WO2021088060A1

WO2021088060A1 - Communication method and apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO2021088060A1
Application number: PCT/CN2019/116860
Authority: WO
Inventors: 应江威; 杨艳梅; 许胜锋
Original assignee: 华为技术有限公司
Priority date: 2019-11-08
Filing date: 2019-11-08
Publication date: 2021-05-14
Also published as: CN114642079B; CN114642079A

Abstract

Provided in the present application are a communication method and apparatus. The method comprises: a first mobility management network element receives information of a second user from a second mobility management network element, the first mobility management network element serving a first user, the second mobility management network element serving the second user, the first user corresponding to a first USIM, the second user corresponding to a second USIM, and the first USIM and the second USIM being located in the same terminal device; and the first mobility management network element controls the first user according to the information of the second user and information of the first user in the first mobility management network element. On the basis of the described solution, information between different users can be exchanged on a network side, and the synchronization of information of a user can be maintained. As such, the quality of communication between a network device and a terminal device is improved, and a communication service is prevented from experiencing a conflict, thereby improving the communication service experience of a user.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical field

This application relates to the field of mobile communication technology, and in particular to communication methods and devices.

Background technique

The universal subscriber identity module (USIM) is an application for terminal user identification, and is generally a module in the universal intergrated circuit card (UICC). The USIM stores the identity verification, authentication and encryption related information of the subscribers of the wireless communication system, and the terminal equipment uses the USIM to access the wireless communication system. In addition, the USIM can be regarded as an upgraded subscriber identification module (SIM), which has upgraded the algorithm in terms of security and added the authentication function of the USIM to the network, which has higher security performance.

In the current communication technology, there is a requirement for holding multiple USIMs (ie, Multi-Universal Subscriber Identity Module (MUSIM)) at the same time in the same terminal device. In the MUSIM scenario, users can contact different user groups through multiple USIMs of the same terminal device, or perform different communication services. In addition, future enterprise scenarios also have a strong demand for one terminal device to support multiple USIMs. There are many ways to implement MUSIM. For example, there are multiple card slots on the terminal device and multiple USIMs can be installed; or, multiple USIMs are stored in one UICC on the terminal device; or, multiple USIMs can be stored in the terminal device. Without UICC, that is, soft SIM or soft USIM.

At present, in the scenario of multiple USIMs, the network controls users corresponding to multiple USIMs in the same terminal device respectively. Since the user can only be controlled based on the user's information corresponding to a USIM, the user's communication service experience is poor.

Summary of the invention

This application provides a communication method and device to improve the user's communication service experience.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, the method includes: a first mobility management network element receives information from a second user of a second mobility management network element, and the first mobility management network element serves The first user, the second mobility management network element serves the second user, the first user corresponds to the first USIM, the second user corresponds to the second USIM, and the first USIM and the second USIM The second USIM is located in the same terminal device; the first mobility management network element executes the operation of the first user based on the information of the second user and the information of the first user in the first mobility management network element control.

Based on this solution, the network side can exchange information between different users and keep the user's information synchronized. In this way, it will help to improve the communication quality between the UE and the network equipment, avoid conflicts in communication services, and thus improve the user's communication service experience.

In a possible implementation method, the first mobility management network element sends the first user information to the second mobility management network element, and the first user information is used to perform the Control of the second user.

In a possible implementation method, the first mobility management network element stores the information of the second user in the context of the first user, and the context of the first user also includes the first user Information.

In a possible implementation method, the information of the first user includes one or more of the following: the connection management status of the first user, the service priority information of the first user, and the first user The service information of the second user; the information of the second user includes one or more of the following: the connection management status of the second user, the service priority information of the second user, the service information of the second user, and The identifier and/or address information of the second mobility management network element, and the identifier of the second user.

In a possible implementation method, the information of the first user includes that the first user is in an idle state, and the information of the second user includes that the second user is in an idle state; the first mobility management The network element performs control of the first user according to the information of the second user and the information of the first user in the first mobility management network element, including: if the first user fails to page, The first mobility management network element pages the first user according to a paging policy, and the paging policy includes at least one of the following: the number of paging attempts is less than the number of paging attempts of a single USIM, and the The paging range is smaller than the expanded paging range of a single USIM; or, the paging strategy includes at least one of the following: the number of paging attempts is more than the number of paging attempts of a single USIM, adding the next paging attempt and the current paging The time interval between attempts.

In a possible implementation method, the information of the first user includes that the first user is in an idle state, and the information of the second user includes that the second user is in a connected state; and the first mobility management The network element executes control of the first user according to the information of the second user and the information of the first user in the first mobility management network element, including: the first mobility management network element according to The paging strategy is used to page the first user, and the paging strategy includes at least one of the following: terminating paging attempts, fewer paging attempts than a single USIM, and an expanded paging range less than a single USIM. USIM expanded paging range.

In a possible implementation method, the information of the first user includes that the first user is in an idle state, and the information of the second user includes that the second user is in a connected state; and the first mobility management The network element performs control of the first user according to the information of the second user and the information of the first user in the first mobility management network element, including: if the first user fails to page, The first mobility management network element requests the second mobility management network element to notify the terminal device that the first user has a downlink service.

In a possible implementation method, the information of the first user includes that the first user is in a connected state, and the information of the second user includes that the second user is in an idle state; and the first mobility management The network element performs control on the first user according to the information of the second user and the information of the first user in the first mobility management network element, including: the first mobility management network element receives A request from the second mobility management network element for notifying the terminal device that the first user has a downlink service; the first mobility management network element sends the request to the terminal device through the communication connection of the first user Notification: The second user has a downlink service.

In a possible implementation method, the information of the first user includes the priority of the service to be initiated by the first user in an idle state, and the information of the second user includes the The second user is in the connected state and the priority of the ongoing service of the second user; the first mobility management network element is based on the information of the second user and the information in the first mobility management network element The information of the first user, performing control on the first user, includes: if the priority of the service to be initiated by the first user is lower than the priority of the ongoing service of the second user, the The first mobility management network element determines not to initiate paging for the service to be initiated of the first user.

In a possible implementation method, the information of the first user includes that the first user is in a connected state, and the information of the second user includes that the second user is in an idle state; and the first mobility management The network element performs control on the first user according to the information of the second user and the information of the first user in the first mobility management network element, including: the first mobility management network element receives The signaling or control plane information of the second user is sent to the terminal device through the communication connection of the first user.

In a possible implementation method, the information of the first user includes that the first user is in an idle state, and the information of the second user includes that the second user is in a connected state; and the first mobility management The network element performs control of the first user according to the information of the second user and the information of the first user in the first mobility management network element, including: the first mobility management network element directs The second mobility management network element sends the signaling or control plane information of the first user, so that the second mobility management network element sends to the terminal device through the communication connection of the second user The signaling or control plane information of the first user.

In a possible implementation method, the first mobility management network element receives a request message from the second mobility management network element, and the request message includes the identity of the first user and the second The identifier of the user, the request message is used to request the establishment of an association between the first user and the second user; the first mobility management network element sends a response message to the second mobility management network element The response message is used to indicate that the association between the first user and the second user is successfully established.

In a possible implementation method, the request message further includes the identification and/or address information of the second mobility management network element.

In a possible implementation method, the first mobility management network element sends the identification and/or address information of the first mobility management network element to the second mobility management network element.

In a possible implementation method, the first mobility management network element sends a request message to the second mobility management network element, and the request message includes the identity of the first user and the second user The request message is used to request the establishment of an association between the first user and the second user; the first mobility management network element receives a response message sent from the second mobility management network element The response message is used to indicate that the association between the first user and the second user is successfully established.

In a possible implementation method, the first mobility management network element receives the user hidden identity SUCI of the second user from the terminal device; the first mobility management network element is based on the second The user's SUCI obtains the identification and/or address information of the second mobility management network element.

In a possible implementation method, the first mobility management network element acquiring the identification and/or address information of the second mobility management network element according to the SUCI of the second user includes: the first mobility management network element A mobility management network element determines the authentication network element and data management network element corresponding to the second user according to the SUCI of the second user; the first mobility management network element sends to the authentication network element SUCI of the second user; the first mobility management network element receives the user permanent identification SUPI of the second user from the authentication network element, and the SUPI of the second user comes from the data management network The first mobility management network element sends the SUPI of the second user to the data management network element; the first mobility management network element receives the second mobility from the data management network element The identification and/or address information of the network element of the nature management.

In a possible implementation method, the first mobility management network element acquiring the identification and/or address information of the second mobility management network element according to the SUCI of the second user includes: the first mobility management network element A mobility management network element determines the first network element corresponding to the second user according to the SUCI of the second user; the first mobility management network element sends the second user to the first network element The SUCI; the first mobility management network element receives the identification and/or address information of the second mobility management network element from the first network element; wherein, the first network element is an authentication network Element, the identification and/or address information of the second mobility management network element comes from a data management network element corresponding to the second user; or, the first network element is a data management network element.

In a possible implementation method, the first mobility management network element receives the SUPI of the second user from the terminal device; the first mobility management network element is based on the SUPI of the second user , Determine the data management network element corresponding to the second user; the first mobility management network element sends the SUPI of the second user to the data management network element; the first mobility management network element receives from The identification and/or address information of the second mobility management network element of the data management network element.

In a possible implementation method, the first mobility management network element receives the globally unique temporary identification GUTI of the second user from the terminal device; the first mobility management network element is based on the first The second user GUTI determines the identification and/or address information of the second mobility management network element corresponding to the second user.

In a possible implementation method, the request message further includes the identification and/or address information of the first mobility management network element.

In a possible implementation method, the first mobility management network element receives identification and/or address information from the second mobility management network element.

In a possible implementation method, the first mobility management network element receives the SUPI, SUCI or GUTI of the first user from the terminal device.

In a possible implementation method, the identifier of the first user is the SUPI of the first user, the SUCI of the first user, or the GUTI of the first user, and the identifier of the second user is the SUPI of the first user. The SUPI of the second user, the SUCI of the second user, or the GUTI of the second user.

In a possible implementation method, the first mobility management network element operates according to the capability information of the terminal device, the subscription information of the first user, and the operator corresponding to the first mobility management network element. At least one of the policies is determined to establish an association between the first user and the second user; wherein the capability information is used to indicate that the terminal device supports multiple USIM communications, and the subscription information is used to Indicate that the first user has subscribed to multiple USIM communication services, and the operator's operation strategy is used to instruct the operator to support the interactive sharing of user information between different mobility management network elements of the same PLMN and/or to instruct the operator to support different services from others The mobility management network elements of PLMN exchange and share user information.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method. The method includes: a terminal device sends an identifier of a second user to a first mobility management network element through a communication connection of the first user, and the second user is moved by the second user. The first mobility management network element provides services, the first mobility management network element serves the first user, and the identification of the second user is used to establish an association between the first user and the second user, The first user corresponds to a first USIM, the second user corresponds to a second USIM, and the first USIM and the second USIM are located in the same terminal device; the terminal device receives data from the first mobility management network The first indication information of the element, the first indication information is used to indicate that the association between the first user and the second user is successfully established.

Based on this solution, the network side can exchange information between different users and keep the user's information synchronized. In this way, it will help to improve the communication quality between the network device and the UE, avoid conflicts in communication services, and thus improve the user's communication service experience.

In a possible implementation method, the terminal device obtains the information of the first user; the terminal device sends the first user information to the second mobility management network element through the communication connection of the second user. Information of a user and second indication information, where the second indication information is used to instruct to send the information of the first user to the first mobility management network element.

In a possible implementation method, the establishing the association between the first user and the second user includes: storing information of the second user in the context of the first user, and the first user The context of the user also includes information about the first user, where the information about the first user includes one or more of the following: the connection management status of the first user, and the service priority information of the first user , The service information of the first user; the information of the second user includes one or more of the following: the connection management status of the second user, the service priority information of the second user, the second user The service information of the user, the identification and/or address information of the second mobility management network element, and the identification of the second user.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which may be a mobility management network element, or a chip used for a mobility management network element. The device has the function of realizing the above-mentioned first aspect or each embodiment of the first aspect. This function can be realized by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above-mentioned functions.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which may be a terminal device or a chip used for the terminal device. The device has the function of realizing the above-mentioned second aspect or each embodiment of the second aspect. This function can be realized by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above-mentioned functions.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication device including a processor and a memory; the memory is used to store computer-executable instructions. When the device is running, the processor executes the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory to make the device Perform the method as described above in each aspect or each embodiment of each aspect.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, including units or means for executing the above aspects or steps in each aspect.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a communication device including a processor and an interface circuit, where the processor is configured to communicate with other devices through the interface circuit and execute the methods of the above aspects or the embodiments of the aspects. The processor includes one or more.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, including a processor, configured to be connected to a memory, and configured to call a program stored in the memory to execute the methods of the above aspects or the embodiments of the aspects. The memory can be located inside the device or outside the device. And the processor includes one or more.

In a ninth aspect, this application also provides a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored in the computer-readable storage medium, which when run on a computer, cause a processor to execute the above aspects or embodiments of each aspect The method described.

In a tenth aspect, the present application also provides a computer program product including instructions, which when run on a computer, causes the computer to execute the methods described in the above aspects or the embodiments of the aspects.

In an eleventh aspect, the present application also provides a chip system, including a processor, configured to execute the methods described in the foregoing aspects or the embodiments of the aspects.

Description of the drawings

Figure 1A is a schematic diagram of a 5G network architecture based on a service-oriented architecture;

Figure 1B is a schematic diagram of a 5G network architecture based on a point-to-point interface;

Fig. 2 is a schematic flow diagram of a communication method provided by this application;

Figure 3 is a schematic flow diagram of another communication method provided by this application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic flowchart of another communication method provided by this application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a communication device provided by this application;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of another communication device provided by this application;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a mobility management network element provided by this application;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a terminal device provided by this application.

Detailed ways

In order to make the purpose, technical solutions, and advantages of the application more clear, the application will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The specific operation method in the method embodiment can also be applied to the device embodiment or the system embodiment. Among them, in the description of the present application, unless otherwise specified, "multiple" means two or more.

As shown in Figure 1A, it is a schematic diagram of a fifth generation (5G) network architecture based on a service-oriented architecture. The 5G network architecture shown in FIG. 1A may include three parts, namely, a terminal equipment part, a data network (DN), and an operator network part. The functions of some of the network elements are briefly introduced below.

Among them, the operator network may include one or more of the following network elements: Authentication Server Function (AUSF) network elements, network exposure function (NEF) network elements, policy control function (policy control) function, PCF) network element, unified data management (UDM) network element, unified database (Unified Data Repository, UDR), network storage function (Network Repository Function, NRF) network element, application function (AF) ) Network element, access and mobility management function (AMF) network element, session management function (SMF) network element, radio access network (RAN) and user plane function (user plane function, UPF) network elements, etc. In the above-mentioned operator network, parts other than the radio access network part may be referred to as the core network part.

Terminal device (terminal device), also called user equipment (user equipment, UE), is a device with wireless transceiver function, which can be deployed on land, including indoor or outdoor, handheld or vehicle-mounted; it can also be deployed on water It can also be deployed in the air (such as airplanes, balloons, and satellites). The terminal device may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer (pad), a computer with wireless transceiver function, a virtual reality (VR) terminal, an augmented reality (AR) terminal, an industrial control (industrial control) Wireless terminals in ), wireless terminals in self-driving, wireless terminals in remote medical, wireless terminals in smart grid, and wireless terminals in transportation safety , Wireless terminals in smart cities, wireless terminals in smart homes, etc. The terminal device here may be a 3rd generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project, 3GPP) terminal.

The above-mentioned terminal equipment may establish a connection with the operator's network through an interface (such as N1, etc.) provided by the operator's network, and use services such as data and/or voice provided by the operator's network. The terminal device can also access the DN through the operator's network, and use the operator's service deployed on the DN and/or the service provided by a third party. Among them, the above-mentioned third party may be a service party other than the operator's network and terminal equipment, and may provide other services such as data and/or voice for the terminal equipment. Among them, the specific form of expression of the above-mentioned third party can be determined according to actual application scenarios, and is not limited here.

RAN is a sub-network of an operator's network, and an implementation system between service nodes and terminal equipment in the operator's network. To access the operator's network, the terminal device first passes through the RAN, and then can be connected to the service node of the operator's network through the RAN. The RAN device in this application is a device that provides wireless communication functions for terminal devices, and the RAN device is also called an access network device. The RAN equipment in this application includes but is not limited to: next-generation base stations (gnodeB, gNB), evolved node B (evolved node B, eNB), radio network controller (RNC), node B in 5G (node B, NB), base station controller (BSC), base transceiver station (BTS), home base station (for example, home evolved nodeB, or home node B, HNB), baseband unit (baseBand) unit, BBU), transmission point (transmitting and receiving point, TRP), transmission point (transmitting point, TP), mobile switching center, etc.

The AMF network element mainly performs functions such as mobility management and access authentication/authorization. In addition, it is also responsible for transferring user policies between UE and PCF.

The SMF network element mainly performs functions such as session management, execution of the control strategy issued by the PCF, selection of the UPF, and UE Internet Protocol (IP) address allocation.

The UPF network element, as the interface UPF with the data network, completes the functions of user plane data forwarding, session/stream-based billing statistics, and bandwidth limitation.

The UDM network element is mainly responsible for functions such as management of contract data and user access authorization.

UDR is mainly responsible for the access function of contract data, strategy data, application data and other types of data.

NEF network elements are mainly used to support the opening of capabilities and events.

The AF network element mainly conveys the requirements of the application side to the network side, for example, quality of service (QoS) requirements or user status event subscriptions. AF can be a third-party functional entity, or an application service deployed by an operator, such as an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) voice call service.

The PCF network element is mainly responsible for policy control functions such as billing, QoS bandwidth guarantee and mobility management, and UE policy decision-making for sessions and service flow levels. In this architecture, the PCF connected to the AMF and the SMF corresponds to AM PCF (PCF for Access and Mobility Control) and SM PCF (PCF for Session Management) respectively, and may not be the same PCF entity in actual deployment scenarios.

The NRF network element can be used to provide the network element discovery function, and provide the network element information corresponding to the network element type based on the request of other network elements. NRF also provides network element management services, such as network element registration, update, de-registration, and network element status subscription and push.

AUSF network element: Mainly responsible for authenticating users to determine whether users or devices are allowed to access the network.

A DN is a network located outside the operator's network. The operator's network can access multiple DNs, and multiple services can be deployed on the DN, which can provide data and/or voice services for terminal devices. For example, DN is a private network of a smart factory. The sensors installed in the workshop of the smart factory can be terminal devices. A control server for the sensors is deployed in the DN, and the control server can provide services for the sensors. The sensor can communicate with the control server, obtain instructions from the control server, and transmit the collected sensor data to the control server according to the instructions. For another example, the DN is the internal office network of a company. The mobile phones or computers of the employees of the company can be terminal devices, and the mobile phones or computers of the employees can access the information and data resources on the internal office network of the company.

In Figure 1A, Nausf, Nnef, Npcf, Nudm, Naf, Namf, Nsmf, N1, N2, N3, N4, and N6 are interface serial numbers. The meaning of these interface serial numbers can be referred to the meaning defined in the 3GPP standard protocol, which is not limited here.

As shown in FIG. 1B, it is a schematic diagram of a 5G network architecture based on a point-to-point interface. For the introduction of the functions of the network elements therein, reference may be made to the introduction of the functions of the corresponding network elements in FIG. The main difference between FIG. 1B and FIG. 1A is that the interfaces between the various network elements in FIG. 1B are point-to-point interfaces, rather than service-oriented interfaces.

In the architecture shown in Figure 1B, the names and functions of the interfaces between each network element are as follows:

1) N7: The interface between PCF and SMF, used to issue protocol data unit (protocol data unit, PDU) session granularity and service data flow granularity control strategy.

2) N15: The interface between PCF and AMF, used to issue UE policies and access control related policies.

3) N5: Interface between AF and PCF, used for application service request issuance and network event reporting.

4), N4: The interface between SMF and UPF, used to transfer information between the control plane and the user plane, including controlling the issuance of user-oriented forwarding rules, QoS control rules, traffic statistics rules, etc., and user-plane information Reported.

5) N11: Interface between SMF and AMF, used to transfer PDU session tunnel information between RAN and UPF, transfer control messages sent to UE, transfer radio resource control information sent to RAN, etc.

6) N2: The interface between AMF and RAN, used to transfer radio bearer control information from the core network side to the RAN.

7) N1: The interface between the AMF and the UE, which has nothing to do with access, and is used to deliver QoS control rules to the UE.

8) N8: The interface between AMF and UDM, used for AMF to obtain access and mobility management related subscription data and authentication data from UDM, and AMF to register UE current mobility management related information with UDM, etc.

9) N10: Interface between SMF and UDM, used for SMF to obtain session management related subscription data from UDM, and SMF to register UE current session related information with UDM, etc.

10) N35: Interface between UDM and UDR, used for UDM to obtain user subscription data information from UDR.

11) N36: Interface between PCF and UDR, used for PCF to obtain policy-related contract data and application data-related information from UDR.

12). N12: The interface between AMF and AUSF, used for AMF to initiate an authentication process to AUSF, which can carry a User Concealed Identifier (Subscription Concealed Identifier, SUCI) as a subscription identifier;

13). N13: The interface between UDM and AUSF, used for AUSF to obtain user authentication vector from UDM to execute the authentication process.

It is understandable that the aforementioned network elements or functions may be network elements in hardware devices, software functions running on dedicated hardware, or virtualization functions instantiated on a platform (for example, a cloud platform). Optionally, the foregoing network element or function may be implemented by one device, or jointly implemented by multiple devices, or may be a functional module in one device, which is not specifically limited in the embodiment of the present application.

The mobility management network element, authentication network element, and data management network element in this application can be AMF, AUSF, UDM in Figure 1A or Figure 1B, respectively, or future communications such as the 6th generation (6G) The network elements in the network that have the above-mentioned AMF, AUSF, and UDM functions are not limited in this application. For the convenience of description, this application takes the above-mentioned AMF, AUSF, and UDM as examples for the mobility management network element, authentication network element, and data management network element, respectively. Further, the terminal device is referred to as UE for short in this application.

At present, UEs on the market have different communication capabilities, including: single Rx/single Tx UE, dual Rx/single Tx UE, dual Rx/dual Tx UE.

For example, Dual SIM Dual Standby (DSDS) 1.0 (single Rx/single Tx UE) can only receive signals from a public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN) at the same time, so a search may occur. The problem of paging collision. DSDS 2.0 (dual Rx/single Tx UE) can receive signals from two networks at the same time by switching some radio frequency channels, and there will be no paging conflict problem, but DSDS 2.0 does not support uplink transmission between the two systems. Handover, therefore, the radio resource control (Radio Resource Control, RRC) connection of the two networks cannot be maintained. DSDS 3.0 (dual Rx/single Tx UE) can not only receive signals from two networks at the same time, but also support uplink transmission to dynamically switch between the two systems, so there will be no paging conflict problem, and the two networks can be maintained RRC connection.

In addition, different USIMs in the MUSIM on the UE may belong to the same mobile network operator (Mobile Network Operator, MNO), or may belong to different MNOs.

At present, the support for MUSIM in the prior art is mainly based on a non-standardized solution implemented by the device, resulting in a variety of implementation solutions and UE behaviors.

Although the UE can perceive the user information corresponding to each USIM in MUSIM, it will not report the user information corresponding to one USIM (such as USIM2) to the PLMN (such as PLMN1) corresponding to another USIM (such as USIM1) for use in the PLMN (For example, PLMN1) controls the user corresponding to the USIM (for example, USIM1), but the PLMN controls the user information corresponding to each USIM individually, and there is no association between user information corresponding to different USIMs. For example, if USIM1 belongs to PLMN1 and USIM2 belongs to PLMN2, the UE will not report the user information corresponding to USIM2 to PLMN1 through the connection of USIM1; similarly, the UE will not report the user information corresponding to USIM1 to PLMN2 through the connection of USIM2; and, in PLMN1 The user information corresponding to USIM1 in PLMN1 will not be associated with or perceive the user information corresponding to USIM2 in PLMN2, and the user information corresponding to USIM2 in PLMN2 will not be associated with or perceive the user information corresponding to USIM1 in PLMN1. Among them, PLMN1 and PLMN2 may be the same PLMN or different PLMNs.

The problem with the above solution is that the user information corresponding to the USIM stored in different network elements on the network side only contains the user's own information, and does not contain user information corresponding to other USIMs, which may cause a network device and UE The reduction in communication quality may cause conflicts in some communication services, which affects the user’s communication service experience.

It should be noted that the user information corresponding to the USIM stored in different network elements on the network side only contains the user's own information, and does not contain user information corresponding to other USIMs, including the following two scenarios:

Scenario 1. Different USIMs belong to different PLMNs, and different PLMNs do not exchange user information corresponding to different USIMs.

For example, in the above example, PLMN1 will not obtain user information corresponding to USIM2 for USIM1, and PLMN2 will not obtain user information corresponding to USIM1 for USIM2.

Scenario 2: Different USIMs belong to the same PLMN, and the network elements inside the PLMN do not interact with user information corresponding to different USIMs.

As an example, USIM1 and USIM2 belong to the same PLMN, where AMF1 in the PLMN manages user information corresponding to USIM1, and AMF2 in the PLMN manages corresponding user information, so AMF1 will not obtain user information corresponding to USIM2 for USIM1. AMF2 will not obtain the user information corresponding to USIM1 for USIM1. Among them, AMF1 and AMF2 can be the same AMF or different AMFs.

Listed below are some examples where different network elements on the network side only contain the user's own information, which may reduce the communication quality between the network device and the UE or cause conflicts in some communication services.

Example 1. When PLMN1 paging the first user (corresponding to USIM1) and PLMN2 paging the second user (corresponding to USIM2) at the same time, there may be a paging moment conflict. When the UE monitors the paging of one of the users, the UE cannot succeed Receiving a paging from another user causes the paging to fail, thereby causing conflicts in communication services and affecting the user's communication service experience. In addition, the PLMN that failed to page may still try to page the user, which may also cause a waste of network resources.

Example 2. The first user of the UE is in the connected state. During the service communication between the first user of the UE and PLMN1, if PLMN2 initiates paging for the second user, if the UE continues to maintain the service of the first user and does not respond to the service Paging may cause the paging of the second user to fail. Optionally, further, the UE cannot even receive the paging of the second user, that is, the UE does not know that the PLMN2 has tried paging the second user. The conflict of the above communication services will also affect the user's communication service experience.

Example 3: When the first user of the UE is in the connected state, during the service communication between the first user of the UE and the PLMN1, if the PLMN2 initiates a paging for the second user, the UE responds to the paging of the second user to receive the second user. The service of the second user, while releasing the connection between the first user and PLMN1 and suspending the current service of the first user, but the first user’s service may have a higher priority than the second user’s service, so the UE needs to re-establish the first user and The PLMN1 is connected and continues the service of the first user, resulting in lower communication quality between the network equipment and the UE.

Example 4: When the first user of the UE is in the connected state, the second user of the UE may need to exchange some signaling or control plane information with the PLMN2 during the service communication process of the UE through the first user, in order to transmit the information of the second user For signaling or control plane information, the connection between the first user and the PLMN1 needs to be released, which causes the service of the first user to be interrupted, resulting in low communication quality between the network device and the UE.

In order to solve the problem that the different network elements on the network side only contain the user's own information, but not the user information corresponding to other USIMs, the communication quality between the network equipment and the UE may be reduced or some communication services may conflict. One possible solution is that the UE monitors the user information corresponding to different USIMs, and reports the user information corresponding to the USIM to the PLMN to which another USIM belongs or the AMF in the PLMN. For example, when USIM1 belongs to PLMN1 and USIM2 belongs to PLMN2, the UE monitors the user information corresponding to USIM1 and reports it to the AMF in PLMN2 or PLMN2 through the connection between USIM2 and PLMN2, and the UE monitors the user information corresponding to USIM2 and communicates with USIM1. The connection between PLMN1 is reported to PLMN1 or the AMF in PLMN1. For another example, when USIM1 and USIM2 belong to the same PLMN, and AMF2 in the PLMN manages the corresponding user information of USIM2, and AMF1 in the PLMN manages the user information corresponding to USIM1, the UE monitors the user information corresponding to USIM1 and passes USIM2 The connection with AMF2 is reported to AMF2, and the UE monitors the user information corresponding to USIM2 and reports it to AMF1 through the connection between USIM1 and AMF1. Among them, when USIM1 and USIM2 belong to the same PLMN, AMF1 and AMF2 can be the same AMF.

The above solution can enable different network elements on the network side to obtain all user information, thereby helping to avoid the problems mentioned in the above examples. However, this solution relies on the UE continuously reporting user information corresponding to the USIM to the network side through signaling, which generates a lot of signaling overhead. Therefore, this solution will still cause a waste of UE resources and a decrease in communication quality. For example, when the UE detects that the second user enters the connected state, even if the first user is in the idle state, the UE needs to specifically report the state change of the second user so that the first user enters the connected state.

To solve the above problem, based on the network architecture shown in FIG. 1A or FIG. 1B, as shown in FIG. 2, the present application provides a communication method. The method can be executed by AMF or components used for AMF (such as chip, circuit, etc.) on the network side, and can be executed by UE or components used for UE (such as chip, circuit, etc.) on the terminal side. For ease of description, the following takes the AMF and the UE to execute the method as an example for description.

It should be noted that the application scenario of this solution is that the UE has MUSIM capability. For example, there are a first USIM and a second USIM on the UE, the first USIM corresponds to the first user, and the second USIM corresponds to the second user. The first user corresponds to the first PLMN, and the second user corresponds to the second PLMN. The first user has registered to the first PLMN, and the first user corresponds to the first AMF, the first UDM, and the first AUSF in the first PLMN, or it is understood that the network-side network element that provides services for the first user includes the first AMF, first UDM, first AUSF. After the first user is registered to the first PLMN, the first user’s context is stored in the first AMF, and the first user’s context includes the first user’s information (such as the first user’s connection management status, the first user’s business priority) One or more of the first-level information and the business information of the first user). Optionally, the identifier of the first AMF and the user permanent identifier (Subscription Permanent Identifier, SUPI) of the first user are stored in the first UDM.

The following example method is completed during the process of the second user registering to the second PLMN; or, other non-access stratum (NAS) signaling interaction processes during the process of the second user registering to the second PLMN For example, NAS transmission messages (such as uplink NAS transport (UL NAS transport) messages, downlink NAS transmission (DL NAS transport) messages), or NAS messages specifically used to associate multiple UISMs (e.g., MUSIM association establishment request) /Response (MUSIM association establishment request/response); or, completed in the NAS signaling interaction process after the registration process, such as NAS transmission messages, or NAS messages specifically used to associate multiple UISMs; or, in other processes Execution, such as a service request process, such as a service request process (service request; service accept).

Among them, the second user corresponds to the second AMF, the second UDM, and the second AUSF in the second PLMN. Or it can be understood that the network-side network element that provides services for the second user includes the second AMF, the second UDM, and the second AUSF.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned first PLMN and second PLMN may be the same PLMN or different PLMNs. If the first PLMN and the second PLMN are the same, the first AMF and the second AMF are different AMFs in the same PLMN. If the first PLMN and the second PLMN are not the same, the first AMF and the second AMF are different AMFs in the PLMN, or may also be the same AMF.

Figure 2 uses the process of the second user to register to the second PLMN as an example to implement this solution. The method includes the following steps:

Step 201: The UE sends a registration request to the second AMF. Correspondingly, the second AMF can receive the registration request.

The registration request is used to request registration of the second user of the UE to the second PLMN.

Step 202: The second AMF determines the identity and/or address information of the first AMF.

As an implementation manner, the above registration request carries the SUCI of the first user, and the second AMF may obtain the identity and/or address information of the first AMF according to the SUCI of the first user.

For example, the second AMF determines the AUSF corresponding to the first user (i.e., the first AUSF) according to the high-order part of the SUCI of the first user (for example, mobile country code (MCC) and mobile network code (MNC)). ) And UDM (that is, the first UDM), and then the second AMF sends the first user's SUCI to the first AUSF, the first AUSF sends the first user's SUCI to the first UDM, and the first UDM determines the first user's SUCI according to the first user's SUCI. The SUPI of a user and the SUPI of the first user are sent to the first AUSF, and then the first AUSF sends the SUPI of the first user to the second AMF, and then the second AMF sends the SUPI of the first user to the first UDM, and the first UDM Determine the identification information of the first AMF according to the SUPI of the first user and send the identification and/or address information of the first AMF to the second AMF.

For another example, the second AMF determines the UDM (that is, the first UDM) corresponding to the first user according to the high part of the SUCI of the first user (such as MCC and MNC), and then the second AMF sends the SUCI of the first user to the first UDM, The first UDM determines the SUPI of the first user according to the SUCI of the first user and sends the identification and/or address information of the first AMF to the second AMF.

As yet another implementation manner, the above registration request carries the SUPI of the first user, and the second AMF may obtain the identity and/or address information of the first AMF according to the SUPI of the first user. For example, the second AMF determines the UDM (that is, the first UDM) corresponding to the first user based on the SUPI of the first user, and then the second AMF sends the SUPI of the first user to the first UDM, and the first UDM determines the SUPI of the first user according to the SUPI of the first user. Determine the identification and/or address information of the first AMF, and send the identification and/or address information of the first AMF to the second AMF.

As yet another implementation manner, the aforementioned registration request carries the globally unique temporary identity (Globally Unique Temporary UE Identity, GUTI), and the second AMF can identify the identity of the first AMF and/or according to the GUTI of the first user. Address information.

Step 203: The second AMF sends a request message to the first AMF. Correspondingly, the first AMF can receive the request message.

The request message includes the identity of the first user and the identity of the second user, and the request message is used to request the establishment of an association between the first user and the second user. Wherein, the identity of the first user may be the SUPI of the first user, the GUTI of the first user, or the SUCI of the first user. The identity of the second user may be the SUPI of the second user, the GUTI of the second user, or the SUCI of the second user.

Optionally, the request message may also carry the identification and/or address information of the second AMF.

Optionally, the request message may also carry first indication information for instructing to establish an association between the first user and the second user.

Optionally, the second AMF obtains the identity of the second user according to the registration request in step 201, including: if the UE is in an idle state, or the USIM2 of the UE is in an idle state, the registration request in step 201 now carries the second user identity . Otherwise, if the UE is in the connected state, or the USIM2 of the UE is in the connected state, that is, there is a NAS signaling connection between the UE and AMF2, and there is an association relationship between the signaling connection and the second user context on AMF2; in this case, the above steps The registration request of 201 may not carry the second user identifier, and the second AMF may determine the second user identifier according to the association relationship between the signaling connection and the second user. Of course, if the UE is in the connected state, or the USIM2 of the UE is in the connected state, that is, there is a NAS signaling connection between the UE and AMF2, and there is an association relationship between the signaling connection and the second user context on AMF2; in this case, the above steps The registration request of 201 may also carry the second user ID.

Further, optionally, the registration request in step 201 may also carry second indication information for instructing to establish an association between the first user and the second user. The above-mentioned first indication information and the second indication information may be the same or different. If different, the second indication information may be generated according to the first indication information.

Step 204: The first AMF sends a response message to the second AMF. Correspondingly, the second AMF can receive the response message.

The response message is used to indicate that the association between the first user and the second user is successfully established.

Here, successfully establishing the association between the first user and the second user may include: the first AMF stores the identity of the second user in the context of the first user, thereby establishing the identity of the first user and the identity of the second user The relationship between. Further, if the request message in step 203 also carries the identification and/or address information of the second AMF, successfully establishing the association between the first user and the second user may also include: the first AMF is in the context of the first user The identification or address information of the second AMF is stored, thereby establishing an association relationship between the first AMF and the second AMF.

Optionally, the response message may also carry the identification and/or address information of the first AMF.

Step 205: The second AMF sends the information of the second user to the first AMF. Correspondingly, the first AMF can receive the information of the second user.

After receiving the information of the second user, the first AMF may store the information of the second user in the context of the first user in the first AMF. That is, before receiving the information of the second user, the first AMF stores the context of the first user, and the context of the first user includes the information of the first user, which includes but is not limited to at least one of the following: Connection management status, service priority information of the first user, and service information of the first user. After receiving the information of the second user, the first AMF can store the information of the second user in the context of the first user. The information of the second user includes but is not limited to at least one of the following: the connection management status of the second user , The business priority information of the second user, and the business information of the second user. Further, if the request message in step 203 above carries the identification and/or address information of the second AMF, the identification and/or address information of the second AMF may also be stored in the second user’s context in the context of the first user. Information. And, the identification of the second user carried in the request message of step 203 may also be stored in the information of the second user in the context of the first user.

Wherein, the service information includes the information of the ongoing service and/or the information of the service to be initiated by the user. The connection management state includes a connected state, an idle state, and so on. The service priority information is used to indicate the priority corresponding to each service.

Optionally, this step 205 may not be performed, but the request message of the above step 203 carries the information of the second user.

Step 206: The first AMF sends the information of the first user to the second AMF. Correspondingly, the second AMF can receive the information of the first user.

After receiving the information of the first user, the second AMF may store the information of the first user in the context of the second user in the second AMF. That is, before receiving the information of the first user, the second AMF stores the context of the second user, and the context of the second user includes the information of the second user, including but not limited to: the connection management status of the second user , The business priority information of the second user, and the business information of the second user. After receiving the information of the first user, the second AMF can store the information of the first user in the context of the second user. The information of the first user includes but is not limited to: the connection management status of the first user, The user's business priority information, and the first user's business information. Further, if the response message in step 204 above carries the identification and/or address information of the first AMF, the identification and/or address information of the first AMF may also be stored in the context of the second user. Information. And, the identification of the first user carried in the response message of step 204 may also be stored in the information of the first user in the context of the second user.

Step 207: The first AMF controls the first user according to the information of the second user and the information of the first user in the first AMF.

Step 208: The second AMF controls the second user according to the information of the first user and the information of the second user in the second AMF. As an optional implementation method, before the above step 202, the following steps may also be performed: the second AMF according to at least one of the capability information of the UE, the subscription information of the second user, and the operator operation strategy corresponding to the second AMF Item, determine to establish an association between the first user and the second user; where the capability information is used to indicate that the UE supports multiple USIM communications, and the subscription information is used to indicate that the second user has subscribed to multiple USIM communications services, and the operator operates The strategy is used to instruct the operator to support the interactive sharing of user information between different AMFs of the same PLMN and/or to instruct the operator to support the interactive sharing of user information with other AMFs of different PLMNs. That is, when the second AMF determines that the association between the first user and the second user can be established, the subsequent operation of establishing the association between the first user and the second user will be performed, otherwise the subsequent establishment of the first user and the second user will not be performed. The operation of the association between the second user.

Similarly, as an optional implementation method, before step 204, the following steps may be performed: the first AMF according to the capability information of the UE, the subscription information of the first user, and the operator operation strategy corresponding to the first AMF At least one item of, determining to establish an association between the first user and the second user; wherein the capability information is used to indicate that the UE supports multiple USIM communications, and the subscription information is used to indicate that the first user has subscribed to multiple USIM communications services, The operator operation strategy is used to instruct the operator to support the interactive sharing of user information between different AMFs of the same PLMN and/or to instruct the operator to support the interactive sharing of user information with other AMFs of different PLMNs. That is, when the first AMF determines that the association between the first user and the second user can be established, the subsequent operation of establishing the association between the first user and the second user will be performed; otherwise, the subsequent establishment of the first user and the second user will not be performed. The operation of the association between the second user.

Optionally, after step 206, the second AMF may also send an indication information (which may become the first indication information) to the UE, and the first indication information is used to indicate that the association between the first user and the second user is successfully established.

It should be noted that if the first AMF and the second AMF are different AMFs, the user information interaction between the first AMF and the second AMF can be realized through the above steps 201 to 208, and the first AMF can According to the information of the second user and the information of the first user in the first AMF, the control of the first user is executed, and the second AMF executes the control of the first user according to the information of the first user and the information of the second user in the second AMF. 2. User control.

If the above-mentioned first AMF and the second AMF are the same AMF, because the same AMF may not need to exchange the information of the first user and the information of the second user, the above steps 203 to 206 may not be executed, and accordingly, step 203 Step 206 can be replaced by the following steps: the first AMF (that is, the second AMF) stores the identification of the second user in the information of the first user, and stores the identification of the first user in the information of the second user. That is, the first AMF (that is, the second AMF) stores the information of the first user and the information of the second user, the information of the first user includes the identification of the second user, and the information of the second user includes the first The identification of the user, therefore, the association between the first user and the second user is established through the identification of the first user and the identification of the second user. Further, the information of the first user may further include one or more of the following: the connection management status of the first user, the service priority information of the first user, and the service information of the first user. The information of the second user may also include one or more of the following: the connection management status of the second user, the service priority information of the second user, the service information of the second user, the first 2. The user's identity. Further, step 207 and step 208 can be replaced by the following steps: the first AMF (that is, the second AMF) executes control of the first user or the second user according to the information of the second user and the information of the first user.

Based on the foregoing implementation solution, the network side can interact with user information corresponding to different USIMs and keep the user information synchronized. In this way, it will help to improve the communication quality between the network device and the UE, avoid conflicts in communication services, and thus improve the user's communication service experience.

The specific implementation method of the foregoing step 207 will be described below in conjunction with the foregoing four examples. Among them, the specific execution process types of step 208 and step 207 will not be described in detail. Moreover, there is no strict execution sequence between step 207 and step 208.

Regarding the situation of Example 1 above, for example, if the UE has MUSIM capability and both the first user and the second user are in an idle state, when the paging fails, the first AMF determines that the paging failure may be caused by a paging conflict. Due to the failure of paging, according to the prior art, the paging range will be expanded or the number of paging will be increased to increase the probability of successful paging. However, since the failure of the paging is caused by the paging conflict, it is meaningless to expand the paging range or increase the number of paging. Not only will it not increase the probability of successful paging, but it will also increase the UE overhead. And reduce the communication quality between network equipment and UE. Therefore, in order to reduce the overhead of the UE and improve the communication quality between the network device and the UE, in this embodiment of the present application, the first AMF may page the first user according to a preset paging policy. That is, for the above example 1, the control method of step 207 is: when the information of the first user includes that the first user is in an idle state, and the information of the second user includes that the second user is in an idle state, if the first user finds If the call fails, the first AMF pages the first user according to the paging policy.

As an implementation method, the above-mentioned paging strategy includes at least one of the following: the number of paging attempts is less than the number of paging attempts of a single USIM, and the expanded paging range is smaller than the expanded paging range of a single USIM. This method reduces the signaling overhead by reducing the number of paging. Among them, the paging of a single USIM refers to that there is only one USIM on the UE, and the network equipment also determines that the UE has only one USIM, so that the network equipment configures a paging policy corresponding to the single USIM for the UE.

As another implementation method, the number of paging attempts is more than the number of paging attempts of a single USIM, and the time interval between the next paging attempt and the current paging attempt is increased. This method can increase the probability of successful paging by increasing the number of paging.

Regarding the situation of Example 2 above, according to the prior art, the UE may continue to maintain the service of the first user without responding to the paging of the second user or does not know that the second user has tried paging. However, the embodiments of this application are based on the premise that user information can be exchanged between AMFs. If the second user fails to page but the first user is in the connected state, the first AMF receives a message from the second AMF for notifying the UE. If the first user has a downlink service request, the first AMF may notify the UE through the NAS connection of the first user that the second user has a downlink service. Therefore, the paging of the second user can be realized by the first user. That is, for the above example 2, the control method of step 207 is: when the information of the first user includes that the first user is in a connected state and the information of the second user includes that the second user is in an idle state, if the second user finds If the call fails, the first AMF informs the UE through the communication connection of the first user that the second user has a downlink service. Further, in a situation, the second AMF may also page the second user according to a paging policy, and the paging policy includes at least one of the following: terminating the paging attempt, and the number of paging attempts is less than that of a single USIM The number of paging attempts and the expanded paging range are smaller than the expanded paging range of a single USIM. Since the first user is already in the connected state, the possibility of successful paging for the second user is low. This method can reduce the signaling overhead by reducing the number of paging.

Regarding the situation of Example 3 above, in this embodiment of the application, when the first AMF determines that the priority of the service to be initiated on the first user is lower than the priority of the ongoing service on the second user, it decides not to initiate the first The service on the user, that is, the first user is not paged, which helps to avoid unnecessary paging, thereby saving the signaling overhead of the UE and improving the communication quality between the network equipment and the UE, thereby improving the communication service of the user Experience. Therefore, the network side can decide whether to trigger paging. That is, for the above example 3, the control method of step 207 is: the information of the first user includes the information of the first user in the idle state, the information of the service to be initiated of the first user, the priority of the service to be initiated, and the first In the case where the information of the second user includes the information of the second user in the connected state, the information of the ongoing service of the second user, and the priority of the ongoing service, if the priority of the service to be initiated by the first user is lower than that of the first user Second, the priority of the ongoing service of the user, the first AMF determines not to initiate paging for the service to be initiated of the first user.

Aiming at the situation of Example 4 above, in this embodiment of the application, for the signaling or control plane information that the second user needs to interact with PLMN2, in order not to interrupt the service of the first user, the signaling or control can be controlled by the second AMF of PLMN2. The plane information is transmitted to the first AMF, and then the first AMF sends the signaling or control plane information to the UE through the communication connection of the first user. Therefore, the optimization of signaling transmission can be realized. That is, for the above example 4, the control method of step 207 is: when the information of the first user includes that the first user is in a connected state, and the information of the second user includes that the second user is in an idle state, the first AMF receives the first AMF. The signaling or control plane information of the second user is sent to the UE through the communication connection of the first user. Or, when the information of the first user includes that the first user is in an idle state, and the information of the second user includes that the second user is in a connected state, the first AMF sends the first user's signaling to the second AMF. Control plane information, so that the second AMF sends the signaling or control plane information of the first user to the UE through the communication connection of the second user.

Correspondingly, on the UE side, there may also be a control method. For example, the UE obtains the information of the first user; the UE sends the information of the first user and the second indication information to the second AMF through the communication connection of the second user, and the second The indication information is used to indicate that the information of the first user is sent to the first AMF. For another example, the UE obtains the information of the second user; the UE sends the information of the second user and the third indication information to the first AMF through the communication connection of the first user, and the third indication information is used to indicate to send the information of the second user To the second AMF.

The following describes the process shown in FIG. 2 in combination with specific examples.

As shown in FIG. 3, it is a schematic flowchart of another communication method provided by this application. In this method, the UE has MUSIM capability, and there are USIM1 and USIM2 on the UE, USIM1 corresponds to user 1, and USIM2 corresponds to user 2. USIM1 corresponds to AMF1, UDM1, AUSF1, and USIM2 corresponds to AMF2, UDM2, and AUSF2. USIM1 and USIM2 can belong to the same PLMN or different PLMNs. That is, PLMN1 and PLMN2 described below may be the same or different.

Among them, SUPI is stored in the USIM. In this embodiment, USIM1 stores SUPI1, and USIM2 stores SUPI2.

The method includes the following steps:

In step 301, the UE registers user 1 with PLMN1.

In this registration process, the UE registers and stores the AMF identifier and/or address information of the serving AMF of user 1 in UDM1.

Step 302: The UE sends a registration request (Registration request) to AMF2. Correspondingly, AMF2 can receive the registration request.

The registration request is used to request user 2 to register to PLMN2.

The registration request contains SUCI1 and SUCI2. Optionally, the registration request may also include capability information, which is used to indicate that the UE supports MUSIM, that is, the UE supports multiple USIMs.

For example, the UE can use the public key of the certificate corresponding to the PLMN to encrypt SUPI to obtain SUCI. For example, the UE obtains SUCI1 according to the public key of the certificate corresponding to SUPI1 and PLMN1, and obtains SUCI2 according to the public key of the certificate corresponding to SUPI2 and PLMN2. Therefore, SUCI1 and SUCI2 carried in the registration request in this step correspond to user 1 and user 2, respectively.

In step 303a, AMF2 sends a first request to AUSFl, which carries SUCI1 for requesting user identification. Correspondingly, AUSFl can receive the first request.

For example, AMF2 can identify PLMN1 of SUCI1 according to the high part of SUCI1, and then send a user identification request to AUSFl of PLMN1, which carries SUCI1. The user identification request is used to request the SUPI corresponding to SUCI1, namely SUPI1.

Step 303b, AUSF1 sends a second request to UDM1, which carries SUCI1 for requesting user identification.

In step 304a, UDM1 returns a second response to AUSFl, which carries SUPI1.

Among them, UDM1 decrypts SUCI1 to obtain SUPI1, and returns it to AUSF1.

Step 304b, AUSFl returns the first response to AMF2, which carries SUPI1.

Step 305a, AMF2 sends a third request to UDM1, which carries SUPI1, which is used to request the AMF serving the user corresponding to SUPI1. Correspondingly, AUSFl can receive the user's third request.

In step 305b, UDM1 returns a third response to AMF2, which carries AMF1 identification and/or address information.

Among them, UDM1 obtains the AMF1 identifier and/or address information according to the AMF1 identifier and/or address information stored for user 1 (ie, SUPI1) in step 301, and the SUPI1 in the third request.

Among them, UDM1 first decrypts SUCI1 to obtain SUPI1, and then obtains the AMF1 identifier and/or address information according to the AMF1 identifier and/or address information, SUPI1 stored for user 1 (ie, SUPI1) in step 301. Optionally, SUPI1 is also returned.

In a possible implementation manner, in step 304a, UDM1 also executes to obtain the AMF1 identifier and/or the AMF1 identifier and/or address information stored for user 1 (ie SUPI1) in step 301, and the SUPI1 in the third request. The address information is returned to AUSFl; and the AMF1 identification and/or address information is returned to AMF2 through step 304b. In this case, there is no need to perform steps 305a and 305b.

In another possible implementation manner, the third request in step 305a does not carry SUPI1, but carries SUCI1, which is used to request the AMF serving the user corresponding to SUCI1. Correspondingly, the third response in step 305b above carries the AMF1 identifier and/or address information.

In step 306a, AMF2 sends a user association establishment request to AMF1, which carries SUCI1 and SUCI2, or SUPI1 and SUPI2. Correspondingly, AMF1 can receive the user association establishment request.

The user association establishment request is used to request the establishment of an association between the user 1 and the user 2, or understood as a request to establish an association between AMF1 and AMF2, where AMF1 manages user 1 information, and AMF2 manages user 2 information.

306b. AMF1 determines to establish an association between user 1 and user 2.

Step 306b is optional.

For example, the AMF1 determines whether to establish an association between the user 1 and the user 2 according to at least one of the capability information of the UE, the subscription information of the user 1 and the operation strategy corresponding to the AMF1. The capability information is used to indicate whether the UE supports multi-USIM communication, the subscription information is used to indicate whether user 1 has subscribed to a multi-USIM communication service, and the operation strategy corresponding to AMF1 is used to instruct the operator to support interactive sharing between different AMFs of the same PLMN User information and/or instruct the operator to support interactive sharing of user information with other AMFs of different PLMNs. As an example, when the capability information of the UE indicates that the UE supports multi-USIM communication, the subscription information of user 1 indicates that the service of multi-USIM communication is subscribed, and the operation strategy corresponding to AMF1 indicates that the operator supports the interaction between different AMFs of the same PLMN When sharing user information and/or instructing an operator to support interaction and sharing of user information with other AMFs of different PLMNs, it is determined to establish an association between user 1 and user 2.

Step 306c, AMF1 sends a user association establishment response to AMF2. Correspondingly, AMF2 can receive the user association establishment response.

The user association establishment response is used to indicate that the association between user 1 and user 2 is successfully established.

Alternatively, if AMF1 determines not to establish an association between user 1 and user 2, the user association establishment response is used to indicate that it is determined not to establish an association between user 1 and user 2.

Step 306c is optional.

Step 307a, AMF2 sends user 2 information to AMF1. Correspondingly, AMF1 can receive the user 2 information.

Optionally, before AMF2 sends user 2 information to AMF1, it receives a request from AMF1.

Step 307b, AMF1 sends user 1 information to AMF2. Correspondingly, AMF2 can receive the user 1 information.

Optionally, before AMF1 sends user 1 information to AMF2, it receives a request from AMF2.

As another implementation method, the above steps 307a to 307b may not be executed. Instead, the information of user 2 is carried in step 306a, and the information of user 1 is carried in step 306c.

Step 307: AMF2 sends a registration acceptance (Registration Accept) message to the UE. Correspondingly, the UE can receive the registration acceptance message.

Optionally, the registration acceptance message carries indication information, and the indication information is used to instruct the network to authorize the UE to use MUSIM communication. Optionally, the registration acceptance message may also carry indication information used to instruct the network side to successfully establish an association between user 1 and user 2.

In step 307, if the information of user 1 is updated, AMF1 is triggered to notify AMF2; or, if the information of user 2 is updated, AMF2 is triggered to notify AMF1.

Step 307 is optional.

As an example, after user 1’s information is updated, in the first implementation method, AMF1 can actively send a notification message to AMF2. The notification message contains all the updated user 1’s information, or only the updated information. Part of user 1 information. In the second implementation method, AMF1 can also be based on AMF2's prior subscription (for example, only a certain part of user 1 specific information is subscribed). When the part of information subscribed by AMF2 in user 1 is updated, AMF1 will be updated. This part of the information is sent to AMF2.

Based on the above solution, the network side can interact with information between different users and keep the synchronization of the user's information. In this way, it will help to improve the communication quality between the network device and the UE, avoid conflicts in communication services, and thus improve the user's communication service experience.

Based on the above solution, the solutions of the four examples described in the problems existing in the prior art can be referred to the related description of the embodiment in FIG. 2, which will not be repeated here.

As shown in FIG. 4, it is a schematic flowchart of another communication method provided by this application. In this method, the UE has MUSIM capability, and there are USIM1 and USIM2 on the UE, USIM1 corresponds to user 1, and USIM2 corresponds to user 2. USIM1 corresponds to AMF1, UDM1, AUSF1, and USIM2 corresponds to AMF2, UDM2, and AUSF2. USIM1 and USIM2 can belong to the same PLMN or different PLMNs. That is, PLMN1 and PLMN2 described below may be the same or different.

The method includes the following steps:

In step 401, the UE registers USIM1 with PLMN1.

In this registration procedure, the UE can register and store the service AMF identifier of USIM1 (that is, the AMF1 identifier) in UDM1. At the same time, PLMN1 (AMF1) allocates GUTI1 to USIM1 and sends it to the UE. Optionally, GUTI1 is stored in the context of USIM1 on the UE, and GUTI1 is also stored in the context of USIM1 on AMF1.

Step 402: The UE sends a registration request (Registration request) to AMF2. Correspondingly, AMF2 can receive the registration request.

The registration request is used to request the registration of USIM2 to PLMN2.

The registration request contains GUTI1 and GUTI2, or contains GUTI1 and SUCI2, or contains GUTI1 and SUPI2. Optionally, the registration request may also include capability information, and the capability information is used to indicate that the UE supports MUSIM communication, that is, the UE supports multiple USIM communication.

The UE can use the public key of the certificate to encrypt SUPI to obtain SUCI. For example, if the registration request carries SUCI2, the UE can obtain SUCI2 according to SUPI2.

The GUTI1 carried in the registration request in this step corresponds to USIM1, and the GUTI2 or SUCI2 or SUPI2 carried in the registration request corresponds to USIM2.

Step 403: AMF2 determines AMF1 identification and/or address information according to GUTI1.

For example, AMF2 can identify GUTI1, according to <MCC><MNC><AMFRegionID><AMFSetID><AMFPointer> in GUTI1 to obtain the AMF1 identification carried in it.

Among them, the AMF Region ID is also called the region identifier of the mobility management function, the AMF Set ID is also called the group identifier of the mobility management function, and the AMF Pointer is also called the pointer identifier of the mobility management function.

Step 404: AMF2 sends a user association establishment request to AMF1, which carries GUTI1 and GUTI2. Correspondingly, AMF1 can receive the user association establishment request.

The user association establishment request is used to request the establishment of the association between the user 1 and the user 2, or is understood to be used to request the establishment of the association between AMF1 and AMF2, where AMF1 manages user 1 information, and AMF2 manages user 2 information.

When the registration request in step 402 includes GUTI1 and SUCI2, or includes GUTI1 and SUPI2, AMF2 can allocate GUTI2 to the second user.

For step 405 to step 409, please refer to the description of step 306b to step 309 in the embodiment of FIG. 3, which will not be repeated here.

The foregoing mainly introduces the solution provided by this application from the perspective of interaction between various network elements. It can be understood that, in order to realize the above-mentioned functions, each network element described above includes hardware structures and/or software modules corresponding to each function. Those skilled in the art should easily realize that in combination with the units and algorithm steps of the examples described in the embodiments disclosed herein, the present invention can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a certain function is executed by hardware or computer software-driven hardware depends on the specific application and design constraint conditions of the technical solution. Professionals and technicians can use different methods for each specific application to implement the described functions, but such implementation should not be considered as going beyond the scope of the present invention.

The embodiments of the present application also provide a device for implementing any of the above methods. For example, a device is provided that includes units (or means for implementing each step performed by the first mobility management network element in any of the above methods). ). For another example, another device is also provided, including a unit (or means) for implementing each step performed by the terminal device in any of the above methods.

Refer to FIG. 5, which is a schematic diagram of another communication device provided by an embodiment of the application. The device is used for the first mobility management network element. As shown in FIG. 5, the device 500 includes a receiving unit 510 and a control unit 520. Optionally, the device 500 further includes a sending unit 530, a storage unit 540, and an obtaining unit 550.

The receiving unit 510 is configured to receive information from a second user of a second mobility management network element, the first mobility management network element serves the first user, the second mobility management network element serves the second user, and the first mobility management network element serves the second user. The user corresponds to the first universal user identification module USIM, and the second user corresponds to the second USIM. The first USIM and the second USIM are located in the same terminal device; the control unit 520 is configured to manage the network element according to the information of the second user and the first mobility The information of the first user in, execute the control of the first user.

In a possible implementation method, the sending unit 530 is configured to send the information of the first user to the second mobility management network element, and the information of the first user is used to perform control on the second user.

In a possible implementation method, the storage unit 540 is configured to store the information of the second user in the context of the first user, and the context of the first user also includes the information of the first user.

In a possible implementation method, the information of the first user includes one or more of the following: the connection management status of the first user, the service priority information of the first user, the service information of the first user; the information of the second user The information includes one or more of the following: the connection management status of the second user, the service priority information of the second user, the service information of the second user, the identification and/or address information of the second mobility management network element, the second The ID of the user.

In a possible implementation method, the information of the first user includes that the first user is in an idle state, and the information of the second user includes that the second user is in an idle state; the control unit 520 is configured to perform according to the information of the second user and the first user. The information of the first user in the mobility management network element to perform the control of the first user specifically includes: if the first user fails to page, the first user is paged according to the paging policy, the paging policy includes At least one of the following: the number of paging attempts is less than the number of paging attempts of a single USIM, and the expanded paging range is less than the expanded paging range of a single USIM; or, the paging strategy includes at least one of the following: the number of paging attempts is more than The number of paging attempts for a single USIM is to increase the time interval between the next paging attempt and the current paging attempt.

In a possible implementation method, the information of the first user includes that the first user is in an idle state, and the information of the second user includes that the second user is in a connected state; the control unit 520 is configured to perform according to the information of the second user and the first user. The information of the first user in the mobility management network element to perform the control of the first user, specifically including: being used to page the first user according to a paging policy, the paging policy includes at least one of the following: terminating paging The number of attempts and paging attempts is less than the number of paging attempts of a single USIM, and the expanded paging range is less than the expanded paging range of a single USIM.

In a possible implementation method, the information of the first user includes that the first user is in an idle state, and the information of the second user includes that the second user is in a connected state; the control unit 520 is configured to perform according to the information of the second user and the first user. The information of the first user in the mobility management network element to perform control of the first user specifically includes: if the first user fails to paging, use the sending unit 530 to request the second mobility management network element to notify the terminal device of the first user The user has downlink services.

In a possible implementation method, the information of the first user includes that the first user is in a connected state, and the information of the second user includes that the second user is in an idle state; the control unit 520 is configured to perform according to the information of the second user and the first user. The information of the first user in the mobility management network element to perform the control of the first user, specifically including: receiving through the receiving unit 510 from the second mobility management network element for notifying the terminal device that the first user has a downlink service The request; through the communication connection of the first user, the sending unit 530 is used to notify the terminal device that the second user has a downlink service.

In a possible implementation method, the information of the first user includes the priority of the first user in the idle state and the service to be initiated by the first user, and the information of the second user includes the second user in the connected state and the priority of the second user. The priority of the ongoing service; the control unit 520 is configured to perform control on the first user according to the information of the second user and the information of the first user in the first mobility management network element, which specifically includes: If the priority of the service to be initiated by the first user is lower than the priority of the ongoing service of the second user, it is determined not to initiate paging for the service to be initiated by the first user.

In a possible implementation method, the information of the first user includes that the first user is in a connected state, and the information of the second user includes that the second user is in an idle state; the control unit 520 is configured to perform according to the information of the second user and the first user. The information of the first user in the mobility management network element performs the control of the first user, specifically including: using the receiving unit 510 to receive the signaling or control plane information of the second user, and using the communication connection of the first user to send The unit 530 sends the signaling or control plane information of the second user to the terminal device.

In a possible implementation method, the information of the first user includes that the first user is in an idle state, and the information of the second user includes that the second user is in a connected state; the control unit 520 is configured to perform according to the information of the second user and the first user. The information of the first user in the mobility management network element, performing control of the first user, specifically includes: sending the signaling or control plane information of the first user to the second mobility management network element through the sending unit 530, In this way, the second mobility management network element sends the signaling or control plane information of the first user to the terminal device through the communication connection of the second user.

In a possible implementation method, the receiving unit 510 is further configured to receive a request message from the second mobility management network element, the request message includes the identity of the first user and the identity of the second user, and the request message is used to request the establishment of the second user. An association between a user and a second user; the sending unit 530 is configured to send a response message to the second mobility management network element, and the response message is used to indicate that the association between the first user and the second user is successfully established.

In a possible implementation method, the sending unit 530 is further configured to send the identification and/or address information of the first mobility management network element to the second mobility management network element.

In a possible implementation method, the sending unit 530 is further configured to send a request message to the second mobility management network element. The request message includes the identity of the first user and the identity of the second user, and the request message is used to request the establishment of the second user. An association between a user and a second user; the receiving unit 510 is further configured to receive a response message sent from the second mobility management network element, and the response message is used to indicate that the association between the first user and the second user is successfully established.

In a possible implementation method, the receiving unit 510 is further configured to receive the user hidden identity SUCI of the second user from the terminal device; the acquiring unit 550 is configured to acquire the second mobility management network according to the SUCI of the second user Meta’s identification and/or address information.

In a possible implementation method, the obtaining unit 550 is configured to obtain the identity and/or address information of the second mobility management network element according to the SUCI of the second user, specifically including: according to the SUCI of the second user, Determine the authentication network element and data management network element corresponding to the second user; send the SUCI of the second user to the authentication network element through the sending unit 530; receive the permanent user identification of the second user from the authentication network element through the receiving unit 510 SUPI, the SUPI of the second user comes from the data management network element; the SUPI of the second user is sent to the data management network element through the sending unit 530; the second mobility management network element identifier and the identifier of the second mobility management network element from the data management network element are received through the receiving unit 510 / Or address information. In a possible implementation method, the acquiring unit 550 is configured to acquire the identification and/or address information of the second mobility management network element according to the SUCI of the second user, specifically including: according to the SUCI of the second user , Determine the first network element corresponding to the second user; send the SUCI of the second user to the first network element through the sending unit 530; receive the identifier of the second mobility management network element and/or from the first network element through the receiving unit 510 Or address information; where the first network element is an authentication network element, and the identification and/or address information of the second mobility management network element comes from the data management network element corresponding to the second user; or, the first network element is data management Network element.

In a possible implementation method, the receiving unit 510 is further configured to receive the SUPI of the second user from the terminal device; the acquiring unit 550 is configured to determine the data management network element corresponding to the second user according to the SUPI of the second user ; Send the second user's SUPI to the data management network element through the sending unit 530; receive the identification and/or address information of the second mobility management network element from the data management network element through the receiving unit 510.

In a possible implementation method, the receiving unit 510 is further configured to receive the globally unique temporary identifier GUTI of the second user from the terminal device; the acquiring unit 550 is configured to determine the second user's GUTI corresponding to the second user according to the second user GUTI. 2. The identification and/or address information of the mobility management network element.

In a possible implementation method, the receiving unit 510 is further configured to receive the identification and/or address information from the second mobility management network element.

In a possible implementation method, the receiving unit 510 is also configured to receive SUPI, SUCI, or GUTI from the first user of the terminal device.

In a possible implementation method, the first user’s identity is the first user’s SUPI, the first user’s SUCI or the first user’s GUTI, and the second user’s identity is the second user’s SUPI, the second user’s SUCI Or the GUTI of the second user.

In a possible implementation method, the control unit 520 is further configured to determine according to at least one of the capability information of the terminal device, the subscription information of the first user, and the operator operation strategy corresponding to the first mobility management network element Establish an association between the first user and the second user; where the capability information is used to indicate that the terminal device supports multiple USIM communications, the subscription information is used to indicate that the first user has subscribed to multiple USIM communications services, and the operator’s operating strategy is used Instructing the operator to support the interactive sharing of user information between different mobility management network elements of the same PLMN and/or instructing the operator to support the interactive sharing of user information with other mobility management network elements of different PLMNs.

Refer to FIG. 6, which is a schematic diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of this application. The device is used for terminal equipment. As shown in FIG. 6, the device 600 includes a sending unit 610 and a receiving unit 620. Optionally, an obtaining unit 630 may also be included.

The sending unit 610 is configured to send the identity of the second user to the first mobility management network element through the communication connection of the first user, the second user is served by the second mobility management network element, and the first mobility management network element Serving the first user, the identity of the second user is used to establish an association between the first user and the second user. The first user corresponds to the first USIM, the second user corresponds to the second USIM, and the first user corresponds to the second USIM. The USIM and the second USIM are located in the same terminal device; the receiving unit 620 is configured to receive first indication information from the first mobility management network element, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the first user and the second user are successfully established Associated.

In a possible implementation method, the acquiring unit 630 is configured to acquire the information of the first user; the sending unit 610 is also configured to send the information of the first user to the second mobility management network element through the communication connection of the second user. Information and second instruction information, where the second instruction information is used to instruct to send the information of the first user to the first mobility management network element.

In a possible implementation method, establishing an association between the first user and the second user includes: storing information of the second user in the context of the first user, and the context of the first user also includes the information of the first user, where , The information of the first user includes one or more of the following: the connection management status of the first user, the business priority information of the first user, and the business information of the first user; the information of the second user includes one or more of the following : The connection management status of the second user, the service priority information of the second user, the service information of the second user, the identification and/or address information of the second mobility management network element, and the identification of the second user.

It should be understood that the division of units in the above device is only a division of logical functions, and may be fully or partially integrated into one physical entity in actual implementation, or may be physically separated. In addition, the units in the device can be all implemented in the form of software called by processing elements; they can also be all implemented in the form of hardware; part of the units can also be implemented in the form of software called by the processing elements, and some of the units can be implemented in the form of hardware. For example, each unit can be a separate processing element, or it can be integrated in a certain chip of the device for implementation. In addition, it can also be stored in the memory in the form of a program, which is called and executed by a certain processing element of the device. Features. In addition, all or part of these units can be integrated together or implemented independently. The processing element described here can also become a processor, which can be an integrated circuit with signal processing capabilities. In the implementation process, each step of the above method or each of the above units may be implemented by an integrated logic circuit of hardware in a processor element or implemented in a form of being called by software through a processing element.

In an example, the unit in any of the above devices may be one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the above methods, for example: one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or, one or Multiple microprocessors (digital singnal processors, DSPs), or, one or more field programmable gate arrays (Field Programmable Gate Arrays, FPGAs), or a combination of at least two of these integrated circuits. For another example, when the unit in the device can be implemented in the form of a processing element scheduler, the processing element can be a general-purpose processor, such as a central processing unit (CPU) or other processors that can call programs. For another example, these units can be integrated together and implemented in the form of a system-on-a-chip (SOC).

The above receiving unit (for example, the receiving unit) is an interface circuit of the device for receiving signals from other devices. For example, when the device is implemented as a chip, the receiving unit is an interface circuit used by the chip to receive signals from other chips or devices. The above unit for sending (for example, the sending unit) is an interface circuit of the device for sending signals to other devices. For example, when the device is implemented as a chip, the sending unit is an interface circuit used by the chip to send signals to other chips or devices.

Referring to FIG. 7, a schematic structural diagram of a mobility management network element provided by an embodiment of this application is used to implement the operations of the first mobility management network element or the second mobility management network element in the above embodiments. As shown in FIG. 7, the mobility management network element includes: a processor 710, an interface 730, and optionally, a memory 720.

The method executed by the first mobility management network element or the second mobility management network element in the above embodiment may be implemented by the processor 710 calling a program stored in the memory 720. That is, the device for the mobility management network element includes a memory and a processor, and the memory is used to store a program, and the program is called by the processor to execute the first mobility management network element or the second mobility management network element in the above method embodiment. The method of managing network element execution. The processor here may be an integrated circuit with signal processing capability, such as a CPU. The device for the policy control network element may be implemented by one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the above method. For example: one or more ASICs, or, one or more microprocessors DSP, or, one or more FPGAs, etc., or a combination of at least two of these integrated circuit forms. Or, the above implementations can be combined.

Refer to FIG. 8, which is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device provided by an embodiment of the application. The terminal device is used to implement the operation of the terminal device in the above embodiment. As shown in FIG. 8, the terminal equipment includes: an antenna 810, a radio frequency device 820, and a signal processing part 830. The antenna 810 is connected to the radio frequency device 820. In the downlink direction, the radio frequency device 820 receives the information sent by the access network device through the antenna 810, and sends the information sent by the access network device to the signal processing part 830 for processing. In the upstream direction, the signal processing part 830 processes the information of the terminal equipment and sends it to the radio frequency device 820. The radio frequency device 820 processes the information of the terminal equipment and sends it to the access network equipment via the antenna 810.

The signal processing part 830 is used to realize the processing of each communication protocol layer of the data. The signal processing part 830 may be a subsystem of the terminal device, and the terminal device may also include other subsystems, such as a central processing subsystem, which is used to process the terminal device operating system and application layer; another example is the peripheral sub-system. The system is used to realize the connection with other equipment. The signal processing part 830 may be a separately provided chip. Optionally, the above devices may be located in the signal processing part 830.

The signal processing part 830 may include one or more processing elements 831, for example, including a main control CPU and other integrated circuits, and an interface circuit 833. In addition, the signal processing part 830 may further include a storage element 832. The storage element 832 is used to store data and programs. The program used to execute the method executed by the terminal device in the above method may or may not be stored in the storage element 832, for example, stored in a memory other than the signal processing part 830 During use, the signal processing part 830 loads the program into the cache for use. The interface circuit 833 is used to communicate with the device. The above devices may be located in the signal processing part 830, which may be implemented by a chip. The chip includes at least one processing element and an interface circuit. The processing element is used to execute each step of any method executed by the above terminal device. The circuit is used to communicate with other devices. In one implementation, the unit that implements each step in the above method can be implemented in the form of a processing element scheduler. For example, the device includes a processing element and a storage element, and the processing element calls a program stored by the storage element to execute the above method embodiments. The method executed by the terminal device. The storage element may be a storage element whose processing element is on the same chip, that is, an on-chip storage element.

In another implementation, the program used to execute the method executed by the terminal device in the above method may be a storage element on a different chip from the processing element, that is, an off-chip storage element. At this time, the processing element calls or loads a program from the off-chip storage element on the on-chip storage element to call and execute the method executed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment.

In yet another implementation, the unit of the terminal device that implements each step in the above method may be configured as one or more processing elements, and these processing elements are provided on the signal processing part 830, where the processing elements may be integrated circuits, for example : One or more ASICs, or, one or more DSPs, or, one or more FPGAs, or a combination of these types of integrated circuits. These integrated circuits can be integrated together to form a chip.

The units that implement each step in the above method can be integrated together and implemented in the form of an SOC, and the SOC chip is used to implement the above method. The chip can integrate at least one processing element and a storage element, and the processing element can call the stored program of the storage element to implement the method executed by the above terminal device; or, the chip can integrate at least one integrated circuit to implement the above terminal The method executed by the device; or, it can be combined with the above implementations. The functions of some units are implemented in the form of calling programs by processing elements, and the functions of some units are implemented in the form of integrated circuits.

It can be seen that the above apparatus may include at least one processing element and an interface circuit, wherein at least one processing element is used to execute any method executed by the terminal device provided in the above method embodiment. The processing element can execute part or all of the steps executed by the terminal device in the first way: calling the program stored in the storage element; or in the second way: combining instructions through the integrated logic circuit of the hardware in the processor element Part or all of the steps executed by the terminal device are executed in a manner; of course, part or all of the steps executed by the terminal device may also be executed in combination with the first manner and the second manner.

The processing element here is the same as the above description, and it may be a general-purpose processor, such as a CPU, or one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the above method, such as: one or more ASICs, or, one or more micro-processing DSP, or, one or more FPGAs, etc., or a combination of at least two of these integrated circuit forms. The storage element can be a memory or a collective term for multiple storage elements.

In the above-mentioned embodiments, it 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 application are generated in whole or in part. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, 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 site, 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 a 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 DVD), or a semiconductor medium (for example, a solid state disk (SSD)).

The various illustrative logic units and circuits described in the embodiments of this application can be implemented by general-purpose processors, digital signal processors, application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, Discrete gates or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination of the above are designed to implement or operate the described functions. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor. Alternatively, the general-purpose processor may also be any traditional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The processor can also be implemented by a combination of computing devices, such as a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors combined with a digital signal processor core, or any other similar configuration. achieve.

In one or more exemplary designs, the aforementioned functions described in this application can be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination of the three. If implemented in software, these functions can be stored on a computer-readable medium, or transmitted on the computer-readable medium in the form of one or more instructions or codes. Computer readable media include computer storage media and communication media that facilitate the transfer of computer programs from one place to another. The storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a general-purpose or special computer. For example, such computer-readable media may include, but are not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other device that can be used to carry or store instructions or data structures and Other program code media that can be read by general-purpose or special computers, or general-purpose or special processors. In addition, any connection can be appropriately defined as a computer-readable medium, for example, if the software is from a website, server, or other remote source through a coaxial cable, fiber optic computer, twisted pair, or digital subscriber line (DSL) Or transmitted by wireless means such as infrared, wireless and microwave are also included in the definition of computer-readable media. The disks and discs include compressed disks, laser disks, optical disks, digital versatile disks (English: Digital Versatile Disc, abbreviated as DVD), floppy disks, and Blu-ray disks. Disks usually copy data with magnetism. Discs usually use lasers to copy data optically. The combination of the above can also be contained in a computer readable medium.

Those skilled in the art should be aware that in one or more of the above examples, the functions described in this application can be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented by software, these functions can be stored in a computer-readable medium or transmitted as one or more instructions or codes on the computer-readable medium. The computer-readable medium includes a computer storage medium and a communication medium, where the communication medium includes any medium that facilitates the transfer of a computer program from one place to another. The storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer.

Although the application has been described in combination with specific features and embodiments, it is obvious that various modifications and combinations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the application. Correspondingly, the specification and drawings are merely exemplary descriptions of the application as defined by the appended claims, and are deemed to cover any and all modifications, changes, combinations or equivalents within the scope of the application. 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 it comprises:

The first mobility management network element receives information from the second user of the second mobility management network element, the first mobility management network element serves the first user, and the second mobility management network element serves all For the second user, the first user corresponds to a first universal user identification module USIM, and the second user corresponds to a second USIM, and the first USIM and the second USIM are located in the same terminal device;

The first mobility management network element performs control on the first user according to the information of the second user and the information of the first user in the first mobility management network element.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

The first mobility management network element sends the information of the first user to the second mobility management network element, where the information of the first user is used to control the second user.
The method of claim 1 or 2, further comprising:

The first mobility management network element stores the information of the second user in the context of the first user, and the context of the first user further includes the information of the first user.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the information of the first user includes one or more of the following: the connection management status of the first user, and the service priority of the first user Level information, business information of the first user;

The information of the second user includes one or more of the following: the connection management status of the second user, the service priority information of the second user, the service information of the second user, the second mobile The identity and/or address information of the sexual management network element, and the identity of the second user.
The method according to any one of claims 1-4, wherein the information of the first user includes that the first user is in an idle state, and the information of the second user includes that the second user is in an idle state. ；

The first mobility management network element performing control on the first user according to the information of the second user and the information of the first user in the first mobility management network element includes:

If the paging of the first user fails, the first mobility management network element pages the first user according to a paging policy;

The paging strategy includes at least one of the following: the number of paging attempts is less than the number of paging attempts of a single USIM, and the expanded paging range is less than the expanded paging range of a single USIM; or,

The paging strategy includes at least one of the following: the number of paging attempts is more than the number of paging attempts of a single USIM, and the time interval between the next paging attempt and the current paging attempt is increased.
The method according to any one of claims 1-4, wherein the information of the first user includes that the first user is in a connected state, and the information of the second user includes that the second user is in an idle state. ；

The first mobility management network element performing control on the first user according to the information of the second user and the information of the first user in the first mobility management network element includes:

If the paging of the second user fails, the first mobility management network element receives a request from the second mobility management network element for notifying the terminal device that the first user has a downlink service;

The first mobility management network element notifies the terminal device through the communication connection of the first user that the second user has a downlink service.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the information of the first user includes the priority of the first user in an idle state, the service to be initiated by the first user, and the The information of the second user includes the priority of the second user in a connected state and the ongoing service of the second user;

The first mobility management network element performing control on the first user according to the information of the second user and the information of the first user in the first mobility management network element includes:

If the priority of the service to be initiated by the first user is lower than the priority of the ongoing service of the second user, the first mobility management network element determines that it is not the service to be initiated by the first user The business initiates a paging.
The method according to any one of claims 1-4, wherein the information of the first user includes that the first user is in a connected state, and the information of the second user includes that the second user is in an idle state. ；

The first mobility management network element performing control on the first user according to the information of the second user and the information of the first user in the first mobility management network element includes:

The first mobility management network element receives the signaling or control plane information of the second user, and sends the signaling or control plane of the second user to the terminal device through the communication connection of the first user information.
The method according to any one of claims 1-8, further comprising:

The first mobility management network element receives a request message from the second mobility management network element, the request message includes the identity of the first user and the identity of the second user, and the request message is used Request to establish an association between the first user and the second user;

The first mobility management network element sends a response message to the second mobility management network element, where the response message is used to indicate that the association between the first user and the second user is successfully established.
The method according to any one of claims 1-8, further comprising:

The first mobility management network element sends a request message to the second mobility management network element, where the request message includes the identification of the first user and the identification of the second user, and the request message is used for Request to establish an association between the first user and the second user;

The first mobility management network element receives a response message sent from the second mobility management network element, where the response message is used to indicate that the association between the first user and the second user is successfully established.
The method of claim 10, further comprising:

Receiving, by the first mobility management network element, the user hidden identifier SUCI of the second user from the terminal device;

The first mobility management network element obtains the identification and/or address information of the second mobility management network element according to the SUCI of the second user.
The method according to claim 11, wherein the first mobility management network element obtains the identification and/or address information of the second mobility management network element according to the SUCI of the second user, comprising :

Determining, by the first mobility management network element, the first network element corresponding to the second user according to the SUCI of the second user;

Sending, by the first mobility management network element, the SUCI of the second user to the first network element;

Receiving, by the first mobility management network element, the identification and/or address information of the second mobility management network element from the first network element;

Wherein, the first network element is an authentication network element, and the identification and/or address information of the second mobility management network element comes from a data management network element corresponding to the second user; or, the first network Meta is a data management network element.
The method of claim 10, further comprising:

Receiving, by the first mobility management network element, the globally unique temporary identifier GUTI of the second user from the terminal device;

The first mobility management network element determines the identity and/or address information of the second mobility management network element corresponding to the second user according to the second user GUTI.
The method according to any one of claims 9-13, wherein the identity of the first user is SUPI of the first user, SUCI of the first user, or GUTI of the first user, so The identifier of the second user is the SUPI of the second user, the SUCI of the second user, or the GUTI of the second user.
A communication method, characterized in that it comprises:

The terminal device sends the identity of the second user to the first mobility management network element through the communication connection of the first user, and the second user is served by the second mobility management network element, and the first mobility management network element Serving the first user, the identification of the second user is used to establish an association between the first user and the second user, the first user corresponds to the first universal user identification module USIM, the The second user corresponds to a second USIM, and the first USIM and the second USIM are located in the same terminal device;

The terminal device receives first indication information from the first mobility management network element, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the association between the first user and the second user is successfully established.
The method of claim 15, further comprising:

Acquiring the information of the first user by the terminal device;

The terminal device sends the information of the first user and second indication information to the second mobility management network element through the communication connection of the second user, and the second indication information is used to indicate that the The information of the first user is sent to the first mobility management network element.
The method according to claim 15 or 16, wherein the establishing the association between the first user and the second user comprises:

The information of the second user is stored in the context of the first user, the context of the first user also includes the information of the first user, wherein the information of the first user includes one or more of the following Item: the connection management status of the first user, the service priority information of the first user, and the service information of the first user;

The information of the second user includes one or more of the following: the connection management status of the second user, the service priority information of the second user, the service information of the second user, the second mobile The identity and/or address information of the sexual management network element, and the identity of the second user.
A communication device applied to a first mobility management network element, characterized in that it comprises:

The receiving unit is configured to receive information of a second user from a second mobility management network element, where the first mobility management network element serves the first user, and the second mobility management network element serves the first user. Two users, the first user corresponds to a first universal user identification module USIM, the second user corresponds to a second USIM, and the first USIM and the second USIM are located in the same terminal device;

The control unit is configured to perform control on the first user according to the information of the second user and the information of the first user in the first mobility management network element.
The apparatus according to claim 18, further comprising a sending unit, configured to send information of the first user to the second mobility management network element, and the information of the first user is used to perform a pairing Control of the second user.
The device according to claim 18 or 19, further comprising a storage unit for storing information of the second user in the context of the first user, and the context of the first user further includes all Describe the information of the first user.
The device according to any one of claims 18 to 20, wherein the information of the first user includes one or more of the following: the connection management status of the first user, and the service priority of the first user Level information, business information of the first user;

The information of the second user includes one or more of the following: the connection management status of the second user, the service priority information of the second user, the service information of the second user, the second mobile The identity and/or address information of the sexual management network element, and the identity of the second user.
21. The apparatus according to any one of claims 18-21, wherein the information of the first user includes that the first user is in an idle state, and the information of the second user includes that the second user is in an idle state. ；

The control unit is specifically configured to page the first user according to a paging policy if the paging of the first user fails;

The paging strategy includes at least one of the following: the number of paging attempts is less than the number of paging attempts of a single USIM, and the expanded paging range is less than the expanded paging range of a single USIM; or,

The paging strategy includes at least one of the following: the number of paging attempts is more than the number of paging attempts of a single USIM, and the time interval between the next paging attempt and the current paging attempt is increased.
21. The device according to any one of claims 18-21, wherein the device includes a sending unit; the information of the first user includes that the first user is in a connected state, and the information of the second user includes all The second user is in an idle state;

The control unit is specifically configured to control the receiving unit to receive a request from the second mobility management network element for notifying the terminal device that the first user has a downlink service if the paging of the second user fails; Through the communication connection of the first user, control the sending unit to notify the terminal device that the second user has a downlink service.
The device according to any one of claims 18-21, wherein the information of the first user includes the priority of the first user in an idle state, the service to be initiated by the first user, and the The information of the second user includes the priority of the second user in a connected state and the ongoing service of the second user;

The control unit is specifically configured to determine that if the priority of the service to be initiated by the first user is lower than the priority of the ongoing service of the second user, determine that it is not the service to be initiated by the first user The service initiates paging.
21. The device according to any one of claims 18-21, wherein the device includes a sending unit; the information of the first user includes that the first user is in a connected state, and the information of the second user includes all The second user is in an idle state;

The control unit is specifically configured to control the receiving unit to receive the signaling or control plane information of the second user, and control the sending unit to send the signal to the terminal device through the communication connection of the first user. Signaling or control plane information of the second user.
The device according to any one of claims 18-25, wherein the receiving unit is further configured to receive a request message from the second mobility management network element, the request message including the first user And an identifier of the second user, the request message is used to request the establishment of an association between the first user and the second user;

The device further includes a sending unit, configured to send a response message to the second mobility management network element, where the response message is used to indicate that the association between the first user and the second user is successfully established.
The device according to any one of claims 18-25, wherein the device further comprises a sending unit, configured to send a request message to the second mobility management network element, the request message including the first An identifier of a user and an identifier of the second user, the request message is used to request the establishment of an association between the first user and the second user;

The receiving unit is further configured to receive a response message sent from the second mobility management network element, where the response message is used to indicate that the association between the first user and the second user is successfully established.
A communication device, characterized in that it comprises:

The sending unit is configured to send the identity of the second user to the first mobility management network element through the communication connection of the first user, and the second user is served by the second mobility management network element, and the first mobility The management network element serves the first user, the identifier of the second user is used to establish an association between the first user and the second user, and the first user corresponds to the first universal user identification module USIM , The second user corresponds to a second USIM, and the first USIM and the second USIM are located in the same terminal device;

The receiving unit is configured to receive first indication information from the first mobility management network element, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the association between the first user and the second user is successfully established.
The device according to claim 28, further comprising an obtaining unit for obtaining information of the first user;

The sending unit is further configured to send information of the first user and second indication information to the second mobility management network element through the communication connection of the second user, where the second indication information is used for Instruct to send the information of the first user to the first mobility management network element.
The device according to claim 28 or 29, wherein the establishing the association between the first user and the second user comprises:

The information of the second user is stored in the context of the first user, and the context of the first user also includes the information of the first user, wherein the information of the first user includes one or more of the following Item: the connection management status of the first user, the service priority information of the first user, and the service information of the first user;

The information of the second user includes one or more of the following: the connection management status of the second user, the service priority information of the second user, the service information of the second user, the second mobile The identity and/or address information of the sexual management network element, and the identity of the second user.