WO2023134354A1

WO2023134354A1 - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: WO2023134354A1
Application number: PCT/CN2022/137965
Authority: WO
Inventors: 何泓利; 窦凤辉; 李雪茹
Original assignee: 华为技术有限公司
Priority date: 2022-01-14
Filing date: 2022-12-09
Publication date: 2023-07-20
Also published as: CN116489625A

Abstract

The present application relates to a communication method and a device. An access network device receives first information from a first core network device, the first information being used for indicating that a first terminal device has an association with at least one repeating installation. The access network device provides access network service for the first terminal device by controlling a first repeating installation, the first repeating installation being one of the at least one repeating installation. In embodiments of the present application, a repeating installation and a terminal device may have an association, an access network device can also know the association between the repeating installation and the terminal device, and thus the access network device can schedule the repeating installation to serve the terminal device associated with the repeating installation. In this way, the repeating installation can serve a specific user, the application rationality of the repeating installation is improved, and the requirements of the user are also met.

Description

A communication method and device

Cross References to Related Applications

This application claims the priority of the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of China on January 14, 2022, with the application number 202210040078.0 and the application name "A communication method, UE and network equipment", the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference In this application; this application claims the priority of the Chinese patent application submitted to the State Intellectual Property Office of China on February 10, 2022, with the application number 202210126503.8 and the application name "A communication method and device", the entire contents of which are passed References are incorporated in this application.

technical field

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

Background technique

A smart repeater (SR), also known as a network controlled repeater (NCR), is a new type of node used to improve network coverage. On the one hand, the SR has the characteristics of a radio frequency repeater (RF repeater) in a long term evolution (LTE) system, that is, it has the relay function of amplification and forwarding, and can transmit the radio frequency signal from the base station Amplify and forward to the user and forward the RF signal from the user to the base station after amplifying; on the other hand, the intelligence of the SR is that the SR can receive control information from the base station, so that it can adjust the transmit and receive beams of the SR according to the control information Parameters such as orientation, transmit power, node switch status, or working bandwidth enable the SR to serve specific users and control interference to other users.

When the SR is directly deployed by the operator, the SR can serve any users within the coverage of the SR, so as to improve the received signal quality of these users. In addition, the SR may be purchased or deployed by the user himself, so the SR should only serve the user who purchased or deployed the SR or several users associated with the user, and do not want the SR to serve This user is not a related user. However, the SR itself only has functions such as radio frequency signal amplification and forwarding, and there is no direct communication between the SR itself and users. It is very difficult to make the SR only serve specific users.

Contents of the invention

Embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and device, which are used to enable a relay device to serve a specific terminal device.

In the first aspect, a first communication method is provided, and the method may be executed by an access network device, or by other devices including access network device functions, or by a chip system or other functional modules, and the chip system or functional modules can To realize the function of the access network device, the chip system or the functional module is set in the access network device, for example. The access network device is, for example, a base station. The method includes: receiving first information from a first core network device, the first information is used to indicate that the first terminal device has an association relationship with at least one relay device; by controlling the first relay device, providing the first The terminal device provides an access network service, and the first relay device is one of the at least one relay device.

In this embodiment of the present application, there may be an association relationship between the relay device and the terminal device, and one relay device can serve the terminal device having the association relationship with the relay device. For example, if a user purchases or deploys a relay device, the relay device may have an association relationship with the terminal device used by the user, so that the relay device can serve the terminal device. The access network device can also learn the association relationship between the relay device and the terminal device, so that the access network device can schedule the relay device to serve the terminal device associated with the relay device. In this way, the relay device can serve specific users, which improves the rationality of the application of the relay device and also meets the needs of users.

With reference to the first aspect, in a first optional implementation manner of the first aspect, the first information is used to indicate that the first terminal device has an association relationship with at least one relay device, including: the first information includes The identifier of the at least one relay device; or, the first information includes a first field, where, when the value of the first field is a first value, it indicates that the first terminal device and the at least one associated with the relay device. The first information may include an identifier of at least one relay device, and in this manner, it can be more clearly indicated that the first terminal device has an association relationship with the at least one relay device. Alternatively, the first information may indicate that the first terminal device is associated with at least one relay device through the value of the first field, without including the identifier of the relay device, which can save the overhead of the first information.

With reference to the first aspect or the first optional implementation manner of the first aspect, in the second optional implementation manner of the first aspect, the first information further includes time information, and the time information is used to indicate The validity period of the association relationship between the first terminal device and the at least one relay device. Considering that the association relationship between the terminal device and the relay device may not be consistent, for example, the relay service subscribed by the user expires, or the user newly subscribes to the relay service, etc., will lead to the relationship between the terminal device and the relay device. The relationship between them changes. Then the first information may use time information to indicate the valid period of the association relationship between the UE and the at least one relay device, which makes the access network device clearly can use the terminal device and the terminal device within the valid period indicated by the time information. The association relationship between at least one relay device, and after the validity period indicated by the time information, the association relationship between the terminal device and the at least one relay device should not continue to be used, so that the relay device can reasonably Serving terminal equipment.

In combination with the first aspect or the first optional implementation manner of the first aspect or the second optional implementation manner of the first aspect, in the third optional implementation manner of the first aspect, the method further The method includes: sending first request information to the first core network device, where the first request information is used to request to determine whether the first terminal device is associated with a relay device. The first core network device may have stored the association relationship information between the terminal device and the relay device, so the access network device may request the first core network device to determine whether the first terminal device is associated with the relay device, or request It is determined whether the first terminal device has an associated relay device.

With reference to the third optional implementation manner of the first aspect, in a fourth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, the first request information includes an identifier of the first terminal device, or, the first The request information includes the identifier of the first terminal device and the identifiers of some or all of the M relay devices, where the M relay devices are relay devices connected to the access network device, The M relay devices include the at least one relay device. If the first core network device maintains the identifier of the relay device registered in the access network device, optionally, the first request information may not include the identifier of the relay device registered in the access network device, that is, The first request information may include the identifier of the UE instead of the identifier of the relay device registered in the access network device, so as to save the overhead of the first request information. Or, if the AMF does not store the identifier of the relay device registered in the access network device, optionally, the first request information may include the identifier of the relay device registered in the access network device, that is, the first request The information may include the identifier of the UE, and the identifiers of all or part of the relay devices registered in the access network device, so that the first core network device clearly needs to determine whether the first terminal device has an association relationship with which relay devices .

With reference to the fourth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, in a fifth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, the first request information is included in the first NAS connection request, and the first NAS connection The request is used for the first terminal device to request to establish a connection with the first core network device. Alternatively, the first request information may also be included in other messages, for example, included in a message dedicated to requesting the association relationship between the terminal device and the relay apparatus, which is not specifically limited.

With reference to the third optional implementation manner of the first aspect, in a sixth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, the first request information is used to request to determine whether the first terminal device is connected with the relay device Associating, including: the first request information is used to request the first core network device to send verification information to the first terminal device, and the verification information is used to request verification of the first Whether the end device is associated with the relay. For example, the first request information may request the first core network device to initiate verification to the first terminal device, so as to determine whether the first terminal device is associated with the relay device. That is, the verification initiator may be an access network device or a first core network device.

With reference to the sixth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, in a seventh optional implementation manner of the first aspect, the first request information further includes an identifier of the first terminal device, or, the The first request information further includes the identifier of the first terminal device and the identifiers of some or all of the M relay devices, the M relay devices being relays connected to the access network device device, the M relay devices include the at least one relay device. Regarding the effect of this embodiment, reference can be made to the foregoing.

In combination with the first aspect or the first optional implementation manner of the first aspect or the second optional implementation manner of the first aspect, in the eighth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, the method further Including: sending second request information to the first terminal device, where the second request information is used to request the first terminal device to send information for verification to the first core network device, and the information for verification It is used to request to verify whether the first terminal device is associated with the relay device. For example, the second request information may request to initiate verification to the first core network device of the first terminal device, so as to determine whether the first terminal device is associated with the relay device. That is, the verification initiator may be an access network device, may also be a first core network device, or may be a first terminal device, which is more flexible.

With reference to the eighth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, in the ninth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, the second request information further includes some or all of the M relay devices , the M relay devices are relay devices connected to the access network device, and the M relay devices include the at least one relay device. Regarding the effect of this embodiment, reference can be made to the foregoing.

In combination with any of the first aspect or the third optional implementation manner of the first aspect to the ninth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, the tenth alternative implementation manner of the first aspect may be In an optional implementation manner, the method further includes: determining that the first terminal device accesses the access network device through a relay device. If the access network device determines that the first terminal device accesses the access network device through a relay device, the direct connection signal between the first terminal device and the access network device may be weak and needs to be accessed through a relay device. , or the first terminal device may have a need to access through a relay device. Then the access network device can verify whether the first terminal device has an associated relay device, so as to provide services for the first terminal device through the associated relay device. If the first terminal device does not access the access network device through a relay device, the access network device may not verify whether the first terminal device has an associated relay device, so as to save power consumption.

With reference to the tenth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, in an eleventh optional implementation manner of the first aspect, the method further includes: receiving device type indication information from the first relay apparatus, The device type indication information is used to indicate that the type of the first relay device is a relay device. The device type indication information may indicate the type of the first relay device, for example, the type of the first relay device is a relay device, or a relay type. Through the device type indication information, the access network device can make it clear that the type of the first relay device is not a common UE, but a relay device.

With reference to the eleventh optional implementation manner of the first aspect, in a twelfth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, the device type indication information is included in the first AS connection request, or included in the 2. The NAS connection request is in progress. There is no limitation on how to send the device type indication information.

With reference to the twelfth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, in the thirteenth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, the device type indication information is included in the second NAS connection request, and the method further includes The method includes: sending the second NAS connection request to the first core network device; receiving a second identifier from the first core network device, where the second identifier is that the first core network device is the first The identifier assigned by the relay device. The access network device may send the second NAS connection request to the first core network device, and the first core network device may assign an identifier to the first relay device, such as assigning a second identifier, and the first core network device may assign the second The identifier is sent to the access network device.

Combining the first aspect or any one of the first optional implementation manner of the first aspect to the tenth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, in the fourteenth optional implementation manner of the first aspect In an optional implementation manner, the method further includes: receiving a second AS connection request from the first relay device, where the second AS connection request includes a third identifier of the first relay device; if the If the third identifier is included in the second information, connect to the first relay device, and the second information includes the identifiers of one or more authorized relay devices under the coverage of the access network equipment . Considering that the position of the relay device is relatively fixed, the position of the access network equipment is also relatively fixed, so after a relay device is installed, the corresponding relationship with the access network equipment is also relatively stable. Therefore, after a relay device is installed, the relay device can be manually registered to the core network without the need for the relay device to register itself to the core network, so the first relay device only needs to be registered with the access network device That's it. After receiving the second AS connection request, if the access network device has stored the second information, the access network device may determine whether the third identifier is included in the second information. If the third identifier is included in the second information, indicating that the first relay device has registered with the first core network device, or that the first relay device is an authorized relay device, the access network device may complete the first The registration of the relay device, for example, the connection of the access network device with the first relay device. However, if the third identifier is not included in the second information, it indicates that the first relay device is not registered with the first core network device, or that the first relay device is an unauthorized relay device, then the access network device may The registration of the first relay device is rejected, for example, the access network device refuses to connect with the first relay device.

In combination with any one of the fourteenth optional implementation manners of the first aspect, in the fifteenth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, the method further includes: from the The first core network device receives the second information. For example, the first core network device may send the second information to the access network device. Alternatively, the first core network device may not send the second information to the access network device, and there is no limitation.

In combination with any of the first aspect or the first optional implementation manner of the first aspect to the tenth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, in the sixteenth optional implementation manner of the first aspect In an optional implementation manner, the method further includes: receiving a second AS connection request from the first relay device, where the second AS connection request includes a third identifier of the first relay device; A core network device sends first request information, the first request information includes the third identifier, and the first request information is used to request to verify whether the first relay device is covered by the access network device An authorized relay device under the access network device; receiving first response information from the first core network device, where the first response information is used to indicate that the first relay device is an authorized relay device under the coverage of the access network device or used to indicate that the first relay device is not an authorized relay device under the coverage of the access network device. After receiving the second AS connection request, if the access network device does not store the second information, or the third identifier is not included in the second information, the access network device may request the first core network device to assist in further confirmation. That is, regardless of whether the access network device stores the second information, it can be determined whether the first relay device is an authorized relay device under the coverage of the access network device.

In combination with any of the first aspect or the first optional implementation manner of the first aspect to the sixteenth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, in the seventeenth optional implementation manner of the first aspect In an optional implementation manner, the first relay device is an SR. In addition, the first relay device may also be other devices for forwarding signals between two devices.

In the second aspect, a second communication method is provided. This method can be executed by the first core network device, or by other devices including the functions of the first core network device, or by a chip system or other functional modules. The chip system or function The module can realize the function of the first core network device, and the chip system or the functional module is set in the first core network device, for example. The first core network device is, for example, an AMF or the like. The method includes: receiving first request information, where the first request information is used to request to determine whether the first terminal device is associated with the relay device; sending first information to the access network device, where the first information is used to indicate The first terminal device has an association relationship with at least one relay device.

Regarding the technical effect brought about by the second aspect, reference may be made to the description of the technical effect of the first aspect or any optional implementation manner.

In the third aspect, a third communication method is provided, which can be performed by a terminal device, or by a larger device including the terminal device, or by a chip system or other functional modules, and the chip system or functional modules can realize the communication of the terminal device. function, the chip system or functional module is, for example, set in a terminal device. The terminal device is, for example, the first terminal device. The method includes: sending fifth request information to the first core network device, where the fifth request information is used to request to determine whether the first terminal device is associated with a relay device.

Regarding the technical effect brought about by the third aspect, reference may be made to the description of the technical effect of the first aspect or any optional implementation manner.

In the fourth aspect, a fourth communication method is provided, which can be performed by a relay device, or by a larger device including a relay device, or by a chip system or other functional modules, and the chip system or functional modules can implement The function of the relay device, the chip system or the functional module is set in the relay device, for example. The relay device is, for example, a first relay device. The method includes: sending device type indication information to an access network device, where the device type indication information is used to indicate that the type of the first relay device is a relay device; and establishing a connection with the first access network device.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a first optional implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the method further includes: sending the device type indication information to the first core network device.

In the fifth aspect, a fifth communication method is provided, which can be performed by a relay device, or by a larger device including a relay device, or by a chip system or other functional modules, and the chip system or functional modules can implement The function of the relay device, the chip system or the functional module is set in the relay device, for example. The relay device is, for example, a first relay device. The method includes: sending a second AS connection request to the access network device, where the second AS connection request includes the third identifier of the first relay device; and establishing a connection with the first access network device.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in a first optional implementation manner of the fifth aspect, the second AS connection request further includes device type indication information, and the device type indication information is used to indicate that the first relay device The type of is a relay device.

In a sixth aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device may be the access network device described in any one of the first aspect to the fifth aspect. The communication device has the functions of the above-mentioned access network equipment. The communication device is, for example, an access network device, or a functional module in the access network device, such as a baseband device or a chip system. In an optional implementation manner, the communication device includes a baseband device and a radio frequency device. In another optional implementation manner, the communication device includes a processing unit (also called a processing module sometimes) and a transceiver unit (also called a transceiver module sometimes). The transceiver unit can realize the sending function and the receiving function. When the transceiver unit realizes the sending function, it can be called the sending unit (sometimes also called the sending module). When the transceiver unit realizes the receiving function, it can be called the receiving unit (sometimes also called receiving module). The sending unit and the receiving unit can be the same functional module, which is called the transceiver unit, and this functional module can realize the sending function and the receiving function; or, the sending unit and the receiving unit can be different functional modules, and the transceiver unit is for these A general term for functional modules.

In an optional implementation manner, the communication device further includes a storage unit, and the processing unit is configured to be coupled to the storage unit, and execute programs or instructions in the storage unit to enable the communication device to Execute the function of the access network device described in any one of the first aspect to the fifth aspect.

In a seventh aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device may be the first core network device described in any one of the first aspect to the fifth aspect. The communication device has the functions of the above-mentioned first core network equipment. The communication device is, for example, the first core network device, or a functional module in the first core network device, such as a baseband device or a chip system. In an optional implementation manner, the communication device includes a baseband device and a radio frequency device. In another optional implementation manner, the communication device includes a processing unit (also called a processing module sometimes) and a transceiver unit (also called a transceiver module sometimes). For the implementation of the transceiver unit, refer to the introduction of the sixth aspect.

In an optional implementation manner, the communication device further includes a storage unit, and the processing unit is configured to be coupled to the storage unit, and execute programs or instructions in the storage unit to enable the communication device to Execute the function of the first core network device described in any one of the first aspect to the fifth aspect.

In an eighth aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device may be the first terminal device described in any one of the first aspect to the third aspect. The communication device has the function of the above-mentioned first terminal device. The communication device is, for example, the first terminal device, or a functional module in the first terminal device, such as a baseband device or a chip system. In an optional implementation manner, the communication device includes a baseband device and a radio frequency device. In another optional implementation manner, the communication device includes a processing unit (also called a processing module sometimes) and a transceiver unit (also called a transceiver module sometimes). For the implementation of the transceiver unit, refer to the introduction of the sixth aspect.

In an optional implementation manner, the communication device further includes a storage unit, and the processing unit is configured to be coupled to the storage unit, and execute programs or instructions in the storage unit to enable the communication device to Execute the function of the first terminal device described in any one of the above first aspect to the third aspect.

In a ninth aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device may be the first relay device described in any one of the first aspect to the fifth aspect. The communication device has the function of the above-mentioned first relay device. The communication device is, for example, a first relay device, or a functional module in the first relay device, such as a baseband device or a chip system. In an optional implementation manner, the communication device includes a baseband device and a radio frequency device. In another optional implementation manner, the communication device includes a processing unit (also called a processing module sometimes) and a transceiver unit (also called a transceiver module sometimes). For the implementation of the transceiver unit, refer to the introduction of the sixth aspect.

In an optional implementation manner, the communication device further includes a storage unit, and the processing unit is configured to be coupled to the storage unit, and execute programs or instructions in the storage unit to enable the communication device to Execute the function of the first relay device described in any one of the first aspect to the fifth aspect above.

In a tenth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, the computer-readable storage medium is used to store computer programs or instructions, and when executed, the first terminal device, the first core network device, and the The method performed by the access network device or the first relay device is implemented.

According to an eleventh aspect, a computer program product containing instructions is provided, which enables the methods described in the above aspects to be implemented when it is run on a computer.

In a twelfth aspect, an apparatus is provided, including one or more units for performing the method described in any embodiment of the present application.

A thirteenth aspect provides a communication system, including the communication device described in the sixth aspect and the communication device described in the seventh aspect.

Optionally, the communication system further includes the communication device described in the eighth aspect.

Optionally, the communication system further includes the communication device described in the ninth aspect.

Description of drawings

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of user autonomous deployment of SR;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture applied in an embodiment of the present application;

3 to 7 are flowcharts of several communication methods provided by the embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of another device provided by the embodiment of the present application.

Detailed ways

In order to make the purpose, technical solutions, and advantages of the embodiments of the present application clearer, the embodiments of the present application will be further described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

In the following, some terms or concepts in the embodiments of the present application are explained, so as to facilitate the understanding of those skilled in the art.

In the embodiment of this application, the terminal device is a device with wireless transceiver function, which can be a fixed device, a mobile device, a handheld device (such as a mobile phone), a wearable device, a vehicle-mounted device, or a wireless device built into the above-mentioned devices (such as , communication module, modem, or chip system, etc.). The terminal device is used to connect people, things, machines, etc., and can be widely used in various scenarios, including but not limited to the following scenarios: cellular communication, device-to-device communication (device-to-device, D2D), car-to-everything (vehicle to everything, V2X), machine-to-machine/machine-type communications (machine-to-machine/machine-type communications, M2M/MTC), Internet of things (Internet of things, IoT), virtual reality (virtual reality, VR) , augmented reality (augmented reality, AR), industrial control (industrial control), unmanned driving (self driving), telemedicine (remote medical), smart grid (smart grid), smart furniture, smart office, smart wear, smart transportation , Terminal equipment for smart cities, drones, robots and other scenarios. The terminal equipment may sometimes be referred to as user equipment (user equipment, UE), terminal, access station, UE station, remote station, wireless communication device, or user device, etc. For the convenience of description, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device is taken as an example for description.

The network devices in this embodiment of the present application may include, for example, access network devices and/or core network devices. The access network device is a device with a wireless transceiver function, and is used for communicating with the terminal device. The access network equipment includes but is not limited to a base station (BTS, Node B, eNodeB/eNB, or gNodeB/gNB), a transmission reception point (TRP), a third generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project, 3GPP ) Subsequent evolved base stations, access nodes in wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) systems, wireless relay nodes, wireless backhaul nodes, etc. The base station may be: a macro base station, a micro base station, a pico base station, a small station, a relay station, and the like. Multiple base stations can support networks of the same access technology or networks of different access technologies. A base station may contain one or more co-sited or non-co-sited transmission and reception points. The access network device may also be a wireless controller, a centralized unit (centralized unit, CU), and/or a distributed unit (distributed unit, DU) in a cloud radio access network (cloud radio access network, CRAN) scenario. The access network device may also be a server or the like. For example, a network device in a vehicle to everything (V2X) technology may be a road side unit (RSU). The access network device is described below by taking a base station as an example. The base station can communicate with the terminal equipment, and can also communicate with the terminal equipment through the relay station. A terminal device can communicate with multiple base stations in different access technologies. The core network equipment is used to implement functions such as mobility management, data processing, session management, policy and charging. The names of devices implementing core network functions in systems with different access technologies may be different, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. Taking the 5G system as an example, the core network equipment includes: access and mobility management function (access and mobility management function, AMF), session management function (session management function, SMF), policy control function (policy control function, PCF), Unified data management (Unified data management, UDM) or user plane function (user plane function, UPF), etc.

In the embodiment of the present application, the communication device for realizing the function of the network device may be a network device, or a device capable of supporting the network device to realize the function, such as a chip system, and the device may be installed in the network device. In the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present application, the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present application is described by taking the network device as an example for realizing the function of the network device.

The relay device in the embodiment of the present application is, for example, SR or RF repeater, or a functional module (such as a chip, etc.) set in SR or RF repeater, or a larger device including SR or RF repeater, or it is also possible are other devices used to relay signals.

In the embodiments of the present application, for the number of nouns, unless otherwise specified, it means "singular noun or plural noun", that is, "one or more". "At least one" means one or more, and "plurality" means two or more. "And/or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that there can be three types of relationships, for example, A and/or B, which can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, where A, B can be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the contextual objects are an "or" relationship. For example, A/B means: A or B. "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 (piece) of a, b, or c means: a, b, c, a and b, a and c, b and c, or a and b and c, where a, b, c Can be single or multiple.

The ordinal numerals such as "first" and "second" mentioned in this embodiment of the application are used to distinguish multiple objects, and are not used to limit the size, content, order, timing, priority, or importance of multiple objects. For example, the first request information and the second request information may be the same information or different information, and this name does not indicate the content, application scenario, priority or importance of the two information, etc. s difference. In addition, the numbering of the steps in the various embodiments introduced in this application is only for distinguishing different steps, and is not used to limit the order of the steps. For example, S301 may occur before S302, or may occur after S302, or may occur simultaneously with S302.

Please refer to Figure 1, which is a schematic diagram of user autonomous deployment of SR. For example, a certain user in FIG. 1 deploys the SR in FIG. 1 , and the user owns a terminal device UE1, it is reasonable that the SR should only serve UE1. FIG. 1 also includes UE2, which is not a terminal device owned by the user, so the SR should not serve UE2. However, since the SR cannot communicate with the UE and cannot distinguish specific users, it may direct the beam toward unrelated UE2 to provide services for it.

In addition, the SR is controlled by the base station. The base station can control parameters such as the orientation of the SR's transceiver beam, transmission power, node switch status, or operating bandwidth by sending control information. That is, which UE the SR serves is essentially determined by the base station. to control. Taking a step back, even if the SR and the UE can communicate with each other, so that the SR and the UE can authenticate each other, so that the SR can perceive the existence of the UE, but because the SR is controlled by the base station, even if the SR and the UE are successfully authenticated, the SR still cannot autonomously A decision is made which UE should be served.

In view of this, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application are provided. In the embodiment of the present application, there may be an association relationship between the relay device and the UE, and one relay device can serve the UE having the association relationship with the relay device. For example, if a user purchases or deploys a relay device, the relay device may have an association relationship with one or more UEs used by the user, so that the relay device can serve the one or more UEs. The access network device can also know the association relationship between the relay device and the UE, so that the access network device can schedule the relay device to serve the UE associated with the relay device. In this way, the relay device can serve a specific UE, which improves the rationality of the application of the relay device and also meets the needs of users.

The technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present application can be applied to a fourth generation mobile communication technology (the 4th generation, 4G) system, such as an LTE system, or can be applied to a 5G system, such as a new radio (new radio, NR) system, Or it can also be applied to the next generation mobile communication system or other similar communication systems, which is not specifically limited. In addition, the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application can be applied to device-to-device (D2D) scenarios, such as NR-D2D scenarios, etc., or can be applied to vehicle to everything (V2X) scenarios, such as NR-V2X scenarios, etc. For example, it can be applied to the Internet of Vehicles, such as V2X, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), etc., or can be used in fields such as intelligent driving, assisted driving, or intelligent networked vehicles. If applied to a D2D scenario, the relay device can be set between two UEs; if applied to a non-D2D scenario, the relay device can be set between the UE and the access network device, or between two network devices ( For example, between access network devices or core network devices). In the following introduction process, it is taken as an example that the relay device is set between the UE and the access network device. Optionally, the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application can be used in the millimeter wave transmission process, for example, the relay device can forward the millimeter wave signal; or, the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application can also be used in various other types of The transmission process of signal waves.

For example, in a scenario, the UE is a mobile phone, and the user using the mobile phone is located in a certain building, so the mobile phone is also located in the building. The access network equipment that transmits downlink signals is generally located outside the building, and there may be a certain distance from the building. When the downlink signal transmitted by the access network equipment reaches the building, the walls of the building have a certain blocking effect on the signal, so the downlink signal may have been greatly attenuated when it reaches the mobile phone, resulting in the downlink signal received by the mobile phone weaker. For this reason, the relay device provided by the embodiment of the application can be installed outside the wall of the building, the relay device can amplify the received signal, and the mobile phone can receive the amplified signal, thereby improving the signal reception quality of the mobile phone .

FIG. 2 shows a communication network architecture provided by an embodiment of the present application, and various embodiments provided later can be applicable to this architecture. A relay device can be set between the access network device and the UE, and the relay device can amplify and forward signals from the access network device. Figure 2 includes UE1 and UE2, where UE1 has the association relationship provided by the embodiment of the present application with the relay device, and there is no association relationship provided by the embodiment of the present application between UE2 and the relay device, so the relay device is only Serving UE1, will not serve UE2. It can be seen from FIG. 2 that the beam of the relay device only points to UE1, not to UE2. For the introduction of concepts such as access network equipment, core network equipment, relay devices, and UE, refer to the foregoing. In addition, the core network device may also communicate with the DN, etc., which is not shown in FIG. 2 because it has little to do with the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application.

In order to better introduce the embodiments of the present application, the method provided by the embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings corresponding to various embodiments of the present application, all optional steps are indicated by dotted lines.

The embodiment of the present application provides a first communication method, please refer to FIG. 3 , which is a flow chart of the method. The method can be applied to the network architecture shown in FIG. 2. For example, the UE involved in the method is UE1 in FIG. 2, and the access network device involved in the method is the access network device in FIG. 2. The method The relay device involved is the relay device in FIG. 2 , and the first core network device involved in the method is the core network device in FIG. 2 . The method may also involve a second core network device, which is not shown in FIG. 2 . For example, the first core network device is an AMF, or other core network devices with similar functions. For example, the second core network device is a UDM, or other core network devices with similar functions. In the following description, it is taken that the first core network device is AMF and the second core network device is UDM as an example.

S301. The UE sends an access stratum (access stratum, AS) connection request to an access network device. Correspondingly, the access network device receives the AS connection request from the UE. For example, this AS request is also referred to as a third AS connection request.

The third AS connection request may be used for the UE to request to access the access network device. At this time, the access network device does not know whether the UE has an association relationship with the relay device, so when the UE sends the third AS connection request to the access network device, it may be directly sent to the access network device, or It may also be forwarded to the access network device through a relay device. However, the UE is not aware of the relay device, even if it is forwarded to the access network device through a certain relay device, the UE may not know it.

S302. The access network device sends first request information to the AMF. Correspondingly, the AMF receives the first request information from the access network device. In order to determine whether the UE has an association relationship with the relay device, the access network device can request the AMF to verify this, so the access network device can send the first request information to the AMF, and the first request information can be used to determine the UE Whether to associate with a relay device.

Optionally, after receiving the third AS connection request, the access network device may determine whether to send the first request information to the AMF after a corresponding judgment process. For example, a judgment process is that the access network device determines whether the UE accesses the access network device through a relay device. If the UE accesses the access network device through a relay device, the access network device may send the first request information to the AMF; and if the UE does not access the access network device through a relay device, it indicates that the UE It may not be necessary to access through a relay device, so the access network device may not send the first request information to the AMF. Alternatively, after receiving the third AS connection request, the access network device may also send the first request information to the AMF without any judgment process.

If the access network device wants to determine whether the UE accesses the access network device through a relay device, for example, a determination method is that the access network device sends at least two downlink reference signals to the UE. Wherein, when sending one of the downlink reference signals, the access network device can control some or all relay devices registered at the access network device to be in the on state, and when sending the other downlink reference signal, the access network device The network equipment can control some or all of the relay devices registered at the access network equipment to be closed. After receiving at least two downlink reference signals, the UE may send the signal reception quality corresponding to the at least two downlink reference signals to the access network device, such as reference signal receiving power (reference signal receiving power, RSRP) or reference signal receiving quality (reference signal receiving quality, RSRQ) or SINR, etc. If the UE does not access through the relay device, the difference between the signal reception qualities corresponding to at least two downlink reference signals should be smaller than the first threshold; but if the UE accesses through the relay device, the UE is receiving One of the downlink reference signals did not pass through the relay device (the relay device is turned off), but it passed through the relay device when receiving the other downlink reference signal, which may lead to a large gap in the signal reception quality measured by the UE For example, the difference between the signal reception qualities corresponding to the at least two downlink reference signals may be greater than or equal to the first threshold. Therefore, the access network device can make a judgment according to the first threshold, and if the difference between the signal reception qualities corresponding to at least two downlink reference signals is greater than or equal to the first threshold, the access network device can determine that the UE has passed the If the difference between the signal reception qualities corresponding to at least two downlink reference signals is smaller than the first threshold, the access network device may determine that the UE is not accessed through the relay device. Of course, this is only one way for the access network device to determine whether the UE is accessed through the relay device, and the access network device may also use other methods to determine whether the UE is accessed through the relay device.

There may also be multiple ways for the access network device to send the first request information to the AMF. For example, in one manner, the first request information is included in a first non-access stratum (non-access stratum, NAS) connection request. The first NAS connection request comes from the UE, and the first NAS connection request is used for the UE to request to establish a connection with the AMF. For example, the first NAS connection request can also be called a first NAS establishment (establishment) request, etc. The first NAS connection request is for example Registration request sent by UE to AMF. If the first request information is included in the first NAS connection request, then optionally, S302 and S303 may be performed synchronously. In S303, the UE sends the first NAS connection request to the AMF. Since the UE and the AMF cannot communicate directly, the access network device first receives the first NAS connection request from the UE, and then the access network device sends the first NAS connection request to the AMF. In this embodiment of the application, after receiving the first NAS connection request, the access network device may add the first request information to the first NAS request, and then send the first NAS connection request with the first request information to the AMF , the AMF may receive the first NAS connection request including the first request information.

Alternatively, the first request information may not be included in the first NAS connection request, but included in other messages, that is, the access network device sends the first request information to the AMF through separate signaling.

The AMF can be connected to one or more access network devices. For the connected access network device, the AMF can store the identifier of the relay device connected to the access network device, wherein the relay device connected to the access network device , for example, is a relay device registered with the access network device, or a relay device that completes an AS connection with the access network device, and this description will be used as an example in the following. The AMF may store the identifier of the relay device connected to the access network device, and it may also be understood that the AMF may store the correspondence between the access network device and the relay device. Alternatively, the AMF may not store the identifiers of the relay devices registered in these access network devices, that is, the AMF may not store the correspondence between the access network devices and the relay devices. In this embodiment of the present application, the first request information may include the identifier of the UE. In addition, if the AMF maintains the identifier of the relay device registered in the access network device, optionally, the first request information may not include the identifier of the relay device registered in the access network device, that is, the first The request information may include the identifier of the UE, but not the identifier of the relay device registered in the access network device. After the AMF receives the first request information, it can determine that the first request information comes from the access network device (for example, the first request information may include the identifier of the access network device), then the AMF registers in the access network device according to According to the identifier of the relay device and the identifier of the UE, it can be determined whether the UE has an association relationship with the relay device registered in the access network device.

Or, if the AMF does not store the identifier of the relay device registered in the access network device, optionally, the first request information may include the identifier of the relay device registered in the access network device, that is, the first request The information may include the identifier of the UE, and the identifier of the relay device registered in the access network device. For example, M relay devices are registered at the access network device, then the first request information may include the identifier of the UE, and the identifiers of some or all of the M relay devices, where M is positive integer. After receiving the first request information, the AMF can determine whether the UE has an association relationship with the relay device indicated by the first request information according to the information of the relay device included in the first request information and according to the identifier of the UE.

Optionally, the first request information may also include the identifier of the access network device.

S304. The AMF sends the first information to the access network device. Correspondingly, the access network device receives the first information from the AMF.

Optionally, the AMF may store association relationship information between the relay device and the UE. For example, AMF serves one or more access network devices, and for each access network device in some or all of the access network devices served by AMF, AMF can store the relay registered in each access network device Association relationship information between the device and the UE. Optionally, the AMF may query the stored relay device identifier (or the identifier of the relay device included in the first request information) registered in the access network device described in the embodiment of this application and the identifier of the UE. Association relationship information, so as to determine whether the UE has an association relationship with the relay device.

Alternatively, the association relationship information may not be stored in the AMF, but in other network elements, for example, the association relationship information is stored in the UDM. Then, when the AMF needs to verify whether there is an association relationship between the UE and the relay device, it may request the UDM to obtain the association relationship information. For example, the AMF sends the third request information to the UDM, the third request information can be used to request to obtain the association relationship information, the UDM sends the association relationship information to the AMF, and then the AMF makes a judgment according to the association relationship information; or, the AMF needs to verify When there is an association relationship between the UE and the relay device, the third request information can be sent to the UDM, and the third request information can be used to request to determine whether the UE is associated with the relay device. In this case, the verification process can be completed by the UDM , the UDM may send third information to the AMF, the third information may indicate at least one relay device associated with the UE (for example, the third information may include an identifier of at least one relay device), or the third information may also indicate the The UE is not associated with any relay device registered in the access network device, so the AMF can know whether the UE has an association relationship with the relay device registered in the access network device.

It can be seen from the above that the association relationship information may be stored in a core network device (such as AMF or UDM). Optionally, the association relationship information may be pre-stored in the core network device by the operator. For example, if a user purchases or installs a certain relay device at the operator, the operator can determine that the UE used by the user has an association relationship with the relay device, and the operator can establish a link between the UE and the relay device. The association relationship is stored in the core network equipment. Optionally, the stored association relationship may be the association relationship between the identifier of the UE and the identifier of the relay device. Or, if the user has not purchased or installed the relay device from the operator, for example, after the user purchases or installs the relay device, a subscriber identity module (subscriber identity module, SIM) card can be built into the relay device, and the SIM The card number of the card can be used as the identification of the relay device, and the user has registered one or more associations between UE and the SIM card in the operator's core network or data center, then the operator can know the UE used by the user and the SIM card The relay devices have an association relationship, and the association relationship between the UE and the relay devices can be stored in the core network equipment.

After the AMF determines whether the UE has an association relationship with the relay device registered with the access network device, it may send the first information to the access network device. If the UE has an association relationship with a relay device, the first information may indicate that the UE has an association relationship with at least one relay device, and the at least one relay device is part or all of the M relay devices. The first information indicates that the UE has an association relationship with at least one relay device, and there may be multiple indication manners. For example, an indication manner is that the first information indicates at least one relay device associated with the UE, for example, the first information may include an identifier of at least one relay device associated with the UE, thus indicating that the UE is associated with At least one relay device has an association relationship.

Alternatively, the first information indicates that the UE has an association relationship with at least one relay device. For example, another indication manner is that the first information may indicate whether the UE has an association relationship with one or more relay devices. As mentioned above, if the AMF does not maintain the identity of the relay device registered in the access network device, the first request information may include the identity of the UE, and include some or all of the M relay devices logo. Optionally, the first information may not need to include the identifier of the relay device, and only needs to use the included first field to indicate whether the UE has an association relationship with this part or all of the relay devices. For example, if the value of the first field is the first value, it indicates that the UE has an association relationship with the part or all of the relay devices, and if the value of the first field is the second value, it indicates that the UE has an association relationship with the relay device Some or all relay devices do not have an association relationship. For example, the first request information only includes the identifier of one relay device among the M relay devices, and the first field may occupy 1 bit. If the value of this bit (bit) is "1", it indicates that the UE and the relay device The relay device has an association relationship, and if the value of this bit is "0", it indicates that the UE does not have an association relationship with the relay device.

Alternatively, the first field may carry a bitmap (bitmap), and the bits included in the bitmap are in one-to-one correspondence with the part or all of the relay devices, that is, one bit of the bitmap may indicate the part or all of the relay devices One of the relay devices, so that the first field may respectively indicate the part or all of the relay devices. For example, if a certain bit in the bitmap has a value of 1, it indicates that the relay device corresponding to the bit has an association relationship with the UE, and if the value of the bit is 0, it indicates that the relay device corresponding to the bit It has no association relationship with this UE.

Optionally, the first information may include the identifier of the UE.

If the first information indicates that the UE has an association relationship with at least one relay device, optionally, the first information may further include time information, and the time information may indicate the time of the association relationship between the UE and the at least one relay device expiration date. Optionally, the time information includes, for example, a start time and a duration, or includes a duration, or includes an end time, or includes a start time and an end time, (if only the end time is included, the access network device receives the The time of the time information can be regarded as the start time), etc. Alternatively, the time information may not be included in the first information, for example, the AMF sends the time information to the access network device through other messages.

Considering that the association relationship between the UE and the relay device may not be consistent, for example, the relay service subscribed by the user expires, or the user newly subscribes to the relay service, which will lead to the association between the UE and the relay device Relationships change. Then the first information may use time information to indicate the validity period of the association relationship between the UE and the at least one relay device, which makes it clear that the access network device can use the UE and the at least one relay device within the validity period indicated by the time information. The association relationship between the UE and the at least one relay device should not continue to be applied after the validity period indicated by the time information expires. At this time, the access network device can send the The AMF initiates the verification process, etc.

Alternatively, if the UE does not have an association relationship with any of the M relay devices, or none of the relay devices corresponding to the identifier of the relay device included in the first request information has an association relationship, the first information may indicate that the UE Not associated with any relay. For example, the first information may include a non-association indication, which explicitly indicates that the UE is not associated with any relay device; or, the first information may not include the corresponding indication, but also does not include the relay device's ID, the access network device can also determine that the UE is not associated with any relay device registered with the access network device according to the first information that does not include the identifier of the relay device.

S305. The access network device provides the access network service for the UE by scheduling the first relay device.

If the first information indicates that the UE has an association relationship with at least one relay device, optionally, S305 may be further performed, where the first relay device is, for example, one of the at least one relay device. However, if the first information indicates that the UE is not associated with any relay device, then S305 will not be performed. That is, in this case, the access network device will not schedule the relay device to provide services for the UE. If the access network device wants to Send a downlink signal to the UE or receive an uplink signal from the UE, and normal transmission is sufficient.

The access network device provides a service for the UE by scheduling the first relay device. For example, in a scheduling manner, the access network device sends control information to the first relay device, and the first relay device is scheduled through the control information. Optionally, the control information may indicate a beam direction of the first relay device, where the beam direction is, for example, a direction aimed at the UE. The first relay device may amplify the downlink signal from the access network device and forward it using the beam direction. Since the beam direction is aligned with the UE, the UE can receive the amplified downlink signal. Through this kind of scheduling, it is realized that the access network service is provided for the UE through the first relay device. When forwarding the downlink signal from the access network device to the UE, the first relay device may amplify the downlink signal and then forward it, so as to improve signal reception quality of the UE. Optionally, when the first relay device forwards the uplink signal from the UE to the access network device, the uplink signal may also be amplified and then forwarded. The transmit power of the UE is generally relatively small. Amplification can increase the power of the uplink signal, improve the anti-interference performance of the uplink signal, and can also improve the signal reception quality of the access network equipment.

Alternatively, the control information may also indicate a transmission resource, for example, the transmission resource includes a time domain resource and/or a frequency domain resource, and the transmission resource is a transmission resource scheduled by the access network device for the UE. That is to say, the access network device may instruct the first relay device to amplify and forward the signal on the transmission resource (maybe forward the signal from the access network device, or forward the signal from the UE), because the transmission The resources are scheduled for use by the UE, so the first relay device can be made to serve the UE.

In the above steps, S301-S303 are all optional steps.

In the embodiment of the present application, there may be an association relationship between the relay device and the UE, and one relay device can serve the UE having the association relationship with the relay device. For example, if a user purchases or deploys a relay device, the relay device is associated with the UE used by the user, so that the relay device can serve the UE used by the user. In addition, the access network device can know the association relationship between the relay device and the UE, so that the access network device can schedule the relay device to serve the UE associated with the relay device. In this way, the relay device can serve specific users, which improves the rationality of the application of the relay device and also meets the needs of users.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the verification process is initiated by the access network device (for example, the access network device sends the first request information to the AMF). In addition to this, other devices may also initiate the verification process. The second communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application is introduced below. In this method, the UE initiates the verification process. Please refer to FIG. 4 , which is a flowchart of the method.

S401. The UE sends an AS connection request to an access network device. Correspondingly, the access network device receives the AS connection request from the UE. For example, this AS request is also referred to as a third AS connection request. For more details about S401, refer to S301 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 .

S402. The access network device sends the second request information to the UE. Correspondingly, the UE receives the second request information from the access network device.

The second request information may be used to request the UE to initiate verification to the AMF, or in other words, the second request information may be used to request the UE to send verification information to the AMF. The verification process is to verify whether the UE is associated with the relay device. That is to say, in order to determine whether the UE has an association relationship with the relay device, the access network device may request the UE to initiate verification. Optionally, the second request information may also include identifiers of some or all of the M relay devices, so that the UE may request to verify whether the UE is associated with these part or all of the relay devices.

Optionally, after receiving the third AS connection request, the access network device may go through a corresponding judgment process before determining whether to request the UE to initiate authentication, that is, determine whether to send the second request information to the UE, thereby avoiding The relevant UE performs verification; or, after receiving the third AS connection request, the second request information may be sent to the UE without any judgment process, thereby improving the verification efficiency. In addition, if the access network device wants to determine whether the UE accesses the access network device through a relay device, it can be verified by sending a downlink reference signal, etc. For these contents, refer to the embodiment shown in Figure 3 S302 in.

S402 is an example where the access network device requests the UE to initiate verification, or it is also possible that the UE can determine whether the UE accesses the access network device through a relay device without a request from the access network device. If the UE accesses through the relay device, the UE initiates the verification process to the AMF, or it is also possible that the UE directly initiates the verification process to the AMF without any judgment. In these two cases, there is no need to execute S402, for example, directly execute S403, which can save signaling overhead.

The UE needs to determine whether the UE accesses through the relay device, for example, a determination method is that the UE determines through the period of the SSB. For example, the period of the SSB from the access network device is the first period, and the UE can determine the first period by receiving the configuration information sent by the access network device. If the SSB is not forwarded by the relay device and the UE receives it directly, it will detect The signal strength of the SSB is repeated according to the first cycle. However, if the SSB is forwarded by the relay device, the relay device may further divide the cycle for forwarding when forwarding, for example, the relay device will forward according to the second cycle, and the length of the second cycle may be greater than the length of the first cycle. If the SSB from the relay device is received, it will be detected that the signal strength of the SSB repeats according to the second cycle, and then the UE can determine whether the SSB has been forwarded by the relay device according to the cycle of the SSB. If the UE determines that the period of the SSB is the second period, or different from the first period, then the UE can determine that the UE is accessed through the relay device.

S403. The UE sends fifth request information to the AMF. Correspondingly, the AMF receives fifth request information from the UE. The fifth request information is used to request to determine whether the UE is associated with the relay device. Wherein, the UE may first send the fifth request information to the access network device, and the access network device sends the received fifth request information to the AMF.

If the UE initiates the verification process by itself, there is no need to perform S402. For example, after the UE determines that the UE is accessed through the relay device, it can send the fifth request information to the AMF; if the access network device triggers the UE to initiate the verification process by itself , the UE may send fifth request information to the AMF after receiving the second request information.

The fifth request information may include the identifier of the UE. In addition, if the AMF maintains the identifier of the relay device registered in the access network device, optionally, the fifth request information may not include the identifier of the relay device registered in the access network device, that is, the fifth The request information may include the identifier of the UE, but not the identifier of the relay device registered in the access network device. Or, if the AMF does not store the identifier of the relay device registered in the access network device, optionally, the fifth request information may include the identifier of the relay device registered in the access network device, that is, the fifth request The information may include the identifier of the UE, and the identifier of the relay device registered in the access network device. For example, M relay devices are registered at the access network device, then the fifth request information may include the identifier of the UE and the identifiers of some or all of the M relay devices.

Optionally, the fifth request information may also include the identifier of the access network device. For example, the identifier of the access network device is included in the fifth request information initially sent by the UE to the access network device; or, when the access network device forwards the fifth request information received from the UE to the AMF, it may The fifth request message is forwarded after adding the identifier of the access network device.

Wherein, if the fifth request information includes identifiers of relay devices, the identifiers of these relay devices may come from the second request information.

There may be multiple ways for the UE to send the fifth request information to the AMF. For example, in one manner, the fifth request information is included in the first NAS connection request. The first NAS connection request comes from the UE. The first NAS connection request is used for the UE to request to establish a connection with the AMF. For example, the first NAS connection request can also be called the first NAS establishment request. The first NAS connection request is sent by the UE, for example. Registration request to AMF.

Alternatively, the fifth request information may not be included in the first NAS connection request, but may be included in other messages, such as other NAS messages sent by the UE to the AMF (such as messages during the UE registration process, or possibly It is a message after UE registration is completed, etc.). Even if the fifth request information is not included in the first NAS connection request, the UE may still request registration from the AMF, that is, the UE may still send the first NAS connection request to the AMF. Therefore, optionally, S404 is also included before S403, the UE sends a first NAS connection request to the AMF.

S405. The AMF sends the first information to the access network device. Correspondingly, the access network device receives the first information from the AMF.

For more details about S405, refer to S304 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 .

S406. The access network device provides the access network service for the UE by scheduling the first relay device.

For more details about S406, refer to S305 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 .

Since it is the UE that initiates the verification to the AMF, optionally, the AMF may also send a response to the UE, for example, the response may indicate that the verification process has been completed.

In the above steps, S401-S404 are optional steps.

In the embodiment of the present application, there may be an association relationship between the relay device and the UE, and one relay device can serve the UE having the association relationship with the relay device. For example, if a user purchases or deploys a relay device, the relay device is associated with the UE used by the user, so that the relay device can serve the UE used by the user. And the access network device can learn the association relationship between the relay device and the UE, so that the access network device can schedule the relay device to serve the UE associated with the relay device. In this way, the relay device can serve specific users, which improves the rationality of the application of the relay device and also meets the needs of users.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 or the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, it is verified whether a certain UE can be served by the corresponding relay device according to the association relationship information between the identifier of the relay device and the identifier of the UE, except In addition, it may also be verified based on other information. The third communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application is introduced below. In this method, whether a certain UE can be served by the corresponding relay device can be verified according to the association between the relay device identifier and the password. Please refer to FIG. 5 , which is a flowchart of the method.

S501. The UE sends an AS connection request to an access network device. Correspondingly, the access network device receives the AS connection request from the UE. For example, this AS request is also referred to as a third AS connection request. For more information about S501, refer to S301 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 .

S502. The access network device sends first request information to the AMF. Correspondingly, the AMF receives the first request information from the access network device. The first request information may be used to request the AMF to verify the UE, or in other words, the first request information may be used to request the AMF to send verification information to the UE. This verification procedure can be used to verify whether the UE is associated with a relay.

Optionally, after receiving the third AS connection request, the access network device may go through a corresponding judgment process and then determine whether to request the AMF to initiate verification, that is, determine whether to send the first request information to the AMF, thereby avoiding The relevant UE performs verification; or, after receiving the third AS connection request, it may also send the first request information to the AMF without any judgment process, thereby improving the verification efficiency. In addition, if the access network device wants to determine whether the UE accesses the access network device through a relay device, it can be verified by sending a downlink reference signal, etc. For these contents, refer to the embodiment shown in Figure 3 S302 in.

The first request information may include the identifier of the UE; or, the first request information may include the identifier of the UE and identifiers of some or all of the M relay apparatuses. For the content included in the first request information, reference may be made to the introduction of the content included in the first request information in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 .

There may also be multiple ways for the access network device to send the first request information to the AMF. For example, in one manner, the first request information is included in the first NAS connection request. The first NAS connection request comes from the UE. The first NAS connection request is used for the UE to request to establish a connection with the AMF. For example, the first NAS connection request can also be called the first NAS establishment request. The first NAS connection request is sent by the UE, for example. Registration request to AMF. If the first request information is included in the first NAS connection request, then optionally, S502 and S503 may be performed synchronously. In S503, the UE sends the first NAS connection request to the AMF. Since the UE and the AMF cannot communicate directly, the access network device first receives the first NAS connection request from the UE, and then the access network device sends the first NAS connection request to the AMF. In this embodiment of the application, after receiving the first NAS connection request, the access network device may add the first request information to the first NAS request, and then send the first NAS connection request with the first request information to the AMF , the AMF may receive the first NAS connection request including the first request information.

S504. The AMF sends fourth request information to the UE. Correspondingly, the UE receives fourth request information from the AMF. The fourth request information may be used to request to obtain passwords corresponding to some or all of the M relay devices.

For example, for a relay device, after the user installs a relay device, the relay device can be associated with an identification and a password. The identification is, for example, the name given to the relay device by the user. The router is named, and the password is the password used to connect to the relay device, which is similar to the password set by the user for the router at home. After the user completes the settings, the operator can store the identifier. The operator may also store the association relationship information between the identifier of the relay device and the password of the relay device in the core network equipment, for example, in the AMF or UDM.

It should be noted that in this embodiment of the application, a relay device may have multiple types of identifiers. For example, the device name assigned by the user to the relay device can be regarded as the first type of identification. For example, the user may name the relay device with his own name or favorite characters. In the embodiments shown in FIGS. 3 to 5 , the relay device may have a relatively stable identifier, which can be uniquely identified in the network. This type of identifier is, for example, a second type of identifier. The identifier is, for example, the MAC address of the relay device, or the card number of the SIM card installed in the relay device. In addition, in any of the embodiments shown in FIG. 3 to FIG. 5 , the information sent by the access network device (for example, the first request information in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 , the The second request information in the embodiment, or the first request information in the embodiment shown in FIG. 5 , etc.) may also include the identification of the relay device, and the identification of these relay devices is, for example, a third type of identification, such as An identifier assigned by a core network device (for example, AMF) or an access network device to the relay device. In addition, the relay device may have other types of identifiers, which are not specifically limited. For example, core network equipment (such as AMF or UDM, etc.) can store various types of identifiers of relay devices, or in other words, core network equipment can store correspondences between various types of identifiers of relay devices. As far as the device is concerned, as long as one type of identifier of a certain relay device is obtained, other types of identifiers of the relay device can be determined. In the relationship between the relay device and the user stored in the core network equipment, any of the above types of identifiers may be used, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

Wherein, the identifier of the relay device included in the association relationship information between the identifier of the relay device and the password is, for example, a second type of identifier and/or a third type of identifier.

The AMF can determine the relationship between the relay device and the access network device, that is, the AMF can determine the access network device registered by the relay device. Optionally, the fourth request information may include identifiers of some or all of the M relay devices, so as to request to obtain passwords corresponding to these relay devices. Optionally, the identifier of the relay device included in the fourth request information is, for example, an identifier of the first type of the relay device. For example, the AMF may first determine the identifier of the relay device that needs to be included in the fourth request information, and the identifier at this time is the second type of identifier or the third type of identifier; For the correspondence between types of identifiers, these second-type identifiers or third-type identifiers are converted into first-type identifiers, and then these first-type identifiers are included in the fourth request information.

It should be noted that the identifier of the relay device included in the association relationship information between the identifier of the relay device and the password may be the second type of identifier of the relay device and/or the third type of identifier of the relay device . The identifier of the relay device included in the fourth request information is, for example, the identifier of the first type of the relay device. For example, the first request information sent by the access network device to the AMF contains the second type or third type identifiers of multiple relay devices, and after the AMF converts these identifiers into the first type identifiers, the converted The identifier of the first type is sent to the UE in the fourth request information.

S505. The UE sends fifth request information to the AMF. Correspondingly, the AMF receives fifth request information from the UE.

After receiving the fourth request information, the UE may determine the password corresponding to the identifier included in the fourth request information according to the association relationship information between the identifier of the relay device and the password stored in the UE; or, after receiving the fourth request information, the UE may , the identifier included in the fourth request information may be output on the screen, and then the user inputs a corresponding password, and the password entered by the user may be used as the password corresponding to the identifier included in the fourth request information. If the fourth request information includes identifiers of multiple relay devices, the UE may respectively determine the passwords corresponding to the multiple relay devices, or the UE may also select a relay device and determine the password corresponding to the relay device . The selection process is performed, for example, by a user. The user selects a relay device from multiple relay devices by operating the UE, and the UE can determine a password corresponding to the relay device. The relay device selected by the UE is, for example, the first relay device, and the following description will be made by taking the UE selecting the first relay device as an example.

For example, the fifth request information includes the first password, or the fifth request information includes the first password and the identifier of the first relay device, and the first password is a password corresponding to the first relay device. At this time, the identifier of the first relay device included in the fifth request information is, for example, an identifier of the first type. If the UE has respectively determined the passwords corresponding to the multiple relay devices, the fifth request information may include the passwords corresponding to the multiple relay devices, or include the passwords and identifiers corresponding to the multiple relay devices.

S506. The AMF sends the first information to the access network device. Correspondingly, the access network device receives the first information from the AMF.

Take the fifth request information including the first password (or, including the first password and the identifier of the first relay device) as an example. After receiving the fifth request information, the AMF may verify whether the first relay device has an association relationship with the UE. For example, a verification method is that the AMF stores the association relationship information between the identifier and the password of the relay device. In the association relationship information stored by the AMF, the password corresponding to the first relay device is the second password, and the AMF verifies Whether the first password is consistent with the second password. If the first password is consistent with the second password, the AMF determines that the first relay device is associated with the UE, and if the first password is inconsistent with the second password, the AMF determines that the first relay device is not associated with the UE relation. The first password is consistent with the second password. It can be understood that the characters (or character strings) corresponding to the first password are the same as the characters (or character strings) of the second password, or it can be understood that the hash value corresponding to the first password is the same as the first password. The hash values corresponding to the two passwords are the same.

Wherein, the identifier of the first relay device included in the fifth request information is, for example, an identifier of the first type. After receiving the fifth request information, the AMF may first convert the identifier of the first relay device included in the fifth request information into a second type of identifier or a third type, and then the AMF verifies whether the first relay device has an association relationship with the UE according to the stored association relationship information between the relay device identifier and the password.

Alternatively, another verification method is that the AMF does not store the association relationship information between the identifier of the relay device and the password, for example, the association relationship information is stored in the UDM, then the AMF may send the third request information to the UDM for Request information about this affiliation. After receiving the third request information, the UDM may send the association relationship information to the AMF. After receiving the association relationship information from the UDM, the AMF may determine whether the first relay device has an association relationship with the UE according to the above manner according to the association relationship information.

Alternatively, another verification method is that the AMF does not store the association relationship information between the identifier of the relay device and the password. Whether the UE has an association relationship. For example, the AMF sends third request information to the UDM, and the third request information may be used to request to verify whether the first relay device has an association relationship with the UE. The third request information includes, for example, the first password, or includes the first password and the identifier of the first relay device. After receiving the third request information, the UDM can verify the first Whether the relay device has an association relationship with the UE. For example, in the association relationship information, if the password corresponding to the first relay device is the second password, the UDM verifies whether the first password is consistent with the second password. If the first password is consistent with the second password, the UDM determines that the first relay device is associated with the UE, and if the first password is inconsistent with the second password, the UDM determines that the first relay device is not associated with the UE relation. The UDM may send third information to the AMF, where the third information may indicate that the first relay device has an association relationship with the UE, or indicate that the first relay device has no association relationship with the UE.

In a word, after the AMF determines whether the first relay device has an association relationship with the UE, it can send the first information to the access network device. If the AMF determines that the first relay device has an association relationship with the UE, the first information indicates that the first relay device has an association relationship with the UE; or, if the AMF determines that the first relay device does not have an association relationship with the UE, Then the first information indicates that the first relay device does not have an association relationship with the UE. If the first information indicates that the first relay device has an association relationship with the UE, optionally, the first information may include the identifier of the UE and the identifier of the first relay device. The identifier is, for example, an identifier of the second type or an identifier of the third type. In addition, if the first information indicates that the first relay device has an association relationship with the UE, optionally, the first information may further include time information to indicate the validity period of the association relationship between the first relay device and the UE For this, reference may be made to the introduction of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 .

Since the fourth request information is sent to the UE, optionally, the AMF may also send the verification result to the UE. For example, the AMF may indicate to the UE that the authentication succeeds or fails.

S507. The access network device provides the access network service for the UE by scheduling the first relay device.

For more details about S507, refer to S305 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 .

In the above steps, S501-S505 are optional steps.

In the embodiment of the present application, there may be an association relationship between the relay device and the UE, and one relay device can serve the UE having the association relationship with the relay device. For example, if a user purchases or deploys a relay device, the relay device is associated with the UE used by the user, so that the relay device can serve the UE used by the user. In addition, the access network device can know the association relationship between the relay device and the UE, so that the access network device can schedule the relay device to serve the UE associated with the relay device. In this way, the relay device can serve specific users, which improves the rationality of the application of the relay device and also meets the needs of users. Moreover, in each of the above embodiments of the present application, different devices can initiate the verification process, and the implementation manner is more flexible.

In the embodiment shown in Fig. 5, the verification is performed by the AMF, or it is also possible that the verification is performed by the access network device. For example, S502 may be replaced by the access network device sending the fourth request information to the UE, that is, the fourth request information is sent by the access network device to the UE instead of being sent by the AMF. Optionally, the fourth request information may include identifications of some or all of the M relay devices, so as to request to obtain passwords corresponding to these identifications. For more information about the fourth request information, refer to the foregoing. For example, the operator may store the association relationship information between the identifier of the relay device and the password of the relay device in the core network equipment, for example, in the AMF, and the AMF may associate the stored identifier of the relay device with the password of the relay device. The association relationship information between the passwords of the relay devices is sent to the access network equipment, so that the access network equipment also obtains the association relationship information. The access network device may add the identifiers of the corresponding relay devices in the fourth request information, so as to verify whether these relay devices have an association relationship with the UE.

Alternatively, the AMF may not send the association relationship information to the access network device. If the access network device needs to initiate verification to the UE, the access network device may request the AMF to obtain the association relationship information. After receiving the request from the network device, the association relationship information is sent to the access network device. Then the access network device may add the identifiers of the corresponding relay devices to the fourth request information, so as to verify whether these relay devices have an association relationship with the UE.

Alternatively, the AMF may not send the association relationship information to the access network device, the M relay devices are relay devices registered with the access network device, and the access network device can know the identifiers of the M relay devices, Then the access network device may add identifiers of some or all of the M relay devices to the fourth request information.

In addition, S504-S506 may not be executed. S503 may be replaced by, the UE sends fifth request information to the access network device, and for content of the fifth request information, reference may be made to the foregoing. After receiving the fifth request information, the access network device can verify whether the first relay device has an association relationship with the UE. According to the above, the access network device can verify by itself, or request the AMF for verification. If the access network device authenticates itself, the authentication method may refer to the AMF authentication process in S506. Alternatively, if the access network device requests AMF authentication, the access network device may pass the first password (or, the first The password and the identifier of the first relay device) are sent to the AMF, and the AMF performs verification. For the verification process of the AMF, refer to the introduction of S506. The AMF can send the verification result to the access network equipment, so that the access network equipment can determine whether these relay devices are associated with the UE.

In this way, the access network device can verify whether the first relay device has an association relationship with the UE, which reduces the participation of the core network device to a certain extent, and can improve verification efficiency.

In addition, in the foregoing embodiments, the registration of the relay device is mentioned, that is, the relay device will register with the access network device. The following describes the registration process of the relay device through two embodiments. Please refer to FIG. 6 , which is a flowchart of a fourth communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application, which is used to introduce a registration process of a relay device. In the following introduction process, the registration process of the first relay device is taken as an example, and the registration processes of different relay devices are similar.

S601. The first relay device sends device type indication information to the access network device. Correspondingly, the access network device receives device type indication information from the first relay device. The device type indication information may indicate the type of the first relay device, for example, the type of the first relay device is a relay device. Through the device type indication information, the access network device can make it clear that the type of the first relay device is not a common UE, but a relay device.

For example, the first relay apparatus may send the first AS connection request to the access network device, and the device type indication information may be included in the first AS connection request. Alternatively, the first relay device may also send device type indication information to the access network device in other ways, for example, the first relay device needs to send a NAS connection request to the AMF, and the NAS connection request may include the first relay device's For the device type indication information, since the NAS connection request needs to be forwarded by the access network device, the access network device can also recognize that the device is a relay device, not an ordinary UE. Taking the device type indication information included in the first AS connection request as an example, the first AS connection request may be used by the first relay device to request access to the access network device.

After receiving the first AS connection request, the access network device may assign an identifier to the first relay device, for example, the assigned first identifier is a third type of identifier.

The access network device may complete the registration of the first relay device with the access network device, or in other words, the access network device may be connected to the first relay device. Of course, the process may include one or more steps, which is not specifically limited.

S602. The first relay apparatus sends device type indication information to the AMF. For example, the access network device first receives the device type indication information, and then, the access network device sends the device type indication information to the AMF, and the AMF receives the device type indication information from the access network device. Through the device type indication information, the AMF can make it clear that the type of the first relay device is not a common UE, but a relay device.

For example, the first relay device may send the second NAS connection request to the AMF, and the device type indication information may be included in the second NAS connection request, or the access network device may add the first NAS connection request when forwarding the second NAS connection request. The device indication information of the relay device may not be sent by the first relay device. Alternatively, the first relay apparatus may also send the device type indication information to the AMF in other ways. Taking the device type indication information included in the second NAS connection request as an example, the second NAS connection request can be used by the first relay device to request access to AMF, for example, the second NAS connection request can be sent by the first relay device Registration Request, which can be used to register to this AMF.

After receiving the first AS connection request, the AMF may assign an identifier to the first relay device, for example, assign a second identifier, and the second identifier is an identifier of a third type. Although the identifiers assigned to the first relay device by the access network device and the AMF are both identifiers of the third type, the two identifiers may be different. In order to distinguish, the identifier assigned by the access network device is called the first subtype identifier, and the identifier assigned by the AMF is called the second subtype identifier.

The AMF may complete the registration of the first relay device with the AMF, or in other words, the AMF is connected with the first relay device. Of course, the process may include one or more steps, which is not specifically limited.

S603. The AMF sends the second identifier to the access network device. Correspondingly, the access network device receives the second identifier from the AMF.

The AMF can send the second identifier to the access network device, so that the access network device can not only know the identifier of the first subtype assigned by the access network device to the first relay device, but also know that the AMF is the first relay device The identifier of the assigned second subtype.

S604. The access network device sends the first identifier to the AMF. Correspondingly, the AMF receives the first identifier from the access network device.

The access network device may also send the first identifier to the AMF, so that the AMF can not only know the identifier of the second subtype assigned by the AMF to the first relay device, but also know the identifier of the second subtype assigned by the access network device to the first relay device. The ID of the first subtype.

S603 and S604 are optional steps, and these two steps may occur at the same time, or S603 may occur before S604, or S604 may occur before S603.

Through the above process, the first relay device has registered with the access network device and AMF, so that the access network device or AMF can determine the first The association relationship between the relay device and the UE.

In addition, please refer to FIG. 7 , which is a flowchart of a fifth communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application, which is used to introduce another registration process of the relay device. In the following introduction process, the registration process of the first relay device is also taken as an example, and the registration processes of different relay devices are similar.

S701. The first relay apparatus sends a second AS connection request to the access network device. Correspondingly, the access network device receives the second AS connection request from the first relay device. The second AS connection request includes a third identifier of the first relay device. The third identifier is, for example, a second type of identifier, and the identifier is a static identifier allocated to the relay device. Optionally, the second AS connection request may further include device type indication information, and the device type indication information may indicate the type of the first relay device, for example, the type of the first relay device is a relay device.

For example, considering that the position of the relay device is relatively fixed, the position of the access network equipment is also relatively fixed, so after a relay device is installed, the corresponding relationship between the access network device and the device is relatively stable. Therefore, after a relay device is installed, the relay device can be manually registered with the core network (for example, with the AMF), without the need for the relay device to register with the AMF by itself. Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, the first relay device only needs to register with the access network device again.

After manually registering one or more relay devices with AMF, optionally, AMF may send second information to the access network device, the second information includes, for example, one or more relay devices covered by the access network device The identifier of the relay device (for example, the identifier of the second type), the relay device corresponding to the identifier of the relay device included in the second information is an authorized relay device, for example, the relay device registered to the AMF considers is an authorized relay device. Alternatively, the AMF may not send the second information to the access network device.

S702. The access network device is connected to the first relay device.

After receiving the second AS connection request, if the access network device has stored the second information, the access network device may determine whether the third identifier is included in the second information. If the third identifier is included in the second information, indicating that the first relay device has registered with the AMF, or that the first relay device is an authorized relay device, the access network device may complete the authentication of the first relay device. For registration, for example, the access network device is connected to the first relay device, that is, S702 is performed. And if the third identifier is not included in the second information, indicating that the first relay device is not registered with the AMF, or indicating that the first relay device is an unauthorized relay device, the access network device may reject the first relay device For the registration of the relay device, for example, the access network device refuses to connect with the first relay device, that is, S702 is not executed.

Or, after receiving the second AS connection request, if the access network device does not store the second information, or the third identifier is not included in the second information, the access network device may request the AMF to assist in further confirmation. For example, the access network equipment may send the first verification request information to the AMF, the first verification request information includes the third identification, and the first verification request information may request to verify whether the first relay device is an authorized relay device under the coverage of the access network equipment. relay device. After receiving the first verification request information, the AMF can determine whether the third identifier is included in the second information, and can send the first response information to the access network device. Alternatively, if the AMF does not store the second information, for example, the second information is stored in the UDM, the AMF may send the second verification request information to the UDM, the second verification request information may include the third identifier, and the second verification request information may request Verifying whether the first relay device is an authorized relay device covered by the access network device. After receiving the second verification request information, the UDM may determine whether the third identifier is included in the second information, and may send second response information to the AMF. After receiving the second response information, the AMF sends the first response information to the access network device. If the third identifier is included in the second information, both the first response information and the second response information may indicate that the first relay device is an authorized relay device under the coverage of the access network device, and the access network device After receiving the response information, the registration of the first relay device can be completed, for example, the access network device is connected to the first relay device, that is, S702 is executed; if the third identifier is not included in the second information, the first response Both the information and the second response information may indicate that the first relay device is not an authorized relay device under the coverage of the access network equipment, and the access network device may reject the first relay device after receiving the first response information. For registration, for example, the access network device refuses to connect with the first relay device, that is, S702 is not executed.

Through the solution provided by the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 , the first relay device can also complete the registration on the core network and the access network. And compared to the registration method provided by the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 , the registration method provided by the embodiment of the present application does not require the first relay device to establish a NAS connection with the core network, and does not need the first relay device to communicate with the core network. This makes the registration process of the relay device simpler. Moreover, in the embodiment of the present application, one type of identification (for example, the second type of identification) of the relay device can be applied, and neither the access network equipment nor the core network equipment needs to re-allocate the identification for the relay device, which also simplifies registration process.

FIG. 8 shows a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 800 may be the first terminal device or the circuit system of the first terminal device described in any one of the embodiments shown in FIG. 3 to the embodiment shown in FIG. The example corresponds to the method of the first terminal device. Alternatively, the communication device 800 may be the access network device or the circuit system of the access network device described in any one of the embodiments shown in FIG. 3 to the embodiment shown in FIG. The foregoing method embodiments correspond to the methods of the access network device. For specific functions, refer to the descriptions in the foregoing method embodiments. Alternatively, the communication device 800 may be the first core network device or the circuit system of the first core network device described in any one of the embodiments shown in FIG. 3 to the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 , for Implement the method corresponding to the first core network device in the foregoing method embodiment. Alternatively, the communication device 800 may be the first relay device or the circuit system of the first relay device described in any one of the embodiments shown in FIG. 3 to the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 , for Implement the method corresponding to the first relay device in the above method embodiment. For specific functions, refer to the descriptions in the foregoing method embodiments. Wherein, for example, a circuit system is a chip system.

The communication device 800 includes at least one processor 801 . The processor 801 can be used for internal processing of the device to realize certain control processing functions. Optionally, processor 801 includes instructions. Optionally, processor 801 may store data. Alternatively, different processors may be separate devices, may be located in different physical locations, and may be located on different integrated circuits. Alternatively, different processors may be integrated within one or more processors, eg, on one or more integrated circuits.

Optionally, the communication device 800 includes one or more memories 803 for storing instructions. Optionally, data may also be stored in the memory 803 . The processor and memory can be set separately or integrated together.

Optionally, the communication device 800 includes a communication line 802 and at least one communication interface 804 . Wherein, because the memory 803, the communication line 802, and the communication interface 804 are all options, they are all indicated by dotted lines in FIG. 8 .

Optionally, the communication device 800 may further include a transceiver and/or an antenna. Among other things, a transceiver may be used to send information to or receive information from other devices. The transceiver may be called a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, an input-output interface, etc., and is used to realize the transceiver function of the communication device 800 through an antenna. Optionally, the transceiver includes a transmitter (transmitter) and a receiver (receiver). Exemplarily, the transmitter can be used to generate a radio frequency (radio frequency) signal from a baseband signal, and the receiver can be used to convert the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal.

The processor 801 may include a general-purpose central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), a microprocessor, a specific application integrated circuit (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of the program program of this application. circuit.

Communication line 802 may include a path for passing information between the above-described components.

Communication interface 804, using any device such as a transceiver, for communicating with other devices or communication networks, such as Ethernet, radio access network (radio access network, RAN), wireless local area networks (wireless local area networks, WLAN), Wired access network, etc.

The memory 803 can be a read-only memory (read-only memory, ROM) or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and instructions, random access memory (random access memory, RAM) or other types that can store information and instructions It can also be an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disc storage, optical disc storage (including compact discs, laser discs, optical discs, digital versatile discs, Blu-ray discs, etc.), magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and can be programmed by a computer Any other medium accessed, but not limited to. The memory 803 may exist independently, and is connected to the processor 801 through the communication line 802 . Alternatively, the memory 803 may also be integrated with the processor 801 .

Wherein, the memory 803 is used to store computer-executed instructions for implementing the solution of the present application, and the execution is controlled by the processor 801 . The processor 801 is configured to execute computer-executed instructions stored in the memory 803, so as to implement the communication method provided by the above-mentioned embodiments of the present application.

Optionally, the computer-executed instructions in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as application program codes, which is not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application.

In a specific implementation, as an embodiment, the processor 801 may include one or more CPUs, for example, CPU0 and CPU1 in FIG. 8 .

In a specific implementation, as an embodiment, the communications apparatus 800 may include multiple processors, for example, the processor 801 and the processor 808 in FIG. 8 . Each of these processors may be a single-core (single-CPU) processor or a multi-core (multi-CPU) processor. A processor herein may refer to one or more devices, circuits, and/or processing cores for processing data (eg, computer program instructions).

When the apparatus shown in FIG. 8 is a chip, such as a chip of an access network device, or a chip of a UPF, or a chip of an SMF, or a chip of a terminal device, the chip includes a processor 801 (may also include a processor 808 ), communication line 802, memory 803 and communication interface 804. Specifically, the communication interface 804 may be an input interface, a pin, or a circuit. The memory 803 may be a register, a cache, and the like. The processor 801 and the processor 808 may be a general-purpose CPU, a microprocessor, an ASIC, or one or more integrated circuits for controlling program execution of the communication method in any of the above-mentioned embodiments.

In a first implementation manner, the communication apparatus 800 may be used to implement the method corresponding to the access network device in the above-mentioned application embodiment, and for specific functions, refer to the description in the above-mentioned embodiment.

Exemplarily, the communication apparatus 800 includes a processor 801, and the processor 801 is configured to execute a computer program or an instruction, so that the method corresponding to the access network device in the above application embodiment is executed. For example, the method corresponding to the access network device in the above application embodiment includes: receiving first information from the first core network device, the first information is used to indicate that the first terminal device has an association relationship with at least one relay device ; providing an access network service for the first terminal device by controlling a first relay device, where the first relay device is one of the at least one relay device.

In the second implementation manner, the communication apparatus 800 may be used to implement the method corresponding to the first core network device in the above-mentioned application embodiment, and refer to the description in the above-mentioned embodiment for specific functions.

Exemplarily, the communications apparatus 800 includes a processor 801, and the processor 801 is configured to execute a computer program or an instruction, so that the method corresponding to the first core network device in the above application embodiment is executed. For example, the method corresponding to the first core network device in the above application embodiment includes: receiving first request information, the first request information is used to request to determine whether the first terminal device is associated with the relay device; The network device sends first information, where the first information is used to indicate that the first terminal device has an association relationship with at least one relay device.

In a third implementation manner, the communication apparatus 800 may be used to implement the method corresponding to the first terminal device in the above embodiment of the application, and for specific functions, refer to the description in the above embodiment.

Exemplarily, the communication apparatus 800 includes a processor 801, and the processor 801 is configured to execute a computer program or an instruction, so that the method corresponding to the first terminal device in the above application embodiment is executed. For example, the method corresponding to the first terminal device in the above application embodiment includes: sending fifth request information to the first core network device, where the fifth request information is used to request to determine whether the first terminal device is connected to the relay device is associated.

In a fourth implementation manner, the communication device 800 may be used to implement the method corresponding to the first relay device in the above embodiment of the application, and for specific functions, refer to the description in the above embodiment.

The embodiment of the present application may divide the device into functional modules according to the above method example, for example, each functional module may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The above-mentioned integrated modules can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software function modules. It should be noted that the division of modules in the embodiment of the present application is schematic, and is only a logical function division, and there may be other division methods in actual implementation. For example, in the case of dividing each functional module corresponding to each function, FIG. 9 shows a schematic diagram of an apparatus, and the apparatus 900 may be the access network equipment, the first core network equipment, the The first relay device or the first terminal device is either a chip in the access network device or a chip in the first terminal device or a chip in the first relay device or a chip in the first core network device. The apparatus 900 includes a sending unit 901 , a processing unit 902 and a receiving unit 903 .

It should be understood that the apparatus 900 can be used to implement the steps performed by the access network device, the first core network device, the first relay device or the first terminal device in the method of the embodiment of the present application, and related features can be referred to above Various embodiments will not be described in detail here.

Optionally, the functions/implementation process of the sending unit 901, the receiving unit 903, and the processing unit 902 in FIG. 9 may be implemented by the processor 801 in FIG. 8 invoking computer-executed instructions stored in the memory 803. Alternatively, the function/implementation process of the processing unit 902 in FIG. 9 can be realized by calling the computer execution instructions stored in the memory 803 by the processor 801 in FIG. The process may be implemented through communication interface 804 in FIG. 8 .

Optionally, when the device 900 is a chip or a circuit, the functions/implementation process of the sending unit 901 and the receiving unit 903 may also be implemented through pins or circuits.

The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, the computer-readable storage medium stores computer programs or instructions, and when the computer programs or instructions are executed, the access network device and the first core in the foregoing method embodiments are implemented. The method executed by the network device, the first relay device or the first terminal device. In this way, the functions described in the above embodiments can be realized in the form of software function units and sold or used as independent products. Based on such an understanding, the technical solution of the present application can be embodied in the form of a software product in essence or the part that contributes to it or the part of the technical solution. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including several instructions for So that a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) executes all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of the present application. The storage medium includes: U disk, mobile hard disk, ROM, RAM, magnetic disk or optical disk and other various media that can store program codes.

The present application also provides a computer program product, the computer program product including: computer program code, when the computer program code is run on the computer, the computer is made to execute any one of the foregoing method embodiments by the first terminal device, the first The method executed by the core network equipment, the first relay device or the access network equipment.

The embodiment of the present application also provides a processing device, including a processor and an interface; the processor is used to execute the first terminal device, the first core network device, the first relay device or the first terminal device involved in any of the above method embodiments. A method performed by an access network device.

In the above embodiments, all or part of them may be 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 includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions 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 devices. 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 transmitted from a website, computer, server or data center Transmission to another website site, computer, server, or data center by wired (eg, coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (eg, infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). 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 (such as a floppy disk, a hard disk, or a magnetic tape), an optical medium (such as a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (such as a solid state disk (solid state disk, SSD)), etc.

The various illustrative logic units and circuits described in the embodiments of the present application can be programmed through general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (digital signal processors, DSPs), application specific integrated circuits (application specific integrated circuits, ASICs), field programmable A field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to implement or operate the described functions. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, and optionally, the general-purpose processor may also be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller or state machine. A processor may also be implemented by a combination of computing devices, such as a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors combined with a digital signal processor core, or any other similar configuration to accomplish.

The steps of the method or algorithm described in the embodiments of the present application may be directly embedded in hardware, a software unit executed by a processor, or a combination of both. The software unit may be stored in RAM, flash memory, ROM, erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), EEPROM, registers, hard disk, removable disk, CD-ROM or any other form in the art in the storage medium. Exemplarily, the storage medium can be connected to the processor, so that the processor can read information from the storage medium, and can write information to the storage medium. Optionally, the storage medium can also be integrated into the processor. The processor and the storage medium can be set in the ASIC, and the ASIC can be set in the terminal device. Optionally, the processor and the storage medium may also be disposed in different components in the terminal device.

These computer program instructions can also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing device, causing a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable device to produce a computer-implemented process, thereby The instructions provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flow chart or blocks of the flowchart and/or the block or blocks of the block diagrams.

Although the embodiments of the present application have been described in conjunction with specific features and embodiments thereof, it is obvious that various modifications and combinations can be made thereto without departing from the scope of the embodiments of the present application. Correspondingly, the embodiments of the present application and the drawings are only exemplary descriptions of the embodiments of the present application defined by the appended claims, and are deemed to have covered any and all modifications, changes, combinations or equivalents within the scope of the embodiments of the present application thing. Apparently, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to the embodiments of the present application without departing from the scope of the embodiments of the present application. In this way, if the modifications and variations of the embodiments of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the embodiments of the present application and their equivalent technologies, the embodiments of the present application are also intended to include these modifications and variations.

Embodiment 1. A communication method applied to an access network device, the method comprising:

receiving first information from the first core network device, where the first information is used to indicate that the first terminal device has an association relationship with at least one relay device;

An access network service is provided for the first terminal device by controlling a first relay device, where the first relay device is one of the at least one relay device.

Embodiment 2. According to the method described in Embodiment 1, the first information is used to indicate that the first terminal device has an association relationship with at least one relay device, including:

The first information includes an identification of the at least one relay device; or,

The first information includes a first field, where, when the value of the first field is a first value, it indicates that the first terminal device is associated with the at least one relay device.

Embodiment 3. According to the method described in Embodiment 1 or 2, the first information further includes time information, and the time information is used to indicate the association between the first terminal device and the at least one relay device The validity period of the relationship.

Embodiment 4. The method according to any one of embodiments 1 to 3, further comprising:

Sending first request information to the first core network device, where the first request information is used to request to determine whether the first terminal device is associated with a relay device.

Embodiment 5. according to the method described in embodiment 4,

The first request information includes the identifier of the first terminal device, or, the first request information includes the identifier of the first terminal device and identifiers of some or all of the M relay devices, The M relay devices are relay devices connected to the access network device, and the M relay devices include the at least one relay device.

Embodiment 6. According to the method described in Embodiment 5, the first request information is included in a first NAS connection request, and the first NAS connection request is used for the first terminal device request to communicate with the first core network device to establish a connection.

Embodiment 7. According to the method described in Embodiment 4, the first request information is used to request to determine whether the first terminal device is associated with a relay device, including:

The first request information is used to request the first core network device to send information for verification to the first terminal device, and the information for verification is used to request to verify whether the first terminal device is compatible with the associated with the relay device.

Embodiment 8. According to the method described in Embodiment 7, the first request information further includes the identifier of the first terminal device, or, the first request information further includes the identifier of the first terminal device and M Identifiers of some or all of the relay devices, the M relay devices are relay devices connected to the access network device, and the M relay devices include the at least one relay device device.

Embodiment 9. The method according to any one of embodiments 1 to 3, further comprising:

Sending second request information to the first terminal device, where the second request information is used to request the first terminal device to send information for verification to the first core network device, where the information for verification is used for A request is made to verify whether the first terminal device is associated with a relay device.

Embodiment 10. According to the method described in Embodiment 9, the second request information further includes identifiers of some or all of the M relay devices, and the M relay devices are associated with the access A relay device connected to the network device, the M relay devices include the at least one relay device.

Embodiment 11. The method according to any one of embodiments 4-10, further comprising:

It is determined that the first terminal device accesses the access network device through a relay device.

Embodiment 12. The method according to any one of embodiments 1 to 11, further comprising:

Receive device type indication information from the first relay device, where the device type indication information is used to indicate that the type of the first relay device is a relay device.

Embodiment 13. The method according to Embodiment 12, the device type indication information is included in the first AS connection request, or in the second NAS connection request.

Embodiment 14. According to the method described in Embodiment 13, the device type indication information is included in the second NAS connection request, and the method further includes:

sending the second NAS connection request to the first core network device;

Receive a second identifier from the first core network device, where the second identifier is an identifier assigned to the first relay device by the first core network device.

Embodiment 15. The method according to any one of embodiments 1-10, further comprising:

receiving a second AS connection request from the first relay device, the second AS connection request including a third identifier of the first relay device;

If the third identifier is included in the second information, connect to the first relay device, and the second information includes one or more authorized relay devices under the coverage of the access network device logo.

Embodiment 16. The method according to embodiment 15, further comprising: receiving the second information from the first core network device.

Embodiment 17. The method according to any one of embodiments 1-10, further comprising:

Sending first request information to the first core network device, where the first request information includes the third identifier, and the first request information is used to request to verify whether the first relay device is the access network device Authorized repeaters under coverage;

Receive first response information from the first core network device, where the first response information is used to indicate that the first relay device is an authorized relay device under the coverage of the access network device, or to indicate The first relay device is not an authorized relay device under the coverage of the access network device.

Embodiment 18. The method according to any one of embodiments 1 to 17, wherein the first relay device is an SR.

Embodiment 19. A communication method applied to a first core network device, the method comprising:

receiving first request information, where the first request information is used to request to determine whether the first terminal device is associated with the relay device;

Sending first information to the access network device, where the first information is used to indicate that the first terminal device has an association relationship with at least one relay device.

Embodiment 20. The method according to embodiment 19, the first information is used to indicate that the first terminal device has an association relationship with at least one relay device, including:

The first information includes a first field, where, when the first field is a first value, it indicates that the first terminal device is associated with the at least one relay device.

Embodiment 21. The method according to Embodiment 19 or 20, the first information further includes time information, and the time information is used to indicate the association between the first terminal device and the at least one relay device The validity period of the relationship.

Embodiment 22. The method according to any one of embodiments 19-21, the first request information includes the identifier of the first terminal device, or the first request information includes the ID of the first terminal device An identifier and identifiers of some or all of the M relay devices, the M relay devices are relay devices connected to the access network device, and the M relay devices include the at least a relay device.

Embodiment 23. The method according to any one of Embodiments 19 to 22, the first request information is included in a first NAS connection request, and the first NAS connection request is used for the first terminal device to request and The first core network device establishes a connection.

Embodiment 24. The method according to any one of Embodiments 19-23, the method further includes: according to the pre-stored association relationship information between the terminal device and the relay device, determining whether the first terminal device is related to at least A relay device has an association relationship.

Embodiment 25. The method according to any one of embodiments 19-23, further comprising:

sending third request information to the second core network device, where the third request information is used to request to determine whether the first terminal device is associated with the relay device;

Receive third information from the second core network device, where the third information is used to indicate that the first terminal device has an association relationship with the at least one relay device.

Embodiment 26. The method according to any one of embodiments 19-22, further comprising:

Sending fourth request information to the first terminal device, where the fourth request information is used to request to obtain passwords corresponding to some or all of the M relay devices, the M relay devices are associated with the A relay device connected to the access network device, the M relay devices include the at least one relay device;

Receive a first password from the first terminal device, or receive a first password and an identifier of a first relay device, where the first password is a password corresponding to the first relay device, and the first relay device is one of the part or all of the relay devices.

Embodiment 27. The method according to any one of embodiments 19-26, further comprising:

receiving device type indication information from the first relay device, where the device type indication information is used to indicate that the type of the first relay device is a relay device;

assigning a second identifier to the first relay device;

Send the second identifier to the access network device.

Embodiment 28. The method according to any one of embodiments 19-26, further comprising:

Sending second information to the access network device, where the second information includes identifiers of one or more authorized relay devices under the coverage of the access network device.

Embodiment 29. The method according to any one of embodiments 19-26, further comprising:

Receive first request information from an access network device, where the first request information includes a third identifier of the first relay device, and the first request information is used to request to verify whether the first relay device is the first relay device Authorized relay devices under the coverage of the above-mentioned access network equipment;

sending response information to the access network device, where the response information is used to indicate that the first relay device is an authorized relay device under the coverage of the access network device, or to indicate that the first relay device is A relay device is not an authorized relay device under the coverage of the access network equipment.

Embodiment 30. A communication method applied to a terminal device, the method comprising:

Sending fifth request information to the first core network device, where the fifth request information is used to request to determine whether the first terminal device is associated with the relay device.

Embodiment 31. The method of embodiment 30,

The fifth request information includes the identifier of the first terminal device; or,

The fifth request information includes the identifier of the first terminal device and the identifiers of some or all of the M relay devices, and the M relay devices are intermediate devices connected to the access network device. relay device; or,

The fifth request information includes a first password, and the first password is a password corresponding to the first relay device; or,

The fifth request information includes a first password and an identifier of the first relay device, and the first password is a password corresponding to the first relay device.

Embodiment 32. The method of embodiment 30 or 31, further comprising:

Receive second request information from an access network device, where the second request information is used to request the first terminal device to initiate information for verification to the first core network device, where the information for verification is used for A request is made to verify whether the first terminal device is associated with a relay device.

Embodiment 33. The method according to Embodiment 32, the second request information further includes identifiers of some or all of the M relay devices, and the M relay devices are associated with the access The relay device connected to the network equipment.

Embodiment 34. The method according to Embodiment 31, the fifth request information includes the first password, or includes the first password and the identifier of the first relay device, and the method further includes:

Receive fourth request information from the first core network device, the fourth request information is used to request to obtain passwords corresponding to some or all of the M relay devices, and the M relay devices are associated with A relay device connected to the access network device.

Embodiment 35. A communications device comprising:

a transceiver unit, configured to receive first information from the first core network device, where the first information is used to indicate that the first terminal device has an association relationship with at least one relay device;

A processing unit, configured to provide an access network service for the first terminal device by controlling a first relay device, where the first relay device is one of the at least one relay device.

Embodiment 36. The communication device according to embodiment 35, the first information is used to indicate that the first terminal device has an association relationship with at least one relay device, including:

Embodiment 37. The communication device according to embodiment 35 or 36, the first information further includes time information, and the time information is used to indicate the time between the first terminal device and the at least one relay device The validity period of the association relationship.

Embodiment 38. The communication device according to any one of Embodiments 35 to 37, the transceiver unit is further configured to send first request information to the first core network device, and the first request information is used to request It is determined whether the first terminal device is associated with a relay device.

Embodiment 39. The communication device according to Embodiment 38, the first request information includes the identifier of the first terminal device, or, the first request information includes the identifier of the first terminal device and M An identifier of some or all of the relay devices, the M relay devices are relay devices connected to the communication device, and the M relay devices include the at least one relay device.

Embodiment 40. The communication device according to Embodiment 39, the first request information is included in a first NAS connection request, and the first NAS connection request is used for the first terminal device requesting to communicate with the first The core network device establishes a connection.

Embodiment 41. The communication device according to embodiment 38, the first request information is used to request to determine whether the first terminal device is associated with a relay device, including:

Embodiment 42. The communication device according to Embodiment 41, the first request information further includes the identifier of the first terminal device, or, the first request information further includes the identifier of the first terminal device and Identification of some or all of the relay devices in the M relay devices, the M relay devices are relay devices connected to the communication device, and the M relay devices include the at least one relay device .

Embodiment 43. The communication device according to any one of Embodiments 35 to 37, the transceiver unit is further configured to send second request information to the first terminal device, and the second request information is used to request the The first terminal device sends information for verification to the first core network device, where the information for verification is used to request verification of whether the first terminal device is associated with the relay device.

Embodiment 44. The communication device according to embodiment 43, the second request information further includes identifications of some or all of the M relay devices, and the M relay devices communicate with the A relay device to which the devices are connected, where the M relay devices include the at least one relay device.

Embodiment 45. The communication device according to any one of embodiments 38-44, the processing unit is further configured to determine that the first terminal device accesses the communication device through a relay device.

Embodiment 46. The communication device according to any one of embodiments 35 to 45, the transceiver unit is further configured to receive device type indication information from the first relay device, and the device type indication information is used to indicate The type of the first relay device is a relay device.

Embodiment 47. The communication apparatus according to embodiment 46, the device type indication information is included in the first AS connection request, or in the second NAS connection request.

Embodiment 48. The communication device according to Embodiment 47, the device type indication information is included in the second NAS connection request, and the transceiver unit is further configured to:

sending the second NAS connection request to the first core network device;

Embodiment 49. The communication device according to any one of embodiments 35-44,

The transceiver unit is further configured to receive a second AS connection request from the first relay device, where the second AS connection request includes a third identifier of the first relay device;

The processing unit is further configured to connect to the first relay device if the third identifier is included in second information, and the second information includes one or more relay devices under the coverage of the communication device. The ID of the authorized relay device.

Embodiment 50. The communication device according to Embodiment 49, the transceiving unit is further configured to receive the second information from the first core network device.

Embodiment 51. The communication device according to any one of Embodiments 35-44, the transceiver unit is further configured to:

Sending first request information to the first core network device, where the first request information includes the third identifier, and the first request information is used to request to verify whether the first relay device is covered by the communication device Authorized Relays under ;

Receive first response information from the first core network device, the first response information is used to indicate that the first relay device is an authorized relay device under the coverage of the communication device, or is used to indicate the The first relay device is not an authorized relay device under the coverage of the communication device.

Embodiment 52. The communication device according to any one of embodiments 35-51, wherein the first relay device is an SR.

Embodiment 53. A communications device comprising:

A transceiver unit (or a receiving unit), configured to receive first request information, where the first request information is used to request to determine whether the first terminal device is associated with the relay device;

The transceiving unit (or sending unit) is further configured to send first information to the access network device, where the first information is used to indicate that the first terminal device has an association relationship with at least one relay device.

Embodiment 54. The communication device according to Embodiment 53, the first information is used to indicate that the first terminal device has an association relationship with at least one relay device, including:

Embodiment 55. The communication device according to embodiment 53 or 54, the first information further includes time information, and the time information is used to indicate the time between the first terminal device and the at least one relay device The validity period of the association relationship.

Embodiment 56. The communication device according to any one of Embodiments 53 to 55, the first request information includes the identifier of the first terminal device, or the first request information includes the first terminal device and the identifiers of some or all of the M relay devices, the M relay devices are relay devices connected to the access network equipment, and the M relay devices include the At least one relay device.

Embodiment 57. The communication device according to any one of Embodiments 53 to 56, the first request information is included in a first NAS connection request, and the first NAS connection request is used for the first terminal device to request A connection is established with the communication device.

Embodiment 58. The communication device according to any one of embodiments 53-57, further comprising a processing unit configured to determine the The first terminal device has an association relationship with at least one relay device.

Embodiment 59. According to the method according to any one of embodiments 53-57, the transceiver unit is further used for:

Embodiment 60. The communication device according to any one of Embodiments 53-56, the transceiver unit is further configured to:

Embodiment 61. The communication device according to any one of embodiments 53-60, further comprising a processing unit;

The transceiving unit is further configured to receive device type indication information from the first relay device, where the device type indication information is used to indicate that the type of the first relay device is a relay device;

The processing unit is configured to assign a second identifier to the first relay device;

The transceiving unit is further configured to send the second identifier to the access network device.

Embodiment 62. The communication device according to any one of Embodiments 53 to 60, the transceiver unit is further configured to send second information to the access network device, the second information includes the access network device The identification of one or more authorized relays under the coverage of the device.

Embodiment 63. The communication device according to any one of Embodiments 53-60, the transceiver unit is further configured to:

Embodiment 64. A communications device comprising:

A transceiver unit, configured to send fifth request information to the first core network device, where the fifth request information is used to request to determine whether the communication device is associated with a relay device.

Embodiment 65. The communication device of Embodiment 64,

The fifth request information includes an identification of the communication device; or,

The fifth request information includes the identifier of the communication device and the identifiers of some or all of the M relay devices, and the M relay devices are relay devices connected to the access network device ;or,

Embodiment 66. The communication device according to embodiment 64 or 65, the transceiver unit is further configured to receive second request information from the access network device, and the second request information is used to request the communication device to send The first core network device initiates information for verification, where the information for verification is used to request verification of whether the communication device is associated with the relay device.

Embodiment 67. The communication device according to embodiment 66, the second request information further includes identifiers of some or all of the M relay devices, the M relay devices are connected to the interface The relay device connected to the network access device.

Embodiment 68. The method according to Embodiment 65, the fifth request information includes the first password, or includes the first password and the identifier of the first relay device, and the transceiving unit is further configured to receive from the The first core network device receives fourth request information, the fourth request information is used to request to obtain passwords corresponding to some or all of the M relay devices, and the M relay devices are related to the The relay device connected to the access network equipment.

Embodiment 69. An apparatus comprising means for performing the method described in any embodiment of the present application.

Embodiment 70. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising a computer program, when the computer program is run on a computer, causing the computer to execute the method according to any one of embodiments 1-18, Or make the computer execute the method described in any one of Embodiments 19-29, or make the computer execute the method described in any one of Embodiments 30-34.

Claims

A communication method, characterized in that it is applied to an access network device, the method comprising:

receiving first information from the first core network device, where the first information is used to indicate that the first terminal device has an association relationship with at least one relay device;

An access network service is provided for the first terminal device by controlling a first relay device, where the first relay device is one of the at least one relay device.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the first information is used to indicate that the first terminal device has an association relationship with at least one relay device, including:

The first information includes an identification of the at least one relay device; or,

The first information includes a first field, where, when the value of the first field is a first value, it indicates that the first terminal device is associated with the at least one relay device.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first information further includes time information, and the time information is used to indicate the association between the first terminal device and the at least one relay device The validity period of the relationship.
The method according to any one of claims 1-3, characterized in that the method further comprises:

Sending first request information to the first core network device, where the first request information is used to request to determine whether the first terminal device is associated with a relay device.
The method according to claim 4, characterized in that,

The first request information includes the identifier of the first terminal device, or, the first request information includes the identifier of the first terminal device and identifiers of some or all of the M relay devices, The M relay devices are relay devices connected to the access network device, and the M relay devices include the at least one relay device.
The method according to claim 4, wherein the first request information is used to request to determine whether the first terminal device is associated with a relay device, comprising:

The first request information is used to request the first core network device to send information for verification to the first terminal device, and the information for verification is used to request to verify whether the first terminal device is compatible with the associated with the relay device.
The method according to claim 6, wherein the first request information further includes the identifier of the first terminal device, or, the first request information further includes the identifier of the first terminal device and M Identifiers of some or all of the relay devices, the M relay devices are relay devices connected to the access network device, and the M relay devices include the at least one relay device device.
The method according to any one of claims 1-3, characterized in that the method further comprises:

Sending second request information to the first terminal device, where the second request information is used to request the first terminal device to send information for verification to the first core network device, where the information for verification is used for A request is made to verify whether the first terminal device is associated with a relay device.
The method according to claim 8, wherein the second request information further includes identifiers of some or all of the M relay devices, and the M relay devices are associated with the access A relay device connected to the network device, the M relay devices include the at least one relay device.
The method according to any one of claims 4-9, wherein the method further comprises:

It is determined that the first terminal device accesses the access network device through a relay device.
The method according to any one of claims 1-10, characterized in that the method further comprises:

receiving a second access layer AS connection request from the first relay device, where the second AS connection request includes a third identifier of the first relay device;

If the third identifier is included in the second information, connect to the first relay device, and the second information includes one or more authorized relay devices under the coverage of the access network device logo.
The method according to any one of claims 1-10, characterized in that the method further comprises:

receiving a second AS connection request from the first relay device, the second AS connection request including a third identifier of the first relay device;

Sending first verification request information to the first core network device, where the first verification request information includes the third identifier, and the first verification request information is used to request verification whether the first relay device is the Authorized relay devices under the coverage of network access equipment;

Receive first response information from the first core network device, where the first response information is used to indicate that the first relay device is an authorized relay device under the coverage of the access network device, or to indicate The first relay device is not an authorized relay device under the coverage of the access network device.
The method according to any one of claims 1-12, characterized in that the first relay device is an intelligent repeater SR.
A communication method, characterized in that it is applied to a first core network device, the method comprising:

receiving first request information, where the first request information is used to request to determine whether the first terminal device is associated with the relay device;

Sending first information to the access network device, where the first information is used to indicate that the first terminal device has an association relationship with at least one relay device.
The method according to claim 14, wherein the first information is used to indicate that the first terminal device has an association relationship with at least one relay device, including:

The first information includes an identification of the at least one relay device; or,

The first information includes a first field, where, when the first field is a first value, it indicates that the first terminal device is associated with the at least one relay device.
The method according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the first information further includes time information, and the time information is used to indicate the association between the first terminal device and the at least one relay device The validity period of the relationship.
The method according to any one of claims 14-16, characterized in that,

The first request information includes the identifier of the first terminal device, or, the first request information includes the identifier of the first terminal device and identifiers of some or all of the M relay devices, The M relay devices are relay devices connected to the access network device, and the M relay devices include the at least one relay device.
The method according to any one of claims 14-17, characterized in that the method further comprises:

sending third request information to the second core network device, where the third request information is used to request to determine whether the first terminal device is associated with the relay device;

Receive third information from the second core network device, where the third information is used to indicate that the first terminal device has an association relationship with the at least one relay device.
The method according to any one of claims 14-17, characterized in that the method further comprises:

Sending fourth request information to the first terminal device, where the fourth request information is used to request to obtain passwords corresponding to some or all of the M relay devices, the M relay devices are associated with the A relay device connected to the access network device, the M relay devices include the at least one relay device;

Receive a first password from the first terminal device, or receive a first password and an identifier of a first relay device, where the first password is a password corresponding to the first relay device, and the first relay device is one of the part or all of the relay devices.
The method according to any one of claims 14-19, characterized in that the method further comprises:

Receive first verification request information from an access network device, where the first verification request information includes a third identifier of the first relay device, and the first verification request information is used to request verification of the first relay device Whether it is an authorized relay device under the coverage of the access network equipment;

sending response information to the access network device, where the response information is used to indicate that the first relay device is an authorized relay device under the coverage of the access network device, or to indicate that the first relay device is A relay device is not an authorized relay device under the coverage of the access network equipment.
A communication device, characterized in that it includes:

one or more processors;

one or more memories;

and one or more computer programs, wherein the one or more computer programs are stored in the one or more memories, the one or more computer programs comprising instructions, when the instructions are executed by the communication device When executed by one or more processors, the communication device is made to execute the method according to any one of claims 1-13.
A communication device, characterized in that it includes:

one or more processors;

one or more memories;

and one or more computer programs, wherein the one or more computer programs are stored in the one or more memories, the one or more computer programs comprising instructions, when the instructions are executed by the communication device When executed by one or more processors, the communication device executes the method according to any one of claims 14-20.
A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer-readable storage medium is used to store a computer program, and when the computer program runs on a computer, the computer executes any one of claims 1-13. The method described in claim 1, or causing the computer to execute the method described in any one of claims 14-20.
A chip, characterized in that it includes one or more processors and a communication interface, and the one or more processors are used to read instructions to execute the method according to any one of claims 1-13, or Performing the method as claimed in any one of claims 14-20.