CN118785537A

CN118785537A - Communication method and related device

Info

Publication number: CN118785537A
Application number: CN202310392219.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 朱世超; 许斌; 孙飞
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2023-04-04
Filing date: 2023-04-04
Publication date: 2024-10-15
Also published as: WO2024207946A1

Abstract

A communication method and a related device relate to the technical field of communication. The method comprises the following steps: the first node determining to camp on a first acceptable cell; stopping running the first timer when the first node resides in the first acceptable cell; wherein the first timer is configured to instruct the first node to enter an RRC connected state from a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) idle state after the first period of time. The method determines the behavior of the first node under the condition that a proper cell (a useable cell) does not exist when the first node performs cell selection or cell reselection.

Description

Communication method and related device

Technical Field

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

Background

The network control repeater (network controlled repeater, NCR) acts as a kind of repeater node, which can perform an amplify-and-forward operation on the received signal, often for improving network coverage. In NCR, a Mobile Terminal (MT) module (hereinafter referred to as NCR-MT) and a forwarding (Fwd) module are included. Wherein the NCR-MT is configured to receive and feedback control signaling from the base station, and the NCR-Fwd is configured to amplify and forward the received signal. The link between the NCR-Fwd and the User Equipment (UE) is an access link (ACCESS LINK), the link between the NCR-Fwd and the base station is a backhaul link (backhaul link), and the link between the NCR-MT and the base station is a control link (control link). The base station sends control information (such as beam direction, power control information, etc.) to the NCR-MT, and the NCR-MT controls the NCR-Fwd to execute corresponding operation according to the received control information.

Since the NCR-MT can be regarded as a kind of UE, the existing NCR network access procedure is similar to the UE network access procedure. A UE in radio resource control layer IDLE (radio resource controlIDLE, RRC _idle) or RRC INACTIVE (rrc_inactive) may perform cell selection or cell reselection, the UE may select a suitable cell (useable cell) to camp on, and when the UE finds that there is no useable cell nearby (e.g., because the UE's operator is not deploying cells nearby), existing protocols allow the UE to select an acceptable cell (acceptable cell) to camp on.

However, for the case where there is no suitable cell (useable cell) when the NCR-MT performs cell selection or cell reselection, the related support of the behavior of the NCR-MT is not given by the prior art.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and a related device, and provides a processing method of NCR-MT (non-transparent cell) under the condition that no suitable cell exists when the NCR-MT performs cell selection or cell reselection.

In a first aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, which may be performed by a communication device. The communication device may be a device, or may be a chip (system) or a circuit for a device, which is not limited in the present application. The method comprises the following steps:

the first node determining to camp on a first acceptable cell;

stopping running a first timer when the first node resides in the first acceptable cell;

the first timer is configured to instruct the first node to enter an RRC connected state from a radio resource control RRC idle state after a first period of time.

In an embodiment of the present application, a communication method is provided, where a first node determines that a first timer is stopped when a first acceptable cell resides and resides in the first acceptable cell. The purpose of stopping the first timer may be to cause the first node not to enter a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) connected state.

The first node in the embodiment of the present application may be a device on which a processor/chip that can be used to execute a computer-executed instruction is mounted, or may be a processor/chip that can be used to execute a computer-executed instruction. When the communication method in the embodiment of the present application is applied to a network control relay (network controlled repeater, NCR) network, the first node in the embodiment of the present application may be an NCR, and specifically may be an NCR-MT.

The first acceptable cell in the embodiment of the present application is a cell providing a limited service, and the first acceptable cell specifically needs to satisfy the following conditions: the cell is not barred from access, the cell meets the measurement condition (i.e., S criteria), camping on a cell to which the appropriate cell failed or left from the emergency call. It is understood that the first acceptable cell may refer specifically to the provision of an acceptable cell in the third generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project,3GPP) protocol TS 38.304.

The first timer in the embodiment of the present application is used to instruct the first node to enter the RRC connected state from the RRC idle state after the first period of time. It will be appreciated that when the first node camps on a suitable cell (useable cell) and is in an RRC idle state, the first node enters an RRC connected state from the RRC idle state if the first timer expires.

In the embodiment of the application, the first node determines that the first node resides in the first acceptable cell, stops running the first timer when the first node resides in the first acceptable cell, and does not enter the RRC connection state. It may be understood that the first node may disable the first timer, restart the timing if there is a timing requirement, pause the timing of the first timer, and continue to start the timing based on the previous pause timing if there is a timing requirement.

By the embodiment of the application, under the condition that a proper cell (acceptable cell) does not exist when the first node performs cell selection or cell reselection, the behavior of the first node is clarified, namely, a scheme for allowing the first node to reside in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) but not allowing the first node to enter an RRC connection state in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) is provided, so that the first node can not enter the RRC connection state under the condition that the first node can reside in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) in a mode of referring to UE (user equipment) so as to avoid influencing the function of the existing acceptable cell (acceptable cell).

In one possible embodiment, the method further comprises:

and the first node performs cell reselection until a proper cell is resided, and sends first information to a second node, wherein the first information is used for requesting to establish RRC connection, and the proper cell is a cell of the second node.

In the embodiment of the present application, a possible specific embodiment of entering an RRC connected state is provided, specifically, a first node performs cell reselection until a suitable cell resides, and sends first information to a second node corresponding to the suitable cell, so as to request establishment of an RRC connection. It will be appreciated that the first node may perform cell reselection until after camping on a suitable cell, consider that the first timer times out, and directly request to establish an RRC connection to enter an RRC connected state without restarting the first timer.

In one possible implementation manner, the sending the first information to the second node includes:

the first node restarting the first timer;

The first node sends the first information to the second node if the first timer expires.

In the embodiment of the present application, a possible specific embodiment of entering an RRC connected state is provided, specifically, a first node performs cell reselection until a suitable cell resides, and the first node restarts a first timer, and sends first information to a second node corresponding to the suitable cell when the first timer expires, so as to request establishment of an RRC connection. It may be understood that the first node restarting the first timer may be to cancel the timing of the previous first timer, restart the timing, or continue to start the timing on the basis of the time suspension of the previous first timer.

In a second aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, which may be performed by a communication device. The communication device may be a device, or may be a chip (system) or a circuit for a device, which is not limited in the present application. The method comprises the following steps:

the first node determining to camp on a first acceptable cell;

The first node determines that the RRC connected state is not entered in the first acceptable cell;

the first node in a radio resource control, RRC, inactive state remains in an RRC inactive state in case the first node camps on the first acceptable cell.

In an embodiment of the present application, a communication method is provided in which a first node determines that a first acceptable cell resides and does not enter an RRC connected state, and the first node in a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) inactive state will continue to maintain the RRC inactive state and does not enter the RRC connected state. Optionally, the first node determining that entering the RRC-connected state at the first acceptable cell does not indicate that the first node does not request entering the RRC-connected state at any time the first node camps on the first acceptable cell.

By the embodiment of the application, under the condition that a proper cell (useable cell) does not exist when the first node performs cell selection or cell reselection, the behavior of the first node is clarified, namely, a scheme that the first node which allows the first node to reside in the acceptable cell (useable cell) and is in the RRC inactive state can keep in the RRC inactive state and not enter the RRC connected state is provided, so that the first node can quickly recover the RRC connection after the first node reselects from the acceptable cell (useable cell) to the proper cell (useable cell) so as to obtain time gain compared with the time gain of entering the RRC connected state from the RRC idle state.

In one possible embodiment, the method further comprises:

The first node stops running a second timer, and the second timer is used for indicating the first node to enter an RRC connected state from an RRC inactive state after a second time period.

In one possible implementation, any cell-camping state is applicable to the first node in an RRC inactive state.

In the embodiment of the present application, a possible specific embodiment for maintaining the RRC inactive state is provided, specifically, any cell residence state is suitable for the first node in the RRC inactive state, it may be understood that the first node in the RRC inactive state may be in any cell residence state, and the first node may reside in an acceptable cell (acceptable cell), and may not release back to the RRC idle state, but maintain the RRC inactive state, which is beneficial for the first node to quickly restore the RRC connection after reselecting from the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) back to the suitable cell (acceptable cell).

In one possible embodiment, the method further comprises:

and the first node performs cell reselection until a proper cell resides, and then sends second information to a second node, wherein the second information is used for requesting to enter an RRC connection state from an RRC inactive state, and the proper cell is a cell of the second node.

In the embodiment of the present application, a possible specific embodiment of entering the RRC connected state is provided, specifically, after the first node performs cell reselection until a suitable cell resides, the first node sends second information to the second node, and requests to enter the RRC connected state from the RRC inactive state. It will be appreciated that the first node may enter the RRC connected state immediately upon camping on the appropriate cell, or may wait for a second timer (a timer indicating that the first node enters the RRC connected state from the RRC inactive state after a second period of time) to timeout before entering the RRC connected state. Since the first node is allowed to stay in the RRC inactive state while residing in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell), the first node may quickly resume the RRC connection after reselecting from the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) back to the suitable cell (acceptable cell), thereby obtaining a time gain compared to entering the RRC connected state from the RRC idle state.

In a third aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, which may be performed by a communication apparatus. The communication device may be a device, or may be a chip (system) or a circuit for a device, which is not limited in the present application. The method comprises the following steps:

a third node receives third information from a first node residing in a first acceptable cell, the third information being used to indicate that radio resource control, RRC, establishment is complete;

the third node transmits fourth information to the first node through the first acceptable cell, the fourth information being used to instruct the first node to release the RRC connection.

In an embodiment of the present application, a communication method is provided in which a third node receives third information from a first node residing in a first acceptable cell, and transmits fourth information to the first node through the first acceptable cell, so that the first node residing in the first acceptable cell is not in a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) connected state.

The third node and the first node in the embodiment of the present application may be a device on which a processor/chip that can execute instructions executed by a computer is mounted, or may be a processor/chip that can execute instructions executed by a computer. When the communication method in the embodiment of the present application is applied to a network control relay (network controlled repeater, NCR) network, the first node in the embodiment of the present application may be an NCR, specifically an NCR-MT, and the third node may be a base station (gNB) corresponding to the first acceptable cell.

The third information in the embodiment of the present application is used to indicate that RRC establishment is completed, and the fourth information in the embodiment of the present application is used to indicate that the first node releases RRC connection, so that the first node residing in the first acceptable cell is not in an RRC connection state.

In a possible implementation manner, the third information includes information of a first public land mobile network PLMN, where the first PLMN is a PLMN corresponding to the first node; the third node transmits fourth information to the first node, including:

the third node sends the fourth information to the first node based on the first PLMN being different from a second PLMN, the second PLMN being a PLMN broadcast by the first acceptable cell.

In an embodiment of the present application, a possible specific embodiment of releasing RRC connection is provided, specifically, the third information includes information of a first PLMN corresponding to the first node, and after the third node receives the third information, the third node sends fourth information to the first node according to the difference between the first PLMN and a second PLMN broadcasted by the first acceptable cell, and releases the first node to an RRC idle state. By the embodiment of the application, the first node can refer to the UE to reside in an acceptable cell (acceptable cell) and can not enter the RRC connection state.

In one possible embodiment, before the third node receives the third information from the first node, the method further comprises:

The third node receives fifth information from the first node, the fifth information is used for requesting to establish an RRC connection, the fifth information includes a reason that an access layer of the first node triggers the establishment of the RRC connection, and the first acceptable cell is a cell of the third node.

In the embodiment of the present application, a possible specific embodiment of establishing an RRC connection is provided, specifically, before the third node receives third information indicating that RRC establishment is completed from the first node, the third node further receives fifth information from the first node, where the fifth information is used to request establishment of the RRC connection, and the fifth information further includes a reason that an Access Stratum (AS) of the first node triggers RRC connection establishment, and it may be understood that an RRC establishment request initiated by the first node may be triggered by an AS layer.

In one possible implementation, the reason why the access layer of the first node triggers RRC connection establishment includes:

a first timer or a second timer times out, and the first node requests control information of the third node;

the first timer is used for indicating the first node to enter the RRC connection state from the RRC idle state after a first time period, and the second timer is used for indicating the first node to enter the RRC connection state from the RRC inactive state after a second time period.

In the embodiment of the present application, a possible specific embodiment of the reason why the access layer of the first node triggers RRC connection establishment is provided, specifically, the AS layer of the first node triggers the first node to initiate an RRC establishment request, which may be caused by the first timer or the second timer being timed out, or may be caused by the first node requesting control information of the third node, or may be caused by the first timer or the second timer being timed out, which may be caused by the first node requesting control information of the third node. The existing UE requests to establish RRC connection at an upper layer, and the UE initiates an RRC establishment request when the UE has acquired basic information of the system. By the embodiment of the application, the reason that the access layer of the first node triggers the RRC connection establishment can also be used as a judging factor for judging that the first node is released to the RRC idle state by the third node, so that the first node can not enter the RRC connection state under the condition that the first node can reside in an acceptable cell (acceptable cell) in a mode of referring to UE.

In a fourth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, which may be performed by a communication device. The communication device may be a device, or may be a chip (system) or a circuit for a device, which is not limited in the present application. The method comprises the following steps:

The first node camps on a first acceptable cell;

the first node sends fifth information to a third node, the fifth information is used for requesting to establish an RRC connection, the fifth information includes a reason why an access layer of the first node triggers the RRC connection to be established, the first acceptable cell is a cell of the third node, and the reason why an access layer of the first node triggers the RRC connection to be established includes:

In a fifth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, which may be performed by a communication apparatus. The communication device may be a device, or may be a chip (system) or a circuit for a device, which is not limited in the present application. The method comprises the following steps:

the first node determining to camp on a first acceptable cell;

and the first node resides in the first acceptable cell, and determines to enter a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection state under the condition that the current service is a non-emergency service.

In an embodiment of the present application, a communication method is provided, where a first node determines to camp on a first acceptable cell, and if the first node camps on the first acceptable cell and the current service is a non-emergency service, it determines to enter a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) connected state.

Compared with the prior art that the UE can only enter the RRC connection state because of the emergency service when residing in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell), the first node in the embodiment of the application can enter the RRC connection state because of the non-emergency service when residing in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell).

By the embodiment of the application, under the condition that a proper cell (acceptable cell) does not exist when the first node performs cell selection or cell reselection, the behavior of the first node is clarified, namely, a scheme for allowing the first node to reside in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) and allowing the first node to enter an RRC connection state in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) is provided, so that the first node can receive control information from the acceptable cell (acceptable cell).

In one possible implementation, the first node is configured to provide signal coverage enhancement services for the first acceptable cell.

In the embodiment of the present application, a possible specific implementation manner of the first node is provided, specifically, the first node is configured to provide a signal coverage enhancement service for the first acceptable cell, and it may be understood that, when the first node resides in the first acceptable cell, the first node may provide transmission of control information for the first node. By the embodiment of the application, the first node can promote the expansion coverage for the acceptable cell (acceptable cell), and the flexibility of the deployment of the first node is improved.

In one possible implementation, the first node is in an RRC idle state; before the determining to enter the radio resource control RRC connected state, the method further includes:

The first node sends sixth information to a third node, the sixth information is used for requesting to establish RRC connection, the sixth information includes a reason that an access layer of the first node triggers the establishment of the RRC connection, and the first acceptable cell is a cell of the third node.

In the embodiment of the present application, a possible specific implementation manner of establishing an RRC connection is provided, specifically, the first node is in an RRC idle state, before the first node determines to enter the RRC connection state, the first node further sends sixth information to a third node corresponding to the first acceptable cell, where the third node requests to establish the RRC connection, and the fifth information further includes a reason that an Access Stratum (AS) of the first node triggers the RRC connection establishment, and it may be understood that an RRC establishment request initiated by the first node may be triggered by an AS layer.

a first timer expires, the first node requesting control information of the third node;

The first timer is configured to instruct the first node to enter an RRC connected state from an RRC idle state after a first period of time.

In the embodiment of the present application, a possible specific embodiment of the reason why the access layer of the first node triggers RRC connection establishment is provided, specifically, the AS layer of the first node triggers the first node to initiate an RRC establishment request, which may be caused by the first timer expiring, or may be caused by the first node requesting control information of the third node, or may be caused by the first timer expiring, which may be caused by the first node requesting control information of the third node. The existing UE requests to establish RRC connection at an upper layer, and the UE initiates an RRC establishment request when the UE has acquired basic information of the system. By the embodiment of the application, the reason that the access layer of the first node triggers the RRC connection establishment can also be used as a judging factor for the third node to judge that the first node is allowed to enter the RRC connection state, so that the first node can enter the RRC connection state under the condition that the first node can reside in an acceptable cell (acceptable cell) in a mode of referring to UE.

In one possible implementation, the first node is in an RRC inactive state; before the determining to enter the radio resource control RRC connected state, the method further includes:

The first node starts a first timer, wherein the first timer is used for indicating the first node to enter an RRC connection state from an RRC idle state after a first time period;

when a second timer is configured on the first node, the first node stops running the second timer, and the second timer is used for indicating the first node to enter an RRC connection state from an RRC inactive state after a second time period;

Before the first timer times out, the first node performs cell reselection until the first node resides in a proper cell, and then sends seventh information to a second node, wherein the seventh information is used for requesting to establish RRC connection, and the second node corresponds to the proper cell.

In an embodiment of the present application, a possible specific embodiment of establishing an RRC connection is provided, specifically, the first node is in an RRC inactive state, before the first node determines to enter the RRC connected state, the first node starts a first timer, and when a second timer is configured on the first node, the first node will stop running the second timer. Before the first timer times out, the first node performs cell reselection until the first node resides in a suitable cell (useable cell), and then the first node sends seventh information to a second node corresponding to the suitable cell, so as to request to establish RRC connection. It will be appreciated that the first node may enter the RRC connected state immediately upon camping on the appropriate cell, or may wait for a second timer (a timer indicating that the first node enters the RRC connected state from the RRC inactive state after a second period of time) to timeout before entering the RRC connected state. By the embodiment of the application, a scheme for allowing the first node to reside in an acceptable cell (acceptable cell) and allowing the first node to enter an RRC connected state in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) is provided, so that the first node can receive control information from the acceptable cell (acceptable cell).

In one possible embodiment, the method further comprises:

if the first timer expires and the first node camps on the first acceptable cell, the first node enters an RRC idle state;

the first node sends eighth information to the third node, the eighth information being used to request establishment of an RRC connection.

In the embodiment of the present application, a possible specific implementation manner of establishing an RRC connection is provided, specifically, if the first node is in an RRC inactive state, and if the first timer expires and the first node is still camping in the first acceptable cell, the first node deletes the configuration in the RRC inactive state, enters an RRC idle state, and then the first node in the RRC idle state sends eighth information to the third node on the first acceptable cell to request to establish the RRC connection. By the embodiment of the application, a scheme for allowing the first node to reside in an acceptable cell (acceptable cell) and allowing the first node to enter an RRC connected state in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) is provided, so that the first node can receive control information from the acceptable cell (acceptable cell).

In one possible embodiment, the method further comprises:

The first node enters an RRC idle state;

The first node sends ninth information to the third node, the ninth information being used for requesting establishment of an RRC connection.

In an embodiment of the present application, a possible specific embodiment of establishing an RRC connection is provided, specifically, when a first node is in an RRC inactive state and a second timer is configured on the first node, the first node stops running the second timer, deletes the configuration of the RRC inactive state, enters an RRC idle state, and then the first node in the RRC idle state sends ninth information to a third node on a first acceptable cell, to request to establish the RRC connection. By the embodiment of the application, a scheme for allowing the first node to reside in an acceptable cell (acceptable cell) and allowing the first node to enter an RRC connected state in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) is provided, so that the first node can receive control information from the acceptable cell (acceptable cell).

In a possible implementation manner, the first node sends ninth information to the third node, including:

And the first node sends the ninth information to the third node when the first timer is overtime.

In the embodiment of the present application, a possible specific embodiment for establishing an RRC connection is provided, specifically, the first node is in an RRC inactive state, and when the second timer is configured on the first node, the first node stops running the second timer, and the first node starts the first timer. The first node deletes the configuration of the RRC inactive state, enters the RRC idle state, and then sends ninth information to the third node on the first acceptable cell in the RRC idle state under the condition that the first timer is overtime, and requests to establish RRC connection. By the embodiment of the application, a scheme for allowing the first node to reside in an acceptable cell (acceptable cell) and allowing the first node to enter an RRC connected state in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) is provided, so that the first node can receive control information from the acceptable cell (acceptable cell).

In one possible embodiment, the method further comprises:

The first node sends tenth information to the third node, wherein the tenth information is used for requesting to release RRC connection;

and under the condition that the first node performs cell reselection and resides in a proper cell, transmitting eleventh information to the second node, wherein the eleventh information is used for requesting to enter an RRC connection state, and the proper cell is a cell of the second node.

In an embodiment of the present application, a possible specific embodiment of establishing an RRC connection is provided, specifically, after a first node camps on a first acceptable cell, if the first node enters an RRC connection state in the first acceptable cell before reselecting back to a suitable cell, when the suitable cell is measured, the first node sends tenth information to a third node corresponding to the first acceptable cell, requests to release the RRC connection, the first node returns to an RRC idle state, and if the first node in the RRC idle state reselects to the suitable cell, sends eleventh information to a second node corresponding to the suitable cell, and requests to enter the RRC connection state. By the embodiment of the application, a scheme of how the first node returns to the proper cell (useable cell) again after entering the RRC connection state in the acceptable cell (useable cell) is provided, so that the first node is beneficial to maximally serving the specific cell.

In a sixth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, which may be performed by a communication apparatus. The communication device may be a device, or may be a chip (system) or a circuit for a device, which is not limited in the present application. The method comprises the following steps:

the first node obtains twelfth information, wherein the twelfth information is used for indicating that a node which allows selection of first acceptable cell residence in any cell selection state does not comprise the first node, or the twelfth information is used for indicating that any cell selection state is not applicable to the first node;

the first node determines not to camp on the first acceptable cell according to the twelfth information.

In an embodiment of the present application, a communication method is provided, where a first node obtains twelfth information, and determines that the first node does not camp on a first acceptable cell according to the twelfth information.

The twelfth information in the embodiment of the present application is used to indicate that the first node is prohibited from camping on the first acceptable cell. Further, the twelfth information may be specifically used to indicate that the node that allows selection of the first acceptable cell residence in any cell selection state does not include the first node, and it is understood that the first node cannot select the first acceptable cell residence in any cell selection state, and in the absence of a suitable cell (useable cell), the first node will continue to be in the cell reselection evaluation process in the initial cell selection state. The twelfth information may be further specifically used to indicate that any cell selection state is not suitable for the first node, and it may be understood that, for the first node, the first node cannot enter any cell selection state, and in the case that no suitable cell (useable cell) exists, the first node will continue to be in the cell reselection evaluation process in the initial cell selection state.

By the embodiment of the application, under the condition that a proper cell (acceptable cell) does not exist when the first node performs cell selection or cell reselection, the behavior of the first node is clarified, namely, a scheme that the first node is not allowed to reside in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) is provided, so that the first node can only wait for the proper cell (acceptable cell) to reside in the proper cell (acceptable cell), the problem that the processing of a timer (timer) is not clear after the first node resides in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) is avoided, and the correct work of the first node is facilitated.

In a possible implementation manner, the twelfth information includes information of at least one of a first cell list or a second cell list, where a cell in the first cell list is a cell that allows the first node to access, and a cell in the second cell list is a cell that prohibits the first node from accessing;

wherein the first cell list does not include cells under a second public land mobile network PLMN, and/or the second cell list includes cells under the second PLMN, and the second PLMN is a PLMN broadcasted by the first acceptable cell.

In an embodiment of the present application, a possible embodiment of the twelfth information is provided, specifically, the twelfth information includes information of at least one of the first cell list or the second cell list. Since the cells in the first cell list are cells that allow access by the first node, and the cells in the second cell list are cells that prohibit access by the first node, the cells under other PLMNs (e.g., the second PLMN) may not be configured when the cells in the first cell list are configured for access by the first node of the first public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN), and/or the neighboring cells under other PLMNs (e.g., the second PLMN) may be configured when the cells in the first cell list are configured for access by the first node of the first PLMN. It is understood that the first cell list does not comprise cells under the second PLMN and/or that the second cell list comprises cells under the second PLMN. According to the embodiment of the application, the purpose of prohibiting the first node from residing in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) can be realized through the configuration of the first cell list and/or the second cell list, and the problem that the prior protocol does not give relevant support for the action of not allowing the first node to reselect and reside in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) is solved.

In one possible implementation, cells under a first PLMN are in the first cell list and/or cells under the first PLMN are not in the second cell list;

or cells not under the first PLMN are not in the first cell list and/or cells not under the first PLMN are in the second cell list;

Wherein the first node corresponds to the first PLMN, the first PLMN being different from the second PLMN.

In the embodiment of the present application, a possible specific embodiment of the first cell list and/or the second cell list is provided, specifically, the first cell list and/or the second cell list may also be generated by the first node according to PLMN principles, that is: cells of the same PLMN are in the allowed access cell list and/or are not in the forbidden access cell list; and/or cells of different PLMNs are not in the allowed access cell list and/or in the forbidden access cell list. It is understood that cells located under the first PLMN are in the first cell list and/or that cells located under the first PLMN are not in the second cell list; or cells not under the first PLMN are not in the first cell list and/or cells not under the first PLMN are in the second cell list. According to the embodiment of the application, the purpose of prohibiting the first node from residing in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) can be realized through the configuration of the first cell list and/or the second cell list, and the problem that the prior protocol does not give relevant support for the action of not allowing the first node to reselect and reside in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) is solved.

In a seventh aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device comprising means or units for performing the method according to any of the first aspects.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes:

A processing unit for determining camping on a first acceptable cell;

the processing unit is further configured to stop running a first timer when the first cell is camping on the first acceptable cell;

the first timer is configured to instruct the communication device to enter an RRC connected state from a radio resource control, RRC, idle state after a first period of time.

In one possible embodiment, the apparatus further comprises:

And the communication unit is used for carrying out cell reselection until the cell is resided in a proper cell, and sending first information to the second node, wherein the first information is used for requesting to establish RRC connection, and the proper cell is a cell of the second node.

The methods executed by the processing unit and the communication unit may refer to the methods corresponding to the first aspect, which are not described herein.

Regarding the technical effects brought about by the seventh aspect and any possible embodiment, reference may be made to the description of the technical effects corresponding to the first aspect and the corresponding embodiment.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communications apparatus comprising means or units for performing the method of any of the second aspects.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes:

A processing unit for determining camping on a first acceptable cell;

the processing unit is further configured to determine that the RRC connected state is not entered in the first acceptable cell;

the processing unit is further configured to determine that the communication apparatus in a radio resource control RRC inactive state remains in an RRC inactive state in a case where the communication apparatus resides in the first acceptable cell.

In one possible embodiment, the apparatus further comprises:

And the communication unit is used for carrying out cell reselection until a proper cell resides, and sending second information to a second node, wherein the second information is used for requesting to enter an RRC connection state from an RRC inactive state, and the proper cell is a cell of the second node.

The methods executed by the processing unit and the communication unit may refer to the methods corresponding to the second aspect, which are not described herein.

Regarding the technical effects brought about by the eighth aspect and any possible embodiment, reference may be made to the description of the technical effects corresponding to the second aspect and the corresponding embodiment.

In a ninth aspect, an embodiment of the application provides a communications apparatus comprising means or units for performing the method according to any of the third aspects.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes:

a communication unit configured to receive third information from a first node camping on a first acceptable cell, the third information being used to indicate that radio resource control, RRC, establishment is complete;

the communication unit is further configured to send fourth information to the first node via the first acceptable cell, where the fourth information is used to instruct the first node to release the RRC connection.

In one possible embodiment, the apparatus further comprises:

and the processing unit is used for determining the fourth information according to the third information.

The methods executed by the processing unit and the communication unit may refer to the methods corresponding to the third aspect, which are not described herein.

Regarding the technical effects brought about by the ninth aspect and any possible embodiment, reference may be made to the description of the technical effects corresponding to the third aspect and the corresponding embodiments.

In a tenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device comprising means or units for performing the method according to any of the fourth aspects.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes:

A processing unit for camping on a first acceptable cell;

A communication unit, configured to send fifth information to a third node, where the fifth information is used to request to establish an RRC connection, the fifth information includes a cause of an access layer of the communication device triggering RRC connection establishment, the first acceptable cell is a cell of the third node, and the cause of an access layer of the communication device triggering RRC connection establishment includes:

The first timer or the second timer is overtime, and the communication device requests the control information of the third node;

The first timer is used for indicating the communication device to enter the RRC connection state from the RRC idle state after a first time period, and the second timer is used for indicating the communication device to enter the RRC connection state from the RRC inactive state after a second time period.

The methods executed by the processing unit and the communication unit may refer to the methods corresponding to the fourth aspect, which are not described herein.

Regarding the technical effects brought about by the tenth aspect and any possible embodiment, reference may be made to the description of the technical effects corresponding to the fourth aspect and the corresponding embodiment.

In an eleventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device comprising means or units for performing the method according to any of the fifth aspects.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes:

A processing unit for determining camping on a first acceptable cell;

The processing unit is further configured to determine to enter a radio resource control RRC connected state when camping on the first acceptable cell and the current service is a non-emergency service.

In one possible embodiment, the apparatus further comprises:

a communication unit, configured to send sixth information to a third node, where the sixth information is used to request to establish an RRC connection, the sixth information includes a cause of an access layer of the communication device triggering RRC connection establishment, and the first acceptable cell is a cell of the third node.

The methods executed by the processing unit and the communication unit may refer to the methods corresponding to the fifth aspect, which are not described herein.

Regarding the technical effects brought about by the eleventh aspect and any possible embodiment, reference may be made to the description of the technical effects corresponding to the fifth aspect and the corresponding embodiment.

In a twelfth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communications apparatus comprising means or units for performing the method of any of the sixth aspects.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes:

A processing unit configured to acquire twelfth information for indicating that a node in which selection of the first acceptable cell residence is permitted in an arbitrary cell selection state does not include the communication apparatus, or for indicating that the arbitrary cell selection state is not applicable to the communication apparatus;

the processing unit is further configured to determine, according to the twelfth information, that the cell is not camping on the first acceptable cell.

In one possible embodiment, the apparatus further comprises:

and a communication unit for receiving the twelfth information.

The methods executed by the processing unit and the communication unit may refer to the methods corresponding to the sixth aspect, which are not described herein.

With regard to the technical effects brought about by the twelfth aspect and any possible embodiment, reference may be made to the description of the technical effects corresponding to the sixth aspect and the corresponding embodiment.

Optionally, in the communication device according to any one of the seventh aspect to the twelfth aspect and any possible implementation manner of the foregoing aspect:

In one implementation, the communication apparatus is a communication device. When the communication apparatus is a communication device, the communication unit may be a transceiver, or an input/output interface; the processing unit may be at least one processor. Alternatively, the transceiver may be a transceiver circuit. Alternatively, the input/output interface may be an input/output circuit.

In another implementation, the communication apparatus is a chip (system) or a circuit used in a communication device. When the communication means is a chip (system) or a circuit used in a communication device, the communication unit may be a communication interface (input/output interface), an interface circuit, an output circuit, an input circuit, a pin, a related circuit, or the like on the chip (system) or the circuit; the processing unit may be at least one processor, processing circuit or logic circuit, etc.

In a thirteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device including a processor. The processor is coupled to the memory and operable to execute instructions in the memory to implement the method of any one of the above-described first to sixth aspects and any one of the possible implementation manners. Optionally, the communication device further comprises a memory. Optionally, the communication device further comprises a communication interface, and the processor is coupled to the communication interface.

In a fourteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus, including: logic circuitry and a communication interface. The communication interface is used for receiving information or sending information; the logic is configured to receive information or send information through the communication interface, so that the communication device performs the method of any one of the first to sixth aspects and any possible implementation manner.

In a fifteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program (which may also be referred to as code, or instructions); the computer program, when run on a computer, causes the method of any one of the above-mentioned first to sixth aspects and any one of the possible implementation manners to be implemented.

In a sixteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product comprising: computer programs (also referred to as code, or instructions); the computer program, when executed, causes a computer to perform the method of any one of the above-mentioned first to sixth aspects and any one of the possible implementation manners.

In a seventeenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip comprising a processor for executing instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the chip to perform the method of any one of the first to sixth aspects and any one of the possible implementation manners. Optionally, the chip further comprises a communication interface, and the communication interface is used for receiving signals or sending signals.

An eighteenth aspect of the present application provides a communication system including at least one communication device according to the seventh aspect, or a communication device according to the eighth aspect, or a communication device according to the ninth aspect, or a communication device according to the tenth aspect, or a communication device according to the eleventh aspect, or a communication device according to the twelfth aspect, or a communication device according to the thirteenth aspect, or a communication device according to the fourteenth aspect, or a chip according to the seventeenth aspect.

In a nineteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, where the communication system includes a first node and a third node, where the first node is configured to perform the method of the first aspect or the second aspect or the fourth aspect or the fifth aspect and any possible implementation manner, and the third node is configured to perform the method of the third aspect and any possible implementation manner.

Further, in performing the method according to any one of the first to sixth aspects and any possible implementation manner of the first to sixth aspects, the process of sending information and/or receiving information and the like in the method may be understood as a process of outputting information by a processor and/or a process of receiving input information by a processor. In outputting the information, the processor may output the information to a transceiver (or communication interface, or transmission module) for transmission by the transceiver. After output by the processor, the information may also need to be processed further before reaching the transceiver. Similarly, when the processor receives input information, the transceiver (or communication interface, or transmission module) receives the information and inputs it to the processor. Further, after the transceiver receives the information, the information may need to be further processed before being input to the processor.

Based on the above principle, for example, the transmission information mentioned in the foregoing method may be understood as processor output information. For another example, receiving information may be understood as a processor receiving input information.

Alternatively, the operations of transmitting, and receiving, etc., referred to by a processor may be more generally understood as operations of outputting and receiving, inputting, etc., by the processor, unless otherwise specified, or unless otherwise contradicted by actual or inherent logic in the relevant description.

Alternatively, in performing the methods according to any one of the first to sixth aspects and any one of the possible implementation manners of the first to sixth aspects, the processor may be a processor dedicated to performing the methods, or may be a processor that performs the methods by executing computer instructions in a memory, such as a general-purpose processor. The Memory may be a non-transitory (non-transitory) Memory, such as a Read Only Memory (ROM), which may be integrated on the same chip as the processor, or may be separately provided on different chips, and the type of the Memory and the manner of providing the Memory and the processor are not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

In one possible embodiment, the at least one memory is located outside the device.

In yet another possible embodiment, the at least one memory is located within the device.

In yet another possible embodiment, a portion of the at least one memory is located within the device and another portion of the at least one memory is located outside the device.

In the present application, the processor and the memory may also be integrated in one device, i.e. the processor and the memory may also be integrated.

In the embodiment of the application, the behavior of the first node is clarified under the condition that a proper cell (useable cell) does not exist when the first node performs cell selection or cell reselection.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the drawings that are needed in the embodiments of the present application will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present application, and other drawings may be obtained according to these drawings without inventive effort to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

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

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an NCR network architecture according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a communication scenario provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 7 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 8 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 9 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 10 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

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

fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a chip according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more apparent, embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present application.

The terms first and second and the like in the description, in the claims and in the drawings are used for distinguishing between different objects and not for describing a particular sequential order. Furthermore, the terms "comprising," "including," and "having," and any variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. Such as a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not limited to the list of steps or elements but may include other steps or elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

Reference herein to "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment may be included in at least one embodiment of the application. The appearances of such phrases in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. It will be explicitly and implicitly understood by those of skill in the art that in various embodiments of the application, terms and/or descriptions between various embodiments are consistent and may reference each other, and technical features in different embodiments may be combined to form new embodiments according to their inherent logical relationships, if not specifically stated or logically conflicting.

It should be understood that, in the present application, "at least one (item)" means one or more, "a plurality" means two or more, "at least two (items)" means two or three and three or more, "and/or" for describing an association relationship of an association object, three kinds of relationships may exist, for example, "a and/or B" may mean: only a, only B and both a and B are present, wherein a, B may be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the context-dependent object is an "or" relationship. "at least one of" or the like means any combination of these items, including any combination of single item(s) or plural items(s). For example, at least one (one) of a, b or c may represent: a, b, c, "a and b", "a and c", "b and c", or "a and b and c", wherein a, b, c may be single or plural.

In the present application, "indication" may include direct indication, indirect indication, display indication, and implicit indication. When a certain indication information is described for indicating a, it can be understood that the indication information carries a, directly indicates a, or indirectly indicates a.

In the application, the information indicated by the indication information is called information to be indicated. In a specific implementation process, there are various ways to indicate the information to be indicated, for example, but not limited to, the information to be indicated may be directly indicated, such as the information to be indicated itself or an index of the information to be indicated. The information to be indicated can also be indicated indirectly by indicating other information, wherein the other information and the information to be indicated have an association relation. It is also possible to indicate only a part of the information to be indicated, while other parts of the information to be indicated are known or agreed in advance. For example, the indication of the specific information may also be achieved by means of a pre-agreed (e.g., protocol-specified) arrangement sequence of the respective information, thereby reducing the indication overhead to some extent. The information to be indicated can be sent together as a whole or can be divided into a plurality of pieces of sub-information to be sent separately, and the sending periods and/or sending occasions of the sub-information can be the same or different. Specific transmission method the present application is not limited. The transmission period and/or the transmission timing of the sub-information may be predefined, for example, predefined according to a protocol, or may be configured by the transmitting end device by transmitting configuration information to the receiving end device.

In the present application, "transmitting" may be understood as "outputting" and "receiving" may be understood as "inputting". "send information to a", where "to a" simply indicates the trend of information transmission, a is the destination, and "send information to a" is not limited to necessarily being direct transmission on the air interface. "transmitting information to a" includes transmitting information directly to a and also includes transmitting information indirectly to a through a transmitter, so "transmitting information to a" can also be understood as "outputting information to a". Similarly, "receiving information from a" means that the source of the information is a, including receiving information directly from a, and also including receiving information from a indirectly through a receiver, so "receiving information from a" can also be understood as "inputting information from a".

The method provided by the application can be applied to various communication systems, such as an internet of things (internet of things, ioT) system, a narrowband internet of things (narrow band internet of things, NB-IoT) system, a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, a fifth generation (5G) communication system, a new communication system (such as 6G) in future communication development, and the like.

The technical scheme provided by the application can be also applied to machine type communication (MACHINE TYPE communication, MTC), inter-machine communication long term evolution (long term evolution-machine, LTE-M), device-to-device (D2D) network, machine-to-machine (machine to machine, M2M) network, internet of things (internet of things, ioT) network or other networks. The IoT network may include, for example, an internet of vehicles. The communication modes in the internet of vehicles system are generally called as vehicles and anything (V2X, X may represent anything), for example, the V2X may include: vehicle-to-vehicle (vehicle to vehicle, V2V) communication, vehicle-to-infrastructure (vehicle to infrastructure, V2I) communication, vehicle-to-pedestrian communication (vehicle to pedestrian, V2P) or vehicle-to-network (vehicle to network, V2N) communication, etc. By way of example, in fig. 1 shown below, the terminal device and the terminal device may communicate via D2D technology, M2M technology, V2X technology, or the like.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the application.

As shown in fig. 1, the communication system may include at least one access network device and at least one terminal device.

The descriptions of the access network device and the terminal device are respectively as follows:

by way of example, the access network device may be a next generation node B (next generation node B, gNB), a next generation evolved base station (next generation evolved nodeB, ng-eNB), or an access network device in future 6G communications, etc. The access network device may be any device having a wireless transceiver function including, but not limited to, the base station shown above. The base station may also be a base station in a future communication system, such as a sixth generation communication system. Alternatively, the access network device may be an access node, a wireless relay node, a wireless backhaul node, etc. in a wireless local area network (WIRELESS FIDELITY, wiFi) system. Optionally, the access network device may be a radio controller in a cloud radio access network (cloud radio access network, CRAN) scenario. Alternatively, the access network device may be a wearable device or an in-vehicle device, etc. Alternatively, the access network device may also be a small station, a transmission receiving node (transmission reception point, TRP) (or may also be referred to as a transmission point), etc. It will be appreciated that the access network device may also be a base station in a future evolved public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN), or the like.

In some deployments, a base station (e.g., a gNB) may be composed of a centralized unit (centralized unit, CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU). Namely, the functions of the base stations in the access network are split, part of the functions of the base stations are deployed on one CU, and the rest of the functions are deployed on DUs. And a plurality of DUs share one CU, so that the cost can be saved, and the network expansion is easy. In other deployments of base stations, CUs may also be divided into CU-Control Plane (CP) and CU-User Plane (UP), etc. In still other deployments of base stations, the base stations may also be Radio Units (RUs), etc. In still other deployments of base stations, the base stations may also be open radio access network (open radio access network, ORAN) architecture, etc., the application is not limited to a particular type of base station. For example, when the base station is ORAN in architecture, the base station shown in the embodiment of the present application may be an access network device in ORAN, or a module in the access network device, etc. In ORAN systems, a CU may also be referred to as an open (O) -CU, a DU may also be referred to as an O-DU, a CU-DU may also be referred to as an O-CU-DU, a CU-UP may also be referred to as an O-CU-UP, and a RU may also be referred to as an O-RU.

For convenience of description, the method according to the present application will be described below by taking an access network device as an example of a base station.

The terminal device may also be referred to as a User Equipment (UE), a terminal, etc., for example. The terminal equipment is equipment with a wireless receiving and transmitting function, can be deployed on land, and comprises indoor or outdoor, handheld, wearable or vehicle-mounted; the device can also be deployed on the water surface, such as a ship, etc.; but may also be deployed in the air, for example on an aircraft, balloon or satellite, etc. The terminal device may be a mobile phone, a tablet (Pad), a computer with wireless transceiving function, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in unmanned (SELF DRIVING), a wireless terminal in remote medical (remote medical), a wireless terminal in smart grid (SMART GRID), a wireless terminal in transportation security (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in smart city (SMART CITY), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), or the like. It is understood that the terminal device may also be a terminal device in a future 6G network or a terminal device in a future evolved PLMN, etc.

It can be understood that the terminal device shown in the application not only can comprise a vehicle (such as a whole vehicle) in the internet of vehicles, but also can comprise vehicle-mounted equipment or a vehicle-mounted terminal in the internet of vehicles, and the specific form of the terminal device when the terminal device is applied to the internet of vehicles is not limited.

For convenience of description, a method according to the present application will be described below by taking a terminal device as an example of UE.

As shown in fig. 1, the communication system may further comprise at least one core network device, and the description of the core network device is as follows:

The core network device comprises services such as user access control, mobility management, session management, user security authentication, charging and the like. It is composed of a plurality of functional units, and can be divided into functional entities of a control plane and a data plane. The access and mobile management unit (ACCESS AND mobility management function, AMF) is responsible for user access management, security authentication and mobility management. The location management unit (location management function, LMF) is responsible for managing and controlling the location service request of the target terminal, and processing the location related information. The user plane unit (user plane function, UPF) is responsible for managing the functions of user plane data transmission, traffic statistics, etc.

In the communication system shown in fig. 1, one core network device, two base stations, and eight UEs are included, such as the core network device, base station 1, and base station 2 in fig. 1, and UEs 1 to 8. In the communication system, the base station 1 may transmit downlink signals such as configuration information and downlink control information (downlink control information, DCI) to the UEs 1 to 6, and the UEs 1 to 6 may transmit uplink signals such as SRS and Physical Uplink SHARED CHANNEL (PUSCH) to the base station 1. Base station 1 may also transmit downlink signals to UEs 7 to 8 through base station 2, and UEs 7 to 8 may transmit uplink signals to base station 1 through base station 2. The base station 2 may transmit downlink signals such as configuration information and DCI to the UEs 7 to 8, and the UEs 7 to 8 may transmit uplink signals such as SRS and PUSCH to the base station 2. It will be appreciated that reference may be made to the above description for the manner of communication between UEs, and this is not described in detail herein.

It should be appreciated that fig. 1 illustrates schematically one core network device, two base stations and eight UEs, and communication links between the communication devices. Alternatively, the communication system may include multiple base stations, and each base station may include other numbers of UEs, such as more or fewer UEs, within the coverage area, as the application is not limited in this regard.

Each of the above-described communication apparatuses, such as the core network apparatus, the base station 1 and the base station 2, and the UEs 1 to 8 in fig. 1, may be configured with a plurality of antennas. The plurality of antennas may include at least one transmitting antenna for transmitting signals, at least one receiving antenna for receiving signals, and the like, and the specific structure of each communication device is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. Optionally, the communication system may further include a network controller, a mobility management entity, and other network entities, which the embodiments of the present application are not limited to.

It will be appreciated that the communication system diagram shown in fig. 1 is merely an example, and reference may be made to related standards or protocols, etc. for other forms of communication system diagrams, which are not described in detail herein.

Various embodiments shown below may be applied to the communication system shown in fig. 1, and may also be applied to other forms of communication systems, which will not be described in detail below.

The application provides a communication method which is applied to the technical field of communication, such as communication of NCR networks. In order to more clearly describe the solution of the present application, some knowledge about the NCR network is presented below.

Referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an NCR network according to an embodiment of the present application.

As shown in fig. 2, the network control repeater (network controlled repeater, NCR) acts as a non-regenerative type of repeater node, and can perform an amplify-and-forward operation on the received signal, commonly used to improve network coverage.

In the NCR, a Mobile Terminal (MT) module and a Forwarding (Fwd) module are included. Wherein the NCR-MT is configured to receive and feedback control signaling from a base station (gNB), and the NCR-Fwd is configured to amplify and forward the received signal. The link between the NCR-Fwd and the User Equipment (UE) is an access link (ACCESS LINK), the link between the NCR-Fwd and the base station (gNB) is a backhaul link (backhaul link), and the link between the NCR-MT and the base station (gNB) is a control link (control link). The base station sends control information (such as beam direction, power control, etc.) to the NCR-MT, and the NCR-MT controls the NCR-Fwd to execute corresponding operation according to the received control information.

Specifically, the NCR may support functions such as uplink/downlink (UL/DL) forward power control and dynamic switching, such as time-division duplex (TDD), bandwidth configurability, beam sensing, and access side Beam Forming (BF).

The NCR network architecture described above may be applied to various communication scenarios, and in particular, reference may be made to fig. 3, where fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a communication scenario provided in an embodiment of the present application.

As shown in fig. 3, the base station 1 broadcasts a first public land mobile network PLMN1, the base station 2 broadcasts a second public land mobile network PLMN1, and the NCR of PLMN1 is located at the coverage junction between the PLMN1 cell and the PLMN2 cell, so as to enlarge the network coverage.

Optionally, the connection between NCR and base station 1, base station 2 is as shown in fig. 2, and is not described here. The RRC connection initiated by the NCR-MT is carried on a control link between the NCR-MT and the base station.

Since the NCR-MT can be used as a UE, the network access procedure of the NCR is similar to that of the UE. In order to describe the scheme of the present application more clearly, some knowledge related to the UE network access procedure will be introduced.

5G supports three RRC connected states: rrc_connected (RRC CONNECTED state), rrc_idle (RRC IDLE state), rrc_inactive (RRC INACTIVE state).

For an RRC-connected UE, the cell it accesses is referred to as a serving cell; for a UE in RRC idle or inactive state, it does not access any cell, but selects cell "camp" on the UE side, and when the UE needs to access RRC connected state, a request to enter RRC connected state is initiated in the camp cell.

When there is an RRC connection between the UE and the gNB, referred to as an RRC connected state, for an RRC connected state UE, the network may trigger the UE to perform a cell handover when signal quality with the serving cell is degraded.

When the UE is just started, or the RRC connection between the UE and the gNB is interrupted and not successfully recovered due to the signal quality, or the UE does not perform service for a long time, in order to save power, the RRC connection and air interface resources between the UE and the gNB may be released, and the core network may also release the context of the UE, where the UE enters an RRC idle state.

When the signal quality of the resided cell is poor, the UE spontaneously performs cell reselection, other cells are selected to reside, the cell reselection is the action of the UE side, and the network side does not sense. When the core network has a service to send to a UE in a certain RRC idle state, a paging message is broadcasted to all UEs in a paging area, the UE carries the identification of the UE, and after the UE receives the paging message, the UE initiates an RRC establishment request (RRCSetupRequest) to the gNB and enters an RRC connection state; or when the UE wants to actively initiate a service, the UE also initiates an RRC setup request to the gNB (RRCSetupRequest) to enter an RRC connected state.

The RRC connected state and the RRC idle state are introduced in 4G, and the RRC inactive state is an RRC state in which 5G is newly introduced compared with 4G, and is also a state in which the UE enters for power saving after not performing service for a long time, and in this regard, similar to the RRC idle state, the RRC connection and the air interface resources between the UE and the gNB are released, and the relationship between the UE and the cell is changed from "connected" to "camped". As in the RRC idle state, the UE may perform cell reselection as needed. However, in contrast to rrc_idle, the UE in rrc_inactive state retains a part of the configuration and on the network side, the UE context is released only on the gNB and still remains on the core network. When the rrc_idle state returns to the rrc_connected state, the UE is required to initiate an RRC establishment request (RRCSetupRequest), multiple handshakes (including establishment of a secure connection, etc.) are required between the UE and the gNB to establish the RRC connection, and the context for the UE is also required to be re-established between the gNB and the core network, which requires a long time; while the rrc_inactive state returns to the rrc_connected state, the UE initiates an RRC resume request (RRCResumeRequest), and it is understood that both RRCResumeRequest and RRCSetupRequest may be referred to as initiating RRC connection establishment, and that the gcb where the UE currently resides may directly request the UE context from the last serving node of the UE (LAST SERVING gcb, i.e., the gcb where the UE is released from the rrc_connected state to the rrc_inactive state), saving a lot of signaling on the air interface, and requiring a shorter time. An INACTIVE state may be understood as a state between an IDLE state and a CONNECTED state.

When a UE in radio resource control layer IDLE state (radio resource controlIDLE, RRC _idle) or RRC INACTIVE state (rrc_inactive) performs cell selection or cell reselection, the UE selects a suitable cell (useable cell) to camp on, and when the UE finds that there is no suitable cell (useable cell) nearby (for example, because the operator of the UE does not deploy a cell nearby), the existing protocol allows the UE to select an acceptable cell (useable cell) to camp on.

In the protocol of 3GPP, the definition of acceptable cells (acceptable cells) is as follows:

An acceptable cell is a cell on which a UE may camp for limited service, such as initiating an emergency call and receiving notification from an earthquake-tsunami warning system (earthquake and tsunami WARNING SYSTEM, ETWS) and a commercial mobile warning system (commercial mobile ALERT SYSTEM, CMAS). The cell should meet the following requirements, which is the minimum requirement to initiate emergency calls and receive ETWS and CMAS notifications in the NR network:

(1) The cell is not barred from access;

(2) The cell selection meets the criterion, i.e. the cell meets the measurement condition (S criterion).

An acceptable cell (acceptable cell) has fewer restrictions on the PLMN than a suitable cell (acceptable cell), so long as the cell is not barred from access and the signal quality meets the measurement conditions (S criteria), and even if the PLMNs are not matched, the UE is allowed to camp on and perform some special services, such as emergency call, earthquake tsunami, commercial alarm, and the like. The emergency service needs the UE to initiate a message that enters the rrc_connected state and is available, and the ETWS/CMAS belongs to a cell broadcast, and the UE in the rrc_idle state may also receive the message.

Furthermore, in the 3GPP protocols, the following conclusions can be drawn regarding the behavior specification of selecting cell camping and state transitions when the UE is in rrc_idle state and rrc_inactive state:

(1) When the UE in the IDLE state or the INACTIVE state performs cell selection/reselection, and when there is no useable cell meeting the S criterion in the selected PLMN, the UE enters an optional cell selection state (Any Cell Selection state), selects an acceptable cell to camp on, enters the IDLE state, and enters an optional cell camping state (Camped on ANY CELL STATE).

(2) When the UE is resident in the acceptable cell and is in any cell resident state (Camped on ANY CELL STATE), whether the acceptable cell exists or not is continuously detected, and if the acceptable cell exists, the UE is resident in the acceptable cell again.

(3) When a UE is in any cell camping state (Camped on ANY CELL STATE), its RRC state can only be rrc_idle, and for a UE that is originally rrc_inactive, it is also necessary to migrate to rrc_idle. This is because in the acceptable cell, since the gNB of the acceptable cell may not belong to the same PLMN as the LAST SERVING gNB of the UE, it may not be possible to communicate with each other, that is, interaction when the UE returns to the rrc_connected state from the rrc_inactive cannot be performed, so the protocol specifies that when the UE resides in the acceptable cell, if the UE is originally in the rrc_inactive state, the relevant configuration needs to be deleted, and the UE further enters the rrc_idle state.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned arbitrary cell selection state (Any Cell Selection state) and arbitrary cell camping state (Camped on ANY CELL STATE) do not belong to RRC states (RRC states include rrc_connected, rrc_idle, and rrc_inactive), and these "states" are general descriptions only for describing the current state of the UE.

Furthermore, in the protocol of 3GPP, the following conclusions can be drawn regarding the behavior specification of NCR:

(1) The NCR-MT may enter the IDLE state and the INACTIVE state mainly because, for the sake of energy saving for the NCR-MT, when the NCR is stably operating in a certain cell, the gNB may not be required to frequently send control signaling to the NCR-MT, at which time the RRC connection between the NCR-MT and the gNB may be released. When the NCR-MT enters an IDLE state or an INACTIVE state, if the signal quality between the NCR-MT and the gNB is poor (e.g., due to shadowing, etc.), the NCR-MT may perform cell reselection to the neighboring cell. If the reselected cell is still a viable cell, the NCR-MT may reenter the connected state when needed, receiving a control message from the gNB of that cell.

(2) Since the UE needs to page the core network or send a service when it needs to send after it is in the RRC IDLE state, the NCR-MT may return to the RRC connected state by periodically returning to the state capable of receiving the gNB control, not being initiated by the core network, or not being transmitted by the NCR-MT itself, so how the NCR-MT returns to the RRC connected state from the rrc_idle state, a countdown (timer) is currently configured on the NCR, and after expiration of the countdown, the NCR-MT initiates an RRC setup request (RRCSetupRequest) requesting to enter the RRC connected state.

But the current conclusion only considers the situation that the cell reselected by the NCR-MT is still a suitable cell (useable cell), and when there is no suitable cell (useable cell), whether to allow reselection to an acceptable cell (acceptable cell) is not supported by the relevant protocol. I.e. for the case where there is no suitable cell (useable cell) for cell selection or cell reselection by the NCR-MT, the existing protocols do not give relevant support for the behaviour of the NCR-MT, for example:

(1) How to make NCR-MT disallow reselection to reside in an acceptable cell;

(2) How to enable NCR-MT to allow reselection to reside in the acceptable cell, but not allow the acceptable cell to enter a connection state;

(3) How to cause the NCR-MT to allow the reselection to reside in the acceptable cell, and allow the NCR-MT to enter a connected state in the acceptable cell.

Aiming at the above-mentioned situation that no suitable cell (useable cell) exists when the NCR-MT performs cell selection or cell reselection, the prior protocol does not provide the technical problem of relevant support of the behavior of the NCR-MT, and in the embodiment of the present application, the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application can be implemented:

Under the condition that a proper cell (a sub-available cell) does not exist when the NCR-MT performs cell selection or cell reselection, the behavior of the NCR-MT is defined, and the technical problem that the prior protocol does not provide relevant support for possible behavior of the NCR-MT can be respectively solved.

Referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the application. The communication method is applied to the technical field of communication, such as communication of NCR network, and comprises the following steps:

s401: the first node determines to camp on a first acceptable cell.

S402: the first node stops running the first timer when it resides in the first acceptable cell.

It will be appreciated that the first node in the embodiment of the present application is a device on which a processor/chip that can be used to execute computer-executable instructions is mounted, and may also be a processor/chip that can be used to execute computer-executable instructions, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. Optionally, when the communication method in the embodiment of the present application is applied to a network control relay (network controlled repeater, NCR) network, the first node in the embodiment of the present application may be an NCR, specifically may be an NCR-MT, such as the NCR/NCR-MT in fig. 2 described above, and is configured to execute the communication method in the embodiment of the present application, so as to implement the action of the first node in a case where no suitable cell (useable cell) exists when the first node performs cell selection or cell reselection.

The first acceptable cell is a cell providing limited service, and the first acceptable cell specifically needs to satisfy the following conditions:

(1) The cell is not barred from access;

(2) The cell satisfies the measurement condition (i.e., S criterion);

(3) Failure to camp on the appropriate cell or departure from the emergency call from the cell on which it resides.

It will be appreciated that the first acceptable cell (acceptable cell) has fewer restrictions on PLMN or closed access group identity (closed access groupidentifier, CAG ID) than the appropriate cell (acceptable cell), so long as the cell is not barred from access and the signal quality meets the measurement conditions (S criteria), allowing the UE to camp on certain special services, such as emergency call, earthquake tsunami, and commercial alarm services, even if the PLMN or CAG ID does not match.

Specifically, the first acceptable cell may refer to a specification of an acceptable cell (acceptable cell) in the third generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project,3GPP) protocol TS 38.304.

The first timer is configured to instruct the first node to enter the RRC connected state from the RRC idle state after the first period of time.

It will be appreciated that when the first node camps on a suitable cell (useable cell) and is in an RRC idle state, the first node enters an RRC connected state from the RRC idle state if the first timer expires.

In step S401, the first node determines to camp on a first acceptable cell.

In step S402, the first node stops running the first timer when it resides in the first acceptable cell.

It may be understood that the first node may disable the first timer, restart the timing if there is a timing requirement, pause the timing of the first timer, and continue to start the timing based on the previous pause timing if there is a timing requirement. The first node may not enter the RRC connected state by stopping the first timer.

In a possible embodiment, the first node performs cell reselection until the first node camps on a suitable cell, and sends first information to the second node, and correspondingly, the second node receives the first information from the first node.

It will be appreciated that the second node in the embodiment of the present application is a device on which a processor/chip that can be used to execute computer-executable instructions is mounted, and may also be a processor/chip that can be used to execute computer-executable instructions, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. Optionally, when the communication method in the embodiment of the present application is applied to a network control relay (network controlled repeater, NCR) network, the second node in the embodiment of the present application may be a gNB, specifically may be a gNB corresponding to a useable cell, and the base station 1 in fig. 2 is used to participate in executing the communication method in the embodiment of the present application, so as to determine the behavior of the first node when no suitable cell (useable cell) exists during cell selection or cell reselection by the first node.

The first information is used for requesting to establish RRC connection, and the suitable cell is a cell of the second node.

It will be appreciated that the first node may perform cell reselection until after camping on a suitable cell, consider that the first timer times out, and directly request to establish an RRC connection to enter an RRC connected state without restarting the first timer.

In a possible embodiment, the first node performs cell reselection until the first node resides in a suitable cell, and restarts the first timer, and if the first timer expires, the first node sends first information to the second node, and correspondingly, the second node receives the first information from the first node.

It may be understood that the first node restarting the first timer may be to cancel the timing of the previous first timer, restart the timing, or continue to start the timing on the basis of the time suspension of the previous first timer.

Alternatively, after the NCR-MT is returned from the acceptable cell to the acceptable cell, the NCR-Fwd may be turned on as soon as the NCR-MT has been camped back on the acceptable cell (the NCR-Fwd may also operate as a radio frequency repeater RF REPEATER when the NCR-MT is not in the RRC connected state, but has no capability to accept network control), or the NCR-MT may be turned on after the acceptable cell has entered the RRC connected state, and the configuration (e.g., beam, power, etc.) that the NCR-Fwd used when the NCR-MT was last in the acceptable cell may be used.

As can be seen from the above description, in the communication method shown in fig. 4, on the premise that the NCR is configured with the first timer, the method for rejecting the NCR from entering the RRC connection state in the acceptable cell is as follows:

after the NCR-MT resides in the acceptable cell, the NCR-MT then invalidates/suspends the first timer. And restarting/recovering the first timer to count down again until the first node performs cell reselection and resides in the useable cell again, and initiating entering the RRC connection state after the count down expires, or directly considering that the first timer expires without restarting the first timer, and directly initiating entering the RRC connection state.

In the communication method shown in fig. 4, when a suitable cell (acceptable cell) does not exist when the first node performs cell selection or cell reselection, the behavior of the first node is clarified, that is, a scheme of allowing the first node to reside in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) but not allowing the first node to enter an RRC connection state in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) is provided, so that the first node can not enter the RRC connection state when the first node resides in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) in a manner of referring to UE, so as to avoid affecting the function of the existing acceptable cell (acceptable cell).

Referring to fig. 5, fig. 5 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the application. It will be appreciated that the steps of embodiments of the present application may be regarded as a reasonable variation or addition to the embodiment of fig. 4 described above; or it is to be understood that the communication method in the embodiment of the present application may also be regarded as an embodiment that can be separately executed, and the present application is not limited thereto. The communication method provided by the embodiment of the application is applied to the technical field of communication, such as communication of NCR network, and comprises the following steps:

s501: the first node determines to camp on a first acceptable cell.

S502: the first node determines not to enter the RRC connected state at the first acceptable cell. Optionally, the first node determining that entering the RRC-connected state at the first acceptable cell does not indicate that the first node does not request entering the RRC-connected state at any time the first node camps on the first acceptable cell.

S503: in the case where the first node in the RRC inactive state resides in the first acceptable cell, the first node maintains the RRC inactive state.

(1) The cell is not barred from access;

(2) The cell satisfies the measurement condition (i.e., S criterion);

In a possible embodiment, the first node further stops running the second timer.

The second timer is configured to instruct the first node to enter the RRC connected state from the RRC inactive state after the second period of time.

In one possible embodiment, any cell-camping state applies to the first node being in the RRC inactive state.

It can be appreciated that the first node in the RRC inactive state may be in any cell-camping state, and the first node may camp on an acceptable cell (acceptable cell), and may not release back to the RRC idle state, but rather maintain the RRC inactive state, facilitating the first node to quickly resume RRC connection after reselecting from the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) back to the appropriate cell (acceptable cell).

Optionally, the description of any cell-stay state in the 3GPP protocol (TS 38.304 protocol) may also be described as being applicable to the RRC inactive state for the first Node (NCR).

In a possible embodiment, the first node performs cell reselection until the first node resides in a suitable cell, and the first node sends second information to the second node, and correspondingly, the second node receives the second information from the first node.

The second information is used for requesting to enter the RRC connection state from the RRC inactive state, and the suitable cell is a cell of the second node.

It will be appreciated that the first node may enter the RRC connected state immediately upon camping on the appropriate cell, or may wait for a second timer (a timer indicating that the first node enters the RRC connected state from the RRC inactive state after a second period of time) to timeout before entering the RRC connected state.

In the embodiment of the application, since the first node is allowed to stay in the RRC inactive state when residing in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell), the first node can quickly recover the RRC connection after reselecting from the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) to the suitable cell (acceptable cell), so that the time gain can be obtained compared with the time gain of entering the RRC connection state from the RRC idle state.

In summary, in the communication method shown in fig. 5, when the NCR-MT in INACTIVE state resides in the acceptable cell, the active state is still in INACTIVE state without entering the IDLE state.

From the above behavior rules about the UE, when the UE resides in the acceptable cell, it can only be in rrc_idle state and can no longer be in rrc_inactive state, because the base station of the acceptable cell is other PLMN, and when the UE needs to return to RRC connected state due to emergency traffic, the gNB of the acceptable cell cannot communicate with LAST SERVING gNB of the home PLMN, interacting with the UE context. For the NCR-MT, since it is assumed in the embodiment of the present application that it will not return to the RRC connection state in the acceptable cell, it will eventually reselect back to the acceptable cell, so that the NCR-MT may continue to be in the rrc_inactive state without releasing the configuration to enter the rrc_idle state, and after the NCR-MT reselects back to the acceptable cell, when it needs to enter the RRC connection state, an RRC recovery request (RRCResume) may be directly initiated from the rrc_inactive state to enter the rrc_connection state, so as to obtain a time gain compared to entering the RRC connection state from the rrc_idle state.

Specifically, in the 3GPP protocol (TS 38.304 protocol), in the description of any cell-camping state (Camped on ANY CELL STATE), this state is described as being applicable to the RRC_INACTIVE state for NCR-MT.

In the communication method shown in fig. 5, in the case that a suitable cell (useable cell) does not exist when the first node performs cell selection or cell reselection, the behavior of the first node is clarified, that is, a scheme is provided that the first node is allowed to reside in an acceptable cell (useable cell), and the first node in an RRC inactive state can keep in the RRC inactive state and not enter an RRC connected state, so that the first node can quickly recover the RRC connection after reselecting from the acceptable cell (useable cell) to the suitable cell (useable cell) compared with entering the RRC connected state from the RRC idle state.

Referring to fig. 6, fig. 6 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the application. It will be appreciated that steps in embodiments of the application may be regarded as reasonable variations or additions to the embodiments of fig. 4 or 5 described above; or it is to be understood that the communication method in the embodiment of the present application may also be regarded as an embodiment that can be separately executed, and the present application is not limited thereto. The communication method provided by the embodiment of the application is applied to the technical field of communication, such as communication of NCR network, and comprises the following steps:

s601: the first node sends third information to a third node residing in the first acceptable cell, and correspondingly, the third node residing in the first acceptable cell receives the third information from the first node.

S602: the third node transmits fourth information to the first node via the first acceptable cell, and the first node receives the fourth information from the third node accordingly.

It will be appreciated that the third node in the embodiment of the present application is a device on which a processor/chip that can be used to execute computer-executable instructions is mounted, and may also be a processor/chip that can be used to execute computer-executable instructions, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. Optionally, when the communication method in the embodiment of the present application is applied to a network control relay (network controlled repeater, NCR) network, the third node in the embodiment of the present application may be a gNB, specifically may be a gNB corresponding to an acceptable cell, and as in the base station 2 in fig. 2, the communication method in the embodiment of the present application is used to participate in executing the communication method in the embodiment of the present application, so as to determine the behavior of the first node when there is no suitable cell (useable cell) during cell selection or cell reselection by the first node.

(1) The cell is not barred from access;

(2) The cell satisfies the measurement condition (i.e., S criterion);

The third information is used for indicating that the RRC establishment is completed, and the fourth information is used for indicating that the first node releases the RRC connection, so that the first node resides in the first acceptable cell and is not in the RRC connected state.

In a possible embodiment, the third information includes information of the first PLMN.

The first PLMN is a PLMN corresponding to the first node.

Alternatively, taking the above-mentioned NCR network architecture shown in fig. 2as an example, the first node is the NCR/NCR-MT in fig. 2, the third node is the base station 2 in fig. 2, and the first PLMN is PLMN 1 in fig. 2.

In the embodiment of the application, after receiving the third information from the first node, the third node sends fourth information to the first node based on the third information.

Specifically, the third node compares the first PLMN included in the third information with the second PLMN broadcasted by the first acceptable cell, makes a decision not to allow the first node residing in the first acceptable cell to enter the RRC connected state according to the difference between the first PLMN and the second PLMN, and releases the first node to the RRC idle state by sending the fourth information to the first node.

Alternatively, taking the above-mentioned NCR network architecture shown in fig. 2 as an example, the first node is the NCR/NCR-MT in fig. 2, the third node is the base station 2 in fig. 2, the first PLMN is PLMN1 in fig. 2, and the second PLMN is PLMN2 in fig. 2.

By the embodiment of the application, the first node can refer to the UE to reside in an acceptable cell (acceptable cell) and can not enter the RRC connection state.

In a possible embodiment, before the third node receives the third information from the first node, the first node further sends fifth information to the third node, and the third node receives the fifth information from the first node.

Wherein the fifth information is used to request establishment of an RRC connection.

And, the fifth information further includes a reason why an Access Stratum (AS) of the first node triggers RRC connection establishment.

Optionally, the AS layer of the first node triggers the first node to initiate the RRC establishment request, which may be due to the first timer or the second timer being overtime, or may be due to the first node requesting the control information of the third node caused by the first timer or the second timer being overtime.

The first timer is used for indicating the first node to enter the RRC connection state from the RRC idle state after the first time period, and the second timer is used for indicating the first node to enter the RRC connection state from the RRC inactive state after the second time period. It will be appreciated that the first time period and the second time period are not fixed values and may be adjusted according to different traffic scenarios.

It can be understood that the existing UE requests to establish an RRC connection at an upper layer, and the UE initiates an RRC establishment request only when the UE has acquired basic information of the system, and the RRC establishment request initiated by the first node in the embodiment of the present application may be triggered by an AS layer.

By the embodiment of the application, the reason that the access layer of the first node triggers the RRC connection establishment can also be used as a judging factor for judging that the first node is released to the RRC idle state by the third node, so that the first node can not enter the RRC connection state under the condition that the first node can reside in an acceptable cell (acceptable cell) in a mode of referring to UE.

In summary, in the communication method shown in fig. 6, the third node makes a decision not to allow the first node residing in the first acceptable cell to enter the RRC connected state according to the difference between the first PLMN and the second PLMN.

The NCR-MT initiates RRCSetupRequest in the acceptable cell (optionally, may be that the first timer expires to initiate RRCSetupRequest) and requests to enter the RRC connected state, while in RRCSetupRequest (which may be referred to as third information msg 3), since the network side cannot determine that the PLMN related information is not carried, the NCR-MT normally replies an RRC setup message (RRCSetup, which may be referred to as fourth information msg 4) to the NCR-MT, and the NCR-MT then sends an RRC setup complete message (RRCSetupComplete, which may be referred to as fifth information msg 5) to the network side, carrying PLMN information. The gNB sends RRC release message (RRCRELEASE) to the NCR-MT according to the PLMN, and releases the NCR-MT to RRC_IDLE state. It will be appreciated that the first node shown in fig. 6 only considers the case of initiating RRCSetupRequest a request to enter the RRC connected state in the rrc_idle state, and does not consider the case of entering the rrc_inactive state, because the first node cannot request to enter the RRC connected state by RRC recovery (RRCResume) in the acceptable cell while in the rrc_inactive state.

In the communication method shown in fig. 6, when a suitable cell (acceptable cell) does not exist when the first node performs cell selection or cell reselection, the behavior of the first node is clarified, that is, a scheme of allowing the first node to reside in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) but not allowing the first node to enter an RRC connection state in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) is provided, so that the first node can not enter the RRC connection state when the first node resides in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) in a manner of referring to UE, so as to avoid affecting the function of the existing acceptable cell (acceptable cell).

Referring to fig. 7, fig. 7 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the application. It will be appreciated that steps in embodiments of the application may be regarded as reasonable variations or additions to the embodiments of figures 4 or 5 or 6 described above; or it is to be understood that the communication method in the embodiment of the present application may also be regarded as an embodiment that can be separately executed, and the present application is not limited thereto. The communication method provided by the embodiment of the application is applied to the technical field of communication, such as communication of NCR network, and comprises the following steps:

s701: the first node determines to camp on a first acceptable cell.

S702: the first node resides in a first acceptable cell and determines to enter an RRC connected state if the current traffic is non-emergency traffic.

(1) The cell is not barred from access;

(2) The cell satisfies the measurement condition (i.e., S criterion);

The non-emergency services are services opposite to the emergency services, and the emergency services include services such as an emergency call, an earthquake tsunami, and a business alarm, and the non-emergency services may be understood as other services than the emergency services.

It can be understood that when the existing UE camps on an acceptable cell (acceptable cell), the UE can only enter the RRC connected state due to the emergency service, and compared with the triggering condition that the existing UE camps on the acceptable cell (acceptable cell), the first node in the embodiment of the present application enters the RRC connected state due to the non-emergency service.

In a possible embodiment, the first node is configured to provide a signal coverage enhancement service for a first acceptable cell.

It will be appreciated that the first node may be provided with transmission of control information when it resides in a first acceptable cell.

By the embodiment of the application, the first node can promote the expansion coverage for the acceptable cell (acceptable cell), and the flexibility of the deployment of the first node is improved.

In one possible embodiment, the first node may be in an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state, and the case where the first node is in the RRC idle state or the RRC inactive state will be described below:

Case one: the first node is in an RRC idle state.

In this case, the first node also transmits sixth information to the third node before determining to enter the RRC-connected state, and accordingly, the third node receives the sixth information from the first node.

Wherein, the sixth information is used for requesting to establish the RRC connection.

And, the sixth information further includes a reason why an Access Stratum (AS) of the first node triggers RRC connection establishment, and the first acceptable cell is a cell of the third node.

Optionally, the AS layer of the first node triggers the first node to initiate the RRC connection establishment request, which may be due to the first timer expiring, or may be due to the first node requesting the control information of the third node, or may be specifically due to the first timer expiring, which causes the first node to request the control information of the third node.

The first timer is configured to instruct the first node to enter the RRC connected state from the RRC idle state after the first period of time. It will be appreciated that the first time period is not a fixed value and may be adjusted for different traffic scenarios.

The first node may enter the RRC connected state when the first timer expires, or may enter the RRC connected state directly, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

By the embodiment of the application, the reason that the access layer triggers the RRC connection establishment can also be used as a judging factor for the third node to judge that the first node is allowed to enter the RRC connection state, so that the first node can enter the RRC connection state under the condition that the first node can reside in an acceptable cell (acceptable cell) in a mode of referring to UE.

And a second case: the first node is in an RRC inactive state.

In this case, the first node will also start the first timer before determining to enter the RRC connected state, and when the second timer is configured on the first node, the first node will stop running the second timer. Before the first timer times out, the first node performs cell reselection until the first node resides in a suitable cell (useable cell), and then the first node sends seventh information to a second node corresponding to the suitable cell, and correspondingly, the second node receives the seventh information from the first node.

The seventh information is used for requesting to establish RRC connection, and the suitable cell is a cell of the second node.

By the embodiment of the application, a scheme for allowing the first node to reside in an acceptable cell (acceptable cell) and allowing the first node to enter an RRC connected state in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) is provided, so that the first node can receive control information from the acceptable cell (acceptable cell).

Optionally, in the second case, the first node is in an RRC inactive state, and the first node may further perform the following method:

when the first timer times out and the first node resides in the first acceptable cell, the first node enters an RRC idle state;

the first node sends eighth information to the third node, and the third node receives the eighth information from the first node.

Wherein the eighth information is used to request establishment of the RRC connection.

It can be appreciated that if the first timer expires and the first node is still camping on the first acceptable cell, the first node deletes the configuration in the RRC inactive state, enters the RRC idle state, and then the first node in the RRC idle state sends eighth information to the third node on the first acceptable cell requesting establishment of the RRC connection.

the first node enters an RRC idle state;

The first node sends ninth information to the third node, and the third node receives the ninth information from the first node.

Wherein the ninth information is used to request establishment of the RRC connection.

It can be appreciated that when the second timer is configured on the first node, the first node stops running the second timer, deletes the configuration in the RRC inactive state, enters the RRC idle state, and then the first node in the RRC idle state sends ninth information to the third node on the first acceptable cell, requesting to establish an RRC connection.

the first node enters an RRC idle state;

when the first timer times out, the first node sends ninth information to the third node, and correspondingly, the third node receives the ninth information from the first node.

It will be appreciated that when the second timer is configured on the first node, the first node stops running the second timer and the first node starts the first timer. The first node deletes the configuration of the RRC inactive state, enters the RRC idle state, and then when the first timer times out, the first node in the RRC idle state sends ninth information to the third node on the first acceptable cell to request to establish the RRC connection.

In a possible embodiment, the first node may further perform the following method:

the first node sends tenth information to the third node, and correspondingly, the third node receives tenth information from the first node;

when the first node performs cell reselection and resides in a proper cell, eleventh information is sent to the second node, and correspondingly, the second node receives the eleventh information from the first node.

Wherein the tenth information is used for requesting to release the RRC connection, the eleventh information is used for requesting to enter the RRC connected state, the third node corresponds to the first acceptable cell, and the second node corresponds to the suitable cell.

It may be appreciated that after the first node camps on the first acceptable cell, if the first node enters the RRC connected state in the first acceptable cell before reselecting back to the suitable cell, when the suitable cell is measured, the first node sends tenth information to a third node corresponding to the first acceptable cell, requests to release the RRC connection, the first node returns to the RRC idle state, and when the first node in the RRC idle state reselects to the suitable cell, sends eleventh information to a second node corresponding to the suitable cell, requests to enter the RRC connected state.

Optionally, after the first acceptable cell returns to the RRC idle state, the NCR-Fwd also turns off accordingly. After the NCR-MT returns from the acceptable cell to the acceptable cell, the NCR-Fwd may be turned on as soon as the NCR-MT has been camped back to the acceptable cell (when the NCR-MT is not in the RRC connected state, the NCR-Fwd may also operate according to the radio frequency repeater RF REPEATER, but has no capability to accept network control), or the NCR-MT may be turned on after the acceptable cell enters the RRC connected state, and the configuration (e.g., beam, power, etc.) that the NCR-Fwd adopted when the NCR-MT was last in the acceptable cell may be adopted.

By the embodiment of the application, a scheme of how the first node returns to the proper cell (useable cell) again after entering the RRC connection state in the acceptable cell (useable cell) is provided, so that the first node is beneficial to maximally serving the specific cell.

As can be seen from the above description, in the communication method shown in fig. 7, a scheme is provided for allowing the first node to reside in an acceptable cell (acceptable cell), and allowing the first node to enter an RRC connected state in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell), which is specifically as follows:

(1) In the definition of an acceptable cell, the transmission of a control message (side control information) is newly provided for the NCR-MT, and optionally, the NCR device to which the NCR-MT belongs may be an NCR device that provides coverage enhancement for the cell (NCR-Fwd will also forward the signal of the cell).

(2) After the NCR-MT in rrc_idle state resides in the acceptable cell, the following operations may be performed:

a) The first timer continues to operate, and after the first timer expires, the NCR-MT enters the RRC connected state.

B) Or the NCR-MT goes directly into RRC connected state.

(3) After the NCR-MT in rrc_inactive state resides in the acceptable cell, the following operations may be performed:

a) The second timer is suspended or disabled and the first timer is started. If the NCR-MT reselects back to the subtable cell before the expiration of the first timer, the second timer continues to operate/restarts/returns from the RRC_INACTIVE state to the RRC connected state directly at the subtable cell; if the first timer expires, the NCR-MT is still in the acceptable cell, then the NCR-MT deletes the configuration of the RRC_INACTIVE state, enters the RRC_IDLE state first, and then initiates RRCSetupRequest in the acceptable cell, and enters the RRC connected state from the RRC_IDLE state.

B) Or the second timer is disabled and the first timer is started, the NCR-MT deletes the configuration of the RRC_INACTIVE state, enters the RRC_IDLE state, and after the first timer expires, initiates RRCSetupRequest to enter the RRC connected state from the RRC_IDLE state.

C) Or the second timer is disabled, the NCR-MT deletes the configuration of the RRC_INACTIVE state, enters the RRC_IDLE state first, then initiates RRCSetupRequest directly in the acceptable cell, and enters the RRC connection state from the RRC_IDLE state.

(4) The gNB is indicated by the condition triggering RRC establishment (establishmentCause value) in RRCSetupRequest for AS layer reasons, such AS: when the first timer expires or the NCR-MT requests to receive the control message, the gNB does not perform PLMN checking after receiving the RRC setup complete message (RRCSetupComplete, which may also be referred to as fifth information msg 5) later, allowing the NCR-MT to enter the RRC connected state.

(5) Optionally, if the NCR device is mainly served by the acceptable cell, after the NCR-MT resides in the acceptable cell, if the acceptable cell enters the RRC connected state before reselecting back to the acceptable cell, after the NCR-MT enters the RRC connected state, when the NCR-MT measures that the signal quality of the acceptable cell meets the requirement, a message is sent to the gNB of the acceptable cell, indicating that the RRC connection of the NCR-MT is requested to be released. The gNB of the acceptable cell releases the NCR-MT back to the RRC_IDLE state, and the NCR-Fwd is closed, then the NCR-MT performs cell reselection, camps back to the acceptable cell, and then starts a first timer in the acceptable cell or directly enters the RRC connected state. This is required here because the existing conclusion has agreed that NCR does not support cell handover in RRC connected state and therefore can only release RRC connection first and then cell reselection by NCR-MT itself.

In the communication method shown in fig. 7, when there is no suitable cell (acceptable cell) when the first node performs cell selection or cell reselection, the behavior of the first node is clarified, that is, a scheme is provided for allowing the first node to reside in an acceptable cell (acceptable cell) and allowing the first node to enter an RRC connection state in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell), so that the first node can receive control information from the acceptable cell (acceptable cell).

Referring to fig. 8, fig. 8 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the application. It will be appreciated that steps in embodiments of the application may be regarded as reasonable variations or additions to the embodiments of figures 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 described above; or it is to be understood that the communication method in the embodiment of the present application may also be regarded as an embodiment that can be separately executed, and the present application is not limited thereto. The communication method provided by the embodiment of the application is applied to the technical field of communication, such as communication of NCR network, and comprises the following steps:

s801: the first node obtains twelfth information.

S802: the first node determines not to camp on the first acceptable cell based on the twelfth information.

(1) The cell is not barred from access;

(2) The cell satisfies the measurement condition (i.e., S criterion);

The twelfth information is used to indicate that the first node is prohibited from camping on the first acceptable cell.

Further, the twelfth information may be specifically used to indicate that the node that allows selection of the first acceptable cell residence in any cell selection state does not include the first node, and it is understood that the first node cannot select the first acceptable cell residence in any cell selection state, and in the absence of a suitable cell (useable cell), the first node will continue to be in the cell reselection evaluation process in the initial cell selection state.

The twelfth information may be further specifically used to indicate that any cell selection state is not suitable for the first node, and it may be understood that, for the first node, the first node cannot enter any cell selection state, and in the case that no suitable cell (useable cell) exists, the first node will continue to be in the cell reselection evaluation process in the initial cell selection state.

In a possible embodiment, the twelfth information includes information of at least one of the first cell list or the second cell list.

The cells in the first cell list are allowed to be accessed by the first node, and the cells in the second cell list are forbidden to be accessed by the first node.

Specifically, the configuration of the first cell list and/or the second cell list may be as follows:

Configuration one:

the first cell list does not include cells under the second PLMN and/or the second cell list includes cells under the second PLMN.

The second PLMN is a PLMN broadcasted by the first acceptable cell, and the first PLMN is a PLMN broadcasted by the proper cell.

It will be appreciated that, since the cells in the first cell list are those cells that allow access by the first node, and the cells in the second cell list are those cells that prohibit access by the first node, the cells under other PLMNs (e.g., the second PLMN) may not be configured when the first node of the first public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN) is configured to allow access to the cell list, and/or the cells adjacent to the other PLMNs (e.g., the second PLMN) may be configured when the first node of the first PLMN is configured to prohibit access to the cell list.

And (2) configuration II:

Cells located under the first PLMN are in a first cell list and/or cells located under the first PLMN are not in a second cell list;

Or cells not under the first PLMN are not in the first cell list and/or cells not under the first PLMN are in the second cell list.

It will be appreciated that the first cell list and/or the second cell list may also be generated by the first node according to PLMN principles, i.e.: cells of the same PLMN are in the allowed access cell list and/or are not in the forbidden access cell list; and/or cells of different PLMNs are not in the allowed access cell list and/or in the forbidden access cell list.

According to the embodiment of the application, the purpose of prohibiting the first node from residing in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) can be realized through the configuration of the first cell list and/or the second cell list, and the problem that the prior protocol does not give relevant support for the action of not allowing the first node to reselect and reside in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) is solved.

In summary, in the communication method shown in fig. 8, two schemes are provided for not allowing NCR-MT to reselect and camp on an acceptable cell, specifically as follows:

Scheme one:

In the discussion of NCR by the 3gpp RAN3 working group, the following conclusions are drawn: the NCR may configure an allowed and/or forbidden cell list.

Based on this, an intuitive solution is to not configure cells under other PLMNs when configuring allowed cell lists for NCR of a certain PLMN, and/or to include neighboring cells under other PLMNs when configuring forbidden cell lists for NCR of a certain PLMN, which belongs to the implementation solution.

Accordingly, clarification is also required in the standard, and the allowed/forbidden cell list is specific to the RRC connected state, the RRC idle state and the RRC inactive state, and when the NCR-MT performs cell selection/reselection, only the cells in the allowed cell list can be selected, and/or the cells in the forbidden cell list are forbidden to be selected.

In particular, it may be specified in the protocol that, as long as the cells in the allowed cell list are not in use, and/or that the cells in the forbidden cell list are considered not allowed to be accessed, no matter what the NCR-support values they actually broadcast, in particular, their NCR-support values may be considered as empty, in which the existing conclusion has agreed to introduce NCR-support in the broadcast of the cell system information block (system information block, SIB 1) for indicating whether this cell supports NCR access, the allowed/forbidden cell list may be configured on NCR, such as operation and administration AND MANAGEMENT, OAM) configuration, or that NCR itself is generated according to the principles of the PLMN, i.e.: cells of the same PLMN are in the allowed cell list and/or are not in the forbidden cell list; and/or the cells of the different PLMNs are not in the allowed cell list and/or in the forbidden cell list.

Scheme II:

Since the original purpose of the allowed/forbidden cell list design is to allow a specific NCR to be deployed only in a specific cell, and not to solve the problem of forbidden NCRs to reside in an acceptable cell, and in the above-mentioned conclusion about NCRs, it is necessary to consider other schemes because the NCR can configure an allowed and/or forbidden cell list as belonging to an optional feature.

It may be specified in the protocol that in any cell selection state (Any Cell Selection state), the NCR-MT is not included in the UE where the allowed selection acceptable cell resides, or that any cell selection state (Any Cell Selection state) is not applicable to NCR-MT, and for NCR-MT, any cell selection state (Any Cell Selection state) cannot be entered, and if there is no acceptable cell, the relevant measurement of cell reselection is performed during the cell reselection evaluation in the initial cell selection state.

In the communication method shown in fig. 8, when the first node performs cell selection or cell reselection, there is no suitable cell (acceptable cell), the behavior of the first node is clarified, that is, a scheme that the first node is not allowed to reside in an acceptable cell (acceptable cell) is provided, so that the first node can only wait for the suitable cell (acceptable cell) to reside in the suitable cell (acceptable cell), and the problem that the processing of a timer (timer) after the first node resides in the acceptable cell (acceptable cell) is not clear is avoided, which is beneficial to the correct work of the first node.

It should be understood that the embodiments shown in fig. 4 to 8 above are merely possible exemplary illustrations for defining the behavior of NCR-MT, and should not be construed as limiting the embodiments of the present application, and embodiments based on the complementary or rational modification or rational combination of the embodiments shown in fig. 4 to 8 above are all within the scope of protection of the embodiments of the present application.

In addition, for the first timer and/or the second timer related to fig. 4 to 8, the present application further provides a corresponding embodiment description, which will be described below with reference to fig. 9 to 10.

Referring to fig. 9, fig. 9 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the application.

AS shown in fig. 9, when the AS layer of the NCR-MT triggers RRC connection establishment, the NCR-MT in IDLE in the RRC IDLE state sends an RRC establishment request to the gNB.

The reason why the AS layer of the NCR-MT triggers the RRC connection establishment includes: the first timer times out or the NCR-MT requests control information of the gNB.

It will be appreciated that, as specified by the current protocol for the NCR behavior, the NCR-MT configures a timer (timer) when released to the rrc_idle state, denoted by "first timer" in the present application, for the NCR-MT to periodically initiate entry into the RRC connected state from the rrc_idle state.

The first timer has the following features:

For the RRC connection setup request message (RRCSetupRequest), in the existing protocol, the UE-initiated RRC setup occasion is defined as "when the UE is in rrc_idle state, the upper layer requests to establish an RRC connection, and the UE has acquired basic information of the system, the UE will initiate the operation". And in RRCSetupRequest, the establishment cause (establishmentCause) field is necessarily carried. For the case (RELEASE WITH REDIRECT) that redirection is indicated when RRC is released, the UE sets the establishmentCause field to mps-PriorityAccess, and in addition to this, the establishmentCause value is set according to the upper layer indication, and the common establishmentCause value includes voice call, video call, short message service (short MESSAGING SERVICE, SMS), etc., because for the case of RRC connection establishment, only the RRC layer with redirection triggers and completes itself, and in addition, the RRC layer has traffic data to send, and the RRC layer initiates establishment.

If an RRC connection establishment based on a timer is adopted, the timer is also configured by the RRC layer, and is not configured by an upper layer to have data to send, so a branch needs to be added in the sending of RRCSetupRequest in the protocol, that is, for NCR-MT, the reason for initiating RRC establishment may be a trigger condition of an Access Stratum (AS), for example: the first timer expires or the NCR-MT requests to receive the control message. In addition, for the carried establishmentCause value, a reason unrelated to the upper layer service needs to be added, which means that the reason is because of the AS layer, for example: the first timer expires or the NCR-MT requests to receive the control message.

Referring to fig. 10, fig. 10 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the application. AS shown in fig. 10, the NCR-MT (NCR-MT IN INACTIVE) in the RRC inactive state sends an RRC setup request to the gNB in case the AS layer of the NCR-MT triggers RRC connection setup.

The reason why the AS layer of the NCR-MT triggers the RRC connection establishment includes: the second timer times out or the NCR-MT requests control information of the gNB.

Similar to the first timer shown in fig. 9, the NCR-MT may also be configured with a timer (timer) when released to the rrc_inactive state, denoted by "second timer" in the present application, for the NCR-MT to periodically initiate entry into the RRC connected state from the rrc_inactive state.

For the RRC connection setup request message (RRCSetupRequest), in the existing protocol, a t380 is configured when the UE is released to the rrc_inactive state, for the UE to periodically resume the RRC connected state for RAN notification area update (RAN notification area update, RNAU). For the case of releasing the NCR-MT to the rrc_inactive state, the second timer may multiplex t380 or a new timer may be introduced.

Similar to the first timer in fig. 9 described above, the second timer has the following features:

In the RRC connection resume request message (RRCResumeRequest), for the NCR-MT, the RRC establishment is initiated, possibly because the second timer expires, or the NCR-MT requests receipt of a control message. In addition, for the carried ResumeCause value, a reason unrelated to the upper layer service needs to be added, which means that the reason is because of the AS layer, for example: the second timer expires or the NCR-MT requests reception of the control message.

Having described the methods of embodiments of the present application in detail, an apparatus for implementing any of the methods of embodiments of the present application is provided below, e.g., an apparatus comprising means for implementing the steps performed by the device in any of the methods above.

Referring to fig. 11, fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the application.

As shown in fig. 11, the communication device 110 may include a communication unit 1101 and a processing unit 1102. The communication unit 1101 and the processing unit 1102 may be software, hardware, or a combination of software and hardware.

Among them, the communication unit 1101 may implement a transmission function and/or a reception function, and the communication unit 1101 may also be described as a transceiver unit. The communication unit 1101 may also be a unit integrating an acquisition unit for realizing a reception function and a transmission unit for realizing a transmission function. Alternatively, the communication unit 1101 may be configured to receive information sent by other devices, and may be configured to send information to other devices.

In one possible design, the communication device 110 may correspond to the first node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 4, where the communication device 110 may be the first node or may be a chip in the first node. The communication device 110 may include means for performing the operations performed by the first node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 4 and the respective means in the communication device 110 are respectively for implementing the operations performed by the first node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 4.

Wherein, each unit is described as follows:

a processing unit 1102 for determining to camp on a first acceptable cell;

the processing unit 1102 is further configured to stop running a first timer when camping on the first acceptable cell;

In one possible embodiment, the apparatus further comprises:

A communication unit 1101, configured to perform cell reselection until a suitable cell is camping, and send first information to a second node, where the first information is used to request establishment of an RRC connection, and the suitable cell is a cell of the second node.

The methods executed by the processing unit 1102 and the communication unit 1101 may refer to the methods corresponding to those in fig. 4, and are not described herein.

For technical effects of the present design and any possible implementation, reference may be made to the description of the technical effects of the method corresponding to fig. 4.

In another possible design of the communication device 110 shown in fig. 11, the communication device 110 may correspond to the first node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 5, where the communication device 110 may be the first node or may be a chip in the first node. The communication device 110 may include means for performing the operations performed by the first node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 5 and the respective means in the communication device 110 are respectively for implementing the operations performed by the first node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 5. Wherein, each unit is described as follows:

a processing unit 1102 for determining to camp on a first acceptable cell;

the processing unit 1102 is further configured to determine that the RRC connected state is not entered in the first acceptable cell;

The processing unit 1102 is further configured to, in a case where it is determined that the communication device in a radio resource control RRC inactive state resides in the first acceptable cell, maintain an RRC inactive state.

In one possible embodiment, the apparatus further comprises:

The communication unit 1101 is configured to perform cell reselection until a suitable cell resides, and send second information to a second node, where the second information is used to request to enter an RRC connected state from an RRC inactive state, and the suitable cell is a cell of the second node.

The methods executed by the processing unit 1102 and the communication unit 1101 may refer to the methods corresponding to the methods described above in fig. 5, and are not described herein again.

Regarding the technical effects of the present design and any possible implementation, reference may be made to the description of the technical effects of the method corresponding to fig. 5.

In yet another possible design of the communication device 110 shown in fig. 11, the communication device 110 may correspond to the third node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 6, where the communication device 110 may be the third node or may be a chip in the third node. The communication device 110 may include means for performing the operations performed by the third node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 6 and the respective means in the communication device 110 are respectively for implementing the operations performed by the third node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 6. Wherein, each unit is described as follows:

a communication unit 1101 for receiving third information from a first node camping on a first acceptable cell, said third information being for indicating that radio resource control, RRC, establishment is complete;

the communication unit 1101 is further configured to send fourth information to the first node via the first acceptable cell, where the fourth information is used to instruct the first node to release the RRC connection.

In one possible embodiment, the apparatus further comprises:

and a processing unit 1102, configured to determine the fourth information according to the third information.

The methods performed by the processing unit 1102 and the communication unit 1101 may refer to the methods corresponding to the methods described above in fig. 6, and are not described herein again.

Regarding the technical effects of the present design and any possible implementation, reference may be made to the description of the technical effects of the method corresponding to fig. 6.

In yet another possible design of the communication device 110 shown in fig. 11, the communication device 110 may correspond to the first node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 6, where the communication device 110 may be the first node or may be a chip in the first node. The communication device 110 may include means for performing the operations performed by the first node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 6 and the respective means in the communication device 110 are respectively for implementing the operations performed by the first node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 6. Wherein, each unit is described as follows:

a processing unit 1102, configured to camp on a first acceptable cell;

A communication unit 1101, configured to send fifth information to a third node, where the fifth information is used for requesting to establish an RRC connection, the fifth information includes a reason why an access layer of the communication device triggers RRC connection establishment, the first acceptable cell is a cell of the third node, and the reason why an access layer of the communication device triggers RRC connection establishment includes:

In yet another possible design of the communication device 110 shown in fig. 11, the communication device 110 may correspond to the first node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 7, where the communication device 110 may be the first node or may be a chip in the first node. The communication device 110 may include means for performing the operations performed by the first node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 7 and the respective means in the communication device 110 are respectively for implementing the operations performed by the first node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 7. Wherein, each unit is described as follows:

a processing unit 1102 for determining to camp on a first acceptable cell;

The processing unit 1102 is further configured to determine to enter a radio resource control RRC connected state when camping on the first acceptable cell and the current service is a non-emergency service.

In one possible embodiment, the apparatus further comprises:

A communication unit 1101, configured to send sixth information to a third node, where the sixth information is used to request to establish an RRC connection, the sixth information includes a reason why an access layer of the communication device triggers RRC connection establishment, and the first acceptable cell is a cell of the third node.

The methods executed by the processing unit 1102 and the communication unit 1101 may refer to the methods corresponding to those in fig. 7, and are not described herein.

Regarding the technical effects of the present design and any possible implementation, reference may be made to the description of the technical effects of the method corresponding to fig. 7.

In yet another possible design of the communication device 110 shown in fig. 11, the communication device 110 may correspond to the first node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 8, where the communication device 110 may be the first node or may be a chip in the first node. The communication device 110 may include means for performing the operations performed by the first node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 8 and the respective means in the communication device 110 are respectively for implementing the operations performed by the first node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 8. Wherein, each unit is described as follows:

A processing unit 1102 configured to acquire twelfth information, where the twelfth information is used to indicate that a node that allows selection of the first acceptable cell residence in the arbitrary cell selection state does not include the communication device, or the twelfth information is used to indicate that the arbitrary cell selection state is not applicable to the communication device;

The processing unit 1102 is further configured to determine, according to the twelfth information, that the first acceptable cell is not camping.

In one possible embodiment, the apparatus further comprises:

a communication unit 1101 for receiving the twelfth information.

The methods executed by the processing unit 1102 and the communication unit 1101 may refer to the methods corresponding to those in fig. 8, and are not described herein.

Regarding the technical effects of the present design and any possible implementation, reference may be made to the description of the technical effects of the method corresponding to fig. 8.

Optionally, in the communication device according to any one of the designs and any one of the possible embodiments described above:

According to the embodiment of the present application, each unit in the apparatus shown in fig. 11 may be separately or completely combined into one or several additional units, or some (some) units may be further split into a plurality of units with smaller functions to form the unit, which may achieve the same operation without affecting the implementation of the technical effects of the embodiment of the present application. The above units are divided based on logic functions, and in practical applications, the functions of one unit may be implemented by a plurality of units, or the functions of a plurality of units may be implemented by one unit. In other embodiments of the application, the electronic device may also comprise other units, and in practical applications, these functions may also be implemented with the assistance of other units, and may be implemented by cooperation of multiple units.

It should be noted that the implementation of each unit may also correspond to the corresponding description of the method embodiments shown in fig. 4, fig. 5, fig. 6, fig. 7, fig. 8, fig. 9, and fig. 10.

In the communication device 110 depicted in fig. 11, the behavior of the first node is clarified in case there is no suitable cell (useable cell) when the first node performs cell selection or cell reselection.

Referring to fig. 12, fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the application.

It should be understood that the communication device 120 shown in fig. 12 is only an example, and the communication device of the embodiment of the present application may further include other components, or include components similar in function to the respective components in fig. 12, or not necessarily include all the components in fig. 12.

The communication device 120 includes a communication interface 1201 and at least one processor 1202.

The communication device 120 may correspond to any network element or node of the first node, the third node. The communication interface 1201 is configured to receive and transmit signals, and the at least one processor 1202 executes program instructions to cause the communication apparatus 120 to implement the respective flow of the method performed by the corresponding device in the above-described method embodiment.

In one possible design, the communication device 120 may correspond to the first node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 4, where the communication device 120 may be the first node or may be a chip in the first node. The communication device 120 may include means for performing the operations performed by the first node in the above-described method embodiments, and each of the means in the communication device 120 is configured to perform the operations performed by the first node in the above-described method embodiments, respectively. The method can be specifically as follows:

the first node determining to camp on a first acceptable cell;

In another possible design, the communication device 120 may correspond to the first node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 5, where the communication device 120 may be the first node or may be a chip in the first node. The communication device 120 may include means for performing the operations performed by the first node in the above-described method embodiments, and each of the means in the communication device 120 is configured to perform the operations performed by the first node in the above-described method embodiments, respectively. The method can be specifically as follows:

the first node determining to camp on a first acceptable cell;

In yet another possible design, the communication device 120 may correspond to the third node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 6, where the communication device 120 may be the third node or may be a chip in the third node. The communication device 120 may include means for performing the operations performed by the third node in the above-described method embodiments, and each of the means in the communication device 120 is configured to perform the operations performed by the third node in the above-described method embodiments, respectively. The method can be specifically as follows:

In yet another possible design, the communication device 120 may correspond to the first node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 6, where the communication device 120 may be the first node or may be a chip in the first node. The communication device 120 may include means for performing the operations performed by the first node in the above-described method embodiments, and each of the means in the communication device 120 is configured to perform the operations performed by the first node in the above-described method embodiments, respectively. The method can be specifically as follows:

The first node camps on a first acceptable cell;

In yet another possible design, the communication device 120 may correspond to the first node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 7, where the communication device 120 may be the first node or may be a chip in the first node. The communication device 120 may include means for performing the operations performed by the first node in the above-described method embodiments, and each of the means in the communication device 120 is configured to perform the operations performed by the first node in the above-described method embodiments, respectively. The method can be specifically as follows:

the first node determining to camp on a first acceptable cell;

In yet another possible design, the communication device 120 may correspond to the first node in the method embodiment shown in fig. 8, where the communication device 120 may be the first node or may be a chip in the first node. The communication device 120 may include means for performing the operations performed by the first node in the above-described method embodiments, and each of the means in the communication device 120 is configured to perform the operations performed by the first node in the above-described method embodiments, respectively. The method can be specifically as follows:

In the communication device 120 depicted in fig. 12, the behavior of the first node is clarified in case there is no suitable cell (useable cell) when the first node performs cell selection or cell reselection.

For the case where the communication device may be a chip or a chip system, reference may be made to the schematic structure of the chip shown in fig. 13.

As shown in fig. 13, chip 130 includes a processor 1301 and an interface 1302. Wherein the number of processors 1301 may be one or more, and the number of interfaces 1302 may be a plurality. It should be noted that, the functions corresponding to the processor 1301 and the interface 1302 may be implemented by a hardware design, a software design, or a combination of hardware and software, which is not limited herein.

Optionally, the chip 130 may further include a memory 1303, where the memory 1303 is configured to store necessary program instructions and data.

In the present application, the processor 1301 may be configured to invoke, from the memory 1303, a program for implementing the communication method provided in one or more of the first node, the third node, and one or more nodes or network elements according to one or more embodiments of the present application, and execute instructions included in the program. Interface 1302 may be used to output results of execution by processor 1301. In the present application, interface 1302 may be used specifically to output various messages or information for processor 1301.

The communication method provided in one or more embodiments of the present application may refer to the foregoing embodiments shown in fig. 4, fig. 5, fig. 6, fig. 7, fig. 8, fig. 9, and fig. 10, and will not be described herein.

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

The memory in the embodiment of the application is used for providing a memory space, and the memory space can store data such as an operating system, a computer program and the like. The memory includes, but is not limited to, random access memory (random access memory, RAM), read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (erasable programmable read only memory, EPROM), or portable read-only memory (compact disc read-only memory, CD-ROM).

According to the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the embodiment of the present application further provides a computer readable storage medium, where a computer program is stored, and when the computer program runs on one or more processors, the method shown in fig. 4, fig. 5, fig. 6, fig. 7, fig. 8, fig. 9, and fig. 10 may be implemented.

According to the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the embodiment of the present application further provides a computer program product, where the computer program product includes a computer program, and when the computer program runs on a processor, the method shown in fig. 4, fig. 5, fig. 6, fig. 7, fig. 8, fig. 9, and fig. 10 can be implemented.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a system, where the system includes at least one communication device 110 or 120 or chip 130, for performing the steps performed by the corresponding apparatus in any of the embodiments of fig. 4, fig. 5, fig. 6, fig. 7, fig. 8, fig. 9, and fig. 10.

The embodiment of the application also provides a system, which comprises a first node and a third node, wherein the first node is used for executing the steps executed by the first node in any embodiment of fig. 4, fig. 5, fig. 6, fig. 7, fig. 8, fig. 9 and fig. 10, and the third node is used for executing the steps executed by the third node in any embodiment of fig. 4, fig. 5, fig. 6, fig. 7, fig. 8, fig. 9 and fig. 10.

The embodiment of the application also provides a processing device, which comprises a processor and an interface; the processor is configured to perform the method of any of the method embodiments described above.

It should be understood that the processing means may be a chip. For example, the processing means may be a field programmable gate array (field programmable GATE ARRAY, FPGA), a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DIGITAL SIGNAL processor, DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf programmable gate array (field programmable GATE ARRAY, FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware components, a system on chip (SoC), a central processor (central processor unit, CPU), a network processor (network processor, NP), a digital signal processing circuit (DIGITAL SIGNAL processor, DSP), a microcontroller (micro controller unit, MCU), a programmable controller (programmable logic device, PLD) or other integrated chip. The disclosed methods, steps, and logic blocks in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented or performed. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. The steps of the method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be embodied directly in the execution of a hardware decoding processor, or in the execution of a combination of hardware and software modules in a decoding processor. The software modules may be located in a random access memory, flash memory, read only memory, programmable read only memory, or electrically erasable programmable memory, registers, etc. as well known in the art. The storage medium is located in a memory, and the processor reads the information in the memory and, in combination with its hardware, performs the steps of the above method.

It will be appreciated that the memory in embodiments of the application may be volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an erasable programmable ROM (erasable PROM), an electrically erasable programmable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be random access memory (random access memory, RAM) which acts as external cache memory. By way of example, and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as static random access memory (STATIC RAM, SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DYNAMIC RAM, DRAM), synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (double DATA RATE SDRAM, DDR SDRAM), enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (ENHANCED SDRAM, ESDRAM), synchronous link dynamic random access memory (SYNCHLINK DRAM, SLDRAM), and direct memory bus random access memory (direct rambus RAM, DR RAM). It should be noted that the memory of the systems and methods described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in accordance with embodiments of the present application are produced in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center by a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, digital subscriber line (digital subscriber line, DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that contains an integration of one or more available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a high-density digital video disc (digital video disc, DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a solid-state disk (solid-state drive STATE DISC, SSD)), or the like.

The units in the above-mentioned respective apparatus embodiments and the electronic devices in the method embodiments correspond exactly, and the respective steps are performed by respective modules or units, for example, the communication unit (transceiver) performs the steps of receiving or transmitting in the method embodiments, and other steps than transmitting and receiving may be performed by the processing unit (processor). Reference may be made to corresponding method embodiments for the function of a specific unit. Wherein the processor may be one or more.

It will be understood that, in the embodiments of the present application, an electronic device may perform some or all of the steps in the embodiments of the present application, these steps or operations are only examples, and other operations or variations of the various operations may also be performed by the embodiments of the present application. Furthermore, the various steps may be performed in a different order presented in accordance with embodiments of the application, and it is possible that not all of the operations in the embodiments of the application may be performed.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

It will be clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, specific working procedures of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to corresponding procedures in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not repeated herein.

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

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

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

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied in essence or contributing part or part of the technical solution in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, comprising several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, or other various media capable of storing program codes.

The foregoing is merely illustrative of the present application, and the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art will readily recognize that variations or substitutions are within the scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A method of communication, comprising:

the first node determining to camp on a first acceptable cell;

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

The first node performs cell reselection until a proper cell is resided, and restarts the first timer;

and the first node sends first information to a second node under the condition that the first timer is overtime, wherein the first information is used for requesting to establish RRC connection, and the suitable cell is a cell of the second node.

3. A method of communication, comprising:

the first node determining to camp on a first acceptable cell;

4. A method according to claim 3, characterized in that the method further comprises:

5. The method according to claim 3 or 4, wherein any cell-camping state is applicable to the first node being in an RRC inactive state.

6. The method according to any one of claims 3 to 5, further comprising:

7. A method of communication, comprising:

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the third information comprises information of a first public land mobile network PLMN, the first PLMN being a PLMN corresponding to the first node; the third node transmits fourth information to the first node, including:

9. The method according to claim 7 or 8, wherein before the third node receives the third information from the first node, the method further comprises:

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the reason for triggering RRC connection establishment by the access stratum of the first node comprises:

11. A method of communication, comprising:

The first node camps on a first acceptable cell;

12. A communication device comprising means or units for performing the method of any one of claims 1 to 2 or claims 3 to 6 or claims 7 to 10 or claim 11.

13. A communication device, comprising: a processor;

The computer program or instructions, when invoked by the processor in a memory, cause the method of any one of claims 1 to 2, or the method of any one of claims 3 to 6, or the method of any one of claims 7 to 10, or the method of claim 11 to be performed.

14. A communication device comprising logic circuitry and an interface, the logic circuitry and the interface coupled;

The interface is used for inputting data to be processed, the logic circuit processes the data to be processed according to the method of any one of claims 1 to 2 or claims 3 to 6 or claims 7 to 10 or claim 11 to obtain processed data, and the interface is used for outputting the processed data.

15. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising:

The computer readable storage medium is used for storing instructions or a computer program; when the instructions or the computer program are executed, cause the method of any one of claims 1 to 2, or the method of any one of claims 3 to 6, or the method of any one of claims 7 to 10, or the method of claim 11 to be implemented.

16. A computer program product, comprising: instructions or computer programs;

The instructions or the computer program, when executed, cause the method of any one of claims 1 to 2, or the method of any one of claims 3 to 6, or the method of any one of claims 7 to 10, or the method of claim 11 to be performed.

17. A communication system comprising a communication device according to claim 12, or a communication device according to claim 13, or a communication device according to claim 14.

18. A communication system, comprising: a first node and a third node;

The first node is configured to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 2 or claims 3 to 6 or claim 11, and the third node is configured to perform the method of any of claims 7 to 10.