CN114501556A

CN114501556A - Switching method, terminal and network side equipment

Info

Publication number: CN114501556A
Application number: CN202011165533.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 徐晓东; 柴丽; 胡南
Original assignee: China Mobile Communications Group Co Ltd; China Mobile Communications Ltd Research Institute
Current assignee: China Mobile Communications Group Co Ltd; China Mobile Communications Ltd Research Institute
Priority date: 2020-10-27
Filing date: 2020-10-27
Publication date: 2022-05-13
Also published as: WO2022089660A1

Abstract

The invention provides a switching method, a terminal and network side equipment, wherein the switching method applied to a first terminal comprises the following steps: and sending a connection processing request to a network side device, where the connection processing request is used to request the network side to establish a second connection with a second terminal, or is used to request the network side to modify/reconfigure an existing connection between the network side and the second terminal to be the second connection, so as to switch or copy part or all of services in a first terminal connection state to the second connection, or to use the second connection to carry part or all of services in the first terminal connection state. According to the embodiment of the application, the service can be switched between the terminals through the network, and the switching flexibility is improved.

Description

Switching method, terminal and network side equipment

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a handover method, a terminal, and a network side device.

Background

With the development of wireless communication technology, the same user may own two or more communication terminals (e.g., a mobile phone, a telephone watch, a vehicle-mounted terminal, etc.). When a user uses one terminal (i.e., a first terminal) to execute a wireless communication service, there are application scenarios that require switching to another terminal (i.e., a second terminal) to execute the wireless communication service.

In the related art, handover between terminals is implemented based on an interface between terminals or a manner imperceptible to a network side, which may implement handover through short-range communication instead of a mobile communication network, for example: based on the Bluetooth connection between the first terminal and the second terminal, the data packet of the wireless communication service executed on the first terminal is transmitted to the second terminal, and then the switching between the first terminal and the second terminal is realized.

However, incompatibility between the first terminal and the second terminal may occur, and thus, handover between terminals cannot be realized based on an interface between terminals or a manner that a network side does not perceive.

Therefore, the method for realizing the switching between the terminals based on the way that the interface between the terminals or the network side is not aware has the defect of poor flexibility.

Disclosure of Invention

Embodiments of the present invention provide a switching method, a terminal, and a network device, so as to implement switching of a service between terminals through a network, thereby improving flexibility of switching.

In order to solve the technical problem, the invention is realized as follows:

in a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a handover method, where the handover method is used for a first terminal, and the handover method includes:

and sending a connection processing request to a network side device, where the connection processing request is used to request the network side to establish a second connection with a second terminal, or is used to request the network side to modify/reconfigure an existing connection between the network side and the second terminal to be the second connection, so as to switch or copy part or all of services in a first terminal connection state to the second connection, or to use the second connection to carry part or all of services in the first terminal connection state.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a handover method, where the handover method is used for a network side device, and the handover method includes:

receiving a connection processing request sent by a first terminal;

switching or copying part or all of services borne by a first connection to a second connection in a first terminal connection state, or utilizing the second connection to bear part or all of the services borne by the first terminal in the first terminal connection state, wherein the first connection is a connection established between the first terminal and a network side, and the second connection is a connection established between the second terminal and the network side.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a terminal, where the terminal includes: a processor and a transceiver;

the transceiver is configured to send a connection processing request to a network side device, where the connection processing request is used to request the network side to establish a second connection with a second terminal, or is used to request the network side to modify/reconfigure an existing connection between the network side and the second terminal to be the second connection, so as to switch or copy part or all of services in a first terminal connection state to the second connection, or to use the second connection to carry part or all of services in the first terminal connection state.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a network-side device, where the network-side device includes: a processor and a transceiver;

the transceiver is used for receiving a connection processing request sent by a first terminal;

the processor is configured to switch or copy a part or all of services, which are carried by a first connection, to a second connection in a first terminal connection state, or carry the part or all of the services in the first terminal connection state by using the second connection, where the first connection is a connection established between the first terminal and a network side, and the second connection is a connection established between the second terminal and the network side.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a terminal, where the terminal includes:

a first sending module, configured to send a connection processing request to a network side device, where the connection processing request is used to request the network side to establish a second connection with a second terminal, or is used to request the network side to modify/reconfigure an existing connection between the network side and the second terminal to be the second connection, so as to switch or copy part or all of services in a first terminal connection state to the second connection, or to use the second connection to carry part or all of services in the first terminal connection state.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a network-side device, where the network-side device includes:

the first receiving module is used for receiving a connection processing request sent by a first terminal;

the switching module is configured to switch or copy a part or all of services, which are carried by a first connection, to a second connection in a first terminal connection state, or carry the part or all of the services in the first terminal connection state by using the second connection, where the first connection is a connection established between the first terminal and a network side, and the second connection is a connection established between the second terminal and the network side.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a terminal, which is characterized by including a processor, a memory, and a computer program stored on the memory and being executable on the processor, where the computer program, when executed by the processor, implements the steps in the handover method according to the first aspect.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a network-side device, which includes a processor, a memory, and a computer program stored in the memory and executable on the processor, and when the computer program is executed by the processor, the method of the second aspect is implemented.

In a ninth aspect, the present invention provides a computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, and the computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the steps in the handover method according to the first aspect, or the computer program, when executed by the processor, implements the steps in the handover method according to the second aspect.

In the embodiment of the present invention, a first terminal sends a connection processing request to a network side device, where the connection processing request is used to request a network side to establish a second connection with a second terminal, or is used to request the network side to modify/reconfigure an existing connection between the network side and the second terminal to be the second connection, so as to switch or copy part or all of services in a first terminal connection state to the second connection, or to use the second connection to carry part or all of services in the first terminal connection state. In this embodiment, by sending a connection processing request to a network side device by a first terminal, a part or all of services in a connection state of the first terminal is switched or copied to a second connection between a second terminal and the network side by the network side, that is, by performing wireless network switching on the network side, services continuously executed on the first terminal are switched to the second terminal to be executed, and a data transparent transmission function between the first terminal and the second terminal is not required, so that flexibility of the switching method provided by the embodiment of the present application is improved.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments of the present invention will be briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art that other drawings can be obtained according to these drawings without inventive exercise.

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of a first handover method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a flowchart of a second handover method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3a is one of the block diagrams of a network system to which embodiments of the present invention are applicable;

FIG. 3b is a second block diagram of a network system to which embodiments of the present invention are applicable;

fig. 4 is a structural diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a structural diagram of a network side device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a structural diagram of another network-side device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a block diagram of another terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

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 derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

In the conventional wireless communication technology, handover refers to handover between different base stations during a moving process of a terminal (for example, when the terminal moves from a serving cell of a base station a to a serving cell of a base station B, the terminal switches a connection with the base station a to a connection with the base station B), and during the handover, the terminal reports some measurement results to assist a network side to complete the handover.

However, in practical applications, another switching scenario is described below.

With the continuous development of mobile communication technology, the types of terminals are diversified, for example, a user has both a vehicle-mounted terminal and a general mobile terminal, or a user has both a single-screen terminal and a multi-screen terminal, and so on. At this time, another switching requirement exists, that is, according to different scenes, a service currently performed on one terminal needs to be migrated to another terminal, for example: a user may have a mobile phone and a watch phone with a communication function, and when the user wants to go out and run and does not want to carry the mobile phone while using the mobile phone to make a call, the user wants to switch the current call service to the watch phone to execute. For another example, a user may have a mobile phone and a car terminal, and after getting on the car, the user wants to switch the call service to the car terminal for execution. For another example, the user may wish to switch the current media browsing service to a terminal with a larger screen area for execution, or even switch the current service to another terminal for execution when the current terminal has insufficient power.

As can be seen from the above description, the handover in the embodiment of the present invention refers to a handover of a currently established or executing service to another terminal, which is different from the existing call forwarding service and different from a handover of a mobile phone between different base stations/cells.

In these scenarios where a handover between two terminals is required, the existing solution can be implemented as follows: the first terminal transmits the service data packet to the second terminal through Bluetooth or other short-distance communication protocols.

However, this approach suffers from limitations such as remaining power (the first terminal must be continuously on-line as a transit point), terminal capabilities (both must support the same short-range communication protocol), and inter-terminal distance (too large a distance to establish a connection), which results in poor flexibility.

In the handover method provided in the embodiment of the present application, the first terminal sends a connection processing request to the network side to trigger the network side to execute a handover procedure, or the first terminal sends a request to the network to request the network to establish a second connection with the second terminal, but the first connection between the network and the first terminal is not required to be maintained at the same time, that is, the application scheme does not need to maintain the connection between the first terminal and the network to ensure voice or video interaction between the first terminal and the second terminal, as in the existing procedure in which the first terminal calls the second terminal (the first terminal also sends a call request to the network) to perform voice or video call, so as to solve the problem of poor flexibility of the handover method in the related art.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a flowchart of a first handover method provided in an embodiment of the present invention, for a terminal, and as shown in fig. 1, the handover method may include the following steps:

step 101, sending a connection processing request to a network side device, where the connection processing request is used to request the network side to establish a second connection with a second terminal, or is used to request the network side to modify/reconfigure an existing connection between the network side and the second terminal to be the second connection, so as to switch or copy part or all of services in a first terminal connection state to the second connection, or to use the second connection to carry part or all of services in the first terminal connection state.

In a specific implementation, the Service in the first terminal connection state may also be referred to as application Data, Service Data Flow (Service Data Flow), User Data Plane Traffic (User Data Traffic), and the like, and the Service is carried through a first connection between the terminal and the network side.

In a specific embodiment of the present invention, requesting a network side to establish a second connection with a second terminal, or requesting the network side to modify/reconfigure an existing connection between the network side and the second terminal to be a second connection, so as to switch or copy part or all of services in a first terminal connection state to the second connection, or to utilize the second connection to carry part or all of services in the first terminal connection state, both of which include the same requirements, that is: the difference between the handover, the duplication and the bearer is whether or not the traffic data needs to be transmitted between the network side and the first terminal in the case where the traffic data is transmitted over the second connection.

For example:

the switching can be understood as that after the switching is completed, the switched service data does not need to be transmitted between the network side and the first terminal, that is, the corresponding first connection can be released after the switching is completed;

replication is understood to mean that the service data needs to be transmitted simultaneously over the first connection and the second connection;

and requesting the second connection to carry part or all of the services in the connected state of the first terminal, it can be understood as including any one of the above two ways, that is: .

The first terminal switches part or all of services in a connection state to a second connection; or

The first terminal copies part or all of the traffic in the connected state to the second connection.

In addition, in the specific embodiment of the present invention, a part or all of services in a first terminal connection state are switched or copied to a second connection, or the second connection is used to carry a part or all of services in the first terminal connection state, which is different from call forwarding and inter-cell switching in the following aspects:

the service is migration/switching between terminals;

the service to be migrated or copied (i.e., a part or all of the service in the connection state of the first terminal in the present application) is a service currently being executed by the first terminal, such as an executing voice call service, an executing video communication service, an executing media browsing service, and the like;

the migration or copy of the service is initiated and executed in the service execution process, and is not preset to be automatically executed by the network side.

In a specific embodiment of the present invention, the connection processing request may be implemented by any one of indication information, request information, and notification information, and only needs to enable the network side to know the requirement of the first terminal, which is not limited specifically herein.

In the handover method according to the specific embodiment of the present invention, part or all of the services of the first terminal may be executed by the second terminal, and as an optional implementation manner, the second terminal is a preset terminal, or a terminal indicated by the terminal identification information carried in the connection processing request.

In an embodiment where the second terminal is a preset terminal, the preset may be to preset an association relationship between the first terminal and the second terminal, for example: the device information of the first terminal is uniquely associated with the device information of the second terminal, or the first terminal and the second terminal are associated with the same user information.

In the preset manner, the second terminal may need to have uniqueness in some applications, and in order to further improve the flexibility of the handover, in an embodiment of the present invention, the second terminal is indicated by carrying terminal identification information in the connection processing request. In this way, the second terminal may be any terminal other than the first terminal, or one of a plurality of terminals associated with the first terminal when the second terminal is used. At this time, only the terminal identification information of the second terminal needs to be carried in the connection processing request, so that when the network side device receives the connection processing request, the network side device determines the second terminal based on the terminal identification information carried in the connection processing request, and switches or copies the connection-state service flow executed on the first terminal to the second connection between the network side and the second terminal.

In an optional embodiment, the second connection includes a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection, a bearer and/or a session.

In the application, the second terminal may be in an idle state or an inactive state, or various situations may also occur in which the bearer or session between the second terminal and the network side does not support part or all of the services in the connection state of the first terminal, so that the services on the first connection cannot be switched to the second connection. In implementation, when receiving the connection processing request, the network side device performs a procedure of newly establishing or modifying an RRC connection, bearer, or session based on the connection processing request and the network state of the second terminal.

In practical applications, the network status of the second terminal may be any one of the following cases:

the first condition is as follows: the second terminal is in an idle state or a non-activated state;

case two: the second terminal is in a connected state, but the bearer between the second terminal and the network side does not support part or all of the services in the connected state of the first terminal;

case three: the second terminal is in a connected state, but the session between the second terminal and the network side does not support part or all of the services in the connected state of the first terminal;

case four: the second terminal is in a connected state, and the established bearer and session meet the service requirements of the service.

In the first case, the following method may be adopted to implement switching or copying a part or all of the services in the connected state on the first terminal to the second connection, or to request the second connection to carry a part or all of the services in the connected state of the first terminal:

and establishing RRC connection, bearer and session between the second terminal and the network side, and processing the service by utilizing the established RRC connection, bearer and session.

In this embodiment, an RRC connection can be established between the second terminal and the network side, and a bearer and a session that meet the service requirement of the service can be established, so as to ensure that the service can be switched or copied to the second connection, or the service can be borne on the second connection.

In the second case, the following two ways may be used to implement the switching or copying of part or all of the services in the connected state on the first terminal to the second connection, or to request the second connection to carry part or all of the services in the connected state of the first terminal:

the first method is as follows: and establishing a bearer and a session which meet the service requirement of the service, and processing the service by utilizing the established RRC connection between the second terminal and the network side, the bearer which meets the service requirement and the session which meets the service requirement.

The second method comprises the following steps: and modifying the bearer and the session which do not meet the service requirement of the service, and processing the service by utilizing the established RRC connection between the second terminal and the network side, the bearer which meets the service requirement and the session which meets the service requirement.

In a third case, the following two ways may be used to implement switching or copying a part or all of the services in the connected state on the first terminal to the second connection, or to request the second connection to carry a part or all of the services in the connected state of the first terminal:

the first method is as follows: and establishing a session meeting the service requirement of the service, and processing the service by utilizing the established RRC connection between the second terminal and the network side, the bearer meeting the service requirement and the session meeting the service requirement.

Wherein, when the current session cannot satisfy the service requirement of the service, the newly-established session that satisfies the service requirement of the service may be: and establishing a PDU Session meeting the service requirement of the service, and associating the service to a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) Session identifier (PDU-Session ID) of the newly established PDU Session.

When the current session or the QoS Flow in the session cannot satisfy the service requirement of the service, the newly-established session that satisfies the service requirement of the service may be: and establishing a QoS Flow meeting the service requirement of the service, and associating the service to the established QoS Flow identification (QoS Flow ID, QFI).

The second method comprises the following steps: and modifying the session which does not meet the service requirement of the service, and processing the service by utilizing the established RRC connection between the second terminal and the network side, the bearer which meets the service requirement and the session which meets the service requirement.

In the fourth case, the established bearer and session between the second terminal and the network side may be directly used to process the service.

As an optional implementation manner, after sending the connection processing request to the network side device, the method further includes:

sending the uplink data to the network side until receiving indication information indicating that the second terminal successfully completes connection configuration with the network side; or

Receiving a release indication message sent by network side equipment;

and releasing a first connection, wherein the first connection is a connection established between the first terminal and a network side.

In an embodiment, when the second connection between the second terminal and the network side is established, modified or reconfigured, the second terminal sends, to the first terminal, indication information indicating that the connection configuration with the network side is successfully completed, and the first terminal stops data interaction related to the service to be switched over on the first connection in response to the indication information.

In practical application, if the second connection between the second terminal and the network side is not established or is not modified/reconfigured, the second terminal cannot bear part or all of the services in the connection state of the first terminal based on the second connection. In this embodiment, after the first terminal sends the connection processing request to the network-side device and before the second terminal successfully completes the connection configuration with the network, in this process, the first terminal may still perform data interaction with the network-side device, so that the first terminal can continue to support the service before the service in the connection state of the first terminal is successfully switched to the second connection.

Of course, when the first terminal receives the indication information that the second terminal successfully completes the connection configuration with the network, it indicates that: the service in the first terminal connection state is successfully switched to the second connection, so that the first terminal can stop performing data interaction with the network side equipment, resources are saved, and repetition and chaos of service data are avoided.

In another embodiment, the network side device may send the release indication message to the first terminal after receiving that the second terminal successfully switches or copies part or all of the services in the first terminal connection state to the second connection, or after the second connection completes carrying part or all of the services in the first terminal connection state.

In this embodiment, the first terminal will respond to the release indication message to release the first connection, so as to release the idle first connection after successful handover, thereby reducing resource waste.

In a specific implementation, in the handover process, the first terminal and the second terminal may execute the service in parallel until the first connection is released.

In a process in which the first terminal and the second terminal are parallel, the first terminal and the second terminal may respectively receive downlink data packets from a network side, and the first terminal and the second terminal may respectively send uplink data packets to the network side, and in the process, to avoid packet loss, the following manner may be adopted:

the first method is as follows: before the first connection is released, the allocation of the Sequence Number (SN) of the Service Data Unit (SDU) in the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) corresponding to the Service is responsible for the network side device (usually the base station, but not excluding the processing by other devices along with the evolution of the network) corresponding to the first connection, until the handover is completed, the allocation of the SN of the downlink PDCP SDU corresponding to the Service is responsible for the network side device (usually the base station, but not excluding the processing by other devices along with the evolution of the network) corresponding to the second connection.

The second method comprises the following steps: in the process that the first terminal and the second terminal are in parallel, in order to avoid data packet loss, the consistency of the sequence numbers sent by the two terminals can be ensured through an application layer.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 3a, in the downlink, the PDCP protocol layer of the first network side device (hereinafter referred to as "first base station") connected to the first terminal is responsible for allocating SNs of the downlink PDCP SDUs, until the first base station connected to the first terminal receives the handover success message and sends an SN status forwarding message to the second network side device (hereinafter referred to as "second base station") connected to the second terminal, the first base station stops allocating SN of the downlink PDCP SDN, and the SN allocation operation is switched to the second base station for execution.

It should be noted that, in a specific implementation, the first base station and the second base station may be the same base station, and certainly, may also be different base stations, and are not limited herein.

In this embodiment, by maintaining the synchronization of the SN information of the PDCP SDUs of the first terminal and the second terminal, the data packet loss can be avoided in the process of checking the sequence number of the data packet based on the SN information.

Referring to fig. 2, a flowchart of a second handover method according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown, where the handover method is used for a network side device, and as shown in fig. 2, the handover method may include the following steps:

step 201, receiving a connection processing request sent by a first terminal.

The connection processing request has the same meaning as the connection processing request in the method embodiment shown in fig. 1, and is not described herein again.

Step 202, switching or copying part or all of the services carried by the first connection to a second connection in the connection state of the first terminal, or carrying part or all of the services carried by the first connection by using the second connection in the connection state of the first terminal, where the first connection is a connection established between the first terminal and a network side, and the second connection is a connection established between the second terminal and the network side.

The specific process of switching or copying part or all of the service carried by the first connection to the second connection in the first terminal connection state, or carrying part or all of the service carried by the second connection in the first terminal connection state corresponds to the process of switching or copying part or all of the service carried by the second connection to the second connection in the embodiment of the method shown in fig. 1, or carrying part or all of the service carried by the second connection in the first terminal connection state, and is not described herein again.

Optionally, the second terminal is a preset terminal, or a terminal indicated by the terminal identification information carried in the connection processing request.

Optionally, the second connection includes an RRC connection, a bearer, or a session.

Optionally, the step of switching part or all of the services on the first connection to the second connection, or using the second connection to carry part or all of the services in the connected state of the first terminal includes:

under the condition that the second terminal is in an idle state or an inactive state, establishing RRC connection, bearer or session between the second terminal and a network side, and processing the service by utilizing the established RRC connection, bearer or session;

or

Under the condition that the second terminal is in a connected state and the established bearer or session meets the service requirement of the service, the established RRC connection, bearer or session between the second terminal and the network side is utilized to process the service;

or

Under the condition that the second terminal is in a connected state and the established bearer and/or session do not meet the service requirement of the service, establishing a bearer and/or session meeting the service requirement of the service, and processing the service by utilizing the established RRC connection between the second terminal and a network side, the bearer meeting the service requirement and the session meeting the service requirement;

or

And under the condition that the second terminal is in a connected state and the established bearer and/or session do not meet the service requirement of the service, modifying the bearer and/or session which do not meet the service requirement of the service, and processing the service by utilizing the established RRC connection between the second terminal and the network side, the bearer which meets the service requirement and the session which meets the service requirement.

This embodiment has the same meaning as the embodiment in which, when the network side device receives the connection processing request, the network side device performs a process of creating or modifying an RRC connection, bearer, or session based on the connection processing request and the network state of the second terminal in the method embodiment shown in fig. 1, and is not described herein again.

Optionally, all service data of the part or all services are configured to have the same or equivalent QFI.

In a specific implementation, the QoS flow is the finest QoS differentiation granularity among the PDU sessions, which means that two PDU sessions differ in their QoS flows. In a wireless communication system (e.g., 5G system), a QoS Flow Id (QFI) is used to identify a QoS flow so that user-plane data with the same QFI in a PDU session will get the same forwarding process (e.g., the same scheduling, the same admission threshold, etc.).

In practical applications, the QFI is unique within one PDU session, that is, there may be multiple (at most 64) QoS flows in one PDU session, but the QFI of each QoS flow is different (value range 0-63). However, QFI in two PDU sessions may be repeated for both PDU sessions of the same terminal.

In this embodiment, all service data of the partial or all services (i.e. service data of the service to be switched) are configured to have the same or equivalent QFI, so that the network side can perform the same processing on the service data of the services to be switched, for example: are forwarded to the second connection. Therefore, the network side can conveniently identify the service data of the service to be switched based on the same QFI, and carry out the same processing on the service data of the service.

Optionally, after the switching, in the state of the first terminal being connected, part or all of the traffic carried by the first connection to the second connection, the method further includes:

and releasing the first connection, and transmitting the service data of the service through a second connection.

In this embodiment, after the service on the first connection is switched to the second connection, the first connection in the idle state is released, so as to save network resources.

Optionally, the network side device is an access network device or a core network device.

In an optional implementation manner, the Network-side device is a core Network device, the core Network device may be a Data Network (DN) in a core Network, the first connection includes a transmission channel between the core Network and the first terminal, the second connection includes a transmission channel between the core Network and the second terminal, a part of the first connection between the core Network device and the access Network setting is independent of a part of the second connection between the core Network device and the access Network setting, and the core Network device and the second connection can simultaneously transmit service Data of at least one same service within a period of time.

In this embodiment, the core network device performs the copying or rerouting of part or all of the service data on the first connection to the second connection.

For example: in the embodiment shown in fig. 3a, a Radio Access Network (RAN) device includes a first base station and a second base station, a first terminal UE a is connected to a User Plane Function (UPF) through the first base station, a second terminal UE B is connected to the UPF through the second base station, and the UPF is connected to a DN, so as to obtain a Network protocol Flow a (i.e., an IP Flow a shown in fig. 3 a) in a mapping relationship with a QOS Flow of UE a (i.e., a QOS Flow for UE a shown in fig. 3 a) and an IP Flow B in a mapping relationship with a QOS Flow for UE B shown in UE B. In this embodiment, the handover method may include the following processes:

in the downlink, the first base station is responsible for distributing SN of downlink PDCP SDUs until the first base station receives a switching success message and sends an SN state forwarding message to the second base station, at the moment, the first base station stops distributing SN numbers of the downlink PDCP SDUs, and the distribution work of the SN is switched to the second base station to be executed.

In addition, in the switching process, on one hand, the first base station schedules downlink data on a link connected with the UE a, so that the UE a receives a downlink data packet from the first base station, and simultaneously starts to forward a downlink PDCP SDU carrying the allocated PDCP SN to the second base station, so that the UE B receives the downlink data packet from the second base station, and the first connection and the second connection are parallel.

In the process that the first connection and the second connection are parallel, the first base station may be responsible for maintaining a Hyper Frame Number (HFN) of the forwarded downlink PDCP SDU to improve the performance of security synchronization, and specifically, the first base station sends an advance status forwarding message, and carries a downlink count value in the message, where the advance status forwarding message includes a PDCP SN and an HFN of the first forwarded PDCP SDU.

Similarly, after the first base station stops allocating the SN number of the downlink PDCP SDN and the SN allocation operation is switched to the second base station, the HFN maintenance operation of the downlink PDCP SDU is also switched to the second base station to be executed.

During the handover, the first base station and the second base station may further perform Robust Header Compression (ROHC) to encrypt and enhance the PDCP Header, respectively.

In the uplink, UE a sends uplink data to the first base station until UE a receives indication that UE B successfully completes the random access procedure to the second base station. Also, even after the transmission of the uplink data transmitted by the UE a to the first base station is switched, the UE a may continue to transmit Channel State Information (CSI) feedback, Hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback, Radio Link Control (RLC) feedback of the layer 2 (L2), ROHC feedback, HARQ and RLC data retransmission of the uplink layer 1 (L1) to the first base station, so as to implement the first connection and the second connection in parallel.

In addition, in the switching process, SN information of PDCP SDU is interacted between the UE A and the UE B through a direct link to ensure SN synchronization; alternatively, the application layer ensures the consistency of the sequence numbers sent by the two UEs.

Further, during handover execution, UE a and UE B may also maintain separate security context and ROHC header compressor context, respectively, for uplink transmissions to the first base station and the second base station.

In addition, the HFN and PDCP SN may be retained in the second base station, and the second base station is instructed by a SN state Transfer (Status Transfer) message to start transmitting the first missing UL Count value (Count) to a Core Network (e.g., 5G Core Network (5 GC)), which can also be applied to Unacknowledged Mode (RLC-UM) in radio link control.

After the network side device receives the connection processing request, UE a suspends a Signaling Radio Bearer (SRB) to the first base station, and stops sending and receiving any RRC control plane signaling towards the serving cell connected to UE a; UE B and the first base station establish SRB.

After successfully performing the handover, the first base station may receive a release indication message from the second base station to instruct UE a to release the connection (i.e., the first connection) with the first base station.

It should be noted that the first base station and the second base station in fig. 3a may be the same base station or different base stations, and are not limited herein.

In another optional implementation, the network-side device is an access network device, the first connection includes a transmission channel between the access network device and the first terminal, and the second connection includes a transmission channel between the access network device and the second terminal.

In addition, in this embodiment, a transmission channel between the core network device and the access network device between the core network and the first terminal and a transmission channel between the core network device and the access network device between the core network and the second terminal are the same transmission channel.

In this embodiment, the access network device sends the data in the transmission channel to the second terminal.

For example: in the embodiment shown in fig. 3B, the access network device includes a target base station, and the first terminal UE a and the second terminal UE B are both connected to a UPF through the target base station, and the UPF is connected to the DN. In this embodiment, the execution process of the above-mentioned handover method is the same as the execution process of the handover method in the embodiment shown in fig. 3a, but the difference is that: in this embodiment, the first base station and the second base station are the same base station (i.e., a target base station), and are not described herein again.

In the switching method provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the terminal triggers the network side device to perform switching, so that it is not necessary to establish a data interaction connection between the first terminal before switching and the second terminal after switching through a near field communication protocol, thereby improving the flexibility of the switching method.

Referring to fig. 4, which is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 4, the terminal 400 includes:

a first sending module 401, configured to send a connection processing request to a network side device, where the connection processing request is used to request the network side to establish a second connection with a second terminal, or is used to request the network side to modify/reconfigure an existing connection between the network side and the second terminal to be the second connection, so as to switch or copy part or all of services in a first terminal connection state to the second connection, or to use the second connection to carry part or all of services in the first terminal connection state.

Further, the second terminal is a preset terminal, or a terminal indicated by the terminal identification information carried by the connection processing request.

Further, the second connection includes a radio resource control, RRC, connection, bearer, and/or session.

Further, the terminal 400 further includes:

a second sending module, configured to send uplink data to the network side until receiving indication information indicating that the second terminal successfully completes connection configuration with the network side; or

The second receiving module is used for receiving a release indication message sent by the network side equipment;

the release module is configured to release a first connection, where the first connection is a connection established between the first terminal and a network side.

Further, before the first connection is released, the network side device corresponding to the first connection is responsible for the distribution of the SN of the downlink PDCP SDU corresponding to the service, and until the handover is completed, the network side device corresponding to the second connection is responsible for the distribution of the SN of the downlink PDCP SDU corresponding to the service.

The terminal of the embodiment of the invention can send the connection processing request to the network side equipment through the first terminal to trigger the network side equipment to switch or copy part or all of the services in the first terminal connection state to the second connection, or bear part or all of the services in the first terminal connection state by using the second connection, and does not need to establish data interactive connection of a near field communication protocol with the second terminal, thereby improving the flexibility of switching between the first terminal and the second terminal.

Referring to fig. 5, a schematic structural diagram of a network-side device according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in fig. 5, where the network-side device 500 includes:

a first receiving module 501, configured to receive a connection processing request sent by a first terminal;

a switching module 502, configured to switch or copy a service in a first connection to a second connection, or request the second connection to carry part or all of the service in a connection state of the first terminal, where the first connection is a connection established between the first terminal and a network side, and the second connection is a connection established between the second terminal and the network side.

Further, the second connection comprises an RRC connection, bearer, or session.

Further, the switching module 502 is specifically configured to:

or

And under the condition that the second terminal is in a connected state and the established bearer and/or session do not meet the service requirement of the service, modifying the bearer and/or session which do not meet the service requirement of the service, and processing the service by utilizing the established RRC connection between the second terminal and the network side, the bearer which meet the service requirement and the session which meet the service requirement.

Further, the service data of the service is configured to have the same or equivalent QFI.

Further, the network side device 500 further includes:

and the releasing module is used for releasing the first connection and transmitting the service data of the service through a second connection.

Further, the network side device is an access network device or a core network device.

The network side device in the embodiment of the present invention can switch or copy the service on the first connection to the second connection based on the connection processing request sent by the terminal, or request the second connection to carry part or all of the service in the connection state of the first terminal, thereby completing the switching between the first terminal and the second terminal.

Referring to fig. 6, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a network-side device, which includes a bus 601, a transceiver 602, an antenna 603, a bus interface 604, a processor 605, and a memory 606.

A transceiver 602, configured to receive a connection processing request sent by a first terminal;

a processor 605, configured to switch or copy part or all of the services, which are carried by the first connection and are in the connection state of the first terminal, to a second connection, or use the second connection to carry part or all of the services, which are in the connection state of the first terminal, where the first connection is a connection established between the first terminal and a network side, and the second connection is a connection established between the second terminal and the network side.

Further, the switching, performed by the processor 605, part or all of the services on the first connection to the second connection, or using the second connection to carry part or all of the services in the first terminal connection state includes:

or

Further, the traffic data of the traffic is configured to have the same or equivalent quality of service flow identity QFI.

Further, after performing the switching of part or all of the services carried by the first connection in the connected state of the first terminal to the second connection, the processor 605 is further configured to:

In this embodiment, the entity can implement each process implemented by the network side device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 2, and is not described here again to avoid repetition.

In fig. 6, a bus architecture (represented by bus 601), where bus 601 may include any number of interconnected buses and bridges, where bus 601 links together various circuits including one or more processors, represented by processor 605, and memory, represented by memory 606. The bus 601 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. A bus interface 604 provides an interface between the bus 601 and the transceiver 602. The transceiver 602 may be one element or may be multiple elements, such as multiple receivers and transmitters, providing a means for communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium. The data processed by the processor 605 is transmitted over a wireless medium via the antenna 603, and further, the antenna 603 receives the data and transmits the data to the processor 605.

The processor 605 is responsible for managing the bus 601 and general processing, and may also provide various functions including timing, peripheral interfaces, voltage regulation, power management, and other control functions. And memory 606 may be used to store data used by processor 605 in performing operations.

Alternatively, processor 605 may be a CPU, ASIC, FPGA or CPLD.

Referring to fig. 7, the embodiment of the present invention further provides a terminal 700, which includes a bus 701, a transceiver 702, an antenna 703, a bus interface 704, a processor 705, and a memory 706.

The transceiver 702 is configured to send a connection processing request to a network side device, where the connection processing request is used to request the network side to establish a second connection with a second terminal, or is used to request the network side to modify/reconfigure an existing connection between the network side and the second terminal to be the second connection, so as to switch or copy part or all of services in a connection state of a first terminal to the second connection, or to use the second connection to carry part or all of services in the connection state of the first terminal.

Further, after the transceiver 702 performs the sending of the connection processing request to the network-side device:

the transceiver 702 is further configured to send uplink data to the network side until receiving indication information indicating that the second terminal successfully completes connection configuration with the network side; or

The transceiver 702 is further configured to receive a release indication message sent by a network side device;

a processor 705, configured to release a first connection, where the first connection is a connection established between the first terminal and a network side.

In this embodiment, the entity can implement each process implemented by the first terminal in the embodiment of the method shown in fig. 1, and is not described herein again to avoid repetition.

The entity of the embodiment can trigger the network side device to switch part or all of the services in the first terminal connection state to the second connection between the second terminal and the network side by sending the connection processing request to the network side device, without establishing a data interactive connection of a near field communication protocol with the second terminal, thereby improving the flexibility of switching between the entity and the second terminal.

Preferably, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a terminal, including a processor 705, a memory 706, and a computer program stored in the memory 706 and capable of running on the processor 705, where the computer program, when executed by the processor 705, implements each process of the foregoing embodiment of the handover method shown in fig. 1, and can achieve the same technical effect, and details are not described here to avoid repetition.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a computer-readable storage medium, where a computer program is stored on the computer-readable storage medium, and when the computer program is executed by a processor, the computer program implements each process of the switching method embodiment shown in fig. 1 or fig. 2, and can achieve the same technical effect, and is not described herein again to avoid repetition.

The computer readable storage medium is, for example, ROM, RAM, magnetic disk or optical disk.

It should be noted that, in this document, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising an … …" does not exclude the presence of other like elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.

Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art will clearly understand that the method of the above embodiments can be implemented by software plus a necessary general hardware platform, and certainly can also be implemented by hardware, but in many cases, the former is a better implementation manner. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the present invention may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium (such as ROM/RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk) and includes instructions for enabling a terminal (such as a mobile phone, a computer, a server, an air conditioner, or a network device) to execute the method according to the embodiments of the present invention.

While the present invention has been described with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments, which are illustrative and not restrictive, and it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A handover method for a first terminal, the handover method comprising:

2. The handover method according to claim 1, wherein the second terminal is a preset terminal, or a terminal indicated by terminal identification information carried in the connection processing request.

3. The handover method according to claim 1, wherein the second connection comprises a radio resource control, RRC, connection, bearer and/or session.

4. The handover method according to claim 1, wherein after the sending of the connection processing request to the network-side device, the method further comprises:

Receiving a release indication message sent by network side equipment;

5. The handover method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein;

before the first connection is released, the distribution of the SN of the service data unit SDU in the downlink packet data convergence protocol PDCP corresponding to the service is responsible for the network side equipment corresponding to the first connection, and until the switching is completed, the distribution of the SN of the downlink PDCP SDU corresponding to the service is responsible for the network side equipment corresponding to the second connection.

6. A switching method is used for a network side device, and is characterized in that the switching method comprises the following steps:

receiving a connection processing request sent by a first terminal;

7. The handover method according to claim 6, wherein the second terminal is a preset terminal, or a terminal indicated by terminal identification information carried in the connection processing request.

8. The handover method according to claim 6, wherein the second connection comprises a radio resource control, RRC, connection, bearer and/or session.

9. The handover method according to claim 6 or 8, wherein the switching or copying part or all of the traffic carried by the first connection to the second connection in the first terminal connection state, or carrying part or all of the traffic carried by the first terminal connection state by using the second connection comprises:

under the condition that the second terminal is in an idle state or an inactive state, establishing RRC connection, bearer and session between the second terminal and a network side, and processing the service by utilizing the established RRC connection, bearer and session;

or

Under the condition that the second terminal is in a connected state and the established bearer and session meet the service requirement of the service, the established RRC connection, bearer and session between the second terminal and the network side are utilized to process the service;

or

10. The handover method according to claim 9, wherein all traffic data of the part or all of the traffic is configured to have the same or equivalent quality of service flow identity QFI.

11. The handover method according to claim 6, wherein after the handover of some or all of the traffic carried by the first connection in the first terminal connection state to the second connection, the method further comprises:

12. The handover method according to claim 6, wherein the network side device is an access network device or a core network device.

13. A terminal, characterized in that the terminal comprises: a processor and a transceiver;

14. A network side device, wherein the network side device comprises: a processor and a transceiver;

15. A terminal, characterized in that the terminal comprises:

16. A network side device, wherein the network side device comprises:

17. A terminal, characterized in that it comprises a processor, a memory and a computer program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, which computer program, when executed by the processor, implements the steps in the handover method according to any of claims 1 to 5.

18. A network-side device comprising a processor, a memory and a computer program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, wherein the computer program, when executed by the processor, implements the steps in the handover method according to any one of claims 6 to 12.

19. 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 the steps in the handover method according to one of the claims 1 to 5, or which computer program, when being executed by the processor, carries out the steps in the handover method according to one of the claims 6 to 12.