WO2016050034A1

WO2016050034A1 - Group addressing processing method, device, mtc intercommunicating gateway and api gw

Info

Publication number: WO2016050034A1
Application number: PCT/CN2015/073812
Authority: WO
Inventors: 李志军; 谢宝国
Original assignee: 中兴通讯股份有限公司
Priority date: 2014-09-30
Filing date: 2015-03-06
Publication date: 2016-04-07
Also published as: CN105530614A; CN105530614B

Abstract

Disclosed in the present invention are a group addressing processing method, device, MTC intercommunicating gateway and API GW, wherein, the method comprises: receiving a group addressing request sent by an Application Server (AS), wherein the group addressing request bringing a group identifier; determining a Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS) serving area of MBMS for group addressing according to the group identifier,; and initiating MBMS data delivery according to the determined MBMS serving area, wherein the MBMS data delivery bringing a group addressing message. The present invention solves the problem existing in the related technologies that UE can not be addressed and system overhead increases when implementing group addressing to UE by means of MBMS broadcast, and further achieves the effect of improving efficiency of UE addressing.

Description

Group addressing processing method, device, MTC interworking gateway and API GW

Technical field

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a group addressing processing method and apparatus, an MTC interworking gateway, and an API GW.

Background technique

In order to support Machine Type Communication (MTC) communication, the standard organization 3GPP has enhanced the wireless network architecture to achieve MTC communication requirements, such as terminal activation and group addressing. The terminal activation is used to activate a specific MTC terminal, so that the terminal actively initiates a data connection to the network and communicates with the MTC application server. Group addressing is used to send group addressing messages to a number of MTC terminals belonging to a group to activate the terminals.

At the same time, the standards organization 3GPP has also extended the MBMS multicast architecture to support cluster services, that is, support point-to-multipoint calls between the same group of UEs. With this cluster architecture and process, the group addressing requirements in the MTC service can be partially met.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of an LTE network supporting MTC communication in the related art. These include the following network elements:

A user equipment (referred to as a UE) is also called a user equipment. The user equipment accesses the base station through a wireless air interface and accesses the core network.

An evolved NodeB (Evolved NodeB, referred to as eNodeB), which is a base station system in an LTE network, provides radio resources for access, and communicates with the mobility management network element (MME) through the S1-AP control plane interface, and passes through the S1-U user plane. The interface and data gateway (including SGW and PGW) are interoperable.

The Mobility Management Entity (MME) is a control plane entity in the LTE network and is responsible for user access authentication, mobility management, bearer management, etc., and temporarily stores the context in which the terminal is attached to the network.

The Serving Gateway (SGW) provides an anchor for the 2G/3G and LTE mobile terminals, and the SGW can also page the terminal through the MME if the terminal is in the idle state.

A PDN gateway (PDW Gateway, PGW for short), the terminal accesses the service network through the PGW. The PGW allocates an IP address to the terminal and manages the QoS of the bearer.

The Policy Changing Rule Function (PCRF) is used to allocate policies and perform accounting for the management user plane.

The MTC Interworking Function (MTC-IWF) is a call entry for the MTC function provided by the network operator. The MTC-related service data is obtained from the HSS, and the MTC service request is authenticated.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of implementing terminal activation under the MTC architecture in the related art. As shown in FIG. 2, the process includes the following steps:

S201. The UE is attached to the network.

S202. The SCS/AS needs to activate the UE according to service requirements.

S203. The SCS/AS sends a terminal activation request to the MTC-IWF.

S204-S205: The MTC-IWF sends a route query request to the HSS, and the HSS returns the MSC/SGSN/MME information currently attached by the UE. At the same time, the HSS returns the authentication information for the SCS, and the SCS is authenticated according to the information MTC-IWF;

S206. The MTC-IWF sends a terminal activation request to the SMSC, and carries the MSC/SGSN/MME information currently attached by the UE.

S207-S208, the SMSC encapsulates the terminal activation request into an SMS, and sends an SMS to the UE, where the SMS carries the terminal activation flag;

S209~S210, after the SMS is delivered, returning to the SMS delivery response;

S211 to S212, the SMSC returns a terminal activation response to the MTC-IWF, and the MTC-IWF returns a terminal activation response to the SCS/AS.

S213-S214, after receiving the SMS, the UE initiates a bearer creation request to the network according to the terminal activation request according to the terminal activation request;

S215. After the bearer is created, the UE communicates with the SCS/AS to perform service interaction. At this point, the terminal is successfully activated.

3 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a LTE network implementing cluster communication in the related art. As shown in FIG. 3, a cluster service is implemented in an LTE network, based on a Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service, Referred to as the MBMS) subsystem. The MBMS subsystem mainly includes a Broadcast Mode Service Center (BM-SC for short) and an MBMS Gateway (MBMS Gateway for short). Among them, the BM-SC is responsible for establishing and maintaining the MBMS bearer, and the MBMS GW is a data plane gateway function for implementing multicast/broadcast.

In a cluster service, service control is implemented by a cluster application server (GCAS). GCAS is used to manage cluster services, including cluster service group management, call setup, release, and management. The GCAS and the UE are connected through the GC1 interface. The main functions of the interface are the UE registration in the GCAS and the initiation of the group call. Among them, GCAS and BM-SC are connected through the MB2 interface. The MB2 interface includes a control plane part MB2-C for realizing the establishment and maintenance of the MBMS town, and the user plane part MB2-U for realizing the delivery of the MBMS data.

In the cluster service, user plane data is delivered in two ways, unicast and multicast. The so-called unicast, that is, GCAS sends the downlink data to the terminal in a point-to-point manner, and uses the EPS bearer to send to the terminal. The so-called multicast, that is, the GCAS sends the downlink data to the MBMS subsystem (that is, to the BM-SC), and the MBMS GW delivers the data to the base station (ie, the eNodeB), and the UE obtains the MBMS data by reading the corresponding broadcast channel of the MBMS.

Under the related art, the implementation process of the trunking service by the broadcast mode (MBMS mode) generally includes the steps of: cluster registration, MBMS bearer establishment, MBMS data delivery, and UE receiving MBMS data.

4 is a flowchart of a cluster service, a cluster service registration, and a cluster data delivery in the related art. As shown in FIG. 4, the process includes the following steps:

S401. The UE is attached to the network, creates a PDN connection, and is assigned an IP address.

S402. The UE sends a cluster service registration request to the GCAS.

In the request, the UE provides a user identity (UE ID), an IP address (UE IP), a home network identifier (HPLMNID), a visited network identifier (VPLMN ID), and current location information (usually a cell location Cell ID). And other information.

S403. The GCAS checks whether the MBMS bearer has been established in the visited network/the area according to the visited network identifier (VPLMN ID) and the cell location (Cell ID) provided by the UE. If not, the GCAS initiates an MBMS bearer creation request to the BM-SC;

S404-S405, the GCAS sends a bearer creation request to the BM-SC, and the BM-SC requests the MBMS GW to create a response bearer;

S406. The network allocates specific resources, including a core network and a radio resource, to the MBMS bearer.

S407 to S408, after the MBMS bearer is created, returning a bearer creation response;

The BM-SC carries a Temporary MBMS Group Identity (TMGI), an MBMS Flow ID (Flow ID), a Multicast IP, and a Port (Multicast IP/Port) in the bearer creation response message.

S409. The GCAS returns a cluster service registration response to the UE.

In the cluster service registration response, GCAS returns the MBMS bearer information that has been created, including: TMGI, multicast IP, and port.

S410, after the cluster service is officially started, the GCAS sends the downlink MBMS data to the BM-SC. MBMS data is sent to the eNodeB after passing through the MBMS GW;

S411. The UE monitors the MBMS broadcast and acquires MBMS data.

Using the clustered service architecture and processes (the architecture shown in Figure 3 and the flow shown in Figure 4), the MTC Application Server (SCS/AS) can group-address a group of MTC terminals, which will allow the intra-group UEs to listen to specific MBMSs. The broadcast is carried and the group addressed message is carried in the downlink MBMS data, so that the UE in the group can read the MBMS data, thereby obtaining the group addressed message therein. In this method, since the MBMS data is sent by means of broadcast, network resources can be greatly saved, especially the wireless air interface resources are saved.

However, there are certain limitations to using this approach to implement group addressing. The UE can only receive the MBMS data in the MBMS Service Area. Once the UE is outside the MBMS service area, the UE cannot receive the MBMS data and cannot be addressed. Due to the limitation of the size of the MBMS service area, it is impossible to be infinite, which means that there are always UEs located outside the MBMS server, which cannot be addressed by this method, that is, the group addressing method based on the MBMS process cannot be found. Address to these UEs.

On the other hand, the architecture shown in Figure 1 and the flow shown in Figure 2 give the MTC server (SCS/AS) the ability to individually address a particular UE. However, this method performs an activation for each UE, which undoubtedly increases the system overhead, especially when the UE is in an idle state, increasing the consumption of paging resources on the wireless air interface.

Therefore, in the related art, when group addressing is performed on the UE by means of MBMS broadcast, there is a problem that the UE cannot be addressed and the system overhead is increased.

Summary of the invention

The present invention provides a group addressing processing method and apparatus, an MTC interworking gateway, and an API GW, to at least solve the related art, when group addressing is performed by using the MBMS broadcast mode, the UE cannot be addressed to the UE, and the System overhead issues.

According to an aspect of the present invention, a group addressing processing method is provided, including: receiving a group addressing request sent by an application server AS, wherein the group addressing request carries a group identifier; Determining an MBMS service area for the multimedia broadcast/multicast service MBMS for group addressing; initiating MBMS data delivery according to the determined MBMS service area, wherein the MBMS data delivery carries a group addressing message.

Preferably, before determining the MBMS service area of the MBMS for group addressing, the method further includes: sending a location mapping request to the broadcast mode service center BM-SC, where the location mapping request carries the location of the UE a list of information received by the BM-SC, wherein the location mapping response carries an MBMS service area list and a UE location information list that cannot be mapped to an MBMS service area.

Preferably, determining the MBMS service area of the MBMS for group addressing comprises: according to the MBMS service area list carried in the location mapping response, and a UE location information list that cannot be mapped to an MBMS service area , determine the MBMS service area for group addressing.

Preferably, before the location mapping request is sent to the broadcast mode service center BM-SC, the method further includes: acquiring, by using at least one of the following manners, location information of the intra-group UE corresponding to the group identifier: querying the home location server HSS for the intra-group UE Location information; query the location information of the UEs in the group to the policy charging rule entity PCRF.

Preferably, after determining the MBMS service area for the multimedia broadcast/multicast service for group addressing, after initiating the MBMS data delivery, the method further includes: the intra-group UE that performs group addressing in a manner that cannot be delivered by using MBMS data, Addressing is performed using terminal activation.

Preferably, before the intra-group UE that performs group addressing in a manner that cannot be used for MBMS data delivery is addressed by means of terminal activation, the method further includes determining, by at least one of the following manners, group addressing that cannot be performed by using MBMS data delivery. The intra-group UE according to the acquired location information of the intra-group UE determines the intra-group UE that cannot be group-addressed by means of MBMS data delivery; and receives the terminal activation mode sent by the application server AS for addressing The intra-group UE; determining that the UE that has not received the group addressing response after the group addressing timer expires is the intra-group UE that cannot perform group addressing by means of MBMS data delivery.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a group addressing processing method is provided, including: receiving a location mapping request, wherein the location mapping request carries a location information list of a UE; mapping location information of the UE a multimedia broadcast/multicast service MBMS service area; sending a location mapping response to the requester that sends the location mapping request, where the location mapping response carries an MBMS service area list and cannot be mapped to an MBMS service area A list of UE location information, the location mapping response being used by the requesting party for group addressing processing.

According to an aspect of the present invention, a group addressing processing apparatus is provided, comprising: a first receiving module configured to receive a group addressing request sent by an application server AS, wherein the group addressing request carries a group identifier a first determining module, configured to determine an MBMS service area of the multimedia broadcast/multicast service MBMS for group addressing according to the group identifier; and an initiating module configured to initiate MBMS data delivery according to the determined MBMS service area The MBMS data delivery carries a group addressing message.

Preferably, the apparatus further includes: a first sending module, configured to send a location mapping request to the broadcast mode service center BM-SC, wherein the location mapping request carries a location information list of the UE; and the second receiving module sets And receiving, by the BM-SC, a location mapping response, where the location mapping response carries an MBMS service area list, and a UE location information list that cannot be mapped to an MBMS service area.

Preferably, the first determining module includes: a determining unit, configured to determine, according to the MBMS service area list carried in the location mapping response, and a UE location information list that cannot be mapped to an MBMS service area, determine to be used for a group Addressed MBMS service area.

Preferably, the apparatus further includes: an obtaining module, configured to acquire, by using at least one of the following manners, location information of the UE in the group corresponding to the group identifier: querying the home location server HSS for location information of the UE in the group; The fee rule entity PCRF queries the location information of the UE in the group.

Preferably, the apparatus further comprises: an addressing module, configured to address the group of UEs that cannot be group addressed by means of MBMS data delivery, using terminal activation.

Preferably, the apparatus further includes: a second determining module, configured to determine, by at least one of the following manners, the intra-group UE that cannot perform group addressing by means of MBMS data delivery: determining according to the acquired location information of the intra-group UE The intra-group UE that cannot perform group addressing by means of MBMS data delivery; receives the intra-group UE that is sent by the application server AS and is addressed by using the terminal activation mode; and determines that after the group addressing timer expires, The UE receiving the group addressing response is the intra-group UE that cannot be group addressed in the manner of MBMS data delivery.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a machine type communication MTC interworking gateway, comprising the apparatus of any of the above.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an Application Interface Gateway API GW, comprising the apparatus of any of the above.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a group addressing processing apparatus, comprising: a third receiving module configured to receive a location mapping request, wherein the location mapping request carries a location information list of the UE; a module, configured to map location information of the UE into a multimedia broadcast/multicast service MBMS service area; and a second sending module configured to send a location mapping response to a requester that sends the location mapping request, where the location The mapping response carries a list of MBMS service areas, and a list of UE location information that cannot be mapped to an MBMS service area, the location mapping response being used by the requesting party for group addressing processing.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, a broadcast mode service center BM-SC is provided, comprising the group addressing processing apparatus of any of the above.

According to the present invention, a group addressing request sent by the receiving application server AS is adopted, wherein the group addressing request carries a group identifier; and according to the group identifier, a multimedia broadcast/multicast service MBMS for group addressing is determined. The MBMS service area is initiated according to the determined MBMS service area, where the MBMS data delivery carries a group addressing message, which solves the problem of group addressing the UE by means of MBMS broadcasting in the related art. There is a problem that the UE cannot be addressed to the UE, and the system overhead is increased, thereby achieving the effect of improving the addressing efficiency of the UE.

DRAWINGS

The drawings described herein are intended to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are intended to be a part of the invention. In the drawing:

1 is a schematic structural diagram of an LTE network supporting MTC communication in the related art;

2 is a flowchart of implementing terminal activation under the MTC architecture in the related art;

3 is a schematic structural diagram of implementing LTE network cluster communication in the related art;

4 is a flowchart of a cluster service, a cluster service registration, and a cluster data delivery in the related art;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a first method of group addressing processing according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG.

6 is a flow chart of a method 2 of group addressing processing according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a structural block diagram of a group addressing processing apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram 1 showing a preferred structure of a group addressing processing apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a preferred structure of the first determining module 74 in the group addressing processing apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

10 is a block diagram 2 of a preferred structure of a group addressing processing apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

11 is a block diagram 3 of a preferred structure of a group addressing processing apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

12 is a block diagram 4 of a preferred structure of a group addressing processing apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

13 is a structural block diagram of a machine type communication MTC interworking gateway according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a structural block diagram of an application interface gateway API GW according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG.

FIG. 15 is a structural block diagram of a group addressing processing apparatus 2 according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG.

16 is a structural block diagram of a broadcast mode service center BM-SC according to an embodiment of the present invention;

17 is a schematic diagram of a group addressing architecture according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;

18 is a flow chart showing a group addressing architecture for implementing group addressing according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

19 is a schematic diagram of a group addressing architecture according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention;

20 is a flow chart of group addressing according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention;

21 is a schematic diagram of a group addressing architecture according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention;

Figure 22 is a flow chart showing group addressing according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

23 is a flow chart of group addressing according to Embodiment 4 of the present invention;

Figure 24 is a flow chart of group addressing in accordance with embodiment 5 of the present invention.

detailed description

The invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings in conjunction with the embodiments. It should be noted that the embodiments in the present application and the features in the embodiments may be combined with each other without conflict.

In this embodiment, a group addressing processing method is provided. FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a group addressing processing method according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 5, the flow includes the following steps:

Step S502, receiving a group addressing request sent by the application server AS, where the group addressing request carries a group identifier;

Step S504, determining an MBMS service area of the multimedia broadcast/multicast service MBMS for group addressing according to the group identifier;

Step S506: Initiating MBMS data delivery according to the determined MBMS service area, where the MBMS data delivery carries a group addressing message.

Through the above steps, the UE is group-addressed by means of MBMS data delivery, and the problem that the UE cannot be addressed to the UE and the system overhead is solved when the UE is group-addressed by means of MBMS broadcast in the related art is further solved. The effect of improving the addressing efficiency of the UE is achieved.

Preferably, before determining the MBMS service area of the MBMS for group addressing, the location mapping request of the MBMS may be sent to the broadcast mode service center BM-SC, where the location mapping request carries the location information list of the UE. After the BM-SC maps the location information of the UE to the MBMS according to the request, the location mapping response returned by the BM-SC is received, where the location mapping response carries the MBMS service area list and cannot be mapped to the MBMS service. A list of UE location information for the area. After receiving the location mapping response returned by the BM-SC, determining the MBMS service area of the MBMS for group addressing according to the location mapping response, including: according to the MBMS service area list carried in the location mapping response, and cannot be mapped to A list of UE location information for the MBMS service area, determining an MBMS service area for group addressing. That is, the MBMS service area excluding the UE location information list that cannot be mapped to the MBMS service area in the MBMS service area list is the MBMS service area for group addressing.

It should be noted that, before the location mapping request is sent to the broadcast mode service center BM-SC, the location information of the UE in the group corresponding to the group identifier needs to be obtained, and the manner of obtaining the information may be multiple. For example, at least one of the following manners may be adopted. Obtaining location information of the UE in the group corresponding to the group identifier: querying the home location server HSS for location information of the UE in the group; and querying, by the policy charging rule entity PCRF, location information of the UE in the group.

Preferably, after determining the MBMS service area for the group-addressed multimedia broadcast/multicast service, after initiating the MBMS data delivery, the intra-group UE that can perform group addressing in a manner that cannot be delivered by using the MBMS data may be activated by the terminal. The way to address.

Wherein, in the group in which the group addressing is not possible in the manner in which the MBMS data delivery is not performed, the UE is determined by the terminal activation manner, and the group in which the group addressing cannot be performed by using the MBMS data delivery method may be determined in various manners. The UE may be determined by, for example, at least one of the following methods: determining, according to the acquired location information of the UE in the group, an intra-group UE that cannot perform group addressing by means of MBMS data delivery; and receiving the terminal activation mode sent by the application server AS The intra-group UE that performs addressing; determines that the UE that has not received the group addressing response after the group addressing timer expires is an intra-group UE that cannot perform group addressing by means of MBMS data delivery.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a method for group addressing processing according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 6, the process includes the following steps:

Step S602, receiving a location mapping request, where the location mapping request carries a location information list of the UE;

Step S604, mapping location information of the UE into a multimedia broadcast/multicast service MBMS service area;

Step S606, sending a location mapping response to the requesting party that sends the location mapping request, where the location mapping response carries the MBMS service area list, and the UE location information list that cannot be mapped to the MBMS service area, and the location mapping response is used by the requesting party. Perform group addressing processing.

Through the above steps, the location information of the UE is mapped into the MBMS of the multimedia broadcast/multicast service, which provides a basis for group addressing of the UE according to the determined MBMS service area, and solves the problem of group searching for the UE by means of MBMS broadcast in the related art. At the time of the address, there is a problem that the UE cannot be addressed, and the system overhead is increased, thereby achieving the effect of improving the addressing efficiency of the UE.

In the embodiment, a group addressing processing device is also provided, which is used to implement the above-mentioned embodiments and preferred embodiments, and has not been described again. As used below, the term "module" may implement a combination of software and/or hardware of a predetermined function. Although the apparatus described in the following embodiments is preferably implemented in software, hardware, or a combination of software and hardware, is also possible and contemplated.

FIG. 7 is a structural block diagram of a group addressing processing apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 7, the apparatus includes a first receiving module 72, a first determining module 74, and an initiating module 76. Description.

According to an aspect of the present invention, a group addressing processing apparatus is provided, including: a first receiving module, configured to receive a group addressing request sent by an application server AS, where the group addressing request carries a group identifier; One a determining module, configured to determine an MBMS service area of the multimedia broadcast/multicast service MBMS for group addressing according to the group identifier; and an initiating module configured to initiate MBMS data delivery according to the determined MBMS service area, wherein the MBMS data delivery is performed Carry a group addressed message.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a preferred structure of a group addressing processing apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 8, the apparatus includes a first transmitting module 82 and a second, in addition to all the modules shown in FIG. The receiving module 84 will be described below.

The first sending module 82 is connected to the first receiving module 72, and is configured to send a location mapping request to the broadcast mode service center BM-SC, where the location mapping request carries the location information list of the UE; the second receiving module 84, The first sending module 82 and the first determining module 74 are connected to receive the location mapping response returned by the BM-SC, where the location mapping response carries the MBMS service area list and cannot be mapped to the MBMS service area. A list of UE location information.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a preferred structure of the first determining module 74 in the group addressing processing apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 9, the first determining module 74 includes: a determining unit 92, and the determining unit 92 for explanation.

The determining unit 92 is configured to determine the MBMS service area for group addressing according to the MBMS service area list carried in the location mapping response and the UE location information list that cannot be mapped to the MBMS service area.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a preferred structure of a group addressing processing apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 10, the apparatus includes an acquisition module 102 in addition to all the modules shown in FIG. The acquisition module 102 is described.

The obtaining module 102 is connected to the first receiving module 72 and the first sending module 82, and is configured to obtain, by using at least one of the following manners, location information of the UE in the group corresponding to the group identifier: querying the home location server HSS for the UE in the group Location information; query the location information of the UEs in the group to the policy charging rule entity PCRF.

11 is a block diagram 3 of a preferred structure of a group addressing processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 11, the apparatus includes an addressing module 112 in addition to all the modules shown in FIG. The addressing module 112 is described.

The addressing module 112 is connected to the initiating module 76, and is configured to address the intra-group UEs that are group-addressable in a manner that cannot be delivered by using MBMS data, and are addressed by using a terminal activation manner.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing a preferred structure of a group addressing processing apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 12, the apparatus includes a second determining module 122, in addition to all the modules shown in FIG. The second determination module 122 will be described.

The second determining module 122 is connected to the foregoing initiating module 76 and the addressing module 112, and is configured to determine, within at least one of the following manners, an intra-group UE that cannot perform group addressing by means of MBMS data delivery: according to the acquired intra-group UE The location information determines an intra-group UE that cannot be group-addressed by means of MBMS data delivery; receives an intra-group UE that is sent by the application server AS and is addressed by using a terminal activation mode; and determines that the group addressing timer expires after receiving The UE to the group addressing response is an intra-group UE that cannot be group addressed by means of MBMS data delivery.

FIG. 13 is a structural block diagram of a machine type communication MTC intercommunication gateway according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 13, the machine type communication MTC intercommunication gateway 130 includes the group address processing device 132 of any one of the above.

FIG. 14 is a structural block diagram of an application interface gateway API GW according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 14, the application interface gateway API GW 140 includes the group addressing processing device 132 of any one of the above.

FIG. 15 is a structural block diagram of a group addressing processing apparatus 2 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 15, the apparatus includes a third receiving module 152, a mapping module 154, and a second transmitting module 156. Description.

The third receiving module 152 is configured to receive the location mapping request, where the location mapping request carries the location information list of the UE; the mapping module 154 is connected to the third receiving module 152, and is configured to map the location information of the UE into a multimedia broadcast/multicast service MBMS service area; a second sending module 156, coupled to the mapping module 154, configured to send a location mapping response to the requester that sends the location mapping request, where the location mapping response carries the MBMS service area list And a list of UE location information that cannot be mapped to the MBMS service area, the location mapping response is used by the requesting party for group addressing processing.

16 is a structural block diagram of a broadcast mode service center BM-SC according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 16, the broadcast mode service center BM-SC 160 includes the group address processing device 162 of any of the above.

In order to maximize group addressing, the MBMS process is used to implement group addressing, and the shortcomings of addressing in the broadcast mode using MBMS in the related art are overcome. In this embodiment, a combination of MBMS-based cluster data is proposed. The process of sending and SMS-based terminal activation processes to implement group addressing can effectively utilize the high efficiency of MBMS data broadcasting and overcome the inability to cover all UEs in the group, improving the effectiveness of group addressing.

Embodiment 1: Architecture 1:

17 is a schematic diagram of a group addressing architecture according to a first embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG.

(1) SCS integrates GCAS and communicates with BM-SC through MB2 interface;

(2) The SCS implements the Rx interface connection with the PCRF through the integrated GCAS.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart of a group addressing architecture for implementing group addressing according to a first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 18, the process includes the following steps:

Phase A: MBMS resource reservation

Step S18A01, the SCS/GCAS sends an MBMS bearer reservation request to the BM-SC;

Step S18A02, in response to the request with the SCS/GCAS, the BM-SC allocates the TMGI, and returns an MBMS bearer reservation response, where the MBMS bearer information, such as TMGI, is carried;

Phase B: Application Layer Registration and UE Location Collection

Step S18B01, the UE initiates application layer registration to the SCS/GCAS;

Step S18B02: After receiving the registration request of the UE, the SCS/GCAS subscribes to the location information of the UE to the PCRF. The PCRF returns the latest location information of the UE to the SCS/GCAS;

Thereafter, if the location information of the UE changes, the PCRF reports the updated UE location information to the SCS/GCAS.

Step S18B03, the SCS/GCAS returns a registration response to the UE, where the reserved MBMS bearer information, such as TMGI, is carried;

Step S1804: After receiving the MBMS bearer information, the UE monitors the MBMS broadcast according to the MBMS bearer information to obtain the MBMS data.

Phase C: Group Addressing

Step S18C01, according to the service requirement, the SCS/GCAS decides to initiate group addressing;

Step S18C02, the SCS/GCAS sends a location mapping request to the BM-SC, and carries a cell location list (Cell List);

In this step, the SCS/GCAS generates a cell location list according to the location information of the UEs in the group reported by the PCRF.

Step S18C03, the BM-SC maps the cell location list into an MBMS service area list (MBMS SAIList), and returns a location mapping response to the SCS/GCAS, which carries the mapped MBMS service area list and a list of cell locations that cannot be mapped. (Non Mapping Cell List);

Step S18C04, the SCS/GCAS decision initiates MBMS data delivery for transmitting the group addressing message;

In this step, the SCS/GCAS decides to initiate MBMS data delivery to the MBMS service area in the list according to the list of MBMS service areas returned by the BM-SC and the list of cell locations that cannot be mapped.

Step S18C05, the SCS/GCAS sends the MBMS data to the BM-SC, where the group addressing message is carried. According to the MBMS data delivery process, the UE reads the MBMS data to obtain a group addressing message.

Step S18C06, the SCS/GCAS decision initiates a terminal activation request to some UEs;

Based on the information returned by the BM-SC in step S18C03, and the location of the UE, the SCS/GCAS decision initiates terminal activation for UEs that are not in the MBMS service area list. If the cell location of a UE is not mapped to the MBMS service area, the UE is considered not to be in the MBMS service area. Therefore, the group activation message is required to be used to deliver the group addressing message.

Step S18C07, the SCS/GCAS sends a terminal activation request to the MTC-IWF, where the group addressing message is carried. According to the terminal activation process, the terminal activation message is delivered to the corresponding UE;

In this step, the SCS/GCAS performs a terminal activation procedure for each UE that needs to perform terminal activation.

Step S18C08: After receiving the group addressing message, the UE initiates bearer creation to the network according to requirements, and then initiates application layer message interaction with the SCS/GCAS.

Embodiment 2: Architecture 2:

FIG. 19 is a schematic diagram of a group addressing architecture according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 19, wherein:

(1) MTC-IWF integrates GCAS, implements MB2 interface, and calls BM-SC to realize MBMS data delivery;

(2) The MTC-IWF implements the Rx interface, invokes the PCRF, and queries/subscribes the UE location;

(3) The SCS/AS and the MTC-IWF communicate through the Tsp interface, which is enhanced to support group addressing;

20 is a flow chart of group addressing according to a first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 20, the flow includes the following steps:

Phase A: MBMS resource reservation

Step S20A01, the SCS/AS sends a group addressing preparation request to the MTC-IWF, and carries a group identifier (Group-ID);

Step S20A02, the MTC-IWF/GCAS sends an MBMS bearer reservation request to the BM-SC;

Step S20A03, in response to the request with the MTC-IWF/GCAS, the BM-SC allocates the TMGI, and returns an MBMS bearer reservation response, where the MBMS bearer information, such as TMGI, is carried;

Step S20A04, the MTC-IWF returns a group addressing preparation response to the SCS/AS, where the MBMS bearer information is carried, such as: TMGI;

Phase B: Application Layer Registration and UE Location Collection

Step S20B01, the UE initiates application layer registration to the SCS/AS.

Step S20B02, after receiving the registration request of the UE, the SCS/AS sends a join group request to the MTC-IWF, carrying a group identifier (Group-ID) and a UE identifier (UE-ID);

Step S20B03, the MTC-IWF subscribes to the location information of the UE to the PCRF. The PCRF returns the latest location information of the UE to the MTC-IWF;

Then, if the location information of the UE changes, the PCRF reports the updated UE location information to the MTC-IWF.

Step S20B04, in response to step S20B02, the MTC-IWF returns a join group response to the SCS/AS;

Step S20B05, the SCS/GCAS returns a registration response to the UE, where the reserved MBMS bearer information, such as TMGI, is carried;

Step S20B06, after receiving the MBMS bearer information, the UE monitors the MBMS broadcast according to the MBMS bearer information to obtain the MBMS data.

Phase C: Group Addressing

Step S20C01, according to the service requirement, the SCS/AS determines to initiate group addressing;

Step S20C02, the SCS/AS sends a group addressing request to the MTC-IWF, where the group identifier (Group-ID) and the group addressing message are carried;

Step S20C03, the MTC-IWF sends a location mapping request to the BM-SC, and carries a cell location list (CellList);

After receiving the step S20C02, the MTC-IWF obtains the intra-group UE list according to the group identifier, and generates a cell location list according to the location information of the intra-group UE reported by the PCRF in the foregoing step.

Step S20C04, the BM-SC maps the cell location list into an MBMS SAI List, and returns a location mapping response to the SCS/GCAS, where the mapped MBMS service area list and the cell location that cannot be mapped are carried. List (Non Mapping Cell List);

Step S20C05, the MTC-IWF decision initiates MBMS data delivery to deliver a group addressing message;

In this step, the MTC-IWF judges to initiate MBMS data delivery in the same manner as the method of step S18C04 of FIG.

Step S20C06, the MTC-IWF sends MBMS data to the BM-SC, where the group addressing message is carried. According to the MBMS data delivery process, the UE reads the MBMS data to obtain a group addressing message.

Step S20C07, the MTC-IWF decision initiates a terminal-based activation request to some UEs;

In this step, the MTC-IWF judges the originating terminal activation request in the same manner as the method of step S18C06 of Fig. 18.

Step S20C08, the MTC-IWF sends a terminal activation request to the SMSC, where the group addressing message is carried. According to the terminal activation process, the terminal activation message is delivered to the corresponding UE;

In this step, the MTC-IWF performs a terminal activation procedure for each UE that needs to perform terminal activation.

Step S20C09, the MTC-IWF sends a group addressing response to the SCS/AS;

Step S2010: After receiving the group addressing message, the UE initiates bearer creation to the network according to requirements, and then initiates application layer message interaction with the SCS/GCAS.

Embodiment 3: Architecture 3:

FIG. 21 is a schematic diagram of a group addressing architecture according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 21, wherein:

(1) Introducing an API Gateway (API Gateway) in the network, calling the operator network capability, and implementing calls to the MTC-IWF, BM-SC, and PCRF;

(2) API GW provides API, or Tsp interface enhancement, for SCS/AS call, to achieve group addressing call;

(3) The API GW implements the Tsp interface, and calls the MTC-IWF to implement terminal activation;

(4) API GW implements MB2 interface, and calls BM-SC to implement MBMS data delivery;

(5) The API GW implements the Rx interface, and invokes the PCRF to implement the query/subscription of the UE location;

FIG. 22 is a flowchart of group addressing according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 22, the flow includes the following steps:

Compared with the flow shown in FIG. 20, the flow shown in FIG. 22 is as follows:

In step S22A1, the API GW receives the group addressing preparation request sent by the SCS/AS, and the API GW invokes the BM-SC to apply for the TMGI resource.

In step S22B3, after receiving the join group request sent by the SCS/AS, the API GW subscribes to the PCRF to subscribe to the UE location information.

In step S22C05, step S22C07, the API GW decides to use MBMS data delivery and SMS terminal activation to implement group addressing;

In the flow shown in FIG. 22, the API GW is a centralized control point for controlling MBMS bearer resources, collecting UE location information in a group, deciding MBMS data delivery, and SMS terminal activation.

Embodiment 4:

In the flow shown in FIG. 18, 20, and 22, whether the SCS, the MTC-IWF, or the API GW collects the location information of the UE, after the UE initiates an application registration message to the SCS/AS.

FIG. 23 is a flowchart of group addressing according to Embodiment 4 of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 23, when the SCS/AS initiates a group addressing preparation request, the location information of the UE in the collection group is triggered.

As shown in Figure 23, the following steps are included:

Step S23A01, the SCS/AS sends a group addressing preparation request to the API GW, and carries a group identifier (Group-ID) and an intra-group UE identifier list (UE ID List);

Step S23A02, the API GW sends an MBMS bearer reservation request to the BM-SC.

Step S23A03, the BM-SC returns an MBMS bearer reservation response to the API GW, where the MBMS bearer information, such as TMGI, is carried;

Step S23A04, for each UE in the group, the API GW subscribes to the PCRF for UE location information;

The API GW subscribes to the UEF location information according to the intra-group UE identity list provided by the SCS/AS in step S23A01.

Step S23A05, the API GW returns a group addressing preparation response to the SCS/AS, where the MBMS bearer information is carried, such as: TMGI;

So far, the API GW has subscribed to the PCRF for the location information of the UE in the group, and can decide whether to initiate the MBMS data delivery or the SMS terminal activation according to the location information of the UE in the group, and the following group is addressed. Thereafter, as shown in S10C01 to S10C10 in the flow of Fig. 22, the subsequent steps are continued.

In the flow shown in FIG. 23, the intra-group UE list obtained by the API GW is provided by the SCS/AS in step S23A01.

Alternatively, the SCS/AS does not provide a list of UEs in the group, and the API GW obtains a list of UEs in the group from the HSS query. That is, in the UE subscription data in the HSS, group ID information is stored, and the API GW initiates a query request to the HSS, and the HSS returns the UE list in the group according to the group identifier in the UE subscription data.

Embodiment 5:

In the flow of FIG. 18, 20, 22, and 23, the SCS/MTC-IWF/API GW decides whether to initiate a separate terminal activation for the intra-group UE that fails to receive the MBMS data (which carries the group addressing message), according to the group. The location where the UE is currently located is determined, that is, according to whether the location of the UE in the group is within the MBMS service area.

In another method, after the SCS/AS initiates the group addressing, the group addressing timer is started. After the group addressing timer expires, if the UE in the group is still not addressed, the UE does not initiate the UE. The SCS/AS actively initiates terminal activation to these UEs or attempts to initiate downlink messages on the GC1 signaling.

24 is a flow chart of group addressing according to Embodiment 5 of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 24, the flow includes the following steps:

Steps S24A01 to S24A05, like the flow (S11A01 to S11A05) in FIG. 23, the SCS/AS initiates group addressing preparation, and the API GW requests the BM-SC to reserve MBMS resources for the group. At the same time, the API GW subscribes to the PCRF for location information of the UEs in the group.

Step S24B01 to step S24B02, the UE initiates application registration to the SCS/AS, and the SCS/AS returns MBMS resource information, such as TMGI, in the registration response;

Step S24C01 to step S24C03, according to the service requirement, the SCS/AS decision initiates the group addressing, and the SCS/AS initiates a group addressing request to the API GW. At the same time, the SCS/AS start group addressing timer;

Step S24C04 to step S24C08, as shown in FIG. 22, the API GW initiates MBMS data delivery, carries a group addressing message, and returns a group addressing response to the SCS/AS;

Step S24C09, after receiving the MBMS data, the UE initiates an application interaction to the SCS/AS according to the group addressing message.

Step S24C10 to step S24C12, after the group addressing timer expires, the SCS/AS initiates SMS-based terminal activation for the intra-group UE that does not initiate application interaction with the SCS/AS in time. These UEs initiate application interactions with the SCS/AS in response to terminal activation.

Of course, in step S24C10 to step S24C12, the SCS/AS may also try to send and send application layer messages on the GC1 interface to the intra-group UE that does not initiate application interaction with the SCS/AS in time. If the target terminal does not respond, try again. The terminal initiates an SMS based terminal activation.

Specifically, the SCS/AS may generate a UE identifier list that does not return a group addressing response in time according to the response of the UE in the group to the group addressing message, and send the UE identifier list to the API GW, and the triggering API GW initiates the basement for the UEs. The terminal of the SMS is activated.

In addition, in the processes of the foregoing Embodiment 1 to Embodiment 5, the method for collecting the location of the UE in the group is to initiate a location query to the PCRF. This method can obtain the latest location of the UE in time for a UE that does not reside in a fixed area. However, this method may bring more location query signaling, which is not a very economical method for UEs in the fixed area.

An improved method is that the MTC-IWF, or API GW, can query the location information of the UEs in the group from the HSS. For a UE with a fixed location area residing feature, a resident area of the UE (eg, a Cell-ID of the camped cell) may be stored in the HSS, so that the location information may be returned to the MTC-IWF, API GW. . After the MTC-IWF and the API GW query the location information of the UE in the group from the HSS, the UE may determine that the dynamic UE location query is not initiated to the PCRF according to the local policy configuration, so as to minimize the signaling overhead caused by the UE location query process. .

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the various modules or steps of the present invention described above can be implemented by a general-purpose computing device that can be centralized on a single computing device or distributed across multiple computing devices. Optionally, they may be implemented by program code executable by the computing device such that they may be stored in the storage device by the computing device and, in some cases, may be different from this The steps shown or described are performed sequentially, or they are separately fabricated into individual integrated circuit modules, or a plurality of modules or steps thereof are fabricated into a single integrated circuit module. Thus, the invention is not limited to any specific combination of hardware and software.

The above description is only the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the present invention, and various modifications and changes can be made to the present invention. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc. made within the spirit and scope of the present invention are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention.

Industrial applicability

As described above, the above embodiments and the preferred embodiments solve the problem that when the UE is group addressed by using the MBMS broadcast in the related art, the UE cannot be addressed to the UE, and the system overhead is increased, thereby improving the UE. The effect of addressing efficiency.

Claims

A group addressing processing method includes:

Receiving a group addressing request sent by the application server AS, where the group addressing request carries a group identifier;

Determining, according to the group identifier, an MBMS service area of a multimedia broadcast/multicast service MBMS for group addressing;

The MBMS data delivery is initiated according to the determined MBMS service area, where the MBMS data delivery carries a group addressing message.
The method of claim 1, wherein before determining the MBMS service area of the MBMS for group addressing, the method further comprises:

Sending a location mapping request to the broadcast mode service center BM-SC, where the location mapping request carries a location information list of the UE;

Receiving a location mapping response returned by the BM-SC, where the location mapping response carries an MBMS service area list and a UE location information list that cannot be mapped to an MBMS service area.
The method of claim 2 wherein determining the MBMS service area of the MBMS for group addressing comprises:

And determining, according to the MBMS service area list carried in the location mapping response, and the UE location information list that cannot be mapped to the MBMS service area, determining an MBMS service area for group addressing.
The method according to claim 2, wherein before the sending of the location mapping request to the broadcast mode service center BM-SC, the method further comprises: obtaining the location information of the intra-group UE corresponding to the group identifier by using at least one of the following manners:

Querying the home location server HSS for location information of the UE in the group;

The policy charging rule entity PCRF is used to query the location information of the UEs in the group.
The method of claim 1, wherein after determining the MBMS service area for the multimedia broadcast/multicast service for group addressing, after initiating the MBMS data delivery, the method further comprises:

The intra-group UEs that are group-addressable in a manner that cannot be delivered by MBMS data are addressed by means of terminal activation.
The method according to claim 5, wherein before the intra-group UE that performs group addressing in a manner in which the MBMS data delivery cannot be performed is addressed by means of terminal activation, the method further comprises determining that the MBMS cannot be adopted by at least one of the following manners. The group of UEs that are group addressed by way of data delivery:

Determining, according to the obtained location information of the UE in the group, the group UE that cannot perform group addressing by using MBMS data delivery;

Receiving, by the application server AS, the intra-group UE that is addressed by using a terminal activation manner;

It is determined that after the group addressing timer expires, the UE that has not received the group addressing response is the intra-group UE that cannot be group addressed by means of MBMS data delivery.
A group addressing processing method includes:

Receiving a location mapping request, where the location mapping request carries a location information list of the UE;

Mapping the location information of the UE into a multimedia broadcast/multicast service MBMS service area;

Sending a location mapping response to the requester that sends the location mapping request, where the location mapping response carries an MBMS service area list, and a UE location information list that cannot be mapped to an MBMS service area, where the location mapping response is used Group addressing processing is performed on the requesting party.
A group addressing processing device comprising:

a first receiving module, configured to receive a group addressing request sent by the application server AS, where the group addressing request carries a group identifier;

a first determining module, configured to determine, according to the group identifier, an MBMS service area of a multimedia broadcast/multicast service MBMS for group addressing;

The initiating module is configured to initiate MBMS data delivery according to the determined MBMS service area, where the MBMS data delivery carries a group addressing message.
The apparatus of claim 8 further comprising:

a first sending module, configured to send a location mapping request to the broadcast mode service center BM-SC, where the location mapping request carries a location information list of the UE;

The second receiving module is configured to receive the location mapping response returned by the BM-SC, where the location mapping response carries an MBMS service area list and a UE location information list that cannot be mapped to the MBMS service area.
The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the first determining module comprises:

The determining unit is configured to determine the MBMS service area for group addressing according to the MBMS service area list carried in the location mapping response and the UE location information list that cannot be mapped to the MBMS service area.
The device according to claim 9, further comprising: an obtaining module, configured to acquire location information of the UE in the group corresponding to the group identifier by using at least one of the following manners:

Querying the home location server HSS for location information of the UE in the group;

The policy charging rule entity PCRF is used to query the location information of the UEs in the group.
The apparatus of claim 8 further comprising:

The addressing module is configured to address the group of UEs that cannot be group addressed by means of MBMS data delivery, and is addressed by means of terminal activation.
The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising: a second determining module configured to determine, within at least one of: the group of UEs that are not group addressable by means of MBMS data delivery:

Determining, according to the obtained location information of the UE in the group, the group UE that cannot perform group addressing by using MBMS data delivery;

Receiving, by the application server AS, the intra-group UE that is addressed by using a terminal activation manner;

It is determined that after the group addressing timer expires, the UE that has not received the group addressing response is the intra-group UE that cannot be group addressed by means of MBMS data delivery.
A machine type communication MTC intercommunication gateway comprising the apparatus of any one of claims 8 to 13.
An application interface gateway API GW comprising the apparatus of any one of claims 8 to 13.
A group addressing processing device comprising:

a third receiving module, configured to receive a location mapping request, where the location mapping request carries a location information list of the UE;

a mapping module, configured to map location information of the UE into a multimedia broadcast/multicast service MBMS service area;

a second sending module, configured to send a location mapping response to the requester that sends the location mapping request, where the location mapping response carries an MBMS service area list, and a UE location information list that cannot be mapped to the MBMS service area The location mapping response is used by the requesting party to perform group addressing processing.
A broadcast mode service center BM-SC comprising the group addressing processing apparatus of claim 16.