WO2021168862A1

WO2021168862A1 - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: WO2021168862A1
Application number: PCT/CN2020/077355
Authority: WO
Inventors: 朱浩仁; 李欢; 靳维生
Original assignee: 华为技术有限公司
Priority date: 2020-02-29
Filing date: 2020-02-29
Publication date: 2021-09-02
Also published as: CN114902609B; CN114902609A

Abstract

Disclosed in the present application are a communication method and device, to solve the problem in a communication system using an IAB technology of waste of user plane resources. In the solution, a terminal device can send a first instruction to a session management network element to instruct the session management network element to configure AN side resources and not to configure CN resources for itself during a session establishment process of the terminal device; alternatively, after establishing a session for the terminal device, the session management network element instructs an AN device and a user plane network element to release CN side resources configured for the terminal device. In this way, the session management network element can avoid the allocation of CN side sources for the terminal device during a session establish process, or release the CN side sources in time after allocating the CN side resources for the terminal device, so that the waste of CN side resources of the terminal device can be avoided.

Description

Communication method and equipment

Technical field

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

Background technique

We know that a mobile communication network includes two parts: an access network (AN) and a core network (CN). The access network is mainly responsible for the wireless access function of terminal equipment, air interface wireless resource management, service quality management, user plane data forwarding and other functions, while the core network is mainly responsible for session management, access and mobility management, measurement control, and user Data forwarding and other functions. Therefore, the user plane data of the terminal device can generally be transmitted through the user plane network element in the core network and the access network after a session is established through the terminal device. Among them, the resources used to transmit user plane data between the terminal device and the AN device in the access network can be called AN-side resources (such as RLC tunnels). The resource for transmitting user plane data may be referred to as CN-side resource (for example, N3 tunnel).

At present, in order to meet the requirements in some scenarios with high requirements for transmission delay, the access network can use integrated access backhaul (IAB) technology. In this communication system, the terminal device can be accessed through at least one IAB node and one IAB donor node. After the terminal device establishes a session, the IAB host node can select a local routing node for the terminal device according to the current IAB topology information ( IAB nodes), and update the routing rules of these local routing nodes to enable them to complete local routing data forwarding. In this way, the terminal device can directly forward user plane data to other terminal devices or data networks through these local routing nodes, instead of passing through devices such as UPF in the core network.

As the terminal device establishes a session, each device in the communication system configures user plane resources (such as CN-side resources, and/or AN-side resources) for the terminal device. However, when the IAB host node allocates a local routing node for it, These resources will be in an idle state, resulting in a waste of user plane resources configured for terminal devices in the communication system.

Summary of the invention

The present application provides a communication method and device to solve the problem of user plane resource waste in a communication system using IAB technology.

In the first aspect, in order to solve the problem of a waste of user plane resources of the terminal device by performing a traditional session establishment process for a terminal device that supports local routing in a communication system and establishing a session for the terminal device, an embodiment of the present application provides a Communication method. This method can be applied to the communication system shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2. The method includes:

The session management network element receives a first message from the terminal device, where the first message includes a first instruction; the session management network element determines according to the first instruction that during the session establishment process of the terminal device, The terminal device configures the access network AN side resources, and does not configure the core network CN side resources for the terminal device; the session management network element executes the session establishment process of the terminal device.

Exemplarily, the first indication may be dedicated indication information, for example, indicated by no-N3 indication, or indicated by a field containing at least one bit, and the value of the field is a set value (for example, 0 or 1); Or the first indication may also be a UE type indication that supports local routing; or the first indication may be a local routing configuration request; or the first indication may be an indication of a special session type, and the characteristic session is Contains only AN-side resources and does not include a session that does not include CN-side resources.

Through this method, a terminal device that supports local routing can send a first instruction to the session management network element to instruct the session management network element to allocate AN-side resources to the terminal device during the session establishment process of the terminal device and not to The terminal device is configured with CN side resources. In this way, the session management network element can avoid allocating CN-side resources to the terminal device during the session establishment process, thereby avoiding waste of CN-side resources of the terminal device.

In a possible design, the terminal device may send the first message to the session management network element through the connected AN device, AMF and other network elements.

In a possible design, during the session establishment process, the session management network element does not perform at least one or a combination of the following: user plane network element selection process, session management related policy modification process, N4 session establishment process, N4 session establishment and modification process.

In a possible design, the session management network element may only execute procedures or steps related to resources on the AN side. Wherein, the message sent by the session management network element in the subsequent session establishment process no longer carries CN tunnel information.

In a possible design, the session management network element executing the session establishment process of the terminal device includes:

The session management network element sends a second message to the terminal device, where the second message includes a second indication, and the second indication is used to indicate the resource configuration of the terminal device by the session management network element Authorization is passed; the session management network element sends a third message to the AN device, where the third message contains a third indication, and the third indication is used to instruct the AN device to configure the AN side for the terminal device Resources, and no CN-side resources are configured for the terminal device. Exemplarily, the second indication and/or the third indication may also be indicated by no-N3granted indication, or by a field containing at least one bit, and the value of the field is a set value (for example, 0 or 1 ) Means; the third indication may also be a UE type indication that supports local routing.

Optionally, in order to reduce message overhead, the session management network element may simultaneously carry the second message and the third message in the message sent to the AMF.

With this design, after receiving the third instruction, the AN device does not need to establish a CN-side connection/N3 tunnel, and therefore does not need to reserve AN tunnel information required to establish a CN-side connection/N3 tunnel. Of course, in the subsequent sending of the N2 response to the AMF, there is no need to send AN tunnel information.

In the second aspect, in order to solve the problem of a waste of user plane resources of the terminal device by performing a traditional session establishment process for a terminal device that supports local routing in a communication system and establishing a session for the terminal device, an embodiment of the present application provides a Communication method. This method can be applied to the communication system shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2. The method includes:

The AN device of the access network receives a third message from the session management network element, where the third message contains a third indication; the AN device determines according to the third indication that it is necessary to configure AN-side resources for the terminal device, and does not Configure CN side resources for the terminal device; the AN device configures AN side resources for the terminal device.

Through this method, during the session establishment process of the terminal device, the session management network element instructs the AN device accessed by the terminal device to allocate AN-side resources for the terminal device and does not configure CN-side resources for the terminal device, thereby avoiding the terminal device Waste of resources on the CN side.

In a possible design, after the AN device configures the AN-side resources for the terminal device, the AN device may, but is not limited to, release the RLC resources in the idle state in the following manner:

Manner 1: The AN device determines the first radio link control RLC resource in the working state and the second RLC resource in the idle state among the resources on the AN side; the AN device reserves the first RLC resource, and Releasing the second RLC resource.

Through the first method, the AN device can reserve the first RLC resource in the working state among the AN-side resources configured for the terminal device, and release the second RLC resource in the idle state. This method can minimize the user plane resource overhead of the terminal device on the basis of ensuring the data transmission efficiency of the UE.

Manner 2: The AN device determines the local routing group where the terminal device is located, and determines the AN-side resources of at least one member included in the local routing group; the AN device determines the AN-side resources of the at least one member The first RLC resource in the working state and the second RLC resource in the idle state; the AN device reserves the first RLC resource and releases the second RLC resource.

Through the second method, the AN device can reserve the first RLC in the working state among the AN-side resources allocated to all members of the local routing group where the terminal device is located, and release the second RLC resource in the idle state. This method can minimize the user plane resource overhead of all members on the basis of ensuring the data transmission efficiency of each member (including the terminal device) in the local routing group.

Manner 3: The AN device determines the local routing node of the terminal device according to the topology information of the integrated node that is connected to the backhaul integrated node, and releases the RLC resources between the AN device and the local routing node.

Through the third method, the AN device can use another method to determine which RLC resources in the AN device are not needed for UE data transmission, and then directly delete these resources, so as to ensure the data transmission efficiency of the terminal device. Based on this, the user plane resource overhead of the terminal device is minimized.

Manner 4: The AN determines the local routing group where the terminal device is located; the AN device determines the local routing node of each member in the local routing group according to the topology information of the integrated node that is connected back to the local routing group, and releases it The RLC resource between the AN device and the local routing node of each member of the local routing group.

Through the fourth method, on the basis of ensuring the data transmission efficiency of each member (including the terminal device) in the local routing group, the user plane resource overhead of all members can be minimized.

In the third aspect, in order to solve the problem of a waste of user plane resources of the terminal device by performing a traditional session establishment process for a terminal device supporting local routing in a communication system and establishing a session for the terminal device, an embodiment of the present application provides a Communication method. This method can be applied to the communication system shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2. The method includes:

The terminal device sends a first message to the session management network element, where the first message includes a first indication, and the first indication is used to indicate that the session management network element is in the session establishment process of the terminal device, The AN side resource of the access network is configured for the terminal device, and the CN side resource of the core network is not configured for the terminal device.

In a possible design, after the terminal device sends the first message to the session management network element, the terminal device receives a second message from the session management network element, where the second message The message includes a second indication, and the second indication is used to indicate that the session management network element authorizes the resource configuration of the terminal device to pass.

Through this design, the terminal device can determine that the session management network element configures AN-side resources for it, and does not allocate CN-side resources for it.

In the fourth aspect, in order to solve the problem of a waste of user plane resources of the terminal device by performing a traditional session establishment process for a terminal device that supports local routing in a communication system and establishing a session for the terminal device, the embodiment of the present application also provides a A communication method, which can be applied to the communication system shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2. The method includes:

The session management network element sends a first message to the user plane network element in the session of the terminal device, where the first message is used to notify the UPF entity to release the CN side resources of the core network of the terminal device; the session management The network element sends a second message to the AN device of the access network in the session of the terminal device, where the second message includes a first indication, and the first indication is used to instruct the AN device to reserve the terminal The AN side resources of the device are released, and the CN side resources of the terminal device are released. Exemplarily, the first indication may be dedicated indication information, such as N3-release-only indication, or a field containing at least one bit, and the value of the field is a set value (for example, 1 or 0) Means; or the first indication may also be a UE type indication that supports local routing; or the first indication may also be a session type change indication indicating that the session of the UE is switched from a traditional session to a special session.

Through this method, the session management network element can release the CN side resources of the terminal equipment supporting local routing. In this way, after the terminal device uses the traditional session establishment procedure to establish a session, the session management network element can subsequently release the CN-side resources allocated to the terminal device, thereby avoiding waste of CN-side resources of the terminal device.

In a possible design, the session management network element may send the second message to the AN device through AMF.

In a possible design, the session management network element may send the first message to the user plane network element after determining that the local routing context of the terminal device exists.

Since the local routing group context of the terminal device exists in the session management network element, it means that the session management network element has configured local routing for the terminal device, and the terminal device can already complete the local routing based on the local routing. Routing data forwarding does not require user plane data transmission through CN side resources. Therefore, through this design, the session management network element determines to disable the CN side resources of the terminal device, and on the basis of not affecting the service of the terminal device, the waste of the CN side resources of the terminal device can be avoided.

In a possible design, the session management network element determines that the CN-side resource in the session of the terminal device is in an idle state, and after determining that the local routing context of the terminal device exists, sends to the user plane network element The first message. Because under the above conditions, the terminal device can already complete local routing data forwarding through the local routing, and there is no need to transmit user plane data through the CN side resources. Therefore, through this design, the session management network element determines to disable the CN side resources of the terminal device, and on the basis of not affecting the service of the terminal device, the waste of the CN side resources of the terminal device can be avoided.

In a possible design, after the session management network element determines that the CN-side resources in the session of the terminal device can be deactivated, it can also determine the local routing group where the UE is located, and deactivate the local routing group CN-side resources in each UE’s session. In this way, the session management network element can minimize the overhead of user plane resources of all terminal devices in the local routing group.

In a possible design, before the session management network element sends the first message to the user plane network element, the method further includes:

The session management network element determines that at least one target terminal device in the local routing group where the terminal device is located satisfies the following conditions: the session management network element determines that the CN-side resource in the session of the target terminal device is in an idle state; and/ Or, the session management network element determines that the local routing context of the target terminal device exists.

Through this design, the session management network element can minimize the user plane resource overhead of all terminal devices in the local routing group.

In the fifth aspect, in order to solve the problem of a waste of user plane resources of the terminal device by performing a traditional session establishment process for a terminal device that supports local routing in a communication system and establishing a session for the terminal device, the embodiment of the present application also provides a A communication method, which can be applied to the communication system shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2. The method includes:

The access network AN device receives a second message from the session management network element, where the second message contains a first indication; the AN device determines according to the first indication that it is necessary to reserve the access network AN side resources of the terminal device , And release the CN-side resources of the terminal device; the AN device reserves the AN-side resources of the terminal device and releases the CN-side resources of the terminal device.

Through this method, the AN device can release the CN side resources of the terminal device supporting local routing according to the received first instruction. In this way, after the terminal device uses the traditional session establishment procedure to establish a session, the session management network element can subsequently release the CN-side resources allocated to the terminal device, thereby avoiding waste of CN-side resources of the terminal device.

In a possible design, the AN device may, but is not limited to, reserve the AN-side resources of the terminal device in the following manner:

In the first manner, the AN device can reserve the first RLC resource in the working state among the AN-side resources configured for the UE, and release the second RLC resource in the idle state. This method can minimize the user plane resource overhead of the terminal device on the basis of ensuring the data transmission efficiency of the terminal device.

Through method three, the AN device can use another method to determine which RLC resources in the AN device are not needed for data transmission by the terminal device, and then directly delete these resources, thereby ensuring the data transmission efficiency of the terminal device. Based on this, the user plane resource overhead of the terminal device is minimized.

Manner 4: The AN device determines the local routing group where the terminal device is located; the AN device determines the local routing node of each member in the local routing group according to the topology information of the integrated node that is connected to the backhaul integration node, and Release the RLC resources between the AN device and the local routing node of each member in the local routing group.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, including a unit for executing each step in any one of the first to fifth aspects above.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, including at least one processing element and at least one storage element, wherein the at least one storage element is used to store programs and data, and the at least one processing element is used to execute the above The method provided by any one of the first to fifth aspects.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, including one or more of a session management network element, an AN device, and a terminal device, wherein the session management network element is capable of performing the functions provided in the first aspect of the application The function of the method, the AN device has the function of executing the method provided in the second aspect of the present application, and the terminal device has the function of executing the method provided in the third aspect of the present application.

In a ninth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system including one or more of a session management network element and an AN device, wherein the session management network element has the function of executing the method provided in the fourth aspect of the present application The AN device has the function of executing the method provided in the fifth aspect of the present application.

In a tenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application also provides a computer program, which when the computer program runs on a computer, causes the computer to execute the method provided in any one of the first to fifth aspects.

In an eleventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium in which a computer program is stored, and when the computer program is executed by a computer, the computer is caused to execute the above-mentioned first The method provided by any one of the first to fifth aspects.

In a twelfth aspect, an embodiment of the present application also provides a chip, which is used to read a computer program stored in a memory and execute the method provided in any one of the first to fifth aspects.

In a thirteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application also provides a chip system, which includes a processor, and is configured to support a computer device to implement the method provided in any one of the first to fifth aspects. In a possible design, the chip system further includes a memory, and the memory is used to store necessary programs and data of the computer device. The chip system can be composed of chips, or it can include chips and other discrete devices.

Description of the drawings

FIG. 1 is an architecture diagram of a communication system provided by an embodiment of this application;

FIG. 2 is an architecture diagram of a communication system based on a service-oriented interface provided by an embodiment of this application;

FIG. 3 is a structural diagram of a communication system supporting IAB technology provided by an embodiment of the application;

Figure 4 is a flow chart of establishing a session in the prior art;

Fig. 5 is a flow chart of a session release in the prior art;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of this application;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of another communication method provided by an embodiment of this application;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of an example of a communication method based on a session establishment process provided by an embodiment of the application;

FIG. 9 is an example flowchart of a communication method based on a session release process provided by an embodiment of the application;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of an example of a communication method for reserving part of the AN-side resources of the UE according to an embodiment of the application;

FIG. 11 is a structural diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of this application;

FIG. 12 is a structural diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of this application.

Detailed ways

The present application provides a communication method and device to solve the problem of user plane resource waste in a communication system using IAB technology. Among them, the method and the device are based on the same technical idea. Since the principles of the method and the device to solve the problem are similar, the implementation of the device and the method can be referred to each other, and the repetition will not be repeated.

In the solution provided by the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may send a first instruction to the session management network element to instruct the session management network element to allocate AN-side resources for itself during the session establishment process of the terminal device and not Configure CN resources for itself; or after establishing a session of the terminal device, the session management network element instructs the AN device and the user plane network element to release the CN side resources configured for the terminal device. In this way, the session management network element can avoid allocating CN-side resources to the terminal device during the session establishment process, or release the CN-side resources in time after allocating CN-side resources to the terminal device, thereby avoiding the terminal device The equipment's CN side resources are wasted.

Hereinafter, some terms in this application will be explained to facilitate the understanding of those skilled in the art.

1). Session, which is the connection between the terminal equipment, AN equipment, user plane network element and data network established by the session management network element in the communication system for the terminal equipment, and is used to transmit the connection between the terminal equipment and the data network. Inter-user plane data, such as Packet Data Unit (PDU) sessions. Wherein, the connection between the terminal device and the AN device in the user plane established by the session (for example, an RLC tunnel) may be referred to as an AN side connection, and the connection between the AN device and a user plane network element may be (for example, an N3 tunnel) It can be called CN side connection.

2) AN-side resources, a general term for the resources used by terminal equipment and AN equipment users to transmit user plane data, including: AN-side connections in a session of the terminal equipment, and information for the terminal equipment and AN equipment to maintain the AN-side connections respectively. Exemplarily, in the embodiment of the present application, the AN-side resources may include at least one or a combination of the following: radio air interface resources, DRB, RLC resources (RLC tunnel), and so on.

3) CN-side resources are the collective term for the resources used by users to transmit user-plane data between user-plane network elements and AN equipment, including: CN-side connections in a session of terminal equipment, and AN equipment and user-plane network elements to maintain the CN side Connection information, etc. Exemplarily, in this embodiment of the present application, the CN side resources may include: N3 tunnels between user plane network elements and AN equipment, CN tunnel information maintained by user plane network elements, and AN tunnel information maintained by AN equipment Wait.

5) Multiple refers to two or more.

6) At least one refers to one or more.

7) "and/or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, indicating that there can be three types of relationships, for example, A and/or B, which can mean: A alone exists, A and B exist at the same time, and B alone exists. Condition. The character "/" generally indicates that the associated objects before and after are in an "or" relationship.

In addition, it should be understood that in the description of this application, words such as "first" and "second" are only used for the purpose of distinguishing description, and cannot be understood as indicating or implying relative importance, nor can it be understood as indicating Or imply the order.

The embodiments of the present application will be described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the architecture of a possible communication system to which the communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application is applicable. Referring to FIG. 1, the communication system includes three parts: terminal equipment, mobile communication network, and data network (DN). The functions and entities of each part will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

A terminal device is a device that provides users with voice and/or data connectivity. The terminal equipment may also be called user equipment (UE), mobile station (mobile station, MS), mobile terminal (mobile terminal, MT), and so on. For example, the terminal device may be a handheld device with a wireless connection function, a vehicle-mounted device, and the like. At present, some examples of terminal devices are: mobile phones (mobile phones), tablet computers, notebook computers, handheld computers, mobile internet devices (MID), wearable devices, virtual reality (VR) devices, augmented Augmented reality (AR) equipment, wireless terminals in industrial control, wireless terminals in self-driving (self-driving), wireless terminals in remote medical surgery, and smart grid (smart grid) The wireless terminal in the transportation safety (transportation safety), the wireless terminal in the smart city (smart city), the wireless terminal in the smart home (smart home), etc. For the convenience of description, in the subsequent description of this application and the figures, the terminal device may be referred to as UE for short.

The DN, which can also be called a packet data network (PDN), is a network located outside the mobile communication network. A variety of services can be deployed on the DN, which can provide data and/or voice services for terminal devices. Among them, the mobile communication network can be accessed by at least one DN, and the same DN can also be accessed by at least one mobile communication network. For example, the DN may be a packet data network (PDN), such as the Internet, an IP Multi-media Service (IMS) network, or some application-specific data network (such as Tencent Video’s Data network), Ethernet, IP local network, etc., this application does not limit this.

The mobile communication network provides access services and end-to-end connection services for terminal devices. The terminal equipment can access the DN through the mobile communication network to realize specific services. Wherein, the mobile communication network may include AN and CN. Among them, AN is mainly responsible for the wireless access function of terminal equipment. CN is used to connect terminal equipment to DN.

CN is divided according to specific logical functions, and the core network can be divided into control plane (CP) and user plane (UP). Then the network elements in charge of the control plane function in the core network can be collectively referred to as control plane network elements, and the network elements in charge of the user plane function can be collectively referred to as user plane network elements. The functions of the main network elements in the core network are specifically introduced below.

The user plane network element is mainly responsible for the forwarding and receiving of user plane data of the terminal device. The user plane network element can receive user plane data from the DN and transmit it to the terminal device through the AN device; the user plane network element can also receive the user plane data from the terminal device through the AN device and forward it to the DN. Among them, the transmission resources and scheduling functions of the user plane network element that provide services for the terminal device are managed and controlled by the control plane network element. It should be noted that the user plane network element may also be referred to as a user plane function (UPF) network element, a UPF entity, a UPF device, and so on. For ease of description, in the subsequent description of this application and in the figures, the user plane network element may be referred to as UPF for short.

Control plane network elements include: access and mobility management network elements, session management network elements, policy control network elements, authentication service network elements, network exposure network elements, unified database network elements, and application network elements.

Access and mobility management network elements are mainly responsible for signaling processing, such as access control, mobility management, attach and detach, and gateway selection functions. When the access and mobility management network element provides services for the session of the terminal device, it will provide storage resources of the control plane for the session, and store the session identifier, the session management network element identifier associated with the session identifier, and so on. It should be noted that the access and mobility management network element may also be referred to as an access and mobility management function (AMF) network element, AMF entity, AMF device, and so on. For ease of description, in the subsequent description of this application and the figures, the access and mobility management network element may be referred to as AMF for short.

The session management network element is mainly responsible for UPF selection, UPF redirection, Internet protocol (IP) address allocation, bearer establishment, modification and release, and quality of service (QoS) control. It should be noted that the session management network element may also be referred to as a session management function (session management function, SMF) network element, SMF entity, SMF device, and so on. For ease of description, in the subsequent description of this application and the figures, the session management network element may be referred to as SMF for short.

The policy control network element is mainly responsible for supporting the provision of a unified policy framework to control network behavior, providing policy rules to other control plane network elements, and being responsible for obtaining user subscription information related to the policy. The policy control network element may also be called a policy control function (PCF) network element, a PCF entity, a PCF device, and so on. For ease of description, in the subsequent description of this application and in the figures, the policy control network element may be referred to as PCF for short.

The authentication service network element is mainly responsible for providing authentication functions and supporting authentication of 3GPP access and Non-3GPP access. The authentication service network element may also be referred to as an authentication server function (authentication server function, AUSF) network element, AUSF entity, AUSF device, and so on. For ease of description, in the subsequent description of this application and the figures, the authentication service network element may be referred to as AUSF for short.

The network exposed network elements mainly support the safe interaction between the 3GPP network and third-party applications, and can safely expose network capabilities and events to third parties to enhance or improve application service quality. 3GPP networks can also securely obtain relevant data from third parties , To enhance the intelligent decision-making of the network, and at the same time, the network element supports the restoration of structured data from the unified database network element or the storage of structured data in the unified database network element. The network exposed network elements may also be referred to as network exposure function (NEF) network elements, NEF entities, NEF equipment, and so on. For ease of description, in the subsequent description of this application and the figures, the network exposed network element may be referred to as NEF for short.

The unified database network element is mainly responsible for storing structured data. The stored content includes contract data and policy data, structured data exposed to the outside world, and application-related data. The unified database network element may also be referred to as a unified data management (UDM) network element, a unified data repository (UDR) network element, a UDM entity, a UDM device, a UDR entity, a UDR device, and so on. For ease of description, in the subsequent description of this application and the figures, the unified database network element may be referred to as UDM for short.

Application network elements mainly support interaction with other network elements in the core network to provide services, such as influencing data routing decisions, policy control functions, or providing third-party services to the network side. The application network element may also be referred to as an application function (AF) network element, an AF entity, an AF device, and so on. For ease of description, in the subsequent description of this application and in the figures, the application network element may be referred to as AF for short.

Network slicing selects network elements and is mainly responsible for the selection of network slicing. The network slice selection network element may also be called a network slice selection function (NSSF) network element, an NSSF entity, an NSSF device, and so on. For ease of description, in the subsequent description of this application and the figures, the network slice selection network element may be referred to as NSSF for short.

It should be understood that the above network elements in the CN can be network elements implemented on dedicated hardware, software instances running on dedicated hardware, or virtualized on a virtualization platform (such as a cloud platform) Examples of functions. In addition, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the distribution form of each network element in the communication system. Optionally, each of the above network elements may be deployed in different physical devices, or multiple network elements may be integrated in the same physical device.

The function of AN can be realized by AN equipment. AN equipment is specifically responsible for functions such as wireless access, wireless resource management on the air interface side, QoS management, data compression and encryption, and user plane data forwarding.

In addition, Fig. 1 shows the interaction relationship between the various network functional entities in the communication system and the corresponding interfaces. The UE and the AMF can interact through the N1 interface, the AN device and the UPF interact through the N3 interface, and the AN device and the AMF entity interact through the N2 interface. For the interface between other network functional entities, refer to Figure 1. Show, I won’t repeat it here. In addition, the interfaces of some network functional entities can be implemented in the form of service-oriented interfaces. as shown in picture 2.

It should be noted that the communication system shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2 does not constitute a limitation of the communication system to which the embodiments of the present application can be applied. Therefore, the communication method provided by the embodiments of this application can also be applied to communication systems of various standards, such as: long term evolution (LTE) communication system, fifth generation (The 5th Generation, 5G) communication system, and sixth generation (The 6th Generation, 6G) communication system and future communication system. In addition, it should be noted that the embodiments of this application do not limit the names of the network elements in the communication system. For example, in communication systems of different standards, each network element may have other names; for example, when multiple networks When the meta is integrated in the same physical device, the physical device may also have other names.

In order to meet the higher requirements for transmission delay in some scenarios, in this application, the AN in the communication system shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2 introduces the IAB technology. For example, industrial manufacturing scenarios, factory automation, car networking communications, remote surgery, and other ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (URLLC) scenarios. As shown in FIG. 3, the AN includes two types of AN device nodes, an IAB host node and an IAB node (IAB node a, IAB node b, and IAB node c as shown in the figure). AN can provide wireless access functions for terminal devices through at least one IAB node and one IAB host node. Therefore, both the IAN host node and the IAB node are AN devices.

The IAB host node is responsible for managing all IAB nodes, can learn the topology of the IAB nodes and/or terminal devices it manages, and determine and save the topology information of the IAB nodes; wherein the topology information of the IAB nodes is used to represent the IAB The connection relationship of each IAB node managed by the host node, and the connection relationship between the IAB node and the UE. The IAB host node may be composed of a centralized unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU), wherein, according to logical function division, the CU may also be divided into a control plane module and a user plane module. For ease of description, the control plane module in the CU may be referred to as the CU-CP module for short, and the user plane in the CU may be referred to as the CU-UP module for short. Exemplarily, FIG. 3 shows IAB host node A and IAB host node B.

IAB node, including DU and mobile terminal (mobile termination, MT) modules, and CU-UP module. Multiple IAB nodes are cascaded in the form of spanning tree (ST) or directed acyclic graph (DAG). When cascading, each IAB node needs to complete the non-access layer (non-access layer). -Access stratum, NAS) authentication, and complete the operation and maintenance management (operation administration and maintenance, OAM) configuration through the session. In addition, if the IAB node has a physical interface, the IAB node can also directly connect to the data network and perform data transmission with the data network, as shown in IAB node a in Figure 3. Exemplarily, Fig. 1 shows IAB node a, IAB node b, and IAB node c.

The functions of the IAB host node and each module in the IAB node are introduced below.

The CU-CP module in the IAB host node is mainly responsible for the radio resource control (RRC) function of the control plane.

The CU-UP module in the IAB host node and the IAB node is mainly responsible for the functions of the packet data protocol (packet data convergence protocol, PDCP) and service data adaptation protocol (service data adaptation protocol, SDAP) sublayers.

The IAB host node and the DU in the IAB node are mainly responsible for baseband processing functions such as radio link control (RLC), medium access control (MAC), and physical layer (physical, PHY).

In the following, taking UE1 and UE2 in the figure as an example, the process of configuring the local route of the UE in the communication system supporting the IAB technology will be described.

(1) The AF sends a group establishment request to the CN in the mobile communication network to request the establishment of a local routing group.

(2) The communication system completes the session establishment process of UE1, and the communication system completes the session establishment process of UE2.

At this time, as shown in FIG. 3, in the communication system, the CN side resources of UE1 (including the N3 tunnel of UE1 as shown in the figure) are configured between CN and IAB host node A, and the CN of UE2 is configured. Side resources (including the N3 tunnel of UE2 as shown in the figure).

The AN-side resources of UE1 are configured between UE1 and IAB host node A (including the UE1-RLC tunnel between UE1 and IAB node a as shown in the figure, and UE1-RLC between IAB node a and IAB host node A tunnel).

The AN-side resources of UE2 are configured between UE2 and IAB host node A (including the UE1-RLC tunnel between UE2 and IAB node a as shown in the figure, and UE2-RLC between IAB node a and IAB host node A tunnel).

Therefore, the AN-side resource of the UE includes at least one RLC tunnel, and the at least one RLC tunnel is also referred to as the RLC resource of the UE.

(3) The network element in the CN binds the user plane information of UE1 with the user plane information of UE2 and the grouping information of the local routing group, generates binding information, and sends the binding information to the IAB host in the AN Node A (CU-CP module in). The IAB host node A selects local routing nodes (ie IAB node a) for UE1 and UE2 according to the binding information and the topology information of the IAB node, and then updates the local routing rules of the selected local routing node to enable it to complete the local routing data Forward.

(4) After the local routing rules of IAB node a are updated, both UE1 and UE2 can forward user plane data to each other through IAB node a; or both UE1 and UE2 can forward user plane data to the DN through IAB node a; or, The IAB node a may forward the user plane data of UE1/UE2 received from the DN to UE1/UE2.

Obviously, when the local routing rules of IAB node a are updated, the N3 tunnels of UE1 and UE2 will always be idle. In addition, the RLC tunnel between the local routing node (IAB node a) of UE1 and UE2 and the IAB host node A is also possible It will be in an idle state (when the mapping relationship between the RLC tunnel and the UE's data resource bearer (DRB) is one-to-one, the RLC tunnel must be idle; when the mapping relationship between the RLC tunnel and the UE's DRB When it is one-to-many, the RLC tunnel may be in an idle state). This leads to the problem of wasting user plane resources for UE configuration that supports local routing in the communication system.

The following takes a PDU session as an example to describe the traditional session establishment process performed by the communication system shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2. Referring to Figure 4, the traditional session establishment process may include the following steps:

S401: The UE sends a session establishment request (PDU session establishment request) to the AMF.

Wherein, the session establishment request needs to be forwarded to the AMF through the AN device.

Optionally, the session establishment request may be included in a non-access stratum (Non Access Stratum, NAS) message. The NAS message may also include at least one of the following: single network slice selection assistance information (S-NSSAI), and the identity of the DN (DN number, DNN) that the UE requests to access , The PDU session ID (PDU session ID) that the UE requests to establish, the request type, etc.

S402: The AMF selects a suitable SMF for the UE according to the received session establishment request.

S403: The AMF sends a session management (session management, SM) context establishment request (Nsmf_PDU session_create SM context request) to the selected SMF.

S404: The SMF obtains the subscription data (subscription data) of the UE from the UDM in the process of obtaining subscription data.

S405: The AMF sends a SM context establishment response (Nsmf_PDU session_Create SM context response) to the AMF.

S406: The communication system executes a session authentication/authorization (PDU session authentication/authorization) process.

S407a: The SMF selects a PCF for the UE.

S407b: The SMF initiates an SM policy association establishment or SM policy association modification (SM policy association establishment or SM policy association modification) process to the selected PCF to obtain policy and charging control (policy and charging control, PCC) from the PCF entity ) Rules and other information.

S408: The SMF selects an appropriate UPF for the UE according to the location information and subscription data of the UE, and SM policy association and other information, and allocates an IP address for the UE for the PDU session.

Optionally, the IP address may be an IPv4 address or an IPv6 prefix.

S409: When the PCC rule acquired by the SMF in S407 is a dynamic PCC rule, the SMF initiates an SM policy association modification process to the PCF to obtain an updated PCC rule from the PCF.

It should be noted that if the PCC rule acquired by the SMF in S407 is not a dynamic PCC rule, the SMF may not execute S409, and therefore, S409 is an optional step.

S410: The SMF initiates an N4 session establishment/modification process (N4 session establishment/modification) to the selected UPF.

Specifically, the SMF can implement the above process through the following steps:

a. The SMF sends an N4 session establishment/modification request (N4 session establishment/modification request) to the UPF.

b. The UPF sends an N4 session establishment/modification response (N4 session establishment/modification response) to the SMF.

S411: The SMF sends an N1N2 message transfer (Namf_communication_N1N2 message transfer) message to the AMF. Wherein, the N1N2 message forwarding message includes the N1 message and the N2 message. The N1 message is a session establishment accept (PDU session establishment accept) message. Wherein, the N2 message includes CN tunnel information (CN tunnel information) allocated by the SMF entity for the UE.

S412: The AMF sends an N2 session request (N2 PDU session request) to the AN device. Wherein, the N2 session request message includes a NAS message (that is, the N1 message and the N2 message included in the N1N2 message forwarding message).

S413: The AN device forwards the acquired N1 message to the UE through signaling interaction with the UE, and completes air interface resource configuration. So far, the RLC tunnel can be established between the UE and the AN device.

S414: The AN device sends an N2 session response (N2 PDU session response) to the AMF. Wherein, the N2 session response includes an N2 message, and the N2 message may include AN tunnel information (AN tunnel information) allocated by the AN device to the UE.

After S414, the UE may send uplink data to the UPF through the AN device, as shown in the figure.

S415: The AMF sends an update SM context request (Nsmf_PDU session_update SM context request) to the SMF. Wherein, the request for updating the SM context also includes the N2 message obtained from the N2 session response.

S416a: The SMF initiates an N4 session modification procedure (N4 session modification procedure) to the UPF, and sends the AN tunnel information and the CN tunnel information for the UE to the UPF in this procedure.

Wherein, the SMF can implement the above process through the following steps:

a. The SMF sends an N4 session modification request (N4 session modification request) to the UPF. Wherein, the N4 session modification request includes the AN tunnel information and the CN tunnel information.

b. The UPF sends an N4 session modification response (N4 session modification response) to the SMF.

So far, the AN device has stored the AN tunnel information allocated to the UE and the received CN tunnel information, and the UPF also receives the AN tunnel information and the CN tunnel information. In this way, the AN device And the UPF may establish the N3 tunnel of the UE according to the tunnel information stored in each.

S416b: The SMF initiates a registration process to the UDM.

After S416a or S416b, the UPF entity may send downlink data to the UE, as shown in the figure.

S417: The SMF sends an update SM context response (Nsmf_PDU session_update SM context request) to the AMF.

S418: The SMF sends an SM context status notification (Nsmf_PDU session_SM context status notification) to the AMF.

Optionally, in the above procedure, when the IP address allocated by the SMF for the UE is an IPv4 address, the SMF may send the IPv4 address of the UE to the UE through S411, S412, and S413, That is, the IPv4 address of the UE is carried in the message transmitted in the above step.

When the IP address allocated by the SMF to the UE is an IPv6 prefix, the SMF also needs to perform S419.

S419: The SMF sends an IPv6 address configuration (IPv6 address configuration) message to the UE through the UPF, where the IPv6 address configuration message includes the IPv6 prefix of the UE.

S420: The AMF initiates an unsubscribe procedure.

Continuing to take the PDU session as an example, the traditional session release process performed by the communication system shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2 will be described. Referring to Figure 5, the traditional session release process may include the following steps:

S501: The SMF determines that the UP connection of the PDU session of the UE can be disabled.

For example, the SMF may, but is not limited to, decide to deactivate the PDU session of the UE in the following cases:

(1) The PDU session establishment failed.

(2) UPF detects that there is no data transmission in the PDU session.

(3) The SMF receives the notification sent by the AMF that the UE has moved out of the service area of the AMF.

When the SMF decides to release the termination point UPF (N3 terminating UPF) of the N3 tunnel in the UE session—UPF1, the SMF executes S502a, S502b, and S503a and S503b. In the case that the SMF decides to retain the UPF1, the SMF executes S504a and S504b.

S502a: The SMF sends an N4 session release request (N4 session release request) to the UPF1.

S502b: After releasing the CN tunnel information, the UPF1 sends an N4 session release response (N4 session release response) to the SMF.

S503a: When an intermediate UPF (UPF to buffer)-UPF2 is also included between the AN device and the UPF1 in the session of the UE, the SMF sends an N4 session modification request (N4 session modification request) to the UPF2. Wherein, the N4 session modification request includes the CN tunnel information of the UE that needs to be deleted.

S503b: After deleting the tunnel information of the CN of the UE, the UPF2 sends an N4 session modification response (N4 session modification response) to the SMF.

S504a: The SMF sends an N4 session modification request (N4 session modification request) to the UPF1. Wherein, the N4 session modification request includes the CN tunnel information of the UE that needs to be deleted.

S504b: After deleting the tunnel information of the CN of the UE, the UPF1 sends an N4 session modification response (N4 session modification response) to the SMF.

S505: The SMF sends an N1N2 message transfer (Namf_communication_N1N2 message transfer) message to the AMF. Wherein, the N1N2 message forwarding message includes an N2 message (also referred to as an N2 SM message). The N2 message is an N2 resource release request (N2 resource release request).

S506: The AMF sends an N2 session resource release command (N2 PDU session resource release command) to the AN device, where the N2 session resource release command includes the N2 message obtained from the N1N2 message forwarding message.

S507: The AN device releases AN tunnel information, and releases air interface resources with the UE through signaling interaction with the UE (for example, the AN device sends an RRC connection reconfiguration message to the UE) . So far, the RLC tunnel between the UE and the AN device can be released.

S508: The AN device sends an N2 session resource release response (N2 PDU session resource release response) to the AMF.

S509: The AMF sends an update SM context (Nsmf_PDU session_update SM context) message to the SMF.

In order to solve the problem of a waste of user plane resources of the UE by performing a traditional session establishment procedure for a UE that supports local routing in a communication system and establishing a session for the UE, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method. This method can be applied to the communication system shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2. The following describes the communication method in detail with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 6.

S601: The UE sends a first message to the SMF, where the first message includes a first indication, and the first indication is used to indicate that the SMF configures AN for the UE during the session establishment process of the UE. Side resources, and no CN side resources are configured for the UE (that is, there is no need to establish a CN side connection/N3 tunnel in the user plane of the UE's session). The SMF receives the first message from the UE.

Optionally, the UE may perform this step after receiving a user's instruction, or the UE that only supports local routing may perform this step during the session establishment process after each access to the network.

Wherein, the UE may send the first message to the SMF through the accessed AN equipment, AMF and other network elements.

In addition, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the representation form of the first indication, which may, but is not limited to, the following forms:

Form 1: The first indication may be dedicated indication information, which can directly indicate that the SMF does not configure CN-side resources for the UE. For example, the first indication may be indicated by no-N3 indication, or by including at least one bit And the value of this field is a set value (for example, 0 or 1).

Form 2: The first indication may be a UE type indication indicating that the local routing is supported. In this way, after the SMF receives the first indication, the SMF can determine that the UE is a UE that supports local routing according to the first indication, that is, the UE does not need to configure CN-side resources, and then determines that During the establishment of the session of the UE, the AN side resources are configured for the UE, and the CN side resources are not configured for the UE.

Form 3: The first indication may be a local routing configuration request. The local routing configuration request is used to request the SMF to perform local routing configuration for the UE (for the specific process, please refer to the above procedure for configuring the local routing of the UE for communication through IAB technology, which will not be repeated here), also It can be explained that the UE that sends the local routing configuration request is a UE that supports local routing. In this way, after the SMF receives the first indication, the SMF can determine that the UE is a UE that supports local routing according to the first indication, that is, the UE does not need to configure CN-side resources, and then determines During the establishment of the session of the UE, the AN side resources are configured for the UE, and the CN side resources are not configured for the UE.

Form 4: The first indication may be an indication of a special session type. The characteristic session is a session that only includes AN-side resources and does not include CN-side resources. In this way, after the SMF receives the first indication, the SMF can determine that the session requested to be established by the UE is a characteristic session according to the first indication, thereby determining that during the session establishment process of the UE, Configure AN-side resources for it, and not configure CN-side resources for it.

It should be noted that the first message may be carried in an existing message in the session establishment process, or may be a dedicated message configured for sending the first indication, which is not limited in this application. Wherein, when the first message carries an existing message in the session establishment process, the message may include: a session establishment request sent by the UE to the AMF through the AN device (for example, the message transmitted by S401 in FIG. 4), In the request for establishing the SM context sent by the AMF to the SMF (for example, the message transmitted in S403 in FIG. 4).

S602: When the SMF determines to perform the session establishment process of the UE, according to the first instruction, start to perform the session establishment process of the UE.

In an implementation manner, the SMF may determine whether to perform the process based on at least one or a combination of the following: local routing group context, subscription information of the UE, and local policies and other information. Wherein, the local routing group context includes: the group ID of the local routing group where the UE is located, the member ID of at least one member included in the local routing group, and other information.

In an implementation manner, the SMF may not execute processes or steps related to CN-side resources during the session establishment process. For example, the SMF may not execute at least one or a combination of the following:

UPF selection process (for example, S408 in Figure 4), session management related policy modification process (for example, S409 in Figure 4), N4 session establishment process (for example, S410 in Figure 4), N4 session establishment and modification process (for example, in Figure 4) S416a).

In another implementation manner, the SMF may only execute processes or steps related to resources on the AN side. For example, the N1N2 message forwarding process (for example, S411 in FIG. 4).

In addition, the SMF no longer carries CN tunnel information in the N1N2 message forwarding and N2 session request.

S603: When the SMF is performing the session establishment process of the UE, the SMF sends a second message to the UE, where the second message includes a second indication, and the second indication is used to indicate the The SMF authorizes the resource configuration of the UE to pass. After receiving the second message from the SMF, the UE determines that the session establishment authorization is passed according to the third instruction, and then executes the subsequent session establishment procedure.

Wherein, the SMF may send the second message to the UE through an AMF or AN device. The second indication may also be indicated by no-N3granted indication, or indicated by the value of a field containing at least one bit as a set value (for example, 1). The second message may be an N1 message, or the second message may be carried in an N1 message.

It should be noted that the second message may be carried in an existing message during the session establishment process, or may be a dedicated message configured for sending the second indication, which is not limited in this application. Wherein, when the second message carries an existing message in the session establishment process, the message may include: the N1N2 message forwarding (for example, S411 in FIG. 4) message sent by the SMF to the AMF, and the AMF to the AN device The sent N2 session request (for example, S412 in FIG. 4), the air interface resource configuration message sent by the AN device to the UE (for example, the RRC signaling sent in S413 in FIG. 4, etc.).

S604: When the SMF is performing the session establishment process of the UE, the SMF sends a third message to the AN device accessed by the UE, where the third message includes a third indication, and the third The indication is used to instruct the AN device to configure AN-side resources for the UE, and not configure CN-side resources for the UE. The AN device receives the third message from the SMF.

Wherein, the SMF may send the third message to the AN device through the AMF. The third message may be an N2 message, or the third message may be carried in an N2 message.

In addition, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the representation form of the third indication, which may, but is not limited to, the following forms:

Form 1: The third indication may be dedicated indication information, which can directly indicate that the SMF does not configure CN-side resources for the UE. For example, the first indication may be indicated by no-N3 granted indication, or by including at least one A bit field, and the value of the field is a set value (for example, 0 or 1).

Form 2: The third indication may be a UE type indication indicating that the local routing is supported. In this way, after the AN device receives the third indication, the AN device can determine that the UE is a UE supporting local routing according to the first indication, that is, the UE does not need to configure CN-side resources, and thus It is determined that it needs to be configured with AN-side resources, and it is not configured with CN-side resources.

It should be noted that the third message may be carried in an existing message in the session establishment process, or may be a dedicated message configured for sending the third indication, which is not limited in this application. Wherein, when the third message carries an existing message in the session establishment process, the message may include: the N1N2 message forwarding (for example, S411 in FIG. 4) message sent by the SMF to the AMF, and the AMF message to the AN device N2 session request sent (for example, S412 in FIG. 4).

In an implementation manner, in order to reduce message overhead, the SMF may simultaneously carry the second message and the third message in the message sent to the AMF (for example, the N1N2 message forwarding in S411 in FIG. 4).

S605: The AN device configures AN-side resources for the UE according to the third instruction. It should be noted that the AN device includes an IAB host node.

Wherein, the AN device may configure AN-side resources for the UE through an air interface resource configuration process in the S413 process shown in FIG. 4.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, after the AN device receives the third instruction, since there is no need to establish a CN-side connection/N3 tunnel, there is no need to reserve the necessary for establishing a CN-side connection/N3 tunnel. AN tunnel information. Of course, in the subsequent sending of the N2 response to the AMF, there is no need to send AN tunnel information.

S606: After configuring the AN-side resources for the UE, the AN device may monitor the state of the RLC resources in the AN-side resources, and release the RLC resources in the idle state among the AN-side resources.

Optionally, the AN device may release the RLC resource in the idle state in the following manner.

Manner 1: The AN device determines the first RLC resource in the working state and the second RLC resource in the idle state among the resources on the AN side; the AN device reserves the first RLC resource and releases (or deletes it) , End) The second RLC resource.

In the first manner, the AN device can reserve the first RLC resource in the working state among the AN-side resources configured for the UE, and release the second RLC resource in the idle state. This method can minimize the user plane resource overhead of the UE on the basis of ensuring the data transmission efficiency of the UE.

Manner 2: The AN device determines the local routing group where the UE is located, and determines the AN-side resources of at least one member included in the local routing group; the AN device determines that the AN-side resources of the at least one member are in The first RLC resource in the working state and the second RLC resource in the idle state; the AN device reserves the first RLC resource and releases the second RLC resource.

Through the second method, the AN device can reserve the first RLC in the working state among the AN-side resources allocated to all members of the local routing group where the UE is located, and release the second RLC resource in the idle state. This method can minimize the user plane resource overhead of all members on the basis of ensuring the data transmission efficiency of each member (including the UE) in the local routing group.

Manner 3: The AN device determines the local routing node of the UE according to the topology information of the IAB node, and releases the RLC resource between the AN device and the local routing node.

Through method three, the AN device can use another method to determine which RLC resources in the AN device are not needed for UE data transmission, and then directly delete these resources, so as to ensure the data transmission efficiency of the UE. Above, the user plane resource overhead of the UE is minimized. For example, the local routing node of UE1 shown in FIG. 3 is IAB node a, then the AN device can release the UE1-RLC tunnel between the IAB host node A and the IAB node a. For another example, the local routing node of UE4 shown in FIG. 3 is IAB node c, then the AN device can release the UE4-RLC tunnel between IAB host node A and IAB node b, and release IAB node b and IAB node c UE4-RLC tunnel between.

Manner 4: The AN device determines the local routing group where the UE is located; the AN device determines the local routing node of each member in the local routing group according to the topology information of the IAB node, and releases the AN device and The RLC resource between the local routing nodes of each member in the local routing group.

This method can minimize the user plane resource overhead of all members on the basis of ensuring the data transmission efficiency of each member (including the UE) in the local routing group.

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method. In this solution, a UE that supports local routing can send a first indication to the SMF to instruct the SMF to allocate AN-side resources to the UE during the session establishment process of the UE. And the CN side resources are not configured for the UE. In this way, the SMF can avoid allocating CN-side resources for the UE during the session establishment process, thereby avoiding waste of CN-side resources of the UE.

In order to solve the problem of a waste of user plane resources of the UE by performing a traditional session establishment procedure for a UE that supports local routing in a communication system and establishing a session for the UE, another communication method is provided in the embodiment of the present application. This method can be applied to the communication system shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2. After a UE that supports local routing establishes a session through a traditional session establishment procedure, the method can release the CN side resources in the UE's session. The following describes the communication method in detail with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 7.

S701: The SMF determines that the CN-side resource in the session of the UE supporting local routing can be disabled.

Wherein, the UE that supports local routing is a UE that can perform user plane data transmission through the set local routing.

In the first implementation manner, the SMF may determine that the CN-side resources of the UE can be deactivated after determining that the local routing context of the UE exists locally. Wherein, the local routing group context of the UE includes: the group ID of the local routing group where the UE is located, the member ID of at least one member included in the local routing group, the attributes of the local routing group, and the group ID of the local routing group. Binding information generated by binding the user plane information of the local routing group and the grouping information of the local routing group.

Wherein, the presence of the local routing group context of the UE in the SMF indicates that the SMF has configured a local route for the UE, and the UE can already complete local routing data forwarding according to the local route without going through the CN side The resource performs user plane data transmission.

In the second implementation manner, the SMF may determine that the local routing group context of the UE exists locally, and the CN side resources of the UE are in an idle state in the session of the UE, and then determine that the CN side of the UE can be deactivated. resource.

In the third implementation manner, after the SMF determines that the CN-side resources in a UE’s session can be deactivated, it can also determine the local routing group where the UE is located, and deactivate the local routing group for each UE in the local routing group. CN side resources in the session. In other words, in this embodiment of the application, the SMF may perform S701 when it is determined that at least one target UE in the local routing group where the UE is located meets the following conditions: the SMF determines that there is a local route for the target UE Group context; or the SMF determines that the local routing group context of the target UE exists, and the SMF determines that the CN-side resources in the session of the target UE are in an idle state. Alternatively, after the SMF determines through the above-mentioned first or second implementation manner that the CN-side resources in the session of the UE can be deactivated, it can also determine the local routing group where the UE is located, and deactivate the local routing group. CN-side resources in the sessions of each other UE in the routing group.

Through the third implementation manner, the SMF can minimize the user plane resource overhead of all UEs in the local routing group.

S702: The SMF sends a first message to the UPF in the session of the UE, where the first message is used to notify the UPF entity to release CN-side resources of the UE.

Wherein, the session of the UE may include not only the termination point of the N3 tunnel UPF-UPF1, but also the intermediate UPF-UPF2.

In an embodiment, the SMF may send the first message to the UPF1 through step S502a or S504a in the session release process shown in FIG. 5, that is, the SMF may send the N4 session release to the UPF1 Request or N4 session modification request.

When the UE’s session also includes UPF2, the SMF may also send the first message to the UPF2 through step S503a in the session release process shown in FIG. 5, that is, the SMF may send the UPF2 to the UPF2. Send N4 session modification request.

Correspondingly, after receiving the corresponding message, the UPF1 and/or the UPF2 releases the CN side resources of the UE, and then returns a corresponding response message to the SMF. For details, please refer to the steps in FIG. 5. I won't repeat it here.

S703: The SMF sends a second message to the AN device in the session of the UE, where the second message includes a first indication, and the first indication is used to instruct the AN device to reserve the UE’s AN-side resources, and release the CN-side resources of the UE. The AN device receives the second message from the SMF.

Wherein, the SMF may send the second message to the AN device through AMF.

In addition, the first indication may be dedicated indication information, for example, indicated by N3-release-only indication, or indicated by a field containing at least one bit, and the value of the field is indicated by a set value (for example, 1 or 0).

The first indication may also be a UE type indication indicating that the local routing is supported. In this way, after the AN device receives the first indication, the AN device can determine that the UE is a UE supporting local routing according to the first indication, that is, the data transmission of the UE does not require CN-side resources Participate, and then determine to reserve the resources on the AN side for them, and release the resources on the CN side for them.

The first indication may also be a session type change indication for instructing the UE's session to switch from a traditional session to a special session. Among them, a traditional session is a session that includes AN-side resources and a CN-side resource, and a special session is a session that only includes AN-side resources and does not include CN-side resources. In this way, after the AN device receives the first instruction, the AN device can determine according to the first instruction that the session of the UE becomes a special session, and then determines to reserve the AN side resources for it, and Release the CN-side resources configured for it.

It should be noted that the second message may be carried in an existing message in the session release procedure, or may be a dedicated message configured for sending the first indication, which is not limited in this application. Wherein, when the second message carries an existing message in the session release procedure, the message may include: an N1N2 message forwarding message sent by SMF to AMF (for example, the message transmitted by S505 in FIG. 5), and AMF sends In the N2 session resource release command sent by the AN device (for example, the message transmitted by S506 in FIG. 5).

S704: The AN device reserves the AN-side resources of the UE according to the first instruction, and releases the CN-side resources of the UE.

Optionally, in an implementation manner, the AN device may reserve all AN-side resources of the UE. In another implementation manner, the AN device may reserve the AN side resources of the UE in the following manner.

Manner 1: The AN device determines the first RLC resource in the working state and the second RLC resource in the idle state among the resources on the AN side; the AN device reserves the first RLC resource and releases the first RLC resource. Two RLC resources.

Manner 2: The AN device determines the local routing group where the UE is located, and determines the AN-side resources of at least one member included in the local routing group; the AN device determines that the AN-side resources of the at least one member are in The first RLC resource in the working state and the second RLC resource in the idle state; the AN device reserves the first RLC resource and releases the second RLC resource. In the second manner, the AN device may also release the CN side resources of the at least one member.

Wherein, in a scenario where the SMF uses the first or second implementation manner above to determine to deactivate the CN-side resources in the UE’s session when executing 701, the AN device may reserve the The AN side resources of the UE.

In addition, it should be noted that in the

above methods

1 and 2, the RLC resource of any UE in the idle state is generally the RLC resource between the AN device and the local routing node of the UE; and the RLC resource of any UE is in operation. The status RLC resource is generally the RLC resource between the UE and the local routing node of the UE.

Manner 3: The AN device determines to determine the local routing node of the UE according to the topology information of the IAB node, and releases RLC resources between the AN device and the local routing node.

The embodiment of the present application provides a communication method. In this solution, the SMF can release the CN-side resources of the UE that supports local routing. In this way, after the UE uses the traditional session establishment procedure to establish a session, the SMF can be subsequently released to allocate CN-side resources to the UE, thereby avoiding waste of CN-side resources of the UE.

Based on the communication method embodiment shown in FIG. 6, this application also provides an example of the communication method, which is implemented based on the traditional session establishment process shown in FIG. 4, as shown in FIG. 8. This example can realize that during the session establishment process of the UE, the SMF in the communication system does not configure CN-side resources for the UE, thereby avoiding waste of CN-side resources of the UE. In order to facilitate the comparison with the traditional session establishment process shown in Figure 4, the steps in the example shown in Figure 8 are the same as the corresponding steps in Figure 4 (the names of the transmitted messages are the same). For the similarities, please refer to the specific steps in Figure 4 Description, I won’t repeat it this time. The following describes only the improvements compared to the session establishment process shown in FIG. 4.

S801: The UE sends a session establishment request (PDU session establishment request) to the AMF. Wherein, the session establishment request includes a no-N3 indication, and the no-N3 indication is used to indicate that SMF configures AN-side resources for the UE during the session establishment process of the UE, and does not configure the UE. CN side resources.

S802: The AMF selects a suitable SMF for the UE according to the received session establishment request.

S803: The AMF sends a session management (session management, SM) context request (Nsmf_PDU session_create SM context request) to the selected SMF. Wherein, the session management context establishment request includes the no-N3 indication.

S804: The SMF obtains subscription data (subscription data) of the UE from UDM in the process of obtaining subscription data.

S805: The AMF sends a SM context establishment response (Nsmf_PDU session_create SM context response) to the AMF.

S806: The communication system executes a session authentication/authorization (PDU session authentication/authorization) process.

S807a: When the SMF determines to establish the session of the UE according to the local routing group context, the subscription information of the UE, and the local policy and other information, it initiates the session establishment process of the UE according to the no-N3 indication. Select PCF for the UE.

It should be noted that in the session establishment process of the UE, the UPF selection process, the session management-related policy modification process, the N4 session establishment process, and the N4 session establishment modification process are skipped, and CN-side resources are no longer allocated to the UE. , That is, steps S808, S809, S810, S816a, and S816b are crossed in Figure 8. Of course, since the SMF does not select the UPF, the UE does not need to perform uplink and downlink data transmission with the UPF.

S807b: The SMF initiates an SM policy association establishment or SM policy association modification (SM policy association establishment or SM policy association modification) process to the selected PCF to obtain policy and charging control (policy and charging control, PCC) from the PCF entity ) Rules and other information.

S811: The SMF sends an N1N2 message transfer (Namf_communication_N1N2 message transfer) message to the AMF. Wherein, the N1N2 message forwarding message includes the N1 message and the N2 message. The N1 message is a session establishment accept (PDU session establishment accept) message. Wherein, the N2 message no longer includes CN tunnel information (CN tunnel information) allocated by the SMF entity for the UE.

In the embodiment of the present application, the N1 message and the N2 message include No-N3 grant indication. Wherein, the No-N3 grant indication in the N1 message is used to indicate that the SMF authorizes the resource configuration of the UE; the No-N3 grant indication in the N2 message is used to indicate that the AN device configures the UE for the UE AN-side resources, and no CN-side resources are configured for the UE.

S812: The AMF sends an N2 session request (N2 PDU session request) to the AN device. Wherein, the N2 session request message includes a NAS message (that is, the N1 message and the N2 message included in the N1N2 message forwarding message).

S813: The AN device forwards the acquired N1 message including the No-N3 grant indication to the UE through signaling interaction with the UE, and completes air interface resource configuration. So far, the RLC tunnel can be established between the UE and the AN device.

S814: The AN device allocates AN tunnel information (AN tunnel information) to the UE according to the acquired N2 message containing the No-N3 grant indication, and sends an N2 session response (N2 PDU session response) to the AMF . Wherein, the N2 session response includes an N2 message, and the N2 message includes AN tunnel information allocated by the AN device for the UE.

S815: The AMF sends an update SM context request (Nsmf_PDU session_update SM context request) to the SMF. Wherein, the request for updating the SM context also includes the N2 message obtained from the N2 session response.

S817: The SMF sends an update SM context response (Nsmf_PDU session_update SM context request) to the AMF.

So far, the session establishment of the UE is completed. Through the communication method example shown in Figure 8, a UE that supports local routing can send a no-N3 indication to the SMF to indicate that the SMF allocates AN resources for the UE and does not configure it for the UE during the session establishment process of the UE. CN side resources. In this way, the SMF can avoid allocating CN-side resources for the UE during the session establishment process, thereby avoiding waste of CN-side resources of the UE.

Based on the communication method embodiment shown in FIG. 7, this application also provides an example of a communication method, which is implemented based on the traditional session release process shown in FIG. 5, as shown in FIG. 9. In this example, in the UE's session release process, the AN side resources of the UE are reserved, and the CN side resources of the UE are released, so as to avoid the waste of the CN side resources of the UE. In order to facilitate the comparison with the traditional session release process shown in Figure 5, the steps in the example shown in Figure 9 are the same as the corresponding steps in Figure 5 (the names of the transmitted messages are the same). For the similarities, please refer to the specific steps in Figure 5. Description, I won’t repeat it this time. The following describes only the improvements compared to the session release process shown in FIG. 5.

S901: The SMF determines that the CN side resource in the PDU session of the UE can be disabled.

The SMF may, but is not limited to, adopting the three implementation manners described in S701 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 to determine the CN-side resources in the PDU session of the UE to be disabled.

In addition, similar to the traditional session release process shown in FIG. 5, when the SMF decides to release the termination point of the N3 tunnel in the UE session, UPF (N3 terminating UPF)-UPF1, the SMF executes S902a and S902b, And S903a and S903b. In the case that the SMF decides to retain the UPF1, the SMF executes S904a and S904b. For the description of steps S902a-S904b, reference may be made to the specific descriptions of the corresponding steps of S502a-S504b, which will not be repeated here in this embodiment of the application.

S905: The SMF sends an N1N2 message transfer (Namf_communication_N1N2 message transfer) message to the AMF. The N1N2 message forwarding message includes an N2 message (also called N2 SM message), and the N2 message includes an N3-release-only indication, and the N3-release-only indication is used to instruct the AN device to reserve the The AN side resources of the UE, and the CN side resources of the UE are released.

The N2 message may be an N2 resource release request (N2 resource release request).

S906: The AMF sends an N2 session resource release command/request (N2 PDU session resource release command/request) to the AN device, where the N2 session resource release command/request includes all information obtained from the N1N2 message forwarding message. The N2 message. After receiving the N2 session resource release command/request from the AMF, the AN device releases the AN tunnel information according to the N3-release-only indication in the N2 message to release the CN side of the UE Resources, and skip S507 to reserve the AN-side resources of the UE.

It should also be noted that, when the AN device saves the resources on the AN side of the UE, it can be implemented through the two implementation manners described in S704 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7. For details, refer to the description of step S704 above. , I won’t repeat it here.

S908: The AN device sends an N2 session resource release response (N2 PDU session resource release response) to the AMF.

S909: The AMF sends an update SM context (Nsmf_PDU session_update SM context) message to the SMF.

Through the communication method example shown in FIG. 9, the SMF can support the AN device to release the CN-side resources of the UE that supports local routing, and reserve the AN-side resources of the UE to ensure the user plane data transmission of the UE. In this way, after the UE uses the traditional session establishment procedure to establish a session, the SMF can be subsequently released to allocate CN-side resources to the UE, thereby avoiding waste of CN-side resources of the UE.

Since in the embodiment of this application, the AN in the communication system introduces the IAB technology, the AN contains the IAB host node and at least one IAB node. Therefore, when the AN device reserves the UE’s AN-side resources, it needs the IAB host node and The IAB node implements communication and interaction. Therefore, the embodiment of the present application also provides a communication method between AN devices to reserve part of the AN-side resources of the UE and avoid the waste of the AN-side resources of the UE.

In the embodiment of the present application, the IAB host node of the UE is the IAB host node Y, and the UE and the IAB host node Y are connected through the IAB node X1 and the IAB node X2 as an example for specific description. Among them, the IAB node X1 is the local routing node of the UE, and the IAB node X2 is the IAB node between the IAB node X1 and the IAB host node Y. IAB node X1 contains DU X1-d and MT X1-m modules; IAB node X2 contains DU X2-d and MT X2-m modules; IAB host node Y contains DU Yd and CU Yc modules.

In the following, referring to the communication method example shown in FIG. 10, the specific process of the AN device in step S907 shown in FIG. 9 for reserving the resources on the AN side of the UE will be described in detail.

S1001: After the AMF in the CN in the communication system receives the N2 message containing the N3-release-only indication for the UE from the SMF, it sends a session resource release command/request (N2 PDU session) to the IAB host node Y of the UE in the AN resource release command/request). Wherein, the session resource release command/request includes an N2 message, and the N2 message includes an N3-release-only indication.

S1002: The IAB host node Y releases the AN tunnel information of the UE according to the N3-release-only indication in the N2 message to release the CN side resources of the UE. The IAB host node Y may also determine to release idle AN-side resources (RLC tunnels) in the PDU session of the UE according to the N3-release-only indication.

Optionally, the IAB host node Y may only release idle RLC tunnels of the UE, or the IAB host node Y may release idle RLC tunnels of each member in the local routing group where the UE is located in batches. In FIG. 10, only the release of the idle RLC tunnel of the UE is taken as an example for description.

In an implementation manner, the IAB host node Y may monitor the status of the RLC tunnel of the UE to determine which RLC tunnels are in working state and which RLC tunnels are in idle state, and then determine that the RLC tunnels that need to be released are in RLC tunnel in idle state.

In another implementation manner, the IAB host node Y may determine the local routing node of the UE through the topology information of the IAB node, thereby determining to release the RLC between the IAB host node Y and the local routing node tunnel.

In the embodiment of the present application, the RLC tunnel of the UE that the IAB host node Y determines to be released is: the RLC tunnel of the UE between the IAB node X1 and the IAB node X2, and the IAB node X2 and the IAB host The RLC tunnel of the UE between node Y. Then, the CU Yc module in the IAB host node can release the above-mentioned RLC tunnel through the existing RLC tunnel release procedure (such as S1003 and S1004).

S1003: CU Yc in the IAB host node Y releases the RLC tunnel between DU Yd in the IAB host node Y and MT X2-m in the IAB node X2. Referring to FIG. 10, this step specifically includes: releasing the F1 tunnel of the UE between the CU Yc and the DU Yd, and the CU Yc and MT X2-m perform RRC reconfiguration (RRC reconfiguration).

S1004: CU Yc in the IAB host node Y releases the RLC tunnel between DU X2-d in the IAB node X2 and MT X1-m in the IAB node X1. Referring to FIG. 10, this step specifically includes: releasing the F1 tunnel of the UE between the CU Yc and the DU X2-d, and the CU Yc and MT X1-m perform RRC reconfiguration.

S1005: After the IAB host node Y releases the above RLC tunnel, it returns a session resource release response (N2 PDU session resource release response) to the AMF.

Through the above communication method examples, the AN device in the CN can reserve the RLC tunnel in the working state of the UE, and release the RLC tunnel in the idle state of the UE, so as to reserve part of the AN side resources of the UE and avoid the AN of the UE. The waste of side resources can ultimately minimize the waste of user plane resources of the UE.

Based on the same technical concept, the present application also provides a communication device. The structure of the device is shown in FIG. 11 and includes a communication unit 1101 and a processing unit 1102. The communication device 1100 can be applied to the session management network element, AN device, or terminal device in the communication system shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, and can implement the communication methods provided in the above embodiments and examples. The function of each unit in the device 1100 will be introduced below.

The communication unit 1101 is used to receive and send data.

When the communication device 1100 is applied to a session management network element or an AN device (in a scenario where the AN device interacts with a network element in the core network), the communication unit 1101 can communicate through physical interfaces, communication modules, and Interface, input and output interface realization. The communication device 1100 may be connected to a network cable or a cable through the communication unit, and then establish a physical connection with other devices.

When the communication device 1100 is applied to a terminal device or an AN device (in a scenario where the AN device interacts with a terminal device), the communication unit 1101 may be implemented by a transceiver, for example, a mobile communication module.

The mobile communication module can provide wireless communication solutions including 2G/3G/4G/5G, etc., which are applied to the terminal device. The mobile communication module may include at least one antenna, at least one filter, switch, power amplifier, low noise amplifier (LNA), etc. The terminal device can access the AN device in the AN through the mobile communication module and interact with the AN device; the AN device can also communicate with the accessed terminal device through the mobile communication module.

In an implementation manner, the communication device 1100 is applied to the session management network element in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 or FIG. 8. The specific functions of the processing unit 1102 in this embodiment will be introduced below.

The processing unit 1102 is configured to receive a first message from a terminal device through the communication unit 1101, where the first message contains a first indication; according to the first indication, it is determined that the session establishment process of the terminal device is , Configure access network AN side resources for the terminal device, and not configure core network CN side resources for the terminal device; and execute the session establishment process of the terminal device.

Optionally, the processing unit 1102 is specifically configured to: not perform at least one or a combination of the following during the session establishment process:

User plane network element selection process, session management related policy modification process, N4 session establishment process, and N4 session establishment modification process.

Optionally, the processing unit 1102 is specifically configured to: when executing the session establishment process of the terminal device:

A second message is sent to the terminal device through the communication unit 1101, where the second message includes a second indication, and the second indication is used to instruct the session management network element to configure the resource configuration of the terminal device Authorized to pass;

A third message is sent to the AN device through the communication unit 1101, where the third message includes a third indication, and the third indication is used to instruct the AN device to configure AN-side resources for the terminal device, and The CN side resource is not configured for the terminal device.

In an implementation manner, the communication device 1100 is applied to the AN device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 or FIG. 8. The specific functions of the processing unit 1102 in this embodiment will be introduced below.

The processing unit 1102 is configured to receive a third message from the session management network element through the communication unit 1101, where the third message includes a third indication; according to the third indication, it is determined that the terminal device needs to be configured with AN-side resources , And not configure CN-side resources for the terminal device; and configure AN-side resources for the terminal device.

Optionally, the processing unit 1102 is further configured to:

After configuring the AN-side resources for the terminal device, determine the first radio link control RLC resource in the working state and the second RLC resource in the idle state among the AN-side resources; reserve the first RLC resource, And release the second RLC resource; or after configuring the AN-side resource for the terminal device, determine the local routing group where the terminal device is located, and determine the AN-side resource of at least one member included in the local routing group; Determine the first RLC resource in the working state and the second RLC resource in the idle state among the resources on the AN side of the at least one member; reserve the first RLC resource and release the second RLC resource; or After the terminal device configures the resources on the AN side, it determines the local routing node of the terminal device according to the topology information of the integrated node that accesses backhaul, and releases the RLC resources between the AN device and the local routing node; or After configuring the AN-side resources for the terminal device, determine the local routing group where the terminal device is located; determine the local routing node of each member in the local routing group according to the topology information of the access backhaul integrated node, and Release the RLC resources between the AN device and the local routing node of each member in the local routing group.

In an implementation manner, the communication device 1100 is applied to the terminal device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 or FIG. 8. The specific functions of the processing unit 1102 in this embodiment will be introduced below.

The processing unit 1102 is configured to send a first message to the session management network element through the communication unit 1101, where the first message includes a first indication, and the first indication is used to indicate that the session management network element is in During the session establishment process of the terminal device, the AN side resource of the access network is configured for the terminal device, and the CN side resource of the core network is not configured for the terminal device.

Optionally, the processing unit 1102 is further configured to:

After the first message is sent to the session management network through the communication unit 1101, a second message is received from the session management network element through the communication unit 1101, wherein the second message includes a second message Indication, the second indication is used to indicate that the session management network element authorizes the resource configuration of the terminal device to pass.

In an implementation manner, the communication device 1100 is applied to the session management network element in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 or FIG. 9. The specific functions of the processing unit 1102 in this embodiment will be introduced below.

The processing unit 1102 is configured to send a first message to the user plane network element in the session of the terminal device through the communication unit 1101, where the first message is used to notify the UPF entity to release the core network of the terminal device CN side resources; and sending a second message to the access network AN device in the session of the terminal device through the communication unit 1101, wherein the second message contains a first indication, and the first indication is used for Instruct the AN device to reserve the AN-side resources of the terminal device and release the CN-side resources of the terminal device.

Optionally, the processing unit 1102 is further configured to:

Before sending the first message to the user plane network element through the communication unit 1101, determine that the CN-side resource in the session of the terminal device is in an idle state; and/or determine that there is a local route for the terminal device Context.

Optionally, the processing unit 1102 is further configured to:

Before sending the first message to the user plane network element through the communication unit 1101, it is determined that at least one target terminal device in the local routing group where the terminal device is located satisfies the following conditions:

It is determined that the CN-side resource in the session of the target terminal device is in an idle state; and/or it is determined that the local routing context of the target terminal device exists.

In an implementation manner, the communication device 1100 is applied to the AN device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 or FIG. 9, for example, in the IAB host node Y in the embodiment shown in FIG. 10. The specific functions of the processing unit 1102 in this embodiment will be introduced below.

The processing unit 1102 is configured to receive a second message from the session management network element through the communication unit 1101, where the second message includes a first instruction; the AN device determines that the terminal device needs to be reserved according to the first instruction And release the resources on the AN side of the terminal device and release the resources on the CN side of the terminal device; and according to the first instruction, reserve the resources on the AN side of the terminal device and release the CN side resources of the terminal device.

Optionally, the processing unit 1102 is specifically configured to: when reserving the AN-side resources of the terminal device:

Determine the first radio link control RLC resource in the working state and the second RLC resource in the idle state among the resources on the AN side; reserve the first RLC resource and release the second RLC resource; or determine The local routing group where the terminal device is located, and determining the AN-side resources of at least one member included in the local routing group; determining the first RLC resource in the working state and the first RLC resource in the idle state among the AN-side resources of the at least one member The second RLC resource; reserve the first RLC resource and release the second RLC resource; or determine the local routing node of the terminal device according to the topology information of the integrated node of the access backhaul, and release the AN device RLC resources with the local routing node; or determine the local routing group where the terminal device is located; determine the local routing node of each member in the local routing group according to the topology information of the integrated node that is connected to the backhaul , And release the RLC resources between the AN device and the local routing node of each member of the local routing group.

It should be noted that the division of modules in the above embodiments of the present application is illustrative, and is only a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods. In addition, each function in each embodiment of the present application The unit can be integrated into one processing unit, or it can exist alone physically, or two or more units can be integrated into one unit. The above-mentioned integrated unit can be implemented in the form of hardware or software functional unit.

If the integrated unit is implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application essentially or the part that contributes to the existing technology or all or part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product, and the computer software product is stored in a storage medium , Including several instructions to make a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) or a processor (processor) execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of the present application. The aforementioned storage media include: U disk, mobile hard disk, read-only memory (Read-Only Memory, ROM), random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), magnetic disk or optical disk and other media that can store program code .

Based on the same technical concept, this application also provides a communication device, which can be applied to the session management network element, AN device, or terminal device in the communication system as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. The communication methods provided in the above embodiments and examples have the functions of the communication device shown in FIG. 11. Referring to FIG. 12, the communication device 1200 includes: a communication module 1201, a processor 1202, and a memory 1203. Wherein, the communication module 1201, the processor 1202, and the memory 1203 are connected to each other.

Optionally, the communication module 1201, the processor 1202, and the memory 1203 are connected to each other through a bus 1204. The bus 1204 may be a peripheral component interconnect standard (PCI) bus or an extended industry standard architecture (EISA) bus, etc. The bus can be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and so on. For ease of presentation, only one thick line is used to represent in FIG. 12, but it does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of bus.

The communication module 1201 is used to receive and send data, and realize communication and interaction with other devices. For example, when the communication device 1200 is applied to a session management network element or an AN device (in a scenario where the AN device interacts with a network element in the core network), the communication module 1201 may use a physical interface or a communication module , Communication interface, input and output interface realization. For another example, when the communication device 1200 is applied to a terminal device or an AN device (in a scenario where the AN device interacts with a terminal device), the communication module 1201 may also be implemented by a transceiver.

In an implementation manner, the communication device 1200 is applied to the session management network element in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 or FIG. 8, and the processor 1202 is specifically configured to:

A first message is received from a terminal device through the communication module 1201, where the first message contains a first instruction; it is determined according to the first instruction that the terminal device is the terminal device during the session establishment process of the terminal device. Configuring access network AN-side resources, and not configuring core network CN-side resources for the terminal device; and executing the session establishment process of the terminal device.

In an implementation manner, the communication device 1200 is applied to the AN device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 or FIG. 8, and the processor 1202 is specifically configured to:

A third message is received from the session management network element through the communication module 1201, where the third message includes a third indication; according to the third indication, it is determined that the terminal device needs to be configured with AN-side resources, and the The terminal device configures the CN side resource; and according to the third instruction, configures the AN side resource for the terminal device.

In an implementation manner, the communication device 1200 is applied to the terminal device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 or FIG. 8, and the processor 1202 is specifically configured to:

A first message is sent to the session management network element through the communication module 1201, where the first message includes a first indication, and the first indication is used to indicate the session management network element of the session management network element in the terminal device. During the establishment process, the access network AN side resource is configured for the terminal device, and the core network CN side resource is not configured for the terminal device.

In an implementation manner, the communication device 1200 is applied to the session management network element in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 or FIG. 9, and the processor 1202 is specifically configured to:

Send a first message to the user plane network element in the session of the terminal device through the communication module 1201, where the first message is used to notify the UPF entity to release the CN side resources of the core network of the terminal device; and The communication unit 1101 sends a second message to the AN device of the access network in the session of the terminal device, where the second message includes a first indication, and the first indication is used to instruct the AN device to reserve The AN side resources of the terminal device are released, and the CN side resources of the terminal device are released.

In an implementation manner, the communication device 1200 is applied to the AN device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 or FIG. 9, for example, in the IAB host node Y in the embodiment shown in FIG. 10, the processor 1202 Specifically used for:

Receive a second message from the session management network element through the communication device 1201, where the second message contains a first indication; according to the first indication, it is determined that the access network AN-side resources of the terminal device need to be reserved and released The CN-side resources of the terminal device; and according to the first instruction, reserve the AN-side resources of the terminal device and release the CN-side resources of the terminal device.

For the specific functions of the processor 1202, reference may be made to the descriptions of the communication methods provided in the above embodiments and examples, and the specific functions of the communication device 1100 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 11, which will not be repeated here.

The memory 1203 is used to store program instructions and data. Specifically, the program instructions may include program code, and the program code includes computer operation instructions. The memory 1203 may include a random access memory (RAM), and may also include a non-volatile memory (non-volatile memory), such as at least one disk memory. The processor 1202 executes the program instructions stored in the memory 1203, and uses the data stored in the memory 1203 to implement the above-mentioned functions, thereby realizing the communication method provided by the above-mentioned embodiment.

It can be understood that the memory 1203 in FIG. 12 of the present application may be a volatile memory or a non-volatile memory, or may include both volatile and non-volatile memory. Among them, the non-volatile memory can be read-only memory (Read-Only Memory, ROM), programmable read-only memory (Programmable ROM, PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (Erasable PROM, EPROM), and electrically available Erase programmable read-only memory (Electrically EPROM, EEPROM) or flash memory. The volatile memory may be a random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), which is used as an external cache. By way of exemplary but not restrictive description, many forms of RAM are available, such as static random access memory (Static RAM, SRAM), dynamic random access memory (Dynamic RAM, DRAM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (Synchronous DRAM, SDRAM), Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (Double Data Rate SDRAM, DDR SDRAM), Enhanced Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (Enhanced SDRAM, ESDRAM), Synchronous Link Dynamic Random Access Memory (Synchlink DRAM, SLDRAM) ) And Direct Rambus RAM (DR RAM). It should be noted that the memories of the systems and methods described herein are intended to include, but are not limited to, these and any other suitable types of memories.

Based on the above embodiments, the embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program, which when the computer program runs on a computer, causes the computer to execute the communication method provided in the above embodiment.

Based on the above embodiments, the embodiments of the present application also provide a computer-readable storage medium in which a computer program is stored. When the computer program is executed by a computer, the computer executes the communication provided in the above embodiment. method.

The storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer. Take this as an example but not limited to: computer readable media may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or can be used to carry or store instructions or data in the form of structure The desired program code and any other medium that can be accessed by the computer.

Based on the above embodiments, an embodiment of the present application also provides a chip, which is used to read a computer program stored in a memory to implement the communication method provided in the above embodiment.

Based on the above embodiments, the embodiments of the present application provide a chip system including a processor for supporting a computer device to implement the functions related to the business equipment, forwarding equipment, or site equipment in the above embodiments. In a possible design, the chip system further includes a memory, and the memory is used to store necessary programs and data of the computer device. The chip system can be composed of chips, or include chips and other discrete devices.

In summary, the embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and device. In this method, a terminal device may send a first instruction to a session management network element to indicate that the session management network element is in the terminal device. During the session establishment process, it allocates resources on the AN side and does not configure CN resources for itself; or after establishing a session of the terminal device, the session management network element instructs the AN device and the user plane network element to release the CN side configured for the terminal device resource. In this way, the session management network element can avoid allocating CN-side resources to the terminal device during the session establishment process, or release the CN-side resources in time after allocating CN-side resources to the terminal device, thereby avoiding the terminal The equipment's CN side resources are wasted.

Those skilled in the art should understand that the embodiments of the present application can be provided as methods, systems, or computer program products. Therefore, this application may adopt the form of a complete hardware embodiment, a complete software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware. Moreover, this application may adopt the form of a computer program product implemented on one or more computer-usable storage media (including but not limited to disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, etc.) containing computer-usable program codes.

This application is described with reference to flowcharts and/or block diagrams of methods, equipment (systems), and computer program products according to this application. It should be understood that each process and/or block in the flowchart and/or block diagram, and the combination of processes and/or blocks in the flowchart and/or block diagram can be realized by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions can be provided to the processor of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, an embedded processor, or other programmable data processing equipment to generate a machine, so that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing equipment are used to generate It is a device that realizes the functions specified in one process or multiple processes in the flowchart and/or one block or multiple blocks in the block diagram.

These computer program instructions can also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can guide a computer or other programmable data processing equipment to work in a specific manner, so that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including the instruction device. The device implements the functions specified in one process or multiple processes in the flowchart and/or one block or multiple blocks in the block diagram.

These computer program instructions can also be loaded on a computer or other programmable data processing equipment, so that a series of operation steps are executed on the computer or other programmable equipment to produce computer-implemented processing, so as to execute on the computer or other programmable equipment. The instructions provide steps for implementing the functions specified in one process or multiple processes in the flowchart and/or one block or multiple blocks in the block diagram.

Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to this application without departing from the protection scope of this 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, then this application is also intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims

A communication method, characterized in that it comprises:

The session management network element receives a first message from the terminal device, where the first message includes a first indication;

The session management network element determines, according to the first instruction, that in the session establishment process of the terminal device, the access network AN side resource is configured for the terminal device, and the core network CN side resource is not configured for the terminal device ；

The session management network element executes the session establishment process of the terminal device.
The method according to claim 1, wherein, during the session establishment process, the session management network element does not perform at least one or a combination of the following:

User plane network element selection process, session management related policy modification process, N4 session establishment process, and N4 session establishment modification process.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the session management network element executing the session establishment process of the terminal device includes:

The session management network element sends a second message to the terminal device, where the second message includes a second indication, and the second indication is used to indicate the resource configuration of the terminal device by the session management network element Authorized to pass

The session management network element sends a third message to the AN device, where the third message includes a third indication, and the third indication is used to instruct the AN device to configure AN-side resources for the terminal device, and The CN side resources are not configured for the terminal device.
A communication method, characterized in that it comprises:

The access network AN device receives a third message from the session management network element, where the third message includes a third indication;

The access network AN device determines according to the third instruction that it is necessary to configure AN side resources for the terminal device, and does not configure CN side resources for the terminal device;

The AN device configures AN-side resources for the terminal device.
The method according to claim 4, wherein, after the AN device configures AN-side resources for the terminal device, the method further comprises:

The AN device determines the first radio link control RLC resource in the working state and the second RLC resource in the idle state among the resources on the AN side; the AN device reserves the first RLC resource and releases the The second RLC resource; or

The AN device determines the local routing group where the terminal device is located, and determines the AN-side resources of at least one member included in the local routing group; the AN device determines that the AN-side resources of the at least one member are in a working state The first RLC resource of and the second RLC resource in an idle state; the AN device reserves the first RLC resource and releases the second RLC resource; or

The AN device determines the local routing node of the terminal device according to the topology information of the integrated node that accesses backhaul, and releases the RLC resources between the AN device and the local routing node; or

The AN determines the local routing group in which the terminal device is located; the AN device determines the local routing node of each member in the local routing group according to the topology information of the integrated node that accesses backhaul, and releases the AN The RLC resource between the device and the local routing node of each member in the local routing group.
A communication method, characterized in that it comprises:

The terminal device sends a first message to the session management network element, where the first message includes a first indication, and the first indication is used to indicate that the session management network element is in the session establishment process of the terminal device, The AN side resource of the access network is configured for the terminal device, and the CN side resource of the core network is not configured for the terminal device.
7. The method according to claim 6, wherein after the terminal device sends the first message to the session management network element, the method further comprises:

The terminal device receives a second message from the session management network element, where the second message includes a second indication, and the second indication is used to indicate that the session management network element has a resource for the terminal device Configure authorization to pass.
A communication method, characterized in that it comprises:

The session management network element sends a first message to the user plane network element in the session of the terminal device, where the first message is used to notify the UPF entity to release the CN side resource of the core network of the terminal device;

The session management network element sends a second message to the AN device of the access network in the session of the terminal device, where the second message includes a first indication, and the first indication is used to indicate the AN device The AN side resources of the terminal device are reserved, and the CN side resources of the terminal device are released.
The method according to claim 8, wherein before the session management network element sends the first message to the user plane network element, the method further comprises:

The session management network element determines that the CN-side resource in the session of the terminal device is in an idle state; and/or,

The session management network element determines that the local routing context of the terminal device exists.
The method according to claim 8, wherein before the session management network element sends the first message to the user plane network element, the method further comprises:

The session management network element determines that at least one target terminal device in the local routing group where the terminal device is located satisfies the following conditions:

The session management network element determines that the CN-side resource in the session of the target terminal device is in an idle state; and/or,

The session management network element determines that there is a local routing context of the target terminal device.
A communication method, characterized in that it comprises:

The access network AN device receives a second message from the session management network element, where the second message contains a first indication; the AN device determines according to the first indication that it is necessary to reserve the access network AN side resources of the terminal device , And release the CN side resources of the terminal device;

The AN device reserves the AN side resources of the terminal device and releases the CN side resources of the terminal device.
The method of claim 11, wherein the AN device reserving the AN side resources of the terminal device comprises:

The AN device determines the first radio link control RLC resource in the working state and the second RLC resource in the idle state among the resources on the AN side; the AN device reserves the first RLC resource and releases the The second RLC resource; or

The AN device determines the local routing group where the terminal device is located, and determines the AN-side resources of at least one member included in the local routing group; the AN device determines that the AN-side resources of the at least one member are in a working state The first RLC resource of and the second RLC resource in an idle state; the AN device reserves the first RLC resource and releases the second RLC resource; or

The AN device determines the local routing node of the terminal device according to the topology information of the integrated node that accesses backhaul, and releases the RLC resources between the AN device and the local routing node; or

The AN device determines the local routing group where the terminal device is located; the AN device determines the local routing node of each member in the local routing group according to the topology information of the integrated node that is connected to the backhaul, and releases the The RLC resource between the AN device and the local routing node of each member in the local routing group.
A session management network element, characterized in that it includes:

Communication unit for receiving and sending data;

A processing unit, configured to receive a first message from a terminal device through the communication unit, where the first message contains a first indication; and it is determined according to the first indication that during the session establishment process of the terminal device, The terminal device configures the access network AN side resource, and does not configure the core network CN side resource for the terminal device; and executes the session establishment process of the terminal device.
The session management network element according to claim 13, wherein the processing unit is specifically configured to:

During the session establishment process, at least one or a combination of the following is not performed:

User plane network element selection process, session management related policy modification process, N4 session establishment process, and N4 session establishment modification process.
The session management network element according to claim 13 or 14, wherein the processing unit is specifically configured to: when executing the session establishment process of the terminal device:

A second message is sent to the terminal device through the communication unit, where the second message includes a second indication, and the second indication is used to instruct the session management network element to authorize the resource configuration of the terminal device pass through;

A third message is sent to the AN device through the communication unit, where the third message includes a third indication, and the third indication is used to instruct the AN device to configure AN-side resources for the terminal device, and not Configure CN-side resources for the terminal device.
An access network AN equipment, which is characterized in that it comprises:

Communication unit for receiving and sending data;

A processing unit, configured to receive a third message from the session management network element through the communication unit, where the third message includes a third indication; according to the third indication, it is determined that the terminal device needs to be configured with AN-side resources, and Not configuring CN-side resources for the terminal device; and configuring AN-side resources for the terminal device.
The AN device according to claim 16, wherein the processing unit is further configured to:

After configuring the AN-side resources for the terminal device, determine the first radio link control RLC resource in the working state and the second RLC resource in the idle state among the AN-side resources; reserve the first RLC resource, And release the second RLC resource; or

After configuring the AN-side resources for the terminal device, determine the local routing group where the terminal device is located, and determine the AN-side resources of at least one member included in the local routing group; determine the AN-side resources of the at least one member The first RLC resource in the working state and the second RLC resource in the idle state; reserve the first RLC resource and release the second RLC resource; or

After configuring the AN-side resources for the terminal device, determine the local routing node of the terminal device according to the topology information of the access backhaul integrated node, and release the RLC resources between the AN device and the local routing node ;or

After configuring the AN-side resources for the terminal device, determine the local routing group where the terminal device is located; determine the local routing node of each member in the local routing group according to the topology information of the access backhaul integrated node, And release the RLC resources between the AN device and the local routing node of each member in the local routing group.
A terminal device, characterized in that it comprises:

Communication unit for receiving and sending data;

The processing unit is configured to send a first message to the session management network element through the communication unit, where the first message includes a first indication, and the first indication is used to indicate that the session management network element is in the During the session establishment process of the terminal device, the AN side resource of the access network is configured for the terminal device, and the CN side resource of the core network is not configured for the terminal device.
The terminal device according to claim 18, wherein the processing unit is further configured to:

After the first message is sent to the session management network element through the communication unit, a second message is received from the session management network element through the communication unit, wherein the second message includes a second indication The second indication is used to indicate that the session management network element authorizes the resource configuration of the terminal device to pass.
A session management network element, characterized in that it includes:

Communication unit for receiving and sending data;

The processing unit is configured to send a first message to the user plane network element in the session of the terminal device through the communication unit, where the first message is used to notify the UPF entity to release the core network CN side of the terminal device Resource; and sending a second message to the access network AN device in the session of the terminal device through the communication unit, wherein the second message contains a first indication, and the first indication is used to indicate the The AN device reserves the AN side resources of the terminal device and releases the CN side resources of the terminal device.
The session management network element according to claim 20, wherein the processing unit is further configured to:

Before sending the first message to the user plane network element through the communication unit, determine that the CN-side resource in the session of the terminal device is in an idle state; and/or determine that there is a local routing context of the terminal device .
The session management network element according to claim 20, wherein the processing unit is further configured to:

Before sending the first message to the user plane network element through the communication unit, it is determined that at least one target terminal device in the local routing group where the terminal device is located satisfies the following conditions:

It is determined that the CN-side resource in the session of the target terminal device is in an idle state; and/or,

It is determined that the local routing context of the target terminal device exists.
An access network AN equipment, which is characterized in that it comprises:

Communication unit for receiving and sending data;

The processing unit is configured to receive a second message from the session management network element through the communication unit, where the second message includes a first indication; and according to the first indication, it is determined that the AN side of the access network that needs to reserve the terminal device Resources and release the CN-side resources of the terminal device; and reserve the AN-side resources of the terminal device and release the CN-side resources of the terminal device.
The AN device according to claim 23, wherein the processing unit is specifically configured to: when reserving the AN side resources of the terminal device:

Determine the first radio link control RLC resource in the working state and the second RLC resource in the idle state among the resources on the AN side; reserve the first RLC resource and release the second RLC resource; or

Determine the local routing group in which the terminal device is located, and determine the AN-side resources of at least one member included in the local routing group; determine the first RLC resource in the working state and idle among the AN-side resources of the at least one member The second RLC resource in the state; reserve the first RLC resource, and release the second RLC resource; or

Determine the local routing node of the terminal device according to the topology information of the access backhaul integrated node, and release the RLC resources between the AN device and the local routing node; or

Determine the local routing group where the terminal device is located; determine the local routing node of each member in the local routing group according to the topology information of the access backhaul integrated node, and release the AN device and the local routing group RLC resources between local routing nodes in each member.
A communication device, characterized in that it comprises:

Communication module for receiving and sending data;

The processor is configured to implement the method according to any one of claims 1-12 through the communication module.
A communication system, characterized in that it comprises:

Session management network element, used to implement the method according to any one of claims 1-3;

The access network AN device is used to implement the method described in claim 4 or 5.
The communication system according to claim 26, wherein the communication system further comprises:

The terminal device is used to implement the method described in claim 6 or 7.
A communication system, characterized in that it comprises:

Session management network element, used to implement the method according to any one of claims 8-10;

The access network AN device is used to implement the method described in claim 11 or 12.
A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that a computer program is stored in the computer-readable storage medium, and when the computer program is run on a computer, the computer executes any one of claims 1-12. method.
A computer program product, characterized in that, when the computer program product runs on a computer, the computer is caused to execute the method according to any one of claims 1-12.
A chip, characterized in that the chip is coupled with a memory, the chip reads a computer program stored in the memory, and executes the method according to any one of claims 1-12.