WO2018027932A1

WO2018027932A1 - Method and terminal device for discovering neighboring cell

Info

Publication number: WO2018027932A1
Application number: PCT/CN2016/094949
Authority: WO
Inventors: 杨晓东; 李秉肇; 张戬
Original assignee: 华为技术有限公司
Priority date: 2016-08-12
Filing date: 2016-08-12
Publication date: 2018-02-15
Also published as: CN109565899A

Abstract

Provided in the present invention are a method and terminal device for discovering a neighboring cell, comprising: when a terminal device in a first cell of a paging area is in a first state or a second state and performs cell reselection, the terminal device determining a second cell; the terminal device recording neighboring cell information, the neighboring cell information comprising information of the first cell and/or information of the second cell; and the neighboring cell information is used by a network device to determine a neighboring cell of the paging area. In the embodiments of the present invention, a terminal device determines a second cell by performing cell reselection in a first cell of a paging area, and records neighboring cell information, the neighboring cell information comprising information of the first cell and/or information of the second cell; and the neighboring cell information is used by a network device to determine a neighboring cell of the paging area. The network device can thus discover a neighboring cell of the paging area, thereby allowing the network device to recognize the terminal device when the terminal device is in the neighboring cell.

Description

Method and terminal device for discovering neighboring cells

Technical field

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and more specifically to a method and a terminal device for discovering a neighboring cell in the field of communications.

Background technique

Currently, in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the network may instruct the UE to enter a light connection state from a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connected state. This can reduce the signaling load when the UE transitions from the idle state to the RRC connected state. After entering the light connection state, the UE will listen to the paging message of the network to determine whether the network pages itself.

The UE in the light connection state does not need the base station to instruct the UE to perform handover when changing the camped cell, but selects a suitable cell camp according to its own mobility. For example, when the UE measures a cell with better signal quality or higher strength, it may choose to camp in the cell. The UE provides a data transmission service by the serving base station of the cell in the camped cell. The network device configures a paging area for the UE in the light connection state, in which the UE mobile does not notify the network device, and the network device only pages the UE in the paging area. However, when the UE moves to a cell outside the paging area, the network device does not know the relationship between the cell and the paging area, and the network device cannot identify the UE in the cell.

Summary of the invention

The embodiment of the present invention provides a method for discovering a neighboring cell and a terminal device, where the terminal device can discover a neighboring cell of a paging area, and record information of a neighboring cell of the paging area.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for discovering a neighboring cell, including:

When the terminal device is in the first state or the second state in the first cell in the paging area and performs cell reselection, determining the second cell, where the second cell does not belong to the paging area and/or Or in the second cell, the terminal device can be in the second state, when the terminal device is in the first state, the terminal device monitors paging, and does not retain the context of the terminal device. Information, when the terminal device is in the second state, the terminal device monitors paging, and retains context information of the terminal device;

The terminal device records neighbor cell information, where the neighbor cell information includes information of the first cell and/or information of the second cell, where the neighbor cell information is used by the network device to determine the paging The neighboring cell of the area.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the terminal device determines the second cell by performing cell reselection in the first cell in the paging area, and records the neighbor cell information, where the neighbor cell information includes information of the first cell and/or the second cell. Information, the neighboring cell information is used by a network device to determine a neighboring cell of the paging area, where the neighboring cell information is used by a network device to discover a neighboring cell of the paging area, and then the terminal device is in the neighboring cell. The network device can recognize the terminal device.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the first state is an idle state, and the second state is a light connection state. Here, at least one cell may be included in the paging area. When there are multiple cells in the paging area, an interconnection interface is established between the multiple cells. The first cell is a serving cell of the terminal device in the paging area. When the terminal device is in the light connection state, the cell information in the paging area is stored in the cell in the paging area, and the context information may be sent from one cell to another through the interconnection interface between the cells.

It can be understood that when there is only one cell in the paging area, the neighbor cell information recorded by the terminal device may only include information of the neighboring cell. When there are multiple cells in the paging area, the neighbor cell information recorded by the terminal device may include information of the serving cell and information of the neighboring cell. When the terminal device sends the neighbor cell information to the second network device, the neighbor cell information recorded by the terminal device may only include information of the serving cell.

Optionally, the terminal device may further send the neighbor cell information to the network device, where the neighbor cell information is used by the network device to determine a neighboring cell of the paging area. After determining the neighboring cell of the paging area, the network device may establish an interconnection interface between the first cell and the second cell, and then determine the second cell as a cell in the paging area.

Optionally, before the determining, by the terminal device, the second cell, the method further includes: the terminal device receiving a system message of the second cell, where the system message indicates that the terminal device is in the second cell The second state is described.

The second cell can broadcast the system message. When the terminal device is at the edge of the second cell, the terminal device can receive the system message, and the terminal device can know that it can be in the light connection state in the second cell.

Optionally, before the determining, by the terminal device, the second cell, the terminal device further includes: the terminal device receiving an indication message sent by the cell in the paging area, where the indication message is used to indicate that the terminal is configured Entering the first state or the second state; the terminal device enters the first state or the second state according to the indication message.

Here, the cell in the paging area may be the first cell or may not be the first cell. For example, the terminal device may receive the indication message in the third cell in the paging area to enter the first state or the second state. When the terminal device moves to the first cell, cell reselection is performed to determine the second cell.

Optionally, the first cell is an LTE cell or a 5G cell, and the neighboring cell information further includes an indication field, where the indication field is used to indicate that the neighbor cell information is neighbor cell information or an indication station of the LTE cell. The neighbor cell information is neighbor cell information of a 5G cell.

For example, the indication field may be two bits. When the value of the two bits is 00, it indicates that there is no valid neighbor cell information. When the neighbor cell information is transmitted to the LTE network, the value of the bit is 01, indicating that the recorded neighbor cell information of the LTE is valid. When the neighbor cell information is transmitted to the 5G network, when the value of the bit is 10, it indicates that the recorded 5G neighbor cell information is valid. The two bits are 11 indicating that the neighbor cell information of LTE and the neighbor cell information of 5G are both valid.

Optionally, the information of the first cell includes at least one of an identifier of the first cell, a reference signal received quality RSRQ, and a reference signal received power RSRP, where the information of the second cell includes the second cell At least one of an identity, an RSRQ, an RSRP, a public land mobile network PLMN, and frequency information.

In a second aspect, a terminal device is provided for performing the method of any of the foregoing first aspect or any alternative implementation of the first aspect. In particular, the terminal device comprises a modular unit for performing the method of any of the possible implementations of the first aspect described above.

In a third aspect, a terminal device is provided for performing the method of any of the foregoing first aspect or any of the possible implementations of the first aspect, the terminal device comprising a processor, a memory, a receiver, and a transmitter, The memory is configured to store an instruction for scheduling an uplink resource, the processor is configured to execute the instruction stored by the memory, and is driven by the instruction to perform a scheduling operation: in a first cell in a paging area Determining a second cell in a first state or a second state and performing cell reselection, wherein the second cell does not belong to the paging area and/or the terminal device in the second cell Being capable of being in the second state, when the terminal device is in the first state, the terminal device monitors paging, and does not retain context information of the terminal device, where the terminal device is in the second state In the state, the terminal device monitors the paging and retains the context information of the terminal device;

Recording neighbor cell information, where the neighbor cell information includes information of the first cell and/or information of the second cell, where the neighbor cell information is used by a network device to determine a neighboring cell of the paging area .

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a computer readable medium for storing a computer program, the computer program comprising instructions for performing the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect.

DRAWINGS

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings to be used in the embodiments of the present invention will be briefly described below. It is obvious that the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention, Those skilled in the art can also obtain other drawings based on these drawings without paying any creative work.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario of an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is an interaction flowchart of a method for restoring a connection according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an interaction flowchart of another method for discovering a neighboring cell according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a schematic block diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of another terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

detailed description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention are clearly and completely described in the following with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. It is obvious that the described embodiments are a part of the embodiments of the present invention, but not all embodiments. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention without creative efforts shall fall within the scope of the present invention.

It should be understood that the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention can be applied to various communication systems, for example, Global System of Mobile communication ("GSM") system, Code Division Multiple Access (Code Division Multiple Access, referred to as "CDMA") system, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) system, General Packet Radio Service ("GPRS"), Long Term Evolution (Long Term Evolution, Referred to as "LTE" system, LTE Frequency Division Duplex ("FDD") system, LTE Time Division Duplex (TDD), Universal Mobile Telecommunication System, referred to as "UMTS" for short, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) communication system or future 5G system.

In particular, the technical solution of the embodiments of the present invention can be applied to various communication systems based on non-orthogonal multiple access technologies, such as a sparse code multiple access (SCMA) system, and low. The Density Signature (Low Density Signature, hereinafter referred to as "LDS") system, etc., of course, the SCMA system and the LDS system may also be referred to as other names in the communication field; further, the technical solution of the embodiment of the present invention may be applied to adopt non-orthogonal Multi-carrier transmission system with multiple access technology, for example, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), filter bank multi-carrier (Filter Bank Multi-) Carrier (abbreviated as "FBMC"), Generalized Frequency Division Multiplexing ("GFDM"), and Filtered-OFDM ("F-OFDM") system.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the access network may be a radio access network (RAN), and specifically, may be a base station. The base station may be a Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) system or a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) in a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system, or may be a wideband code division multiple access ( A base station (NodeB) in a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) system, which may also be an evolved base station (Evolutional Node B, eNB or eNodeB) in an LTE system, or a base station device in a 5G (5th Generation) network, The small base station device and the like are not limited in the present invention.

The terminal device can communicate with one or more core networks via a radio access network (Radio Access Network, hereinafter referred to as "RAN"). The terminal device can be referred to as an access terminal or a user equipment (User Equipment, simply referred to as a "terminal device". "), subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, mobile station, remote station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, terminal, wireless communication device, user agent or user device. The access terminal may be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a Session Initiation Protocol ("SSIP") phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, and a personal digital processing (Personal Digital) Assistant, referred to as "PDA" for short, handheld devices with wireless communication capabilities, computing devices or other processing devices connected to wireless modems, in-vehicle devices, wearable devices, and terminal devices in future 5G networks.

FIG. 1 shows an application scenario diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. In the embodiment of the present invention, the network device may be a base station in the LTE system or an access network entity in the 5G system. Network design A paging area is configured for the terminal device that enters the light connection state, the paging area may include multiple cells, and an interconnection interface is established between multiple cells, and multiple cells can communicate through the interconnection interface. The interconnection interface is, for example, an X2 interface.

For example, the network device in FIG. 1 configures Cell 1 (Cell 1), Cell 2 (Cell 2), and Cell 3 (Cell 3) as the paging area of the terminal device 20, and the arrow between the cells in FIG. 1 indicates the cell. There is an interconnect interface between them.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the terminal device that maintains the RRC connection with the base station may enter the light connection state under the instruction of the base station. The light connection state may be a substate of the connected state, an enhanced state of the idle state, or an independent state. The light connection state can also be referred to as an inactive state, a deactivated state, a low active state, a low overhead state, and the like. The embodiment of the present invention does not specifically limit the form and name of the light connection state. The terminal device in the light connection state saves the context related to the connection configuration and performs mobility based on cell reselection.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic interaction diagram of a method of restoring an RRC connection in one embodiment of the present invention. The same reference numerals in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 denote the same meanings, and the network device 10 in Fig. 2 may be the network device providing the cell in Fig. 1.

S102. The network device 10 sends a light connection indication message to the terminal device 20, where the light connection indication message is used to indicate that the terminal device enters a light connection state. The light connection indication message may carry a recovery identifier allocated by the network device for the terminal device, and the recovery identifier may identify the terminal device when the terminal device resumes the RRC connection. It can be understood that the network device can assign different recovery identifiers to different terminal devices.

S104, the network device 10 and the terminal device 20 enter a light connection state, that is, the terminal device enters an idle state, and the network device and the terminal device reserve the context of the terminal device. After entering the light connection state, the terminal device can monitor whether the base station sends a paging message to it. In the embodiment of the present invention, the idle state is the first state, that is, the terminal device can listen to the paging of the network device when the terminal device is in the first state, but neither the terminal device nor the network device stores the context information of the terminal device. The light connection state is referred to as the second state, that is, when the terminal device is in the second state, the paging of the network device can be monitored, and the terminal device and the network device both retain the context information of the terminal device.

The network device may configure a paging area for the terminal device when the terminal device enters the light connection state or before the terminal device enters the light connection state, and the paging area may be, for example, Cell 1, Cell 2, and Cell 3 in FIG. When the terminal device moves between cells in the paging area, the network location update is not notified. The base station will also only page the terminal equipment in the paging area.

S106. The terminal device 20 sends a request message to the network device 10, where the request message is used to request to return to the RRC connected state. At this time, the request message carries the recovery identifier allocated by the network device for the terminal device, that is, the request message carries the recovery identifier in S102.

S108. The network device 10 sends a resume connection indication message to the terminal device 20, where the resume connection indication message is used to instruct the terminal device to resume the RRC connection state. Based on the recovery identifier, the network device can determine which terminal device initiates the RRC recovery process, thereby performing RRC connection recovery with the terminal device according to the stored context of the terminal device.

It should be noted that between S104 and S106, the terminal device is in a light connection state. If the terminal device moves to a cell outside the paging area, the terminal device needs to notify the network device to perform location update.

However, when the terminal device moves to a cell outside the paging area, since the network device does not know that the cell is a neighboring cell of one cell in the paging area, there may be no X2 interface between the cell and the cell in the paging area. This will cause the terminal device to not recognize the terminal device when notifying the network location update.

FIG. 3 is a schematic flow chart showing a method for discovering a neighboring cell according to an embodiment of the scenario shown in FIG. 1 to which the present invention is applied. It should be understood that the steps or operations of the method of discovering neighboring cells are illustrated in FIG. 3, but the steps or operations are merely examples, and embodiments of the present invention may perform other operations or variations of the operations in FIG. Moreover, the various steps in FIG. 3 may be performed in a different order as presented in FIG. 3, and it is possible that not all of the operations in FIG. 3 are to be performed. The same reference numerals in FIG. 3 as those in FIG. 1 denote the same or similar meanings, and are not described herein again for the sake of brevity. The first network device 10 in FIG. 3 may be a network device in a paging area, and the second network device 30 may be a network device in a neighboring cell discovered by the terminal.

S202. The first network device 10 configures a paging area for the terminal device 20.

When the operator deploys the network, the network side device can provide both the LTE cell and the 5G cell. Generally, when the neighboring cell of the LTE cell is a 5G cell, there is no interconnected interface between the cell between the LTE cell and the cell between the 5Gs. Therefore, when the terminal device moves from the LTE cell to the 5G cell, or from the 5G. When the cell moves to the cell of LTE, the network device cannot recognize the terminal device.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the radio access technologies of the cells in the paging area may be the same. For example, the cells in the paging area may be LTE cells or all 5G cells. The radio access technology of the cells in the paging area may be different. For example, the cells in the paging area include a cell of LTE and a cell of 5G. Wireless access technologies including GSM, CDMA, WCDMA, LTE and 5G access Technology, etc.

For example, in FIG. 1, when Cell 1, Cell 2, and Cell 3 are LTE cells, and there is an X2 interface between Cell 1, Cell 2, and Cell 3, the base station can configure Cell 1, Cell 2, and Cell 3 as terminals. An LTE paging area of the device. Cell 4 (Cell 4), Cell 5 (Cell 5), and Cell 6 (Cell 6) may be 5G cells, and when there is an interconnection interface between Cell 4, Cell 5, and Cell 6, the base station is configured with Cell 4, Cell 5, and Cell 6 is a 5G paging area of the terminal device. Alternatively, the base station can simultaneously configure Cell 1, Cell 2, Cell 3, Cell 4, Cell 5, and Cell 6 as one LTE and 5G hybrid paging area of the terminal device.

For details, refer to the description in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2 above. To avoid repetition, details are not described herein again.

S204. The first network device 10 sends a configuration message to the terminal device 20.

Specifically, when the first network device and the terminal device are in an RRC connected state, the first network device may send the configuration message to the terminal device, where the configuration message is used to indicate that the terminal device performs log recording of the neighboring cell.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the configuration message may further include indication information for instructing the terminal device to record the duration of the neighboring cell, for example, the terminal device may be instructed to record the neighboring cell within 2 hours after entering the light connection state. Alternatively, the configuration message may further carry indication information indicating that the radio access technology of the neighboring cell that is recorded is 5G or LTE, for example, the terminal device may be instructed to perform the recording of the neighbor cell information only in the cell of the 5G, and the embodiment of the present invention This is not limited.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, when the configuration message indicates that the terminal device performs the log recording of the neighboring cell, the terminal device may record the information of the neighboring cell when the idle state is in an idle state, and may perform an RRC connection between the terminal device and the network device. The information of the recorded neighboring cell is reported to the network device.

S206. The first network device 10 sends an indication message to the terminal device 20. The indication message is used to indicate that the terminal device enters a light connection state or an idle state.

Here, the idle state may be referred to as a first state, and the light connect state may be referred to as a second state. Specifically, when the indication message indicates that the terminal device enters the light connection state, the indication message may be the light connection indication message in FIG. 2 . For details, refer to the description of S102 in FIG. 2 above. .

S208. The connection relationship between the first network device 10 and the terminal device 20 enters a light connection state or an idle state. That is, when the terminal device enters the idle state, the context of the terminal device can be reserved. at this time, The first network device can also retain the context of the terminal device.

S210. The terminal device 20 receives the system message broadcast by the second network device 30.

Specifically, the second network device may broadcast the system message, and when the terminal device in the idle state or the light connection state is at the edge of the paging area or the terminal device enters the cell of the second network device, the terminal device can receive the second network. The system message broadcast by the device. The system message indicates that the cell of the second network device supports the light connection feature of the terminal device, that is, when the terminal device is in the idle state in the cell of the second network device, the cell of the second network device may reserve the terminal device. Context.

S212. The terminal device 20 determines a neighboring cell.

In the embodiment of the present invention, when the terminal device is in the light connection state or the idle state, and the terminal device moves to the edge of the first cell in the paging area, the terminal device is triggered to perform cell reselection, and the terminal device can discover the A neighboring cell of a cell. It can be understood that the first cell can be any one of the paging areas. When the neighboring cell discovered by the terminal device in the first cell also belongs to the paging area, the terminal device does not record the information of the cell. When the neighboring cell discovered by the cell in the cell does not belong to the paging zone, the terminal device determines that the neighboring cell is the neighboring cell of the paging zone, and the terminal device needs to perform neighbor cell recording.

For example, in FIG. 1, the paging areas of the terminal device 20 are Cell 1, Cell 2, and Cell 3. When the serving cell of the terminal device 20 in the light connection state is Cell 1, and the terminal device moves to the edge of Cell 1, the terminal device is triggered to perform cell reselection, and at this time, the terminal device can determine that Cell4 is a neighboring cell of Cell 1. When Cell 4 does not belong to the paging area of the terminal device, the terminal device may determine that Cell 4 is a neighboring cell of the paging area. Alternatively, when the terminal device receives the system message described in S210 sent by the Cell 4, the terminal device may determine that the Cell 4 is a neighboring cell of the paging area. Alternatively, when the Cell 4 does not belong to the paging area of the terminal device, and the terminal device receives the system message described in S210 transmitted by the Cell 4, the terminal device may determine that the Cell 4 is the neighboring cell of the paging area.

For another example, when the terminal device 20 moves to the edge of the cell 1, and it is determined that the Cell 3 is the neighboring cell of the Cell 1, but the Cell 3 belongs to the paging area of the terminal device, the terminal device determines that the Cell 3 is not the neighboring cell of the paging area.

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present invention, when the paging area is Cell 1, Cell 2, and Cell 3, the first network device may be a base station in Cell 1, Cell 2, or Cell 3. When the terminal device moves in the paging area, Cell 1, Cell 2, and Cell 3 can respectively serve as serving cells of the terminal device. At this time, the terminal device can determine the neighboring cell in its serving cell, and further determine whether the neighboring cell is It is the neighboring cell of the paging area.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the radio access technology of the neighboring cell of the paging area may be the same as the radio access technology of the serving cell of the terminal device. Alternatively, in the embodiment of the present invention, the radio access technology of the neighboring cell of the paging area may be different from the radio access technology of the serving cell of the terminal device. For example, when the radio access technology of the serving cell of the terminal device is LTE, the neighboring cell of the paging area discovered by the terminal device may be 5G, or when the radio access technology of the serving cell of the terminal device is 5G, the terminal device discovers The neighboring cell of the paging area may be LTE, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

S214. The terminal device 20 records neighbor cell information.

Specifically, the terminal device may record neighbor cell information, where the neighbor cell information includes information of a serving cell of the terminal device and/or information of a neighboring cell of the serving cell. Specifically, the information of the serving cell includes at least one of an identifier of a serving cell, a reference signal receiving quality (RSRQ), and a reference signal receiving power (RSRP), and the information of the neighboring cell The at least one of an identifier of a neighboring cell, an RSRQ, an RSRP, a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN), and frequency information is included.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the neighbor cell information recorded by the terminal device may be manually obtained, and the neighbor cell information is configured into the network device. The network device can perform unified deployment on the cells in the network according to the information of the neighboring cell. For example, an interface that is interconnected between the first cell and the second cell may be established, or the second cell may be set as one of the paging areas of the terminal device, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

S216. The terminal device 20 sends neighbor cell information.

Specifically, the terminal device 20 may send neighbor cell information to the first network device 10 or the second network device 20. The second network device 20 is the network device in the neighboring cell determined by the terminal device in S212.

Specifically, in the connection process of the RRC between the terminal device and the network device, the terminal device may send the neighbor cell information to the network device, or the terminal device may send the indication to the network device. The indication message indicates that the terminal device records a valid neighboring cell message, and the valid neighboring cell message may be the information of the neighboring cell recorded by the terminal device. In this way, the network device can know the information of the neighboring cell of the paging device in the terminal device, and the network device can instruct the terminal device to send the neighbor cell information to the terminal device according to its own needs. Here, the network device includes a first network device 10 and a second network device 20.

In the embodiment of the present invention, when the first network device configures Cell 1, Cell 2, and Cell 3 as the paging area of the LTE of the terminal device, the terminal device may only access the network device when the connected network device is the LTE system. Send a neighbor indication message. Alternatively, when the first network device configures the Cell 4, the Cell 5, and the Cell 6 as the 5G paging area of the terminal device, the terminal device may send the neighboring cell to the network device only when the connected network device is a 5G system. .

When Cell 1, Cell 2, and Cell 3 are LTE cells, Cell 4, Cell 5, and Cell 6 are 5G cells, and the base station is configured with Cell 1, Cell 2, Cell 3, Cell 4, Cell 5, and Cell 6 as one of the terminal devices. When the LTE and 5G hybrid paging areas are used, the terminal device may record the neighbor cell information of Cell 1, Cell 2, or Cell 3 as the first neighbor cell information, and record the neighbor cell information of Cell 4, Cell 5, and Cell 6 as the second neighbor. Cell information. At this time, when the terminal device is connected to the LTE network or the 5G network, the first neighbor cell information and/or the second neighbor cell information may be sent to the network device.

At this time, the terminal device may further send an indication field for indicating that the first neighbor cell information is valid or the second neighbor cell information is valid. For example, the indication field may be two bits. When the value of the two bits is 00, it indicates that there is no valid neighbor cell information. When the neighbor cell information is transmitted to the LTE network, the value of the bit is 01, indicating that the first neighbor cell information is valid. When the neighbor cell information is transmitted to the 5G network, when the value of the bit is 10, it indicates that the second neighbor cell information is valid. The two bits are 11 indicating that both the first neighbor cell information and the second neighbor cell information are valid.

S218. The first network device 10 establishes an interconnection interface with the second network device 20.

When the terminal device sends the neighbor cell information to the first network device or the second network device, the first network device or the second network device may determine the neighboring cell of the paging area according to the neighbor cell information. Alternatively, the first network device or the second network device may report the neighboring cell information to a higher-level network device, and the network device may determine the neighboring cell of the paging area according to the neighboring cell information, and further perform the cell in the network. unified deployment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the network device may establish an interconnection interface between the serving cell and the neighboring cell, for example, an X2 interface, according to the information of the serving cell included in the neighboring cell indication message and/or the information of the neighboring cell of the paging area. After establishing the interconnection interface between the serving cell and the neighboring cell, the network device may To update the paging area. For example, after the network device establishes the X2 interface of the serving cell Cell 1 and the neighboring cell Cell 4, the network device may update the original paging areas Cell 1, Cell 2, and Cell 3 to the new paging area Cell 1, Cell 2. Cell 3 and Cell 4.

S220. The first network device 10 may send the context information of the terminal device 20 to the second network device 30 through the interconnection interface. At this time, the second network device can identify the terminal device according to the context information of the terminal device. After the network device adds the Cell 4 to the paging area, the terminal device may not perform the location update after moving to the Cell 4.

At this time, the RRC connection between the second network device and the terminal device may be established by using the method for the RRC to recover the RRC by using the first network device and the terminal device, or the terminal device may The context information of the terminal device stored by the terminal device and the second network device is efficiently switched.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present invention, the terminal device determines the second cell by performing cell reselection in the first cell in the paging area, and records the neighbor cell information, where the neighbor cell information includes the information of the first cell and/or the second The information of the cell, the neighboring cell information is used by the network device to determine the neighboring cell of the paging area, so that the network device can discover the neighboring cell of the paging area, and then the network device can be located when the terminal device is in the neighboring cell. Identify the terminal device.

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram of a terminal device 400 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The terminal device 400 includes:

a determining unit 410, configured to determine, by the terminal device, that the second cell is not in the first state or the second state in the first cell in the paging area and performs cell reselection, where the second cell does not Having belong to the paging area and/or the terminal device in the second cell can be in the second state, when the terminal device is in the first state, the terminal device monitors paging, and The context information of the terminal device is not retained, and when the terminal device is in the second state, the terminal device monitors a page and retains context information of the terminal device;

The recording unit 420 is configured to record, by the terminal device, neighbor cell information, where the neighbor cell information includes information of the first cell and/or information of the second cell, where the neighbor cell information is used by the network device The neighboring cell of the paging area is determined.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the terminal device determines the second cell by performing cell reselection in the first cell in the paging area, and records the neighbor cell information, where the neighbor cell information includes information of the first cell and/or the second cell. Information, the neighbor cell information is used by the network device to determine a neighboring cell of the paging area, so that the network device can discover the neighboring cell of the paging area, and then the terminal device is The network device can identify the terminal device when the neighboring cell.

Optionally, the terminal device 400 further includes: a sending unit, configured to send, by the terminal device, the neighbor cell information to the network device.

Optionally, the terminal device 400 further includes: a first receiving unit, configured to receive, by the terminal device, a system message of the second cell, where the system message indicates that the terminal device is in the second cell In the second state.

Optionally, the terminal device 400 further includes:

a second receiving unit, configured to receive, by the terminal device, an indication message sent by a cell in the paging area, where the indication message is used to indicate that the terminal device enters the first state or the second state;

And a processing unit, configured to enter, by the terminal device, the first state or the second state according to the indication message.

It should be noted that in the embodiment of the present invention, the determining unit 410 and the recording unit 420 may be implemented by a processor. As shown in FIG. 5, the terminal device 500 can include a processor 510, a memory 520, a transceiver 530, and a bus system 540. The memory 520 can be used to store code and the like executed by the processor 510.

The various components in terminal device 500 are coupled together by a bus system 540, which in addition to the data bus includes a power bus, a control bus, and a status signal bus. However, for clarity of description, various buses are labeled as bus system 540 in the figure.

In the implementation process, each step of the foregoing method may be completed by an integrated logic circuit of hardware in the processor 410 or an instruction in a form of software. The steps of the method disclosed in the embodiments of the present invention may be directly implemented as a hardware processor, or may be performed by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor. The software module can be located in a conventional storage medium such as random access memory, flash memory, read only memory, programmable read only memory or electrically erasable programmable memory, registers, and the like. The storage medium is located in the memory 520, and the processor 510 reads the information in the memory 520 and completes the steps of the above method in combination with its hardware. To avoid repetition, it will not be described in detail here.

The terminal device 400 shown in FIG. 4 or the terminal device 500 shown in FIG. 10 can implement the processes corresponding to the foregoing method embodiments shown in FIG. 1 to FIG. 3 . Specifically, the terminal device 400 or the terminal device 500 can refer to the foregoing. The descriptions in FIGS. 1 to 3 are not repeated here to avoid repetition.

It should be understood that the term "and/or" herein is merely an association relationship describing an associated object, indicating that there may be three relationships, for example, A and/or B, which may indicate that A exists separately, and A and B exist simultaneously. There are three cases of B alone. In addition, the character "/" in this article generally indicates that the contextual object is an "or" relationship.

It should be understood that, in various embodiments of the present invention, the size of the sequence numbers of the above processes does not mean the order of execution, and the order of execution of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic, and should not be taken to the embodiments of the present invention. The implementation process constitutes any limitation.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the elements and algorithm steps of the various examples described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the solution. A person skilled in the art can use different methods for implementing the described functions for each particular application, but such implementation should not be considered to be beyond the scope of the present invention.

A person skilled in the art can clearly understand that for the convenience and brevity of the description, the specific working process of the system, the device and the unit described above can refer to the corresponding process in the foregoing method embodiment, and details are not described herein again.

In the several embodiments provided by the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices, and methods may be implemented in other manners. For example, the device embodiments described above are merely illustrative. For example, the division of the unit is only a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be another division manner, for example, multiple units or components may be combined or Can be integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. In addition, the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interface, device or unit, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components displayed as units may or may not be physical units, that is, may be located in one place, or may be distributed to multiple network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

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

The functions may be stored in a computer readable storage medium if implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as a standalone product. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present invention, which is essential or contributes to the prior art, or a part of the technical solution, may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium, including The instructions are used to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the methods described in various embodiments of the present invention. The foregoing storage medium includes: a U disk, a mobile hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, and the like. .

The above is only a specific embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily think of changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present invention. It should be covered by the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the invention should be determined by the scope of the claims.

Claims

A method for discovering a neighboring cell, characterized in that it comprises:

When the terminal device is in the first state or the second state in the first cell in the paging area and performs cell reselection, determining the second cell, where the second cell does not belong to the paging area and/or Or in the second cell, the terminal device can be in the second state, when the terminal device is in the first state, the terminal device monitors paging, and does not retain the context of the terminal device. Information, when the terminal device is in the second state, the terminal device monitors paging, and retains context information of the terminal device;

The terminal device records neighbor cell information, where the neighbor cell information includes information of the first cell and/or information of the second cell.
The method of claim 1 further comprising:

The terminal device sends the neighbor cell information to the network device, where the neighbor cell information is used by the network device to determine a neighboring cell of the paging area.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein before the determining, by the terminal device, the second cell, the method further comprises:

The terminal device receives a system message of the second cell, where the system message indicates that the terminal device is in the second state in the second cell.
The method according to any one of claims 1-3, wherein before the determining, by the terminal device, the second cell, the method further includes:

Receiving, by the terminal device, an indication message sent by a cell in the paging area, where the indication message is used to indicate that the terminal device enters the first state or the second state;

The terminal device enters the first state or the second state according to the indication message.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the first cell is an LTE cell or a 5G cell, and the neighbor cell information further includes an indication field, where the indication field is used to indicate the The neighbor cell information is neighbor cell information of a cell of LTE or neighbor cell information indicating a cell of which the neighbor cell information is 5G.
The method according to any one of claims 1-5, wherein the information of the first cell comprises at least one of an identifier of the first cell, a reference signal reception quality RSRQ, and a reference signal received power RSRP. The information of the second cell includes at least one of an identifier of the second cell, an RSRQ, an RSRP, a public land mobile network PLMN, and frequency information.
A terminal device for discovering a neighboring cell, which is characterized by comprising:

a determining unit, configured to determine, by the terminal device, that the second cell is not in the first state or the second state in the first cell in the paging area and performs cell reselection, where the second cell does not belong to The paging area and/or the terminal device in the second cell can be in the second state, when the terminal device is in the first state, the terminal device monitors paging, and does not Retaining context information of the terminal device, when the terminal device is in the second state, the terminal device monitors paging, and retains context information of the terminal device;

a recording unit, configured to record, by the terminal device, neighbor cell information, where the neighbor cell information includes information of the first cell and/or information of the second cell.
The terminal device according to claim 7, wherein the terminal device further comprises:

And a sending unit, configured to send, by the terminal device, the neighbor cell information to the network device, where the neighbor cell information is used by the network device to determine a neighboring cell of the paging area.
The terminal device according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the terminal device further comprises:

a first receiving unit, configured to receive, by the terminal device, a system message of the second cell, where the system message indicates that the terminal device is in the second state in the second cell.
The terminal device according to any one of claims 7-9, wherein the terminal device further comprises:

a second receiving unit, configured to receive, by the terminal device, an indication message sent by a cell in the paging area, where the indication message is used to indicate that the terminal device enters the first state or the second state;

And a processing unit, configured to enter, by the terminal device, the first state or the second state according to the indication message.
The terminal device according to any one of claims 7 to 10, wherein the first cell is an LTE cell or a 5G cell, and the neighbor cell information further includes an indication field, where the indication field is used to indicate the location The neighbor cell information is the neighbor cell information of the cell of the LTE or the neighbor cell information of the cell indicating that the neighbor cell information is 5G.
The terminal device according to any one of claims 7 to 11, wherein the information of the first cell includes at least one of an identifier of the first cell, a reference signal reception quality RSRQ, and a reference signal received power RSRP. The information of the second cell includes at least one of an identifier of the second cell, an RSRQ, an RSRP, a public land mobile network PLMN, and frequency information.