broadcast when the network slice identifier corresponding to the first target service is determined to be the first network slice identifier.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the first indication information includes mapping information between the first network slice identifier and the second network slice identifier and mapping information between the second network slice identifier and the first target network slice group identifier in the second PLMN.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the first indication information includes mapping information between the first network slice identifier and the first target network slice group identifier.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the receiving module is further configured to: receiving second indication information from the core network device, wherein the second indication information comprises a mapping relation between a third network slice identifier and a second target network slice group identifier, and the second target network slice group identifier is a network slice group identifier associated with the third network slice identifier in the first PLMN; and receiving parameter information based on the second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN broadcasted by the access network equipment.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the processing module is further configured to: when the network slice identifier corresponding to the second target service is determined to be the third network slice identifier, if the first indication information is based on determining that the second target service does not have the corresponding network slice group identifier in the second PLMN, the second target network slice group identifier is determined based on the second indication information; and acquiring parameter information based on a second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN from the broadcast.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the receiving module is further configured to: and receiving third indication information, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating the identification information of the PLMN applicable to the parameter information based on the network slice group identification or the identification information of the PLMN not applicable to the parameter information.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a communication system, including an apparatus according to the fifth aspect and an apparatus according to the sixth aspect, or including an apparatus according to the sixth aspect and an apparatus according to the seventh aspect, or including an apparatus according to the fifth aspect, an apparatus according to the sixth aspect, and an apparatus according to the seventh aspect.

In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a communication apparatus, comprising: a memory and a processor; the memory is used for storing program instructions; the processor is configured to invoke program instructions in the memory to perform a method as described in the first aspect or the second aspect or the third aspect or any one of the possible implementation manners thereof.

In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a computer readable medium storing program code for computer execution, the program code comprising instructions for performing the method of the first or second or third aspect or any one of the possible implementations thereof.

In an eleventh aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to implement a method as described in the first or second aspect or any one of the possible implementations thereof.

Drawings

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

FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication method according to one embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication method according to another embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication method according to yet another embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to another embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to another embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device according to another embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to another embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to clearly describe the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, in the embodiments of the present application, the words "first", "second", etc. are used to distinguish the same item or similar items having substantially the same function and effect. For example, the first PLMN and the second PLMN are for distinguishing different PLMNs, and the first message and the second message are for distinguishing different messages, and the sequence is not limited. It will be appreciated by those of skill in the art that the words "first," "second," and the like do not limit the amount and order of execution, and that the words "first," "second," and the like do not necessarily differ.

In this application, the terms "exemplary" or "such as" are used to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any embodiment or design described herein as "exemplary" or "for example" should not be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the use of words such as "exemplary" or "such as" is intended to present related concepts in a concrete fashion.

Furthermore, "at least one" means one or more, and "a plurality" means two or more. "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 alone, a and B together, and B alone, wherein a, B may be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the context-dependent object is an "or" relationship. "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 (one) of a, b, and c may represent: a, b, or c, or a and b, or a and c, or b and c, or a, b and c, wherein a, b and c can be single or multiple.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present application will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

For ease of understanding, the following terms are briefly described as they relate to the embodiments of the present application.

1. Network slice (network slice)

In the 5G era, billions of Internet of things equipment access to a network, and the requirements of different types of application scenes on the network are differentiated, and some of the application scenes even conflict with each other. Providing services for different types of application scenes through a single network at the same time may cause abnormal complex network architecture and low network management efficiency and resource utilization.

The 5G network slicing technology provides mutually isolated network environments for different application scenes in a virtual independent logic network mode on the same network infrastructure, so that the different application scenes can customize network functions and characteristics according to respective requirements, and QoS requirements of different services can be practically guaranteed.

The 5G network slice is to organically combine terminal equipment, access network resources, core network resources, network operation and management systems and the like, and provide complete networks which can be independently operated and maintained and are isolated from each other for different business scenes or business types. A wide variety of scenarios place different demands on the third generation mobile communication project (3rd generation partnership project,3GPP) ecosystem, such as charging, policy, security, mobility, etc. The 3GPP emphasizes that the network slices do not affect each other, e.g., the large number of meter reading traffic bursts should not affect normal mobile broadband traffic. To meet the diversity requirements and isolation between slices, relatively independent management and operation between services is required, and custom-made service functions and analysis capabilities are provided. Instances of different types of traffic are deployed on different network slices, and different instances of the same traffic type may also be deployed on different network slices.

When the core network deploys the network slice, a selection process of the network slice is triggered if the user is initially attached to the network. Parameters to be considered in the process of selecting the network slice include: the subscription data of the user, the local configuration information, the roaming agreement, the policy of the operator and the like are comprehensively considered, and the proper slice type can be selected for the terminal equipment.

In the embodiment of the application, the network slice may be simply referred to as a slice.

2. Identification of network slices

The single network slice selection assistance information (single network slice selection assistance information, S-NSSAI) is used to identify a single network slice. The S-NSSAI includes slice type/service type (SST) and slice differentiation identification (slice differentiator, SD), wherein the SST is used to describe characteristics of network slices and characteristics of traffic aspects; SD is used to distinguish between different network slices with the same SST characteristics.

The network slice selection assistance information (network slice selection assistance information, NSSAI) is a set of S-NSSAIs for identifying one or more network slices.

3. Identification of network slice groups

The access network device may cause the terminal device to perceive relevant parameter information for the slice, such as cell reselection priority parameter information for the slice or random access parameter information for the slice, by broadcasting or dedicated signaling. However, considering that broadcasting based on slice granularity causes a relatively large signaling overhead and has a problem of potential safety hazard, currently when broadcasting or using dedicated signaling to make a terminal device perceive related parameter information for slices, a concept of a network slice group (slice group) is used, that is, one or more slices are grouped according to a certain rule, and different identifiers (i.e., identifiers of the network slice group, also referred to as slice group IDs) are used for distinguishing different groups (i.e., forming one network slice group).

Specifically, one or more S-nsais may be mapped to obtain a specific slice group ID, where the same slice group ID supports the same S-nsai.

It is noted that the network slice group (slice group) referred to in this application may also be referred to by other names, such as network slice access group (network slice AS group, NSAG). Similarly, when the network slice group is called NSAG, the slice group ID becomes NSAG ID.

It should be understood that in future standards, the names may still change, but as long as the functions performed are the same as the present application, they are also under the contemplation of the present application.

It is also described herein that, for convenience of description, a network slice group (slice group) is taken as an example to describe the communication method provided in the present application.

4. Multi-operator core network mode

When an operator independently builds a network, the operator faces high spectrum license plate and network deployment cost, and the requirement of completing higher network coverage in a short period and the challenge of site deployment, and therefore, the concept of network sharing is introduced. Where network sharing refers to any degree of collaboration or sharing of network infrastructure, network devices, and spectrum resources by multiple operators (or third parties). The network infrastructure comprises site infrastructures such as a site, a machine room facility, an iron tower, power equipment and the like; the network equipment comprises telecommunication network equipment such as base stations, transmission, core networks and the like.

The multi-operator core network (multiple operation core network, MOCN) mode, also known as common carrier frequency sharing mode, is a current way of network sharing. When the MOCN mode is applied by multiple operators, the multiple operators share the infrastructure and network equipment of the site and also share a cell that is simultaneously affiliated with the multiple operators.

A schematic structural diagram of a communication system suitable for use in embodiments of the present application is described in connection with fig. 1. As shown in fig. 1, the communication system includes a terminal device 101, an access network device 102, and a core network device 103.

The terminal device 101 may be a device that provides voice and/or data connectivity to a user, such as a handheld device with wireless connection, an in-vehicle device, etc. The terminal device may also be referred to as a User Equipment (UE), an access terminal (access terminal), a user unit (user unit), a subscriber station (user station), a mobile station (mobile), a remote station (remote station), a remote terminal (remote terminal), a mobile device (mobile device), a user terminal (user terminal), a wireless communication device (wireless telecom equipment), a user agent (user agent), a user equipment (user equipment), or a user equipment. The terminal device may be a Station (STA) in a wireless local area network (wireless local Area networks, WLAN), may be a cellular telephone, a cordless telephone, a session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol, SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) station, a personal digital processing (personal digital assistant, PDA) device, a handheld device with wireless communication capabilities, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a terminal in a next generation communication system (e.g., a fifth generation (5G) communication network) or a terminal device in a future evolution public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN) network, etc. Wherein 5G may also be referred to as a New Radio (NR). In a possible application scenario, the terminal device may also be a terminal device that is often operated on the ground, for example a vehicle-mounted device. In this application, for convenience of description, a chip disposed in the above device, or a chip may also be referred to as a terminal device.

In the embodiment of the present application, the terms of UE and terminal equipment may be interchanged, and the terms of base station and access network equipment may also be interchanged.

The access network device 102 may be any device having wireless transceiver capabilities. The apparatus includes, but is not limited to: an evolved NodeB (eNB or eNodeB), a radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), a NodeB (Node B, NB), a base station controller (base stationcontroller, BSC), a base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS), a home base station (homeevolved NodeB, or home Node B, HNB, for example), a Base Band Unit (BBU), an Access Point (AP) in a wireless fidelity (wireless fidelity, WIFI) system, a wireless relay Node, a wireless backhaul Node, a transmission point (transmission point, TP), or a transmission reception point (transmission and receptionpoint, TRP), etc., may also be 5G, e.g., NR, a gNB in a system, or a transmission point (TRP or TP), one or a set of antenna panels (including multiple antenna panels) of a base station in a 5G system or future 6G system, or may also be a network Node, e.g., a Base Band Unit (BBU) or a Distributed Unit (DU), etc., constituting a gNB or a transmission point.

In some deployments, the gNB may include a Centralized Unit (CU) and DUs. The gNB may also include a Radio Unit (RU). The CU implements part of the functions of the gNB, the DU implements part of the functions of the gNB, for example, the CU implements functions of a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC), a packet data convergence layer protocol (packet data convergence protocol, PDCP) layer, and the DU implements functions of a radio link control (radio link control, RLC), a medium access control (media access control, MAC), and a Physical (PHY) layer. Since the information of the RRC layer may be eventually changed into information of the physical layer or converted from the information of the physical layer, under this architecture, higher layer signaling, such as RRC layer signaling, may also be considered as being transmitted by the DU or by the du+cu. It is understood that the network device may be a CU node, or a DU node, or a device comprising a CU node and a DU node. In addition, the CU may be divided into network devices in an access network (radio access network, RAN), or may be divided into network devices in a Core Network (CN), which is not limited in this application.

In the application, communication can be performed between the access network device and the terminal device through the licensed spectrum, communication can be performed through the unlicensed spectrum, and communication can be performed through the licensed spectrum and the unlicensed spectrum at the same time. The access network device and the terminal device may communicate with each other through a frequency spectrum of 6 Gigahertz (GHZ) or less, may communicate through a frequency spectrum of 6GHZ or more, and may communicate using a frequency spectrum of 6GHZ or less and a frequency spectrum of 6GHZ or more at the same time. The spectrum resources used between the access network equipment and the terminal equipment are not limited.

The core network device 103 mainly includes a user equipment function (UPF) and a control plane function of a data plane. The user plane function is mainly responsible for forwarding a packet data packet, controlling quality of service (quality of service, qoS), counting charging information, connecting an external network, and the like, and includes related functions of a Serving Gateway (SGW) of a long term evolution technology (long term evolution, LTE) and a public data network gateway (public data network gateway, PDN-GW). The control plane function is mainly responsible for business process interaction, data packet forwarding strategy and QoS control strategy, etc. are issued to the user plane. Illustratively, the network elements in the control plane function mainly comprise: mobility management functions (acess and mobility function, AMF), session management functions (session management function, SMF), policy control functions (policy control function, PCF), application functions (application function, AF), network opening functions (network exposure function, NEF), and the like. The AMF network element is connected to the access network device 102 through an NG interface, so as to manage access of the terminal device to the core network, for example: access control of terminal equipment, mobility management of terminal equipment, attachment and detachment of terminal equipment, triggering of positioning of the terminal equipment by the LMF network element, forwarding of positioning related messages between the terminal equipment and the LMF network element, and forwarding of positioning related messages between the access network equipment and the LMF network element. The LMF network element may locate the terminal device based on the location request of the AMF network element, and specifically, when locating the terminal device, the LMF network element may determine a location method used for the terminal device and a network device for locating the terminal device. It should be understood that the functionality of an LMF network element as referred to herein may also be referred to as the functionality of an LMF. It can also be said that an LMF network element is used to implement the functionality of an LMF. The SMF network element is mainly responsible for managing creation, deletion, etc. of user protocol data unit (protocol data unit, PDU) sessions, maintaining PDU session context and user plane forwarding pipe information. The PCF is mainly responsible for performing policy control, similar to the policy and charging rules function (policy and charging rules function, PCRF) network elements in long term evolution technology (long term evolution, LTE), including generating, managing users, sessions, quality of service (quality of service, qoS) flow handling policies, quality of service, and generation of charging rules, and issuing the corresponding rules to UPF network elements through the SMF. The AF network element is mainly responsible for providing various business services, and can interact with the core network through the NEF network element and interact with the policy management framework to perform policy management. The NEF is used to provide a framework, authentication and interface for network capability openness related, passing information between 5G system network functions and other network functions.

It will be appreciated that the number of terminal devices shown in fig. 1 is only one example. The number of terminal devices in the actual process may also be other numbers. It is described herein that the specific forms of the network device and the terminal device in the embodiments of the present application are not limited.

It should be noted that in the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device or the access network device includes a hardware layer, an operating system layer running above the hardware layer, and an application layer running above the operating system layer. The hardware layer includes hardware such as a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), a memory management unit (memory management unit, MMU), and a memory (also referred to as a main memory). The operating system may be any one or more computer operating systems that implement business processes through processes (processes), such as a Linux operating system, a Unix operating system, an Android operating system, an iOS operating system, or a windows operating system. The application layer comprises applications such as a browser, an address book, word processing software, instant messaging software and the like. Further, the embodiment of the present application is not particularly limited to the specific configuration of the execution body of the method provided in the embodiment of the present application, as long as communication can be performed by the method provided in the embodiment of the present application by running a program in which the code of the method provided in the embodiment of the present application is recorded. For example, the execution body of the method provided in the embodiment of the present application may be a terminal device or a network device, or may be a functional module in the terminal device or the network device that can call a program and execute the program.

Additionally, the methods of the various aspects of the present application may be implemented using programming and form a computer readable device, carrier, or media accessed computer program. For example, computer-readable media can include, but are not limited to, magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, or magnetic strips, etc.), optical disks (e.g., compact disk, CD, digital versatile disk, digital versatile disc, DVD, etc.), smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory, EPROM), cards, sticks, or key drives, etc. Additionally, various storage media described herein can represent one or more devices and/or other machine-readable media for storing information. The term "machine-readable medium" can include, without being limited to, wireless channels and various other media capable of storing, containing, and/or carrying instruction(s) and/or data.

It should be understood that fig. 1 is only an example, and other network devices may also be included in the communication system, which is not described herein.

It should be noted that, 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 in the embodiments of the present application, and those skilled in the art can know that, with the evolution of the network architecture and the appearance of the new service scenario, the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application is equally applicable to similar technical problems.

With the development of mobile communication technology, various new services and application scenarios are continuously emerging, and these services include, for example, enhanced mobile broadband (enhanced mobile broadband, eMBB) services, mass machine type communication (massive machine type communication, MMTC) services, ultra-reliable low delay communication (ultra-reliable and low latency communications, URLLC) services. These services have a great deal of difference in network function, connectivity, security, etc. If a single network is used to carry these services, it is difficult to meet the requirements of high bandwidth, low latency, high reliability, etc. at the same time. In addition, creating a network for each service separately brings huge cost. This requires that 5G be flexible and expandable while being able to meet different business requirements.

For this reason, for the communication system shown in fig. 1, customized network services can be provided for users through end-to-end network slicing (network slice), and multiple logical subnets with different characteristics and isolated from each other are virtualized on the same set of physical facilities through flexible allocation and on-demand networking of network resources, so as to provide services for users in a targeted manner. Currently, for the communication system shown in fig. 1, to distinguish between different network slices, a single network slice selection assistance information (single network slice selection assistance information, S-nsai) is used for each network slice for identification. In this application, network slices are also simply referred to as slices.

Generally, when introducing the above-mentioned network slice, in some scenarios, the access network device 102 in fig. 1 needs to broadcast or use dedicated signaling with a network slice group (slice group) identifier in a PLMN as a reference, so that the terminal device perceives parameter information based on the slice group identifier, or also referred to as broadcasting or using a network slice group (slice group) identifier in a PLMN, so that the terminal device perceives parameter information based on the slice group identifier. And for the terminal equipment, after determining the network slice identifier corresponding to the current service, the target network slice group identifier corresponding to the current service can be determined based on the mapping relationship between the network slice identifier and the network slice group identifier, so that the parameter information based on the target network slice group identifier is obtained from the broadcast information or the special information, and some operations are performed based on the parameter information of the target network slice group identifier. Where the network slice group identity indicates a group of network slices (referred to as a network slice group), each network slice in the group having its own network slice identity and also having the same network slice group identity.

In an exemplary embodiment, in a cell reselection scenario after the slicing technology is introduced, when the terminal device transitions from a connected state to an idle state, or is inactive, or the terminal device selects a PLMN to initially camp on a certain cell, a cell reselection procedure needs to be performed to obtain a cell with better quality for camping.

And when the terminal equipment executes the cell reselection flow, the cell reselection priority parameter information based on the network slice group identification is needed to be used. Thus, in such a scenario, the base station would broadcast or use dedicated signaling based on the network slice group identity in the referenced PLMN such that the terminal device perceives cell reselection priority parameter information based on the different network slice group identities. When the terminal equipment needs to initiate a cell reselection flow due to mobility, the terminal equipment firstly determines a network slice identifier corresponding to a service which is likely to be initiated, then determines a target network slice group identifier corresponding to the service which is likely to be initiated based on a mapping relation between the network slice identifier and the network slice group identifier, and then acquires cell reselection priority parameter information related to the target network slice group identifier from broadcast information or special information, wherein the cell reselection priority parameter information related to the target network slice group identifier indicates a frequency point priority supporting the target network slice group identifier, and finally, the terminal equipment can determine an optimal cell to camp on the basis of the cell reselection priority parameter information related to the target network slice group identifier from a serving cell and a neighbor cell.

For example, in a random access scenario after the introduction of the slicing technique, the terminal device needs to use random access parameter information based on different network slice group identifiers when accessing. For example, it is desirable to use a random access channel Partition (also called RACH Partition) based on network slice group identification and a random access priority parameter based on network slice group identification, also called RA-priority.

In particular, in a random access scenario after the introduction of the slicing technique, the base station may broadcast or use dedicated signaling based on the network slice group identity in the reference PLMN such that the terminal device perceives random access parameter information based on different network slice group identities. When the terminal equipment needs to initiate random access of a certain slice service, the terminal equipment firstly determines a network slice identifier corresponding to the current service, then determines a target network slice group identifier corresponding to the current service based on a mapping relation between the network slice identifier and the network slice group identifier, acquires random access parameter information of the target network slice group identifier from broadcast information or special information, and finally can execute a random access process based on the random access parameter information of the target network slice group identifier.

However, it should be understood that the above-described access network device 102 broadcasts or uses dedicated signaling to make the terminal device perceive parameter information based on different network slice group identities, each referenced to the network slice group identity in one PLMN.

In this case, if the communication system uses a multi-operator core network (multiple operation core network, MOCN) mode, that is, when some cells covered by the access network device 102 (for example, cell 1, cell 2, cell 3, and cell 4 in fig. 1) may be commonly used by multiple operator networks, then, since the network slice identifiers and the network slice group identifiers in PLMNs corresponding to the respective operator networks may be different, the access network device 102 only uses the network slice group identifier in a certain PLMN as a reference to broadcast, and therefore, for terminal devices that select other PLMNs, after determining the target network slice group identifier corresponding to the service, the target parameter information acquired from the broadcast message or the dedicated signaling may be erroneous information. Further, the terminal device selecting the other PLMN is caused to fail in executing the corresponding procedure based on the target parameter information.

For ease of understanding, a cell under the access network device 102 is now described in which two operator networks share the above. For example, 4 network slices are now included in the network, assuming that they are referred to as a first network slice, a second network slice, a third network slice, and a fourth network slice.

The slice information in the first PLMN configured for the first operator is as follows: slice group 1= { slice1 and slice2}; slice group 2= { slice3 and slice4}, slice group1 and slice group2 are respectively two network slice group identifications; and slice information in the second PLMN configured for the second operator is as follows: slice group 1= { slice3 and slice4}; slice group 2= { slice1 and slice2}, slice group1 and slice group2 are identified for two network slice groups, respectively. Wherein, slice1 is the identification of the first network slice, slice2 is the identification of the second network slice, slice3 is the identification of the third network slice, and slice4 is the identification of the fourth network slice.

At this time, for the terminal device selecting the second PLMN, assuming that the terminal device supports and may initiate or want to initiate the service of the third network slice, the terminal device will determine that the network slice identifier is slice3 first, and then determine that the corresponding network slice group identifier is slice group1. Parameter information associated with slice group1 is then obtained from the broadcasted information. However, it should be understood that, if the current broadcast is with the first PLMN as a reference and the slice3 is not associated in the slice group1 in the first PLMN, the terminal device selecting the second PLMN is caused to obtain the relevant parameter information based on the slice group1, which is actually erroneous information, so that the corresponding procedure cannot be executed.

In view of this, the embodiment of the application proposes a communication method and a communication device. In the MOCN mode, the terminal device selecting the first PLMN may obtain correct parameter information from the parameter information based on the network slice group identifier in the broadcasted second PLMN, so as to execute a corresponding procedure.

Fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 2, the method may include: s212, S214, S216, S218, and S220.

S212, the terminal equipment sends first identification information, wherein the first identification information indicates a first PLMN selected by the terminal equipment; correspondingly, the access network equipment receives the first identification information.

In this embodiment, the terminal device refers to a terminal device that needs to acquire parameter information based on network slice group identifier from the access network device.

For example, the terminal device includes a terminal device that needs to acquire cell reselection priority parameter information based on network slice group identification broadcast by the access network device. For another example, the terminal device includes a terminal device that needs to acquire random access parameter information based on network slice group identification broadcasted by the access network device.

It will be appreciated that each terminal device in the communication system needs to select a PLMN to enable communication with other devices. In this embodiment, the PLMN selected by the terminal device is referred to as a first PLMN.

In this embodiment, different identification information is used for different PLMNs to identify the different PLMNs. In this application, the identification of the first PLMN is referred to as first identification information.

As an implementation manner, in this embodiment, when the terminal device initiates the initial access, the first identification information may be carried in an RRC setup complete (rrcsetup complete) signaling and sent to the access network device, where the access network device obtains the first identification information from the rrcsetup complete signaling. Alternatively, the first identification information may be a first PLMN identification.

It is explained here that different operators use (or configure) different PLMNs, i.e. there is a correspondence between operators and PLMNs. In this embodiment, the terminal device using the first PLMN may also be regarded as a configured PLMN of the first operator used.

S214, the access network equipment sends the first identification information and the second identification information to the core network equipment.

Correspondingly, the core network equipment receives the first identification information and the second identification information; the second identification information indicates a second PLMN used by the access network device when broadcasting parameter information based on network slice group identification, the second PLMN being different from the first PLMN.

The access network equipment judges whether the first PLMN is a second PLMN or not, when the first PLMN is not the second PLMN, the first identification information and the second identification information are sent to the core network equipment, and correspondingly, the core network equipment receives the first identification information and the second identification information, and the second identification information indicates the second PLMN which is referred by the access network equipment when parameter information based on network slice group identification is broadcasted.

It should be noted that different operators use different PLMNs, and when multiple operators are in MOCN mode, the access network device typically uses the network slice group identifier in one PLMN as a reference to broadcast parameter information based on the different network slice group identifiers. In this application, a PLMN referred to by an access network device when broadcasting parameter information based on different network slice group identifiers is referred to as a second PLMN. For ease of distinction, the first PLMN is also referred to as the slave PLMN or the serving PLMN, and the second PLMN is referred to as the master PLMN in this embodiment.

Where the network slice group identification corresponds (or is also referred to as being associated with) a group of network slices (referred to as a network slice group), each network slice in the group being distinguished by a network slice identification and each network slice in the group having the same network slice group identification. Illustratively, a network slice group configured by a certain operator is identified as follows: the network slice group associated network slice identified as slice group1 is identified as a network slice of slice1, the network slice identified as slice2, and the network slice identified as slice3, for example, may be represented as: slice group 1= { slice1, slice2, slice3}.

It is described herein that the embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific content of the parameter information based on the network slice group identification. For example, the parameter information based on the network slice group identifier may be cell reselection priority parameter information based on the network slice group identifier, or may be random access parameter information based on the network slice group identifier, and the specific content of the parameter information may be determined according to an application scenario.

And S216, the core network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal equipment.

Correspondingly, the terminal device receives first indication information, wherein the first indication information indicates a mapping relation between a first network slice identifier and a first target network slice group identifier in a first PLMN, the first target network slice group identifier is a network slice group identifier associated with a second network slice identifier in a second PLMN, and the first network slice identifier and the second network slice identifier indicate the same network slice service.

It should be noted that, in general, when a plurality of operators are in MOCN mode, the access network device is able to know information about network slice groups in PLMNs configured by each of the plurality of operators. Furthermore, for communication, the access network device typically needs to send information about the network slice group of each PLMN of the plurality of PLMNs to the core network device so that the core network device can know the information about the network slice group in each PLMN.

Therefore, before executing the present step, the method in the present embodiment further includes S210: the access network device sends first information to the core network device, wherein the first information comprises network slice group identifiers of each PLMN in N Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMNs), network slice identifiers associated with each network slice group identifier in each PLMN, the N PLMNs comprise a first PLMN and a second PLMN, and N is a positive integer. That is, the relevant information for the network slice groups in each operator configured PLMN may include: network slice identifiers configured for each network slice service, associated network slice group identifiers for each network slice identifier, etc.

It should be appreciated that the relevant information for network slices in PLMNs configured by different operators may not be the same. Two operator networks will now be described as examples.

For example, in a first example, assume that 4 services are now included, assume that they are referred to as a first network slice service, a second network slice service, a third network slice service, and a fourth network slice service. For the first operator network, the relevant information of the configured network slice group is: the network slice identifier of the first network slice service is slice1, the network slice identifier of the second network slice service is slice2, the network slice identifier of the third network slice service is slice3 and the network slice identifier of the fourth network slice service is slice4, wherein slice1 and slice2 are associated with the network slice group identifier slice1, and slice3 and slice4 are associated with the network slice group identifier slice 2. And for the second operator network, the relevant information of the configured network slice group is: the network slice identifier of the first network slice service is slice1, the network slice identifier of the second network slice service is slice2, the network slice identifier of the third network slice service is slice3 and the network slice identifier of the fourth network slice service is slice4, wherein slice1 and slice2 are associated with the network slice group identifier slice2, and slice3 and slice4 are associated with the network slice group identifier slice 1. It is explained here that this example is only one example for illustrating that the network slice groups of different operator configurations are identified as different, and does not constitute a limitation of the present application.

For example, in another example, the network slice identities of different operators for the same network slice service configuration may also be different.

Let it now be assumed that 4 services are included, let it be called a first network slice service, a second network slice service, a third network slice service and a fourth network slice service. For the first operator network, the relevant information of the configured network slice group is: the network slice identifier of the first network slice service is slice1, the network slice identifier of the second network slice service is slice2, the network slice identifier of the third network slice service is slice3 and the network slice identifier of the fourth network slice service is slice4, wherein slice1 and slice2 are associated with the network slice group identifier slice1, and slice3 and slice4 are associated with the network slice group identifier slice 2. And for the second operator network, the relevant information of the configured network slice group is: the network slice identifier of the first network slice service is slice3, the network slice identifier of the second network slice service is slice4, the network slice identifier of the third network slice service is slice1 and the network slice identifier of the fourth network slice service is slice2, wherein slice3 and slice4 are associated with the network slice group identifier slice1, and slice1 and slice2 are associated with the network slice group identifier slice 2. It is explained here that this example is only one example for illustrating that the network slices of different operator configurations are identified as different, and does not constitute a limitation of the present application.

It should be understood that, when the related information of the network slice group in PLMNs configured by different operators is different, so that a plurality of PLMNs share a certain cell of the access network device, since the access network device is usually one PLMN (i.e. the main PLMN) of the PLMNs to which the parameter information based on the network slice group identifier is referred when broadcasting the parameter information based on the network slice group identifier, this may cause that the parameter information based on the network slice group identifier obtained from the broadcasting by the terminal device of the PLMN is selected in the cell to be incorrect, which further causes that the terminal device cannot perform corresponding operation. Taking as an example the information about the network slice groups configured by the two operators in the first example described above. If the two PLMN networks corresponding to the two operators share the cell a, and the related information based on the network slice group used by the access network device during broadcasting is the first operator referred to, at this time, for the terminal device 1 selecting the PLMN of the second operator in the cell a, if the terminal device 1 needs to perform cell reselection, the terminal device 1 will determine that the service possibly initiated is the first network slice service, and after the network slice identifier corresponding to the first network slice service is the slice1 and the corresponding network slice group identifier is the slice group2, the terminal device 1 will acquire the cell reselection priority parameter information based on the slice group2 from the broadcast message. However, it should be understood that the cell reselection priority parameter information based on the slice group2 in the broadcast message is the reference network slice group identifier configured by the first operator, and the slice3 and the slice4 included in the slice group2 configured by the first operator indicate the third network slice service and the fourth network slice service, respectively, and do not indicate the first network slice service, which may cause the cell reselection behavior of the terminal device to exist in two cases: 1) The terminal device may perform cell reselection based on the non-corresponding cell reselection priority parameter information, so long as the frequency point terminal device indicated in the cell reselection priority parameter information supports the cell reselection, however, the problem that the terminal device performs cell reselection based on the cell reselection priority parameter information is that: the reselection can be successful but is not the ideal behavior of the terminal. 2) Terminal reselection fails due to non-correspondence of network indication information.

From the above, the core network device may learn, based on the first information sent by the access network device, information about the network slice group configured by each operator. Therefore, for the core network device, when receiving the first identification information and the second identification information sent by the access network device, it may be determined whether the network slice service indicated by any one of the network slice identifications in the first PLMN also has a network slice identification in the second PLMN, and if a certain network slice service (also referred to as a first network slice service in this application) has a network slice identification (also referred to as a second network slice identification in this application) in the second PLMN, the core network device may further determine, according to a mapping relationship between the network slice group identification in the second PLMN and the network slice identification, the network slice group identification (also referred to as a first target network slice group identification in this application) of the first network slice service in the second PLMN.

Therefore, in this embodiment, if the core network device determines that the first network slice service indicated by the first network slice identifier in the first PLMN has the corresponding second network slice identifier in the second PLMN, the first indication information is sent to the terminal device, where the first indication information is used to indicate a mapping relationship between the first network slice identifier in the first PLMN and the first target network slice group identifier, and the first target network slice group identifier is a network slice group identifier associated with the second network slice identifier in the second PLMN.

In a first embodiment, the first indication information sent by the core network device includes mapping information between a first network slice identity and the second network slice identity and mapping information between the second network slice identity and the first target network slice group identity in the second PLMN.

It may be appreciated that in this embodiment, if the terminal device selecting the first PLMN wants to initiate an Application (APP) service, a slice identifier corresponding to the APP service may be obtained by using a network slice selection policy (network slice selection policy, NSSP) as a first network slice identifier (for example, slice 1) in the first PLMN, then according to the first indication information, slice1 in the first PLMN corresponds to a second network slice identifier (for example, slice 2) in the second PLMN, and finally, slice2 in the second PLMN is obtained to be associated with a first target network slice group identifier (for example, slice group 2) in the second PLMN. The slice1 in the first PLMN corresponding to the slice group2 in the second PLMN can be obtained.

In a second embodiment, the first indication information sent by the core network device may directly include mapping information between the first network slice identity and the first target network slice group identity.

It may be appreciated that in this embodiment, if the terminal device wants to initiate an APP service, the slice identifier corresponding to the APP service may be obtained by using the NSSP as a first network slice identifier (for example, slice 1) in the first PLMN, and then slice1 in the first PLMN corresponds to slice group2 in the second PLMN directly according to the first indication information.

It can be seen that the second embodiment described above differs from the first embodiment in that: the second embodiment is that the core network device firstly completes the derivation of the mapping relationship between the network slice identifier in the first PLMN and the network slice identifier in the second PLMN according to the mapping relationship between the network slice identifier in the first PLMN and the network slice identifier in the second PLMN and the identifier information of the network slice group in the second PLMN, and then sends the derived mapping relationship to the terminal device.

And S218, the access network equipment broadcasts the parameter information based on the network slice group identifier in the second PLMN, and correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives the parameter information based on the network slice group identifier in the second PLMN broadcasted by the access network equipment.

In this embodiment, the parameter information broadcast by the access network device and based on the network slice group identifier is the reference second PLMN.

It is explained here that the embodiment of the present application does not limit the order of S216 and S218. That is, in the embodiment of the present application, the specific time relationship of whether the access network device sends the first identification information and the second identification information to the core network device first or broadcasts first is not limited, for example, the first identification information and the second identification information may be sent to the core network device first and then broadcast, or may be performed simultaneously.

S220, when the terminal equipment determines that the network slice identifier corresponding to the first target service is the first network slice identifier, the terminal equipment acquires parameter information based on the first target network slice group identifier from the broadcast.

In this embodiment, when the terminal device determines that the network slice identifier corresponding to the first target service is the first network slice identifier, because the core network device sends first indication information for indicating a mapping relationship between the first network slice identifier in the first PLMN and the first target network slice group identifier in the second PLMN to the terminal device, the terminal device may determine, based on the first indication information, that parameter information based on the first target network slice group identifier should be acquired from the broadcast.

Specifically, as known from S216, one type of the first indication information sent by the core network device is: directly including mapping information between the first network slice identity and the first target network slice group identity. It may be appreciated that in this embodiment, the process of obtaining, by the terminal device, parameter information based on the first target network slice group identifier from the broadcast is: the terminal device may obtain, through NSSP, a network slice identifier corresponding to the first target service as a first network slice identifier, and then directly obtain, according to the first indication information, a first target network slice group identifier corresponding to the first network slice identifier in the second PLMN, and obtain, from the broadcast, parameter information based on the first target network slice group identifier.

Specifically, as known from S216, another type of the first indication information sent by the core network device is: including mapping information between the first network slice identity and the second network slice identity and mapping information between the second network slice identity and the first target network slice group identity in the second PLMN. It may be appreciated that in this embodiment, the process of obtaining, by the terminal device, parameter information based on the first target network slice group identifier from the broadcast is: the terminal device may obtain, through NSSP, a network slice identifier corresponding to the first target service as a first network slice identifier, and then according to the first indication information, obtain, first, a second network slice identifier corresponding to the first network slice identifier in the second PLMN, and then obtain, based on mapping information between the second network slice identifier and the first target network slice group identifier, a first target network slice group identifier, and obtain, from the broadcast, parameter information based on the first target network slice group identifier.

It is described herein that the embodiment of the present application does not limit specific content of acquiring parameter information based on network slice group identification from broadcast by a terminal device.

For example, in a cell reselection scenario, the terminal device needs to acquire cell reselection priority parameter information based on network slice group identification. More specifically, in this application, if the scenario is a cell reselection scenario, the access network device may broadcast cell reselection priority parameter information based on a network slice group identifier for cell reselection, and a non-access stratum (NAS) of a terminal device selecting a first PLMN may obtain, according to first information, that a first target service corresponds to a first target network slice group identifier in a second PLMN, and then the NAS of the terminal device may send the first target network slice group identifier to an Access Stratum (AS) of the terminal device and execute a cell reselection procedure.

For another example, in a random access scenario, the terminal device needs to acquire random access parameter information based on network slice group identification. More specifically, in this application, if the access scenario is random access, the access network device may broadcast random access parameter information based on network slice group identifier for random access, and the NAS of the terminal device selecting the first PLMN may obtain, according to the first information, that the first target service corresponds to the first target network slice group identifier in the second PLMN, and then the NAS of the terminal device may send the first target network slice group identifier to the AS of the terminal device and execute a random access procedure.

In this application, the NAS of the terminal device may perform the process of obtaining the first target network slice group identifier corresponding to the first network slice identifier according to the first instruction information, or the NAS of the terminal device may first send the first instruction information to the AS of the terminal device, and then the AS of the terminal device performs the process of obtaining the first target network slice group identifier corresponding to the first network slice identifier according to the first instruction information.

In the communication method provided in this embodiment, when the first PLMN and the second PLMN are in the MOCN mode, if the core network device determines that the first network slice identifier in the terminal device selecting the first PLMN and the second network slice identifier in the second PLMN indicate the same network slice service, the method in this embodiment may enable the terminal device belonging to the first PLMN to perform a cell reselection procedure or a random access procedure based on the network slice group identifier within the shared network range based on the broadcast information of the second PLMN.

Alternatively, in this embodiment, the terminal device may also be a terminal device selecting the second PLMN. It will be appreciated that in this case, the communication method in the present application may further include: when the access network equipment judges that the first PLMN is the second PLMN, first identification information is sent to the core network equipment; after the core network equipment receives the first identification information, the core network equipment sends network slice group identification information in the second PLMN and network slice identifications associated with each network slice group identification in the second PLMN to the terminal equipment; correspondingly, after the terminal equipment receives the network slice group identification information in the second PLMN sent by the core network equipment and the network slice identifications associated with each network slice group identification in the second PLMN, the terminal equipment can directly acquire the target parameter information from the parameter information based on the network slice group identification broadcast by the access network equipment so as to execute corresponding operations.

In the above, the embodiment shown in fig. 2 describes how the terminal device selecting the first PLMN obtains the correct parameter information based on the network slice group identifier from the broadcast message if the core network device can determine that the first network slice identifier in the terminal device selecting the first PLMN and the second network slice identifier in the second PLMN indicate the same network slice service.

However, in other scenarios, for a certain network slice identity (also referred to as a third network slice identity in this application) in the terminal device selecting the first PLMN, there may be a case where the core network device cannot find the same network slice identity (also referred to as a fourth network slice identity in this application) in the second PLMN as the network slice service indicated by the third network slice identity, further, cannot find a target network slice group identity (also referred to as a third target network slice group identity in this application) associated with the fourth network slice identity in the second PLMN, or there may be a case where the core network device finds the fourth network slice identity in the second PLMN but does not have the third network slice group identity associated with the fourth network slice identity in the second PLMN. It will be appreciated that both cases refer to scenarios in which the third network slice identifier in the first PLMN does not find the corresponding third target network slice group in the second PLMN. It will also be appreciated that in this scenario, for the terminal device selecting the first PLMN, the corresponding procedure still cannot be performed based on the parameter information based on the network slice group identity in the second PLMN broadcasted by the access network device.

In view of this, the present application describes, in connection with fig. 3, how to let the terminal device acquire parameter information based on the network slice group identifier to execute a corresponding procedure when the core network device cannot find the network slice group identifier in the second PLMN for the third network slice identifier in the terminal device selecting the first PLMN in the MOCN scenario.

As shown in fig. 3, the communication method of the present embodiment includes: s310, S320, S330, S340, S350 and S360.

And S310, the access network equipment sends first information to the core network equipment, wherein the first information comprises network slice group identifiers of each PLMN in N public land mobile network PLMNs and network slice identifiers associated with each network slice group identifier in each PLMN, the N PLMNs comprise a first PLMN and a second PLMN, and N is a positive integer.

The detailed description of this step may refer to the description in S210 in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, and will not be repeated here.

S320, the terminal equipment sends first identification information, wherein the first identification information indicates a first PLMN selected by the terminal equipment; correspondingly, the access network equipment receives the first identification information.

S330, when the access network device judges that the first PLMN is not the second PLMN, the access network device sends first identification information and second identification information to the core network device, and correspondingly, the core network device receives the first identification information and the second identification information; the second identification information indicates a second PLMN used by the access network device in broadcasting parameter information based on network slice group identification.

The detailed descriptions of S320 and S330 may refer to the descriptions in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, and are not repeated here.

And S340, the core network equipment sends first indication information and second indication information to the terminal equipment, correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives the first indication information and the second indication information, the first indication information indicates a mapping relation between a first network slice identifier and a first target network slice group identifier in a first PLMN, the second indication information comprises a mapping relation between a third network slice identifier and a second target network slice group identifier, the first target network slice group identifier is a network slice group identifier associated with the second network slice identifier in a second PLMN, the first network slice identifier and the second network slice identifier indicate the same network slice service, and the second target network slice group identifier is a network slice group identifier associated with the third network slice identifier in the first PLMN.

The related content of the core network device sending the first indication information to the terminal device may refer to the description in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, which is not described herein.

In this embodiment, when the core network device determines that the network slice service indicated by the third network slice identifier in the first PLMN does not have the corresponding network slice group identifier in the second PLMN, in order to enable the terminal device to explicitly associate the third network slice identifier in the first PLMN with the second target network slice group identifier, the core network device may send an indication information (also referred to as second indication information in this embodiment) to the terminal device, so as to indicate that the third network slice identifier has a mapping relationship with the second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN to the terminal device.

It may be appreciated that in this embodiment, if a certain Application (APP) service is initiated by the terminal device selecting the first PLMN, after obtaining the corresponding network slice identifier as the third network slice identifier (for example, slice 3) through the network slice selection policy (network slice selection policy, NSSP), if the mapping relationship between slice3 in the first PLMN and the network slice group identifier in the second PLMN is not indicated in the first indication information, the terminal device obtains, according to the second indication information, a second target network slice group identifier (for example, slice group 2) corresponding to slice3 in the first PLMN.

S350, the access network device broadcasts parameter information based on the network slice group identifier in the second PLMN and/or parameter information based on the second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN.

In this embodiment, if the network slice service indicated by the third network slice identifier in the first PLMN (for example, referred to as the second target service) cannot find the corresponding network slice identifier and the network slice group identifier in the second PLMN, that is, the second target service is supported only by the first PLMN, in this case, in order to enable the terminal device supporting the second target service to acquire the parameter information based on the network slice group identifier to complete the corresponding operation, in this embodiment, the access network device further broadcasts the parameter information based on the second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN.

Optionally, it should be understood that, when the access network device broadcasts the parameter information based on the network slice group identifier in the second PLMN and the parameter information based on the second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN, in consideration of a scenario that the second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN may be the same as a certain network slice group identifier in the second PLMN or that a neighboring cell is not shared by all operators, in this embodiment, the indication information (also referred to as the third indication information or the valid indication in this application) may be sent to the terminal device when the parameter information based on the network slice group identifier in the second PLMN and/or the parameter information based on the second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN is broadcast, so that the terminal device may distinguish which of the broadcasted network slice group identifier based information is applicable to the first PLMN and which is applicable to the second PLMN.

In one implementation, the third indication information may indicate PLMNs to which the parameter information based on the network slice group identification is applicable or not by PLMN identification/the PLMN belongs to the TAC, TAI within an index/serving cell in a PLMN identification information list (e.g. PLMN-identity infoist standard cell) broadcasted by SIB1 or a non-public network identification information list (e.g. npn-identity infoist standard cell).

S360, the terminal equipment acquires parameter information represented by the target network slice group from the broadcast.

Specifically, when determining that a network slice identifier corresponding to a first target service is a first network slice identifier, the terminal equipment acquires parameter information based on a first target network slice group identifier in a second PLMN from broadcasting; or when the terminal equipment determines that the network slice identifier corresponding to the second target service is the third network slice identifier, acquiring parameter information based on the second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN from the broadcast.

The detailed description of acquiring the parameter information based on the first target network slice group identifier in the second PLMN from the broadcast when determining that the network slice identifier corresponding to the first target service is the first network slice identifier may refer to the description in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, which is not repeated herein.

In this embodiment, in a possible scenario, when the terminal device determines that the network slice identifier corresponding to the second target service is the third network slice identifier, if the second PLMN does not have the same network slice group identifier as the second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN, the terminal device may acquire parameter information based on the second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN from the broadcast. In another possible scenario, when the terminal device determines that the network slice identifier corresponding to the second target service is the third network slice identifier, if the same network slice group identifier exists in the second PLMN as the second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN, the terminal device may acquire, from the broadcast, parameter information based on the second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN based on the valid indication.

The communication method provided by the embodiment can be suitable for a scene that the corresponding network slice identification information and the network slice group identification information cannot be found in the main PLMN from the network slice identifications supported by the PLMN or a scene shared by all operators in the neighboring cell. In particular, in this embodiment, the terminal device belonging to the slave PLMN may be caused to perform the corresponding operation based on the network slice group identifier within the range of the shared network according to the broadcast information of the master PLMN and/or the parameter information of the network slice group identifier corresponding to the network slice identifier supported only by the slave PLMN, and/or the indication (optionally) of the access network device.

More specifically, in the present application, when a terminal device selecting a first PLMN initiates a service, after determining a network slice identifier corresponding to the service, it is determined whether a second PLMN includes a network slice group identifier (a first target network slice group identifier) corresponding to the service based on first indication information, and if the corresponding first target network slice group identifier is found based on the first indication information, parameter information based on the first target network slice group identifier in the second PLMN is acquired from broadcast. And if the corresponding network slice group identifier is not found, determining the network slice group identifier (second target network slice group identifier) of the certain service in the first PLMN based on the second indication information, and acquiring parameter information based on the second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN from the broadcast.

As an alternative embodiment, in the embodiment of the present application, the access network device may also broadcast or send parameter information based on the target network slice group identifier to the terminal device in a unicast manner as required.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 4, the communication method of the present embodiment includes: s410, S420, S430, S440, S450, S460 and S470.

Here, in this embodiment, the cell reselection is performed by the terminal device based on the parameter information of the network slice group identifier or the random access is performed based on the parameter information of the network slice group identifier.

And S410, the access network equipment sends first information to the core network equipment, wherein the first information comprises network slice group identifiers of each PLMN in N public land mobile network PLMNs and network slice identifiers associated with each network slice group identifier in each PLMN, the N PLMNs comprise a first PLMN and a second PLMN, and N is a positive integer.

S420, when the terminal equipment initiates random access or connection state, the first identification information and the type of the requested system message are sent, wherein the first identification information indicates the first PLMN selected by the terminal equipment.

In one implementation, the first identification information and the type of system message requested may be carried by message 1 (MSG 1)/message 3 (MSG 3)/dedicated SIB request (dedicatesiibrequest).

For example, the type of system message request may be to request an existing system message block1 (system information block, SIB 1); or may be a request for an existing system message block16 (system information block, SIB 16); still alternatively, it may be that a new SIB is requested.

And S430, when the access network equipment judges that the first PLMN is the slave PLMN, the access network equipment generates parameter information based on the network slice group identification of the slave PLMN according to the type of the requested system message based on the network slice group identification information of each network slice group in the slave PLMN and the network slice identification associated with each network slice group identification.

For example, in one possible implementation, when the terminal device requests an existing SIB1 or SIB16, the access network device may generate parameter information based on the network slice group identification of the first PLMN from each network slice group identification information in the PLMN and the network slice identification associated with each network slice group identification without changing the signaling design of SIB1 or SIB 16.

For another example, in another possible implementation, when a new SIB is requested by the terminal device, the access network device may generate a new SIB specifically for the PLMN. Optionally, in this solution, if there are multiple slave PLMNs, after generating a new SIB for a PLMN, for selecting a terminal device of another slave PLMN, if a new SIB is also requested, the access network device may generate parameter information based on network slice group identifiers of the other slave PLMNs without changing the signaling design of the new SIB; alternatively, if a new SIB is also requested by selecting a terminal device of another slave PLMN, the access network device may generate a new SIB for each of the different slave PLMNs, where each SIB is distinguished by an index in a PLMN identification information list (e.g. PLMN-identity infolist standard cell) or a non-public network identification information list (e.g. npn-identity infolist standard cell) broadcasted in SIB1 by each PLMN identification/PLMN, or by a TAC to which a different PLMN belongs in the serving cell.

S440, the access network device sends parameter information based on the network slice group identification in the first PLMN to the terminal device.

It is explained here that the implementation of how the access network device sends the parameter information based on the network slice group identifier in the first PLMN to the terminal device is not limited in this embodiment.

For example, the access network device may decide whether to unicast or broadcast according to the number of types of the requested system messages sent by the terminal device selecting the first PLMN, for example, when the access network device receives more than L (L is a positive integer) pieces of parameter information requesting the network slice group identification in the first PLMN at a time altogether, the parameter information based on the network slice group identification in the first PLMN may be provided to the terminal device by broadcasting.

It is described herein that the specific value of L is not limited in the embodiment of the present application, and may be determined according to a specific application scenario.

S450, the access network equipment sends first identification information to the core network equipment; correspondingly, the core network device receives the first identification information.

S460, the core network device sends each network slice group identifier in the first PLMN and network slice identification information associated with each network slice group identifier to the terminal device.

S470, the terminal device performs cell reselection or random access based on the broadcast and each network slice group identity in the first PLMN and the network slice identity information associated with each network slice group identity.

Here, the specific implementation of S450 to S470 may refer to the descriptions in the foregoing embodiments of the present application, and are not repeated here.

In this embodiment, the execution of S440 and S450 is not sequential.

The communication method according to the embodiment of the present application is described in detail above with reference to fig. 2 to 4, and the communication apparatus according to the embodiment of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to fig. 5 to 7.

Fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. Specifically, as shown in fig. 5, the apparatus includes: a receiving module 501 and a transmitting module 502.

In a first embodiment, the communication apparatus may be applied to a core network device, and the apparatus 500 includes: a receiving module 501, configured to receive first identification information and second identification information from an access network device, where the first identification information indicates a first public land mobile network PLMN selected by a terminal device, and the second identification information indicates a second PLMN used by the access network device when broadcasting parameter information based on network slice group identification, and the first PLMN is different from the second PLMN; a sending module 502, configured to send first indication information to the terminal device, where the first indication information indicates a mapping relationship between a first network slice identifier and a first target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN, where the first target network slice group identifier is a network slice group identifier associated with the second network slice identifier in the second PLMN, and the first network slice identifier and the second network slice identifier indicate the same network slice service.

As an example, the receiving module 501 may be configured to perform the step of the receiving access network device sending the first identification information and the second identification information in the method described in fig. 2. For example, the receiving module 501 is configured to execute S214.

As another example, the sending module 502 may be configured to perform the step of sending the first indication information to the terminal device in the method described in fig. 2. For example, the sending module 502 is configured to perform S216.

In one possible implementation, the first indication information includes mapping information between the first network slice identity and the second network slice identity and mapping information between the second network slice identity and the first target network slice group identity in the second PLMN.

In one possible implementation, the first indication information includes mapping information between the first network slice identity and the first target network slice group identity.

In one possible implementation, the sending module is further configured to: and sending second indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the second indication information comprises a mapping relation between a third network slice identifier and a second target network slice group identifier, and the second target network slice group identifier is a network slice group identifier associated with the third network slice identifier in the first PLMN.

In one possible implementation, the receiving module 501 is further configured to: receiving first information from access network equipment, wherein the first information comprises network slice group identifiers of each PLMN in N public land mobile network PLMNs and network slice identifiers associated with each network slice group identifier in each PLMN, the N PLMNs comprise the first PLMN and the second PLMN, and N is a positive integer.

In a second embodiment, the communication apparatus 500 may be applied to an access network device.

Wherein, the receiving module 501 is configured to receive first identification information from a terminal device, where the first identification information indicates a first public land mobile network PLMN selected by the terminal device; a sending module 502, configured to send the first identification information and second identification information to a core network device, where the second identification information indicates a second PLMN used by the access network device when broadcasting parameter information based on network slice group identification, and the second PLMN is different from the first PLMN; the sending module 502 is further configured to broadcast parameter information based on a network slice group identifier in the second PLMN.

As an example, the receiving module 501 may be configured to perform the step of receiving the first identification information from the terminal device in the method described in fig. 2. For example, the receiving module 501 is configured to execute S212.

As another example, the sending module 502 may be configured to perform the steps of sending the first identification information and the second identification information to the core network device in the method described in fig. 2. For example, the sending module 502 is configured to perform S214.

In one possible implementation, the sending module 502 is further configured to: and sending third indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating the identification information of the PLMN applicable to the parameter information based on the network slice group identification or the identification information of the PLMN not applicable to the parameter information.

In one possible implementation, the sending module 502 is further configured to: and broadcasting parameter information based on a second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN, wherein the second target network slice group identifier is associated with a third network slice identifier, and the network slice service indicated by the third network slice identifier does not have a corresponding network slice identifier in the second PLMN.

In one possible implementation, the sending module 502 is further configured to: and sending first information to core network equipment, wherein the first information comprises network slice group identifiers of each PLMN in N Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMNs), and network slice identifiers associated with each network slice group identifier in each PLMN, the N PLMNs comprise the first PLMN and the second PLMN, and N is a positive integer.

Fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. Specifically, as shown in fig. 6, the apparatus 600 includes: a receiving module 601 and a processing module 602. The apparatus 600 is applied to a terminal device.

The receiving module 601 is configured to receive parameter information based on a network slice group identifier in a second public land mobile network PLMN broadcasted by an access network device; the receiving module 601 is further configured to receive first indication information from a core network device, where the first indication information indicates a mapping relationship between a first network slice identifier and a first target network slice group identifier in a first PLMN, and the first PLMN is a PLMN selected by a terminal device; and the processing module 602 is configured to acquire parameter information based on the first target network slice group identifier from the broadcast when determining that the network slice identifier corresponding to the first target service is the first network slice identifier.

As an example, the receiving module 601 may be configured to perform the step of receiving the first indication information from the core network device in the method described in fig. 2. For example, the receiving module 601 is configured to perform S216.

As another example, the processing module 602 may be configured to perform the step of obtaining parameter information based on the first target network slice group identification from the broadcast in the method described in fig. 2. For example, the processing module 602 is configured to execute S220.

In one possible implementation, the receiving module 601 is further configured to: receiving second indication information from the core network device, wherein the second indication information comprises a mapping relation between a third network slice identifier and a second target network slice group identifier, and the second target network slice group identifier is a network slice group identifier associated with the third network slice identifier in the first PLMN; and receiving parameter information based on the second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN broadcasted by the access network equipment.

In one possible implementation, the processing module 602 is further configured to: when the network slice identifier corresponding to the second target service is determined to be the third network slice identifier, if the first indication information is based on determining that the second target service does not have the corresponding network slice group identifier in the second PLMN, the second target network slice group identifier is determined based on the second indication information; and acquiring parameter information based on a second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN from the broadcast.

In one possible implementation, the receiving module 601 is further configured to: and receiving third indication information, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating the identification information of the PLMN applicable to the parameter information based on the network slice group identification or the identification information of the PLMN not applicable to the parameter information.

Fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device 700 provided in the present application. For convenience of explanation, fig. 7 shows only major components of the terminal device. As shown in fig. 7, the terminal device 700 includes a processor, a memory, a control circuit, an antenna, and an input-output means. The terminal device 700 may be applied in a system as shown in fig. 1, and perform the functions of the terminal device in the above-described method embodiment.

The processor is mainly used for processing the communication protocol and the communication data, controlling the whole terminal device, executing the software program, processing the data of the software program, for example, for controlling the terminal device to execute the actions described in the above method embodiments. The memory is mainly used for storing software programs and data. The control circuit is mainly used for converting baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing the radio frequency signals. The control circuit together with the antenna, which may also be called a transceiver, is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are mainly used for receiving data input by a user and outputting data to the user.

When the terminal device is started, the processor can read the software program in the storage unit, interpret and execute the instructions of the software program, and process the data of the software program. When data is required to be transmitted wirelessly, the processor carries out baseband processing on the data to be transmitted and then outputs a baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit, and the radio frequency circuit carries out radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and then transmits the radio frequency signal outwards in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is sent to the terminal equipment, the radio frequency circuit receives a radio frequency signal through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal, and outputs the baseband signal to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that fig. 7 shows only one memory and processor for ease of illustration. In an actual terminal device, there may be multiple processors and memories. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or storage device, etc., and embodiments of the present application are not limited in this regard.

As an alternative implementation manner, the processor may include a baseband processor, which is mainly used for processing the communication protocol and the communication data, and a central processor, which is mainly used for controlling the whole terminal device, executing a software program, and processing the data of the software program. The processor in fig. 7 integrates the functions of a baseband processor and a central processing unit, and those skilled in the art will appreciate that the baseband processor and the central processing unit may be separate processors, interconnected by bus technology, etc. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the terminal device may include multiple baseband processors to accommodate different network formats, and that the terminal device may include multiple central processors to enhance its processing capabilities, and that the various components of the terminal device may be connected by various buses. The baseband processor may also be referred to as a baseband processing circuit or baseband processing chip. The central processing unit may also be expressed as a central processing circuit or a central processing chip. The function of processing the communication protocol and the communication data may be built in the processor, or may be stored in the storage unit in the form of a software program, which is executed by the processor to realize the baseband processing function.

For example, in the embodiment of fig. 7, the antenna and the control circuit having the transceiving function may be regarded as the transceiving unit 701 of the terminal device 700, and the processor having the processing function may be regarded as the processing unit 702 of the terminal device 700. As shown in fig. 7, the terminal device 700 includes a transceiving unit 701 and a processing unit 702. The transceiver unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, transceiver device, etc. Alternatively, the device for implementing the receiving function in the transceiver unit 701 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and the device for implementing the transmitting function in the transceiver unit 701 may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, the transceiver unit 701 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. For example, the receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, etc., and the transmitting unit may be referred to as a transmitter, a transmitting circuit, etc.

The terminal device 700 shown in fig. 7 is capable of implementing the various processes involving the terminal device in the method embodiments shown in fig. 2-4. The operations and/or functions of the respective modules in the terminal device 700 are respectively for implementing the corresponding flows in the above-described method embodiments. Reference is specifically made to the description of the above method embodiments, and detailed descriptions are omitted here as appropriate to avoid redundancy.

Fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to another embodiment of the present application. The apparatus shown in fig. 8 may be used to perform the method described in any of the previous embodiments.

As shown in fig. 8, the apparatus 800 of the present embodiment includes: a memory 801, a processor 802, a communication interface 803, and a bus 804. Wherein the memory 801, the processor 802, and the communication interface 803 are communicatively connected to each other through a bus 804.

The memory 801 may be a Read Only Memory (ROM), a static storage device, a dynamic storage device, or a random access memory (random access memory, RAM). The memory 801 may store a program, and the processor 802 is configured to perform the steps of the methods shown in fig. 2 to 4 when the program stored in the memory 801 is executed by the processor 802.

The processor 802 may employ a general-purpose central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), microprocessor, application specific integrated circuit (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for executing associated programs to implement the methods illustrated in fig. 2-4 of the present application.

The processor 802 may also be an integrated circuit chip with signal processing capabilities. In implementation, various steps of the methods of fig. 2-4 of the embodiments of the present application may be performed by integrated logic circuitry in hardware or instructions in software in processor 802.

The processor 802 may also be a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (digital signal processing, DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf programmable gate array (field programmable gate array, FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware components. The disclosed methods, steps, and logic blocks in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented or performed. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be embodied directly in hardware, in a decoded processor, or in a combination of hardware and software modules in a decoded processor. The software modules may be located in a random access memory, flash memory, read only memory, programmable read only memory, or electrically erasable programmable memory, registers, etc. as well known in the art. The storage medium is located in the memory 801, and the processor 802 reads information in the memory 801, and in combination with hardware thereof, performs functions necessary for the units included in the apparatus of the present application, for example, may perform the steps/functions of the embodiments shown in fig. 2 to 4.

Communication interface 803 may enable communication between apparatus 800 and other devices or communication networks using, but is not limited to, a transceiver-like transceiver.

Bus 804 may include a path for transferring information between components of apparatus 800 (e.g., memory 801, processor 802, communication interface 803).

It should be understood that the apparatus 800 shown in the embodiments of the present application may be an electronic device, or may be a chip configured in an electronic device.

The above embodiments may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any other combination. When implemented in software, the above-described embodiments may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product comprises one or more computer instructions or computer programs. When the computer instructions or computer program are loaded or executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the present application are all or partially produced. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website site, computer, server, or data center to another website site, computer, server, or data center by wired (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that contains one or more sets of available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., DVD), or a semiconductor medium. The semiconductor medium may be a solid state disk.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied essentially or in a part contributing to the prior art or in a part of the technical solution, in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, including several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a U disk, a mobile hard disk, a read-only memory, a random access memory, a magnetic disk or an optical disk.

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

Claims

1. A communication method, applied to a core network device, the method comprising:

receiving first identification information and second identification information from access network equipment, wherein the first identification information indicates a first Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) selected by terminal equipment, the second identification information indicates a second PLMN used by the access network equipment when parameter information based on network slice group identification is broadcast, and the first PLMN is different from the second PLMN;

and sending first indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first indication information indicates a mapping relation between a first network slice identifier and a first target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN, the first target network slice group identifier is a network slice group identifier associated with the second network slice identifier in the second PLMN, and the first network slice identifier and the second network slice identifier indicate the same network slice service.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first indication information comprises mapping information between the first network slice identity and the second network slice identity and mapping information between the second network slice identity and the first target network slice group identity in the second PLMN.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first indication information comprises mapping information between the first network slice identity and the first target network slice group identity.

4. A method according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that the method further comprises:

and sending second indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the second indication information comprises a mapping relation between a third network slice identifier and a second target network slice group identifier, and the second target network slice group identifier is a network slice group identifier associated with the third network slice identifier in the first PLMN.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising:

receiving first information from access network equipment, wherein the first information comprises network slice group identifiers of each PLMN in N public land mobile network PLMNs and network slice identifiers associated with each network slice group identifier in each PLMN, the N PLMNs comprise the first PLMN and the second PLMN, and N is a positive integer.

6. A method of communication, for use with an access network device, comprising:

receiving first identification information from terminal equipment, wherein the first identification information indicates a first public land mobile network PLMN selected by the terminal equipment;

transmitting the first identification information and second identification information to a core network device, wherein the second identification information indicates a second PLMN which is used by the access network device when broadcasting parameter information based on network slice group identification, and the second PLMN is different from the first PLMN;

and broadcasting parameter information based on network slice group identification in the second PLMN.

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

and sending third indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating the identification information of the PLMN applicable to the parameter information based on the network slice group identification or the identification information of the PLMN not applicable to the parameter information.

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

and broadcasting parameter information based on a second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN, wherein the second target network slice group identifier is associated with a third network slice identifier, and the network slice service indicated by the third network slice identifier does not have a corresponding network slice identifier in the second PLMN.

9. The method according to any one of claims 6 to 8, further comprising:

and sending first information to core network equipment, wherein the first information comprises network slice group identifiers of each PLMN in N Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMNs), and network slice identifiers associated with each network slice group identifier in each PLMN, the N PLMNs comprise the first PLMN and the second PLMN, and N is a positive integer.

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

receiving parameter information based on network slice group identification in a second Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) broadcasted by access network equipment;

receiving first indication information from core network equipment, wherein the first indication information indicates a mapping relation between a first network slice identifier and a first target network slice group identifier in a first PLMN, and the first PLMN is a PLMN selected by terminal equipment;

and when the network slice identifier corresponding to the first target service is determined to be the first network slice identifier, acquiring parameter information based on the first target network slice group identifier from the broadcast.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first indication information comprises mapping information between the first network slice identity and the second network slice identity and mapping information between the second network slice identity and the first target network slice group identity in the second PLMN.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the first indication information comprises mapping information between the first network slice identity and the first target network slice group identity.

13. The method according to claim 11 or 12, characterized in that the method further comprises:

receiving second indication information from the core network device, wherein the second indication information comprises a mapping relation between a third network slice identifier and a second target network slice group identifier, and the second target network slice group identifier is a network slice group identifier associated with the third network slice identifier in the first PLMN;

and receiving parameter information based on the second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN broadcasted by the access network equipment.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises:

when the network slice identifier corresponding to the second target service is determined to be the third network slice identifier, if the first indication information is based on determining that the second target service does not have the corresponding network slice group identifier in the second PLMN, the second target network slice group identifier is determined based on the second indication information;

And acquiring parameter information based on a second target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN from the broadcast.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises:

and receiving third indication information, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating the identification information of the PLMN applicable to the parameter information based on the network slice group identification or the identification information of the PLMN not applicable to the parameter information.

16. A communication apparatus for use with a core network device, the apparatus comprising:

a receiving module, configured to receive first identification information and second identification information from an access network device, where the first identification information indicates a first public land mobile network PLMN selected by a terminal device, and the second identification information indicates a second PLMN used by the access network device when broadcasting parameter information based on network slice group identification, and the first PLMN is different from the second PLMN;

and the sending module is used for sending first indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first indication information indicates a mapping relation between a first network slice identifier and a first target network slice group identifier in the first PLMN, the first target network slice group identifier is a network slice group identifier associated with the second network slice identifier in the second PLMN, and the first network slice identifier and the second network slice identifier indicate the same network slice service.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the first indication information comprises mapping information between the first network slice identity and the second network slice identity and mapping information between the second network slice identity and the first target network slice group identity in the second PLMN.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the first indication information comprises mapping information between the first network slice identity and the first target network slice group identity.

19. The apparatus of claim 17 or 18, wherein the transmitting module is further configured to:

20. The apparatus of any one of claims 16 to 19, wherein the receiving module is further configured to:

21. A communication apparatus for use with an access network device, comprising:

a receiving module, configured to receive first identification information from a terminal device, where the first identification information indicates a first public land mobile network PLMN selected by the terminal device;

a sending module, configured to send the first identification information and second identification information to a core network device, where the second identification information indicates a second PLMN used by the access network device when broadcasting parameter information based on network slice group identification, and the second PLMN is different from the first PLMN;

the sending module is further configured to broadcast parameter information based on a network slice group identifier in the second PLMN.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the means for transmitting is further configured to:

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the means for transmitting is further configured to:

24. The apparatus of any one of claims 21 to 23, wherein the transmitting module is further configured to:

25. A communication apparatus, characterized by being applied to a terminal device, comprising:

the receiving module is used for receiving parameter information based on network slice group identification in a second Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) broadcasted by the access network equipment;

the receiving module is further configured to receive first indication information from a core network device, where the first indication information indicates a mapping relationship between a first network slice identifier and a first target network slice group identifier in a first PLMN, and the first PLMN is a PLMN selected by the terminal device;

and the processing module is used for acquiring parameter information based on the first target network slice group identifier from the broadcast when the network slice identifier corresponding to the first target service is determined to be the first network slice identifier.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the first indication information comprises mapping information between the first network slice identity and the second network slice identity and mapping information between the second network slice identity and the first target network slice group identity in the second PLMN.

27. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the first indication information comprises mapping information between the first network slice identity and the first target network slice group identity.

28. The apparatus of claim 26 or 27, wherein the receiving module is further configured to:

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the processing module is further configured to:

30. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the receiving means is further for:

31. A communication device, comprising: a memory and a processor;

the memory is used for storing program instructions;

the processor is configured to invoke program instructions in the memory to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 5 or claims 6 to 9 or claims 10 to 15.

32. A computer readable medium storing program code for computer execution, the program code comprising instructions for performing the method of any one of claims 1 to 5 or claims 6 to 9 or claims 10 to 15.

33. A computer program product comprising computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to carry out the method of any one of claims 1 to 5 or claims 6 to 9 or claims 10 to 15.