CN111866905A

CN111866905A - Communication method and related equipment

Info

Publication number: CN111866905A
Application number: CN201910346052.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 杨水根; 欧意姆·布拉克次; 埃马努伊尔·帕特欧米契拉卡斯; 亨里克·奥鲁佛松; 张宏卓
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-04-26
Filing date: 2019-04-26
Publication date: 2020-10-30
Anticipated expiration: 2039-04-26
Also published as: CN111866905B; WO2020216099A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the application discloses a communication method and related equipment, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that a first base station sends a first message to core network equipment, wherein the first message is used for requesting to acquire information of network slices supported by at least one cell contained in a second base station, or the first message is used for requesting to acquire information of network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which the at least one cell contained in the second base station belongs, and the information of the network slices comprises identification of the network slices and priority of the network slices; and the first base station receives a second message sent by the core network equipment, wherein the second message comprises information of network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell contained in the second base station belongs. By the aid of the method and the device, the switching performance between the first base station and the second base station is optimized.

Description

Communication method and related equipment

Technical Field

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

Background

The fifth Generation (5th Generation, 5G) communication system introduces the concept of network slicing, which enables the partitioning of a physical network into multiple virtual networks. A virtual network is treated as a "network slice", and each network slice is independent of each other. Different Packet Data Unit (PDU) sessions in a terminal device may require network slices corresponding to the individual PDU sessions to provide service. In practical applications, the network slices supported by a base station and the priority of the network slices may affect the PDU sessions that can be established in the base station. In the case of no matter whether two base stations establish an Xn interface, neither base station in the existing implementation can determine the priority of the network slice supported by the other. In the case where two base stations do not establish an Xn interface, the two base stations in the existing implementation cannot determine the network slice supported by each other.

In this case, how to acquire the information of the network slice supported by the opposite base station is a considerable problem.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and related equipment, which are beneficial to optimizing the switching performance between a first base station and a second base station.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, including:

the first base station sends a first message to the core network device, where the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one cell included in the second base station, or the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which the at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, where the information of the network slice includes an identifier of the network slice; optionally, the information of the network slice further includes a priority of the network slice; and the first base station receives a second message sent by the core network equipment, wherein the second message comprises information of network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell contained in the second base station belongs.

In the first aspect, the first base station acquires, through interaction with the core network device, information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, which is helpful for optimizing handover performance between the first base station and the second base station.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the information of the network slice supported by the at least one tracking area to which the at least one cell belongs, which is included in the second base station in the second message, is determined by the core network device. Therefore, the acquisition efficiency of the network slice information is improved.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the sending, by the first base station, the first message to the core network device specifically is: the first base station sends a first message to the core network equipment so that the core network equipment sends a third message to the second base station, wherein the function of the third message is consistent with that of the first message;

the receiving, by the first base station, the second message sent by the core network device specifically includes: the first base station receives a second message sent by the core network device, the second message is sent by the core network device after receiving a fourth message sent by the second base station, the fourth message includes information of network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, and the second message and the fourth message include an identifier of the first base station and an identifier of the second base station.

Thus, the core network device realizes to send the information of the network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs to the first base station through interaction with the second base station.

Optionally, the first message is a first uplink radio access network configuration transfer message; the second message is a first downlink radio access network configuration transfer message; the third message is a second downlink wireless access network configuration transfer message; the fourth message is a second uplink radio access network configuration transfer message.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the sending, by the first base station, the first message to the core network device specifically is: the method comprises the steps that a first base station sends a first message to core network equipment so that the core network equipment sends a fifth message to a second base station, wherein the first message and the fifth message are respectively used for requesting to switch N PDU sessions in terminal equipment from the first base station to a target cell in the second base station, the first message and the fifth message comprise an identifier of each PDU session in the N PDU sessions and an identifier of the target cell, and N is a positive integer;

the receiving, by the first base station, the second message sent by the core network device specifically includes: the first base station receives a second message sent by the core network equipment, wherein the second message is sent by the core network equipment after receiving a sixth message sent by the second base station, and the sixth message comprises information of network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs;

Wherein the first message further comprises an identification of the second base station; alternatively, the first message further comprises an identification of the second base station and an identification of the at least one tracking area.

Optionally, the first message is a handover request message, and the fifth message is a handover request message;

the second message is a handover preparation failure message, and the sixth message is a handover failure message; or, the second message is a handover command message, and the sixth message is a handover request acknowledgement message.

Thus, the possible implementation scheme is applied to a scenario where there is no communication interface between the first base station and the second base station, and the first base station needs to switch N PDU sessions of the terminal device to the second base station, so that in the switching scenario, the first base station acquires information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs.

With reference to the first aspect or each possible implementation scheme of the first aspect, in yet another possible implementation scheme, the second message may further include information of network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one neighboring cell of a cell included in the second base station belongs, which is helpful for optimizing handover performance between the first base station and the second base station.

With reference to the first aspect or various possible implementation schemes of the first aspect, in yet another possible implementation scheme, the first base station is a centralized unit CU or a centralized unit control plane CU-CP network element.

With reference to the first aspect or various possible implementations of the first aspect, in yet another possible implementation, the second base station is a centralized unit CU or a centralized unit control plane CU-CP network element.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, including:

the core network equipment receives a first message from a first base station, wherein the first message is used for requesting to acquire information of network slices supported by at least one cell included in a second base station, or the first message is used for requesting to acquire information of network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which the at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, and the information of the network slices comprises an identifier of the network slices; optionally, the information of the network slice further includes a priority of the network slice; and the core network equipment sends a second message to the first base station, wherein the second message comprises information of network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell contained in the second base station belongs.

In the second aspect, the core network device may send, to the first base station, information of network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, which helps to optimize handover performance between the first base station and the second base station.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the information of the network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs is determined by the core network device. Therefore, the acquisition efficiency of the network slice information is improved. Wherein the first message comprises an identification of the second base station; or, the first message includes an identification of the second base station and an identification of the at least one tracking area; alternatively, the first message comprises an identity of the second base station and an identity of the at least one cell.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, before the sending, by the core network device, the second message to the first base station, the method further includes: the core network device sends a third message to the second base station, where the third message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one cell included in the second base station, or the third message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which the at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, and the first message and the third message include an identifier of the first base station and an identifier of the second base station; the core network device receives a fourth message sent by the second base station, the fourth message includes information of network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, and the second message and the fourth message include an identifier of the first base station and an identifier of the second base station.

In this way, the core network device may send, to the first base station, information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, by interacting with the second base station.

Wherein the first message includes an identification of the first base station and an identification of the second base station. Thus, the core network device determines that the first message is sent by the first base station according to the identifier of the first base station, and the core network device may send the third message to the second base station according to the identifier of the second base station. In this case, the first message is used to acquire information of network slices supported by tracking areas to which all cells included in the second base station belong.

Optionally, the first message further includes an identifier of at least one tracking area in the second base station. In this case, the first message is used to obtain information of network slices supported by one or more tracking areas, where the one or more tracking areas are a subset of a tracking area set of the second base station, and the tracking area set of the second base station includes tracking areas to which all cells included in the second base station respectively belong. Therefore, the information of the network slices supported by the tracking area which the first base station wants to acquire can be fed back to the first base station, and the method is more targeted.

Optionally, the first message is a first uplink radio access network configuration transfer message; the fourth message is a second uplink wireless access network configuration transfer message; the second message is a first downlink radio access network configuration transfer message; the third message is a second downlink radio access network configuration transfer message.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, before the sending, by the core network device, the second message to the first base station, the method further includes: the core network equipment sends a fifth message to the second base station, wherein the first message and the fifth message are respectively used for requesting to switch N PDU sessions in the terminal equipment from the first base station to a target cell in the second base station, and the first message and the fifth message comprise the identification of each PDU session in the N PDU sessions and the identification of the target cell; the core network equipment receives a sixth message sent by the second base station, wherein the sixth message comprises information of network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, and N is a positive integer;

In this way, the possible implementation scheme may be applied to a scenario where there is no communication interface between the first base station and the second base station, and the first base station needs to switch N PDU sessions of the terminal device to the second base station, so that in the switching scenario, the first base station may obtain, through the core network device, information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs.

With reference to the second aspect or various possible implementation schemes of the second aspect, in a possible implementation scheme, the second message may further include information of network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one neighboring cell of a cell included in the second base station belongs. It is helpful to optimize the handover performance between the first base station and the second base station.

In combination with the second aspect or each possible implementation of the second aspect, in yet another possible implementation, the first base station is a centralized unit CU or a centralized unit control plane CU-CP network element.

In combination with the second aspect or each possible implementation of the second aspect, in yet another possible implementation, the second base station is a centralized unit CU or a centralized unit control plane CU-CP network element.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, including:

the second base station receives a first message sent by the core network device, where the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one cell included in the second base station, or the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which the at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, where the information of the network slice includes an identifier of the network slice; optionally, the information of the network slice further includes a priority of the network slice; and the second base station sends a second message to the core network equipment, wherein the second message comprises information of network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell contained in the second base station belongs.

In the third aspect, the second base station feeds back, to the core network device, information of network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, so that the core network device sends the information to the first base station, which helps to optimize handover performance between the first base station and the second base station.

With reference to the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the first message and the second message include an identifier of the first base station and an identifier of the second base station.

Optionally, the first message is a downlink radio access network configuration transfer message; the second message is an uplink radio access network configuration transfer message.

With reference to the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the first message is used to request handover of N PDU sessions in the terminal device from the first base station to a target cell in the second base station, where the first message includes an identifier of each PDU session in the N PDU sessions and an identifier of the target cell;

optionally, the first message is a handover request message; the second message is a handover failure message or a handover request confirmation message. In this way, the possible implementation scheme may be applied to a scenario where there is no communication interface between the first base station and the second base station, and the first base station needs to switch N PDU sessions of the terminal device to the second base station, so that in the switching scenario, the first base station acquires, through the core network device, information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs.

With reference to the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the second message may further include information of network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one neighboring cell of a cell included in the second base station belongs. It is helpful to optimize the handover performance between the first base station and the second base station.

With reference to the third aspect or each possible implementation of the third aspect, in yet another possible implementation, the first base station is a centralized unit CU or a centralized unit control plane CU-CP network element.

With reference to the third aspect or each possible implementation of the third aspect, in yet another possible implementation, the second base station is a centralized unit CU or a centralized unit control plane CU-CP network element.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, including:

the first base station generates a first message and transmits the first message. Wherein the first message includes information of at least one first network slice supported by the first base station, the information of the first network slice including an identifier of the first network slice; optionally, the information of the first network slice further includes a priority of the first network slice; (ii) a Or the first message includes an identifier of at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the first base station belongs and information of at least one second network slice supported by the tracking area, and the information of the second network slice includes the identifier of the second network slice; optionally, the information of the second network slice further includes a priority of the second network slice; .

In the fourth aspect, the first base station may send the network slices supported by the first base station to other base stations, and optionally, the priority of each network slice in the supported network slices, which helps to optimize handover performance between the first base station and the second base station.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the sending, by the first base station, the first message specifically includes: the first base station sends the first message directly to the second base station.

Optionally, the first message is an Xn setup request message or an Xn setup response message. Thus, the scheme of the fourth aspect may be applied to a scenario where the first base station establishes a communication interface with the second base station; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the first message configures an update message for a next generation radio access network node or configures an update confirm message for the next generation radio access network node. The scheme of the fourth aspect may be applied in a scenario where the first base station and the second base station have established a communication interface.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, in a scenario where a communication interface is not established between the first base station and the second base station, information interaction is implemented through core network equipment.

The sending of the first message by the first base station specifically includes: the method comprises the steps that a first base station sends a first message to core network equipment so that the core network equipment sends a second message to a second base station, wherein the first message and the second message comprise an identifier of the first base station and an identifier of the second base station, and the first message and the second message comprise information of at least one first network slice supported by the first base station; or the first message and the second message comprise the identification of at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the first base station belongs and the information of at least one second network slice supported by the tracking area.

Optionally, the first message is an uplink radio access network configuration transfer message; the second message is a downlink radio access network configuration transfer message.

With reference to the fourth aspect or various possible implementations of the fourth aspect, in yet another possible implementation, the first base station is a centralized unit CU or a centralized unit control plane CU-CP network element.

With reference to the fourth aspect or various possible implementations of the fourth aspect, in yet another possible implementation, the second base station is a centralized unit CU or a centralized unit control plane CU-CP network element.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, including:

the second base station receives a first message, wherein the first message comprises information of at least one first network slice supported by the first base station, and the information of the first network slice comprises an identifier of the first network slice and a priority of the first network slice; or, the first message includes an identifier of at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the first base station belongs and information of at least one second network slice supported by the tracking area, and the information of the second network slice includes the identifier of the second network slice and a priority of the second network slice.

In the fifth aspect, the second base station may receive the network slices supported by the first base station, and optionally, may also receive the priority of each network slice in the network slices supported by the first base station, which is helpful for optimizing the handover performance between the first base station and the second base station.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the receiving, by the second base station, the first message specifically includes: the second base station receives the first message sent by the first base station.

the first message configures an update message for a next generation radio access network node or configures an update confirm message for the next generation radio access network node. The solution of the fifth aspect may be applied in a scenario where the first base station and the second base station have established a communication interface.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, in a scenario where a communication interface is not established between the first base station and the second base station, information interaction may be implemented through a core network device.

The receiving, by the second base station, the first message specifically includes: the second base station receives a first message sent by the core network equipment, wherein the first message is sent by the core network equipment after receiving a second message sent by the first base station, the first message and the second message comprise an identifier of the first base station and an identifier of the second base station, and the first message and the second message comprise information of at least one first network slice supported by the first base station; or the first message and the second message comprise the identification of at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the first base station belongs and the information of at least one second network slice supported by the tracking area.

With reference to the fifth aspect or various possible implementations of the fifth aspect, in yet another possible implementation, the first base station is a centralized unit CU or a centralized unit control plane CU-CP network element.

With reference to the fifth aspect or various possible implementations of the fifth aspect, in yet another possible implementation, the second base station is a centralized unit CU or a centralized unit control plane CU-CP network element.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, including:

a source base station sends a first message, wherein the first message is used for requesting to switch N PDU sessions of a terminal device from the source base station to a target cell in the target base station, and the first message comprises an identifier of each PDU session in the N PDU sessions and an identifier of the target cell; and the source base station receives a second message for indicating a handover response, wherein the second message comprises indication information, and the indication information is used for indicating that the reason why the handover of the M PDU sessions in the terminal equipment fails under the condition that the resources of the target cell are insufficient is that the network slice corresponding to at least one PDU session has no available resources due to the lower priority of the network slice in the tracking area to which the target cell belongs, N is a positive integer, and M is a positive integer less than or equal to N.

In the sixth aspect, in a case where the source base station requests to handover N PDU sessions of the terminal device to a target cell in the target base station, the target base station includes indication information in a message for indicating a handover response to indicate that, in a case where resources of the target cell are insufficient, a network slice corresponding to M PDU sessions for which handover fails has a lower priority in a tracking area to which the target cell belongs, so that the network slice has no available resources.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, in a scenario where a communication interface is already established between a source base station and a target base station, the interaction may be direct.

The source base station sends the first message, specifically, the source base station sends the first message to the target base station, and the first message is a handover request message;

the receiving, by the source base station, the second message for indicating the handover response specifically includes: and the source base station receives a second message which is sent by the target base station and used for indicating a switching response, wherein the second message is a switching preparation failure message or a switching request confirmation message.

Optionally, the first message includes an identification of a network slice corresponding to each PDU session.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, in a scenario where a communication interface is not established between the source base station and the target base station, information interaction may be implemented through core network equipment.

The sending of the first message by the source base station specifically includes: a source base station sends a first message to a core network device so that the core network device sends a third message to a target base station, the third message is used for requesting to switch N PDU sessions in a terminal device from the source base station to a target cell in the target base station, the third message comprises an identifier of each PDU session in the N PDU sessions, an identifier of a network slice corresponding to each PDU session and an identifier of the target cell, the first message is a switching request message, and the third message is a switching request message;

the receiving, by the source base station, the second message for indicating the handover response specifically includes: the source base station receives a second message which is sent by the core network equipment and used for indicating a switching response, wherein the second message is a switching preparation failure message or a switching command message, the switching preparation failure message is sent by the core network equipment after receiving the switching failure message sent by the target base station, the switching command message is sent by the core network equipment after receiving a switching request confirmation message sent by the target base station, and the switching failure message or the switching request confirmation message comprises indication information.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, after the source base station receives the second message, the source base station may send a seventh message to the control device, where the seventh message includes the identifier of the target cell and the indication information. This informs the control device via the source base station: under the condition that the resources of the target cell are insufficient, the target cell influences the access of the PDU session due to the fact that the priority of the network slice corresponding to the M PDU sessions is low. Optionally, the source base station receives an eighth message sent by the control device, where the eighth message includes information of a network slice reconfigured for the TA to which the target cell belongs, and the information of the network slice includes at least one of an identifier of a network slice supported by the TA to which the target cell belongs and a priority of each network slice in the supported network slices. In this way, the control device may also notify the source base station of the information of the network slice reconfigured for the TA to which the target cell belongs, so as to facilitate the reference of the source base station.

With reference to the sixth aspect or various possible implementations of the sixth aspect, in yet another possible implementation, the first base station is a centralized unit CU or a centralized unit control plane CU-CP network element.

With reference to the sixth aspect or various possible implementations of the sixth aspect, in yet another possible implementation, the second base station is a centralized unit CU or a centralized unit control plane CU-CP network element.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, including:

the method comprises the steps that a target base station receives a first message, wherein the first message is used for requesting to switch N PDU sessions in terminal equipment from a source base station to a target cell in the target base station, and the first message comprises an identifier of each PDU session in the N PDU sessions, an identifier of a network slice corresponding to each PDU session and an identifier of the target cell; the target base station sends a second message for indicating a handover response, wherein the second message includes indication information, and the indication information is used for indicating that, in the case that the resources of the target cell are insufficient, the reason why the handover of the M PDU sessions in the terminal equipment fails is that the network slice corresponding to at least one PDU session has no available resources due to the lower priority of the network slice in the tracking area to which the target cell belongs, N is a positive integer, and M is a positive integer smaller than or equal to N.

In the seventh aspect, in a case where the source base station receives a request to switch N PDU sessions of the terminal device to a target cell in the target base station, the target base station may include indication information in a message for indicating a handover response to indicate that, in a case where resources of the target cell are insufficient, a network slice corresponding to M PDU sessions for which handover fails has a lower priority in a tracking area to which the target cell belongs, so that the network slice has no available resources.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in a possible implementation manner, in a scenario where a communication interface is already established between a source base station and a target base station, the interaction may be direct.

The receiving, by the target base station, the first message specifically includes: a target base station receives a first message sent by a source base station, wherein the first message is a switching request message;

the sending, by the target base station, the second message for indicating the handover response specifically includes: and the target base station sends a second message for indicating a switching response to the source base station, wherein the second message is a switching preparation failure message or a switching request confirmation message.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in a possible implementation manner, in a scenario where a communication interface is not established between the source base station and the target base station, information interaction may be implemented through a core network device.

The first message is a switching request message, and the second message is a switching failure message or a switching request confirmation message;

the receiving, by the target base station, the first message specifically includes: the target base station receives a first message sent by core network equipment, the first message is sent by the core network equipment after receiving a third message sent by a source base station, the third message is used for requesting to switch a PDU session in the terminal equipment from the source base station to a target cell in the target base station, the third message comprises an identifier of each PDU session in N PDU sessions and an identifier of the target cell, and the third message is a switching request message;

The sending, by the target base station, the second message for indicating the handover response specifically includes: the target base station sends a switching failure message to the core network equipment so that the core network equipment sends a switching preparation failure message to the source base station, wherein the switching preparation failure message comprises indication information; or, the target base station sends a handover request acknowledgement message to the core network device, so that the core network device sends a handover command message to the source base station, where the handover command message includes the indication information.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes:

the target base station sends a fourth message to the control equipment, wherein the fourth message comprises the identification and the indication information of the target cell; and the target base station receives a fifth message sent by the control device, wherein the fifth message comprises information of the network slice reconfigured for the tracking area to which the target cell belongs, and the information of the network slice comprises at least one of an identifier of the network slice supported by the tracking area to which the target cell belongs and a priority of the network slice. Thus, after the target base station feeds back the indication information to the control device, when the target cell has insufficient resources, the target cell affects the access of the PDU session due to the lower priority of the network slice corresponding to the PDU session, and the control device may adjust at least one of the network slice priority and the identifier of the network slice supported by the tracking area to which the target cell belongs, so as to meet the PDU session handover requirement.

With reference to the seventh aspect or various possible implementation schemes of the seventh aspect, in yet another possible implementation scheme, the first base station is a centralized unit CU or a centralized unit control plane CU-CP network element.

With reference to the seventh aspect or various possible implementation schemes of the seventh aspect, in yet another possible implementation scheme, the second base station is a centralized unit CU or a centralized unit control plane CU-CP network element.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, including:

the control device receives a first message sent by a first base station, wherein the first message comprises an identifier of a target cell and indication information, which are included in a second base station, and the indication information is used for indicating that under the condition that resources of the target cell are insufficient, the reason that at least one PDU session in the terminal device fails to be switched is that no available resources exist in a network slice due to the fact that the network slice corresponding to at least one PDU session is low in priority in a tracking area to which the target cell belongs; the control device sends a second message to the second base station, the second message including information of the network slices reconfigured for the tracking area to which the target cell belongs, the information of the network slices including at least one of an identification of network slices supported by the tracking area to which the target cell belongs and a priority of each of the supported network slices.

The first base station and the second base station may be the same base station or different base stations.

Optionally, in a case that the first base station and the second base station are not the same base station, the control device may further send a third message to the first base station, where the third message includes information of a network slice reconfigured for a tracking area to which the target cell belongs.

In the eighth aspect, after receiving the indication information, the control device may determine that, in a case that resources of the target cell are insufficient, the tracking area to which the target cell belongs affects access to the PDU session due to a lower priority of a network slice corresponding to the PDU session that fails to be handed over, so that the control device may adjust at least one of an identifier of a network slice and a priority of a network slice supported by the tracking area to which the target cell belongs, so as to meet a handover requirement.

With reference to the eighth aspect or various possible implementations of the eighth aspect, in yet another possible implementation, the first base station is a centralized unit CU or a centralized unit control plane CU-CP network element.

With reference to the eighth aspect or various possible implementations of the eighth aspect, in yet another possible implementation, the second base station is a centralized unit CU or a centralized unit control plane CU-CP network element.

In a ninth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a base station, where the base station is a first base station, and the base station includes:

a sending module, configured to send a first message to a core network device, where the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one cell included in a second base station, or the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which the at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, where the information of the network slice includes an identifier of the network slice and a priority of the network slice;

a receiving module, configured to receive a second message sent by the core network device, where the second message includes information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs.

Optionally, the first base station may further implement the method performed by any one of the possible implementation manners of the first aspect and the first aspect.

In a tenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a core network device, including:

a receiving module, configured to receive a first message from a first base station, where the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one cell included in a second base station, or the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which the at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, where the information of the network slice includes an identifier of the network slice; optionally, the information of the network slice further includes a priority of the network slice;

A sending module, configured to send a second message to the first base station, where the second message includes information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs.

Optionally, the core network device may further implement the method performed by any one of the possible implementation manners of the second aspect and the second aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a base station, where the base station is a second base station, and the base station includes:

a receiving module, configured to receive a first message sent by a core network device, where the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one cell included in a second base station, or the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which the at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, where the information of the network slice includes an identifier of the network slice; optionally, the information of the network slice further includes a priority of the network slice;

a sending module, configured to send a second message to the core network device, where the second message includes information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs.

Optionally, the second base station may further implement the method performed by any one of the possible implementation manners of the third aspect and the third aspect.

In a twelfth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a base station, where the base station is a first base station, and the base station includes:

a generating module for generating a first message;

a sending module, configured to send a first message;

wherein the first message includes information of at least one first network slice supported by the first base station, the information of the first network slice including an identification of the first network slice; optionally, the information of the first network slice further includes a priority of the first network slice; or, the first message includes an identifier of at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the first base station belongs and information of at least one second network slice supported by the tracking area, where the information of the second network slice includes the identifier of the second network slice; optionally, the information of the second network slice further includes a priority of the second network slice;

optionally, the first base station may further implement the method performed by any one of the possible implementation manners of the fourth aspect and the fourth aspect.

In a thirteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a base station, where the base station is a second base station, and the base station includes:

a receiving module, configured to receive a first message, where the first message includes information of at least one first network slice supported by a first base station, and the information of the first network slice includes an identifier of the first network slice; optionally, the information of the first network slice further includes a priority of the first network slice; or, the first message includes an identifier of at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the first base station belongs and information of at least one second network slice supported by the tracking area, where the information of the second network slice includes the identifier of the second network slice; optionally, the information of the second network slice further includes a priority of the second network slice.

Optionally, the second base station may further implement the method performed by any one of the possible implementation manners of the fifth aspect and the fifth aspect.

In a fourteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a base station, where the base station is a source base station, and the base station includes:

a sending module, configured to send a first message, where the first message is used to request to switch N PDU sessions of a terminal device from a source base station to a target cell in a target base station, and the first message includes an identifier of each PDU session in the N PDU sessions and an identifier of the target cell;

A receiving module, configured to receive a second message used for indicating a handover response, where the second message includes indication information, where the indication information is used for indicating that, in a case that resources of a target cell are insufficient, a reason for a failure in handover of M PDU sessions in the terminal device is that a network slice corresponding to the M PDU sessions has no available resources due to a lower priority of the network slice in a tracking area to which the target cell belongs, N is a positive integer, and M is a positive integer smaller than or equal to N.

Optionally, the source base station may further implement the method performed by any possible implementation manner of the sixth aspect and the sixth aspect.

In a fifteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a base station, where the base station is a target base station, and the base station includes:

a receiving module, configured to receive a first message, where the first message is used to request to switch N PDU sessions in a terminal device from a source base station to a target cell in the target base station, and the first message includes an identifier of each PDU session in the N PDU sessions, an identifier of a network slice corresponding to each PDU session, and an identifier of the target cell;

a sending module, configured to send a second message used for indicating a handover response, where the second message includes indication information, where the indication information is used for indicating that, in a case that resources of a target cell are insufficient, a reason for a failure in handover of M PDU sessions in the terminal device is that a network slice corresponding to the M PDU sessions has no available resources due to a lower priority of the network slice in a tracking area to which the target cell belongs, where N is a positive integer, and M is a positive integer smaller than or equal to N.

Optionally, the target base station may further implement the method performed by any one of the possible implementation manners of the seventh aspect and the seventh aspect.

In a sixteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a control apparatus, including:

a receiving module, configured to receive a first message sent by a first base station, where the first message includes an identifier of a target cell and indication information included in a second base station, and the indication information is used to indicate that, when resources of the target cell are insufficient, a reason for a failure in handover of M PDU sessions in a terminal device is that a network slice corresponding to the M PDU sessions has no available resources due to a lower priority of the network slice in a tracking area to which the target cell belongs, where M is a positive integer;

a sending module, configured to send a second message to the second base station, where the second message is information of a network slice reconfigured for a tracking area to which the target cell belongs, and the information of the network slice includes at least one of an identifier of a network slice supported by the tracking area to which the target cell belongs and a priority of each network slice in the supported network slices.

Optionally, the control device may also implement the method performed by any one of the above-mentioned eighth aspect and eighth possible implementation manner of the eighth aspect.

In a seventeenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus. The communication device may be a base station in the above-described apparatus design, or a chip provided in the base station. The communication device includes: a processor, a memory, and a transceiver;

the transceiver is used for receiving and sending messages;

the memory is used for storing instructions;

the processor is configured to execute the memory-stored instructions, and when the processor executes the memory-stored instructions, the processor causes the communication device to perform the method performed by any one of the possible implementations of the first, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and their aspects described above.

In an eighteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication apparatus. The communication device may be a core network device in the above device design, or a chip disposed in the core network device. The communication device includes: a processor, a memory, and a transceiver;

the transceiver is used for receiving and sending messages;

the memory is used for storing instructions;

the processor is configured to execute the memory-stored instructions, and when the processor executes the memory-stored instructions, the processor causes the communication device to perform the method performed by any one of the possible implementations of the second aspect and the second aspect.

In a nineteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication apparatus. The communication means may be a control device in the above-mentioned device design or a chip provided in the control device. The communication device includes: a processor, a memory, and a transceiver;

the transceiver is used for receiving and sending messages;

the memory is used for storing instructions;

the processor is configured to execute the instructions stored in the memory, and when the processor executes the instructions stored in the memory, the processor causes the communication device to perform the method performed by any one of the above-mentioned eighth aspect and the eighth aspect.

In a twentieth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer program product, including: computer program code for causing a computer to perform the method of any possible implementation of the above first, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and their aspects when the computer program code runs on a computer.

In a twenty-first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer program product, including: computer program code for causing a computer to perform the method of the second aspect described above and any possible implementation of the second aspect when the computer program code runs on a computer.

In a twenty-second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer program product, including: computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any possible implementation of the above-mentioned eighth aspect and its eighth aspect.

In a twenty-third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a readable storage medium, where the readable storage medium is used to store instructions, so that any possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the third aspect, the fourth aspect, the fifth aspect, the sixth aspect, the seventh aspect, and the various aspects thereof is implemented.

In a twenty-fourth aspect, the present application provides a readable storage medium for storing instructions to implement any possible implementation manner of the second aspect and the second aspect thereof.

In a twenty-fifth aspect, the present application provides a readable storage medium, where the readable storage medium is used to store instructions, so that any possible implementation manner of the above-mentioned eighth aspect and the eighth aspect thereof is implemented.

In a twenty-sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, where the communication system includes a first base station, a core network device, and a second base station; wherein the first base station is configured to perform the method performed by any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect, the fourth aspect, the sixth aspect, and the aspects thereof; the second base station is configured to perform the method performed by any one of the above third aspect, fifth aspect, seventh aspect and possible implementations of the aspects; the core network device is configured to execute the method performed by any one of the second aspect and the second possible implementation manner of the second aspect.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the drawings required to be used in the embodiments of the present application will be described below.

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

fig. 1B is a schematic structural diagram of a CU-DU separation base station in a 5G communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic flowchart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

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

fig. 8 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

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

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of another base station according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a core network device according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of another core network device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a network communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of another network communication system according to an embodiment of the present application.

Type of embodiment

The following description will be made with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application.

Referring to fig. 1A, a schematic diagram of a possible communication system architecture is provided according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication system includes a core network device 101, base stations (such as a base station 102 and a base station 103 shown in fig. 1A), and terminal devices (such as a terminal device 104, a terminal device 105, and a terminal device 106 shown in fig. 1A). As shown in fig. 1A, it can be seen that a base station can be connected with at least one terminal device, for example, base station 102 is connected with terminal device 104 and terminal device 105, and base station 103 is connected with terminal device 106. The base station may be connected to at least one core network device, for example, the base station 102 and the base station 103 are respectively connected to the core network device 101.

The core network device 103 has communication interfaces with the base station 102 and the base station 103, respectively, so that the core network device 103 can communicate with the base station 102 and the base station 103, respectively. For example, this communication interface is referred to in this application as the N2 interface or NG interface.

If there is a communication interface between the base station 102 and the base station 103, the two base stations can communicate directly, where direct communication means that the two base stations may not need to communicate through a core network device or other devices. For example, the communication interface between base station 102 and base station 103 may be referred to as an Xn interface.

If there is no communication interface between the base station 102 and the base station 103, the two base stations may not communicate directly, and in a possible manner, the two base stations without the communication interface may communicate through the core network device.

The network slice (network slice) to which the present application relates is a logical network that provides specific network capabilities and network characteristics. It can be a logical network with different network capabilities and network characteristics customized according to different service requirements or tenants, etc., on top of a physical or virtual network infrastructure. A network slice is made up of a set of network functions and their required resources (e.g., computing resources, storage resources, network resources).

There are multiple types of services in a terminal device, such as enhanced mobile broadband services (eMBB), ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC), massive machine type communications (mtc), and so on, but the PDU sessions of different types of services may have different network slices, and even if the same service type is used, the PDU sessions may have different network slices due to different provided operators or service providers.

In practical applications, the network slices supported by a base station and the priority of the network slices may affect the PDU sessions that can be established in the base station. In the case of no matter whether two base stations establish an Xn interface, neither base station in the existing implementation can determine the priority of the network slice supported by the other. In the case where two base stations do not establish an Xn interface, the two base stations in the existing implementation cannot determine the network slice supported by each other.

In a PDU session scenario of switching a terminal device, in an existing implementation scheme, a source base station determines whether to switch and determines a target cell to which to switch based on a measurement report reported by the terminal device, specifically, if a signal quality strength of the target cell in the measurement report reported by the terminal device is greater than a certain threshold, the source base station requests to switch a PDU session of the terminal device to the target cell of the target base station. However, whether the handover is successful or not is related to a plurality of factors, such as whether or not the tracking area to which the target cell belongs supports the network slice corresponding to the PDU session in the terminal device, the priority of the network slice corresponding to the PDU session in the terminal device in the tracking area to which the target cell belongs, and the like.

For example, the target base station includes cell 1 and cell 2, and the supported network slices and the priority cases of the network slices are as follows:

cell 1: support network slice #11 and network slice # 12; network slice #11 has a lower priority than network slice # 12;

and 2, cell: support network slice #11 and network slice # 13; network slice #11 has higher priority than network slice # 13;

assume that the terminal device is in communication with the source base station for PDU session S1 and PDU session S2 and is moving towards the target base station. When the measurement report reported by the terminal equipment indicates that the signal strength of the cell 1 is greater than a certain threshold, the source base station selects the cell 1 in the target base station as a target cell, and requests to switch the PDU session S1 and the PDU session S2 of the terminal equipment to the target cell. If the network slice corresponding to the PDU session S1 of the terminal device is network slice #11, the network slice corresponding to the PDU session S2 is network slice # 14.

Since cell 1 does not support network slice #14, the target base station will refuse to admit the PDU session S2.

Since the priority of the network slice #11 in the cell 1 is lower than that of the network slice #12, the terminal device cannot obtain the optimal service in the cell 1, for example, when the load of the cell 1 is too large, the other terminal devices served by the network slice #12 in the cell 1 are preferentially guaranteed, and actually in the above case, although the signal strength of the cell 2 is lower than that of the cell 1, the network slice #11 in the cell 2 has a high priority, the terminal device can obtain the better service in the cell 2. In addition, in the above case, the target base station may reject the handover PDU session S1, for example, because the network slice #11 has a lower priority in the tracking area to which the cell 1 belongs, resulting in that the network slice #11 has no available resources when the load of the cell 1 is high.

In connection with the above example, it can be seen on the one hand that: in the prior art, because the source base station cannot determine the network slice supported by the target cell and the priority of each network slice in the supported network slices, a situation of failed handover due to failure to determine the information occurs, for example, because the target cell does not support the network slice corresponding to the PDU session of the terminal device, the target base station rejects the handover of the PDU session; for another example, if the network slice corresponding to the PDU session of the terminal device has no available resources due to the lower priority of the network slice in the tracking area to which the target cell belongs, the target base station may reject the handover of the PDU session. This reduces the probability of handover success.

In a possible implementation manner of the present application, a first base station (e.g., the source base station in the foregoing example) may acquire an identifier of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell (e.g., the target cell in the foregoing example) included by a second base station (e.g., the target base station in the foregoing example) belongs and a priority of each network slice in the supported network slices. Therefore, the first base station can acquire the network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the target base station belongs and the priority conditions of each network slice in the supported network slices, and the method is favorable for optimizing the switching performance of the network.

In combination with the above examples, in another aspect: if the handover fails, the handover response message sent by the existing target base station to the source base station only contains the response message that the target cell rejects the access of the terminal equipment, so that the source base station cannot determine the reason of the handover failure. If the handover failure is caused by that the network slice corresponding to the PDU session of the terminal device has no available resources due to the lower priority of the network slice in the tracking area to which the target cell belongs, but because the source base station cannot determine the reason of the handover failure, the source base station still sends a handover request for the next time when the source base station needs to request to handover the PDU session corresponding to the network slice to the target cell, and the handover failure still occurs, thereby reducing the probability of successful handover.

In another possible implementation manner of the present application, the target base station may include indication information in the response message for denying the terminal device access, where the indication information is used to indicate that, in a case that resources of the target cell are insufficient, a network slice corresponding to at least one PDU session in the terminal device has a lower priority in a tracking area to which the target cell belongs, so that the network slice has no available resources. Therefore, the source base station can determine the reason of the switching failure, and for the condition that the source base station needs to request to switch the PDU session corresponding to the network slice to the target cell next time, the source base station can refer to the indication information sent by the previous target base station to determine whether to switch to the target base station, so that the probability of the switching success is improved.

Next, descriptions of network elements and terms that may be involved in the embodiments of the present application are as follows:

the terminal equipment: the UE may be a User Equipment (UE), and the UE is accessed to the network side through a base station, and may be, for example, a handheld terminal device, a notebook computer, a subscriber unit (subscriber unit), a cellular phone (cellular phone), a smart phone (smart phone), a wireless data card, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) computer, a tablet computer, a wireless modem (modem), a handheld device (hand-held), a laptop computer (laptop computer), a cordless phone (cordless phone), or a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a Machine Type Communication (MTC) terminal, or other devices that can access to the network.

A base station: the wireless network controller is mainly responsible for functions of wireless resource management, quality of service (QoS) management, data compression, encryption and the like on the air interface side.

The core network device may be an access and mobility management function (AMF), and is mainly responsible for functions such as access control, Mobility Management (MM), attach and detach, and gateway selection. The core network device according to the embodiment of the present application is not limited to the AMF.

The control device: the network slices are used for configuring the supported network slices of each tracking area and the priority of each network slice in the supported network slices; and configuring a tracking area to which the cell belongs. Here, the control device may be an Operation Administration and Maintenance (OAM) system, or a network management system, and the naming mode of the control device is not limited in the present application.

A Tracking Area (TA) is a basic unit of location management of a terminal device in a communication system, and is composed of one or more cells. The cell is an area covered by one base station or a part of an area covered by the base station, and the TA may include cells included in a plurality of base stations. One cell can belong to only one TA. The support of which network slices and the priority of each of the supported network slices are configured by the control device, the network slices supported by different cells belonging to the same TA are the same, and the priority order of each of the supported network slices is the same in each cell.

It should be noted that, in any embodiment of the present application, the following description is made on information of network slices supported by at least one TA to which at least one cell included in a base station belongs:

1. At least one cell is a part or all of all cells included in the base station; any embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto;

2. one cell can be divided into only one TA, and at least one TA to which at least one cell belongs includes the TA into which each cell is divided.

For example, assume that the at least one cell includes cell 11, cell 12, and cell 13; cell 11 is divided into TA 01; cell 12 is divided into TA 02; cell 13 is divided into TA 02; the at least one TA to which the at least one cell belongs includes TA01 and TA 02.

3. In an alternative manner, the "information of network slices supported by at least one TA to which the at least one cell belongs" may be indicated by an identification of the at least one TA and information of network slices supported by each TA of the at least one TA.

The specific expression is as follows (the name is merely an illustration, and the name is not limited in the embodiment of the present application), and the identification of the tracking area may be represented by a Tracking Area Identification (TAI) or a Tracking Area Code (TAC).

The information of the network slices supported by one TA may include an identification of each network slice in at least one network slice supported by the TA; optionally, the network slice information may further include a priority (priority) of each network slice in the at least one network slice. Illustratively, the network slice identification may be represented by a single network slice selection assistance information (S-NSSAI).

The priority of each network slice in at least one network slice supported by one TA represents the priority of each network slice in the TA.

Example 1, one TAI or TAC may correspond to information of supported network slices (where the information of network slices includes an identification of a network slice and a numerical value of a priority of a network slice):

> > TAI or TAC

>>>S-NSSAI 1 priority 1

S-NSSAI 2 priority 2

S-NSSAI 3 priority 3

In this example, each network slice corresponds to a priority value indicating the network slice's rank among 3 network slices, wherein a smaller network slice's priority value represents a higher priority for that network slice. Or conversely, the higher the priority value of the network slice is, the higher the priority of the network slice is represented.

Example 2, one TAI or TAC may correspond to information of supported network slices (where the information of network slices includes an identification of network slices and an ordering of network slices by priority):

> > TAI or TAC

>>>S-NSSAI 1

S-NSSAI 2

S-NSSAI 3

For example, it can be indicated by a network slice list, where the network slices from top to bottom or from front to back in the list represent the network slices with high to low priority. Or vice versa, the network slices from top to bottom or from front to back in the list indicate that the network slices have low to high priority.

4. In any embodiment of the present application, the S-NSSAI at least includes slice type/service type (SST) information, and optionally may further include slice differentiation information (SD). The SST information is used to indicate the behavior of the network slice, such as the characteristics of the network slice and the service type, and the SD information is complementary information of the SST, and if the SST points to multiple network slices, the SD can assist in corresponding to only one network slice.

It should be understood that, in this embodiment of the present application, the identifier of the network slice may be represented by a network slice type, or may also be represented by a network slice type and a service type, or may also be represented by a service type plus tenant information, and the like, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. Optionally, the specific coding form of the identifier of the network slice is not limited, and different fields of the interface message carried between different devices may respectively represent different network slices, or may be replaced by abstracted index values, where the different index values respectively correspond to different network slices. Of course, other marks besides the above marks may be used, and are not limited herein.

It should be further noted that, in this embodiment of the present application, if the base station 1 determines the identity of the cell 1 included in the base station 2, the base station 1 may determine the TA to which the cell 1 belongs. Here, the cell 1 is any cell included in the base station 2.

For example, the base station 1 and the base station 2 may send, to each other, an identifier of each cell included in the base station itself and an identifier of a TA to which each cell belongs in a process of establishing a communication interface. So that base station 1 can determine the TA to which cell 1 included in base station 2 belongs.

For example, a terminal device served by the base station 1 may receive the broadcast message of the base station 2, and further determine the identifier of each cell included in the base station 2 and the identifier of the TA to which each cell belongs. The base station 1 may determine, through the measurement report reported by the terminal device, the identifier of each cell and the identifier of the TA to which each cell belongs, which are included in the base station 2.

It should be further noted that the base station (e.g., the first base station, the second base station, the source base station, or the target base station) involved in the embodiments of the present application may be a next generation base station (gNB) or a next generation evolved node b (ng-eNB). The gNB provides a user plane function and a control plane function of a new radio interface (NR) for the terminal device, and the ng-eNB provides a user plane function and a control plane function of an evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) for the terminal device, where it should be noted that the gNB and the ng-eNB are only names used for representing a base station supporting a 5G network system and do not have a limiting meaning. The base station involved in each embodiment may also be a base station (nodeB, NB) in a WCDMA system, and may also be an evolved node B (eNB or eNodeB) in an LTE system. Alternatively, the base station involved in each embodiment may also be a relay station, an access point, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, and a network-side device in a network after 5G or a network device in a PLMN network for future evolution, a Road Side Unit (RSU), and the like.

Fig. 1B shows an architecture diagram of a CU-DU separated base station in a 5G communication system. As shown in fig. 1B, the 5G communication system includes a next generation core (5 GC) and a Radio Access Network (RAN) node connected to the 5 GC. The RAN node may be a gbb or an ng-eNB. The RAN node may be connected to the 5GC through a NG-C (next generation control) interface and a NG-U (next generation user) interface. For ease of illustration, only one gNB and one ng-eNB are shown in FIG. 1B.

Optionally, the gNB and the gNB, the gNB and the ng-eNB, or the ng-eNB and the ng-eNB may be connected through an Xn interface. A gNB or ng-eNB may include a Central Unit (CU) and one or more Distributed Units (DU). For example, one gNB or ng-eNB as shown in fig. 1B includes one CU and two DUs. Further, a CU may include a centralized unit control plane (CU-CP) and one or more centralized unit user planes (CU-user plane functions, CU-UPs). The CU and the DU can be connected through an F1 interface, the CU-CP and the CU-UP can be connected through an E1 interface, the CU-CP and the DU can be connected through a control plane interface (F1-C) of F1, and the CU-UP and the DU can be connected through a user plane interface (F1-U) of F1.

As shown in fig. 1B, the solid lines represent control plane transmissions and the dashed lines represent user plane transmissions. The functional partitioning of CUs and DUs may be performed according to a protocol stack. One possible way is to deploy Radio Resource Control (RRC), Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer and Service Data Adaptation (SDAP) layer in the CU. Radio Link Control (RLC), Medium Access Control (MAC), and physical layer (PHY) are deployed in the DU. Accordingly, the CU has the processing capabilities of RRC, PDCP and SDAP. The DU has the processing capabilities of RLC, MAC, and PHY. It is noted that the above functional partitioning is only an example, and that other ways of partitioning are possible. For example, a CU includes the processing capabilities of RRC, PDCP, RLC, and SDAP, and a DU has the processing capabilities of MAC, and PHY. Also for example, a CU may include processing capabilities for RRC, PDCP, RLC, SDAP, and partial MAC (e.g., MAC header), and a DU may have processing capabilities for PHY and partial MAC (e.g., scheduling). Names of the CUs and the DUs may be changed, and as long as the access network nodes capable of implementing the above functions can be regarded as the CUs and the DUs in the present application. The CU-CP has the control plane functions of the CU, e.g., the processing capability of the RRC, and the control plane processing capability in the PDCP. The CU-UP has the user plane functionality of the CU, e.g., the processing power of SDAP, and the user plane processing power in PDCP.

It should be further noted that, the steps performed by the base station (e.g., the first base station, the second base station, the source base station, or the target base station) in the embodiments of the present application may be performed by a base station (e.g., a gNB and an ng-eNB), a CU, or a CU-CP, which is not limited in this application.

The embodiment of the application can be applied to other communication systems supporting network slicing, such as a 5G communication system. The term "system" may be used interchangeably with "network". The system architecture described in the embodiment of the present application is for more clearly illustrating the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, and does not form a limitation on the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, and as a person having ordinary skill in the art knows along with the evolution of the network architecture, the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is also applicable to similar technical problems.

Next, embodiments of the present application will be described.

Please refer to fig. 2, which is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to the present application. Referring to fig. 2, the communication method involves the following devices: in the embodiment of fig. 2, a communication interface exists between the first base station and the core network device, so that the first base station and the core network device can communicate with each other. The embodiment shown in fig. 2 is applied to a first base station requesting, from a core network device, information of network slices supported by a second base station. The method shown in fig. 2 comprises steps 201 to 202.

201, a first base station sends a first message to a core network device.

Correspondingly, the core network device receives a first message sent by the first base station.

In a possible case, the first message is used for requesting to acquire information of network slices supported by at least one cell included in the second base station, and the information of the network slices includes an identifier of the network slice; optionally, the information of the network slice further includes a priority of the network slice.

Illustratively, the first message includes an identification of the second base station. In this case, the first message is used to acquire information of network slices supported by each cell in all cells included in the second base station.

Illustratively, the first message includes an identification of the second base station and an identification of each of at least one cell included in the second base station. In this case, the first message is used to acquire information of network slices supported by each cell of the at least one cell.

In another possible case, the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one TA to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, where the information of the network slice includes an identifier of the network slice; optionally, the information of the network slice further includes a priority of the network slice.

Illustratively, the first message includes an identification of the second base station. In this case, the first message is used to acquire information of network slices supported by at least one TA to which all cells included in the second base station belong.

Illustratively, the first message includes an identification of the second base station and an identification of at least one TA to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs. In this case, the first message is used to obtain information of network slices supported by one or more TAs, where the one or more TAs are a subset of a TA set of the second base station, and the TA set of the second base station includes at least one TA to which all cells included in the second base station respectively belong.

Optionally, the first base station may obtain, through a measurement report or preset configuration information reported by each terminal device, at least one of the following: the identifier of the second base station, the cell identifier included in the second base station, and the TA identifier included in the second base station to which each cell belongs.

202, the core network device sends a second message to the first base station.

Correspondingly, the first base station receives a second message sent by the core network device. The second message includes information of network slices supported by at least one TA to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs. Here, the information of the network slices supported by the at least one TA to which the at least one cell belongs is information of the network slices supported by the at least one cell. That is, the information of the network slices supported by the TA to which one cell belongs is identical to the information of the network slices supported by the one cell. Thus, in the case that the first message is used to request information of network slices supported by at least one cell included in the second base station, the second message fed back by the second base station also includes information of network slices supported by at least one TA to which the at least one cell included in the second base station belongs.

After the core network equipment receives a first message sent by a first base station, the core network equipment judges whether information of a network slice requested to be acquired by the first base station is stored; and if so, the core network equipment sends the information to the first base station.

It is to be understood that the information of the network slices supported by the at least one TA to which the at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, which is stored by the core network device herein, may be derived from, but is not limited to, the following manners: a communication interface exists between the core network equipment and the second base station, and the core network equipment obtains the information of the network slice through communication with the second base station; the control device configures the core network device with information of the network slice of the base station connected with the core network device, wherein the information of the network slice of the second base station is included.

The second message in step 202 is illustrated next:

example one: in a case where all cells included in the second base station belong to TA1, and the received first message includes the identifier of the second base station, or the received first message includes the identifier of the second base station and TA1, the contents that may be included in the second message sent by the core network device are shown in table 1, and the network slices supported by TA1 include network slice #21, network slice #22, network slice #23, and network slice # 24. Optionally, the second message further includes priorities corresponding to each supported network slice as shown in table 1. Here the first level is a higher priority than the second level and so on. Optionally, the second message may further include an identifier of TA 1. Thus, the first base station may determine, through the second message, information of network slices supported by TAs 1 to which all cells included in the second base station belong.

TABLE 1

Example two: in the case that different cells included in the second base station belong to different TAs, for example, please refer to table 2, the different cells included in the second base station belong to different TAs, and the second base station includes 5 cells, which are cells C21, C22, C23, C24, and C25; the TA to which each cell belongs is shown in table 2.

TABLE 2

Cell identity	C21	C22	C23	C24	C25
						Identification of the TA to which it belongs	TA1	TA 1	TA 2	TA 2	TA 3

If the received first message only includes the identity of the second base station, the contents that may be included in the second message sent by the core network device are shown in table 3, including the identities TA1, TA2, and TA3 of the TA, and the identities of the network slices supported by TA1, TA2, and TA3, respectively. Optionally, the second message may further include at least one of the following parameters: the priority of the network slice supported by TA1, the priority of the network slice supported by TA2, and the priority of the network slice supported by TA 3. Thus, the first base station can determine the information of the network slices supported by at least one TA to which all the cells included in the second base station belong through the second message.

TABLE 3

If the received first message includes the identity of the second base station and also includes the identity of at least one TA among TA1, TA2, and TA3, for example, the case including TA2 and TA3, the contents that may be included in the second message sent by the core network device refer to table 4, including the identities TA2 and TA3 of the TAs, and the identities of the network slices supported by TA2 and the identities of the network slices supported by TA 3. Optionally, the second message may further include at least one of the following parameters: the priority of network slices supported by TA2 and the priority of network slices supported by TA 3. Thus, the first base station can determine information of network slices supported by TA2 and TA3, respectively, through the second message.

TABLE 4

In the second example above, taking TA2 as an example, TA2 supports network slice #25 and network slice #28, where the priority of network slice #25 is a first level, the priority of network slice #28 is a second level, where the first level is a higher priority than the second level, and so on. Optionally, the setting of the priority level of each network slice is not limited in this application.

Example three: if the received first message includes the identity of the second base station and the identity of at least one cell included in the second base station, as in the example with reference to table 2, C24 and C25, the contents that may be included in the second message sent by the core network device are referred to in table 4, and the second message includes the identities TA2 and TA3 of the TA, and the identity of the network slice supported by TA2 and the identity of the network slice supported by TA 3. Thus, the first base station may determine, through the second message, information of network slices supported by TAs to which cells C24 and C25 included in the second base station respectively belong.

Optionally, for the information of the network slices supported by the TAs in the first, second, and third examples, reference may also be made to the description in fig. 1A, which is not described herein again.

Optionally, in relation to the embodiment shown in fig. 2, the second message may further include information of network slices supported by at least one TA to which at least one neighboring cell of the cell included in the second base station belongs. Further optionally, each of the at least one neighboring cell is not included in the second base station, and the TA to which each neighboring cell belongs is different from each of the at least one TA to which the at least one cell belongs. The information of the network slice supported by the TA to which one neighboring cell belongs includes an identifier of the TA to which the neighboring cell belongs and an identifier of the network slice supported by the TA, and optionally, a priority of each network slice in the network slices supported by the TA, which is helpful for optimizing handover performance between the first base station and the second base station.

The embodiment of the present application may be applied to a case where the first base station and the second base station do not establish a communication interface, and the present application does not limit this.

The first message of the present application may be a slice information acquisition request, and the second message may be a slice information response message, and the present application does not limit names of the first message and the second message, and all other messages that implement the functions of the first message and the second message in the embodiment 3 belong to the protection scope of the present application.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 2, the first base station may acquire, through interaction with the core network device, information of a network slice supported by at least one TA to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, which is helpful for optimizing handover performance between the first base station and the second base station.

Please refer to fig. 3, which is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to the present application. Referring to fig. 3, the communication method involves the following devices: the system comprises a first base station, core network equipment and a second base station. Communication interfaces exist between the first base station and the second base station and the core network equipment respectively, so that the first base station and the second base station can communicate with the core network equipment respectively. The embodiment shown in fig. 3 may be applied to a scenario where there is no communication interface between the first base station and the second base station, where the first base station requests the second base station to acquire information of a network slice supported by the second base station through the core network device. The method shown in fig. 3 comprises steps 301 to 304.

301, a first base station sends a first message to a core network device.

Illustratively, the first message includes an identification of the second base station and an identification of the at least one cell. In this case, the first message is used to acquire information of network slices supported by each cell of the at least one cell.

Illustratively, the first message includes an identification of the second base station and an identification of at least one TA to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs. In this case, the first message is used to obtain information of network slices supported by one or more TAs, where the one or more TAs are a subset of a TA set of the second base station, and the TA set of the second base station includes TAs to which all cells included in the second base station belong respectively.

The first message in the embodiment of fig. 3 further includes an identification of the first base station. The identifier of the first base station and the identifier of the second base station included in the first message facilitate the core network device to determine that the first message is sent by the first base station according to the identifier of the first base station, and send the third message to the second base station according to the identifier of the second base station.

And 302, the core network equipment sends a third message to the second base station.

Correspondingly, the second base station receives a third message sent by the core network device.

Wherein the role of the third message is consistent with the role of the first message. Specifically, if the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one cell included in the second base station, the third message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one cell included in the second base station. And if the first message is used for requesting to acquire the information of the network slices supported by the at least one TA to which the at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, the third message is used for requesting to acquire the information of the network slices supported by the at least one TA to which the at least one cell included in the second base station belongs.

In this step, the information included in the third message and the information included in the first message may be consistent, and reference may be made to the description in step 301, which is not described herein again.

303, the second base station sends a fourth message to the core network device.

Correspondingly, the core network device receives a fourth message sent by the second base station.

After the second base station receives the third message, the second base station obtains information of network slices supported by TAs to which each cell in the at least one cell belongs, and sends a fourth message to the core network device. The fourth message includes information of network slices supported by at least one TA to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs.

The fourth message in step 303 is illustrated next:

example one: if all cells included in the second base station belong to one TA, the fourth message sent by the second base station may include information of network slices supported by the one TA. Optionally, the fourth message may further include an identification of the one TA.

Example two: in a case where different cells included in the second base station belong to different TAs, if the third message does not include the identity of the TA and does not include the identity of the cell, the fourth message transmitted by the second base station may include the identity of each TA in the TA set of the second base station and the identity of the network slice supported by each TA. The TA set of the second base station includes TAs to which each cell in all cells included in the second base station belongs.

Example three: if the received third message includes the identifier of at least one TA in the second base station, the fourth message sent by the second base station may include the identifier of at least one TA and information of network slices supported by each TA, where different cells included in the second base station belong to different TAs. Therefore, the information of the network slice supported by the TA which the first base station wants to acquire can be sent to the first base station through the core network equipment, and the method is more targeted.

Example four: if the received third message includes the identification of at least one cell included in the second base station, the fourth message sent by the second base station includes the identification of at least one TA and information of network slices supported by each TA. The at least one TA herein includes a TA to which each of the at least one cell belongs. Therefore, the information of the network slices supported by the TA to which the cell which the first base station wants to acquire can be sent to the first base station through the core network equipment, and the method is more targeted.

For information of the network slices supported by the TAs in the first, second, third, and fourth examples, reference may be made to the description in fig. 1A, or reference may be made to the illustration in fig. 2, which is not described herein again.

In the above examples first, second, third and fourth, the third message and the fourth message each comprise an identity of the first base station and an identity of the second base station. The fourth message includes the identifier of the first base station and the identifier of the second base station, which is convenient for the core network device to determine that the fourth message is sent by the second base station according to the identifier of the second base station, and send the second message to the first base station according to the identifier of the first base station.

Optionally, the fourth message may further include information of network slices supported by at least one TA to which at least one neighboring cell of the cell included in the second base station belongs. For the information of the network slice supported by the at least one TA to which the at least one neighboring cell belongs, reference may be specifically made to detailed description of the information of the network slice supported by the at least one TA to which the at least one neighboring cell belongs, which is included in the second message in fig. 2, and details are not described here again.

The core network device sends 304 a second message to the first base station.

Correspondingly, the first base station receives a second message sent by the core network device.

The second message includes information of network slices supported by at least one TA to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs.

In a specific implementation of the embodiment shown in fig. 3, information included in the second message and the fourth message may be the same, and reference may be made to the description in step 303, which is not described herein again. It should be noted that the second message and the fourth message include information of network slices supported by at least one TA to which at least one cell belongs, which is equivalent to information of network slices supported by the at least one cell, so that in the case that the first message and the third message are used to request information of network slices supported by at least one cell included in the second base station, the second message and the fourth message also include information of network slices supported by at least one TA to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs.

Optionally, in a case that the fourth message includes information of network slices supported by at least one TA to which at least one neighboring cell of the cell included in the second base station belongs, the second message also includes information of network slices supported by at least one TA to which at least one neighboring cell of the cell included in the second base station belongs.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 3, the first message is a first uplink radio access network configuration transfer message; the second message is a first downlink radio access network configuration transfer message; the third message is a second downlink wireless access network configuration transfer message; the fourth message is a second uplink radio access network configuration transfer message. Wherein, the uplink radio access network configuration transfer message is uplink RAN configuration transfer message; the downlink radio access network configuration transfer message is referred to as a downlink RAN configuration transfer message. The embodiment shown in fig. 3 does not limit the message names of the first message, the second message, the third message and the fourth message.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 3, in the case that there is no communication interface between the first base station and the second base station, the first base station may interact with the core network device to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one TA to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, which is helpful for optimizing handover performance between the first base station and the second base station in a scenario where the first base station and the second base station are not connected.

Please refer to fig. 4, which is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to the present application. Referring to fig. 4, the communication method involves the following devices: the system comprises a first base station, core network equipment and a second base station. Communication interfaces exist between the first base station and the second base station and the core network equipment respectively, so that the first base station and the second base station can communicate with the core network equipment respectively. In addition, the communication method of fig. 4 may be applied to a scenario where there is no communication interface between the first base station and the second base station, and the first base station needs to switch the PDU session of the terminal device to the second base station. The method shown in fig. 4 includes steps 401 to 404.

401, a first base station sends a first message to a core network device.

The first message is used for requesting to switch N PDU sessions in the terminal equipment from the first base station to a target cell in the second base station, and the first message comprises the identification of each PDU session in the N PDU sessions and the identification of the target cell. N is a positive integer. For example, the first message is a handover required (handed over) message.

In a possible case, the first message is further used for requesting to acquire information of network slices supported by at least one cell included in the second base station, where the information of the network slices includes an identifier of the network slice; optionally, the information of the network slice further includes a priority of the network slice.

Illustratively, the first message includes an identification of the second base station. In this case, the first message is used to acquire information of network slices supported by TAs to which each cell belongs, among all cells included in the second base station.

In another possible case, the first message is further used to request to acquire information of network slices supported by at least one TA to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs. The description of the corresponding situation in the embodiment of fig. 2 may be referred to for the information and example of the network slice in this case, and is not repeated here.

The first message includes an identification of the second base station and is further helpful for the core network device to determine that the first message is a request to handover N PDU sessions in the terminal device from the first base station to the second base station.

402, the core network device sends a fifth message to the second base station.

Correspondingly, the second base station receives a fifth message sent by the core network device.

Wherein the role of the fifth message is consistent with the role of the first message. For example, the fifth message is a handover request (handover request) message, and the fifth message is used to request handover of N PDU sessions in the terminal device from the first base station to the target cell in the second base station, and includes an identifier of each PDU session in the N PDU sessions and an identifier of the target cell.

In addition, the fifth message has a function consistent with the first message, and specific reference may be made to specific content of "the function of the third message is consistent with the function of the first message" described in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, which is not described herein again.

In which the fifth message does not include the identity of the second base station. The information included in the fifth message may be consistent with the information in the first message except for the identifier of the second base station, which may specifically refer to the description in step 401 and is not described herein again.

403, the second base station sends a sixth message to the core network device.

Correspondingly, the core network device receives a sixth message sent by the second base station.

Wherein the sixth message includes information of network slices supported by at least one TA to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs.

The sixth message is to determine the information of the network slice included according to the identifier carried in the fifth message, and specifically, reference may be made to example one and example three in step 303 in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, where the sixth message is equivalent to the fourth message in step 303, and the fifth message is equivalent to the third message in step 303, which is not described herein again. And, the sixth message may also include the case of example two below.

Example two: in a case where different cells included in the second base station belong to different TAs, if the fifth message does not include the identity of the TA and does not include the identities of other cells other than the target cell, the sixth message transmitted by the second base station may include the identity of each TA in the TA set of the second base station and the identity of the network slice supported by each TA. The TA set of the second base station includes TAs to which each cell in all cells included in the second base station belongs.

In this embodiment, the information of the network slice supported by the TA may refer to the description in fig. 1A, or may refer to the illustration in fig. 2, and is not described herein again.

Optionally, the sixth message may further include information of network slices supported by at least one TA to which at least one neighboring cell of the cell included in the second base station belongs. The information of the network slice supported by the at least one TA to which the at least one neighboring cell belongs may specifically refer to detailed description of the information of the network slice supported by the at least one TA to which the at least one neighboring cell belongs, which is included in the second message in fig. 2, and is not described herein again.

Optionally, the sixth message is a response message for the fifth message. For example, if the second base station can serve all or part of the requested PDU session, the sixth message is a handover request acknowledge (handover request acknowledge) message; the sixth message is a handover failure message if the second base station cannot provide service for any one of the requested PDU sessions.

The core network device sends 404 a second message to the first base station.

The second message includes information of network slices supported by at least one TA to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs. In a specific implementation, the information of the network slice included in the second message and the sixth message is consistent, and reference may be made to the description in step 403, which is not described herein again. It should be noted that the information of the network slices supported by the at least one TA to which the at least one cell belongs is equal to the information of the network slices supported by the at least one cell, and thus in the case that the first message and the fifth message are used to request the information of the network slices supported by the at least one cell included in the second base station, the second message and the sixth message also include the information of the network slices supported by the at least one TA to which the at least one cell included in the second base station belongs.

Optionally, in a case that the sixth message includes information of network slices supported by at least one TA to which at least one neighboring cell of the cell included in the second base station belongs, the second message also includes information of network slices supported by at least one TA to which at least one neighboring cell of the cell included in the second base station belongs.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 4, if the second base station can provide service for all or part of the PDU session requested, the second message is a handover command message; the second message is a handover preparation failure message if the second base station cannot provide service for any one of the requested PDU sessions. The embodiment shown in fig. 4 does not limit the message names of the first message, the second message, the third message and the fourth message.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 4, in the case that there is no communication interface between the first base station and the second base station, the first base station may interact with the core network device to obtain information of a network slice supported by at least one TA to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, so that, when the first base station needs to switch a PDU session of the terminal device, the first base station may select the target cell by combining the information of the network slice supported by the TA to which the cell included in the second base station belongs, thereby improving the probability of successful switching.

Please refer to fig. 5, which is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to the present application. Referring to fig. 5, the communication method involves the following devices: the base station comprises a first base station and a second base station, wherein the first base station and the second base station can directly communicate. The embodiment shown in fig. 5 is applied to the first base station informing the second base station of the information of the network slices supported by the first base station. The method shown in fig. 5 comprises steps 501 to 502.

The first base station generates 501 a first message.

502, a first base station sends a first message to a second base station.

Correspondingly, the second base station receives the first message sent by the first base station.

The embodiment shown in fig. 5 may be applied to a scenario in which the first base station establishes a communication interface with the second base station, for example, the first message is an Xn setup request (Xn setup request) message or may be an Xn setup response (Xn setup response) message.

Alternatively, the embodiment shown in fig. 5 may be applied to a scenario where the first base station and the second base station have established a communication interface, for example, the first message is a next generation radio access network node configuration update (NG-RAN node configuration update) message or may be a next generation radio access network node configuration update acknowledgement (NG-RAN node configuration update) message.

The embodiment shown in fig. 5 does not limit the message name of the first message.

The following is an exemplary description of a first message sent by a first base station in the present application:

example one: for the case that all cells included in the first base station belong to one TA, the first message sent by the first base station may include information of at least one first network slice supported by the first base station, where the information of the first network slice includes an identifier of the first network slice and a priority of the first network slice. Optionally, the first message may include an identification of the one TA to which it belongs.

Example two: for the case that different cells included in the first base station belong to different TAs, the first message sent by the first base station may include an identifier of at least one TA to which at least one cell included in the first base station belongs and information of at least one second network slice supported by the TAs, where the information of the second network slice includes an identifier of the second network slice and a priority of the second network slice. At least one TA is contained in a TA set of the first base station, and the TA set of the first base station comprises the TA to which each cell in all cells contained in the first base station belongs.

Optionally, the second base station may also carry the network slice information in the second message sent to the first base station. For the information of the network slice carried by the second message, reference may be made to the exemplary description of the first message in the embodiment of fig. 5, which is not described herein again.

It should be noted that the information of the network slices supported by the at least one TA to which the at least one cell belongs, included in the first message and the second message, is equal to the information of the network slices supported by the at least one cell.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 5, in the case of a communication interface between the first base station and the second base station, the first base station may send the network slices supported by the first base station and the priorities of the network slices supported by the first base station to the second base station, which helps to optimize the handover performance between the first base station and the second base station.

Please refer to fig. 6, which is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to the present application. Referring to fig. 6, the communication method involves the following devices: the system comprises a first base station, core network equipment and a second base station. Communication interfaces exist between the first base station and the second base station and the core network equipment respectively, so that the first base station and the second base station can communicate with the core network equipment respectively. The embodiment shown in fig. 6 is applied to a case where the first base station notifies the second base station of information of network slices supported by the first base station through the core network device. The method shown in fig. 6 includes steps 601 to 604.

601, the first base station generates a first message.

The first base station sends 602 a first message to the core network device.

The first message sent by the first base station in this application is exemplarily illustrated as follows:

example one: for the case that all cells included in the first base station belong to one TA, the first message sent by the first base station includes information of at least one first network slice supported by the first base station. Wherein the information of the first network slice comprises an identifier of the first network slice; optionally, the information of the first network slice further includes a priority of the first network slice.

Example two: for the case that different cells included in the first base station belong to different TAs, the first message sent by the first base station includes an identifier of a TA to which each cell in at least one cell included in the first base station belongs and information of at least one second network slice supported by the TA. Wherein the information of the second network slice comprises an identification of the second network slice; optionally, the information of the second network slice further includes a priority of the second network slice.

In addition, the first message further includes an identification of the first base station and an identification of the second base station. The core network device may determine that the first message is sent by the first base station according to the identifier of the first base station; and the core network device may send the second message to the second base station according to the identifier of the second base station.

603, the core network device sends a second message to the second base station.

Correspondingly, the second base station receives a second message sent by the core network device.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 6, the core network device is configured to provide a forwarding function, and in a specific implementation, the information of the network slice included in the second message is consistent with the information of the network slice included in the first message, which may refer to the description in step 601 and is not described herein again.

In addition, the second message further includes an identification of the first base station and an identification of the second base station, so that the second base station determines that the information of the network slice included in the second message is of the first base station.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 6, the first message is an uplink radio access network configuration transfer message; the second message is a downlink radio access network configuration transfer message. Wherein, the uplink radio access network configuration transfer message is uplink configuration transfer message; the downlink radio access network configuration transfer message is referred to as a downlink configuration transfer message. The message names of the first message and the second message are not limited in the application.

Optionally, the second base station may also send the third message to the core network device, so that the core network device sends the fourth message to the first base station. The information of the network slice carried by the fourth message may refer to the exemplary description of the first message in the embodiment of fig. 6, and the information of the network slice carried by the third message may refer to the exemplary description of the second message in the embodiment of fig. 6, which is not described herein again.

It should be noted that the first message, the second message, the third message, and the fourth message include information of network slices supported by at least one TA to which at least one cell belongs, which is equal to the information of network slices supported by the at least one cell.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 6, in the case that there is no communication interface between the first base station and the second base station, the first base station may send, to the second base station, the network slice supported by the first base station through the core network device, and optionally may also send the priority of each network slice in the supported network slices, which is helpful for optimizing the handover performance between the first base station and the second base station in a scenario where the first base station and the second base station are not connected.

Please refer to fig. 7, which is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to the present application. Referring to fig. 7, the communication method involves the following devices: a source base station and a target base station. The source base station and the target base station may directly communicate with each other, and the communication method in fig. 7 is applied to a scenario where the source base station needs to switch the PDU session of the terminal device to the target base station. The method shown in fig. 7 includes steps 701 to 702.

701, a source base station sends a first message to a target base station.

Correspondingly, the target base station receives the first message sent by the source base station.

The first message is also used for requesting to switch N PDU sessions in the terminal equipment from the source base station to the target cell in the target base station, the first message comprises the identification of each PDU session in the N PDU sessions and the identification of the target cell, and N is a positive integer. For example, the first message is a handover request (handover request) message.

The target base station sends 702 a second message to the source base station.

Correspondingly, the source base station receives the second message sent by the target base station.

The second message is used for indicating a handover response, and the second message includes indication information, where the indication information is used for indicating that the reason for the failure of handover of the M PDU sessions in the terminal device is that, in the case that the resources of the target cell are insufficient, the network slice corresponding to the M PDU sessions has no available resources because the priority of the network slice in the TA to which the target cell belongs is low. Here, M is a positive integer less than or equal to N, in other words, M PDU sessions are part or all of N PDU sessions.

Optionally, if the target base station determines that the requested partial PDU session can be served, the second message is a handover request acknowledgement (handover request acknowledge) message; the second message is a handover preparation failure (handover failure) message if the target base station cannot provide service for any one of the requested PDU sessions.

In a possible implementation manner, the indication information may include at least one of an identifier of M PDU sessions and a cause value (cause) used to indicate that, in a case that resources of the target cell are insufficient, a network slice corresponding to the PDU session has a lower priority in a TA to which the target cell belongs, so that the network slice has no available resources.

The following exemplifies the content contained in the indication information:

example one: if the target base station cannot provide service for all requested sessions and the reason for the failure of switching the sessions of each PDU is that the network slice has no available resource due to the lower priority of the network slice corresponding to each PDU session in the TA to which the target cell belongs when the resource of the target cell is insufficient, the indication information may include only a cause value to indicate the reason for the rejection of each requested PUD session.

Example two: if the target base station cannot provide service for the requested part of sessions, and the reason for the failure of switching each PDU session in the part of PDU sessions is that the network slice has no available resource due to the lower priority of the network slice corresponding to each PDU session in the TA to which the target cell belongs under the condition that the resource of the target cell is insufficient, the indication information may include the identifier of each PDU session in the part of PDU sessions and a reason value; alternatively, the indication information may include an identification of each PDU session in the portion of PDU sessions and a cause value corresponding to each PDU session. This indicates the reason why the requested partial PDU session was rejected.

703, the target base station sends a fifth message to the control device.

Correspondingly, the control device receives a fifth message sent by the target base station.

Step 703 is optional. Wherein the fifth message includes identification and indication information of the target cell. The target base station can thus inform the control device: in the case of insufficient resources of the target cell, the target cell affects the PDU session access situation due to the lower priority of the network slice of the PDU session to be switched.

Optionally, as to the first example in step 702, in a case that the indication information does not carry the identifier of each PDU session, the identifier of each PDU session is added to the fifth message, so that the control device determines the network slice corresponding to the control device according to the identifier of the PDU session.

The control device sends a sixth message to the target base station 704.

Correspondingly, the target base station receives a sixth message sent by the control device.

Step 704 is optional. Wherein the sixth message includes information of the network slices reconfigured for the TA to which the target cell belongs, and the information of the network slices includes at least one of an identifier of a network slice supported by the TA to which the target cell belongs and a priority of each of the supported network slices. Thus, after the target base station feeds back the indication information to the control device, it indicates that the access of the PDU session is affected by the TA to which the target cell belongs due to the lower priority of the network slice corresponding to the PDU session, and the control device may adjust at least one of the identifier of the network slice and the priority of the network slice supported by the TA to which the target cell belongs, so as to meet the PDU session handover requirement.

Optionally, after the source base station receives the second message, the source base station may send a seventh message to the control device, where the seventh message includes the identifier of the target cell and the indication information. This informs the control device via the source base station that access to the PDU session is affected by the lower priority of the network slice.

Further optionally, after the source base station sends the seventh message to the control device, the control device may perform at least one of steps 704 and 705:

705, the control device transmits an eighth message to the source base station. The eighth message includes information of the network slices reconfigured for the TA to which the target cell belongs, the information of the network slices including at least one of an identification of network slices supported by the TA to which the target cell belongs and a priority of each of the supported network slices. In this way, the control device may also notify the source base station of the information of the network slice reconfigured for the TA to which the target cell belongs, so as to facilitate the reference of the source base station.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 7, in the case that the source base station and the target base station can directly communicate, if the source base station requests to handover the PDU session of the terminal device to the target cell in the target base station, the target base station may include indication information in a message for indicating a handover response to indicate that, in the case that resources of the target cell are insufficient, a network slice corresponding to the PDU session of which the handover fails has a lower priority in a TA to which the target cell belongs, so that the network slice has no available resources, so that, in the case that the source base station needs to handover the PDU session of the terminal device, the source base station may determine whether to handover in combination with the indication information sent by the previous target base station, thereby improving the probability of success of the handover.

Please refer to fig. 8, which is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to the present application. Referring to fig. 8, the communication method involves the following devices: the system comprises a source base station, core network equipment and a target base station. Communication interfaces exist between the source base station and the target base station and the core network equipment respectively, so that the source base station and the target base station can be communicated with the core network equipment respectively. In addition, the communication method of fig. 8 may be applied to a scenario where there is no communication interface between the source base station and the target base station, and the source base station needs to switch the PDU session of the terminal device to the target base station. The method shown in fig. 8 includes steps 801 to 804.

801, a source base station sends a first message to a core network device.

Correspondingly, the core network device receives a first message sent by the source base station.

The first message is used for requesting to switch N PDU sessions in the terminal equipment from the source base station to a target cell in the target base station, the first message comprises an identifier of each PDU session in the N PDU sessions and an identifier of the target cell, and N is a positive integer. For example, the first message is a handover required (handed over) message.

The first message also includes an identification of the target base station, so that the core network device determines that the first message is for requesting handover of the N PDU sessions of the terminal device from the source base station to the target base station.

And 802, the core network equipment sends a third message to the target base station.

Correspondingly, the target base station receives the third message sent by the core network device.

The third message is used for requesting to switch the N PDU sessions of the terminal device from the source base station to the target cell in the target base station, and the third message includes the identifier of each PDU session in the N PDU sessions and the identifier of the target cell. For example, the third message is a handover request (handover request) message.

803, the target base station sends a fourth message to the core network device.

Correspondingly, the core network device receives a fourth message sent by the target base station.

In a specific implementation, after the target base station receives the third message, the target base station determines a fourth message, where the fourth message is used for indicating a handover response message. The fourth message includes indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate that the reason for the failure of handover of M PDU sessions in the terminal device is that, in the case that the resources of the target cell are insufficient, the network slice corresponding to the PDU session has a lower priority in the TA to which the target cell belongs, so that the network slice has no available resources. Here, M is a positive integer less than or equal to N, in other words, M PDU sessions are part or all of N PDU sessions.

Optionally, if the target base station determines that the requested partial PDU session can be served, the fourth message is a handover request acknowledgement (handover request acknowledge) message; the fourth message is a handover failure message if the target base station cannot provide service for any one of the requested PDU sessions.

In a possible implementation manner, the indication information may include an identifier of M PDU sessions and a cause value (cause), where the cause value is used to indicate that, in a case that resources of the target cell are insufficient, a network slice corresponding to the PDU session has a lower priority in a TA to which the target cell belongs, so that the network slice has no available resources.

And 804, the core network equipment sends a second message to the source base station.

Correspondingly, the source base station receives the second message sent by the core network device.

Wherein the second message includes indication information.

The embodiment shown in fig. 8 may be applied to a scenario where there is no communication interface between the source base station and the target base station, and the source base station needs to switch the PDU session of the terminal device to the target base station, which is not limited in this application.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 8, when the target base station can provide service for all or part of the requested PDU session, the second message is a handover command message; the second message is a handover preparation failure (handover failure) message when the target base station cannot provide service for any one of the requested PDU sessions.

The target base station transmits 805 a fifth message to the control device.

Step 805 is optional.

806, the control device sends a sixth message to the target base station.

Step 806 is optional.

Optionally, after the source base station receives the second message, the source base station may send a seventh message to the control device, where the seventh message includes the identifier of the target cell and the indication information. The control device is thus informed by the source base station that the access to the PDU session is affected by the case where the priority of the network slice is low.

Step 805 to step 806 may refer to step 703 and step 704 in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, and are not described herein again.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 8, in the case that there is no communication interface between the source base station and the target base station, if the source base station requests a target cell in the target base station to handover the PDU session of the terminal device, the target base station may include indication information in a message for indicating a handover response, and when the core network device indicates to the source base station that resources of the target cell are insufficient, a network slice corresponding to the PDU session of which the handover fails has a lower priority in a TA to which the target cell belongs, so that the network slice has no available resources, so that in the case that the source base station needs to handover the PDU session of the terminal device, the source base station may determine whether to handover in combination with the indication information forwarded by the core network device previously, thereby improving the probability of successful handover.

The scheme provided by the embodiment of the application is mainly introduced from the perspective of equipment. It is to be understood that the base station, the core network device, and the control device include at least one of a hardware structure and a software module corresponding to each function in order to implement the above functions. The steps of the various examples described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be embodied as hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is performed as hardware or computer software drives hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Those skilled in the art may use different devices to implement the described functionality for each particular application, but such implementation should not be considered beyond the scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application.

In the embodiment of the present application, the base station, the core network device, and the control device may be divided into the functional modules or the functional units according to the above device examples, for example, each functional module or functional unit may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module or processing unit. The integrated modules or units may be implemented in the form of hardware, or may be implemented in the form of software functional modules. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the division of the module or the unit is schematic, and is only a logic function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation.

Referring to fig. 9, fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a base station according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The base station 900 is configured to implement the method embodiments of fig. 2 to 8. As shown in fig. 9, the base station 900 includes a transmitting module 901 and a receiving module 902.

In one possible implementation manner, the base station 900 is a first base station, and includes:

a sending module 901, configured to send a first message to a core network device, where the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one cell included in a second base station, or the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which the at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, where the information of the network slice includes an identifier of the network slice; optionally, the information of the network slice further includes a priority of the network slice;

a receiving module 902, configured to receive a second message sent by the core network device, where the second message includes information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs.

It is to be understood that the base station 900 is configured to implement the steps performed by the first base station in the embodiments of fig. 2, fig. 3, and fig. 4. For specific implementation and corresponding beneficial effects of the functional blocks included in the base station 900 of fig. 9, reference may be made to the specific descriptions of the embodiments of fig. 2, fig. 3, and fig. 4, which are not repeated herein.

In another possible implementation manner, the base station 900 is a second base station, and includes:

a receiving module 902, configured to receive a first message sent by a core network device, where the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one cell included in a second base station, or the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which the at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, where the information of the network slice includes an identifier of the network slice; optionally, the information of the network slice further includes a priority of the network slice;

a sending module 901, configured to send a second message to the core network device, where the second message includes information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs.

It is to be understood that the base station 900 is configured to implement the steps performed by the second base station in the embodiments of fig. 3 and 4. For specific implementation and corresponding beneficial effects of the functional blocks included in the base station 900 of fig. 9, reference may be made to the detailed descriptions of the embodiments of fig. 3 and fig. 4, which are not repeated herein.

In another possible implementation manner, the base station 900 is a first base station, and in this case, the base station 900 further includes a generating module 903 (not shown in fig. 9). The method comprises the following steps:

A generating module 903, configured to generate a first message;

a sending module 901, configured to send a first message;

it is to be understood that the base station 900 is configured to implement the steps performed by the first base station in the embodiments of fig. 5 and 6. For specific implementation and corresponding beneficial effects of the functional blocks included in the base station 900 of fig. 9, reference may be made to the detailed descriptions of the embodiments of fig. 5 and fig. 6, which are not repeated herein.

A receiving module 902, configured to receive a first message, where the first message includes information of at least one first network slice supported by a first base station, and the information of the first network slice includes an identifier of the first network slice; optionally, the information of the first network slice further includes a priority of the first network slice; or, the first message includes an identifier of at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the first base station belongs and information of at least one second network slice supported by the tracking area, where the information of the second network slice includes the identifier of the second network slice; optionally, the information of the second network slice further includes a priority of the second network slice.

It is to be understood that the base station 900 is configured to implement the steps performed by the second base station in the embodiments of fig. 5 and 6. For specific implementation and corresponding beneficial effects of the functional blocks included in the base station 900 of fig. 9, reference may be made to the detailed descriptions of the embodiments of fig. 5 and fig. 6, which are not repeated herein.

In another possible implementation manner, the base station 900 is a source base station, and includes:

a sending module 901, configured to send a first message, where the first message is used to request to switch N PDU sessions of a terminal device from a source base station to a target cell in a target base station, and the first message includes an identifier of each PDU session in the N PDU sessions and an identifier of the target cell;

A receiving module 902, configured to receive a second message used for indicating a handover response, where the second message includes indication information, where the indication information is used for indicating that, in a case that resources of a target cell are insufficient, a reason for a handover failure of M PDU sessions in the terminal device is that a network slice corresponding to the M PDU sessions has no available resources due to a lower priority of the network slice in a tracking area to which the target cell belongs, N is a positive integer, and M is a positive integer smaller than or equal to N.

It is understood that the base station 900 is used to implement the steps performed by the source base station in the embodiments of fig. 7 and 8. For specific implementation and corresponding beneficial effects of the functional blocks included in the base station 900 of fig. 9, reference may be made to the detailed descriptions of the embodiments of fig. 7 and fig. 8, which are not repeated herein.

In another possible implementation manner, the base station 900 is a target base station, and includes:

a receiving module 902, configured to receive a first message, where the first message is used to request handover of N PDU sessions in a terminal device from a source base station to a target cell in the target base station, and the first message includes an identifier of each PDU session in the N PDU sessions, an identifier of a network slice corresponding to each PDU session, and an identifier of the target cell;

A sending module 901, configured to send a second message used for indicating a handover response, where the second message includes indication information, where the indication information is used for indicating that, in a case that resources of a target cell are insufficient, a reason for a failure in handover of M PDU sessions in the terminal device is that a network slice corresponding to the M PDU sessions has no available resources due to a lower priority of the network slice in a tracking area to which the target cell belongs, N is a positive integer, and M is a positive integer smaller than or equal to N.

It is understood that the base station 900 is used to implement the steps performed by the target base station in the embodiments of fig. 7 and 8. For specific implementation and corresponding beneficial effects of the functional blocks included in the base station 900 of fig. 9, reference may be made to the detailed descriptions of the embodiments of fig. 7 and fig. 8, which are not repeated herein.

In the embodiment of the present application, the receiving module 902 may be a receiver or a receiving circuit, and the transmitting module 901 may be a transmitter or a transmitting circuit. The receiving module 902 and the sending module 901 may also be communication interfaces of the base station.

The base station 900 in the embodiment shown in fig. 9 can be implemented as the base station 1000 shown in fig. 10. As shown in fig. 10, a schematic structural diagram of another base station is provided for the embodiment of the present application, and the base station 1000 shown in fig. 10 includes: a processor 1001 and a transceiver 1002.

The transceiver 1002 is configured to support information transmission between the base station 1000 and other base stations and core network devices involved in the embodiments of fig. 2 to 8.

The processor 1001 is configured to control and manage operations of the base station.

For example, in the embodiments shown in fig. 2 to 8, the transceiver 1402 is used for implementing the received messages and sending messages in the embodiments shown in fig. 2 to 8. A processor 1401 is configured to enable the transceiver 802 to perform the above steps, and a processor 1401 is configured to implement the steps of generating the first message in the embodiment of fig. 5 or fig. 6.

The processor 1001 and the transceiver 1002 are communicatively coupled, such as via a bus 1004. The bus 1004 may be a PCI bus or an EISA bus, etc. The bus 1004 may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 10, but this is not intended to represent only one bus or type of bus.

The base station 1000 may also include a memory 1003. The memory 1003 is used for storing program codes and data for the base station 1000 to execute, and the processor 1001 is used for executing the application program codes stored in the memory 1003 to implement the actions of the base station provided by any one of the embodiments shown in fig. 2 to 8.

It should be noted that, in practical applications, the base station may include one or more processors, and the structure of the base station 1000 does not constitute a limitation to the embodiments of the present application.

The processor 1001 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, transistor logic, hardware components, or any combination thereof. Which may implement or perform the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure. The processor may also be a combination of computing functions, e.g., comprising one or more microprocessors, DSPs, and microprocessors, among others.

The transceiver 1004 may be a communication interface or a transceiver circuit, etc., wherein the transceiver is referred to collectively and in a particular implementation, the transceiver may include multiple interfaces.

The memory 1003 may include volatile memory (volatile memory), such as Random Access Memory (RAM); the memory 1003 may also include a non-volatile memory (non-volatile memory), such as a read-only memory (ROM), a flash memory (flash memory), a Hard Disk Drive (HDD), or a solid-state drive (SSD); the memory 1003 may also include a combination of the above types of memories.

A readable storage medium is also provided in the embodiments of the present application, and may be used to store computer software instructions used by the base station in the embodiments shown in fig. 2 to 8, so that any possible implementation manner of the embodiments shown in fig. 2 to 8 is implemented. The storage medium includes, but is not limited to, flash memory, hard disk, solid state disk.

In the embodiment of the present application, a computer program product is also provided, and when being executed by a computing device, the computer program product may perform the communication method designed for the base station in the foregoing embodiment.

Referring to fig. 11, fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a core network device according to an embodiment of the present application. The core network device 1100 is configured to implement the method embodiments of fig. 2, fig. 3, fig. 4, fig. 6, and fig. 8. As shown in fig. 11, the core network device 1100 includes a receiving module 1101 and a transmitting module 1102.

In one possible implementation, the core network device 1100 includes:

a receiving module 1101, configured to receive a first message from a first base station, where the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one cell included in a second base station, or the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which the at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, where the information of the network slice includes an identifier of the network slice; optionally, the information of the network slice further includes a priority of the network slice;

A sending module 1102, configured to send a second message to the first base station, where the second message includes information of network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs.

It is understood that the core network device 1100 is configured to implement the steps performed by the core network device in the embodiments of fig. 2, fig. 3, and fig. 4. As to specific implementation of the functional blocks included in the core network device 1100 in fig. 11 and corresponding advantageous effects, reference may be made to the specific descriptions of the embodiments in fig. 2, fig. 3, and fig. 4, which are not described herein again.

In one possible implementation, the core network device 1100 includes:

a receiving module 1101, configured to receive a first message sent by a first base station; the first message comprises information of at least one first network slice supported by the first base station, the information of the first network slice comprising an identification of the first network slice; optionally, the information of the first network slice further includes a priority of the first network slice; or, the first message includes an identifier of at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the first base station belongs and information of at least one second network slice supported by the tracking area, where the information of the second network slice includes the identifier of the second network slice; optionally, the information of the second network slice further includes a priority of the second network slice;

A sending module 1102, configured to send a second message to the second base station; the second message comprises information of at least one first network slice supported by the first base station; or, the second message includes an identifier of at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the first base station belongs and information of at least one second network slice supported by the tracking area.

Wherein the first message and the second message comprise an identification of the first base station and an identification of the second base station.

It is understood that the core network device 1100 is configured to implement the steps performed by the core network device in the embodiment of fig. 6. As to specific implementation of the functional blocks included in the core network device 1100 in fig. 11 and corresponding advantageous effects, reference may be made to the specific description of the embodiment in fig. 6, which is not repeated herein.

In another possible implementation manner, the core network device 1100 includes:

a receiving module 1101, configured to receive a first message sent by a source base station; the first message is used for requesting to switch N PDU sessions in the terminal equipment from the source base station to a target cell in the target base station, the first message comprises an identifier of each PDU session in the N PDU sessions and an identifier of the target cell, and N is a positive integer. The first message also includes an identification of the target base station.

A sending module 1102, configured to send a third message to the target base station; the third message is used for requesting to switch the N PDU sessions of the terminal equipment from the source base station to the target cell in the target base station, and the third message comprises the identification of each PDU session in the N PDU sessions and the identification of the target cell.

A receiving module 1101, configured to receive a fourth message sent by the target base station; the fourth message is a message indicating a handover response. The fourth message includes indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate that, when resources of the target cell are insufficient, a reason why the handover of the M PDU sessions in the terminal device fails is that a network slice corresponding to the PDU session has no available resources due to a low priority of the network slice in a tracking area to which the target cell belongs, where N is a positive integer and M is a positive integer less than or equal to N.

The sending module 1102 is further configured to send a second message to the source base station. The second message includes indication information.

It is understood that the core network device 1100 is used to implement the steps performed by the core network device in the embodiment of fig. 8. As to specific implementation of the functional blocks included in the core network device 1100 in fig. 11 and corresponding advantageous effects, reference may be made to the specific description of the embodiment in fig. 8, which is not repeated herein.

In an embodiment of the present application, the receiving module 1101 may be a receiver or a receiving circuit, and the transmitting module 1102 may be a transmitter or a transmitting circuit. The receiving module 1101 and the sending module 1102 may also be communication interfaces of the core network device.

The core network device 1100 shown in fig. 11 described above may be implemented by the core network device 1200 shown in fig. 12. As shown in fig. 12, a schematic structural diagram of another core network device is provided for the embodiment of the present application, where a core network device 1200 shown in fig. 12 includes: a processor 1201 and a transceiver 1202.

The transceiver 1202 is configured to support information transmission between the core network device 1200 and the base station in the foregoing embodiment, and the processor 1201 is configured to control and manage an action of the core network device 1200.

For example, in the embodiments shown in fig. 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8, the transceiver 1402 is used to implement the received messages and send messages in the embodiments shown in fig. 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8. A processor 1401 is used to enable the transceiver 802 to perform the above steps.

The processor 1201 and the transceiver 1202 are communicatively coupled, for example, by a bus. The core network device 1200 may further include a memory 1203. The memory 1203 is configured to store program codes and data for the core network device 1200 to execute, and the processor 1201 is configured to execute the application program codes stored in the memory 1203, so as to implement the actions of the core network device provided in any embodiment shown in fig. 2 to fig. 6.

It should be noted that, in practical applications, the core network device may include one or more processors, and the structure of the core network device 1200 does not form a limitation to the embodiments of the present application.

The processor 1201 may be a CPU, NP, hardware chip, or any combination thereof. The hardware chip may be an ASIC, PLD, or a combination thereof. The PLD may be a CPLD, an FPGA, a GAL, or any combination thereof.

Memory 1203 may include volatile memory, such as RAM; the memory 1203 may also include non-volatile memory, such as ROM, flash memory, a hard disk, or a solid state disk; the memory 1203 may also include a combination of the above types of memories.

In the embodiments of the present application, a readable storage medium is further provided, which may be used to store computer software instructions used by the core network device in the embodiments shown in fig. 2, fig. 3, fig. 4, fig. 6, and fig. 8, so that any possible implementation manner of the embodiments shown in fig. 2, fig. 3, fig. 4, fig. 6, and fig. 8 is implemented. The storage medium includes, but is not limited to, flash memory, hard disk, solid state disk.

In an embodiment of the present application, a computer program product is further provided, and when being executed by a computing device, the computer program product may execute the communication method designed for the core network device in the foregoing embodiments.

Referring to fig. 13, fig. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a control device according to an embodiment of the present application. The control device 1300 is configured to implement the method embodiments of fig. 7 and 8. As shown in fig. 13, the control apparatus 1300 includes a receiving module 1301 and a transmitting module 1302.

A receiving module 1301, configured to receive a first message sent by a first base station, where the first message includes an identifier of a target cell included in the second base station and indication information, and the indication information is used to indicate that, when resources of the target cell are insufficient, a reason for a failure of handover of M PDU sessions in a terminal device is that a network slice corresponding to the M PDU sessions has no available resources due to a lower priority of the network slice in a tracking area to which the target cell belongs; m is a positive integer.

A sending module 1302, configured to send a second message to the second base station, where the second message includes information of the network slices reconfigured for the tracking area to which the target cell belongs, and the information of the network slices includes an identifier of network slices supported by the tracking area to which the target cell belongs and a priority of each network slice in the supported network slices.

It is to be understood that the control device 1300 is used to implement the steps performed by the control device in the embodiments of fig. 7 and 8. As to specific implementation manners and corresponding advantageous effects of the functional blocks included in the control device of fig. 13, reference may be made to the specific descriptions of the embodiments of fig. 7 and fig. 8, which are not repeated herein.

In an embodiment of the present application, the receiving module 1301 may be a receiver or a receiving circuit, and the transmitting module 1302 may be a transmitter or a transmitting circuit. The receiving module 1301 and the sending module 1302 may also be communication interfaces of the control device.

The control apparatus 1300 shown in fig. 13 described above may be implemented by the control apparatus 1400 shown in fig. 14. As shown in fig. 14, a schematic structural diagram of another control device is provided for the embodiment of the present application, and a control device 1400 shown in fig. 14 includes: a processor 1401, and a transceiver 1402.

The transceiver 1402 is configured to support information transmission between the control device 1400 and the base station in the above embodiments, and the processor 1401 is configured to control and manage the operation of the control device 1400.

For example, in the embodiments shown in fig. 7 and 8, the transceiver 1402 is used for implementing the received message and the sent message in the embodiment shown in fig. 3. A processor 1401 is used to enable the transceiver 802 to perform the above steps.

The processor 1401 and the transceiver 1402 are communicatively connected, for example by a bus. The control device 1400 may also include a memory 1403. The memory 1403 is used for storing program codes and data for the control device 1400 to execute, and the processor 1401 is used for executing the application program codes stored in the memory 1403 to realize the actions of the control device provided by any one of the embodiments shown in fig. 7 and 8.

It should be noted that, in practical applications, the control device may include one or more processors, and the structure of the control device 1400 does not constitute a limitation to the embodiments of the present application.

The processor 1401 may be a CPU, NP, hardware chip or any combination thereof. The hardware chip may be an ASIC, PLD, or a combination thereof. The PLD may be a CPLD, an FPGA, a GAL, or any combination thereof.

Memory 1403 may include volatile memory, such as RAM; memory 1403 may also include non-volatile memory, such as ROM, flash memory, a hard disk, or a solid state disk; memory 1403 can also include a combination of the above types of memory.

A readable storage medium is also provided in the embodiments of the present application, and may be used to store computer software instructions used by the control device in the embodiments shown in fig. 7 and fig. 8, so that any possible implementation manner of the embodiments shown in fig. 7 and fig. 8 is implemented. The storage medium includes, but is not limited to, flash memory, hard disk, solid state disk.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a computer program product, which, when executed by a computing device, can execute the communication method designed for the control device in the foregoing embodiment.

The terms "first," "second," "third," and "fourth," etc. in the description and claims of this application and in the accompanying drawings are used for distinguishing between different objects and not for describing a particular order. Furthermore, the terms "include" and "have," as well as any variations thereof, are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions. For example, a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not limited to only those steps or elements listed, but may alternatively include other steps or elements not listed, or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

In the present application, "a and/or B" means one of the following cases: a, B, A and B. "at least one of … …" refers to any combination of the listed items or any number of the listed items, e.g., "at least one of A, B and C" refers to one of: any one of seven cases, a, B, C, a and B, B and C, a and C, A, B and C.

It should be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that, in the various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes do not mean the execution sequence, and the execution sequence of the processes should be determined by their functions and inherent logic, and should not limit the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

In the above embodiments, the implementation may be wholly or partially realized by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When loaded and executed on a computer, cause the processes or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the application to occur, in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another, for example, from one website site, computer, server, or data center to another website site, computer, server, or data center via wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device, such as a server, a data center, etc., that incorporates one or more of the available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., floppy Disk, hard Disk, magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., Solid State Disk (SSD)), among others.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that all or part of the processes of the methods of the embodiments described above can be implemented by a computer program, which can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, and when executed, can include the processes of the embodiments of the methods described above.

Claims

1. A method of communication, comprising:

a first base station sends a first message to a core network device, where the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one cell included in a second base station, or the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which the at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, where the information of the network slice includes an identifier of the network slice and a priority of the network slice;

and the first base station receives a second message sent by the core network equipment, wherein the second message comprises information of network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the information of the network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs in the second message is determined by the core network device;

The first message comprises an identification of the second base station; or, the first message includes an identification of the second base station and an identification of the at least one tracking area; alternatively, the first message comprises an identity of the second base station and an identity of the at least one cell.

3. The method of claim 1,

the first base station sends a first message to a core network device, and the first message comprises:

the first base station sends a first message to a core network device, so that the core network device sends a third message to the second base station, where the third message is used to request to acquire information of network slices supported by at least one cell included in the second base station, or the third message is used to request to acquire information of network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, and the first message and the third message include an identifier of the first base station and an identifier of the second base station;

the receiving, by the first base station, the second message sent by the core network device includes:

the first base station receives a second message sent by the core network device, where the second message is sent by the core network device after receiving a fourth message sent by the second base station, the fourth message includes information of network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, and the second message and the fourth message include an identifier of the first base station and an identifier of the second base station.

4. The method of claim 3,

the first message is a first uplink radio access network configuration transfer message; the fourth message is a second uplink radio access network configuration transfer message; the second message is a first downlink radio access network configuration transfer message; the third message is a second downlink radio access network configuration transfer message.

5. The method of claim 1,

the first base station sends a first message to a core network device, so that the core network device sends a fifth message to the second base station, where the first message and the fifth message are respectively used to request handover of at least one PDU session in a terminal device from the first base station to a target cell in the second base station, and the first message and the fifth message include an identifier of each PDU session in the at least one PDU session and an identifier of the target cell;

the first base station receives a second message sent by the core network device, where the second message is sent by the core network device after receiving a sixth message sent by the second base station, and the sixth message includes information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs;

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first message is a handover required message and the fifth message is a handover request message;

the second message is a handover preparation failure message, and the sixth message is a handover failure message; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the second message is a handover command message, and the sixth message is a handover request acknowledgement message.

7. A method of communication, comprising:

the core network equipment receives a first message from a first base station, wherein the first message is used for requesting to acquire information of network slices supported by at least one cell included in a second base station, or the first message is used for requesting to acquire information of network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which the at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, and the information of the network slices comprises an identification of the network slices and priorities of the network slices;

and the core network equipment sends a second message to the first base station, wherein the second message comprises information of network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the information of the network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs in the second message is determined by the core network device;

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the first message comprises an identification of the first base station and an identification of a second base station;

before the core network device sends the second message to the first base station, the method further includes:

the core network device sends a third message to the second base station, where the third message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one cell included in the second base station, or the third message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, and the first message and the third message include an identifier of the first base station and an identifier of the second base station;

The core network device receives a fourth message sent by the second base station, where the fourth message includes information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, and the second message and the fourth message include an identifier of the first base station and an identifier of the second base station.

10. The method of claim 9,

11. The method of claim 7, wherein before the core network device sends the second message to the first base station, the method further comprises:

the core network device sends a fifth message to the second base station, where the first message and the fifth message are respectively used to request to handover at least one PDU session in a terminal device from the first base station to a target cell in the second base station, where the first message and the fifth message include an identifier of each PDU session in the at least one PDU session and an identifier of the target cell;

The core network device receives a sixth message sent by the second base station, where the sixth message includes information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs;

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first message is a handover required message and the fifth message is a handover request message;

13. A method of communication, comprising:

a second base station receives a first message sent by a core network device, where the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one cell included in the second base station, or the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which the at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, where the information of the network slice includes an identifier of the network slice and a priority of the network slice;

And the second base station sends a second message to the core network device, wherein the second message comprises information of network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first message and the second message comprise an identification of the first base station and an identification of the second base station.

15. The method of claim 14,

the first message is a downlink wireless access network configuration transfer message; the second message is an uplink radio access network configuration transfer message.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the first message is used to request handover of at least one PDU session in a terminal device from the first base station to a target cell in a second base station, and wherein the first message comprises an identification of each PDU session in the at least one PDU session and an identification of the target cell.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first message is a handover request message;

the second message is a handover failure message or a handover request confirmation message.

18. A base station, wherein the base station is a first base station, comprising:

19. The base station of claim 18, wherein the information of the network slices supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs is determined by the core network device;

20. The base station of claim 18,

the sending module is specifically configured to: sending a first message to a core network device, so that the core network device sends a third message to the second base station, where the third message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one cell included in the second base station, or the third message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, and the first message and the third message include an identifier of the first base station and an identifier of the second base station;

the receiving module is specifically configured to: receiving a second message sent by the core network device, where the second message is sent by the core network device after receiving a fourth message sent by the second base station, where the fourth message includes information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, and the second message and the fourth message include an identifier of the first base station and an identifier of the second base station.

21. The base station of claim 20, wherein the first message is a first uplink radio access network configuration transfer message; the fourth message is a second uplink radio access network configuration transfer message; the second message is a first downlink radio access network configuration transfer message; the third message is a second downlink radio access network configuration transfer message.

22. The base station of claim 18,

the sending module is specifically configured to: the first base station sends a first message to a core network device, so that the core network device sends a fifth message to the second base station, where the first message and the fifth message are respectively used to request handover of at least one PDU session in a terminal device from the first base station to a target cell in the second base station, and the first message and the fifth message include an identifier of each PDU session in the at least one PDU session and an identifier of the target cell;

the receiving module is specifically configured to: the first base station receives a second message sent by the core network device, where the second message is sent by the core network device after receiving a sixth message sent by the second base station, and the sixth message includes information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs;

23. The base station of claim 22, wherein the first message is a handover request message and the fifth message is a handover request message;

24. A core network device, comprising:

a receiving module, configured to receive a first message from a first base station, where the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one cell included in a second base station, or the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which the at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, where the information of the network slice includes an identifier of the network slice and a priority of the network slice;

25. The core network device according to claim 24, wherein the information of the network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs in the second message is determined by the core network device;

26. The core network device of claim 24, wherein the first message includes an identity of the first base station and an identity of a second base station;

the sending module is further configured to send a third message to the second base station, where the third message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one cell included in the second base station, or the third message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which the at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, where the first message and the third message include an identifier of the first base station and an identifier of the second base station;

the receiving module is further configured to receive a fourth message sent by the second base station, where the fourth message includes information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, and the second message and the fourth message include an identifier of the first base station and an identifier of the second base station.

27. Core network device according to claim 26,

28. The core network device of claim 24, wherein before the core network device sends the second message to the first base station, the core network device further comprises:

the sending module is further configured to send a fifth message to the second base station, where the first message and the fifth message are respectively used to request handover of at least one PDU session in a terminal device from the first base station to a target cell in the second base station, where the first message and the fifth message include an identifier of each PDU session in the at least one PDU session and an identifier of the target cell;

the receiving module is further configured to receive a sixth message sent by the second base station, where the sixth message includes information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which at least one cell included in the second base station belongs;

29. The core network device according to claim 28, wherein the first message is a handover required message, and the fifth message is a handover request message;

30. A base station, wherein the base station is a second base station, comprising:

a receiving module, configured to receive a first message sent by a core network device, where the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one cell included in a second base station, or the first message is used to request to acquire information of a network slice supported by at least one tracking area to which the at least one cell included in the second base station belongs, where the information of the network slice includes an identifier of the network slice and a priority of the network slice;

31. The base station of claim 30, wherein the first message and the second message comprise an identification of the first base station and an identification of the second base station.

32. The base station of claim 31, wherein the first message is a downlink radio access network configuration transfer message; the second message is an uplink radio access network configuration transfer message.

33. The base station of claim 30, wherein the first message is used to request handover of at least one PDU session in a terminal device from the first base station to a target cell in a second base station, and wherein the first message comprises an identifier of each PDU session in the at least one PDU session and an identifier of the target cell.

34. The base station of claim 33, wherein the first message is a handover request message; the second message is a handover failure message or a handover request confirmation message.

35. A base station, characterized in that the base station comprises a processor, a memory and a transceiver;

the transceiver is used for receiving and sending messages;

the memory is to store instructions;

the processor is configured to execute the memory-stored instructions, and when the processor executes the memory-stored instructions, the base station is configured to perform the method of claims 1-6, or the method of claims 13-17.

36. A core network device, characterized in that the core network device comprises a processor, a memory and a transceiver;

the transceiver is used for receiving and sending messages;

the memory is to store instructions;

the processor is configured to execute the memory-stored instructions, and when the processor executes the memory-stored instructions, the core network device is configured to perform the method of claims 7-12.

37. A communication system, characterized in that the communication system comprises a first base station, a core network device and a second base station; wherein the first base station is configured to perform the method of claims 1-6; the core network device is configured to perform the method of claims 7-12; the second base station is configured to perform the method of claims 13-17.

38. A readable storage medium for storing instructions for causing the method of any one of claims 1-6 to be implemented, or for causing the method of any one of claims 13-17 to be implemented.

39. A readable storage medium for storing instructions to cause the method of any one of claims 7-12 to be implemented.