WO2022001318A1 - Communication method and apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The present application provides a communication method and apparatus. In the technical solution of the present application, when a core network device determines a network slice that allows access by a terminal device, the consideration of both a radio resource that the terminal device supports to access and a radio resource corresponding to a network slice deployed in the terminal device at the current position can ensure that the terminal device supports to access the network slice determined for the terminal device by the core network device; and in a switching scenario, when a target access network device determines whether to allow switching of a PDU session established by the terminal device to the target access network device, the consideration of both a radio resource that the terminal device supports to access and a radio resource corresponding to a network slice, at the current position of the terminal device, corresponding to a PDU session to be switched to the target access network device ensures that the terminal device supports, at the current position, to access the network slice corresponding to the PDU session that is successfully switched to the target access network device. The technical solution facilitates the transmission of a terminal service.

Description

Communication method and device

This application requires a Chinese patent application with the application number 202010623235.1 and the application name "Communication Method and Device" to be submitted to the China Patent Office on July 1, 2020, and submitted to the China Patent Office on August 12, 2020 with the application number of 202010808624.1, the priority of the Chinese patent application entitled "Communication Method and Device", the entire content of which is incorporated in this application by reference.

technical field

The present application relates to the field of communication, and more particularly, to communication methods and apparatus.

Background technique

Fifth Generation (5 ^th generation, 5G) era will have hundreds of billions of devices to access the network of things, different types of application scenarios demand on the network is differentiated, and some are even conflicting. Providing services for different types of application scenarios at the same time through a single network will result in extremely complex network architecture, low network management efficiency, and low resource utilization efficiency. The 5G network slicing technology provides mutually isolated network environments for different application scenarios by virtualizing independent logical networks on the same network infrastructure, so that different application scenarios can customize network functions and features according to their own needs, and can effectively guarantee different services. Quality of service (QoS) requirements. The goal of 5G network slicing is to organically combine terminal equipment, access network resources, core network resources, and network operation and maintenance and management systems to provide independent operation and maintenance for different business scenarios or business types. The internet.

In a 5G network, when a terminal device needs to use network services, it first registers with the network. The registration process triggers the network slice selection process. In the traditional network slice selection process, the core network device selects network slices for the terminal device according to the terminal device's request, subscription data, local configuration information, roaming agreement, and operator's policy. A problem existing in the traditional network slice selection process is that the terminal device may not support access to the network slice determined in the above network slice selection process, so that the terminal device cannot use the services of the network slice and affects the transmission of terminal services. In some cases, the terminal device may also continuously try to establish a PDU session corresponding to a network slice that it does not support access to, resulting in serious power consumption of the terminal device and affecting the service experience of the terminal device.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present application provides a communication method and apparatus, which can ensure that the terminal equipment supports access to the network slice determined by the core network equipment, which is helpful for the transmission of terminal services.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, the method includes: a core network device acquires first wireless resource information, where the first wireless resource information is used to indicate that a terminal device located at a first location supports wireless access resource; the core network device determines, according to the first radio resource information and the second radio resource information, the identifier of the first network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access, wherein the second radio resource information is used to indicate The radio resource corresponding to the network slice deployed in the first location, and the terminal device supports access to the radio resource corresponding to the allowed first network slice in the first location.

Optionally, the above-mentioned core network device may be a mobility and mobility management function (access and mobility management function, AMF) or a network slice selection function (network slice selection function, NSSF).

Optionally, the core network device may also acquire the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device requests to access and the information of the current location of the terminal device (ie, the information of the first location). Wherein, the information of the first location may be a tracking area identity (tracking area identity, TAI) where the access network device currently accessed by the terminal device is located.

It should be noted that the first network slice may include one or more network slices that allow the terminal device to access, and the network slice that the terminal device requests to access may also include one or more network slices. Optionally, the above-mentioned first network slice may be represented by allowed network slice selection assistance information (allowed network slice selection assistance information, allowed NSSAI), and the network slice requested by the above-mentioned terminal device to access may be through the requested network slice selection assistance information. (requested network slice selection assistance information, requested NSSAI).

It should also be noted that the wireless resources that the terminal device supports to access may also be described as the wireless resource capability possessed by the terminal device. For example, the first radio resource information may be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element. In the above technical solution, when determining the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access, the core network device considers the radio resources that the terminal device supports to access and the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at the current location of the terminal device, and selects the network slice supported by the terminal device. Network slicing under the access wireless resources, so as to ensure that the terminal device supports access to the network slice determined by the core network device, which is conducive to the transmission of terminal services.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the first network slice is one or more of the network slices that the terminal device requests to access.

That is, the core network device selects a network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access from among the network slices that the terminal device requests to access.

With reference to the first aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the core network device sending the identifier of the first network slice.

Optionally, when the core network device is an NSSF, the core network device sends the identifier of the first network slice to the AMF, so that the AMF further sends the identifier of the first network slice to the terminal device.

Optionally, when the core network device is an AMF, the core network device sends the identifier of the first network slice to the access network device, so that the access network device further sends the identifier of the first network slice to the terminal device.

In the above technical solution, the core network equipment feeds back to the terminal equipment the identifiers of the network slices that the terminal equipment is allowed to access, so that the terminal equipment can know which services of the network slices can be used, which is helpful for the transmission of terminal services.

With reference to the first aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the core network device, according to the first radio resource information and the second radio resource information, Determine the identifier and first information of the second network slice that the terminal device is denied access to, wherein the first information and the first information are used to indicate that the terminal device does not support access to the second network slice in the the radio resource corresponding to the first location.

Optionally, the second network slice may include one or more network slices that deny access to the terminal device.

Optionally, the second network slice is one or more of the network slices that the terminal device requests to access.

Optionally, the above-mentioned second network slice may be represented by rejected network slice selection assistance information (rejected network slice selection assistance information, rejected NSSAI).

In the above technical solution, when the core network device determines the network slice to which the terminal device is denied access, it considers the wireless resources that the terminal device supports to access and the wireless resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at the current location of the terminal device. A certain network slice that can support deployment at the current location is determined as a network slice (such as the above-mentioned second network slice) for which the terminal device is denied access. In this way, it can be ensured that the terminal device supports access to the network slice determined by the core network device, which is helpful for the transmission of terminal services.

With reference to the first aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the core network device sending the identifier and/or the first information of the second network slice .

In the above technical solution, the core network device feeds back to the terminal device the identification of the network slice that refuses the access of the terminal device, so that the terminal device can know which network slice services cannot be used, thereby avoiding the transmission of these network slice services, which is helpful for Transmission of terminal services.

With reference to the first aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the core network device sending the third radio resource information, the third radio resource The information is used to indicate the radio resource corresponding to the first location of the network slice that allows the terminal device to access.

In the above technical solution, the core network device feeds back to the terminal device the radio resources corresponding to the first position of the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access, which is beneficial to the subsequent operations of the terminal device, such as cell search and cell handover.

In combination with the first aspect or any of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, when the core network device selects a functional network element NSSF for network slicing, the core network device obtains the first radio resource The information includes: the NSSF receives a first request message from the first access and mobility management function network element AMF, where the first request message includes the first radio resource information.

Optionally, the first request message further includes the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device requests to access and/or the information of the first location.

Optionally, the first request message may be a network slice selection request message (Nnssf_NSSelection_Get Request).

In combination with the first aspect or any of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, when the core network device is the first access and mobility management function network element AMF, the core network device Acquiring first radio resource information includes: the first AMF sending a second request message to an access network device, where the access network device is an access network device serving the terminal device at the first location; The first AMF receives a second response message from the access network device, where the second response message includes the first radio resource information.

Optionally, the second request message and the second response message may be N2 messages.

For example, the radio resource information that the terminal device supports access to may be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element, the second request message may be a terminal device radio capability check request message (UE RADIO CAPABILITY CHECK REQUEST), and the second response message may be Terminal equipment radio capability check response message (UE RADIO CAPABILITY CHECK Response).

Optionally, the first AMF may obtain the above-mentioned first wireless resource information by using the terminal device wireless capability check request message and the terminal device wireless capability check response message.

Optionally, the first AMF may also add indication information (first indication information) to the terminal device radio capability check request message, where the indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to obtain the first radio resource information. In this way, the terminal device can only Reporting the first radio resource information without reporting other radio capability information can reduce signaling overhead.

With reference to the first aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the first AMF triggers the release and rejection of the second network slice accessed by the terminal device The corresponding protocol data unit (protocol data unit, PDU) session.

For a mobile scenario, when the terminal device moves from the second location (source location) to the first location (target location), the terminal device initiates a registration process. If the terminal device has established one or more PDU sessions in the second location, but the terminal device does not support access to the radio resources corresponding to the network slice corresponding to the established one or more PDU sessions in the first location, then the first AMF Triggers the release of one or more established PDU sessions.

In the above technical solution, in the mobile scenario, the AMF determines whether the PDU session needs to be released according to the radio resources supported by the terminal device and the radio resources supported by the network slice deployed at the current location of the terminal device, so as to ensure that the terminal device supports access to the AMF The selected network slice that allows the terminal device to access is helpful for service transmission.

In combination with the first aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, when the set formed by the identifiers of the first network slice is an empty set or the core network device cannot determine the When identifying the first network slice, the method further includes: the first AMF sends a registration rejection message to the access network device; and/or, the first AMF triggers a de-registration process, the de-registration process used to deregister the terminal device.

In the above technical solution, in a mobile scenario, the AMF determines whether it is necessary to perform a de-registration process for the terminal device according to the radio resources supported by the terminal device and the radio resources supported by the network slice deployed at the current location of the terminal device, so as to deregister the terminal device. The end device deregisters from the network.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method, the method includes: a first access and mobility management function network element AMF acquires first radio resource information, where the first radio resource information is used to indicate that the first access and mobility management function network element is located in the first The terminal equipment at the location supports the access radio resources; the first AMF sends the first radio resource information to the network slice selection function network element NSSF.

Optionally, the method further includes: the first AMF further sends, to the NSSF, the network slice that the terminal device requests to access and the information of the current location of the terminal device (that is, the information of the first location). The information of the first location may be the TAI where the access network device currently accessed by the terminal device is located.

Optionally, the network slice requested to be accessed by the terminal device may be represented by the requested NSSAI.

It should be noted that, the wireless resource that the terminal device supports to access may also be described as the wireless resource capability possessed by the terminal device. For example, the first radio resource information may be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element.

In the above technical solution, the AMF reports to the core network equipment the wireless resources that the terminal equipment supports to access, so that when the core network equipment determines the network slices that allow the terminal equipment to access, it can consider the wireless resources that the terminal equipment supports to access, and select the terminal equipment. The device supports network slicing under the access wireless resources, thereby ensuring that the terminal device supports the network slice determined by the access core network device for it, which is helpful for the transmission of terminal services.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the first AMF receiving, from the NSSF, an identifier of a first network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access, wherein the terminal device The device supports access to the radio resource corresponding to the first network slice at the first location.

It should be noted that the first network slice may include one or more network slices that allow terminal devices to access.

Optionally, the above-mentioned first network slice may be represented by allowed NSSAI.

In the above technical solution, the NSSF sends the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access to the first AMF, so that the first AMF can feed back the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can know that the network slice can be accessed by the terminal device. Which network slice services are used to facilitate the transmission of terminal services.

With reference to the second aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the first network slice is one or more of the network slices that the terminal device requests to access.

That is, the NSSF selects a network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access from among the network slices that the terminal device requests to access.

With reference to the second aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the first AMF receiving, from the NSSF, a second request denying access to the terminal device The identifier of the network slice and/or the first information, where the first information is used to indicate that the terminal device does not support access to the radio resource corresponding to the second network slice at the first location.

It should be noted that the second network slice may include one or more network slices to which the terminal device is denied access.

Optionally, the second network slice is one or more of the network slices that the terminal device requests to access.

Optionally, the above-mentioned second network slice may be represented by rejected NSSAI.

In the above technical solution, the NSSF sends to the first AMF the identifier of the network slice that denies the access of the terminal device, so that the first AMF can feed back the identifier of the network slice that refuses the access of the terminal device to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can know that the access cannot be Which network slice services are used, so as to avoid the transmission of these network slice services and facilitate the transmission of terminal services.

With reference to the second aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the first AMF receives third radio resource information from the NSSF, the third The radio resource information is used to indicate the radio resource corresponding to the first location of the network slice that is allowed to access the terminal device.

In the above technical solution, the NSSF feeds back to the first AMF the radio resources corresponding to the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access at the first position, so that the first AMF can feed back to the terminal device that the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access is at the first position The corresponding radio resources are beneficial to the subsequent operations of the terminal device, such as cell search, cell handover, and the like.

With reference to the second aspect or any of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the first AMF sending the first information and/or the access network device to the access network device or the third radio resource information.

With reference to the second aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, acquiring the first radio resource information by the first AMF includes: the first AMF sends the first AMF to the access network device. a second request message, the access network device is an access network device serving the terminal device at the first location; the first AMF receives a second response message from the access network device, the first AMF The second response message includes the first radio resource information.

Optionally, the second request message and the second response message may be N2 messages.

For example, the radio resource information that the terminal device supports access to may be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element, the second request message may be a terminal device radio capability check request message (UE RADIO CAPABILITY CHECK REQUEST), and the second response message may be Terminal equipment radio capability check response message (UE RADIO CAPABILITY CHECK Response).

Optionally, the first AMF may obtain the above-mentioned first wireless resource information by using the terminal device wireless capability check request message and the terminal device wireless capability check response message.

Optionally, the first AMF may also add indication information (first indication information) to the terminal device radio capability check request message, where the indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to obtain the first radio resource information. In this way, the terminal device can only Reporting the first radio resource information without reporting other radio capability information can reduce signaling overhead.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication method, the method includes: an access network device obtains first wireless resource information, where the first wireless resource information is used to indicate that a terminal device located at a first location supports access radio resources; the access network device sends the first radio resource information to the first access and mobility management function network element AMF; the access network device receives the permission from the first AMF for the terminal device The identifier of the accessed first network slice, wherein the terminal device supports access to the radio resource corresponding to the first network slice at the first location.

Optionally, the access network device may also send to the first AMF the network slice requested by the terminal device to access and the information of the current location of the terminal device (that is, the information of the first location). The information of the first location may be the TAI where the access network device currently accessed by the terminal device is located.

It should be noted that the first network slice may include one or more network slices that allow the terminal device to access, and the network slice that the terminal device requests to access may also include one or more network slices. Optionally, the first network slice may be represented by allowed NSSAI, and the network slice requested to be accessed by the terminal device may be represented by requested NSSAI.

It should also be noted that the wireless resources that the terminal device supports to access may also be described as the wireless resource capability possessed by the terminal device. For example, the first radio resource information may be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element.

Optionally, the first network slice is one or more of the network slices that the terminal device requests to access.

In the above technical solution, the access network device reports to the AMF the radio resources that the terminal device supports to access, so that the core network device can consider the radio resources that the terminal device supports to access and when determining the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access. The radio resource corresponding to the network slice deployed at the current location of the terminal device, select the network slice under the radio resource that the terminal device supports to access, so as to ensure that the terminal device supports access to the network slice determined by the core network device, which is helpful for terminal services transmission.

With reference to the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the access network device receiving, from the first AMF, an identifier of a second network slice that denies access to the terminal device and/or or the first information, where the first information is used to indicate that the terminal device does not support accessing the radio resource corresponding to the second network slice at the first location.

Optionally, the second network slice may include one or more network slices that deny access to the terminal device.

Optionally, the second network slice is one or more of the network slices that the terminal device requests to access.

Optionally, the above-mentioned second network slice may be represented by rejected NSSAI.

In the above technical solution, the first AMF sends the identification of the network slice that rejects the access of the terminal device to the access network device, so that the access network device can feed back the identification of the network slice that rejects the access of the terminal device to the terminal device, thereby enabling the terminal to The device can learn which network slice services cannot be used, thereby avoiding the transmission of these network slice services and facilitating the transmission of terminal services.

With reference to the third aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: receiving, by the access network device, third radio resource information from the first AMF, The third wireless resource information is used to indicate the wireless resource corresponding to the first location of the network slice that allows the terminal device to access.

In the above technical solution, the first AMF feeds back, to the access network device, the radio resources corresponding to the first position of the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access, so that the access network device can feed back the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access to the terminal device. The radio resources corresponding to the first position are beneficial to subsequent operations of the terminal device, such as cell search, cell handover, and the like.

With reference to the third aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the access network device sending the first information and/or the terminal device to the terminal device the third radio resource information.

With reference to the third aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the access network device acquiring the first radio resource information includes: the access network device asking the terminal device Sending a third request message; the access network device receives a third response message from the terminal device, where the third response message includes the first radio resource information.

Optionally, the third request message and the third response message may be radio resource control (Radio Resource Control, RRC) messages.

For example, the radio resource information that the terminal device supports access to can be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element, the third request message can be a terminal device capability query message (UE Capability Enquiry), and the third response message can be terminal device capability information message (UE Capability Information).

Optionally, the access network device may obtain the above-mentioned first radio resource information by using the terminal device capability query message.

Optionally, when the access network device receives from the first AMF indication information for instructing to obtain the first radio resource information from the terminal device, the access network device may also add indication information to the terminal device capability query message, the indication The information is used to instruct to obtain the first radio resource information from the terminal device. In this way, the terminal device can only report the first radio resource information without reporting other radio capability information, which can reduce signaling overhead.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication method, the method comprising: a terminal device located at a first location sends first radio resource information to an access network device, where the first radio resource information is used to indicate the terminal The device supports access to wireless resources; the terminal device receives from the access network device an identifier of a first network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access, wherein the terminal device supports access to the first network slice Radio resources corresponding to the first location.

Optionally, the terminal device may also send to the access network device the network slice requested to be accessed by the terminal device and the information of the current location of the terminal device (that is, the information of the first location). The information of the first location may be the TAI where the access network device currently accessed by the terminal device is located.

It should be noted that the first network slice may include one or more network slices that allow the terminal device to access, and the network slice that the terminal device requests to access may also include one or more network slices. Optionally, the first network slice may be represented by allowed NSSAI, and the network slice requested to be accessed by the terminal device may be represented by requested NSSAI.

It should also be noted that the wireless resources that the terminal device supports to access may also be described as the wireless resource capability possessed by the terminal device. For example, the first radio resource information may be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element.

Optionally, the first network slice is one or more of the network slices that the terminal device requests to access.

In the above technical solution, the terminal equipment reports the wireless resources that the terminal equipment supports to access, so that the core network equipment can consider the wireless resources that the terminal equipment supports to access and the current For the radio resources corresponding to the network slices deployed at the location, select the network slices under the radio resources that the terminal equipment supports to access, so as to ensure that the terminal equipment supports access to the network slice determined by the core network equipment, which is conducive to the transmission of terminal services.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: receiving, by the terminal device from the access network device, an identifier and/or a first network slice refusing access to the terminal device by the terminal device A piece of information, where the first information is used to indicate that the terminal device does not support accessing the radio resource corresponding to the second network slice at the first location.

Optionally, the second network slice may include one or more network slices that deny access to the terminal device.

Optionally, the second network slice is one or more of the network slices that the terminal device requests to access.

Optionally, the above-mentioned second network slice may be represented by rejected NSSAI.

In the above technical solution, the terminal device obtains the identifier of the network slice that refuses the access of the terminal device, so that the terminal device can know which network slice services cannot be used, thereby avoiding the transmission of these network slice services and facilitating the transmission of terminal services. .

With reference to the fourth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the terminal device receiving third radio resource information from the access network device, the The third radio resource information is used to indicate the radio resource corresponding to the first location of the network slice that is allowed to access the terminal device.

In the above technical solution, the terminal device obtains the radio resources corresponding to the first position of the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access, which is beneficial to the subsequent operations of the terminal device, such as cell search, cell handover, and the like.

With reference to the fourth aspect or any of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the terminal device located at the first position sends the first radio resource information to the access network device, including: the terminal device The device receives a third request message from the access network device; the terminal device sends a third response message to the access network device, where the third response message includes the first radio resource information.

Optionally, the third request message and the third response message may be RRC messages.

For example, the radio resource information that the terminal device supports to access may be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element, the third request message may be a terminal device capability query message (UE Capability Enquiry), and the third response message may be terminal device capability information message (UE Capability Information).

Optionally, the terminal device capability query message may be a terminal device capability query message.

Optionally, the terminal device capability query message may include indication information, where the indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to acquire the first radio resource information. In this way, the terminal device can only report the first radio resource information without reporting other radio capability information, which can reduce signaling overhead.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication method, the method comprising: a second access network device receiving a first message from a first access network device, the second access network device being located at a first location, The first message is used to request to switch the protocol data unit PDU session established by the terminal device to the second access network device, and the first message includes first radio resource information, and the first radio resource information is used to indicate that the terminal device supports access to the radio resource; the second access network device is located in the first position according to the first radio resource information and the network slice corresponding to the PDU session established by the terminal device Corresponding radio resources, determine whether to allow the PDU session established by the terminal device to be handed over to the second access network device.

In the above technical solution, the second access network device determines whether to allow the terminal device to be established based on the radio resources that the terminal device supports access to and the radio resources corresponding to the network slice corresponding to the established PDU session at the current location of the terminal. The PDU session is switched to the second access network device, which can ensure that the terminal device supports access to the network slice corresponding to the PDU session successfully switched to the second access network device at the current location, which is helpful for the transmission of terminal services.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes that the second access network device sends a second message to the core network device, where the second message includes the identifier of the first PDU session and the /or second information, the first PDU session is a PDU session that refuses to switch to the second access network device, the first PDU session belongs to the PDU session established by the terminal device, and the second information It is used to indicate that the terminal device does not support accessing the radio resource corresponding to the network slice corresponding to the first PDU session at the first location.

With reference to the fifth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the second access network device sends a third message to the core network device, the first The third message includes the identifier of the second PDU session. The second PDU session is a PDU session that allows switching to the second access network device. The second PDU session belongs to the PDU session established by the terminal device. The terminal device supports access to the radio resource corresponding to the network slice corresponding to the second PDU session at the first location.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication method, the method comprising: a first access network device sending a first message to a second access network device, where the second access network device is located at a first location, so The first message is used to request to switch the protocol data unit PDU session established by the terminal device to the second access network device, and the first message includes first radio resource information, and the first radio resource information is used for Indicates that the terminal device supports access to the radio resource.

In the above technical solution, the first access network device sends information to the second access network device indicating that the terminal device supports access to wireless resources, so that the second access network device is determining whether to allow the terminal device to be established When the PDU session of the first access network device is switched to the second access network device, the wireless resources supported by the terminal device can be considered to ensure that the terminal device at the current location supports access to the network slice corresponding to the PDU session successfully switched to the second access network device. , which is helpful for the transmission of terminal services.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a communication method, the method comprising: an access and mobility management function network element AMF receives an identifier and/or second information of a first PDU session from a second access network device, where the The second access network device is located at the first position, the first PDU session is a PDU session that refuses to switch to the second access network device, and the first PDU session belongs to the PDU session established by the terminal device , the second information is used to indicate that the terminal device does not support access to the radio resource corresponding to the network slice corresponding to the second PDU session at the first location; the AMF is based on the identifier of the first PDU session. And/or the second information performs path switching of the PDU session.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a communication method, the method comprising: an access network device acquiring first radio resource information, second radio resource information and an identifier of a first network slice, wherein the first radio resource The information is used to indicate that the terminal device at the first location supports access to the wireless resources, the second wireless resource information is used to indicate the wireless resources corresponding to at least one network slice at the first location, and the at least one network slice includes the first network slice; the access network device determines the identifier of the second network slice according to the first radio resource information, the second radio resource information and the identifier of the first network slice, wherein the The terminal device supports access to the radio resource corresponding to the second network slice at the first location; the access network device sends the identifier of the second network slice to the first access and mobility management network element.

Optionally, the information of the first location may be the TAI where the access network device currently accessed by the terminal device is located.

Optionally, the first network slice may be a network slice to which the terminal device requests to access.

Optionally, the first network slice may be a network slice that is received by the access network device from the first access and mobility management network element and allows the terminal device to access.

Optionally, the first network slice may be another network slice received by the access network device from the first access and mobility management network element, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. It should be noted that the first network slice may include one or more network slices, and the second network slice may also include one or more network slices.

Optionally, the above-mentioned second network slice may be represented by supported network slice selection assistance information (supported network slice selection assistance information, supported NSSAI), and the network slice requested by the above-mentioned terminal device to access may be through the requested network slice selection assistance information. (requested network slice selection assistance information, requested NSSAI), the above-mentioned network slices that allow terminal devices to access can be represented by allowed network slice selection assistance information (allowed network slice selection assistance information, allowed NSSAI).

It should also be noted that the wireless resources that the terminal device supports to access may also be described as the wireless capability possessed by the terminal device. For example, the first radio resource information may be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element.

Considering that the access and mobility management network element may not perceive the wireless capability of the terminal device during the registration process, in this embodiment of the present application, the access and mobility management network element may send the requested NSSAI or allowed NSSAI to the access network equipment, so that the access network equipment can judge whether it supports access to the wireless resources corresponding to each S-NSSAI contained in the requested NSSAI or allowed NSSAI according to the wireless capability of the terminal equipment, which can ensure that the terminal equipment supports access and mobility. Manages the network slice for which the network element is determined.

Optionally, the second radio resource information includes information about radio resources corresponding to the network slice in the requested NSSAI at the first location.

Optionally, the second radio resource information includes information on radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at the first location.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the identifier of the first network slice includes an identifier of the network slice that the terminal device requests to access.

With reference to the eighth aspect or any of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the access network device acquiring the identifier of the first network slice includes: the access network device obtains the identifier of the first network slice from the first network slice. An access and mobility management network element or the terminal device acquires the identifier of the first network slice.

With reference to the eighth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, acquiring, by the access network device, the second wireless resource information includes: the access network device obtains the second radio resource information from the first The access and mobility management network element, the access network device or other access network devices acquire the second radio resource information.

With reference to the eighth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the access network device sends, to the first access and mobility management network element third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate whether the terminal device supports simultaneous access to some or all of the network slices in the second network slice.

Through the above technical solutions, the access network device can indicate to the first access and mobility management network element that the terminal device supports simultaneous access network slices, which helps simplify the first access and mobility management network element's determination to allow the terminal device The process of identifying the access network slice.

With reference to the eighth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the access network device sends, to the first access and mobility management network element The identifier of the third network slice, wherein the terminal device does not support accessing the radio resource corresponding to the third network slice at the first location.

It should be noted that the third network slice may include one or more network slices. Optionally, the above-mentioned third network slice may be represented by non-supported network slice selection assistance information (non-supported network slice selection assistance information, non-supported NSSAI).

With reference to the eighth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the access network device sends, to the first access and mobility management network element fourth indication information, and a registration request message received from the terminal device, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate to the first access and mobility management network element that permission is determined according to the identifier of the first network slice The identifier of the network slice accessed by the terminal device.

That is to say, after receiving the registration request message sent by the terminal device, the access network device may not forward it to the first access and mobility management network element, but first determine the network slice that the terminal device supports access to, and then Then send the determined identification of the network slice supported by the terminal equipment to access and the registration request message to the first access and mobility management network element, and at the same time instruct the first access and mobility management network element to support access according to the terminal equipment. The identifier of the network slice determined by the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access, thereby ensuring that the terminal device supports access to the network slice determined by the network element for access and mobility management.

In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a communication method, the method comprising: a first access and mobility management network element sending an identifier of a first network slice to an access network device located at a first location; the first The access and mobility management network element receives the identifier of the second network slice and the third indication information from the access network device, and the terminal device supports access to the wireless network corresponding to the second network slice at the first location resource, the third indication information is used to indicate whether the terminal device supports simultaneous access to some or all of the second network slices; the first access and mobility management network element two network slices and the third indication information to determine the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access; the first access and mobility management network element sends the terminal device that is allowed to be accessed to the terminal device The identifier of the connected network slice.

Optionally, the information of the first location may be the TAI where the access network device currently accessed by the terminal device is located.

Optionally, the first network slice may be a network slice to which the terminal device requests to access.

Optionally, the first network slice may be a network slice that is received by the access network device from the first access and mobility management network element and allows the terminal device to access.

It should be noted that the second network slice may include one or more network slices, and the second network slice may also include one or more network slices.

Optionally, the above-mentioned second network slice may be represented by supported network slice selection assistance information (supported network slice selection assistance information, supported NSSAI), and the network slice requested by the above-mentioned terminal device to access may be through the requested network slice selection assistance information. (requested network slice selection assistance information, requested NSSAI), the above-mentioned network slices that allow terminal devices to access can be represented by allowed network slice selection assistance information (allowed network slice selection assistance information, allowed NSSAI).

Through the above technical solutions, the access network device can indicate to the first access and mobility management network element that the terminal device supports simultaneous access network slices, which helps simplify the first access and mobility management network element's determination to allow the terminal device The process of identifying the access network slice.

With reference to the ninth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the identifier of the first network slice includes an identifier of the network slice that the terminal device requests to access.

With reference to the ninth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the first access and mobility management network element sends a message to the access network device second radio resource information, where the second radio resource information is used to indicate a radio resource corresponding to at least one network slice at the first location, and the at least one network slice includes the first network slice.

Optionally, the second radio resource information includes information about radio resources corresponding to the network slice in the requested NSSAI at the first location.

Optionally, the second radio resource information includes information on radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at the first location.

With reference to the ninth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the first access and mobility management network element receives from the access network device The identifier of the third network slice, wherein the terminal device does not support the radio resource corresponding to the third network slice accessed at the first location.

It should be noted that the third network slice may include one or more network slices. Optionally, the above-mentioned third network slice may be represented by non-supported network slice selection assistance information (non-supported network slice selection assistance information, non-supported NSSAI).

With reference to the ninth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the first access and mobility management network element receives the data sent by the access network device The fourth indication information and the registration request message are used to indicate to the first access and mobility management network element that the terminal device is allowed to access according to the identifier of the second network slice. The identity of the network slice.

That is to say, after receiving the registration request message sent by the terminal device, the access network device may not forward it to the first access and mobility management network element, but first determine the network slice that the terminal device supports access to, and then Then send the determined identification of the network slice supported by the terminal device to access and the registration request message to the first access and mobility management network element, and at the same time instruct the first access and mobility management network element to support access according to the terminal device. The identifier of the network slice determined by the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access, thereby ensuring that the terminal device supports access to the network slice determined by the network element for access and mobility management.

With reference to the ninth aspect or any one of the above possible implementations, in another possible implementation, the method further includes: the first access and mobility management network element determines to deny the terminal device access network slice.

It should be noted that the network slice to which the terminal device is denied access may include one or more network slices. Optionally, the above-mentioned network slice for which the terminal device is refused access may be represented by rejected network slice selection assistance information (rejected network slice selection assistance information, rejected NSSAI).

With reference to the ninth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: releasing the first access and mobility management network element and rejecting the terminal The protocol data unit PDU session corresponding to the network slice accessed by the device.

In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a communication method, the method comprising: a terminal device at a first location receives an identifier of a network slice deployed at the first location from an access network device, and the network slice is information about the radio resource corresponding to the first location; the terminal device determines the identifier of the first network slice that the terminal device requests to access according to the identifier of the network slice and the information of the radio resource corresponding to the network slice , the terminal device supports accessing the radio resource corresponding to the first network slice at the first location; the terminal device sends a registration request message to the access network device, where the registration request message includes the first network slice. An identifier for a network slice.

In the above technical solution, the access network device sends the information about the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at its location to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can construct the requested NSSAI according to its own air interface wireless capability, thereby ensuring that the terminal device requests access The radio resources corresponding to the network slice are all supported by the air interface capability of the terminal device.

With reference to the tenth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the terminal device receives, from an access network device, an identifier of a network slice deployed at the first location, and an identifier corresponding to the network slice at the first location. Radio resource information, including: the terminal device receives, from an access network device through a broadcast message, an identifier of a network slice deployed at the first location, and information about the radio resource corresponding to the network slice at the first location .

In an eleventh aspect, the present application provides a communication method, the method comprising: an access network device sending, to a terminal device at a first location, an identifier of a network slice deployed at the first location, and the network slice Information about the radio resources corresponding to the first location; the access network device receives a registration request message from the terminal device, where the registration request message includes the identifier of the first network slice, and the terminal device supports the The first location accesses the radio resource corresponding to the first network slice.

In the above technical solution, the access network device sends the information about the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at its location to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can construct the requested NSSAI according to its own air interface wireless capability, thereby ensuring that the terminal device requests access The radio resources corresponding to the network slice are all supported by the air interface capability of the terminal device.

With reference to the eleventh aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the access network device sends, to the terminal device at the first location, the identifier of the network slice deployed at the first location, and the location where the network slice is located. The information about the radio resources corresponding to the first location includes: the access network device sends the identification of the network slice deployed in the first location to the terminal device through a broadcast message, and the network slice is deployed in the first location. Information about radio resources corresponding to a location.

In combination with any one of the foregoing aspects or any one of the foregoing possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the wireless resources include frequency points and/or frequency bands.

In a twelfth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, the device comprising:

a transceiver unit, configured to acquire first wireless resource information, where the first wireless resource information is used to indicate a wireless resource that a terminal device located at a first location supports access to;

a processing unit, configured to determine, according to the first radio resource information and the second radio resource information, an identifier of a first network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access, wherein the second radio resource information is used to indicate the radio resource corresponding to the network slice deployed in the first location, and the terminal device supports access to the radio resource corresponding to the first network slice in the first location.

Optionally, the above communication device may be AMF or NSSF.

Optionally, the communication apparatus may further acquire the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device requests to access and the information of the current location of the terminal device (that is, the information of the first location). The information of the first location may be the TAI where the access network device currently accessed by the terminal device is located.

It should be noted that the first network slice may include one or more network slices that allow the terminal device to access, and the network slice that the terminal device requests to access may also include one or more network slices. Optionally, the first network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access may be represented by allowed NSSAI, and the network slice requested by the terminal device to access may be represented by requested NSSAI.

It should be noted that, the wireless resource that the terminal device supports to access may also be described as the wireless resource capability possessed by the terminal device. For example, the first radio resource information may be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element.

In the above technical solution, when determining the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access, the communication apparatus considers the radio resources that the terminal device supports to access and the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at the current location of the terminal device, and selects the terminal device to support access. network slices under the incoming wireless resources, thereby ensuring that the terminal equipment supports access to the network slices determined by the communication apparatus for it, which is helpful for the transmission of terminal services.

With reference to the twelfth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the first network slice is one or more of the network slices that the terminal device requests to access.

That is, the communication apparatus selects a network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access from among the network slices that the terminal device requests to access.

With reference to the twelfth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit is further configured to send the identifier of the first network slice.

Optionally, when the communication apparatus is an NSSF, the communication apparatus sends the identifier of the first network slice to the AMF, so that the AMF further sends the identifier of the first network slice to the terminal device.

Optionally, when the communication apparatus is an AMF, the communication apparatus sends the identifier of the first network slice to the access network device, so that the access network device further sends the identifier of the first network slice to the terminal device.

In the above technical solution, the communication apparatus feeds back to the terminal equipment the identifiers of the network slices that the terminal equipment is allowed to access, so that the terminal equipment can know which services of the network slices can be used, which is helpful for the transmission of terminal services.

With reference to the twelfth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the processing unit is further configured to determine, according to the first radio resource information and the second radio resource information, to reject all the identifier of the second network slice accessed by the terminal device and the first information, wherein the first information and the first information are used to indicate that the terminal device does not support accessing the second network slice in the second network slice. A radio resource corresponding to a location.

Optionally, the second network slice may include one or more network slices that deny access to the terminal device.

Optionally, the second network slice is one or more of the network slices that the terminal device requests to access.

Optionally, the above-mentioned second network slice may be represented by rejected NSSAI.

In the above technical solution, when determining the network slice that the terminal device is denied access to, the communication device considers the wireless resources that the terminal device supports to access and the wireless resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at the current location of the terminal device. A certain network slice that supports deployment at the current location is determined as a network slice (such as the above-mentioned second network slice) for which the terminal device is denied access. In this way, it can be ensured that the terminal device supports access to the network slice determined by the communication apparatus, which is helpful for the transmission of terminal services.

With reference to the twelfth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit is further configured to send the identifier and/or the first information of the second network slice.

In the above technical solution, the communication device feeds back to the terminal device the identifier of the network slice that refuses the access of the terminal device, so that the terminal device can know which network slice services cannot be used, thereby avoiding the transmission of these network slice services, which is helpful for the terminal device. business transmission.

With reference to the twelfth aspect or any one of the above possible implementations, in another possible implementation, the transceiver unit is further configured to send the third wireless resource information, where the third wireless resource information is used for Indicate the radio resource corresponding to the first location of the network slice that is allowed to access the terminal device.

In the above technical solution, the communication apparatus feeds back to the terminal equipment the radio resources corresponding to the first position of the network slice that the terminal equipment is allowed to access, which is beneficial to the subsequent operations of the terminal equipment, such as cell search and cell handover.

With reference to the twelfth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, when the communication apparatus selects the functional network element NSSF for the network slice, the transceiver unit is specifically configured to select the function network element NSSF from the first The access and mobility management function network element AMF receives a first request message, where the first request message includes the first radio resource information.

Optionally, the first request message further includes the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device requests to access and/or the information of the first location.

Optionally, the first request message may be a network slice selection request message (Nnssf_NSSelection_Get Request).

With reference to the twelfth aspect or any one of the above possible implementations, in another possible implementation, when the communication device is the first access and mobility management function network element AMF, the transceiver unit specifically is used to send a second request message to an access network device, where the access network device is an access network device serving the terminal device at the first location; the first AMF is sent from the access network device A second response message is received, the second response message includes the first radio resource information.

Optionally, the second request message and the second response message may be N2 messages.

For example, the radio resource information that the terminal device supports access to may be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element, the second request message may be a terminal device radio capability check request message (UE RADIO CAPABILITY CHECK REQUEST), and the second response message may be Terminal equipment radio capability check response message (UE RADIO CAPABILITY CHECK Response).

Optionally, the first AMF may obtain the above-mentioned first wireless resource information by using the terminal device wireless capability check request message and the terminal device wireless capability check response message.

Optionally, the first AMF may also add indication information (first indication information) to the terminal device radio capability check request message, where the indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to obtain the first radio resource information. In this way, the terminal device can only Reporting the first radio resource information without reporting other radio capability information can reduce signaling overhead.

With reference to the twelfth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the processing unit is further configured to trigger release of the protocol data unit PDU session corresponding to the second network slice.

For a mobile scenario, when the terminal device moves from the second location (source location) to the first location (target location), the terminal device initiates a registration process. If the terminal device has established one or more PDU sessions in the second location, but the terminal device does not support access to the radio resources corresponding to the network slice corresponding to the established one or more PDU sessions in the first location, the communication device will Triggers the release of one or more established PDU sessions.

In the above technical solution, in a mobile scenario, the communication device determines whether the PDU session needs to be released according to the wireless resources supported by the terminal equipment and the wireless resources supported by the network slice deployed at the current location of the terminal equipment, which is helpful for the transmission of terminal services. .

With reference to the twelfth aspect or any one of the above possible implementations, in another possible implementation, when the set formed by the identifiers of the first network slice is an empty set or the core network device cannot determine the When the identifier of the first network slice is detected, the transceiver unit is further configured to send a registration rejection message to the access network device; and/or the processing unit is further configured to trigger a de-registration process, and the de-registration process uses to deregister the terminal device.

In the above technical solution, in a mobile scenario, the communication device determines whether it is necessary to perform the de-registration process for the terminal device according to the radio resources supported by the terminal device and the radio resources supported by the network slice deployed at the current location of the terminal device, so as to Deregister end devices from the network.

In a thirteenth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, the device comprising:

a transceiver unit, configured to acquire first wireless resource information, where the first wireless resource information is used to indicate a wireless resource that a terminal device located at a first location supports access to;

The transceiver unit is further configured to send the first radio resource information to the network slice selection function network element NSSF.

Optionally, the communication device is AMF.

Optionally, the transceiver unit is further configured to send, to the NSSF, the network slice requested to be accessed by the terminal device and the information of the current location of the terminal device (that is, the information of the first location). The information of the first location may be the TAI where the access network device currently accessed by the terminal device is located.

Optionally, the network slice requested to be accessed by the terminal device may be represented by the requested NSSAI.

It should be noted that, the wireless resource that the terminal device supports to access may also be described as the wireless resource capability possessed by the terminal device. For example, the first radio resource information may be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element.

In the above technical solution, the communication device reports to the NSSF the radio resources that the terminal equipment supports to access, so that when the NSSF determines the network slices that allow the terminal equipment to access, it can consider the radio resources that the terminal equipment supports to access, and selects the terminal equipment to support the access. Network slices under the incoming wireless resources, so as to ensure that the terminal equipment supports access to the network slices determined by the NSSF for it, which is conducive to the transmission of terminal services.

With reference to the thirteenth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit is further configured to receive, from the NSSF, an identifier of a first network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access, wherein the terminal device supports access enter the radio resources corresponding to the first network slice at the first location.

It should be noted that the first network slice may include one or more network slices that allow terminal devices to access.

Optionally, the above-mentioned first network slice may be represented by allowed NSSAI.

In the above technical solution, the NSSF sends the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access to the communication apparatus, so that the communication apparatus can feed back the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can know which network slices can be used. Network slicing services facilitate the transmission of terminal services.

With reference to the thirteenth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the first network slice is one or more of the network slices that the terminal device requests to access.

That is to say, the NSSF selects a network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access from among the network slices that the terminal device requests to access.

With reference to the thirteenth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit is further configured to receive from the NSSF a second network slice that refuses access to the terminal device. identification and/or first information, where the first information is used to indicate that the terminal device does not support access to the radio resource corresponding to the second network slice at the first location.

It should be noted that the second network slice may include one or more network slices to which the terminal device is denied access.

Optionally, the second network slice is one or more of the network slices that the terminal device requests to access.

Optionally, the above-mentioned second network slice may be represented by rejected NSSAI.

In the above technical solution, the NSSF sends the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is denied access to the communication device, so that the communication device can feed back the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is denied access to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can know which network slices cannot be used. Network slicing services, thereby avoiding the transmission of these network slicing services, contributes to the transmission of terminal services.

With reference to the thirteenth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit is further configured to receive third radio resource information from the NSSF, where the third radio resource information It is used to indicate the radio resource corresponding to the first location of the network slice allowing the terminal device to access.

In the above technical solution, the NSSF feeds back to the communication apparatus the radio resources corresponding to the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access in the first position, so that the communication apparatus can feed back to the terminal device the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access corresponding to the first position Radio resources are beneficial to the subsequent operations of the terminal equipment, such as cell search, cell handover, etc.

With reference to the thirteenth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit is further configured to send the first information and/or the third radio resource information.

With reference to the thirteenth aspect or any of the above possible implementations, in another possible implementation, the transceiver unit is specifically configured to send a second request message to an access network device, where the access network device is An access network device serving the terminal device at the first location; receiving a second response message from the access network device, the second response message including the first radio resource information.

Optionally, the second request message and the second response message may be N2 messages.

For example, the radio resource information that the terminal device supports access to may be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element, the second request message may be a terminal device radio capability check request message (UE RADIO CAPABILITY CHECK REQUEST), and the second response message may be Terminal equipment radio capability check response message (UE RADIO CAPABILITY CHECK Response).

Optionally, the first AMF may obtain the above-mentioned first wireless resource information by using the terminal device wireless capability check request message and the terminal device wireless capability check response message.

Optionally, the first AMF may also add indication information (first indication information) to the terminal device radio capability check request message, where the indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to obtain the first radio resource information. In this way, the terminal device can only Reporting the first radio resource information without reporting other radio capability information can reduce signaling overhead.

In a fourteenth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, the device comprising:

a transceiver unit, configured to acquire first wireless resource information, where the first wireless resource information is used to indicate a wireless resource that a terminal device located at a first location supports access to;

The transceiver unit is further configured to send the first radio resource information to the first access and mobility management function network element AMF;

The transceiver unit is further configured to receive an identifier of a first network slice from the first AMF to which the terminal device is allowed to access, wherein the terminal device supports access to the first network slice in the first network slice. A radio resource corresponding to a location.

Optionally, the communication apparatus is an access network device.

Optionally, the transceiver unit is further configured to send, to the first AMF, the network slice requested by the terminal device to access and the information of the current location of the terminal device (that is, the information of the first location). The information of the first location may be the TAI where the access network device currently accessed by the terminal device is located.

It should be noted that the first network slice may include one or more network slices that allow the terminal device to access, and the network slice that the terminal device requests to access may also include one or more network slices.

Optionally, the first network slice may be represented by allowed NSSAI, and the network slice requested to be accessed by the terminal device may be represented by requested NSSAI. It should also be noted that the wireless resources that the terminal device supports to access may also be described as the wireless resource capability possessed by the terminal device. For example, the first radio resource information may be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element.

Optionally, the first network slice is one or more of the network slices that the terminal device requests to access.

In the above technical solution, the communication device reports to the AMF the radio resources that the terminal device supports to access, so that the core network device can consider the radio resources that the terminal device supports to access and the radio resources that the terminal device supports when determining the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access. The radio resource corresponding to the network slice deployed at the current location of the terminal device is selected, and the network slice under the radio resource supported by the terminal device is selected to ensure that the terminal device supports access to the network slice determined by the core network device, which is conducive to the transmission of terminal services. .

With reference to the fourteenth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit is further configured to receive, from the first AMF, an identifier and/or first information of a second network slice that refuses access to the terminal device , the first information is used to indicate that the terminal device does not support accessing the radio resource corresponding to the second network slice at the first location.

Optionally, the second network slice may include one or more network slices that deny access to the terminal device.

Optionally, the second network slice is one or more of the network slices that the terminal device requests to access.

Optionally, the above-mentioned second network slice may be represented by rejected NSSAI.

In the above technical solution, the first AMF sends the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is denied access to the communication device, so that the communication device can feed back the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device is denied access to to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can know that the access cannot be Which network slice services are used, so as to avoid the transmission of these network slice services and facilitate the transmission of terminal services.

With reference to the fourteenth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit is further configured to receive third radio resource information from the first AMF, the third The radio resource information is used to indicate the radio resource corresponding to the first location of the network slice that is allowed to access the terminal device.

In the above technical solution, the first AMF feeds back to the communication apparatus the radio resources corresponding to the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access at the first position, so that the communication apparatus can feed back to the terminal device that the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access is at the first position The corresponding radio resources are beneficial to the subsequent operations of the terminal device, such as cell search, cell handover, and the like.

With reference to the fourteenth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit is further configured to send the first information and/or the third information to the terminal device Radio resource information.

With reference to the fourteenth aspect or any of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit is specifically configured to send a third request message to the terminal device; receive a third request message from the terminal device. Three response messages, where the third response message includes the first radio resource information.

Optionally, the third request message and the third response message may be RRC messages.

For example, the radio resource information that the terminal device supports access to can be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element, the third request message can be a terminal device capability query message (UE Capability Enquiry), and the third response message can be terminal device capability information message (UE Capability Information).

Optionally, the access network device may obtain the above-mentioned first radio resource information by using the terminal device capability query message.

Optionally, when the communication apparatus receives from the first AMF indication information for instructing to obtain the first wireless resource information from the terminal device, the communication apparatus may also add indication information to the terminal equipment capability query message, where the indication information is used to indicate Obtain the first radio resource information from the terminal device. In this way, the terminal device can only report the first radio resource information without reporting other radio capability information, which can reduce signaling overhead.

In a fifteenth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, the communication device is located at the first position, and the device includes:

a transceiver unit, configured to send first wireless resource information to an access network device, where the first wireless resource information is used to indicate a wireless resource supported by the communication apparatus for access;

The transceiver unit is further configured to receive, from the access network device, an identifier of a first network slice that the communication apparatus is allowed to access, wherein the communication apparatus supports access to the first network slice in the first network slice. A radio resource corresponding to a location.

Optionally, the communication device is a terminal device.

Optionally, the transceiver unit is further configured to send, to the access network device, the network slice requested to be accessed by the communication apparatus and the information of the current location of the communication apparatus (that is, the information of the first location). The information of the first location may be the TAI where the access network device currently accessed by the communication apparatus is located.

It should be noted that the first network slice may include one or more network slices that allow the terminal device to access, and the network slice that the terminal device requests to access may also include one or more network slices. Optionally, the first network slice may be represented by allowed NSSAI, and the network slice requested to be accessed by the communication apparatus may be represented by requested NSSAI.

It should also be noted that the wireless resource that the communication device supports to access may also be described as the wireless resource capability possessed by the communication device. For example, the first radio resource information may be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element.

Optionally, the first network slice is one or more of the network slices that the communication apparatus requests to access.

In the above technical solution, the communication device reports the wireless resources that the communication device supports to access, so that when determining the network slice that the communication device is allowed to access, the core network equipment can consider the wireless resources that the communication device supports to access and the current For the radio resources corresponding to the network slices deployed in the location, the network slices under the radio resources supported by the communication device are selected, so as to ensure that the communication device supports access to the network slice determined by the core network equipment, which is conducive to the transmission of terminal services.

With reference to the fifteenth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit is further configured to receive, from the access network device, an identifier and/or first information of a second network slice that rejects the access of the communication apparatus , the first information is used to indicate that the communication apparatus does not support access to the radio resource corresponding to the second network slice at the first location.

Optionally, the second network slice may include one or more network slices that deny access to the terminal device.

Optionally, the second network slice is one or more of the network slices that the communication apparatus requests to access.

Optionally, the above-mentioned second network slice may be represented by rejected NSSAI.

In the above technical solution, the communication device acquires the identifier of the network slice that refuses the access of the communication device, so that the communication device can know which network slice services cannot be used, thereby avoiding the transmission of these network slice services and facilitating the transmission of terminal services. .

With reference to the fifteenth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the communication apparatus receives third radio resource information from the access network device, and The third wireless resource information is used to indicate the wireless resource corresponding to the first location of the network slice that is allowed to access the communication device.

In the above technical solution, the communication device obtains the radio resources corresponding to the first position of the network slice that the communication device is allowed to access, which is beneficial to the subsequent operations of the communication device, such as cell search, cell handover, and the like.

With reference to the fifteenth aspect or any of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit is specifically configured to receive a third request message from the access network device; The network device sends a third response message, where the third response message includes the first radio resource information.

Optionally, the third request message and the third response message may be RRC messages.

For example, the radio resource information that the communication device supports to access may be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element, the third request message may be a communication device capability query message (UE Capability Enquiry), and the third response message may be the communication device capability information message (UE Capability Information).

Optionally, the communication device capability query message may be a communication device capability query message.

Optionally, the communication device capability query message may include indication information, where the indication information is used to instruct the communication device to acquire the first radio resource information. In this way, the communication apparatus can only report the first radio resource information without reporting other radio capability information, which can reduce signaling overhead.

In a sixteenth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, the device comprising:

a transceiver unit, configured to receive a first message from a first access network device, the communication device is located at a first position, and the first message is used to request to switch the protocol data unit PDU session established by the terminal device to the a communication apparatus, wherein the first message includes first wireless resource information, where the first wireless resource information is used to indicate a wireless resource that the terminal device supports access to;

The processing unit is configured to determine whether to allow the established terminal equipment to The PDU session is handed over to the communication device.

Optionally, the communication apparatus is an access network device.

In the above technical solution, the communication device determines whether to allow switching of the PDU session established by the terminal device according to the radio resources supported by the terminal device and the radio resources corresponding to the network slice corresponding to the established PDU session at the current location of the terminal To the communication device, it can be ensured that the terminal device supports access to the network slice corresponding to the PDU session successfully switched to the communication device at the current location, which is helpful for the transmission of terminal services.

With reference to the sixteenth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit is further configured to send a second message to the core network device, where the second message includes the identifier of the first PDU session and/or the second information, The first PDU session is a PDU session that refuses to switch to the communication device, the first PDU session belongs to the PDU session established by the terminal device, and the second information is used to indicate that the terminal device does not support the connection. enter the radio resource corresponding to the first location of the network slice corresponding to the first PDU session.

With reference to the sixteenth aspect or any of the above possible implementations, in another possible implementation, the transceiver unit is further configured to send a third message to the core network device, where the third message includes the second PDU The identifier of the session, the second PDU session is a PDU session that allows switching to the communication device, the second PDU session belongs to the PDU session established by the terminal device, and the terminal device supports access to the second PDU session. The radio resource corresponding to the network slice corresponding to the PDU session at the first position.

In a seventeenth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, the device comprising:

a transceiver unit, configured to send a first message to a second access network device, where the second access network device is located at the first location, the first message is used to request to switch the protocol data unit PDU session established by the terminal device To the second access network device, the first message includes first radio resource information, where the first radio resource information is used to indicate a radio resource that the terminal device supports access to.

Optionally, the communication apparatus is an access network device.

In the above technical solution, the communication device sends information to the second access network device to indicate that the terminal device supports access to the wireless resources, so that the second access network device is determining whether to allow switching of the PDU session established by the terminal device. When going to the second access network device, the wireless resources supported by the terminal device can be considered, which can ensure that the terminal device supports access to the network slice corresponding to the PDU session successfully switched to the second access network device at the current location, which is helpful for Transmission of terminal services.

In an eighteenth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, the device comprising:

a transceiver unit, configured to receive the identifier and/or the second information of the first PDU session from the second access network device, the second access network device is located at the first position, and the first PDU session is to refuse to switch to the the PDU session of the second access network device, the first PDU session belongs to the PDU session established by the terminal device, and the second information is used to indicate that the terminal device does not support accessing the second PDU session the radio resource corresponding to the corresponding network slice at the first position;

A processing unit, configured to perform path switching of the PDU session according to the identifier of the first PDU session and/or the second information.

Optionally, the communication device is AMF.

In a nineteenth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, the device comprising:

a transceiver unit, configured to acquire first radio resource information, second radio resource information, and an identifier of a first network slice, where the first radio resource information is used to indicate a radio resource that the terminal device at the first location supports access to , the second radio resource information is used to indicate a radio resource corresponding to at least one network slice at the first position, and the at least one network slice includes the first network slice;

a processing unit, configured to determine the identifier of the second network slice according to the first radio resource information, the second radio resource information and the identifier of the first network slice, wherein the terminal device supports access to the Radio resources corresponding to the second network slice at the first location;

The transceiver unit is further configured to send the identifier of the second network slice to the first access and mobility management network element.

Optionally, the above-mentioned communication apparatus is an access network device or a module or unit in the access network device.

Optionally, the information of the first location may be the TAI where the access network device currently accessed by the terminal device is located.

Optionally, the first network slice may be a network slice to which the terminal device requests to access.

Optionally, the first network slice may be a network slice that is received by the access network device from the first access and mobility management network element and allows the terminal device to access.

It should be noted that the first network slice may include one or more network slices, and the second network slice may also include one or more network slices.

Optionally, the above-mentioned second network slice may be represented by supported network slice selection assistance information (supported network slice selection assistance information, supported NSSAI), and the network slice requested by the above-mentioned terminal device to access may be through the requested network slice selection assistance information. (requested network slice selection assistance information, requested NSSAI), the above-mentioned network slices that allow terminal devices to access can be represented by allowed network slice selection assistance information (allowed network slice selection assistance information, allowed NSSAI).

It should also be noted that the wireless resources that the terminal device supports to access may also be described as the wireless capability possessed by the terminal device. For example, the first radio resource information may be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element.

Considering that the access and mobility management network element may not perceive the wireless capability of the terminal device during the registration process, in this embodiment of the present application, the access and mobility management network element may send the requested NSSAI or allowed NSSAI to the communication device , so that the communication device can judge whether to support access to the requested NSSAI or the wireless resources corresponding to each S-NSSAI contained in the allowed NSSAI according to the wireless capability of the terminal equipment, and can ensure that the terminal equipment supports access and mobility management network elements are determined for it network slice.

Optionally, the second radio resource information includes information about radio resources corresponding to the network slice in the requested NSSAI at the first location.

Optionally, the second radio resource information includes information on radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at the first location.

With reference to the nineteenth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the identifier of the first network slice includes an identifier of the network slice that the terminal device requests to access.

With reference to the nineteenth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit is specifically configured to receive information from the first access and mobility management network element or the terminal device Obtain the identifier of the first network slice.

With reference to the nineteenth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit is specifically configured to receive information from the first access and mobility management network element, the communication device or other access network device to acquire the second radio resource information.

With reference to the nineteenth aspect or any one of the above possible implementations, in another possible implementation, the transceiver unit is further configured to send third indication information to the first access and mobility management network element , the third indication information is used to indicate whether the terminal device supports simultaneous access to some or all of the network slices in the second network slice.

Through the above technical solution, the communication apparatus can indicate to the first access and mobility management network element that the terminal device supports network slices that can be accessed simultaneously, which is helpful for simplifying the first access and mobility management network element to determine that the terminal device is allowed to access. The process of identifying network slices.

With reference to the nineteenth aspect or any one of the above possible implementations, in another possible implementation, the transceiver unit is further configured to send a third network slice to the first access and mobility management network element where the terminal device does not support accessing the radio resource corresponding to the third network slice at the first location.

It should be noted that the third network slice may include one or more network slices. Optionally, the above-mentioned third network slice may be represented by non-supported network slice selection assistance information (non-supported network slice selection assistance information, non-supported NSSAI).

With reference to the nineteenth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit is further configured to send fourth indication information to the first access and mobility management network element , and a registration request message received from the terminal device, the fourth indication information is used to indicate to the first access and mobility management network element that the terminal device is allowed to be determined according to the identification of the first network slice The identifier of the connected network slice.

That is to say, after receiving the registration request message sent by the terminal device, the communication device may not forward it to the first access and mobility management network element, but first determine the network slice that the terminal device supports access to, and then The determined identification of the network slice that the terminal device supports access to and a registration request message are sent to the first access and mobility management network element, and at the same time instruct the first access and mobility management network element according to the network that the terminal device supports to access The identifier of the slice determines the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access, so that it can be ensured that the terminal device supports access to the network slice determined by the first access and mobility management network element.

In a twentieth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, the device comprising:

a transceiver unit, configured to send the identifier of the first network slice to the access network device located at the first position;

The transceiver unit is further configured to receive the identifier of the second network slice and third indication information from the access network device, and the terminal device supports access to the wireless network corresponding to the second network slice at the first location resources, where the third indication information is used to indicate whether the terminal device supports simultaneous access to some or all of the network slices in the second network slice;

a processing unit, configured to determine, according to the second network slice and the third indication information, an identifier of a network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access;

The transceiver unit is further configured to send the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access to the terminal device.

Optionally, the above communication device may be an AMF.

Optionally, the information of the first location may be the TAI where the access network device currently accessed by the terminal device is located.

Optionally, the first network slice may be a network slice to which the terminal device requests to access.

Optionally, the first network slice may be a network slice that is received by the access network device from the first access and mobility management network element and allows the terminal device to access.

It should be noted that the second network slice may include one or more network slices, and the second network slice may also include one or more network slices.

Optionally, the above-mentioned second network slice may be represented by supported network slice selection assistance information (supported network slice selection assistance information, supported NSSAI), and the network slice requested by the above-mentioned terminal device to access may be through the requested network slice selection assistance information. (requested network slice selection assistance information, requested NSSAI), the above-mentioned network slices that allow terminal devices to access can be represented by allowed network slice selection assistance information (allowed network slice selection assistance information, allowed NSSAI).

Through the above technical solutions, the access network equipment can indicate to the communication apparatus that the terminal equipment supports simultaneous access network slices, which helps to simplify the process of the communication apparatus determining the identification of the network slices that the terminal equipment is allowed to access.

With reference to the twentieth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the identifier of the first network slice includes an identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device requests to access.

With reference to the twentieth aspect or any one of the above possible implementations, in another possible implementation, the transceiver unit is further configured to send second radio resource information to the access network device, the second The radio resource information is used to indicate a radio resource corresponding to at least one network slice at the first position, where the at least one network slice includes the first network slice.

Optionally, the second radio resource information includes information about radio resources corresponding to the network slice in the requested NSSAI at the first location.

Optionally, the second radio resource information includes information on radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at the first location.

With reference to the twentieth aspect or any one of the above possible implementations, in another possible implementation, the transceiver unit is further configured to receive an identifier of a third network slice from the access network device, wherein the The terminal device does not support the radio resource corresponding to the third network slice accessed at the first location.

It should be noted that the third network slice may include one or more network slices. Optionally, the above-mentioned third network slice may be represented by non-supported network slice selection assistance information (non-supported network slice selection assistance information, non-supported NSSAI).

With reference to the twentieth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit is further configured to receive fourth indication information and a registration request message from the access network device, so The fourth indication information is used to indicate to the first access and mobility management network element that the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to be accessed is determined according to the identifier of the second network slice.

That is to say, after receiving the registration request message sent by the terminal device, the access network device may not forward it to the communication device first, but first determine the network slice that the terminal device supports to access, and then send the determined terminal device to support the access network slice. The identification of the incoming network slice and the registration request message are sent to the communication device, and at the same time, the communication device is instructed to determine the identification of the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access according to the identification of the network slice to which the terminal device supports access, so that the terminal device can be guaranteed. Access to the network slice determined by the communication device is supported.

With reference to the twentieth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the processing unit is further configured to determine a network slice to which the terminal device is denied access.

It should be noted that the network slice to which the terminal device is denied access may include one or more network slices. Optionally, the above-mentioned network slice for which the terminal device is refused access may be represented by rejected network slice selection assistance information (rejected network slice selection assistance information, rejected NSSAI).

With reference to the twentieth aspect or any one of the above possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the processing unit is further configured to release the first access and mobility management network element and the rejection The protocol data unit PDU session corresponding to the network slice accessed by the terminal device.

In a twenty-first aspect, the present application provides a communication device, the device comprising:

a transceiver unit, configured to receive, from an access network device, an identifier of a network slice deployed at a first location, and information about radio resources corresponding to the network slice at the first location, where the apparatus is located at the first location;

a processing unit, configured to determine, according to the identifier of the network slice and the information of the wireless resource corresponding to the network slice, the identifier of the first network slice that the terminal device requests to access, and the terminal device supports The location accesses the radio resource corresponding to the first network slice;

The transceiver unit is further configured to send a registration request message to the access network device, where the registration request message includes the identifier of the first network slice.

Optionally, the above communication apparatus may be a terminal device or a module or unit in the terminal device.

In the above technical solution, the access network device sends information about the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at its location to the communication device, so that the communication device can construct the requested NSSAI according to its own air interface wireless capability, thereby ensuring that the communication device requests access. The radio resources corresponding to the network slice are all supported by the air interface capability of the communication device.

With reference to the twenty-first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit is specifically configured to receive, from an access network device through a broadcast message, the identifier of the network slice deployed at the first location and the network slice Information about the radio resource corresponding to the first location.

In a twenty-second aspect, the present application provides a communication device, the device comprising:

a transceiver unit, configured to send, to the terminal device at the first location, the identifier of the network slice deployed at the first location and the information of the wireless resource corresponding to the network slice at the first location;

The transceiver unit is further configured to receive a registration request message from the terminal device, where the registration request message includes an identifier of the first network slice, and the terminal device supports accessing the first network slice corresponding to the first location. wireless resources.

Optionally, the above communication apparatus may be an access network device or a module or unit in the access network device.

In the above technical solution, the communication device sends the information about the wireless resources corresponding to the network slices deployed at its location to the terminal equipment, so that the terminal equipment can construct the requested NSSAI according to its own air interface wireless capability, thereby ensuring that the terminal equipment requests to access the network The radio resources corresponding to the slice are all supported by the air interface capability of the terminal device.

With reference to the twenty-second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the transceiver unit is specifically configured to send the identifier of the network slice deployed at the first location and the network slice to the terminal device through a broadcast message Information about the radio resource corresponding to the first location.

In combination with any one of the foregoing aspects or any one of the foregoing possible implementation manners, in another possible implementation manner, the wireless resources include frequency points and/or frequency bands.

In a twenty-third aspect, the present application provides a communication device, the communication device includes a processor, the processor is connected to a memory, and is configured to read and execute a software program stored in the memory, so as to implement any one of the above-mentioned aspects or the method described in any one of the above implementation manners.

In a possible implementation, the communication device further includes a transceiver.

In a possible implementation manner, when the communication apparatus is used to implement the method described in the first aspect or any one of the implementation manners of the first aspect, the communication apparatus is a core network device or can be applied to a core network device chip.

Optionally, the core network device may be AMF or NSSF.

In a possible implementation manner, when the communication apparatus is used to implement the method described in the second aspect or any one of the implementation manners of the second aspect, the communication apparatus is an AMF or a chip that can be applied to AMF.

In a possible implementation manner, when the communication apparatus is used to implement the method described in the third aspect or any one of the implementation manners of the third aspect, the communication apparatus is an access network device or can be applied to access chips for network devices.

In a possible implementation manner, when the communication apparatus is used to implement the method described in the fourth aspect or any one of the implementation manners of the fourth aspect, the communication apparatus is a terminal device or a chip that can be applied to the terminal device .

In a possible implementation manner, when the communication apparatus is used to implement the method described in the fifth aspect or any one of the implementation manners of the fifth aspect, the communication apparatus is an access network device or can be applied to access chips for network devices.

In a possible implementation manner, when the communication apparatus is used to implement the method described in the sixth aspect or any one of the implementation manners of the sixth aspect, the communication apparatus is an access network device or can be applied to access chips for network devices.

In a possible implementation manner, when the communication apparatus is used to implement the method described in the seventh aspect or any one of the implementation manners of the seventh aspect, the communication apparatus is an AMF or a chip that can be applied to AMF.

In a possible implementation manner, when the communication apparatus is used to implement the method described in the eighth aspect or any one of the implementation manners of the eighth aspect, the communication apparatus is a terminal device or a chip that can be applied to the terminal device .

In a possible implementation manner, when the communication apparatus is used to implement the method described in the ninth aspect or any one of the implementation manners of the ninth aspect, the communication apparatus is an access network device or can be applied to access chips for network devices.

In a possible implementation manner, when the communication apparatus is used to implement the method described in the tenth aspect or any one of the implementation manners of the tenth aspect, the communication apparatus is a terminal device or a chip that can be applied to the terminal device .

In a possible implementation manner, when the communication apparatus is used to implement the method described in the eleventh aspect or any one of the implementation manners of the eleventh aspect, the communication apparatus is an access network device or can be applied to The chip of the access network device.

In a twenty-fourth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product, the computer program product comprising computer instructions, when the computer instructions are executed, the method in any one of the foregoing aspects or any possible implementation manner is executed.

In a twenty-fifth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, the storage medium stores computer instructions, when the computer instructions are executed, make any one of the foregoing aspects or any one of the possible implementations. method is executed.

In a twenty-sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication system, where the communication system includes any one of the communication devices in any one of the foregoing aspects or any possible implementation manner.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic architecture diagram of a communication system to which the present application can be applied.

FIG. 2 is another schematic architecture diagram of a communication system to which the present application can be applied.

FIG. 3 is a schematic flowchart of the communication method provided by the present application.

FIG. 4 is another schematic flowchart of the communication method provided by the present application.

FIG. 5 is another schematic flowchart of the communication method provided by the present application.

FIG. 6 is another schematic flowchart of the communication method provided by the present application.

FIG. 7 is another schematic flowchart of the communication method provided by the present application.

FIG. 8 is another schematic flowchart of the communication method provided by the present application.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a method for configuring second radio resource information provided by the present application.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of another method for configuring second radio resource information provided by the present application.

FIG. 11 is another schematic flowchart of the communication method provided by the present application.

FIG. 12 is another schematic flowchart of the communication method provided by the present application.

FIG. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided by the present application.

FIG. 14 is another schematic structural diagram of the communication device provided by the present application.

detailed description

The technical solutions in the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, for example: long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, LTE frequency division duplex (frequency division duplex, FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (time division duplex) , TDD), universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) communication system, 5G communication system or new radio (NR) communication system, or future communication systems, etc.

FIG. 1 is a schematic architecture diagram of a communication system to which the present application can be applied. Taking the 5G network architecture as an example, the network architecture includes: user equipment (UE) 101, radio access network (RAN) 102, user plane function (UPF) network element 103, A data network (DN) network element 104, an authentication server function (AUSF) network element 105, a unified data repository (UDR) 113, an AMF network element 106, a session management function (session management) function, SMF) network element 107, NSSF network element 112, network exposure function (NEF) network element 108, network function library function (network repository function, NRF) network element 109, policy control function module (policy control function) , PCF) network element 110, unified data management (unified data management, UDM) network element 111 and application function (application function, AF) network element 114. User equipment 101, radio access network equipment 102, UPF network element 103, DN network element 104, AUSF network element 105, AMF network element 106, SMF network element 107, NEF network element 108, NRF network element 109, PCF The network element 110, the UDM network element 111, the NSSF network element 112, the UDR network element 113, and the AF network element 114 are referred to as UE101, RAN102, UPF103, DN104, AUSF105, AMF106, SMF107, NEF108, NRF109, PCF110, UDM111, NSSF112, UDR113, AF114.

Among them, the UE101 mainly accesses the 5G network through the wireless air interface and obtains services. The UE101 interacts with the RAN102 through the air interface, and interacts with the AMF106 of the core network through non-access stratum signaling (NAS).

The RAN 102 is responsible for air interface resource scheduling and air interface connection management for the UE 101 to access the network.

The UPF 103 is responsible for the forwarding and reception of user data in the terminal. For example, the UPF 103 can receive user data from the DN 104 and transmit it to the UE 101 through the RAN 102 , and can also receive user data from the UE 101 through the RAN 102 and forward it to the DN 104 . The transmission resources and scheduling functions that serve the UE 101 in the UPF 103 are managed and controlled by the SMF 107 .

AUSF105 belongs to the core network control plane network element, and is mainly responsible for user authentication and authorization to ensure that the user is a legitimate user.

AMF 106 belongs to the core network and is responsible for user mobility management, including mobility status management, assigning user temporary identities, authenticating and authorizing users. AMF 106 can also provide a control plane for a session in UE101 when it provides services for the session storage resources to store the session ID, the ID of the SMF 107 associated with the session ID, and so on.

The SMF 107 is responsible for user plane network element selection, user plane network element redirection, Internet Protocol (Internet Protocol, IP) address allocation, bearer establishment, modification and release, and QoS control.

The NEF108 belongs to the core network control plane network element, and is used to open the mobile network capabilities to the outside world, and to open network capabilities and services to the outside world. NEF uses UDR113's standardized interface to store/retrieve structured data. Interpret the exchange information of the AF114 with the exchange information of the internal network function.

The NRF 109 belongs to the core network control plane network element, and is used for dynamic registration of the service capability of the network function and discovery of the network function.

PCF110 includes the functions of policy control decision-making and flow-based charging control, including user subscription data management function, policy control function, charging policy control function, QoS control, etc. It mainly supports the provision of a unified policy framework to control network behavior and policy rules Provides network functions to the control layer, and is also responsible for obtaining user subscription information related to policy decisions.

The UDM 111 belongs to the core network control plane network element, the home user server, the unified data management network element, is responsible for managing the subscription data, and is responsible for notifying the corresponding network element when the subscription data is modified.

The NSSF 112 is used to complete the network slice selection function for the UE 101 .

UDR113 is responsible for storing and retrieving contract data, policy data and public architecture data, etc.; for UDM111, PCF110 and NEF to obtain relevant data; UDR113 must be able to have different data access authentication mechanisms for different types of data such as contract data and policy data, In order to ensure the security of data access; the UDR should be able to return a failure response with an appropriate cause value for an illegal service operation or data access request.

The AF114 is responsible for providing a certain application layer service to the UE101. When the AF114 provides the service to the UE101, the AF114 has requirements on the QoS (policy) and charging policy (charging), and needs to notify the network. At the same time, the AF114 also needs application-related information fed back by the core network.

In this network architecture, Nausf is the service-based interface presented by AUSF105, Namf is the service-based interface presented by AMF106, Nsmf is the service-based interface presented by SMF107, Nnef is the service-based interface presented by NEF108, and Nnrf is the service-based interface presented by NRF109. Npcf is the service-based interface presented by PCF110, Nudm is the service-based interface presented by UDM111, Nnssf is the service-based interface presented by NSSF112, Nudr is the service-based interface presented by UDR113, and Naf is presented by AF114 service-based interface. N1 is the interface between UE101 and AMF106, N2 is the interface between RAN102 and AMF106, used for sending NAS messages, etc.; N3 is the interface between RAN102 and UPF103, used to transmit user plane data, etc.; N4 is SMF107 and UPF103 The interface between them is used to transmit information such as tunnel identification information of N3 connection, data buffer indication information, and downlink data notification messages; N6 interface is the interface between UPF103 and DN104, used to transmit user plane data, etc.

The UE 101 in FIG. 1 may be a terminal device, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a mobile station, a remote station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, a user equipment, Handheld terminal, laptop computer, cellular phone, smart phone, tablet computer, handheld device, augmented reality (AR) device, virtual reality (VR) device, machine type communication terminal, or other devices that can access the network device of. The terminal may also be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless communication function handheld devices, computing devices or other processing devices connected to wireless modems, in-vehicle devices, wearable devices, terminals in 5G networks or terminal devices in the future evolved public land mobile network (PLMN), etc. , which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application. In addition, in vehicle networking communication, the communication terminal uploaded by the vehicle is a kind of user equipment, and the roadside unit (RSU) can also be used as a kind of user equipment. The communication terminal on the drone can be regarded as a kind of user equipment. For convenience of description, hereinafter collectively referred to as terminal devices.

The RAN 102 in FIG. 1 may be a device for communicating with user equipment, and is mainly responsible for functions such as radio resource management, quality of service management, data compression, and encryption on the air interface side. The access network device may be a transmission reception point (TRP), an evolved base station (evolved NodeB, eNB or eNodeB) in the LTE system, or a home base station (for example, home evolved NodeB, or home base station). Node B, HNB), base band unit (base band unit, BBU), it can also be a wireless controller in a cloud radio access network (cloud radio access network, CRAN) scenario, or the access network device can be a relay station, a receiver Access points, in-vehicle devices, wearable devices, and access network elements in the 5G network or access network devices in the future evolved public land mobile network (PLMN) network, etc. The access point (access point, AP) may be a gNB in a new radio system (new radio, NR) system, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. In a network structure, an access network device may include a centralized unit (centralized unit, CU) node, or a distributed unit (distributed unit, DU) node, or an access network device including a CU node and a DU node, or a control plane Access network equipment of the CU node (CU-CP node), the user plane CU node (CU-UP node) and the DU node. For convenience of description, hereinafter collectively referred to as access network devices.

FIG. 2 is another schematic architecture diagram of a communication system to which the present application can be applied. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a 5G network architecture based on a point-to-point interface. For the introduction of the functions of each network element, reference may be made to the introduction of the functions of the corresponding network elements in FIG. 1 , which will not be repeated here. The main difference between FIG. 2 and FIG. 1 is that the interfaces between various network elements in FIG. 2 are point-to-point interfaces, not service-oriented interfaces.

It should be understood that the name of each network element shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 is only a name, and the name does not limit the function of the network element itself. In different networks, the foregoing network elements may also have other names, which are not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present application. For example, in a 6G network, some or all of the above-mentioned network elements may use the terminology in 5G, or other names, etc., which will be uniformly described here, and will not be repeated below. Similarly, the interface between the network elements shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 is only an example. In the 5G network and other future networks, the interface between the network elements may not be the interface shown in the figure. This application This is not limited. It should also be understood that the embodiments of the present application are not limited to the system architecture shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 . For example, a communication system to which the present application may be applied may include more or less network elements or devices. The devices or network elements in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 may be hardware, software that is functionally divided, or a combination of the above two. The devices or network elements in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 may communicate through other devices or network elements.

In the 5G communication system, network slicing is introduced. Network slicing is based on the concept of logic. The reorganization of resources can virtualize multiple logical subnets with different characteristics and are isolated from each other on the same set of physical facilities to provide targeted services to users. Different logical subnets are identified and distinguished by a single network slice selection assistance information (S-NSSAI). S-NSSAI may include network slice/service type (slice/service type, SST) and slice differentiater (SD), SD is optional. Among them, SST is used to point to specific features and service types of network slices, and SD, as a supplement to SST, can further distinguish multiple network slices that satisfy the same SST. The 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) emphasizes that network slices do not affect each other. For example, a large number of sudden meter reading services should not affect normal mobile broadband services. In order to meet the diverse requirements and the isolation between network slices, relatively independent management and operation and maintenance between businesses are required, and tailored business functions and analysis capabilities are provided. Instances of different types of services are deployed on different network slices, and different instances of the same service type can also be deployed on different network slices.

When a terminal device needs to use a network service, it first registers with the network. If network slices are deployed on the core network, the registration process will trigger the selection process of network slices. In the traditional network slice selection process, the core network device selects the network slice (allowed NSSAI) that the terminal device is allowed to access according to the terminal device's subscription data, local configuration information, roaming agreement, and the operator's policy.

For network slices:

1) Considering that the performance requirements of various network slices are different, the radio resources (eg, frequency points or frequency bands) corresponding to different network slices may be different. For example, as shown in Table 1, the network slices S-NSSAI-1, S-NSSAI-2 and S-NSSAI-3 correspond to frequency points or frequency bands respectively.

Table 1

Identification of the network slice	Radio resources corresponding to the network slice at the deployment location
S-NSSAI-1	The frequency point is 2.6GHz; or the frequency band is n1
S-NSSAI-2	Frequency points are 2.6GHz and 4.9GHz; or frequency bands are n77 and n38
S-NSSAI-3	The frequency point is 4.9GHz; or the frequency band is n38

Among them, n1, n77 and n38 in Table 1 represent the numbers corresponding to the frequency bands. According to the definition of the 3GPP TS 38.101 protocol, the descriptions of the numbers corresponding to the frequency bands are shown in Table 2.

Table 2

2) The wireless resources deployed in the same network slice in different areas may be different. For example, as shown in Table 3, network slice S-NSSAI-1 is deployed at the same frequency in the areas corresponding to TAI-1 and TAI-2, both are F1; S-NSSAI-2 is corresponding to TAI-1 and TAI-2 The frequency points deployed in different areas are different. Among them, the frequency point deployed in the area corresponding to TAI-1 is F2, and the frequency point deployed in the area corresponding to TAI-2 is F3; S-NSSAI-3 is deployed in all areas corresponding to it. (TAI-1, TAI-2....TAI-10) are all deployed at the same frequency, which is F3.

table 3

For terminal equipment: different terminal equipment may support access to different wireless resources (also referred to as: different terminal equipment may have different wireless resource capabilities), for example, private network terminal equipment, terminal equipment under this type It has limited capabilities and can only access some frequency points or frequency bands.

Considering the above-mentioned characteristics of wireless resources deployed in network slices and the characteristics of the terminal equipment itself, in the traditional network slice selection process, the core network equipment does not consider the wireless resources that the terminal equipment supports to access, and the wireless resources deployed at the current location of the terminal. For radio resources supported by slices, a problem in the traditional network slice selection process is that the terminal equipment may not support the network slice selected by the access core network equipment, which is not conducive to service transmission. It can also be understood that in the traditional network slice selection process, the radio resources corresponding to the network slice determined by the core network device for the terminal device may be different from the radio resources supported by the terminal device, because the terminal device itself cannot access the network slice selected by the core network device. The wireless resources corresponding to the network slice, so the terminal device cannot access the network slice.

For example, in combination with Table 3, it is assumed that the access frequencies supported by the terminal equipment are F1 and F2, the subscribed network slices are S-NSSAI-1, S-NSSAI-2 and S-NSSAI-3, and the terminal equipment is currently located in TAI-1 The corresponding area, where network slices S-NSSAI-1, S-NSSAI-2, and S-NSSAI-3 are deployed, the frequency band corresponding to S-NSSAI-1 is F1, the frequency band corresponding to S-NSSAI-2 is F2, S-NSSAI-2 - The frequency band corresponding to NSSAI-3 is F3. When a terminal device simultaneously requests access to the network slices S-NSSAI-1, S-NSSAI-2 and S-NSSAI-3 through F1, according to the traditional network slice selection process, the core network allows the terminal device to access the network slice S-NSSAI- 1. S-NSSAI-2 and S-NSSAI-3, that is, the allowed NSSAI is S-NSSAI-1, S-NSSAI-2 and S-NSSAI-3. However, since S-NSSAI-3 can only be accessed through F3, the terminal device does not support access to the frequency band F3 corresponding to S-NSSAI-3, so even if the allowed NSSAI includes S-NSSAI-3, the terminal device cannot initiate S-NSSAI-3. The PDU session corresponding to NSSAI-3 makes the terminal equipment unable to use S-NSSAI-3 services, and even the terminal equipment may continue to try to establish a PDU session corresponding to S-NSSAI-3, resulting in serious power consumption of the terminal equipment and affecting the terminal services. experience.

In view of the above problems, the present application provides a communication method and device. When determining a network slice that allows a terminal device to access, the core network device considers the wireless resources that the terminal device supports to access and the network slice deployed at the current location of the terminal device. Corresponding radio resources, so as to ensure that the terminal device supports the network slice selected by the access core network device that allows the terminal device to access, which is helpful for service transmission.

The above-mentioned core network device may be an AMF. For example, the AMF serving the terminal device may determine the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access according to the radio resources that the terminal device supports access to and the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at the current location of the terminal device.

Alternatively, the above-mentioned core network device may also be an NSSF. For example, the NSSF may determine the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access according to the radio resources that the terminal device supports to access and the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at the current location of the terminal device.

The communication method provided in this application can be applied to various registration scenarios, which is not specifically limited. For example, an end device registers with the network for the first time. For another example, when the terminal device moves out of the original registered area, the mobility registration update is performed. For another example, the terminal device performs periodic registration update and the like.

The communication method provided by the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1) The NSSF determines the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access

FIG. 3 is a schematic flowchart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. The method shown in FIG. 3 may be performed by the terminal equipment, access network equipment, AMF and NSSF, and may also be performed by modules or units (eg, circuits, chips or systems on a chip) in the terminal equipment, access network equipment, AMF and NSSF system on chip, SOC)) execution. In FIG. 3 , the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application are described by taking the execution subjects as terminal equipment, access network equipment, AMF and NSSF as an example. The method shown in FIG. 3 may include at least part of the following.

In step 301, the terminal device at the first location initiates a registration process. Specifically, the terminal device sends a registration request message to the first AMF. Correspondingly, the first AMF receives the registration request message from the terminal device.

Optionally, the registration request message may include the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device requests to access. Optionally, when the terminal device needs to access one or some network slices, the registration request message includes the network slice (requested NSSAI) that the terminal device requests to access. Wherein, the network slice requested to be accessed by the terminal device may be one or more network slices, and it may be understood that the requested NSSAI may include one S-NSSAI or multiple S-NSSAIs. Exemplarily, the requested NSSAI includes S-NSSAI-1, S-NSSAI-2, and S-NSSAI-3.

The method for the terminal device to send the registration request message to the first AMF is that the terminal device sends the registration request message to the access network device currently accessed by the terminal device through RRC signaling, and the access network device sends the N2 message to the first AMF, The N2 message carries the registration request message and the information of the first location.

Optionally, the information of the first location may be a TAI corresponding to a tracking area (tracking area, TA) where the access network device currently accessed by the terminal device is located. For example TAI-1.

Optionally, when the terminal device registers with the network for the first time, the first AMF may be an initial AMF (initial AMF). At this time, the first AMF may have the capability of serving the network slice requested by the terminal device, or may not have the capability of serving the network slice requested by the terminal device, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, when the terminal device performs mobility registration update or periodic registration update, the first AMF may be an AMF (serving AMF) currently serving the terminal device.

This embodiment of the present application does not specifically limit the manner in which the terminal device sends the registration request message to the first AMF.

In an implementation manner, as shown in FIG. 3 , the terminal device may send a registration request message to the first AMF through the access network device, and the first AMF may receive the registration request message from the terminal device from the access network device. Specifically, the terminal device may send the registration request message to the access network device, and after receiving the registration request message from the terminal device, the access network device, according to the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device requests to access, carried in the registration request message, A first AMF is selected for the terminal device, and a registration request message from the terminal device is sent to the selected first AMF.

In step 302, after receiving the registration request message from the terminal device, the first AMF sends the first radio resource information, the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device requests access (requested NSSAI), and the information of the above-mentioned first location to the NSSF .

Wherein, the first wireless resource information is used to indicate the wireless resources that the terminal device supports access to, or the first wireless resource information is used to indicate the wireless resource capability that the terminal device has. radio capability) cell representation. Optionally, the wireless resource in the embodiment of the present application may be one or more of a frequency point, a frequency, or a frequency band, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. For example, the first radio resource information may indicate one or more frequency points supported by the terminal device for access, and/or one or more frequency bands supported by the terminal device for access.

In addition, in step 302, the first AMF may also send the network slice information (subscribed NSSAI) subscribed by the terminal device to the NSSF.

Correspondingly, the NSSF receives the first radio resource information, the requested NSSAI and the information of the first location from the first AMF.

In some embodiments, when the first AMF does not have the capability of serving the network slice requested by the terminal device, the first AMF sends the first radio resource information to the NSSF, requesting the NSSF to determine the network slice (allowed NSSAI) that the terminal device is allowed to access. ).

In some embodiments, after the first AMF receives the registration request message from the terminal device, the first AMF may determine whether the first radio resource information corresponding to the terminal device is stored. When the first AMF stores the first radio resource information corresponding to the terminal device, the first AMF may directly read the first radio resource information and send the first radio resource information to the NSSF. When the first AMF does not store the first radio resource information corresponding to the terminal device, steps 303-306 may be performed, so that the first AMF acquires the first radio resource information from the terminal device.

In step 303, the first AMF sends a second request message to the access network device. The second request message is used to obtain the above-mentioned first radio resource information.

Correspondingly, the access network device receives the second request message sent by the first AMF.

Optionally, the second request message may be an N2 message.

For example, the radio resource information that the terminal device supports access to may be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element, and the second request message may be a terminal device radio capability check request message (UE RADIO CAPABILITY CHECK REQUEST).

Optionally, the first AMF may obtain the above-mentioned first wireless resource information by using the terminal device wireless capability check request message.

Optionally, the first AMF may also add indication information (first indication information) to the terminal device radio capability check request message, where the indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to obtain the first radio resource information. In this way, the terminal device can only Reporting the first radio resource information without reporting other radio capability information can reduce signaling overhead.

In step 304, after receiving the second request message, the access network device sends a third request message to the terminal device. The third request message is used to obtain the above-mentioned first radio resource information.

Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the third request message sent by the access network device.

Optionally, the third request message may be an RRC message.

For example, the radio resource information that the terminal device supports to access may be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element, and the third request message may be a terminal device capability query message (UE Capability Enquiry).

Likewise, optionally, the access network device may obtain the above-mentioned first radio resource information by using the terminal device capability query message. Optionally, when the access network device receives from the first AMF indication information for instructing to obtain the first wireless resource information from the terminal device, the access network device may also add indication information (second Indication information), the indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to obtain the first radio resource information, so that the terminal device can only report the first radio resource information without reporting other radio capability information, which can reduce signaling overhead.

In step 305, the terminal device sends a third response message to the access network device. The third response message is a response message of the third request message. The third response message includes the above-mentioned first radio resource information. Correspondingly, the access network device receives the third response message sent by the terminal device.

Optionally, the third response message may be an RRC message.

For example, the radio resource information that the terminal device supports access to may be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element, and the third response message may be a terminal device capability information message (UE Capability Information).

For example, the radio capability indicates that the frequency information supported by the terminal device is F1 and F2.

Optionally, when the access network device can use the terminal device capability query message, the terminal device capability information message includes other information related to the capability of the terminal device. Optionally, when the terminal device capability query message includes indication information for instructing to obtain the first radio resource information from the terminal device, the terminal device capability information message may only include the first radio resource information.

In step 306, the access network device sends a second response message to the first AMF. The second response message is a response message of the second request message. The second response message includes the above-mentioned first radio resource information. Correspondingly, the access network device receives the second response message sent by the terminal device.

Optionally, the second response message may be an N2 message.

For example, the radio resource information that the terminal device supports access can be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element, and the second response message can be a terminal device radio capability check response message (UE RADIO CAPABILITY CHECK Response).

Optionally, when the access network device can use the terminal device wireless capability check request message, the terminal device wireless capability check response message can include other information related to the terminal device capability. Optionally, when the terminal device radio capability check request message includes indication information for instructing to obtain the first radio resource information from the terminal device, the terminal device radio capability check response message may only include the first radio resource information.

Optionally, after receiving the first radio resource information from the access network device, the first AMF saves the first radio resource information locally.

In step 307, the NSSF determines, according to the first radio resource information and the second radio resource information, a network slice (allowed NSSAI) that the terminal device is allowed to access.

In a possible implementation, the NSSF determines the second radio resource information according to the first location, where the second radio resource information is used to indicate that the network slice deployed in the first location (that is, the current location of the terminal device) corresponds to the wireless resources. It should be noted that the network slice deployed at the first location may include one S-NSSAI or multiple S-NSSAIs in the requested NSSAI, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. Further, the NSSF determines, according to the first radio resource information, the requested NSSAI and the second radio resource information, a network slice (allowed NSSAI) that the terminal device is allowed to access. The terminal device supports access to the radio resources corresponding to the first location of the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access.

The set constituted by the identifiers of the network slices that the terminal device is allowed to access may be a non-null value or a null value, which is not limited in this embodiment.

a. When the set of identifiers of the network slices that the terminal device is allowed to access is a non-null value, the implementation is as follows:

Optionally, the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access may be one or more of the network slices that the terminal device requests to access. That is to say, the NSSF selects a network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access from among the network slices that the terminal device requests to access. Alternatively, it can be understood that the terminal device supports access to the radio resources corresponding to the first location of one or more network slices that the terminal device requests to access.

Optionally, when the terminal device does not support access to the radio resources corresponding to any network slice that the terminal device requests to access at the first location, if the terminal device supports access to one or more network slices in the subscribed NSSAI at the first location. The radio resource corresponding to the location, then the NSSF can use one or more of the subscribed NSSAIs as a network slice that allows the terminal device to access.

b. When the set of identifiers of the network slices that the terminal device is allowed to access is empty, the implementation is as follows:

Optionally, if the NSSF cannot determine the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access according to the first radio resource information, the requested NSSAI and the second radio resource information, then the NSSF can determine the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access. The resulting set is empty. For example, if the terminal device does not support the radio resource corresponding to any S-NSSAI in the requested NSSAI at the first position, it may be determined that the set formed by the identifiers of the network slices to which the terminal device is allowed to access is a null value.

Or, when the terminal device does not support the radio resource corresponding to the first position of any S-NSSAI in the requested NSSAI or the subscribed NSSAI, it may be determined that the set formed by the identifiers of the network slices that the terminal device is allowed to access is a null value.

In some embodiments, the NSSF may further perform step 318, that is, the NSSF may further determine a network slice (rejected NSSAI) that refuses the terminal device to access according to the first radio resource information, the requested NSSAI and the second radio resource information. Further optionally, the NSSF may determine the first information. The first information indicates a rejection reason value for rejecting the access of the terminal device. For example, the rejection reason value may indicate that the terminal device does not support access to the radio resource corresponding to the network slice identified by the rejected NSSAI.

For the previous example, the requested NSSAI includes S-NSSAI-1, S-NSSAI-2 and S-NSSAI-3, the first position is TAI-1, the first radio resource information is F1 and F2, and the NSSF is determined according to TAI-1 The second radio resource information corresponding to the network slice deployed in TAI-1 is shown in Table 4 below:

Table 4

The network slices deployed on TAI-1 include S-NSSAI-1, S-NSSAI-2, S-NSSAI-3, S-NSSAI-4, S-NSSAI-5, and S-NSSAI-6. Further, the NSSF determines that the allowed NSSAIs are S-NSSAI-1 and S-NSSAI-2 according to the first radio resource information (F1 and F2), the requested NSSAI and the second radio resource information. Since the terminal device does not support accessing F3, the rejected NSSAI is S-NSSAI-3, and the rejection reason value may be the indication information used to indicate that the terminal device does not support accessing the radio resource corresponding to S-NSSAI-3.

In another possible implementation manner, the NSSF determines, according to the first location and the requested NSSAI, radio resource information for indicating that the requested NSSAI corresponds to the first location. Further, the NSSF determines a network slice (allowed NSSAI) that the terminal device is allowed to access according to the first wireless resource information and the wireless resource information used to indicate that the requested NSSAI corresponds to the first location. The terminal device supports access to the radio resources corresponding to the first location of the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access.

The set constituted by the identifiers of the network slices that the terminal device is allowed to access may be a non-null value or a null value, which is not limited in this embodiment. For a specific description, reference may be made to the above related description, which will not be repeated here.

Similarly, the NSSF may also perform step 318, and the specific description can refer to the above description about step 318, which will not be repeated here.

For the previous example, the requested NSSAI includes S-NSSAI-1, S-NSSAI-2 and S-NSSAI-3, the first position is TAI-1, the first radio resource information is F1 and F2, and the NSSF is determined according to TAI-1 The radio resource information corresponding to requested NSSAI in TAI-1 is shown in Table 5 below:

table 5

Further, the NSSF determines that the allowed NSSAIs are S-NSSAI-1 and S-NSSAI-2 according to the first radio resource information (F1 and F2) and the radio resource information corresponding to the requested NSSAI in TAI-1. Since the terminal device does not support accessing F3, the rejected NSSAI is S-NSSAI-3, and the rejection reason value may be the indication information used to indicate that the terminal device does not support accessing the radio resource corresponding to S-NSSAI-3.

In the embodiment of the present application, when the NSSF determines the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access, it considers the wireless resources that the terminal device supports to access and the wireless resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at the current location of the terminal device at the location, Therefore, the embodiments of the present application can ensure that the terminal device supports access to the wireless resources corresponding to the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access, that is, it can ensure that the terminal device can access the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access.

In this embodiment of the present application, the second radio resource information may be pre-configured in the NSSF, or may be obtained from other network elements, which is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present application.

In some embodiments, after step 307, the NSSF may also send the determined identification of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access to the terminal device.

In step 308, the NSSF sends the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access to the first AMF, and accordingly, the first AMF receives the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access sent by the NSSF.

The set constituted by the identifiers of the network slices that the terminal device is allowed to access may be a non-null value or a null value, which is not limited in this embodiment.

a. When the set of identifiers of network slices that the terminal device is allowed to access in step 308 is a non-null value, the following steps are described as follows:

Optionally, when the first AMF does not have the ability to serve terminal equipment (for example, the first AMF does not support network slicing that allows terminal equipment to access), as shown in FIG. 3 , the first AMF may also perform step 309, that is, The AMF redirection process is to switch the terminal device to a second AMF capable of serving the terminal device, and send the received identifier of the network slice that allows the terminal device to access to the second AMF. The second AMF executes step 310 to send the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access to the access network device. Further, in step 311, the access network device sends the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access to the terminal device, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access sent by the access network device.

Optionally, when the first AMF has the ability to serve the terminal device (for example, the first AMF supports a network slice that allows the terminal device to access), the first AMF may feed back to the terminal device the information about the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access. logo. The method for the first AMF to send the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access to the terminal device is the same as that of the second AMF (not shown in FIG. 3 ), and details are not described herein again.

Optionally, the second AMF or the first AMF may send the identification of the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access to the access network device through a registration accept message; the access network device may send the terminal device to allow the terminal device to access through a registration accept message. The ID of the incoming network slice.

In some embodiments, when the NSSF determines the network slice to which the terminal device is refused access (rejected NSSAI) and the first information, the NSSF may also feed back to the terminal device the identifier and/or the first information of the network slice that the terminal device is to be denied access to. A message, that is, steps 312, 313 and 314 are performed. Wherein, the first information is used to indicate a reason value for rejecting the access of the terminal device. The first information indicates that the terminal device does not support access to the radio resource corresponding to the first location of the network slice to which the terminal device is denied access. The specific implementation manner is similar to the manner of feeding back the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access, and details are not described herein again.

Optionally, the network slice to which the terminal device is denied access is one or more of the network slices that the terminal device requests to access.

In some embodiments, the NSSF may also feed back the third radio resource information to the terminal device, that is, perform steps 315, 316 and 317. The third wireless resource information is used to indicate the wireless resource corresponding to the first position of the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access. For example, the third radio resource information includes F1 corresponding to S-NSSAI-1 and F2 corresponding to S-NSSAI-2. The specific implementation manner is similar to the manner of feeding back the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access, and details are not described herein again.

It should be noted that in step 308, step 312 and step 315, the NSSF may use the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access, the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is denied access, and/or the first information and the third wireless resource. The information is sent to the first AMF in the same message or in multiple messages, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. Similarly, in step 310, step 313 and step 316, the second AMF may use the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access, the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is denied access, and/or the first information and the third wireless resource information. When the same message or multiple messages are sent to the terminal device through the access network device, this embodiment of the present application does not limit it. Similarly, in step 311, step 314 and step 317, the access network device may add the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access, the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is denied access, and/or the first information, the third wireless resource The information is sent to the terminal device in the same message or in multiple messages, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

In some embodiments, if the radio resource currently accessed by the terminal device is inconsistent with the radio resource supported by the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access, the core network device may select the priority (RAT/frequency selection priority, RAT/frequency selection priority, RFSP) index (index) triggers the access network device to adjust the terminal device to a suitable radio resource, and the specific implementation can refer to the existing implementation.

In this embodiment of the present application, the identifier of the network slice may be S-NSSAI or other identifiers that can uniquely identify a network slice. The location involved in the embodiments of the present application (for example, the location of the terminal device and the location of the access network device, etc.) may be the TA or other information that can represent the location, where the TA may be represented by TAI.

b. When the set of identifiers of the network slices that the terminal device is allowed to access in step 308 is null, the first AMF sends a registration rejection message to the terminal device to reject the terminal device from registering in the network this time.

2) The AMF determines the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access

When the first AMF has the capability to serve the terminal device (for example, the first AMF supports the network slice that the terminal device requests to access, or it is understood that the network slice supported by the first AMF includes the network slice that the terminal device requests to access), also The network slices that the terminal device is allowed to access may be determined by the first AMF. FIG. 4 is another schematic flowchart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. The method shown in FIG. 4 may be performed by the terminal device, the access network device and the AMF, or may be performed by a module or unit (eg, circuit, chip or SOC) in the terminal device, the access network device and the AMF. In FIG. 4 , the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application are described by taking the execution subject as a terminal device, an access network device, and an AMF as an example. The method shown in FIG. 4 may include at least part of the following.

In step 401, the terminal device at the first location initiates a registration process. Step 401 is similar to step 301 in FIG. 3 , the description of step 301 can be referred to, and details are not repeated here.

In step 402, if the first AMF has the ability to serve the terminal device, after receiving the registration request message from the terminal device, the first AMF may determine, according to the first radio resource information and the second radio resource information, to allow the terminal device to connect to the terminal device. Incoming network slice. Step 402 is similar to step 307 in FIG. 3 , the description of step 307 can be referred to, and details are not repeated here.

In some embodiments, after the first AMF receives the registration request message from the terminal device, the first AMF may determine whether the first radio resource information corresponding to the terminal device is stored. When the first AMF stores the first wireless resource information corresponding to the terminal device, the first AMF can directly read the first wireless resource information. When the first AMF does not store the first radio resource information corresponding to the terminal device, steps 403-406 may be performed, so that the first AMF acquires the first radio resource information from the terminal device. Steps 403-406 are similar to steps 303-306 in FIG. 3 , and reference may be made to the descriptions of steps 303-306, and details are not repeated here.

Optionally, after receiving the first radio resource information from the access network device, the first AMF saves the first radio resource information locally. For example, the first AMF saves the first radio resource information in the context of the terminal device.

In some embodiments, the first AMF may obtain the second radio resource information from the access network device. Optionally, the access network device may send the network slice deployed at each location where the access network device is located and the radio resources supported by the network slice deployed at each location to the first AMF through step 407 . It should be noted that the access network device in step 407 is any access network device within the first AMF service area, including the access network device currently accessed by the terminal device.

For example, the first AMF may acquire the second radio resource information reported by the access network device in the N2 connection establishment process. For example, the fourth request message is an N2 connection establishment request message (N2 SETUP REQUEST), that is, the access network device may carry in the N2 connection establishment request message the identifier of the network slice corresponding to the location where the access network device is located and the network slice. The second radio resource information corresponding to the current location.

Optionally, after receiving the second wireless resource information from the access network device, the first AMF saves the second wireless resource information locally.

Optionally, in step 408, after receiving the fourth request message sent by the access network device, the first AMF may send a fourth response message to the access network device, where the fourth response message is a response to the fourth request message. information.

Optionally, the fourth response message may be an N2 connection establishment response message (N2 SETUP RESPONSE).

In some embodiments, after step 402, if the set of identifiers of the network slices that the terminal device is allowed to access is a non-null value, the first AMF may also send the determined identifiers of the network slices that the terminal device is allowed to access to the terminal equipment.

Optionally, steps 409-410 may be used to implement sending the determined identifier of the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access to the terminal device. In step 409, the first AMF sends the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access to the access network device, and correspondingly, the access network device receives the identifier of the network slice sent by the first AMF to which the terminal device is allowed to access. In step 410, the access network device sends the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access to the terminal device, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the identifier of the network slice sent by the access network device to which the terminal device is allowed to access.

Optionally, the first AMF may send the identification of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access to the access network device through a registration accept message; the access network device may send the network slice to the terminal device through the registration accept message to allow the terminal device to access. 's identification.

Optionally, steps 415, 411 and 412 may also be performed, that is, the first AMF determines, according to the first radio resource information and the second radio resource information, a network slice (rejected NSSAI) that rejects the access of the terminal device; An AMF may also determine the first information; the first AMF feeds back, to the terminal device, the identification and/or the first information of the network slice that the terminal device is denied access to. Wherein, the first information is used to indicate a reason value for rejecting the access of the terminal device. The first information indicates that the terminal device does not support access to the radio resource corresponding to the first location of the network slice to which the terminal device is denied access. The specific implementation manner is similar to the manner of feeding back the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access, and details are not described herein again.

Optionally, steps 413-414 may also be performed, that is, the first AMF may also feed back third radio resource information to the terminal device. The third wireless resource information is used to indicate the wireless resource corresponding to the first position of the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access. For example, the third radio resource information includes F1 corresponding to S-NSSAI-1 and F2 corresponding to S-NSSAI-2. The specific implementation manner is similar to the manner of feeding back the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access, and details are not described herein again.

It should be noted that, in step 409, step 411 and step 413, the first AMF may use the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access, the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is denied access, and/or the first information, the third The wireless resource information is sent to the terminal device through the access network device in the same message or divided into multiple messages, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. Similarly, in step 410, step 412 and step 414, the access network device may add the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access, the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is denied access, and/or the first information, the third wireless resource The information is sent to the terminal device in the same message or in multiple messages, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application

In some embodiments, if the radio resources currently accessed by the terminal device are inconsistent with the radio resources supported by the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access, the core network device may trigger the access network device to use the RAT/frequency selection priority index to The terminal device is adjusted to an appropriate radio resource, and the specific implementation can refer to the existing implementation.

In some embodiments, after step 402, if the set consisting of the identifiers of the network slices that the terminal device is allowed to access is a null value, the first AMF sends a registration rejection message to the terminal device, refusing the terminal device to register with the network this time middle.

The solutions of the embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to specific examples.

Assuming that the current location of the terminal device is TAI-1, the network slices requested by the terminal device to access include S-NSSAI-1, S-NSSAI-2 and S-NSSAI-3, where the terminal device supports access frequency points F1 and F2 , the frequency points deployed in the current location of the network slice requested by the terminal device to access are shown in Table 6.

Table 6

At this time, the first AMF may determine that the network slices that the terminal device is allowed to access are S-NSSAI-1 and S-NSSAI-2. The first AMF returns the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access, the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is denied access (rejected NSSAI), and the first information. For this example, the allowed NSSAI returned by the first AMF includes S-NSSAI-1 and S-NSSAI-2, the rejected NSSAI includes S-NSSAI-3, and the rejection reason value is that the frequency corresponding to S-NSSAI-3 is not supported.

3)

The communication method provided in this application is also applicable to mobile scenarios. In the mobile scenario, the terminal device will perform the registration update process. The application of the communication method provided by the present application in a mobile scenario will be described below with reference to FIG. 5 .

FIG. 5 is another schematic flowchart of the communication method provided by the present application. The method shown in FIG. 5 may be performed by the terminal equipment, access network equipment, AMF and SMF, or may be performed by modules or units (eg circuits, chips or SOCs) in the terminal equipment, access network equipment, AMF and SMF . In FIG. 5 , the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application are described by taking the execution subjects as terminal equipment, access network equipment, AMF and SMF as an example. The method shown in Figure 5 may include at least some of the following.

In step 501, when the terminal device moves from the second location (source location) to the first location (target location), the terminal device initiates a registration process. Step 501 is similar to step 301 in FIG. 3 , the description of step 301 can be referred to, and details are not repeated here.

In step 502, after receiving the registration request message from the terminal device, the first AMF may determine a network slice (allowed NSSAI) that the terminal device is allowed to access according to the stored first radio resource information and second radio resource information. Step 502 is similar to step 307 in FIG. 3 , the description of step 307 can be referred to, and details are not repeated here.

Optionally, the first AMF may also perform step 513, that is, the first AMF determines, according to the stored first radio resource information and the second radio resource information, a network slice (rejected NSSAI) that rejects the access of the terminal device. Optionally, the first AMF may also determine the first information. The first information indicates a rejection reason value for rejecting the access of the terminal device. For example, the rejection reason value may be indication information used to indicate that the terminal device does not support access to the radio resource corresponding to the network slice identified by the rejected NSSAI. Step 513 is similar to step 318 in FIG. 3 , the description of step 318 can be referred to, and details are not repeated here.

In some embodiments, when the terminal device has established one or more PDU sessions in the second location, if the terminal device does not support access to the network slice corresponding to the established one or more PDU sessions in the first location For radio resources, the first AMF further executes step 503, that is, triggers the release of one or more established PDU sessions.

For example, the terminal device has normally accessed S-NSSAI-3 in the second location and initiated a PDU session of S-NSSAI-3. After the terminal device moves to the first location, it initiates the registration process. The first radio resource information contained in the context of the device determines that the terminal device does not support access to the radio resource corresponding to the network slice S-NSSAI-3 at the first location, then the first AMF can determine the PDU of S-NSSAI-3 according to the context The SMF corresponding to the session sends a PDU session context release message (Nsmf_PDUSession_ReleaseSMContext) to the SMF to trigger the release of the PDU session corresponding to S-NSSAI-3.

For a mobile scenario, the first AMF determines that the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access may be updating the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access. Optionally, while updating the network slice that allows the terminal device to access, the first AMF may also determine the network slice that rejects the access of the terminal device and the first information, where the first information is used to indicate that the terminal device does not support access. enter the radio resource corresponding to the first position of the network slice that the terminal device is denied access to. Specifically, the first AMF puts the identifier of the network slice corresponding to the released PDU session in the rejected NSSAI, and generates the first information.

For example, the allowed NSSAIs stored by the first AMF are S-NSSAI-1, S-NSSAI-2, and S-NSSAI-3. When the terminal device moves from the second location to the first location, the first AMF determines the terminal device through the registration process. If the device does not support access to the radio resource corresponding to the network slice S-NSSAI-3 in the first position, the first AMF deletes S-NSSAI-3 from the allowed NSSAI to obtain the updated allowed NSSAI, which includes S -NSSAI-1 and S-NSSAI-2. At the same time, the first AMF puts the terminal equipment that does not support access network slice S-NSSAI-3 in the rejected NSSAI, and generates first information, where the first information is used to indicate that the terminal equipment does not support access to S-NSSAI- 3 Corresponding wireless resources.

The updated network slice that allows terminal devices to access may have the following two situations:

Case 1: The set consisting of the identifiers of the network slices that the terminal device is allowed to access is a non-null value;

Case 2: The set consisting of the identifiers of the network slices to which the terminal device is allowed to access is null.

For the first case, the first AMF may perform steps 504-509, that is, the first AMF will update at least one of the identifiers of the network slices that allow the terminal device to access, the identifiers of the network slices that deny the access of the terminal device, and the first information. One is sent to the end device. Steps 504-509 are similar to steps 409-414 in FIG. 4 , and reference may be made to the description of steps 409-414, and details are not repeated here.

For the second case, the first AMF may perform steps 510-512, that is, the first AMF sends a registration rejection message (registration reject) to the terminal device, and initiates a de-registration process for the terminal device. When the terminal device fails to register for the first time, the first AMF may not perform step 512.

The technical solutions of the embodiments are described below with reference to specific examples.

Example 1

The terminal equipment moves from the area corresponding to TAI-1 to the area corresponding to TAI-2, and the current position of the terminal equipment is in TAI-2. ) to determine whether the terminal device supports the frequency point corresponding to the current location of the S-NSSAI corresponding to the established PDU session. If not supported, the first AMF deletes the corresponding network slice identifier from the allowed NSSAI, and triggers the release of the PDU session at the same time.

For example, the current location of the terminal device is TAI-2, the allowed NSSAI in the context stored in the first AMF includes S-NSSAI-1 and S-NSSAI-2, the frequency points supported by the terminal device for access are F1 and F2, and the terminal device requests access Incoming network slices include S-NSSAI-1 and S-NSSAI-2. Combined with the previous Table 3, the frequency points deployed in each network slice of TAI-2 at the current location are shown in Table 7.

Table 7

The frequency point of S-NSSAI-2 deployed in the area corresponding to TAI-2 is F3, and the terminal equipment does not support access frequency point F3. At this time, the first AMF deletes S-NSSAI-2 from allowed NSSAI, and the updated The allowed NSSAI includes S-NSSAI-1, the first AMF determines that the rejected NSSAI includes S-NSSAI-2, and the rejection reason value does not support the frequency corresponding to S-NSSAI-2. For this example, the first AMF returns that the allowed NSSAI includes S-NSSAI-1, the rejected NSSAI includes S-NSSAI-2, and the rejection reason value is that the frequency corresponding to S-NSSAI-2 is not supported. In addition, if the terminal device has established the PDU session corresponding to S-NSSAI-2, the first AMF triggers the release of the PDU session corresponding to S-NSSAI-2.

Example 2

The terminal equipment moves from the area corresponding to TAI-1 to the area corresponding to TAI-2, and the current position of the terminal equipment is in TAI-2. ) to determine whether the network slices that allow the terminal device to access need to be updated.

For example, the current location of the terminal device is TAI-2, the allowed NSSAI in the context stored in the first AMF includes S-NSSAI-2, the frequency points supported by the terminal device for access are F1 and F2, and the network slice requested by the terminal device to access includes S-NSSAI-2 - NSSAI-2. Combined with the previous Table 3, at the current location TAI-2, the frequency points of the network slice S-NSSAI-2 deployment are shown in Table 8.

Table 8

The frequency point of S-NSSAI-2 deployed in the area corresponding to TAI-2 is F3, and the terminal equipment does not support access frequency point F3. At this time, the first AMF deletes S-NSSAI-2 from allowed NSSAI, and the updated The allowed NSSAI is a null value, the first AMF determines that the rejected NSSAI includes S-NSSAI-2, and the rejection reason value does not support the frequency corresponding to S-NSSAI-2. For this example, the first AMF sends a registration rejection message to the terminal device through the access network device, and initiates a deregistration process for the terminal device to deregister the terminal device from the network.

In the above embodiment, in the mobile scenario, the AMF determines whether to release the PDU session or deregister the UE according to the radio resources supported by the terminal device and the radio resources supported by the network slice deployed at the current location of the terminal device, which can ensure that the terminal device needs to release the PDU session or deregister the UE. Supporting access to the network slice selected by the AMF and allowing the terminal device to access is helpful for service transmission.

4)

For a terminal device in a connected state, when the terminal device moves from the second location to the first location, that is, the terminal device switches from the source access network device to the target access network device, the target access network device needs to determine whether to allow the terminal device The established PDU session is handed over to the target access network device.

The application of the communication method provided by the present application in a handover scenario will be described below with reference to FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 .

FIG. 6 is another schematic flowchart of the communication method provided by the present application. The method shown in FIG. 6 may be performed by terminal equipment, access network equipment, AMF, SMF and UPF, or may be performed by modules or units (eg, circuits, chips, etc.) in terminal equipment, access network equipment, AMF, SMF and UPF. or SOC) to execute. In FIG. 6 , the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application are described by taking the execution subject as a terminal device, an access network device, AMF, SMF, and UPF as an example. The method shown in FIG. 6 may include at least part of the following.

The first access network device in FIG. 6 corresponds to the source access network device (that is, the access network device located in the second position), and the second access network device corresponds to the target access network device (that is, the access network device located in the first position). access network equipment). FIG. 6 takes the access network device triggering the handover of the Xn interface as an example.

In step 601, the terminal device moves from the second position to the first position, triggering the switching process of the Xn interface.

In a possible implementation manner, when the terminal device is in a connected state, the terminal device performs related measurements according to the measurement configuration message sent by the first access network device to obtain a measurement report; then the terminal device sends the measurement report to the source access network. network equipment. Wherein, the measurement report includes a list of candidate access network device information (for example, a list of candidate Target IDs), and the results of measurement indicators between each candidate access network device and the terminal device. The first access network device selects a second access network device from multiple candidate access network devices according to the measurement report reported by the terminal device. Further, the first access network device determines whether there is an Xn interface with the second access network device, and if so, triggers a switching process of the Xn interface (that is, an Xn based switching process).

Optionally, the above-mentioned measurement indicators include a received signal strength indicator (received signal strength indicator, RSSI), a reference signal received power (reference signal received power, RSRP) and a reference signal received quality (reference signal received quality, RSRQ) obtained by the terminal device. at least one of etc.

In some embodiments, before step 601, the terminal device may initiate a PDU session establishment procedure to establish one or more PDU sessions for transmitting services. Specifically, steps 604-607 may be performed.

In step 604, the terminal device sends a PDU session establishment request message to the first AMF. Correspondingly, the first AMF receives the PDU session establishment request message from the terminal device.

Optionally, the PDU session establishment request message may include parameters such as the PDU session identifier, the S-NSSAI, and a data network name (data network name, DNN).

In step 605, the core network device executes the PDU session establishment process.

Specifically, the first AMF determines the network slice instance according to the received S-NSSAI; further, the first AMF selects the SMF according to the S-NSSAI, the network slice instance and the DNN; the first AMF uses the identifier of the first AMF, the terminal device The identifier (for example, the permanent identifier of the terminal device), the location information of the terminal device, the PDU session identifier, S-NSSAI and DNN and other parameters are sent to the selected SMF; Session selection anchor UPF. In step 606, the first AMF sends an N2 PDU session establishment request message (N2 PDU session request) to the first access network device. Correspondingly, the first access network device receives the N2 PDU session establishment request message from the first AMF. Wherein, the N2 PDU session establishment request message includes the N2 SM information and the PDU session establishment accept message. The N2 SM information may include the PDU session ID, and the S-NSSAI corresponding to or associated with the PDU session.

The first access network device may store the PDU session ID and the S-NSSAI corresponding to or associated with the PDU session.

In step 607, the first access network device sends a PDU session establishment accept message to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the PDU session establishment accept message sent by the first access network device, and completes the establishment of the PDU session.

For a more specific PDU session establishment process, reference may be made to the PDU session establishment process in the prior art, which will not be described in detail here.

In step 602, the first access network device sends a first message to the second access network device. Correspondingly, the second access network device receives the first message from the first access network device. The first message is used to request to switch the PDU session established by the terminal device to the second access network device. The first message includes first radio resource information used to indicate that the terminal device supports access to radio resources.

Optionally, the first message is a handover request message (handover request).

Optionally, the first message further includes the target cell ID and the information of the PDU session established by the terminal device, and the like. The information of the established PDU sessions includes the network slice corresponding to each established PDU session and the QoS profile (Qos profile(s)) information corresponding to each established PDU session.

In step 603, the second access network device performs admission control. Specifically, the second access network device determines whether to allow switching of the established PDU session to the second access according to the first radio resource information and the radio resources corresponding to the network slice corresponding to the established PDU session at the first position network equipment.

In a possible implementation manner, if the terminal device does not support the radio resources corresponding to the network slice corresponding to an established PDU session at the first position, the second access network device refuses to switch the PDU session to the second Access network device; if the terminal device supports the radio resources corresponding to the network slice corresponding to an established PDU session at the first position, the second access network device allows the PDU session to be switched to the second access network device. It can be understood that, when the second access network device determines whether to allow the handover of the PDU session to the second access network device, other factors, such as requirements of corresponding admission factors, may also be considered.

Optionally, after determining whether to allow the established PDU session to be handed over to the second access network device, the second access network device may further perform step 608 . That is, the second access network device may also send the second message to the first AMF. Correspondingly, the first AMF receives the second message sent by the second access network device. Wherein, the second message includes an identifier and/or second information of a PDU session refusing to switch to the second access network device. The second information is used to indicate that the terminal device does not support access to the radio resource corresponding to the first position of the network slice corresponding to the PDU session that refuses to switch to the second access network device.

Optionally, the second message may be a path switch request message (N2 path switch request).

Optionally, after determining whether to allow switching of the established PDU session to the second access network device, the second access network device may further perform step 609 . That is, the second access network device may also send the third message to the first AMF. Correspondingly, the first AMF receives the third message sent by the second access network device. Wherein, the third message includes the identifier of the PDU session that is allowed to switch to the second access network device.

Optionally, the third message may be a path switching request message.

In step 610, the core network device performs path switching of the PDU session according to the identifier of the PDU session that allows switching to the second access network device and/or the identifier of the PDU session that rejects switching to the second access network device. Specifically, the first AMF sends a PDU session update request message (Nsmf_PDUSession_UpdateSMContext request) to the SMF, and accordingly, the SMF receives the PDU session update request message sent by the first AMF. Wherein, the PDU session update request message includes an identifier of a PDU session that allows switching to the second access network device and/or an identifier of a PDU session that refuses to switch to the second access network device. The SMF initiates a PDU session modification procedure to the UPF. After that, the SMF sends a PDU session update response message (Nsmf_PDUSession_UpdateSMContext response) to the first AMF to complete the PDU session update process.

In step 611, the first AMF sends a path switch request response message (N2 path switch request ACK) message to the second access network device to complete the path switch process of the PDU session.

Optionally, in step 612, for the PDU session that cannot be successfully switched to the second access network device, the SMF initiates a PDU session release procedure.

Optionally, after step 612, the terminal device may also initiate a mobility registration update process. In this process, the first AMF determines the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access, and at the same time, the first AMF will release the network corresponding to the PDU session. The identifier of the slice is placed in the rejected NSSAI, and first information is generated, where the first information is used to indicate that the terminal device does not support access to the network slice for which the terminal device is refused access to the corresponding network slice in the first position. wireless resources.

FIG. 7 is another schematic flowchart of the communication method provided by the present application. The method shown in FIG. 7 is similar to the method shown in FIG. 6 , except that the access network device triggers the handover of the N2 interface instead of the handover of the Xn interface.

In step 701, the terminal device moves from the second position to the first position, triggering the switching process of the N2 interface.

In a possible implementation manner, when the terminal device is in a connected state, the terminal device performs related measurements according to the measurement configuration message sent by the first access network device to obtain a measurement report; then the terminal device sends the measurement report to the source access network. network equipment. Wherein, the measurement report includes a list of candidate access network device information (for example, a list of candidate Target IDs), and the results of measurement indicators between each candidate access network device and the terminal device. The first access network device selects a second access network device from multiple candidate access network devices according to the measurement report reported by the terminal device. Further, the first access network device determines whether there is an Xn interface with the second access network device, and if not, triggers a handover process of the N2 interface.

Optionally, the above measurement index includes at least one of RSSI, RSRP, and RSRQ obtained by the terminal device.

In some embodiments, before step 701, the terminal device may initiate a PDU session establishment process to establish one or more PDU sessions for transmitting services. Specifically, steps 704-707 may be performed. Steps 704-707 are similar to steps 604-607 in FIG. 6, and the description of steps 604-607 can be referred to, and details are not repeated here.

In step 702, the first access network device sends a first message to the second access network device. Correspondingly, the second access network device receives the first message from the first access network device. The first message is used to request to switch the PDU session established by the terminal device to the second access network device. The first message includes first radio resource information used to indicate that the terminal device supports access to radio resources.

Since there is no Xn interface between the first access network device and the second access network device, as shown in FIG. 7 , the first access network device uses the first AMF and the second AMF to communicate to the second access network device Send the first message.

Specifically, in step 702-1, the first access network device sends the first message to the first AMF. Correspondingly, the first AMF receives the first message from the first access network device. Wherein, the first message includes the first radio resource information, the target cell ID, the information of the PDU session established by the terminal device, and the like. The information of the established PDU sessions includes the network slice corresponding to each established PDU session and the QoS profile (Qos profile(s)) information corresponding to each established PDU session. Optionally, the first message is a handover request message. In step 702-2, the first AMF selects the second AMF according to the target cell ID. In step 702-3, the first AMF transfers the context of the terminal device to the second AMF, where the context of the terminal device includes the first radio resource information, the target cell ID, and the information of the PDU session established by the terminal device. In step 702-4, the second AMF selects the second access network device, and sends the first message to the second access network device.

Step 703 is similar to step 603, and reference may be made to the description of step 603, which will not be repeated here.

Steps 708-712 are similar to steps 608-612, and reference may be made to the description of steps 608-612. The difference is that the second access network device performs the related process of the path switching.

Optionally, after step 712, the terminal device may also initiate a mobility registration update process. In this process, the first AMF determines the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access, and at the same time, the first AMF will release the network corresponding to the PDU session. The identifier of the slice is placed in the rejected NSSAI, and first information is generated, where the first information is used to indicate that the terminal device does not support access to the network slice for which the terminal device is refused access to the corresponding network slice in the first position. wireless resources.

In the methods shown in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 , in the handover scenario, the AMF determines whether to Allowing the PDU session established by the terminal device to be switched to the second access network device can ensure that the terminal device supports access to the network slice selected by the AMF that allows the terminal device to access, which is helpful for service transmission.

5)

FIG. 8 is another schematic flowchart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. The method shown in FIG. 8 can be performed by the terminal equipment, access network equipment, AMF and SMF, or by modules or units (eg, circuits, chips or SOCs, etc.) in the terminal equipment, access network equipment, AMF and SMF. implement. In FIG. 8 , the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application are described by taking the execution subjects as terminal equipment, access network equipment, AMF and SMF as an example. The method shown in FIG. 8 may include at least part of the following.

In step 801, the terminal device at the first location initiates a registration process. Specifically, the terminal device sends a registration request message to the access network device. Correspondingly, the access network device receives the registration request message from the terminal device.

Optionally, the registration request message may include the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device requests to access. Optionally, when the terminal device needs to access one or some network slices, the registration request message includes the network slice (requested NSSAI) that the terminal device requests to access. Wherein, the network slice requested to be accessed by the terminal device may be one or more network slices, and it may be understood that the requested NSSAI may include one S-NSSAI or multiple S-NSSAIs.

Exemplarily, the network slice requested to be accessed by the terminal device may be shown in Table 9.

Table 9

Requested NSSAI
S-NSSAI-1
S-NSSAI-2
S-NSSAI-3

Optionally, the terminal device sends RRC signaling to the access network device, where the RRC signaling carries the registration request message.

The information of the first location may be a TAI corresponding to a tracking area (tracking area, TA) where the access network device currently accessed by the terminal device is located. For example TAI-1.

In step 802, the access network device sends the received registration request message and the information of the first location to the first AMF. Correspondingly, the first AMF receives the registration request message sent by the access network device.

Optionally, after receiving the registration request message of the terminal device, the access network device selects the first AMF for the terminal device according to the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device requests to access carried in the registration request message, and sends the selected first AMF to the selected first AMF. An AMF sends a registration request message from a terminal device. In step 803, the first AMF sends a second request message to the access network device. Correspondingly, the access network device receives the second request message sent by the first AMF.

Specifically, the first AMF determines the first network slice based on the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device requests to access and the subscription information of the terminal device.

Optionally, if the first AMF is not sure whether the terminal device supports the radio resources corresponding to the first network slice at the first location, the first AMF sends an N2 message to the access network device, where the N2 message carries the second request message, and the first AMF sends the N2 message to the access network device. The second request message carries the identifier of the first network slice.

The first AMF may also decide whether to send the N2 message to the access network device based on other judgment conditions. For example, before the registration process, the access network device sends indication information to the first AMF, and the first AMF decides to send the N2 message to the access network device based on the indication information. The network access device sends an N2 message.

Wherein, the identifier of the first network slice may be the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device requests to access, or the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access, or the identifier of other network slices determined by the first AMF. Do limit. It can be understood that the first network slice is an undetermined network slice, or it can be understood that the first network slice is a network slice to be checked whether it matches the air interface capability of the terminal device.

The identifier of the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access may be determined by the first AMF according to the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device requests to access and the subscription information of the terminal device. It can be understood that, since the first AMF is not sure whether the terminal device supports the radio resource corresponding to the first network slice at the first location, the network slice that the first AMF determines in this step to allow the terminal device to access only considers the request of the terminal device. The identification of the network slice to be accessed, the subscription information of the terminal device and other factors, therefore, the terminal device may not support the network slice determined in this step to allow the terminal device to access.

Optionally, the second request message may further include second wireless resource information, where the second wireless resource information is used to indicate the wireless resource corresponding to at least one network slice at the first position, and the at least one network slice includes the terminal device requesting access. Incoming network slice.

Optionally, the second radio resource information may include information on radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at the first location. That is to say, the first AMF may provide the access network device with all the information of the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed in the first location.

Optionally, the second radio resource information may include information on radio resources corresponding to the first network slice at the first location. That is to say, the first AMF may only provide the access network device with the information of the radio resources corresponding to a part of the network slices deployed in the first location. For example, the first AMF may provide the access network device with information about radio resources corresponding to a part of the network slice deployed in the first location according to the network slice requested by the terminal device to access, where the part of the network slice at least includes the request from the terminal device At least one of the network slices accessed. Alternatively, the first AMF may provide the access network device with information on radio resources corresponding to a part of the network slice deployed at the first location according to the network slice that allows the terminal device to access, where the part of the network slice at least includes the part of the network slice that allows the terminal device to access At least one of the network slices accessed.

For example, after receiving the registration request message sent by the access network device, the first AMF may determine that the first network slice is in Information about the radio resource corresponding to the first location.

Exemplarily, taking the first network slice as an example of the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device requests to access, the first AMF is based on the requested NSSAI shown in Table 9 and the network deployed at the first location shown in Table 10. The information of the radio resources corresponding to the slice can be determined as shown in Table 11. Among them, the requested NSSAI does not contain S-NSSAI-4, so the radio resource information corresponding to S-NSSAI-4 may not be sent to the access network equipment.

Table 10

Table 11

In some implementations, the above-mentioned second request message may be a UE RADIO CAPABILITY CHECK REQUEST message.

In some implementations, if the radio capability ID (UE radio capability ID) of the terminal device is stored on the first AMF, the second request message may further include the UE radio capability ID.

Optionally, the information of the radio resource corresponding to the network slice deployed in the first location may be pre-configured in the first AMF.

Optionally, if the access network device stores information about the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at the first location, the first AMF does not need to send the second radio resource information to the access network device.

There are many ways to configure the information of the radio resource corresponding to the network slice deployed in the first location for the access network device, which is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present application.

In method 1, the access network device is pre-configured with information about radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at the first location.

According to the foregoing description, the information of the first location may be the TAI corresponding to the tracking area where the access network device currently accessed by the terminal device is located. Therefore, the method 1 can be understood as that the access network device pre-configures the information of the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed by the TAI where the access network device is located.

In method 2, the access network device acquires information about radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at the first location from the second request message sent by the first AMF.

According to the foregoing description, since the first AMF can obtain the information of the first location (that is, the TAI corresponding to the tracking area where the access network device is located) from the access network device in step 801, the first AMF can The information of the radio resource corresponding to the slice is sent to the access network device through the second request message. The first AMF may be pre-configured with information about the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at the first location, or obtain information about the wireless resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at the first location from other network elements, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. .

In method 3, the access network device may request the first AMF for information on the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at the first location in the N2 connection establishment process. Specifically, the access network device may send an N2 connection request message to the first AMF, where the message includes the identifier of the network slice deployed in the first location, optionally, the first location may use the tracking area where the access network device is located After receiving the N2 connection request message, the first AMF sends the N2 connection response message to the access network device to carry the information of the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed in the first location.

Through the method 3, the access network device can acquire the information of the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed in the first location before the terminal device is registered, and the information of the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed in the first location can be stored in the access network on the network device. When the terminal device registers with the access network device located in the first location, the access network device can directly read the information of the radio resource corresponding to the network slice deployed in the first location from the locally stored context information.

In method 4, the access network device and other access network devices interact with each other to support the identifier of the network slice and the radio resource information corresponding to the network slice. The specific possible process is as follows. For the convenience of description, the access network device is referred to as the first access network device, and the other access network devices are referred to as the second access network device.

1) If there is an Xn interface between the first access network device and the second access network device

The first access network device may interact with the second access network device in the process of establishing the Xn interface with each other with the identifier of the network slice supported by each other and the radio resource information corresponding to the network slice.

For example, as shown in FIG. 9, the first access network device sends an Xn setup request message (Xn SETUP REQUEST) message to the second access network device, carrying the identifier of the network slice supported by the first access network device and the network slice Radio resource information corresponding to the first access network device. The second access network device stores the identifier of the network slice supported by the first access network device and the radio resource information corresponding to the network slice in the first access network device. The second access network device sends an Xn setup response message (Xn SETUP RESPONSE) message to the first access network device, carrying the identifier of the network slice supported by the second access network device and the network slice corresponding to the second access network device The first access network device saves the identifier of the network slice supported by the second access network device and the radio resource information corresponding to the network slice in the second access network device.

Optionally, the cell where the second access network device is located and the cell where the first access network device is located may be in a neighbor relationship.

2) If there is no Xn interface between the first access network device and the second access network device

The first access network device and the second access network device can obtain the identifier of the network slice supported by each and the radio resource information corresponding to the network slice through the inter NG-RAN Configuration Transfer process.

The AMF network element connected to the first access network device is the first AMF network element, the AMF network element connected to the second access network device is the second AMF network element, and the first AMF network element is connected to the second AMF network element. The AMF network elements may be the same or different, which are not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

For example, as shown in FIG. 10 , taking the difference between the first AMF network element and the second AMF network element as an example, the first access network device sends a configuration transfer message (Configuration Transfer message) to the first AMF network element, and the message includes The identifier of the first access network device, the identifier of the network slice supported by the first access network device, the radio resource information corresponding to the network slice in the first access network device, and the identifier of the second access network device. The first AMF network element is connected with the first access network device through an N2 interface, the identifier of the first access network device may be the address of the first access network device, and the identifier of the second access network device may be the second access network device. The address of the access network device.

The first AMF network element determines the second AMF network element according to the identity of the second access network device, and sends the configuration transmission message from the first access network device to the second AMF network element, where the second AMF network element is connected to the second AMF network element. The second access network device has an N2 interface connection, and the first AMF network element and the second AMF network element have an N14 interface connection.

The second AMF network element determines the second access network device according to the identifier of the second access network device, and sends the configuration transmission message from the first access network device to the second access network device.

So far, the second access network device acquires the identifier of the network slice supported by the first access network device and the radio resource information corresponding to the network slice in the first access network device.

Similarly, the second access network device can use the same method described above to pass the identifier of the network slice supported by the second access network device, the radio resource information corresponding to the network slice in the second access network device through the second AMF network element and The first AMF network element is sent to the first access network device. So far, the first access network device obtains the identifier of the network slice supported by the second access network device and the radio resource corresponding to the network slice in the second access network device. information.

Returning to FIG. 8 , in step 804, the access network device determines, according to the first radio resource information, the second radio resource information and the identifier of the first network slice, the identifier (supported NSSAI) of the network slice that the terminal device supports access to. The identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device supports access is used to indicate the S-NSSAI in which the terminal device supports air interface access in the first network slice. It can be understood that the first network slice includes a network slice that the terminal device supports to access, or it can be understood that the network slice that the terminal device supports to access is part or all of the first network slice.

The first wireless resource information is used to indicate the wireless resources that the terminal device supports access to, or the first wireless resource information is used to indicate the wireless capability information that the terminal device has. capability) cell representation.

Optionally, the wireless resource in the embodiment of the present application may be one or more of a frequency point, a frequency, or a frequency band, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. For example, the first radio resource information may indicate one or more frequency points supported by the terminal device for access, and/or one or more frequency bands supported by the terminal device for access.

There are many ways for the access network device to obtain the first radio resource information, which is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present application.

In some implementation manners, if the access network device stores the first radio resource information, the access network device can read the first radio resource information locally.

For example, the access network device reads the first radio resource information according to the identifier of the terminal device.

For another example, if the access network device stores the mapping relationship between the UE radio capability ID and the wireless capability information of the terminal device, the access network device can read the first radio resource information according to the UE radio capability ID, where the UE radio capability ID can be From the first AMF.

In other implementation manners, if the access network device does not have the first radio resource information, the access network device may acquire the first radio resource information from the terminal device. Specifically, as shown in steps 805 and 806 .

In step 805, the access network device sends a third request message to the terminal device, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the third request message sent by the access network device.

Optionally, the third request message may be an RRC message.

For example, the radio resource information that the terminal device supports to access may be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element, and the third request message may be a terminal device capability query message (UE Capability Enquiry).

Optionally, the access network device may also add indication information (second indication information) to the terminal device capability query message, where the indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to obtain the first radio resource information, so that the terminal device can only report The first radio resource information does not need to report other radio capability information, which can reduce signaling overhead.

In step 806, the terminal device sends a third response message to the access network device. The third response message is a response message of the third request message. The third response message includes the above-mentioned first radio resource information. Correspondingly, the access network device receives the third response message sent by the terminal device.

Optionally, the third response message may be an RRC message.

For example, the radio resource information that the terminal device supports access to may be represented by a radio capability (radio capability) information element, and the third response message may be a terminal device capability information message (UE Capability Information).

For example, the radio capability indicates that the terminal device supports working band-1 and working band-2.

Optionally, when the terminal device capability query message includes indication information for instructing to obtain the first radio resource information from the terminal device, the terminal device capability information message may only include the first radio resource information.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the access network device may further determine, according to the first radio resource information, the second radio resource information, and the identifier of the first network slice, the identifier (non- -supported NSSAI). The identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device does not support access (non-supported NSSAI) is used to indicate that the terminal device in the first network slice does not support the S-NSSAI of air interface access. It can be understood that the first network slice includes a network slice that the terminal device does not support access to, or it can be understood that the network slice that the terminal device does not support access to is part or all of the first network slice.

Optionally, in some embodiments, when the supported NSSAI includes multiple network slices, and the radio resource information corresponding to the multiple network slices included in the supported NSSAI is different, the access network device may also determine whether the terminal device supports simultaneous access. Multiple network slices in the above supported NSSAI. When a terminal device simultaneously accesses multiple network slices in the above supported NSSAI, it can be understood that the terminal device can simultaneously access multiple network slices in the supported NSSAI through multiple wireless resources, or it can be understood that the terminal device can access multiple network slices in the supported NSSAI through multiple wireless resources at the same time. The resource simultaneously establishes multiple PDU sessions associated with multiple network slices in the supported NSSAI.

For example, the access network device can determine, according to the terminal wireless capability information, that the terminal device has dual connectivity (DC) capability, and the terminal device supports access to the wireless resources corresponding to each S-NSSAI in the supported NSSAI, then the access network The device can determine which S-NSSAIs in the supported NSSAIs the terminal device can access simultaneously through the DC.

For another example, when the supported NSSAI includes 2 network slices, and the radio resource information corresponding to the 2 network slices respectively is the working frequency band-1 and the working frequency band-2. The access network device can determine that the terminal device can simultaneously access the working frequency band-1 and the working frequency band-2 through the DC, then the access network device can determine that the terminal device can simultaneously access the supported NSSAI through the DC.

In step 807, the access network device sends a second response message to the first AMF. Correspondingly, the first AMF receives the second response message sent by the access network device. The second response message is a response message of the second request message. The second response message includes the identifier (supported NSSAI) of the network slice to which the terminal device supports access. Optionally, the second response message may be an N2 message. For example, the second response message may be a terminal device radio capability check response message (UE RADIO CAPABILITY CHECK Response).

Optionally, the second response message may further include the identifier (non-supported NSSAI) of the network slice to which the terminal device does not support access.

Optionally, the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device does not support access to may also be sent to the first AMF (Rejected NSSAI) as the network slice that rejects the terminal access, which is not limited in this application.

Optionally, the second response message may further carry third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate whether the terminal device supports simultaneous access to some or all of the network slices in the supported NSSAI.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment of the present application, the meaning used to indicate whether the terminal device supports simultaneous access to some or all of the network slices in the supported NSSAI is the same as that used to indicate which S-NSSAIs the terminal device can access simultaneously. It can be understood that the third indication information can be used to indicate whether the terminal device supports simultaneous access to some or all of the network slices in the supported NSSAI, and can also be used to indicate which S-NSSAIs the terminal device can access simultaneously.

Optionally, when the supported NSSAI includes multiple network slices, and the radio resource information corresponding to the multiple network slices included in the supported NSSAI is different, the second response message may carry third indication information.

As an implementation manner, in step 807, the access network device sends a second response message to the first AMF. The second response message may only include third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate which S-NSSAIs the terminal device can access simultaneously.

In step 808, the first AMF determines a network slice (allowed NSSAI) that the terminal device is allowed to access. Among them, the allowed NSSAI determined in this step is not only a network slice that allows the terminal device to access, but also the terminal device can support access to the allowed NSSAI. For example, the first AMF determines the allowed NSSAI according to the supported NSSAI and the subscription information of the terminal device.

For example, in combination with Table 9, Table 10 and Table 11, assuming that the terminal equipment supports access to working frequency band-1, the supported NSSAI includes S-NSSAI-1 and S-NSSAI-2. If the terminal equipment subscription information is determined according to the terminal equipment subscription information If S-NSSAI-1 and S-NSSAI-2 are present, the first AMF determines that the allowed NSSAI includes S-NSSAI-1 and S-NSSAI-2.

Optionally, if the first AMF receives the third indication information from the access network device, the first AMF may determine the allowed NSSAI according to the identifier (supported NSSAI) of the network slice to which the terminal device supports access and the third indication information. For example, the first AMF determines whether the terminal device supports simultaneous access to the supported NSSAI according to the third indication information, and further determines the allowed NSSAI. At this time, the terminal device supports simultaneous access to all network slices in the allowed NSSAI.

Optionally, if the first AMF only receives the third indication information from the access network device, the first AMF may determine the allowed NSSAI according to the third indication information. For example, the first AMF determines which S-NSSAIs the terminal device can access simultaneously according to the third indication information, and further determines which S-NSSAIs can be used as allowed NSSAIs.

It can be understood that the terminal device can not only access the wireless resources corresponding to the network slices in the allowed NSSAI, but also access all the network slices in the allowed NSSAI at the same time.

Optionally, the first AMF may also determine a network slice (rejected NSSAI) to which the terminal device is refused access.

For example, the first AMF determines a network slice (rejected NSSAI) to which the terminal device is refused access according to the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device supports access. If the first AMF does not receive the identification of the network slice that the terminal device does not support access to (non-supported NSSAI) from the access network device or does not receive from the access network device the network slice that rejects the terminal access (Rejected NSSAI), then the first AMF An AMF can determine the rejected NSSAI according to the requested NSSAI and the allowed NSSAI, that is, it can be understood as determining that the S-NSSAI included in the requested NSSAI and not included in the allowed NSSAI is the rejected NSSAI.

For another example, if the first AMF receives from the access network device an identifier of a network slice that the terminal device does not support access to (non-supported NSSAI) or does not receive a network slice from the access network device that rejects the terminal access (Rejected NSSAI) , then the first AMF can first check whether the terminal device subscribes to the network slice that the terminal device supports access according to the subscription information of the terminal device, and further, the first AMF determines to reject the terminal device according to the network slice that the terminal device does not support access to Accessed network slice (rejected NSSAI). Among them, the network slices determined by the AMF to deny the access of the terminal equipment include both the network slices in the supported NSSAI that the terminal equipment has not subscribed to, and the network slices that the terminal equipment does not support access to.

Optionally, if the rejected NSSAI includes the S-NSSAI associated with the PDU session that the terminal device currently has established, the first AMF may trigger the release of the PDU session.

Optionally, in step 811, the first AMF sends a registration accept message to the access network device and the terminal device, where the registration accept message may include an identifier of a network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access. Optionally, the registration acceptance message may include the identification of the network slice to which the terminal device is denied access. Wherein, the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access is determined by the first AMF in step 808 according to the identifier (supported NSSAI) of the network slice to which the terminal device supports access.

Considering that the AMF may not perceive the wireless capability of the terminal device during the registration process, in this embodiment of the present application, the AMF may send the first network slice to the access network device, so that the access network device can Judging whether access to the radio resources corresponding to each S-NSSAI included in the first network slice is supported, and sending the supported NSSAI to the AMF can ensure that the terminal device supports access to the network slice determined by the AMF, which is helpful for the terminal device business transmission.

6)

If the access network device is locally configured with information about the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at the location of the access network device (that is, the first location), the process shown in FIG. 11 can also be used to consider the terminal device registration process Wireless capability information of the terminal device. The information of the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed in the first location may be configured for the access network device by using methods 1 to 4 in FIG. 8 .

FIG. 11 is another schematic flowchart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. The method shown in FIG. 11 may be performed by terminal equipment, access network equipment, AMF and SMF, or may be performed by modules or units (eg, circuits, chips, or SOCs, etc.) in terminal equipment, access network equipment, AMF, and SMF. implement. In FIG. 11 , the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application are described by taking the execution subjects as terminal equipment, access network equipment, AMF and SMF as an example. The method shown in FIG. 11 may include at least part of the following.

In step 1101, the terminal device at the first location initiates a registration process. Specifically, the terminal device sends a registration request message to the access network device. Correspondingly, the access network device receives the registration request message from the terminal device. Step 1101 is the same as step 801, and reference may be made to the relevant description of step 801, which will not be repeated here.

In step 1102, since the access network device locally configures the information of the radio resource corresponding to the network slice deployed in the first location (ie the second radio resource information), the access network device can directly use the first radio resource information, The second radio resource information and the identifier of the first network slice determine the identifier (supported NSSAI) of the network slice to which the terminal device supports access. The identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device supports access is used to indicate the S-NSSAI in which the terminal device supports air interface access in the first network slice. The identifier of the first network slice is the identifier of the network slice provided by the terminal device in step 1101 to which the terminal device requests to access.

It can be understood that the Requested NSSAI (that is, the first network slice) includes the network slice that the terminal device supports to access, or it can be understood that the network slice that the terminal device supports to access is part or all of the Requested NSSAI.

The first wireless resource information is used to indicate the wireless resources that the terminal device supports access to, or the first wireless resource information is used to indicate the wireless capability information that the terminal device has. capability) cell representation.

Optionally, the wireless resource in the embodiment of the present application may be one or more of a frequency point, a frequency, or a frequency band, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. For example, the first radio resource information may indicate one or more frequency points supported by the terminal device for access, and/or one or more frequency bands supported by the terminal device for access.

For the manner in which the access network device obtains the first radio resource information, reference may be made to the related content in FIG. 8 , and details are not described herein again.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the access network device may further determine, according to the first radio resource information, the second radio resource information, and the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device requests to access, determine the network slice that the terminal device does not support access to. identifier (non-supported NSSAI). The identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device does not support access (non-supported NSSAI) is used to indicate the S-NSSAI in which the terminal device does not support air interface access in the Requested NSSAI (ie, the first network slice). It can be understood that the Requested NSSAI includes network slices that the terminal device does not support access to, or that the network slice that the terminal device does not support access to is part or all of the Requested NSSAI.

Optionally, in some embodiments, when the supported NSSAI includes multiple network slices, and the radio resource information corresponding to the multiple network slices included in the supported NSSAI is different, the access network device may also determine whether the terminal device supports simultaneous access. Multiple network slices of the above supported NSSAI. When a terminal device simultaneously accesses multiple network slices in the above supported NSSAI, it can be understood that the terminal device can simultaneously access multiple network slices in the supported NSSAI through multiple wireless resources, or it can be understood that the terminal device can access multiple network slices in the supported NSSAI through multiple wireless resources at the same time. The resource simultaneously establishes multiple PDU sessions associated with multiple network slices in the supported NSSAI.

For example, the access network device can determine, according to the terminal wireless capability information, that the terminal device has dual connectivity (DC) capability, and the terminal device supports access to the wireless resources corresponding to each S-NSSAI in the supported NSSAI, then the access network The device can determine which S-NSSAIs in the supported NSSAIs the terminal device can access simultaneously through the DC.

For another example, when the supported NSSAI includes 2 network slices, and the radio resource information corresponding to the 2 network slices respectively is the working frequency band-1 and the working frequency band-2. The access network device can determine that the terminal device can simultaneously access the working frequency band-1 and the working frequency band-2 through the DC, then the access network device can determine that the terminal device can simultaneously access the supported NSSAI through the DC.

In step 1105, the access network device sends a fourth message to the first AMF. Correspondingly, the first AMF receives the fourth message sent by the access network device. The fourth message includes the identifier (supported NSSAI) of the network slice to which the terminal device supports access, fourth indication information, and a registration request message received from the terminal device.

The fourth indication information is used to instruct the first AMF to determine a network slice (allowed NSSAI) to which the terminal device is allowed to access according to an identifier (supported NSSAI) of a network slice to which the terminal device supports access. It can be understood that the priority of the supported NSSAI is higher than that of the requested NSSAI, that is, the first AMF ignores the requested NSSAI contained in the registration request message, but determines the allowed NSSAI with reference to the supported NSSAI.

In this embodiment of the present application, the access network device may select the first AMF according to the determined identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device supports access.

Optionally, the fourth message may be an N2 message.

Optionally, the fourth message may further include an identifier (non-supported NSSAI) of the network slice to which the terminal device does not support access.

Optionally, the fourth message may further carry third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate whether the terminal device supports simultaneous access to some or all of the network slices in the supported NSSAI.

Optionally, when the supported NSSAI includes multiple network slices, and the radio resource information corresponding to the multiple network slices included in the supported NSSAI is different, the fourth message may carry third indication information.

In step 1106, the first AMF determines a network slice (allowed NSSAI) to which the terminal device is allowed to access according to the identifier (supported NSSAI) of the network slice to which the terminal device supports access. Among them, allowed NSSAI is not only a network slice that allows terminal devices to access, but also terminal devices can support access to allowed NSSAI.

For example, the first AMF determines the allowed NSSAI according to the supported NSSAI and the subscription information of the terminal device. For example, in combination with Table 9 and Table 10, assuming that the terminal equipment supports access to working frequency band-1, the supported NSSAI includes S-NSSAI-1 and S-NSSAI-2. NSSAI-1 and S-NSSAI-2, the first AMF determines that the allowed NSSAI includes S-NSSAI-1 and S-NSSAI-2.

Optionally, if the first AMF receives the third indication information from the access network device, the first AMF may determine the allowed NSSAI according to the identifier (supported NSSAI) of the network slice to which the terminal device supports access and the third indication information. For example, the first AMF determines whether the terminal device supports simultaneous access to the supported NSSAI according to the third indication information, and further determines the allowed NSSAI. At this time, the terminal device supports simultaneous access to the allowed NSSAI.

Optionally, the first AMF may also determine a network slice (rejected NSSAI) to which the terminal device is refused access.

For example, the first AMF determines a network slice (rejected NSSAI) to which the terminal device is refused access according to the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device supports access. If the first AMF does not receive the identification of the network slice that the terminal device does not support access to (non-supported NSSAI) from the access network device or does not receive from the access network device the network slice that rejects the terminal access (Rejected NSSAI), then the first AMF An AMF can determine the rejected NSSAI according to the requested NSSAI and the allowed NSSAI, that is, it can be understood as determining that the S-NSSAI included in the requested NSSAI and not included in the allowed NSSAI is the rejected NSSAI.

For another example, if the first AMF receives from the access network device an identifier of a network slice that the terminal device does not support access to (non-supported NSSAI) or does not receive a network slice from the access network device that rejects the terminal access (Rejected NSSAI) , then the first AMF can first check whether the terminal device subscribes to the network slice that the terminal device supports access according to the subscription information of the terminal device, and further, the first AMF determines to reject the terminal device according to the network slice that the terminal device does not support access to Accessed network slice (rejected NSSAI). Among them, the network slices determined by the AMF to deny the access of the terminal equipment include both the network slices in the supported NSSAI that the terminal equipment has not subscribed to, and the network slices that the terminal equipment does not support access to. Optionally, if the rejected NSSAI includes the S-NSSAI associated with the PDU session that the terminal device currently has established, the first AMF may trigger the release of the PDU session.

Optionally, in step 811, the first AMF sends a registration accept message to the access network device and the terminal device, where the registration accept message may include an identifier of a network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access. Optionally, the registration acceptance message may include the identification of the network slice to which the terminal device is denied access.

In the embodiment of the present application, after receiving the registration request message sent by the terminal device, the access network device may not forward it to the AMF, but first determine the network slice that the terminal device supports access to, and then send the determined terminal device to the network slice. The identifier of the network slice that supports access and the registration request message are sent to the AMF, and at the same time, the AMF is instructed to determine the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access according to the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device supports access to, so as to ensure that the terminal device is allowed to access the identifier of the network slice. Support access to the network slice determined by AMF, which is beneficial to the transmission of terminal equipment services.

The present application provides a communication method, in which an access network device acquires first radio resource information, second radio resource information and an identifier of a first network slice, wherein the first radio resource information is used to indicate The terminal device located at the first location supports the wireless resources accessed, the second wireless resource information is used to indicate the wireless resources corresponding to at least one network slice at the first location, and the at least one network slice includes the first network slice. Network Slicing.

In an implementation manner, the access network device obtains, from the first access and mobility management network element or the terminal device, the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device requests to access. For a specific description, please refer to Steps 801-803 or step 1101.

In an implementation manner, the access network device acquires the second radio resource information from the first access and mobility management network element, the access network device, or other access network devices, specifically The description may refer to step 803 or the description of the part of FIG. 9 and FIG. 10 .

In this method, the access network device determines the identifier of the second network slice according to the first radio resource information, the second radio resource information and the identifier of the first network slice, wherein the terminal The device supports access to the radio resource corresponding to the second network slice at the first location. For a specific description, refer to step 804 or step 1102.

In this method, the access network device sends the identifier of the second network slice to the first access and mobility management network element. In some implementation manners, the access network device sends third indication information to the first access and mobility management network element, where the third indication information is used to indicate whether the terminal device supports simultaneous access to all Part or all of the network slices in the second network slice. In some implementations, the access network device sends an identification of a third network slice to the first access and mobility management network element, wherein the terminal device does not support accessing all network slices at the first location. radio resources corresponding to the third network slice. For a detailed description, refer to step 807 or step 1105.

In the method, the first access and mobility management network element sends the identification of the first network slice to the access network device located at the first location. In some implementation manners, the first access and mobility management network element sends second radio resource information to the access network device, where the second radio resource information is used to indicate that at least one network slice is in the first A radio resource corresponding to a location, the at least one network slice includes the first network slice. For specific description, refer to step 803 .

In this method, the first access and mobility management network element receives an identification of a second network slice and third indication information from the access network device, and the terminal device supports access to the second network slice In the radio resource corresponding to the first position, the third indication information is used to indicate whether the terminal device supports simultaneous access to some or all of the network slices in the second network slice. In some implementation manners, the first access and mobility management network element receives fourth indication information and a registration request message sent by the access network device, where the fourth indication information is used to report to the first access network The ingress and mobility management network element indicates that the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access is determined according to the identifier of the second network slice. For a specific description, refer to the description of step 807 or step 1105 .

In this method, the first access and mobility management network element determines, according to the second network slice and the third indication information, the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access. The specific description may be as follows: Refer to step 808 or step 1106 for description.

Optionally, the first access and mobility management network element determines a network slice to which the terminal device is denied access. For a specific description, reference may be made to the description of step 809 or step 1107.

In this method, the first access and mobility management network element sends the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access to the terminal device. For details, refer to step 811 or step 1109 for details. describe.

7)

If the access network device is locally configured with information about the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at the location of the access network device (that is, the first location), the process shown in FIG. 12 can also be used to consider the terminal device registration process Wireless capability information of the terminal device. The information of the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed in the first location may be configured for the access network device by referring to the method 1, the method 3 and the method 4 in FIG. 8 .

FIG. 12 is another schematic flowchart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. The method shown in FIG. 12 may be executed by the terminal device, the access network device and the AMF, or may be executed by a module or unit (eg, circuit, chip or SOC, etc.) in the terminal device, the access network device and the AMF. In FIG. 11 , the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application are described by taking the execution subject as a terminal device, an access network device, and an AMF as an example. The method shown in FIG. 12 may include at least part of the following.

In step 1201, the access network device sends to the terminal device the identifier of the network slice deployed in the first location and information about the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed in the first location. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the identifier of the network slice deployed in the first location and the information of the radio resource corresponding to the network slice deployed in the first location, which are sent by the access network device.

Optionally, the access network device sends the identification of the network slice deployed in the first location and the information of the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed in the first location to the terminal device through a broadcast message.

Optionally, the broadcast message may be an RRC message.

In step 1202, the terminal device determines, according to the first radio resource information and the information of the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed in the first location, the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device requests to access.

For example, when the terminal device determines the network slice that the terminal device requests to access, it will consider the network resources that it supports to access (that is, the above-mentioned first wireless resource information), and also consider the first location (for example, the current location of the terminal device) ) information about the radio resources corresponding to the deployed network slice. If the terminal device does not support accessing the network resources of a certain network slice, or if the radio resources corresponding to the network slice at the current location are inconsistent with the network resources supported by the terminal device itself, the terminal device does not regard the network slice as a terminal device The network slice to which access is requested. In other words, the network slice to which the terminal device requests to access does not include the network slice.

The terminal device supports accessing the radio resource corresponding to the network slice requested for access at the first location.

Wherein, the first wireless resource information is used to indicate the wireless resources that the terminal device supports to access, or the first wireless resource information is used to indicate the wireless capability information that the terminal device has.

Optionally, the wireless resource in the embodiment of the present application may be one or more of a frequency point, a frequency, or a frequency band, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. For example, the first radio resource information may indicate one or more frequency points supported by the terminal device for access, and/or one or more frequency bands supported by the terminal device for access.

In step 1203, the terminal device normally initiates a registration request process by sending a registration request message to the access network device, and registers with the network. Wherein, the registration request message includes the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device requests to access determined by the above method.

In this embodiment of the present application, the access network device sends information about the radio resources corresponding to the network slice deployed at its location to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can construct the requested NSSAI according to its own air interface wireless capability, thereby ensuring that the terminal device requests access to the network. The radio resources corresponding to the incoming network slice are all supported by the air interface capability of the terminal device.

It should be noted that, the above-mentioned embodiments may be implemented independently, and may also be implemented in an appropriate combination.

It should also be noted that the identifier of the network slice in the above embodiments may be S-NSSAI or other identifiers that can uniquely identify a network slice. The location involved in the embodiments of the present application (for example, the location of the terminal device and the location of the access network device, etc.) may be the TA or other information that can represent the location, where the TA may be represented by TAI.

It can be understood that, in order to realize the functions in the foregoing embodiments, the communication apparatus includes corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules for performing each function. Those skilled in the art should easily realize that the units and method steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed in the present application can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is performed by hardware or computer software-driven hardware depends on the specific application scenarios and design constraints of the technical solution.

13 to 14 are schematic structural diagrams of possible apparatuses provided by the embodiments of the present application.

These apparatuses can be used to implement the functions of terminal equipment, access network equipment, AMF or NSSF in the above method embodiments, and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects of the above method embodiments. In the embodiment of the present application, the communication apparatus may be a terminal device, an access network device, AMF or NSSF, and may also be a module (eg, a chip) applied to the terminal device, access network device, AMF or NSSF.

As shown in FIG. 13 , the apparatus 800 includes a processing unit 810 and a transceiver unit 820 . The apparatus 800 is configured to implement the functions of the terminal device, the access network device, the AMF or the NSSF in any of the above method embodiments shown in FIG. 3 to FIG. 7 .

When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 3 : the transceiver unit 820 may perform steps 301 , 304 , 305 , 311 , 314 and 317 shown in the method side embodiment. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the access network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 3 , the transceiver unit 820 may perform steps 301 , 303 , 306 , 310 , 313 and 316 shown in the method embodiment. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the first AMF in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 3 : the processing unit 810 may perform step 309 shown in the method side embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may perform the step shown in the method side embodiment. 301-303, 306, 308, 312, 315, 310, 313 and 316. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the second AMF in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 3 : the processing unit 810 may execute step 309 shown in the method embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may execute the step shown in the method embodiment 310, 313, 4 and 316. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the NSSF in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 3 : the processing unit 810 may execute steps 307 and 318 shown in the method embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may execute the steps shown in the method embodiment 302, 308, 312 and 315.

When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 4 , the transceiver unit 820 may perform steps 401 , 404 , 405 , 410 , 412 and 414 shown in the method side embodiment. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the functions of the access network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 4 , the transceiver unit 820 may perform steps 401 and 403-412 shown in the method side embodiment. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the first AMF in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 4 : the processing unit 810 may execute steps 402 and 415 shown in the method embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may execute the method shown in the method embodiment. steps 403, 406, 407, 408, 409, 411 and 413.

When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 5 : the processing unit 810 may perform step 512 shown in the method side embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may perform step 501 shown in the method side embodiment. , 505, 507, 509 and 511. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the access network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 5 : the processing unit 810 may execute step 512 shown in the method embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may execute the method shown in the method embodiment. Steps 501 and 504-511. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the first AMF in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 5: the processing unit 810 may execute steps 502, 503 and 513 shown in the method embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may execute the method embodiment Steps 501, 504, 506, 508 and 510 are shown. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the SMF in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 5 : the processing unit 810 may execute steps 503 and 512 shown in the method side embodiment.

When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the functions of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 6 : the processing unit 810 may execute steps 601 and 612 shown in the method embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may execute the method embodiment shown in the method embodiment. Steps 604 and 607. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the first access network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 6 : the processing unit 810 may perform steps 601 and 612 shown in the method side embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may perform the method side implementation Steps 604, 606, 607 and 602 are shown in the example. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the second access network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 6 : the processing unit 810 may perform steps 603 and 612 shown in the method side embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may perform the method side implementation Steps 602, 608, 609 and 611 are shown in the example. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the first AMF in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 6 : the processing unit 810 may execute step 612 shown in the method embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may execute the step shown in the method embodiment 604-606 and 608-611. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the SMF function in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 6 : the processing unit 810 may execute step 612 shown in the method embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may execute step 605 and the method shown in the method embodiment. 610. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the UPF in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 6 : the processing unit 810 may execute step 612 shown in the method embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may execute steps 605 and 600 shown in the method embodiment. 610.

When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 7 : the processing unit 810 may execute steps 701 and 712 shown in the method embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may execute the method embodiment shown in the method embodiment. Steps 704 and 707. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the first access network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 7 : the processing unit 810 may perform steps 701 and 712 shown in the method side embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may perform the method side implementation Examples are steps 704, 706, 707 and 702-1. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the second access network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 7 : the processing unit 810 may perform steps 703 and 712 shown in the method side embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may perform the method side implementation Steps 702-4, 708, 709 and 711 are shown in the example. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the first AMF in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 7 : the processing unit 810 may execute steps 702-2 and 712 shown in the method embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may execute the method embodiment Steps 704, 705, 706, 702-1 and 702-3 are shown. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the second AMF in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 7 : the processing unit 810 may execute step 712 shown in the method embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may execute the step shown in the method embodiment 702-3, 702-4 and 708-711. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the SMF function in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 7 : the processing unit 810 may execute step 712 shown in the method embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may execute step 705 and step 705 shown in the method embodiment. 710. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the UPF in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 7 : the processing unit 810 may execute step 612 shown in the method embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may execute steps 705 and 705 shown in the method embodiment. 710.

When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 8 , the transceiver unit 820 may perform steps 801 , 805 , 806 and 811 shown in the method side embodiment. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the access network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 8 : the processing unit 810 may execute step 804 shown in the method embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may execute the method shown in the method embodiment. Steps 801, 802, 803, 805, 806, 807 and 811. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the first AMF in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 8 : the processing unit 810 may execute steps 808 to 810 shown in the method embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may execute the method shown in the method embodiment. steps 802, 803, 807 and 811. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the SMF in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 8 : the processing unit 810 may execute step 810 shown in the method side embodiment.

When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 11 , the transceiver unit 820 may perform steps 1101 , 1103 , 1104 and 1109 shown in the method side embodiment. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the access network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 11 : the processing unit 810 may execute step 1102 shown in the method embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may execute the method embodiment shown in the method embodiment. Steps 1101, 1103-1105 and 1109. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the first AMF in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 11 : the processing unit 810 may execute steps 1106 to 1108 shown in the method embodiment, and the transceiver unit 820 may execute the method shown in the method embodiment. steps 1105 and 1109. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the SMF in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 11 , the processing unit 810 may execute step 1108 shown in the method side embodiment.

When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 12 , the transceiver unit 820 may perform steps 1201 and 1203 shown in the method side embodiment. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the access network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 12 , the transceiver unit 820 may perform steps 1201 and 1203 shown in the method embodiment. When the apparatus 800 is used to implement the function of the first AMF in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 12 , the transceiver unit 820 may perform step 1203 shown in the method embodiment.

More detailed descriptions of the above-mentioned processing unit 810 and the transceiver unit 820 can be obtained directly by referring to the relevant descriptions in the method embodiments shown in FIG. 3 to FIG. 12 , and details are not repeated here.

As shown in FIG. 14 , the apparatus 900 includes a processor 910 and an interface circuit 920 . The processor 910 and the interface circuit 920 are coupled to each other. It can be understood that the interface circuit 920 can be a transceiver or an input-output interface. Optionally, the apparatus 900 may further include a memory 930 for storing instructions executed by the processor 910 or input data required by the processor 910 to execute the instructions or data generated after the processor 910 executes the instructions.

When the apparatus 900 is used to implement the methods shown in FIG. 3 to FIG. 12 , the processor 910 is used to perform the functions of the above-mentioned processing unit 910 , and the interface circuit 920 is used to perform the functions of the above-mentioned transceiver unit 920 .

When the above device is a chip applied to a terminal device, the terminal device chip implements the functions of the terminal device in the above method embodiments. The terminal device chip receives information from other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the terminal device, and the information is sent to the terminal device by other devices; or, the terminal device chip sends information to other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the terminal device antenna) to send information, which is sent by the terminal device to other devices.

When the above apparatus is a chip applied to an access network device, the access network device chip implements the functions of the access network device in the above method embodiments. The access network device chip receives information from other modules (such as radio frequency modules or antennas) in the access network device, and the information is sent by other devices to the access network device; or, the access network device chip sends information to the access network device. Other modules in the device (such as radio frequency modules or antennas) send information, which is sent by the access network device to other devices.

When the above device is a chip applied to AMF, the AMF chip implements the functions of the AMF in the above method embodiments. The AMF chip receives information from other modules in the AMF (such as radio frequency modules or antennas), and the information is sent to the AMF by other devices; or, the AMF chip sends information to other modules in the AMF (such as radio frequency modules or antennas), This information is sent by AMF to other devices.

When the above device is a chip applied to the NSSF, the NSSF chip implements the functions of the NSSF in the above method embodiments. The NSSF chip receives information from other modules (such as radio frequency modules or antennas) in the NSSF, and the information is sent to the NSSF by other devices; or, the NSSF chip sends information to other modules in the NSSF (such as radio frequency modules or antennas), This information is sent by NSSF to other devices.

It can be understood that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be a central processing unit (Central Processing Unit, CPU), and may also be other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (Digital Signal Processor, DSP), application-specific integrated circuits (Application Specific Integrated Circuit, ASIC), Field Programmable Gate Array (Field Programmable Gate Array, FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components or any combination thereof. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor.

The method steps in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented in a hardware manner, or may be implemented in a manner in which a processor executes software instructions. Software instructions can be composed of corresponding software modules, and software modules can be stored in random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), flash memory, read-only memory (Read-Only Memory, ROM), programmable read-only memory (Programmable ROM) , PROM), Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (Erasable PROM, EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (Electrically EPROM, EEPROM), registers, hard disks, removable hard disks, CD-ROMs or known in the art in any other form of storage medium. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor, such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. Of course, the storage medium can also be an integral part of the processor. The processor and storage medium may reside in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC may be located in the terminal equipment, access network equipment, AMF or NSSF. Of course, the processor and the storage medium may also exist in the terminal device, the access network device, the AMF or the NSSF as discrete components.

In the above-mentioned embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are executed in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. The computer program or instructions may be stored in or transmitted over a computer-readable storage medium. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available media that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server that integrates one or more available media. The usable media can be magnetic media, such as floppy disks, hard disks, magnetic tapes; optical media, such as DVD; and semiconductor media, such as solid state disks (SSD).

In the various embodiments of the present application, if there is no special description or logical conflict, the terms and/or descriptions between different embodiments are consistent and can be referred to each other, and the technical features in different embodiments are based on their inherent Logical relationships can be combined to form new embodiments.

In this application, "at least one" means one or more, and "plurality" means two or more. "And/or", which describes the association relationship of the associated objects, means that there can be three kinds of relationships, for example, A and/or B, it can mean that A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, where A, B can be singular or plural. In the text description of this application, the character "/" generally indicates that the related objects before and after are a kind of "or" relationship; in the formula of this application, the character "/" indicates that the related objects are a kind of "division" Relationship.

It can be understood that, the various numbers and numbers involved in the embodiments of the present application are only for the convenience of description, and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The size of the sequence numbers of the above processes does not imply the sequence of execution, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic.

Those of ordinary skill in the art can realize that the units and algorithm steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality using different methods for each particular application, but such implementations should not be considered beyond the scope of this application.

Those skilled in the art can clearly understand that, for the convenience and brevity of description, the specific working process of the above-described systems, devices and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, which will not be repeated here.

In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are only illustrative. For example, the division of the units is only a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods. For example, multiple units or components may be combined or Can be integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored, or not implemented. On the other hand, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be through some interfaces, indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units, and may be in electrical, mechanical or other forms.

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

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

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as independent products, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application can be embodied in the form of a software product in essence, or the part that contributes to the prior art or the part of the technical solution. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including Several instructions are used to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of the present application. The aforementioned storage medium includes: U disk, mobile hard disk, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disk or optical disk and other media that can store program codes .

The above are only specific embodiments of the present application, but the protection scope of the present application is not limited to this. should be covered within the scope of protection of this application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application should be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims (40)

1. A communication method, characterized in that the method comprises:

   The core network device acquires first radio resource information, where the first radio resource information is used to indicate a radio resource that the terminal device at the first location supports access to;

   The core network device determines, according to the first radio resource information and the second radio resource information, the identifier of the first network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access, wherein the second radio resource information is used to indicate the radio resource corresponding to the network slice deployed in the first location, and the terminal device supports access to the radio resource corresponding to the first network slice in the first location.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

   The core network device sends an identifier and/or first information of the second network slice that the terminal device is denied access to, where the first information is used to indicate that the terminal device does not support access to the second network slice in the the radio resource corresponding to the first location.
3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the method further comprises:

   The core network device sends the third radio resource information, where the third radio resource information is used to indicate the radio resource corresponding to the first network slice at the first position.
4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein when the core network device selects a functional network element NSSF for a network slice, the core network device acquires the first radio resource information, comprising:

   The NSSF receives a first request message from the first access and mobility management function network element AMF, the first request message including the first radio resource information.
5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein when the core network device is the first access and mobility management function network element AMF, the core network device acquires the first radio resource information, including:

   sending, by the first AMF, a second request message to an access network device, where the access network device is an access network device serving the terminal device at the first location;

   The first AMF receives a second response message from the access network device, where the second response message includes the first radio resource information.
6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the method further comprises:

   The first AMF triggers the release of the protocol data unit PDU session corresponding to the second network slice denying the access of the terminal device.
7. The method according to claim 5 or 6, wherein when the set formed by the identifiers of the first network slice is an empty set, the method further comprises:

   sending, by the first AMF, a registration rejection message to the access network device; and/or,

   The first AMF triggers a deregistration process, and the deregistration process is used to deregister the terminal device.
8. A communication method, characterized in that the method comprises:

   The first access and mobility management function network element AMF acquires first radio resource information, where the first radio resource information is used to indicate that the terminal device at the first location supports access to the radio resources;

   sending, by the first AMF, the first radio resource information to the network slice selection function network element NSSF;

   The first AMF receives, from the NSSF, an identifier of a first network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access, wherein the terminal device supports access to the radio resource corresponding to the first network slice at the first location .
9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

   The first AMF receives, from the NSSF, an identifier and/or first information of a second network slice that denies access to the terminal device, where the first information is used to indicate that the terminal device does not support access to the first network slice. The radio resources corresponding to the two network slices at the first location.
10. The method according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the method further comprises:

    The first AMF receives third radio resource information from the NSSF, where the third radio resource information is used to indicate a radio resource corresponding to the first network slice at the first location.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

    The first AMF sends the first information and/or the third radio resource information to the access network device.
12. The method according to any one of claims 8 to 11, wherein the obtaining, by the first AMF, the first radio resource information comprises:

    sending, by the first AMF, a second request message to an access network device, where the access network device is an access network device serving the terminal device at the first location;

    The first AMF receives a second response message from the access network device, where the second response message includes the first radio resource information.
13. A communication method, comprising:

    The access network device acquires first wireless resource information, where the first wireless resource information is used to indicate a wireless resource that the terminal device located at the first location supports access to;

    sending, by the access network device, the first radio resource information to the first access and mobility management function network element AMF;

    The access network device receives, from the first AMF, an identification of a first network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access, wherein the terminal device supports access to the first network slice at the first location corresponding wireless resources.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises:

    The access network device receives, from the first AMF, the identifier and/or the first information of the second network slice refusing the terminal device to access, where the first information is used to indicate that the terminal device does not support access. enter the radio resource corresponding to the second network slice at the first location.
15. The method according to claim 13 or 14, wherein the method further comprises:

    The access network device receives third radio resource information from the first AMF, where the third radio resource information is used to indicate a radio resource corresponding to the first network slice at the first position.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises:

    The access network device sends the first information and/or the third radio resource information to the terminal device.
17. A communication method, comprising:

    The terminal device located at the first position sends first radio resource information to the access network device, where the first radio resource information is used to indicate the radio resource that the terminal device supports access to;

    The terminal device receives, from the access network device, the identifier of the first network slice that the terminal device is allowed to access, wherein the terminal device supports access to the first network slice corresponding to the first location. wireless resources.
18. The method of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises:

    The terminal device receives, from the access network device, the identifier and/or the first information of the second network slice to which the terminal device is denied access, where the first information is used to indicate that the terminal device does not support access to all network slices. radio resources corresponding to the second network slice at the first location.
19. The method according to claim 17 or 18, wherein the method further comprises:

    The terminal device receives third radio resource information from the access network device, where the third radio resource information is used to indicate the radio resource corresponding to the allowed first network slice at the first position.
20. A communication method, characterized in that the method comprises:

    The access network device acquires the first radio resource information, the second radio resource information, and the identifier of the first network slice, wherein the first radio resource information is used to indicate that the terminal device at the first location supports access to the radio resources, The second radio resource information is used to indicate a radio resource corresponding to at least one network slice at the first position, and the at least one network slice includes the first network slice;

    The access network device determines the identifier of the second network slice according to the first radio resource information, the second radio resource information and the identifier of the first network slice, wherein the terminal device supports access to all network slices. radio resources corresponding to the second network slice at the first location;

    The access network device sends the identifier of the second network slice to the first access and mobility management network element.
21. The method according to claim 20, wherein the identifier of the first network slice comprises an identifier of a network slice to which the terminal device requests to access.
22. The method according to claim 21, wherein acquiring, by the access network device, the identifier of the first network slice comprises:

    The access network device acquires, from the first access and mobility management network element or the terminal device, the identifier of the network slice that the terminal device requests to access.
23. The method according to any one of claims 20 to 22, wherein the obtaining, by the access network device, the second radio resource information comprises:

    The access network device acquires the second radio resource information from the first access and mobility management network element, the access network device or other access network devices.
24. The method according to any one of claims 20 to 23, wherein the method further comprises:

    The access network device sends third indication information to the first access and mobility management network element, where the third indication information is used to indicate whether the terminal device supports simultaneous access to the second network slice part or all of the network slice.
25. The method according to any one of claims 20 to 24, wherein the method further comprises:

    The access network device sends the identifier of the third network slice to the first access and mobility management network element, wherein the terminal device does not support accessing the third network slice corresponding to the first location wireless resources.
26. A communication method, characterized in that the method comprises:

    The first access and mobility management network element sends the identifier of the first network slice to the access network device located at the first location;

    The first access and mobility management network element receives the identification of the second network slice and the third indication information from the access network device, and the terminal device supports access to the second network slice in the first network slice. the radio resource corresponding to the location, and the third indication information is used to indicate whether the terminal device supports simultaneous access to some or all of the network slices in the second network slice;

    The first access and mobility management network element determines, according to the second network slice and the third indication information, an identifier of a network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access;

    The first access and mobility management network element sends the identification of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access to the terminal device.
27. The method according to claim 26, wherein the identifier of the first network slice comprises an identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device requests to access.
28. The method according to claim 26 or 27, wherein the method further comprises:

    The first access and mobility management network element sends second radio resource information to the access network device, where the second radio resource information is used to indicate the radio resource corresponding to at least one network slice at the first location , the at least one network slice includes the first network slice.
29. The method according to any one of claims 26 to 28, wherein the method further comprises:

    The first access and mobility management network element receives an identifier of a third network slice from the access network device, wherein the terminal device does not support accessing the third network slice corresponding to the first location wireless resources.
30. The method according to any one of claims 26 to 29, wherein the method further comprises:

    The first access and mobility management network element receives fourth indication information and a registration request message sent by the access network device, where the fourth indication information is used to report to the first access and mobility management network The meta-indication determines the identifier of the network slice to which the terminal device is allowed to access according to the identifier of the second network slice.
31. The method according to any one of claims 26 to 30, wherein the method further comprises:

    The first access and mobility management network element determines a network slice to which the terminal device is denied access.
32. A communication method, characterized in that the method comprises:

    The terminal device at the first location receives, from the access network device, the identifier of the network slice deployed at the first location and the information of the radio resource corresponding to the network slice at the first location;

    The terminal device determines, according to the identifier of the network slice and the information of the radio resource corresponding to the network slice, the identifier of the first network slice that the terminal device requests to access, and the terminal device supports the first location accessing the radio resource corresponding to the first network slice;

    The terminal device sends a registration request message to the access network device, where the registration request message includes the identifier of the first network slice.
33. The method according to claim 32, wherein the terminal device receives, from an access network device, an identifier of a network slice deployed at the first location, and a wireless network slice corresponding to the network slice at the first location. Information on resources, including:

    The terminal device receives, from the access network device, the identifier of the network slice deployed at the first location and the information of the radio resource corresponding to the network slice at the first location through a broadcast message.
34. A communication method, characterized in that the method comprises:

    The access network device sends, to the terminal device at the first location, the identifier of the network slice deployed at the first location and information about the radio resources corresponding to the network slice at the first location;

    The access network device receives a registration request message from the terminal device, where the registration request message includes the identifier of the first network slice, and the terminal device supports accessing the first network slice corresponding to the first location. wireless resources.
35. The method according to claim 34, wherein the access network device sends, to the terminal device at the first location, an identifier of the network slice deployed at the first location, and the network slice at the first location Information about wireless resources corresponding to a location, including:

    The access network device sends, to the terminal device, the identifier of the network slice deployed at the first location and the information of the radio resource corresponding to the network slice at the first location to the terminal device through a broadcast message.
36. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 35, wherein the wireless resources include frequency points and/or frequency bands.
37. A communication device, characterized by comprising a module or unit for implementing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 36.
38. A communication device, characterized by comprising a processor and an interface circuit, the interface circuit being configured to receive signals from other communication devices other than the communication device and transmit to the processor or transfer signals from the processor The signal is sent to other communication devices than the communication device, and the processor is used to implement the method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 36 by means of a logic circuit or executing code instructions.
39. A chip, characterized in that it includes a processor, the processor is connected to a memory, the memory is used to store a computer program, and the processor is used to execute the computer program stored in the memory, so that the chip executes The communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 36.
40. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, a computer program or instruction is stored in the storage medium, and when the computer program or instruction is executed by a communication device, any one of claims 1 to 36 is implemented. Methods.

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