CN104869666A

CN104869666A - Data wireless hosted configuration method, data transmission method and equipment

Info

Publication number: CN104869666A
Application number: CN201510170313.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 吴昱民; 梁靖
Original assignee: China Academy of Telecommunications Technology CATT
Current assignee: China Academy of Telecommunications Technology CATT; Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd
Priority date: 2015-04-10
Filing date: 2015-04-10
Publication date: 2015-08-26
Anticipated expiration: 2035-04-10
Also published as: CN104869666B; WO2016161915A1; TW201637506A; TWI638575B

Abstract

The invention discloses a data wireless hosted configuration method, a data transmission method and equipment. The method comprises the steps that first access equipment acquires capability information of a terminal, and the capability information is used for indicating support capacity of the terminal for user plane data shunt transmission; the first access equipment requests the terminal to configure data wireless hosted DRB between the terminal and the first access equipment through second access equipment according to the capacity information of the terminal and the second access equipment used for performing data shunting for the terminal, wherein the first access equipment and the second access equipment support different access technologies; and a DRB hosted channel is established between the first access equipment and the terminal. Therefore, user plane data between the terminal and the first access equipment can be transmitted via the hosted channel.

Description

Data radio bearer configuration method, data transmission method and equipment

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of wireless communications, and in particular, to a data radio bearer configuration method, a data transmission method, and a device.

Background

A Protocol layer of an LTE (Long Term Evolution) system includes, from top to bottom, a PDCP (Packet Data Convergence Protocol) layer, an RLC (Radio link Control) layer, an MAC (Media Access Control) layer, and a Physical (PHY) layer, in consideration of a user plane; from the Control plane perspective, an RRC (Radio Resource Control) layer above the PDCP layer is also included.

After a UE (User Equipment, i.e., a terminal) accesses a network and establishes a connection with an eNB (evolved node B, i.e., a base station), the eNB configures a plurality of radio bearers to the UE using an RRC message. Radio bearers are classified into DRB (Data Radio Bearer) and SRB (Signaling Radio Bearer) according to their functions.

In the user plane, data of the DRB comes from a CN (Core Network) and goes from a PDCP layer to a physical layer by layer, data of the SRB comes from an eNB and goes from the PDCP layer to the physical layer by layer, and the eNB finally sends information to the UE through a signal of the physical layer. The UE reversely parses the data of the eNB through its PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer, and finally, the PDCP layer sends the data to a data receiving entity of the UE, such as an application (application). The UE may pack its data from the PDCP layer down to the physical layer, and send the data to the eNB through a signal of the physical layer. Fig. 1 shows a user plane protocol stack in an LTE system.

With the further evolution of the LTE network structure, the industry starts to consider that a small base station and a macro base station simultaneously provide services for a UE (User Equipment, also called a terminal). Currently, a concept of dual connectivity is introduced, that is, when a plurality of base stations provide services for a UE, one of the base stations is a master base station (MastereNB, MeNB) of the UE, and the other base stations are secondary base stations (Second eNB, SeNB) of the UE. As shown in fig. 2, a connection of the UE on the MeNB may have an independent bearer, and the connection on the SeNB is to offload a part of data of the same EPS (Evolved Packet System) bearer on the MeNB onto the SeNB for transmission, where the EPS bearer PDCP entity is still in the MeNB, and the SeNB has an independent RLC entity.

Among them, the EPS (Evolved Packet System) is a System supporting multiple access technologies and mobility between multiple accesses. In a multi-access scenario, a terminal may be under the common coverage of multiple 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and/or non-3 GPP access networks. These access networks may use different access technologies, may belong to different operators, and may provide access to different core networks.

With the increase of user demand and the development of communication technology, more and more Wireless communication technologies and related networks are emerging, such as 2G/3G/4G mobile communication technologies and networks that can provide wide coverage and WLAN (Wireless LAN) networks that can provide hot spot coverage, and therefore, a scenario in which different communication networks coexist, for example, a scenario in which an LTE network and a WLAN coexist, is also emerging in large quantity. Fig. 3 is a typical scenario of UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System)/LTE and WLAN network coexistence. As shown in fig. 2, a plurality of Access Points (APs) of WLAN exist in the coverage of a UMTS/LTE base station (Node B in UMTS, eNB in LTE). The coverage area of an access point is relatively small compared to the base station.

In the case of LTE aggregated WLAN, how to implement offloading of user plane data on LTE side on WLAN AP side is a problem that needs to be solved in the current industry.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a data radio bearer configuration method, a data transmission method and equipment thereof, which are used for realizing the shunting of user plane data of one access equipment side on the other access equipment side.

The data radio bearer configuration method provided by the embodiment of the invention comprises the following steps:

the method comprises the steps that first access equipment obtains capability information of a terminal, wherein the capability information is used for indicating the support capability of the terminal for user plane data shunt transmission;

the first access device requests the terminal to configure a Data Radio Bearer (DRB) between the terminal and the first access device via a second access device according to the capability information of the terminal and the second access device for performing data distribution for the terminal; the first access equipment and the second access equipment support different access technologies;

and establishing a bearer channel of the DRB between the first access equipment and the terminal.

Another embodiment of the present invention provides a method for configuring a data radio bearer, including:

the terminal reports the capability information of the terminal to a first access device, wherein the capability information is used for indicating the support capability of the terminal for user plane data distribution transmission;

the terminal receives a configuration request sent by the first access device, wherein the configuration request is used for requesting the terminal to configure a Data Radio Bearer (DRB) distributed between the terminal and the first access device through a second access device; the first access equipment and the second access equipment support different access modes;

and establishing a bearer channel of the DRB between the terminal and the first access equipment.

The data transmission method provided by the embodiment of the invention comprises the following steps:

a first access device receives user plane data from a core network, and sends the user plane data to a terminal through a bearer channel between the first access device and the terminal via a DRB of a second access device, wherein the first access device and the second access device adopt different access technologies; and/or the presence of a gas in the gas,

and the first access equipment receives user plane data from the terminal through the bearer channel and sends the user plane data to the core network.

Another embodiment of the present invention provides a data transmission method, including:

the terminal sends user plane data to the first access device through a bearer channel between the terminal and the first receiving device via a DRB of a second access device, wherein the first access device and the second access device adopt different access technologies; and/or the presence of a gas in the gas,

and the terminal receives user plane data from the first access equipment through the bearer channel.

The access device provided by the embodiment of the invention comprises:

the system comprises an acquisition module, a processing module and a processing module, wherein the acquisition module is used for acquiring capability information of a terminal, and the capability information is used for indicating the support capability of the terminal for user plane data distribution transmission;

a bearer configuration request module, configured to request, according to the capability information of the terminal and a second access device for performing data offloading for the terminal, the terminal to configure a data radio bearer DRB between the terminal and the first access device via the second access device; the first access equipment and the second access equipment support different access technologies;

and the bearer configuration module is used for establishing a bearer channel of the DRB with the terminal.

The terminal provided by the embodiment of the invention comprises:

a reporting module, configured to report capability information of the terminal to a first access device, where the capability information is used to indicate a capability of the terminal for supporting user plane data offloading transmission;

a bearer configuration receiving module, configured to receive a configuration request sent by the first access device, where the configuration request is used to request the terminal to configure a data radio bearer DRB that is shunted between the terminal and the first access device via a second access device; the first access equipment and the second access equipment support different access modes;

and the bearer configuration module is used for establishing a bearer channel of the DRB with the first access device.

In the above embodiments of the present invention, the first access device and the second access device support different access modes. The terminal reports the supporting capability information of the terminal for user plane data distribution to the first access device, so that the first access device configures a bearer channel of a DRB between the terminal and the first access device according to the capability information of the terminal, and the bearer channel passes through the second access device, so that the terminal and the first access device can transmit the user plane data through the bearer channel, that is, the purpose of distributing the user plane data between the terminal and the first access device through the second access device is achieved.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a user plane protocol stack of an LTE system in the prior art;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an LTE dual connectivity architecture in the prior art;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a coexistence scenario of UMTS/LTE and WLAN networks in the prior art;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a DRB configuration flow implemented by a network side according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a DRB configuration flow implemented by a terminal side according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of data offloading transmission in the downlink direction according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of data offloading transmission in an uplink direction according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8A is a schematic diagram of a user plane protocol stack structure according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8B and fig. 8C are schematic diagrams illustrating downlink data transmission and reception according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8D and fig. 8E are schematic diagrams illustrating uplink data transmission and reception according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 9A is a schematic diagram of downlink data transmission according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 9B is a schematic diagram of uplink data reception according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 10A is a schematic diagram of a user plane protocol stack structure according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 10B and fig. 10C are schematic diagrams of downlink data transmission and reception according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 10D and fig. 10E are schematic diagrams illustrating uplink data transmission and reception according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 11A is a schematic diagram of a user plane protocol stack structure according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 11B and fig. 11C are schematic diagrams illustrating downlink data transmission and reception according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 11D and fig. 11E are schematic diagrams illustrating uplink data transmission and reception according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a user plane protocol stack according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a user plane protocol stack according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 15 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 16 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device according to another embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 17 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The embodiment of the invention provides a data radio bearer configuration method and a data transmission method based on the configured radio bearer for realizing the distribution of user plane data of one access equipment side on the other access equipment side aiming at the scene of common coverage of access equipment adopting different protocol stacks.

Taking a scene covered by both LTE and WLAN as an example, the embodiment of the invention provides a method for controlling the flexible sending of user plane data of UE at the LTE side and the WLAN side, which can realize the concurrence of LTE bearing data and WLAN bearing data, realize the shunting sending of the LTE bearing data on the WLAN under the condition of not modifying WLAN AP, effectively utilize the traditional WLAN AP, and improve the shunting efficiency and the deployment flexibility.

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention clearer, the present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, and it is apparent that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

Referring to fig. 4, a schematic diagram of a DRB configuration process implemented by a network side according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown, where the process may be implemented by a network side device. The process may include the steps of:

step 401: the method comprises the steps that first access equipment obtains capability information of a terminal, wherein the capability information is used for indicating the support capability of the terminal for user plane data shunt transmission;

step 402: the first access device requests the terminal to configure a DRB between the terminal and the first access device via a second access device according to the capability information of the terminal and the second access device for performing data distribution for the terminal; the first access equipment and the second access equipment support different access technologies;

step 403: and establishing a bearer channel of the DRB between the first access equipment and the terminal.

Accordingly, according to the above flow, fig. 5 shows a DRB configuration flow implemented by the terminal side, which may include the following steps:

step 501: the terminal reports the capability information of the terminal to a first access device, wherein the capability information is used for indicating the support capability of the terminal for user plane data distribution transmission;

step 502: the terminal receives a configuration request sent by the first access device, wherein the configuration request is used for requesting the terminal to configure a DRB (distributed resource block) between the terminal and the first access device through a second access device; the first access equipment and the second access equipment support different access modes;

step 503: and establishing a bearer channel of the DRB between the terminal and the first access equipment.

The first access device may be a base station in LTE or its evolved system, and the second access device may be an AP in WLAN.

In the above procedure, the capability information sent by the terminal to the first access device may include one or any combination of the following:

-protocol type indication information for indicating a protocol used by the terminal for establishing the bearer path;

-an address of the terminal;

-indication information whether the terminal supports forking of user plane data via a second access device.

Wherein, the capability information may further include: information of ports occupied by the terminal, and/or information of ports suggested to be used by the terminal.

In the above procedure, the information, which is sent by the first access device to the terminal and used for instructing the terminal to configure the DRB, may include one or any combination of the following:

-configuration information of the bearer channel, the configuration information of the bearer channel at least comprising: the corresponding relation between the PDCP entity in the bearing channel and the logical channel identifier;

-an identification of the DRB.

Wherein the protocol used by the bearer channel may include one of: IP (internet protocol), TCP (transmission control protocol), UDP (user datagram protocol), GTP-U (user plane general packet radio service protocol), HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol), HTTPs (hypertext transfer security protocol).

If the bearer channel is a TCP or UDP connection established using a TCP protocol, the configuration information of the bearer channel may further include: port information of the TCP or UDP connection.

Further, in a case that the bearer channel is a TCP or UDP connection established using a TCP protocol, before the first access device instructs the terminal to configure the DRB, it may further determine, according to the capability information of the terminal, that the terminal supports user plane data to be shunted by a second access device, and then allocate a TCP or UDP port to an LC entity corresponding to the terminal, where the DRB of the terminal is configured with an LC entity correspondingly.

Further, in a case that the bearer channel is a TCP or UDP connection established using a TCP protocol, the first access device may also allocate a TCP or UDP port to an LC entity in advance, where the configuration information of the bearer channel further includes an identifier of the terminal, and a plurality of DRBs of the terminal are correspondingly configured with an LC entity.

Further, in a case that the bearer channel is a TCP or UDP connection established using a TCP protocol, the first access device may further determine, according to the capability information of the terminal, that the terminal supports user plane data offloading via the second access device before instructing the terminal to configure the DRB, and then allocate a corresponding TCP or UDP port to the DRB that needs offloading via the second access device and corresponds to the terminal.

If the bearer channel is an IP connection established using an IP protocol, the configuration information of the bearer channel further includes: identification information of the terminal.

If the bearer channel is an empty GTP-U connection established between the terminal and the second access device for the GTP-U protocol used, the configuration information of the bearer channel further includes: configuration information of an air interface GTP-U connection between the terminal and the second access equipment.

If the bearer channel is an air interface UDP or TCP connection between the terminal and the second access device, the configuration information of the bearer channel further includes: configuration information of an air interface UDP or TCP link between the terminal and the second access device. The UDP or TCP connection is uniquely corresponding to the terminal, or is uniquely corresponding to the DRB of the terminal which needs to be shunted by the second access equipment.

If the terminal and the second access device are in air interface IP connection in the bearer channel, the configuration information of the bearer channel further includes: configuration information of air interface IP connection between the terminal and the second access device.

If the connection between the first access device and the second access device in the bearer channel is a GTP-U connection, the first access device further sends GTP-U connection configuration information to the second access device, where the GTP-U connection configuration information includes:

-protocol type indication information, the protocol indicated by the protocol type indication information being a GTP-U protocol;

-configuration information of an air interface GTP-U connection between the terminal and the second access device, and configuration information of a GTP-U connection between the first access device and the second access device;

-an identification of the DRB.

It should be noted that the bearer path includes a downlink path and/or an uplink path.

After the terminal and the first access device establish the bearer channel through the second access device, the bearer channel can be used for carrying out shunt transmission on the user plane data through the second access device.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 6, in the downlink direction, a first access device receives user plane data from a core network, and sends the user plane data to the terminal through a bearer channel between the first access device and the terminal via a DRB of a second access device, and the terminal receives the user plane data from the first access device through the bearer channel. The dotted line in fig. 6 indicates that the downlink data sent by the first access device may be transmitted through the wireless link with the terminal while being shunted by the second access device.

As shown in fig. 7, in the uplink direction, the terminal sends user plane data to the first access device through a bearer channel between the terminal and the first receiving device via the DRB of the second access device, and the first access device receives the user plane data from the terminal through the bearer channel and sends the user plane data to the core network. The dotted line in fig. 7 indicates that the uplink data sent by the terminal may be transmitted through the wireless link with the first access device while being subjected to the offloading transmission by the second access device.

According to the different protocols used for establishing the bearer channel, the configuration process of the bearer channel and the process of performing data distribution transmission through the bearer channel are also different. The following describes in detail a configuration process of bearer channels established by different protocols and a data offloading transmission process performed through the bearer channels in conjunction with a specific embodiment.

In order to more clearly understand the embodiments of the present invention, the following takes a scenario where LTE and WLAN jointly cover as an example, and the DRB configuration flow and the user plane data transmission flow are described in detail through eight preferred embodiments.

Example one

The first embodiment describes a scheme for establishing a bearer tunnel of a DRB between a UE and an eNB by using a TCP protocol to implement offloading user plane data between the eNB and the UE through a WLAN AP.

In the network architecture of the first embodiment, the UE and the eNB use an LTE wireless communication protocol for interaction, the UE and the WLAN AP use a Wi-Fi wireless communication protocol for interaction, and the eNB and the WLAN AP are connected in a wired manner and use a wired communication protocol for interaction.

Fig. 8A is a conventional user plane protocol stack architecture corresponding to the first embodiment. The LTE protocol stack in the UE comprises a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, an MAC layer and a PHY layer from an upper layer to a lower layer; the Wi-Fi protocol stack in the UE comprises a TCP layer, an IP layer and an MAC/PHY layer from the upper layer to the lower layer; the LTE protocol stack of the eNB comprises a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, an MAC layer and a PHY layer from an upper layer to a lower layer; the wired communication protocol stack of the eNB includes a TCP layer, an IP layer, and a data link layer (shown as layer-2 in the figure) from an upper layer to a lower layer.

In the first embodiment, the UE1 and the UE2 accessing the eNB are respectively configured with LC entities (i.e., logical channel entities). The UE1 and the UE2 are respectively configured with two EPS bearers, and PDCP entities respectively corresponding to the two EPS bearers are respectively denoted as PDCP1 and PDCP 2. Both UE1 and UE2 support user plane data offloading, so TCP Port numbers are respectively allocated to LC entities corresponding to the two UEs, a TCP Port number allocated to an LC entity corresponding to UE1 is denoted as Port1, and a TCP Port allocated to an LC entity corresponding to UE2 is denoted as Port 2. The corresponding relationship between the PDCP entity and the logical channel identifier is as follows: PDCP1 corresponds to LC1, PDCP2 corresponds to LC 2.

Based on the user plane protocol stack architecture shown in fig. 8A in combination with the DRB configuration flows shown in fig. 4 and 5, the signaling flow for configuring the DRB between the UE and the eNB via the WLAN AP may specifically include the following:

step 1: and the UE reports the capability information of the UE to the eNB, wherein the capability information can indicate the support capability of the UE for user plane data distribution transmission.

The capability information may include the following:

-protocol type indication information indicating the protocol used by the UE to establish the DRB bearer. In this embodiment, the protocol type is TCP;

-an address of the UE, such as an IP address of the UE;

indication information whether the UE supports user plane data offloading via WLAN APs. For example, the indication information may be 1 bit or identification information with multiple bits, and different values indicate whether the UE supports offloading user plane data via the WLAN AP. In this embodiment, the indication information indicates that the UE supports offloading of the user plane data through the WLAN AP.

The port list may specifically include a list of ports that the UE has occupied, and/or a list of ports that the UE proposes to use.

Step 2: the eNB configures the UE to measure the WLAN APs.

And step 3: and the UE measures the WLAN AP according to the configuration of the eNB and reports a measurement result, wherein the measurement result comprises information such as the WLAN AP identifier measured by the UE.

And 4, step 4: and the eNB confirms that the UE supports the offloading transmission of the user plane data through the WLAN AP, and sends a reconfiguration message to the UE to request the UE to configure the DRB between the UE and the eNB through the WLAN AP under the condition of obtaining the WLAN AP measured by the UE.

Wherein, the reconfiguration message may include the following contents:

-TCP protocol type indication information to instruct the UE to establish a bearer path of the DRB using the TCP protocol;

configuration information of the bearer channel of the DRB, i.e. configuration information required to establish the bearer channel of the DRB. The method specifically comprises the following steps: the address of the eNB, the TCP port number, and a correspondence between the PDCP entity in the DRB Channel and the LCID (logical Channel ID). Wherein a TCP port number identifies a TCP channel between an LC entity and a TCP entity. In this embodiment, a TCP port number uniquely corresponding to each UE supporting offloading of user plane data via the WLAN AP may be allocated to the UE.

The identity of the DRB that needs to be reconfigured, i.e. the identity of the DRB between the UE and the eNB via wlan ap in this embodiment.

-other configuration information, which may in particular comprise one or a combination of the following: PDCP entity information, Logical Channel Identification (LCID), logical channel configuration information, MAC entity information, physical layer entity information, etc.

And 5: and after receiving the reconfiguration message sent by the eNB, the UE initiates a connection establishment request to the eNB through the WLAN access network according to the configuration information in the reconfiguration message.

Further, if the TCP port number in the configuration information received by the UE conflicts with the port numbers used by other applications, the UE may feed back response information rejecting the DRB configuration, or feed back a list of ports occupied by the UE or suggested to be used to the eNB.

Step 6: the UE establishes a bearer channel based on the TCP protocol with the eNB through the WLAN AP.

Further, if the bearer establishment based on the TCP protocol by the UE fails, the UE may notify the eNB of the failure of the bearer establishment.

In the above process, the steps of configuring, by the eNB, the UE to perform the WLAN AP measurement and receive the WLAN AP measurement result reported by the UE may also be omitted, and the UE may directly report information, such as an identifier of an available WLAN AP measured by the UE, to the eNB.

After the UE establishes the bearer channel with the eNB through the WLAN access network, user plane data can be sent to the eNB through the bearer channel. If the UE fails to connect the bearer path in the data transmission process, the UE may notify the eNB of the failure of the bearer path connection.

The user plane data offloading transmission procedure between the UE and the eNB may be as shown in fig. 8B and 8C and fig. 8D and 8E. Fig. 8B and 8C show the user plane data transmission flow in the downlink direction implemented on the eNB side and the UE side, respectively, and fig. 8D and 8E show the user plane data transmission flow in the uplink direction implemented on the eNB side and the UE side, respectively.

Referring to fig. 8B, the process may be shown as a thick solid line, and may include the following steps:

step 1: the PDCP1 in the eNB receives data packets, such as PDCP PDUs, from higher layers.

Step 2: the PDCP1 processes the received packet and sends the processed packet to an LC entity corresponding to the PDCP.

And step 3: the LC entity processes the received data packet, maps the processed data packet to a logical channel and adds LCID (the value of the LCID is represented as LC1), the added LCID corresponds to PDCP1, and the LC entity sends the processed data packet to the TCP entity through the corresponding TCP channel according to the distributed TCP Port 1.

And 4, step 4: and the TCP entity encapsulates the received data packet to obtain a TCP data packet and sends the TCP data packet to the IP entity.

And 5: and the IP entity encapsulates the received TCP data packet to obtain an IP data packet and sends the IP data packet to the WLAN AP in an IP routing mode. In this process, the IP packet sequentially passes through a data link layer entity and a physical layer entity in the eNB.

In the WLAN AP, an IP packet sent by an eNB is sequentially sent to the UE direction through a physical layer entity, an LLC entity, an MAC entity, and an IP entity in a wired communication protocol stack, and an IP entity and a MAC/PHY entity in a Wi-Fi wireless communication protocol stack.

As shown in fig. 8C, after the UE receives data from the WLAN AP, the processing flow may be as shown by a thick solid line in the figure, and may include the following steps:

step 1: a data link layer entity (shown as WLAN MAC + PHY + LLC) in the Wi-Fi wireless communication protocol stack within the UE sends the received data packet to the IP entity.

Step 2: and the IP entity decapsulates and analyzes the received data packet and sends the processed data packet to the TCP entity according to the protocol type.

And step 3: and the TCP entity sends the received data packet to the LC entity through a corresponding TCP channel according to the TCP Port number Port1 allocated to the LC entity of the UE.

Optionally, in step 3, the TCP entity may also send the received data packet to the LC entity through the corresponding TCP channel according to the TCP port number allocated to the adaptation layer entity. The adaptation layer is a protocol layer for transmitting the PDCP layer packet to the LC layer or transmitting the LC layer packet to the PDCP layer.

And 4, step 4: the LC entity sends the received data packet to a corresponding PDCP entity according to the LCID in the packet header of the received data packet and the corresponding relation between the LCID and the PDCP entity: PDCP 1.

And 5: the PDCP1 transmits the received packet to the IP entity.

Step 6: and the IP entity sends the received data packet to the TCP entity according to the protocol type.

And 7: the TCP entity sends the TCP packet to the application layer entity through the TCP channel corresponding to the TCP Port according to the TCP Port2 allocated to the application program (shown as APP1 in the figure).

The flows described in fig. 8B and fig. 8C only describe the transmission process of the user plane data shunted by the WLAN AP in the downlink direction. In practical application, all user plane data in the downlink direction between the eNB and the UE may be shunted to the UE through the WLAN AP, or part of the data may be shunted to the UE through the WLAN AP, and the other part of the data is still sent to the UE through a communication link of an LTE protocol between the eNB and the UE, so that concurrence of LTE bearer data and WLAN bearer data may be achieved. The procedure for the eNB to send downlink data to the UE through the communication link of the LTE protocol and the related protocol stack architecture can be referred to the LTE protocol specification.

Referring to fig. 8D, the procedure for transmitting user plane data in uplink direction implemented at UE side may be as shown by the thick solid line in the figure, and may include the following steps:

step 1: the application layer entity (APP 1 shown in the figure) sends the data packet to the TCP entity through the corresponding TCP channel according to the allocated TCP Port number Port 2.

Step 2: and the TCP entity processes the received data packet and sends the processed data packet to the IP entity.

And step 3: the IP entity transmits the received packet to the corresponding PDCP1 according to the IP header of the packet.

And 4, step 4: the PDCP1 processes the received packet and sends the processed packet to the LC entity.

And 5: the LC entity processes the received data packet, maps the processed data packet to a logical channel, adds LCID (the value of the LCID is represented as LC1), and sends the processed data packet to the TCP entity through the corresponding TCP channel according to the TCP Port number Port1 allocated to the LC entity.

Step 6: the TCP entity processes the received data packet and sends the processed data packet to the IP entity.

And 7: the IP entity processes the received data packet and sends the processed data packet to a data link layer entity (wlan mac + PHY + LLC) in the Wi-Fi wireless communication protocol stack. In this process, the data packet sequentially passes through a data link layer entity and a physical layer entity in the UE.

In the WLAN AP, an IP packet sent by the UE sequentially passes through a data link layer entity and an IP entity in a Wi-Fi wireless communication protocol stack, and an IP entity and a MAC/PHY entity in a wired communication protocol stack, and is sent to the eNB.

Referring to fig. 8E, a processing flow after the eNB receives the user plane data may be shown as a thick solid line in the figure, and includes the following steps:

step 1: the IP entity processes the data packet received from the WLAN AP and sends the processed data packet to the TCP entity according to the protocol type.

Step 2: the TCP entity sends the received data packet to the corresponding LC entity through the corresponding TCP channel according to the TCP Port number Port1 allocated to the LC entity.

And step 3: the LC entity processes the data packet, and sends the processed data packet to the corresponding PDCP1 according to the LCID (the value of the LCID is represented as LC1) in the header of the received data packet and the corresponding relationship between the LCID and the PDCP entity.

And 4, step 4: the PDCP1 processes the received packet and transmits the processed packet to a higher layer.

The flows described in fig. 8D and fig. 8E above only describe the transmission process of the user plane data in the uplink direction by offloading through the WLAN AP. In practical application, all user plane data in the uplink direction between the eNB and the UE may be shunted to the eNB through the WLAN AP, or part of the data may be shunted to the eNB through the WLAN AP, and the other part of the data is still sent to the eNB through a communication link of an LTE protocol between the eNB and the UE, so that concurrence of LTE bearer data and WLAN bearer data may be achieved. The procedure for UE to send uplink data to eNB through communication link of LTE protocol and related protocol stack architecture can refer to LTE protocol specification.

In the flows described in fig. 8B, 8C, 8D, and 8E, the data processing procedure of each protocol entity is not described in detail, and the data processing procedure of each protocol entity may refer to the specification of the relevant communication protocol.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment, it is described by taking an example that a bearer channel between the UE and the eNB and passing through the WLAN AP is a TCP connection, and the bearer channel may also be replaced by a UDP connection, and if the bearer channel is a UDP connection, the bearer channel configuration process and the data offloading process may reuse the above flows, where the difference is that: in the signaling configuration flow of the bearer channel, the UDP protocol type is specified in step 4, and the port number of the UDP protocol is specified. And establishing UDP connection between the subsequent UE and the network side and sending and receiving data through the UDP port.

Example two

The second embodiment describes a scheme for establishing a bearer tunnel of a DRB using a TCP protocol to implement offloading of user plane data between an eNB and a UE through a wlan ap.

The architecture of the user plane protocol stack in the second embodiment is the same as that in the first embodiment, and specifically, refer to fig. 8A.

In the second embodiment, for the UE1 and the UE2 accessing the eNB, one LC entity is shared, and one TCP Port is shared, and the Port number of the TCP Port is denoted as Port 1. The UE1 and the UE2 are respectively configured with two EPS bearers, and PDCP entities respectively corresponding to the two EPS bearers are respectively denoted as PDCP1 and PDCP 2. Both UE1 and UE2 support user plane data offloading. The corresponding relationship between the PDCP entity and the logical channel identifier is as follows: PDCP1 corresponds to LC1, PDCP2 corresponds to LC 2.

step 1: and the UE reports the capability information of the UE to the eNB, wherein the capability information can indicate the capability of the UE for supporting the user plane data shunt transmission through the WLAN AP. The content that can be included in the capability information can be referred to in the related description of the first embodiment.

Step 2: the eNB configures the UE to measure the WLAN APs.

And 4, step 4: and the eNB confirms that the UE supports the offloading transmission of the user plane data through the WLAN AP, and sends a reconfiguration message to the UE to request the UE to configure the DRB between the UE and the eNB through the WLAN AP under the condition of obtaining the WLAN AP measured by the UE. The contents that can be included in the reconfiguration message can be referred to in the related description of the first embodiment.

In the second embodiment, since a plurality of UEs accessing the eNB share one LC entity, the TCP port number allocated to the UE is also shared by the UEs, and the TCP port number can be statically allocated by the eNB, that is, pre-allocated. All the UEs accessing the eNB share one TCP port number, so the reconfiguration message needs to include the identification information of the UE, so that the eNB can distinguish the uplink data from different UEs according to the identification information of the UE.

In the second embodiment, the same LC entity is configured for the UE1 and the UE2 accessing the eNB. The UE1 and the UE2 are respectively configured with two EPS bearers, and PDCP entities respectively corresponding to the two EPS bearers are respectively denoted as PDCP1 and PDCP 2. Both UE1 and UE2 support user plane data offloading, and UE1 and UE2 share the same TCP Port number Port 1. The corresponding relationship between the PDCP entity and the logical channel identifier is as follows: PDCP1 corresponds to LC1, PDCP2 corresponds to LC 2.

The procedure for eNB to send downlink data may be as shown in fig. 9A; the process of receiving downlink data by the UE is the same as the related process in the first embodiment, and specifically, see fig. 8C; the process of sending uplink data by the UE is substantially the same as the related process in the first embodiment, and specifically, see fig. 8D, and a difference from the flow shown in fig. 8D is that, in step 5, before the LC entity sends a data packet to the TCP entity, the LC entity needs to add the identification information of the UE to the data packet; the procedure for the eNB to receive uplink data may be as shown in fig. 9B. The eNB-side processing procedure is described below only with reference to fig. 9A and 9B, and the UE-side processing procedure may refer to embodiment one and is not repeated here.

Referring to fig. 9A, a procedure for the eNB to transmit downlink data may be shown as a thick solid line in the figure, and may include the following steps:

Step 2: the PDCP1 processes the received packet and sends the processed packet to an LC entity shared with all access UEs.

And step 3: the LC entity processes the received data packet, maps the processed data packet to a logical channel and adds LCID (the value of the LCID is represented as LC1), the added LCID corresponds to PDCP1, and the LC entity sends the processed data packet to the TCP entity through the corresponding TCP channel according to a TCP Port1 shared by a plurality of UEs.

And 5: and the IP entity encapsulates the received TCP packet to obtain an IP data packet and sends the IP data packet to the WLAN AP in an IP routing mode. In this process, the IP packet sequentially passes through a data link layer entity and a physical layer entity in the eNB.

The above-mentioned flowchart only describes the transmission process of the user plane data shunted by the WLAN AP in the downlink direction. In practical application, all user plane data in the downlink direction between the eNB and the UE may be shunted to the UE through the WLAN AP, or part of the data may be shunted to the UE through the WLAN AP, and the other part of the data is still sent to the UE through a communication link of an LTE protocol between the eNB and the UE, so that concurrence of LTE bearer data and WLAN bearer data may be achieved. The procedure for the eNB to send downlink data to the UE through the communication link of the LTE protocol and the related protocol stack architecture can be referred to the LTE protocol specification.

Referring to fig. 9B, a flow of receiving uplink data by the eNB may be shown as a thick solid line in the figure, and may include the following steps:

step 1: the IP entity processes the data packet received from the WLAN AP and sends the processed data packet to the TCP entity.

Step 2: and the TCP entity sends the received data packet to the LC entity shared by the plurality of UEs through the corresponding TCP channel according to the TCP Port number Port1 shared by the plurality of UEs.

And step 3: and the LC entity processes the data packet, and sends the processed data packet to the PDCP1 corresponding to the UE according to the identification information of the UE in the packet header of the received data packet, the LCID (the value of the LCID is represented as LC1) and the corresponding relation between the LCID and the PDCP entity.

The above flow describes only the transmission process of the user plane data in the uplink direction by offloading through the WLAN AP. In practical application, all user plane data in the uplink direction between the eNB and the UE may be shunted to the eNB through the WLAN AP, or part of the data may be shunted to the eNB through the WLAN AP, and the other part of the data is still sent to the eNB through a communication link of an LTE protocol between the eNB and the UE, so that concurrence of LTE bearer data and WLAN bearer data may be achieved. The procedure for UE to send uplink data to eNB through communication link of LTE protocol and related protocol stack architecture can refer to LTE protocol specification.

In the above flow, the data processing procedure of each protocol entity is not described in detail, and the data processing procedure of each protocol entity may refer to the specification of the relevant communication protocol.

It should be noted that, in the second embodiment, the bearer channel between the UE and the eNB and passing through the WLAN AP is a TCP connection, and the bearer channel may also be replaced by a UDP connection. If the bearer channel is UDP connected, the bearer channel configuration process and the data offloading process may reuse the above flows, but the difference is that: in the signaling configuration flow of the bearer channel, the UDP protocol type is specified in step 4, and the port number of the UDP protocol is specified. And establishing UDP connection between the subsequent UE and the network side and sending and receiving data through the UDP port.

EXAMPLE III

The third embodiment describes a scheme for establishing a bearer tunnel of a DRB by using an IP protocol to implement offloading of user plane data between an eNB and a UE through a WLAN AP.

In the network architecture of the third embodiment, the UE and the eNB use an LTE wireless communication protocol for interaction, the UE and the WLAN AP use a Wi-Fi wireless communication protocol for interaction, and the eNB and the WLAN AP are connected in a wired manner and use a wired communication protocol for interaction.

Fig. 10A is a user plane protocol stack architecture in the third embodiment. The LTE protocol stack in the UE comprises a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, an MAC layer and a PHY layer from an upper layer to a lower layer; the Wi-Fi protocol stack in the UE comprises an IP layer and an MAC/PHY layer from an upper layer to a lower layer; the LTE protocol stack of the eNB comprises a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, an MAC layer and a PHY layer from an upper layer to a lower layer; the wired communication protocol stack of the eNB includes an IP layer and a data link layer (shown as layer-2 in the figure) from an upper layer to a lower layer.

In the third embodiment, a shared LC entity is configured for the UE1 and the UE2 accessing the eNB. The UE1 and the UE2 are respectively configured with two EPS bearers, and PDCP entities respectively corresponding to the two EPS bearers are respectively denoted as PDCP1 and PDCP 2. Both UE1 and UE2 support user plane data offloading, and the corresponding relationship between the PDCP entity and the logical channel identifier is: PDCP1 corresponds to LC1, PDCP2 corresponds to LC 2.

Based on the user plane protocol stack architecture shown in fig. 10A in combination with the DRB configuration flows shown in fig. 4 and 5, the signaling flow for configuring the DRB between the UE and the eNB via the WLAN AP may specifically include the following:

step 1: and the UE reports the capability information of the UE to the eNB, wherein the capability information can indicate the support capability of the UE for user plane data distribution transmission. The content that can be included in the capability information can be referred to in the related description of the first embodiment.

Step 2: the eNB configures the UE to measure the WLAN APs.

Wherein, the reconfiguration message may include the following contents:

-IP protocol type indication information to instruct the UE to establish a bearer path of the DRB using the IP protocol;

configuration information of the bearer channel of the DRB, i.e. configuration information required to establish the bearer channel of the DRB. The method specifically comprises the following steps: the address of the eNB, the identification of the UE, the corresponding relation between the PDCP entity in the DRB channel and the LCID and the like.

-other configuration information, which may in particular comprise one or a combination of the following: PDCP entity information, MAC entity information, physical layer entity information, etc.

Step 6: and the UE establishes a bearer channel based on an IP protocol with the eNB through the WLAN AP.

In step 5 of the above procedure, after receiving the reconfiguration message, the UE may also directly send data to the eNB through the WLAN access network without initiating a connection establishment request to the eNB through the WLAN access network. Correspondingly, in step 6, after receiving the data sent by the UE, the eNB feeds back a response message indicating that the bearer establishment is successful to the UE, or directly sends the data to the UE through the WLAN access network.

Referring to fig. 10B, a flow of the eNB transmitting downlink data may be shown as a thick solid line in the figure, and may include the following steps:

Step 2: the PDCP1 processes the received packet and sends the processed packet to an LC entity shared by a plurality of UEs.

And step 3: the LC entity processes the received data packet, maps the processed data packet to a logical channel and adds LCID (the value of the LCID is represented as LC1), the added LCID corresponds to PDCP1, and the LC entity sends the processed data packet to the IP entity.

And 4, step 4: the IP entity encapsulates the received data packet, specifies a new protocol type for LC layer data packet transmission in the IP packet header, and sends the encapsulated data packet in an IP routing mode. In this process, the IP packet sequentially passes through a data link layer entity and a physical layer entity in the eNB. The new protocol type is an LC layer packet protocol type, which may be denoted as "LC protocol".

As shown in fig. 10C, after the UE receives data from the WLAN AP, the processing flow may be as shown by a thick solid line in the figure, and may include the following steps:

Step 2: and the IP entity decapsulates and analyzes the received data packet and sends the processed data packet to the LC entity according to the protocol type. Wherein the protocol type may be a new protocol type used by the IP layer for LC layer packet transmission.

And step 3: the LC entity sends the received data packet to a corresponding PDCP entity according to the LCID in the packet header of the received data packet and the corresponding relation between the LCID and the PDCP entity: PDCP 1.

And 4, step 4: the PDCP1 transmits the received packet to the IP entity.

And 5: and the IP entity sends the received data packet to the TCP entity according to the protocol type.

Step 6: the TCP entity sends the TCP packet to the application layer entity through the TCP channel corresponding to the TCP Port according to the TCP Port2 allocated to the application program (shown as APP1 in the figure).

Referring to fig. 10D, the procedure for transmitting user plane data in uplink direction implemented at UE side may be as shown by the thick solid line in the figure, and may include the following steps:

And 5: the LC entity processes the received data packet, maps the processed data packet to a logical channel, adds an LCID (the value of the LCID is denoted as LC1), and then sends the processed data packet to the IP entity.

Step 6: the IP entity processes the received data packet, specifies a new protocol type for transmitting the LC layer data packet in the IP packet header according to the data packet from the LC layer, for example, according to the LCID in the data packet, and sends the processed data packet to a data link layer entity (shown as WLAN MAC + PHY + LLC) in the Wi-Fi wireless communication protocol stack. In this process, the data packet sequentially passes through a data link layer entity and a physical layer entity in the UE. The new protocol type is an LC layer packet protocol type, which may be denoted as "LC protocol".

Referring to fig. 10E, a processing flow after the eNB receives the user plane data may be shown as a thick solid line in the figure, and includes the following steps:

step 1: the IP entity processes the data packet received from the WLAN AP and sends the processed data packet to the LC entity according to the protocol type of the data packet. The protocol type may be a new protocol type used by the IP layer for LC layer packet transmission. The new protocol type is an LC layer packet protocol type, which may be denoted as "LC protocol".

Step 2: the LC entity processes the received data packet, and sends the processed data packet to the corresponding PDCP1 according to the LCID (the value of the LCID is represented as LC1) in the packet header of the received data packet and the corresponding relation between the LCID and the PDCP entity.

And step 3: the PDCP1 processes the received packet and transmits the processed packet to a higher layer.

The flows described in fig. 10D and fig. 10E above only describe the transmission process of the user plane data in the uplink direction by offloading through the WLAN AP. In practical application, all user plane data in the uplink direction between the eNB and the UE may be shunted to the eNB through the WLAN AP, or part of the data may be shunted to the eNB through the WLAN AP, and the other part of the data is still sent to the eNB through a communication link of an LTE protocol between the eNB and the UE, so that concurrence of LTE bearer data and WLAN bearer data may be achieved. The procedure for UE to send uplink data to eNB through communication link of LTE protocol and related protocol stack architecture can refer to LTE protocol specification.

In the flows described in fig. 10B, fig. 10C, fig. 10D, and fig. 10E, the data processing procedure of each protocol entity is not described in detail, and the data processing procedure of each protocol entity may refer to the specification of the relevant communication protocol.

Example four

The fourth embodiment describes a scheme for establishing a bearer tunnel of a DRB using a GTP-U protocol to implement offloading of user plane data between an eNB and a UE through a wlan ap.

In the network architecture of the fourth embodiment, the UE and the eNB use an LTE wireless communication protocol for interaction, the UE and the WLAN AP use a Wi-Fi wireless communication protocol for interaction, and the eNB and the WLAN AP are connected in a wired manner and use a wired communication protocol for interaction.

Fig. 11A is a user plane protocol stack architecture in the fourth embodiment. The LTE protocol stack in the UE comprises a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, an MAC layer and a PHY layer from an upper layer to a lower layer; the Wi-Fi protocol stack in the UE comprises a GTP-U layer, a UDP layer, an IP layer and an MAC/PHY layer from the upper layer to the lower layer; the LTE protocol stack of the eNB comprises a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, an MAC layer and a PHY layer from an upper layer to a lower layer; the wired communication protocol stack of the eNB includes a GTP-U layer, a UDP layer, an IP layer, and a data link layer (shown as layer-2 in the figure) from an upper layer to a lower layer.

In the fourth embodiment, LC entities are configured for the UE1 and the UE2 accessing the eNB, respectively. The UE1 and the UE2 are respectively configured with two EPS bearers, and PDCP entities respectively corresponding to the two EPS bearers are respectively denoted as PDCP1 and PDCP 2. The corresponding relationship between the PDCP entity and the logical channel identifier is as follows: PDCP1 corresponds to LC1, PDCP2 corresponds to LC 2.

Based on the user plane protocol stack architecture shown in fig. 11A in combination with the DRB configuration flow shown in fig. 4 and 5, the signaling flow for configuring the DRB between the UE and the eNB via the WLAN AP may specifically include the following contents:

The capability information may include the following:

-protocol type indication information indicating the protocol used by the UE to establish the DRB bearer. In this embodiment, the protocol type is GTP-U;

indication information whether the UE supports user plane data offloading via WLAN APs. In this embodiment, the indication information indicates that the UE supports offloading of the user plane data through the WLAN AP.

Step 2: the eNB configures the UE to measure the WLAN APs.

And 4, step 4: and the eNB confirms that the UE supports the user plane data shunt transmission through the WLAN AP, and sends a configuration message to the WLAN AP under the condition of obtaining the WLAN AP measured by the UE, so that the WLAN AP configures the air interface GTP-U connection between the WLAN AP and the UE and the GTP-U connection between the WLAN AP and the eNB.

The configuration message sent by the eNB to the WLAN AP may include the following connection configuration information:

-indication information of GTP-U protocol to instruct the WLAN AP to establish GTP-U connection;

configuration information of an air interface GTP-U connection between the UE and the WLAN AP may specifically include: an empty GTP-U between the UE and the WLAN AP is connected with a GTP-U TEID of the WLAN AP side, and the empty GTP-U is connected with a GTP-U TEID of the UE side and the like for identifying the GTU-U empty connection of the UE;

-configuration information of a GTP-U connection between the eNB and the WLAN AP, the GTP-U connection corresponding to the UE. The configuration information of GTP-U connection may specifically include: the GTP-U between the eNB and the WLAN AP connects the GTP-U TEIDs of the interfaces on the eNB and WLAN AP sides.

-DRB identity of the reconfiguration.

And 5: after receiving the configuration information in step 4, the WLAN AP establishes an empty GTP-U connection (referred to as GTP-U connection 1 for convenience of description) of the UE on the WLAN AP side, establishes a GTP-U connection (referred to as GTP-U connection 2 for convenience of description) between the WLAN AP and the eNB, and establishes a corresponding relationship between GTP-U connection 1 and GTP-U connection 2. Wherein the GTP-U connection between the WLAN AP and the eNB corresponds to the UE.

Further, the WLAN AP sends a configuration confirm message to the eNB. The configuration confirmation message may include the following information: the GTP-U TEID of GTP-U connection 1 may also include configuration information of GTP-U connection 2, such as the GTP-U TEID of GTP-U connection 1 on the WLAN AP side, the GTP-U TEID on the UE side, etc.

Step 6: and the eNB confirms that the UE supports the offloading transmission of the user plane data through the WLAN AP, and sends a reconfiguration message to the UE to request the UE to configure the DRB between the UE and the eNB through the WLAN AP under the condition of obtaining the WLAN AP measured by the UE.

Wherein, the reconfiguration message may include the following contents:

-GTP-U protocol type indication information to instruct the UE to establish a bearer tunnel of the DRB using the GTP-U protocol;

-configuration information of bearer channel of DRB. The method specifically comprises the following steps: information such as a correspondence between a PDCP entity in the DRB Channel and an LCID (logical Channel ID), and configuration information of an air interface GTP-U connection between the UE and the WLAN AP, for example, may include: the empty GTP-U is connected with a GTP-U TEID of the WLAN AP side, the empty GTP-U is connected with a GTP-U TEID of the UE side and the like, and is used for identifying the GTU-U empty connection of the UE.

And 7: after receiving the reconfiguration message sent by the eNB, the UE establishes an air interface GTP-U connection with the WLAN AP according to the configuration information in the reconfiguration message, and performs data transceiving through the WLAN access network through the air interface GTP-U connection. Further, the UE may feed back a configuration success message to the eNB.

And 8: after receiving the successful configuration message of the UE, or according to the configuration confirmation message in step 5, the eNB performs data transmission and reception with the UE through the GTP-U connection (GTP-U connection 2) with the WLAN AP corresponding to the UE.

In the above bearer configuration flow, the execution sequence of step 4 and step 6 is not strictly required, for example, step 6 may be executed first and then step 4 may be executed, or the steps may be executed simultaneously.

The user plane data offloading transmission procedure between the UE and the eNB may be as shown in fig. 11B and 11C and fig. 11D and 11E. Fig. 11B and 11C show the user plane data transmission flow in the downlink direction implemented on the eNB side and the UE side, respectively, and fig. 11D and 11E show the user plane data transmission flow in the uplink direction implemented on the eNB side and the UE side, respectively.

Referring to fig. 11B, a downlink data transmission procedure on the eNB side may be as shown by a thick solid line in the figure, and may include the following steps:

And step 3: the LC entity processes the received data packet, maps the processed data packet to a logical channel and adds LCID (the value of the LCID is represented as LC1), the added LCID corresponds to PDCP1, and the LC entity sends the processed data packet to a GTP-U entity.

And 4, step 4: and the GTP-U entity sends the data to the WLAN AP through a corresponding GTP-U tunnel according to the corresponding relation between the GTP-U TEID and the LC entity.

And the WLAN AP sends the received data to the UE through the GTP-U connection of the UE on the empty port of the WLAN AP side according to the corresponding relation between the Xw TEID of the GTP-U of the Xw interface and the WLAN TEID connected with the GTP-U of the WLAN empty port.

As shown in fig. 11C, the downlink data receiving procedure at the UE side may be as shown by a thick solid line in the figure, and may include the following steps:

step 1: and a data link layer entity (shown as WLAN MAC + PHY + LLC) in a Wi-Fi wireless communication protocol stack in the UE sends the received data packet to the IP entity according to the protocol type.

Step 2: and the IP entity decapsulates and analyzes the received data packet according to the protocol type to obtain a UDP packet, and sends the UDP packet to the UDP entity.

And step 3: and the UDP entity processes the received data packet to obtain a GTP data packet, and sends the GTP data packet to the GTP-U entity according to the protocol type.

And 4, step 4: and the GTP-U entity sends the GTP data packet to the LC entity according to the supported protocol type or the application type. The protocol type or application type is a new type defined for LC layer data transceiving.

And 5: the LC entity sends the data packet to a corresponding PDCP entity according to the LCID in the packet header of the received data packet and the corresponding relation between the LCID and the PDCP entity: PDCP 1.

And 5: the PDCP1 transmits the received packet to the IP entity.

Step 6: and the IP entity sends the UDP data packet to the UDP entity according to the protocol type.

And 7: the UDP entity sends the UDP packet to the application layer entity through the UDP channel corresponding to the UDP Port according to the TCP Port number Port2 allocated to the application program (shown as APP1 in the figure).

The GTP-U connection in the above procedure is based on the UDP protocol. If the GTP-U connection is based on the TCP protocol, the IP entity sends the data packet to the TCP entity in step 2; in step 3, the TCP entity sends the data packet to the GTP-U entity; in step 6, the IP entity sends the data packet to the TCP entity; in step 7, the TCP entity sends the data packet to the application layer entity.

The flows described in fig. 11B and fig. 11C only describe the transmission process of the user plane data shunted by the WLAN AP in the downlink direction. In practical application, all user plane data in the downlink direction between the eNB and the UE may be shunted to the UE through the WLAN AP, or part of the data may be shunted to the UE through the WLAN AP, and the other part of the data is still sent to the UE through a communication link of an LTE protocol between the eNB and the UE, so that concurrence of LTE bearer data and WLAN bearer data may be achieved. The procedure for the eNB to send downlink data to the UE through the communication link of the LTE protocol and the related protocol stack architecture can be referred to the LTE protocol specification.

Referring to fig. 11D, the procedure for transmitting user plane data in the uplink direction implemented at the UE side may be as shown by a thick solid line in the figure, and may include the following steps:

step 1: the application layer entity (APP 1 shown in the figure) sends the data packet to the UDP entity through the corresponding UDP channel according to the assigned UDP Port number Port 2.

Step 2: and the UDP entity processes the received data packet and sends the processed data packet to the IP entity.

And 5: the LC entity processes the received data packet, maps the processed data packet to a logical channel, adds LCID (the value of the LCID is represented as LC1), and then sends the processed data packet to the GTP-U entity.

Step 6: and the GTP-U entity adds a GTP header in the data packet and then sends the data packet to a UDP entity according to the corresponding relation between the GTP-U TEID and the LC entity so as to send the data packet to the WLAN AP through a GTP-U tunnel corresponding to the WLAN AP gap.

And 7: the UDP entity sends the data packet to the IP entity.

And 8: the IP entity processes the received data packet and sends the processed data packet to a data link layer entity (wlan mac + PHY + LLC) in the Wi-Fi wireless communication protocol stack. In this process, the data packet sequentially passes through a data link layer entity and a physical layer entity in the UE.

The GTP-U connection in the above procedure is based on the UDP protocol. If the GTP-U connection is based on the TCP protocol, in step 1, the application layer entity sends the data packet to the TCP entity; in step 2, the TCP entity sends the data packet to the IP entity; in step 6, the GTP-U entity sends the data packet to the TCP entity; in step 7, the TCP entity sends the data packet to the IP entity.

And after receiving the data sent by the UE, the WLAN AP sends the received data to the eNB through the GTP-U connection of the UE at the eNB side according to the corresponding relation between the Xw TEID connection of the GTP-U of the Xw interface and the WLAN TEID connected with the GTP-U of the WLAN air interface.

step 1: and the GTP-U entity sends the data packet to the LC entity corresponding to the UE according to the protocol type or the application type of the data packet and the XwTEID of the UE.

Step 2: the LC entity processes the data packet, and sends the processed data packet to the corresponding PDCP1 according to the LCID (the value of the LCID is represented as LC1) in the header of the received data packet and the corresponding relationship between the LCID and the PDCP entity.

The flows described in fig. 11D and fig. 11E above only describe the transmission process of the user plane data in the uplink direction by offloading through the WLAN AP. In practical application, all user plane data in the uplink direction between the eNB and the UE may be shunted to the eNB through the WLAN AP, or part of the data may be shunted to the eNB through the WLAN AP, and the other part of the data is still sent to the eNB through a communication link of an LTE protocol between the eNB and the UE, so that concurrence of LTE bearer data and WLAN bearer data may be achieved. The procedure for UE to send uplink data to eNB through communication link of LTE protocol and related protocol stack architecture can refer to LTE protocol specification.

EXAMPLE five

The fifth embodiment describes a scheme for implementing offloading of user plane data between the eNB and the UE through the WLAN AP when the bearer channel between the UE and the WLAN AP is an air interface UDP connection and the bearer channel between the WLAN AP and the eNB is a GTP-U connection.

In the network architecture of the fifth embodiment, the UE and the eNB use an LTE wireless communication protocol for interaction, the UE and the WLAN AP use a Wi-Fi wireless communication protocol for interaction, and the eNB and the WLAN AP are connected in a wired manner and use a wired communication protocol for interaction.

Fig. 12 is a user plane protocol stack architecture in the fifth embodiment. The LTE protocol stack in the UE comprises a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, an MAC layer and a PHY layer from an upper layer to a lower layer; the Wi-Fi protocol stack in the UE comprises a UDP layer, an IP layer and an MAC/PHY layer from the upper layer to the lower layer; the LTE protocol stack of the eNB comprises a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, an MAC layer and a PHY layer from an upper layer to a lower layer; the wired communication protocol stack of the eNB includes a GTP-U layer, a UDP layer, an IP layer, and a data link layer (shown as layer-2 in the figure) from an upper layer to a lower layer.

Based on the user plane protocol stack architecture shown in fig. 12 in combination with the DRB configuration flow shown in fig. 4 and 5, the signaling flow for configuring the DRB between the UE and the eNB via the WLAN AP may specifically include the following:

The capability information may include the following:

-protocol type indication information indicating the protocol used by the UE to establish the DRB bearer. In this embodiment, the protocol type is UDP;

Step 2: the eNB configures the UE to measure the WLAN APs.

And 4, step 4: and the eNB confirms that the UE supports the user plane data to be transmitted by shunting through the WLAN AP, and sends a configuration message to the WLAN AP under the condition of obtaining the WLAN AP measured by the UE, so that the WLAN AP configures UDP connection between the WLAN AP and the UE and GTP-U connection between the WLAN AP and the eNB.

-indication information of the UDP protocol to instruct the WLAN AP to establish a UDP connection;

configuration information of the UDP connection between the UE and the WLAN AP may specifically include: an air interface UDP between the UE and the WLAN AP is connected with a port number at the WLAN AP side, and the air interface UDP is connected with the port number at the UE side and is used for establishing an IP address of the UE connected with the air interface UDP, an IP address of the WALN AP and the like. Wherein the UDP connection corresponds to the UE, and if there are multiple DRBs for the UE, the DRBs for the UE share the UDP connection;

-DRB identity of the reconfiguration.

And 5: and the WLAN AP establishes an air interface UDP connection of the UE on the WLAN AP side, establishes a GTP-U connection between the WLAN AP and the eNB and establishes a corresponding relation between the WLAN AP and the eNB after receiving the configuration according to the configuration information in the step 4, wherein the corresponding relation between the WLAN AP and the eNB can be represented by the corresponding relation between the port number of the air interface UDP connection and the TEID of the GTP-U connection. Wherein the GTP-U connection between the WLAN AP and the eNB corresponds to the UE.

Further, the WLAN AP sends a configuration confirm message to the eNB. The configuration confirmation message may include the following information: the GTP-U TEID of the GTP-U connection may further include configuration information of the air UDP connection, for example, a port number and an IP address of the air UDP connection at the WLAN AP side, a port number and an IP address at the UE side, and the like, and may further include a correspondence between the air UDP connection and the GTP-U connection.

Wherein, the reconfiguration message may include the following contents:

-UDP protocol type indication information to instruct the UE to establish a bearer channel of the DRB using the UDP protocol;

-configuration information of bearer channel of DRB. The method specifically comprises the following steps: information such as a correspondence between a PDCP entity in the DRB Channel and an LCID (logical Channel ID, logical Channel identifier), and configuration information of an air interface UDP connection between the UE and the WLAN AP may include, for example: the air interface UDP is connected with the port number and the IP address of the WLAN AP side, and the air interface UDP is connected with the port number and the IP address of the UE side.

And 7: after receiving the reconfiguration message sent by the eNB, the UE establishes an air interface UDP connection with the WLAN AP according to the configuration information in the reconfiguration message, and performs data transceiving through the WLAN access network through the air interface UDP connection. Further, the UE may feed back a configuration success message to the eNB.

And 8: and after receiving the configuration success message of the UE or according to the configuration confirmation message in the step 5, the eNB carries out data transceiving with the UE through GTP-U connection between the UE and the WLAN AP.

Optionally, an air interface TCP connection may be established between the UE and the WLAN AP instead of the air interface UDP connection. If an air interface TCP connection is established between the UE and the WLAN AP, the bearer channel configuration process is similar to the above process, except that the UDP protocol type is replaced by the TCP protocol type, and the UDP port is replaced by the TCP port.

The procedure of the eNB sending downlink data is similar to the relevant procedure in the fourth embodiment, and see fig. 11B specifically. The difference from the flow shown in fig. 11B is that: after receiving the data sent by the eNB, the WLAN AP sends the received data to the UE through the UDP (or TCP) connection of the air interface of the UE on the WLAN AP side according to the corresponding relation between the GTP-U connection of the Xw interface and the UDP (or TCP) connection of the air interface of the WLAN. The WLAN AP may represent the correspondence between the TEID of the WLAN AP according to the GTP-U connection of the Xw interface and the UDP (or TCP) connection of the WLAN air interface, and the port number of the UDP (or TCP) connection of the WLAN air interface.

The process of receiving downlink data by the UE is substantially the same as the related process in the first embodiment, and specifically, see fig. 8C.

The procedure of sending uplink data by the UE is substantially the same as the related procedure in the first embodiment, and specifically, see fig. 8D.

The procedure of receiving uplink data by the eNB is similar to the relevant procedure in the fourth embodiment, and specifically, refer to fig. 11E. The difference from the flow shown in fig. 11E is that: and the UDP (or TCP) entity of the WLAN AP receives corresponding UDP (or TCP) data from the UDP (or TCP) entity of the opposite end of the UE, and the WLAN AP sends the data to the GTP-U entity of the eNB through the GTP-U connection between the eNB at the WLAN AP side and the WLAN AP according to the corresponding relation between the GTP-U connection of the Xw interface and the UDP (or TCP) connection of the WLAN air interface. And the GTP-U entity of the eNB sends the data packet to the LC entity corresponding to the UE according to the protocol type (or application type) of the data packet and the Xw TEID of the UE. The WLAN AP may represent the correspondence between the TEID of the GTP-U connection of the Xw interface and the port number of the UDP (or TCP) connection of the WLAN air interface according to the correspondence between the GTP-U connection of the Xw interface and the UDP (or TCP) connection of the WLAN air interface.

It should be noted that, in the fifth embodiment, the bearer path between the UE and the WLAN AP is described as a TCP connection, and the bearer path may also be replaced by a UDP connection. If the bearer channel is UDP connected, the bearer channel configuration process and the data offloading process may reuse the above flows, but the difference is that: in the signaling configuration flow of the bearer channel, the UDP protocol type is specified in step 4, and the port number of the UDP protocol is specified. And establishing UDP connection between the subsequent UE and the network side and sending and receiving data through the UDP port.

EXAMPLE six

The sixth embodiment describes a scheme for implementing offloading user plane data between the eNB and the UE through the WLAN AP when the bearer channel between the UE and the WLAN AP is an air interface IP connection and the bearer channel between the WLAN AP and the eNB is a GTP-U connection.

In the network architecture of the sixth embodiment, the UE and the eNB use an LTE wireless communication protocol for interaction, the UE and the WLAN AP use a Wi-Fi wireless communication protocol for interaction, and the eNB and the WLAN AP are connected in a wired manner and use a wired communication protocol for interaction.

Fig. 13 is a user plane protocol stack architecture in the sixth embodiment. The LTE protocol stack in the UE comprises a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, an MAC layer and a PHY layer from an upper layer to a lower layer; the Wi-Fi protocol stack in the UE comprises an IP layer and an MAC/PHY layer from an upper layer to a lower layer; the LTE protocol stack of the eNB comprises a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, an MAC layer and a PHY layer from an upper layer to a lower layer; the wired communication protocol stack of the eNB includes a GTP-U layer, a UDP layer, an IP layer, and a data link layer (shown as layer-2 in the figure) from an upper layer to a lower layer.

The capability information may include the following:

Step 2: the eNB configures the UE to measure the WLAN APs.

-indication information of IP protocol to indicate WLAN AP to establish IP connection with UE;

configuration information of the IP connection between the UE and the WLAN AP may specifically include: an air interface IP between the UE and the WLAN AP is connected with an IP address of the WLAN AP side, and the air interface UDP is connected with the IP address of the UE side;

-DRB identity of the reconfiguration.

And 5: and the WLAN AP establishes an air interface IP connection of the UE on the WLAN AP side, establishes a GTP-U connection between the WLAN AP and the eNB and establishes a corresponding relation between the WLAN AP and the eNB after receiving the configuration according to the configuration information in the step 4, wherein the corresponding relation between the WLAN AP and the eNB can be represented by the corresponding relation between the port number of the air interface UDP connection and the TEID of the GTP-U connection. Wherein the GTP-U connection between the WLAN AP and the eNB corresponds to the UE.

Further, the WLAN AP sends a configuration confirm message to the eNB. The configuration confirmation message may include the following information: the GTP-U TEID of the GTP-U connection may further include configuration information of the air interface IP connection, for example, a port number and an IP address of the air interface UDP connection at the WLAN AP side, a port number and an IP address at the UE side, and the like, and may further include a correspondence between the air interface UDP connection and the GTP-U connection.

Wherein, the reconfiguration message may include the following contents:

-IP protocol type indication information to instruct the UE to establish a bearer channel of the DRB using UDP protocol;

-configuration information of bearer channel of DRB. The method specifically comprises the following steps: information such as a correspondence between a PDCP entity in the DRB Channel and an LCID (logical Channel ID, logical Channel identifier), and configuration information of an air interface IP connection between the UE and the WLAN AP may include, for example: the air interface IP is connected with the IP address of the WLAN AP side, and the air interface IP is connected with the IP address of the UE side.

-other configuration information, which may in particular comprise one or a combination of the following: information of the PDCP entity, information of the LC entity, channel identification between the PDCP and the LC, configuration information of a channel between the PDCP and the LC, a Logical Channel Identification (LCID), logical channel configuration information, information of the MAC entity, information of the physical layer entity, and the like.

And 7: after receiving the reconfiguration message sent by the eNB, the UE establishes an air interface IP connection with the WLAN AP according to the configuration information in the reconfiguration message, and performs data transceiving through the WLAN access network through the air interface IP connection. Further, the UE may feed back a configuration success message to the eNB.

The procedure of the eNB sending downlink data is similar to the relevant procedure in the fourth embodiment, and see fig. 11B specifically. The difference from the flow shown in fig. 11B is that: after receiving the data sent by the eNB, the WLAN AP sends the received data to the UE through the IP connection of the air interface of the UE on the WLAN AP side according to the correspondence between the GTP-U connection of the Xw interface and the IP connection of the WLAN air interface, for example, according to the IP address or the WLAN MAC address of the UE.

The process of receiving downlink data by the UE is substantially the same as the related process in the third embodiment, and specifically, see fig. 10C.

The procedure of sending uplink data by the UE is substantially the same as the related procedure in the third embodiment, and specifically, see fig. 10D.

The procedure of receiving uplink data by the eNB is similar to the relevant procedure in the fourth embodiment, and specifically, refer to fig. 11E. The difference from the flow shown in fig. 11E is that: the IP entity of the WLAN AP receives the IP data packet from the IP entity of the opposite end of the UE, and the WLAN AP sends the data to the GTP-U entity of the eNB through the GTP-U connection between the eNB and the WLAN AP according to the corresponding relation between the GTP-U connection of the Xw interface and the IP connection of the WLAN air interface, for example, according to the IP address or the WLAN MAC address of the UE. And the GTP-U entity of the eNB sends the data packet to the LC entity corresponding to the UE according to the protocol type (or application type) of the data packet and the Xw TEID of the UE.

EXAMPLE seven

The seventh embodiment describes a scheme for establishing a bearer tunnel of a DRB using a TCP protocol to implement offloading of user plane data between an eNB and a UE through a wlan ap.

The architecture of the user plane protocol stack in the seventh embodiment is the same as that in the first embodiment, and specifically, refer to fig. 8A.

The bearer configuration procedure in the seventh embodiment is substantially the same as the related procedure in the first embodiment, except that: in step 4, the TCP port number in the configuration information required for TCP connection uniquely corresponds to one DRB. Since one DRB corresponds to one PDCP entity, there is a one-to-one relationship between the TCP port number and the PDCP entity.

The procedure for the eNB to send downlink data is similar to the relevant procedure in the first embodiment, specifically refer to fig. 8B, and the difference between the first embodiment and the second embodiment is that: the operation of step 3 is omitted, and in step 2, the PDCP entity sends the data packet to the TCP entity through the TCP port according to the TCP port number corresponding to the PDCP entity.

The process of receiving downlink data by the UE is substantially the same as the related process in the first embodiment, and specifically, refer to fig. 8C, where the difference between the first embodiment and the second embodiment is: in step 4, the PDCP entity sends the data packet to the TCP entity through the TCP port according to the TCP port number corresponding to the PDCP entity.

The process of sending uplink data by the UE is substantially the same as the related process in the first embodiment, and specifically, see fig. 8D, the difference between the first embodiment and the second embodiment is that: in step 4, the PDCP entity sends the data packet to the TCP entity through the TCP port according to the TCP port number corresponding to the PDCP.

The procedure of receiving uplink data by the eNB is similar to the relevant procedure in the first embodiment, and specifically refer to fig. 8E, where the difference between the embodiment and the first embodiment is that: in step 2, the TCP entity sends the data packet to the corresponding PDCP entity of the corresponding UE through the TCP port according to the DRB corresponding to the TCP port. If the eNB allocates the same TCP port for different UEs, the eNB distinguishes different PDCP entities according to the IP address and the TCP port number of the UE side of the data received by the TCP port, and then sends the data packet to the corresponding PDCP entity corresponding to the corresponding UE.

It should be noted that, in the seventh embodiment, the bearer channel between the UE and the eNB and passing through the WLAN AP is a TCP connection, the bearer channel may also be replaced by a UDP connection, and if the bearer channel is a UDP connection, the bearer channel configuration process and the data offloading process may reuse the above flows, where a difference is that: in the signaling configuration flow of the bearer channel, the UDP protocol type is specified in step 4, and the port number of the UDP protocol is specified. And establishing UDP connection between the subsequent UE and the network side and sending and receiving data through the UDP port.

Example eight

The eighth embodiment describes a scheme for establishing a bearer tunnel of a DRB using a GTP-U protocol to implement offloading of user plane data between an eNB and a UE through a wlan ap.

The architecture of the user plane protocol stack in the eighth embodiment is the same as that in the fifth embodiment, and specifically, see fig. 12.

The bearer configuration process in the eighth embodiment is substantially the same as the related process in the fifth embodiment, except that a UDP (or TCP) connection of an air interface between the UE and the WLAN AP corresponds to a DRB in the terminal, that is, uniquely corresponds to a DRB that needs to be offloaded via the WLAN AP, and accordingly:

in step 5, in configuration information of an air interface UDP (or TCP) connection between the UE and the WLAN AP, a UDP (or TCP) port number of the WLAN AP air interface connection corresponds to a DRB of the UE; in step 6, in the configuration information of the connection of the air interface UDP (or TCP) of the UE at the WLAN AP, the port number of the air interface UDP (or TCP) connection between the WLAN AP and the UE corresponds to the DRB of the UE.

The process of the eNB sending the downlink data is similar to the related process in the fourth embodiment, specifically refer to fig. 11B, and the difference between the present embodiment and the first embodiment is that: step 3 is omitted and:

in step 2, the PDCP entity sends the data packet to the GTP-U entity according to the GTP-U TEID corresponding to each DRB;

in step 4, the WLAN AP sends the data packet to the DRB corresponding to the UE through the UDP (or UDP) connection of the air interface of the WLAN AP side of the UE according to the correspondence between the Xw TEID of the GTP-U of the Xw interface and the UDP (or UDP) connection (e.g., port) of the WLAN air interface.

The process of receiving downlink data by the UE is basically the same as the related process in the seventh embodiment.

The procedure for UE to transmit uplink data is basically the same as the related procedure in the seventh embodiment.

The procedure of receiving uplink data by the eNB is similar to the relevant procedure in the first embodiment, and specifically refer to fig. 8E, where the difference between the embodiment and the first embodiment is that: step 2 is omitted, and:

in step 1, the UDP (or TCP) entity of the WLAN AP receives corresponding UDP (or TCP) data from the UDP (or TCP) entity of the UE peer, and the WLAN AP sends the data to the GTP-U entity of the eNB through the GTP-U connection between the eNB and the WLAN AP on the WLAN AP side by the UE according to the correspondence between the Xw TEID of the GTP-U of the Xw interface and the UDP (or TCP) connection (e.g., port) of the WLAN air interface. If the WLAN AP allocates the same TCP port for different UEs, the WLAN AP distinguishes different UEs according to the IP address and the TCP port number of the UE side of the data received by the TCP port, and then sends the TCP data to the GTP TEID connection corresponding to the corresponding UE. And the GTP-U layer of the eNB sends the data packet to a PDCP entity corresponding to the UE according to the protocol type (or application type) of the data packet and the Xw TEID of the UE.

As can be seen from the above description of the preferred embodiments, under the macro cell coverage, a large number of WLAN APs covered by hot spots are deployed at the same time, and the UE can have connection on the eNB and other access technologies (such as WLAN APs) at the same time. Through establishing a connection channel between the eNB and the WLAN AP access entity of the UE, the PDCP data of the eNB is transparently transmitted on other access technologies, the flexible distribution of the data on the LTE side can be realized, and the existing WLAN AP resources are more efficiently utilized.

The above embodiments of the present invention are described by taking a scenario in which LTE and WLAN are covered together as an example, and it is needless to say that the idea of the embodiments of the present invention is generalized to a scenario in which other types of networks are covered together, and offloading of user plane data of one access device side on another access device side can also be implemented.

Based on the same technical concept, the embodiment of the invention also provides access equipment and a terminal.

Fig. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of an access device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The access device may be the first access device in the foregoing procedure, and may be a base station, for example. As shown, the access device may include: an obtaining module 1401, a bearer configuration requesting module 1402, and a bearer configuration module 1403, where:

an obtaining module 1401, configured to obtain capability information of a terminal, where the capability information is used to indicate a support capability of the terminal for user plane data offloading transmission;

a bearer configuration request module 1402, configured to request, according to the capability information of the terminal and a second access device for performing data offloading for the terminal, the terminal to configure a data radio bearer DRB between the terminal and the first access device via the second access device; the first access equipment and the second access equipment support different access technologies;

a bearer configuration module 1403, configured to establish a bearer channel of the DRB with the terminal.

Preferably, the capability information includes one or any combination of the following:

the protocol type indication information is used for indicating the terminal to establish a protocol used by the bearer channel;

the address of the terminal;

and the terminal supports the indication information of whether the user plane data is distributed by the second access equipment.

Preferably, the information for instructing the terminal to configure the DRB includes one or any combination of the following:

the configuration information of the bearer channel at least includes: the corresponding relation between the PDCP entity in the bearing channel and the logical channel identifier;

identification of the DRB.

Wherein the protocol used by the bearer channel comprises one of: internet protocol IP, transmission control protocol TCP, user datagram protocol UDP, user plane general packet radio service protocol GTP-U, hypertext transfer protocol HTTP, hypertext transfer security protocol HTTPs.

Preferably, the bearer path is a TCP or UDP connection established using a TCP protocol, and the configuration information of the bearer path further includes: port information of the TCP or UDP connection.

Wherein the bearer configuration module is further configured to: before the terminal is indicated to configure the DRB, if the terminal is confirmed to support user plane data to be distributed through a second access device according to the capability information of the terminal, a TCP or UDP port is allocated to an LC entity corresponding to the terminal, wherein the DRB of the terminal is correspondingly configured with an LC entity; or, the bearer configuration module is further configured to: allocating a TCP or UDP port for an LC entity in advance, wherein the configuration information of the bearer channel also comprises an identifier of the terminal, and a plurality of DRB bearers of the terminal are correspondingly configured with an LC entity; or, the bearer configuration module is further configured to: before the terminal is indicated to configure the DRB, according to the capability information of the terminal, it is confirmed that the terminal supports user plane data to be distributed through a second access device, and then a corresponding TCP or UDP port is allocated to the DRB corresponding to the terminal and needing to be distributed through the second access device.

Preferably, the bearer path is an IP connection established using an IP protocol, and the configuration information of the bearer path further includes: identification information of the terminal.

Preferably, in the bearer channel, the configuration information of the bearer channel further includes: configuration information of an air interface GTP-U connection between the terminal and the second access equipment.

Preferably, in the bearer channel, the terminal is connected to the second access device via an air interface UDP or TCP, and the configuration information of the bearer channel further includes: configuration information of an air interface UDP or TCP link between the terminal and the second access device.

Preferably, in the bearer channel, the terminal and the second access device are connected via an air interface IP, and the configuration information of the bearer channel further includes: configuration information of air interface IP connection between the terminal and the second access device.

Preferably, the bearer configuration request module is further configured to send GTP-U connection configuration information to the second access device if the connection between the first access device and the second access device in the bearer channel is a GTP-U connection, where the GTP-U connection configuration information includes:

the protocol type indicating information indicates that the protocol indicated by the protocol type indicating information is a GTP-U protocol;

configuration information of an air interface GTP-U connection between the terminal and the second access equipment, and configuration information of a GTP-U connection between the first access equipment and the second access equipment;

identification of the DRB.

Further, still include: a transmission module, configured to receive user plane data from a core network, and send the user plane data to the terminal through a bearer channel between the terminal and the user plane data via a DRB of a second access device; and/or receiving user plane data from the terminal through the bearer channel, and sending the user plane data to the core network.

Referring to fig. 15, a schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown, where the terminal may include: a reporting module 1501, a bearer configuration receiving module 1502, and a bearer configuration module 1503, where:

a reporting module 1501, configured to report capability information of the terminal to a first access device, where the capability information is used to indicate a capability of the terminal for supporting user plane data offloading transmission;

a bearer configuration receiving module 1502, configured to receive a configuration request sent by the first access device, where the configuration request is used to request the terminal to configure a data radio bearer DRB that is offloaded between the terminal and the first access device via a second access device; the first access equipment and the second access equipment support different access modes;

a bearer configuration module 1503, configured to establish a bearer path of the DRB with the first access device.

the address of the terminal;

identification of the DRB.

Preferably, the protocol used by the bearer channel includes one of: internet protocol IP, transmission control protocol TCP, user datagram protocol UDP, user plane general packet radio service protocol GTP-U, hypertext transfer protocol HTTP, hypertext transfer security protocol HTTPs.

Further, still include: a transmission module, configured to send user plane data to the first access device through a bearer channel between the first receiving device and the DRB of the second access device, where the first access device and the second access device use different access technologies; and/or receiving user plane data from the first access equipment through the bearer channel.

Referring to fig. 16, a schematic structural diagram of an access device according to another embodiment of the present invention is provided, where the access device may be the first access device in the foregoing embodiments, and may be a base station, for example. As shown, the access device may include: a processor 1601, a memory 1602, a transceiver 1603, and a bus interface.

The processor 1601 is responsible for managing the bus architecture and general processing, and the memory 1602 may store data used by the processor 1601 in performing operations. The transceiver 1603 is used to receive and transmit data under the control of the processor 1601.

The bus architecture may include any number of interconnected buses and bridges, with one or more processors, represented by the processor 1601, and various circuits, represented by the memory 1602, being linked together. The bus architecture may also link together various other circuits such as peripherals, voltage regulators, power management circuits, and the like, which are well known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further herein. The bus interface provides an interface. The transceiver 1603 may be a plurality of elements, i.e., including a transmitter and a transceiver, providing a means for communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium. The processor 1601 is responsible for managing the bus architecture and general processing, and the memory 1602 may store data used by the processor 1601 in performing operations.

The radio data bearer configuration process of the user plane and the process of data transmission through the radio data bearer channel disclosed in the embodiments of the present invention may be applied to the processor 1601 or implemented by the processor 1601. In implementation, the steps of the control plane processing method may be implemented by hardware integrated logic circuits or instructions in the form of software in the processor 1601. The processor 1601 may be a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof, that may implement or perform the methods, steps, and logic blocks disclosed in embodiments of the present invention. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor or the like. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present invention may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor. The software module may be located in ram, flash memory, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, etc. storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in the memory 1602, and the processor 1601 reads the information in the memory 1602, and completes the steps of the control plane processing method in combination with its hardware.

Referring to fig. 17, a schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to another embodiment of the present invention is shown, where the terminal may include: a processor 1701, a memory 1702, a transceiver 1703, and a bus interface.

The processor 1701 is responsible for managing the bus architecture and general processing, and the memory 1702 may store data used by the processor 1701 in performing operations. The transceiver 1703 is used to receive and transmit data under the control of the processor 1701.

The bus architecture may include any number of interconnected buses and bridges, with one or more processors, represented by the processor 1701, and various circuits of memory, represented by the memory 1702, being linked together. The bus architecture may also link together various other circuits such as peripherals, voltage regulators, power management circuits, and the like, which are well known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further herein. The bus interface provides an interface. The transceiver 1703 may be a number of elements including a transmitter and a transceiver providing a means for communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium. The processor 1701 is responsible for managing the bus architecture and general processing, and the memory 1702 may store data used by the processor 1701 in performing operations.

The radio data bearer configuration procedure of the user plane and the procedure of data transmission through the radio data bearer channel disclosed in the embodiments of the present invention may be applied to the processor 1701, or implemented by the processor 1701. In implementation, the steps of the control plane processing method may be performed by instructions in the form of hardware integrated logic circuits or software in the processor 1701. The processor 1701 may be a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or the like that can implement or perform the methods, steps, and logic blocks disclosed in embodiments of the present invention. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor or the like. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present invention may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor. The software module may be located in ram, flash memory, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, etc. storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in the memory 1702, and the processor 1701 reads the information in the memory 1702 and completes the steps of the processing method of the control plane in combination with the hardware thereof.

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

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

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

While preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described, additional variations and modifications in those embodiments may occur to those skilled in the art once they learn of the basic inventive concepts. Therefore, it is intended that the appended claims be interpreted as including preferred embodiments and all such alterations and modifications as fall within the scope of the invention.

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

Claims

1. A method for configuring a data radio bearer, comprising:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the capability information comprises one or any combination of the following:

the address of the terminal;

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the capability information further comprises: information of ports occupied by the terminal, and/or information of ports suggested to be used by the terminal.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information for instructing the terminal to configure the DRB comprises one or any combination of the following:

identification of the DRB.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the protocol used by the bearer channel comprises one of: internet protocol IP, transmission control protocol TCP, user datagram protocol UDP, user plane general packet radio service protocol GTP-U, hypertext transfer protocol HTTP, hypertext transfer security protocol HTTPs.

6. The method of claim 1,

the bearer channel is a TCP or UDP connection established using a TCP protocol, and the configuration information of the bearer channel further includes: port information of the TCP or UDP connection.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein before the first access device instructs the terminal to configure the DRB, further comprising: the first access device confirms that the terminal supports user plane data to be shunted by a second access device according to the capability information of the terminal, and allocates a TCP or UDP port for an LC entity corresponding to the terminal, wherein the DRB of the terminal is correspondingly configured with an LC entity; or,

the first access device allocates a TCP or UDP port to an LC entity in advance, and the configuration information of the bearer channel further includes an identifier of the terminal, where a plurality of DRBs of the terminal are correspondingly configured with an LC entity; or,

before the first access device instructs the terminal to configure the DRB, the method further includes: and the first access equipment confirms that the terminal supports user plane data to be shunted by second access equipment according to the capability information of the terminal, and allocates a corresponding TCP or UDP port for the DRB which is corresponding to the terminal and needs to be shunted by the second access equipment.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the bearer path is an IP connection established using an IP protocol, and the configuration information of the bearer path further includes: identification information of the terminal.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein in the bearer, an air interface GTP-U connection established between the terminal and the second access device for the GTP-U protocol used is further included in the configuration information of the bearer: configuration information of an air interface GTP-U connection between the terminal and the second access equipment.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein in the bearer channel, an air interface UDP or TCP connection is between the terminal and the second access device, and the configuration information of the bearer channel further includes: configuration information of an air interface UDP or TCP link between the terminal and the second access device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the UDP or TCP connection uniquely corresponds to the terminal or to a DRB of the terminal that needs to be offloaded via a second access device.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein in the bearer channel, an air interface IP connection is performed between the terminal and the second access device, and the configuration information of the bearer channel further includes: configuration information of air interface IP connection between the terminal and the second access device.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the connection between the first access device and the second access device in the bearer is a GTP-U connection, further comprising:

the first access device sends GTP-U connection configuration information to the second access device, where the GTP-U connection configuration information includes:

identification of the DRB.

14. The method of any one of claims 1 to 13, wherein the first access device is a base station in long term evolution, LTE, or an evolved system thereof, and the second access device is an access point, AP, in a wireless local area network, WLAN.

15. A method for configuring a data radio bearer, comprising:

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the capability information comprises one or any combination of the following:

the address of the terminal;

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the capability information further comprises: information of ports occupied by the terminal, and/or information of ports suggested to be used by the terminal.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the information for instructing the terminal to configure the DRB comprises one or any combination of the following:

identification of the DRB.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the protocol used by the bearer channel comprises one of: internet protocol IP, transmission control protocol TCP, user datagram protocol UDP, user plane general packet radio service protocol GTP-U, hypertext transfer protocol HTTP, hypertext transfer security protocol HTTPs.

20. The method of claim 15,

21. The method of claim 20, wherein before the first access device instructs the terminal to configure the DRB, further comprising: the first access device confirms that the terminal supports user plane data to be shunted by a second access device according to the capability information of the terminal, and allocates a TCP or UDP port for an LC entity corresponding to the terminal, wherein the DRB of the terminal is correspondingly configured with an LC entity; or,

22. The method of claim 15, wherein the bearer path is an IP connection established using an IP protocol, and the configuration information of the bearer path further includes: identification information of the terminal.

23. The method of claim 15, wherein in the bearer, an air interface GTP-U connection established between the terminal and the second access device for the GTP-U protocol used is further included in the configuration information of the bearer: configuration information of an air interface GTP-U connection between the terminal and the second access equipment.

24. The method according to claim 15, wherein in the bearer channel, an air interface UDP or TCP connection is between the terminal and the second access device, and the configuration information of the bearer channel further includes: configuration information of an air interface UDP or TCP link between the terminal and the second access device.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the UDP or TCP connection uniquely corresponds to the terminal or to a DRB of the terminal that needs to be offloaded via a second access device.

26. The method according to claim 15, wherein in the bearer channel, an air interface IP connection is performed between the terminal and the second access device, and the configuration information of the bearer channel further includes: configuration information of air interface IP connection between the terminal and the second access device.

27. The method of any one of claims 15 to 26, wherein the first access device is a base station in long term evolution, LTE, or an evolved system thereof, and the second access device is an access point, AP, in a wireless local area network, WLAN.

28. A method of data transmission, comprising:

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the first access device receives user plane data from a core network, and sends the user plane data to the terminal through a bearer tunnel with the terminal via a DRB of the second access device, specifically comprising:

a PDCP entity in the bearer channel in the first access device receives a data packet from a core network and sends the data packet to an RLC entity;

the RLC entity maps the data packet from the PDCP entity to a logical channel, adds the mapped logical channel identifier in the data packet, and sends the data packet to a TCP or UDP entity according to the distributed TCP or UDP port;

the TCP or UDP entity sends the data packet from the RLC entity to an IP entity;

and the IP entity sends the data packet to the terminal through the second access equipment in an IP routing mode.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the first access device receives user plane data from a core network, and sends the user plane data to the terminal through a bearer tunnel with the terminal via a DRB of the second access device, specifically comprising:

the RLC entity maps a data packet from the PDCP entity to a logical channel, adds a mapped logical channel identifier in the data packet, and sends the data packet to an IP entity;

and the IP entity specifies a new protocol type for transmitting the RLC layer data packet in the received data packet, and sends the data packet to the terminal through the second access equipment in an IP routing mode.

31. The method of claim 28, wherein the first access device receives user plane data from a core network, and sends the user plane data to the terminal through a bearer tunnel with the terminal via a DRB of the second access device, specifically comprising:

the RLC entity maps a data packet from the PDCP entity to a logical channel, adds a mapped logical channel identifier in the data packet, and sends the data packet to a GTP-U entity;

and the GTP-U entity sends the data packet from the RLC entity to the second access equipment through the corresponding tunnel according to the corresponding relation between the tunnel identifier connected with the GTP-U and the RLC entity.

32. The method of claim 28, wherein the receiving, by the first access device, uplink user plane data from the terminal through the bearer tunnel of the DRB specifically includes:

an IP entity in the first access equipment receives a data packet from the terminal and sends the data packet to a TCP entity;

the TCP entity sends the data packet to the RLC entity according to the TCP port distributed to the RLC entity;

and the RLC entity sends the data packet to a PDCP entity corresponding to the logical channel identification according to the logical channel identification contained in the data packet from the TCP entity.

33. The method of claim 28, wherein the receiving, by the first access device, uplink user plane data from the terminal through the bearer tunnel of the DRB specifically includes:

an IP entity in the first access equipment receives a data packet from the second access equipment, and sends the data packet to an RLC entity according to a new protocol type of the data packet, wherein the new protocol type is a protocol type used by an IP layer for transmitting an RLC layer data packet;

34. The method of claim 28, wherein the receiving, by the first access device, uplink user plane data from the terminal through the bearer tunnel of the DRB specifically includes:

the GTP entity in the first access equipment receives a data packet from the second access equipment, and sends the data packet to an RLC entity corresponding to the terminal according to the protocol type or the application type of the data packet and the tunnel identifier of the GTP-U connection between the terminal and the second access equipment at the side of the second access equipment;

35. The method according to claim 29 or 32, wherein the TCP or UDP port corresponds to the terminal; or,

the TCP or UDP port is shared by a plurality of terminals including the terminal; or,

and the TCP or UDP port corresponds to one DRB of the terminal which needs to be subjected to split transmission.

36. A method of data transmission, comprising:

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the terminal sends user plane data to the first access device through a bearer channel with the first receiving device via a DRB of a second access device, comprising:

the application layer entity of the terminal sends the data packet to a TCP or UDP entity;

the TCP or UDP entity sends the data packet to an IP entity;

the IP entity sends the data packet to an LC entity according to the IP header of the data packet;

the LC entity maps the data packet to a logical channel, adds a logical channel identifier in the data packet, and sends the data packet to a TCP or UDP entity according to a TCP or UDP port allocated to the LC entity;

the TCP or UDP entity sends the data packet to an IP entity;

and the IP entity sends a data packet to a link control layer entity which is equivalent to the protocol layer of the second access equipment, and the data packet is sent to the second access equipment through the link control entity.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the TCP or UDP port corresponds to the terminal; or,

39. The method of claim 36, wherein the terminal sends user plane data to the first access device through a bearer channel with the first receiving device via a DRB of a second access device, comprising:

the TCP or UDP entity sends the data packet to an IP entity;

the IP entity sends the data packet to a PDCP entity according to the IP header of the data packet;

the PDCP entity sends the data packet to an LC entity;

the LC entity maps the data packet to a logical channel, adds a logical channel identifier in the data packet, and sends the data packet to an IP entity;

and after the IP entity specifies a new protocol type for transmitting the LC layer data packet in the IP header of the data packet, the IP entity sends the new protocol type to a data link layer entity which is equivalent to a protocol layer of the second access equipment, and the data packet is sent to the second access equipment through the data link layer entity.

40. The method of claim 36, wherein the terminal sends user plane data to the first access device through a bearer channel with the first receiving device via a DRB of a second access device, comprising:

the TCP or UDP entity sends the data packet to an IP entity;

the PDCP entity sends the data packet to an LC entity;

the LC entity maps the data packet to a logical channel, adds a logical channel identifier in the data packet, and sends the data packet to a GTP-U entity;

the GTP-U entity adds a GTP header in the data packet and then sends the data packet to a TCP or UDP entity according to the corresponding relation between the tunnel identifier connected with the GTP-U and the LC entity;

the TCP or UDP entity sends the data packet to an IP entity;

and the IP entity sends the data packet to a data link layer entity which is equivalent to the protocol layer of the second access equipment, and the data packet is sent to the second access equipment through the data link layer entity.

41. The method of claim 36, wherein the terminal receiving user plane data from the first access device over the bearer channel, comprising:

a data link layer entity in the terminal, which is equivalent to the protocol layer of the second access device, sends a data packet received from the second access device to an IP entity;

the IP entity sends the data packet to a TCP or UDP entity;

the TCP or UDP entity sends the data packet to an LC entity according to a TCP or UDP port distributed for the LC entity of the terminal;

the LC entity sends the data packet to a corresponding PDCP entity according to the logical channel identification in the packet header of the data packet;

the PDCP entity sends the data packet to an IP entity;

the IP entity sends the data packet to a TCP entity according to the protocol type;

and the TCP entity sends the data packet to an application layer entity.

42. The method of claim 36, wherein the terminal receiving user plane data from the first access device over the bearer channel, comprising:

the IP entity sends the data packet to the LC entity according to a new protocol type used for transmitting the LC layer data packet by the IP layer;

the PDCP entity sends the data packet to an IP entity;

and the TCP entity sends the data packet to an application layer entity.

43. The method of claim 36, wherein the terminal receiving user plane data from the first access device over the bearer channel, comprising:

the IP entity sends the data packet to a TCP or UDP entity;

the TCP or UDP entity sends the data packet to a GTP-U entity;

the GTP-U entity sends the data packet to the LC entity according to the protocol type or the application type corresponding to the transceiving of the LC layer data;

the PDCP entity sends the data packet to an IP entity;

the IP entity sends the data packet to a TCP or UDP entity according to the protocol type;

and the TCP or UDP entity sends the data packet to an application layer entity.

44. An access device, comprising:

45. The access device of claim 44, wherein the capability information comprises one or any combination of the following:

the address of the terminal;

46. The access device of claim 44, wherein the information for instructing the terminal to configure the DRB comprises one or any combination of the following:

identification of the DRB.

47. The access device of claim 46, wherein the protocol used by the bearer channel comprises one of: internet protocol IP, transmission control protocol TCP, user datagram protocol UDP, user plane general packet radio service protocol GTP-U, hypertext transfer protocol HTTP, hypertext transfer security protocol HTTPs.

48. The access device of claim 44,

49. The access device of claim 48, wherein the bearer configuration module is further to: before the terminal is indicated to configure the DRB, if the terminal is confirmed to support user plane data to be distributed through a second access device according to the capability information of the terminal, a TCP or UDP port is allocated to an LC entity corresponding to the terminal, wherein the DRB of the terminal is correspondingly configured with an LC entity; or,

the bearer configuration module is further configured to: allocating a TCP or UDP port for an LC entity in advance, wherein the configuration information of the bearer channel also comprises an identifier of the terminal, and a plurality of DRB bearers of the terminal are correspondingly configured with an LC entity; or,

the bearer configuration module is further configured to: before the terminal is indicated to configure the DRB, according to the capability information of the terminal, it is confirmed that the terminal supports user plane data to be distributed through a second access device, and then a corresponding TCP or UDP port is allocated to the DRB corresponding to the terminal and needing to be distributed through the second access device.

50. The access device of claim 44, wherein the bearer path is an IP connection established using an IP protocol, and the configuration information of the bearer path further includes: identification information of the terminal.

51. The access device of claim 44, wherein in the bearer, the empty GTP-U connection established for the GTP-U protocol used between the terminal and the second access device, the configuration information of the bearer further includes: configuration information of an air interface GTP-U connection between the terminal and the second access equipment.

52. The access device of claim 44, wherein in the bearer channel, the terminal and the second access device are connected over an air interface UDP or TCP, and the configuration information of the bearer channel further includes: configuration information of an air interface UDP or TCP link between the terminal and the second access device.

53. The access device of claim 44, wherein in the bearer channel, the terminal and the second access device are over-the-air IP connected, and the configuration information of the bearer channel further includes: configuration information of air interface IP connection between the terminal and the second access device.

54. The access device of claim 44, wherein the bearer configuration request module is further configured to send GTP-U connection configuration information to the second access device if the connection between the first access device and the second access device in the bearer channel is a GTP-U connection, where the GTP-U connection configuration information includes:

identification of the DRB.

55. The access device of any of claims 44-54, further comprising:

a transmission module, configured to receive user plane data from a core network, and send the user plane data to the terminal through a bearer channel between the terminal and the user plane data via a DRB of a second access device; and/or the presence of a gas in the gas,

and receiving user plane data from the terminal through the bearer channel, and sending the user plane data to the core network.

56. A terminal, comprising:

57. The terminal according to claim 56, wherein the capability information includes one or any combination of the following:

the address of the terminal;

58. The terminal of claim 56, wherein the information for instructing the terminal to configure the DRB comprises one or any combination of the following:

identification of the DRB.

59. The terminal of claim 58, wherein the protocol used by the bearer path comprises one of: internet protocol IP, transmission control protocol TCP, user datagram protocol UDP, user plane general packet radio service protocol GTP-U, hypertext transfer protocol HTTP, hypertext transfer security protocol HTTPs.

60. The terminal of claim 56, wherein the bearer path is a TCP or UDP connection established using a TCP protocol, and the configuration information of the bearer path further includes: port information of the TCP or UDP connection.

61. The terminal of claim 56, wherein the bearer path is an IP connection established using an IP protocol, and the configuration information of the bearer path further includes: identification information of the terminal.

62. The terminal of claim 56, wherein in the bearer, an air interface GTP-U connection established for the GTP-U protocol used between the terminal and the second access device is further included in the configuration information of the bearer: configuration information of an air interface GTP-U connection between the terminal and the second access equipment.

63. The terminal of claim 56, wherein in the bearer channel, an air interface UDP or TCP connection is between the terminal and the second access device, and the configuration information of the bearer channel further includes: configuration information of an air interface UDP or TCP link between the terminal and the second access device.

64. The terminal of claim 56, wherein in the bearer channel, an air interface IP connection is established between the terminal and the second access device, and the configuration information of the bearer channel further includes: configuration information of air interface IP connection between the terminal and the second access device.

65. The terminal according to any of claims 56 to 64, further comprising:

a transmission module, configured to send user plane data to the first access device through a bearer channel between the first receiving device and the DRB of the second access device, where the first access device and the second access device use different access technologies; and/or the presence of a gas in the gas,

and receiving user plane data from the first access equipment through the bearer channel.