CN110971351B

CN110971351B - Method for coordinating repeated transmission

Info

Publication number: CN110971351B
Application number: CN201811142534.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 韩锋; 晋英豪; 谭巍; 杨晨晨
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-09-28
Filing date: 2018-09-28
Publication date: 2021-12-14
Anticipated expiration: 2038-09-28
Also published as: WO2020063438A1; CN110971351A

Abstract

The application provides a method and a device for coordinating repeated transmission, which can effectively ensure correct repeated data transmission. The method comprises the following steps: a first radio access network, RAN, node determining to activate/deactivate duplicate transmissions; a first RAN node sends an activation/deactivation repeat transmission indication to a second RAN node; the first RAN node may also receive a response message for activating/deactivating the duplicate transmission indication sent by the second RAN node, the response message for indicating a decision of activating/deactivating the duplicate transmission by the second RAN node.

Description

Method for coordinating repeated transmission

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of wireless communications, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for coordinating repeated transmissions.

Background

With the rapid development of wireless communication technology, the fifth Generation (5th Generation,5G) wireless communication technology has been a hot spot in the industry. The 5G will support diverse application requirements including access capability supporting higher rate experience and larger bandwidth, lower latency and highly reliable information interaction, and access and management of larger-scale and low-cost machine type communication devices, etc. In addition, 5G can support various vertical industry application scenes such as vehicle networking, emergency communication, industrial internet and the like.

High-reliability Low-Latency Communications (URLLC) is an important type of Communications in 5G. URLLC is a communication service with high requirements on delay and reliability, and is applied in situations such as unmanned driving and telemedicine. The delay requirement of the type of service to the user plane needs to reach 0.5ms of uplink/downlink transmission; for 32 byte length transmission, the reliability needs to reach 1-10 under the condition that the user plane delay is 1ms^-5And the like. In order to support URLLC service, the same data packet may be repeatedly transmitted over the air interface to improve the reliability and robustness of data transmission. How to generate next generation (N)G) No adequate solution exists to achieve efficient retransmission in a system.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a method for coordinating repeated transmission among RAN nodes, and effective repeated transmission is achieved.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for coordinating repeated transmission, where the method includes: a first radio access network, RAN, node determining to activate/deactivate duplicate transmissions; the first RAN node sends an activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication to a second RAN node.

Through the steps of the embodiment of the application, the repeated transmission of uplink data packets of the terminal equipment is coordinated among different RAN nodes under a double-connection scene, the correct repeated transmission of data is effectively ensured, and the user experience is improved.

In one possible implementation, before the first RAN node sends an activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication to the second RAN node, the method further includes: the first RAN node sends media intervention control, MAC, control element, CE, signaling to a terminal device, the MAC CE signaling being used to instruct the terminal device to activate/deactivate duplicate transmissions.

In one possible implementation, after the first RAN node sends an activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication to the second RAN node, the method further includes: the first RAN node sends MAC CE signaling to a terminal device, the MAC CE signaling indicating that the terminal device activates/deactivates duplicate transmission.

In one possible implementation, before the first RAN node sends MAC CE signaling to the terminal device, the method further includes: the first RAN node receives a response message of the activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication sent by the second RAN node, the response message being used to indicate a decision of activation/deactivation duplicate transmission by the second RAN node.

In one possible implementation, the activation/deactivation retransmission indication is carried in any one of the following messages: a terminal device context modification request message, an auxiliary node modification request message, and an auxiliary node modification request message.

The coordination can be simply and effectively realized by coordinating the activation/deactivation of repeated transmission through the control plane signaling, for example, the coordination can be realized only by modifying the information elements of the existing control signaling.

In one possible implementation, the activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication is carried in a GPRS tunneling protocol user plane GTP-U extension header.

Through the coordination activation/deactivation repeated transmission of the user plane data, any control plane signaling overhead can not be introduced, and the coordination efficiency and performance are improved.

In one possible implementation, the GTP-U extension header contains a field indicating that the GTP-U extension header is used for the activation/deactivation retransmission indication.

In a possible implementation manner, the activation/deactivation retransmission indication is used to instruct the terminal device to activate/deactivate retransmission of uplink data.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for coordinating repeated transmissions, where the method includes: a second radio access network RAN node receives an activation/deactivation repeat transmission instruction sent by a first RAN node; the second RAN node deciding to activate/deactivate retransmission; and the second RAN node sending a response message to the first RAN node indicating the activation/deactivation of duplicate transmission, the response message indicating a decision of the activation/deactivation of duplicate transmission by the second RAN node.

In one possible implementation, the response message is carried in any one of the following messages: a terminal device context modification request message, an auxiliary node modification request message, and an auxiliary node modification request message.

In one possible implementation, the response message is carried in a GPRS tunneling protocol user plane GTP-U extension header.

In one possible implementation, the GTP-U extension header contains a field indicating that the GTP-U extension header is used for the response message.

In a possible implementation manner, the response message is used to instruct the terminal device to activate/deactivate the repeated transmission of the uplink data.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for repeated transmission, where the method includes: a first access network RAN node sends a media intervention control (MAC) Control Element (CE) signaling to a terminal device, wherein the MAC CE signaling is used for indicating the terminal device to activate/deactivate dual connectivity and/or multi-carrier repeated transmission; the MAC CE signaling contains an indication to activate/deactivate the use of dual connectivity and/or multi-carrier repeat transmission.

Through the steps of the embodiment of the application, the repeated transmission of multiple modes under the scene of double connection and carrier aggregation is flexibly realized, the reliability and the robustness of data transmission are further improved, and the user experience is improved.

In one possible implementation, the indication to activate/deactivate using dual connectivity and/or multicarrier retransmission comprises an indication to activate/deactivate using multicarrier retransmission by the first RAN node;

in one possible implementation, the indication to activate/deactivate using dual connectivity and/or multicarrier retransmission comprises an indication to activate/deactivate using multicarrier retransmission by the first RAN node and an indication to activate/deactivate using multicarrier retransmission by the second RAN node.

In a possible implementation manner, the indication of activating/deactivating dual connectivity and/or multi-carrier repetition transmission is used for instructing the terminal device to activate/deactivate dual connectivity and/or multi-carrier repetition transmission of uplink data.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for repeated transmission, where the method includes: the method comprises the steps that terminal equipment receives media intervention control (MAC) Control Element (CE) signaling sent by a Radio Access Network (RAN) node, wherein the MAC CE signaling is used for indicating the terminal equipment to activate/deactivate dual-connection and/or multi-carrier repeated transmission; the MAC CE signaling contains an indication to activate/deactivate the use of dual connectivity and/or multi-carrier repeat transmission.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for coordinating repeated transmission, where the method includes: a first radio access network, RAN, node determining activation/deactivation to use dual connectivity and/or multi-carrier repeat transmission; the first RAN node sends an indication to a second RAN node to activate/deactivate duplicate transmission using dual connectivity and/or multiple carriers.

Through the steps of the embodiment of the application, the repeated transmission of uplink data packets of the terminal equipment is coordinated among different RAN nodes under the scene of double connection and carrier aggregation, the correct repeated transmission of data is effectively ensured, and the user experience is improved.

In one possible implementation, before the first RAN node sends an indication to the second RAN node to activate/deactivate the use of dual connectivity and/or multi-carrier duplicate transmission, the method further comprises: the first RAN node sends media intervention control, MAC, control element, CE, signaling to a terminal device, the MAC CE signaling indicating the terminal device to activate/deactivate using dual connectivity and/or multi-carrier repeat transmission.

In one possible implementation, after the first RAN node sends an indication to the second RAN node to activate/deactivate the use of dual connectivity and/or multi-carrier duplicate transmission, the method further comprises: the first RAN node sends MAC CE signaling to a terminal device, the MAC CE signaling indicating that the terminal device activates/deactivates using dual connectivity and/or multi-carrier repeat transmission.

In one possible implementation, before the first RAN node sends MAC CE signaling to the terminal device, the method further includes: the first RAN node receives a response message for the activation/deactivation of dual connectivity and/or multi-carrier duplicate transmission indication sent by the second RAN node, the response message indicating a decision for the activation/deactivation of the second RAN node to use dual connectivity and/or multi-carrier duplicate transmission.

In one possible implementation, the activation/deactivation is carried in any of the following messages using an indication of dual connectivity and/or multi-carrier repeat transmission: a terminal device context modification request message, an auxiliary node modification request message, and an auxiliary node modification request message.

Coordination can be achieved simply and effectively by using dual connectivity and/or multi-carrier repeat transmission through control plane signaling coordination activation/deactivation, such as only by modifying information elements of existing control signaling.

In one possible implementation, the indication of the activation/deactivation using dual connectivity and/or multi-carrier repeat transmission is carried in a GPRS tunneling protocol user plane GTP-U extension header.

By using dual connectivity and/or multi-carrier repeated transmission through the coordination activation/deactivation of user plane data, any control plane signaling overhead can be avoided, and the coordination efficiency and performance are improved.

In one possible implementation, the GTP-U extension header includes a field indicating that the GTP-U extension header is used for the activation/deactivation indication using dual connectivity and/or multi-carrier repeat transmission.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for coordinating repeated transmission, where the method includes: the second radio access network RAN node receives an indication of activating/deactivating dual connectivity and/or multi-carrier repeat transmission sent by the first RAN node; the second RAN node decides to activate/deactivate using dual connectivity and/or multi-carrier repeat transmission; and the second RAN node sending a response message to the first RAN node indicating the activation/deactivation of the decision to use dual connectivity and/or multicarrier retransmission to the second RAN node.

In a possible implementation manner, the response message is used to instruct the terminal device to activate/deactivate uplink data retransmission using dual connectivity and/or multiple carriers.

In a seventh aspect, an access network RAN apparatus is provided for performing the method in any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect or the first aspect, or any one of the possible implementations of the second aspect or the second aspect, or any one of the possible implementations of the third aspect or the third aspect, or any one of the possible implementations of the fifth aspect or the fifth aspect, or any one of the possible implementations of the sixth aspect or the sixth aspect, and specifically, the RAN apparatus may comprise means for performing the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect, or any possible implementation of the second aspect or the second aspect, or any possible implementation of the third aspect or the third aspect, or any possible implementation of the fifth aspect or the fifth aspect, or the method of any possible implementation of the sixth aspect or the sixth aspect.

In an eighth aspect, a terminal device is provided for performing the method of the fourth aspect or any possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, and in particular, the terminal device may include a unit for performing the method of the fourth aspect or any possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect.

In a ninth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising: computer program code which, when run by a communication unit, a processing unit or a transceiver, a processor of a communication device (e.g. an access network device or a terminal device), causes the communication device to perform the method of the first to sixth aspect or any of the possible implementations of the first to sixth aspects.

A tenth aspect provides a computer-readable storage medium storing a program that causes a computer to execute the method of the first to sixth aspects or any one of the possible implementations of the first to sixth aspects.

These and other aspects of the invention will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the embodiment(s) described hereinafter.

Drawings

The drawings that accompany the detailed description can be briefly described as follows:

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

FIG. 2 is an architecture of a gNB divided into CU-CP, CU-UP and DU according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a user plane layer 2 protocol stack of a RAN device based on PDCP repeated transmission according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a RAN device user plane layer 2 protocol stack architecture based on dual connectivity according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for coordinating repeated transmission of uplink data in a dual connectivity scenario according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a RAN device user plane layer 2 protocol stack combining dual connectivity and carrier aggregation according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of configuring repeated transmission of a terminal device by a MAC CE according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a user plane layer 2 protocol stack architecture of another RAN device and terminal device based on dual connectivity according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic block diagram of a first RAN node provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is another schematic block diagram of a first RAN node provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a schematic block diagram of a second RAN node provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is another schematic block diagram of a second RAN node provided in an embodiment of the present application;

figure 13 is a schematic block diagram of a CN node provided in an embodiment of the present application;

figure 14 is another schematic block diagram of a CN node provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 15 is a schematic block diagram of a terminal device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 16 is another schematic block diagram of a terminal device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In this application, the word "exemplary" is used to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any embodiment described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments. The following description is presented to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the invention. In the following description, details are set forth for the purpose of explanation. It will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and processes are not shown in detail to avoid obscuring the description of the invention with unnecessary detail. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features disclosed herein.

The terms "first," "second," "third," "fourth," and the like in the description and in the claims, as well as in the drawings, if any, are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the data so used is interchangeable under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments of the application described herein are capable of operation in sequences other than those illustrated or described herein. Furthermore, the terms "comprises," "comprising," and "having," and any variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not necessarily limited to those steps or elements expressly listed, but may include other steps or elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

The terms "system" and "network" are often used interchangeably herein. The term "and/or" herein is merely an association describing an associated object, meaning that three relationships may exist, e.g., a and/or B, may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. In addition, the character "/" herein generally indicates that the former and latter related objects are in an "or" relationship.

The technical scheme of the embodiment of the application can be applied to various communication systems, for example: a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, a fifth generation (5G) mobile communication system, a New Radio (NR) communication system, a Next Generation (NG) communication system, a future mobile communication system, and the like.

In a wireless system, a terminal device is connected to an access network (RAN) device through a wireless link, and realizes communication with other terminal devices or access to a wireless internet, etc. through a Core Network (CN) device connected to the RAN device. Typically, a terminal device is wirelessly connected to a RAN device to enable communication. Optionally, one terminal device is wirelessly connected to two RAN devices to enable communication. Further, one terminal device may also be wirelessly connected to more than two RAN devices to enable communication. Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system 100 according to an embodiment of the present application. The terminal device 120 is wirelessly connected to the RAN device 140 through an air interface 160. Optionally, the communication system further includes the terminal device 120 wirelessly connecting with the RAN device 142 through the air interface 162. In this case, the RAN device 140 is referred to as a Master Node (MN), and the RAN device 142 is referred to as a Secondary Node (SN). The RAN device 140 is connected to a 5G core (5G core,5GC)180 through an NG user plane (NG-U) interface to implement transmission of user plane data, and is connected to the 5GC through an NG control plane (NG-C) interface to implement transmission of control plane data. The RAN device 142 is connected to the 5GC device 180 through the NG-U interface to implement the transmission of the user plane data. The RAN device 140 and the RAN device 142 implement interaction of control plane data through an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface, and implement interaction of user plane data through an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface. Illustratively, the primary node 140 is connected with an access and mobility management function (AMF) node in the 5GC 180 through an NG-C interface, and the primary node 140 and the secondary node 142 are connected with a User Plane Function (UPF) node in the 5GC 180 through an NG-U interface. Further, the communication system may also include a terminal device wirelessly connected to more RAN devices. It should be understood that when the terminal device is wirelessly connected to multiple RAN devices at the same time, one of the RAN devices is a primary node, and the other RAN devices are secondary nodes.

In an actual system, the RAN device shown in fig. 1 may be a next generation base station, such as a next-generation Node B (gNB) or a next-generation evolved Node B (ng-eNB), and may also be an Access Point (AP) in a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), or an evolved Node B (eNB or eNodeB) in LTE, or a relay or an access point, or a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, and a Transmission and Reception Point (TRP). It should be understood that the terminal device communicates with the RAN device through transmission resources (e.g., frequency domain resources, time domain resources, code domain resources, etc.) used by a cell managed by the RAN device, where the cell may belong to a macro cell (macro cell), a super cell (super cell), or a small cell (small cell), where the small cell may include: urban cell (metro cell), micro cell (microcell), pico cell (pico cell), femto cell (femto cell), etc., and these small cells have the characteristics of small coverage and low transmission power, and are suitable for providing high-rate data transmission service. The terminal equipment in fig. 1 may also be referred to as User Equipment (UE), an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user equipment. The terminal device may be a Station (ST) in a WLAN, and may be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a SIP phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) device, a handheld device with Wireless communication capability, a relay device, a computing device or other processing device coupled to a Wireless modem, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, and a next generation communication system, such as a terminal device in a 5G network or a terminal device in a future evolved Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) network, and so on. By way of example and not limitation, in the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. Wearable equipment can also be called wearable intelligent equipment, is the general term of applying wearable technique to carry out intelligent design, develop the equipment that can dress to daily wearing, like glasses, gloves, wrist-watch, dress and shoes etc.. A wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the clothing or accessories of the user. The wearable device is not only a hardware device, but also realizes powerful functions through software support, data interaction and cloud interaction. The generalized wearable smart device includes full functionality, large size, and can implement full or partial functionality without relying on a smart phone, such as: smart watches or smart glasses and the like, and only focus on a certain type of application functions, and need to be used in cooperation with other devices such as smart phones, such as various smart bracelets for physical sign monitoring, smart jewelry and the like.

Generally, an air interface user plane protocol stack of a RAN device includes a Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) layer, a packet data convergence layer protocol (PDCP) layer, a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, a Media Access Control (MAC) layer, and a Physical (PHY) layer; the air interface control plane protocol stack includes a Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer, a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, a MAC layer, and a PHY layer. Optionally, in the 5G system, one RAN device (e.g., the gNB) may be further divided into a Central Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU) according to a protocol stack, where the CU and the DU may be respectively deployed on different physical devices, the CU is responsible for operations of the RRC layer, the SDAP layer, and the PDCP layer, and the DU is responsible for operations of the RLC layer, the MAC layer, and the PHY layer. Further, the CUs can be further divided into a central unit of control plane (CU-CP) and a central unit of user plane (CU-UP), wherein the CU-CP and CU-UP can also be deployed on different physical devices, the CU-CP is responsible for handling of the control plane of the RRC layer and the PDCP layer, and the CU-UP is responsible for handling of the user plane of the SDAP layer and the PDCP layer. Fig. 2 shows an architecture of a gNB divided into CU-CP, CU-UP and DU. Wherein, a RAN device may comprise a CU-CP, one or more CU-UP, and one or more DU; one CP-UP is connected with only one CU-CP through an interface (such as E1); one DU is connected with only one CU-CP through an interface (such as F1-C); under the control of the CU-CP, a DU may be connected with one or more CU-UP, a CU-UP may also be connected with one or more DU, and the CU-UP and DU are connected through an interface (such as F1-U). It is worth mentioning that one DU and/or one CU-UP may also be connected to multiple CUs-CPs in order to keep the network resilient. It should be understood that, for the RAN device architecture with CU-DU separation, the protocol stack division manner according to which the RAN device is divided into the CUs and the DUs is merely exemplary, and the RAN device may also divide the CUs and the DUs according to other protocol stack division manners, for example, the CUs may be responsible for the operation of the RLC layer, or the DUs may be responsible for the operation of the PDCP layer user plane, and the like, which is not specifically limited in this application.

For ease of understanding, several concepts involved in the embodiments of the present application will be described first.

Carrier aggregation: carrier aggregation is where the RAN device communicates with the terminal device over multiple carriers. The plurality of carriers and the bandwidth of each carrier used by the RAN device and the terminal device to communicate are determined by network configuration or by RAN device and terminal device negotiation.

Double connection: a dual connection is where the end device is in simultaneous wireless communication with two RAN devices (e.g., RAN device 140 and RAN device 142 in fig. 1) or more than two RAN devices. Fig. 3(b) shows a dual-connectivity RAN equipment protocol stack, which contains two RAN equipment, each managing a respective group of cells, each group of cells having at least one cell. As shown in fig. 3(b), the RAN device corresponding to CG1 has a PDCP entity, also called managed (host) PDCP, and the user plane L2 of the RAN device corresponding to CG1 further includes an RLC/MAC layer; the user plane L2 of the RAN device to which the CG2 corresponds includes only the RLC/MAC layer, but not the PDCP layer.

Under the RAN equipment architecture with separated CU-DU, when the terminal equipment and the network carry out dual-connection communication, the terminal equipment carries out wireless communication with two or more DUs, is connected with the CU through the DUs, and is connected to the 5GC through the CU. The two or more DUs may be connected to the same CU or to different CUs, in which case one or more DUs and their connected CU-UPs are similar to the user plane functions in the primary node 140 or the secondary node 142 shown in fig. 1, and the CU-CP is similar to the control plane functions of the primary node 140 shown in fig. 1. The CU-CP may be connected to the 5GC node through the NG-C interface, and the CU-UP may be connected to the 5GC node through the NG-U interface.

For dual connectivity as shown in fig. 3(b), fig. 4 further shows a RAN device user plane L2 protocol stack architecture based on dual connectivity, where a terminal device performs dual connectivity communication with two RAN devices according to the type of Data Radio Bearer (DRB). Wherein, the type of the DRB is determined when the terminal equipment establishes the dual-connection communication with the network, and can be modified in the process of the dual-connection communication. According to RAN equipment where a PDCP entity that handles a DRB of a user plane is located, bearers terminated by a Master Node (MN) and bearers terminated by a Secondary Node (SN) can be divided. For example, the left part shown in fig. 4 corresponds to a bearer terminated by the primary node, and is characterized in that a PDCP entity for processing a DRB of the user plane of the terminal device on the RAN side is located in the primary node, that is, the primary node hosts a PDCP; the right part shown in fig. 4 corresponds to a bearer terminated by the secondary node, and is characterized in that the PDCP entity of the DRB for processing the user plane of the terminal device at the RAN side is located in the secondary node, i.e., the secondary node hosts the PDCP. For the bearer terminated by the master node and the bearer terminated by the slave node, the methods can be further divided into three manners, namely Master Cell Group (MCG) bearer, Slave Cell Group (SCG) bearer and split (split) bearer, according to the RAN device where the RLC layer for processing the data bearer of the user plane is located. In the bearing type terminated by the main node, for an MCG bearing, the carried user plane data is processed by a PDCP layer, an RLC layer and an MAC layer of the main node and is transmitted through a PHY layer of the main node; for an SCG bearer, the user plane data of the bearer is processed by a PDCP layer of the main node and processed by an RLC layer and an MAC layer of the auxiliary node and is transmitted by a PHY layer of the auxiliary node; for a split bearer, the user plane data of the bearer is processed by the PDCP layer of the primary node, part of the data of the bearer is processed by the RLC layer and the MAC layer of the primary node, and part of the data is processed by the RLC layer and the MAC layer of the secondary node and is transmitted through the PHY layers of the primary node and the secondary node, respectively. Similarly, in the bearer type terminated by the secondary node, for an SCG bearer, the user plane data of the bearer is processed by the PDCP layer, the RLC layer, and the MAC layer of the secondary node and is transmitted through the PHY layer of the secondary node; for an MCG bearer, the data of the user plane of the bearer is processed by a PDCP layer of the SN and an RLC layer and an MAC layer of the main node and is transmitted by a PHY layer of the main node; for a split bearer, the user plane data of the bearer is processed by the PDCP layer of the secondary node, part of the data of the bearer is processed by the RLC layer and the MAC layer of the secondary node, and part of the data is processed by the RLC layer and the MAC layer of the primary node and is transmitted through the PHY layers of the secondary node and the primary node, respectively.

And (3) repeating transmission: the repeated transmission is that the same data packet is transmitted between the terminal device and the RAN device through a plurality of wireless links. Typically, a packet has a sequence number. During repeated transmission, the terminal device (or RAN device) sends data packets with the same sequence number on multiple radio links, and the RAN device (or terminal device) at the opposite end performs repeatability detection after receiving the data packets.

In the carrier aggregation scenario, the RAN device user plane layer 2 (L2) protocol stack based on repeated transmission of the PDCP layer is as shown in fig. 3(a), where the RAN device uses two cells or two carriers. Data of one DRB is transmitted to two RLC entities after generating the same PDCP Protocol Data Unit (PDU) in the PDCP layer, and the data processed by the RLC layer is multiplexed and scheduled in one MAC entity. Each cell corresponds to a respective RLC entity, and the RAN device transmits data packets with the same sequence number on two carriers respectively with the terminal device, where the sequence number is generated by the PDCP entity. It should be understood that one carrier may correspond to one or more cells, and a plurality of carriers described hereinafter in this application may also correspond to a plurality of a cells.

In the scenario of dual connectivity, repeated transmission of data packets is implemented, and correspondingly, the RAN device employs the protocol stack used by the split bearer in fig. 3(b) and fig. 4. The main node and the auxiliary node respectively transmit data packets with the same sequence number with the terminal equipment, and the sequence number is generated by a PDCP entity. For repeated transmission of downlink data, the main node and the auxiliary node respectively send data packets with the same serial number to the terminal equipment, and the terminal equipment performs repeated detection on the downlink data packets respectively received from the two RAN nodes on the PDCP layer. When the downlink data does not need to be transmitted repeatedly, the RAN node hosting the PDCP determines not to transmit repeatedly, and instructs the main node and the auxiliary node to transmit downlink data packets with different sequence numbers respectively. For the repeated transmission of the uplink data, the primary node and/or the secondary node may activate (activate) or deactivate (deactivate) the terminal device by sending MAC layer signaling (e.g., a MAC Control Element (CE)) to send the uplink data to the RAN node using the repeated transmission. For example, when the quality of the wireless link between the primary node and the terminal device is good, the primary node may send MAC CE signaling to the terminal device to deactivate the duplicate transmission, that is, indicate that the terminal device does not need to send uplink data packets with the same sequence number on the wireless link connected to the secondary node; similarly, when the quality of the radio link between the secondary node and the terminal device is good, the secondary node may also send MAC CE signaling to the terminal device to deactivate the duplicate transmission, i.e., indicate that the terminal device does not need to send uplink packets with the same sequence number on the radio link connected to the primary node. When the repeated transmission is not activated or deactivated, and when the quality of a wireless link between the main node and the terminal equipment is poor, the main node can send MAC CE signaling to the terminal equipment to activate the repeated transmission, namely, the terminal equipment is indicated to send uplink data packets with the same serial number on the wireless link connected with the auxiliary node; similarly, when the quality of the radio link between the secondary node and the terminal device is poor, the secondary node may also send MAC CE signaling to the terminal device to activate repeat transmission, i.e. to indicate that the terminal device needs to send uplink data packets with the same sequence number on the radio link connected to the primary node. It can be seen that each RAN node decides to activate/deactivate retransmission according to the condition of the radio link between itself and the terminal device. The inventor finds that for repeated transmission of uplink data, if the radio links of the primary node and the terminal device and the radio links of the secondary node and the terminal device are different greatly, there may be a situation where one node instructs the terminal device to activate repeated transmission and the other node instructs the terminal device to deactivate repeated transmission. The way determined by the devices respectively leads the terminal device to possibly receive contradictory instructions from the network side, so that the reliability of service transmission cannot be effectively ensured. Therefore, the embodiment of the application provides a technical scheme for coordinating uplink data repeat transmission between RAN devices in a dual-connection scenario.

The technical solution of the present invention will be described in detail below with specific examples. The following several specific embodiments may be combined with each other, and details of the same or similar concepts or processes may not be repeated in some embodiments.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for coordinating uplink data repeat transmission in a dual connectivity scenario according to an embodiment of the present application. The method 500 may be applied to information interaction between the primary node 140 and the secondary node 142 shown in fig. 1. The process illustrated in FIG. 5 includes the following steps:

501. the first RAN node determines to activate/deactivate the duplicate transmission.

The first RAN node may be a primary node or a secondary node that establishes dual connectivity with the terminal device. The first RAN node can be a RAN node that hosts PDCP or a RAN node that does not host PDCP.

In this step, the first RAN node may determine to activate/deactivate the duplicate transmission based on the quality of its radio link with the terminal device. Specifically, when the quality of a radio link between a first RAN node and a terminal device is poor, for example, when a pilot signal strength value received by the terminal device from the first RAN node is smaller than a certain threshold, or a channel quality indication value from the terminal device to the first RAN node is smaller than a certain threshold, the first RAN node determines to activate retransmission, that is, the first RAN node determines that the terminal device needs to send an uplink data packet with the same sequence number to a primary node and a secondary node; when the quality of a radio link between the first RAN node and the terminal device is good, for example, when the terminal device receives a pilot signal strength value of the first RAN node that is greater than a certain threshold, or when a channel quality indication value from the terminal device to the first RAN node is greater than a certain threshold, the first RAN node determines to deactivate retransmission, that is, the first RAN node determines that the terminal device does not need to send uplink data packets with the same sequence number to the primary node and the secondary node. Optionally, the first RAN node may also determine to activate/deactivate the duplicate transmission based on other factors (e.g., based on resource usage of the first RAN node, etc.). It should be understood that the first RAN node may implement different activation/deactivation of duplicate transmissions for different DRBs, such as activating duplicate transmissions for a first DRB and deactivating duplicate transmissions for a second DRB.

It should be understood that the primary or secondary node may have the functionality of a full RAN device, such as a gNB or ng-eNB, and may also have partial RAN device functionality. Exemplarily, in a CU-DU separated gNB, the primary node and the secondary node may be DUs, respectively, and the primary node DU and the secondary node DU may be connected to the same CU or to different CUs; or the main node has the complete RAN equipment function, and the auxiliary node is a DU; or the primary node is a DU and the secondary node has the complete RAN device function. When the first RAN node has the functionality of a complete RAN device, the first RAN node may determine to activate/deactivate duplicate transmissions by itself; or the first RAN node may acquire the indication of activating/deactivating the duplicate transmission from another device and then determine to activate/deactivate the duplicate transmission, at this time, the first RAN may determine to activate/deactivate the duplicate transmission by combining the acquired indication with its own condition, and may also directly use the acquired indication as the determination to activate/deactivate the duplicate transmission. When the first RAN node is a DU, the DU may determine to activate/deactivate retransmission according to a link condition between the DU and the terminal device after acquiring an indication of one or more DRBs for retransmission from the CU; or the DU may acquire an indication to activate/deactivate duplicate transmission from the CU and directly use the acquired indication as a determination to activate/deactivate duplicate transmission.

502. The first RAN node sends an activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication to the second RAN node. Accordingly, the second RAN node receives an activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication sent by the first RAN node.

The second RAN node may be a primary node or a secondary node that establishes dual connectivity with the terminal device. It should be understood that when the first RAN node is the primary node, the second RAN node is the secondary node; when the first RAN node is a secondary node, the second RAN node is the primary node.

Optionally, the activation/deactivation retransmission indication is used to instruct the terminal device to activate/deactivate retransmission of uplink data of the first RAN node; the activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication may also be used to instruct the first RAN node to activate/deactivate duplicate transmission of downlink data; the activation/deactivation retransmission may also be used to instruct the terminal device to activate/deactivate retransmission of uplink data to the second RAN node; the activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication may also be used to instruct the second RAN node to activate/deactivate duplicate transmission of downlink data.

In one possible implementation, the first RAN node is a primary node or a secondary node hosting PDCP (also referred to as NR PDCP in NR network) in split bearers, and the second RAN node is correspondingly a secondary node or a primary node (also referred to as a correspondent node). In another possible implementation, the second RAN node is a primary node or a secondary node hosting PDCP, and the first RAN node is a secondary node or a primary node.

It is to be understood that when the first RAN node implements different activation/deactivation duplicate transmissions for different DRBs, or the first RAN node implements activation/deactivation duplicate transmissions for one or more DRBs, the activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication further comprises a DRB Identification (ID) of the one or more DRBs that activated/deactivated the duplicate transmissions.

Optionally, before step 502, the method further comprises the first RAN node sending an activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication to the terminal device. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication sent by the first RAN device. Illustratively, the first RAN node sends an activation/deactivation duplicate transmission instruction to the terminal device through the MAC CE, where the instruction may further include DRB IDs of one or more DRBs uplink-transmitted by the terminal device. In this case, the first RAN node sends an activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication to the terminal device, and informs the second RAN node of the corresponding indication. After receiving the activation/deactivation repeat transmission instruction sent by the first RAN node, the second RAN node correspondingly receives uplink data packets with the same sequence number or uplink data packets with different sequence numbers on a wireless link with the terminal device. The second RAN node no longer sends an activation/deactivation duplicate transmission instruction to the terminal device according to the condition of the wireless link between itself and the terminal device.

Optionally, after step 502, the method further comprises the first RAN node sending an activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication to the terminal device. In this case, the first RAN node first coordinates the activation/deactivation retransmission with the second RAN node and then sends a corresponding activation/deactivation retransmission indication to the terminal device. Wherein the coordination of the first RAN node with the second RAN node comprises step 502, and may further comprise step 503: the second RAN node sends a response message to the first RAN node. Accordingly, the first RAN node receives the response message sent by the second RAN node. Specifically, the first RAN node sends an activation/deactivation retransmission to the second RAN node, and the second RAN node may further make a decision of activating/deactivating the retransmission in combination with a radio link condition between itself and the terminal device, a resource usage condition of itself, or a service characteristic of the terminal device, and notify the first RAN node of the corresponding decision through a response message. In one possible implementation, when the first RAN node is a node hosting PDCP and the first RAN node sends an activation retransmission (or deactivation retransmission) to the second RAN node, the second RAN node activates (or deactivates) an uplink data packet, which is transmitted from the terminal device to the first RAN node, between the terminal device and the second RAN node. In another possible implementation, when the first RAN node is not the node hosting the PDCP, even if the first RAN node sends an activation duplicate transmission (or a deactivation duplicate transmission) to the second RAN node, the second RAN node may also decide to activate (or deactivate) the duplicate transmission between the terminal device and itself and inform the first RAN node of the corresponding decision result through the response message of step 503. And after receiving the response message sent by the second RAN node, the first RAN node sends an activation/deactivation repeated transmission instruction to the terminal equipment. At this point, the activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication sent by the first RAN node to the terminal device may be the decision returned by the second RAN node in step 503. Illustratively, the first RAN node sends an instruction to deactivate duplicate transmission to the second RAN node, if the second RAN node decides to deactivate duplicate transmission, a response message confirming the deactivation of duplicate transmission is returned in step 503, and the first RAN node sends a MAC CE to the terminal device to instruct the terminal device to deactivate duplicate transmission; if the second RAN node decides to activate duplicate transmission, a response message to activate duplicate transmission is returned in step 503, and the first RAN node sends the MAC CE to the terminal device to instruct the terminal device to activate duplicate transmission. Similarly, the first RAN node sends an activate repeat transmission instruction to the second RAN node, and if the second RAN node determines to activate repeat transmission, a response message confirming the activate repeat transmission is returned in step 503, and the first RAN node sends a MAC CE to the terminal device to indicate the terminal device to activate repeat transmission; if the second RAN node decides to deactivate the duplicate transmission, a response message for deactivating the duplicate transmission is returned in step 503, and the first RAN node sends the MAC CE to the terminal device to instruct the terminal device to deactivate the duplicate transmission.

In step 502 above, the first RAN node may send an activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication to the second RAN node in a variety of ways. In one possible implementation, the activation/deactivation retransmission indicates control plane signaling carried between the first RAN node and the second RAN node, such as signaling messages over an Xn-C or F1-C interface. Optionally, when the first RAN node and the second RAN node are both DUs, the first DU corresponding to the first RAN node sends an activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication to the first CU controlling the first DU through F1-C interface signaling (e.g., a terminal device context modification request (UE context modification request) message), and the first CU sends the indication to the second DU corresponding to the second RAN node through F1-C interface signaling (e.g., a terminal device context modification request (UE context modification request) message), or the indication is sent by the first CU to a second CU controlling the second DU via Xn-C interface signaling (e.g. an auxiliary Node modification request message or an auxiliary Node modification request message), and the indication is sent by the second CU to the second DU via F1-C interface signaling, such as a terminal device context modification request (UE context modification request) message. Accordingly, the second DU sends a response message to the second CU controlling the second DU through F1-C interface signaling (e.g., a terminal context modification request message), and the second CU sends the response message to the first DU through F1-C interface signaling (e.g., a terminal context modification request message), or the second CU sends the response message to the first DU through Xn-C interface signaling (e.g., an auxiliary Node modification request message or an auxiliary Node modification request message), and the first CU sends the indication to the first CU controlling the first DU through F1-C interface signaling (e.g., a terminal context modification request message). When the first RAN Node and the second RAN Node are both gnbs, the first gNB corresponding to the first RAN Node sends an activation/deactivation repeat transmission instruction to the second gNB corresponding to the second RAN Node through Xn-C interface signaling (e.g., an auxiliary Node modification request (S-Node modification request) message or an auxiliary Node modification request (S-Node modification request) message). Accordingly, the second gNB sends a response message to the first gNB via Xn-C interface signaling (e.g., an auxiliary Node modification request (S-Node modification request) message or an auxiliary Node modification request (S-Node modification request) message). When one of the two RAN nodes is a DU and the other RAN node is a gNB, the DU communicates with the corresponding gNB through its connected CU, thereby implementing the transmission of the activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication and the response message. The coordination can be simply and effectively realized by coordinating the activation/deactivation of repeated transmission through the control plane signaling, for example, the coordination can be realized only by modifying the information elements of the existing control signaling.

In another possible implementation, the activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication is carried in user plane data between the first RAN node and the second RAN node. The NR user plane protocol frame format specified in the current 3GPP standard is referred to in the 3GPP TS38.425 technical document. Illustratively, table 1 shows a new NR user plane protocol frame format for indicating the NR user plane protocol data bearer activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication. Specifically, data of the NR user plane protocol is contained in a GRPS tunneling protocol user plane (GTP-U) extension header through a NR RAN Container (NR RAN Container).

Table 1 NR user plane protocol frame format for indicating activation/deactivation of duplicate transmission indication

Wherein, the PDU type field takes a value of 3, which indicates that the NR user plane protocol data is used for expressing the activation/deactivation repeat transmission indication; the PDCP repetition indication (PDCP repetition indication) field is used to identify whether a PDCP repetition activation proposal field exists, if the PDCP repetition indication field is 0, it indicates that there is no PDCP repetition activation proposal field, and the PDCP repetition indication field is 1, it indicates that there is a PDCP repetition activation proposal field; a spare (spare) field for reservation for use by subsequent versions; the PDCP repetition activation proposal (PDCP repetition activation proposal) field is used to indicate an activation/deactivation repetition transmission indication of the first RAN node, and if the PDCP repetition activation proposal field is 0, it indicates a deactivation repetition transmission indication, and the PDCP repetition activation proposal field is 1, it indicates an activation repetition transmission indication. Optionally, the NR user plane protocol frame format indicates an indication of activating/deactivating repeated transmission of uplink data; the NR user plane protocol frame format may also represent an indication to activate/deactivate repeated transmission of downlink data; the NR user plane protocol frame format may also indicate an indication to activate/deactivate repeated transmission of uplink data or downlink data, respectively. The NR user plane protocol frame formats given in table 1 may include a PDCP uplink repeat indication, a PDCP downlink repeat indication, a PDCP uplink repeat activation proposal, and a PDCP downlink repeat activation proposal.

Accordingly, another new NR user plane protocol frame format is given in table 2 for indicating a response to the activate/deactivate repeat transmission indication.

TABLE 2 NR user plane protocol frame format for responding to activate/deactivate repeat transmission indications

The difference from table 1 is that the PDU type field in table 2 takes a value of 4, indicating that the NR user plane protocol data is used to respond to the activation/deactivation retransmission indication; in addition, the PDCP reactivation proposal field in table 2 is used to indicate an activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication of the second RAN node, for example, the PDCP reactivation proposal field is 0, which indicates that the second RAN node deactivates the duplicate transmission indication, and the PDCP reactivation proposal field is 1, which indicates that the second RAN node activates the duplicate transmission indication. Likewise, the NR user plane protocol frame format in table 2 represents an indication of activating/deactivating the repeated transmission of uplink data; the NR user plane protocol frame format may also represent an indication to activate/deactivate repeated transmission of downlink data; the NR user plane protocol frame format may also indicate an indication to activate/deactivate repeated transmission of uplink data or downlink data, respectively. The NR user plane protocol frame formats given in table 2 may include a PDCP uplink repeat indication, a PDCP downlink repeat indication, a PDCP uplink repeat activation proposal, and a PDCP downlink repeat activation proposal. It should be understood that the NR user plane protocol frame formats defined in tables 1 and 2 are exemplary and that the NR user plane protocol data may also take other formats, such as using other PDU type values, using other field names, using other bit positions or numbers, etc. to indicate activation/deactivation of a repeat transmission or corresponding response. Through the coordination activation/deactivation repeated transmission of the user plane data, any control plane signaling overhead can not be introduced, and the coordination efficiency and performance are improved.

It should be noted that, in step 503, the second RAN node may also send a response message to the first RAN node by means of the control plane signaling or the user plane data. Moreover, the bearer manner of the response message in the control plane signaling or the user plane data may be similar to the bearer manner of the activation/deactivation retransmission indication in the control plane signaling or the user plane data, and is not described herein again.

Optionally, for the scenario of splitting the bearer shown in fig. 4, the branch of the split bearer at the primary node and/or the secondary node may further use the carrier aggregation technique, that is, the branch of the split bearer at the primary node and/or the secondary node may further have a plurality of RLC links, and the user plane L2 protocol stack of each RAN node is specifically shown in fig. 6. Wherein the cell managed by the RAN node hosting PDCP is CG1 and may use multiple carriers and correspondingly may have RLC₁₁To RLC_1M(M is an integer greater than or equal to 2) RLC links and are established by MAC₁Multiplexing the plurality of RLC links is realized; the cells managed by the RAN node for the un-hosted PDCP are CG2 and may use multiple carriers, correspondingly, with RLC₂₁To RLC_2N(N is an integer greater than or equal to 2) RLC links and are established by MAC₂Multiplexing of the plurality of RLC links is achieved. It should be understood that fig. 6 is shown as exemplary and not limiting, and in practical applications, there may be situations where CG1 has one RLC link and CG2 has multiple RLC links, or CG1 has multiple RLC links and CG2 has one RLC link. In this case, the primary node or the secondary node uses a carrier aggregation technique. In the scenario shown in fig. 6, the packet repetition transmission may take a variety of forms. For example, the first mode is to perform repeated transmission through dual connection, the second mode is to perform repeated transmission through multiple carriers, and the third mode is to perform repeated transmission through dual connection and multiple carriers together. How to flexibly use the three modes to realize repeated transmission has no proper solution at present. The embodiment of the application provides a technical scheme for informing the terminal equipment of flexibly using the three modes to realize repeated transmission through MAC CE signaling.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration of repeated transmission of a terminal device by a MAC CE according to an embodiment of the present invention. The MAC CE includes a MAC subheader (subheader), a DRB ID, and a repeat transmission indication. Optionally, for one DRB, in fig. 7(a), the MAC CE of the RAN node includes a DRB ID that needs to be repeatedly transmitted and a corresponding repeated transmission indication; wherein the MAC subheader is used for indicating the MAC CE is used for configuring the repeated transmission of the terminal equipment. It should be appreciated that the primary node and/or the secondary node may transmit the MAC CE to the end device. When the primary node and the secondary node both transmit the MAC CE to the terminal device, the MAC CE transmitted by each RAN node reflects the decision of each RAN node itself. The retransmission indication may be 1-bit indication information for notifying activation or deactivation of the retransmission of the DRB, for example, when the retransmission indication value is 1, it indicates that the terminal device needs to retransmit the DRB data, and when the retransmission indication value is 0, it indicates that the terminal device does not need to retransmit the DRB data. Further, the duplicate transmission indication in fig. 7(a) may also employ multiple bits to indicate duplicate transmission of data of the DRB. Exemplarily, when the retransmission indication is two bits and takes a value of 00, it indicates that the data of the DRB is retransmitted using one carrier at each RAN node; when the retransmission indication is two bits and takes a value of 01, this indicates that the data of the DRB is retransmitted using two carriers at each RAN node, e.g., M-2 and/or N-2 in fig. 6; when the retransmission indication is two bits and takes a value of 10, this indicates that the data of the DRB is retransmitted using three carriers at each RAN node, e.g., M-3 and/or N-3 in fig. 6; the duplicate transmission indicator is two bits and takes a value of 11, which means that data of the DRB is repeatedly transmitted using four carriers at each RAN node, for example, M-4 and/or N-4 in fig. 6.

Alternatively, for one DRB, the MAC CE configuration may also be used for repeated transmission as shown in fig. 7 (b). In this manner, the MAC CE includes an indication of the DRB that needs to be repeatedly transmitted. Exemplarily, a0 to a7 are 8-bit indications, where an Ai value is 1, which indicates that the DRB data corresponding to the DRB ID with the master node activation sequence number i is subjected to multicarrier repeated transmission, and an Ai value is 0, which indicates that the master node deactivates the multicarrier repeated transmission of the DRB data corresponding to the DRB ID with the master node activation sequence number i; B0-B7 are 8-bit indications, when the value of Bi is 1, the multi-carrier repeated transmission of DRB data corresponding to the DRB ID with the activation sequence number i of the secondary node is indicated, and when the value of Bi is 0, the multi-carrier repeated transmission of the DRB data corresponding to the DRB ID with the deactivation sequence number i of the secondary node is indicated; C0-C7 are 8-bit indications, when Ci takes a value of 1, it indicates that the primary node and the secondary node activate the dual-connection repeat transmission of DRB data corresponding to the DRB ID with sequence number i, and when Ci takes a value of 0, it indicates that the primary node and the secondary node deactivate the dual-connection repeat transmission of DRB data corresponding to the DRB ID with sequence number i. It can be seen that the values of a 0-a 7, B0-B7, or C0-C7 included in the MAC CE represent the use of the above three modes of repeated transmission.

Alternatively, for one DRB, the MAC CE configuration may also be used for repeated transmission as shown in fig. 7 (c). In this manner, the primary or secondary node independently determines whether to use multi-carrier repeat transmission itself. Exemplarily, when the MAC CE is sent to the terminal device by the master node, when a value of Bi is 1, it indicates that the master node activates multi-carrier retransmission of DRB data corresponding to the DRB ID with sequence number i, and when a value of Bi is 0, it indicates that the master node deactivates multi-carrier retransmission of DRB data corresponding to the DRB ID with sequence number i; when the MAC CE is sent to the terminal device by the secondary node, if the Bi value is 1, it indicates that the secondary node activates the multi-carrier retransmission of the DRB data corresponding to the DRB ID with the sequence number i, and if the Bi value is 0, it indicates that the secondary node deactivates the multi-carrier retransmission of the DRB data corresponding to the DRB ID with the sequence number i. And when the value of Ci is 1, indicating that the dual-connection repeated transmission of the DRB data corresponding to the DRB ID with the sequence number i is activated by the main node and the auxiliary node, and when the value of Ci is 0, indicating that the dual-connection repeated transmission of the DRB data corresponding to the DRB ID with the sequence number i is deactivated by the main node and the auxiliary node.

In the case of duplicate transmissions via dual connectivity and multiple carriers together, the first RAN node and the second RAN node also need to negotiate the use of the duplicate transmissions for the dual connectivity, e.g., negotiate the values of C0-C7 described above. Similarly, the method shown in fig. 5 described above may be used to coordinate uplink data repeat transmissions. In one possible implementation, the negotiation signaling (e.g., activation/deactivation retransmission indication and response message) is carried in control-plane signaling between the first RAN node and the second RAN node. Further, in the negotiation signaling, the first RAN node and the second RAN node may also interact with an indication of whether each uses multicarrier repetition transmission, such as the B0-B7 values in fig. 7(c) above; or the first RAN node indicates whether the first RAN node and the second RAN node use multicarrier duplicate transmission, such as the a 0-a 7 and B0-B7 values in fig. 7(B) above. In another possible implementation, the negotiation signaling is carried in user plane data between the first RAN node and the second RAN node. The NR user plane protocol data communicated between the first RAN node and the second RAN node at this time takes a format similar to that of tables 1 and 2. Correspondingly, the PDCP repetition indication field in table 1 is the first PDCP repetition indication field, and the PDCP repetition activation suggestion field is the first PDCP repetition activation suggestion field, which are used to indicate whether to use dual connectivity for repeated transmission. Further, the NR user plane protocol data may further include a second PDCP repetition indication and a second PDCP repetition activation proposal field, and/or a third PDCP repetition indication and a third PDCP repetition activation proposal field, for indicating whether the first RAN node and/or the second RAN node use multi-carriers for repeated transmission.

Optionally, when the RAN node is a DU, the DU counts the result of activating/deactivating the retransmission by the MAC CE thereof, and reports the result to the CU through the F1-C interface, which is helpful for the CU to obtain the statistical characteristic of the retransmission and further optimize the policy of the retransmission, so as to better meet the requirements of various services. Specifically, the DU counts the number of times of activating/deactivating the repetitive transmission within a period of time, such as the number of times of activating the repetitive transmission or the number of times of deactivating the repetitive transmission within a period of time; the number of times of switching between the activation retransmission and the deactivation retransmission in a period of time, such as the number of times of switching from the activation retransmission to the deactivation retransmission or the number of times of switching from the deactivation retransmission to the activation retransmission in a period of time, may be further counted. The DU may report the corresponding statistics to the CU periodically or in an event-triggered manner.

Further, the CU-UP connected to the DU counts the condition of the data packets transmitted repeatedly and reports the data packets to the CU-CP through the E1 interface to help the CU optimize the strategy of repeated transmission. Specifically, the CU-UP counts the number of repeatedly transmitted packets detected over a period of time; the condition of moving a reordering (re-ordering) window and/or the condition of overtime of a reordering timer can be further counted. The CU-UP may report the corresponding statistics to the CU-CP periodically or in an event-triggered manner.

Through the statistics of the activation/deactivation repeat transmission, the RAN node can further optimize the strategy of the repeat transmission and reasonably use network resources to realize effective repeat transmission.

In the above embodiments, the repeated transmission is applied to the wireless links between the terminal device and the primary node and between the terminal device and the secondary node. Also, as shown in fig. 4, for one split bearer, only the primary node or the secondary node hosts PDCP, i.e., only the primary node or the secondary node is connected to the CN. In other words, the repeatedly transmitted data packets are transmitted only between the RAN node hosting the PDCP entity and the CN, i.e. only one GTP-U (also called NG-U tunnel) is transmitting data between the CN and the RAN.

Further, to better ensure data transmission, the repeated transmission may also be applied to transmission between the RAN and the CN, wherein a link between the RAN and the CN may be wired (e.g., copper wire, optical cable, etc.) or wireless. In this case, the CN will establish two GTP-U tunnels for data transmission, and perform data transmission with the primary node and the secondary node, respectively. Generally, the CN establishes a first tunnel with the primary node and a second tunnel with the secondary node, and the first tunnel and the second tunnel are respectively used for transmitting data packets of QoS flows between the CN node and the primary node and the secondary node. In the repeated transmission, the same packet, i.e., the same payload (payload) and the same packet sequence number, is transmitted in the first tunnel and the second tunnel. It will be appreciated that the sequence number is generated by the CN node for downlink data and by the RAN node for uplink data, for identifying the data packets transmitted in the GTP-U tunnel. In one possible implementation, all data packets transmitted in the first tunnel and the second tunnel are the same, i.e. both tunnels are used for repeatedly transmitting all QoS flows. In another possible implementation, the partial data packets transmitted in the first tunnel and the second tunnel are the same, i.e. two tunnels are used for repeatedly transmitting partial QoS flows. To implement duplicate transmissions in dual tunnels, the CN node (e.g., AMF) informs the primary node and/or secondary node which QoS flows to make duplicate transmissions. Table 3 shows an information that the AMF informs the RAN node of the repeated transmission of QoS streams. The retransmission information is carried in a PDU session resource setup request list (PDU session resource setup requests list).

Table 3 QoS flow repeat transmission information

As can be seen from table 3, in the PDU Session resource setting request list, one PDU Session (i.e., the PDU Session indicated by the Session identification (Session ID) in the table) contains one or more QoS flows, each of which is indicated by one QoS flow identification (QoS flow ID, QFI) and has QoS parameters (QoS flow level QoS parameters) of QoS flow level. In order to identify whether a QoS flow is repeatedly transmitted, a QoS flow repetition (QFI duplicate) field is added to the QoS flow, and the value of the field may be enumerated (activated), inactive (deactivated), enabled (enabled), disabled (disabled), or the like, or boolean (boolean), where a value of 0 indicates inactive, and a value of 1 indicates active, or the like. Under the framework of RAN equipment divided by CU-DU, after the CU-CP receives the information of QoS flow repeated transmission of CN node, the CU-UP is informed of the corresponding QoS flow for repeated transmission.

Through the steps of the embodiment of the application, the repeated transmission between the RAN equipment and the CN equipment through the two GTP-U tunnels is realized, and the reliability and the robustness of the data transmission of the NG-U interface are effectively ensured.

For repeated transmissions with dual tunnels between the CN and the RAN, both the primary and secondary nodes host NR PDCP. As shown in FIG. 8(a), the user plane L2 of both the primary and secondary nodes have SDAP/NR PDCP/RLC/MAC entities. In one possible implementation, the RAN node and/or the terminal device performs the repeated transmission of the data packet at the SDAP layer. At this time, the user plane L2 protocol stack of the terminal device, as shown in fig. 8(b), for one DRB, the terminal device hosts two NR PDCP entities, one of which corresponds to the RLC/MAC entity communicating with the primary node and the other of which corresponds to the RLC/MAC entity communicating with the secondary node. Specifically, for downlink transmission, after receiving a downlink data packet transmitted in a first tunnel, a master node adds a sequence number to each SDAP SDU on an SDAP layer; and after receiving the downlink data packet transmitted in the second tunnel, the auxiliary node adds a sequence number to each SDAP SDU in the SDAP layer. It should be appreciated that for packets received by the primary and secondary nodes from the CN having the same packet sequence number, the primary and secondary nodes each add the same sequence number to their respective corresponding SDAP SDUs. Accordingly, the terminal device performs repetitive detection at the SDAP layer. For uplink transmission, the terminal device adds a sequence number to each SDAP SDU at the SDAP layer, and copies the SDAP SDU with SN into two same data, wherein one data is transmitted on a wireless link between the terminal device and the main node through one NR PDCP entity, and the other data is transmitted on a wireless link between the terminal device and the auxiliary node through the other NR PDCP entity. After receiving the data packet sent by the terminal device, the main node and the auxiliary node respectively generate a data packet sequence number on the GTP-U tunnel, send the data packet carrying the data packet sequence number to CN user plane equipment (such as UPF), and the CN user plane equipment performs repeatability detection on the received data according to the GTP-U sequence number. It will be appreciated that for packets received by the primary and secondary nodes from the terminal device having the same SDAP sequence number, the primary and secondary nodes each generate the same packet sequence number for use in their respective GTP-U tunnels. In order to implement the repeated transmission of data packets by the RAN node and/or the terminal device at the SDAP layer, the SDAP configuration performed by the RAN node on the UE includes at least one of the following: the PDU session identification, the SDAP PDU includes a sequence number (or SDAP header size) and a repeatability detection/packet duplication indication. The Ran node also needs to inform the UE which QoS flows to transmit for packet repetition. In the scenario of CU-CP/CU-UP partitioning, the CU-CP informs the CU-UP of the SDAP configuration described above.

In another possible implementation, the RAN node and/or the terminal device performs repeated transmission of data packets at the PDCP layer. At this time, as shown in fig. 8(c), the user plane L2 protocol stack of the terminal device hosts, for one DRB, one NR PDCP entity corresponding to both the RLC/MAC entity communicating with the primary node and the RLC/MAC entity communicating with the secondary node. Specifically, for downlink transmission, after receiving a downlink data packet transmitted in a first tunnel, a master node adds a sequence number to each PDCP SDU on its NR PDCP layer; and after receiving the downlink data packet transmitted in the second tunnel, the auxiliary node adds a sequence number to each PDCP SDU on the PDCP layer. It should be understood that for packets received by the primary node and the secondary node from the CN having the same packet sequence number, the primary node and the secondary node add the same sequence number to their respective PDCP SDUs. Accordingly, the terminal device performs repetitive detection at the NR PDCP layer. It is worth noting that in this case, since the data ciphering is done by the NR PDCP entity, the transmission of the primary device and the transmission of the secondary device are respectively based on respective security key protections. For uplink transmission, the terminal equipment adds a sequence number to each PDCP SDU on the PDCP layer, copies the PDCP SDU with the sequence number into two pieces of same data, encrypts the two pieces of data through different security keys, generates two pieces of data and respectively sends the two pieces of data to two RLC entities, so that the terminal equipment respectively sends the same data packets to the main node and the auxiliary node. And after receiving the data packet sent by the terminal equipment, the main node and the auxiliary node respectively generate a data packet sequence number on a GTP-U tunnel, send the data packet carrying the data packet hieroglyphic request to the CN user plane equipment, and repeatedly detect the received data according to the GTP-U sequence number by the CN user plane equipment. It will be appreciated that for packets received by the primary and secondary nodes from the terminal device having the same SDAP sequence number, the primary and secondary nodes each generate the same packet sequence number for use in their respective GTP-U tunnels. In addition, in order to implement the repeated transmission in this case, the RAN node needs to define a new bearer type and notify the terminal device, so that the terminal device can perform repeated detection on data packets from the primary node and the secondary node in one PDCP entity, or implement repeated transmission on the primary node and the secondary node in one PDCP entity. The new bearer type differs from the existing bearer types in that the primary and secondary nodes respectively host PDCP entities, i.e. the primary and secondary nodes respectively have PDCP entities, and the two PDCP entities correspond to one PDCP entity of the terminal device. In the scenario of CU-CP/CU-UP split, the CU-CP informs the CU-UP of the new bearer type. Optionally, the RAN node informs the terminal device of one or more bearers for repeated transmission of QoS streams. Illustratively, table 4 gives bearer information for repeated transmission of QoS streams.

Table 4 bearer information for repeated transmission of QoS streams

DRB ID
		QoS flow-Duplication	BOOLEAN

As can be seen from table 4, the RAN node needs to notify the terminal device whether the QoS flow corresponding to the DRB ID is a repeatedly transmitted QoS flow. Wherein, the QoS flow-Duplication field is used to indicate whether the QoS flow is a repeatedly transmitted QoS flow. Illustratively, the value of the field may be a boolean variable, where a value of 0 indicates that the QoS flow is not a repeatedly transmitted QoS flow; when the value is 1, the QoS flow is a repeatedly transmitted QoS flow.

In addition, when the terminal device performs handover, for example, in a handover process based on an Xn interface, the source RAN node notifies the target RAN node of one or more QoS streams for repeated transmission in the handover request, which may be referred to in table 3. Optionally, the source RAN node further includes, in the handover request, a DRB ID of one or more DRBs to which the one or more QoS flows are mapped.

Through the steps of the embodiment of the application, the repeated transmission between the RAN node and the terminal equipment under the scene of the repeated transmission of the two GTP-U tunnels is realized, and the reliability and the robustness of data transmission are further improved.

In the above embodiments, the implementation may be wholly or partially realized by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When loaded and executed on a computer, cause the processes or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the application to occur, in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another, for example, from one website site, computer, server, or data center to another website site, computer, server, or data center via wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device, such as a server, a data center, etc., that incorporates one or more of the available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., Solid State Disk (SSD)), among others. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present patent application.

Method embodiments of the present application are described in detail above in conjunction with fig. 5-8, and apparatus embodiments of the present application are described in detail below in conjunction with fig. 9-16. It is to be understood that the apparatus embodiments correspond to the method embodiments and similar descriptions may be made with reference to the method embodiments. It is noted that the device embodiments may be used in conjunction with the above-described methods, or may be used alone.

Fig. 9 shows a schematic block diagram of a first network device 900 according to an embodiment of the present application, where the first network device 900 may correspond to (e.g., may be configured with or be itself) a first RAN node described in various embodiments of the present application. The first network device 900 may include: a processor 901 and a transceiver 902, the processor 901 and the transceiver 902 being communicatively coupled. Optionally, the first network device 900 further comprises a memory 903, the memory 903 being communicatively coupled to the processor 901. Optionally, a processor 901, a memory 903 and a transceiver 902 may be communicatively coupled, the memory 903 may be used to store instructions, and the processor 901 is used to execute the instructions stored by the memory 903 to control the transceiver 902 to receive and/or transmit information or signals. The processor 901 and the transceiver 902 are respectively configured to perform actions or processes performed by the first RAN node in various embodiments of the present application. Here, detailed description thereof is omitted in order to avoid redundancy.

Fig. 10 shows another schematic block diagram of a first network device 1000 according to an embodiment of the present application, where the first network device 1000 may correspond to (e.g., may be configured with or be itself) a first RAN node described in various embodiments of the present application. The first network device 1000 may include: a receiving module 1001, a processing module 1002, and a transmitting module 1003, the processing module 1002 being communicatively coupled to the receiving module 1001 and the transmitting module 1003, respectively. The first network device 1000 may take the form shown in fig. 9. The processing module 1002 may be implemented by the processor 901 in fig. 9, and the receiving module 1001 and/or the transmitting module 1003 may be implemented by the transceiver 902 in fig. 9. The first network device 1000 may further include a storage unit for storing a program or data to be executed by the processing module 1002, or storing information received by the receiving module 1001 and/or transmitted by the transmitting module 1003. The modules or units in the first network device 1000 are respectively configured to perform the actions or processes performed by the first RAN node in the embodiments of the present application. Here, detailed description thereof is omitted in order to avoid redundancy.

Fig. 11 shows a schematic block diagram of a second network device 1100 according to an embodiment of the present application, where the second network device 1100 may correspond to (e.g., may be configured as or be itself) a second RAN node described in various embodiments of the present application. The second network device 1100 may include: a processor 1101 and a transceiver 1102, the processor 1101 and the transceiver 1102 being communicatively coupled. Optionally, the second network device 1100 further comprises a memory 1103, the memory 1103 being communicatively coupled to the processor 1101. Optionally, a processor 1101, a memory 1103 and a transceiver 1102 may be communicatively coupled, the memory 1103 may be configured to store instructions, and the processor 1101 is configured to execute the instructions stored by the memory 1103 to control the transceiver 1102 to receive and/or transmit information or signals. Processor 1101 and transceiver 1102 are configured to perform various actions or processes, respectively, performed by the second RAN node in various embodiments of the present application. Here, detailed description thereof is omitted in order to avoid redundancy.

Fig. 12 shows another schematic block diagram of a second network device 1200 according to an embodiment of the present application, where the second network device 1200 may correspond to (e.g., may be configured with or be itself) a second RAN node described in various embodiments of the present application. The second network device 1200 may include: a receiving module 1201, a processing module 1202, and a transmitting module 1203, the processing module 1202 being communicatively coupled to the receiving module 1201 and the transmitting module 1203, respectively. Second network device 1200 may take the form shown in fig. 11. The processing module 1202 may be implemented by the processor 1101 in fig. 11, and the receiving module 1201 and/or the transmitting module 1203 may be implemented by the transceiver 1102 in fig. 11. The second network device 1200 may further include a storage unit for storing a program or data to be executed by the processing module 1202, or storing information received by the receiving module 1201 and/or transmitted by the transmitting module 1203. The modules or units in the second network device 1200 are respectively configured to perform the actions or processes performed by the second RAN node in the embodiments of the present application. Here, detailed description thereof is omitted in order to avoid redundancy.

Fig. 13 shows a schematic block diagram of a third network device 1300 according to an embodiment of the present application, where the third network device 1300 may correspond to (e.g., may be configured with or be itself a CN node according to embodiments of the present application). The third network device 1300 may include: processor 1301 and transceiver 1302, processor 1301 and transceiver 1302 being communicatively coupled. Optionally, the third network device 1300 further comprises a memory 1303, and the memory 1303 is communicatively coupled to the processor 1301. Optionally, the processor 1301, the memory 1303 and the transceiver 1302 may be communicatively coupled, the memory 1303 may be configured to store instructions, and the processor 1301 is configured to execute the instructions stored in the memory 1303 to control the transceiver 1302 to receive and/or transmit information or signals. The processor 1301 and the transceiver 1302 are respectively configured to execute each action or process executed by the CN node in each embodiment of the present application. Here, detailed description thereof is omitted in order to avoid redundancy.

Fig. 14 shows another schematic block diagram of a third network device 1400 according to an embodiment of the present application, where the third network device 1400 may correspond to (e.g., may be configured with or be itself a CN node according to embodiments of the present application). The third network device 1400 may include: a receiving module 1401, a processing module 1402 and a transmitting module 1403, the processing module 1402 being communicatively coupled to the receiving module 1401 and the transmitting module 1403, respectively. The third network device 1400 may take the form shown in fig. 13. Wherein the processing module 1402 may be implemented by the processor 1301 in fig. 13, and the receiving module 1401 and/or the transmitting module 1403 may be implemented by the transceiver 1302 in fig. 13. The third network device 1400 may further include a storage unit for storing programs or data to be executed by the processing module 1402, or storing information received by the receiving module 1401 and/or transmitted by the transmitting module 1403. The modules or units in the third network device 1400 are respectively configured to execute the actions or processes executed by the CN node in the embodiments of the present application. Here, detailed description thereof is omitted in order to avoid redundancy.

Fig. 15 shows a schematic block diagram of a terminal device 1500 according to an embodiment of the present application, where the terminal device 1500 may correspond to (e.g., may be configured with or be itself) the terminal device described in the embodiments of the present application. The terminal device 1500 may include: a processor 1501 and a transceiver 1502, the processor 1501 and the transceiver 1502 being communicatively coupled. Optionally, the terminal device 1500 further comprises a memory 1503, the memory 1503 being communicatively coupled to the processor 1501. Optionally, a processor 1501, a memory 1503 and a transceiver 1502 may be communicatively coupled, the memory 1503 may be used to store instructions, and the processor 1501 is used to execute the instructions stored by the memory 1503 to control the transceiver 1502 to receive and/or transmit information or signals. The processor 1501 and the transceiver 1502 are respectively configured to execute actions or processes executed by the terminal device in the embodiments of the present application. Here, detailed description thereof is omitted in order to avoid redundancy.

Fig. 16 shows another schematic block diagram of a terminal device 1600 according to an embodiment of the present application, where the terminal device 1600 may correspond to (e.g., may be configured with or be itself) the terminal device described in the embodiments of the present application. The terminal device 1600 may include: a receiving module 1601, a processing module 1602, and a transmitting module 1603, the processing module 1602 being communicatively coupled to the receiving module 1601 and the transmitting module 1603, respectively. Terminal device 1600 may take the form shown in fig. 15. The processing module 1602 may be implemented by the processor 1501 in fig. 15, and the receiving module 1601 and/or the transmitting module 1603 may be implemented by the transceiver 1502 in fig. 15. The terminal device 1600 may further include a storage unit for storing programs or data to be executed by the processing module 1602, or storing information received by the receiving module 1601 and/or transmitted by the transmitting module 1603. Each module or unit in the terminal device 1600 is respectively configured to execute each action or process executed by the terminal device in each embodiment of the present application. Here, detailed description thereof is omitted in order to avoid redundancy.

It should be understood that the processors (901, 1101, 1301, 1501) in the apparatus embodiments of the present application may be Central Processing Units (CPUs), Network Processors (NPs), hardware chips, or any combination thereof. The hardware chip may be an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a Programmable Logic Device (PLD), or a combination thereof. The PLD may be a Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a General Array Logic (GAL), or any combination thereof.

The memory (903, 1103, 1303, 1503) in the device embodiments of the present application may be a volatile memory (volatile memory), such as a random-access memory (RAM); a non-volatile memory (non-volatile memory) such as a read-only memory (ROM), a flash memory (flash memory), a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD); combinations of the above types of memories are also possible.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, a division of a unit is merely a logical division, and an actual implementation may have another division, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication coupling may be an indirect coupling or communication coupling of devices or units through some interfaces, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

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

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

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present patent application or a part of the technical solution that substantially contributes to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium and containing instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present patent application. And the aforementioned storage medium comprises: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

The above description is only for the specific embodiments of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily think of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application, and shall be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present patent application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of coordinating repeated transmissions, comprising:

a first radio access network, RAN, node determining to activate/deactivate duplicate transmissions;

the first RAN node sends media intervention control (MAC) Control Element (CE) signaling to a terminal device, wherein the MAC CE signaling is used for indicating the terminal device to activate/deactivate repeated transmission;

the first RAN node sending an activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication to a second RAN node; wherein the activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication is used for indicating that the second RAN node no longer sends an activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication to the terminal device according to a condition of a radio link between itself and the terminal device; or,

the first RAN node determining activation/deactivation of duplicate transmissions;

the first RAN node sending an activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication to a second RAN node;

the first RAN node receiving a response message to the activation/deactivation of the decision to repeat the transmission; wherein the decision to activate/deactivate duplicate transmissions is made by the second RAN node in combination with radio link conditions of itself and a terminal device, resource usage of itself, or traffic characteristics of the terminal device;

and the first RAN node sends MAC CE signaling to terminal equipment, wherein the MAC CE signaling is used for indicating the terminal equipment to activate/deactivate repeated transmission.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein before the first RAN node sends MAC CE signaling to a terminal device, the method further comprises:

the first RAN node receives a response message of the activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication sent by the second RAN node, where the response message is used to indicate a decision of activation/deactivation duplicate transmission by the second RAN node.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the activation/deactivation retransmission indication is carried in any one of the following messages: a terminal device context modification request message, an auxiliary node modification request message, and an auxiliary node modification request message.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication is carried in a GPRS tunneling protocol user plane GTP-U extension header.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the GTP-U extension header comprises a field indicating that the GTP-U extension header is used for the activation/deactivation retransmission indication.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the activation/deactivation repeat transmission indication is used to instruct the terminal device to activate/deactivate repeat transmission of uplink data.

7. A method of coordinating repeated transmissions, comprising:

a second radio access network RAN node receives an activation/deactivation repeat transmission instruction sent by a first RAN node;

the second RAN node deciding to activate/deactivate retransmission; and

the second RAN node sending a response message to the first RAN node indicating the activation/deactivation of duplicate transmission indication, the response message indicating a decision of the activation/deactivation of duplicate transmission by the second RAN node; wherein the determination of activating/deactivating duplicate transmission is used to instruct the first RAN node to send MAC CE signaling to a terminal device, and the MAC CE signaling is used to instruct the terminal device to activate/deactivate duplicate transmission.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the response message is carried in any one of the following messages: a terminal device context modification request message, an auxiliary node modification request message, and an auxiliary node modification request message.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the response message is carried in a GPRS tunneling protocol user plane GTP-U extension header.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the GTP-U extension header includes a field indicating that the GTP-U extension header is used for the response message.

11. The method according to any one of claims 7 to 10, wherein the response message is used to instruct the terminal device to activate/deactivate the repeated transmission of uplink data.

12. A network device, wherein the network device is a first Radio Access Network (RAN) node comprising a processor and a transceiver, wherein,

the processor configured to determine to activate/deactivate a duplicate transmission;

the transceiver is communicatively coupled to the processor and configured to send media intervention control, MAC, control element, CE, signaling to a terminal device, the MAC CE signaling being used to instruct the terminal device to activate/deactivate retransmission;

the transceiver further configured to send an activate/deactivate duplicate transmission indication to a second RAN node; wherein the activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication is used for indicating that the second RAN node no longer sends an activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication to the terminal device according to a condition of a radio link between itself and the terminal device; or,

the transceiver, communicatively coupled to the processor, is configured to send an activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication to a second RAN node;

the transceiver further configured to receive a response message of the decision to activate/deactivate retransmission; wherein the decision to activate/deactivate duplicate transmissions is made by the second RAN node in combination with radio link conditions of itself and a terminal device, resource usage of itself, or traffic characteristics of the terminal device;

the transceiver is further configured to send a MAC CE signaling to a terminal device, where the MAC CE signaling is used to instruct the terminal device to activate/deactivate retransmission.

13. The network device of claim 12, further comprising, before the transceiver sends MAC CE signaling to a terminal device:

the transceiver receives a response message of the activate/deactivate duplicate transmission indication sent by the second RAN node, the response message being used to indicate a decision of activate/deactivate duplicate transmission by the second RAN node.

14. The network device of claim 12, wherein the activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication is carried in any one of the following messages: a terminal device context modification request message, an auxiliary node modification request message, and an auxiliary node modification request message.

15. The network device of claim 12, wherein the activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication is carried in a GPRS tunneling protocol user plane GTP-U extension header.

16. The network device of claim 15, wherein the GTP-U extension header comprises a field indicating that the GTP-U extension header is used for the activation/deactivation retransmission indication.

17. The network device according to any of claims 12 to 16, wherein the activation/deactivation retransmission indication is used to instruct the terminal device to activate/deactivate retransmission of uplink data.

18. A network device, wherein the network device is a second Radio Access Network (RAN) node comprising a processor and a transceiver, wherein,

the transceiver is communicatively coupled to the processor and configured to receive an activation/deactivation duplicate transmission indication sent by a first RAN node;

the processor configured to decide to activate/deactivate retransmission;

the transceiver further configured to send a response message to the first RAN node indicating the activation/deactivation of duplicate transmission, the response message indicating a decision of the activation/deactivation of duplicate transmission by the second RAN node; wherein the determination of activating/deactivating duplicate transmission is used to instruct the first RAN node to send MAC CE signaling to a terminal device, and the MAC CE signaling is used to instruct the terminal device to activate/deactivate duplicate transmission.

19. The network device of claim 18, wherein the response message is carried in any one of the following messages: a terminal device context modification request message, an auxiliary node modification request message, and an auxiliary node modification request message.

20. The network device of claim 18, wherein the response message is carried in a GPRS tunneling protocol user plane GTP-U extension header.

21. The network device of claim 20, wherein the GTP-U extension header comprises a field indicating that the GTP-U extension header is used for the response message.

22. The network device according to any of claims 18 to 21, wherein the response message is configured to instruct the terminal device to activate/deactivate the repeated transmission of uplink data.

23. A computer-readable storage medium storing computer instructions which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 6.

24. A computer-readable storage medium storing computer instructions which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 7 to 11.