CN120224253A

CN120224253A - Communication method, device and system

Info

Publication number: CN120224253A
Application number: CN202311834255.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王凡凡; 胡星星; 张海森
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2023-12-27
Filing date: 2023-12-27
Publication date: 2025-06-27
Also published as: WO2025139379A1

Abstract

A communication method, device and system can be applied to the technical field of communication, and the method comprises the steps that a terminal device receives a first MBS service and records measurement data of the first MBS service, wherein the measurement data are used for determining coverage information and/or service quality QoS information of the first MBS service, and further, the terminal device sends the first measurement data to a first network device so that the network device can determine the coverage condition and QoS meeting condition of the first MBS service according to the measurement data of the first MBS service, and the network device is beneficial to regulating and controlling the performance of the first MBS service so as to improve user experience of the first MBS service.

Description

Communication method, device and system

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a communications method, apparatus, and system.

Background

Multicast/broadcast service (MBS) is a data distribution/transmission manner, and a network device may distribute/transmit the same content to a plurality of terminal devices at the same time, so as to achieve efficient use of radio resources. However, in the current technical background, the network device cannot observe the coverage condition, the quality of service (quality of service, qoS) and other performances of the MBS service, so that the network device cannot optimize the performance of the MBS service.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method, a device and a system, which can record measurement data aiming at MBS service so as to enable network equipment to realize observation of coverage condition and/or QoS of the MBS service.

In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, which may be performed by a terminal device or by a component of a terminal device (e.g. a chip or a system-on-chip, etc.), as the application is not limited in this respect. The method comprises the steps of receiving a first MBS service, recording first measurement data of the first MBS service, wherein the first measurement data is used for determining coverage information and/or QoS information of the first MBS service, and sending the first measurement data to first network equipment.

In the technical scheme, the terminal equipment records the measurement data of the MBS service and reports the measurement data of the MBS service to the network equipment, so that the network equipment observes and regulates the performance of the MBS service, and the user experience of the first MBS service is improved.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementation manners of the first aspect, the method further includes receiving measurement configuration information from the second network device, where the measurement configuration information indicates the terminal device to record first measurement data, and recording the first measurement data of the first MBS service includes recording the first measurement data according to the measurement configuration information.

It should be noted that the second network device and the first network device may be the same network device, or may be different network devices.

In the above technical solution, the network device may configure the terminal device with the MBS service information to be recorded with the measurement data, so that the terminal device records the measurement data for the specific MBS service, which is helpful to save the overhead required by the terminal device to record and report the measurement data, and is also helpful to meet the requirements of the network device for coverage and/or QoS observation of the specific MBS service.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the measurement configuration information indicates at least one of at least one MBS session identifier, each MBS session identifier in the at least one MBS session identifier being used to identify at least one MBS service, at least one MBS service area, each MBS service area in the at least one MBS service area providing at least one MBS service, or at least one downlink frequency point supporting MBS services.

In the above technical solution, a specific manner of configuring information required for recording the MBS service measurement data for the terminal device by the network device is specified, so that the terminal device records the MBS service measurement data according to the indication of the measurement configuration information.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the recording the first measurement data includes at least one of recording the first measurement data when at least one MBS session identifier indicates the first MBS service and the first MBS service is received, recording the first measurement data when the first MBS service is received in at least one MBS service area, or recording the first measurement data when the first MBS service is received at least one downlink frequency point supporting the MBS service.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes determining a minimization of drive tests (minimization of diver-tests, MDT) mode used to record the first measurement data according to a distribution manner of the first MBS service, and recording the first measurement data includes recording the first measurement data in the MDT mode.

In the technical scheme, the measurement data are recorded in different MDT modes according to the distribution mode of the MBS service, so that the measurement efficiency and the reporting efficiency of the MBS service measurement data and the balance of communication overhead required by reporting the MBS measurement data are realized.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, determining, according to a distribution manner of the first MBS service, an MDT mode used for recording the first measurement data includes determining that the MDT mode is recording MDT when the distribution manner of the first MBS service is broadcast, or determining that the MDT mode is fast MDT when the distribution manner of the first MBS service is multicast or unicast.

In the technical scheme, when the distribution mode of the first MBS service is broadcasting, the MDT is recorded, so that the cost required for reporting the measurement data is saved, and when the distribution mode of the first MBS service is multicasting or unicasting, the quick MDT is used for recording the measurement data, so that the efficiency of reporting the measurement data is improved.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, recording the first measurement data includes recording the first measurement data using a recording MDT.

In the above technical solution, the terminal device records the measurement data of the MBS service by using the record MDT, so that the network device determines whether to request the measurement data of the MBS service, and when the network device does not request the measurement data of the MBS service, the terminal device does not report the measurement data of the MBS service, which is helpful for saving communication overhead.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the method further includes sending indication information to the first network device, the indication information indicating that the first measurement data exists.

In the above technical solution, the terminal device may individually indicate the presence of measurement data of the MBS service, so that the network device determines whether to request the measurement data of the MBS service. When the terminal device stores the measurement data of the MBS service and the measurement data of the conventional MDT (other services or no service), the network device can determine to request the measurement data of the MBS service preferentially or not according to the indication information, thereby being beneficial to saving the communication overhead for transmitting the measurement data.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the method further includes receiving request information from the first network device, the request information being used to request the first measurement data, and transmitting the first measurement data to the first network device, including transmitting the first measurement data to the first network device according to the request information.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the first measurement data includes at least one of:

MBS session identification of the first MBS service;

The number of MBS Radio Bearers (MRBs) corresponding to the session of the first MBS service;

providing service cell identification information of a session of a first MBS service;

Providing neighbor cell identification information of a session of a first MBS service;

service area information corresponding to the first MBS service;

providing a downlink reference signal measurement result corresponding to a cell of a first MBS service;

Providing a downlink reference signal measurement result corresponding to a cell of a second MBS service, wherein the second MBS service is other services except the first MBS service;

The block error rate corresponding to the session of the first MBS service;

The first MBS service distribution mode indication information is used for indicating that the first MBS service distribution mode is one of broadcasting, multicasting or unicasting;

Multicast distribution mechanism indication information of the first MBS service, wherein the multicast distribution mechanism indication information is used for indicating that a transmission mechanism of the first MBS service is point-to-point transmission or point-to-multipoint transmission, or

The MBS interest indication information of the terminal equipment indicates at least one of the frequency of the broadcast service which is being received or is interested in being received by the terminal equipment, the session identification of the MBS service which is being received or is interested in being received by the terminal equipment, or the priority of the unicast service and the broadcast service which are received by the terminal equipment.

The terminal equipment reports the first measurement data to the network equipment, which is beneficial to the network equipment to adjust the frequency points, MRB number, MBS session, MBS distribution mode, multicast mechanism and the like supporting the MBS service, so as to optimize the performance of the first MBS service and improve the experience of the user of the first MBS service.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, which may be performed by a network device or by a component of a network device (e.g., a chip or a system-on-chip, etc.), as the application is not limited in this regard. The method comprises the steps of sending a first MBS service to terminal equipment, and recording second measurement data of the first MBS service, wherein the second measurement data is used for determining coverage information and/or QoS information of the first MBS service.

In the above technical solution, the network device may record measurement data of the MBS service, which is conducive to implementing observation and regulation of performance of the MBS service, thereby improving experience of users of the first MBS service. The measurement data of MBS business recorded by the network equipment is complementary with the measurement data recorded by the terminal equipment, which is helpful for the network equipment to acquire more comprehensive measurement data of MBS business.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes receiving first measurement data from the terminal device, where the first measurement data is measurement data of the first MBS service, and the first measurement data is used to determine coverage information and/or QoS information of the first MBS service.

In some implementations, the network device facilitates determining coverage information and/or QoS information for a more comprehensive first MBS service based on the first measurement data and the second measurement data.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes sending measurement configuration information to the terminal device, the measurement configuration information indicating that the terminal device records the first measurement data.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the measurement configuration information indicates at least one of at least one MBS session identifier, each MBS session identifier in the at least one MBS session identifier being used to identify the at least one MBS service, at least one MBS service area, each MBS service area in the at least one MBS service area providing the at least one MBS service, or at least one downlink frequency point supporting the MBS service.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes receiving indication information from the terminal device, the indication information indicating the presence of the first measurement data.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes sending request information to the terminal device, the request information being used to request the first measurement data.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the first measurement data includes at least one of:

MBS session identification of the first MBS service;

The number of MRBs corresponding to the session of the first MBS service;

service area information corresponding to the first MBS service;

the block error rate corresponding to the first MBS session;

multicast distribution mechanism indication information of the first MBS service, wherein the multicast distribution mechanism indication information is used for indicating that the transmission mechanism of the first MBS service is point-to-point or point-to-multipoint, or

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the second measurement data includes at least one of a downlink packet data convergence layer protocol (PACKET DATA convergence protocol, PDCP) service data unit (SERVICE DATA unit, SDU) data volume, a downlink average user throughput, a downlink packet delay, or a downlink packet loss rate.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, recording the second measurement data includes recording the second measurement data at granularity of each MRB when the first MBS service is distributed in a broadcast or multicast manner, or recording the second measurement data at granularity of each MRB of each terminal device.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, recording the second measurement data includes recording the second measurement data at a granularity of each radio data bearer (data radio bearer, DRB) or recording the second measurement data at a granularity of each DRB of each terminal device when the first MBS service is distributed in unicast.

In the above technical solution, when the distribution modes of the MBS service are different, the network device records the second measurement data with different granularity, which is conducive to realizing regulation and control of different degrees of the MBS service.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the second measurement data further includes a number of terminal devices that receive the first MBS service.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the number of terminal devices that receive the first MBS service includes at least one of:

the number of terminal devices receiving the first MBS service in a service cell of the network device;

The method comprises the steps of taking each MBS service or session identifier in a first MBS service as the terminal equipment quantity determined by granularity;

the method comprises the steps of determining the number of terminal equipment by taking each MBS broadcast service in a first MBS service as granularity;

The number of terminal devices determined by taking each MBS multicast service in the first MBS service as granularity, or

And determining the number of terminal equipment by taking each MRB in the first MBS service as granularity.

The advantages of the second aspect which are not described in detail may be referred to the description of the first aspect and are not described in detail herein.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus. The communication device may be a device or apparatus with a chip, or a device or apparatus with an integrated circuit, or a chip, a chip system, a module or a control unit in the device or apparatus shown in the foregoing, and the application is not limited specifically. In the present application, when a communication device is referred to, the communication device may be a chip, a functional module, an integrated circuit, or the like, which may be used in the communication device to complete the method provided by the present application, and the present application is not limited thereto. The apparatus is for performing the method provided in the first or second aspect above. In particular, the apparatus may comprise means and/or modules, such as a transceiver unit (or transceiver module) and a processing unit (or processing module), for performing the method provided by any of the implementations of the first or second aspect.

In some implementations, the processing unit may be at least one processor. The transceiver unit may be a transceiver, or an input/output interface. Alternatively, the transceiver may be a transceiver circuit. Alternatively, the input/output interface may be an input/output circuit.

In some implementations, the communication device is a chip, a system-on-chip, or a circuit in a terminal device or a network device. The transceiver module may be an input/output interface, interface circuit, output circuit, input circuit, pin or related circuit on the chip, system on a chip or circuit, etc. The processing unit may be at least one processor, processing circuit or logic circuit, etc.

In a fourth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a processor configured to perform the method provided in the above aspects. The operations such as transmitting and receiving, etc. related to the processor may be understood as operations such as outputting and receiving, inputting, etc. by the processor, and may be understood as operations such as transmitting and receiving by the radio frequency circuit and the antenna, if not specifically stated, or if not contradicted by actual function or inherent logic in the related description, which is not limited by the present application.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, where the communication system includes a terminal device and a network device, where the terminal device may perform a method provided by any implementation manner of the first aspect, and where the network device may perform a method provided by any implementation manner of the second aspect.

In a sixth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer-readable storage medium. The computer readable storage medium stores instructions or program code which, when executed by a processor, may implement a method provided by any of the implementations of the first or second aspects described above.

In a seventh aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product comprising instructions. The computer program product, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method provided by any one of the implementations of the first or second aspects described above.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip. The chip comprises a processor and a communication interface, wherein the processor reads instructions stored on the memory through the communication interface, and executes the method provided by any implementation manner of the first aspect or the second aspect.

Optionally, as an implementation manner, the chip further includes a memory, where a computer program or an instruction is stored in the memory, and the processor is configured to execute the computer program or the instruction stored in the memory, where the processor is configured to execute the method provided in any implementation manner of the first aspect or the second aspect.

The advantages of the third to eighth aspects may be specifically referred to the description of the advantages of the first or second aspects, and are not described herein.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system to which an embodiment of the present application is applied.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of MBS service data transmission according to an embodiment of the present application.

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

Fig. 4 is a further schematic flow chart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 5 is a further schematic flow chart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 6 is a further schematic flow chart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a chip system according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical scheme of the application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In order to facilitate understanding of the embodiments of the present application, the following description is first made.

1. Unless otherwise indicated, the meaning of "a plurality" is two or more.

2. In the absence of specific recitations and logic conflict, terms and/or descriptions between different embodiments of the present application shall be consistent and mutually applicable and technical features of different embodiments may be combined to form new embodiments based on their inherent logic relationships.

3. The various numbers referred to in this application are merely for convenience of description and are not intended to limit the scope of the application. The size of the sequence numbers related to the application does not mean the sequence of execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined according to the functions and internal logic. For example, the terms "first," "second," "third," "fourth," and other various terms like numerals and the like, if any, in the description and claims of the present application and in the drawings are used for distinguishing between similar objects and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. Wherein the data so used may be interchanged where appropriate, such that the embodiments described herein may be implemented in sequences other than those illustrated or otherwise described herein.

Meanwhile, any embodiment or design described as "exemplary" or "for example" should not be construed as being preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the use of words such as "exemplary" or "such as" is intended to present related concepts in a concrete fashion that may be readily understood.

4. The terms "comprises," "comprising," and "having," and any variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not necessarily limited to those steps or elements expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

5. In the present application, "for indicating" may be understood as "enabling" which may include direct enabling and indirect enabling. When describing that a certain information is used to enable a, it may be included that the information directly enables a or indirectly enables a, and does not necessarily represent that a is carried in the information.

In the specific implementation process, the information to be enabled may be enabled in various ways, for example, but not limited to, the information to be enabled may be directly enabled, such as the information to be enabled itself or an index of the information to be enabled. The information to be enabled may also be indirectly enabled by enabling other information, where an association exists between the other information and the information to be enabled. It is also possible to enable only a part of the information to be enabled, while other parts of the information to be enabled are known or agreed in advance. For example, the enabling of specific information may also be implemented by means of a pre-agreed (e.g., protocol-specified) arrangement sequence of the respective information, thereby reducing the enabling overhead to some extent. And meanwhile, the universal parts of the information can be identified and enabled uniformly, so that the enabling expense caused by independently enabling the same information is reduced.

6. In the present application, "pre-configured" may include pre-defined, e.g., protocol definitions. Where "predefined" may be implemented by pre-storing corresponding codes, tables, or other means that may be used to indicate relevant information in the device (e.g., including the respective network elements), the application is not limited to a specific implementation thereof.

7. The term "store" or "save" in reference to the present application may refer to saving in one or more memories. The one or more memories may be provided separately or may be integrated in an encoder or decoder, processor, or communication device. The one or more memories may be provided separately as part of the memory and integrated into the decoder, processor, or communication device. The type of memory may be any form of storage medium, and is not limited thereto.

8. The "protocol" related to the present application may refer to a standard protocol in the communication field, and may include, for example, a fourth generation (4 ^th generation, 4G) network, a fifth generation (5 ^th generation, 5G) network protocol, a New Radio (NR) protocol, a 5.5G network protocol, a sixth generation (6 ^th generation, 6G) network protocol, and related protocols applied in future communication systems, which are not limited in this regard.

9. The arrows or boxes shown in broken lines in the schematic drawings of the present description of the application represent optional steps or optional modules.

10. Unless otherwise indicated, "/" means that the objects associated in tandem are an "or" relationship, e.g., A/B may represent A or B, and "and/or" in the present application is merely an association relationship describing the associated objects, means that there may be three relationships, e.g., A and/or B, and that there may be A alone, A and B together, B alone, wherein A, B may be singular or plural.

For ease of understanding, a communication system to which the embodiments of the present application are applicable will be described below by taking the communication system shown in fig. 1 as an example.

As shown in fig. 1, the communication system includes a radio access network (radio access network, RAN) 100 and a Core Network (CN) 200.RAN100 includes at least one RAN node (e.g., 110a and 110b in fig. 1, collectively 110) and at least one terminal device (e.g., 120a-120j in fig. 1, collectively 120). Other RAN nodes may also be included in the RAN, such as wireless relay devices and/or wireless backhaul devices (not shown in fig. 1), and the like. Terminal device 120 is connected to RAN node 110 by wireless means. RAN node 110 is connected to core network 200 by wireless or wired means. The core network device in the core network 200 and the RAN node 110 in the RAN100 may be different physical devices, or may be the same physical device integrated with the core network logic function and the radio access network logic function.

The RAN 100 may be a third generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project,3GPP) -related cellular system, e.g., a 4G, 5G, 6G mobile communication system, a non-terrestrial communication network (non-TERRESTRIAL NETWORK, NTN) system, or a future-oriented evolution system. RAN 100 may also be an open RAN, O-RAN or ORAN, a cloud radio access network (cloud radio access network, CRAN), or a wireless fidelity (WIRELESS FIDELITY, wiFi) system, or a communication system in which two or more of the above systems are converged.

A device in a communication system may send signals to or receive signals from another device. Wherein the signal may comprise information, signaling, data, or the like. The device may also be replaced by an entity, a network entity, a communication device, a communication module, a node, a communication node, or the like, which is described by taking the device as an example in the embodiment of the present application.

In the embodiment of the present application, a terminal device is a device with a wireless transceiver function, which may refer to a User Equipment (UE), an access terminal, a subscriber unit (subscriber unit), a subscriber station, a mobile station (mobile station), a remote station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user equipment.

In an embodiment of the application, the terminal device may also be a satellite phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, a wireless data card, a wireless modem, a machine type communication device, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol, SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a customer-terminal device (CPE), a point of sale (POS) machine, a handheld device with wireless communication capability, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle-mounted device, a communication device onboard an aerial vehicle, a wearable device, an unmanned aerial vehicle, a robot, a device-to-device communication (device-to-device), the terminals in D2D), the terminals in vehicle-to-everything, V2X, virtual Reality (VR) terminal devices, augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) terminal devices, wireless terminals in industrial control (industrial control), wireless terminals in unmanned (SELF DRIVING), wireless terminals in remote medical (remote medium), wireless terminals in smart grid (SMART GRID), wireless terminals in transportation security (transportation safety), wireless terminals in smart city (SMART CITY), wireless terminals in smart home (smart home) or terminal devices in a communication network evolving after 5G, etc., in which the means for realizing the functions of the terminal devices may be terminal devices in embodiments of the present application, or a device, such as a system-on-chip or a chip, capable of supporting the terminal device to perform the function, which device may be installed in the terminal device. In the embodiment of the application, the chip system can be composed of chips, and can also comprise chips and other discrete devices.

In the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment can also be equipment with a communication function in a 6G communication system, and the form or the type of the terminal equipment in the 6G communication system and other communication systems in the future are not limited.

In the embodiment of the present application, the RAN node 110 may also be referred to as an access network device, an access node, or a RAN entity, for helping a terminal device to implement wireless access. The plurality of RAN nodes 110 may be the same type of node or different types of nodes. In some scenarios, the roles of RAN node 110 and terminal device 120 are relative, e.g., network element 120i in fig. 1 may be a helicopter or drone, which may be configured as a mobile base station, with network element 120i being a base station for those terminals 120j accessing RAN 100 through network element 120i, but network element 120i being a terminal device for base station 110 a. RAN node 110 and terminal equipment 120 are sometimes both referred to as communication devices, e.g., network elements 110a and 110b in fig. 1 may be understood as communication devices with base station functionality, and network elements 120a-120j may be understood as communication devices with terminal functionality.

In one possible scenario, the RAN node 110 may in turn become a network device, which may be a base station (bs), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), an Access Point (AP), a transmission and reception point (transmission reception point, TRP), a next generation NodeB (gNB), a next generation base station in a 6G mobile communication system, a base station in a future mobile communication system, or an access node in a WiFi system, etc. The RAN node may be a macro base station (e.g., 110a in fig. 1), a micro base station or an indoor station (e.g., 110b in fig. 1), a relay node or a donor node, or a radio controller in a CRAN scenario. Alternatively, the RAN node may also be a server, a wearable device, a vehicle or an in-vehicle device, etc. For example, the network device in the vehicle extranet (vehicle to everything, V2X) technology may be a Road Side Unit (RSU).

In another possible scenario, a plurality of RAN nodes cooperate to assist a terminal in implementing radio access, and different RAN nodes implement part of the functions of a base station, respectively. For example, the RAN node may be a Centralized Unit (CU), a Distributed Unit (DU), a CU-Control Plane (CP), a CU-User Plane (UP), or a Radio Unit (RU), etc. The CUs and DUs may be provided separately or may be included in the same network element, e.g. in a baseband unit (BBU). The CU node and the DU node split the protocol layers of the gNB, the functions of part of the protocol layers are controlled in the CU in a centralized way, and the functions of the rest part or all of the protocol layers are distributed in the DU, so that the CU controls the DU in a centralized way. As one implementation, a CU is deployed with a radio resource control (radio Resource Control, RRC) layer, a packet data convergence layer protocol (PACKET DATA convergence protocol, PDCP) layer, and a service data adaptation protocol (SERVICE DATA adaptation protocol, SDAP) layer in the protocol stack, and a DU is deployed with a radio link control (radio link control, RLC) layer, a media intervention control (MEDIA ACCESS control, MAC) layer, and a physical layer (PHYSICAL LAYER, PHY) in the protocol stack. Thus, the CU has the processing capabilities of RRC, PDCP and SDAP. The DU has the processing power of RLC, MAC and PHY. It is to be understood that the above-described segmentation of functions is only one example and does not constitute a limitation on CUs and DUs. The RU may be included in a radio frequency device or unit, such as in a remote radio unit (remote radio unit, RRU), an active antenna processing unit (ACTIVE ANTENNA unit, AAU), or a remote radio head (remote radio head, RRH).

In different systems, CUs (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DUs or RUs may also have different names, but the meaning will be understood by those skilled in the art. For example, in ORAN systems, a CU may also be referred to as an O-CU (open CU), a DU may also be referred to as an O-DU, a CU-CP may also be referred to as an O-CU-CP, a CU-UP may also be referred to as an O-CU-UP, and a RU may also be referred to as an O-RU. For convenience of description, the present application is described by taking CU, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU and RU as examples. Any unit of CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU and RU in the present application may be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of software and hardware modules.

Alternatively, for network elements in the ORAN system, each network element may implement the protocol layer functions as shown in table 1 below.

TABLE 1

It should be noted that, in the ORAN system, the network device in the present application may be one network element or multiple network elements in table 1.

In the embodiment of the present application, the core network device 200 refers to a device in a Core Network (CN) that provides service support for the terminal device 120. Currently, some core network devices are exemplified by an access and mobility management function (ACCESS AND mobility management function, AMF) entity, a session management function (session management function, SMF) entity, a user plane function (user plane function, UPF) entity, etc., which are not listed here. The AMF entity can be responsible for access management and mobility management of the terminal equipment, the SMF entity can be responsible for session management such as session establishment of a user, and the UPF entity can be a functional entity of a user plane and is mainly responsible for connecting an external network. It should be noted that, in the present application, an entity may also be referred to as a network element or a functional entity, for example, an AMF entity may also be referred to as an AMF network element or an AMF functional entity, and for example, an SMF entity may also be referred to as an SMF network element or an SMF functional entity.

In the embodiment of the application, the device for realizing the function of the network equipment can be the network equipment, and also can be a device capable of supporting the network equipment to realize the function, such as a chip system, a hardware circuit, a software module or a hardware circuit plus a software module. The apparatus may be installed in or used in cooperation with a network device. In the embodiment of the present application, only the device for implementing the function of the network device is described as an example of the network device, and the configuration of the solution in the embodiment of the present application is not limited.

It should be noted that, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the scene where the network device/terminal device is located. In addition, the network device/terminal device may be a hardware device, or may be a software function running on dedicated hardware, and a software function running on general-purpose hardware, for example, may be an entity including a dedicated or general-purpose hardware device and a software function, and the specific form of the network device/terminal device is not limited in the present application.

For ease of understanding and description, the relevant terms that relate to embodiments of the present application will be briefly described below.

1、MDT

An automatic drive test technology obtains relevant parameters required by network optimization by reporting a measurement report by terminal equipment or recording measurement data by network equipment. The MDT can evaluate the network performance, for example, detect whether the network has weak coverage or coverage holes, so as to further implement coverage optimization (such as improving coverage holes, weak coverage, excessive coverage, uplink coverage, etc.).

For different data acquisition objects, there are two network management configurations of MDT, namely management-based MDT and signaling-based MDT. The management-based MDT may record MDT measurement data of a total number of terminal devices in a cell, which may be specified by a tracking area/global cell identity (TRACKING AREA/cell global identifier, TA/CGI) list, and the signaling-based MDT may record MDT measurement data of a specific terminal device or devices, which may be specified by operation, management and maintenance network elements (OAM) of the core network.

The MDT may include a record MDT (logged MDT) and a fast MDT (or instant MDT, immediate MDT) depending on the state in which the terminal device is located and the differences in measurement reporting mechanisms. The method comprises the following steps:

1) And the MDT record refers to that the terminal equipment collects and stores the measurement data when in the RRC idle state and the RRC inactive state. The terminal device indicates the existence of the measurement data to the network device in the RRC message, and when the network device requests the measurement data to the terminal device, the terminal device reports the measurement data to the network device.

The network device may send configuration parameters to the terminal device in RRC connected state to cause it to collect measurement data using the logged MDT. The configuration parameters may include triggering a recording condition (such as time triggering, period triggering), a recording duration, a recording area, etc., and the recording area may include at least one of a public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN) list, a TA list, a CGI list, and a frequency point list. The terminal equipment collects measurement data in the configured recording area, and when the recording time is overtime or the terminal equipment receives a new recording MDT measurement configuration, the terminal equipment stops collecting the measurement data. The measurement data includes, but is not limited to, measurement results of coverage related services/neighbors, cell identification information, location information, time information, tracking information, etc.

2) Fast MDT, measurement performed when the terminal equipment is in RRC connection state. The terminal device and the network device can collect the measurement data, and the terminal device can report the measurement data to the network device in time.

The measurement configuration of the fast MDT is that location information is added in the existing RRC measurement configuration, and information of a recording area may be added to instruct the terminal device to perform fast MDT collection in a specific area. The measurement data collected by the terminal device may include one or more of a measurement result of coverage related service/neighbor, location information, a power headroom measurement, a packet data convergence layer protocol (PACKET DATA convergence protocol, PDCP) delay measurement result of an L2 layer (i.e., data link layer). The L2 layer measurement result, which is a measurement result of the network device side, may include, but is not limited to, physical resource block (physical resource block, PRB) utilization, throughput, PDCP data size, packet loss rate (packet loss rate), packet drop rate (packet drop rate), number of active terminal devices, packet delay.

2、MBS

A data distribution/transmission method in which a network device can distribute/transmit the same content to a plurality of terminal devices at the same time, thereby enabling efficient use of NR resources. The MBS may provide any one of a broadcast service, a multicast service, and a unicast service. Wherein the broadcast service (broadcast service) is an MBS service issued by a broadcast manner, which means that data of the same MBS service is simultaneously provided to all terminal equipments in an MBS service area (all terminal equipments in the MBS service area are authorized to receive the data), and the multicast service (multicast service) is an MBS service issued by a multicast manner, which means that data of the same MBS service is simultaneously provided to a group of terminal equipments (i.e. not all terminal equipments in the MBS service area are authorized to receive the data). The network device issues the broadcast service to the terminal device through the broadcast session (broadcast session), and the terminal device in radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) idle state (RRC idle), RRC inactive state (RRC INACTIVE) and RRC connected state (RRC connected) can receive the relevant broadcast service. Broadcast services support only point-to-multipoint (point to multipoint, PTM) delivery mechanisms and do not support hybrid automatic repeat request (hybrid automatic repeat request, HARQ). The network device transmits the multicast service to the terminal device through the multicast session (multicast session), the terminal device in the RRC connected state can receive the multicast service, and HARQ can be applied to PTP and PTM transmission using a point-to-point (PTP) and/or PTM delivery mechanism. The unicast service is an MBS service issued in a unicast manner, and refers to that the RAN that does not support MBS transmits data of the MBS service to the terminal device in a unicast manner.

The transmission modes of data for transmitting MBS services can be divided into two types, i.e., a shared transmission mode (SHARED DELIVERY mode) and an individual transmission mode (individual delivery mode) according to whether or not the network device supports MBS:

1) The shared transmission mode may also be referred to as a "multicast/broadcast" mode, or a "multicast" mode. The shared transmission mode refers to a transmission tunnel (or referred to as a transmission path) between the UPF and the RAN, and a transmission tunnel (air interface side) between the RAN and the UE is shared by a plurality of UEs within the multicast group. When the network device supports the MBS, the data of the MBS service may be transmitted in a shared transmission mode.

Taking fig. 2 as an example, when transmitting MBS data, a tunnel may be used between the multicast/broadcast user plane function (multicast broadcast user plane function, MB-UPF) and the RAN 1 to transmit MBS data, for example, a tunnel based on a common tunneling protocol (general tunnel protocol, GTP). The tunnel between the MB-UPF and the RAN 1 for transmitting the data of the MBs service is a multicast session shared tunnel, which is shared by UE a, UE b and UE c.

2) The individual transmission mode, which may also be referred to as "unicast" mode, may be understood as "point-to-point" (PTP) communication. Unicast transmission mode refers to a transmission tunnel between the UPF and the RAN, and a transmission tunnel between the RAN and the UE (air interface side) is shared by a single UE. The separate transmission mode may be used for transmitting data of MBS service (by unicast) or data of unicast service. When the network device does not support MBS, a separate transmission mode may be employed. For example, taking fig. 2 as an example, when the RAN2 where UEd resides does not support MBS, the data of the RAN2 originates from unicast UPF. The transmission path of unicast UPF to RAN2 and the transmission path on the air side of RANs 2 to UEd are shared by UEd. The transmission path of the data is multicast UPF, unicast UPF, RAN2 and UEd.

As described above, in the current technical background, measurement and data acquisition cannot be performed on MBS services, resulting in failure of network devices to optimize performance of MBS services. In view of this, the embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, apparatus, and system, which can record measurement data for MBS services to optimize performance of MBS services.

Fig. 3 shows a schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application, where the method 300 may be applied to the system shown in fig. 1, and the execution subject of the method 300 may be the terminal device and the first network device, or may also be component parts of the terminal device and the first network device, for example, a chip or a chip system or a circuit, which is not limited by the present application. The steps described below as being performed by a single execution body (e.g., a terminal device or a first network device) may also be divided into execution bodies that are performed by multiple execution bodies that may be logically and/or physically separated. The method 300 may include the following steps.

S310, the terminal equipment receives the first MBS service.

The first MBS service may be from the first network device, or may be from another network device, for example, a network device to which the terminal device currently resides in a cell, or a network device to which the serving cell belongs, or a network device to which the primary cell belongs, or a network device to which the neighbor cell belongs.

The first MBS service may include one or more MBS services, and the distribution mode of the first MBS service (or the service type of the first MBS service) may also include one or more of unicast service, multicast service and broadcast service.

S320, the terminal equipment records first measurement data of the first MBS service, wherein the first measurement data is used for determining coverage information and/or QoS information of the first MBS service.

For example, the behavior of an explicit terminal device to record MBS service measurement data may be predefined such that it records MBS service measurement data when it receives MBS service. Or the network device sending the first MBS service may instruct the terminal device to record MBS service measurement data, i.e. the terminal device records the first measurement data when receiving the first MBS service.

The method by which the terminal device records the first measurement data may be, for example, MDT measurement, or may be other measurement, such as a report associated with a self-organizing network (self-organizing network, SON), e.g., one or more of a radio link failure report, a random access report, an RRC connection setup/recovery failure report, a handover success report.

In some implementations, taking the first MBS service as an example, the first measurement data includes at least one of the following 1) to 10):

1) MBS session identification (MBS session identifier) of the first MBS service.

2) The number of MRBs corresponding to the session of the first MBS service.

3) Serving cell identification information of a session of the first MBS service is provided. The serving cell may be a primary cell of the UE in a connected state, or may be a special cell of a primary cell group and/or a special cell of a secondary cell group under dual connection, or may be a cell included in the primary cell group and a special cell and a secondary cell included in the secondary cell group, that is, the terminal device receives MBS service session data from the serving cell.

3) Neighbor identification information of a session of the first MBS service is provided.

4) Service area (MBS SERVICE AREA) information corresponding to the first MBS service.

5) And providing a downlink reference signal measurement result corresponding to the cell of the first MBS service.

6) And providing a downlink reference signal measurement result corresponding to the cell of the second MBS service, wherein the second MBS service is other services except the first MBS service.

7) And a block error rate (BLER) corresponding to the session of the first MBS service, wherein the BLER is the ratio of the number of blocks in which the terminal equipment receives errors to the total number of blocks transmitted by the network equipment in a time period, namely, the error rate of a transmission block after being checked by a cyclic redundancy check code (cyclic redundancy check, CRC) in the time period, and a block refers to a series of continuous bits related to a channel, and when any bit in the block has errors, the block is called as an error block.

8) The distribution mode indication information of the first MBS service is called as service type indication information of the first MBS service. The distribution mode indication information is used for indicating that the distribution mode of the first MBS service is one of broadcasting, multicasting or unicasting, or the service type is one of broadcasting, multicasting or unicasting.

9) When the distribution mode of the first MBS service is multicast, the first measurement data may further include multicast distribution mechanism indication information of the first MBS service, where the multicast distribution mechanism indication information is used to indicate that a transmission mechanism of the first MBS service is PTP transmission or PTM transmission.

10 MBS interest indication information of the terminal device, the MBS interest indication information indicating at least one of a frequency of broadcast services being received or being interested in being received by the terminal device, a session identification of the MBS services being received or being interested in being received by the terminal device, or a priority of unicast services, broadcast services being received by the terminal device.

A service of interest to be received is understood to be a service that is intended to be received, i.e. a service that is not received by the terminal device for a while, but that is intended to be received in a subsequent communication process.

In some implementations, the manner in which the terminal device records the first measurement data includes any one of the following examples:

in one example, the terminal device records the first measurement data using a record MDT.

In yet another example, the terminal device determines an MDT mode in which the first measurement data is recorded according to a distribution manner of the first MBS service. More specifically, when the distribution mode of the first MBS service is broadcast, the terminal equipment uses the recording MDT to record the first measurement data, or when the distribution mode of the first MBS service is multicast or unicast, the terminal equipment uses the fast MDT to record the first measurement data.

In yet another example, the terminal device records the MDT mode of the first measurement data according to the RRC state. More specifically, the first measurement data is recorded using the recording MDT when the terminal device is in an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state, and the first measurement data is recorded using the fast MDT when the terminal device is in an RRC connected state.

In some implementations, before performing S320, the method further includes the terminal device receiving measurement configuration information from the second network device, the measurement configuration information indicating that the terminal device records the first measurement data.

Wherein the measurement configuration information may indicate at least one of the following 1) to 3):

1) At least one MBS session identifier, each MBS session identifier in the at least one MBS session identifier is used for identifying at least one MBS service, wherein the MBS service indicated by the at least one MBS session identifier can comprise a first MBS service.

2) At least one MBS service area, each MBS service area of the at least one MBS service area providing at least one MBS service, wherein the MBS service provided by the at least one MBS service area may include a first MBS service.

Illustratively, the at least one MBS service region may be indicated by one or more of a TA list, a cell list, a PLMN list.

3) At least one downlink frequency point supporting the MBS service, where the at least one MBS service supporting the downlink frequency point transmission of the MBS service may include a first MBS service.

The measurement configuration information may be transmitted or indicated by the core network (e.g., AMF entity) to the second network device, which may transmit the measurement configuration information to the terminal device via an RRC message, for example.

For example, the second network device and the network device that transmits the first MBS service to the terminal device may be the same network device.

Further, the terminal equipment records the first measurement data of the first MBS service, including recording the first measurement data according to the measurement configuration information. More specifically, when at least one MBS session identifier indicates a first MBS service and the terminal equipment receives the first MBS service, the first measurement data is recorded, or when the terminal equipment receives the first MBS service in at least one MBS service area, the first measurement data is recorded, or when the terminal equipment receives the first MBS service in at least one downlink frequency point supporting the MBS service, the first measurement data is recorded.

S330, the terminal device sends the first measurement data to the first network device.

The first network device and the second network device may be the same network device.

In some implementations, the method further includes the terminal device sending indication information to the first network device, the indication information indicating that the first measurement data is present, and further receiving request information from the first network device, the request information being for requesting the first measurement data. The terminal device sending the first measurement data to the first network device includes the terminal device sending the first measurement data to the first network device according to the request information. For example, when the terminal device records the first measurement data using the recording MDT, the terminal device may transmit the first measurement data to the first network device in the above manner. It should be understood that the first measurement data is different from the common MDT data, and the first measurement data is measurement data of MBS service.

When the terminal device uses the fast MDT to record the first measurement data, the terminal device may send the first measurement data to the first network device after recording the first measurement data, without a request of the first network device.

The indication information sent by the terminal equipment to the first network equipment, the request information received by the terminal equipment from the first network equipment, and the first measurement data sent by the terminal equipment to the first network equipment can be sent directly or forwarded through the network equipment to which the main cell of the terminal equipment belongs.

The terminal device may send the indication information through an RRC message including, but not limited to, an RRC resume complete message, an RRC reestablishment complete message, an RRC setup complete message, and an RRC reconfiguration complete message.

It should be noted that, in actual implementation, the first network device may acquire measurement data of the first MBS service recorded by the plurality of terminal devices.

In some implementations, when the first MBS service is transmitted by the first network device, the method 300 may further include S340, where the first network device records second measurement data of the first MBS service.

In some implementations, the second measurement data may include at least one of a downlink PDCP SDU data amount (or M4 measurement), a downlink average user throughput rate (or M5 measurement), a downlink packet delay (or M6 measurement), a downlink packet loss rate (or M7 measurement), and a number of terminal devices receiving the first MBS service.

When the distribution mode of the first MBS service is broadcast or multicast, the first network device performs one or more of M4 measurement to M7 measurement with granularity of each MRB, so as to obtain one or more of M4 measurement results to M7 measurement results. Or when the distribution mode of the first MBS service is broadcast or multicast, the first network equipment executes one or more of M4 measurement to M7 measurement according to the granularity of each MRB of each terminal equipment so as to obtain one or more of M4 measurement results to M7 measurement results. And when the distribution mode of the first MBS service is unicast, the first network equipment performs one or more of M4 measurement to M7 measurement according to the granularity of each DRB so as to obtain one or more of M4 measurement results to M7 measurement results. Or when the distribution mode of the first MBS service is unicast, the first network equipment performs one or more of M4 measurement to M7 measurement according to the granularity record of each DRB of each terminal equipment so as to obtain one or more of M4 measurement results to M7 measurement results.

For example, when the first network device performs the M6 measurement, the downlink packet delay may be determined according to the HARQ ACK value in RLC unacknowledged mode (unacknowledged mode, UM) or RLC ACK value in RLC acknowledged mode (acknowledged mode, AM). When the first network device performs M7 measurement, the downlink packet loss rate may be determined according to the HARQ ACK value and the NACK value in RLC UM mode, or the RLC ACK value and the NACK value in RLC AM mode.

In some implementations, the first MBS service includes one or more MBS services, and the number of terminal devices receiving the first MBS service may include at least one of a number of terminal devices receiving the first MBS service in a serving cell of the first network device, a number of terminal devices determined with each MBS service or session identification in the first MBS service as granularity, a number of terminal devices determined with each MBS broadcast service in the first MBS service as granularity, a number of terminal devices determined with each MBS multicast service in the first MBS service as granularity, and a number of terminal devices determined with each MRB in the first MBS service as granularity.

In some implementations, the first network device optimizes performance of the first MBS service according to the first measurement data and/or the second measurement data, for example, adjusts frequency points supporting the MBS service, the number of MRBs, an MBS service type (MBS session), an MBS distribution manner, a multicast mechanism, etc., so as to optimize performance of the first MBS service and improve user experience of the first MBS service. For example, when the first measurement data, the second measurement data are MDT data, the first network device may implement MDT-based coverage optimization, MDT-based QoS verification, and the like.

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the application provides a method for recording the measurement data of MBS service, which is beneficial to realizing the optimization of the performance of MBS service.

Fig. 4 shows a further schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application, and the method 400 may be regarded as a further explanation of the method 300, or the method 400 may be regarded as a refinement of the application scenario of the method 300. The method 400 may be performed by a terminal device and a network device, or may be component parts of a terminal device and a network device, such as a chip or a chip system or a circuit, which is not limited by the present application. The method 400 may include the following steps.

S410, the network device 2 transmits measurement configuration information to the terminal device.

Illustratively, the content of the measurement configuration information may refer to the description in the method 300, and will not be described herein. Network device 2 may be considered an example of a second network device in method 300.

S420, the network device 1 sends the first MBS service to the terminal device.

Illustratively, the network device 1 may be regarded as an example of a first network device in the method 300, and the first MBS service may be the first MBS service of the method 300.

In some implementations, the network device 2 may be a service network device when the terminal device is in a connected state, the network device 1 may be a network device for which the terminal device reenters the connected state or is always in a service of the connected state, or the network device 1 is a network device to which the terminal device currently resides in a cell, the network device 2 is a service network device in the connected state before the terminal device enters an inactive state/idle state, or the network device 2 may be a network device to which the terminal device resides in a cell, the network device 1 is a network device to which a cell reselected by the terminal device belongs, or a network device to which a cell to which the terminal device always resides

S430, the terminal equipment records the first measurement data of the first MBS service.

The specific implementation of the recording of the first measurement data by the terminal device may refer to the description in S320, and will not be described herein. For example, the terminal device may record the first measurement data according to the measurement configuration information.

S460, the terminal device sends the first measurement data to the network device 1.

The specific implementation of the terminal device sending the first measurement data to the network device 1 may refer to the description in S330, which is not described herein.

Optionally, the method 400 may further include S430' the network device 1 records second measurement data of the first MBS service.

Optionally, prior to performing S460, the method 400 may further include S440 and S450. For example, when the terminal device records the first measurement data using the recording MDT, it may also be performed that the terminal device transmits indication information indicating that the first measurement data exists to the network device 1S 440, and that the network device 1 transmits request information for requesting the first measurement data to the terminal device S450.

In the present application, the network device 1 may adjust the frequency point, the MRB number, the MBS service type (MBS session), the MBS distribution mode, the multicast mechanism, etc. supporting the MBS service related to the first MBS service according to the received first measurement data and/or the second measurement data recorded by itself.

Fig. 5 shows a further schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application, and the method 500 may be regarded as further description of the method 300, or the method 500 may be regarded as refinement of the application scenario of the method 300. The method 500 may be performed by a terminal device and a network device, or may be component parts of a terminal device and a network device, such as a chip or a chip system or a circuit, which is not limited by the present application. The method 500 may include the following steps.

S510, the network device 2 transmits measurement configuration information to the terminal device.

S520, the network device 2 sends the first MBS service to the terminal device.

Illustratively, the first MBS service may be the first MBS service of the method 300.

S530, the terminal equipment records the first measurement data of the first MBS service.

S560, the terminal device transmits the first measurement data to the network device 1.

Illustratively, the network device 1 may be regarded as an example of a first network device in the method 300. It should be understood that the network device 1 is a network device that can provide the first MBS service to the terminal device.

In some implementations, the network device 2 may be a service network device to which the terminal device belongs in the connected state, or a network device to which the camping cell belongs, and the network device 1 may be a service network device to which the terminal device reenters the connected state, or a service network device that is always in the connected state.

Optionally, the method 500 may further comprise S530', where the network device 2 records second measurement data of the first MBS service.

Optionally, prior to performing S560, the method 500 may further include S540 and S550. For example, when the terminal device records the first measurement data using the recording MDT, it may also be performed that the terminal device transmits indication information indicating that the first measurement data exists to the network device 1S 540, and that the network device 1 transmits request information for requesting the first measurement data to the terminal device S550.

In the embodiment of the present application, the network device 1 may adjust, according to the received first measurement data and/or second measurement data, the frequency point, the number of MRBs, the MBS service type (MBS session), the MBS distribution mode, the multicast mechanism, etc. that support the MBS service and are related to the first MBS service.

Fig. 6 shows a further schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application, and the method 600 may be regarded as a further explanation of the method 300, or the method 600 may be regarded as a refinement of the application scenario of the method 600. The method 600 may be performed by a terminal device and a network device, or may be component parts of a terminal device and a network device, for example, a chip or a chip system or a circuit, which is not limited by the present application. The method 600 may include the following steps.

S610, the network device 2 transmits measurement configuration information to the terminal device.

S620, the network device 3 sends the first MBS service to the terminal device.

S630, the terminal equipment records the first measurement data of the first MBS service.

S660, the terminal device sends the first measurement data to the network device 1.

In some implementations, the network device 2 may be a service network device in which the terminal device is in a connected state, the network device 3 may be a network device in which a cell in which the terminal device resides or a primary cell belongs, and the network device 1 may be a service network device (or referred to as a target access network device) in which the terminal device is in a connected state again or is always in a connected state.

Optionally, the method 600 may further include S630' and S630 ': S630', where the network device 3 records the second measurement data of the first MBS service.

Optionally, before performing S660, the method 600 may further include S640 and S650. For example, when the terminal device records the first measurement data using the recording MDT, it may also perform S640 that the terminal device transmits indication information indicating that the first measurement data exists to the network device 1, S650 that the network device 1 transmits request information for requesting the first measurement data to the terminal device.

In the foregoing, the communication method provided by the embodiments of the present application is described with reference to fig. 1 to 6, and in each embodiment of the present application, if there is no special description and no logic conflict, terms and/or descriptions between the embodiments have consistency and may be mutually cited, and technical features in different embodiments may be combined to form a new embodiment according to the inherent logic relationship thereof. For example, any two or all of method 400, method 500, method 600 may be combined.

The following describes in detail a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application with reference to fig. 7 to 9. It should be understood that the descriptions of the apparatus embodiments and the descriptions of the method embodiments correspond to each other, and thus, descriptions of details not described may be referred to the above method embodiments, which are not repeated herein for brevity.

Fig. 7 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 2000 according to an embodiment of the present application. The apparatus 2000 includes a transceiver unit 2010 (or called a transceiver module) and a processing unit 2020 (or called a processing module), where the transceiver unit 2010 may be used to implement a corresponding transceiver function and the processing unit 2020 may be used to implement a corresponding processing function. The communication means may be adapted to perform the method performed by the terminal device or the network device in any of the embodiments shown in fig. 3 to 6.

Alternatively, the transceiving unit 2020 may include a transmitting unit and a receiving unit. The transmitting unit is configured to perform the transmitting operation in the above-described method embodiment. The receiving unit is configured to perform the receiving operation in the above-described method embodiment.

Optionally, the communication apparatus 2000 further includes a storage unit, where the storage unit may be configured to store instructions and/or data, and the processing unit 2020 may read the instructions and/or data in the storage unit, so that the apparatus implements the relevant actions performed by the terminal device or the network device in the foregoing method embodiments.

In some implementations, the communication device 2000 is configured to perform actions performed by the terminal device in any of the embodiments shown in fig. 3 to 6.

Specifically, the transceiver unit 2010 is configured to receive the first MBS service, the processing unit 2020 is configured to record first measurement data of the first MBS service, and the transceiver unit 2010 is further configured to send the first measurement data to the first network device.

Optionally, the transceiver unit 2010 is further configured to receive measurement configuration information from the second network device, the measurement configuration information indicating that the terminal device records the first measurement data, and the processing unit 2020 is configured to record the first measurement data according to the measurement configuration information.

Optionally, the measurement configuration information indicates at least one of at least one MBS session identification, each MBS session identification in the at least one MBS session identification being used to identify at least one MBS service, at least one MBS service zone, each MBS service zone in the at least one MBS service zone providing at least one MBS service, or at least one downlink frequency point supporting MBS service. The processing unit 2020 is configured to perform at least one of recording the first measurement data when the at least one MBS session identifier indicates the first MBS service and the transceiver unit 2010 receives the first MBS service, recording the first measurement data when the transceiver unit 2010 receives the first MBS service in the at least one MBS service area, or recording the first measurement data when the transceiver unit 2010 receives the first MBS service in the at least one downlink frequency point supporting the MBS service.

Optionally, the processing unit 2020 is further configured to determine, according to a distribution manner of the first MBS service, a minimization of drive test MDT mode used for recording the first measurement data, and record the first measurement data in the MDT mode.

Optionally, the processing unit 2020 is further configured to determine that the MDT mode is a record MDT when the distribution mode of the first MBS service is broadcast, or determine that the MDT mode is a fast MDT when the distribution mode of the first MBS service is multicast or unicast.

Optionally, the processing unit 2020 is further configured to record the first measurement data using a record MDT.

Optionally, the transceiver unit 2010 is further configured to send indication information to the first network device, where the indication information indicates that the first measurement data is present.

Optionally, the transceiver unit 2010 is further configured to receive request information from the first network device, where the request information is used to request the first measurement data, and send the first measurement data to the first network device according to the request information.

In some implementations, the communication apparatus 2000 is configured to perform actions performed by a network device (e.g., the first network device, the second network device, or any of the network devices 1-3) in any of the embodiments shown in fig. 3-6.

Specifically, the transceiver unit 2010 is configured to send the first MBS service to the terminal device, and the processing unit 2020 is configured to record second measurement data of the first MBS service, where the second measurement data is used to determine coverage information and/or QoS information of the first MBS service.

Optionally, the transceiver unit 2010 is further configured to receive first measurement data from the terminal device.

Optionally, the transceiver unit 2010 is further configured to send measurement configuration information to the terminal device, where the measurement configuration information indicates that the terminal device records the first measurement data.

Optionally, the transceiver unit 2010 is further configured to receive indication information from the terminal device, where the indication information indicates that the first measurement data exists.

Optionally, the transceiver unit 2010 is further configured to send request information to the terminal device, where the request information is used to request the first measurement data.

Optionally, the second measurement data includes at least one of a downlink PDCP SDU data amount, a downlink average user throughput rate, a downlink packet delay, or a downlink packet loss rate. The processing unit 2020 is configured to record the second measurement data at granularity of each MRB or record the second measurement data at granularity of each MRB of each terminal device when the distribution manner of the first MBS service is broadcast or multicast. Or the processing unit 2020 is configured to record the second measurement data at granularity of each DRB when the distribution manner of the first MBS service is unicast, or record the second measurement data at granularity of each DRB of each terminal device.

Alternatively, the second measurement data may further include the number of terminal devices receiving the first MBS service. The number of terminal devices receiving the first MBS service includes at least one of the number of terminal devices receiving the first MBS service in a cell served by the network device, the number of terminal devices determined by the processing unit 2020 with each MBS service or session identifier in the first MBS service as granularity, the number of terminal devices determined by the processing unit 2020 with each MBS broadcast service in the first MBS service as granularity, the number of terminal devices determined by the processing unit 2020 with each MBS multicast service in the first MBS service as granularity, and the number of terminal devices determined by the processing unit 2020 with each MRB in the first MBS service as granularity.

It should be understood that the specific process of each unit performing the corresponding steps has been described in detail in the above method embodiments, and is not described herein for brevity.

It should also be appreciated that the apparatus 2000 herein is embodied in the form of functional units. The term "unit" herein may refer to an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (e.g., a shared, dedicated, or group processor, etc.) and memory that execute one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable components that support the described functionality. In an alternative example, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the apparatus 2000 may be specifically a communication apparatus in the foregoing embodiments, and may be used to perform each flow and/or step corresponding to the communication apparatus in the foregoing method embodiments, which is not described herein for avoiding repetition.

The apparatus 2000 of each of the above embodiments has a function of implementing the corresponding steps performed by the communication apparatus (e.g., terminal device or network device) in the above method. The functions may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above, for example, the transceiver unit may be replaced by a transceiver (for example, a transmitting unit in the transceiver unit may be replaced by a transmitter, a receiving unit in the transceiver unit may be replaced by a receiver), and other units, such as a processing unit, may be replaced by a processor, to perform the transceiver operations and related processing operations in the respective method embodiments, respectively.

The transceiver 2020 may be a transceiver circuit (e.g., may include a transmitter circuit or may include a receiver circuit), and the processor 2020 may be a processor circuit.

It should be noted that the apparatus in fig. 7 may be the communication device (such as the terminal device or the network device) in the foregoing embodiment, or may be a chip or a system on chip (SoC), for example. The receiving and transmitting unit can be an input and output circuit and a communication interface, and the processing unit is a processor or a microprocessor or an integrated circuit integrated on the chip. And are not limited herein.

Fig. 8 shows a schematic diagram of another communication device 2100 provided by an embodiment of the present application. The apparatus 2100 comprises a processor 2110, the processor 2110 being coupled to a memory 2120, the memory 2120 being for storing computer programs or instructions and/or data, the processor 2110 being for executing the computer programs or instructions stored by the memory 2120 or for reading data stored by the memory 2120 for performing the methods in the method embodiments above.

Optionally, the processor 2110 is one or more.

Optionally, the memory 2120 is one or more.

Optionally, the memory 2120 is integrated with the processor 2110 or separately provided.

Optionally, as shown in fig. 8, the apparatus 2100 further comprises a transceiver 2130, the transceiver 2130 being used for the reception and/or transmission of signals. For example, the processor 2110 is configured to control the transceiver 2130 to receive and/or transmit signals.

As an example, the processor 2110 may have the function of the processing unit 2020 shown in fig. 7, the memory 2120 may have the function of a storage unit, and the transceiver 2130 may have the function of the transceiving unit 2020 shown in fig. 7.

Alternatively, the apparatus 2100 is configured to implement the operations performed by a communication apparatus (e.g., a terminal device or a network device) in the above method embodiments.

For example, the processor 2110 is configured to execute computer programs or instructions stored in the memory 2120 to implement the relevant operations of the communication apparatus in the above respective method embodiments.

In some implementations, when the apparatus 2100 is a terminal device, the transceiver 2130 may include a transmitter, a receiver, radio frequency circuitry, an antenna, and input-output devices. The processor 2110 is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, controlling terminal devices, executing software programs, processing data of the software programs, and the like. The memory 2120 is mainly used for storing software programs and data. The radio frequency circuit is mainly used for converting a baseband signal and a radio frequency signal and processing the radio frequency signal. The antenna is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input-output devices (e.g., touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc.) are primarily used to receive data entered by a user and to output data to the user. It should be noted that some kinds of terminal apparatuses may not have an input/output device.

When data need to be sent, the processor carries out baseband processing on the data to be sent and then outputs a baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit, and the radio frequency circuit carries out radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and then sends the radio frequency signal outwards in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is sent to the terminal equipment, the radio frequency circuit receives a radio frequency signal through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal, and outputs the baseband signal to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data.

In other implementations, when the apparatus 2100 is a network device, such as a base station, the processor 2110 is mainly used for baseband processing, controlling the base station, etc., and the processor 2110 is typically a control center of the base station, and is used for controlling the base station to perform the processing operations on the network device side in the above method embodiments. Memory 2120 is used primarily for storing computer program code and data. The transceiver 2130 is mainly used for transmitting and receiving radio frequency signals and converting radio frequency signals to baseband signals, and the transceiver 2130 may include an antenna and radio frequency circuits (not shown), wherein the radio frequency circuits are mainly used for performing radio frequency processing.

In the embodiment of the application, the antenna and the radio frequency circuit with the receiving and transmitting functions can be regarded as a receiving and transmitting module of the terminal equipment or the network equipment, and the processor with the processing function can be regarded as a processing module of the terminal equipment or the network equipment.

In some implementations, the processor 2110 may also be referred to as a processing unit, processing board, processing module, processing device, etc. The transceiver 2130 may also be referred to as a transceiver unit, transceiver device, etc.

When the apparatus 2100 is a chip, the chip includes a processor, a memory, and a transceiver. The transceiver may be an input/output circuit or a communication interface, and the processor may be a processing module or a microprocessor or an integrated circuit integrated on the chip. The sending operation of the terminal device in the above method embodiment may be understood as the output of the chip, and the receiving operation of the terminal device in the above method embodiment may be understood as the input of the chip.

It should be appreciated that the processor referred to in the embodiments of the present application may be a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), but may also be other general purpose processors, digital signal processors (DIGITAL SIGNAL processors, DSPs), application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), off-the-shelf programmable gate arrays (field programmable GATE ARRAY, FPGAs) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, etc. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

It should also be understood that the memory referred to in embodiments of the present application may be volatile memory and/or nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an erasable programmable ROM (erasable PROM), an electrically erasable programmable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be random access memory (random access memory, RAM). For example, RAM may be used as an external cache. By way of example, and not limitation, RAM includes various forms of static random access memory (STATIC RAM, SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DYNAMIC RAM, DRAM), synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (doubledata RATE SDRAM, DDR SDRAM), enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (ENHANCED SDRAM, ESDRAM), synchronous link dynamic random access memory (SYNCHLINK DRAM, SLDRAM), and direct memory bus random access memory (direct rambus RAM, DR RAM).

It should be noted that when the processor is a general purpose processor, DSP, ASIC, FPGA or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware components, the memory (storage module) may be integrated into the processor.

It should also be noted that the memory described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

Fig. 9 shows a schematic diagram of a chip system 2200 provided by an embodiment of the application. The system-on-chip 2200 (or may also be referred to as a processing system) includes logic 2210 and input/output interfaces 2220.

Logic 2210 may be, among other things, processing circuitry in system-on-chip 2200. Logic 2210 may be coupled to the memory unit and invoke instructions in the memory unit so that system-on-chip 2200 may implement the methods and functions of embodiments of the present application. The input/output interface 2220 may be an input/output circuit in the chip system 2200, outputting information processed by the chip system 2200, or inputting data or signaling information to be processed into the chip system 2200 for processing.

As an option, the chip system 2200 is configured to implement the operations performed by the communication device (e.g., terminal device or network device) in the above method embodiments.

For example, logic 2210 is used to implement the operations related to processing performed by a communication device (e.g., a terminal device or a network device) in the above method embodiments, and input/output interface 2220 is used to implement the operations related to transmission and/or reception performed by a communication device (e.g., a terminal device or a network device) in the above method embodiments.

The embodiments of the present application also provide a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer instructions for implementing the method performed by the communication apparatus (e.g., a terminal device or a network device) in the above method embodiments.

For example, the computer program when executed by a computer may enable the computer to implement the method performed by the communication device (e.g., terminal device) in the above-described method embodiments.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product containing instructions which, when executed by a computer, implement the method performed by the communication apparatus (e.g., a terminal device or a network device) in the above method embodiments.

It will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity, explanation and beneficial effects of the relevant content in any of the above-mentioned communication devices may refer to the corresponding method embodiments provided above, and are not repeated here.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices, and methods may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, e.g., the division of the units is merely a logical function division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, e.g., multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection via some interfaces, devices or units, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate units may or may not be physically separate, and units shown as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

In addition, each functional unit in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated in one unit. The integrated units may be implemented in hardware or in software functional units.

The integrated units, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as stand-alone products, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, a substantial portion of the technical solution of the present application, or all or part of the technical solution, may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, including instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. The storage medium includes various media capable of storing program codes such as a U disk, a mobile hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk or an optical disk.

While the application has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing embodiments may be modified or equivalents may be substituted for some of the features thereof, and that the modifications or substitutions do not depart from the spirit of the embodiments.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that it is executed by a terminal device or a chip used for the terminal device, and the method comprises:

Receiving a first multicast/broadcast service MBS service;

Recording first measurement data of the first MBS service, where the first measurement data is used to determine coverage information and/or service quality QoS information of the first MBS service;

The first measurement data is sent to a first network device.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the method further comprises:

receiving measurement configuration information from a second network device, wherein the measurement configuration information instructs the terminal device to record the first measurement data;

The recording the first measurement data of the first MBS service includes:

The first measurement data is recorded according to the measurement configuration information.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the measurement configuration information indicates at least one of the following:

At least one MBS session identifier, each of the at least one MBS session identifier is used to identify at least one MBS service;

at least one MBS service area, each MBS service area in the at least one MBS service area providing at least one MBS service; or

At least one downlink frequency supporting MBS services.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that the recording of the first measurement data comprises at least one of the following:

When the at least one MBS session identifier indicates the first MBS service and the first MBS service is received, recording the first measurement data;

When receiving the first MBS service in the at least one MBS service area, recording the first measurement data; or,

When the first MBS service is received at the at least one downlink frequency point supporting the MBS service, the first measurement data is recorded.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the method further comprises:

Determining, according to the distribution mode of the first MBS service, a minimization of drive tests (MDT) mode used for recording the first measurement data;

The recording of the first measurement data includes:

The first measurement data is recorded in the MDT mode.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein determining the MDT mode used to record the first measurement data according to the distribution mode of the first MBS service comprises:

When the distribution mode of the first MBS service is broadcast, determining that the MDT mode is logged MDT; or,

When the distribution mode of the first MBS service is multicast or unicast, the MDT mode is determined to be fast MDT.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that recording the first measurement data comprises:

The first measurement data is recorded using the recording MDT.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the method further comprises:

Send indication information to the first network device, where the indication information indicates that the first measurement data exists.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that the method further comprises:

receiving request information from the first network device, where the request information is used to request the first measurement data;

The sending the first measurement data to the first network device includes:

The first measurement data is sent to the first network device according to the request information.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the first measurement data comprises at least one of the following:

An MBS session identifier of the first MBS service;

Providing serving cell identification information of the session of the first MBS service;

Providing neighbor cell identification information of the session of the first MBS service;

service area information corresponding to the first MBS service;

Providing a downlink reference signal measurement result corresponding to the cell of the first MBS service;

Providing a downlink reference signal measurement result corresponding to a cell of a second MBS service, where the second MBS service is a service other than the first MBS service;

a block error rate corresponding to the session of the first MBS service;

Distribution mode indication information of the first MBS service, where the distribution mode indication information is used to indicate that the distribution mode of the first MBS service is one of broadcast, multicast or unicast;

multicast distribution mechanism indication information of the first MBS service, where the multicast distribution mechanism indication information is used to indicate that a transmission mechanism of the first MBS service is point-to-point transmission or point-to-multipoint transmission; or

The MBS interest indication information of the terminal device, the MBS interest indication information indicates at least one of the following: the frequency of the broadcast service that the terminal device is receiving or is interested in receiving, the session identifier of the MBS service that the terminal device is receiving or is interested in receiving, or the priority of the terminal device in receiving unicast services or broadcast services.

11. A communication method, characterized in that it is executed by a network device or a chip used for the network device, and the method comprises:

Sending a first multicast/broadcast service MBS service to a terminal device;

Second measurement data of the first MBS service is recorded, where the second measurement data is used to determine coverage information and/or quality of service QoS information of the first MBS service.

12. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that the method further comprises:

Receive first measurement data from the terminal device, where the first measurement data is measurement data of the first MBS service, and the first measurement data is used to determine coverage information and/or QoS information of the first MBS service.

13. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that the method further comprises:

Send measurement configuration information to the terminal device, where the measurement configuration information instructs the terminal device to record the first measurement data.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the measurement configuration information indicates at least one of the following:

At least one downlink frequency supporting MBS services.

15. The method according to any one of claims 12 to 14, characterized in that the method further comprises:

Indication information is received from the terminal device, where the indication information indicates that the first measurement data exists.

16. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that the method further comprises:

Sending request information to the terminal device, where the request information is used to request the first measurement data.

17. The method according to any one of claims 12 to 16, wherein the first measurement data comprises at least one of the following:

An MBS session identifier of the first MBS service;

service area information corresponding to the first MBS service;

a block error rate corresponding to the first MBS session;

multicast distribution mechanism indication information of the first MBS service, where the multicast distribution mechanism indication information is used to indicate that a transmission mechanism of the first MBS service is point-to-point or point-to-multipoint; or

18. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 17, characterized in that the second measurement data comprises at least one of the following: a downlink packet data convergence layer protocol PDCP service data unit SDU data volume;

Downlink average user throughput;

Downlink packet delay; or

Downlink packet loss rate.

19. The method according to claim 18, characterized in that recording the second measurement data comprises:

When the distribution mode of the first MBS service is broadcast or multicast, the second measurement data is recorded at a granularity of each MRB, or the second measurement data is recorded at a granularity of each MRB of each terminal device.

20. The method according to claim 18 is characterized in that the recording of the second measurement data includes: when the distribution mode of the first MBS service is unicast, recording the second measurement data at the granularity of each wireless data bearer DRB, or recording the second measurement data at the granularity of each DRB of each terminal device.

21. The method according to claim 18, characterized in that the second measurement data further includes the number of terminal devices receiving the first MBS service.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein the number of terminal devices receiving the first MBS service comprises at least one of the following:

The number of terminal devices receiving the first MBS service in the service cell of the network device;

The number of terminal devices determined at a granularity of each MBS service or session identifier in the first MBS service;

The number of terminal devices determined based on the granularity of each MBS broadcast service in the first MBS service;

the number of terminal devices determined at a granularity of each MBS multicast service in the first MBS service; or

The number of terminal devices is determined based on the granularity of each MRB in the first MBS service.

23. A communication device, characterized by comprising a module for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, or for executing the method according to any one of claims 11 to 22.

24. A communication device, characterized by comprising a transceiver unit and a processing unit, wherein the transceiver unit and the processing unit are used to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, or to execute the method according to any one of claims 11 to 22.

25. A communication device, characterized in that it comprises at least one processor, wherein the at least one processor is coupled to at least one memory, and the at least one processor is used to execute a computer program or instruction stored in the at least one memory so that the communication device executes the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 10, or executes the method as described in any one of claims 11 to 22.

26. A communication system, characterized by comprising a terminal device and a network device;

Wherein, the terminal device is used to execute the communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 10;

The network device is used to execute the communication method according to any one of claims 11 to 22.

27. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that instructions or program codes are stored thereon, and when the instructions or program codes are executed by a processor, the processor implements the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 10, or the method as described in any one of claims 11 to 22.

28. A chip, characterized in that the chip includes a processor and a communication interface, the communication interface is used to send information to other communication devices other than the communication device including the chip and/or receive information from the other communication devices, and the processor is used to execute the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 10, or to execute the method as described in any one of claims 11 to 22.