WO2020199992A1

WO2020199992A1 - Communication method and apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO2020199992A1
Application number: PCT/CN2020/080980
Authority: WO
Inventors: 王瑞; 彭文杰; 戴明增; 曾清海
Original assignee: 华为技术有限公司
Priority date: 2019-03-29
Filing date: 2020-03-24
Publication date: 2020-10-08
Also published as: CN111757348B; CN111757348A

Abstract

Disclosed are a communication method and apparatus, relating to the technical field of communications. The method comprises: a terminal device receiving a first data packet sent by a first network device by means of a first transmission path, and receiving a second data packet sent by a second network device by means of a second transmission path; when the first data packet is received, performing an integrity protection check on the first data packet to obtain a first check result; when the second data packet is received, performing the integrity protection check on the second data packet to obtain a second check result; when the first check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet is successful and the second check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the second data packet has failed, the terminal device sending first indication information to the first network device, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that the integrity protection check of the second data packet has failed. The first data packet is the same as the second data packet. The technical solution facilitates a reduction in the number of times of reestablishment, triggered by the terminal device, of an RRC connection and an improvement in the communication performance.

Description

Communication method and device

Cross references to related applications

This application claims the priority of a Chinese patent application filed with the Chinese Patent Office, the application number is 201910253302.2, and the application name is "a communication method and device" on March 29, 2019, the entire content of which is incorporated into this application by reference.

Technical field

This application relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a communication method and device.

Background technique

Currently, the fifth generation (5G) mobile communication system has introduced a duplication operation on the radio access network (RAN) side. Specifically, the network device may configure a duplication operation for a radio bearer (RB). When the duplication operation is introduced on the RAN side, the terminal device can receive the data packets sent by the sender through at least two different transmission paths, and the data packets sent on each of the at least two different transmission paths are identical.

However, in the prior art, when the duplication operation is introduced on the RAN side, if the communication between the terminal device and the network device is abnormal, for example, the terminal device fails the integrity protection check of the data packet transmitted on one of the transmission paths Or when the primary cell (primary cell, Pcell) is abnormal, the terminal device will trigger the re-establishment of the radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) connection. However, the re-establishment of the RRC connection includes cell selection and terminal device context removal, which takes a long time and easily causes a long communication interruption between the terminal device and the network device, which affects the user experience.

Summary of the invention

The present application provides a communication method and device, which help reduce the number of times that terminal equipment triggers the re-establishment of an RRC connection, thereby helping to improve communication performance.

In the first aspect, a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application, the method includes:

The terminal device receives the first data packet sent by the first network device through the first transmission path, and receives the second data packet sent by the second network device through the second transmission path; and when the terminal device receives the first data Packet, perform an integrity protection check on the first data packet to obtain a first check result; and when the terminal device receives the second data packet, perform an integrity check on the second data packet Protection check to obtain a second check result; then, when the first check result indicates that the first data packet integrity protection check succeeds, the second check result indicates that the second data packet is complete When the protection check fails, the terminal device sends first indication information to the first network device through the first transmission path, where the first indication information is used to indicate the integrity protection check of the second data packet. The test failed. Wherein, the first data packet and the second data packet are the same.

In the embodiment of the present application, since the first data packet integrity protection check succeeds and the second data packet integrity protection check fails, the terminal device may send the first instruction to the first network device through the first transmission path The information enables the network side to perform corresponding processing. Compared with the terminal device triggering the re-establishment of the RRC connection, it helps to reduce the number of times the terminal device triggers the re-establishment of the RRC connection, thereby improving communication performance.

In a possible design, the terminal device receives a switching instruction sent by the first network device through the first transmission path after receiving the first indication information; the switching instruction is used to trigger the The terminal device updates the key used for integrity protection and/or the algorithm used for integrity protection. This helps to improve the communication security of the terminal equipment and reduce the probability of failure to verify the integrity of the data packet.

In a possible design, the first indication information further includes information used to indicate the second transmission path, and/or a cell identifier corresponding to the second transmission path, which is consistent with the second transmission path. The corresponding cell identifier is used to indicate the cell used for sending the second data packet. It helps to assist the network side to deal with the second data packet integrity check failure accordingly.

In a possible design, the carrier associated with the first transmission path is different from the carrier associated with the second transmission path. This helps to reduce the number of times that the terminal device triggers the re-establishment of the RRC connection when the integrity check of the data packet transmitted on one of the transmission paths on the associated different carriers fails.

In a possible design, the carrier associated with the first transmission path includes a primary carrier. This helps to reduce the number of times that the terminal device triggers the re-establishment of the RRC connection when the integrity protection check of the data packet transmitted on the second transmission path not associated with the primary carrier fails.

In a possible design, the first network device and the second network device are the same, or the first network device and the second network device are dual-connected.

In a possible design, after the terminal device obtains the first check result, if the second data packet is not received on the second transmission path after the first timing period is exceeded, when the first When a check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet is successful, the re-establishment of the RRC connection is not triggered; or,

After the terminal device obtains the first check result, if the second data packet is not received on the second transmission path beyond the first timing duration, when the first check result indicates When the integrity protection check of the first data packet fails, the re-establishment of the RRC connection is triggered.

Through the above technical solution, it is helpful for the terminal device to determine whether to continue to wait for the second data packet after receiving the first data packet.

In a possible design, the first timing duration is predefined; or, the first timing duration is configured by the first network device or the second network device for the terminal device. Help simplify the implementation.

In a possible design, for the terminal device, when the first network device is the master node, the second network device is the auxiliary node, and the first network device and the second network device are dual-connected When the first check result indicates that the first data packet integrity protection check fails, and the second check result indicates that the second data packet integrity protection check succeeds, the terminal device triggers Re-establishment of RRC connection. Help improve communication performance.

In a possible design, both the first data packet and the second data packet include second indication information, and the second indication information is used to indicate that the data packet has undergone a copy operation and is received through different transmission paths. . It helps to ensure that the terminal device receives the first data packet and the second data packet separately from different transmission paths.

In the second aspect, a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application, the method includes:

The first network device sends a first data packet to the terminal device through a first transmission path, and sends a second data packet to the terminal device through a second transmission path; the first data packet and the second data packet are the same; When the first network device receives the first instruction information sent by the terminal device, it sends a switching instruction to the terminal device through the first transmission path; wherein the first instruction information is used to instruct the second The data packet integrity protection verification fails, and the switching instruction is used to trigger the terminal device to update the key used for integrity protection and/or the algorithm used for integrity protection.

In the embodiment of the present application, since the first network device can send a handover instruction to the terminal device when the integrity check of the second data packet fails, compared with the terminal device triggering the re-establishment of the RRC connection, this helps reduce the number of terminal devices. The number of times the device triggers the re-establishment of the RRC connection, thereby improving communication performance.

In a possible design, the second transmission path is a transmission path between a second network device and the terminal device, and the first network device and the second network device are dual-connected.

In a possible design, the first network device configures the terminal device with a first timing duration, and the first timing duration is that after the terminal device obtains the first check result, the The maximum length of time for waiting to receive the second data packet on the second transmission path, and the first check result is an integrity protection check result of the first data packet.

In a possible design, the first network device sends a first data packet to the terminal device through the first transmission path; and after receiving the first confirmation response, it passes through all the data packets within a second timing period. The second transmission path sends the second data packet to the terminal device; the first confirmation response is used to indicate that the first data packet is successfully received.

In a possible design, the first network device receives the first confirmation response, and if it exceeds a second timing period, cancels sending the second data to the terminal device through the second transmission path package.

In a possible design, both the first data packet and the second data packet include second indication information, and the second indication information is used to indicate that the data packet has undergone a copy operation and passes through different transmission paths. receive. It helps to ensure that the terminal device receives the first data packet and the second data packet separately from different transmission paths.

In a third aspect, a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application, the method includes:

The terminal device receives the first data packet from the first transmission path; performs an integrity protection check on the first data packet to obtain a first check result; when the first check result indicates the first data packet When the integrity protection check fails, the terminal device sends first indication information through the second transmission path, where the first indication information is used to indicate the integrity protection check failure and the information of the first transmission path.

In the embodiment of the present application, since the terminal device can send the first indication information through the second transmission path in the case that the complete success protection check of the first data packet fails, so that the network side performs corresponding processing, and the terminal device triggers RRC Compared with the re-establishment of the connection, it helps to reduce the number of times that the terminal device triggers the re-establishment of the RRC connection, thereby improving the communication performance.

In a possible design, the terminal device performs an integrity protection check on the first data packet at the PDCP layer of the packet data convergence protocol to obtain the first check result. Help facilitate the implementation.

In a possible design, when the first check result indicates that the first data packet integrity protection check fails, the PDCP layer of the terminal device transmits second indication information to the radio resource control RRC layer, The second indication information is used to indicate that the terminal device has an integrity protection check failure on the first transmission path. Contribute to the terminal equipment for further processing.

In a possible design, the cell group associated with the first transmission path is the primary cell group MCG;

The second transmission path is a radio link control RLC bearer associated with the secondary cell group SCG of the split signaling radio bearer SRB1; or, the second transmission path is an RLC bearer of SRB3. This simplifies the implementation.

In a fourth aspect, a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application, the method includes:

The terminal device communicates with the first network device through the primary cell and/or M secondary cells, the carrier of the primary cell is different from the carrier of each secondary cell of the M secondary cells; the M is greater than or equal to 1. Positive integer;

When the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, the terminal device sends first indication information to the first network device through the N secondary cells of the M secondary cells, and the first indication information is used to indicate the primary The physical layer of the cell is abnormal; where 1≤N≤M, and the N is a positive integer;

The terminal device receives, through the N secondary cells, a handover instruction sent by the first network device after receiving the first indication information, where the handover instruction is used to instruct the terminal device to switch to another cell.

In the embodiments of the present application, when the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, the secondary cell can send the indication information of the physical layer abnormality of the primary cell to the first network device, so that the first network device can cause the physical layer of the primary cell abnormality in the terminal device. When instructing the terminal device to switch to another cell, it helps to reduce the number of re-establishment of the RRC connection and improve the communication performance.

In a possible design, the terminal device sends second indication information to the first network device through K secondary cells out of the M secondary cells, and the second indication information is used to instruct the terminal A candidate primary cell group of the device, where the candidate primary cell group includes at least one secondary cell in the M secondary cells, where 1≤K≤M, and the K is a positive integer. This helps to assist the network device in determining the handover instruction.

In a possible design, the terminal device also communicates with a second network device, and the first network device and the second network device are dual-connected; when the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, the terminal If the device cannot communicate with the first network device through the secondary cell, the device sends the first indication information to the first network device through a transmission path with the second network device. This helps the terminal device to send the first indication information to the first network device.

In a fifth aspect, a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application, the method includes:

The first network device communicates with the terminal device through a primary cell and/or M secondary cells, and the carrier of the primary cell is different from the carrier of each secondary cell of the M secondary cells; the M is greater than or equal to 1. Positive integer;

When the first network device receives the first indication information sent by the terminal device through the N secondary cells of the M secondary cells, sending a handover instruction to the terminal device through the N secondary cells;

Wherein, 1≤N≤M, and the N is a positive integer, the first indication information is used to indicate that the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, and the handover instruction is used to instruct the terminal device to switch to another cell.

In a possible design, the first network device sends second indication information to the terminal device through K of the M secondary cells, and the second indication information is used to instruct the terminal A candidate primary cell group of the device, where the candidate primary cell group includes at least one secondary cell in the M secondary cells, where 1≤K≤M, and the K is a positive integer. This helps to assist the network device in determining the handover instruction.

In a possible design, when the terminal device also communicates with the second network device, and if the terminal device cannot communicate with the first network device through the secondary cell, the first network device communicates with the first network device. The second network device is dual-connected, and the first network device may also receive the first indication information sent by the terminal device through a transmission path with the second network device. This helps the terminal device to send the first indication information to the first network device.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a device, which may be a terminal device, a device in a terminal device, or a device that can be used with the terminal device. The device may include a processing module and a transceiver module, and The module and the transceiver module can perform the corresponding functions in the first aspect and any of the methods designed in the first aspect, specifically:

The transceiver module is configured to receive a first data packet sent by a first network device through a first transmission path, and receive a second data packet sent by a second network device through a second transmission path; the processing module is used to When the transceiver module receives the first data packet, it performs an integrity protection check on the first data packet to obtain a first check result; and when the transceiver module receives the second data packet, Perform integrity protection verification on the second data packet to obtain a second verification result; then, the transceiver module is further configured to: when the first verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the first data packet is successful When the second check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the second data packet fails, the first indication information is sent to the first network device through the first transmission path, and the first indication information is used To indicate that the integrity protection verification of the second data packet fails. Wherein, the first data packet and the second data packet are the same.

In a possible design, the transceiver module is further configured to receive a switching instruction sent by the first network device through the first transmission path after receiving the first indication information; the switching instruction is used to Trigger the terminal device to update the key used for integrity protection and/or the algorithm used for integrity protection.

In a possible design, the first indication information further includes information used to indicate the second transmission path, and/or a cell identifier corresponding to the second transmission path, which is consistent with the second transmission path. The corresponding cell identifier is used to indicate the cell used for sending the second data packet.

In a possible design, the carrier associated with the first transmission path is different from the carrier associated with the second transmission path.

In a possible design, the carrier associated with the first transmission path includes a primary carrier.

In a possible design, the processing module is further configured to obtain the first check result, and if the first timing duration is exceeded, the transceiver module does not receive the second transmission path on the second transmission path. For data packets, when the first check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet is successful, the re-establishment of the RRC connection is not triggered; or,

The processing module is further configured to obtain the first check result, if the transceiver module does not receive the second data packet on the second transmission path if the first timing duration is exceeded, when the When the first check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet fails, the re-establishment of the RRC connection is triggered.

In a possible design, the first timing duration is predefined; or, the first timing duration is configured by the first network device or the second network device for the terminal device.

In a possible design, for the terminal device, when the first network device is the master node, the second network device is the auxiliary node, and the first network device and the second network device are dual-connected When the first check result indicates that the first data packet integrity protection check fails, and the second check result indicates that the second data packet integrity protection check succeeds, the terminal device triggers The radio resource controls the re-establishment of the RRC connection.

In a possible design, both the first data packet and the second data packet include second indication information, and the second indication information is used to indicate that the data packet has undergone a copy operation and is received through different transmission paths. .

In the seventh aspect, the present application provides a device, which may be a network device, a device in a network device, or a device that can be used in conjunction with a network device. The device may include a processing module and a transceiver module, and The module and the transceiver module can perform the corresponding functions in the second aspect and any of the methods designed in the second aspect, specifically:

The transceiver module is configured to send a first data packet to the terminal device via a first transmission path, and send a second data packet to the terminal device via a second transmission path; the first data packet and the second data packet The same; the processing module is also used to trigger the transceiver module to send a switching instruction to the terminal device through the first transmission path when the transceiver module receives the first indication information sent by the terminal device; wherein The first indication information is used to indicate that the integrity protection verification of the second data packet fails, and the switching instruction is used to trigger the terminal device to update the key used for integrity protection and/or to Integrity protection algorithm.

In a possible design, the processing module configures a first timing duration for the terminal device, and the first timing duration is that after the terminal device obtains the first verification result, the second timing duration The maximum duration of waiting on the transmission path to receive the second data packet, and the first check result is an integrity protection check result of the first data packet.

In a possible design, the transceiver module is further configured to send a first data packet to the terminal device through the first transmission path; and after receiving the first confirmation response, pass the data packet within a second timing period The second transmission path sends the second data packet to the terminal device; the first confirmation response is used to indicate that the first data packet is successfully received.

In a possible design, the processing module is further configured to receive the first confirmation response by the transceiver module, and if it exceeds a second timing period, cancel the transmission to the terminal device through the second transmission path Sending the second data packet.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a device. The device may be a terminal device, a device in a terminal device, or a device that can be used with the terminal device. The device may include a processing module and a transceiver module, and the processing The module and the transceiver module can perform the corresponding functions in the third aspect and any of the methods designed in the third aspect, specifically:

The transceiver module is configured to receive the first data packet from the first transmission path; the processing module is configured to perform integrity protection check on the first data packet to obtain the first check result; when the first check result indicates When the integrity protection check of the first data packet fails, the transceiver module is configured to send first indication information through the second transmission path, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the integrity protection check fails and the first transmission Path information.

In a possible design, the processing module is specifically configured to perform integrity protection verification on the first data packet at the PDCP layer of the packet data convergence protocol to obtain the first verification result.

In a possible design, when the first check result indicates that the first data packet integrity protection check fails, the processing module is configured to trigger the PDCP layer to transmit the second indication information to the radio resource control RRC layer, The second indication information is used to indicate that the terminal device has an integrity protection check failure on the first transmission path.

In the ninth aspect, a device provided by an embodiment of the present application may be a terminal device, a device in a terminal device, or a device that can be matched with the terminal device. The device may include a processing module and a transceiver module , And the processing module and the transceiver module can perform the corresponding functions in the fourth aspect and any one of the methods designed in the fourth aspect, specifically:

The transceiver module is configured to communicate with the first network device through a primary cell and/or M secondary cells, and the carrier of the primary cell is different from the carrier of each of the M secondary cells; the M is A positive integer greater than or equal to 1;

The processing module is configured to send first indication information to the first network device through N of the M secondary cells when the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, and the first indication information is used for Indicates that the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal; where 1≤N≤M, and the N is a positive integer;

The transceiver module is further configured to receive, through the N secondary cells, a handover instruction sent by the first network device after receiving the first indication information, and the handover instruction is used to instruct the terminal device to switch to another Community.

In a possible design, the transceiver module is further configured to send second indication information to the first network device through K of the M secondary cells, where the second indication information is used to indicate The candidate primary cell group of the terminal device, the candidate primary cell group includes at least one secondary cell in the M secondary cells, where 1≤K≤M, and the K is a positive integer.

In a possible design, the device also communicates with a second network device, and the device and the second network device are dual-connected; the transceiver module is also used for when the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, If it is not possible to communicate with the apparatus through the secondary cell, sending the first indication information to the apparatus through a transmission path with the second network device.

In the tenth aspect, the device provided by the embodiment of the present application may be a network device, a device in a network device, or a device that can be used in conjunction with a network device. The device may include a processing module and a transceiver. Module, and the processing module and the transceiver module can perform the corresponding functions in any of the above-mentioned fifth aspect and the method designed in the fifth aspect, specifically:

The transceiver module is used to communicate with terminal equipment through a primary cell and/or M secondary cells, the carrier of the primary cell is different from the carrier of each secondary cell of the M secondary cells; the M is greater than or A positive integer equal to 1;

The processing module is configured to, when the first indication information sent by the terminal device is received through the N secondary cells of the M secondary cells, trigger the transceiving module to report to the terminal through the N secondary cells The device sends switching instructions;

In a possible design, the transceiver module is further configured to send second indication information to the terminal device through K of the M secondary cells, and the second indication information is used to indicate the A candidate primary cell group of the terminal device, where the candidate primary cell group includes at least one secondary cell in the M secondary cells, where 1≤K≤M, and the K is a positive integer.

In a possible design, when the terminal device also communicates with the second network device, and if the terminal device cannot communicate with the device through the secondary cell, the device and the second network device are With dual connections, the transceiver module may also be configured to receive the first indication information sent by the terminal device through a transmission path with the second network device.

In an eleventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a device that includes a processor, configured to implement the method described in any one of the first to fifth aspects. The device may also include a memory for storing instructions and data. The memory is coupled with the processor, and when the processor executes the program instructions stored in the memory, the method described in any one of the first aspect to the fifth aspect can be implemented. The device may also include a communication interface, which is used for the device to communicate with other devices. Exemplarily, the communication interface may be a transceiver, circuit, bus, module, or other type of communication interface, and other devices may be Network equipment or terminal equipment, etc.

In one possible design, the device includes:

Memory, used to store program instructions;

The processor is configured to call instructions stored in the memory, so that the device executes any possible design method of each aspect of the method part of the embodiment of the present application.

In the twelfth aspect, the embodiments of the present application also provide a computer-readable storage medium, including instructions, which when run on a computer, cause the computer to execute any one of the possible design methods of various aspects of the method part.

In a thirteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application also provides a chip system. The chip system includes a processor and may also include a memory for implementing any possible design method of the method part. The chip system can be composed of chips, or can include chips and other discrete devices.

In a fourteenth aspect, the embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product, including instructions, which when run on a computer, cause the computer to execute any possible design method of each aspect of the method part.

In addition, the technical effects brought by any one of the possible design methods of the sixth aspect to the fourteenth aspect can be referred to the technical effects brought about by different design methods in the method section, which will not be repeated here.

Description of the drawings

FIG. 1a is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of a communication system according to an embodiment of the application;

FIG. 1b is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of another communication system according to an embodiment of the application;

2 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of another communication system according to an embodiment of the application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic flowchart of a communication method according to an embodiment of this application;

4 is a schematic flowchart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic flowchart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the application;

6 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of another communication system according to an embodiment of the application;

FIG. 7 is a schematic flowchart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the application;

FIG. 8 is a schematic flowchart of another communication method according to an embodiment of this application;

FIG. 9 is a schematic flowchart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the application;

FIG. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a device according to an embodiment of the application;

FIG. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of another device according to an embodiment of the application.

detailed description

In the embodiments of the present application, "at least one" refers to one or more, and "multiple" refers to two or more. "And/or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, indicating that there can be three relationships, for example, A and/or B, which can mean: A alone exists, both A and B exist, and B exists alone, where A, B can be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the associated objects are in an "or" relationship. "The following at least one (item)" or similar expressions refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of a single item (a) or a plurality of items (a). For example, at least one of a, b, or c can mean: a, b, c, a and b, a and c, b and c, or a, b and c, where a, b, c It can be single or multiple.

The embodiments of the present application can be applied to a communication system that uses multiple radio access technologies (RATs), dual connectivity (MR-DC) and/or uses carrier aggregation (CA). In addition, the embodiments of the present application can also be applied to other communication systems that can send the same data packet through multiple transmission paths, which is not limited.

As shown in Figure 1a and Figure 1b, they are respectively a network architecture diagram of a communication system using MR-DC. As shown in the figure, the MR-DC communication system may include a core network, a master node (master node, MN), a secondary node (secondary node, SN), and terminal equipment. Among them, the MN in the embodiment of this application can be referred to as the primary station, anchor, primary network equipment, etc., and the SN can also be referred to as the secondary station, secondary network equipment, etc. The name is not limited. It should be understood that the MN is a radio access network (RAN) device, which provides terminal devices with a user plane of a wireless communication air interface and a control plane (control plane) protocol stack terminations. SN is also a kind of RAN equipment, which provides terminal equipment of the user plane and control plane of the wireless communication air interface. It should be noted that the MN and SN may be RAN devices supporting different wireless communication technologies, or may be RAN devices supporting the same wireless communication technology. The wireless communication technology may include, but is not limited to: global system for mobile communications (GSM), general packet radio service (GPRS), code division multiple access, CDMA), wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA), time-division code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA), global terrsetrial radio access (evolved universal terrsetrial radio access, E) -UTRA), next-generation wireless communication (next radio, NR), etc.

In a communication system using MR-DC, the MN can communicate with the core network on the control plane and data plane. The SN can communicate with the core network on the control plane through the MN. However, the SN can communicate with the core network on the data plane through the MN, as shown in the network architecture shown in Figure 1a. When the SN can also communicate with the core network on the data plane, there is no need to pass through the MN, as shown in Figure 1b.

It should be understood that the RAN equipment in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as network equipment, access network equipment, etc., for example, the RAN equipment may be the RAN equipment in the fifth-generation mobile communication system (5th-generation, 5G), such as , The next-generation base station (generation nodeB, gNB) can also be the RAN equipment in LTE, such as evolved node B (evolved node B, eNB), or radio network controller (RNC), node B (node B, NB), base station controller (BSC), base transceiver station (BTS), home base station (for example, home evolved node B, or home node B, HNB), baseband unit ( baseband unit (BBU), transceiver point (transmitting and receiving point, TRP), transmitting point (TP), mobile switching center, cloud radio access network (cloud radio access network, CRAN) wireless controller in the scenario, Relay station, access point, RAN equipment in the future mobile communication system or RAN equipment in the future evolved public mobile land network (Public Land Mobile Network, PLMN), etc.

It should be understood that the terminal device in the embodiment of the present application is a device with a wireless transceiver function, which may be called a terminal (terminal), user equipment (UE), mobile station (MS), and mobile terminal (mobile terminal). terminal, MT), access terminal equipment, vehicle-mounted terminal equipment, industrial control terminal equipment, UE unit, UE station, mobile station, remote station, remote terminal equipment, mobile equipment, UE terminal equipment, wireless communication equipment, UE agent or UE Devices, etc. The terminal device can be fixed or mobile. It should be noted that the terminal device can support at least one wireless communication technology, such as LTE, NR, WCDMA, and so on. For example, the terminal device may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer (pad), a desktop computer, a notebook computer, an all-in-one machine, a vehicle-mounted terminal, a virtual reality (VR) terminal device, and an augmented reality (AR) terminal Equipment, wireless terminals in industrial control, wireless terminals in self-driving (self-driving), wireless terminals in remote medical surgery, wireless terminals in smart grid (smart grid), transportation safety Wireless terminals in (transportation safety), wireless terminals in smart cities, wireless terminals in smart homes, cellular phones, cordless phones, session initiation protocol (SIP) phones, wireless Local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) stations, personal digital assistants (personal digital assistants, PDAs), handheld devices with wireless communication functions, computing devices or other processing devices connected to wireless modems, wearable devices, future mobile communications Terminal equipment in the network or terminal equipment in the future evolution of the PLMN, etc.

In the embodiments of this application, the network architecture of the communication system using MR-DC includes but is not limited to the following three types: EN-DC (E-UTRA NR DC), NE-DC (NR E-UTRA DC), NG EN- DC (Next Generation E-UTRA NR DC). Among them, EN-DC (E-UTRA NR DC) can also be called Option3 series (Option3 series), that is, the core network is an evolved packet core (EPC), and MN is a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE). ) In the RAN device (for example, eNB), and SN is the RAN device in NR (for example, gNB). NE-DC is also called Option 4 series (Option 4 series), that is, the core network is 5G core network (5G core, 5GC), MN is RAN equipment in NR (such as gNB), and SN is RAN equipment in LTE (such as eNB) . NG EN-DC is also called Option 7 series (Option 7 series), that is, the core network is 5GC, MN is RAN equipment in LTE (for example, gNB), and SN is RAN equipment in NR (for example, eNB). It should be understood that the above-mentioned EN-DC, NE-DC and NG EN-DC are all dual connections of RAN equipment in LTE and RAN equipment in NR, which can be referred to as LTE and NR dual connections. In addition, 5G also supports NR and NR. Dual connectivity, that is, both MN and SN are RAN devices in NR, referred to as NR-NR DC.

It should be understood that in a communication system using MR-DC or NR-NR DC, a terminal device can access at least one RAN device at the same time. When a terminal device accesses a RAN device, the RAN device is the MN of the terminal device. When a device accesses two or more RAN devices, among the two or more RAN devices, one RAN device is a terminal device MN, and the other one or more RAN devices are a terminal device SN.

In addition, in a communication system using DC, a RAN device (such as an MN or SN) can configure a split bearer for the terminal device. For example, the split bearer of the packet data convergence protocol (packet data convergence protocol, PDCP) terminated in the MN can also be called the MN terminated split bearer, or MN bearer for short; the split bearer of the PDCP terminated in the SN can also be called SN terminated split bearer The bearer can be referred to as SN bearer for short. Among them, the split bearer can be understood as a radio bearer (RB) that can be associated with two or more transmission paths, that is, the data on a split bearer can pass through one or the transmission paths associated with the split bearer. Multiple transmission paths for transmission. It should be noted that the maximum number of transmission paths that can be associated with a split bearer is related to the number of SNs that the terminal device accesses. For example, in a multi-connection scenario, a terminal device accesses one MN and one SN, and the number of transmission paths associated with a split bearer is 2. For another example, in a multi-connection scenario, if a terminal device accesses one MN and two SNs, the number of transmission paths associated with one split bearer is 3.

That is, in a multi-connection scenario, each of two or more transmission paths associated with the same split bearer is associated with air interface resources of different RAN devices. For example, if a terminal device accesses an MN and an SN, when a split bearer is associated with the first transmission path and the second transmission path, the first transmission path can be associated with the air interface resources of the MN, and the second transmission path can be associated with the air interface of the SN Resources. For example, the air interface resources in the embodiment of the present application may include one or more cells where a RAN device (for example, an MN or SN) provides services for a terminal device. Among them, one or more cells provided by MN for terminal equipment can be called master cell group (MCG), and one or more cells provided by SN for terminal equipment can be called secondary cell group (secondary cell group). , SCG). Taking the air interface resources of the MN associated with the first transmission path as an example, the air interface resources of the MN associated with the first transmission path can be understood as one or more cells in the MCG associated with the first transmission path. For example, the terminal equipment is connected to the MN and the SN respectively. The MCG provided by the MN for the terminal equipment is MCG1, and the SCG provided by the SN for the terminal equipment is SCG2. If the split bearer configured by the MN for the terminal equipment is RB1, RB1 is associated with transmission Path 1 and transmission path 2, then transmission path 1 can be associated with one or more cells in MCG1, and transmission path 2 can be associated with one or more cells in MCG2. For example, MCG1 includes cell 11, cell 21, and cell 31, SCG1 includes cell 12 and cell 22, transmission path 1 can be associated with cell 11 and cell 31, and transmission path 2 can be associated with cell 12.

It should be noted that in this embodiment of the application, for the control plane, the split bearer may be a signaling radio bearer (signal resource bearer, SRB), for example, the split bearer may be SRB1, SRB2, or SRB3; for the user plane , The split bearer may be a wireless data bearer (data resource bearer, DRB).

If a DC communication system adopts a split bearer configuration and introduces a duplication operation, the same data packet can be transmitted on two or more transmission paths associated with a split bearer. For example, the data packet may be a radio resource control (Radio Resource Control, RRC) message. This helps to improve the reliability of communication between RAN equipment and terminal equipment.

In the following, taking the control plane as an example, the network architecture shown in FIG. 2 is a dual-connection architecture, and this application is also referred to as the first network device and the second network device as dual-connection. The first network device and the second network device are used as the sending end device, and the terminal device is used as the receiving end device as an example. The method of sending repeated data packets after the copy operation is introduced is described. Wherein, for the terminal device, the first network device is MN and the second network device is SN; or, for terminal devices, the first network device is SN, and the second network device is MN.

As an example, as shown in FIG. 3, a communication method according to an embodiment of this application includes the following steps.

Step 301: The first network device configures an SRB for the terminal device, where the SRB is associated with the first transmission path and the second transmission path. The first transmission path can be understood as a first radio link control (RLC) bearer, and the second transmission path can be understood as a second RLC bearer, the first RLC bearer is associated with MCG, and the second RLC bearer is associated with SCG.

In step 302, the RRC layer of the first network device transmits the data carried on the SRB to the PDCP layer of the first network device, and the PDCP layer of the first network device processes the received data to obtain the first data packet, and performs processing on the first data packet. A data packet is copied to obtain a second data packet, and then the PDCP layer of the first network device transmits the first data packet to the RLC layer of the first network device, and sends the second data packet to the RLC layer of the second network device .

It should be noted that when the first network device configures the terminal device to associate the SRB with the first transmission path and the second transmission path, regardless of whether the terminal device is configured to perform uplink duplication, the first network device can freely decide to send downlink data packets. Any one of the first transmission path and the second transmission path sends a data packet, or the same data packet is sent through the first transmission path and the second transmission path respectively, that is, the downlink data packet is copied. Therefore, after the first network device configures the terminal device to associate the SRB with the first transmission path and the second transmission path, the terminal device needs to receive data packets on both the first transmission path and the second transmission path.

Step 303: After the RLC layer of the first network device receives the first data packet, it is sequentially transmitted to the media access control (MAC) layer of the first network device and then to the physical (physical, PHY) layer. The MCG associated with the first transmission path is sent to the terminal device; after the RLC layer of the second network device receives the second data packet, it is sequentially transmitted to the MAC layer of the second network device and then to the PHY layer, and then associated through the second transmission path The SCG is sent to the terminal device. Among them, the PHY layers of MN and SN are not shown in Figure 2.

However, for the terminal device, the terminal device may first receive the first data packet from the first transmission path, or it may first receive the second data packet from the second transmission path, and may also receive the first data packet at the same time. Data packet and second data packet.

For the Acknowledge Mode (AM) scenario, if the terminal device first receives the first data packet at the RLC layer, the RLC layer of the terminal device sends an ACK response to the MN to indicate that the first data packet is successfully received. After the RLC layer of the first network device receives the ACK response, it can be transmitted to the PDCP layer of the first network device. The PDCP layer of the first network device can notify the second network device that the RLC layer of the second network device has received the first data packet successfully. Prevent the RLC layer of the first network device from continuing to send the second data packet. If the terminal device first receives the second data packet, it may send an ACK response to the second network device through the RLC layer of the terminal device to indicate that the second data packet is successfully received. After the RLC layer of the second network device receives the ACK response, it can report it to the PDCP layer of the first network device, and the PDCP layer of the first network device transmits the information that the second data packet is successfully received to the first network device. The second data packet of the RLC layer is successfully received to prevent the RLC layer of the first network device from continuing to send the first data packet.

However, for the terminal device, after receiving the first data packet and/or the second data packet at the PDCP layer, the integrity protection check of the first data packet and/or the second data packet is required to improve communication The safety and reliability. Generally, if the integrity protection check of one of the first data packet and the second data packet fails, the terminal device will trigger the re-establishment of the RRC connection, which will easily cause the terminal device to interrupt the communication for a long time.

In view of this, the embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, so that the terminal device can fail the integrity protection check of the data packet received on one transmission path when the terminal device is configured with two or more transmission paths. At this time, the instruction information can be sent to the RAN device through another transmission path, so that the RAN device can perform corresponding processing. Further, for the same data packet sent on different transmission paths after duplication operation is performed on the split bearer, if the terminal device receives the data packet from one or more transmission paths, the integrity protection When the verification fails, the transmission path of the successfully verified data packet can be integrity protected to send indication information to the RAN device, so that the RAN device can perform corresponding processing, and the data packet on a certain transmission path of the terminal device is complete Compared with triggering the re-establishment of the RRC connection when the performance check fails, it helps to reduce the number of times that the terminal device triggers the re-establishment of the RRC connection and improve the communication performance.

In the following, the terminal device accesses the first network device and the second network device as an example. The first network device is the first RAN device, the second network device is the second RAN device, and the first RAN device and the second RAN device are dual connection.

As an example, as shown in FIG. 4, a communication method according to an embodiment of this application includes the following steps:

Step 401: The terminal device is configured with a first transmission path and a second transmission path, and can receive data packets through the first transmission path and the second transmission path respectively. Exemplarily, the terminal device is configured with one or more split bearers, and a first transmission path and a second transmission path are established for each split bearer. For example, the first transmission path is MCG RLC bearer, and the second transmission path is SCG RLC bearer, or the first transmission path is MCG RLC bear, and the second transmission path is SCG RLC bearer. MCG RLC bearer is associated with MCG, SCG RLC bearer is associated with SCG. The terminal device receives downlink data packets through the above MCG and SCG, and sends uplink data packets through the MCG and/or SCG. Exemplarily, the split bearer may be split SRB1 or split SRB2. In this case, the data packet may refer to the RRC message carried on the SRB.

Step 402: The terminal device receives the first data packet through the third transmission path, and performs integrity protection on the first data packet to obtain a first verification result. For example, the PDCP layer of the terminal device performs integrity protection verification on the first data packet to obtain the first verification result. Wherein, the third transmission path is one of the first transmission path and the second transmission path. Exemplarily, the first data packet may be an RRC message carried in SRB1 or SRB2. In some embodiments, the terminal device learns that the first data packet has not been copied. It is understandable that the terminal device can learn that the first data packet or the bearer to which the first data packet belongs is not configured with a downlink copy operation by receiving the displayed indication information sent by the network device, or the terminal device can learn in an implicit way, for example, that the bearer to which the first data packet belongs is not configured. The instruction information sent to the network device that the first data packet or the bearer to which the first data packet belongs is configured with a downlink copy operation.

In some embodiments, the communication method shown in FIG. 4 further includes step 403. When the first check result is used to indicate that the first data packet integrity protection check fails, the PDCP layer of the terminal device transmits the indication information to the upper layer. , The indication information is used to indicate that the integrity protection verification fails. For example, the indication information further includes indication information of the third transmission path, which is used to indicate that the data packet received by the upper layer through the third transmission path has an integrity protection check failure. Exemplarily, the upper layer is the RRC layer. Exemplarily, the indication information of the third transmission path is MCG or SCG.

In other embodiments, the communication method shown in FIG. 4 further includes step 404. The terminal device sends a failure report to the network device through the fourth transmission path, and the failure report is used to indicate that the terminal device has an integrity protection check. failure. Wherein, the fourth transmission path is one of the first transmission path and the second transmission path, and is different from the third transmission path. For example, the foregoing failure report further includes indication information of the third transmission path, which is used to indicate that the data packet received by the terminal device on the third path has failed the integrity protection verification.

In some embodiments, when the third transmission path is the transmission path associated with the MCG in the first transmission path and the second transmission path, the terminal device sends the failure report through the SCG RLC bearer of SRB1, and the terminal device is configured with split SRB1. For example, the terminal device sends a failure report to the network device (for example, the first network device or the second network device) through the SCG RLC bearer of SRB1. In some embodiments, when the third transmission path is the transmission path associated with the MCG in the first transmission path and the second transmission path, the terminal device sends the failure report through the SCG RLC bearer of SRB3, and the terminal device is configured with SRB3 at this time. For example, the terminal device sends a failure report to the network device (for example, the first network device or the second network device) through the SCG RLC bearer of SRB3. Further in some other embodiments of this application, when the terminal device is configured with split SRB1 and SRB3 at the same time, the terminal device can send a failure report to the network device through the SCGRLC bearer of SRB3, or the terminal device preferably sends a failure report to the network device through the SCG RLC bearer of split SRB1. The network device sends a failure report to indicate that the RLC bearer of the MCC has failed the integrity protection check of the SRB. It should be noted that the RLC bearer that the terminal device receives the first data packet and the RLC bearer that the terminal device sends the failure report may not belong to the same bearer or may belong to the same bearer, which is not limited in this application. For example, when the terminal device receives the first data packet from the MCG RLC bearer of SRB2 or SRB1, it can send the failure report through the SCG RLC bearer of SRB1 or SRB3.

It is understandable that when the third transmission path is MCG RLC bearer, the terminal device may send a failure report through SCG RLC bearer; when the third transmission path is SCG RLC bearer, the terminal device may send a failure report through MCG RLC bearer.

In this embodiment, a communication method is provided, so that when two or more transmission paths are configured for a terminal device, when the integrity protection verification of a data packet received by the terminal device on one transmission path fails, The indication information can be sent to the RAN device through another transmission path, so that the RAN device performs corresponding processing.

As an example, as shown in FIG. 5, a communication method according to an embodiment of this application specifically includes the following steps.

Step 501: The first network device sends a first data packet to the terminal device through the first transmission path, and the second network device sends a second data packet to the terminal device through the second transmission path, where the first data packet and the second data packet the same. In some embodiments, the first network device sends indication information downlink to the terminal device for the terminal device to learn that it can receive the first data packet and the second data packet. For example, the indication information also indicates information of a bearer that has performed downlink duplication.

It should be noted that, for the terminal device, the first network device is MN and the second network device is SN; or, for terminal devices, the first network device is SN, and the second network device is MN.

In the embodiment of the present application, the first data packet and the second data packet are the same, and it can be understood that the first data packet is obtained by copying the second data packet, or the second data packet is obtained by copying the first data packet. For example, if the first transmission path and the second transmission path are transmission paths associated with MN bearers, the first data packet may be obtained by MN copying the second data packet at the PDCP layer, or the second data packet may be MN The first data packet is copied in the PDCP layer. For another example, if the first transmission path and the second transmission path are transmission paths associated with the SN bearer, the first data packet may be obtained by SN copying the second data packet at the PDCP layer, or the second data packet may be SN copied the first data packet at the PDCP layer.

Step 502: After receiving the first data packet from the first transmission path, the terminal device performs integrity protection check on the first data packet to obtain the first check result; when receiving the second data packet from the second transmission path After the data packet, integrity protection verification is performed on the second data packet to obtain a second verification result.

Step 503: When the first verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the first data packet is successful, and the second verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the second data packet fails, the terminal device transmits to the first network through the first transmission path. The device sends first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the integrity protection check of the second data packet fails.

It should be noted that for the terminal device, when the first network device is SN and the second network device is MN, if the first verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the first data packet is successful, the second verification result Indicating that the integrity protection check of the second data packet fails, the terminal device may also not send the first indication information to the first network device, but trigger the reestablishment of the RRC connection. For example, for the terminal device, when the first network device is SN and the second network device is MN, if the first check result indicates that the first data packet integrity protection check is successful, the second check result indicates the first Second, if the integrity protection check of the data packet fails, whether the terminal device sends the first indication information to the first network device through the first transmission path or triggers the re-establishment of the RRC connection can be determined according to a pre-configured policy or rule. For example, if the pre-configured policy in the terminal device is when the data packet integrity protection verification on the transmission path associated with the MCG fails, and the data packet integrity protection verification on the transmission path associated with the SCG succeeds, then the Send indication information to the MN on the transmission path associated with the SCG. When the first check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet is successful, and the second check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the second data packet fails, the terminal The device sends the first indication information to the first network device through the first transmission path. For another example, if the pre-configured policy in the terminal device is when the data packet integrity protection verification on the transmission path associated with the MCG fails, and the data packet integrity protection verification on the transmission path associated with the SCG succeeds, trigger When the RRC connection is re-established, when the first verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the first data packet is successful, and the second verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the second data packet fails, the terminal device triggers the re-establishment of the RRC connection. set up. The foregoing is only an example, and does not constitute a limitation to the embodiments of the present application.

In some embodiments, when the first check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet is successful, and the second check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the second data packet fails, the terminal device may also pass the first transmission The path sends information indicating the second transmission path and/or air interface resource information of the second network device associated with the second transmission path to the first network device. For example, the information of the second transmission path may be MCG or SCG, and the air interface resource information of the second network device associated with the second transmission path may be one or more cell identifiers, and the one or more cell identifiers may be used to indicate transmission The cell used by the second data packet. This helps to improve the rationality of the way the RAN side determines that the integrity protection check of the second data packet of the terminal device fails. For example, the first indication information includes information used to indicate the second transmission path, and/or a cell identifier corresponding to the second transmission path, etc., thereby helping to save signaling overhead.

In some embodiments, for the terminal device, when the first network device is the MN and the second network device is the SN, if the first network device receives the first indication information, the first network device can send the terminal device Send switching instructions. The switching instruction is used to trigger the terminal device to update the key used for integrity protection and/or the algorithm used for integrity protection. Therefore, the terminal device can update the used integrity protection key and/or algorithm after receiving the handover instruction, without initiating the re-establishment of the RRC connection, which helps to reduce the number of re-establishment of the RRC connection and increase user experience. For example, the first network device may send the switching instruction to the terminal device through the first transmission path. It helps to simplify implementation and improve communication efficiency.

In other embodiments, for the terminal device, when the first network device is an SN and the second network device is an MN, if the first network device receives the first indication information, the first network device may send the first The instruction information is sent to the second network device. After receiving the first instruction information, the second network device determines the switching instruction and sends the switching instruction to the second network device. After receiving the switching instruction sent by the first network device, the second network device passes the first The transmission path sends the switching instruction to the terminal device. The switching instruction is used to trigger the terminal device to update the key used for integrity protection and/or the algorithm used for integrity protection. It should be noted that when the first network device receives the information indicating the second transmission path sent by the terminal device from the first transmission path, and/or the air interface resource information of the second network device associated with the second transmission path At this time, the above-mentioned related information is also sent to the second network device, thereby helping to improve the rationality of the processing method when the RAN side determines that the integrity protection check of the second data packet of the terminal device fails.

It should be noted that, in the embodiments of the present application, the key used for integrity protection and/or the algorithm used for integrity protection used to trigger the terminal device to update can be understood as triggering the terminal device to update the MN and the terminal device. The key used for integrity protection for inter-air interface communication, and/or the algorithm for integrity protection used for the air interface communication between the MN and the terminal device. Since the integrity protection key and/or algorithm used for the air interface communication between the SN and the terminal device is determined according to the integrity protection key and/or algorithm used for the air interface communication between the MN and the terminal device Therefore, when the key used for integrity protection and/or the algorithm for integrity protection used in the air interface communication between the MN and the terminal device is updated, the air interface communication between the SN and the terminal device is used for The keys and/or algorithms for integrity protection will also be updated accordingly.

In some embodiments, when the first verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the first data packet fails, and the second verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the second data packet fails, the terminal device triggers the re-establishment of the RRC connection . This helps to make the terminal device communication back to normal.

However, for the terminal device, the first data packet and the second data packet are respectively transmitted through different transmission paths. It is possible that the terminal device has already received the second data packet sent by the second network device through the second transmission path. However, the first network device has not sent the first data packet to the terminal device through the first transmission path. For the AM scenario, if the terminal device successfully receives the second data packet, it will send an ACK response to the second network device, indicating that the terminal device successfully received the second data packet, and then the second network device will notify the first network device of the terminal device The second data packet is successfully received, and the first network device may cancel the transmission of the first data packet after determining that the terminal device successfully receives the second data packet to avoid repeated transmission. However, it is not perceptible to the terminal device, and if the terminal device uses the communication method shown in Figure 4, it needs to refer to the integrity check results of the two data packets to determine whether to trigger the re-establishment of the RRC connection or Send the first instruction message.

Therefore, in order to enable the terminal device to determine whether to continue to receive another data packet after receiving one of the first data packet and the second data packet, in some embodiments, the first data packet may be pre-configured in the terminal device. The timing duration, where the first timing duration may be predefined through a protocol, may also be configured by a network device, or may be configured in other ways. For example, the network device may be the first network device or the second network device. For example, the first timing duration may be pre-configured in the terminal device with PDCP configuration parameters.

For example, after receiving the first data packet sent by the first network device on the first transmission path, the terminal device performs an integrity protection check on the first data packet to obtain the first check result, and after obtaining the first data packet If the second data packet has not been received at the time of the verification result, the first timer is started. If the terminal device receives the second data packet within the first timing period, the integrity protection verification of the second data packet is performed. Obtain the second verification result. For example, the specific implementation manner for the terminal device to determine whether to trigger the re-establishment of the RRC connection according to the first check result and the second check result can be referred to the above-mentioned related embodiments, which will not be repeated here.

As another example, after receiving the first data packet sent by the first network device on the first transmission path, the terminal device performs integrity protection verification on the first data packet to obtain the first verification result, and after obtaining the first data packet If the second data packet has not been received at the time of a check result, the first timer is started. If the first timing period is exceeded, the second network device that the terminal device has not yet received the second data packet sent on the second transmission path Data packet, when the first verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the first data packet is successful, the RRC connection re-establishment is not triggered, and when the first verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the first data packet fails, Trigger the re-establishment of the RRC connection.

It should be noted that the terminal device has not received the second data packet after exceeding the first timing period, and when the first check result indicates that the integrity check of the first data packet is successful, the RRC connection re-establishment is not triggered, which is understandable Therefore, the terminal device has not received the second data packet after the first timing period, and when the first check result indicates that the integrity check of the first data packet is successful, refer to the first step in the prior art. The verification result and the second verification result both indicate the subsequent steps performed by the terminal device when the integrity check of the data packet is successful; it can also be understood that the terminal device has not received the second data packet after the first timing period. When a check result indicates that the integrity check of the first data packet is successful, an indication is sent to the first network device that the second data packet is received.

In some other embodiments, the second timing duration may be configured on the first network device and the second network device, and the third timing duration may be configured on the terminal device. The second timing duration may be pre-defined through the protocol, or configured in other ways. The third timing duration may be pre-defined through the protocol, may also be configured by the network device, or configured in other ways. For example, the network device may be the first network device or the second network device. For example, the second timing duration and the third timing duration may be pre-configured with PDCP configuration parameters. It should be noted that the second timing duration and the third timing duration may be the same or different, which is not limited.

Taking the terminal device receiving the first data packet as an example, after receiving the first data packet, the terminal device sends an ACK response to the first network device, where the ACK response is used to indicate that the first data packet is successfully received. After receiving the ACK response, the first network device starts the second timer, and after the second timing period is exceeded, it notifies the second network device to cancel sending the second data packet on the second transmission path. After the terminal device sends an ACK response to the first network device, it starts the third timer. If the second data packet sent by the second network device on the second transmission path is received within the third timing period, it will Perform integrity protection verification on the second data packet to obtain a second verification result. If the second data packet is not received after the third timing duration, when the first check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet is successful, the RRC connection re-establishment is not triggered; when the first check result indicates the first data packet When a data packet integrity protection check fails, the RRC connection re-establishment is triggered.

For the processing method of the terminal device when the terminal device receives the second data packet, refer to the processing method of the terminal device receiving the first data packet, which will not be repeated here.

In an AM scenario, when a network device performs a duplication operation on downlink data sent to a terminal device, the first data packet is sent through the first transmission path, and the second data packet is sent through the second transmission path. For example, for a terminal device, when the first network device is an MN, the first network device carries indication information in the PDCP PDU of the first data packet to indicate that the terminal device is on the first transmission path and the second transmission path To receive the PDCP PDU. It can be understood that since the second data packet is the same as the first data packet, the second data packet also carries the indication information. The optional above indication information may be included in the PDCP header. When the terminal device receives the first data packet or the second data packet, it learns through the indication information that the data packet has undergone a copy operation, and needs to receive the same data packet through different transmission paths.

In addition, for a communication system using CA, RAN equipment and terminal equipment can communicate through multiple carriers. Among them, the carrier where the terminal equipment initiates initial access is the primary carrier, the cell on the primary carrier is the primary cell, and the other The carrier is the secondary carrier, and the cell on the secondary carrier is the secondary cell. Therefore, in a communication system using CA, one radio bearer can also be associated with two or more transmission paths, and different transmission paths associated with one radio bearer are associated with different cells or carriers. If in a communication system using CA, after the duplication operation is introduced, the same data packet can also be transmitted on two or more transmission paths associated with a radio bearer.

Taking the network architecture shown in FIG. 6 as an example, the RAN device configures the RB for the terminal device at the RRC layer. For example, the RB is associated with the first transmission path and the second transmission path, wherein the carrier associated with the first transmission path is different from the carrier associated with the second transmission path. It should be noted that, in this embodiment of the application, the carrier associated with the first transmission path can be understood as a cell associated with the first transmission path; the carrier associated with the second transmission path can be understood as a cell associated with the second transmission path.

For example, the first carrier group is associated with the first transmission path, the second carrier group is associated with the second transmission path, the first carrier group includes at least one first carrier, the second carrier group includes at least one second carrier, and at least one first carrier Each first carrier in the carrier is different from each carrier in the at least one second carrier. For example, the first carrier group includes carrier 11, carrier 12, and carrier 13, and the second carrier group includes carrier 21 and carrier 22. Among them, carrier 11, carrier 12, and carrier 13 are all different carriers from carrier 21 and carrier 22. It should be noted that the RB configured by the RAN device for the terminal device at the RRC layer may be SRB1, SRB2, DRB, etc. It should be understood that the transmission path associated with the primary carrier may also be referred to as the primary transmission path, and other transmission paths are secondary transmission paths. For example, if the first carrier group is associated with the first transmission path, the second carrier group is associated with the second transmission path, and the primary carrier is included in the first carrier group, the first transmission path is the primary transmission path, and the overlapping transmission path is the secondary transmission path. Taking SRB1 and/or SRB2 configured with CA duplication (for uplink) as an example, the terminal device needs to receive downlink RRC messages on the first transmission path and the second transmission path associated with SRB1. As an example, as shown in FIG. 7, a communication method according to an embodiment of this application includes the following steps.

Step 701: The terminal device is configured with a first transmission path and a second transmission path, and can receive data packets through the first transmission path and the second transmission path. Exemplarily, the terminal device establishes a first transmission path and a second transmission path for SRBx. For example, the first transmission path is a first RLC bearer, and the second transmission path is a second RLC bearer, and each RLC bearer is associated with a cell group. . Alternatively, the terminal device establishes a first RLC bearer for SRBx and a second RLC bearer for SRBy. The first RLC bearer and the second RLC bearer are respectively associated with a cell group, and the terminal device uses the cell group and the second RLC bearer associated with the first RLC bearer. The cell group associated with the RLC bearer receives the downlink data packet. Exemplarily, the SRBx/SRBy may be SRB1 or SRB2. In this case, the data packet may refer to the RRC message carried on the SRB.

Step 702: The terminal device receives the first data packet through the third transmission path, and performs integrity protection verification on the first data packet to obtain a first verification result. For example, the PDCP layer of the terminal device performs integrity protection verification on the first data packet to obtain the first verification result. Wherein, the third transmission path is one of the first transmission path and the second transmission path. Exemplarily, the first data packet may be an RRC message carried in SRB1 or SRB2. In some embodiments, the terminal device learns that the first data packet has not been copied. It is understandable that the terminal device can learn that the first data packet or the bearer to which the first data packet belongs is not configured with a downlink copy operation by receiving the displayed indication information sent by the network device, or the terminal device can learn in an implicit way, for example, that the bearer to which the first data packet belongs is not configured. The instruction information sent to the network device that the first data packet or the bearer to which the first data packet belongs is configured with a downlink copy operation.

In some embodiments, the communication method shown in FIG. 7 includes step 703. When the first check result is used to indicate that the first data packet integrity protection check fails, the PDCP layer of the terminal device sends indication information to the upper layer, It is used to indicate that the integrity protection check failure of the upper layer has occurred. The indication information also includes indication information of the third transmission path, which is used to indicate that the data packet received by the upper layer through the third transmission path has an integrity protection check failure. Exemplarily, the upper layer is the RRC layer. Exemplarily, the indication information of the third transmission path is an identifier of the third transmission path, or cell identification information associated with the third transmission path.

In other embodiments, the communication method shown in FIG. 7 further includes step 704. The terminal device sends a failure report through the fourth transmission path, and the failure report is used to indicate that the terminal device has failed the integrity protection verification. Wherein, the fourth transmission path is one of the first transmission path and the second transmission path, and is different from the third transmission path. For example, the terminal device sends a failure report to the network device through the fourth transmission path. It should be noted that the RLC bearer that the terminal device receives the first data packet and the RLC bearer that the terminal device sends the failure report may not belong to the same bearer or may belong to the same bearer, which is not limited in this application. For example, when the terminal device receives the first data packet from one RLC bearer of SRB2 or SRB1, it can send a failure report through one RLC bearer of SRB1, as long as the transmission paths (ie, cells or cell groups) associated with the two RLC bearers are different.

Taking the RB associating the first transmission path and the second transmission path as an example, as shown in FIG. 8, a communication method according to an embodiment of this application includes the following steps:

Step 801: The RAN device sends a first data packet to the terminal device through a first transmission path, and sends a second data packet to the terminal device through a second transmission path, where the first data packet and the second data packet are the same.

It should be noted that the first data packet is the same as the second data packet. It can be understood that the first data packet can be obtained by copying the second data packet by the RAN device, or the second data packet is the first data packet from the RAN device. Copy it.

In addition, it should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, one of the first transmission path and the second transmission path is associated with the primary carrier. For example, if the first transmission path is associated with the first carrier group, the second transmission path is associated with the second carrier group, and the first carrier group includes the anchor carrier, the first transmission path is associated with the anchor carrier. Therefore, the first transmission path is the main transmission path, The second transmission path is the auxiliary transmission path.

Step 802: After receiving the first data packet from the first transmission path, the terminal device performs integrity protection check on the first data packet to obtain the first check result; when receiving the second data packet from the second transmission path After the data packet, integrity protection verification is performed on the second data packet to obtain a second verification result.

Step 803: When the first verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the first data packet is successful, and the second verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the second data packet fails, the terminal device transmits to the RAN device through the first transmission path The first indication information is used to indicate that the integrity protection check of the second data packet fails.

It should be noted that, for the terminal device, when the second transmission path is associated with the primary carrier, when the first check result indicates that the first data packet integrity protection check succeeds, the second check result indicates the second data When the packet integrity protection check fails, the terminal device may also not send the first indication information to the RAN device, but trigger the re-establishment of the RRC connection. For example, for the terminal device, when the second transmission path is associated with the primary carrier, if the first check result indicates that the first data packet integrity protection check is successful, the second check result indicates the second data packet integrity protection If the verification fails, whether the terminal device sends the first indication information to the RAN device through the first transmission path or triggers the re-establishment of the RRC connection can be determined according to a pre-configured policy or rule. For example, if the pre-configured policy in the terminal device is when the data packet integrity protection verification on the transmission path associated with the primary carrier fails, and the data packet integrity protection verification on the transmission path not associated with the primary carrier succeeds , The indication information is sent to the RAN device through the transmission path not associated with the primary carrier, then when the first check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet is successful, the second check result indicates that the second data packet is complete When the sexual protection check fails, the terminal device sends the first indication information to the RAN device through the first transmission path. For another example, if the pre-configured policy in the terminal device is when the data packet integrity protection verification on the transmission path associated with the primary carrier fails, and the data packet integrity protection verification on the transmission path not associated with the primary carrier succeeds , The re-establishment of the RRC connection is triggered, and when the first verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the first data packet is successful, and the second verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the second data packet fails, the terminal device triggers the RRC Re-establishment of the connection. The foregoing is only an example, and does not constitute a limitation to the embodiments of the present application.

In some embodiments, when the first check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet is successful, and the second check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the second data packet fails, the terminal device may also pass the first transmission The path sends information indicating the second transmission path and/or one or more cell identities associated with the second transmission path to the RAN device, and the one or more cell identities may be used to indicate the use of sending the second data packet Of the cell. This helps to improve the rationality of the way the RAN side determines that the integrity protection check of the second data packet of the terminal device fails. For example, the first indication information includes information used to indicate the second transmission path, and/or a cell identifier corresponding to the second transmission path, etc., thereby helping to save signaling overhead.

In some embodiments, for the terminal device, if the RAN device receives the first indication information, the RAN device may send a handover instruction to the terminal device. The switching instruction is used to trigger the terminal device to update the key used for integrity protection and/or the algorithm used for integrity protection. Therefore, the terminal device can update the used integrity protection key and/or algorithm after receiving the handover instruction, without initiating the re-establishment of the RRC connection, which helps to reduce the number of re-establishment of the RRC connection and increase user experience. For example, the RAN device may send a handover instruction to the terminal device through the first transmission path. It helps to simplify implementation and improve communication efficiency.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the key used for integrity protection and/or the algorithm used for integrity protection used to trigger the terminal device to update can be understood as triggering the terminal device to update the RAN device and the terminal device. The key used for integrity protection for air interface communication between each other, and/or the algorithm for integrity protection used for air interface communication between the RAN device and the terminal device.

However, for the terminal device, the first data packet and the second data packet are transmitted through different transmission paths. It is possible that the terminal device has received the second data packet sent by the RAN device through the second transmission path, and the RAN The device has not sent the first data packet to the terminal device through the first transmission path. For the AM scenario, if the terminal device successfully receives the second data packet, it will send an ACK response to the RAN device, indicating that the terminal device has successfully received the second data packet. In order to avoid repeated transmissions, the RAN device can confirm that the terminal device receives the second data packet. After the data packet is successful, the sending of the first data packet is cancelled. However, it is not perceptible to the terminal device, and if the terminal device uses the communication method shown in Figure 6, it needs to refer to the integrity check results of the two data packets to determine whether to trigger the re-establishment of the RRC connection or Send the first instruction message.

Therefore, in order to enable the terminal device to determine whether to continue to receive another data packet after receiving one of the first data packet and the second data packet, in some embodiments, the first data packet may be pre-configured in the terminal device. The timing duration, where the first timing duration may be predefined through a protocol, may also be configured by the RAN device, or may be configured in other ways. For example, the first timing duration may be pre-configured in the terminal device with PDCP configuration parameters.

For example, after receiving the first data packet sent by the RAN device on the first transmission path, the terminal device performs an integrity protection check on the first data packet to obtain the first check result, and after obtaining the first check As a result, if the second data packet has not been received, the first timer is started. If the terminal device receives the second data packet within the first timing period, the integrity protection check is performed on the second data packet to obtain the first timer. 2. Check result. For example, the specific implementation manner for the terminal device to determine whether to trigger the re-establishment of the RRC connection according to the first check result and the second check result can be referred to the above-mentioned related embodiments, which will not be repeated here.

As another example, after receiving the first data packet sent by the RAN device on the first transmission path, the terminal device performs an integrity protection check on the first data packet to obtain the first check result, and after obtaining the first check In the verification result, if the second data packet has not been received, the first timer is started. If the terminal device has not yet received the second data packet sent by the RAN device on the second transmission path after the first timing period is exceeded, then When the first check result indicates that the first data packet integrity protection check succeeds, the re-establishment of the RRC connection is not triggered.

It should be noted that the terminal device has not received the second data packet after exceeding the first timing period, and when the first check result indicates that the integrity check of the first data packet is successful, the RRC connection re-establishment is not triggered, which is understandable Therefore, the terminal device has not received the second data packet after the first timing period, and when the first check result indicates that the integrity check of the first data packet is successful, refer to the first step in the prior art. The verification result and the second verification result both indicate the subsequent steps performed by the terminal device when the integrity check of the data packet is successful; it can also be understood that the terminal device has not received the second data packet after the first timing period. When a check result indicates that the integrity check of the first data packet is successful, an indication that the second data packet is received is sent to the RAN device.

In some other embodiments, the second timing duration may be configured in the RAN device, and the third timing duration may be configured in the terminal device. The second timing duration may be pre-defined through a protocol or configured in other ways. The third timing duration may be pre-defined through a protocol, or configured by the RAN device, or configured through other methods. For example, the second timing duration and the third timing duration may be pre-configured with PDCP configuration parameters. It should be noted that the second timing duration and the third timing duration may be the same or different, which is not limited.

Taking the terminal device receiving the first data packet as an example, after receiving the first data packet, the terminal device sends an ACK response to the RAN device, where the ACK response is used to indicate that the first data packet is successfully received. After receiving the ACK response, the RAN device starts the second timer, and after the second timing period is exceeded, it notifies the RAN device to cancel sending the second data packet on the second transmission path. After the terminal device sends an ACK response to the RAN device, it starts the third timer. If the second data packet sent by the RAN device on the second transmission path is received within the third timing period, the second data packet is processed. The integrity protection check, and the second check result is obtained. If the second data packet is not received after the third timing duration, when the first check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet is successful, the RRC connection re-establishment is not triggered; when the first check result indicates the first data packet When a data packet integrity protection check fails, the RRC connection re-establishment is triggered.

For the processing method when the terminal device receives the second data packet, refer to the processing method when the terminal device receives the first data packet, which will not be repeated here.

In the AM scenario, when the RAN device performs a duplication operation on the downlink data sent by the terminal device, the first data packet is sent through the first transmission path, and the second data packet is sent through the second transmission path. For example, the RAN device carries indication information in the PDCP PDU of the first data packet, which is used to instruct the terminal device to receive the PDCP PDU on the first transmission path and the second transmission path. It can be understood that since the second data packet is the same as the first data packet, the second data packet also carries the indication information. The optional above indication information may be included in the PDCP header. When the terminal device receives the first data packet or the second data packet, it learns through the indication information that the data packet has undergone a copy operation, and needs to receive the same data packet through two transmission paths.

It should be noted that when the MR-DC and CA communication systems are used at the same time, after the introduction of duplication operation, for the same data packet sent on different transmission paths, if the terminal device receives from one or more When the integrity protection check of the data packet on the transmission path fails, the transmission path used to send the data packet with successful integrity protection check can send indication information to the RAN device (such as MN or SN), so that the RAN device Corresponding processing can be performed. Compared with the triggering of the re-establishment of the RRC connection when the terminal device fails to check the integrity of the data packet on a certain transmission path, it helps to reduce the number of times the terminal device triggers the re-establishment of the RRC connection. Improve communication performance. In specific implementation, the communication method shown in FIG. 5 can be used in combination with the communication method shown in FIG. 8, which will not be repeated here.

The communication methods shown in Figs. 5 and 8 of the present application are introduced only by taking two transmission paths as an example. In the embodiment of the present application, when a radio bearer configured with dupliaction is associated with two or more transmission paths, the communication method can be Refer to the communication method in the case of two transmission paths, which will not be repeated here.

For a communication system using CA, terminal equipment and RAN equipment can communicate through multiple carriers. Among them, the carrier where the terminal equipment initiates initial access is the primary carrier, the cell on the primary carrier is the primary cell, and other carriers are secondary. Carrier, the cell on the secondary carrier is the secondary cell. In the prior art, the terminal device detects the physical layer of the primary cell. Once the physical layer of the terminal device detects the primary cell abnormality, for example, T310 times out, it will report the primary cell physical layer abnormality to the RRC layer. When the primary cell physical layer is abnormal, the RRC The layer triggers the re-establishment of the RRC connection. It is easy to cause the terminal equipment to be interrupted for a long time and affect the user experience.

In view of this, the embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, which enables the terminal device to detect an abnormality in the physical layer of the primary cell, which helps to enable the terminal device to send instructions to the RAN device through other secondary cells that can work normally. The indication information of the physical layer of the cell is abnormal, so that the RAN device can perform corresponding processing, such as instructing the terminal device to switch to another cell, which is helpful compared with triggering the re-establishment of the RRC connection when the terminal device is abnormal in the physical layer of the primary cell In order to reduce the number of times that the terminal device triggers the re-establishment of the RRC connection, and improve the communication performance.

As an example, as shown in FIG. 9, a communication method in an embodiment of the present application includes the following steps.

Step 901: The terminal device communicates with the RAN device through the primary cell and/or M secondary cells, where the carrier of the primary cell is different from the carrier of each of the M secondary cells, and M is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1. .

For example, taking the value of M as 3, the carriers of the M secondary cells are carrier 1, carrier 2, and carrier 3 respectively, and the carrier of the primary cell is carrier 0, and carrier 1, carrier 2, and carrier 3 are all related to carrier 0. different.

Step 902: When the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, the terminal device sends second indication information to the RAN device through N secondary cells of the M secondary cells, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal. Wherein, 1≤N≤M, and the N is a positive integer.

It should be noted that the N secondary cells are normally working secondary cells among the M secondary cells, and can be used for normal communication between the terminal device and the RAN device. For example, taking the value of M as 5, the M secondary cells are cell 1, cell 2, cell 3, cell 4, and cell 5 respectively. If cell 1, cell 2, cell 3, cell 4, and cell 5, cell 3. Cells 4 and 5 can be used for normal communication between the terminal device and the RAN device, then the terminal device can send the second indication information to the RAN device through one or more of the cell 3, cell 4, and cell 5.

Step 903: After receiving the second instruction information sent by the terminal device through the N secondary cells, the RAN device sends a handover instruction to the terminal device; the handover instruction is used to instruct the terminal device to switch to another cell.

It should be noted that the handover instruction is used to instruct the terminal device to switch to another cell, and it can be understood that the handover instruction instructs the terminal device to switch the primary cell to another cell. For example, if the other cell indicated by the handover instruction is one of the M secondary cells, it is an intra-cell handover, and if the other cell indicated by the handover instruction is a cell provided by another RAN device, it is a RAN device handover.

For example, the RAN device may send a handover instruction to the terminal device through the N secondary cells used by the terminal device to send the second indication information, or may send a handover instruction to the terminal device through other secondary cells that can work normally among the M secondary cells , There is no restriction on this.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may also send third indication information to the RAN device through K of the M secondary cells. The third indication information is used to indicate the candidate primary cell group, and the final candidate primary cell group includes At least one secondary cell in the M secondary cells, where 1≤K≤M, and the K is a positive integer. This helps the auxiliary RAN device to determine which cell to instruct the terminal device to switch the primary cell to. It should be understood that at least one of the M secondary cells included in the candidate primary cell group is a secondary cell that can work normally.

It should be noted that the second indication information and the third indication information may be carried in one signaling, and may also be carried in different signaling, which is not limited.

Step 904: After receiving the handover instruction, the terminal device switches to another cell according to the handover instruction.

In the prior art, for a communication system using CA and MR-DC, the terminal device performs primary cell physical layer detection. Once the physical layer of the terminal device detects an abnormality in the primary cell, such as T310 timeout, it reports the primary cell to the RRC layer. Cell physical layer abnormality When the primary cell physical layer is abnormal, then the RRC layer triggers the re-establishment of the RRC connection. It is easy to cause the terminal equipment to be interrupted for a long time and affect user experience.

In view of this, this application provides another communication method. Hereinafter, the embodiments of the present application will be introduced by taking the MN where the first network device is the terminal device and the SN where the second network device is the terminal device as an example.

In some embodiments, when the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, if the terminal device cannot communicate with the MN through the secondary cell of the MN, it can send the second indication information to the MN through the transmission path with the SN, where the second indication The information is used to indicate that the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal. After receiving the second instruction information, the MN sends a handover instruction to the SN, and the SN sends the handover instruction to the terminal device through the transmission path with the terminal device, so that the terminal device can switch the primary cell to another cell. Among them, the handover instruction is used to instruct the terminal equipment to switch to other cells.

It should be noted that the terminal device’s inability to communicate with the MN through the MN’s secondary cell may include the following situations. The MN does not provide the terminal device with a secondary cell, that is, the MN can only communicate with the MN through the primary cell; or, the MN provides the terminal device with M secondary cells, where M is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1, but all M secondary cells are abnormal and cannot be used for communication between the terminal device and the MN.

For example, when the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, if the terminal device cannot communicate with the MN through the secondary cell of the MN, it can also send third indication information to the MN through the transmission path between the SN and the SN to indicate the alternative of the terminal device. The primary cell group, the candidate primary cell group includes at least one secondary cell among the M secondary cells, where 1≤K≤M, and the K is a positive integer. This helps the auxiliary RAN device to determine which cell to instruct the terminal device to switch the primary cell to. It should be understood that at least one of the M secondary cells included in the candidate primary cell group is a secondary cell that can work normally.

In other embodiments, when the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, if the terminal device can communicate with the MN through the M secondary cells of the MN, or communicate with the terminal device through the transmission path between the SN and the terminal device, the terminal The device may send the second indication information to the MN through the N secondary cells among the M secondary cells and/or the transmission path with the SN, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal. Wherein, M is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1, 1≤N≤M, and N is a positive integer. After receiving the second indication information, the MN sends a handover instruction to the terminal device. The handover instruction is used to instruct the terminal equipment to switch to other cells.

For example, the transmission path used by the MN to send the handover instruction to the terminal device may be the same as or different from the transmission path used by the terminal device to send the second indication information to the MN. For example, the transmission path for the terminal device to send the second indication information to the MN is the transmission path between the SN and the terminal device, and the transmission path used for the MN to send the handover instruction to the terminal device may be K secondary cells in the M secondary cells. 1≤K≤M, and N is a positive integer.

For example, when the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, if the terminal device can communicate with the MN through the M secondary cells of the MN, or communicate with the terminal device through the transmission path between the SN and the terminal device, the terminal device can communicate with the terminal device through the M The S secondary cells in the two secondary cells and/or the transmission path with the SN sends third indication information to the MN to indicate the candidate primary cell group, and the final candidate primary cell group includes at least one of the M secondary cells Secondary cell, thereby helping the auxiliary RAN device to determine which cell to instruct the terminal device to switch the primary cell to. It should be understood that at least one of the M secondary cells included in the candidate primary cell group is a secondary cell that can work normally.

The various embodiments of the present application can be used alone or in combination with each other to achieve different technical effects.

In the above-mentioned embodiments provided in the present application, the communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application is introduced from the perspective of terminal devices and network devices as execution subjects. In order to realize each function in the communication method provided in the above embodiments of the present application, the terminal device or the network device may include a hardware structure and/or software module, and the above various functions are implemented in the form of a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure plus a software module. Features. Whether one of the above-mentioned functions is executed in a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure plus a software module depends on the specific application and design constraint conditions of the technical solution.

Similar to the above-mentioned concept, as shown in FIG. 10, an embodiment of the present application further provides an apparatus 1000, which includes a transceiver module 1002 and a processing module 1001.

In an example, the apparatus 1000 is used to implement the function of the terminal device in the communication method shown in FIG. 4 or FIG. 4. The device can be a terminal device or a device in a terminal device. Among them, the device may be a chip system. In the embodiments of the present application, the chip system may be composed of chips, or may include chips and other discrete devices.

Wherein, the transceiver module 1002 is used to receive the first data packet from the first transmission path; the processing module 1001 is used to perform integrity protection check on the first data packet to obtain the first check result; when the first check When the verification result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet fails, the transceiver module 1002 is configured to send first indication information through the second transmission path, and the first indication information is used to indicate that the integrity protection check fails and the integrity protection check fails. The information of the first transmission path.

In an example, the apparatus 1000 is used to implement the function of the terminal device in the communication method shown in FIG. 5 or FIG. 8. The device can be a terminal device or a device in a terminal device. Among them, the device may be a chip system. In the embodiments of the present application, the chip system may be composed of chips, or may include chips and other discrete devices.

The transceiver module 1002 is used to receive a first data packet sent by a first network device through a first transmission path, and receive a second data packet sent by a second network device through a second transmission path; the processing module 1001 is used as a transceiver module When receiving the first data packet, 1002 performs integrity protection verification on the first data packet to obtain a first verification result; and when the transceiver module 1002 receives the second data packet, performs a verification on the Perform integrity protection verification on the second data packet to obtain a second verification result; then, the transceiver module 1002 is further configured to: when the first verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the first data packet is successful, the When the second check result indicates that the second data packet integrity protection check fails, first indication information is sent to the first network device through the first transmission path, and the first indication information is used to indicate all The integrity protection verification of the second data packet fails. Wherein, the first data packet and the second data packet are the same.

In an example, the apparatus 1000 is used to implement the function of the first network device in the method shown in FIG. 5 or is used to implement the function of the RAN device in the communication method described in FIG. 8. The device can be a network device or a device in a network device. Among them, the device may be a chip system. In the embodiments of the present application, the chip system may be composed of chips, or may include chips and other discrete devices.

The transceiver module 1002 is configured to send a first data packet to the terminal device through a first transmission path, and send a second data packet to the terminal device through a second transmission path; the first data packet and the second data The package is the same; the processing module 1001 is also used to trigger the transceiver module 1002 to send a switching instruction to the terminal device through the first transmission path when the transceiver module 1002 receives the first instruction information sent by the terminal device; wherein, the first instruction information is used to indicate The integrity protection verification of the second data packet fails, and the switching instruction is used to trigger the terminal device to update the key used for integrity protection and/or the algorithm used for integrity protection.

In an example, the apparatus 1000 is used to implement the function of the terminal device in the method shown in FIG. 9 above. The device can be a terminal device or a device in a terminal device. Among them, the device may be a chip system. In the embodiments of the present application, the chip system may be composed of chips, or may include chips and other discrete devices.

Wherein, the transceiver module 1002 is configured to communicate with the first network device through a primary cell and/or M secondary cells, and the carrier of the primary cell is different from the carrier of each secondary cell of the M secondary cells; Is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1;

The processing module 1001 is configured to send first indication information to the first network device through N secondary cells of the M secondary cells when the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, where the first indication information is used to indicate the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal; ≤N≤M, and the N is a positive integer;

The transceiver module 1002 is further configured to receive a handover instruction sent by the first network device after receiving the first indication information through the N secondary cells, and the handover instruction is used to instruct the terminal device to switch to another cell.

In an example, the apparatus 1000 is used to implement the function of the RAN device in the method shown in FIG. 9 above. The device can be a network device or a device in a network device. Among them, the device may be a chip system. In the embodiments of the present application, the chip system may be composed of chips, or may include chips and other discrete devices.

Wherein, the transceiver module 1002 is used to communicate with the terminal device through the primary cell and/or M secondary cells. The carrier of the primary cell is different from the carrier of each secondary cell of the M secondary cells; M is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1. ；

The processing module 1001 is configured to trigger the transceiver module 1002 to send a handover instruction to the terminal device through the N secondary cells when the first indication information sent by the terminal device is received through the N secondary cells of the M secondary cells ；

For the specific execution process of the processing module 1001 and the transceiver module 1002, please refer to the record in the above method embodiment. The division of modules in the embodiments of the present application is illustrative, and is only a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods. In addition, the functional modules in the various embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one process. In the device, it can also exist alone physically, or two or more modules can be integrated into one module. The above-mentioned integrated modules can be implemented in the form of hardware or software functional modules.

Similar to the above-mentioned concept, as shown in FIG. 11, an embodiment of the present application further provides an apparatus 1100.

In an example, the device 1100 is used to implement the function of the terminal device in the communication method described in FIG. 4 or FIG. 4, and the device may be a terminal device or a device in a terminal device. The apparatus 1100 includes at least one processor 1101, configured to implement the function of the terminal device in the communication method shown in FIG. 4 or FIG. 7. For example, the processor 1101 may be configured to perform integrity protection verification on the first data packet to obtain the first verification result. For details, please refer to the detailed description in the method, which will not be explained here.

In some embodiments, the apparatus 1100 may further include at least one memory 1102 for storing program instructions and/or data. The memory 1102 and the processor 1101 are coupled. The coupling in the embodiments of the present application is an interval coupling or a communication connection between devices, units or modules, and may be in electrical, mechanical or other forms, and is used for information exchange between devices, units or modules. As another implementation, the memory 1102 may also be located outside the apparatus 1100. The processor 1101 may operate in cooperation with the memory 1102. The processor 1101 may execute program instructions stored in the memory 1102. At least one of the at least one memory may be included in the processor.

In some embodiments, the apparatus 1100 may further include a communication interface 1103 for communicating with other devices through a transmission medium, so that the apparatus used in the apparatus 1100 can communicate with other devices. Exemplarily, the communication interface 1103 may be a transceiver, a circuit, a bus, a module, or another type of communication interface, and the other device may be a second terminal device or a network device. The processor 1101 uses the communication interface 1103 to send and receive data, and is used to implement the method in the foregoing embodiment. Exemplarily, the communication interface 1103 may be used to send the first indication information.

In an example, the device 1100 is used to implement the function of the terminal device in the communication method described in FIG. 5 or FIG. 8. The device may be a terminal device or a device in a terminal device. The apparatus 1100 includes at least one processor 1101, configured to implement the function of the terminal device in the communication method shown in FIG. 5 or FIG. 8. For example, the processor 1101 may be configured to pass the first transmission path when the first verification result indicates that the first data packet integrity protection verification succeeds, and the second verification result indicates that the second data packet integrity protection verification fails. Send first indication information to the first network device, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the integrity protection check of the second data packet fails. Wherein, the first data packet is the same as the second data packet. For details, please refer to the detailed description in the method, which will not be explained here.

In an example, the apparatus 1100 is used to implement the above-mentioned apparatus 1000 for implementing the function of the first network device in the method shown in FIG. 5 or for implementing the function of the RAN device in the communication method described in FIG. 8. The device can be a network device or a device in a network device. The apparatus 1100 has at least one processor 1101, configured to implement the function of the network device in the foregoing method. For example, the processor 1101 may be configured to trigger the transceiver module 1102 to send a handover instruction to the terminal device after the transceiver module 1102 receives the first indication information. For details, refer to the detailed description in the method, which will not be described here.

In some embodiments, the apparatus 1100 may further include a communication interface 1103 for communicating with other devices through a transmission medium, so that the apparatus used in the apparatus 1100 can communicate with other devices. Exemplarily, the communication interface 1103 may be a transceiver, a circuit, a bus, a module, or another type of communication interface, and the other device may be a second terminal device or a network device. The processor 1101 uses the communication interface 1103 to send and receive data, and is used to implement the method in the foregoing embodiment. Exemplarily, the communication interface 1103 may be used to receive the first indication information, send a switching instruction, and so on.

In an example, the device 1100 is used to implement the function of the terminal device in the communication method described in FIG. 9 above, and the device may be a terminal device or a device in a terminal device. The apparatus 1100 includes at least one processor 1101, configured to implement the function of the terminal device in the communication method shown in FIG. 9 above. For example, the processor 1101 may be configured to, when the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, trigger to send the first indication information to the first network device through N secondary cells among the M secondary cells. For details, please refer to the detailed description in the method, which will not be explained here.

In an example, the apparatus 1100 is used to implement the foregoing apparatus 1000 for implementing the function of the RAN device in the method shown in FIG. 9. The device can be a network device or a device in a network device. The apparatus 1100 has at least one processor 1101 configured to implement the function of the second terminal device in the foregoing method. For example, the processor 1101 may be configured to trigger sending a handover instruction to the terminal device after receiving the first indication information. For details, refer to the detailed description in the method, which will not be described here.

In some embodiments, the apparatus 1100 may further include at least one memory 1102 for storing program instructions and/or data. The memory 1102 and the processor 1101 are coupled. The coupling in the embodiments of the present application is an interval coupling or a communication connection between devices, units or modules, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms, and is used for information exchange between devices, units or modules. As another implementation, the memory 1102 may also be located outside the apparatus 1100. The processor 1101 may operate in cooperation with the memory 1102. The processor 1101 may execute program instructions stored in the memory 1102. At least one of the at least one memory may be included in the processor.

The embodiment of the present application does not limit the connection medium between the foregoing communication interface 1103, the processor 1101, and the memory 1102. For example, in the embodiment of the present application in FIG. 11, the memory 1102, the processor 1101, and the communication interface 1103 may be connected by a bus, and the bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, and a control bus.

In the embodiments of the present application, the processor may be a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, a discrete hardware component, and may implement or Perform the methods, steps, and logic block diagrams disclosed in the embodiments of the present application. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor. The steps of the method disclosed in the embodiments of the present application may be directly embodied as being executed and completed by a hardware processor, or executed and completed by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor.

In the embodiment of the present application, the memory may be a non-volatile memory, such as a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD), etc., or a volatile memory (volatile memory), for example Random-access memory (random-access memory, RAM). The memory is any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program codes in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited thereto. The memory in the embodiments of the present application may also be a circuit or any other device capable of realizing a storage function, for storing program instructions and/or data.

The methods provided in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented by software, it can be implemented in the form of a computer program product in whole or in part. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on the computer, the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present invention are generated in whole or in part. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a dedicated computer, a computer network, network equipment, user equipment, or other programmable devices. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium. For example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from a website, computer, server, or data center. Transmission to another website, computer, server, or data center via wired (such as coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (such as infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server or data center integrated with one or more available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (for example, a floppy disk, a hard disk, and a magnetic tape), an optical medium (for example, a digital video disc (digital video disc, DVD for short)), or a semiconductor medium (for example, SSD).

Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to the application without departing from the scope of the application. In this way, if these modifications and variations of this application fall within the scope of the claims of this application and their equivalent technologies, this application also intends to include these modifications and variations.

Claims

A communication method, characterized in that the method includes:

The terminal device receives the first data packet sent by the first network device through the first transmission path, and receives the second data packet sent by the second network device through the second transmission path; wherein, the first data packet and the second data packet The data packets are the same;

When receiving the first data packet, the terminal device performs an integrity protection check on the first data packet to obtain a first check result; and when receiving the second data packet, performs an integrity protection check on the first data packet; Performing integrity protection verification on the second data packet to obtain a second verification result;

When the first check result indicates that the first data packet integrity protection check succeeds, and the second check result indicates that the second data packet integrity protection check fails, the terminal device passes all The first transmission path sends first indication information to the first network device, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the integrity protection check of the second data packet fails.
The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

The terminal device receives the switching instruction sent by the first network device through the first transmission path after receiving the first indication information; the switching instruction is used to trigger the terminal device to update the The key for integrity protection and/or the algorithm used for integrity protection.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first indication information further includes information for indicating the second transmission path and/or a cell identifier corresponding to the second transmission path, The cell identifier corresponding to the second transmission path is used to indicate a cell used for sending the second data packet.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the carrier associated with the first transmission path is different from the carrier associated with the second transmission path.
The method according to claim 4, wherein the carrier associated with the first transmission path includes a primary carrier.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the first network device and the second network device are the same, or the first network device and the second network device are dual-connected.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the method further comprises:

After the terminal device obtains the first check result, if the second data packet is not received on the second transmission path beyond the first timing period, when the first check result indicates the first When a data packet integrity protection check succeeds, it does not trigger the re-establishment of the RRC connection; or,

After the terminal device obtains the first check result, if the second data packet is not received on the second transmission path beyond the first timing duration, when the first check result indicates When the integrity protection check of the first data packet fails, the re-establishment of the RRC connection is triggered.
The method according to claim 7, wherein the first timing duration is predefined; or, the first timing duration is that the first network device or the second network device is the terminal Equipment configuration.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the first data packet and the second data packet both include second indication information, and the second indication information is used to indicate that the data packet is Copy operation and receive through different transmission paths.
A communication method, characterized in that the method includes:

The first network device sends a first data packet to the terminal device through a first transmission path, and sends a second data packet to the terminal device through a second transmission path; the first data packet and the second data packet are the same;

When the first network device receives the first indication information sent by the terminal device, sending a switching instruction to the terminal device through the first transmission path;

The first indication information is used to indicate that the integrity protection verification of the second data packet fails, and the switching instruction is used to trigger the terminal device to update the key used for integrity protection and/or use Algorithm for integrity protection.
The method according to claim 10, wherein the first indication information further includes information for indicating the second transmission path, and/or a cell identifier corresponding to the second transmission path, the The cell identifier corresponding to the second transmission path is used to indicate a cell used for sending the second data packet.
The method according to claim 10 or 11, wherein the carrier associated with the first transmission path is different from the carrier associated with the second transmission path.
The method of claim 12, wherein the carrier associated with the first transmission path includes a primary carrier.
The method according to any one of claims 12 to 13, wherein the second transmission path is a transmission path between a second network device and the terminal device, and the first network device and the second The network equipment is dual-connected.
The method according to any one of claims 10 to 14, wherein the method further comprises:

The first network device configures a first timing duration for the terminal device, and the first timing duration is that the terminal device waits to receive the terminal device on the second transmission path after obtaining the first verification result. For the maximum duration of the second data packet, the first verification result is an integrity protection verification result of the first data packet.
The method according to any one of claims 10 to 15, wherein the first network device sends a first data packet to the terminal device through a first transmission path, and sends a first data packet to the terminal device through a second transmission path. Two data packets, including:

Sending, by the first network device, a first data packet to the terminal device through the first transmission path;

After receiving the first confirmation response, the first network device sends the second data packet to the terminal device through the second transmission path within a second timing period;

The first confirmation response is used to indicate that the first data packet is successfully received.
The method of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises:

The first network device receives the first confirmation response, and if it exceeds a second timing period, cancels sending the second data packet to the terminal device through the second transmission path.
The method according to any one of claims 10 to 17, wherein the first data packet and the second data packet both include second indication information, and the second indication information is used to indicate that the data packet is Copy operation and receive through different transmission paths.
A communication method, characterized in that the method includes:

The terminal device receives the first data packet from the first transmission path;

The terminal device performs an integrity protection check on the first data packet to obtain a first check result;

When the first check result indicates that the first data packet integrity protection check fails, the terminal device sends first indication information through the second transmission path, and the first indication information is used to indicate integrity protection Check failure and the information of the first transmission path.
The method of claim 19, wherein the terminal device performs an integrity protection check on the first data packet to obtain a first check result, comprising:

The terminal device performs an integrity protection check on the first data packet at the PDCP layer of the packet data convergence protocol to obtain a first check result.
The method of claim 20, wherein the method further comprises:

When the first check result indicates that the first data packet integrity protection check fails, the PDCP layer of the terminal device transmits second indication information to the radio resource control RRC layer, and the second indication information is used to indicate all The terminal device fails the integrity protection verification on the first transmission path.
The method according to any one of claims 19 to 21, wherein the cell group associated with the first transmission path is a primary cell group MCG;

The second transmission path is a radio link control RLC bearer associated with the secondary cell group SCG of the split signaling radio bearer SRB1; or, the second transmission path is an RLC bearer of SRB3.
A communication method, characterized in that the method includes:

The terminal device communicates with the first network device through the primary cell and/or M secondary cells, the carrier of the primary cell is different from the carrier of each secondary cell of the M secondary cells; the M is greater than or equal to 1. Positive integer;

When the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, the terminal device sends first indication information to the first network device through the N secondary cells of the M secondary cells, and the first indication information is used to indicate the primary The physical layer of the cell is abnormal; where 1≤N≤M, and the N is a positive integer;

The terminal device receives, through the N secondary cells, a handover instruction sent by the first network device after receiving the first indication information, where the handover instruction is used to instruct the terminal device to switch to another cell.
The method of claim 23, wherein the method further comprises:

Sending, by the terminal device, second indication information to the first network device through K of the M secondary cells, where the second indication information is used to indicate the candidate primary cell group of the terminal device, The candidate primary cell group includes at least one secondary cell in the M secondary cells, where 1≤K≤M, and the K is a positive integer.
The method according to claim 23 or 24, wherein the method further comprises:

The terminal device also communicates with a second network device, and the first network device and the second network device are dual-connected;

When the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, if the terminal device is unable to communicate with the first network device through the secondary cell, it will transmit to the first network device through the transmission path with the second network device. Sending the first instruction information.
A communication method, characterized in that the method includes:

The first network device communicates with the terminal device through a primary cell and/or M secondary cells, and the carrier of the primary cell is different from the carrier of each secondary cell of the M secondary cells; the M is greater than or equal to 1. Positive integer;

When the first network device receives the first indication information sent by the terminal device through the N secondary cells of the M secondary cells, sending a handover instruction to the terminal device through the N secondary cells;

Wherein, 1≤N≤M, and the N is a positive integer, the first indication information is used to indicate that the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, and the handover instruction is used to instruct the terminal device to switch to another cell.
The method of claim 26, wherein the method further comprises:

Sending, by the first network device, second indication information to the terminal device through K of the M secondary cells, where the second indication information is used to indicate the candidate primary cell group of the terminal device, The candidate primary cell group includes at least one secondary cell in the M secondary cells, where 1≤K≤M, and the K is a positive integer.
The method according to claim 26 or 27, wherein when the terminal device also communicates with the second network device, and if the terminal device cannot communicate with the first network device through the secondary cell, the The first network device and the second network device are dual-connected, and the method further includes:

The first network device receives the first indication information sent by the terminal device through a transmission path between the first network device and the second network device.
A device characterized by being used to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 28.
A device, characterized by comprising a processor and a memory, the memory stores instructions, and when the processor executes the instructions, the device executes the method according to any one of claims 1 to 28.
A computer-readable storage medium, wherein the computer-readable storage medium stores instructions, which when run on a computer, cause the computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 28.