WO2023071587A1

WO2023071587A1 - Communication method and communication apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO2023071587A1
Application number: PCT/CN2022/118926
Authority: WO
Inventors: 朱方园; 李岩
Original assignee: 华为技术有限公司
Priority date: 2021-10-28
Filing date: 2022-09-15
Publication date: 2023-05-04
Also published as: CN116056008A

Abstract

Provided are a communication method and a communication apparatus. The method comprises: a core network device or an access network device determining that a load of a first mobile relay exceeds a first preset threshold, and determining that a load of a second mobile relay is lower than a second preset threshold, and determining that a moving trajectory of the second mobile relay within a first time period is the same as a moving trajectory of the first mobile relay within the first time period; and controlling a terminal device to migrate from the first mobile relay having a larger load to the second mobile relay having a smaller load, so as to realize load balancing between the mobile relays. Load balancing is realized between mobile relays, such that the pressure on an individual mobile relay having an excessively large load can be relieved, and part of the pressure is transferred to a mobile relay having a smaller load, thereby facilitating an improvement in the performance of the mobile relays, and facilitating an improvement in the system throughput; and a terminal device can be prevented from frequently initiating cell reselection due to a change in the positions of the mobile relays, thereby reducing the impact on normal communication of the terminal device.

Description

Communication method and communication device

This application claims priority to a Chinese patent application with application number 202111267070.X and application title "Communication Method and Communication Device" filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of China on October 28, 2021, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference Applying.

technical field

The present application relates to the communication field, in particular to a communication method and a communication device.

Background technique

With the development of communication technology, mobile relay is widely used. The mobile relay is a wireless access network device with mobility, which integrates the wireless access link and the wireless backhaul link. The wireless access link is the communication link between the terminal device and the mobile relay, and the wireless The backhaul link is the communication link between the mobile relay and the wireless access network equipment deployed on the ground without mobility, and the wireless backhaul link is mainly for data backhaul. Since the mobile relay does not require a wired transmission network for data backhaul, the mobile relay helps reduce the deployment requirements for the wired transmission network in outdoor scenarios where it is difficult to deploy a wired transmission network. For example, the mobile relay may be a vehicle mounted relay (VMR) mounted on a vehicle. The application of the mobile relay enables the terminal equipment located inside or around the vehicle to connect to the mobile relay to achieve network access.

Currently, as the number of terminal devices connected to the mobile relay increases, the load on the mobile relay also increases. When the load of a certain mobile relay is too large, it is necessary to migrate the terminal equipment on the mobile relay to another mobile relay, so as to realize the load balance of the mobile relay. However, how to realize load balancing of mobile relays has become an urgent technical problem to be solved.

Contents of the invention

The present application provides a communication method and a communication device in order to realize load balancing of mobile relays.

In the first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which can be performed by core network equipment, or can also be performed by components (such as chips, chip systems, etc.) configured in the core network equipment, or can also be performed by A logic module or software that can realize all or part of the functions of the core network equipment is not limited in this application.

Exemplarily, the method includes: determining that the load of the first mobile relay exceeds a first preset threshold; determining that the load of the second mobile relay is lower than the second preset threshold, and determining that the second mobile relay is at the first The movement trajectory within the time period is the same as the movement trajectory of the first mobile relay within the first time period; and the information of the second mobile relay is sent to the first access network device, and the information of the second mobile relay is used for The terminal device is connected to the second mobile relay, the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay are in a moving state, and the first mobile relay is used to provide a medium between the terminal device and the first access network device Follow up service.

It should be understood that the movement track of the mobile relay may refer to a collection of location points that the mobile relay passes through. The same movement trajectory may specifically mean that the movement trajectories of two or more mobile relays are coincident, or nearly coincident. The approximate coincidence may refer to, for example, that the positions of the two or more mobile relays (such as the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay) are within a preset distance range.

Based on the above technical content, the core network equipment determines the mobile relay with excessive load and the mobile relay with small load, and determines from the mobile relay with small load that it is in the same location as the mobile relay with excessive load The mobile relay with the same movement track within the time period is used as the target mobile relay. Furthermore, the information of the second mobile relay is sent to the first access network device, so as to migrate the terminal device from the mobile relay with a heavy load to a target mobile relay with a small load, so as to realize the communication between the mobile relays. load balancing. By implementing load balancing between mobile relays, the pressure on individual mobile relays with excessive load can be relieved, and part of the pressure can be transferred to mobile relays with smaller loads, which is beneficial to improve the performance of mobile relays and reduce the impact on wired The deployment requirements of the transmission network, especially in areas where it is difficult to deploy a wired transmission network such as indoors, are conducive to improving system throughput. In addition, considering the high mobility of the mobile relay, the core network equipment determines the target mobile relay for the first mobile relay according to the movement track of each mobile relay. Since the movement trajectory of the second mobile relay selected as the target mobile relay is the same as that of the first mobile relay within a period of time (such as the first time period), and considering the terminal accessing the first mobile relay Devices usually have the same movement trajectory as the first mobile relay (for example, the first mobile relay and terminal devices are located inside the same vehicle entity), so if some terminal devices are migrated from the first mobile relay to the second mobile The relay can make the service connection of the terminal equipment not affected by the mobility of the second mobile relay within the first period of time, and prevent these terminal equipment from frequently initiating cell reselection due to the location change of the second mobile relay , so that the increase of signaling overhead and power consumption caused by cell reselection can be avoided, the impact on normal communication of the terminal equipment can be reduced, and the transmission performance of the terminal equipment can be ensured.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: sending a first duration to the first access network device, and after the first duration expires, the first mobile relay can A relay service is provided between the terminal device and the first access network device.

By sending the first duration to the first access network device, the first access network device can migrate the terminal requesting access from the first mobile relay to the After the first time period expires, the second mobile relay may connect the terminal requesting to access from the first mobile relay to the first mobile relay. Therefore, it is beneficial to avoid problems such as transmission performance degradation that may be caused by redirecting the terminal device to the second mobile relay when the distance between the second mobile relay and the first mobile relay is relatively long or the movement trajectory is different.

Optionally, the first duration is less than or equal to the duration of the first time period.

Since the movement trajectories of the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay are the same in the first time period, if the first duration is controlled within the duration range of the first time period, it can effectively avoid In the case that the mobile relay is far away or the movement trajectory is different, redirecting the terminal device to the second mobile relay may cause transmission performance degradation and other problems.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementations of the first aspect, before sending the information of the second mobile relay to the first access network device, the method further includes: receiving the second mobile relay information from the first access network device An identification of a mobile relay and a registration request from a terminal device, where the identification of the first mobile relay is used to indicate that the registration request is forwarded to the first access network device through the first mobile relay.

After the core network device receives the identity of the first mobile relay and the registration request message of the terminal device, it sends the information of the second mobile relay to the first access network device, thereby realizing the load balancing of the mobile relay and realizing The core network device controls the manner in which the terminal device accesses the second mobile relay at the granularity of the terminal device.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementation manners of the first aspect, the second mobile relay is used to provide a relay service between the terminal device and the second access network device.

A possible situation is that the first access network device and the second access network device are the same access network device. Another possible situation is that the first access network device and the second access network device are different access network devices.

Optionally, the information of the second mobile relay includes an identifier of the second mobile relay, and the identifier of the second mobile relay corresponds to a frequency point of the second mobile relay.

Regardless of whether the first access network device and the second access network device are the same access network device, the core network device can send the identity of the second mobile relay to the first access network device, thereby facilitating the first access The network device acquires the corresponding frequency point of the second mobile relay based on the identifier of the second mobile relay.

Optionally, the information of the second mobile relay includes a frequency point of the second mobile relay.

Regardless of whether the first access network device and the second access network device are the same access network device, the core network device can send the frequency point of the second mobile relay to the first access network device, so that the first access network device can The network access device notifies the terminal device of the frequency point of the second mobile relay.

Further, the first access network device and the second access network device are different access network devices, and before sending the information of the second mobile relay to the first access network device, the method further includes: Sending the identifier of the second mobile relay to the second access network device; receiving the frequency point of the second mobile relay from the second access network device.

That is, the core network device may first send the identifier of the second mobile relay to the second access network device to obtain the corresponding frequency point of the second mobile relay, and then use the obtained frequency point of the second mobile relay The point is sent to the first access network device.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementation manners of the first aspect, the method further includes: acquiring loads of the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay.

It should be understood that the load of the mobile relay can be understood as the resources currently occupied by the mobile relay, and the load can be represented by a percentage, a decimal, etc., and the larger the value, the more resources the mobile relay is currently occupied, and the higher the load. big.

The load information may include load, or the number of terminal devices accessing the mobile relay. Wherein, the number of terminal devices accessing the mobile relay can be used to calculate the load. Therefore, the core network equipment can determine the load according to the load information reported by each mobile relay.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementation manners of the first aspect, the method further includes: acquiring movement trajectories of the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay. The core network equipment can obtain the movement trajectory of each mobile relay according to the movement trajectory actively reported by each mobile relay, and can also obtain the movement trajectory of the mobile relay by performing location monitoring on the mobile relay. This application is not limited to this.

In the second aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which can be executed by the first access network device, or can also be executed by components (such as chips, chip systems, etc.) configured in the first access network device , or, it may also be realized by a logic module or software capable of realizing all or part of the functions of the first access network device, which is not limited in this application.

Exemplarily, the method includes: receiving information of a second mobile relay from a core network device, and the information of the second mobile relay is used for connecting a terminal device to the second mobile relay; wherein, the terminal device is at the For a terminal device requesting access from a first mobile relay within a period of time, the load of the first mobile relay exceeds a first preset threshold, the load of the second mobile relay is lower than a second preset threshold, and the The movement trajectory of the second mobile relay is the same as the movement trajectory of the first mobile relay within the first time period; the frequency point of the second mobile relay is sent to the terminal device, and the frequency point of the second mobile relay is used for Connect the terminal device to the second mobile relay.

Based on the above technical content, the first access network device receives the information of the second mobile relay from the core network device, and sends the frequency point of the second mobile relay to the terminal device, so that the request is transferred from the overloaded first The terminal equipment accessed by the mobile relay is migrated to the second mobile relay whose load is relatively small and whose movement track within the first time period is the same as that of the first mobile relay during the first time period, and then Realized load balancing among mobile relays. By implementing load balancing between mobile relays, the pressure on individual mobile relays with excessive load can be relieved, and part of the pressure can be transferred to mobile relays with smaller loads, which is beneficial to improve the performance of mobile relays and reduce the impact on wired The deployment requirements of the transmission network, especially in areas where it is difficult to deploy a wired transmission network such as indoors, are conducive to improving system throughput. In addition, since the high mobility of the mobile relay is considered when determining the target mobile relay for the first mobile relay, the movement trajectory of the second mobile relay selected as the target mobile relay is within a period of time (as described in the above-mentioned No. within a period of time) is the same as the first mobile relay, and considering that the terminal device accessing the first mobile relay usually has the same movement track as the first mobile relay (for example, the first mobile relay and the terminal device are located at within the same vehicle entity), therefore, if some terminal equipment is migrated from the first mobile relay to the second mobile relay, the service connection of the terminal equipment can not be moved by the second mobile relay within the first time period Influenced by nature, to prevent these terminal equipments from frequently initiating cell reselection due to the location change of the second mobile relay, thereby avoiding the increase of signaling overhead and power consumption caused by cell reselection, and reducing the impact on terminal equipment The impact of the normal communication is beneficial to ensure the transmission performance of the terminal equipment.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: receiving a first duration from the core network device, and after the first duration expires, the terminal device and the first access network device continue to provide relay services.

By receiving the first duration from the core network device, the first access network device can migrate the terminal requesting access from the first mobile relay to the second mobile relay before the first duration expires based on the first duration The relay, after the first duration times out, may connect the terminal requesting to access from the first mobile relay to the first mobile relay. Therefore, it is beneficial to avoid problems such as transmission performance degradation that may be caused by redirecting the terminal device to the second mobile relay when the distance between the second mobile relay and the first mobile relay is relatively long or the movement trajectory is different.

Since the movement trajectories of the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay are the same in the first time period, if the first duration is controlled within the duration range of the first time period, it can effectively avoid In the case that the mobile relay is far away or the moving trajectory is different, redirecting the terminal device to the second mobile relay may cause frequent cell reselection, transmission performance degradation and other problems.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementations of the second aspect, before receiving the information of the second mobile relay from the core network device, the method further includes: receiving a radio resource control (radio resource control) from the terminal device , RRC) message, the RRC message carries a registration request message for requesting access from the first mobile relay; and forwards the registration request message and the identifier of the first mobile relay to the core network device.

After receiving the RRC message of the terminal device through the first access network device, forward the registration request message and the identifier of the first mobile relay in the RRC message to the core network device, and then receive the registration request message of the second mobile relay from the core network device information, and then the load balance of the mobile relay can be realized, and the core network device can control the access of the terminal device to the second mobile relay with the granularity of the terminal device.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementation manners of the second aspect, the second mobile relay is used to provide a relay service between the terminal device and the second access network device.

Further, the first access network device and the second access network device are different access network devices, and the method further includes: sending a request message to the second access network device, the request message carrying the second mobile The identifier of the relay, the request message is used to request the frequency point of the second mobile relay, and request the terminal device to access the second mobile relay; receive the response message of the request message from the second access network device, the response message includes the frequency point of the second mobile relay.

By sending the identifier of the second mobile relay to the second access network device from the first access network device, the convenient acquisition of the frequency point of the second mobile relay is realized, and in order to connect the terminal device from the first access network Basic conditions are provided for migrating the first mobile relay of the access network device to the second mobile relay of the second access network device.

Optionally, the information of the second mobile relay includes a frequency point of the second mobile relay, and the second mobile relay is used to provide a relay service between the terminal device and the second access network device.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which can be executed by the first access network device, or can also be executed by components (such as chips, chip systems, etc.) configured in the first access network device , or, it may also be realized by a logic module or software capable of realizing all or part of the functions of the first access network device, which is not limited in this application.

Exemplarily, the method includes: determining that the load of the first mobile relay exceeds a first preset threshold; determining that the load of the second mobile relay is lower than the second preset threshold, and determining that the second mobile relay is at the first The movement trajectory within the time period is the same as the movement trajectory of the first mobile relay within the first time period; it is determined that the terminal device requests access from the first mobile relay at the first moment of the first time period, and the terminal device The device sends the frequency point of the second mobile relay, and the frequency point of the second mobile relay is used for the terminal device to access the second mobile relay.

It should be understood that, when determining that a terminal device requests access from the first mobile relay, the first access network device may redirect the terminal device to the second mobile relay. That is, load balancing between mobile relays is implemented based on the granularity of the terminal equipment.

Based on the above solution, the mobile relay with excessive load and the mobile relay with small load are determined by the access network equipment, and the mobile relay with small load is determined to be in the same The mobile relays with the same moving trajectory in the time period are used as the target mobile relays, so as to control the migration of terminal equipment from the mobile relays with heavy load to the mobile relays with small loads, and realize the load balancing among mobile relays. By implementing load balancing between mobile relays, the pressure on individual mobile relays with excessive load can be relieved, and part of the pressure can be transferred to mobile relays with smaller loads, which is beneficial to improve the performance of mobile relays and reduce the impact on wired The deployment requirements of the transmission network, especially in areas where it is difficult to deploy a wired transmission network such as indoors, are conducive to improving system throughput. In addition, considering the high mobility of the mobile relay, the first access network device determines the target mobile relay for the first mobile relay according to the movement track of each mobile relay. Since the movement trajectory of the second mobile relay selected as the target mobile relay is the same as that of the first mobile relay within a period of time (such as the first time period), and considering the terminal accessing the first mobile relay Devices usually have the same movement trajectory as the first mobile relay (for example, the first mobile relay and terminal devices are located inside the same vehicle entity), so if some terminal devices are migrated from the first mobile relay to the second mobile The relay can prevent the service connection of the terminal equipment from being affected by the mobility of the second mobile relay within the first time period, and prevent these terminal equipment from frequently initiating cell reselection due to the location change of the mobile relay, thereby Increases in signaling overhead and power consumption caused by cell reselection can be avoided, impact on normal communication of terminal equipment can be reduced, and transmission performance of terminal equipment can be ensured.

With reference to the third aspect, in some possible implementations of the third aspect, the method further includes: obtaining loads of the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay; sending the first mobile relay and the load of the second mobile relay to the core network device 2. Mobile relay load.

With reference to the third aspect, in some possible implementation manners of the third aspect, the method further includes: acquiring the movement trajectories of the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay; sending the first mobile relay and the The movement track of the second mobile relay.

For relevant descriptions about the load, load information, and movement trajectory, please refer to the related descriptions in the first aspect, and details will not be repeated here.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which can be executed by the second access network device, or can also be executed by components (such as chips, chip systems, etc.) configured in the second access network device , or, it may also be realized by a logic module or software capable of realizing all or part of the functions of the second access network device, which is not limited in this application.

Exemplarily, the method includes: receiving a request message, the request message carrying the identifier of the second mobile relay, the request message is used to request the frequency point of the second mobile relay, and is used to request the terminal device to access the second A mobile relay, the terminal device is a terminal device that requests access from a first mobile relay within a first time period, the load of the first mobile relay exceeds a first preset threshold, and the load of the second mobile relay is lower than the second preset threshold, and the movement trajectory of the second mobile relay is the same as the movement trajectory of the first mobile relay within the first time period; based on the request message, a response message is sent, and the response message includes The frequency point of the second mobile relay.

Based on the above technical content, when the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay are connected to different access network devices, the second access network device can obtain the second The frequency point of the mobile relay provides a basic condition for migrating the terminal device from the first mobile relay connected to the first access network device to the second mobile relay connected to the second access network device.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible implementations of the fourth aspect, the receiving the request message includes: receiving the request message from a core network device, where the core network device serves the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay The core network device; based on the request message, sending a response message includes: based on the request message, sending a response message to the core network device.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible implementations of the fourth aspect, the receiving the request message includes: receiving the request message from a first access network device, where the first access network device is a serving first mobile relay The access network device; based on the request message, sending a response message includes: sending a response message to the first access network device based on the request message.

In the case that the second mobile relay and the first mobile relay are connected to different access network devices, the second access network device connected to the second mobile relay can provide the frequency point of the second mobile relay to the core network The device or the first access network device provides basic conditions for migrating the terminal device from the first mobile relay to the second mobile relay.

In a fifth aspect, a communication device is provided, including a module or unit for implementing the method in any possible implementation manner of the first aspect to the fourth aspect and any one of the first aspect to the fourth aspect. It should be understood that each module or unit can realize corresponding functions by executing computer programs.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, including a processor, the processor is configured to execute the communication method described in any possible implementation manner of the first aspect to the fourth aspect and the first aspect to the fourth aspect .

The apparatus may also include memory for storing instructions and data. The memory is coupled to the processor, and when the processor executes the instructions stored in the memory, the methods described in the foregoing aspects can be implemented. The device may further include a communication interface, which is used for the device to communicate with other devices. Exemplarily, the communication interface may be a transceiver, a circuit, a bus, a module or other types of communication interfaces.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a system-on-a-chip, which includes at least one processor, configured to support the implementation of the above-mentioned first to fourth aspects and any possible implementation manners of the first to fourth aspects. The functions involved, for example, receive or process the data and/or information involved in the methods described above.

In a possible design, the chip system further includes a memory, the memory is used to store program instructions and data, and the memory is located inside or outside the processor.

The system-on-a-chip may consist of chips, or may include chips and other discrete devices.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, including a computer program, which, when run on a computer, enables the computer to realize any possibility of the first aspect to the fourth aspect and the first aspect to the fourth aspect method in the implementation.

In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product, the computer program product including: a computer program (also referred to as code, or instruction), when the computer program is executed, the computer executes the first aspect to the The fourth aspect and the method in any possible implementation manner of the first aspect to the fourth aspect.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system architecture of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a scenario of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a terminal device migrating between two mobile relays under the same access network device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a terminal device migrating between two mobile relays under different access network devices provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic flowchart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

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

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

FIG. 8 is another schematic flow chart of a communication method provided by another embodiment of the present application;

9 to 10 are schematic block diagrams of communication devices provided by embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of an access network device provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed ways

The technical solution in this application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The technical solution provided by this application can be applied to various communication systems, for example: the fifth generation (5th Generation, 5G) mobile communication system or new radio access technology (new radio access technology, NR). Wherein, the 5G mobile communication system may include non-standalone networking (non-standalone, NSA) and/or standalone networking (standalone, SA).

The technical solution provided by this application can also be applied to machine type communication (machine type communication, MTC), inter-machine communication long term evolution technology (long term evolution-machine, LTE-M), device to device (device to device, D2D) network , machine to machine (machine to machine, M2M) network, Internet of things (internet of things, IoT) network or other networks. Wherein, the IoT network may include, for example, the Internet of Vehicles. Among them, the communication methods in the Internet of Vehicles system are collectively referred to as vehicle to other devices (vehicle to X, V2X, X can represent anything), for example, the V2X can include: vehicle to vehicle (vehicle to vehicle, V2V) communication, vehicle and Infrastructure (vehicle to infrastructure, V2I) communication, vehicle to pedestrian (vehicle to pedestrian, V2P) or vehicle to network (vehicle to network, V2N) communication, etc.

The technical solution provided by this application can also be applied to future communication systems, such as the sixth generation mobile communication system and the like. This application is not limited to this.

Before specifically introducing the communication method provided by the embodiment of this application, a brief introduction to each network element involved in this application is given:

1. Terminal equipment: can be called user equipment (user equipment, UE), access terminal, subscriber unit, user station, mobile station, mobile station, remote station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, terminal, wireless communication device , User Agent, or User Device.

A terminal device may be a device that provides voice/data connectivity to users, for example, a handheld device with a wireless connection function, a vehicle-mounted device, and the like. At present, examples of some terminals can be: mobile phone (mobile phone), tablet computer (pad), computer with wireless transceiver function (such as notebook computer, palmtop computer, etc.), mobile internet device (mobile internet device, MID), virtual reality (virtual reality, VR) equipment, augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) equipment, wireless terminals in industrial control (industrial control), wireless terminals in self driving (self driving), wireless in remote medical (remote medical) Terminals, wireless terminals in smart grid, wireless terminals in transportation safety, wireless terminals in smart city, wireless terminals in smart home, cellular phones, cordless Telephones, session initiation protocol (SIP) phones, wireless local loop (WLL) stations, personal digital assistants (PDAs), handheld devices with wireless communication capabilities, computing devices, or connected Other processing devices to wireless modems, vehicle-mounted devices, wearable devices, terminal devices in the 5G network or terminal devices in the future evolution of the public land mobile network (PLMN), etc.

In addition, the terminal device may also be a terminal device in an Internet of Things (Internet of things, IoT) system. IoT is an important part of the future development of information technology. Its main technical feature is to connect objects to the network through communication technology, so as to realize the intelligent network of human-machine interconnection and object interconnection. IoT technology can achieve massive connections, deep coverage, and terminal power saving through, for example, narrow band (NB) technology.

In addition, terminal equipment can also include sensors such as smart printers, train detectors, and gas stations. The main functions include collecting data (partial terminal equipment), receiving control information and downlink data from network equipment, and sending electromagnetic waves to transmit uplink data to network equipment. .

2. Access network (AN) equipment: The access network can provide network access functions for authorized users in a specific area, and can use transmission tunnels of different qualities according to user levels and business requirements. The access network may be an access network using different access technologies. There are currently two types of radio access technologies: ^3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) access technologies (such as radio access technologies used in 3G, 4G or 5G systems) and non-3GPP (non-3GPP) access technologies. -3GPP) access technology. The 3GPP access technology refers to the access technology that complies with the 3GPP standard specifications. For example, the access network equipment in the 5G system is called a next generation node base station (gNB). The non-3GPP access technology refers to an access technology that does not conform to the 3GPP standard specification, for example, an air interface technology represented by an access point (access point, AP) in wireless fidelity (wireless fidelity, Wi-Fi).

An access network that implements a network access function based on a wireless communication technology may be referred to as a radio access network (radio access network, RAN). The wireless access network can manage wireless resources, provide access services for terminal equipment, and then complete the forwarding of control signals and user data between the terminal and the core network.

Radio access network equipment, for example, may include but not limited to: a radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), a node B (Node B, NB), a base station controller (base station controller, BSC), a base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS), home base station (for example, home evolved node B, or home node B, HNB), baseband unit (baseband unit, BBU), AP in Wi-Fi system, wireless relay node, wireless backhaul node, Transmission point (transmission point, TP) or transmission and reception point (transmission and reception point, TRP), etc., can also be gNB or transmission point (TRP or TP) in the 5G (eg, NR) system, the base station in the 5G system One or a group (including multiple antenna panels) antenna panels, or it can also be a network node that constitutes a gNB or a transmission point, such as a baseband unit (BBU), or a distributed unit (DU), or a next-generation Base stations in communication 6G systems, etc. This application does not limit the specific technology and specific equipment form adopted by the wireless access network equipment.

3. Mobile relay: refers to a mobile wireless access network device that integrates a wireless access link and a wireless backhaul link, where the wireless access link is the communication between the terminal device and the mobile relay The wireless backhaul link is the communication link between the mobile relay and the wireless access network equipment deployed on the ground without mobility. The wireless backhaul link mainly performs data backhaul. The mobile relay supports interfaces such as Uu, F1, E1, NG, and X2, and includes functions of radio access network equipment and mobile-termination (MT) functionality. Among them, the MT function is integrated in the mobile relay, and this functional entity is used for the Uu interface termination point of the backhaul link between the mobile relay and the donor RAN device or other mobile relays. When the mobile relay is activated, the MT function will perform cell selection to access the network.

It can be understood that the mobile relay has mobility. For example, by carrying a relay integrated with a wireless access link and a wireless backhaul link on the vehicle, so that it can move with the movement of the vehicle, it is a typical mobile relay, that is, a vehicle-mounted relay ( vehicle mounted relay, VMR).

4. Donor RAN equipment: usually refers to the wireless access network equipment deployed on the ground without mobility, provided by the backhaul link between the donor RAN and the mobile relay and the mobile relay Access links provide network access to terminal devices. The host radio access network device may consist of a centralized unit (centralized unit, CU) and one or more distributed units (distributed unit, DU). Among them, CU mainly handles non-real-time wireless high-layer protocol stack functions, such as radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) layer protocol and packet data convergence layer (packet data convergence protocol, PDCP) layer protocol, and DU mainly handles physical layer (physical layer, PHY) functions and layer 2 functions with high real-time requirements, such as the PHY protocol. CU and DU can communicate with each other through the F1 interface.

This application does not limit the number of mobile relays that can be connected to the donor RAN.

For the convenience of description, the host wireless access network device is referred to as the access network device for short in this application. Unless otherwise stated, the access network device in the embodiments of the present application refers to a donor radio access network (donor RAN) device.

5. Access and mobility management function network element (access and mobility management function, AMF): AMF network element belongs to the core network part, and is mainly used for terminal registration, mobility management, and tracking area update process in the mobile network. The entry and mobility management network element terminates the non-access stratum (NAS) message, is responsible for registration management, connection management and reachability management, assigns a track area list (TA list) and mobility management etc., and is responsible for forwarding the session management (session management, SM) message to the session management network element.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system architecture applicable to a communication method in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 1 , the system 100 may include a core network 110 , an access network device 120 , a mobile relay 130 and a terminal device 140 .

The system 100 may be, for example, a 5G system (5G system, 5GS). In 5GS, the core network 110 may be a 5G core network (5G core, 5GC). Exemplarily, the core network 110 may include, but not limited to, an AMF, a session management function (session management function, SMF), a user plane function (user plane function, UPF) and the like. Each network element can be used to realize its own function, for example, AMF can be used for mobility management and access management. SMF can be used for session management, Internet protocol (internet protocol, IP) address allocation and management of terminal equipment, selection and management of user plane functions, policy control, or termination points of charging function interfaces, and downlink data notification. UPF can be used for packet routing and forwarding, or quality of service (quality of service, QoS) processing of user plane data, etc. The present application does not limit the specific network elements included in the core network 110 and their functions, quantity and form.

The access network device 120 can be connected to the core network 110 and can be used to provide network access functions for authorized terminals within the coverage area, manage wireless resources, and complete the forwarding of control signals and user data between the terminal device and the core network 110 .

In this embodiment of the application, the access network device 120 can not only provide wireless access services for terminal devices, but also provide wireless backhaul functions for mobile relays (such as mobile relay 130 shown in FIG. 1 ), so that The mobile relay can access the core network through the access network device 120 . The mobile relay 130 has mobility. For example, it can be deployed in a vehicle. On the one hand, it is connected to the access network device 120 through a wireless backhaul link, and then connected to the core network through the access network device 120; Terminal equipment (including terminal equipment inside or outside the vehicle) provides a wireless access link, so that the terminal equipment can access the network.

As shown in Figure 1, the terminal device 140 is located outside the vehicle, and can access the mobile relay 130 through the wireless access link provided by the mobile relay 130, and then access the mobile relay 130 through the access network device 120 and the mobile relay 130. The wireless backhaul link is connected to the core network 110 .

It should be understood that Fig. 1 is only an example, showing a core network, a radio access network device, a mobile relay and a terminal device, but this should not constitute any limitation to this application. The number of each device can be one or more. There may be one or more access network devices accessing the same core network. The number of mobile relays connected to the same wireless access network device can also be one or more. The number of terminal devices accessing the same mobile relay can also be one or more.

In addition, although not shown in FIG. 1 , it should be understood that the terminal device 140 may access the network by connecting to a mobile relay, or may access the network by accessing a wireless access network device. Furthermore, the terminal device 140 can also be located inside the vehicle.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a scenario applicable to a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 2, the mobile relay 201 and the mobile relay 202 are mounted on different vehicles, the mobile relay 201 has the same moving track as the mounted vehicle, and the mobile relay 202 and the mounted vehicle also have the same moving track . The mobile relay 201 and the mobile relay 202 may be connected to the same donor RAN, or may be connected to different donor RANs, which is not limited in this application.

As shown in FIG. 2, when the mobile relay 201 is driving in area 1, terminal devices may continuously access the network through the mobile relay 201. As shown in FIG. 2, terminal device 1 to terminal device n (n is positive integer) are all connected to the core network through the mobile relay 201. As more and more terminal devices request to access the mobile relay 201, the load of the mobile relay 201 becomes larger and larger. However, since there is no other relay near the mobile relay 1 for equalization, these terminal devices still access the network through the mobile relay 201 .

As the mobile relay 201 moves, it gradually enters the area 2 . If mobile relay 201 is in area 2, there is mobile relay 202 in the nearby area, and the load on mobile relay 202 is low, some terminal devices connected to mobile relay 201 can be migrated to mobile Relay 202 on. For example, for terminal devices that have successfully entered the network (ie, terminal device 1 to terminal device n shown in FIG. 2 ), if these terminal devices initiate an access request again through mobile relay Some of the terminal devices, such as terminal device n and terminal device n−1, are migrated to the mobile relay 202 . In this way, the number of terminal devices accessing the mobile relay 201 is reduced to n-2, the load of the mobile relay 201 is reduced, and the load balancing of the mobile relay 201 is realized. In addition, although not shown in FIG. 2 , it can be understood that there may be some terminal devices that have not been connected to the mobile relay 201 before, such as terminal devices in area 2, after the mobile relay 201 enters area 2, request Through the mobile relay 201 accessing the network, these terminal devices can also be migrated to the mobile relay 202 . The n terminal devices shown in FIG. 2 are only examples, and should not constitute any limitation.

As the mobile relay 201 continues to travel, if the mobile relay 201 travels into area 3, the distance between the mobile relay 201 and the mobile relay 202 becomes farther, and the mobile terminal that migrated out needs to be migrated back again. . For example, terminal device n and terminal device n−1 are migrated from mobile relay 202 to mobile relay 201 again. It can be understood that, if the mobile relay 201 is still overloaded in the area 3, a new target mobile relay can be found for load balancing.

It should be understood that the n terminal devices shown in FIG. 2 are only examples, and the number of mobile terminals connected to the mobile relay 201 may also change as time progresses, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

It should also be understood that the area 1, area 2, and area 3 shown in FIG. 2 are only distinguished for convenience of description, and such area division does not necessarily exist in an actual scene.

It should also be understood that Fig. 2 is only an example, showing two mobile relays. But this should not constitute any limitation to the present application. More mobile relays may also be included in each area in this scenario. This embodiment of the present application does not limit it. In addition, in the scenario shown in FIG. 2, migration is only initiated for terminal devices that have successfully joined the network, thereby reducing the load of the mobile relay. In this embodiment of the present application, migration can also be initiated for a terminal device that has not successfully entered the network, and the embodiment of the present application does not limit whether the terminal device to be migrated has successfully entered the network.

It should also be understood that FIG. 2 is only an example, and two terminal devices connected to the mobile relay 201 are migrated to the mobile relay 202 . But this should not constitute any limitation to the present application. In this scenario, more or fewer terminal devices can be migrated, and the terminal devices can also be migrated to other mobile relays except the mobile relay 202 . This embodiment of the present application does not limit it.

Due to the high mobility of the mobile relays, the mobile relays 202 available for load balancing of the mobile relays 201 may change over time. For example, mobile relays cannot perceive each other's load conditions, and it is difficult to know each other's movement trajectory in advance. Referring to FIG. 2 , the mobile relay 201 does not perceive the load of the mobile relay 202 , nor can it know whether the distance between the mobile relay 202 and itself is far or short, and the future driving route of the mobile relay 202 . Therefore, how to find another suitable mobile relay for the mobile relay to perform load balancing, and then realize the load balancing among the mobile relays, is an urgent technical problem to be solved.

In view of this, the present application provides a communication method, by using core network equipment or access network equipment to determine mobile relays with heavy loads and mobile relays with small loads, and determine from the mobile relays with small loads The mobile relay with the same moving trajectory as the mobile relay with excessive load in the same time period is selected as the target mobile relay, so as to realize the load balancing among mobile relays. In other words, in the communication method provided by this application, the core network equipment or the access network equipment can control the migration of the terminal equipment from a mobile relay with an excessive load to a mobile relay with a small load, so as to achieve load balancing among mobile relays .

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application will be described in detail below from the perspectives of AMF (an example of core network equipment) control and access network equipment control in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. For example, FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 show two situations where the embodiment of the present application is applicable, and FIG. 5 shows a method embodiment described from the perspective of AMF control or access network device control. Fig. 6 to Fig. 8 show the communication method provided by the present application implemented in the two situations shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 from the perspective of device interaction. 6 and 7 show the communication method of the present application implemented under the control of the AMF, and FIG. 8 shows the communication method of the present application implemented under the control of the access network device.

In order to better understand the embodiment of the present application, the following explanations are first made:

First, in the embodiments of this application, descriptions such as "when", "in the case of ...", "if" and "if" all refer to the equipment (such as AMF or receiver) under certain objective circumstances. The network access device) will make corresponding processing, which is not a time limit, and does not require the device (such as AMF or access network device) to have a judgment action during implementation, nor does it mean that there are other restrictions.

Second, "first", "second" and various numbers in the embodiments shown below are only for convenience of description, and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. For example, different mobile relays, different access network devices, etc. are distinguished. Those skilled in the art can understand that words such as "first" and "second" do not limit the quantity and order of execution, and words such as "first" and "second" do not necessarily limit the difference.

Third, in the embodiments of the present application, "at least one" means one or more, and "multiple" means two or more. "And/or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that there may be three types of relationships, for example, A and/or B, which can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone, where A, B can be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the contextual objects are an "or" relationship, but it does not exclude the situation that the contextual objects are an "and" relationship, and the specific meaning can be understood in conjunction with the context. "At least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of single or plural items. For example, at least one item (unit) of a, b, or c may represent: a, b, c; a and b; a and c; b and c; or a and b and c. Among them, a, b, c can be single or multiple.

Fourth, for the convenience of understanding and explanation, the following assumptions and definitions are made:

The first mobile relay: the mobile relay whose load exceeds the first preset threshold, that is, the mobile relay that needs to perform load balancing, may also be called the source mobile relay. The first mobile relay can be used to provide a relay service between the terminal device and the first access network device.

The second mobile relay: a mobile relay whose load is less than a second preset threshold and which has the same movement trajectory as the first mobile relay within a certain period of time. That is, the mobile relay that is the migration target of the terminal device may also be called a target mobile relay. The second mobile relay can be used to provide a relay service between the terminal device and the second access network device.

It should be understood that both the first preset threshold and the second preset threshold are thresholds for judging whether the load of the mobile relay is too high. The first preset threshold and the second preset threshold may be the same or different. This embodiment of the present application does not limit it.

The first access network device: the host access network device accessed by the first mobile relay.

Second access network device: host access network device accessed by the second mobile relay.

It should be noted that the first access network device and the second access network device may be the same access network device, or may be different access network devices. The following embodiments will be described in combination with different situations.

AMF: refers to the AMF that serves the MT function of the mobile relay, that is, the AMF registered when the MT of the first mobile relay and the MT of the second mobile relay are connected to the network. It can also be simply described as the AMF registered by the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay when they access the network. In the following, unless otherwise specified, it is assumed that the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay are registered in the same AMF.

In the following, two possible situations in the applicable scenario of the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application will be introduced first. Hereinafter, the host wireless access network device is referred to as the access network device for short.

A possible situation is that the first access network device and the second access network device are the same access network device. In other words, the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay are connected to the same access network device. Therefore, the terminal device can migrate between two mobile relays under the same access network device.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a terminal device migrating between two mobile relays under the same access network device. Figure 3 shows the AMF, the access network equipment (i.e. donor RAN), the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay, and the terminal equipment located within the service range of the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay at the same time . Wherein, the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay are connected to the same access network device. When the load of the first mobile relay is too large, the terminal equipment that initiates access to the first mobile relay can be migrated to the second mobile relay that has a smaller load and has the same movement trajectory as the first mobile relay within a certain period of time. On the second mobile relay.

Another possible scenario is that the first access network device and the second access network device are different access network devices. In other words, the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay are connected to different access network devices. Therefore, the terminal device can migrate between two mobile relays under different access network devices. As the terminal device migrates between the two mobile relays, the access network device ( It can be understood that the connection between the terminal device and the host access network device through the mobile relay) also changes.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a terminal device migrating between two mobile relays under different access network devices. Figure 4 shows the AMF, the first access network equipment (i.e. the first donor RAN), the second access network equipment (i.e. the second donor RAN), the first mobile relay, the second mobile relay, and the Terminal devices within the service range of the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay. Wherein, the first mobile relay is connected to the first access network device, the second mobile relay is connected to the second access network device, and the first access network device and the second access network device are different access network devices . When the load of the first mobile relay is too large, the terminal equipment that initiates access to the first mobile relay can be migrated to the second mobile relay that has a smaller load and has the same movement trajectory as the first mobile relay within a certain period of time. On the second mobile relay.

It should be understood that Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 are only examples, showing two mobile relays and one terminal device. But this should not constitute any limitation to the present application. For example, each access network device can be connected to more than one mobile relay, and the number of terminal devices accessing each mobile relay can also be more than one. This embodiment of the present application does not limit it. In addition, in the scenarios shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 , whether the terminal device to be migrated to the second mobile relay has successfully joined the network is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

It should also be understood that Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 are only examples, showing one or two access network devices. However, this should not constitute any limitation to the present application, and the number of access network devices connected to the AMF may be more than one.

In other words, the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application can not only realize the migration of the terminal device between two mobile relays under the same access network device, but also realize the migration of the terminal device between two mobile relays under different access network devices. Migration between relays.

The following describes the communication method provided by the present application from the perspective of AMF control or access network device control with reference to FIG. 5 .

Fig. 5 is a schematic flowchart applicable to the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application. The method 500 includes step 510 to step 530 . Among them, the access network devices in Figure 5 all refer to the donor RAN connected to the mobile relay through a wireless backhaul link.

It should be understood that the method 500 may be executed by the AMF or the access network device, or may also be executed by a component (such as a circuit, a chip, a chip system, etc.) deployed in the AMF or the access network device, or may also be executed by a device capable of implementing A logical module or software implementation of all or part of the functions of the AMF or access network equipment. This embodiment of the present application does not limit it.

Step 510: Determine that the load of the first mobile relay exceeds a first preset threshold.

Step 520: Determine that the load of the second mobile relay is lower than the second preset threshold, and determine the movement trajectory of the second mobile relay within the first time period and the movement trajectory of the first mobile relay within the first time period same.

It should be understood that, in step 510 and step 520, the load of the first mobile relay exceeds the first preset threshold, and the load of the second mobile relay is lower than the second preset threshold. It may mean that the load of the first mobile relay is greater than or equal to the first preset threshold, and the load of the second mobile relay is less than the second preset threshold; or, it may also mean that the load of the first mobile relay is greater than the first preset threshold. A preset threshold, the load of the second mobile relay is less than or equal to the second preset threshold.

In a possible implementation manner, step 510 to step 520 may be performed by the AMF. The AMF can obtain the loads of all mobile relays registered with the AMF. In other words, regardless of whether these mobile relays access the network through the same access network device, the AMF can obtain their loads. Therefore, this implementation is applicable to the situation shown in FIG. 3 or FIG. 4 .

In another possible implementation manner, steps 510 to 520 may be performed by an access network device, such as a first access network device connected to the first mobile relay. Since the first access network device can obtain the load of the mobile relay connected to itself, this implementation is more suitable for the situation shown in FIG. 3 . Of course, this implementation method can also be applied to the situation shown in Figure 4, except that the first access network device may need to obtain from the core network device or other access network devices other mobile information that is not connected to the first access network device following load.

The specific manner of obtaining the load of the mobile relay will be described in detail below.

Each mobile relay can periodically report its own load information to the connected access network device. As an implementation, the load information can include resource information already occupied by the current mobile relay, remaining resources (or , unoccupied resources) information or the number of terminal devices accessing the mobile relay, etc.

Wherein, the resource information already occupied on the current mobile relay is specifically represented by percentage, decimal, etc., and is used to represent the resource already occupied on the current mobile relay. In other words, the resource information currently occupied by the mobile relay is the current load of the mobile relay. For example, a larger value of the occupied resource information indicates that more resources have been occupied on the mobile relay, indicating a greater load.

For example, the load information reported by the mobile relay is: the resource information currently occupied by the mobile relay is 80% or 0.8, then the load can be determined to be 80% or 0.8.

Resource information remaining on the current mobile relay can also be used to determine the load. Specifically, the remaining resource information on the current mobile relay can also be represented by percentage, decimal, etc., which are used to represent the remaining resources on the current mobile relay. The smaller the value of the remaining resource information, the more resources are left on the mobile relay, which means the load is smaller.

For example, if the load information reported by the mobile relay is: the remaining resource information on the current mobile relay is 20% or 0.2, then the current load of the first mobile relay can be determined to be 80% or 0.8.

The number of terminal devices accessing the mobile relay can also be used to determine the load, for example, the greater the number of terminal devices, the greater the load.

For example, the load information reported by the mobile relay is: the number of terminal devices accessing the mobile relay, and the AMF can obtain the number of terminals allowed to access the mobile relay from the subscription data or from other network elements or local configuration information. maximum value. The AMF judges the load of the mobile relay according to the maximum number of terminals allowed to access the mobile relay and the number of terminals currently accessing the mobile relay. Assuming that the maximum number of terminals allowed to access the mobile relay is 1000 terminals, and the number of terminals currently accessing the mobile relay is 800 terminals, then the AMF can calculate that the load of the mobile relay is 80% or 0.8. Of course, the AMF can also send the maximum value of terminal devices allowed to access the mobile relay to the access network device (it can be understood that the access network device is the access network device connected to the mobile relay), and the access network device network equipment to calculate the load of the mobile relay.

It can be seen that no matter whether each mobile relay reports the occupied resource information, the remaining resource information, or the number of terminal devices connected to the mobile relay, it can be converted into load, so as to correspond to the corresponding load threshold to compare. This application does not limit the method used to represent the load information.

It should be understood that the period for each mobile relay to report load information can be set by those skilled in the art according to actual needs, and this application does not limit it.

For example, each mobile relay reports load information to its connected access network equipment. If steps 510 to 520 are performed by the first access network device, the first access network device may directly perform

steps

510 and 520 according to the received load information. If steps 510 to 520 are performed by the AMF, the first access network device may forward the load to the AMF, and then the AMF performs

steps

510 and 520 according to the received load information.

After the AMF or the first access network device obtains the load information of each mobile relay, it can know the load of each mobile relay, and then determine the first mobile relay with excessive load and the first mobile relay that can be used as the first mobile relay. The second mobile relay of the target mobile relay.

It can be understood that the AMF or the first access network device may determine one or more mobile relays with excessive loads according to the received load information, and the one or more mobile relays with excessive loads are the first mobile Example of relay. For each first mobile relay, the AMF or the first access network device may determine for it a second mobile relay for migrating the terminal device. The AMF or the access network device may determine one or more first mobile relays at one time, and then determine a second mobile relay for each first mobile relay; or each time a first mobile relay is determined, for It determines the second mobile relay. This application does not limit the specific implementation process. Without loss of generality, a first mobile relay is taken as an example herein to describe the method provided by the embodiment of the present application.

It should also be understood that this application does not limit the execution order of step 510 and step 520. For example, step 510 may be executed first, and then step 520 may be executed, or step 510 and step 520 may be executed at the same time. For example, the first mobile relay may be obtained at the same time and the load of the second mobile relay, after determining that the load of the first mobile relay exceeds the first preset threshold, it is further determined that the load is lower than the preset threshold, and the movement of the first mobile relay within a certain period of time The second mobile relay with the same trajectory.

As mentioned above, the second mobile relay is a mobile relay whose load is smaller than the second preset threshold and whose movement trajectory is the same as that of the first mobile relay within a certain period of time. Wherein, the time period is a concept with start and end time points and time length. For ease of understanding and description, a continuous time period in which the movement trajectory of the second mobile relay is the same as the movement trajectory of the first mobile relay is recorded as the first time period herein.

Wherein, the moving track of the mobile relay may refer to a collection of location points that the mobile relay passes through. The moving track can be understood as the moving path of the mobile relay, which is a vector and has a direction. From the path, it can be seen that all the location points passed by the mobile relay from the beginning to the end of the movement. In a practicable manner, the movement track may include location information of the mobile relay at multiple time points. According to the chronological order, the location points of the mobile relays at various time points are connected to obtain the moving track of the mobile relay, and the moving track of the mobile relay can be obtained.

The same movement trajectory may specifically mean that the movement trajectories of two or more mobile relays are coincident, or nearly coincident. The approximate coincidence may refer to, for example, that the location points of the two or more mobile relays are within a preset distance range.

In other words, the movement trajectory of the first mobile relay and the movement trajectory of the second mobile relay are the same in the first time period, that is, the position of the first mobile relay at any time point in the first time period is the same as that of the second mobile relay. The distance between the location points of the second mobile relay at the same time point within the first time period is less than or equal to the preset distance range.

In the following, for the sake of brevity, unless otherwise specified, the movement track and the movement track being the same within a certain period of time can be understood with reference to the above description.

Step 530: Control the terminal device to access the second mobile relay.

Corresponding to the foregoing, in a possible implementation manner, step 530 may be performed by the AMF. When the AMF executes step 530, it may specifically send the information of the second mobile relay to the first access network device, so as to control the terminal device to access the second mobile relay through the first access network device.

For example, when the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay are simultaneously connected to the same first access network device (that is, for the scenario in FIG. 3 ), the information about the second mobile relay may be the second mobile relay The identifier (identifier, ID), or the cell information of the second mobile relay. Wherein, the cell information at least includes: a frequency point or a frequency band. In this embodiment of the present application, the cell information may be used to redirect the terminal device from the first mobile relay to the second mobile relay. Since the ID of the mobile relay corresponds to the cell information, the first access network device can determine the cell information of the second mobile relay based on the identifier of the second mobile relay from the AMF. The first access network device may further send the cell information of the second mobile relay to the terminal device, so as to trigger the terminal device to initiate cell redirection and migrate to the second mobile relay. For the sake of brevity, unless otherwise specified, the cell information can be understood by referring to the above description.

When the access network devices connected to the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay are different, for the scenario in FIG. 4 , the information of the second mobile relay may be cell information of the second mobile relay. The cell information can be used to redirect the terminal device from the first mobile relay to the second mobile relay. Since the access network devices connected to the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay are different, in this scenario, the AMF needs to send the cell information of the second mobile relay to the first access network device.

In another possible implementation manner, step 530 may be performed by the first access network device. When executing step 530, the first access network device may send the cell information of the second mobile relay to the terminal device, so as to trigger the terminal device to initiate cell redirection and migrate to the second mobile relay.

Relevant content about how the first access network device obtains the cell information of the second mobile relay will be described in detail later in conjunction with different embodiments, and will not be described in detail here.

It should be noted that the terminal device may be a terminal device that requests access from the first mobile relay, specifically, it may be a terminal device that has successfully accessed the network from the first mobile relay and needs to initiate the connection again due to location update or business needs. The incoming terminal device may also initially access the first mobile relay terminal device, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

Based on the above solution, the mobile relay with excessive load and the mobile relay with small load are determined through the core network equipment or access network equipment, and the mobile relay with excessive load is determined from the mobile relay with small load. The mobile relay with the same moving trajectory in the same period of time is used as the target mobile relay, so as to control the migration of terminal equipment from the mobile relay with heavy load to the mobile relay with light load, and realize the communication between mobile relays. load balancing. By implementing load balancing between mobile relays, the pressure on individual mobile relays with excessive load can be relieved, and part of the pressure can be transferred to mobile relays with smaller loads, which is beneficial to improve the performance of mobile relays and reduce the impact on wired The deployment requirements of the transmission network, especially in areas where it is difficult to deploy a wired transmission network such as indoors, are conducive to improving system throughput. In addition, considering the high mobility of the mobile relay, the movement trajectory of the second mobile relay selected as the target mobile relay is the same as that of the first mobile relay in the first time period, and considering the access to the first mobile Relayed terminal devices usually have the same movement trajectory as the first mobile relay (for example, the first mobile relay and terminal devices are located in the same vehicle entity), therefore, if some terminal devices are migrated from the first mobile relay to the second mobile relay, so that the service connection of the terminal equipment will not be affected by the mobility of the second mobile relay within the first time period, so as to prevent these terminal equipment from frequently Initiating cell reselection can avoid the increase of signaling overhead and power consumption caused by cell reselection, reduce the impact on normal communication of terminal equipment, and help ensure the transmission performance of terminal equipment.

Next, the communication method of the present application implemented by the AMF will be described with reference to FIG. 6 to FIG. 7 .

Fig. 6 is a schematic flowchart applicable to a communication method provided by another embodiment of the present application.

It should be noted that the method 600 is applicable to the situation shown in FIG. 3 that the terminal equipment migrates between mobile relays under the same access network equipment. In this case, the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay are connected to the same access network device, that is, the first access network device.

It should be understood that, for ease of understanding and illustration, only the first access network device connected to the AMF, and the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay connected to the first access network device are shown in FIG. In practical applications, the first access network device can also be connected to more mobile relays, and the AMF can also be connected to more access network devices. Among them, the access network devices in Figure 6 all refer to the donor RAN connected to the mobile relay through a wireless backhaul link.

Each step in the method 600 is described in detail below.

In step 601, the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay register into the network.

Each mobile relay can access the network by initiating a registration process through the access network device. For example, a mobile terminal (mobile termination, MT) function of each mobile relay accesses the network through cell selection. For example, both the MT function of the first mobile relay and the MT function of the second mobile relay can implement network access by sending a registration request message from the access network device.

Exemplarily, after the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay are started, both the MT function of the first mobile relay and the MT function of the second mobile relay can send a registration request message to the first access network device. Correspondingly, after receiving the registration request message, the first access network device may select an AMF for the MT function of the first mobile relay and the MT function of the second mobile relay, and send the registration request message to the selected AMF . Since the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay are connected to the same access network device (that is, the first access network device), the first access network device can be the MT function of the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay The MT function of the relay selects the same AMF, that is to say, the AMF registered by the MT function of the first mobile relay and the MT function of the second mobile relay is usually the same AMF. After receiving the registration request message of the MT function of the first mobile relay and the MT function of the second mobile relay, the AMF can register the MT function of the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay respectively through the first access network device. The MT function of the relay sends a registration response message to accept the registration request message of the MT function of the first mobile relay and the registration request message of the MT function of the second mobile relay. In this way, the MT function of the first mobile relay and the MT function of the second mobile relay successfully access the network respectively.

It should be understood that during the registration process of the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay, the AMF may assign a temporary identifier (identifier, ID) to the MT function of the first mobile relay and the MT function of the second mobile relay respectively, And record the access network equipment connected to each mobile relay. For example, in this embodiment, the AMF may record the context information of the MT function of the first mobile relay, such as the correspondence between the temporary identifier of the MT function of the first mobile relay and the ID of the first access network device, and the The context information of the MT function of the second mobile relay, such as the correspondence between the temporary identifier of the MT function of the second mobile relay and the first access network device.

As an implementation, the temporary identity of the MT function of the mobile relay can be a globally unique temporary identity (globally unique temporary identity, GUTI), and the ID of the first access network device can be a global RAN node identity (Global RAN Node ID).

It should be understood that after the first access network device respectively receives the registration request messages of the MT function of the first mobile relay and the MT function of the second mobile relay, the first access network device may be the registration request message of the MT function of the first mobile relay respectively. The MT function and the MT function of the second mobile relay are assigned a RAN UE NGAP ID, and the RAN UE NGAP ID is used by the first access network device to respectively identify the MT function of the first mobile relay and the MT function of the second mobile relay. Among them, NGAP is the next generation application protocol (next generation application protocol). The first access network device locally stores the RAN UE NGAP ID allocated for the MT function of the first mobile relay and the RAN UE NGAP ID allocated for the MT function of the second mobile relay. In addition, the first access network device may also send the RAN UE NGAP ID corresponding to the MT function of each mobile relay to the AMF, and the AMF stores the RAN UE NGAP ID in the context of the MT function of each mobile relay.

It should also be understood that in this embodiment of the present application, the meaning of registering the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay into the network is the same as the meaning of registering the MT function of the first mobile relay and the MT function of the second mobile relay into the network. The meaning of the AMF assigning temporary identities to the MT function of the first mobile relay and the MT function of the second mobile relay respectively is the same as the meaning of assigning temporary identities to the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay respectively by the AMF.

In the following, for the sake of brevity, unless otherwise specified, the description of the MT function execution actions of the mobile relay can also be simply understood as the execution actions of the mobile relay. "MT function of relay" can also be simply replaced with "mobile relay".

It should also be understood that the specific content of the registration process can refer to the network access process of the existing terminal equipment, and for the sake of brevity, details are not described here.

It should also be understood that the terminal device may also use the above method to register and access the network. That is, the terminal device can connect to the mobile relay it wants to connect to through cell selection, and send a registration request message to the mobile relay, and the mobile relay sends the registration request message to the access network device, and then the The access network device selects an AMF for it, and forwards the registration request message to the selected AMF, so as to realize the network access of the terminal device. Correspondingly, AMF can also assign a temporary ID to the terminal requesting registration, and record the ID of the terminal device (such as the temporary ID assigned by AMF), the ID of the connected mobile relay (such as the temporary ID assigned by AMF) and the access Correspondence between IDs of network devices.

In addition, if the MT function of the terminal device/mobile relay is the initial network access, that is, the MT function of the terminal device/mobile relay has not been successfully registered in the network before, then the process of registering to the network using the above method can be called the initial registration process. If the MT function of the terminal device/mobile relay has been successfully registered in the network, due to reasons such as mobility or periodic registration update, the MT function of the terminal device/mobile relay is triggered to initiate a registration request again, then the registration process can be called Registration update process. In the former implementation, the registration request message sent by the MT function of the terminal device/mobile relay carries its own permanent identifier, such as an international mobile subscriber identification number (IMSI). In the latter implementation, the registration request messages sent by the MT function of the terminal device/mobile relay all carry their respective temporary IDs, such as the GUTI allocated by the AMF.

In step 602, the AMF obtains the load of the first mobile relay and the load of the second mobile relay.

As the number of terminal devices accessing each mobile relay increases, each mobile relay may report its load information to the AMF at a preset time interval. For example, in this embodiment, the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay may report their respective load information to the AMF, so that the AMF may determine the load of the first mobile relay and the load of the second mobile relay.

It should be understood that the load can be understood as the currently occupied resources of the mobile relay, and the larger the value, the more resources currently occupied by the mobile relay, which means the greater the load of the mobile relay.

It should be understood that the process of reporting load information to the AMF by each mobile relay may be the same, and step 602 will be described in detail below by taking the first mobile relay as an example. The process for the AMF to obtain the load of the second mobile relay may also be implemented by referring to the following manner.

A possible implementation manner is that the MT function of the first mobile relay may carry the load information in the NAS message, and send the NAS message to the AMF through the first access network device.

That is, step 602 may specifically include step 602a:

The MT function of the first mobile relay sends a NAS message to the AMF via the first access network device, where the NAS message includes load information. Exemplarily, the NAS message may be a registration update message.

Wherein, the load information may include resource information already occupied on the current mobile relay, remaining resource information, or the number of terminal devices accessing the first mobile relay.

After receiving the NAS message, the AMF can acquire the load of the first mobile relay based on the load information carried in it. For the specific manner for the AMF to obtain the load based on the load information, refer to the relevant description in the method 500 above, and will not be repeated here.

Optionally, the NAS message also includes: the ID of the MT function of the first mobile relay. In this way, the first access network device and the AMF can know which mobile relay sends the load.

Another possible implementation is that, the MT function of the first mobile relay can carry the load information in the RRC message and send it to the first access network device, and the first access network device based on the load information in the received RRC message The information determines the load of the first mobile relay, and carries the load of the first mobile relay in the N2 message and sends it to the AMF.

That is, step 602 specifically includes step 602b:

The MT function of the first mobile relay sends an RRC message to the first access network device, and the RRC message includes load information of the first mobile relay, and the load information may be a load (such as a percentage, a decimal, etc., value) or the number of terminal devices accessing the first mobile relay;

The first access network device sends an N2 message to the AMF, where the N2 message carries the load of the first mobile relay or the number of terminal devices accessing the first mobile relay.

After receiving the RRC message, the first access network device may determine the load of the first mobile relay according to the load information carried in the RRC message. For example, if the first mobile relay reports the load, the AMF can directly obtain the load of the first mobile relay from the NAS message. If the first mobile relay reports the number of terminal devices accessing the first mobile relay, the first access network device can calculate the number of terminal devices accessing the first mobile relay carried in the NAS message by itself. A mobile relay load. Of course, the first access network device may not calculate the load of the first mobile relay, and directly report the number of terminal devices accessing the first mobile relay to the AMF, so that the AMF can calculate the load of the first mobile relay.

In addition, the first access network device may determine the ID of the first mobile relay that sends the RRC message, generate an N2 message according to the load information in the RRC message and the ID of the mobile relay, and send the N2 message to the AMF.

It should be noted that each mobile relay has its own corresponding communication link with the access network device, and when the communication link is established in advance, the mobile relay will exchange information with the access network device, For example, the mobile relay will tell the access network device its own ID. Therefore, even if the RRC message received by the access network device does not carry the identifier of the mobile relay, the access network device can also know which mobile relay reported the load according to the corresponding communication link with the mobile relay. , and then the ID of the mobile relay can be obtained.

It should be understood that the implementation manner of reporting the load information by the first mobile relay listed above is only an example, and the signaling used to carry the load information is also an example, which is not limited in this application.

In order for the AMF to more accurately determine the corresponding second mobile relay for the first mobile relay, optionally, the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay may also report their respective moving trajectories to the AMF. A possible design is that each mobile relay also reports the movement trajectory while reporting the load information through the above step 602 . That is, the movement track can be carried in a NAS message or an RRC message.

It can be understood that, for a bus or a train with a fixed route, the movement trajectory of the mobile relay carried on it is known and can be pre-configured on the mobile relay mounted on the vehicle. Therefore, these mobile relays can include their own moving tracks in NAS messages or RRC messages for reporting.

For a mobile relay whose moving track is not fixed, it may not be possible to report the moving track in advance, and the AMF can obtain the moving track in the following way: Taking the moving track of the first mobile relay as an example, the AMF receives the After the registration request message sent by the MT function of the relay, the MT function of the first mobile relay can be located (that is, the AMF triggers the positioning process for the MT function), such as obtaining the MT function of the mobile relay at a preset time interval location information, so that the corresponding movement trajectory can be obtained after a period of continuous positioning. If the MT function of the first mobile relay does not report the movement trajectory during the process of obtaining the load by the AMF, the AMF can locally query the movement trajectory located in advance to obtain the movement trajectory of the first mobile relay. Generally speaking, the routes of roads and railways are fixed. When a vehicle is on a certain road or railway, its moving direction for a period of time in the future can basically be determined. Therefore, the movement trajectory of the first mobile relay within a period of time in the future can be predicted based on the current location and its historical movement trajectory. Exemplarily, the movement trajectory of the first mobile relay within a period of time in the future may be predicted by a network data analysis function (network data analytics function, NWDAF). For example, AMF may send the acquired current location information and historical movement trajectory of the first mobile relay to NWDAF, and NWDAF predicts the first mobile relay based on the current location and historical movement trajectory of the first mobile relay. The mobile relays the movement trajectory in a period of time in the future, and sends the predicted movement trajectory to the AMF.

It should be understood that the process for the AMF to acquire the movement track of the second mobile relay may also be implemented with reference to the above manner, and details are not described here. It should also be understood that the movement trajectory of the MT function of the first mobile relay is the movement trajectory of the first mobile relay. The AMF positioning the MT function of the first mobile relay may be understood as the AMF positioning the first mobile relay.

In step 603, the AMF determines that the load of the first mobile relay exceeds a first preset threshold.

In step 604, the AMF determines that the load of the second mobile relay is lower than the second preset threshold, and the movement trajectory of the second mobile relay in the first time period is the same as that of the first mobile relay in the first time period The movement trajectory is the same.

It should be understood that the execution process of step 603 to step 604 is the same as the execution process of the AMF in the foregoing step 501 to step 502, and the specific execution process refers to the foregoing step 501 to step 502, which will not be repeated here.

In step 605, the AMF sends the information of the second mobile relay to the first access network device.

After the AMF determines the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay, it can send the information of the second mobile relay to the access network device. The information of the second mobile relay can be used to connect the terminal device to the second mobile relay.

As an implementation manner, the AMF may send an N2 message to the first access network device, where the N2 message carries information about the second mobile relay. For example, the N2 message may be a UE Context Modification Request (UE Context Modification Request) message.

As mentioned above, the information of the second mobile relay may be the ID of the MT function of the second mobile relay, or the cell information of the second mobile relay. Exemplarily, the ID of the MT function of the second mobile relay may be RAN UE NGAP ID, and the ID is allocated by the first access network device for the MT function of the second mobile relay in the process of step 601, for The first access network device identifies the MT function of the second mobile relay. The ID can be used by the first access network device to determine which mobile relay it is. Since the terminal device needs to perform cell reselection according to the cell information of the second mobile relay, if the AMF sends the ID of the second mobile relay to the first access network device, the first access network device can The cell information of the second mobile relay is searched from the stored correspondence between the mobile relay and the cell information. Further, the AMF may also set a valid time period for controlling the migration of the terminal device to the second mobile relay, for example, record it as the first time period. Optionally, the method further includes step 606, where the AMF sends the first duration to the first access network device.

A possible design is that the first duration is less than or equal to the duration of the first time period. Since the movement trajectories of the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay are the same in the first time period, if the first duration is controlled within the duration range of the first time period, it can effectively avoid In the case that the mobile relay is far away or the moving trajectory is different, redirecting the terminal device to the second mobile relay may cause frequent cell reselection, transmission performance degradation and other problems.

The first access network device may start timing after receiving the first duration. As long as the first access network device receives a request from a terminal device to access the network through the first mobile relay before the first time period expires, the terminal device can access the second mobile relay.

It should be understood that the information of the second mobile relay and the first duration may be carried in the same signaling, or may also be carried in different signalings, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

In step 607, the first access network device receives an RRC setup request (RRC setup request) message from the terminal device.

For a terminal device in an RRC idle (idle) state, the terminal device may send an RRC setup request (RRC setup request) message to the first access network device via the first mobile relay. That is to say, the terminal device wishes to access the network through the first mobile relay.

In step 608, the first access network device determines to access the terminal device to the second mobile relay based on the first duration.

If the first access network device receives the RRC establishment request message from the terminal device, the first access network device may receive the RRC message from the first mobile relay according to the first duration (that is, the above-mentioned terminal device passes the first The time point of the RRC establishment request message sent by the mobile terminal), and determine whether the time point still falls within the range of the effective time length of the first time length, or in other words, whether the first time length has not expired. If it is not timed out, it may be determined to connect the terminal device to the second mobile relay.

In step 609, the first access network device sends an RRC rejection message to the terminal device through the first mobile relay, where the RRC rejection message carries cell information of the second mobile relay.

If the first access network device receives the RRC establishment request message from the terminal device and determines to redirect the terminal device to the second mobile relay, the first access network device sends an RRC reject (RRC reject )information. The frequency point of the second mobile relay (that is, an example of cell information) may carry, for example, an RRC reject (RRC reject) message sent to the terminal device by the first access network device. For example, the redirected carrier information (redirectedCarrierInfo) field in the RRC rejection message carries the frequency point of the second mobile relay. The RRC rejection message is used to redirect the terminal device to the cell of the frequency indicated by the redirectedCarrierInfo field, that is, to redirect to the cell where the second mobile relay is located.

It should be understood that the first access network device can not only redirect the terminal device in the RRC idle state to the cell of the second mobile relay when it requests to access the network through the first mobile relay, but also redirect it to the cell connected to the second mobile relay. Some terminal devices of a mobile relay redirect the second mobile relay. Although not shown in FIG. 6 , this should not constitute any limitation to the present application.

Exemplarily, for a terminal device in the RRC connection state, if the terminal device has accessed the first access network device through the first mobile relay, then the first access network device may also determine which The end device is redirected to the target mobile relay. In other words, the terminal device in the RRC connected state does not necessarily need to send a message to the first access network device, such as the RRC establishment request message in step 607, it can be redirected to the second mobile relay.

Correspondingly, the first access network device may send an RRC release (RRC release) message to the terminal device in step 609. The frequency point of the second mobile relay (that is, an example of cell information) may be carried, for example, in the RRC release message sent by the first access network device to the terminal device. For example, the redirectedCarrierInfo field in the RRC release message carries the frequency point of the second mobile relay. The RRC release message is used to redirect the terminal equipment to the cell of the frequency point indicated by the redirectedCarrierInfo field, that is, to redirect the terminal equipment to the cell where the second mobile relay is located.

In step 610, the terminal device performs cell reselection.

The terminal device that has received the cell information of the second mobile relay can perform cell reselection based on the cell information of the second mobile relay, select the cell of the second mobile relay, and realize network access by executing a registration request process.

In this way, the terminal device can access the network through the second mobile relay, thereby avoiding increasing the load on the first mobile intermediate stage.

The above process from step 605 to step 610 describes in detail that the AMF controls the terminal device to access the second mobile relay at the granularity of the mobile relay. Regardless of whether the AMF receives the registration request message for the terminal device to access the network through the first mobile relay, it will send the information of the second mobile relay to the first access network device, and within a subsequent period of time (such as the first duration) , as long as a terminal device wishes to access the network through the first mobile relay, it can be migrated to the second mobile relay. It should be understood that after the first duration expires, the first mobile relay can still provide the relay service between the terminal device and the first access network device.

It should be noted that, in the process shown above, after it is determined that the load of the first mobile relay is relatively large and load balancing can be performed on it, the AMF can send the information of the second mobile relay to the first mobile relay. access network equipment. Based on this, the first access network device can connect the terminal device that initiates access to the first mobile relay to the second mobile relay. The process takes the mobile relay as the granularity, controls the terminal equipment to access the second mobile relay, and realizes load balancing. But this should not constitute any limitation to the present application. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific implementation manner.

For example, in another implementation manner, after the AMF determines the second mobile relay, it may temporarily not perform the step of sending the information of the second mobile relay to the first access network device in step 605, but after receiving After the registration request from the terminal device in step 607 (it should be understood that the registration request is sent to the AMF by the first access network device and carries the identity of the first mobile relay), it is determined that there is a terminal device requesting from the first mobile relay. Then, the AMF executes step 605 based on the received registration request, and sends the information of the second mobile relay to the first access network device (for example, through the N2 message) to send the information of the second mobile relay. In other words, step 607 in this process may include: the terminal device sends a registration request message to the first access network device, and the first access network device sends the received registration request message to the AMF, and this step 607 may be in step Execute before 605. Afterwards, the first access network device can determine the information of the second mobile relay according to the received identifier of the second mobile relay, and then directly perform the step of sending the cell information of the second mobile relay to the terminal device in step 609 , to trigger the terminal device to execute step 610 to perform cell reselection.

For another example, in yet another implementation, after the AMF receives the load of each mobile relay, it may temporarily not perform steps 603 to 605, but after receiving the registration request message from the terminal device in step 607 (should It is understood that the registration request message is sent to the AMF by the first access network device, and carries the identifier of the first mobile relay), and it is determined that there is a terminal device requesting to access from the first mobile relay, and then based on the received registration request The message executes steps 603 to 605, and it is determined that the load of the first mobile relay is too large, and the terminal equipment connected to the first mobile relay can be migrated to the second mobile relay, and send the message to the first access network equipment Information of the second mobile relay. In other words, step 607 in this process may include: the terminal device sends a registration request message to the first access network device, and the first access network device sends the received registration request message to the AMF, and this step 607 may be performed in step Execute before step 603, step 604 and step 605. Thereafter, the first access network device may determine the information of the second mobile relay according to the received identifier of the second mobile relay, and then directly perform the step of sending the cell information of the second mobile relay to the terminal device in step 609 , to trigger the terminal device to execute step 610 to perform cell reselection.

It can be seen that in the other two implementations provided above, after the first access network device determines that there is a terminal device requesting access from the first mobile relay, it sends the registration request message of the terminal device to the AMF Afterwards, the information of the second mobile relay is obtained from the AMF, and the terminal device is connected to the second mobile relay. This process takes the terminal device as the granularity, controls the terminal device to access the second mobile relay, and realizes load balancing. Therefore, the AMF may not need to send the first duration to the first access network device, that is, step 606 may not be executed.

It should be understood that FIG. 6 is only an example, and shows a process of controlling the access of the terminal device to the second mobile relay at the granularity of the relay node. The present application does not limit the specific implementation manner and the execution order of each step.

Based on the above solution, the mobile relay with excessive load and the mobile relay with small load are determined through AMF, and the mobile relay with small load is determined to be within the same time period as the mobile relay with excessive load The mobile relay with the same moving trajectory is used as the target mobile relay, so as to control the migration of the terminal equipment from the mobile relay with heavy load to the mobile relay with light load, and realize the load balancing among the mobile relays. By implementing load balancing between mobile relays, the pressure on individual mobile relays with excessive load can be relieved, and part of the pressure can be transferred to mobile relays with smaller loads, which is beneficial to improve the performance of mobile relays and reduce the impact on wired The deployment requirements of the transmission network, especially in areas where it is difficult to deploy a wired transmission network such as indoors, are conducive to improving system throughput. In addition, considering the high mobility of the mobile relay, the core network device determines the target mobile relay for the first mobile relay according to the movement track of each mobile relay. Since the movement trajectory of the second mobile relay selected as the target mobile relay is the same as that of the first mobile relay within a period of time (such as the first time period), if part of the terminal equipment is removed from the first mobile Migrating the relay to the second mobile relay can make the service connection of the terminal equipment not affected by the mobility of the second mobile relay in the first time period, and avoid the loss of these terminal equipment due to the location change of the second mobile relay. Initiating cell reselection frequently can avoid the increase of signaling overhead and power consumption caused by cell reselection, reduce the impact on normal communication of terminal equipment, and help ensure the transmission performance of terminal equipment.

Fig. 7 is a schematic flowchart applicable to a communication method provided by another embodiment of the present application.

It should be noted that the method 700 is applicable to the situation shown in FIG. 4 where the terminal device migrates between mobile relays under different access network devices. In this case, the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay are respectively connected to different access network devices, the first mobile relay is connected to the first access network device, and the second mobile relay is connected to the second access network device. network access equipment.

It should be understood that, for ease of understanding and illustration, only the first access network device and the second access network device connected to the same AMF, and the first mobile relay connected to the first access network device are shown in FIG. 7 and the second mobile relay connected to the second access network device, as well as the first access network device and the second access network device. In practical applications, the first access network device and the second access network device can also be connected to more mobile relays, and the AMF can also be connected to more access network devices.

In step 701, the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay register into the network.

The execution process of step 701 is the same as that of step 601, and the specific execution process may refer to the foregoing description of step 601.

The difference between step 701 and step 601 is that: in step 701, the first mobile relay initiates a registration request to the first access network device, and the second mobile relay initiates a registration request to the second access network device. In step 601, the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay initiate a registration request to the same access network device.

In step 702, the AMF obtains the load of the first mobile relay and the load of the second mobile relay.

The specific implementation manner of step 702 is the same as that of the aforementioned step 602. For details, reference may be made to the aforementioned description of the aforementioned steps 601 to 602, which will not be repeated here.

Likewise, take the first mobile relay as an example. In a possible implementation manner, the MT function of the first mobile relay may carry the load information in the NAS message, and send the NAS message to the AMF through the first access network device.

That is, step 702 may specifically include step 702a:

The MT function of the first mobile relay sends a NAS message to the AMF via the first access network device. The NAS message includes load information, and the load information may include resource information already occupied on the current mobile relay, remaining resource information or access The number of terminal devices entering the first mobile relay.

That is, step 702 may specifically include step 702b:

The MT function of the first mobile relay sends an RRC message to the first access network device. The RRC message includes load information, and the load information may include resource information already occupied on the current mobile relay, remaining resource information, or access The number of terminal devices of a mobile relay, the load information can be used by the first access network device to determine the load of the first mobile relay;

It should be understood that the implementation manner of reporting load information by the first mobile relay listed above is only an example, and the implementation manner of reporting load information by the second mobile relay is the same as step 702a or step 702b, only the second mobile relay needs to report the load information to The second access network device reports the load, and then the second access network device reports the load to the AMF.

It should also be understood that, for a specific implementation manner of acquiring the load based on the load information, reference may be made to relevant descriptions in the method 500 above, which will not be repeated here.

In step 703, the AMF determines that the load of the first mobile relay exceeds a first preset threshold.

In step 704, the AMF determines that the load of the second mobile relay is lower than the second preset threshold, and the movement trajectory of the second mobile relay in the first time period is the same as that of the first mobile relay in the first time period The movement trajectory is the same.

The execution process of step 703 to step 704 is the same as that of step 603 to step 604, and for details, reference may be made to the foregoing description of step 603 to step 604.

In step 705, the AMF sends the information of the second mobile relay to the first access network device.

Since the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay are connected to different access network devices, to control terminal devices to access the second mobile relay, the AMF or the first access network device also needs to obtain the second mobile relay cell information, so that the terminal device can perform cell reselection.

In a possible implementation manner, the AMF may obtain the cell information of the second mobile relay from the second access network device, and then send the cell information of the second mobile relay to the first access network device. That is, the information of the second mobile relay is cell information of the second mobile relay. 705a in Fig. 7 shows each step in this implementation manner:

The AMF sends the ID of the second mobile relay to the second access network device;

The second access network device sends the cell information of the second mobile relay to the AMF based on the ID of the second mobile relay; and

The AMF sends the cell information of the second mobile relay to the first access network device.

Exemplarily, when the MT function of the second mobile relay accesses the network through the second access network device, the AMF can save the corresponding relationship between the second mobile relay and the second access network device, for example, record the second mobile relay The correspondence between the temporary ID of the MT function (as mentioned above, the temporary ID may be allocated by the AMF when the second mobile relay enters the network) and the ID of the second access network device. After the AMF determines to use the second mobile relay as the target mobile relay of the first mobile relay, it may first send a request message to the second access network device according to the corresponding relationship, so as to request the cell of the second mobile relay information. For example, the request message may include: the ID of the second mobile relay, and the request message is used for requesting to connect the terminal device to the second mobile relay, and for requesting to obtain cell information of the second mobile relay.

After receiving the request message, the second access network device can determine the cell information of the second mobile relay according to the ID of the second mobile relay if it agrees to the terminal device's access, and send a response message to the AMF. The response message includes: cell information of the second mobile relay.

After receiving the response message, the AMF can send the cell information of the second mobile relay to the first access network device corresponding to the first mobile relay according to the corresponding relationship between the first mobile relay and the first access network device. information.

In addition, the AMF may further determine a valid time period for controlling the migration of the terminal device to the second mobile relay, that is, the first time period, and send the first time period to the first access network device. For example, the first duration may be less than or equal to the duration of the first time period.

It should be understood that the cell information of the second mobile relay and the first duration may be carried in one N2 message, or may be carried in different N2 messages. This embodiment of the present application does not limit it.

Wherein, the corresponding relationship between the first mobile relay and the first access network device is similar to the corresponding relationship between the second mobile relay and the second access network device in the example above, and may be the MT function of the first mobile relay What is saved when the first access network device accesses the network, for example, may be the correspondence between the temporary ID of the MT function of the first mobile relay and the ID of the second access network device.

In another possible implementation, the AMF may send the ID of the second mobile relay to the first access network device, and the first access network device may obtain the second mobile relay ID from the second access network device through the Xn interface. Relay cell information.

705b in Fig. 7 shows each step in this implementation manner:

The AMF sends the ID of the second mobile relay and the ID of the second access network device to the first access network device;

The first access network device sends a request message to the second access network device, where the request message is used to obtain cell information of the second mobile relay;

The second access network device sends the cell information of the second mobile relay to the first access network device.

Specifically, the AMF may first send an N2 message to the first access network device. The N2 message includes: the identifier of the second mobile relay and the identifier of the second access network device. The identifier of the second mobile relay is used to indicate The terminal device is connected to the second mobile relay, and the identifier of the second access network device is used to indicate that the second mobile relay is connected to the second access network device.

Optionally, the N2 message further includes a first duration, so that the first access network device controls the terminal device to control the terminal device to migrate to the second mobile relay within a reasonable time range.

The first access network device may send a request message to the second access network device through the Xn interface according to the identifier of the second access network device, where the request message includes the identifier of the second mobile relay, so as to obtain the second mobile relay Relay cell information.

After receiving the request message, the second access network device determines the cell information of the second mobile relay according to the identity of the second mobile relay, and sends a response message to the first access network device through the Xn interface, and the response message includes : Cell information of the second mobile relay.

Optionally, the request message sent to the second access network device in the above two implementation manners may also carry a request reason, and the request reason may be used to indicate that the load of the first mobile relay is too large.

In step 706, the first access network device receives an RRC establishment request message from a terminal device in an RRC idle state. In step 707, the first access network device determines to access the terminal device to the second mobile relay based on the first duration.

Similar to method 600, the first access network device may determine whether the first moment falls according to the time point (for example, recorded as the first moment) and the first duration of receiving the RRC establishment request message from the terminal device in the RRC idle state. Within the range of the effective duration of the first duration, or in other words, whether the first duration has not timed out. If it does not time out, it is determined to connect the terminal device to the second mobile relay.

In step 708, the first access network device sends an RRC rejection message to the terminal device through the first mobile relay, where the RRC rejection message carries cell information of the second mobile relay.

In step 709, the terminal device performs cell reselection, selects a cell to the second mobile relay, and executes a registration request process.

The specific implementation manners of steps 706 to 709 are the same as those of the aforementioned steps 607 to 610 , for details, reference may be made to the aforementioned descriptions of the aforementioned steps 607 to 610 , which will not be repeated here.

It should be understood that, similar to method 600, the foregoing method is not limited to controlling a terminal device in an RRC idle state to access the second mobile relay. For terminal devices in the RRC connected state, the first access network device may also redirect some terminal devices connected to the first mobile relay to the second mobile relay. Correspondingly, the RRC reject message in step 708 may be replaced by an RRC release message.

It should be noted that, in the process shown above, after it is determined that the load of the first mobile relay is relatively large and load balancing can be performed on it, the AMF can send the information of the second mobile relay to the first mobile relay. An access network device or a second access network device. After the first access network device acquires the identity of the second mobile relay, it can connect the terminal device that initiates access to the first mobile relay to the second mobile relay. In this process, the step of determining the second mobile relay by the first access network device does not need to be triggered by the access of the terminal device. Taking the mobile relay as the granularity, the terminal device is controlled to access the second mobile relay to realize load balanced. But this should not constitute any limitation to the present application. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific implementation manner.

For example, in another implementation manner, after the AMF determines the second mobile relay, it may temporarily not perform step 705, but after receiving the registration request message from the terminal device in step 706 (it should be understood that the registration request After the message is sent to AMF by the first access network device and carries the identifier of the first mobile relay), it is determined that there is a terminal device requesting access from the first mobile relay, and then the AMF registers based on the received registration request message Execute step 705. In other words, step 706 in this process may include: the terminal device sends a registration request message to the first access network device, and the first access network device sends the received registration request message to the AMF, and this step 706 may be in step Execute before 705. Thereafter, the first access network device can determine the information of the second mobile relay according to the received identifier of the second mobile relay, and then directly perform the step of sending the cell information of the second mobile relay to the terminal device in step 708 , to trigger the terminal device to execute step 709 to perform cell reselection.

For another example, in yet another implementation, after the AMF receives the load of each mobile relay, it may temporarily not perform steps 603 to 605, but after receiving the registration request message from the terminal device in step 706 (should It is understood that the registration request message is sent to the AMF by the first access network device, and carries the identifier of the first mobile relay), and it is determined that there is a terminal device requesting to access from the first mobile relay, and then register based on the received request Request execution of steps 703 to 705, determine that the load of the first mobile relay is too large, and the terminal equipment connected to the first mobile relay can be migrated to the second mobile relay, and send the first access network device 2. Mobile relay information. In other words, step 706 in this process may include: the terminal device sends a registration request message to the first access network device, and the first access network device sends the received registration request message to the AMF, and this step 706 may be in step Execute before step 703, step 704 and step 705. Thereafter, the first access network device can determine the information of the second mobile relay according to the received identifier of the second mobile relay, and then directly perform the step of sending the cell information of the second mobile relay to the terminal device in step 708 , to trigger the terminal device to execute step 709 to perform cell reselection.

It can be seen that in the other two implementations provided above, after the first access network device determines that there is a terminal device requesting access from the first mobile relay, it sends the registration request message of the terminal device to the AMF After that, the information of the second mobile relay is obtained, and the terminal device is connected to the second mobile relay. This process takes the terminal device as the granularity, controls the terminal device to access the second mobile relay, and realizes load balancing.

It should be understood that FIG. 7 is only an example, and shows a process of controlling a terminal device's access to the second mobile relay at the granularity of a relay node. The present application does not limit the specific implementation manner and the execution order of each step.

Based on the above solution, the mobile relay with excessive load and the mobile relay with small load are determined through AMF, and the mobile relay with small load is determined to be within the same time period as the mobile relay with excessive load The mobile relay with the same moving trajectory is used as the target mobile relay, so as to control the migration of the terminal equipment from the mobile relay with heavy load to the mobile relay with light load, and realize the load balancing among the mobile relays. By implementing load balancing between mobile relays, the pressure on individual mobile relays with excessive load can be relieved, and part of the pressure can be transferred to mobile relays with smaller loads, which is beneficial to improve the performance of mobile relays and reduce the impact on wired The deployment requirements of the transmission network, especially in areas where it is difficult to deploy a wired transmission network such as indoors, are conducive to improving system throughput. In addition, considering the high mobility of the mobile relay, the core network equipment determines the target mobile relay for the first mobile relay according to the movement track of each mobile relay. Since the moving trajectory of the second mobile relay selected as the target mobile relay is the same as that of the first mobile relay within a period of time (such as the first time period), if part of the terminal equipment is removed from the first mobile Migrating the relay to the second mobile relay can make the service connection of the terminal equipment not affected by the mobility of the second mobile relay within the first period of time, and avoid the loss of these terminal equipment due to the location change of the second mobile relay. Initiating cell reselection frequently can avoid the increase of signaling overhead and power consumption caused by cell reselection, reduce the impact on normal communication of terminal equipment, and help ensure the transmission performance of terminal equipment.

The communication method implemented under the control of the AMF is described above with reference to FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 . The communication method implemented under the control of the access network device will be described below with reference to FIG. 8 .

Fig. 8 is a schematic flowchart applicable to a communication method provided by still another embodiment of the present application.

It should be noted that the method 800 is applicable to the situation shown in Figure 3 that the terminal equipment migrates between mobile relays under the same access network equipment. In this case, the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay are connected to the same access network device, that is, the first access network device.

It should be understood that, for ease of understanding and illustration, only the first access network device connected to the AMF, and the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay connected to the first access network device are shown in FIG. 8 . In practical applications, the first access network device can also be connected to more mobile relays, and the AMF can also be connected to more access network devices.

Each step in the method 800 is described in detail below.

In step 801, the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay register into the network.

Each mobile relay, including the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay, can initiate a registration process through the access network device to achieve network access.

It should be understood that the execution process of step 801 is the same as that of step 601 in method 600, and for details, reference may be made to relevant descriptions in step 601 above, and details are not repeated here.

In step 802, the first access network device obtains the load of the first mobile relay and the load of the second mobile relay.

As the number of terminal devices connected to each mobile relay increases, each mobile relay connected to the first access network device can report its own load to the first access network device at a preset time interval information. As mentioned above, the load information may include resource information already occupied on the current mobile relay, remaining resource information, or the number of terminal devices accessing each mobile relay. For a specific implementation manner of acquiring the load based on the load information, reference may be made to related descriptions in the method 500, and details are not repeated here.

The following provides two possible implementation manners for the first access network device to obtain the load of each mobile relay. As an implementation, the MT function of each mobile relay can carry the load information in the RRC message and send it to the first access network device, and the first access network device determines the load information of each mobile relay based on the load information in the received RRC message. Relay load.

As another implementation, the DU function of each mobile relay can carry the load information in the F1 setup request (F1setup request) message and send it to the first access network device, and the first access network device establishes the The load information in the request message determines the load of each mobile relay.

For buses or trains with fixed routes, the movement trajectory of the mobile relays carried on them is known and can be pre-configured on the mobile relays mounted on the vehicles. Therefore, in step 802, the MT function of each mobile relay may also carry the moving track information in the RRC message and send it to the first access network device, or the DU function of each mobile relay may carry the moving track information in the The F1 establishment request message is sent to the first access network device.

In addition, when the first access network device determines the target mobile relay (that is, the second mobile relay) for the first mobile relay, it needs to determine the second mobile relay in combination with the movement track of the first mobile relay. If in step 802 each mobile relay voluntarily reports the movement track, then the access network equipment can directly determine the second mobile relay according to the load and movement track of each mobile relay; if in step 802 the mobile relay does not actively report the movement trajectory, the method further includes step 803: acquiring the movement trajectory of each mobile relay.

Exemplarily, step 803 may specifically include:

The first access network device sends a track acquisition request to the AMF, and the track acquisition request carries the ID of each mobile relay;

The access network equipment receives the movement track of each mobile relay.

It should be understood that the first access network device may request from the AMF to obtain the movement traces of the mobile relays connected to it, so as to find the second mobile relay that is the same as the movement trace of the first mobile relay within a certain period of time. relay. The specific method for the AMF to obtain the movement track of each mobile relay is described in detail in the method 600 above, and will not be repeated here.

In step 804, the first access network device determines that the load of the first mobile relay exceeds a first preset threshold.

In step 805, the first access network device determines that the load of the second mobile relay is lower than the second preset threshold, and the movement track of the second mobile relay in the first time period is the same as that of the first mobile relay in the first time period. The movement trajectory within a period of time is the same.

It should be understood that the execution process of step 804 to step 805 is the same as that of step 510 to step 520 in method 500 , for details, reference may be made to the relevant description of step 510 to step 520 above, and details will not be repeated here.

In addition, similar to method 600, when the first access network device implements load balancing with a granularity of mobile relays, after the second mobile relay is determined, an effective duration, such as the first duration, may be set for it. To control the terminal equipment that accesses the network through the first mobile relay to access the second mobile relay within the first time period.

In step 806, the first access network device receives an RRC establishment request message from a terminal device in an RRC idle state.

For a terminal device in the RRC idle state, the terminal device sends an RRC establishment request message to the first access network device via the first mobile relay. That is to say, the terminal device wishes to access the network through the first mobile relay.

If the first access network device implements load balancing at the granularity of mobile relays, the method may further include step 807, where the first access network device determines to connect the terminal device to the second mobile relay based on the first duration. As mentioned above, if the first access network device receives the RRC establishment request message from the terminal device, the first access network device may, according to the first duration and the time point when receiving the RRC message from the first mobile relay, It is determined whether the time point is still within the range of the effective duration of the first duration, or in other words, whether the first duration has not expired. If it is not timed out, it may be determined to connect the terminal device to the second mobile relay.

In step 808, the first access network device sends an RRC rejection message to the terminal device through the first mobile relay, where the RRC rejection message carries cell information of the second mobile relay.

In step 809, the terminal device performs cell reselection, selects a cell to the second mobile relay, and executes a registration request procedure.

It should be understood that the execution process of step 806 to step 809 is the same as the execution process of step 607 to step 610 in the method 600, and reference may be made to the relevant description of step 609 to step 610 above, and details are not repeated here.

It should be understood that, similar to method 600, the foregoing method is not limited to controlling a terminal device in an RRC idle state to access the second mobile relay. For terminal devices in the RRC connected state, the first access network device may also redirect some terminal devices connected to the first mobile relay to the second mobile relay. Correspondingly, the RRC reject message in step 808 may be replaced by an RRC release message.

It should be noted that, in the process illustrated above, after it is determined that the load of the first mobile relay is relatively large and load balancing can be performed on it, the first access network device can determine the second mobile relay. Based on this, the first access network device can connect the terminal device that initiates access to the first mobile relay to the second mobile relay. In this process, the step of determining the second mobile relay by the first access network device does not need to be triggered by the access of the terminal device. Taking the mobile relay as the granularity, the terminal device is controlled to access the second mobile relay to realize load balanced. But this should not constitute any limitation to the present application. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific implementation manner.

For example, in another implementation, the first access network device may temporarily not perform step 804 and step 805 after receiving the load of each mobile relay, but receives the load from the RRC idle state in step 806. After determining that there is a terminal device requesting access from the first mobile relay, step 804 and step 805 are executed based on the received RRC establishment request message, and it is determined that the load of the first mobile relay is too large , and the terminal device accessing the first mobile relay can be migrated to the second mobile relay, and the information of the second mobile relay can be sent to the first access network device. In other words, step 806 may be performed before step 804 and step 805 . Thereafter, the first access network device may execute step 808 to send the cell information of the second mobile relay to the terminal device, so as to trigger the terminal device to execute step 709 to perform cell reselection.

It can be seen that, in another implementation manner provided above, the first access network device determines the second mobile relay after determining that there is a terminal device requesting access from the first mobile relay, and sends the terminal device The device accesses the second mobile relay. This process takes the terminal device as the granularity, controls the terminal device to access the second mobile relay, and realizes load balancing. Therefore, the first access network device may not determine whether to connect the terminal device to the second mobile relay based on the first duration, that is, step 807 may not be performed.

It should be understood that FIG. 8 is only an example, and shows a process of controlling a terminal device's access to the second mobile relay at the granularity of the mobile relay. The present application does not limit the specific implementation manner and the execution order of each step.

Based on the above solution, the mobile relay with excessive load and the mobile relay with small load are determined by the access network equipment, and the mobile relay with small load is determined to be in the same The mobile relays with the same moving trajectory in the time period are used as the target mobile relays, so as to control the migration of terminal equipment from the mobile relays with heavy load to the mobile relays with small loads, and realize the load balancing among mobile relays. By implementing load balancing between mobile relays, the pressure on individual mobile relays with excessive load can be relieved, and part of the pressure can be transferred to mobile relays with smaller loads, which is beneficial to improve the performance of mobile relays and reduce the impact on wired The deployment requirements of the transmission network, especially in areas where it is difficult to deploy a wired transmission network such as indoors, are conducive to improving system throughput. In addition, considering the high mobility of the mobile relay, the first access network device determines the target mobile relay for the first mobile relay according to the movement track of each mobile relay. Since the moving trajectory of the second mobile relay selected as the target mobile relay is the same as that of the first mobile relay within a period of time (such as the first time period), if part of the terminal equipment is removed from the first mobile Migrating the relay to the second mobile relay can make the service connection of the terminal equipment not affected by the mobility of the second mobile relay within the first period of time, and avoid the loss of these terminal equipment due to the location change of the second mobile relay. Initiating cell reselection frequently can avoid the increase of signaling overhead and power consumption caused by cell reselection, reduce the impact on normal communication of terminal equipment, and help ensure the transmission performance of terminal equipment.

Above, the method provided by the embodiment of the present application is described in detail with reference to FIG. 3 to FIG. 8 . Hereinafter, the device provided by the embodiment of the present application will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 9 to FIG. 11 .

Fig. 9 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 9 , the communication device 900 includes a processing unit 910 and a transceiver unit 920 .

Optionally, the communication device 900 may correspond to the AMF (an example of a core network device) in the method embodiment, for example, the communication device 900 may be an AMF, or may also be a component configured in the AMF (such as a circuit, chip, system-on-a-chip, etc.), or it may also be a logic module or software capable of realizing all or part of the AMF functions. This embodiment of the present application does not limit it.

When the communication device 900 corresponds to the AMF, the communication device 900 may be used to perform the steps performed above in conjunction with the AMF in the methods 500 to 800 shown in FIGS. The units of the method executed by the AMF in the methods 500 to 800 shown in FIGS. 5 to 8 . Moreover, each unit and the above-mentioned other operations and/or functions in the communication device 900 are respectively intended to implement the corresponding processes in the methods 500 to 800 shown in FIG. 5 to FIG. 8 .

It should be understood that when the communication device is an AMF, the transceiver unit 920 in the communication device 900 may be implemented by a transceiver, for example, it may correspond to the transceiver 1020 in the communication device 1000 shown in FIG. 10 . The processing unit 910 in the communication device 900 may be implemented by at least one processor, for example, may correspond to the processor 1010 in the communication device 1000 shown in FIG. 10 .

Optionally, the communication device 900 may correspond to the first access network device in the method embodiment, for example, the communication device 900 may be the first access network device, or may also be a device configured on the first access network A component in the device (such as a circuit, a chip, a chip system, etc.), or it may also be a logic module or software that can realize all or part of the AMF functions. This embodiment of the present application does not limit it.

When the communication device 900 corresponds to the first access network device, the communication device 900 may be used to perform the steps performed above in conjunction with the first access network device in the methods 500 to 800 shown in FIGS. 5 to 8 . The communications apparatus 900 may include a unit for executing the method performed by the first access network device in the methods 500 to 800 shown in FIGS. 5 to 8 above. Moreover, each unit and the above-mentioned other operations and/or functions in the communication device 900 are respectively intended to implement the corresponding processes in the methods 500 to 800 shown in FIG. 5 to FIG. 8 .

It should be understood that when the communication device is the first access network device, the transceiver unit 920 in the communication device 900 may be implemented by a transceiver, for example, it may correspond to the transceiver 1020 in the communication device 1000 shown in FIG. 11 shows a remote radio unit (remote radio unit, RRU) 2100 in the base station 2000. The processing unit 910 in the communication device 900 may be implemented by at least one processor, for example, may correspond to the processor 1010 in the communication device 1000 shown in FIG. 10 or the processing unit 2200 in the base station 2000 shown in FIG. 11 or Processor 2202.

Optionally, the communication device 900 may correspond to the second access network device in the method embodiment, for example, the communication device 900 may be the second access network device, or may also be a device configured on the second access network A component in the device (such as a circuit, a chip, a chip system, etc.), or it may also be a logic module or software that can realize all or part of the AMF functions. This embodiment of the present application does not limit it.

When the communication device 900 corresponds to the second access network device, the communication device 900 may be used to perform the steps performed above in conjunction with the second access network device in the method 700 shown in FIG. 7 , and the communication device 900 may include A unit for executing the method performed by the second access network device in the method 700 shown in FIG. 7 above. Moreover, each unit in the communication device 900 and the above-mentioned other operations and/or functions are respectively intended to implement a corresponding process in the method 700 shown in FIG. 7 .

It should be understood that when the communication device is the second access network device, the transceiver unit 920 in the communication device 900 may be implemented by a transceiver, for example, it may correspond to the transceiver 1020 in the communication device 1000 shown in FIG. RRU 2100 in base station 2000 shown in 11. The processing unit 910 in the communication device 900 may be implemented by at least one processor, for example, may correspond to the processor 1010 in the communication device 1000 shown in FIG. 10 or the processing unit 2200 in the base station 2000 shown in FIG. 11 or Processor 2202.

It should also be understood that when the communication device 900 is a chip or a chip system configured in the AMF, the first access network device, or the second access network, the transceiver unit 920 in the communication device 900 can use an input/output interface, a circuit etc., the processing unit 910 in the communication device 900 may be implemented by a processor, a microprocessor, or an integrated circuit integrated on the chip or system-on-a-chip.

Fig. 10 is another schematic block diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 10 , the apparatus 1000 may include at least one processor 1010 . The at least one processor 1010 may be used to implement the functions of the AMF (an example of a core network device) or access network device in the method provided by the embodiment of the present application.

Exemplarily, when the apparatus 1000 is used to implement the AMF function in the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the processor 1010 can be used to determine that the load of the first mobile relay exceeds the first preset threshold; determine that the load of the second mobile relay The load is lower than the second preset threshold, and it is determined that the movement trajectory of the second mobile relay in the first time period is the same as the movement trajectory of the first mobile relay in the first time period; and used to control the communication interface 1030 Send the information of the second mobile relay to the first access network device; where the information of the second mobile relay is used to connect the terminal device to the second mobile relay, and the first mobile relay and the second mobile relay The second mobile relay is in a moving state, and the first mobile relay is used to provide a relay service between the terminal device and the first access network device.

When the apparatus 1000 is used to realize the function of the first access network device in the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the processor 1010 can be used to determine that the load of the first mobile relay exceeds the first preset threshold; The load of the relay is lower than the second preset threshold, and it is determined that the movement trajectory of the second mobile relay in the first time period is the same as the movement trajectory of the first mobile relay in the first time period; The first moment in the first time period requests access from the first mobile relay; and is used to control the communication interface 1030 to send the frequency point of the second mobile relay to the terminal device, and the frequency point of the second mobile relay is used by the terminal The device accesses the second mobile relay. For details, refer to the detailed description in the method example, and details are not repeated here.

The apparatus 1000 may also include at least one memory 1020 for storing program instructions and/or data. The memory 1020 is coupled to the processor 1010 . The coupling in the embodiments of the present application is an indirect coupling or a communication connection between devices, units or modules, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other forms, and is used for information exchange between devices, units or modules. Processor 1010 may cooperate with memory 1020 . Processor 1010 may execute program instructions stored in memory 1020 . At least one of the at least one memory may be included in the processor.

The apparatus 1000 may also include a communication interface 1030 for communicating with other devices through a transmission medium, so that the apparatus 1000 can communicate with other devices. Exemplarily, when the apparatus 1000 is used to realize the function of the AMF in the method provided in the embodiment of the present application, the other device may be the first access network device, the second access network device, etc.; the apparatus 1000 is used to realize When the function of the access network device is used in the method provided in the embodiment of the present application, the other device may be a terminal device, an AMF, and the like. The communication interface 1030 may be, for example, a transceiver, an interface, a bus, a circuit, or a device capable of realizing a sending and receiving function. The processor 1010 can use the communication interface 1030 to send and receive data and/or information, and be used to implement the method executed by the AMF or the access network device in the embodiments corresponding to FIG. 5 to FIG. 8 .

In this embodiment of the present application, a specific connection medium among the processor 1010, the memory 1020, and the communication interface 1030 is not limited. In the embodiment of the present application, in FIG. 10 , the processor 1010 , the memory 1020 and the communication interface 1030 are connected through a bus 1040 . The bus 1040 is represented by a thick line in FIG. 10 , and the connection manner between other components is only for schematic illustration and is not limited thereto. The bus can be divided into address bus, data bus, control bus and so on. For ease of representation, only one thick line is used in FIG. 10 , but it does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of bus.

FIG. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of an access network device provided by an embodiment of the present application. The network device may be, for example, a base station. The base station 2000 can be applied in the scenario shown in Figure 1 to perform the functions of the first access network device or the second access network device in the above method embodiments.

As shown in FIG. 11 , the base station 2000 may include one or more radio frequency units, such as a remote radio unit (RRU) 2010 and one or more baseband units (BBU) (also referred to as a distributed unit (DU)) 2020 . The RRU 2010 may be called a transceiver unit, and may correspond to the transceiver unit 920 in FIG. 9 or the communication interface 1030 in FIG. 10 . Optionally, the RRU 2100 may also be called a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, or a transceiver, etc., which may include at least one antenna 2101 and a radio frequency unit 2102. Optionally, the RRU 2100 may include a receiving unit and a sending unit, the receiving unit may correspond to a receiver (or called receiver, receiving circuit), and the sending unit may correspond to a transmitter (or called transmitter, sending circuit). The RRU 2100 part is mainly used for transmitting and receiving radio frequency signals and converting radio frequency signals and baseband signals, for example, for executing the operation process of the first access network device or the second access network device, for example, for executing the first access network device The network access device sends an RRC rejection message, an RRC release message, and other operation procedures to the terminal device. The BBU 2200 part is mainly used for baseband processing, controlling the base station, and the like. The RRU 2100 and the BBU 2200 may be physically set together, or physically separated, that is, a distributed base station.

The BBU 2200 is the control center of the base station, and can also be called a processing unit, which can correspond to the processing unit 910 in FIG. 9 or the processor 1010 in FIG. 10, and is mainly used to complete baseband processing functions, such as channel coding and multiplexing , modulation, spread spectrum, etc. For example, the BBU (processing unit) can be used to control the base station to execute the operation procedures related to the first access network device or the second access network device in the above method embodiments, for example, to execute the first access network device to determine the second Whether the duration is timed out, and whether to connect the terminal device to the first mobile relay and other operation procedures.

In an example, the BBU 2200 may be composed of one or more single boards, and multiple single boards may jointly support a wireless access network (such as an LTE network) of a single access standard, or may separately support wireless access networks of different access standards. Wireless access network (such as LTE network, 5G network or other networks). The BBU 2200 also includes a memory 2201 and a processor 2202. The memory 2201 is used to store necessary instructions and data. The processor 2202 is used to control the base station to perform necessary actions, for example, to control the base station to execute the operation process related to the network device in the above method embodiment. The memory 2201 and the processor 2202 may serve one or more boards. That is to say, memory and processors can be set independently on each single board. It may also be that multiple single boards share the same memory and processor. In addition, necessary circuits can also be set on each single board.

It should be understood that the base station 2000 shown in FIG. 11 can implement various processes involving the first access network device in the method embodiments shown in FIGS. 5 to 8 . The operations and/or functions of the various modules in the base station 2000 are respectively for implementing the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments. For details, reference may be made to the descriptions in the foregoing method embodiments, and detailed descriptions are appropriately omitted here to avoid repetition.

The above-mentioned BBU 2200 can be used to execute the actions internally implemented by the first access network device described in the previous method embodiments, and the RRU 2100 can be used to perform the sending of the first access network device to the terminal device described in the previous method embodiments. Or an action received from an end device. For details, please refer to the description in the foregoing method embodiments, and details are not repeated here.

Alternatively, the base station 2000 shown in FIG. 11 can implement various processes of the second access network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 7 . The operations and/or functions of the various modules in the base station 2000 are respectively for implementing the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments. For details, reference may be made to the descriptions in the foregoing method embodiments, and detailed descriptions are appropriately omitted here to avoid repetition.

The above-mentioned BBU 2200 can be used to execute the actions internally implemented by the second access network device described in the previous method embodiments, and the RRU 2100 can be used to perform the sending of the second access network device to the AMF or the second access network device described in the previous method embodiments. An action that an access network device sends or receives from the AMF or the first access network device. For details, please refer to the description in the foregoing method embodiments, and details are not repeated here.

It should be understood that the base station 2000 shown in FIG. 11 is only a possible form of an access network device, and should not constitute any limitation to this application. The method provided in this application can be applied to other forms of access network equipment. For example, including AAU, may also include CU and/or DU, or include BBU and adaptive radio unit (adaptive radio unit, ARU), or BBU; may also be customer premises equipment (CPE), may also be For other forms, this application does not limit the specific form of the network device.

Among them, CU and/or DU can be used to perform the actions described in the previous method embodiments implemented by the access network device, and AAU can be used to perform the actions described in the previous method embodiments from the access network device to the terminal device. Action received from end device. For details, please refer to the description in the foregoing method embodiments, and details are not repeated here.

It should be understood that the processor in this application may be an integrated circuit chip, which has a signal processing capability. In the implementation process, each step of the above-mentioned method embodiments may be completed by an integrated logic circuit of hardware in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The above-mentioned processor can be a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (digital signal processor, DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), a field programmable gate array (field programmable gate array, FPGA) or other possible Program logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components. Various methods, steps, and logic block diagrams disclosed in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented or executed. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, or the processor may be any conventional processor, or the like. The steps of the method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware decoding processor, or implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the decoding processor. The software module can be located in a mature storage medium in the field such as random access memory, flash memory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory or electrically erasable programmable memory, register. The storage medium is located in the memory, and the processor reads the information in the memory, and completes the steps of the above method in combination with its hardware.

It should also be understood that the memory in the embodiments of the present application may be a volatile memory or a nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memories. Among them, the non-volatile memory can be read-only memory (read-only memory, ROM), programmable read-only memory (programmable ROM, PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (erasable PROM, EPROM), electrically programmable Erases programmable read-only memory (electrically EPROM, EEPROM) or flash memory. Volatile memory can be random access memory (RAM), which acts as external cache memory. By way of illustration and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available such as static random access memory (static RAM, SRAM), dynamic random access memory (dynamic RAM, DRAM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (synchronous DRAM, SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (double data rate SDRAM, DDR SDRAM), enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (enhanced SDRAM, ESDRAM), synchronous connection dynamic random access memory (synchlink DRAM, SLDRAM ) and direct memory bus random access memory (direct rambus RAM, DR RAM). It should be noted that the memory of the systems and methods described herein is intended to include, but not be limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

The present application also provides a computer program product, the computer program product includes: a computer program (also called code, or instruction), when the computer program is executed, the computer executes the program in the embodiment shown in Fig. 5 to Fig. 8 The method executed by the AMF or the method executed by the first access network device, or causing the computer to execute the method executed by the second access network device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 .

The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, where a computer program (also called code, or instruction) is stored in the computer-readable storage medium. When the computer program is executed, the computer executes the method executed by the AMF in the embodiment shown in FIG. 5 or FIG. 8 or the method executed by the first access network device, or the computer executes the second interface in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 The method executed by the network-connected device.

The terms "unit", "module" and the like used in this specification may be used to denote a computer-related entity, hardware, firmware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or software in execution.

Those of ordinary skill in the art can appreciate that various illustrative logical blocks (illustrative logical blocks) and steps (steps) described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented with electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. accomplish. Whether these functions are executed by hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Those skilled in the art may use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be regarded as exceeding the scope of the present application. In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed devices, devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device 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 can be combined or can be Integrate into another system, or some features may be ignored, or not implemented. In another point, the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed may be through some interfaces, and the indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units may be in electrical, mechanical or other forms.

The unit described as a separate component may or may not be physically separated, and the component shown as a unit may or may not be a physical unit, that is, it may be located in one place, or may be distributed to multiple network units. Part or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

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

In the above embodiments, the functions of each functional unit may be fully or partially implemented by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, it may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product comprises one or more computer instructions (programs). When the computer program instructions (program) are loaded and executed on the computer, the processes or functions according to the embodiments of the present application will be generated in whole or in part. The computer can be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transferred from a website, computer, server, or data center by wire (such as coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (such as infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) to another website site, computer, server or data center. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer, or a data storage device such as a server or a data center integrated with one or more available media. The available medium may be a magnetic medium, (for example, a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (for example, a digital video disc (digital video disc, DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (for example, a solid state disk (solid state disk, SSD)) wait.

If the function is realized in the form of a software function unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application is essentially or the part that contributes to the prior art or the part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product, and the computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including Several instructions are used to make a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) execute all or part of the steps of the methods in the various embodiments of the present application. The aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes such as U disk, mobile hard disk, ROM, RAM, magnetic disk or optical disk.

The above is only a specific implementation of the application, but the scope of protection of the application is not limited thereto. Anyone familiar with the technical field can easily think of changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed in the application. Should be covered within the protection scope of this application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application should be determined by the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

A communication method, characterized in that, comprising:

determining that the load of the first mobile relay exceeds a first preset threshold;

determining that the load of the second mobile relay is lower than a second preset threshold, and determining that the movement track of the second mobile relay in the first time period is the same as that of the first mobile relay in the first time period The trajectory of movement is the same;

sending the information of the second mobile relay to the first access network device, where the information of the second mobile relay is used to connect the terminal device to the second mobile relay, and the first mobile relay and The second mobile relay is in a moving state, and the first mobile relay is used to provide a relay service between the terminal device and the first access network device.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a first duration to the first access network device, and after the first duration expires, the first mobile relay can provide a relay between the terminal device and the first access network device Serve.
The method according to claim 2, wherein the first duration is less than or equal to the duration of the first time period.
The method according to claim 1, wherein before sending the information of the second mobile relay to the first access network device, the method further comprises:

Receive the identifier of the first mobile relay and the registration request message from the terminal device from the first access network device, where the identifier of the first mobile relay is used to indicate that the registration request message is passed through the The first mobile relay forwards to the first access network device.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the second mobile relay is used to provide a relay service between the terminal device and the second access network device, and the first access network device and the The second access network device is the same access network device, or the first access network device and the second access network device are different access network devices.
The method according to claim 5, wherein the information of the second mobile relay includes the identification of the second mobile relay, and the identification of the second mobile relay is the same as that of the second mobile relay. corresponding to the frequency points.
The method according to claim 5, wherein the information of the second mobile relay includes a frequency point of the second mobile relay.
The method according to claim 6, wherein the first access network device and the second access network device are different access network devices; and

Before sending the information of the second mobile relay to the first access network device, the method further includes:

sending the identity of the second mobile relay to the second access network device;

Receive the frequency point of the second mobile relay from the second access network device.
A communication method, characterized in that, comprising:

determining that the load of the first mobile relay exceeds a first preset threshold;

determining that the load of the second mobile relay is lower than a second preset threshold, and determining that the movement track of the second mobile relay in the first time period is the same as that of the first mobile relay in the first time period The trajectory of movement is the same;

determining that the terminal device requests access from the first mobile relay at a first moment in the first time period;

Sending the frequency point of the second mobile relay to the terminal device, where the frequency point of the second mobile relay is used for the terminal device to access the second mobile relay.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, further comprising:

Obtain the load of the first mobile relay and the load of the second mobile relay.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, further comprising:

Obtain the movement track of the first mobile relay and the movement track of the second mobile relay.
A communication device, characterized by comprising:

A processing unit, configured to determine that the load of the first mobile relay exceeds a first preset threshold; determine that the load of the second mobile relay is lower than a second preset threshold, and determine that the load of the second mobile relay is lower than the second preset threshold, and is used to determine that the second mobile relay is at the first time The movement trajectory in the segment is the same as the movement trajectory of the first mobile relay in the first time period;

a transceiver unit, configured to send the information of the second mobile relay to the first access network device, where the information of the second mobile relay is used to connect the terminal device to the second mobile relay, and the first A mobile relay and the second mobile relay are in a moving state, and the first mobile relay is used to provide a relay service between the terminal device and the first access network device.
The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the transceiving unit is further configured to send a first duration to the first access network device, and after the first duration expires, the first mobile relay A relay service can be provided between the terminal device and the first access network device.
The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the first duration is less than or equal to the duration of the first time period.
The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the transceiving unit is further configured to receive the identifier of the first mobile relay and a registration request message from the terminal device from the first access network device, The identifier of the first mobile relay is used to indicate that the registration request message is forwarded to the first access network device through the first mobile relay.
The device according to any one of claims 12 to 15, wherein the second mobile relay is used to provide a relay service between the terminal device and the second access network device, and the first The network access device and the second access network device are the same access network device, or the first access network device and the second access network device are different access network devices.
The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the information of the second mobile relay includes an identifier of the second mobile relay, and the identifier of the second mobile relay is the same as that of the second mobile relay. corresponding to the frequency points.
The device according to claim 16, wherein the information of the second mobile relay includes a frequency point of the second mobile relay.
The apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the first access network device and the second access network device are different access network devices,

The transceiving unit is further configured to send an identifier of the second mobile relay to the second access network device; and to receive a frequency point of the second mobile relay from the second access network device.
A communication device, characterized by comprising:

A processing unit, configured to determine that the load of the first mobile relay exceeds a first preset threshold; determine that the load of the second mobile relay is lower than a second preset threshold, and determine that the load of the second mobile relay is lower than the second preset threshold, and is used to determine that the second mobile relay is at the first time The movement trajectory within the segment is the same as the movement trajectory of the first mobile relay within the first time period; it is also used to determine that the terminal device requests to transfer from the first mobile relay at the first moment of the first time period relay access;

A transceiver unit, configured to send the frequency point of the second mobile relay to the terminal device, where the frequency point of the second mobile relay is used for the terminal device to access the second mobile relay.
The device according to any one of claims 12 to 20, wherein the processing unit is further configured to acquire the load of the first mobile relay and the load of the second mobile relay.
The device according to any one of claims 12 to 21, wherein the processing unit is further configured to acquire a movement track of the first mobile relay and a movement track of the second mobile relay.
A communication device, characterized by comprising a processor, the processor is used to invoke program codes to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 11.
A computer-readable storage medium on which a computer program is stored, wherein when the computer program is executed by a processor, the computer is made to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 11.
A computer program product, characterized by comprising a computer program, which causes a computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 11 when the computer program is executed.