WO2022022684A1

WO2022022684A1 - Relay link connection control method and device

Info

Publication number: WO2022022684A1
Application number: PCT/CN2021/109634
Authority: WO
Inventors: 赵亚利; 侯云静
Original assignee: 大唐移动通信设备有限公司
Priority date: 2020-07-31
Filing date: 2021-07-30
Publication date: 2022-02-03
Also published as: CN114071796A

Abstract

The present invention provides a relay link connection control method and device. The method of the present invention comprises: after a connection release message for a terminal sent by a core network device is received, keeping RRC connection of the terminal under the condition that the current state of the terminal satisfies a target condition; and/or sending an RRC connection release message to the terminal under the condition that the current state of the terminal does not satisfy the target condition.

Description

Relay link connection control method and device

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202010760100.X filed in China on Jul. 31, 2020, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

technical field

The present disclosure relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to a relay link connection control method and device.

Background technique

Direct communication refers to the way that adjacent terminals can transmit data through a direct communication link (also known as Sidelink or PC5) within a short range. The wireless interface corresponding to the Sidelink link is called the direct communication interface (also called the Sidelink interface or the PC5 interface).

In the related art, in order to expand the network coverage, a UE-to-Network Relay (UE-to-Network Relay) is introduced from a user equipment (User Equipment, UE) to the network. The relay itself may be a terminal with a relay function. For UE-to-Network Relay, the interface between the relay terminal Relay UE and the network uses the Uu interface, and the interface between the remote terminal Remote UE (that is, the relayed terminal) uses the direct communication interface. The link between the relay and the network can be called a backhaul link for the Remote UE.

The process of releasing the connection between the Relay UE and the core network in the related art, that is, the AN release process, is mainly used to release the following connections for a certain UE: the radio access network (Radio Access Network, RAN) and the access and mobility management functions ( NG-AP signaling connection between Access and Mobility Management Function, AMF); N3 user plane connection; signaling connection between UE and RAN and related RAN resources. AN release can be triggered by AMF or by RAN. There are many specific trigger conditions, such as UE without user plane data transmission, RAN radio link failure, etc.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The purpose of the present disclosure is to provide a relay link connection control method and device to solve the problem of how the air interface handles the RRC connection of the relay terminal after the connection release process between the relay terminal and the core network is initiated.

In order to achieve the above purpose, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a relay link connection control method, which is applied to an access network device, including:

After receiving the connection release message for the terminal sent by the core network device, if the current state of the terminal satisfies the target condition, maintain the RRC connection of the terminal; and/or,

In the case that the current state of the terminal does not meet the target condition, an RRC connection release message is sent to the terminal.

Wherein, the target condition includes one of the following:

The terminal has a relay function, but the relay function is not activated;

The terminal has activated the relay function;

The terminal has established a direct communication interface connection with at least one remote terminal as a relay terminal;

The terminal, acting as a relay terminal, has established a direct communication interface connection with at least one remote terminal, and is currently transmitting a relay service or needs to transmit a relay service.

Wherein, the method also includes:

A first response message to the connection release message is sent to the core network device, where the first response message is used to confirm release of the connection related to the terminal.

Wherein, after receiving the connection release message for the terminal sent by the core network device, the method further includes:

sending a first query message to the terminal, where the first query message is used to query the current state of the terminal;

A second response message to the first query message sent by the terminal is received, where the second response message includes the current state of the terminal.

Wherein, when the current state of the terminal satisfies the target condition, after maintaining the RRC connection of the terminal, the method further includes:

sending first indication information to the terminal;

Wherein, the first indication information is used for any one of the following:

Notifying the terminal that its connection to the core network has been released;

Notifying the terminal that when it does not need to maintain the RRC connection, it needs to send second indication information to the access network device, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the access network device can release the terminal the RRC connection;

Notifying the terminal that its state releases the RRC connection when the target condition is not met;

Notify the terminal to release the RRC connection.

In order to achieve the above purpose, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a relay link connection control method, which is applied to a terminal, including:

receiving a first query message sent by an access network device, where the first query message is used to query the current state of the terminal;

A second response message for the first query message is sent to the access network device, where the second response message includes the current state of the terminal.

Wherein, the method also includes:

receiving the first indication information sent by the access network device;

Wherein, the first indication information is used for any one of the following:

Notify the terminal that when it does not need to maintain the RRC connection of the terminal, it needs to send second indication information to the access network device, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the access network device can release all the RRC connection of the terminal;

Notify the terminal to release the RRC connection.

Wherein, the method also includes:

When the current state of the terminal does not meet the target condition, the RRC connection of the terminal is released.

Wherein, the target condition includes one of the following:

The terminal has a relay function, but the relay function is not activated;

The terminal has activated the relay function;

In order to achieve the above purpose, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a relay link connection control device, including: a memory, a transceiver, and a processor: the memory is used to store program instructions; Sending and receiving data under control; a processor for reading program instructions in the memory and performing the following operations:

Wherein, the target condition includes one of the following:

The terminal has a relay function, but the relay function is not activated;

The terminal has activated the relay function;

Wherein, the transceiver specifically includes:

sending first indication information to the terminal;

Wherein, the first indication information is used for any one of the following:

Notify the terminal to release the RRC connection.

In order to achieve the above purpose, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a relay link connection control device, including:

a control module, configured to maintain the RRC connection of the terminal when the current state of the terminal meets the target condition after receiving the connection release message for the terminal sent by the core network device; and/or,

In order to achieve the above purpose, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a relay link connection control device, including: a memory, a transceiver, and a processor: a memory, used for storing program instructions; a transceiver, used in the processor Send and receive data under the control of the processor; the processor is used to read the program instructions in the memory, and the transceiver is used to perform the following operations:

Wherein, the transceiver specifically includes:

receiving the first indication information sent by the access network device;

Wherein, the first indication information is used for any one of the following:

Notify the terminal to release the RRC connection.

Wherein, the processor specifically includes:

Wherein, the target condition includes one of the following:

The terminal has a relay function, but the relay function is not activated;

The terminal has activated the relay function;

The terminal, as a relay terminal, has established a direct communication interface connection with at least one remote terminal, and is currently transmitting a relay service or needs to transmit a relay service.

In order to achieve the above purpose, an embodiment of the present disclosure also provides a relay link connection control device, including:

a second receiving module, configured to receive a first query message sent by an access network device, where the first query message is used to query the current state of the terminal;

a fourth sending module, configured to send a second response message to the access network device for the first query message, where the second response message includes the current state of the terminal.

In order to achieve the above purpose, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a processor-readable storage medium, where the processor-readable storage medium stores program instructions, and the program instructions are used to cause the processor to execute the above-mentioned The steps of the relay link connection control method.

The above-mentioned technical solutions of the present disclosure have at least the following beneficial effects:

In the above technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure, after receiving the connection release message for the terminal sent by the core network device, based on the current state of the terminal, and in the case that the current state of the terminal satisfies the target condition, the RRC connection of the terminal is maintained; And/or, in the case that the current state of the terminal does not meet the target condition, an RRC connection release message is sent to the terminal, so that the RRC connection management of the relay terminal can be realized, and the operation of the relay terminal can be avoided due to the fact that the relay terminal itself has no service data. A situation in which the trunk link is interrupted due to transmission demand occurs.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is one of the schematic flowcharts of a relay link connection control method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a second schematic flowchart of a method for controlling a connection of a relay link according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a third schematic flowchart of a method for controlling a connection of a relay link according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a fourth schematic flowchart of a relay link connection control method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is one of the structural block diagrams of the relay link connection control apparatus according to the embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is one of the schematic block diagrams of the relay link connection control apparatus according to the embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is the second structural block diagram of a relay link connection control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 is the second block diagram of the relay link connection control apparatus according to the embodiment of the present disclosure.

detailed description

In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the term "and/or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, and indicates that there can be three kinds of relationships. For example, A and/or B can indicate that A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone these three situations. The character "/" generally indicates that the associated objects are an "or" relationship.

In the embodiments of the present application, the term "plurality" refers to two or more than two, and other quantifiers are similar.

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments in the present application, all other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art without creative efforts shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

In the UE-to-Network Relay scenario, the AMF of the Relay UE and the AMF of the Remote UE may be independent. If there is no data transmission requirement between the Relay UE itself and the network device, and only the data of the Remote UE needs to be forwarded to the network, the AMF of the Relay UE is likely to initiate an AN release process because the Relay UE itself has no data transmission requirement for a long time to release the Relay UE. The connection with the core network (such as the connection between the Relay UE and the AMF, the connection between the Relay UE and the User Plane Function (UPF), etc.). In this case, how the air interface handles the radio resource control (Radio Resource Control, RRC) connection of the relay UE has become an urgent problem to be solved.

In order to solve the above problems, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a relay link connection control method and apparatus. The method and the device are conceived based on the same application. Since the principles of the method and the device for solving the problem are similar, the implementation of the device and the method can be referred to each other, and repeated descriptions will not be repeated here.

As shown in FIG. 1, one of the schematic flowcharts of a relay link connection control method provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure, applied to an access network device, includes:

Step 101: After receiving the connection release message for the terminal sent by the core network device, if the current state of the terminal satisfies the target condition, maintain the RRC connection of the terminal; and/or, when the terminal is currently In the case that the state does not meet the target condition, an RRC connection release message is sent to the terminal.

It should be noted that the terminal described in the embodiments of the present disclosure is a relay terminal, that is, it is for a relay terminal.

The access network device in the embodiment of the present disclosure may be, but not limited to, a base station and a centralized control unit (Central Unit, CU).

Specifically, the core network device is an access and mobility management function AMF module.

Here, the connection release message may be, but is not limited to, an AN release related message, such as an N2UE context release command N2 UE Context Release Command message.

Here, the access network device receives the connection release message for the terminal sent by the core network device. Generally, after the access network device receives the connection release message, it will instruct the access network device to initiate an RRC connection release process to release the RRC connection of the terminal. , however, this will cause the relay link to be interrupted and affect subsequent data transmission, so the above control steps are proposed: that is, when the current state of the terminal meets the target condition, the RRC connection of the terminal is maintained; and/or , in the case that the current state of the terminal does not meet the target condition, send an RRC connection release message to the terminal.

It should be noted that both the situation that the current state of the terminal satisfies the target condition and the situation that the current state of the terminal does not meet the target condition may exist. For example, for the same terminal, at time T1, the current state of the terminal may The state may satisfy the target condition, but the current state of the terminal may not satisfy the target condition at the subsequent time T2.

In the relay link connection control method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, after receiving the connection release message for the terminal sent by the core network device, based on the current state of the terminal, if the current state of the terminal satisfies the target condition, the terminal's current state is maintained. RRC connection; and/or, when the current state of the terminal does not meet the target condition, sending an RRC connection release message to the terminal, in this way, the RRC connection management of the relay terminal can be realized, and the relay terminal can be prevented from There is no need for service data transmission and the trunk link is interrupted.

Optionally, the target condition includes one of the following:

The terminal has a relay function, but the relay function is not activated;

The terminal has activated the relay function;

As an optional implementation manner, the method of the embodiment of the present disclosure further includes:

It should be noted that the first response message is used to confirm the connection of the terminal between the access network device and the core network device. That is to say, the first response message is used to confirm the release of the relevant connection of the terminal on the core network side.

Here, regardless of whether the access network device maintains the RRC connection of the terminal, after receiving the connection release message for the terminal sent by the core network device, the access network device will send a first response message for the connection release message to the core network device. .

In the above embodiments, the access network device knows the current state of the terminal by default. If the access network device does not know the current state of the terminal, in order to obtain the current state of the terminal, as an optional implementation, after receiving the core network After the connection release message for the terminal is sent by the device, the method of the embodiment of the present disclosure may further include:

Based on the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 , as an optional implementation manner, in the case that the current state of the terminal satisfies the target condition, after maintaining the RRC connection of the terminal, the method of the embodiment of the present disclosure may further include:

sending first indication information to the terminal;

Wherein, the first indication information is used for any one of the following:

Notify the terminal to release the RRC connection.

It should be noted that if the first indication information is used to notify the terminal that its connection with the core network has been released, after the terminal receives the first indication information, if it wants to transmit its own service, it needs to follow the non-access The stratum (Non-access stratum, NAS) connection state is the UE behavior of CM_IDLE state to perform related operations.

Here, if the first indication information is used to notify the terminal that when it does not need to maintain the RRC connection, it needs to send second indication information to the access network device, and the second indication information is used to indicate the The access network device may release the RRC connection of the terminal; after the access network device receives the second indication information, the access network device sends an RRC connection release message to the terminal. That is to say, the RRC connection release process is initiated by the access network device.

As shown in FIG. 2 , the second schematic flowchart of the relay link connection control method provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure is applied to a terminal, where the terminal is a relay terminal, including:

Step 201: Receive a first query message sent by an access network device, where the first query message is used to query the current state of the terminal;

In this step, receiving the first query message sent by the access network device indicates that the access network device does not know the current state of the terminal and needs feedback from the terminal.

Step 202: Send a second response message for the first query message to the access network device, where the second response message includes the current state of the terminal.

Here, by sending a second response message including the current state of the terminal to the access network device, the access network device provides the access network device with a basis for managing the RRC connection of the terminal, so that the access network device can realize The RRC connection management for the relay terminal avoids the interruption of the relay link due to the fact that the relay terminal has no service data transmission requirements when it is working.

In the relay link connection control method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, by receiving a first query message sent by an access network device, a second response message including the current state of the terminal for the first query message is sent to the access network device. , to provide the access network equipment with the basis for managing the RRC connection of the terminal, so that the access network equipment can realize the RRC connection management of the relay terminal based on the obtained current state of the terminal, so as to avoid the operation of the relay terminal due to its own lack of services. The situation occurs when the relay link is interrupted due to data transmission requirements.

As an optional implementation manner, after step 202, the method in this embodiment of the present disclosure may further include:

receiving the first indication information sent by the access network device;

Wherein, the first indication information is used for any one of the following:

Notify the terminal to release the RRC connection.

It should be noted that if the first indication information is used to notify the terminal that its connection with the core network has been released, after the terminal receives the first indication information, if it wants to transmit its own service, it needs to connect according to the NAS layer. The UE behavior in the CM_IDLE state performs related operations.

Here, if the first indication information is used to notify the terminal that when it does not need to maintain the RRC connection, it needs to send second indication information to the access network device, and the second indication information is used to indicate the The access network device may release the RRC connection of the terminal; then after the access network device receives the second indication information, the access network device will send an RRC connection release message to the terminal. That is to say, the RRC connection release process is initiated by the access network device.

Here, if the first indication information is used to notify the terminal to release the RRC connection when its state does not meet the target condition, the terminal automatically releases the RRC connection after receiving the first indication information and its own state does not meet the target condition RRC connection.

Here, if the first indication information is used to notify the terminal to release the RRC connection, the terminal automatically releases its RRC connection after receiving the first indication information.

As an optional implementation manner, the method of the embodiment of the present disclosure may further include:

Here, the terminal can judge whether its current state satisfies the target condition, and automatically releases its RRC connection if the target condition is not met.

It should be noted that, optionally, in the above embodiment, the target condition includes one of the following:

The terminal has a relay function, but the relay function is not activated;

The terminal has activated the relay function;

The implementation process of the relay link connection control method of the present disclosure will be specifically described below from the perspective of interaction between devices with respect to two examples.

Example 1

As shown in FIG. 3 , the third schematic flowchart of a method for controlling a connection of a relay link provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure, the method may include the following steps:

S1: The access network device receives the terminal connection release message sent by the core network device;

The connection release message may be, but is not limited to, an AN release related message, such as an N2 UE Context Release Command message.

Here, the terminal refers to a relay terminal.

S2/S3: optional step

Step S2 and Step S3 need to be performed only when the access network device does not know the current state of the terminal. For example, it is up to the terminal to decide whether to activate the relay function or not.

S2: The access network device sends a first query message to the terminal;

The first query message is used to query the current state of the terminal.

S3: The terminal sends a response message of the first query message to the access network device;

The response message of the first query message is the second response message in the above-mentioned embodiment, and the second response message includes the current state of the terminal.

S4: The access network device determines whether to maintain the RRC connection of the terminal according to the current state of the terminal;

Wherein, this step specifically includes: the access network device judges according to the current state of the terminal; if the current state of the terminal meets the target condition, maintaining the RRC connection of the terminal; otherwise, releasing the RRC connection of the terminal.

Here, the specific conditions of the target conditions have been described in the above embodiments, and are not repeated here.

S5: The access network device feeds back a response message of the terminal connection release message to the core network device;

The response message of the terminal connection release message is the first response message in the foregoing embodiment.

Here, regardless of whether the access network device maintains the RRC connection of the terminal, after receiving the terminal connection release message sent by the core network device, the access network device will send a response message for the terminal connection release message to the core network device.

S6 (optional step): The access network device sends an RRC connection release message to the terminal.

Here, this step is performed when the access network device determines that the terminal has no relay transmission requirement.

Example 2

As shown in FIG. 4 , a fourth schematic flowchart of a method for controlling a connection of a relay link provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure, the method may include the following steps:

S11: The access network device receives the terminal connection release message sent by the core network device;

Here, the terminal refers to a relay terminal.

S12/S13: Optional step

Step S12 and step S13 need to be performed only when the access network device does not know the current state of the terminal. For example, it is up to the terminal to decide whether to activate the relay function or not.

S12: The access network device sends a first query message to the terminal;

The first query message is used to query the current state of the terminal.

S13: The terminal sends a response message of the first query message to the access network device;

S14: The access network device determines whether to maintain the RRC connection of the terminal according to the current state of the terminal;

S15: The access network device feeds back a response message of the terminal connection release message to the core network device;

S16 (optional step): the access network device sends the first indication information to the terminal;

If it is determined based on step S14 that the RRC connection of the terminal needs to be maintained, this step is performed.

The specific use of the first indication information has been described in the above embodiments, and details are not repeated here.

S17 (optional step): the access network device sends an RRC connection release message to the terminal.

As shown in FIG. 5 , an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a relay link connection control device, including: a memory 520 , a transceiver 500 , and a processor 510 : the memory 520 is used to store program instructions; the transceiver 500 is used for Send and receive data under the control of the processor 510; the processor 510 is used to read program instructions in the memory 520 and perform the following operations:

5, the bus architecture may include any number of interconnected buses and bridges, specifically one or more processors represented by processor 510 and various circuits of memory represented by memory 520 are linked together. The bus architecture may also link together various other circuits, such as peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art and, therefore, will not be described further herein. The bus interface provides the interface. Transceiver 500 may be multiple elements, ie, including a transmitter and a receiver, providing means for communicating with various other devices over transmission media including wireless channels, wired channels, fiber optic cables, and the like. The processor 510 is responsible for managing the bus architecture and general processing, and the memory 520 may store data used by the processor 510 in performing operations.

The processor 510 may be a central processing unit (CPU), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or a complex programmable logic device (Complex). Programmable Logic Device, CPLD), the processor can also adopt a multi-core architecture.

Optionally, the target condition includes one of the following:

The terminal has a relay function, but the relay function is not activated;

The terminal has activated the relay function;

Optionally, the transceiver 500 specifically includes:

sending first indication information to the terminal;

Wherein, the first indication information is used for any one of the following:

Notify the terminal to release the RRC connection.

The relay link connection control apparatus according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, after receiving the connection release message for the terminal sent by the core network device, based on the current state of the terminal, if the current state of the terminal satisfies the target condition, keeps the terminal's current state RRC connection; and/or, when the current state of the terminal does not meet the target condition, sending an RRC connection release message to the terminal, in this way, the RRC connection management of the relay terminal can be realized, and the relay terminal can be prevented from There is no need for service data transmission and the trunk link is interrupted.

It should be noted here that the above-mentioned device provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure can realize all the method steps realized by the above-mentioned method embodiment, and can achieve the same technical effect, and the same as the method embodiment in this embodiment is not repeated here. The parts and beneficial effects will be described in detail.

As shown in FIG. 6 , the implementation of the present disclosure further provides a relay link connection control device, including:

A control module 601, configured to maintain the RRC connection of the terminal when the current state of the terminal meets the target condition after receiving the connection release message for the terminal sent by the core network device; and/or, in all In the case that the current state of the terminal does not meet the target condition, an RRC connection release message is sent to the terminal.

Optionally, the target condition includes one of the following:

The terminal has a relay function, but the relay function is not activated;

The terminal has activated the relay function;

Optionally, the device further includes:

A first sending module, configured to send a first response message to the connection release message to the core network device, where the first response message is used to confirm release of the connection related to the terminal.

Optionally, the device further includes:

a second sending module, configured to send a first query message to the terminal, where the first query message is used to query the current state of the terminal;

A first receiving module, configured to receive a second response message sent by the terminal to the first query message, where the second response message includes the current state of the terminal.

Optionally, the device further includes:

a third sending module, configured to send the first indication information to the terminal;

Wherein, the first indication information is used for any one of the following:

Notify the terminal to release the RRC connection.

It should be noted that the division of units in the embodiments of the present application is illustrative, and is only a logical function division, and other division methods may be used in actual implementation. 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 above-mentioned integrated units may be implemented in the form of hardware, or may be implemented in the form of software functional units.

If the integrated unit is implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it may be stored in a processor-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 related technology, or all or part of the technical solution, and the computer software product is stored in a storage medium, Several instructions are included to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) or a processor (processor) 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 (Read-Only Memory, ROM), random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), magnetic disk or optical disk and other media that can store program codes .

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, a processor-readable storage medium is also provided, where the processor-readable storage medium stores program instructions, and the program instructions are used to cause the processor to perform the following steps:

When the program instructions are executed by the processor, all the implementation manners in the foregoing method embodiment applied to the access network device side as shown in FIG. 1 can be implemented. To avoid repetition, details are not described herein again.

As shown in FIG. 7 , an implementation of the present disclosure further provides a relay link connection control device, including: a memory 720, a transceiver 700, and a processor 710: the memory 720 is used to store program instructions; the transceiver 700 is used to store program instructions. Send and receive data under the control of the processor 710; the processor 710 is configured to read program instructions in the memory 720, and the transceiver 700 is configured to perform the following operations:

7, the bus architecture may include any number of interconnected buses and bridges, specifically one or more processors represented by processor 710 and various circuits of memory represented by memory 720 are linked together. The bus architecture may also link together various other circuits, such as peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art and, therefore, will not be described further herein. The bus interface provides the interface. Transceiver 700 may be a number of elements, including a transmitter and a receiver, providing means for communicating with various other devices over transmission media including wireless channels, wired channels, fiber optic cables, and the like Transmission medium. For different user equipments, the user interface 730 may also be an interface capable of externally connecting a required device, and the connected devices include but are not limited to a keypad, a display, a speaker, a microphone, a joystick, and the like.

The processor 710 is responsible for managing the bus architecture and general processing, and the memory 720 may store data used by the processor 710 in performing operations.

Optionally, the processor 710 may be a CPU, an ASIC, an FPGA or a CPLD, and the processor 710 may also adopt a multi-core architecture.

The processor 710 is configured to execute any of the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application according to the obtained executable instructions by calling the program instructions stored in the memory. The processor 710 and the memory 720 may also be arranged physically separately.

Optionally, the transceiver 700 specifically includes:

receiving the first indication information sent by the access network device;

Wherein, the first indication information is used for any one of the following:

Notify the terminal to release the RRC connection.

Optionally, the processor 710 specifically includes:

Optionally, the target condition includes one of the following:

The terminal has a relay function, but the relay function is not activated;

The terminal has activated the relay function;

The relay link connection control apparatus according to the embodiment of the present disclosure sends, by receiving the first query message sent by the access network device, a second response message including the current state of the terminal to the access network device for the first query message , to provide the access network equipment with the basis for managing the RRC connection of the terminal, so that the access network equipment can realize the RRC connection management of the relay terminal based on the obtained current state of the terminal, so as to avoid the operation of the relay terminal due to its own lack of services. The situation occurs when the relay link is interrupted due to data transmission requirements.

As shown in FIG. 8 , the implementation of the present disclosure further provides a relay link connection control device, including:

A second receiving module 801, configured to receive a first query message sent by an access network device, where the first query message is used to query the current state of the terminal;

The fourth sending module 802 is configured to send a second response message for the first query message to the access network device, where the second response message includes the current state of the terminal.

Optionally, the device further includes:

a third receiving module, configured to receive the first indication information sent by the access network device;

Wherein, the first indication information is used for any one of the following:

Notify the terminal to release the RRC connection.

Optionally, the device further includes:

A connection release module, configured to release the RRC connection of the terminal when the current state of the terminal does not meet the target condition.

Optionally, the target condition includes one of the following:

The terminal has a relay function, but the relay function is not activated;

The terminal has activated the relay function;

When the program instructions are executed by the processor, all implementations in the above-mentioned method embodiment applied to the terminal side as shown in FIG. 2 can be implemented, and in order to avoid repetition, details are not repeated here.

The technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various systems, especially 5G systems. For example, applicable systems may be Global System of Mobile communication (GSM) system, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) general packet Wireless service (General Packet Radio Service, GPRS) system, 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) system, Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) system, Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), Worldwide interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) system, 5th Generation (5th ^Generation ) , 5G) New Radio (New Radio, NR) system, etc. These various systems include terminal equipment and network equipment. The system may also include a core network part, such as an evolved packet system (Evloved Packet System, EPS), a 5G system (5G system, 5GS), and the like.

The terminal device involved in the embodiments of the present application may be a device that provides voice and/or data connectivity to a user, a handheld device with a wireless connection function, or other processing device connected to a wireless modem. In different systems, the name of the terminal device may be different. For example, in the 5G system, the terminal device may be called user equipment (User Equipment, UE). Wireless terminal equipment can communicate with one or more core networks (Core Network, CN) via a radio access network (Radio Access Network, RAN). "telephone) and computers with mobile terminal equipment, eg portable, pocket-sized, hand-held, computer-built or vehicle-mounted mobile devices, which exchange language and/or data with the radio access network. For example, Personal Communication Service (PCS) phones, cordless phones, Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) phones, Wireless Local Loop (WLL) stations, Personal Digital Assistants (Personal Digital Assistants), PDA) and other devices. Wireless terminal equipment may also be referred to as system, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, mobile station, remote station, access point , a remote terminal device (remote terminal), an access terminal device (access terminal), a user terminal device (user terminal), a user agent (user agent), and a user device (user device), which are not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

The network device involved in the embodiments of the present application may be a base station, and the base station may include a plurality of cells providing services for the terminal. Depending on the specific application, the base station may also be called an access point, or may be a device in the access network that communicates with wireless terminal equipment through one or more sectors on the air interface, or other names. The network device can be used to exchange received air frames with Internet Protocol (IP) packets, and act as a router between the wireless terminal device and the rest of the access network, which can include the Internet. Protocol (IP) communication network. The network devices may also coordinate attribute management for the air interface. For example, the network device involved in the embodiments of the present application may be a network device (Base Transceiver Station, BTS) in the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) or Code Division Multiple Access (Code Division Multiple Access, CDMA). ), or a network device (NodeB) in Wide-band Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), or an evolved network device in a Long Term Evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) system (evolutional Node B, eNB or e-NodeB), 5G base station (gNB) in 5G network architecture (next generation system), or Home evolved Node B (HeNB), relay node (relay node) , a home base station (femto), a pico base station (pico), etc., which are not limited in the embodiments of the present application. In some network structures, the network device may include a centralized unit (Centralized Unit, CU) node and a distributed unit (Distributed Unit, DU) node, and the centralized unit and the distributed unit may also be geographically separated.

One or more antennas can be used between the network device and the terminal device for multi-input multi-output (MIMO) transmission. The MIMO transmission can be single-user MIMO (Single User MIMO, SU-MIMO) or multi-user MIMO. (Multiple User MIMO, MU-MIMO). According to the form and number of antenna combinations, MIMO transmission can be two-dimensional MIMO (two dimensional-MIMO, 2D-MIMO), three-dimensional MIMO (three dimensional-MIMO, 3D-MIMO), full-dimensional MIMO (full dimensional-MIMO, FD-MIMO) MIMO) or massive-MIMO, it can also be diversity transmission or precoding transmission or beamforming transmission, etc.

As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the embodiments of the present application may be provided as a method, a system, or a computer program product. Accordingly, the present application may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present application may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present application is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the present application. It will be understood that each flow and/or block in the flowcharts and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flowcharts and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer-executable instructions. These computer-executable instructions may be provided to the processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor or other programmable data processing device to produce a machine such that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing device produce Means for implementing the functions specified in a flow or flow of a flowchart and/or a block or blocks of a block diagram.

These processor-executable instructions may also be stored in a processor-readable memory capable of directing a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to operate in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the processor-readable memory result in the manufacture of means including the instructions product, the instruction means implements the functions specified in the flow or flow of the flowchart and/or the block or blocks of the block diagram.

These processor-executable instructions can also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing device to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable device to produce a computer-implemented process that Execution of the instructions provides steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart or blocks and/or the block or blocks of the block diagrams.

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 embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed 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 shown 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 disclosure 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.

From the description of the above embodiments, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that the method of the above embodiment can be implemented by means of software plus a necessary general hardware platform, and of course can also be implemented by hardware, but in many cases the former is better implementation. According to this understanding, the technical solutions provided by the present disclosure essentially or the parts that make contributions to the related art can be embodied in the form of software products, and the computer software products are stored in a storage medium (such as ROM/RAM, magnetic disk, etc.) , CD-ROM), including several instructions to make a terminal (which may be a mobile phone, a computer, a server, an air conditioner, or a network device, etc.) execute the methods described in the various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Those of ordinary skill in the art can understand that all or part of the processes in the methods of the above embodiments can be accomplished by controlling the relevant hardware through a computer program, and the program can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, and the program is During execution, it may include the processes of the embodiments of the above-mentioned methods. Wherein, the storage medium may be a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a read-only memory (Read-Only Memory, ROM) or a random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM) and the like.

It can be understood that the embodiments described in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, or a combination thereof. For hardware implementation, modules, units, and sub-units can be implemented in one or more Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC), Digital Signal Processor (DSP), Digital Signal Processing Device (DSP Device, DSPD) ), Programmable Logic Device (PLD), Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), general-purpose processor, controller, microcontroller, microprocessor, in other electronic units or combinations thereof.

For software implementation, the technologies described in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented through modules (eg, procedures, functions, etc.) that perform the functions described in the embodiments of the present disclosure. Software codes may be stored in memory and executed by a processor. The memory can be implemented in the processor or external to the processor.

Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to the present application without departing from the spirit and scope of the present application. Thus, if these modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is also intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims

A relay link connection control method, applied to access network equipment, includes:

After receiving the connection release message for the terminal sent by the core network device, if the current state of the terminal satisfies the target condition, maintain the RRC connection of the terminal; and/or,

In the case that the current state of the terminal does not meet the target condition, an RRC connection release message is sent to the terminal.
The method of claim 1, wherein the target condition comprises one of the following:

The terminal has a relay function, but the relay function is not activated;

The terminal has activated the relay function;

The terminal has established a direct communication interface connection with at least one remote terminal as a relay terminal;

The terminal, acting as a relay terminal, has established a direct communication interface connection with at least one remote terminal, and is currently transmitting a relay service or needs to transmit a relay service.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

A first response message to the connection release message is sent to the core network device, where the first response message is used to confirm release of the connection related to the terminal.
The method according to claim 1, wherein after receiving a connection release message for the terminal sent by the core network device, the method further comprises:

sending a first query message to the terminal, where the first query message is used to query the current state of the terminal;

A second response message to the first query message sent by the terminal is received, where the second response message includes the current state of the terminal.
The method according to claim 1, wherein, under the condition that the current state of the terminal satisfies the target condition, after maintaining the RRC connection of the terminal, the method further comprises:

sending first indication information to the terminal;

Wherein, the first indication information is used for any one of the following:

Notifying the terminal that its connection to the core network has been released;

Notifying the terminal that when it does not need to maintain the RRC connection, it needs to send second indication information to the access network device, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the access network device can release the terminal the RRC connection;

Notifying the terminal that its state releases the RRC connection when the target condition is not met;

Notify the terminal to release the RRC connection.
A relay link connection control method, applied to a terminal, includes:

receiving a first query message sent by an access network device, where the first query message is used to query the current state of the terminal;

A second response message for the first query message is sent to the access network device, where the second response message includes the current state of the terminal.
The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving the first indication information sent by the access network device;

Wherein, the first indication information is used for any one of the following:

Notifying the terminal that its connection to the core network has been released;

Notify the terminal that when it does not need to maintain the RRC connection of the terminal, it needs to send second indication information to the access network device, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the access network device can release all the RRC connection of the terminal;

Notifying the terminal that its state releases the RRC connection when the target condition is not met;

Notify the terminal to release the RRC connection.
The method of claim 6, further comprising:

When the current state of the terminal does not meet the target condition, the RRC connection of the terminal is released.
The method of claim 7 or 8, wherein the target condition comprises one of the following:

The terminal has a relay function, but the relay function is not activated;

The terminal has activated the relay function;

The terminal has established a direct communication interface connection with at least one remote terminal as a relay terminal;

The terminal, acting as a relay terminal, has established a direct communication interface connection with at least one remote terminal, and is currently transmitting a relay service or needs to transmit a relay service.
A relay link connection control device, comprising: a memory, a transceiver, a processor: a memory for storing program instructions; a transceiver for sending and receiving data under the control of the processor; a processor for reading Fetch the program instructions in said memory and do the following:

After receiving the connection release message for the terminal sent by the core network device, if the current state of the terminal satisfies the target condition, maintain the RRC connection of the terminal; and/or,

In the case that the current state of the terminal does not meet the target condition, an RRC connection release message is sent to the terminal.
11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the target condition comprises one of:

The terminal has a relay function, but the relay function is not activated;

The terminal has activated the relay function;

The terminal has established a direct communication interface connection with at least one remote terminal as a relay terminal;

The terminal, acting as a relay terminal, has established a direct communication interface connection with at least one remote terminal, and is currently transmitting a relay service or needs to transmit a relay service.
The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the transceiver is specifically used for:

A first response message to the connection release message is sent to the core network device, where the first response message is used to confirm release of the connection related to the terminal.
The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the transceiver is specifically used for:

sending a first query message to the terminal, where the first query message is used to query the current state of the terminal;

A second response message to the first query message sent by the terminal is received, where the second response message includes the current state of the terminal.
The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the transceiver is specifically used for:

sending first indication information to the terminal;

Wherein, the first indication information is used for any one of the following:

Notifying the terminal that its connection to the core network has been released;

Notifying the terminal that when it does not need to maintain the RRC connection, it needs to send second indication information to the access network device, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the access network device can release the RRC of the terminal connect;

Notifying the terminal that its state releases the RRC connection when the target condition is not met;

Notify the terminal to release the RRC connection.
A relay link connection control device, comprising:

a control module, configured to maintain the RRC connection of the terminal when the current state of the terminal meets the target condition after receiving the connection release message for the terminal sent by the core network device; and/or,

In the case that the current state of the terminal does not meet the target condition, an RRC connection release message is sent to the terminal.
16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the target condition comprises one of:

The terminal has a relay function, but the relay function is not activated;

The terminal has activated the relay function;

The terminal has established a direct communication interface connection with at least one remote terminal as a relay terminal;

The terminal, acting as a relay terminal, has established a direct communication interface connection with at least one remote terminal, and is currently transmitting a relay service or needs to transmit a relay service.
The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising:

A first sending module, configured to send a first response message to the connection release message to the core network device, where the first response message is used to confirm release of the connection related to the terminal.
The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising:

a second sending module, configured to send a first query message to the terminal, where the first query message is used to query the current state of the terminal;

A first receiving module, configured to receive a second response message sent by the terminal to the first query message, where the second response message includes the current state of the terminal.
The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising:

a third sending module, configured to send the first indication information to the terminal;

Wherein, the first indication information is used for any one of the following:

Notifying the terminal that its connection to the core network has been released;

Notifying the terminal that when it does not need to maintain the RRC connection, it needs to send second indication information to the access network device, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the access network device can release the terminal the RRC connection;

Notifying the terminal that its state releases the RRC connection when the target condition is not met;

Notify the terminal to release the RRC connection.
A relay link connection control device, comprising: a memory, a transceiver, a processor: a memory for storing program instructions; a transceiver for sending and receiving data under the control of the processor; a processor for reading Fetching program instructions in the memory, the transceiver is configured to perform the following operations:

receiving a first query message sent by an access network device, where the first query message is used to query the current state of the terminal;

A second response message for the first query message is sent to the access network device, where the second response message includes the current state of the terminal.
The apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the transceiver is specifically used for:

receiving the first indication information sent by the access network device;

Wherein, the first indication information is used for any one of the following:

Notifying the terminal that its connection to the core network has been released;

Notify the terminal that when it does not need to maintain the RRC connection of the terminal, it needs to send second indication information to the access network device, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the access network device can release all the RRC connection of the terminal;

Notifying the terminal that its state releases the RRC connection when the target condition is not met;

Notify the terminal to release the RRC connection.
The apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the processor is specifically configured to:

When the current state of the terminal does not meet the target condition, the RRC connection of the terminal is released.
The apparatus of claim 21 or 22, wherein the target condition comprises one of the following:

The terminal has a relay function, but the relay function is not activated;

The terminal has activated the relay function;

The terminal has established a direct communication interface connection with at least one remote terminal as a relay terminal;

The terminal, acting as a relay terminal, has established a direct communication interface connection with at least one remote terminal, and is currently transmitting a relay service or needs to transmit a relay service.
A relay link connection control device, comprising:

a second receiving module, configured to receive a first query message sent by an access network device, where the first query message is used to query the current state of the terminal;

a fourth sending module, configured to send a second response message to the access network device for the first query message, where the second response message includes the current state of the terminal.
The apparatus of claim 24, further comprising:

a third receiving module, configured to receive the first indication information sent by the access network device;

Wherein, the first indication information is used for any one of the following:

Notifying the terminal that its connection to the core network has been released;

Notify the terminal that when it does not need to maintain the RRC connection of the terminal, it needs to send second indication information to the access network device, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the access network device can release all the RRC connection of the terminal;

Notifying the terminal that its state releases the RRC connection when the target condition is not met;

Notify the terminal to release the RRC connection.
The apparatus of claim 24, further comprising:

A connection release module, configured to release the RRC connection of the terminal when the current state of the terminal does not meet the target condition.
26. The apparatus of claim 25 or 26, wherein the target condition comprises one of the following:

The terminal has a relay function, but the relay function is not activated;

The terminal has activated the relay function;

The terminal has established a direct communication interface connection with at least one remote terminal as a relay terminal;

The terminal, acting as a relay terminal, has established a direct communication interface connection with at least one remote terminal, and is currently transmitting a relay service or needs to transmit a relay service.
A processor-readable storage medium, the processor-readable storage medium stores program instructions, and the program instructions are used to cause the processor to execute the relay link according to any one of claims 1 to 5 The steps of the connection control method, or the steps of executing the relay link connection control method described in any one of claims 6 to 9.