CN113329451B

CN113329451B - Switching method and device

Info

Publication number: CN113329451B
Application number: CN202010128522.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 倪春林
Original assignee: Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd
Current assignee: Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-02-28
Filing date: 2020-02-28
Publication date: 2023-02-21
Anticipated expiration: 2040-02-28
Also published as: CN113329451A

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention provides a switching method and equipment, wherein the method comprises the following steps: receiving a handover request message, the handover request message comprising: information of the first slice; mapping the first slice to one or more default slices of the target node; the first slice is a slice used by a data connection which is applied for switching by a terminal, the target node does not support the first slice, and the target node supports the default slice. In the embodiment of the present invention, for slices that are not supported by the target node, mapping the serving network slice to a default slice may be used to ensure data transmission continuity.

Description

Switching method and device

Technical Field

The embodiment of the invention relates to the technical field of communication, in particular to a switching method and equipment.

Background

A slicing technology is introduced into a New Radio (NR) system of a fifth generation mobile communication technology (5 th generation, 5G), different slice types correspond to different service types or different service providers, an operator can flexibly configure network slices supported by the system on a network side according to different requirements, and different cells independently configure deployed slice types. But now under network architecture, the protocol provides that the types of the slices in the Registration Area (RA) of the terminal (e.g., user Equipment (UE)) are consistent continuously. I.e. the serving cell can only be designated by the network as registration area for the UE if the supported slice types are identical. Once the UE moves to a cell that is not consistent with the slice type supported by the registration area, the UE needs to reinitiate registration and the network reallocates the registration area. When the UE moves across registration areas in a connected state, if the activated data connection network slice target node does not support, the target node rejects the switching, and the data connection is interrupted.

Referring to fig. 1, when a UE initiates a registration request in a cell 1, slice 1 and slice 2 request information carried by the UE, a 5G-Core Network (CN) returns a registration confirmation message for accepting slice 1 and slice 2 to the UE, and provides a registration area for the UE, for example, including the cell 1 and the cell 2. The UE may use slice 1 and slice 2 when cell 1 activates a data connection. When the connected UE moves in the registration areas (cell 1 and cell 2), slice 1 and slice 2 are always supported, so the continuity of data connection can be ensured through the handover procedure. If the UE moves to the cell 3, since the registration area of the cell 3 is different from that of the cell 1 and the cell 2, the slice 2 related data connection cannot be supported, and the slice 2 based data connection carried by the connected UE is rejected by the cell 3 according to the current standard. Thereby breaking the slice 2 based data connection.

Disclosure of Invention

An object of the embodiments of the present invention is to provide a handover method and device, which solve the problem of how to remap a network slice of a serving cell when a connected UE moves across registration areas to ensure data transmission continuity.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a handover method, which is applied to a radio access network node, where the radio access network node is a target node, and the method includes:

receiving a handover request message, the handover request message comprising: information of the first slice;

mapping the first slice to one or more default slices of the target node;

the first slice is a slice used by a data connection which is applied for switching by a terminal, the target node does not support the first slice, and the target node supports the default slice.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

configuring one or more default slices of the target node.

Optionally, the configuring one or more default slices of the target node comprises:

configuring one or more default slices of the target node according to a slice or service type.

Optionally, after mapping the first slice to one or more default slices of the target node, the method further comprises:

generating slice remapping information, the slice remapping information indicating that the first slice maps to the one or more default slices.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

sending a handover request acknowledge message to a source node, the handover request acknowledge message comprising: the slice remapping information.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

sending a path switching request message to a core network element, wherein the path switching request message comprises: the slice remapping information.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

receiving a path switch request acknowledgement message from the core network element, the path switch request acknowledgement message including: indication information;

the indication information indicates: the target node maps the first slice to a second slice, or the target node releases the mapping of the first slice to the default slice;

wherein the second slice is the other slices supported by the target node.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a handover method, which is applied to a radio access network node, where the radio access network node is a source node, and the handover method includes:

sending a handover request message, the handover request message comprising: information of the first slice;

receiving a switching request confirmation message;

the first slice is used by a terminal for applying for switching data connection, and the target node does not support the first slice.

Optionally, the handover request confirm message includes: the slice remapping information, the slice remapping information indicating that the first slice maps to one or more default slices, the default slices being supported by the target node.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

and sending a notification message to the terminal, wherein the notification message is used for notifying the terminal to initiate switching.

Optionally, the notification message includes: the slice remapping information.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a handover method, applied to a core network element, including:

receiving a path switch request message from a target node, the path switch request message comprising: slice remapping information, the slice remapping information indicating that a first slice maps to one or more default slices;

the first slice is a slice used by a data connection which a terminal applies for switching, the target node does not support the first slice, and the target node supports the default slice.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

sending a path switching request acknowledgement message to the target node, the path switching request acknowledgement message including: indication information;

wherein the second slice is the other slices supported by the target node.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a radio access network node, where the radio access network node is a source node, and the radio access network node includes:

a first receiving module, configured to receive a handover request message, where the handover request message includes: information of the first slice;

a mapping module to map the first slice to one or more default slices of a target node;

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a radio access network node, where the radio access network node is a source node, and the radio access network node includes: a first transceiver and a first processor;

the first transceiver transmits and receives data under control of the first processor;

the first processor reads a program in a memory to perform the following operations: receiving a handover request message, the handover request message comprising: information of the first slice; mapping the first slice to one or more default slices of the target node; the first slice is a slice used by a data connection which is applied for switching by a terminal, the target node does not support the first slice, and the target node supports the default slice.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a radio access network node, where the radio access network node is a target node, and the radio access network node includes:

a third sending module, configured to send a handover request message, where the handover request message includes: information of the first slice;

and a third receiving module, configured to receive a handover request acknowledgement message, where the first slice is a slice used by a data connection for which the terminal applies for handover.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a radio access network node, where the radio access network node is a target node, and the radio access network node includes: a second transceiver and a second processor;

the second transceiver transmits and receives data under the control of the second processor;

the second processor reads a program in the memory to perform the following operations: sending a handover request message, wherein the handover request message comprises: information of the first slice; receiving a switching request confirmation message; the first slice is used by a terminal for applying for switching data connection, and the target node does not support the first slice.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a core network element, including:

a fourth receiving module, configured to receive a path switch request message from a target node, where the path switch request message includes: slice remapping information, the slice remapping information indicating that a first slice is mapped to one or more default slices, the first slice being a slice used by a data connection for which a terminal applies for a handover, the first slice not being supported by the target node, the default slice being supported by the target node.

In a ninth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a core network element, including: a third processor;

the third processor reads a program in the memory to perform the following operations: receiving a path switch request message from a target node, the path switch request message comprising: slice remapping information, the slice remapping information indicating that a first slice is mapped to one or more default slices, the first slice being a slice used by a data connection for which a terminal applies for handover, the first slice not being supported by the target node, the default slice being supported by the target node.

In a tenth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a communication device, including: a processor, a memory and a program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, which program, when executed by the processor, performs steps comprising the handover method as described in the first, second or third aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, the present invention further provides a computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, where the computer program, when executed by a processor, implements steps including the handover method according to the first aspect, the second aspect, or the third aspect.

In the embodiment of the present invention, for slices that are not supported by the target node, mapping the serving network slice to a default slice may be used to ensure data transmission continuity.

Drawings

Various other advantages and benefits will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments. The drawings are only for purposes of illustrating the preferred embodiments and are not to be construed as limiting the invention. Also, like reference numerals are used to refer to like parts throughout the drawings. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network slice deployment scenario;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a 5G network architecture;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a handover method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a second schematic diagram illustrating a handover method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a third schematic diagram illustrating a handover method according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a fourth schematic diagram illustrating a handover method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a source node according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a second schematic diagram of a source node according to the second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating one embodiment of a target node;

FIG. 10 is a second schematic diagram of a target node according to the second embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of a core network element according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 12 is a second schematic diagram of a network element of a core network according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 13 is a schematic diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a 5G network architecture. The network slicing technology is a technology that enables an operator to cut out a plurality of virtual end-to-end network slicing instances in a 5G network to provide various types of services with different feature requirements. The operator may also deploy slice instances of the same service type but different service providers to serve different customer groups.

In the figure, NSSF is a Network Slice Selection Function (Network Slice Selection Function); AUSF is Authentication Server Function (Authentication Server Function); AMF is Access and Mobility Management Function (Access and Mobility Management Function); UDM is Unified Data Manager; SMF is Session Management Function (Session Management Function); PCF is a Policy Control Function (Policy Control Function); AF is an Application function (Application function); UPF is User Plane Function (User Plane Function); DN is a Data Network (Data Network).

Different Network slices are distinguished by a Single Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (S-NSSAI), which contains two characteristics: slice/Service type (SST) and Slice Specifier (SD).

In a 5G NR environment, when applying for network registration, the UE carries a supported network slice identifier (S-NSSAI) stored by the UE, and a network end returns a network slice service identifier (allowed S-NSSAI) and a registration area received by the UE according to a user subscription and a network support condition.

According to the protocol, when the network is deployed, the network slices in the same Tracking Area (TA) are deployed consistently, and when the UE registers, the 5G Core network (5G-Core network, 5G-CN) assigns a registration Area composed of a Tracking Area list (TA list) supporting the same network slices to the UE.

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are some, not all, embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments, which can be obtained by a person skilled in the art without inventive step based on the embodiments of the present invention, are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

The terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, in the description and claims of this application, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not necessarily limited to those steps or elements expressly listed, but may include other steps or elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Furthermore, the use of "and/or" in the specification and claims means that at least one of the connected objects, such as a and/or B, means that three cases, a alone, B alone, and both a and B, exist.

In the embodiments of the present invention, words such as "exemplary" or "for example" are used to mean serving as examples, illustrations or descriptions. Any embodiment or design described as "exemplary" or "e.g.," an embodiment of the present invention is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, use of the word "exemplary" or "such as" is intended to present concepts related in a concrete fashion.

The techniques described herein are not limited to Long Time Evolution (LTE)/LTE Evolution (LTE-Advanced) systems, and may also be used for various wireless communication systems, such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), single-carrier Frequency-Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA), and other systems.

The terms "system" and "network" are often used interchangeably. CDMA systems may implement Radio technologies such as CDMA2000, universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), and so on. UTRA includes Wideband CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, WCDMA) and other CDMA variants. TDMA systems may implement radio technologies such as Global System for Mobile communications (GSM). The OFDMA system may implement radio technologies such as Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), evolved-UTRA (E-UTRA), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, flash-OFDM, etc. UTRA and E-UTRA are parts of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). LTE and higher LTE (e.g., LTE-A) are new UMTS releases that use E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE-A and GSM are described in the literature from an organization named "third Generation Partnership project" (3 rd Generation Partnership project,3 GPP). CDMA2000 and UMB are described in documents from an organization named "third generation partnership project 2" (3 GPP 2). The techniques described herein may be used for both the above-mentioned systems and radio technologies, as well as for other systems and radio technologies.

Referring to fig. 3, an embodiment of the present invention provides a handover method, where an execution subject of the handover method is a radio access network node, and the radio access network node is a target node, including step 301 and step 302.

Step 301: receiving a handover request message, the handover request message comprising: information of the first slice;

the handover request message is sent by the source node to the target node when the connected terminal is handed over across the registration area Xn.

Step 302: mapping the first slice to one or more default slices of the target node;

the first slice is a slice used by the terminal for applying for switching data connection, the target node does not support the first slice, and the target node supports a default slice.

That is, the type of slice supported by the target node is different from the type of the first slice, and the type of slice supported by the target node is the same as the type of the default slice.

The default slice may also be referred to as a default slice, and the default slice is used to ensure continuity of data transmission for which the terminal applies for handover, so that it may be avoided that a data connection based on the first slice carried by the connected UE may be rejected by the cell of the target node. Thereby breaking the data connection based on the first slice.

In some embodiments, prior to step 301, the method further comprises: configuring one or more default slices of the target node. Configuring one or more default slices of the target node, e.g., according to a slice or a type of service (SST).

It is to be understood that the number of default slices is not particularly limited in the embodiment of the present invention.

In some embodiments, after step 302, the method further comprises:

sending a handover request acknowledgement message to the source node, the handover request acknowledgement message including: the slice remapping information.

In some embodiments, after step 302, the method further comprises:

In some embodiments, after sending the path switch request message to the network element of the core network, the method further includes:

receiving a path switch request acknowledgement message from the core network element, the path switch request acknowledgement message including: indication information; the indication information indicates: the target node maps the first slice to a second slice, or the target node releases the mapping of the first slice to the default slice;

wherein the second slice is the other slices supported by the target node.

Referring to fig. 4, an embodiment of the present invention provides a handover method, where an execution subject of the method may be a radio access network node, where the radio access network node is a source node, and the handover method includes: step 401 and step 402.

Step 401: sending a handover request message, the handover request message comprising: information of the first slice;

step 402: receiving a switching request confirmation message;

wherein the first slice is a slice used by the terminal for applying for the switched data connection, and the target node does not support the first slice.

In some embodiments, the handover request confirm message may include: the slice remapping information, the slice remapping information indicating that the first slice maps to the one or more default slices.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises: and sending a notification message to the terminal, wherein the notification message is used for notifying the terminal to initiate switching.

In some embodiments, the notification message comprises: the slice remapping information.

In the embodiment of the present invention, for slices not supported by the target node, mapping the serving network slice to a default slice may be used to ensure data transmission continuity.

Referring to fig. 5, an embodiment of the present invention provides a handover method, where an execution subject of the method is a core network element, and the method includes: step 501.

Step 501: receiving a path switch request message from a target node, the path switch request message comprising: slice remapping information indicating that a first slice maps to one or more default slices.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises:

sending a path switching request acknowledgement message to the target node, the path switching request acknowledgement message including: indication information; the indication information indicates: the target node maps the first slice to a second slice, or the target node releases the mapping of the first slice to the default slice;

wherein the second slice is the other slices supported by the target node.

The following describes an embodiment of the present invention by taking RAN1 as a source node, RAN2 as a target node, and a core network element as a 5G-CN network element as an example.

In the embodiment of the present invention, default slices are configured in the RAN2, for example, the default slices may be configured in one or more according to a service type (SST). When an Xn handover occurs for a connected UE, if the slice for which the UE activates the data connection is not supported by the same slice (excluding the default slice) at RAN2, RAN2 may map the slice to the default slice according to SST or other rules to ensure data transmission continuity. After the switching is successful, the RAN2 informs the 5G-CN network element, and the 5G-CN network element determines whether the mapping can be carried out to other slices supported by the target node or not and carries out a re-mapping process or a releasing process.

Referring to fig. 6, steps 601 to 609 are included.

Step 601: RAN2 configures the default slice.

Optionally, the RAN2 may configure one or more default slices according to SST.

Step 602, the RAN1 sends a HandOver Request (HandOver Request) message to the RAN2, where the HandOver Request message includes: first slice information the first slice is the slice used by the data connection for which the terminal applies for handover.

Step 603, the RAN2 maps the first slice to the default slice according to the slice support information of the node, and generates slice remapping information, wherein the type of the first slice is different from the type of the slice supported by the RAN2, that is, the RAN2 does not support the first slice.

Step 604.

Optionally, the handover request confirm message carries slice remapping information.

Steps 605 to 607.

Optionally, slice remapping information is carried.

Step 608, the ran2 sends a path switching request to the 5G-CN network element, where the path switching request message carries slice remapping information.

Step 609: and the 5G-CN network element sends a path switching confirmation message to the RAN2, and carries the information of the slice mapped to the default slice and then mapped to other slices of the RAN2 or a release process.

Referring to fig. 7, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a radio access network node, where the radio access network node is a source node, and the source node 700 includes:

a first receiving module 701, configured to receive a handover request message, where the handover request message includes: information of the first slice;

a mapping module 702 for mapping the first slice to one or more default slices of the target node;

wherein the first slice is a slice used by a data connection for which the terminal applies for handover, the target node does not support the first slice, and the target node supports the default slice.

In some embodiments, the source node 700 further comprises: a configuration module to configure one or more default slices of the target node.

In some embodiments, the configuration module is further to: configuring one or more default slices of the target node according to slice or service type.

In some embodiments, the source node 700 further comprises: a generating module to generate slice remapping information, the slice remapping information indicating that the first slice maps to the one or more default slices.

In some embodiments, the source node 700 further comprises: a first sending module, configured to send a handover request acknowledgement message to the source node, where the handover request acknowledgement message includes: the slice remapping information.

In some embodiments, the source node 700 further comprises: a second sending module, configured to send a path switching request message to a core network element, where the path switching request message includes: the slice remapping information.

In some embodiments, the source node 700 further comprises: a second receiving module, configured to receive a path switch request acknowledgement message from the core network element, where the path switch request acknowledgement message includes: indication information; the indication information indicates: the target node maps the first slice to a second slice, or the target node releases the mapping of the first slice to the default slice; wherein the second slice is the other slices supported by the target node.

The source node provided in the embodiment of the present invention may execute the method embodiment shown in fig. 3, which has similar implementation principles and technical effects, and this embodiment is not described herein again.

Referring to fig. 8, a radio access network node according to an embodiment of the present invention is a source node, where the source node 800 includes: a first transceiver 801 and a first processor 802;

a first transceiver 801 sends and receives data under the control of the first processor 802;

the first processor 802 reads a program in memory to perform the following operations: receiving a handover request message, the handover request message including: information of the first slice; mapping the first slice to one or more default slices of the target node; the first slice is a slice used by a data connection which is applied for switching by a terminal, the target node does not support the first slice, and the target node supports the default slice.

In some embodiments, the first processor 802 reads the program in the memory and performs the following operations: configuring one or more default slices of the target node.

In some embodiments, the first processor 802 reads a program in memory to perform the following operations: configuring one or more default slices of the target node according to a slice or service type.

In some embodiments, the first processor 802 reads the program in the memory and performs the following operations: generating slice remapping information, the slice remapping information indicating that the first slice maps to the one or more default slices.

In some embodiments, the first processor 802 reads a program in memory to perform the following operations: sending a handover request acknowledgement message to the source node, the handover request acknowledgement message including: the slice remapping information.

In some embodiments, the first processor 802 reads the program in the memory and performs the following operations: sending a path switching request message to a core network element, wherein the path switching request message comprises: the slice remapping information.

In some embodiments, the first processor 802 reads the program in the memory and performs the following operations: receiving a path switch request acknowledgement message from the core network element, the path switch request acknowledgement message including: indication information; the indication information indicates: the target node maps the first slice to a second slice, or the target node releases the mapping of the first slice to the default slice; wherein the second slice is the other slices supported by the target node.

Referring to fig. 9, a radio access network node according to an embodiment of the present invention is a target node, where the target node 900 includes:

a third sending module 901, configured to send a handover request message, where the handover request message includes: information of the first slice;

a third receiving module 902, configured to receive a handover request acknowledgement message;

In this embodiment of the present invention, the handover request acknowledge message includes: the slice remapping information, the slice remapping information indicating that the first slice maps to the one or more default slices.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the target node 900 further includes: a fourth sending module, configured to send a notification message to the terminal, where the notification message is used to notify the terminal to initiate handover.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the notification message includes: the slice remapping information.

The target node provided in the embodiment of the present invention may execute the method embodiment shown in fig. 4, which has similar implementation principles and technical effects, and this embodiment is not described herein again.

Referring to fig. 10, a radio access network node according to an embodiment of the present invention is a target node, where the target node 1000 includes: a second transceiver 1001 and a second processor 1002;

the second transceiver 1001 transmits and receives data under the control of the processor 1002;

the second processor 1002 reads a program in the memory to perform the following operations: sending a handover request message, wherein the handover request message comprises: information of the first slice; receiving a switching request confirmation message; the first slice is used by the data connection which is applied for switching by the terminal, and the target node does not support the first slice.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the second processor 1002 reads the program in the memory to further perform the following operations: and sending a notification message to the terminal, wherein the notification message is used for notifying the terminal to initiate switching.

Referring to fig. 11, a core network element according to an embodiment of the present invention, where the core network element 1100 includes:

a fourth receiving module 1101, configured to receive a path switching request message from a target node, where the path switching request message includes: slice remapping information indicating that a first slice maps to one or more default slices.

In some embodiments, the core network element 1100 further comprises: a fourth sending module, configured to send a path switch request acknowledgement message to the target node, where the path switch request acknowledgement message includes: indication information;

wherein the second slice is the other slices supported by the target node.

The core network element provided in the embodiment of the present invention may execute the method embodiment shown in fig. 5, which has similar implementation principles and technical effects, and this embodiment is not described herein again.

Referring to fig. 12, a core network element according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a third processor 1201;

the third processor 1201 reads a program in the memory to perform the following operations: receiving a path switch request message from a target node, the path switch request message comprising: slice remapping information indicating that a first slice maps to one or more default slices.

In some embodiments, the third processor 1201 reads a program in the memory to perform the following operations: sending a path switching request acknowledgement message to the target node, the path switching request acknowledgement message including: indication information;

wherein the second slice is the other slices supported by the target node.

Referring to fig. 13, fig. 13 is a structural diagram of a communication device applied in the embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 13, the communication device 1300 includes: a processor 1301, a transceiver 1302, a memory 1303 and a bus interface, wherein:

in one embodiment of the present invention, the communication device 1300 further comprises: a program stored in the memory 1303 and executable on the processor 1301, when executed by the processor 1301, performs the steps of the embodiments shown in fig. 3-5.

In fig. 13, the bus architecture may include any number of interconnected buses and bridges, with one or more processors represented by processor 1301 and various circuits of memory represented by memory 1303 linked together. The bus architecture may also link together various other circuits such as peripherals, voltage regulators, power management circuits, and the like, which are well known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further herein. The bus interface provides an interface. The transceiver 1302 may be a plurality of elements including a transmitter and a receiver that provide a means for communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium, it being understood that the transceiver 1302 is an optional component.

The processor 1301 is responsible for managing a bus architecture and general processing, and the memory 1303 may store data used by the processor 1301 in performing operations.

The communication device provided in the embodiment of the present invention may execute the method embodiments shown in fig. 3 to fig. 5, which implement the principle and the technical effect similar to each other, and this embodiment is not described herein again.

The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the disclosure herein may be embodied in hardware or may be embodied in software instructions executed by a processor. The software instructions may be comprised of corresponding software modules that may be stored in RAM, flash memory, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a compact disk, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. Of course, the storage medium may also be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. Additionally, the ASIC may reside in a core network interface device. Of course, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a core network interface device.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that the functionality described in this disclosure may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof, in one or more of the examples described above. When implemented in software, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer.

The above-mentioned embodiments, objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention are further described in detail, it should be understood that the above-mentioned embodiments are only exemplary embodiments of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention, and any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements and the like made on the basis of the technical solutions of the present invention should be included in the scope of the present invention.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, embodiments of the present invention may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, embodiments of the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

Embodiments of the present invention are described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the embodiments of the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the embodiments of the present invention fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention and their equivalents, the present invention is also intended to encompass such modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A handover method is applied to a radio access network node, wherein the radio access network node is a target node, and the method comprises the following steps:

receiving a handover request message, the handover request message including: information of the first slice;

mapping the first slice to one or more default slices of the target node;

after the UE is successfully switched, sending a notification to a core network element, wherein the notification is used for determining whether the first slice mapped to the default slice is remapped to other slices supported by the target node and then re-mapping the first slice, or the notification is used for determining whether to release mapping between the first slice and the default slice;

the first slice is used for data connection application switching of the terminal, the target node does not support the first slice, the target node supports the default slice, the default slice is used for ensuring the continuity of data transmission application switching of the terminal, and the situation that data connection carried by connected UE based on the first slice is rejected by a cell of the target node is avoided.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

configuring one or more default slices of the target node.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the configuring one or more default slices of the target node comprises:

configuring one or more default slices of the target node according to slice or service type.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein after mapping the first slice to one or more default slices of the target node and before sending a notification to a core network element, the method further comprises:

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the sending the notification to the core network element comprises:

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

wherein the second slice is the other slices supported by the target node.

7. A handover method applied to a network element of a core network includes:

receiving a path switch request message from a target node, the path switch request message comprising: slice remapping information representing a target node mapping a first slice to one or more default slices of the target node;

receiving a notification sent by the target node after the UE is successfully switched, wherein the core network element determines whether the first slice mapped to the default slice is mapped to other slices supported by the target node or not according to the notification and then performs a concurrent re-mapping process, or the core network element determines whether to release the mapping between the first slice and the default slice or not according to the notification;

the first slice is used for data connection which is applied for switching by a terminal, the target node does not support the first slice, the target node supports the default slice, the default slice is used for ensuring the continuity of data transmission which is applied for switching by the terminal, and the situation that the data connection based on the first slice carried by the UE in a connection state is rejected by a cell of the target node is avoided.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

wherein the second slice is the other slices supported by the target node.

9. A radio access network node, the radio access network node being a target node, comprising:

a sending module, configured to send a notification to a core network element after the UE is successfully switched, where the notification is used for the core network element to determine whether the first slice mapped to the default slice is remapped to another slice supported by the target node and to send a re-mapping process, or the notification is used for the core network element to determine whether to release mapping between the first slice and the default slice;

10. A radio access network node, the radio access network node being a target node, comprising: a first transceiver and a first processor;

the first processor reads a program in a memory to perform the following operations: receiving a handover request message, the handover request message including: information of the first slice; mapping the first slice to one or more default slices of the target node, and after UE (user equipment) is successfully switched, sending a notification to a core network element, wherein the notification is used for determining whether the first slice mapped to the default slice is remapped to other slices supported by the target node and sending a re-mapping process, or the notification is used for determining whether to release mapping between the first slice and the default slice; the first slice is used for data connection application switching of the terminal, the target node does not support the first slice, the target node supports the default slice, the default slice is used for ensuring the continuity of data transmission application switching of the terminal, and the situation that data connection carried by connected UE based on the first slice is rejected by a cell of the target node is avoided.

11. A core network element, comprising:

a fourth receiving module, configured to receive a path switch request message from a target node, where the path switch request message includes: slice remapping information, wherein the slice remapping information indicates that a target node maps a first slice to one or more default slices of the target node, the first slice is a slice used by a data connection for which a terminal applies for handover, the target node does not support the first slice, the target node supports the default slice, and the default slice is used for ensuring the continuity of data transmission for which the terminal applies for handover and avoiding that the data connection based on the first slice carried by connected-state UE is rejected by a cell of the target node;

a receiving module, configured to receive a notification sent by the target node after the UE is successfully switched, determine whether the first slice mapped to the default slice is mapped to another slice supported by the target node and then re-maps the first slice to another slice according to the notification, or determine whether to release mapping between the first slice and the default slice according to the notification.

12. A core network element, comprising: a third processor;

the third processor reads a program in the memory to perform the following operations: receiving a path switch request message from a target node, the path switch request message comprising: slice remapping information, wherein the slice remapping information indicates that a target node maps a first slice to one or more default slices of the target node, receives a notification sent by the target node after UE (user equipment) is successfully switched, and determines whether the first slice mapped to the default slice is mapped to other slices supported by the target node and a lifting mapping process is carried out according to the notification, or determines whether to release mapping of the first slice and the default slice according to the notification;

13. A communication device, comprising: processor, memory and a program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, which program, when executed by the processor, carries out the steps comprising the handover method according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

14. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that a computer program is stored thereon, which computer program, when being executed by a processor, carries out steps comprising the handover method according to any one of claims 1 to 8.