CN115396927B

CN115396927B - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN115396927B
Application number: CN202210810156.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 耿婷婷; 严乐; 张宏平; 曾清海
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-12-29
Filing date: 2018-12-29
Publication date: 2025-02-14
Anticipated expiration: 2038-12-29
Also published as: CN111385830A; CN115396927A; WO2020135850A1; CN111385830B

Abstract

The communication method, apparatus and system disclosed in the embodiments of the present application send a first message including identification information of a terminal device, the reason why the terminal device initiates establishment of a radio resource control (RRC) connection, and identification information of a public land mobile network (PLMN) selected by the terminal device to a second access network device through a first access network device, and the first access network device receives a response message to the first message from the second access network device, thereby selecting a suitable service access network device for the terminal device as soon as possible and reducing the delay in the terminal device accessing the network.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a communications method and apparatus capable of implementing fast switching.

Background

In a wireless communication system, for example, 5G (also referred to as new radio), when a serving base station cannot provide a service or network service required by a terminal device, a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) release (release) message without security protection may be sent, and the RRC release message may be carried on a signaling radio bearer (SIGNALING RADIO BEARER, SRB) 0, for example. After receiving the RRC release message, the terminal device releases the RRC connection with the serving base station, and the terminal device may choose to continue camping on the cell under the serving base station or reselect to another new cell.

However, whether the terminal device selects a cell that resides under the serving base station, or the terminal device reselects to another new cell, and re-initiates the access procedure in the new cell, the delay of the terminal device accessing the network increases.

Disclosure of Invention

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the application can reduce the time delay of the terminal equipment accessing to the network.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the embodiment of the present application adopts the following technical scheme:

In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, including that a first access network device sends a first message to a second access network device, where the first message includes identification information of a terminal device, a reason for the terminal device to initiate radio resource control RRC connection establishment, and identification information of a public land mobile network PLMN selected by the terminal device, and the first access network device receives a response message (first response message) of the first message from the second access network device.

According to the communication method, for example, under the condition that the first access network equipment cannot provide service required by the UE, the first message is sent to the second access network equipment through the first access network equipment, so that the proper service access network equipment can be selected for the UE as soon as possible, and the time delay of the terminal equipment accessing the network is reduced.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the first access network device may determine the target access network device (the second access network device) according to the measurement report and the service information sent by the terminal device. Alternatively, the measurement report may be a measurement report, and the service information may include registered target core network node identification information and/or a list of single network slice selection support information. Therefore, the first access network equipment can determine the target access network equipment under the condition that the first access network equipment cannot support the requirement of the terminal equipment, so that the time delay of the terminal equipment for accessing the network is shortened.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the response message of the first message sent by the second access network device to the first access network device may include the content of the security mode command message and the content of the RRC reconfiguration message, so that when the second access network device allows the terminal device to access, before the terminal device directly sends an access request to the second access network device, the content of the security mode command message and the content of the RRC reconfiguration message are transferred through the first access network device, and the time delay of the terminal device accessing the network is shortened.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the content of the RRC reconfiguration message is security protection according to an initial key and a security algorithm, where the security protection includes integrity protection or includes integrity protection and ciphering protection. By the implementation mode, the influence on the terminal equipment is reduced, and in addition, the content of the RRC reconfiguration message is safely protected, so that the authenticity and the privacy of the message can be ensured.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the content of the RRC reconfiguration message is security protection according to a first key and a security algorithm, where the first key is determined according to an initial key from a core network and information of a source cell, and the source cell belongs to the first access network device. Optionally, in this implementation manner, the response message of the first message received by the first access network device may further include information of the first key. By the implementation, the content of the RRC reconfiguration message is safely protected, so that the authenticity and privacy of the message can be ensured.

The first key information includes the first key indication information or the first key, so that the first access network device can transmit the first key information to the terminal device, and the terminal device can use the correct key for security protection.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a case that the terminal device sends a response message of the security mode command message to the first access network device, the first access network device receives a response message (second response message) of the security mode command message from the terminal device, so that the first access network device knows that the terminal device activates the security mode or that the security mode activation fails.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a case that the second access network device configures the terminal device to send the second response message to the second access network device, the first access network device receives second indication information from the second access network device, where the second indication information indicates that the first access network device does not receive the response message of the security mode command message, so that when the terminal device sends the second response to the second access network device, energy consumption caused by receiving, by the first access network device, a corresponding message of the security mode command message, where the operation of the terminal device and the operation of the first access network device are inconsistent is avoided.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the measurement report is an advanced measurement report, and optionally, the advanced measurement report may be carried in a message (message) 3 or a message 5, for example.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a case that the advanced measurement report is received through signaling or a message before message 4, the advanced measurement report to be sent by the terminal device may be determined based on information of the random access preamble sent by the terminal device, and uplink grant resource information for transmitting the advanced measurement report may be sent to the terminal device through message 2. By the implementation mode, the terminal equipment can report the measurement report quickly, so that the service base station can execute mobility-related configuration more quickly, and the data transmission experience of the terminal equipment is improved. It should be noted that this implementation manner may be implemented independently of other implementation manners of the first aspect.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, which includes that a second access network device receives a first message from a first access network device, and the second access network device sends a response message (first response message) of the first message to the first access network device, where the first message includes identification information of a terminal device, a reason for the terminal device to initiate radio resource control RRC connection establishment, and identification information of a public land mobile network PLMN selected by the terminal device.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the first response message may include content of the security mode command message and content of the RRC reconfiguration message, so that the second access network device may forward the content of the security mode command message and content of the RRC reconfiguration message in advance when the terminal device is allowed to access, thereby shortening a time delay of the terminal device accessing the network.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the content of the RRC reconfiguration message is security protection according to an initial key and a security algorithm, where the security protection includes integrity protection or includes integrity protection and ciphering protection. By the implementation mode, the influence on the terminal equipment is reduced, and in addition, the content of the RRC reconfiguration message is safely protected, so that the authenticity and the privacy of the message can be ensured.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the content of the RRC reconfiguration message is security protection according to a first key and a security algorithm, where the first key is determined according to an initial key from a core network and information of a source cell, and the source cell belongs to the first access network device. Optionally, in this implementation manner, the response message of the first message received by the first access network device may further include information of the first key. By the implementation mode, the content of the RRC reconfiguration message is safely protected so that the authenticity and the privacy of the message can be ensured

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the information of the first key includes first key indication information or the first key, so that the first access network device can transfer the information of the first key to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can use the correct key for security protection.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a case that the second access network device configures the terminal device to send the second response message to the second access network device, the second access network device sends second indication information to the first access network device, where the second indication information indicates that the first access network device does not receive the second response message, so that when the terminal device sends the second response to the second access network device, energy consumption caused by receiving corresponding messages of the security mode command message by the first access network device, where the operation of the terminal device and the operation of the first access network device are inconsistent, is avoided.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the second access network device receives the second response message from the terminal device, so that the second access network device knows that the terminal device activates the security mode or that the security mode activation fails.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the second access network device receives a third response message, such as an RRC reconfiguration complete message or a handover complete message, from the terminal device, indicating that the RRC reconfiguration is complete, and may switch to the second access network device.

Alternatively, the third response message may be secured based on the initial key, or may be secured based on a second key determined (derived) based on the initial key and the information of the target cell, provided that the content of the RRC reconfiguration message is secured based on the first key, or may be secured based on a third key determined (derived) based on the first key and the information of the target cell, or may be secured based on the second key. Optionally, the information of the target cell may include at least one of a physical cell identity (PHYSICAL CELL IDENTITY, PCI) of the target cell and frequency point information of the target cell, for example.

In a third aspect, a communication method is provided, which includes that a communication device receives a security mode command message from a first access network device, wherein content of the security mode command message is consistent with content of a security mode message determined by a second access network device, the security mode command message includes information of a first key, the first key is determined according to an initial key determined by a core network and information of a source cell, the source cell belongs to the first access network device, and sends a response message of the security mode command message, wherein the response message of the security mode command is security protected according to the first key.

In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the information of the first key includes first key indication information or a first key, where the first key indication information is used to indicate that the first key is determined according to the initial key and information of a source cell.

In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the communication apparatus sends a second message to the second access network device, where the second message indicates that radio resource control RRC reconfiguration is complete, and the second message is secured according to a second key, where the second key is determined according to the first key, an identity of a target cell, and a frequency point of the target cell, and the target cell belongs to the second access network device.

In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the communication apparatus receives first indication information from the first access network device, where the first indication information is used to indicate a response message (second response message) that sends the security mode command message to the second access network device.

In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the communication apparatus may be a response message that sends the security mode command message to the first access network device.

In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the communication apparatus sends an advanced measurement report to the first access network device, where the advanced measurement report may be carried in a radio resource control RRC establishment request (message 3) or an RRC establishment complete message (message 5) in a random access procedure, for example.

In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a case that the advanced measurement report is sent through signaling or a message before message 4, the communication apparatus indicates to a first access network device that the advanced measurement report is to be sent through a random access preamble (message 1), and receives a random access response (message 2) from the first access network device, so as to obtain uplink grant resource information for sending the advanced measurement report. It should be noted that this implementation may be implemented independently of other implementations of the third aspect.

In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the communication apparatus indicates to the first access network device that the early measurement report does not send complete information, so that the first access network device may learn whether the early measurement report is sent completely, so as to make corresponding processing.

In a fourth aspect, a communication method is provided, including a first node sending a message for delivering non-access stratum signaling of a terminal device to a core network node, the first node receiving a response message from the core network node, and after completion of RRC reconfiguration of the terminal device, sending a message including an initial context setup response, a session resource identification, and address information for transmitting downlink data of the session resource to the core network node.

By means of the communication method, the multi-connection configuration is configured for the terminal equipment in advance in the process of establishing initial connection for the terminal equipment by the first node and the core network node, and signaling overhead between the first node and the core network node is reduced.

In a fifth aspect, a communication method is provided comprising receiving a message from a first node for communicating non-access stratum signaling of a terminal device to a core network node, transmitting a response message to the first node, and receiving a message from the first node after completion of RRC reconfiguration of the terminal device, the message comprising an initial context setup response, a session resource identification and address information for transmitting downlink data of the session resource.

In a sixth aspect, a communication device is provided for implementing the method of the first aspect. The communication means may be the first access network device of the first aspect, or an apparatus comprising the first access network device, or a component (chip or circuit) arranged in the first access network device.

In a seventh aspect, a communication device is provided for implementing the method of the second aspect. The communication means may be the second access network device according to the second aspect, or a device including the second access network device, or a component (chip or circuit) disposed in the second access network device.

In an eighth aspect, a communication device is provided for implementing the method of the third aspect. The communication means may be a terminal device, or a device comprising the terminal device, or a component (chip or circuit) arranged in the second access network device.

In a ninth aspect, a communication device is provided for implementing the method of the fourth aspect. The communication means may be the first node (access network device), or a device comprising the first node, or a component (chip or circuit) arranged at the first node.

In a tenth aspect, a communication device is provided for implementing the method of the fifth aspect. The communication means may be a core network node or a device comprising the core network node or a component (chip or circuit) arranged at the core network node.

The communication device of any one of the sixth to tenth aspects includes a corresponding module, unit, or means (means) for implementing the method, where the module, unit, or means may be implemented by hardware, software, or implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules or units corresponding to the functions described above.

In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a communications device comprising a processor and a memory for storing computer instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the communications device to perform the method of any of the preceding aspects.

In a twelfth aspect, there is provided a communications device comprising a processor, the processor being arranged to couple with a memory and to execute a method according to any of the preceding aspects in dependence on instructions in the memory after reading the instructions in the memory. In a sixth aspect, there is provided a computer readable storage medium having instructions stored therein which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any of the above aspects.

In a thirteenth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed, enable a communication device to perform the method of any one of the above aspects.

In a fourteenth aspect, there is provided a communications device (e.g. which may be a chip or a system of chips) comprising a processor for implementing the method as referred to in any of the above aspects. In one possible design, the communication device further includes a memory for holding necessary program instructions and data. When the communication device is a chip system, the communication device may be formed of a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

A fifteenth aspect provides a communication system comprising the communication apparatus of the sixth aspect and the communication apparatus of the seventh aspect, or comprising the communication apparatus of the sixth-eighth aspects, or comprising the communication apparatus of the ninth and tenth aspects.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of an access network device and a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 4 is a flow chart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a flow chart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present application. In the description of the present application, unless otherwise indicated, "/" means that the related objects are in a "or" relationship, for example, a/B may mean a or B, and "and/or" in the present application is merely an association relationship describing the related objects, for example, a and/or B may mean that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B, three cases where a exists alone, a and B exist together, and B exists alone, where a and B may be singular or plural. Also, in the description of the present application, unless otherwise indicated, "a plurality" means two or more than two. "at least one of" or the like means any combination of these items, including any combination of single item(s) or plural items(s). For example, at least one (a, b, or c) of a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, or a-b-c may be represented, wherein a, b, c may be single or plural. In addition, in order to facilitate the clear description of the technical solution of the embodiments of the present application, in the embodiments of the present application, the words "first", "second", etc. are used to distinguish the same item or similar items having substantially the same function and effect. It will be appreciated by those of skill in the art that the words "first," "second," and the like do not limit the amount and order of execution, and that the words "first," "second," and the like do not necessarily differ.

In addition, the network architecture and the service scenario described in the embodiments of the present application are for more clearly describing the technical solution of the embodiments of the present application, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solution provided by the embodiments of the present application, and as a person of ordinary skill in the art can know, with evolution of the network architecture and appearance of a new service scenario, the technical solution provided by the embodiments of the present application is also applicable to similar technical problems.

As shown in fig. 1, a communication system 10 is provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication system 10 includes access network devices 20 and 40 and one or more terminal devices 30 connected to the access network devices 20 and 40. The access network device 20 shown in fig. 1 is exemplified as interacting with the access network device 40 and with any of the terminal devices 30. In the embodiment of the present application, the access network device 20 sends a first message to the access network device 40, where the first message includes the identification information of the terminal device 30, the reason for the terminal device 30 to initiate RRC establishment, and the identification information of the public land mobile network selected by the terminal device 30, and after receiving the first message, the access network device 40 sends a corresponding response message to the access network device 20. The first message may be, for example, an access request message, for initiating an access request to the access network device 40, so that the access network device 40 can determine whether to admit the terminal device 30.

In a possible manner, in case the access network device 40 determines to admit the terminal device 30, an acknowledgement message (one of the response messages) may be sent to the access network device 20. Alternatively, the acknowledgement message may carry the content of the security mode command message and the content of the RRC reconfiguration message. Further, the access network device 20 may forward the content of the security mode command message and the content of the RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal device 30, and after the terminal device 30 receives the content of the security mode command (security mode command, SMC) message and the content of the RRC reconfiguration message, corresponding operations may be performed, for example, sending a security mode command complete message to the access network device 20 or 40 and sending an RRC reconfiguration complete message to the access network device 40, which is not limited by the embodiment of the present application. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the admission terminal device is a brief expression mode for allowing the terminal device to access.

In yet another possible manner, in case the access network device 40 determines not to admit the terminal device 30, negative acknowledgement information may be sent to the access network device 20, so that the access network device 20 knows that the access network device 40 does not admit the terminal device 30.

It will be appreciated that an access network device 40 is illustrated herein. Alternatively, access network device 20 may interact similarly with multiple access network devices 40, and the response messages sent by different access network devices 40 to access network device 20 may be different.

Here, the RRC establishment cause may include at least one of an emergency call, a high priority access, a passive service, an actively triggered signaling service, an actively triggered data service, an actively triggered voice call, an actively triggered video call, an actively triggered short message service (SMS, short MESSAGE SERVICE), a high priority access of a multimedia priority service (MPS, multimedia Priority Service), a high priority access of a critical service (MCS, mission-CRITICAL SERVICE), and other RRC establishment causes, for example. It is understood that the RRC establishment cause may also be referred to as RRC connection establishment cause.

Alternatively, the terminal device may also have communication connections with multiple access network devices and may send and receive data, which may be called multi-connectivity (MC), where one access device among the multiple access devices may be responsible for interacting radio resource control messages with the terminal device and for interacting with a core network control plane entity, then the access device may be called MN, and the other access devices may be called SN.

Optionally, as shown in fig. 2, a schematic hardware structure of the access network device 20 and the terminal device 30 according to an embodiment of the present application is shown.

Wherein the terminal device 30 comprises at least one processor (illustrated in fig. 2 by way of example as comprising one processor 301) and at least one transceiver (illustrated in fig. 2 by way of example as comprising one transceiver 303). Optionally, the terminal device 30 may further include at least one memory (illustrated in fig. 2 by way of example as including a memory 302), at least one output device (illustrated in fig. 2 by way of example as including an output device 304), and at least one input device (illustrated in fig. 2 by way of example as including an input device 305).

The processor 301, the memory 302 and the transceiver 303 are connected by a communication line. The communication lines may include any pathway to communicate information between the aforementioned components.

The processor 301 may be a general purpose central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), microprocessor, application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of the programs of the present application. In a specific implementation, the processor 301 may also include multiple CPUs, as an embodiment, and the processor 301 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, or processing cores for processing data (e.g., computer program instructions).

The memory 302 may be a device having a memory function. For example, but not limited to, a read-only memory (ROM) or other type of static storage device that can store static information and instructions, a random access memory (random access memory, RAM) or other type of dynamic storage device that can store information and instructions, an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (ELECTRICALLY ERASABLE PROGRAMMABLE READ-only memory, EEPROM), a compact disc read-only memory (compact disc read-only memory) or other optical disk storage, optical disk 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 any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. The memory 302 may be stand alone and be connected to the processor 301 by a communication line. Memory 302 may also be integrated with processor 301.

The memory 302 is used for storing computer-executable instructions for executing the inventive arrangements, and is controlled by the processor 301 for execution. Specifically, the processor 301 is configured to execute computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 302, thereby implementing the communication method described in the embodiment of the present application. Alternatively, the computer-executable instructions in the embodiments of the present application may be referred to as application program codes or computer program codes, which are not limited in particular by the embodiments of the present application.

The transceiver 303 may use any transceiver-like device for communicating with other devices or communication networks, such as ethernet, radio access network (radio access network, RAN), or wireless local area network (wireless local area networks, WLAN), etc. The transceiver 303 includes a transmitter Tx and a receiver Rx. The transceiver 303 may also be an interface circuit.

The output device 304 communicates with the processor 301 and may display information in a variety of ways. For example, the output device 304 may be a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) CRYSTAL DISPLAY, a Light Emitting Diode (LED) display device, a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) display device, or a projector (projector), or the like.

The input device 305 communicates with the processor 301 and may accept user input in a variety of ways. For example, the input device 305 may be a mouse, a keyboard, a touch screen device, a sensing device, or the like.

The access network device 20 comprises at least one processor (illustrated in fig. 2 by way of example as comprising one processor 201), at least one transceiver (illustrated in fig. 2 by way of example as comprising one transceiver 203), and at least one network interface (illustrated in fig. 2 by way of example as comprising one network interface 204). Optionally, the access network device 20 may also include at least one memory (illustrated in fig. 2 by way of example as including one memory 202). Wherein the processor 201, the memory 202, the transceiver 203 and the network interface 204 are connected by communication lines. The network interface 204 is used to connect with a core network device through a link (e.g., an S1 interface) or to connect with network interfaces of other access network devices (not shown in fig. 2) through a wired or wireless link (e.g., an X2 interface), which is not specifically limited by the embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, the access network device 20 in the embodiment of the present application is a device for accessing the terminal device 30 to a wireless network, which may be an evolved base station (evolutional Node B, eNB or eNodeB) in long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE), a base station in eLTE, a base station in a fifth generation (5th generation,5G) network or a public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN) that evolves in the future, a broadband network service gateway (broadband network gateway, BNG), a convergence switch, or a non-third generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project,3GPP) access device, and the embodiment of the present application is not limited in this regard. Alternatively, the base station in the embodiment of the present application may include various types of base stations, such as macro base stations, micro base stations (also called small stations), relay stations, access points, and so on, which are not specifically limited in the embodiment of the present application.

In one network architecture, an access network may include centralized unit (centralized unit, CU) nodes, or Distributed Unit (DU) nodes, or RAN equipment including CU nodes and DU nodes, or control plane CU nodes (CU-CP nodes) and user plane CU nodes (CU-UP nodes) and DU nodes.

The communication between the access network device and the terminal device follows a certain protocol layer structure. For example, the control plane protocol layer structure may include functions of protocol layers such as a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) layer, a packet data convergence layer protocol (PACKET DATA convergence protocol, PDCP) layer, a radio link control (radio link control, RLC) layer, a medium access control (MEDIA ACCESS control, MAC) layer, and a physical layer. The user plane protocol layer structure may include the functions of protocol layers such as PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer, and in one implementation, a service data adaptation (SERVICE DATA adaptation protocol, SDAP) layer may be further included above the PDCP layer.

The functions of these protocol layers may be implemented by one node or may be implemented by a plurality of nodes, for example, in an evolution architecture, the RAN device may include a centralized unit (centralized unit, CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU), and a plurality of DUs may be centrally controlled by one CU.

The CU and the DU may be divided according to protocol layers of the wireless network, for example, functions of a PDCP layer and above are set at the CU, and functions of protocol layers below PDCP, for example, functions of an RLC layer and a MAC layer, etc. are set at the DU. Alternatively, the CU has a PDCP layer or higher (including PDCP, RRC, and SDAP) function, and the DU has a PDCP layer or lower (including RLC, MAC, and PHY) function.

The division of the protocol layers is only an example, and it is also possible to divide at other protocol layers, for example, at the RLC layer, to set the functions of the RLC layer and above at the CU, and the functions of the protocol layers below the RLC layer at the DU, or to divide at a certain protocol layer, for example, to set a part of the functions of the RLC layer and the functions of the protocol layers above the RLC layer at the CU, and the remaining functions of the RLC layer and the functions of the protocol layers below the RLC layer at the DU. In addition, the functions that require processing time to meet the latency requirement may be set in the DU and the functions that do not require processing time to meet the latency requirement may be set in the CU in other manners, such as time-lapse partitioning.

Alternatively, the terminal device 30 in the embodiment of the present application may be a device for implementing a wireless communication function, such as a terminal or a chip that may be used in the terminal. The terminal may be a User Equipment (UE), an access terminal, a terminal unit, a terminal station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a wireless communication device, a terminal agent, a terminal apparatus, or the like in a 5G network or a future evolved PLMN. An access terminal may be a cellular telephone, a cordless telephone, a session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol, SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (personal DIGITAL ASSISTANT, PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication capabilities, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, an in-vehicle device or a wearable device, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in unmanned (SELF DRIVING), a wireless terminal in telemedicine (remote medical), a wireless terminal in smart grid (SMART GRID), a wireless terminal in transportation security (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in smart city (SMART CITY), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), etc. The terminal may be mobile or stationary.

Alternatively, in the embodiment of the present application, the access network device 20 and the terminal device 30 shown in fig. 1 or fig. 2 may also be referred to as a communication apparatus, which may be a general-purpose device or a special-purpose device, which is not limited in particular in the embodiment of the present application.

In various embodiments of the present application, a beam (beam) may be understood as a spatial resource, and may refer to a transmit or receive precoding vector having energy transmission directivity. In addition, the transmitted or received precoding vector can be identified by index information, where the index information may correspond to a resource identifier (identity, ID) of the configured terminal, for example, the index information may correspond to an identifier or a resource of the configured SSB, may also correspond to an identifier or a resource of the configured CSI-RS, and may also be an identifier or a resource of a configured uplink Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) REFERENCE SIGNAL. Alternatively, the index information may also be index information that is displayed or implicitly carried through a signal or channel carried by the beam. The energy transmission directivity may refer to that signals to be transmitted are precoded through the precoding vector, the signals subjected to the precoding have certain spatial directivity, the signals subjected to the precoding are received with good receiving power, such as meeting the signal-to-noise ratio of receiving demodulation, and the like, and the energy transmission directivity may also refer to that the same signals transmitted from different spatial positions are received through the precoding vector and have different receiving powers. Alternatively, the same communication device (e.g., a terminal device or a network device) may have different precoding vectors, and different devices may also have different precoding vectors, i.e., corresponding to different beams. One communication device may use one or more of a plurality of different precoding vectors at the same time, i.e. may form one beam or multiple beams at the same time, for the configuration or capabilities of the communication device.

In various embodiments of the present application, as an implementation manner, the related message 1-message 4 may correspond to a first message-fourth message in the competitive random access procedure, where the message may also be abbreviated as MSG. It will be appreciated that message 1 may also be referred to as message 1, message 2 may also be referred to as message 2, and so on. As another implementation manner, the competitive random access may also be implemented by a two-step procedure, where the messages included in the competitive random access procedure of the two-step procedure may be referred to as message a (first message) and message b (second message), where the functions implemented by message a and the previously described message 1 plus message 3 are the same, and the functions implemented by message b and the previously described message 2 and message 4 are the same. Therefore, when referring to message 3, the following description of the embodiment of the present application may refer to other messages having the function of message 3, such as message a, and when referring to message 4, the following description of the embodiment of the present application may refer to other messages having the function of message 4, such as message b. In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, the first message sent by the terminal device after the message having the function of message 4 is referred to as message 5. The function of each message in the competitive random access process is not described in detail in the embodiment of the present application.

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the application will be described in detail with reference to fig. 1 and 2.

It should be noted that, in the following embodiments of the present application, a name of a message between each network element or a name of each parameter in a message is only an example, and in specific implementations, other names may also be used, which is not limited in particular by the embodiments of the present application.

As shown in fig. 3, a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application includes the following steps:

s301, the terminal equipment sends a measurement report to the first access network equipment.

Here, the terminal device may perform signal quality measurement, obtain a signal quality measurement result, and generate a measurement report according to the signal quality measurement result.

It is understood that the terminal device herein may be a terminal device in an idle or Inactive state. The inactive state is an RRC state, and may be referred to as "RRC inactive state" or "inactive state". Similar to the idle state, in the deactivated state, the terminal device disconnects the RRC connection with the network. But unlike the idle state, in the deactivated state the terminal device and the access network device preserve the context of the terminal. The access network device that configures the terminal device to enter a deactivated state and stores the context information of the terminal device is generally referred to as a source network device, or an anchor (anchor) network device. Alternatively, the definition of the deactivation state may be described with reference to the correlation in 3gpp ts 38.300.

The measurement report may include identification information of at least one cell, or include identification information of at least one cell and a corresponding signal quality measurement result. Optionally, the method may further include identification information of at least one beam in the at least one cell, or may further include identification information of at least one beam in the at least one cell and a corresponding beam measurement result. And the at least one cell may include a cell in which the terminal device is currently located and other cells, where the other cells may include other cells belonging to the first network device and/or other cells not belonging to the first network device. The number of other cells may be an integer greater than or equal to 0, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. Optionally, the identification information of at least one cell carried in the measurement report may be identification information of a cell whose signal quality meets a first preset condition, and the identification information of at least one beam may be identification information of a beam whose beam signal quality meets a second preset condition, or may be identification information of all beams belonging to the cell. The first preset condition and the second preset condition may be configured by the access network device or may be predefined, which is not limited by the embodiment of the present application. The measurement report in the embodiment of the application can also be called as a signal quality measurement report or other names such as a signal quality measurement result.

Alternatively, for the terminal device in the idle state, the measurement report may be sent to the first access network device through an RRC setup request message (e.g. message 3) or an RRC setup complete message (e.g. message 5) in the random access procedure. The first access network device is the access network device where the terminal device is currently located. In one possible approach, the first access network device may also be referred to as a source base station.

Optionally, for the terminal device in the inactive state, the measurement report may be sent to the first access network device through message 3 (or message a). The first access network device may be an anchor network device or a non-anchor network device.

In the embodiment of the present application, the measurement report sent through the message 3 (or the message a) or the message 5 may be referred to as an advanced measurement report (early measurement report, EMR). Of course, the EMR may also be sent by other messages or signaling, for example, before the access network device sends the collision resolution message (message 4 (or message b)), the measurement report and message 3 (or message a) are multiplexed in the same MAC data packet, such as in a MAC service data unit (SERVICE DATA unit, SDU), or the measurement report and message 3 (or message a) are sent on different uplink grant resources before message 4 (or message b), respectively.

Optionally, the message3 may include, for example, identification information of the terminal device and RRC establishment cause (establishment cause), where the identification information of the terminal device may be, for example, initial UE-Identity. The initial ue identity information may be, for example, information related to S-temporary mobile subscriber identity, S-TMSI. In the case of transmitting a measurement report through message3, the measurement report may also be included in message 3.

Alternatively, the message 5 may include identification information of the selected public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN). Further, the message 5 may further include other information, such as registered target core network node identification information and list of single network slice selection support information (single network slice selection assistance information, S-NSSAI), besides the selected PLMN identification information, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. In the case of sending a measurement report through the message 5, the measurement report may also be included in the message 5.

It may be understood that the terminal device may send the measurement report to the first access network device at other occasions, as long as the first access network device can determine the appropriate target access network device (the second access network device) in advance, which is not limited by the embodiment of the present application.

S302, the terminal equipment sends service information to the first access network equipment.

Here, the service information refers to information for indicating a service or a network requirement of the terminal device, and the service information may be alternatively referred to as network information.

In a possible manner, the service information may include registered target core network node identification information and/or an S-NSSAI list.

For example, in a 5G system, the core network node may be an access mobility management function (ACCESS AND mobility management function, AMF). In the LTE system, the core network node may be, for example, a Mobility Management Entity (MME) MANAGEMENT ENTITY.

It may be appreciated that the service information may be sent through the message 5, or may be sent in other manners, which is not limited by the embodiment of the present application.

Note that S301 and S302 may be performed simultaneously. For example, the measurement report and the service information may be sent to the first access network device by a message (e.g. message 5).

In addition, S301 and S302 may also be executed at different times, that is, the measurement report and the service information may be sent to the first access network device through different messages, and the embodiment of the present application does not limit the sequence of S301 and S302.

And the first access network equipment can determine the second access network equipment according to the measurement report and the service information.

For example, the first access network device determines whether the terminal device can be supported or meet the requirement of the terminal device according to the service information, thereby determining whether to provide services for the terminal device. If the first access network device determines that the terminal device cannot be served, the second access network device can be further determined according to the measurement report, and S304 and subsequent processes are executed. It may be understood that if the first access network device determines that it is capable of providing services for the terminal device, the subsequent flow according to the embodiment of the present application may be not executed, but an appropriate core network node may be selected for the terminal device according to the service information of the terminal device, and service services required by the terminal device may be provided. Or if the first access network device cannot determine the suitable second access network device, the subsequent flow of the embodiment of the application may not be executed, but a rejection message or a release message may be sent to the terminal device, so as to reject providing the service required by the terminal device.

In one possible manner, for a terminal device in a deactivated state, the first access network device may further determine, in addition to the service information and the measurement report, a second access network device based on configuration information of a wireless network area (radio network area, RNA) of the terminal device, e.g. to preferentially select a second access network device within the RNA that meets the condition to serve the terminal device.

The first access network device may not support or satisfy the requirement of the terminal device according to the service information:

The first access network device determines that the target core network node is congested or the target core network node does not support the access of the terminal device, wherein the target core network node is a target core network node identified by registered target core network node identification information, and/or,

The first access network device determines that a slice is not congested or that the slice does not support access by the terminal device, wherein the slice is one or more slices identified by the S-NSSAI list.

Optionally, the first access network device may select an appropriate second access network device according to the measurement report sent in S302, for example, select an access network device with cell signal quality meeting a preset condition as the second access network device. The preset condition may be, for example, that the cell signal quality is greater than or equal to a preset threshold, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. Here, the second access network device is suitably a second access network device determined by the first access network device, and it is understood that more than one second access network device may be used.

It will be appreciated that S301-S302 are optional steps, that is, the second access network device may not be determined in the above manner, but the first message may be sent to any one or more second access network devices, and the process of sending the first message to any one or more second access network devices may be referred to as blind selection. Optionally, the first network device may determine that the first message needs to be sent to any one or more second access network devices according to the service information in S302, or may send the first message to any one or more second access network devices at other occasions, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. And the second access network equipment is determined according to the service information and the measurement report, so that the first access network equipment can determine the target access network equipment under the condition that the first access network equipment cannot support the requirement of the terminal equipment, thereby shortening the time delay of the terminal equipment accessing to the network.

If there are a plurality of second access network devices, the following flows are executed between the first access network device and each of the second access network devices. A second access network device is exemplified below. In the embodiment of the present application, the second access network device may also be referred to as a target access network device.

S303, the first access network equipment sends a first message to the second access network equipment.

The first message at least includes identification information of the terminal device, a radio resource control RRC establishment cause, and identification information of a public land mobile network PLMN selected by the terminal device. The PLMN identification information selected by the terminal device is provided to the second access network device, so that the second access network device can select a core network node according to the PLMN identification information, and the identification information of the terminal device and the RRC establishment cause can be used for subsequent interaction with the core network node by the second access network device.

The identification information of the terminal device, the reason for RRC establishment, and the identification information of the public land mobile network PLMN selected by the terminal device may be obtained from information sent by the terminal device, for example, obtained from message 3 and message 5 sent by the terminal device.

Optionally, the first message may further include one or more of registered core network identification information, globally Unique core network identification type (guami-type, global Unique AMF IDENTIFIER TYPE), S-NSSAI list, and a dedicated NAS message. The above information may also be obtained by the first access network device from a message (e.g. message 5) sent by the terminal device.

In a possible manner, the first message may include part or all of the content included in the message 3 (or the message a) and the message 5 that are sent by the terminal device to the first access network device.

Optionally, for the terminal device in idle state, the identification information of the terminal device may be terminal identification information of a non-access stratum, such as temporary mobile subscriber identity (temporary mobile subscriber identity, TMSI) or 5G-TMSI.

Optionally, for the terminal device in the inactive state, the identification information of the terminal device may be a radio network temporary identifier (inactive radio network tempory identity, I-RNTI) in the deactivated state.

S304, the second access network equipment sends a response message of the first message to the first access network equipment.

Accordingly, the first access network device receives a response message to the first message from the second access network device. This response message may also be referred to as a first response message.

After receiving the first message, the second access network device may determine whether to allow the terminal device to access according to factors such as a network load condition or a base station function, so as to send a corresponding first response message to the first access network device. It should be noted that, the manner how the second access network device determines whether to allow the terminal device to access is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

In a possible manner, in case the second access network device determines to admit the terminal device, an acknowledgement message (an example of a first response message) may be sent to the first access network device. Alternatively, the acknowledgement message may include the content of the security mode command message and the content of the RRC reconfiguration message. It will be appreciated that the content of the security mode command message and the content of the RRC reconfiguration message may be contained in the same acknowledgement message or may be contained in different acknowledgement messages. Here, the RRC reconfiguration message may also be referred to as a handover message, and the name of the message is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. Wherein the content of the security mode command message is for activating access layer security of the terminal device, the content of the RRC reconfiguration message is for switching the terminal device to a target cell, and it is understood that the target cell is a cell to which the second access network device belongs. It is understood that the content of the security mode command message may also be referred to as security mode command information, and the content of the RRC reconfiguration message may also be referred to as RRC reconfiguration information. Before the terminal equipment directly sends an access request to the second access network equipment, the content of the security mode command message and the content of the RRC reconfiguration message are transmitted through the first access network equipment, so that the time delay of the terminal equipment accessing to the network is shortened. It will be appreciated that the content of the security mode command message and the content of the RRC reconfiguration message may also be sent to the first access network device separately via different messages.

As one implementation, the content of the security mode command message and the content of the RRC reconfiguration message are contained in the acknowledgement message in the form of an encapsulated packet data convergence protocol control protocol data unit (PACKET DATA convergence protocol control protocol data unit, PDCP-C PDU). Optionally, the second access network device may not perform any security protection or may perform only integrity protection when encapsulating the content of the security mode command message, and may perform integrity protection or may perform integrity protection and ciphering protection when encapsulating the content of the RRC reconfiguration message. In the embodiment of the application, the security protection comprises integrity protection or integrity protection and encryption protection.

In yet another possible manner, in case the second access network device determines not to admit the terminal device, negative acknowledgement information (another example of the first response message) may be sent to the first access network device, so that the first access network device knows that the second access network device does not admit the terminal device.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present application, the method may further include the following steps:

s305, the first access network device sends the content in the received first response message to the terminal device.

In this step, the first access network device sends the content of the security mode command message and the content of the RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal device. For example, the first access network device transparently transmits the security mode command message and the RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal device. The content of the security mode command message and the content of the RRC reconfiguration message may be sent to the terminal device through one message, or may be sent to the terminal device at different occasions through different messages. The content of the security mode command message may be sent to the terminal device, for example, by a security mode command message (SMC), and the content of the RRC reconfiguration message may be sent to the terminal device by an RRC reconfiguration message. It will be appreciated that the terminal device may send a response message to the first access network device after receiving the content of the security mode command message transmitted by the first access network device. Or after receiving the content of the security mode command message, the terminal device sends a response message to the first access network device or the second access network device according to the corresponding indication information. Optionally, if the first access network device receives the response message sent by the terminal device, the first access network device forwards the second response message to the second access network device. In addition, after receiving the content of the RRC reconfiguration complete message transmitted by the first access network device, the terminal device may send a response message to the second access network device. The response message mentioned in relation to the present embodiment may be described in detail with reference to the embodiment of fig. 4.

In the embodiment of the application, the first message is sent to the second access network equipment through the first access network equipment, so that the terminal equipment can be selected to the proper service access network equipment as soon as possible, and the time delay of the terminal equipment accessing to the network is reduced.

It will be appreciated that there may be different security mechanisms for the content of the RRC reconfiguration message in the response message to the first message sent by the second access network device, as will be described in more detail below.

As shown in fig. 4, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication method, which may include:

s401, the terminal equipment sends a measurement report to the first access network equipment.

And S402, the terminal equipment sends service information to the first access network equipment.

S403, the first access network equipment sends a first message to the second access network equipment.

For implementation and specific description of S401-S403, reference may be made to the related description at S301-S303, and detailed description thereof will be omitted herein.

S404, the second access network device sends a first response message to the first access network device.

Taking the second access network device as an example, the second access network device determines to accommodate the terminal device, and the first response message includes the content of the security mode command message and the content of the RRC reconfiguration message. It will be appreciated that the content of the security mode command message and the content of the RRC reconfiguration message may be contained in the same acknowledgement message or may be contained in different acknowledgement messages.

In one possible way, the content of the RRC reconfiguration message may be secured according to an initial key and a certain security algorithm (which may be referred to as a first security algorithm). The method can reduce the influence on the terminal equipment, and in addition, the content of the RRC reconfiguration message is safely protected so that the authenticity and the privacy of the message can be ensured.

The initial key may be from the core network device, for example, the core network device determines the initial key and sends the initial key to the second access network device.

Optionally, the first security algorithm comprises an integrity protection algorithm, or the first security algorithm comprises an integrity protection algorithm and an encryption algorithm. In one possible approach, the first security algorithm may be determined by the second access network device. For example, the second access network device may select, as the first security algorithm, an algorithm with a higher priority among the security algorithms that it supports. The embodiment of the application does not limit how to determine the first security algorithm and the specific security algorithm.

In addition, the content of the security mode command message may include information of the first security algorithm, so that the terminal device may learn what security algorithm is used by the content of the RRC reconfiguration information. It should be noted that, the information of the first security algorithm may also be sent to the first access network device through other messages or signaling, which is not limited by the embodiment of the present application.

In yet another possible manner, the content of the RRC reconfiguration message may be secured according to a first key and a first security algorithm, wherein the first key is determined according to the initial key and information of the source cell. Optionally, the information of the source cell may include at least one of a physical cell identifier of the source cell and a frequency point of the source cell. The source cell is a cell belonging to the first access network device and initiating an access request for the terminal device. Wherein the process of determining the first key from the initial key and the information of the source cell may also be referred to as key derivation. In this way, the content of the RRC reconfiguration message is secured so that the authenticity and privacy of the message can be guaranteed.

Optionally, in the case that the content of the RRC reconfiguration message is secured according to the first key, the second access network device may send information of the first key to the first access network device, for example, may include information of the first key in the content of the security mode message in the first response message. By including the information of the first key in the content of the security mode message, the terminal device can be made aware that the content of the RRC reconfiguration message is secured according to the first key. The information of the first key may be the first key itself or the information indicating the first key (indicating the use of the first key). In case the information of the first key is the indication information of the first key, the terminal device may derive the first key from the initial key and the information of the source cell. The embodiment of the application does not limit the way in which the second access network device sends the information of the first key to the first access network device.

S405, the first access network device sends the content of the security mode command message to the terminal device.

Correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives the content of the security mode command message.

In a possible manner, the first access network device may forward the content of the security mode command message sent by the second access network device to the terminal device through the security mode command message. The content of the security mode command message sent by the first access network device to the terminal device is the same as the content of the security mode command message sent by the second access network device to the first access network device.

In one possible approach, the first access network device transparently forwards the security mode command message received from the second access network device.

S406, the terminal equipment sends a second response message.

The terminal device may send the second response message to the first access network device, or may send the second response message to the second access network device. Optionally, the terminal device may send a second response message to the first access network device after receiving the content of the security mode command message transmitted by the first access network device. Or the terminal device may determine whether to send the second response message to the first access network device or to the second access network device based on the first indication information from the second access network device. The first indication information may be forwarded to the terminal device through the first access network device. For example, the content of the security mode command message in the first response message may include first indication information, where the first indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to send the second response message to the second access network device. It will be appreciated that if the first indication information is not included in the first response message, the terminal device transmits the second response message to the first access network device by default. In addition, the first indication information may indicate to send the second response message to the first access network device, and if the first indication information is not included in the first response message, the terminal device defaults to send the second response message to the second access network device. The mode how the first indication information is specifically indicated is not limited by the embodiment of the application, so long as the terminal equipment can determine whether to send the second response message to the first access network equipment or the second access network equipment.

It may be appreciated that, in case the second access network device instructs the terminal device to send the second response message to the second access network device, the second access network device may also send second instruction information to the first access network device, where the second instruction information instructs the first access network device not to receive the second response message. Through the second indication information, when the terminal equipment sends a second response to the second access network equipment, energy consumption caused by corresponding information of the first access network equipment receiving the security mode command information, which is caused by inconsistent operation of the terminal equipment and the first access network equipment, can be avoided. It should be noted that, the first indication information and the second indication information may be sent in the same message, or may be sent in different messages, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

In a possible manner, the terminal device correctly receives the content of the security mode command message, and sends a second response message to the first access network device or the second access network device according to the content of the security mode command message, so that the first access network device or the second access network device knows that the terminal device activates the security mode. The second response message may be, for example, a secure mode complete message.

In a possible manner, when the terminal device cannot activate the security mode according to the content of the security mode command message, the terminal device sends a second response message, so that the first access network device or the second access network device knows that the terminal device fails to activate the security mode. The second response message may be, for example, a secure mode failure message.

Further, if the terminal device sends the second response message to the first access network device, the method shown in fig. 4 may further include the first access network device forwarding the second response message to the second access network device. For example, when the first access network device receives the second response message sent by the terminal device, the first access network device forwards the second response message to the second access network device.

It can be understood that, according to the security mechanism of the content of the RRC reconfiguration message sent by the second access network device, and the sending object of the second response message (the first access network device or the second access network device), the second response message has a corresponding security mechanism:

For example, assuming that the content of the RRC reconfiguration message sent by the second access network device is secured according to the initial key and the first security algorithm, and that the second response message is sent to the first access network device, the second response message may also be secured according to the initial key and the first security algorithm, or assuming that the content of the RRC reconfiguration message sent by the second access network device is secured according to the initial key and the first security algorithm, and that the second response message is sent to the second access network device, the second response message may be secured according to the same security mechanism as the third response message, see in particular the description of the security mechanism for the third response message below;

Or the second response message may be secured according to the first key and the first security algorithm, provided that the content of the RRC reconfiguration message sent by the second access network device is secured according to the first key and the first security algorithm, and the second response message is sent to the first access network device, or the second response message may be secured according to the same security mechanism as the third response message, see in particular the description of the security mechanism of the third response message below. It can be seen that in case the second response message is sent to the first access network device, the second response message may be secured according to the same security mechanism as the content of the RRC reconfiguration message described in S404, and in case the second response message is sent to the second access network device, the second response message may be secured according to the same security mechanism as the third response message.

On the basis of the above flow, the method shown in fig. 4 may further include the following steps:

S407, the first access network device sends the content of the RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal device.

Correspondingly, the terminal receives the content of the RRC reconfiguration message. The content of the RRC reconfiguration message sent by the first access network device to the terminal device is the same as the content of the RRC reconfiguration message sent by the second access network device to the first access network device.

In a possible manner, the first access network device may transparently forward the content of the RRC reconfiguration message sent by the second access network device to the terminal device through the RRC reconfiguration message.

And S408, the terminal equipment sends a third response message to the second access network equipment.

In case the RRC reconfiguration may be successfully completed, the terminal device may send a third response message (which may also be called second message) to the second access network device. Alternatively, if the RRC reconfiguration is not completed successfully, the terminal device may enter an idle state, it being understood that the terminal device need not perform S408 at this time.

In a possible manner, the third response message may be an RRC reconfiguration complete message or a handover complete message.

It can be appreciated that the third response message may also be secured according to a certain security mechanism:

For example, assuming that the content of the RRC reconfiguration message in S404 is secured according to the initial key, the third response message may be secured according to the initial key, or may be secured according to a second key determined (derived) according to the initial key and the information of the target cell, and assuming that the content of the RRC reconfiguration message in S404 is secured according to the first key, the third response message may be secured according to a third key determined (derived) according to the third key, or may be secured according to the first key. Optionally, the information of the target cell may include at least one of a physical cell identity (PHYSICAL CELL IDENTITY, PCI) of the target cell and frequency point information of the target cell, for example. The target cell is a cell belonging to the second access network device. In one possible manner, the terminal device may obtain the information of the target cell from the content of the RRC reconfiguration message.

It should be noted that S405 and S407 may be performed simultaneously, for example, the content of the security mode command message and the content of the RRC reconfiguration message are sent to the terminal device in one message, S407 may be performed after S405, or S407 may be performed before S405, which is not limited by the embodiment of the present application.

In the communication method shown in the embodiment of fig. 4, through the above-mentioned security mechanism, the second access network device may perform security activation and reconfiguration procedures on the terminal device through the first access network device, so as to switch the terminal device from the first access network device to the second access network device as soon as possible, and reduce the time delay of the terminal device accessing the network.

As to the manner in which the terminal device sends the advanced measurement report before message 4, the embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, as shown in fig. 5, including:

S501, receiving random access resource configuration information of an advanced measurement report from an access network device.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present application, the configuration information of the random access resource may be random access preamble information, random access time domain resource information, or any combination of random access frequency domain resource information.

For example, the configuration information of the random access resource may include random access preamble information, or the configuration information of the random access resource may include random access time domain resource information, or the configuration information of the random access resource may include random access frequency domain resource information, or the configuration information of the random access resource may include random access preamble information on the random access frequency domain resource, that is, the configuration information of the random access resource includes random access frequency resource information and random access preamble information, or the configuration information of the random access resource may include random access preamble information on the random access time domain resource, that is, the configuration information of the random access resource includes random access time domain resource information and random access preamble information, or the configuration information of the random access resource may include random access time domain resource and random access preamble on the random access frequency domain resource, that is, the configuration information of the random access resource includes random access time domain resource information, random access frequency resource information and random access preamble information. Optionally, in the embodiment of the present application, the random access time domain resource information may include, for example, an identifier of a random access time domain resource or a configuration of a random access time domain resource, where the configuration of the random access time domain resource may include, for example, a configuration of a frame (frame), a symbol (symbol), a slot (slot), and so on.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present application, the random access frequency domain resource information may include, for example, an identifier of a random access frequency domain resource or a configuration of a random access frequency domain resource. The configuration of the random access frequency domain resource may include, for example, a configuration of a bandwidth, a resource block, and the like.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present application, the random access preamble information may include, for example, an identifier of the random access preamble or a configuration for determining the random access preamble. The configuration of the random access preamble may include, for example, a preamble.

It will be appreciated that S501 is an optional step, that is, the access network device may not need to send random access resource configuration information of the advanced measurement report, and the advanced measurement report may correspond to the predefined random access resource.

S502, the terminal equipment sends a random access preamble (preamble) to the access network equipment.

It will be appreciated that the transmission of the preamble by the terminal device to the access network device may also be referred to as transmitting message 1 (message 1), and correspondingly, the access network device receives the random access preamble transmitted by the terminal device. In the case where the terminal device has an advance measurement report to transmit, the terminal device may transmit a random access preamble according to a random access resource corresponding to the random access resource configuration information described in S501.

S503, the access network equipment determines whether the terminal equipment has an advanced measurement report to be sent according to the information of the random access preamble.

Here, the information of the random access preamble may be any one or more of random access preamble itself, time domain resource information used for transmitting the random access preamble, and frequency domain resource information used for transmitting the random access preamble. If the access network device knows that the information of the random access preamble accords with the random access resource of the advanced measurement report configured by the access network device or predefined, the access network device determines that the terminal device has the advanced measurement report to be sent, and executes S503, if the access network device knows that the information of the random access preamble does not accord with the random access resource of the advanced measurement report configured by the access network device or predefined, the access network device determines that the terminal device does not have the advanced measurement report to be sent, and the processing is performed according to the normal flow. The random access resource of the advance measurement report configured or predefined by the access network device and the information of the random access preamble may be random access resource information corresponding to the configuration information of the random access resource configured or predefined by the access network device.

S504, the access network equipment sends uplink scheduling information of the advanced measurement report to the terminal equipment.

In a possible manner, the access network device may send, to the terminal device, an uplink schedule of an advanced measurement report, such as uplink grant (uplink grant) resource information, through a random access response (message 2). It may be understood that the message 2 may include not only the uplink scheduling information of the advanced measurement report, but also, optionally, the uplink scheduling information of the message 3. The uplink scheduling information of the advanced measurement report and the uplink scheduling information of message 3 may be the same or different. For example, 2 pieces of uplink scheduling information are included in message 2, grant 1, grant 2 and grant 3, grant 1 may be used to transmit message 3, and grant 2 may be used to transmit an advance measurement report.

S505, the terminal equipment advances the measurement report to the access network equipment.

After receiving the uplink scheduling information sent by the access network device, the terminal device sends an advance measurement report to the access network device at the same time of sending message 3 (which can be understood as accompanying message 3) or immediately sends the advance measurement report to the access network device along with message 3 according to the uplink scheduling information.

In a possible manner, the advanced measurement report and the message 3 may be multiplexed in the same MAC data packet for transmission, such as a MAC service data unit (SERVICE DATA unit, SDU), or the measurement report and the message 3 may be respectively transmitted on different uplink grant resources before the message4, or the advanced measurement report may be included in the message 3. Optionally, if the sending of the advance measurement report to be sent is not completed according to the uplink scheduling information, the method may further include:

S506 indicates to the access network device that the advanced measurement report did not send complete information.

After the terminal device transmits the advanced measurement report according to the uplink scheduling information configured in S504, if the terminal device finds that the configured uplink scheduling information is insufficient to transmit the advanced measurement report completely, that is, the terminal device cannot transmit the advanced measurement report completely at a time, the terminal device may indicate to the access network device that the advanced measurement report does not transmit complete information. It will be appreciated that the information indicating that the early measurement report is not completely transmitted may be implemented in different manners, for example, the information indicating whether the early measurement report is completely transmitted may be indicated by 1 bit information (for example, "0" indicates that the early measurement report is completely transmitted and "1" indicates that the early measurement report is not completely transmitted), or the corresponding information may be transmitted only when the early measurement report is not completely transmitted, if there is no corresponding information, the corresponding information may be transmitted only when the early measurement report is completely transmitted, or the corresponding information may be transmitted only when the early measurement report is completely transmitted, and if there is no corresponding information, the early measurement report is not completely transmitted.

Optionally, the indication information may be sent through a physical uplink control channel, or may be carried in an advanced measurement report, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application, so long as the access network device can be enabled to know whether the advanced measurement report is completely sent, so as to make corresponding processing.

It should be noted that, the communication method in the embodiment shown in fig. 5 may be applied to an inactive terminal device, an idle terminal device, and a terminal device where radio link reestablishment occurs, and in any scenario, the advance measurement report may be sent according to a communication method similar to that shown in fig. 5.

It will be appreciated that the communication method shown in fig. 5 may be independent of, or combined with, any of the other embodiments of the present application. For example, the communication method shown in fig. 5 may be combined with the communication method shown in fig. 3 or fig. 4, for sending an advance measurement report of the communication method shown in fig. 3 or fig. 4, where the access network device shown in fig. 5 is the first access network device.

The communication method of the embodiment shown in fig. 5 enables the terminal device to report the measurement report quickly, so that the service base station can execute the mobility-related configuration more quickly, and the data transmission experience of the terminal device is improved.

An embodiment of the present application further provides a communication method, as shown in fig. 6, which may include:

s601, the first node sends a message A to a core network node.

The first node may also be referred to herein as a first base station or a Master Node (MN). The core network node may be, for example, an AMF or MME or the like. Message a is a message for sending non-access stratum signaling of the terminal device to the core network node, and may be, for example, an initial user equipment message (initial UE message).

Optionally, before S601, the terminal device may further comprise sending information to the first node indicating that there is a measurement report.

S602, the core network node sends a message B to the first node.

Here, the message B is used to establish a connection configuration between the first node and the core network node for the terminal device, and may be, for example, an initial context setup request (initial context setup requset).

In the prior art, the first node sends a response message of the message B, for example, an initial context setup response (initial context setup response), to the core network node, and in the embodiment of the present application, the response message of the message B is not sent immediately after S602, but is sent after being combined with other message contents in a subsequent flow.

S603, the terminal device transmits a measurement report to the first node.

For the measurement report, reference may be made to the related description at S301, which is not repeated here.

It will be appreciated that prior to S603, the method may further comprise performing a secure mode interaction procedure between the first node and the terminal device, the first node sending a secure mode command to the terminal device, the terminal device sending a secure mode complete message to the first node after activating the secure mode.

It should be understood that the order of S603, S601, and S602 is merely an example, and the embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto. S603 may precede S601, or S603 may follow S601 and precede S602.

S604, the first node sends a request to the second node for adding the second node to provide services for the terminal device.

The second node may also be referred to herein as a second base station or Secondary Node (SN). Optionally, the request for adding the second node to serve the terminal device may be, for example, a secondary node addition request (S-Node addition request). The first node sends a request to the second node for requesting the second node to allocate resources for the terminal device for the multi-connection operation. In a possible manner, the first node may determine the second node according to the measurement report and perform addition, or may determine the second node to perform addition in other manners.

S605, the second node transmits a response to the first node.

Wherein the second node sends a response to the first node based on the request of the first node,

In a possible manner, the response sent by the second node to the first node may be, for example, a secondary node add request response (S-Node addition request response) for making the first node aware that the second node can provide services for the terminal device. The response sent by the second node to the first node may include resource configuration information for multi-connection operation, where the resource configuration information is allocated by the second node to the terminal device.

In a possible manner, for example, when the second node cannot provide the required bearer or service, the response sent by the second node to the first node may be, for example, a request rejection added by the secondary node (S-Node addition request reject), so that the first node knows that the second node cannot provide the service for the terminal device. .

S606, the first node sends a message C to the terminal device.

Wherein message C is for RRC reconfiguration and may be referred to as an RRC reconfiguration message, for example.

Alternatively, the message C may include configuration information of the second node, for the terminal device to establish a connection with the second node.

After receiving the message C, the terminal equipment establishes connection with the second node according to the configuration information of the second node carried in the message C.

S607, the terminal device transmits a response message of the message C to the first node.

Correspondingly, the first node receives a response message of the message C sent by the terminal equipment, and the response message is used for informing the first node that the terminal equipment completes the corresponding configuration according to the message C.

In one possible approach, the response message of message C may be an RRC reconfiguration complete message.

S608, the first node sends a message D to the core network node.

Correspondingly, the core network node receives the message D. Message D may include initial context setup response in the prior art, a session resource identification, and corresponding address information for transmitting the session resource downlink data.

In the embodiment of the application, the multi-connection configuration is configured for the terminal equipment in advance in the process of establishing the initial connection for the terminal equipment by the first node and the core network node, so that the signaling overhead between the first node and the core network node is reduced.

Still another embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, as shown in fig. 7, including:

S701, the terminal device a sends an advance measurement report to the access network device a.

Reference may be made to the relevant description of the previous embodiments regarding the content of the advance measurement report and the manner of transmission.

The terminal device may be a terminal device in a deactivated state or a terminal device in a radio link failure recovery process. The access network device a may also be referred to as a third access network device or a target access network device.

S702, the access network equipment A sends a message E to the access network equipment B to request to acquire the context of the terminal equipment.

After the access network device a acquires the pre-measurement report, it is determined whether to request to acquire the context of the terminal device a, for example, the access device a may determine to replace the access network device according to the cell load or other factors, select an appropriate target access network device according to the measurement report, and if the appropriate target access network device can be found, request to acquire the context of the terminal device.

Alternatively, the target access network device may be the same access network device as access network device a, or the target access network device may be the same access network device as access network device B, or the target access network device may be an access network device different from access network device a and access network device B.

In the case that the target access network device is the same as the access network device B, the access network device a may send the identification information of the target cell to the access network device B, and optionally, may send a measurement result related to the access network device B to the access network device while requesting to acquire the context of the terminal device.

The access network device B is an access network device that holds the context of the terminal device a. For example, for the terminal equipment A in the deactivated state, the access network equipment B can be the access network equipment for configuring the terminal equipment A to enter the deactivated state, the access network equipment B can also be called a source access network equipment or an anchor access network equipment, or for the terminal equipment in the radio link failure recovery process, the access network equipment B can be the access network equipment where the terminal equipment A is located when the radio link failure occurs, and the access network equipment B can also be called a source access network equipment.

Alternatively, the access network device B may also be referred to as a fourth access network device.

In one possible approach, the message E may be a get user device context request (RETRIEVAL UE CONTEXT REQUEST) message requesting to get the context of the terminal device. Message E may also be referred to as a third message.

S703, the access network device B sends the next hop link count (next hop chaining counter, NCC) to the access network device a.

The NCC sent by the access network device B is different in different scenarios:

(1) For the deactivated state scenario, the NCC sent by the access network device B to the access network device a is the same as the NCC sent to the terminal device when the access network device B configures the terminal device to enter the deactivated state. For example, the NCC sent by the access network device B to the access network device a may be an NCC carried in an RRC release message that configures the terminal device to enter the deactivated state by the access network device B.

(2) For the scenario of radio link failure recovery, the NCC fed back by the access network device B to the access network device a may be an NCC used by the terminal device a at the access network device B or an NCC not used by the terminal device a at the access network device B (may also be referred to as an NCC not used by the terminal device). For example, if there is an NCC that is not used by the terminal device a at the access network device B, the access network device B feeds back the NCC that is not used by the terminal device a to the access network device a, and if there is no NCC that is not used by the terminal device a at the access network device B, the access network device B feeds back the NCC that is used by the terminal device a at the access network device B to the access network device a. It will be appreciated that the NCC used by terminal device a at access network device B is configured by access network device B to terminal device a. In this scenario, the access network device B may not transmit the NCC to the access network device B based on the request of the access network device a, but may transmit the NCC to the access network device a in advance, and at this time, S702 may not be executed. Alternatively, in the case where the access network device sends the NCC to the access network device a in advance, the execution order of S701 and S703 is not limited, and for example, S703 may be executed before S701.

In a possible manner, the access network device B may send the NCC to the access network device a in the acquiring terminal device context request response message, and it is to be understood that the embodiment of the present application does not limit the message name for sending the NCC.

Optionally, the access network device B may further send a key a to the access network device a, where the key a may be based on a key used by the terminal device a when the access network device a initiates an access request or a key corresponding to the terminal device a stored by the access network device B. The information of the cell (the cell belongs to the access network equipment A) of which the terminal equipment A initiates the access request comprises at least one of physical cell identification and frequency point information of the cell.

S704, the access network device a sends a handover request to the target access network device.

S705, the target access network device replies a handover response to the access network device a.

Wherein, through S704 and S705, the handover preparation is completed. It should be noted that S704 and S705 are optional steps, that is, S704 and S705 may not be performed or exist, and S706 is performed after S703. For example, in the case where the target access network device is the same access network device as the access network device a or the access network device B, S704 and S705 are not performed.

S706, the access network device a sends the message 4 to the terminal device a.

The message 4 includes target cell information. The target cell information comprises at least one of physical cell identification of the target cell and frequency point information of the target cell. Optionally, the message 4 may further include reserved non-contention random access resource configuration information of the target cell. Further, the message 4 may further include information for determining the key B and/or a second security algorithm. The information used to determine key B may include NCC. Alternatively, the NCC may be an NCC that the access network device a receives from the access network device B. The second security algorithm may be a security algorithm that access network device a receives from the target access network device. It will be appreciated that the message 4 may not include information and/or security algorithms for the key B, and that the terminal device a may default to the relevant information in the stored context.

S707, the terminal device a sends a fourth message to the target access device.

Wherein the fourth message is used to access the target access device. Alternatively, the fourth message may be, for example, an RRC recovery complete message or an RRC reconfiguration complete message. In one possible way, the fourth message may be secured, for example, using key B (which may also be referred to as a new key). The key B may be determined from the key a, NCC and information of the target cell.

In the embodiment of the application, the appropriate target access network equipment is determined for the terminal equipment in time in the connection recovery or reestablishment process of the terminal equipment, so that the terminal equipment is better served.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication method, as shown in fig. 8, which may include:

S801, the terminal device a sends an advance measurement report to the access network device a.

S802, the access network device a sends a fifth message to the access network device B.

Wherein, the fifth message may carry part or all of the content of the advanced measurement report received by the access network device a from the terminal device a.

Or the fifth message may carry information of the target access network device and/or the target cell, which is used for the access network device B to identify the target access network device and/or the target cell.

S803, the access network device B sends a sixth message to the target access network device.

Wherein the sixth message is a message for implementing a handover request.

The target access network device may be determined by the access network device B based on some or all of the content of the early measurement report received from the access network device a, or the target access network device may be determined by the access network device a and sent to the access network device B.

Wherein the sixth message carries the target key (the key used in the communication between terminal device a and the target cell). Optionally, the sixth message may further include information of the target cell, and further may further include a measurement result of the target cell.

The method for determining the target key comprises the following steps that the access network equipment B determines a first key according to an old key when the terminal equipment A and the access network equipment B carry out service transmission and information of a cell (the cell belongs to the access network equipment A) of which the terminal equipment A initiates an access request, and then the access network equipment B determines the target key according to the first key and the target cell information.

Optionally, the sixth message may further include a target NCC (NCC used in communication between terminal equipment a and the target cell).

S804, the target access network device replies a response of the sixth message to the access network device B.

The response may carry a target security algorithm selected by the target access network device.

S805, the access network device B sends a response message of the fifth message to the access network device a.

The response message may carry the target cell information. Optionally, the response message may also carry reserved non-contention random access resource configuration information of the target cell.

Optionally, the response message may also carry information for determining the target key and/or the target security algorithm for the terminal device a. The information for determining the target key may include the target NCC.

S806, the access network device a sends the message 4 to the terminal device a.

S807, the terminal device a transmits a fourth message to the target access device.

Regarding S806 and S807, reference may be made to the relevant descriptions in S706-S707, which are not repeated here.

It will be appreciated that in the above embodiments, the method and/or the step implemented by the terminal device may also be implemented by a component (e.g. a chip or a circuit) that may be used in the terminal device, the method and/or the step implemented by the access network device (e.g. the first access network device, the second access network device, the access network device a or the access network device B), the method and/or the step implemented by a component that may be used in the access network device, the method and/or the step implemented by a core network device or a core network node, or the method and/or the step implemented by a component that may be used in the core network device or the core network node.

It will be understood that in the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device and/or the access network device may perform some or all of the steps in the embodiments of the present application, these steps or operations are merely examples, and embodiments of the present application may also perform other operations or variations of the various operations. Furthermore, the various steps may be performed in a different order presented in accordance with embodiments of the application, and it is possible that not all of the operations in the embodiments of the application may be performed.

The scheme provided by the embodiment of the application is mainly introduced from the interaction angle among the network elements. Correspondingly, the embodiment of the application also provides a communication device which is used for realizing the various methods. The communication means may be the terminal device involved in each method embodiment, or an apparatus comprising the terminal device, or a component that may be used for the terminal device, or the communication means may be the access network device involved in each method embodiment (e.g. the first access network device, the second access network device, the access network device a, or the access network device B), or an apparatus comprising the access network device, or a component that may be used for the access network device, or the communication means may also be the core network node involved in each method embodiment, or an apparatus comprising the core network node, or a component that may be used for the core network node. It will be appreciated that the communication device, in order to achieve the above-described functions, comprises corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules performing the respective functions. Those of skill in the art will readily appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as hardware or combinations of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is implemented as hardware or computer software driven hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

The embodiment of the application can divide the functional modules of the communication device according to the above method embodiment, for example, each functional module can be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one processing module. The integrated modules may be implemented in hardware or in software functional modules. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the division of the modules is schematic, which is merely a logic function division, and other division manners may be implemented in actual implementation.

For example, the communication apparatus is taken as an example of the first access network device in the foregoing method embodiment. Fig. 9 shows a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 90. The communication device 90 comprises a transmitting module 901 and a receiving module 902. The transmitting module 901 and the receiving module 902 may exist independently in the form of an interface, or may be integrated into a transceiver module, which may also be referred to as a transceiver unit, for implementing a transmitting and/or receiving function, for example, may be a transceiver circuit, a transceiver, or a communication interface.

All relevant contents of each step related to the above method embodiment may be cited to the functional descriptions of the corresponding functional modules, and the following examples are not repeated herein in detail.

Such as the sending module 901, may be used to send the first message to the second access network device, wherein reference may be made to the description of the previous embodiments for the first message.

A receiving module 902 may be configured to receive a response message to the first message from the second access network device.

Optionally, the receiving module 902 may be further configured to receive measurement reports and service information from a terminal device.

Optionally, the access network device 90 may further include a processing module 903, configured to determine the second access network device according to the measurement report and the service information.

Optionally, the sending module 901 may be further configured to send the content of the security mode command message and the content of the RRC reconfiguration message by using the terminal device.

Optionally, the receiving module 902 may further receive second indication information from a second access network device, where the second indication information indicates that the first access network device does not receive a response message of the security mode command message.

Optionally, the receiving module 902 may be further configured to receive a response message of the security mode command message from the terminal device.

Optionally, in case the advanced measurement report is sent through a message or signaling before message 4, the receiving module 902 may be further configured to receive a random access preamble from the terminal device, the processing module 903 is configured to determine, according to information of the random access preamble, an advanced measurement report to be sent by the terminal device, and the sending module 901 may be configured to send a random access response (message 2) to the terminal device, where the random access response includes uplink scheduling information for the advanced measurement report. It is to be understood that the interactions between the structures and modules involved in this case may also be implemented independently.

A "module" in embodiments of the application may refer to an application specific integrated circuit ASIC, a circuit, a processor and memory executing one or more software or firmware programs, an integrated logic circuit, and/or other devices that may provide the functionality described above. In a simple embodiment, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the communication means 90 may take the form of the access network device 20 shown in fig. 2.

For example, the processor 201 in the access network device 20 shown in fig. 2 may cause the access network device 20 to perform the communication method in the above-described method embodiment by invoking computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 202.

In a possible manner, the functions/implementation of the sending module 901 and the receiving module 902 in fig. 9 may be implemented by the processor 201 in the access network device 20 shown in fig. 2 invoking computer executable instructions stored in the memory 202. Or the functions/implementation of the transmitting module 901 and the receiving module 902 in fig. 9 may be implemented by the transceiver 203 in the access network device 20 shown in fig. 2, and the functions/implementation of the processing module 903 in fig. 9 may be implemented by the processor 201 shown in fig. 2.

Since the communication device 90 provided in this embodiment can perform the above-mentioned communication method, the technical effects obtained by the communication device can be referred to the above-mentioned method embodiment, and will not be described herein.

For example, the communication apparatus is taken as an example of the second access network device in the foregoing method embodiment. Fig. 10 shows a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 1000. The communication device 1000 includes a receiving module 1001 and a transmitting module 1002. The receiving module 1001 and the transmitting module 1002 may exist independently in the form of an interface, or may be integrated into a transceiver module, which may also be referred to as a transceiver unit, for implementing a transmitting and/or receiving function, for example, may be a transceiver circuit, a transceiver, or a communication interface.

For example, the receiving module 1001 may be configured to receive a first message from a first access network device, where the first message includes identification information of a terminal device, a reason why the terminal device initiates radio resource control RRC connection establishment, and identification information of a public land mobile network PLMN selected by the terminal device.

The sending module 1002 may be configured to send a response message (first response message) of the first message to the first access network device.

In a possible manner, the first response message sent by the sending module 1002 may further include information of the first key.

Optionally, the sending module 1002 may further send second indication information to the first access network device, where the second indication information indicates that the first access network device does not receive the second response message.

Optionally, the receiving module 1001 may be further configured to receive a second response message from the terminal device.

Optionally, the receiving module 1001 may be further configured to receive a third response message from the terminal device.

The relevant descriptions of the respective messages may refer to the relevant descriptions in the method embodiments, and are not repeated here.

In this embodiment, a "module" herein may refer to an application specific integrated circuit ASIC, an electrical circuit, a processor and memory that execute one or more software or firmware programs, an integrated logic circuit, and/or other devices that can provide the described functionality. In a simple embodiment, one skilled in the art will appreciate that the communication apparatus 1000 may take the form of the access network device 20 shown in fig. 2.

In a possible manner, the functions/implementation of the receiving module 1001 and the transmitting module 1002 in fig. 10 may be implemented by the processor 201 in the access network device 20 shown in fig. 2 invoking computer executable instructions stored in the memory 202. Or the functions/implementation of the receiving module 1001 and the transmitting module 1002 in fig. 10 may be implemented by the transceiver 203 in the access network device 20 shown in fig. 2.

For example, the communication device is taken as an example of the terminal device in the above method embodiment. Fig. 11 shows a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 11. The communication device 11 comprises a transmitting module 1101 and a receiving module 1102. The transmitting module 1101 and the receiving module 1102 may be independent in the form of an interface, or may be integrated into a transceiver module, which may also be referred to as a transceiver unit, for implementing a transmitting and/or receiving function, and may be a transceiver circuit, a transceiver or a communication interface.

For example, the receiving module 1102 may be configured to receive a security mode command message from the first access network device, where the content of the security mode command message is consistent with the content of the security mode message determined by the second access network device, where the security mode command message includes information of a first key, where the first key is determined according to an initial key determined by a core network, a physical cell identifier of a source cell, and a frequency point of the source cell, where the source cell belongs to the first access network device.

And the sending module 1101 is configured to send a response message of the security mode command message, where the response message of the security mode command may be sent to the first access network device or the second access network device.

Furthermore, optionally, the sending module 1101 may be further configured to send measurement reports and traffic information to the first access network device.

Optionally, the sending module 1101 may be further configured to send a second message to the second access network device indicating that the radio resource control RRC reconfiguration is complete.

Optionally, the receiving module 1102 may be further configured to receive first indication information from the first access network device, where the first indication information is used to indicate a response message that sends the security mode command message to the second access network device. In a possible manner, in the case of receiving the first indication information, the sending module 1101 sends a response message of the security mode command message to the second access network device.

In a possible manner, in case that the advanced measurement report is sent through signaling or message before message 4, the sending module 1101 may be further configured to send a random access preamble to the first access network device, and the receiving module 1102 may be configured to receive a random access response (message 2) from the first access network device, where the random access response includes uplink scheduling information for the advanced measurement report, and the sending module 1101 is configured to send the advanced measurement report to the first access network device according to the uplink scheduling information received by the receiving module 1102. It is to be understood that the interactions between the structures and modules involved in this case may also be implemented independently.

In this embodiment, a "module" herein may refer to an application specific integrated circuit ASIC, an electrical circuit, a processor and memory that execute one or more software or firmware programs, an integrated logic circuit, and/or other devices that can provide the described functionality. In a simple embodiment, the person skilled in the art will appreciate that the communication means 11 may be in the form of a terminal device 30 as shown in fig. 2.

For example, the processor 301 in the terminal device 30 shown in fig. 2 may cause the terminal device 30 to execute the communication method in the above-described method embodiment by calling the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 302.

In a possible manner, the functions/implementation procedure of the transmitting module 1101 and the receiving module 1102 in fig. 11 may be implemented by the processor 301 in the terminal device 30 shown in fig. 2 invoking computer executable instructions stored in the memory 302. Or the functions/implementation of the transmitting module 1101 and the receiving module 1102 in fig. 11 may be implemented by the transceiver 303 in the terminal device 30 shown in fig. 2.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication device for realizing the related functions/realization processes of the first node in the embodiment of the method. For example, the communication apparatus may include a sending module configured to send a message for delivering non-access stratum signaling of the terminal device to the core network node, and a receiving module configured to receive a response message from the core network node, and further, the sending module may further send a message including an initial context setup response, a session resource identifier, and address information for transmitting downlink data of the session resource to the core network node after the RRC reconfiguration of the terminal device is completed. It should be noted that the transmitting module and the receiving module may exist independently in the form of an interface, or may be integrated into a transceiver module, which may also be referred to as a transceiver unit, to implement a transmitting and/or receiving function, for example, may be a transceiver circuit, a transceiver, or a communication interface.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication device for realizing the related functions/realization processes of the core network node in the embodiment of the method. For example, the communication apparatus may comprise a receiving module for receiving a message for communicating non-access stratum signaling of the terminal device to the core network node from the first node, and a sending module for sending a response message to the first node, further in that after the terminal device RRC reconfiguration is completed, the receiving module is for receiving a message from the first node comprising an initial context setup response, a session resource identification and address information for transmitting downlink data of the session resource. The transmitting module and the receiving module may exist independently in the form of an interface or may be integrated into a transceiver module, and the transceiver module may also be referred to as a transceiver unit, so as to implement a transmitting and/or receiving function, and may be, for example, a transceiver circuit, a transceiver, or a communication interface.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication device, which comprises a module for realizing the related functions/implementation process corresponding to the access network equipment A in the embodiment shown in fig. 7 or 8. For example, the transmitting module and the receiving module may refer to steps related to transmitting and receiving in the method embodiment, which are not described herein.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication device, which comprises a module for realizing the related functions/implementation process corresponding to the access network equipment B in the embodiment shown in fig. 7 or 8. For example, the transmitting module and the receiving module may refer to steps related to transmitting and receiving in the method embodiment, which are not described herein.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication device, which comprises a module for realizing the relevant functions/implementation process corresponding to the target access network equipment in the embodiment shown in fig. 7 or 8. For example, the transmitting module and the receiving module may refer to steps related to transmitting and receiving in the method embodiment, which are not described herein.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication device, which comprises a module for realizing the relevant functions/implementation processes corresponding to the terminal equipment A in the embodiment shown in fig. 7 or 8. For example, the transmitting module and the receiving module may refer to steps related to transmitting and receiving in the method embodiment, which are not described herein.

Optionally, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication device (for example, the communication device may be a chip or a chip system), where the communication device includes a processor, and the method is used to implement the method in any of the foregoing method embodiments. In one possible design, the communication device further includes a memory. The memory for storing the necessary program instructions and data, and the processor may invoke the program code stored in the memory to instruct the communication device to perform the method of any of the method embodiments described above. Of course, the memory may not be in the communication device. When the communication device is a chip system, the communication device may be formed by a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices, which is not particularly limited in the embodiment of the present application.

In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using a software program, 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 a computer, the processes or functions described in accordance with embodiments of the present application are produced in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center by a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, digital subscriber line (digital subscriber line, DSL)) or wireless (e.g., 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 including one or more servers, data centers, etc. that can be integrated with the medium. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., solid State Disk (SSD)), etc. In an embodiment of the present application, the computer may include the apparatus described above.

Although the application is described herein in connection with various embodiments, other variations to the disclosed embodiments can be understood and effected by those skilled in the art in practicing the claimed application, from a study of the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other elements or steps, and the "a" or "an" does not exclude a plurality. A single processor or other unit may fulfill the functions of several items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage.

Although the application has been described in connection with specific features and embodiments thereof, it will be apparent that various modifications and combinations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the application. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are merely exemplary illustrations of the present application as defined in the appended claims and are considered to cover any and all modifications, variations, combinations, or equivalents that fall within the scope of the application. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the present application without departing from the spirit or scope of the application. Thus, it is intended that the present application also include such modifications and alterations insofar as they come within the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.

Claims

1. A communication method, applied to a communication system, wherein the communication system comprises a first access network device and a second access network device, characterized in that it comprises:

The first access network device sends a first message to the second access network device, wherein the first message includes identification information of the terminal device, a reason provided by the terminal device for the terminal device to initiate establishment of a radio resource control (RRC) connection, and identification information of a public land mobile network (PLMN) selected by the terminal device and provided by the terminal device, wherein the reason for the terminal device to initiate establishment of the RRC connection includes at least one of the following: an emergency call, high priority access, a passive service, an actively triggered signaling service, an actively triggered data service, an actively triggered voice call, an actively triggered video call, an actively triggered short message service, high priority access to a multimedia priority service, or high priority access to a critical service;

The second access network device sends a response message to the first message to the first access network device.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that

The second access network device is determined by the first access network device according to the measurement report and service information.

3. The method according to claim 2 is characterized in that the service information includes registered target core network node identification information and/or a single network slice selection support information list.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1-3 is characterized in that the response message of the first message is used to determine whether the terminal device is allowed to access, and the response message of the first message includes the content of the security mode command message and the content of the RRC reconfiguration message.

5. The method according to claim 4 is characterized in that the content of the RRC reconfiguration message is security protected based on an initial key and a security algorithm, wherein the initial key comes from a core network.

6. The method according to claim 4 is characterized in that the content of the RRC reconfiguration message is security protected based on a first key and a security algorithm, wherein the first key is determined based on an initial key from a core network and information of a source cell, the source cell belongs to the first access network device, and the information of the source cell includes at least one of a physical cell identifier of the source cell and a frequency of the source cell.

7. The method according to claim 6 is characterized in that the content of the security mode command message in the response message of the first message includes information of the first key, wherein the information of the first key includes first key indication information or the first key, and the first key indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to determine the first key based on the initial key and the information of the source cell.

8. The method according to claim 7 is characterized in that the content of the security mode command message in the response message of the first message includes first indication information, and the first indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to send a response message of the security mode command message to the second access network device.

9. The method according to claim 8 is characterized in that it also includes the second access network device sending a second indication information, wherein the second indication information indicates that the first access network device does not receive a response message to the security mode command message from the terminal device.

10. The method according to claim 2, wherein the measurement report is an early measurement report.

11. A communication method, comprising:

The second access network device receives a first message from the first access network device, wherein the first message includes identification information of the terminal device, a reason provided by the terminal device for the terminal device to initiate establishment of a radio resource control (RRC) connection, and identification information of a public land mobile network (PLMN) selected by the terminal device and provided by the terminal device, wherein the reason for the terminal device to initiate establishment of the RRC connection includes at least one of the following: an emergency call, high priority access, a passive service, an actively triggered signaling service, an actively triggered data service, an actively triggered voice call, an actively triggered video call, an actively triggered short message service, high priority access to a multimedia priority service, or high priority access to a critical service;

12. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that

13. The method according to claim 12 is characterized in that the service information includes registered target core network node identification information and/or a single network slice selection support information list.

14. The method according to any one of claims 11-13 is characterized in that the response message of the first message is used to determine whether the terminal device is allowed to access, and the response message of the first message includes the content of the security mode command message and the content of the RRC reconfiguration message.

15. The method according to claim 14 is characterized in that the content of the RRC reconfiguration message is security protected based on an initial key and a security algorithm, wherein the initial key comes from a core network.

16. The method according to claim 14 is characterized in that the content of the RRC reconfiguration message is security protected based on a first key and a security algorithm, wherein the first key is determined based on an initial key from a core network and information of a source cell, the source cell belongs to the first access network device, and the information of the source cell includes at least one of a physical cell identifier of the source cell and a frequency of the source cell.

17. The method according to claim 16 is characterized in that the content of the security mode command message in the response message of the first message includes information of the first key, wherein the information of the first key includes first key indication information or the first key, and the first key indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to determine the first key based on the initial key and the information of the source cell.

18. The method according to claim 17 is characterized in that the content of the security mode command message in the response message of the first message includes first indication information, and the first indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to send a response message of the security mode command message to the second access network device.

19. The method according to claim 18 is characterized in that it also includes the second access network device sending a second indication information, wherein the second indication information indicates that the first access network device does not receive a response message to the security mode command message from the terminal device.

20. The method according to claim 12, wherein the measurement report is an early measurement report.

21. A communication device, characterized by comprising a module for implementing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 20.

22. A communication system, characterized by comprising a device for implementing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 20.

23. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized by comprising instructions, which, when executed, enable the method according to any one of claims 1 to 20 to be executed.