CN115136655B

CN115136655B - Cell switching method and device, communication equipment and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN115136655B
Application number: CN202180000312.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 洪伟
Original assignee: Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co Ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-01-25
Filing date: 2021-01-25
Publication date: 2024-04-30
Anticipated expiration: 2041-01-25
Also published as: CN115136655A; WO2022155972A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the disclosure provides a cell switching method and device, communication equipment and a storage medium. The cell switching method applied in the user equipment UE may include: comprising the following steps: and transmitting edge indication information to the access equipment of the NTN in response to the UE being positioned in the edge area of the service cell.

Description

Cell switching method and device, communication equipment and storage medium

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of wireless communications, and in particular, to a cell handover method and apparatus, a communication device, and a storage medium.

Background

In a Non-terrestrial network (Non-TERRSTRIAL NETWORK, NTN) scenario, the time for a terminal to be continuously covered by the same satellite is only a few minutes to tens of minutes due to the rapid change in the satellite's relative terrestrial position. The cell handover procedure according to the terrestrial network (TERRSTRIAL NETWORK, TN) is briefly described as follows:

measurement and reporting: the method comprises the steps that User Equipment (UE) measures configured neighbor cells and reports measurement results to a service base station, and the service base station judges whether a switching condition is met according to the reported measurement results;

preparation for handover: and when the service base station judges that the switching condition is met, starting to select a target base station for the UE. The process of selecting the target base station may trigger a signaling exchange between the base stations;

and a switching execution stage: after the target base station is selected, the current serving base station informs the UE of the message needed when the UE accesses the target base station. The terminal UE adopts a random access flow to access a target base station;

And a switching completion stage: and the source base station releases the resources and the links and deletes the user information.

The cell switching flow of the TN network is directly transplanted to the NTN network, and synchronization with a service cell is lost after the existing UE measures the neighbor cell; or a phenomenon that a handover delay is large or a cell communication quality after handover is poor occurs.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the disclosure provides a cell switching method and device, communication equipment and a storage medium.

A first aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a cell handover method, which is applied to a UE, and includes:

And transmitting edge indication information to the access equipment of the NTN in response to the UE being positioned in the edge area of the service cell.

A second aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure provides a cell handover method, where the cell handover method is applied to an access device of a non-terrestrial network NTN, and includes:

receiving edge indication information reported by User Equipment (UE);

according to the edge indication information, a switching request message is sent to a target cell for cell switching;

And sending a cell switching command to the UE according to the response message of the switching request message.

A third aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure provides a cell switching apparatus, where the cell switching apparatus is applied to a user equipment UE, including:

and the first sending module is configured to send edge indication information to the access equipment of the NTN in response to the UE being located in the edge area of the service cell.

A fourth aspect of the present disclosure provides a cell switching apparatus, where the cell switching apparatus is applied to an access device of a non-terrestrial network NTN, and includes:

the third receiving module is configured to receive edge indication information reported by User Equipment (UE);

the second sending module is configured to send a switching request message to a target cell switched by the cell according to the edge indication information;

and the third sending module is configured to send a cell switching command to the UE according to the response message of the switching request message.

A fifth aspect of the disclosed embodiments provides a communication device comprising a processor, a transceiver, a memory and an executable program stored on the memory and capable of being run by the processor, wherein the processor executes the executable program to perform the method of providing a cell handover as described in the first or second aspect.

A sixth aspect of the disclosed embodiments provides a computer storage medium storing an executable program; the executable program, when executed by the processor, can implement the cell handover method provided in the foregoing first aspect or the second aspect.

According to the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the disclosure, when the UE detects that the UE is positioned in the edge area of the service cell, the edge indication information of the edge area is reported to the access equipment of the NTN, and the edge indication information can at least trigger the network side to issue the cell switching command, so that the step of measuring the reference signal of the adjacent cell by the UE is saved, the step-out phenomenon of the UE with the service cell caused by overlong time for measuring the reference signal of the adjacent cell is reduced, the cell switching process is simplified, and the cell switching efficiency is improved; and the phenomena of poor cell switching performance and low cell throughput caused by the delay are reduced, and the cell switching performance and the cell throughput are improved. Of course, in some embodiments, the edge indication information may also be used by the serving cell to determine the location of the UE, thereby providing location-dependent communication services.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of embodiments of the disclosure.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the embodiments of the invention.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a wireless communication system according to an exemplary embodiment;

fig. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a method of cell handover according to an example embodiment;

fig. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a method of cell handover according to an example embodiment;

Fig. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a method of cell handover according to an example embodiment;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of a cell switching apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment;

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of a cell switching apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment;

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of a UE according to an exemplary embodiment;

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating the structure of an access device according to an exemplary embodiment.

Detailed Description

Reference will now be made in detail to exemplary embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. When the following description refers to the accompanying drawings, the same numbers in different drawings refer to the same or similar elements, unless otherwise indicated. The implementations described in the following exemplary embodiments do not represent all implementations consistent with embodiments of the invention. Rather, they are merely examples of apparatus and methods consistent with aspects of embodiments of the invention as detailed in the accompanying claims.

The terminology used in the embodiments of the disclosure is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the embodiments of the disclosure. As used in this disclosure of embodiments and the appended claims, the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should also be understood that the term "and/or" as used herein refers to and encompasses any or all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

It should be understood that although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used in embodiments of the present disclosure to describe various information, these information should not be limited to these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one type of information from another. For example, the first information may also be referred to as second information, and similarly, the second information may also be referred to as first information, without departing from the scope of embodiments of the present disclosure. The word "if" as used herein may be interpreted as "at … …" or "at … …" or "in response to a determination" depending on the context.

Referring to fig. 1, a schematic structural diagram of a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the disclosure is shown. As shown in fig. 1, the wireless communication system is a communication system based on a cellular mobile communication technology, and may include: a number of UEs 11 and a number of base stations 12.

Wherein UE11 may be a device that provides voice and/or data connectivity to a user. The UE11 may communicate with one or more core networks via a radio access network (Radio Access Network, RAN), and the UE11 may be an internet of things UE such as a sensor device, a mobile phone (or "cellular" phone) and a computer with an internet of things UE, for example, a fixed, portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-built-in or vehicle-mounted device. Such as a Station (STA), subscriber unit (subscriber unit), subscriber Station (subscriber Station), mobile Station (mobile Station), mobile Station (mobile), remote Station (remote Station), access point, remote UE (remote terminal), access UE (access terminal), user terminal, user agent (user agent), user device (user equipment), or user UE (UE). Or the UE11 may be a device of an unmanned aerial vehicle. Alternatively, the UE11 may be a vehicle-mounted device, for example, a laptop with a wireless communication function, or a wireless communication device externally connected to the laptop. Or the UE11 may be a roadside device, for example, a street lamp, a signal lamp, or other roadside devices having a wireless communication function, or the like.

The base station 12 may be a network-side device in a wireless communication system. Wherein the wireless communication system may be a fourth generation mobile communication technology (the 4th generation mobile communication,4G) system, also known as a long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) system; alternatively, the wireless communication system may be a 5G system, also known as a New Radio (NR) system or a 5G NR system. Or the wireless communication system may be a next generation system of the 5G system. Among them, the access network in the 5G system may be called NG-RAN (New Generation-Radio Access Network, new Generation radio access network). Or an MTC system.

Wherein the base station 12 may be an evolved base station (eNB) employed in a 4G system. Alternatively, the base station 12 may be a base station (gNB) in a 5G system employing a centralized and distributed architecture. When the base station 12 employs a centralized and distributed architecture, it typically includes a Centralized Unit (CU) and at least two Distributed Units (DUs). A protocol stack of a packet data convergence protocol (PACKET DATA Convergence Protocol, PDCP) layer, a radio link layer Control protocol (Radio Link Control, RLC) layer, and a medium access Control (MEDIA ACCESS Control, MAC) layer is arranged in the centralized unit; a Physical (PHY) layer protocol stack is provided in the distribution unit, and the specific implementation of the base station 12 is not limited by the embodiment of the present disclosure.

A radio connection may be established between the base station 12 and the UE11 over a radio air interface. In various embodiments, the wireless air interface is a fourth generation mobile communication network technology (4G) standard-based wireless air interface; or the wireless air interface is a wireless air interface based on a fifth generation mobile communication network technology (5G) standard, for example, the wireless air interface is a new air interface; or the wireless air interface can also be a wireless air interface based on the technical standard of the next generation mobile communication network of 5G.

In some embodiments, an E2E (End to End) connection may also be established between UEs 11. Such as V2V (vehicle to vehicle, vehicle-to-vehicle) communications, V2I (vehicle to Infrastructure, vehicle-to-roadside device) communications, and V2P (vehicle to pedestrian, vehicle-to-person) communications among internet of vehicles communications (vehicle to everything, V2X).

In some embodiments, the above wireless communication system may further comprise a network management device 13.

Several base stations 12 are connected to a network management device 13, respectively. The network management device 13 may be a core network device in a wireless communication system, for example, the network management device 13 may be a Mobility management entity (Mobility MANAGEMENT ENTITY, MME) in an evolved packet core (Evolved Packet Core, EPC). Or the network management device may be other core network devices, such as a service GateWay (SERVING GATEWAY, SGW), a public data network GateWay (Public Data Network GateWay, PGW), a Policy AND CHARGING Rules Function (PCRF), or a home subscriber server (Home Subscriber Server, HSS), etc. The embodiment of the present disclosure is not limited to the implementation form of the network management device 13.

For non-terrestrial network (NTN) systems, there are a variety of UEs capable of information interaction for satellites. A very small-bore satellite terminal station (VERY SMALL Aperture Terminal, VAST) is exemplified below as a UE that accesses the NTN. The time for the receiver of the VSAT terminal to adjust the operating frequency point may take tens of seconds to tens of seconds, if the VSAT terminal performs measurement on the neighbor cell according to the cell handover procedure of the above ground network, the VSAT needs to take tens of seconds to adjust the operating frequency point of its receiver to perform measurement on the neighbor cell, and after the measurement is completed, it takes tens of seconds to adjust the operating frequency point of its receiver back to the frequency point corresponding to the serving cell. During this time, the VSAT has lost the timing information of the serving cell, which may lead to a loss of synchronization between the UE and the serving cell. Therefore, the conventional cell handover procedure of the terrestrial network is not suitable for the cell handover of the VSAT in the non-terrestrial network (NTN) system. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce a handover procedure suitable for non-terrestrial network (NTN) to improve handover performance in NTN systems.

As shown in fig. 2, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a cell handover method, which is applied to a UE and includes:

s110: and transmitting edge indication information to the access equipment of the NTN in response to the UE being positioned in the edge area of the service cell.

In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the UE may be various terminals capable of accessing to an NTN cell of an NTN, for example, the UE may include: very small bore satellite end stations (VERY SMALL Aperture Terminal, VAST), personal earth stations (Personal Earth Station, PEC), or satellite small data stations (simply referred to as small stations).

In the method for triggering the UE to perform cell handover provided in the embodiments of the present disclosure, when the UE determines that the UE is located in an edge area of a serving cell, the UE sends edge indication information to an access device of NTN.

The NTN access devices herein include, but are not limited to: a serving cell. The serving cell may be a cell formed by satellite coverage.

In one embodiment, the satellite of the serving cell may be a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite or the like that is unsynchronized with the earth.

In one embodiment, the UE may locate its own location information through various positioning methods, for example, obtaining its own location information through positioning satellites, or obtaining its own location information through triangulation based on base stations of the NT network, or locating its own location information using a sensor such as a gravitational acceleration sensor.

In one embodiment, the UE obtains its own location information via global positioning system (Global Positioning System, GPS) and/or via global navigation satellite system (Global Navigation SATELLITE SYSTEM, GNSS).

The UE may determine whether itself is located in an edge region of its own serving cell according to its own location information.

The service area of the service cell includes: a central region and an edge region. The central area comprises a cell center of a serving cell; the edge region is located at the periphery of the center region and does not include the cell center. The cell center is also called the center position.

In one embodiment, the serving cell issues the area information of the center area and/or the edge area, so that after locating the location information of the UE, the UE can determine whether the UE is located in the edge area of the serving cell.

In general, the greater the distance between the location of the UE and the center location of the serving cell, the closer the UE is to the edge of the serving cell, and the greater the probability that the UE is located in the edge region of the serving cell. Conversely, if the distance between the location of the UE and the center location of the serving cell is smaller, it is indicated that the closer the UE is to the center of the serving cell, the greater the probability that the UE is located in the center region of the serving cell. Since the UE is located at the edge of the serving cell and has the necessity of switching cells, the edge indication information is reported when the UE is located at the edge region of the serving cell. I.e. if the UE determines that it is located within the edge region of the serving cell, it sends edge indication information to the access devices of the serving cell, including but not limited to satellites. The edge indication information indicates that the UE is currently located in an edge area of the serving cell, so that the NTN access device considers whether the UE needs to start to perform the handover of the NTN cell.

In one embodiment, the edge indication information may include at least one indication bit of a display indication, where a bit value of the indication bit is a preset value: the UE indicates to the NTN that itself is located within the edge region of the current serving cell.

In another embodiment, the edge indication information may be implicitly indicated by a signaling format of other signaling or other information content having any correspondence with the edge indication information.

In one embodiment, the edge indication information may be reported through RRC signaling, or may be reported through uplink control information (Uplink Control Imformation, UCI).

It will be appreciated that the edge indication information may include, separately: an indication bit indicating that the UE is located in an edge region; the number of the indication bits may be 1 or more.

Illustratively, the edge indication information may further include: and the position information indicates the position information of the UE in the edge area, and the position information can be used for a network side to verify whether the UE is actually positioned in the edge area of the service cell.

For example, if the UE is currently in a connected state, RRC signaling or UCI may be reported through RRC connection.

In another embodiment, if the UE is currently in an idle state or inactive state, RRC Resume (Resume) signaling may be reported through a paging response.

In one embodiment, the edge indication information may be at least used to trigger the access device to issue a cell handover command.

Therefore, the UE does not need to report the measurement result by measuring the neighbor cells, the step-out phenomenon of the UE with the service cell in the measurement process of the neighbor cells is reduced, the time delay of cell switching is reduced, and the phenomenon that the service communication quality of the switched-in cell is relatively poor or is quickly deteriorated due to insufficient time of switching can be further reduced. As shown in fig. 3, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a cell handover method, which may include:

s100: and determining that the UE is positioned in the edge area of the service cell in response to the distance between the position of the UE and the central position of the service cell being greater than or equal to a threshold value.

As shown in fig. 3, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a cell handover method, which may include:

s120: and determining that the UE is positioned in the central area of the service cell in response to the distance between the position of the UE and the central position of the service cell being smaller than the threshold value.

The step S120 may be an aspect of combining with S110 to form a cell switching method, or may independently form a cell switching method with S110 alone.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, the distance between the position of the UE and the center point of the service cell is utilized to simplify whether the position of the UE combined with the UE is located in the edge area of the service cell.

The UE may be used to determine whether itself is located in an edge region of the serving cell, by determining a distance between its location and a cell center of the serving cell.

In another embodiment, the UE may also determine whether itself is located in the edge area by using a location between its location and a reference point at another location in the cell. For example, if the UE determines that the location between itself and at least one of the plurality of edge points of the serving cell is less than or equal to the distance threshold, it may be considered that itself is located within the edge region of the serving cell.

In some embodiments, the UE may determine the area information of the edge area in advance, for example, the UE may know the range of the edge area according to the area information, and find that the location of the UE is within the range indicated by the area information, or determine that the UE is located in the edge area of the serving cell.

The location information of the UE and the location information of the central location of the serving cell may be indicated by longitude and latitude, or may be indicated by coordinates of a world coordinate system. In summary, there are various ways of presenting the location information of the UE and the location information of the center location of the serving cell.

In one embodiment, the method further comprises: the threshold value of the serving cell is received.

The threshold value may be issued by the NTN network. For example, the threshold value is transmitted by a broadcast, multicast or unicast of the serving cell.

For example, the threshold value may be carried in a master message block (Master Imformation Block, MIB) or a system message block (System Imformation Block, SIB) 1.

As another example, the NTN network may send a multicast message for a particular type of UE, e.g., for a VSAT or PEC. The specific types of UEs include, but are not limited to: any UE which can trigger NTN to issue cell switching command according to whether the position of the UE is located in the edge area of the service cell.

The threshold value can be used for determining whether the UE is positioned in the edge area of the serving cell or not by combining the distance between the UE and the reference position such as the center position.

In one embodiment, the sending, in response to the UE being located in an edge area of a serving cell, edge indication information to an access device of an NTN includes:

And in response to the UE being located in the edge area of the service cell and the UE moving in a direction away from the central area of the service cell, sending the edge indication information to the access equipment of the NTN.

If the satellite forming the serving cell is a non-geosynchronous satellite, the satellite and the UE are relatively moving, and the moving speed of the satellite is much greater than that of the UE.

At this time, the UE moves in a direction away from the central area of the serving cell, and even if the UE does not report its own movement information, the satellite of the serving cell can determine a target cell for the UE to access according to its own movement relative to the earth.

In one embodiment, the UE may report the edge indication information when determining that the UE is located in the edge area of the serving cell, and in order to reduce inconvenient reporting, the UE may determine that the UE is moving in a direction away from the central area of the serving cell relative to the serving cell to report the edge indication information.

In some embodiments, the UE may receive ephemeris information of the satellites, and thus may determine a motion trajectory of the satellites forming the current serving cell according to the ephemeris information of the satellites, thereby determining whether to move towards a center area or an edge area of the serving cell with respect to the serving cell. If the UE is currently located in the edge area of the service cell, the UE does not report the edge indication information when the center area facing the service cell moves. Therefore, the UE only reports the edge indication information when determining that the UE is positioned in the edge area of the current service cell and moves away from the central area of the service cell.

There are various ways in which the UE determines whether the central area of the serving cell itself moves or moves away from the central area of the serving cell, one is to combine two moments, the own location information and the distance between the central locations of the serving cells.

Illustratively, the UE moving in a direction away from a center region of the serving cell, comprising:

The distance between the position of the UE at the t-m moment and the central position of the service cell is smaller than the distance between the position of the UE at the t moment and the central position of the service cell, wherein t is a positive integer greater than or equal to m; and m is a positive integer.

The UE may periodically determine the distance between the location information of the UE and the center position of the serving cell according to the own location information, and if m is equal to 1, that is, if the distance between the location information of the UE and the center position of the serving cell increases at two adjacent times, it indicates that the UE is moving away from the area center of the serving cell.

In one embodiment, the value of m may also be 2 or 3, and in a specific range of values, m may be any value between 1 and 10. In one embodiment, the value of m may be determined according to the movement speed of the UE, if the movement speed of the UE may be inversely related to the value of m.

In another embodiment, the UE may further determine a movement direction of the satellite according to ephemeris information of the satellite of the serving cell, and determine whether to move in a direction away from a central area of the serving cell according to the movement direction.

In yet another embodiment, the UE precisely determines whether the UE itself moves away from the central location of the serving cell by combining ephemeris information of satellites of the serving cell and movement information of the UE itself.

In one embodiment, the method further comprises:

And determining the central position of the service cell according to the ephemeris information of the satellite of the service cell.

In one embodiment, the UE may receive the transmitted ephemeris information of the serving cell, and may calculate the center position of the serving cell at any time according to the ephemeris information.

In another embodiment, the UE may periodically receive a center location of a serving cell from the serving cell.

The UE may acquire the center position of the serving cell in a plurality of ways, and is not limited to any of the above.

In one embodiment, the method further comprises:

receiving the cell switching command;

and switching to the target cell in response to receiving the cell switching command.

After the UE reports the edge indication information, and the NTN side confirms that the UE needs to switch cells, a cell switching command is issued to the UE. After receiving the cell switching command, the UE performs switching of the serving cell, and switches the serving cell from the source cell to the target cell.

When the service cell is switched, the UE releases the link and the resource with the source cell, requests to access to the target cell, synchronizes with the target cell and establishes connection.

Illustratively, the UE accesses the target cell via a random access message after downlink synchronization with the target cell.

The cell switching command carries synchronous configuration information and RRC reconfiguration information of the UE connected to a target cell.

And after receiving the cell switching command, the UE synchronizes with the target cell according to the synchronization configuration information. The RRC reconfiguration information is used for the UE to reconfigure radio resources. After the UE synchronizes with the target cell and/or completes the RRC reconfiguration, random access is initiated.

As shown in fig. 4, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a cell handover method, which is applied to an access device of a non-terrestrial network NTN, and includes:

S210: receiving edge indication information reported by User Equipment (UE);

S220: according to the edge indication information, a switching request message is sent to a target cell for cell switching;

S230: and sending a cell switching command to the UE according to the response message of the switching request message.

In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the cell access method is that the access device for NTN may be a satellite or the like. The UE may be the foregoing VAST or PES, etc.

Illustratively, the edge indication information indicates that the reported UE is located in an edge region of the serving cell. That is, the edge indication information may be: the UE reports when in the edge region of the serving cell.

In the embodiment of the present disclosure, if the access device receives the edge indication information, the access device may directly send the handover request information to the target cell.

Illustratively, if the edge indication information is: and after the UE determines that the UE is positioned in the edge area of the service cell and determines that the UE is movably transmitted in the direction away from the central area of the service cell, the access equipment of the NTN can directly transmit the switching request message to the satellite of the target cell after receiving the edge indication information.

As yet another example, if the edge indication information is: the UE reports when determining that the UE is positioned in the edge area of the service cell, the satellite of the service cell determines that the distance between the satellite and the UE is larger and larger according to the ephemeris information of the satellite, namely the distance between the central area of the service cell and the UE changes towards the larger direction, the switching request message is sent to the target cell, otherwise, the switching request message can not be sent to the target cell.

In one embodiment, after receiving the edge indication information, the access device of the NTN may determine the target cell to be accessed by the UE according to the relative location information and/or ephemeris information of multiple satellites of the NTN.

After receiving the handover request message, the target cell performs access control and/or handover preparation for the UE if the UE is allowed to access.

And if the target cell agrees to the access of the UE, a response message indicating acknowledgement is returned to the service cell based on the handover request message. For example, the reply message carries an acknowledgement character (Acknowledgement character, ACK).

If the target cell receives the response message, determining that the target cell is ready for the UE to access, and then sending a cell switching command to the UE; and triggering the UE to switch the serving cell from the current cell (namely the source cell) to the target cell through a cell switching command.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, the serving cell receives no measurement report generated by the UE reporting the signal quality of the reference signal of the own cell and/or the neighboring cell, but the UE determines the edge indication information reported when the UE itself is in the edge area of the serving cell.

In one embodiment, the response message carries the cell handover command in a radio resource control RRC container.

If the response message carries a cell handover command encapsulated by an RRC Container (Container), the serving cell may directly transmit the cell handover command to the UE. The transparent transmission means: the transfer node between the sending end and the receiving end of the message is directly forwarded to the receiving end under the condition of not analyzing the content sent by the sending end. Illustratively, the serving cell transparently passes the cell handover command to the UE as: the serving cell directly transmits the cell switching command transmitted by the target cell to the UE under the condition of not analyzing the cell switching command.

For example, there is at least one bit in the acknowledgement message that is used to carry an ACK or a negative acknowledgement character (Non Acknowledgement character, NACK). The service cell decodes the bit, determines that the response message carries an ACK, and then transparently transmits a cell switching command carried by the response message to the UE, otherwise, the decoding of the remaining bits of the response message can be stopped. If the indication bit carries a NACK, the serving cell may stop decoding the remaining bits of the acknowledgement message. Meanwhile, the access device may not send a cell handover command to the UE or send a reject handover command to the UE.

In one embodiment, the S230 may include: and sending the cell switching command carried by the response message to the UE.

Illustratively, the cell switch command is generated by the target cell.

In one embodiment, the UE being located in an edge region of a serving cell comprises: the distance between the position of the UE and the central position of the serving cell is greater than or equal to a threshold value.

The center position of the service cell is used for the UE to determine whether the UE is positioned in the edge area of the service cell, and the method has the characteristic of simplicity in calculation of the UE.

In one embodiment, the method further comprises:

And sending the threshold value.

Transmitting the threshold value may include:

directly transmitting the value of the threshold value, and transmitting one or more of the modes of indexing the threshold value, and the like.

The network side may send the threshold value via a broadcast message, a multicast message, or a unicast message. Illustratively, the access device of the NTN broadcasts the threshold value through MIB and/or SIB1, etc., or transmits the threshold value through RRC message and/or MAC CE.

In one embodiment, the sending the indication information of the edge threshold includes: and sending the threshold value according to the cell area of the service cell.

The cell areas of the serving cells are different, and the threshold values are different. Illustratively, the cell area of the serving cell is positively correlated with the threshold value, i.e. the larger the cell area of the serving cell, the larger the threshold value. Also illustratively, the inner diameter of the serving cell is positively correlated with the threshold value, e.g., the larger the inner diameter of the serving cell, the larger the threshold value. And typically the inner diameter of the serving cell is positively correlated with the area of the serving cell.

In one embodiment, the cell handover command carries synchronization configuration information and RRC reconfiguration information of the UE to connect to the target cell.

The synchronization configuration information can be used for synchronizing the UE and the target cell; the RRC reconfiguration information can be used for reconfiguring radio resources by the UE; the reconfigured wireless resource is the wireless resource of the target cell. As shown in fig. 5, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a cell switching apparatus, which is applied to a UE and includes:

a first sending module 510 is configured to send edge indication information to an access device of the NTN in response to the UE being located in an edge region of a serving cell.

In one embodiment, the first transmitting module 510 includes, but is not limited to: a program module; the program module is executed by the processor to report the edge indication information when the UE is located in an edge region of the serving cell.

In another embodiment, the first sending module 510 may be a soft-hard combining module; the soft and hard combined die block comprises but is not limited to: a programmable array; the programmable array includes, but is not limited to: a field programmable array and/or a complex programmable array.

In yet another embodiment, the first transmitting module 510 may comprise a pure hardware module; the pure hardware modules include, but are not limited to: an application specific integrated circuit.

In one embodiment, the edge indication information is used to trigger the access device to issue a cell handover command.

In one embodiment, the apparatus further comprises:

A first determination module configured to determine that the UE is located within an edge region of the serving cell in response to a distance between a location of the UE and a center location of the serving cell being greater than or equal to a threshold value.

In one embodiment, the apparatus further comprises: and the first receiving module is configured to receive the threshold value of the service cell.

In one embodiment, the first sending module 510 is configured to send the edge indication information to the access device of the NTN in response to the UE being located in an edge region of the serving cell and the UE moving in a direction away from a center region of the serving cell.

In one embodiment, the UE moves away from the center region of the serving cell, comprising:

In one embodiment, the apparatus further comprises:

And the second determining module is configured to determine the central position of the service cell according to the ephemeris information of the satellite of the service cell.

In one embodiment, the apparatus further comprises:

A second receiving module configured to receive the cell handover command; and

And the switching module is configured to switch to a target cell in response to receiving the cell switching command.

As shown in fig. 6, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a cell switching apparatus, where the cell switching apparatus is applied to an access device of a non-terrestrial network NTN, and includes:

A third receiving module 610, configured to receive edge indication information reported by the UE; illustratively, the third receiving module 610 may be configured to receive the edge indication information reported when the UE is located in an edge area of the serving cell;

A second sending module 620 configured to send a handover request message to a target cell for cell handover according to the edge indication information;

And a third sending module 630, configured to send a cell handover command to the UE according to a response message of the handover request message.

In one embodiment, the third receiving module 610, the second sending module 620 and the third sending module 630 may be program modules; the program modules, when executed by the processor, enable reception of edge indication information, transmission of a cell switch request message, and transmission of a cell switch command by the response message.

In another embodiment, the third receiving module 610, the second sending module 620 and the third sending module 630 may be all soft and hard combined modules; the soft and hard combined die block comprises but is not limited to: a programmable array. The programmable array includes, but is not limited to: complex programmable arrays and/or field programmable arrays.

In yet another embodiment, the third receiving module 610, the second sending module 620 and the third sending module 630 may all be pure hardware modules; the pure hardware modules include, but are not limited to, application specific integrated circuits.

In one embodiment, the response message carries the cell handover command in a radio resource control RRC container manner;

the third sending module 630 is configured to send a cell handover command carried by the response message to the UE.

In one embodiment, the third sending module 630 is configured to send the threshold value.

In one embodiment, the third sending module 630 is configured to send the indication information of the edge threshold according to a cell area of the serving cell.

The embodiment of the disclosure provides a cell switching method suitable for an NTN system.

For ease of description, the actual order is not necessarily exactly the order of description, illustrated in terms of steps.

Step 1: the terminal UE supporting GNSS positioning calculates the distance delta D=P ₁-P₂ between the terminal UE and the central position of the cell covered by the satellite by acquiring the ephemeris information of the satellite according to the current position information acquired by the terminal UE supporting GNSS positioning, wherein P is the current real-time position information of the terminal UE, and P ₂ is the central position of the cell covered by the satellite calculated by the UE in real time according to the acquired satellite ephemeris information.

Step 2: the source service cell configures a threshold value D _Thres of the cell edge according to the cell size of the ground covered by the satellite.

Step 3: when the distance Δd between the UE and the center position of the source serving cell is greater than or equal to D _Thres and the distance Δd _t between the UE and the center position of the serving cell at time t (e.g., the current time) is greater than the distance Δd _t-1 between the UE and the center position of the source serving cell at t-1 (e.g., the previous time) (i.e., Δd _t>ΔD_t-1), the UE reports the indication information that the UE is at the cell edge to the serving cell; the cell edges here may correspond to the edge regions described previously.

Step 4: after receiving the cell edge indication signaling, the service cell sends a handover request message to a target cell, where the target cell is a cell corresponding to the UE to be covered by the next satellite. And after receiving the switching request command, the target cell performs admission control and switching preparation. And simultaneously transmitting a handover request acknowledgement message (ACK) to the source cell, wherein the handover command transmitted to the terminal is contained in the acknowledgement message in the form of an RRC container (container).

Step 5: and triggering air interface switching by the source cell, and sending a switching command to the terminal UE. The handover command may be generated by the target cell, including RRC reconfiguration information with a synchronization configuration message. The source cell is the current serving cell of the UE.

Step 6: after receiving the switching command, the terminal executes synchronization with the target cell and initiates random access.

The embodiment of the disclosure provides a cell switching method suitable for an NTN system, which can effectively solve the problem that a VSAT (virtual switch over) is out of step with a serving cell after measuring a neighbor cell based on a ground cell switching mechanism in the NTN system, can improve the cell switching performance under the NTN system and improve the throughput performance of the system.

The embodiment of the disclosure provides a communication device, comprising:

A memory for storing processor-executable instructions;

The processor is connected with the memories respectively;

Wherein the processor is configured to execute the cell handover method provided by any of the foregoing technical solutions.

The processor may include various types of storage medium, which are non-transitory computer storage media, capable of continuing to memorize information stored thereon after a power down of the communication device.

Here, the communication device includes an access device or UE of NTN.

The processor may be coupled to the memory via a bus or the like for reading an executable program stored on the memory, for example, at least one of the methods shown in fig. 2-4.

Fig. 7 is a block diagram of a UE800, according to an example embodiment. For example, the UE800 may be a mobile phone, a computer, a digital broadcast user equipment, a messaging device, a game console, a tablet device, a medical device, an exercise device, a personal digital assistant, and the like.

Referring to fig. 7, ue800 may include one or more of the following components: a processing component 802, a memory 804, a power component 806, a multimedia component 808, an audio component 810, an input/output (I/O) interface 812, a sensor component 814, and a communication component 816.

The processing component 802 generally controls overall operation of the UE800, such as operations associated with display, telephone calls, data communications, camera operations, and recording operations. The processing component 802 may include one or more processors 820 to execute instructions to perform all or part of the steps of the methods described above. Further, the processing component 802 can include one or more modules that facilitate interactions between the processing component 802 and other components. For example, the processing component 802 can include a multimedia module to facilitate interaction between the multimedia component 808 and the processing component 802.

The memory 804 is configured to store various types of data to support operations at the UE 800. Examples of such data include instructions for any application or method operating on the UE800, contact data, phonebook data, messages, pictures, videos, and the like. The memory 804 may be implemented by any type or combination of volatile or nonvolatile memory devices such as Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), read-only memory (ROM), magnetic memory, flash memory, magnetic or optical disk.

The power supply component 806 provides power to the various components of the UE 800. The power components 806 may include a power management system, one or more power sources, and other components associated with generating, managing, and distributing power for the UE 800.

The multimedia component 808 includes a screen between the UE800 and the user that provides an output interface. In some embodiments, the screen may include a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and a Touch Panel (TP). If the screen includes a touch panel, the screen may be implemented as a touch screen to receive input signals from a user. The touch panel includes one or more touch sensors to sense touches, swipes, and gestures on the touch panel. The touch sensor may sense not only the boundary of a touch or slide action, but also the duration and pressure associated with the touch or slide operation. In some embodiments, the multimedia component 808 includes a front camera and/or a rear camera. The front camera and/or the rear camera may receive external multimedia data when the UE800 is in an operation mode, such as a photographing mode or a video mode. Each front camera and rear camera may be a fixed optical lens system or have focal length and optical zoom capabilities.

The audio component 810 is configured to output and/or input audio signals. For example, the audio component 810 includes a Microphone (MIC) configured to receive external audio signals when the UE800 is in an operational mode, such as a call mode, a recording mode, and a voice recognition mode. The received audio signals may be further stored in the memory 804 or transmitted via the communication component 816. In some embodiments, audio component 810 further includes a speaker for outputting audio signals.

The I/O interface 812 provides an interface between the processing component 802 and peripheral interface modules, which may be a keyboard, click wheel, buttons, etc. These buttons may include, but are not limited to: homepage button, volume button, start button, and lock button.

The sensor component 814 includes one or more sensors that provide status assessment of various aspects for the UE 800. For example, the sensor component 814 may detect an on/off state of the UE800, a relative positioning of components such as a display and keypad of the UE800, the sensor component 814 may also detect a change in position of the UE800 or a component of the UE800, the presence or absence of user contact with the UE800, an orientation or acceleration/deceleration of the UE800, and a change in temperature of the UE 800. The sensor assembly 814 may include a proximity sensor configured to detect the presence of nearby objects without any physical contact. The sensor assembly 814 may also include a light sensor, such as a CMOS or CCD image sensor, for use in imaging applications. In some embodiments, the sensor assembly 814 may also include an acceleration sensor, a gyroscopic sensor, a magnetic sensor, a pressure sensor, or a temperature sensor.

The communication component 816 is configured to facilitate communication between the UE800 and other devices, either wired or wireless. The UE800 may access a wireless network based on a communication standard, such as WiFi,2G, or 3G, or a combination thereof. In one exemplary embodiment, the communication component 816 receives broadcast signals or broadcast related information from an external broadcast management system via a broadcast channel. In one exemplary embodiment, the communication component 816 further includes a Near Field Communication (NFC) module to facilitate short range communications. For example, the NFC module may be implemented based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, infrared data association (IrDA) technology, ultra Wideband (UWB) technology, bluetooth (BT) technology, and other technologies.

In an exemplary embodiment, the UE800 may be implemented by one or more Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), digital Signal Processors (DSPs), digital Signal Processing Devices (DSPDs), programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), controllers, microcontrollers, microprocessors, or other electronic elements for executing the methods described above.

In an exemplary embodiment, a non-transitory computer readable storage medium is also provided, such as memory 804 including instructions executable by processor 820 of UE800 to perform the above-described method. For example, the non-transitory computer readable storage medium may be ROM, random Access Memory (RAM), CD-ROM, magnetic tape, floppy disk, optical data storage device, etc.

As shown in fig. 8, an embodiment of the present disclosure shows a structure of an access device. For example, the access device 900 may be provided as a network-side device, such as a satellite in a network-side device. Referring to fig. 8, access device 900 includes a processing component 922 that further includes one or more processors, and memory resources represented by memory 932, for storing instructions, such as applications, executable by processing component 922. The application programs stored in memory 932 may include one or more modules that each correspond to a set of instructions. Further, processing component 922 is configured to execute instructions to perform any of the methods described above as applied to the access device, e.g., as shown in fig. 2-4.

The access device 900 may also include a power component 1926 configured to perform power management of the access device 900, a wired or wireless network interface 950 configured to connect the access device 900 to a network, and an input output (I/O) interface 958. The access device 900 may operate based on an operating system stored in memory 932, such as Windows Server TM, mac OS XTM, unixTM, linuxTM, freeBSDTM, or the like.

Other implementations of the disclosed embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. This disclosure is intended to cover any adaptations, uses, or adaptations of the disclosed embodiments following, in general, the principles of the disclosed embodiments and including such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice within the art to which the disclosure pertains. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the disclosed embodiments being indicated by the following claims.

It is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown in the drawings, and that various modifications and changes may be made without departing from the scope thereof. The scope of the embodiments of the present disclosure is limited only by the appended claims.

Claims

1. The cell switching method is applied to User Equipment (UE), and comprises the following steps:

The UE determines that the UE is positioned in an edge area of a service cell; the service cell is a cell of a non-ground network NTN; wherein the determining, by the UE, that the UE is located in an edge region of a serving cell includes: the UE determines that the UE is positioned in the edge area of the service cell according to the received area information of the central area and/or the edge area sent by the service cell; or the UE determines that the distance between the position of the UE and the central position of the service cell is greater than or equal to a threshold value according to the received threshold value sent by the service cell, wherein the UE is positioned in the edge area of the service cell;

Transmitting edge indication information to a serving cell under the condition that the UE is determined to be located in an edge area of the serving cell and the UE does not conduct neighbor cell measurement; the edge indication information is used for triggering the service cell to issue a cell switching command.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

And receiving the threshold value or the area information of the service cell.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the sending edge indication information to the serving cell comprises:

and transmitting the edge indication information to the service cell in response to the UE moving in a direction away from the central area of the service cell.

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein the UE moves away from a central region of the serving cell, comprising:

5. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the method further comprises:

6. The cell switching method is applied to access equipment of a non-ground network (NTN), and comprises the following steps:

Transmitting area information or a threshold value; the area information indicates a center area and/or an edge area of a serving cell; the threshold value is used for determining whether the UE is located in the edge area of the service cell;

receiving edge indication information reported by User Equipment (UE) which is positioned at the edge of a service cell and does not perform neighbor cell measurement;

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the response message carries the cell handover command in a radio resource control, RRC, container manner;

The sending a cell switching command to the UE according to the response message of the switching request message includes:

And sending the cell switching command carried by the response message to the UE.

8. The method of claim 6 or 7, wherein the UE being located within an edge region of a serving cell comprises: the position between the position of the UE and the central position of the serving cell is greater than or equal to a threshold value; or alternatively

The UE is located in an edge area indicated by the area information or outside a center area indicated by the area information.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the sending the indication of the edge threshold comprises:

And sending the threshold value according to the cell area of the service cell.

10. The method of claim 6 or 7, wherein the cell handover command carries synchronization configuration information and RRC reconfiguration information of the UE connected to a target cell.

11. A cell switching apparatus, which is applied to a user equipment UE, comprising:

a first determining module configured to determine that the UE is located within an edge region of a serving cell; the service cell is a cell of a non-ground network NTN; the first determining module is specifically configured, wherein the determining, by the UE, that the UE is located in an edge area of a serving cell includes: the UE determines that the UE is positioned in the edge area of the service cell according to the received area information of the central area and/or the edge area sent by the service cell; or the UE determines that the distance between the position of the UE and the central position of the service cell is greater than or equal to a threshold value according to the received threshold value sent by the service cell, wherein the UE is positioned in the edge area of the service cell;

A first sending module configured to send edge indication information to a serving cell if it is determined that the UE is located in an edge area of the serving cell and the UE does not make neighbor cell measurements; the edge indication information is used for triggering the serving cell to issue a cell switching command;

A second receiving module configured to receive a cell switching command sent by the serving cell based on the edge indication information; and

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the apparatus further comprises:

and the first receiving module is configured to receive the threshold value or the area information of the service cell.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 or 12, wherein the first transmission module is configured to transmit the edge indication information to the serving cell in response to the UE being located within an edge region of the serving cell and the UE moving in a direction away from a center region of the serving cell.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the UE moving away from a center region of the serving cell comprises:

15. The apparatus according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the apparatus further comprises:

16. A cell switching apparatus, applied to an access device of a non-terrestrial network NTN, comprising:

the third sending module is configured to send the area information or the threshold value; the area information indicates a center area and/or an edge area of a serving cell; the threshold value is used for determining whether the UE is located in the edge area of the service cell;

The third receiving module is configured to receive edge indication information reported by the User Equipment (UE) when the UE is positioned at the edge of the service cell and neighbor cell measurement is not performed;

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the acknowledgement message carries the cell handover command in a radio resource control, RRC, container manner;

And the third sending module is configured to send the cell switching command carried by the response message to the UE.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 or 17, wherein the UE being located within an edge region of a serving cell comprises: the distance between the position of the UE and the central position of the service cell is larger than a threshold value; or alternatively

19. The apparatus according to claim 16 or 17, wherein the third sending module is configured to send the indication information of the edge threshold according to a cell area of the serving cell.

20. The apparatus of claim 16 or 17, wherein the cell handover command carries synchronization configuration information and RRC reconfiguration information of the UE to connect to a target cell.

21. A communication device comprising a processor, a transceiver, a memory and an executable program stored on the memory and capable of being run by the processor, wherein the processor performs the cell handover method as provided in any one of claims 1 to 5 or 6 to 10 when the executable program is run by the processor.

22. A computer storage medium storing an executable program; the executable program, when executed by a processor, is capable of implementing a cell handover method as provided in any one of claims 1 to 5 or 6 to 10.