CN102892098B - The update method of relay node contextual information, apparatus and system - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a method for updating context information of a relay node, comprising: after the donor base station DeNB determines that the mobility management unit accessed by the relay node RN serving as the user equipment UE fails or restarts, and then sends the context information of the RN To the mobility management unit reselected for the RN or the restarted mobility management unit. The invention also discloses a device and system for updating context information of relay nodes for realizing the above method. The present invention can enable the RN to access the system as quickly as possible, thereby ensuring the quickness of the service access of the RN enabled by the UE and the UE accessing the RN, and ensuring the service quality of the communication system. When restarting, make the impact on access users as small as possible.

Description

Method, device and system for updating relay node context information

technical field

The present invention relates to a relay node (RN, Relay Node) context information update technology, in particular to a relay node context information update method, device and system.

Background technique

In order to maintain the competitiveness of the third generation mobile communication system in the communication field, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP, 3rd Generation Partnership Project) standard working group is working on the research of the Evolved Packet System (EPS, Evolved Packet System). Figure 1 is a system structure diagram of an evolved packet network. As shown in Figure 1, the EPS system mainly includes an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN, Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network) and an evolved packet core network (EPC, Evolved Packet Core) two parts. The EPC of the system can support user access from a GSM EDGE radio access network (GERAN, GSM EDGE radio access network) and a universal terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN, Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network).

In the EPC packet core network, it includes a home subscriber data server (HSS, Home Subscriber Server), a mobility management unit (MME, Mobility Management Entity), a serving gateway (SGW, ServingGateway), and a packet data network gateway (PGW, PDN Gateway) , General Packet Radio Service (GPRS, General Packet Radio Service) and policy and charging rule functional entity (PCRF, Policy and ChargingEnforcement Function), wherein:

Home Subscriber Server (HSS, Home Subscriber Server), which is the permanent storage location of user subscription data, is located in the home network of user subscription;

The mobility management entity is the storage location of user subscription data in the current network, and is responsible for the terminal-to-network Non-Access Stratum (NAS, Non-Access Stratum) signaling management, user tracking and paging management functions and bearer in idle mode manage;

The service gateway is the gateway from the core network to the wireless system, responsible for the bearer of the user plane from the terminal to the core network, data caching in the terminal idle mode, the function of initiating service requests on the network side, legal eavesdropping, and packet data routing and forwarding functions;

The packet data network gateway is the gateway between the evolved packet domain system and the external network of the system, and is responsible for terminal IP address allocation, accounting functions, packet filtering, policy application and other functions.

The serving GPRS support node is the service support point for GERAN and UTRAN users to access the EPC network. It is similar to MME in function and is responsible for user location update, paging management and bearer management.

The policy and charging rule functional entity is responsible for providing policy control and charging rules to the PCEF.

In some scenarios, in order to expand wireless coverage or temporarily increase the ability of wireless access to users, the concept of a relay (Relay) node is introduced. Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the network architecture after the introduction of Relay. As shown in Figure 2, when the relay node is introduced, the UE can access the network through the relay node, where:

A relay node (RN, Relay Node) includes two functions, which are UE and relay node. On the one hand, the RN acts as a UE to access the network, establishes bearers and other related operations, and on the other hand acts as an eNodeB to provide access for the UE. In this specification, the UERN will be referred to as RN-UE.

The donor base station (DeNB, Donor eNodeB) provides wireless access for the RN, terminates the radio resource control (RRC, Radio Resource Control) signaling of the RN-UE, terminates the S1 application protocol (S1AP) signaling at the DeNB, and X2 signaling. At the same time, the SGW and PGW of the RN-UE are built in.

When the RN accesses as a UE, the MME and eNodeB that provide services for the RN-UE need to have corresponding enhanced functions, so it is necessary to ensure that the RN can select the enhanced eNodeB and MME (referred to as RN-MME in this specification). In actual network applications, the MME may restart due to system instability or upgrades. When the MME restarts, the MME needs to notify the corresponding eNodeB connected to it, so that the eNodeB can release resources in time. Figure 3 is a flow chart of notifying the eNodeB after the MME restarts. As shown in Figure 3, when the RN and DeNB are introduced into the network, since the RN is connected to the MME through the DeNB, when the RN-MME restarts, the RN-MME notifies the DeNB Since the restart has occurred, the DeNB will release the RN and at the same time the RN will also release the UEs connected to the RN, which will have an impact on the UEs connected to the RN, thereby affecting the UE user experience.

Contents of the invention

In view of this, the main purpose of the present invention is to provide a method, device and system for updating context information of a relay node. When it is determined that the MME fails or restarts, the DeNB can forward the context information of the RN enabled as the UE to the RN The newly determined MME or the restarted MME ensures quick service access of the RN enabled as a UE and the UE accessing the RN.

In order to achieve the above object, technical solution of the present invention is achieved in that way:

A method for updating context information of a relay node, comprising:

After determining that the mobility management unit accessed by the relay node RN serving as the user equipment UE fails or restarts, the DeNB sends the context information of the RN to the mobility management unit reselected for the RN or the restarted mobility management unit.

Preferably, the method also includes:

When the mobility management unit determines that the received context information of the RN lacks information, it updates the context information of the RN through the HSS.

Preferably, the method also includes:

The mobility management unit performs authentication on the RN according to the context information of the RN.

Preferably, the method also includes:

The mobility management unit allocates a temporary user identity to the RN.

Preferably, the mobility management unit is an MME.

A device for updating context information of a relay node, the device comprising a determining unit and a sending unit, wherein:

The determining unit is configured to trigger the sending unit when determining that the mobility management unit accessed by the RN serving as the UE fails or restarts;

A sending unit, configured to send the context information of the RN to the mobility management unit reselected for the RN or the restarted mobility management unit.

Preferably, the mobility management unit is an MME.

A system for updating context information of relay nodes, including DeNB, RN and mobility management unit, wherein,

The DeNB is configured to send the context information of the RN to the reselected mobility management unit for the RN or the restarted mobility management unit after determining that the mobility management unit accessed by the RN serving as the UE fails or restarts.

Preferably, the mobility management unit is further configured to update the context information of the RN through the HSS when it is determined that the received context information of the RN lacks information.

Preferably, the mobility management unit is further configured to authenticate the RN accessed as a UE according to the context information of the RN.

Preferably, the mobility management unit is further configured to assign a temporary user identity to the RN.

Preferably, the mobility management unit is an MME.

In the present invention, when it is determined that the MME fails or restarts, the DeNB forwards the context information of the RN enabled by the UE to the newly determined MME or the restarted MME for the RN, so that the newly selected MME or the restarted MME can According to the context information of the RN, the RN is connected to the system as soon as possible, so as to ensure the service access of the RN enabled by the UE and the UE accessing the RN, and the service quality of the communication system. When the MME fails or restarts, the impact on the access users is minimized as much as possible.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a system structure diagram of an evolved packet network;

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the network architecture after the introduction of Relay;

Figure 3 is a flow chart of notifying the eNodeB after the MME restarts;

4 is a flow chart of the method for transferring the RN-UE user context after the mobility management unit of the present invention is restarted;

5 is another flow chart of the method for transferring the RN-UE user context after the mobility management unit restarts according to the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of the composition and structure of an apparatus for updating relay node context information in the present invention.

detailed description

The basic idea of the present invention is: when determining that the MME fails or restarts, the DeNB forwards the context information of the RN enabled as the UE to the newly determined MME for the RN or the restarted MME, so that the newly selected MME or the restarted MME The MME can enable the RN to access the system as quickly as possible according to the context information of the RN.

In order to make the object, technical solution and advantages of the present invention clearer, the present invention will be further described in detail by citing the following embodiments and referring to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 4 is the flow chart of the method for transferring the RN-UE user context after the mobility management unit of the present invention is restarted. As shown in Fig. 4, the method for transferring the RN-UE user context after the restart of the mobility management unit of the RN in the present invention mainly includes the following steps:

Step 401, after the RN-MME restarts, notify the DeNB;

Step 402, the DeNB transfers the RN-UE context information in the DeNB to the RN-MME or the DeNB reselects an RN-MME for the RN, and the RN-MME updates the RN-UE data to the HSS and authenticates the RN-UE Authentication, to re-allocate the temporary user identity for RN-UE.

In the present invention, the RN-MME may also be unavailable for some reason, for example, when the DeNB fails to receive the response message from the RN-MME within a set period of time or determines that the physical link with the RN-MME is disconnected, etc. One other MME may be selected as the RN-MME for the RN-UE, and the RN-UE context information may be transmitted to the selected RN-MME.

The following describes the specific manner in which the DeNB transfers the RN-UE user context to the RN-MME after the RN-MME restarts according to the present invention with reference to FIG. 5 .

Fig. 5 is another flow chart of the method for transferring the RN-UE user context after the mobility management unit restarts according to the present invention. As shown in Fig. 5, the method for the DeNB to transfer the RN-UE user context to the RN-MME after the RN-MME restarts mainly includes The following steps:

Step 501, after the RN-MME restarts, the RN-MME sends a restart message to the DeNB connected to it;

Step 502, the DeNB returns a restart confirmation message to the RN-MME;

Step 503: After confirming that the RN-MME is restarted, the DeNB reselects an RN-MME for the RN and sends a UE context transfer request message to the selected RN-MME, or directly sends a UE context transfer request to the restarted RN-MME message, the UE context request message includes the user identifier of the RN, bearer information and related tracking areas, and the UE context may also include UE contexts of multiple RNs accessing the RN-MME, or multiple concurrent messages;

Step 504, when the RN-MME finds that the UE context information is incomplete, such as lack of information such as authentication and authentication vectors, the RN-MME sends a location update request message to the HSS;

Step 505, the HSS replies a location update confirmation message to the RN-MME; the message carries the subscriber data of the RN;

If the HSS finds that the saved RN-MME identity is different from the RN-MME identity of the message requesting location update, it will send a cancel location request message to the original RN-MME (i.e. the restarted RN-MME), and the original RN-MME will directly reply to the HSS to cancel Location confirmation message.

Step 506, the RN-MME performs an authentication process on the RN;

Step 507, after the RN-MME successfully authenticates the RN, it returns a UE context delivery confirmation message to the DeNB.

In step 508, the RN-MME allocates a temporary user identity for the RN.

Those skilled in the art should understand that if the DeNB determines that the above-mentioned RN-MME is invalid, that is, it is unavailable, it can also select another MME as the RN-MME for the RN-UE, and send the context information of the RN-UE to the selected RN-MME. The sending method is exactly the same as the method shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 , and the sending process will not be repeated here.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of the composition and structure of the device for updating relay node context information in the present invention. As shown in FIG. 6 , the device for updating relay node context information in the present invention determines a unit 60 and a sending unit 61, wherein:

The determining unit 60 is configured to trigger the sending unit when determining that the mobility management unit accessed by the RN as the UE fails or restarts;

The sending unit 61 is configured to send the context information of the RN serving as the UE to the reselected mobility management unit for the RN or the restarted mobility management unit.

The mobility management unit mentioned above is MME.

Those skilled in the art should understand that the functions of the processing unit involved in the above apparatus for updating the relay node context information can be implemented by hardware circuits, or by a processor executing corresponding software. The functions of the above processing units can be understood in combination with the relevant description of the foregoing method for updating the context information of the relay node.

The present invention also describes a system for updating context information of relay nodes, including DeNB, RN and mobility management unit, wherein,

The DeNB is configured to send the context information of the RN to the reselected mobility management unit for the RN or the restarted mobility management unit after determining that the mobility management unit accessed by the RN serving as the UE fails or restarts.

The mobility management unit is further configured to update the context information of the RN through the HSS when it is determined that the received context information of the RN lacks information.

The mobility management unit is further configured to perform authentication on the RN accessed as the UE according to the context information of the RN.

The mobility management unit above is further configured to allocate a temporary user identity to the RN.

The mobility management unit mentioned above is MME.

Those skilled in the art should understand that the present invention does not change the structure of the existing network system. Therefore, relevant network elements and their structures can be understood by referring to the system structure shown in FIG. 2 above.

The above descriptions are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims (11)

1. A method for updating relay node context information, characterized in that the method comprises: After the donor base station DeNB determines that the mobility management unit accessed as the relay node RN of the user equipment UE is restarted, it sends the context information of the RN to the restarted mobility management unit; wherein the context information of the RN includes the The RN's user identity, bearer information, and related tracking area, and the context information of the RN is used by the mobility management unit to perform authentication verification on the RN. 2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the method further comprises: When the mobility management unit determines that the received context information of the RN lacks information, the home subscriber server HSS updates the context information of the RN. 3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the method further comprises: The mobility management unit performs authentication on the RN according to the context information of the RN. 4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the method further comprises: The mobility management unit allocates a temporary user identity to the RN. 5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the mobility management unit is a Mobility Management Entity (MME). 6. A device for updating context information of a relay node, characterized in that the device comprises a determining unit and a sending unit, wherein: The determining unit is configured to trigger the sending unit when the mobility management unit accessed by the RN serving as the UE is restarted; a sending unit, configured to send the context information of the RN to a mobility management unit restarted for the RN; wherein, the context information of the RN includes the user identifier, bearer information and related tracking areas of the RN, and The context information of the RN is used by the mobility management unit to authenticate and verify the RN. 7. The device according to claim 6, wherein the mobility management unit is an MME. 8. A system for updating context information of relay nodes, comprising DeNB, RN and mobility management unit, characterized in that, The DeNB is used to determine that after the mobility management unit accessed by the RN serving as the UE is restarted, the context information of the RN is sent to the mobility management unit after restarting for the RN; wherein the context information of the RN includes the RN User identification, bearer information and related tracking areas; The mobility management unit is configured to perform authentication on the RN accessed as the UE according to the context information of the RN. 9. The system of claim 8, wherein: The mobility management unit is further configured to, when it is determined that the received context information of the RN lacks information, update the context information of the RN through the HSS. 10. A system according to any one of claims 8 to 9, wherein The mobility management unit is further configured to allocate a temporary user identity to the RN. 11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the mobility management unit is an MME.