WO2022194194A1

WO2022194194A1 - Method for switching network connection between multiple network connections, and user equipment

Info

Publication number: WO2022194194A1
Application number: PCT/CN2022/081137
Authority: WO
Inventors: 肖芳英; 刘仁茂
Original assignee: 夏普株式会社; 肖芳英
Priority date: 2021-03-19
Filing date: 2022-03-16
Publication date: 2022-09-22
Also published as: CN115119338A

Abstract

The present invention provides a method for switching a network connection between multiple network connections by a user equipment, and the user equipment executing the method. The method comprises: a current RRC entity used by the user equipment transmitting, to a current network of a current network connection, a request message used for releasing an RRC connection between the current RRC entity and the current network; if a response message of the current network for the request message is not received within a given time period after the request message is transmitted, the current RRC entity releasing the RRC connection with the current network; and transmitting a release reason indication to an upper layer of the current RRC entity, the release reason indication indicating a reason for releasing the RRC connection between the current RRC entity and the current network.

Description

Method and user equipment for switching network connections among multiple network connections

technical field

The present invention relates to the technical field of wireless communication, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a method for switching network connections between multiple network connections performed by a user equipment and a user equipment for executing the method.

Background technique

In recent years, multi-SIM devices have become more and more popular. For example, a user installs two USIM cards on a mobile phone that supports multiple USIM cards, where one USIM card is used for subscribing to private services, and the other USIM card is used for subscribing to office services. Existing devices supporting multiple USIM cards are implemented based on manufacturers and have not been standardized by 3GPP. As a result, different manufacturers adopt different implementation manners, and the behaviors of user equipment UEs are also different. In the existing implementation, if these USIM cards are registered with the network respectively (either in the same network or in two or more networks respectively), the UE needs to receive paging from these networks. There is a situation that when the UE receives a page from the current network, another network also initiates a page for it, or another network initiates a page for the UE when the UE is communicating with one network. If the UE switches between different networks, one possible consequence is that the UE can no longer receive data from the current network when the UE switches to another network. This will impair network performance, eg the network sends a page to the UE but the UE does not receive the page due to handover to another network, or the UE is handed over to another network and cannot receive the current network's schedule. Some manufacturers propose to conduct 3GPP standardization research on the behavior of UEs with multiple USIM cards accessing the network and related networks. The advantage is that the network performance can be improved based on predictable UE behavior.

Based on the above reasons, in December 2019, at the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) RAN#86 plenary meeting, vivo proposed a work item for multi-SIM devices of version 17 (see non-patent literature). : RP-193263: New WID: Stupport of Multi-SIM devices in Rel-17), and approved.

The present disclosure aims to solve the problems involved in switching between different SIM cards for UEs configured with multiple SIM cards.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method capable of switching connections between multiple network connections without compromising network performance.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for switching network connections between multiple network connections performed by a user equipment, the user equipment having multiple RRC entities, the method comprising: being used by the user equipment The current RRC entity of the current network sends a request message for releasing the RRC connection between the current RRC entity and the current network to the current network connected to the current network; if the request message is not received within a given time after sending the request message The response message of the current network to the request message, the RRC connection with the current network is released by the current RRC entity; and a release cause indication is sent to the upper layer of the current RRC entity, and the release reason indication indicates that The reason for releasing the RRC connection between the current RRC entity and the current network.

Optionally, the release reason indication is used for the upper layer to perform an operation for improving the connection state between the user equipment and the current network according to the release reason indication.

Optionally, sending a release cause indication to the upper layer of the user equipment includes: setting a dedicated value that is dedicated to indicating that the response message has not been received within the given time; and based on the dedicated value, to the upper layer. sending the release reason indication,

Optionally, sending the release cause indication to the upper layer of the user equipment includes: determining a candidate value from a value that has been specified between the current RRC entity and the current network to indicate the reason for releasing the RRC connection; The candidate value is selected, and a release cause indication is sent to the upper layer of the user equipment.

Optionally, determining a candidate value from a value specified between the current RRC entity and the current network indicating the reason for releasing the RRC connection includes: based on an operation expected to be performed by the upper-layer entity, from the user in the user The candidate value is determined from the values that have been specified between the device and the current network and indicate the reason for releasing the RRC connection.

Optionally, the operation expected to be performed by the upper layer entity is related to the working mode expected to be entered by the user equipment.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a method for switching network connections between multiple network connections performed by a user equipment, the user equipment having multiple RRC entities, the method comprising: switching the network connections when needed When the network connection of the user equipment is switched from the current network connection to another network connection different from the current network connection among the plurality of network connections, according to a given rule, select the desired network connection from the first switching process and the second switching process. performing a network connection switching process; and performing the selected network connection switching process to switch to the another network connection. The first handover process is used to notify the current network of the current network connection that the user equipment expects to release the RRC connection between the current RRC entity and the current network to switch to another network connection, and includes: the above method; and after releasing the RRC connection between the current RRC entity and the current network, establishing the RRC connection of the other network connection. The second handover process is used to notify the current network that it is desired to switch to the other network connection under the condition of maintaining the RRC connection state between the current RRC entity and the current network.

Optionally, the given rule is determined based on service information of a service to be performed by the another network connection.

Optionally, the service information includes: the service type of the service to be executed by the other network connection; and/or the service priority of the service to be executed by the other network connection relative to the service in the current network connection class.

Optionally, the second handover process includes: requesting a scheduling time interval from the current network based on a periodicity attribute of a service to be performed by the other network connection; and stopping all the scheduled time intervals within the requested scheduling time interval. communication in the current network connection and switch to the other network connection

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a user equipment, comprising: a processor; and a memory storing instructions, wherein the instructions execute any of the above methods when executed by the processor.

Invention effect

According to the present invention, damage to network connection performance can be reduced when switching between multiple network connections.

Description of drawings

The above and other features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

1A and 1B are schematic diagrams for explaining network connection in the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating an example of a method of switching network connections among a plurality of network connections provided by the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating another example of a method for switching network connections among a plurality of network connections provided by the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a structural block diagram of the user equipment provided by the present invention.

Detailed ways

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments. It should be noted that the present invention should not be limited to the specific embodiments described below. In addition, for the sake of brevity, detailed descriptions of well-known technologies not directly related to the present invention are omitted in order to avoid obscuring the understanding of the present invention. In the present invention, the user equipment UE configured with two SIM/USIM cards is used as an example to describe the embodiment, but it should be noted that the embodiment of the present invention is not limited to the application scenario corresponding to the UE configured with two SIM/USIM cards. For application scenarios where multiple SIM/USIM cards are configured. The user equipment UE configured with two SIM/USIM cards refers to the user equipment UE that the UE can register with the two networks and establish a connection with the two networks or send and receive data respectively.

Some terms involved in the present invention are described below, and the specific meanings of the terms can be found in the latest related documents of 3GPP, such as TS38.300, TS38.331, TS36.300, TS36.331, TS24.501 and so on.

NAS: Non-access stratum, non-access stratum.

AS: access stratum, access layer.

DRB: Data Radio Bearer.

RRC: Radio Resource Control, radio resource control.

RRC_CONNECTED: RRC connected state.

RRC_INACTIVE: RRC inactive state.

RRC_IDLE: RRC idle state.

RAN: Radio Access Network, radio access network.

NR: New RAT, New Radio Access Technology.

USIM:Universal Subscriber Identity Module, global user identification card.

Tx: transmitter, transmitter.

Rx: receiver, receiver.

5GMM-IDLE mode: In stand-alone deployment, UE in 5GMM-IDLE mode means that the UE uses 5GMME-IDLE accessed by 3GPP or 5GMME-IDLE accessed by non-3GPP (if the term is used standalone, a UE in 5GMM-IDLE mode means the UE can be either in 5GMM-IDLE mode over 3GPP access or in 5GMM-IDLE mode over non-3GPP access).

5GMM-CONNECTED mode: In standalone deployment, the UE is in 5GMM-CONNECTED mode, which means that the UE uses 5GMM-CONNECTED accessed by 3GPP or 5GMM-CONNECTED accessed by non-3GPP (if the term is used standalone, a UE in 5GMM-CONNECTED mode means the UE can be either in 5GMM-CONNECTED mode over 3GPP access or in 5GMM-CONNECTED mode over non-3GPP access).

In the present invention, the RRCRelease message is used to command the release of an RRC connection or suspend an RRC connection (The RRCRelease message is used to command the release of an RRC connection or the suspension of the RRC connection).

In the present invention, network, base station and RAN can be used interchangeably, and the network can be a long-term evolution LTE network, an NR network, an enhanced long-term evolution eLTE network, or other networks defined in the subsequent evolution version of 3GPP.

In the present invention, the user equipment UE may refer to a device (ie a multi-SIM device) that physically supports multiple USIM cards (two or more USIM cards), the device is equipped with two or more USIM cards, each Each USIM card is associated with a network. The UE establishes an RRC connection with the network through different USIM cards respectively (the UE corresponding to the USIM card is in the RRC connection state in the network at this time) or resides in the network (the UE corresponding to the USIM card is in the RRC idle state in the network at this time) or RRC inactive state). The network to which a USIM card is connected or registered or resides is the network corresponding to the USIM. The multiple USIM cards may be from the same operator or different operators. From the network point of view, different USIM cards correspond to different UEs, each USIM card corresponds to one UE, and the core network and/or the base station respectively allocate a NAS and/or AS layer identifier to the UE corresponding to each USIM card, for example , the NAS layer identifier allocated by the core network to the UE corresponding to each USIM card is marked as 5G-S-TMSI or S-TMSI, and the AS layer identifier allocated by the base station to the UE corresponding to each USIM card is marked as C-RNTI. The NAS and/or AS layer identifiers allocated by the core network and/or the base station to UEs corresponding to different USIM cards are different. A UE configured with multiple USIM cards has different NAS and/or AS layers corresponding to different USIM cards. logo. In the embodiment, there is no particular limitation as to whether the UE is a UE configured with multiple USIM cards or a UE corresponding to each USIM card in a device configured with multiple USIM cards, and those skilled in the art can easily determine whether the UE refers to a support device according to the context. A UE with multiple USIM cards (or a UE configured with multiple USIM cards) is also a UE corresponding to each USIM card in a device supporting multiple USIM cards. A UE configured with multiple USIM cards can receive and/or transmit data from multiple networks using single-receiver-single-transmit or dual-receiver-single-transmit by means of time division multiplexing, etc. For a UE with two Rx, it can receive data from two networks at the same time data. In addition, the USIM described in the present invention may be a physical SIM or an eSIM (USIM can be a physical SIM or eSIM). The data in the present invention may be data transmitted by using DRB and/or SRB, BCCH, PCCH, and the like.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the UE is configured with two USIM cards as an example, and those skilled in the art can easily extend to the case of multiple USIM cards. A user equipment UE with two USIM cards at least has a single-receive-single-transmit (Single-Rx/Single-Tx) or dual-receive-single-transmit (Dual-Rx/Single-Tx) capability. Different UEs corresponding to two USIM cards can share a pair of Tx and Rx or share one Tx but have their own Rx. In the embodiment of the present invention, the UE is connected to the network A through the USIM card A, and is connected to the network B through the USIM card B, and the switching of the UE between different networks is realized by switching the working USIM card. Each USIM card corresponds to an RRC entity.

Before describing the embodiments of the present invention in detail, the "network connection" in the present invention is first described. In the present invention, "network connection" refers to the network connection established between the RRC entity and the network, that is, the network connection between the USIM card and the network. 1A and 1B are schematic diagrams for explaining network connection in the present invention, respectively. In the scenario shown in FIG. 1A , the user equipment has two USIM cards, corresponding to the first RRC entity and the second RRC entity respectively, the network connection A is the network connection between the first RRC entity and the network, and the network connection B is the network connection between the first RRC entity and the network. A network connection between the second RRC entity and the network. In the scenario shown in FIG. 1B , the user equipment has two USIM cards, corresponding to the first RRC entity and the second RRC entity respectively, and the network connection A is the network connection between the first RRC entity and the first network. The network connection B is the network connection between the second RRC entity and the second network. In the present invention, the number of RRC entities supported by the user equipment and the number of networks that can be connected are arbitrary. FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B are only examples, and the number of RRC entities can also be more than three. The number may be three or more.

In the present invention, the so-called "switching network connection" refers to switching from one network connection to another network connection. For example, referring to FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B , in the process of data transmission and reception between the user equipment and the network, if the user equipment is to switch from one USIM card to another USIM card (ie, switch from one RRC entity to another RRC entity) , the user equipment needs to switch the network connection. For the convenience of description, when describing the implementation of switching from one USIM card to another USIM card, only the switching of the RRC entity and/or the switching of the upper layer of the RRC entity is described. However, the operation of switching one USIM card to another USIM card is not limited to switching the RRC entity and/or its upper layers, and may also include other operations that are not described in the embodiments but actually need to be performed.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating one example of a method of switching communication connections between multiple networks of the present invention. In this example, a first handover procedure and a second handover procedure may be defined for the handover manner of the UE between different networks. The first handover procedure is for the UE to notify the handover procedure of the network A of the first network connection (eg, the network connection A in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B ), and the handover procedure is for the UE to notify the network A that the UE wishes to leave the RRC connection in the network A state (Switching procedure can be used to notify network A that the UE has a preference to leave RRC_CONNECTED state in network A). The second handover procedure is used by the UE to notify the network A that the UE wishes to maintain the RRC connection state in the network A but temporarily switch to the network B of the second network connection (eg, the network connection B in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B ) (The switching procedure can be used to notify network A that the UE has a preference to be kept in RRC_CONNECTED state in network A while temporarily switching to networkB).

In the second handover process, the UE (or USIM card A) is in the RRC connection state in the network A (the first network), and monitors the network A (receives/transmits data from the network A). At the same time, the UE can periodically or intermittently Leave network A to listen to another network (network B, second network), for example to receive paging messages from said network B or to measure the serving or camping cell of another USIM card (ie USIM card B) or measure Signal quality of objects, etc. The time information when the UE leaves the network A to receive the paging message from the network B or measure the signal quality of the serving cell or the camping cell of another USIM card or the measurement object is the scheduling gap (Scheduling gap) of the UE in the network A. Or called the scheduling interval for network B. During the scheduling interval, the UE does not expect network A to schedule the UE, and the UE stops data transmission/reception in network A to receive paging messages from network B or measure another USIM card (ie USIM card B). ), the signal quality of the serving cell, the camped cell, or the measurement object, etc. In other words, the scheduling interval of the UE in the network A refers to that when the UE works on the network A, within the time period indicated by the scheduling interval, the network A will not schedule the UE or the UE will not schedule the UE within the time period indicated by the scheduling interval No data is received from Network A or is not expected to be scheduled by Network A or the UE does not send data to Network A.

In the present disclosure, network A and network B may be different networks, or may be the same network. As the case where the network A and the network B are the same network, reference may be made to FIG. 1A . In the scenario shown in FIG. 1A , the so-called user equipment switching from network connection A to network connection B refers to switching from communicating with the network through the first RRC entity to communicating with the network through the second RRC entity. As a case where the network A and the network B are different networks, FIG. 1B can be referred to. In the scenario shown in FIG. 1B , the so-called user equipment switching from network connection A to network connection B refers to switching from communicating with the first network through the first RRC entity to communicating with the second network through the second RRC entity.

As shown in FIG. 2, in S21, when the network connection of the user equipment needs to be switched from the current network connection to another network connection different from the current network connection among the plurality of network connections, according to a given rule, from the first network connection In the handover process and the second handover process, the network connection handover process to be executed is selected. The given rule may be determined based on service information of the service to be performed by the other network. Then, in S22, the selected network connection switching process is performed to switch to another network connection.

The UE may choose to perform the first handover process or the second handover process based on information such as the service type and/or service priority that the network B needs to perform. For example, if the UE is in the RRC connected state in the network A, but needs to establish an RRC connection in the network B and perform the operation of receiving and/or sending data, the first handover process can be performed; if the UE is in the RRC connected state in the network A, but If it is necessary to receive a paging message or a system information message from the network B or perform measurements, etc., the second handover procedure may be performed. For another example, if the UE needs to establish an RRC connection for some services in the network B, and the priority of the service to be executed by the network B is higher than that of the service currently executed by the network A, the first handover process can be performed; if the network When the priority of the service to be executed by B is lower than the selection of the service currently executed by network A, the UE can continue to maintain the RRC connection with network A, and perform the first handover only when the high-priority service of network A is completed. process.

In this specification, the so-called user equipment leaving a certain network means that the user equipment stops communicating with the network, and the UE can use the first handover process or the second handover process to leave a network. The so-called user equipment leaves the RRC connection in a certain network. state means that the user equipment releases the RRC connection with the network, and the UE can use the first handover process to realize leaving the RRC connection state in a certain network.

If the first switching procedure is employed, the processing shown in FIG. 3 can be performed.

As shown in FIG. 3 , in S31 , the current RRC entity used by the user equipment sends a request message for releasing the RRC connection between the current RRC entity and the current network to the current network connected to the current network. Then in S32, it is judged whether a response message from the current network for the request message is received within a given time. If the sign response message is not received within the given time, in S33, the current RRC entity releases the RRC connection with the current network, and in S34, a release reason indication is sent to the upper layer of the current RRC entity. The release reason indication indicates the reason for releasing the RRC connection between the current RRC entity and the current network. The upper layer can perform corresponding actions according to the indication of the release reason. As an example, the upper layer may perform an operation for improving the connection state between the user equipment and the current network according to the release reason instruction.

Specifically, after sending a message for requesting to leave the RRC connection state to the base station, the UE starts a first timer, and when the first timer expires, the UE automatically releases the current RRC connection. In other words, when the first timer expires, the UE may enter the RRC idle state or enter the RRC inactive state.

In the above process, when the first timer expires, the UE (ie, the RRC layer/entity of the UE) performs an operation (ie, a process) of entering the RRC idle state or entering the RRC inactive state. If the UE performs the operation of entering the RRC idle state when the first timer expires, the UE needs to indicate the upper layer (eg, the NAS layer) the reason for releasing the current RRC connection (release cause).

In one embodiment, when the first timer expires, the UE performs an operation of entering the RRC idle state and sets the release cause to a new value (ie, a new release cause), for example, can be set to "automnomous release" freed)". The new release reason is different from any one of the release reasons "RRC connection failure (RRC connection failure)", "RRC Resume failure (RRC continuation failure)" and "other (other)" defined in the existing TS38.331. The new release reason is set for the purpose of instructing the UE to automatically release the RRC connection, or for indicating that the UE automatically releases the RRC connection due to the expiration of the first timer, or for instructing the UE to notify the It is set for the purpose of automatically releasing the RRC connection when the network A leaves the RRC connection state but does not receive a response message during the running of the first timer (or until the timer expires). The reply message may be an RRCRelease message.

The advantage of using a different release reason is that, after receiving the release reason, the NAS layer can define some targeted operations to improve the connection quality of the UE in the network A and so on. For example, based on the release reason, the NAS (ie, the NAS layer/entity) re-initiates the operation of establishing a connection to the network A after completing the transmission of data or signaling that needs to be performed in the network B.

In one embodiment, when the first timer expires, the UE performs an operation of entering the RRC idle state and sets the release reason to a value defined in the current standard for other purposes, for example, it can be set to "RRC connection failure" or " RRC Resume failure" or "other". For example, when the expiration of the first timer causes the UE to perform the operation of entering the RRC idle state, if the NAS is expected to release the N1NAS signaling connection (Release of the N1NAS signaling connection), so that the UE enters the 5GMM-IDLE mode (mode), then The release reason is set to "other". When the expiration of the first timer causes the UE to perform the operation of entering the RRC idle state, if the NAS layer is expected to re-initiate the process of making the UE enter the 5GMM-CONNECTED mode in the current network or the registration process in the current network or the execution of the triggering process in the current network In the process of establishing an RRC connection, set the release reason to "RRC connection failure". After the NAS layer receives the release reason, if the UE supports MUSIM, it re-initiates the process of making the UE enter the 5GMM-CONNECTED mode in the current network or the registration process in the current network or the process of triggering the establishment of an RRC connection in the current network ( The process may be performed after another SIM card has completed data transmission and reception, or after another SIM card enters 5GMM-IDLE mode, or after another SIM card receives an indication of RRC connection suspension from a lower layer). When the expiration of the first timer causes the UE to perform the operation of entering the RRC idle state, if the NAS layer is expected to enter the 5GMM-IDLE mode and perform other related operations, the release reason is set to "RRC Resume failure". After the NAS layer receives the release reason, if the UE supports MUSIM, it enters the 5GMM-IDLE mode and/or performs other related operations.

The advantage of using the release cause defined in the existing system is that, for the UE entering the RRC idle state due to the expiration of the first certain period, the NAS layer does not need to define a new operation. After receiving the release reason, the NAS layer executes the existing operations that should be performed when the release reason is received for the UE entering the RRC idle state due to the expiration of the first timer, thereby simplifying the system or protocol design.

It should be noted that the message for requesting to leave the RRC connected state may be a UEAssistanceInformation message. The UE requests the network to leave the current network RRC connected state by including a relevant field for requesting to leave the RRC connected state in the UEAssistanceInformation message.

In addition, as a modification of the above-mentioned embodiment for the first handover process, after the first timer is started, the UE may send a message for requesting to leave the RRC connected state to the base station.

According to whether the time when the UE leaves the current network occurs periodically, the second handover process can be divided into two categories: the first type is the second handover process for periodic services. The measurement of network B, etc.; the second type is the second handover process for aperiodic services. This handover process is mainly for some aperiodic services or occasional/burst services. Such services can be received from network B. System information, sending a message indicating that the current UE is busy, etc. For the second handover process of the periodic service, the UE may request a periodic time interval from the network A, and then periodically within the time interval, the UE leaves the network A and goes to the network B to complete the required operation, that is, the time interval occurs periodically. For the second handover process of the aperiodic service, the UE can request an aperiodic time interval from the network A when necessary. During the time interval, the UE leaves the network A and goes to the network B to complete the required operation. Intervals do not occur periodically. For the aperiodically occurring time interval, the UE starts the second timer after sending the message requesting the time interval. When the UE receives a message containing time interval configuration information (or indication information), the second timer is stopped. The message for requesting the time interval may be a UEAssistanceInformation message. The UE requests aperiodic time intervals by including the corresponding fields in the UEAssistanceInformation message. The message including time interval configuration information or indication information may be an RRC reconfiguration RRCReconfiguration message, where the RRCReconfiguration message is a command for modifying an RRC connection. Optionally, the time interval configuration information (or indication information) is aperiodic time interval configuration information (or indication information).

As a variant embodiment of the second handover process, when the UE receives a message containing time interval configuration information (or indication information) and the message is a response message for a request time interval message sent by the UE, the second timer is stopped.

As a variant of the second handover procedure, the second timer may also be started before the UE sends the message requesting the time interval.

In addition, the second timer may be the same timer as the first timer, that is, the first timer is used for both the first handover process and the second handover process. In other words, the first timer is used to control the UE to send a message to the current network including information requesting to leave the current network (for example, the time information that is expected to leave the current network or the information of the RRC state that is expected to be entered after leaving the current network) and wait for a message from the network. Time to answer the message. After the first timer expires, the UE will perform the operations that need to be performed when the timers defined by the first handover process and the second handover process (ie, the first timer or the second timer) expire.

The UEAssistanceInformation message described in this disclosure is used to indicate UE assistance information (UE assistance information) to the network.

FIG. 4 is a structural block diagram of a user equipment provided by an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 4 , as shown in FIG. 4 , the user equipment user equipment 40 includes a processor 41 and a memory 42 . The processor 41 may include, for example, a microprocessor, a microcontroller, an embedded processor, or the like. Memory 42 may include, for example, volatile memory (such as random access memory RAM), a hard disk drive (HDD), non-volatile memory (such as flash memory), or other memory, or the like. The memory 42 has program instructions stored thereon. When the instructions are executed by the processor 41, the above-mentioned methods described in detail in the present invention and executed by the user equipment can be executed.

In addition, the computer-executable instructions or programs running on the apparatus according to the present invention may be programs that cause the computer to implement the functions of the embodiments of the present invention by controlling a central processing unit (CPU). The program or information processed by the program may be temporarily stored in volatile memory (eg, random access memory RAM), a hard disk drive (HDD), non-volatile memory (eg, flash memory), or other memory systems.

Computer-executable instructions or programs for implementing the functions of the various embodiments of the present invention may be recorded on a computer-readable storage medium. The corresponding functions can be realized by causing a computer system to read programs recorded on the recording medium and execute the programs. The so-called "computer system" as used herein may be a computer system embedded in the device, and may include an operating system or hardware (eg, peripheral devices). The "computer-readable storage medium" may be a semiconductor recording medium, an optical recording medium, a magnetic recording medium, a recording medium that dynamically stores a program for a short period of time, or any other recording medium readable by a computer.

The various features or functional blocks of the devices used in the above-described embodiments may be implemented or performed by electrical circuits (eg, monolithic or multi-chip integrated circuits). Circuits designed to perform the functions described in this specification may include general purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSPs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination of the above. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any existing processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The above circuit may be a digital circuit or an analog circuit. Where new integrated circuit technologies have emerged as a result of advances in semiconductor technology to replace existing integrated circuits, one or more embodiments of the present invention may also be implemented using these new integrated circuit technologies.

Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments. Although various examples of the described embodiments have been described, the invention is not limited thereto. Fixed or non-mobile electronic equipment installed indoors or outdoors can be used as terminal equipment or communication equipment, such as AV equipment, kitchen equipment, cleaning equipment, air conditioners, office equipment, vending machines, and other household appliances.

As above, the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the specific structure is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and the present invention also includes any design changes that do not deviate from the gist of the present invention. In addition, various modifications can be made to the present invention within the scope of the claims, and embodiments obtained by appropriately combining technical means disclosed in different embodiments are also included in the technical scope of the present invention. In addition, the components described in the above-described embodiments having the same effect may be substituted for each other.

Claims

A method for switching network connections between multiple network connections performed by user equipment, the user equipment having multiple RRC entities, the method comprising:

sending, by the current RRC entity used by the user equipment, a request message for releasing the RRC connection between the current RRC entity and the current network to the current network connected to the current network;

If a response message from the current network for the request message is not received within a given time after sending the request message, the current RRC entity releases the RRC connection with the current network; and

A release cause indication is sent to the upper layer of the current RRC entity, where the release cause indication indicates the reason for releasing the RRC connection between the current RRC entity and the current network.
The method of claim 1, wherein,

The release reason indication is used by the upper layer to perform an operation for improving the connection state between the user equipment and the current network according to the release reason indication.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein sending a release cause indication to an upper layer of the user equipment comprises:

setting a dedicated value dedicated to indicating that the reply message was not received within the given time; and

sending the release cause indication to the upper layer based on the dedicated value,

or

determining a candidate value from a value that has been specified between the current RRC entity and the current network indicating the reason for releasing the RRC connection; and

Based on the candidate value, a release cause indication is sent to the upper layer of the user equipment.
The method according to claim 3, wherein determining the candidate value from the values specified between the current RRC entity and the current network indicating the reason for releasing the RRC connection comprises:

Candidate values are determined from values that have been specified between the user equipment and the current network indicating the reason for releasing the RRC connection, based on the operation that the upper layer entity is expected to perform.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the operation that the upper layer entity is expected to perform is related to a working mode that the user equipment is expected to enter.
A method for switching network connections between multiple network connections performed by user equipment, the user equipment having multiple RRC entities, the method comprising:

When it is necessary to switch the network connection of the user equipment from the current network connection to another network connection in the plurality of network connections different from the current network connection, according to a given rule, from the first switching process and the second network connection select the network connection handover procedure to be performed during the handover procedure; and

performing the selected network connection switching procedure to switch to said another network connection,

The first handover process is used to notify the current network of the current network connection that the user equipment expects to release the RRC connection between the current RRC entity and the current network to switch to another network connection, and includes:

The method of any one of claims 1-5; and

after releasing the RRC connection between the current RRC entity and the current network, establishing the RRC connection of the other network connection,

The second handover process is used to notify the current network that it is desired to switch to the other network connection under the condition of maintaining the RRC connection state between the current RRC entity and the current network.
The method of claim 6, wherein the given rule is determined based on service information of a service to be performed by the another network connection.
The method according to claim 7, wherein the service information comprises:

the service type of the service to be performed by the other network connection; and/or

The service priority of the service to be performed by the other network connection relative to the service in the current network connection.
The method according to any one of claims 6-8, wherein the second handover procedure comprises:

requesting a scheduling time interval from the current network based on a periodicity attribute of the traffic to be performed by the other network connection; and

During the requested scheduling interval, stop communication in the current network connection and switch to the other network connection.
A user equipment comprising:

processor; and

memory, storing instructions,

wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 9.