CN111757348A

CN111757348A - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN111757348A
Application number: CN201910253302.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王瑞; 彭文杰; 戴明增; 曾清海
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-03-29
Filing date: 2019-03-29
Publication date: 2020-10-09
Anticipated expiration: 2039-03-29
Also published as: CN111757348B; WO2020199992A1

Abstract

A communication method and device relate to the technical field of communication. Wherein the method comprises the following steps: the terminal equipment receives a first data packet sent by first network equipment through a first transmission path and receives a second data packet sent by second network equipment through a second transmission path; when a first data packet is received, carrying out integrity protection verification on the first data packet to obtain a first verification result; when the second data packet is received, carrying out integrity protection verification on the second data packet to obtain a second verification result; and when the first check result indicates that the first data packet integrity protection check is successful and the second check result indicates that the second data packet integrity protection check is failed, the terminal device sends first indication information to the first network device, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that the second data packet integrity protection check is failed. The first data packet and the second data packet are identical. The technical scheme is beneficial to reducing the times of triggering the RRC connection reestablishment by the terminal equipment and improving the communication performance.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

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

Background

Currently, a fifth generation mobile communication system (5th generation, 5G) introduces a duplication (duplication) operation on a Radio Access Network (RAN) side. Specifically, the network device may configure a duplicate operation for a Radio Bearer (RB). Under the condition that the duplicate operation is introduced at the RAN side, the terminal device may receive the data packets sent by the sending end through at least two different transmission paths, respectively, and the data packets sent on each of the at least two different transmission paths are the same.

However, in the prior art, when a duplicate operation is introduced at the RAN side, if an abnormality occurs in communication between the terminal device and the network device, for example, an integrity protection check of a data packet transmitted on one of the transmission paths by the terminal device fails, or a primary cell (Pcell) is abnormal, the terminal device may trigger a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection reestablishment. The reestablishment of the RRC connection includes processes of cell selection, context removal from the terminal device, and the like, which consumes a long time, and easily causes a long interruption of communication between the terminal device and the network device, thereby affecting user experience.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method and device, which are beneficial to reducing the times of triggering the RRC connection reestablishment by terminal equipment, thereby being beneficial to improving the communication performance.

In a first aspect, a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application includes:

the terminal equipment receives a first data packet sent by first network equipment through a first transmission path and receives a second data packet sent by second network equipment through a second transmission path; when the terminal equipment receives the first data packet, carrying out integrity protection verification on the first data packet to obtain a first verification result; when the terminal equipment receives the second data packet, integrity protection verification is carried out on the second data packet to obtain a second verification result; then, when the first check result indicates that the first packet integrity protection check is successful and the second check result indicates that the second packet integrity protection check is failed, the terminal device sends first indication information to the first network device through the first transmission path, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the second packet integrity protection check is failed. Wherein the first data packet and the second data packet are the same.

In the embodiment of the application, the terminal device may send the first indication information to the first network device through the first transmission path under the conditions that the integrity protection verification of the first data packet is successful and the integrity protection verification of the second data packet is failed, so that the network side performs corresponding processing.

In a possible design, the terminal device receives a switching instruction sent by the first network device through the first transmission path after receiving the first indication information; the switching instruction is used for triggering the terminal equipment to update the used key for integrity protection and/or the algorithm for integrity protection. Therefore, the communication safety of the terminal equipment is improved, and the probability of failure of integrity protection and verification of the data packet is reduced.

In one possible design, the first indication information further includes information indicating the second transmission path and/or a cell identifier corresponding to the second transmission path, where the cell identifier corresponding to the second transmission path is used to indicate a cell used for sending the second data packet. The auxiliary network side is facilitated to perform corresponding processing on the second data packet integrity check failure.

In one possible design, the carrier associated with the first transmission path is different from the carrier associated with the second transmission path. Therefore, the method and the device are beneficial to reducing the times that the terminal equipment triggers the reestablishment of the RRC connection when the integrity check of the data packet transmitted on one transmission path related to different carriers fails.

In one possible design, the carrier associated with the first transmission path includes a primary carrier. Therefore, the method and the device are beneficial to reducing the times of triggering the reestablishment of the RRC connection by the terminal equipment when the integrity protection check of the data packet transmitted on the second transmission path which is not associated with the main carrier fails.

In one possible design, the first network device and the second network device are the same, or the first network device and the second network device are dual-connected.

In a possible design, after the terminal device obtains the first verification result, if the second data packet is not received on the second transmission path for more than a first timing duration, when the first verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the first data packet is successful, the reestablishment of the RRC connection is not triggered; or,

after the terminal equipment obtains the first verification result, if the second data packet is not received on the second transmission path for a time longer than the first time, and when the first verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the first data packet fails, the reestablishment of the RRC connection is triggered.

By the technical scheme, the terminal equipment can determine whether to continuously wait for receiving the second data packet after receiving the first data packet in advance.

In one possible design, the first timing duration is predefined; or, the first timing length is configured for the terminal device by the first network device or the second network device. Helping to simplify the implementation.

In a possible design, when, for the terminal device, the first network device is a primary node, the second network device is a secondary node, and the first network device and the second network device are in dual connectivity, when the first verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the first data packet fails, and the second verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the second data packet succeeds, the terminal device triggers reestablishment of an RRC connection. Which helps to improve communication performance.

In a possible design, the first data packet and the second data packet each include second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the data packet is subjected to a duplication operation and is received through a different transmission path. The method helps to ensure that the terminal device receives the first data packet and the second data packet from different transmission paths respectively.

In a second aspect, a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application includes:

a first network device sends a first data packet to a terminal device through a first transmission path, and sends a second data packet to the terminal device through a second transmission path; the first data packet and the second data packet are the same; when receiving first indication information sent by the terminal equipment, the first network equipment sends a switching instruction to the terminal equipment through the first transmission path; the first indication information is used for indicating that the integrity protection check of the second data packet fails, and the switching instruction is used for triggering the terminal device to update the used key for integrity protection and/or the algorithm for integrity protection.

In the embodiment of the application, because the first network device can send the switching instruction to the terminal device when receiving the second data packet integrity check failure, compared with the reestablishment of the RRC connection triggered by the terminal device, the number of times of the reestablishment of the RRC connection triggered by the terminal device is reduced, so that the communication performance is improved.

In one possible design, the second transmission path is a transmission path between a second network device and the terminal device, and the first network device and the second network device are dual-connected.

In a possible design, the first network device configures a first timing duration for the terminal device, where the first timing duration is a maximum duration for the terminal device to wait for receiving the second data packet on the second transmission path after obtaining the first verification result, and the first verification result is an integrity protection verification result of the first data packet.

In one possible design, the first network device sends a first data packet to the terminal device via the first transmission path; after receiving the first acknowledgement, sending the second data packet to the terminal device through the second transmission path within a second timing duration; the first acknowledgement is used for indicating that the first data packet is successfully received.

In a possible design, the first network device receives the first acknowledgement, and cancels sending the second packet to the terminal device through the second transmission path if the first acknowledgement exceeds the second timing duration.

In one possible design, the first data packet and the second data packet each include second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the data packet is subjected to a duplication operation and is received through different transmission paths. The method helps to ensure that the terminal device receives the first data packet and the second data packet from different transmission paths respectively.

In a third aspect, a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application includes:

the terminal equipment receives a first data packet from a first transmission path; carrying out integrity protection verification on the first data packet to obtain a first verification result; and when the first verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the first data packet fails, the terminal equipment sends first indication information through a second transmission path, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the integrity protection verification failure and information of the first transmission path.

In the embodiment of the application, under the condition that the integrity and success protection verification of the first data packet fails, the terminal device may send the first indication information through the second transmission path, so that the network side performs corresponding processing.

In a possible design, the terminal device performs integrity protection verification on the first data packet in a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer to obtain a first verification result. Facilitating ease of implementation.

In a possible design, when the first verification result indicates that the first packet integrity protection verification fails, the PDCP layer of the terminal device transmits second indication information to the radio resource control, RRC, layer, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the terminal device fails to perform integrity protection verification on the first transmission path. Facilitating further processing by the terminal device.

In one possible design, the cell group with which the first transmission path is associated is a master cell group, MCG;

the second transmission path is a Radio Link Control (RLC) bearer associated with a Secondary Cell Group (SCG) of a split signaling radio bearer (SRB 1); alternatively, the second transmission path is an RLC bearer of SRB 3. Thereby simplifying the implementation.

In a fourth aspect, a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application includes:

the terminal equipment communicates with the first network equipment through a main cell and/or M auxiliary cells, wherein the carrier of the main cell is different from the carrier of each auxiliary cell in the M auxiliary cells; m is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1;

when the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, the terminal device sends first indication information to the first network device through N secondary cells in the M secondary cells, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal; wherein N is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to M, and N is a positive integer;

and the terminal equipment receives a switching instruction sent by the first network equipment after receiving the first indication information through the N auxiliary cells, wherein the switching instruction is used for indicating the terminal equipment to be switched to other cells.

In the embodiment of the application, when the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, the indication information of the abnormality of the physical layer of the primary cell can be sent to the first network device through the secondary cell, so that the first network device can indicate to the terminal device to switch to other cells when the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, the number of times of reestablishment of RRC connection is reduced, and the communication performance is improved.

In one possible design, the terminal device sends second indication information to the first network device through K secondary cells of the M secondary cells, where the second indication information is used to indicate a candidate master cell group of the terminal device, the candidate master cell group includes at least one secondary cell of the M secondary cells, where K is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to M, and K is a positive integer. Thereby assisting the network device in determining handover instructions.

In one possible design, the terminal device further communicates with a second network device, and the first network device and the second network device are in dual connection; and when the physical layer of the main cell is abnormal, if the terminal equipment cannot communicate with the first network equipment through the auxiliary cell, the terminal equipment sends the first indication information to the first network equipment through a transmission path between the terminal equipment and the second network equipment. Thereby facilitating the terminal device to send the first indication information to the first network device.

In a fifth aspect, a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application includes:

the first network equipment communicates with the terminal equipment through a main cell and/or M auxiliary cells, wherein the carrier of the main cell is different from the carrier of each auxiliary cell in the M auxiliary cells; m is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1;

when receiving first indication information sent by the terminal equipment through N auxiliary cells in the M auxiliary cells, the first network equipment sends a switching instruction to the terminal equipment through the N auxiliary cells;

and N is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to M and is a positive integer, the first indication information is used for indicating that the physical layer of the main cell is abnormal, and the switching instruction is used for indicating the terminal equipment to be switched to other cells.

In one possible design, the first network device sends second indication information to the terminal device through K secondary cells of the M secondary cells, where the second indication information is used to indicate a candidate master cell group of the terminal device, the candidate master cell group includes at least one secondary cell of the M secondary cells, where K is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to M, and K is a positive integer. Thereby assisting the network device in determining handover instructions.

In a possible design, when the terminal device is further in communication with a second network device, and if the terminal device cannot communicate with the first network device through the secondary cell, the first network device is in dual connection with the second network device, and the first network device may further receive the first indication information sent by the terminal device through a transmission path between the first network device and the second network device. Thereby facilitating the terminal device to send the first indication information to the first network device.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides an apparatus, which may be a terminal device, or an apparatus in a terminal device, or an apparatus capable of being used in cooperation with a terminal device, and the apparatus may include a processing module and a transceiver module, and the processing module and the transceiver module may perform corresponding functions in the method designed in any one of the first aspect and the first aspect, specifically:

the receiving and sending module is used for receiving a first data packet sent by a first network device through a first transmission path and receiving a second data packet sent by a second network device through a second transmission path; the processing module is used for carrying out integrity protection verification on the first data packet when the transceiver module receives the first data packet to obtain a first verification result; when the transceiver module receives the second data packet, carrying out integrity protection verification on the second data packet to obtain a second verification result; then, the transceiver module is further configured to send first indication information to the first network device through the first transmission path when the first check result indicates that the first packet integrity protection check is successful and the second check result indicates that the second packet integrity protection check is failed, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the second packet integrity protection check is failed. Wherein the first data packet and the second data packet are the same.

In a possible design, the transceiver module is further configured to receive a switching instruction sent by the first network device through the first transmission path after receiving the first indication information; the switching instruction is used for triggering the terminal equipment to update the used key for integrity protection and/or the algorithm for integrity protection.

In one possible design, the first indication information further includes information indicating the second transmission path and/or a cell identifier corresponding to the second transmission path, where the cell identifier corresponding to the second transmission path is used to indicate a cell used for sending the second data packet.

In one possible design, the carrier associated with the first transmission path is different from the carrier associated with the second transmission path.

In one possible design, the carrier associated with the first transmission path includes a primary carrier.

In a possible design, after obtaining the first check result, if the transceiver module does not receive the second data packet on the second transmission path for more than a first timing duration, and when the first check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet is successful, the processing module is further configured to not trigger reestablishment of the RRC connection; or,

the processing module is further configured to, after the first check result is obtained, if the first time period is exceeded, the transceiver module does not receive the second data packet on the second transmission path, and when the first check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet fails, trigger reestablishment of an RRC connection.

In one possible design, the first timing duration is predefined; or, the first timing length is configured for the terminal device by the first network device or the second network device.

In a possible design, when, for the terminal device, the first network device is a primary node, the second network device is a secondary node, and the first network device and the second network device are in dual connectivity, when the first check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet fails, and the second check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the second data packet succeeds, the terminal device triggers reestablishment of radio resource control RRC connection.

In a possible design, the first data packet and the second data packet each include second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the data packet is subjected to a duplication operation and is received through a different transmission path.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides an apparatus, which may be a network device, or an apparatus in a network device, or an apparatus capable of being used in conjunction with a network device, where the apparatus may include a processing module and a transceiver module, and the processing module and the transceiver module may perform corresponding functions in the method designed in any of the second aspect and the second aspect, specifically:

the receiving and sending module is used for sending a first data packet to the terminal equipment through a first transmission path and sending a second data packet to the terminal equipment through a second transmission path; the first data packet and the second data packet are the same; the processing module is further configured to trigger the transceiver module to send a switching instruction to the terminal device through the first transmission path when the transceiver module receives first indication information sent by the terminal device; the first indication information is used for indicating that the integrity protection check of the second data packet fails, and the switching instruction is used for triggering the terminal device to update the used key for integrity protection and/or the algorithm for integrity protection.

In a possible design, the processing module configures a first timing duration for the terminal device, where the first timing duration is a maximum duration for the terminal device to wait for receiving the second data packet on the second transmission path after obtaining the first verification result, and the first verification result is an integrity protection verification result of the first data packet.

In one possible design, the transceiver module is further configured to send a first data packet to the terminal device via the first transmission path; after receiving the first acknowledgement, sending the second data packet to the terminal device through the second transmission path within a second timing duration; the first acknowledgement is used for indicating that the first data packet is successfully received.

In a possible design, the processing module is further configured to receive the first acknowledgement at the transceiver module, and cancel sending the second packet to the terminal device through the second transmission path if the first acknowledgement exceeds a second timing duration.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides an apparatus, which may be a terminal device, or an apparatus in a terminal device, or an apparatus capable of being used in cooperation with a terminal device, and the apparatus may include a processing module and a transceiver module, and the processing module and the transceiver module may perform corresponding functions in the method designed in any one of the third aspect and the third aspect, specifically:

a transceiver module for receiving a first data packet from a first transmission path; the processing module is used for carrying out integrity protection verification on the first data packet to obtain a first verification result; when the first check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet fails, the transceiver module is configured to send first indication information through a second transmission path, where the first indication information is used to indicate information of the integrity protection check failure and the first transmission path.

In a possible design, the processing module is specifically configured to perform integrity protection verification on the first data packet in a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer to obtain a first verification result.

In a possible design, when the first verification result indicates that the first packet integrity protection verification fails, the processing module is configured to trigger the PDCP layer to transmit second indication information to the radio resource control RRC layer, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the integrity protection verification fails in the first transmission path of the terminal device.

In a ninth aspect, an apparatus provided in this embodiment of the present application may be a terminal device, or an apparatus in a terminal device, or an apparatus capable of being used in conjunction with a terminal device, where the apparatus may include a processing module and a transceiver module, and the processing module and the transceiver module may perform corresponding functions in the method designed in any one of the above fourth aspect and the fourth aspect, specifically:

the transceiver module is configured to communicate with a first network device through a primary cell and/or M secondary cells, where a carrier of the primary cell is different from a carrier of each of the M secondary cells; m is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1;

the processing module is configured to send first indication information to the first network device through N secondary cells of the M secondary cells when the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal; wherein N is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to M, and N is a positive integer;

the transceiver module is further configured to receive, through the N secondary cells, a handover instruction sent by the first network device after receiving the first indication information, where the handover instruction is used to instruct the terminal device to handover to another cell.

In one possible design, the transceiver module is further configured to send second indication information to the first network device through K secondary cells of the M secondary cells, where the second indication information is used to indicate a candidate master cell group of the terminal device, the candidate master cell group includes at least one secondary cell of the M secondary cells, where 1 ≦ K ≦ M, and K is a positive integer.

In one possible design, the apparatus is further in communication with a second network device, the apparatus being in dual connectivity with the second network device; the transceiver module is further configured to send the first indication information to the apparatus through a transmission path between the transceiver module and the second network device if the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal and the apparatus cannot communicate with the primary cell through the secondary cell.

In a tenth aspect, the apparatus provided in this embodiment of the present application may be a network device, or an apparatus in a network device, or an apparatus capable of being used in conjunction with a network device, where the apparatus may include a processing module and a transceiver module, and the processing module and the transceiver module may perform corresponding functions in the method designed in any one of the above fifth aspect and the fifth aspect, specifically:

the transceiver module is used for communicating with the terminal equipment through a main cell and/or M auxiliary cells, and the carrier of the main cell is different from the carrier of each auxiliary cell in the M auxiliary cells; m is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1;

the processing module is configured to trigger the transceiver module to send a handover instruction to the terminal device through the N secondary cells when receiving first indication information sent by the terminal device through the N secondary cells of the M secondary cells;

In one possible design, the transceiver module is further configured to send second indication information to the terminal device through K secondary cells of the M secondary cells, where the second indication information is used to indicate a candidate master cell group of the terminal device, the candidate master cell group includes at least one secondary cell of the M secondary cells, where 1 ≦ K ≦ M, and K is a positive integer.

In a possible design, when the terminal device is further in communication with a second network device, and if the terminal device cannot communicate with the apparatus through the secondary cell, the apparatus is in dual connection with the second network device, and the transceiver module may be further configured to receive the first indication information sent by the terminal device through a transmission path between the transceiver module and the second network device.

In an eleventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an apparatus, which includes a processor, and is configured to implement the method described in any of the first to fifth aspects. The apparatus may also include a memory to store instructions and data. The memory is coupled to the processor, and the processor, when executing the program instructions stored in the memory, may implement the method described in any of the first to fifth aspects. The apparatus may also include a communication interface for the apparatus to communicate with other devices, such as a transceiver, circuit, bus, module or other type of communication interface, which may be network devices or terminal devices, etc.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes:

a memory for storing program instructions;

and a processor for invoking instructions stored in the memory to cause the apparatus to perform a method as contemplated by any of the various aspects of the method portion of the embodiments of the present application.

In a twelfth aspect, embodiments of the present application further provide a computer-readable storage medium, which includes instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform any one of the possible design methods in the method part.

In a thirteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a chip system, where the chip system includes a processor and may further include a memory, and is used to implement the method of any one of the possible designs of the method portion. The chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

In a fourteenth aspect, this application further provides, in an embodiment, a computer program product including instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of the possible designs of the method part.

In addition, the technical effects brought by any one of the possible design manners in the sixth aspect to the fourteenth aspect can be referred to the technical effects brought by different design manners in the method portion, and are not described herein again.

Drawings

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

fig. 1b is a schematic network architecture of another communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic network architecture of another communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic network architecture of another communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of another apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

In the embodiments of the present application, "at least one" means one or more, "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, which may mean: a alone, both A and B, and B alone, where A, B may be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship. "at least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of the singular or plural items. For example, at least one (one) of a, b, or c, may represent: a, b, c, a and b, a and c, b and c, or a, b and c, wherein a, b and c can be single or multiple.

The embodiments of the present application may be applied to a communication system that employs multiple Radio Access Technologies (RATs) dual connectivity (MR-DC) and/or Carrier Aggregation (CA). The embodiments of the present application may also be applied to other communication systems that can transmit the same data packet through multiple transmission paths, which is not limited to this.

Fig. 1a and 1b are respectively a network architecture diagram of a communication system using MR-DC. As shown, the communication system of the MR-DC may include a core network, a Master Node (MN), a Secondary Node (SN), and a terminal device. In this embodiment of the present application, the MN may also be referred to as a master station, an anchor point (anchor), a master network device, and the SN may also be referred to as a slave station, a slave network device, and the like. It should be understood that a MN is a Radio Access Network (RAN) device that provides a terminating point (termination) of a user plane (user plane) and control plane (control plane) protocol stack of a wireless communication air interface for a terminal device. The SN is also a RAN device, and provides a termination point of a user plane and a control plane of a wireless communication air interface for the terminal device. It should be noted that the MN and the SN may be RAN devices supporting different wireless communication technologies, or may be RAN devices supporting the same wireless communication technology. The wireless communication technologies may include, but are not limited to: global system for mobile communications (GSM), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), time division code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA), universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA), next generation radio communication (NR), and the like.

In a communication system employing MR-DC, the MN can communicate with the core network in the control plane and the data plane. And the SN may implement communication with the core network at the control plane through the MN. However, the SN may implement data plane communication with the core network through the MN, such as the network architecture shown in fig. 1a, or the SN may implement data plane communication with the core network without passing through the MN, such as the network architecture shown in fig. 1 b.

It should be understood that the RAN device in this embodiment may also be referred to as a network device, an access network device, and the like, for example, the RAN device may be a RAN device in a fifth-generation mobile communication system (5th-generation, 5G), such as a next generation base station (gNB), a RAN device in LTE, such as an evolved node B (eNB), a Radio Network Controller (RNC), a Node B (NB), a Base Station Controller (BSC), a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), a home base station (e.g., home evolved node B, or home node B), a Base Band Unit (BBU), a transmitting and receiving point (transceiving and outage point, TRP), a Transmitting Point (TP), a mobile switching center (TP), a wireless switching center (cra), and a wireless access network controller (cra) under a wireless scene control scenario, Relay stations, access points, RAN equipment in future mobile communication systems or RAN equipment in public mobile land networks (PLMNs) for future evolution, and the like.

It should be understood that the terminal device in the embodiment of the present application is a device having a wireless transceiving function, and may be referred to as a terminal (terminal), a User Equipment (UE), a Mobile Station (MS), a Mobile Terminal (MT), an access terminal device, a vehicle-mounted terminal device, an industrial control terminal device, a UE unit, a UE station, a mobile station, a remote terminal device, a mobile device, a UE terminal device, a wireless communication device, a UE agent, or a UE apparatus. The terminal device may be fixed or mobile. It is noted that the terminal device may support at least one wireless communication technology, such as LTE, NR, WCDMA, etc. For example, the terminal device may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet (pad), a desktop, a notebook, a kiosk, a vehicle-mounted terminal, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an Augmented Reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in self driving, a wireless terminal in remote surgery, a wireless terminal in smart grid, a wireless terminal in transportation safety, a wireless terminal in city (PDA) a wireless terminal in smart home, a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (PDA) a wireless local area, a wireless personal digital assistant (wldi), a handheld wireless terminal with personal communication function, and a wireless terminal with personal communication function, A computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a wearable device, a terminal device in a future mobile communication network or a terminal device in a future evolved PLMN, etc.

In the embodiment of the present application, the network architecture of the communication system employing MR-DC includes, but is not limited to, the following three types: EN-DC (E-UTRA NR DC), NE-DC (NR E-UTRA DC), NG EN-DC (Next Generation E-UTRA NRDC). The EN-DC (E-UTRA NR DC) may also be referred to as an Option3series (Option3series), that is, the core network is an Evolved Packet Core (EPC), the MN is a RAN device (e.g., eNB) in Long Term Evolution (LTE), and the SN is a RAN device (e.g., a gNB) in NR. NE-DC is also called Option4series (Option4series), i.e. the core network is 5G core (5G core, 5GC), MN is RAN device in NR (e.g. gNB), and SN is RAN device in LTE (e.g. eNB). NG EN-DC is also called Option7series (Option7series), i.e. the core network is 5GC, MN is RAN equipment (e.g. gbb) in LTE, and SN is RAN equipment (e.g. eNB) in NR. It should be understood that the above EN-DC, NE-DC and NG EN-DC are all dual connectivity of RAN device in LTE and RAN device in NR, and may be referred to as dual connectivity of LTE and NR for short, and furthermore, dual connectivity of NR and NR is supported in 5G, that is, MN and SN are both RAN devices in NR, and are referred to as NR-NR DC for short.

It should be understood that in a communication system employing MR-DC or NR-NR DC, a terminal device may simultaneously access at least one RAN device, which is the MN of the terminal device when the terminal device accesses one RAN device, one RAN device of the two or more RAN devices being the MN of the terminal device when the terminal device accesses two or more RAN devices, and the other RAN device or devices being the SN of the terminal device.

Further, in communication systems employing DC, a RAN device (e.g., MN, or SN) may configure a split (split) bearer for a terminal device. For example, Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) terminates a split bearer at an MN, which may also be referred to as an MN terminated split bearer, or simply an MN bearer; the split bearer terminated at SN by PDCP may also be referred to as an SN terminated split bearer, which may be referred to as an SN bearer for short. A split bearer may be understood as a Radio Bearer (RB) that may be associated with two or more transmission paths, that is, data on one split bearer may be transmitted through one or more transmission paths in the transmission paths associated with the split bearer. It should be noted that the maximum number of transmission paths that can be associated with a split bearer is related to the number of SNs accessed by the terminal device. For example, in a multi-connection scenario, if a terminal device accesses one MN and one SN, the number of transmission paths associated with one split bearer is 2. For another example, in a multi-connection scenario, if the terminal device accesses one MN and two SNs, the number of transmission paths associated with one split bearer is 3.

That is, in a multi-connection scenario, each of two or more transmission paths associated with the same split bearer is associated with air interface resources of different RAN devices. For example, if the terminal device accesses one MN and one SN, when one split bearer associates the first transmission path and the second transmission path, the first transmission path may associate the air interface resource of the MN, and the second transmission path may associate the air interface resource of the SN. For example, the air interface resources in this embodiment may include one or more cells that the RAN device (e.g., MN or SN) provides services for the terminal device. The one or more cells provided by the MN for the terminal device may be referred to as a Master Cell Group (MCG), and the one or more cells provided by the SN for the terminal device may be referred to as a Secondary Cell Group (SCG). Taking the example that the first transmission path is associated with the air interface resource of the MN, the air interface resource of the first transmission path associated with the MN may be understood as one or more cells in the MCG associated with the first transmission path. For example, the terminal device accesses MN and SN respectively, where the MCG serving the terminal device by MN is MCG1, the SCG serving the terminal device by SN is SCG2, if one split bearer configured for the terminal device by MN is RB1, and RB1 associates transmission path 1 and transmission path 2, then transmission path 1 may associate with one or more cells in MCG1, and transmission path 2 may associate with one or more cells in MCG 2. For example, MCG1 includes cell 11, cell 21, and cell 31, SCG1 includes cell 12 and cell 22, transmission path 1 may be associated with cell 11 and cell 31, and transmission path 2 may be associated with cell 12.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, for the control plane, the split bearer may be a Signaling Radio Bearer (SRB), for example, the split bearer may be an SRB1, an SRB2, an SRB3, or the like; for the user plane, the split bearer may be a wireless data bearer (DRB).

If a replication (duplication) operation is introduced on the basis of the configuration of the split bearer in the communication system using the DC, the same data packet can be transmitted on two or more transmission paths associated with one split bearer. For example, the data packet may be a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message or the like. Thereby contributing to an increase in reliability of communication between the RAN equipment and the terminal equipment.

In the following, taking the control plane as an example, the network architecture shown in fig. 2 is a dual connection architecture, which is also referred to as that the first network device and the second network device are dual connected in the present application. The first network device and the second network device serve as sending end devices, and the terminal device serves as a receiving end device, for example, a method for sending repeated data packets after copy operation is introduced will be described. For the terminal device, the first network device is an MN, and the second network device is an SN; or, for the terminal device, the first network device is an SN, and the second network device is an MN.

Illustratively, as shown in fig. 3, a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application includes the following steps.

Step 301, the first network device configures an SRB for the terminal device, where the SRB associates the first transmission path and the second transmission path. The first transmission path may be understood as a first Radio Link Control (RLC) bearer, and the second transmission path may be understood as a second RLC bearer, where the first RLC bearer is associated with the MCG and the second RLC bearer is associated with the SCG.

Step 302, the RRC layer of the first network device transmits the data loaded on the SRB to the PDCP layer of the first network device, the PDCP layer of the first network device processes the received data to obtain a first data packet, and copies the first data packet to obtain a second data packet, and then the PDCP layer of the first network device transmits the first data packet to the RLC layer of the first network device and transmits the second data packet to the RLC layer of the second network device.

It should be noted that, after the first network device configures the terminal device to associate the SRB with the first transmission path and the second transmission path, regardless of whether the terminal device is configured to perform uplink duplication, for downlink packet transmission, the first network device freely determines to transmit a packet through any one of the first transmission path and the second transmission path, or to transmit the same packet through the first transmission path and the second transmission path, that is, performs a duplication operation on the downlink packet. Therefore, after the first network device configures the terminal device to associate the SRB with the first transmission path and the second transmission path, the terminal device needs to receive data packets on both the first transmission path and the second transmission path.

Step 303, after receiving the first data packet, the RLC layer of the first network device sequentially transmits the first data packet to a Media Access Control (MAC) layer of the first network device, and then to a Physical (PHY) layer, and transmits the first data packet to the terminal device through an MCG associated with the first transmission path; after receiving the second data packet, the RLC layer of the second network device sequentially transmits the second data packet to the MAC layer of the second network device and then to the PHY layer, and then transmits the second data packet to the terminal device through the SCG associated with the second transmission path. The PHY layers of the MN and SN are not shown in fig. 2.

However, for the terminal device, the terminal device may receive the first data packet from the first transmission path first, may receive the second data packet from the second transmission path first, and may receive the first data packet and the second data packet at the same time.

For the Acknowledged Mode (AM) scenario, if the terminal device receives the first data packet first at the RLC layer, the RLC layer of the terminal device sends an ACK response to the MN to indicate that the first data packet was successfully received. After receiving the ACK response, the RLC layer of the first network device may transmit the ACK response to the PDCP layer of the first network device, and the PDCP layer of the first network device may notify the RLC layer of the second network device that the first data packet is successfully received, so as to prevent the RLC layer of the first network device from continuing to send the second data packet. If the terminal device receives the second data packet first, an ACK response may be sent to the second network device through the RLC layer of the terminal device, where the ACK response is used to indicate that the second data packet is successfully received. After receiving the ACK response, the RLC layer of the second network device may report the ACK response to the PDCP layer of the first network device, and the PDCP layer of the first network device transfers the information that the second data packet is successfully received to the RLC layer of the first network device, so as to prevent the RLC layer of the first network device from continuing to send the first data packet.

However, for the terminal device, after receiving the first data packet and/or the second data packet at the PDCP layer, integrity protection verification needs to be performed on the first data packet and/or the second data packet to improve the security and reliability of communication. In general, if one of the first data packet and the second data packet fails to perform integrity protection check, the terminal device triggers reestablishment of the RRC connection, which easily results in a long communication interruption time of the terminal device.

In view of this, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, so that a terminal device may send indication information to a RAN device through another transmission path when integrity protection check of a data packet received by the terminal device on one transmission path fails under the condition that two or more transmission paths are configured, so that the RAN device performs corresponding processing. Further, for the same data packet sent on different transmission paths after the duplicate operation is performed on the split bearer, if the integrity protection check of the received data packet from one or more transmission paths fails, the terminal device may send the indication information to the RAN device through the transmission path of the data packet for which the integrity protection check succeeds, so that the RAN device may perform corresponding processing.

In the following, an example is given in which a terminal device accesses a first network device and a second network device, where the first network device is a first RAN device, the second network device is a second RAN device, and the first RAN device and the second RAN device are in dual connectivity.

Illustratively, as shown in fig. 4, a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application includes the following steps:

step 401, the terminal device configures a first transmission path and a second transmission path, and may receive data packets through the first transmission path and the second transmission path, respectively. Illustratively, the terminal device is configured with one or more split bearers, and a first transmission path and a second transmission path are established for each split bearer. Illustratively, the first transmission path is MCG RLC bearer and the second transmission path is SCG RLC bearer, or the first transmission path is MCG RLC bearer and the second transmission path is SCG RLC bearer. MCG RLC bearer is associated with MCG and SCG RLC bearer is associated with SCG. And the terminal equipment receives the downlink data packet through the MCG and the SCG and sends the uplink data packet through the MCG and/or the SCG. For example, the split bearer may be split SRB1 or split SRB2, in which case the data packet may refer to an RRC message carried on the SRB.

Step 402, the terminal device receives the first data packet through the third transmission path, and performs integrity protection on the first data packet to obtain a first verification result. For example, the PDCP layer of the terminal device performs integrity protection check on the first data packet to obtain a first check result. Wherein the third transmission path is one of the first transmission path and the second transmission path. Illustratively, the first packet may be an RRC message carried in SRB1 or SRB 2. In some embodiments, the terminal device knows that the first packet has not been copied. It can be understood that the terminal device may learn, by receiving the displayed indication information sent by the network device, that the first data packet or the bearer to which the first data packet belongs is not configured with the downlink copy operation, or may learn, by an implicit manner, that, for example, the indication information sent by the network device and configured with the downlink copy operation for the first data packet or the bearer to which the first data packet belongs is not received.

In some embodiments, the communication method shown in fig. 4 further includes a step 403, when the first check result is used to indicate that the first packet integrity protection check fails, the PDCP layer of the terminal device transmits indication information to an upper layer, where the indication information is used to indicate that the integrity protection check fails. For example, the indication information further includes indication information of the third transmission path, which is used to indicate that the integrity protection check of the data packet received by the upper layer through the third transmission path has failed. Illustratively, the upper layer is the RRC layer. Illustratively, the indication information of the third transmission path is MCG or SCG.

In other embodiments, the communication method shown in fig. 4 further includes step 404, where the terminal device sends a failure report to the network device through the fourth transmission path, where the failure report is used to indicate that the terminal device has failed the integrity protection check. Wherein the fourth transmission path is one of the first transmission path and the second transmission path, and is different from the third transmission path. For example, the failure report further includes indication information of the third transmission path, which is used to indicate that the integrity protection check of the data packet received by the terminal device on the third transmission path has failed.

In some embodiments, when the third transmission path is one of the first transmission path and the second transmission path associated with the MCG, the terminal device sends a failure report through the SCG RLC bearer of SRB1, and the terminal device is configured with split SRB 1. Illustratively, the terminal device sends a failure report to the network device (e.g., the first network device or the second network device) via the SCG RLC bearer of the SRB 1. In some embodiments, when the third transmission path is one of the first transmission path and the second transmission path associated with the MCG, the terminal device sends a failure report through the SCG RLC bearer of SRB3, and the terminal device configures SRB 3. Illustratively, the terminal device sends a failure report to the network device (e.g., the first network device or the second network device) via the SCG RLC bearer of the SRB 3. Further in other embodiments of the present application, when the terminal device is configured with split SRB1 and SRB3, the terminal device may send a failure report to the network device through SCG RLC bearer of SRB3, or the terminal device preferably sends a failure report to the network device through SCG RLC bearer of split SRB1, for indicating that the RLC bearer of the MCC has failed the integrity protection check of the SRB. It should be noted that the RLC bearer for the terminal device to receive the first data packet and the RLC bearer for the terminal device to send the failure report may not belong to the same bearer or may belong to the same bearer, which is not limited in this application. For example, the terminal device may send a failure report through the SCG RLC bearer of SRB1 or SRB3 when receiving the first packet from the MCG RLC bearer of SRB2 or SRB 1.

It can be understood that, when the third transmission path is the MCG RLC bearer, the terminal device may send a failure report through the SCG RLC bearer; when the third transmission path is the SCG RLC bearer, the terminal apparatus may send a failure report through the MCG RLC bearer.

In this embodiment, a communication method is provided, so that a terminal device may send indication information to a RAN device through another transmission path when integrity protection check of a data packet received by the terminal device on one transmission path fails under the condition that two or more transmission paths are configured, so that the RAN device performs corresponding processing.

Illustratively, as shown in fig. 5, a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application specifically includes the following steps.

Step 501, a first network device sends a first data packet to a terminal device through a first transmission path, and a second network device sends a second data packet to the terminal device through a second transmission path, where the first data packet and the second data packet are the same. In some embodiments, the first network device sends indication information to the terminal device in a downlink manner, so that the terminal device knows that the first data packet and the second data packet can be received. For example, the indication information further indicates information that a downlink duplicate bearer is performed.

It should be noted that, for the terminal device, the first network device is an MN, and the second network device is an SN; or, for the terminal device, the first network device is an SN, and the second network device is an MN.

In the embodiment of the present application, the first data packet and the second data packet are the same, and it may be understood that the first data packet is obtained by copying the second data packet, or the second data packet is obtained by copying the first data packet. For example, if the first transmission path and the second transmission path are transmission paths associated with the MN bearer, the first packet may be copied by the MN to the second packet at the PDCP layer, or the second packet may be copied by the MN to the first packet at the PDCP layer. For another example, if the first transmission path and the second transmission path are SN bearer-associated transmission paths, the first data packet may be obtained by copying the second data packet at the PDCP layer by the SN, or the second data packet may be obtained by copying the first data packet at the PDCP layer by the SN.

Step 502, after receiving a first data packet from a first transmission path, a terminal device performs integrity protection verification on the first data packet to obtain a first verification result; and after receiving a second data packet from the second transmission path, carrying out integrity protection verification on the second data packet to obtain a second verification result.

Step 503, when the first check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet is successful and the second check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the second data packet is failed, the terminal device sends first indication information to the first network device through the first transmission path, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the integrity protection check of the second data packet is failed.

It should be noted that, for the terminal device, when the first network device is an SN and the second network device is an MN, if the first check result indicates that the first packet integrity protection check is successful and the second check result indicates that the second packet integrity protection check is failed, the terminal device may also trigger the reestablishment of the RRC connection instead of sending the first indication information to the first network device. For example, for the terminal device, when the first network device is a SN and the second network device is a MN, if the first check result indicates that the first packet integrity protection check is successful and the second check result indicates that the second packet integrity protection check is failed, whether the terminal device sends the first indication information to the first network device through the first transmission path or triggers reestablishment of the RRC connection may be determined according to a pre-configured policy or rule. For example, if the policy preconfigured in the terminal device is that when the integrity protection check of the data packet on the transmission path associated with the MCG fails and the integrity protection check of the data packet on the transmission path associated with the SCG succeeds, the terminal device sends the indication information to the MN through the transmission path associated with the SCG, and when the first check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet succeeds and the second check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the second data packet fails, the terminal device sends the first indication information to the first network device through the first transmission path. For another example, if the policy preconfigured in the terminal device is that when the integrity protection check of the data packet on the transmission path associated with the MCG fails and the integrity protection check of the data packet on the transmission path associated with the SCG succeeds, the reestablishment of the RRC connection is triggered, and when the first check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet succeeds and the second check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the second data packet fails, the terminal device triggers the reestablishment of the RRC connection. The foregoing is illustrative only and is not to be construed as limiting the embodiments of the present application.

In some embodiments, when the first check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet is successful, and the second check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the second data packet is failed, the terminal device may further send, to the first network device through the first transmission path, information indicating the second transmission path, and/or air interface resource information of the second network device associated with the second transmission path, and the like. For example, the information of the second transmission path may be MCG or SCG, and the air interface resource information of the second network device associated with the second transmission path may be one or more cell identifiers, where the one or more cell identifiers may be used to indicate a cell used for sending the second data packet. Therefore, the reasonability of a processing mode when the RAN side judges that the integrity protection check of the second data packet of the terminal equipment fails is improved. For example, the first indication information includes information indicating the second transmission path, and/or a cell identifier corresponding to the second transmission path, and so on, thereby contributing to saving signaling overhead.

In some embodiments, for the terminal device, when the first network device is an MN and the second network device is an SN, the first network device may send a handover instruction to the terminal device if the first indication information received by the first network device is received. The switching instruction is used for triggering the terminal equipment to update the used key for integrity protection and/or the algorithm for integrity protection. Therefore, after receiving the switching instruction, the terminal equipment can update the used integrity protection key and/or algorithm without initiating reestablishment of the RRC connection, thereby being beneficial to reducing the reestablishment times of the RRC connection and improving the user experience. For example, the first network device may send the handover command to the terminal device through the first transmission path. The implementation mode is facilitated to be simplified, and the communication efficiency is improved.

In other embodiments, for the terminal device, when the first network device is a SN and the second network device is a MN, if the first network device receives the first indication information, the first network device may send the first indication information to the second network device. And after receiving the switching instruction sent by the first network equipment, the second network equipment sends the switching instruction to the terminal equipment through the first transmission path. The handover command is used to trigger the terminal device to update the used keys for integrity protection and/or algorithms for integrity protection. It should be noted that, when receiving, from the first transmission path, information that is sent by the terminal device and used for indicating the second transmission path and/or air interface resource information of the second network device associated with the second transmission path, the first network device also sends the relevant information to the second network device, so as to help improve the rationality of a processing manner when the RAN determines that the integrity protection check on the second data packet of the terminal device fails.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment of the application, triggering the terminal device to update the used key for integrity protection and/or the algorithm for integrity protection may be understood as triggering the terminal device to update the used key for integrity protection used in air interface communication between the MN and the terminal device and/or the used algorithm for integrity protection used in air interface communication between the MN and the terminal device. Since the integrity protection key and/or algorithm used in the air interface communication between the SN and the terminal device is determined according to the integrity protection key and/or algorithm used in the air interface communication between the MN and the terminal device, when the integrity protection key and/or integrity protection algorithm used in the air interface communication between the MN and the terminal device is updated, the integrity protection key and/or integrity protection algorithm used in the air interface communication between the SN and the terminal device is also updated accordingly.

In some embodiments, the terminal device triggers the reestablishment of the RRC connection when the first check result indicates that the first packet integrity protection check fails and the second check result indicates that the second packet integrity protection check fails. Thereby helping to restore normal terminal device communications.

However, for the terminal device, the first data packet and the second data packet are transmitted through different transmission paths, respectively, and it is possible that the terminal device has received the second data packet transmitted by the second network device through the second transmission path, and the first network device has not transmitted the first data packet to the terminal device through the first transmission path. For the AM scenario, if the terminal device successfully receives the second data packet, the terminal device sends an ACK response to the second network device to indicate that the terminal device successfully receives the second data packet, and then the second network device notifies the first network device that the terminal device successfully receives the second data packet, and the first network device may cancel sending the first data packet after determining that the terminal device successfully receives the second data packet in order to avoid repeated sending. However, it is not perceived by the terminal device, and if the terminal device adopts the communication method shown in fig. 4, it needs to refer to the integrity check results of the two data packets to decide whether to trigger the reestablishment of the RRC connection or to send the first indication information.

Therefore, in order to enable the terminal device to determine whether to continue to wait for receiving one of the first data packet and the second data packet after receiving the other data packet, in some embodiments, a first timing duration may be preconfigured in the terminal device, where the first timing duration may be predefined by a protocol, may be configured by the network device, or may be configured by other manners. For example, the network device may be a first network device or a second network device. For example, the first timing length may be pre-configured in the terminal device with configuration parameters of the PDCP.

Illustratively, after receiving a first data packet sent by a first network device on a first transmission path, a terminal device performs integrity protection verification on the first data packet to obtain a first verification result, starts a first timer if a second data packet is not received when the first verification result is obtained, and performs integrity protection verification on the second data packet if the terminal device receives the second data packet within a first timing duration to obtain a second verification result. For example, the specific implementation manner of the terminal device determining whether to trigger the reestablishment of the RRC connection according to the first check result and the second check result may be referred to in the foregoing related embodiments, and details are not described here.

For another example, after receiving a first data packet sent by a first network device on a first transmission path, a terminal device performs integrity protection verification on the first data packet to obtain a first verification result, and starts a first timer if a second data packet is not received yet when the first verification result is obtained, and if the first timing duration is exceeded, the terminal device does not trigger reestablishment of an RRC connection when the first verification result indicates that integrity protection verification of the first data packet is successful and triggers reestablishment of the RRC connection when the first verification result indicates that integrity protection verification of the first data packet is failed, where the second data packet sent by the second network device on a second transmission path is still not received yet.

It should be noted that, the terminal device does not receive the second data packet after exceeding the first timing duration, and does not trigger the reestablishment of the RRC connection when the first verification result indicates that the integrity check of the first data packet is successful, which can be understood as that, the terminal device does not receive the second data packet after exceeding the first timing duration, and the step performed subsequently when the first verification result indicates that the integrity check of the first data packet is successful may refer to the step performed subsequently by the terminal device in the prior art when both the first verification result and the second verification result indicate that the integrity check of the data packet is successful; it may also be understood that the terminal device does not receive the second data packet after exceeding the first timing duration, and sends an indication of receiving the second data packet to the first network device when the first verification result indicates that the integrity verification of the first data packet is successful.

In some other embodiments, the second timing duration may be configured at the first network device and the second network device, and the third timing duration may be configured at the terminal device. The second timing duration may be predefined by a protocol or may be configured by other means. The third timing duration may be predefined by a protocol, may be configured by a network device, or may be configured by other means. For example, the network device may be a first network device or a second network device. For example, the second timing duration and the third timing duration may be pre-configured with configuration parameters of the PDCP. The second timing duration and the third timing duration may be the same or different, and are not limited thereto.

Taking the example that the terminal device receives the first data packet, after receiving the first data packet, the terminal device sends an ACK response to the first network device, where the ACK response is used to indicate that the first data packet is successfully received. And after receiving the ACK response, the first network equipment starts a second timer, and after the second timing duration is exceeded, the first network equipment notifies the second network equipment of canceling the sending of the second data packet on the second transmission path. And after the terminal equipment sends the ACK response to the first network equipment, starting a third timer, and if a second data packet sent by the second network equipment on a second transmission path is received within a third timing duration, carrying out integrity protection verification on the second data packet to obtain a second verification result. If the second data packet is not received within the third timing duration, when the first verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the first data packet is successful, the RRC connection reestablishment is not triggered; and when the first check result indicates that the first data packet integrity protection check fails, triggering the RRC connection reestablishment.

The processing method of the terminal device when the terminal device receives the second data packet may refer to the processing method of the terminal device receiving the first data packet, which is not described herein again.

In an AM scenario, when a duplicate operation is performed on downlink data sent by a network device to a terminal device, a first data packet is sent through a first transmission path, and a second data packet is sent through a second transmission path. For example, for the terminal device, when the first network device is an MN, the first network device carries indication information in a PDCP PDU of the first data packet, so as to instruct the terminal device to receive the PDCP PDU on the first transmission path and the second transmission path. It will be appreciated that since the second data packet is identical to the first data packet, the second data packet also carries the indication information. The optional above indication information may be included in the PDCP header. When the terminal device receives the first data packet or the second data packet, the fact that the data packet is copied is known through the indication information, and the same data packet needs to be received through different transmission paths.

In addition, for a communication system adopting CA, the RAN device and the terminal device may communicate with each other via multiple carriers, where the carrier where the terminal device initiates initial access is a primary carrier, a cell on the primary carrier is a primary cell, other carriers are secondary carriers, and a cell on the secondary carrier is a secondary cell. Thus, in a communication system employing CA, one radio bearer may also be associated with two or more transmission paths, where the cells or carriers associated with different transmission paths associated with one radio bearer are different. If in a communication system adopting CA, after introducing duplicate operation, the same data packet can be transmitted on two or more transmission paths associated with one radio bearer.

Taking the network architecture shown in fig. 6 as an example, the RAN device configures an RB for the terminal device in the RRC layer. For example, an RB associates a first transmission path and a second transmission path, where the carrier associated with the first transmission path is different from the carrier associated with the second transmission path. It should be noted that, in this embodiment of the present application, a carrier associated with a first transmission path may be understood as a cell associated with the first transmission path; the carrier associated with the second transmission path may be understood as a cell associated with the second transmission path.

For example, the first transmission path is associated with a first carrier group, the second transmission path is associated with a second carrier group, the first carrier group includes at least one first carrier, the second carrier group includes at least one second carrier, and each of the at least one first carrier and each of the at least one second carrier are different. For example, the first carrier group includes carrier 11, carrier 12, and carrier 13, and the second carrier group includes carrier 21, and carrier 22. The carrier 11, the carrier 12, and the carrier 13 are different carriers from the carrier 21 and the carrier 22. Note that the RB configured by the RAN device for the terminal device in the RRC layer may be SRB1, SRB2, DRB, or the like. It should be understood that the transmission path associated with the primary carrier may also be referred to as the primary transmission path, with the other transmission paths being secondary transmission paths. For example, if the first carrier group associated with the first transmission path and the second carrier group associated with the second transmission path include a primary carrier, the first transmission path is a primary transmission path and the overlapped transmission path is a secondary transmission path. Taking the example that SRB1 and/or SRB2 are configured with CA replication (for uplink), the terminal device needs to receive downlink RRC messages on the first transmission path and the second transmission path associated with SRB 1. Illustratively, as shown in fig. 7, a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application includes the following steps.

In step 701, the terminal device configures a first transmission path and a second transmission path, and may receive a data packet through the first transmission path and the second transmission path. Illustratively, the terminal device establishes a first transmission path and a second transmission path for the SRBx, for example, the first transmission path is a first RLC bearer, the second transmission path is a second RLC bearer, and each RLC bearer is respectively associated with one cell group. Or the terminal equipment establishes a first RLC bearer for the SRBx and a second RLC bearer for the SRBy, the first RLC bearer and the second RLC bearer are respectively associated with a cell group, and the terminal equipment receives the downlink data packet through the cell group associated with the first RLC bearer and the cell group associated with the second RLC bearer. For example, the SRBx/SRBy may be SRB1 or SRB2, in which case the data packet may refer to an RRC message carried on the SRB.

Step 702, the terminal device receives the first data packet through the third transmission path, and performs integrity protection verification on the first data packet to obtain a first verification result. For example, the PDCP layer of the terminal device performs integrity protection check on the first data packet to obtain a first check result. Wherein the third transmission path is one of the first transmission path and the second transmission path. Illustratively, the first packet may be an RRC message carried in SRB1 or SRB 2. In some embodiments, the terminal device knows that the first packet has not been copied. It can be understood that the terminal device may learn, by receiving the displayed indication information sent by the network device, that the first data packet or the bearer to which the first data packet belongs is not configured with the downlink copy operation, or may learn, by an implicit manner, that, for example, the indication information sent by the network device and configured with the downlink copy operation for the first data packet or the bearer to which the first data packet belongs is not received.

In some embodiments, the communication method shown in fig. 7 includes step 703, when the first check result is used to indicate that the first packet integrity protection check fails, the PDCP layer of the terminal device sends indication information to the upper layer, where the indication information is used to indicate that the upper layer has failed in integrity protection check. The indication information further includes indication information of a third transmission path, which is used to indicate that the data packet received by the upper layer through the third transmission path has an integrity protection check failure. Illustratively, the upper layer is the RRC layer. Illustratively, the indication information of the third transmission path is an identifier of the third transmission path or cell identifier information associated with the third transmission path.

In other embodiments, the communication method shown in fig. 7 further includes step 704, where the terminal device sends a failure report through the fourth transmission path, where the failure report indicates that the integrity protection check of the terminal device has failed. Wherein the fourth transmission path is one of the first transmission path and the second transmission path, and is different from the third transmission path. Illustratively, the terminal device sends a failure report to the network device via the fourth transmission path. It should be noted that the RLC bearer for the terminal device to receive the first data packet and the RLC bearer for the terminal device to send the failure report may not belong to the same bearer or may belong to the same bearer, which is not limited in this application. For example, the terminal device receives the first packet from one RLC bearer of SRB2 or SRB1, and may send the failure report through one RLC bearer of SRB1, as long as the two RLC bearers are associated with different transmission paths (i.e. cells or cell groups).

Taking the RB to associate the first transmission path and the second transmission path as an example, as shown in fig. 8, a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application includes the following steps:

step 801, a RAN device sends a first data packet to a terminal device through a first transmission path, and sends a second data packet to the terminal device through a second transmission path, where the first data packet and the second data packet are the same.

It should be noted that the first packet is the same as the second packet, and it is understood that the first packet may be obtained by the RAN device by duplicating the second packet, or the second packet may be obtained by duplicating the first packet by the RAN device.

In addition, it should be further noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, one of the first transmission path and the second transmission path is associated with the primary carrier. For example, if the first transmission path is associated with a first carrier group and the second transmission path is associated with a second carrier group, and the first carrier group includes a primary carrier, the first transmission path is associated with the primary carrier, and thus the first transmission path is a primary transmission path and the second transmission path is a secondary transmission path.

Step 802, after receiving a first data packet from a first transmission path, a terminal device performs integrity protection verification on the first data packet to obtain a first verification result; and after receiving a second data packet from the second transmission path, carrying out integrity protection verification on the second data packet to obtain a second verification result.

Step 803, when the first check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet is successful and the second check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the second data packet is failed, the terminal device sends first indication information to the RAN device through the first transmission path, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the integrity protection check of the second data packet is failed.

It should be noted that, for the terminal device, in the case that the second transmission path is associated with the primary carrier, when the first check result indicates that the first packet integrity protection check is successful and the second check result indicates that the second packet integrity protection check is failed, the terminal device may also trigger the reestablishment of the RRC connection instead of sending the first indication information to the RAN device. For example, for the terminal device, when the second transmission path is associated with the primary carrier, if the first check result indicates that the first packet integrity protection check is successful and the second check result indicates that the second packet integrity protection check is failed, whether the terminal device sends the first indication information to the RAN device through the first transmission path or triggers reestablishment of the RRC connection may be determined according to a pre-configured policy or rule. For example, if the pre-configured policy in the terminal device is that when the integrity protection check of the data packet on the transmission path associated with the host carrier fails and the integrity protection check of the data packet on the transmission path not associated with the host carrier succeeds, the terminal device sends the indication information to the RAN device through the transmission path not associated with the host carrier, and when the first check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet succeeds and the second check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the second data packet fails, the terminal device sends the first indication information to the RAN device through the first transmission path. For another example, if the pre-configured policy in the terminal device is that when the integrity protection check of the data packet on the transmission path associated with the primary carrier fails and the integrity protection check of the data packet on the transmission path not associated with the primary carrier succeeds, the reestablishment of the RRC connection is triggered, and when the first check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet succeeds and the second check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the second data packet fails, the terminal device triggers the reestablishment of the RRC connection. The foregoing is illustrative only and is not to be construed as limiting the embodiments of the present application.

In some embodiments, when the first check result indicates that the first packet integrity protection check is successful and the second check result indicates that the second packet integrity protection check is failed, the terminal device may further send, to the RAN device via the first transmission path, information indicating the second transmission path and/or one or more cell identifiers associated with the second transmission path, where the one or more cell identifiers may be used to indicate a cell used for sending the second packet. Therefore, the reasonability of a processing mode when the RAN side judges that the integrity protection check of the second data packet of the terminal equipment fails is improved. For example, the first indication information includes information indicating the second transmission path, and/or a cell identifier corresponding to the second transmission path, and so on, thereby contributing to saving signaling overhead.

In some embodiments, for the terminal device, the RAN device may send a handover instruction to the terminal device if the RAN device receives the first indication information. The switching instruction is used for triggering the terminal equipment to update the used key for integrity protection and/or the algorithm for integrity protection. Therefore, after receiving the switching instruction, the terminal equipment can update the used integrity protection key and/or algorithm without initiating reestablishment of the RRC connection, thereby being beneficial to reducing the reestablishment times of the RRC connection and improving the user experience. For example, the RAN device may send the handover instruction to the terminal device via the first transmission path. The implementation mode is facilitated to be simplified, and the communication efficiency is improved.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment of the application, triggering the terminal device to update the used key for integrity protection and/or the algorithm for integrity protection may be understood as triggering the terminal device to update the used key for integrity protection used in air interface communication between the RAN device and the terminal device and/or the used algorithm for integrity protection used in air interface communication between the RAN device and the terminal device.

However, for the terminal device, the first data packet and the second data packet are transmitted through different transmission paths, respectively, and it is possible that the terminal device has received the second data packet transmitted by the RAN device through the second transmission path, and the RAN device has not transmitted the first data packet to the terminal device through the first transmission path. For the AM scenario, if the terminal device successfully receives the second data packet, the terminal device sends an ACK response to the RAN device to indicate that the terminal device successfully receives the second data packet, and the RAN device may cancel sending of the first data packet after determining that the terminal device successfully receives the second data packet in order to avoid repeated sending. However, it is not perceived by the terminal device, and if the terminal device adopts the communication method shown in fig. 6, it needs to refer to the integrity check results of the two data packets to decide whether to trigger the reestablishment of the RRC connection or to send the first indication information.

Therefore, in order to enable the terminal device to determine whether to continue to wait for receiving one of the first data packet and the second data packet after receiving the other data packet, in some embodiments, a first timing duration may be preconfigured in the terminal device, where the first timing duration may be predefined by a protocol, may be configured by the RAN device, or may be configured in another manner. For example, the first timing length may be pre-configured in the terminal device with configuration parameters of the PDCP.

Illustratively, after receiving a first data packet sent by the RAN device on a first transmission path, the terminal device performs integrity protection verification on the first data packet to obtain a first verification result, starts a first timer if a second data packet is not received when the first verification result is obtained, and performs integrity protection verification on the second data packet if the terminal device receives the second data packet within a first timing duration to obtain a second verification result. For example, the specific implementation manner of the terminal device determining whether to trigger the reestablishment of the RRC connection according to the first check result and the second check result may be referred to in the foregoing related embodiments, and details are not described here.

For another example, after receiving a first data packet sent by the RAN device on the first transmission path, the terminal device performs integrity protection verification on the first data packet to obtain a first verification result, and starts a first timer if a second data packet is not received yet when the first verification result is obtained, and if the first timing duration is exceeded, the terminal device does not receive a second data packet sent by the RAN device on the second transmission path, and does not trigger reestablishment of the RRC connection when the first verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the first data packet is successful.

It should be noted that, the terminal device does not receive the second data packet after exceeding the first timing duration, and does not trigger the reestablishment of the RRC connection when the first verification result indicates that the integrity check of the first data packet is successful, which can be understood as that, the terminal device does not receive the second data packet after exceeding the first timing duration, and the step performed subsequently when the first verification result indicates that the integrity check of the first data packet is successful may refer to the step performed subsequently by the terminal device in the prior art when both the first verification result and the second verification result indicate that the integrity check of the data packet is successful; it may also be understood that the terminal device does not receive the second data packet after exceeding the first timing duration, and sends an indication of receiving the second data packet to the RAN device when the first verification result indicates that the integrity verification of the first data packet is successful.

In some other embodiments, the RAN device may further configure the second timing duration, and the terminal device may further configure the third timing duration. The second timing duration may be predefined by a protocol, or configured by another method, and the third timing duration may be predefined by a protocol, or configured by the RAN device, or configured by another method. For example, the second timing duration and the third timing duration may be pre-configured with configuration parameters of the PDCP. The second timing duration and the third timing duration may be the same or different, and are not limited thereto.

Taking the example that the terminal device receives the first data packet, after receiving the first data packet, the terminal device sends an ACK response to the RAN device, where the ACK response is used to indicate that the first data packet is successfully received. And after receiving the ACK response, the RAN equipment starts a second timer, and after the second timing duration is exceeded, the RAN equipment is informed of canceling sending of the second data packet on the second transmission path. And after the terminal equipment sends the ACK response to the RAN equipment, starting a third timer, and if a second data packet sent by the RAN equipment on a second transmission path is received within a third timing duration, carrying out integrity protection verification on the second data packet to obtain a second verification result. If the second data packet is not received within the third timing duration, when the first verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the first data packet is successful, the RRC connection reestablishment is not triggered; and when the first check result indicates that the first data packet integrity protection check fails, triggering the RRC connection reestablishment.

The processing method when the terminal device receives the second data packet may refer to the processing method when the terminal device receives the first data packet, which is not described herein again.

In an AM scenario, when a duplicate operation is performed on downlink data sent by RAN equipment to terminal equipment, a first data packet is sent through a first transmission path, and a second data packet is sent through a second transmission path. Illustratively, the RAN device carries indication information in the PDCP PDU of the first packet, for indicating the terminal device to receive the PDCP PDU on the first transmission path and the second transmission path. It will be appreciated that since the second data packet is identical to the first data packet, the second data packet also carries the indication information. The optional above indication information may be included in the PDCP header. When the terminal device receives the first data packet or the second data packet, the terminal device knows that the data packet is copied through the indication information, and needs to receive the same data packet through two transmission paths.

It should be noted that, after the duplicate operation is introduced in the communication system that simultaneously employs MR-DC and CA, for the same data packet sent on different transmission paths, if the terminal device receives a data packet from one or more transmission paths and the integrity protection check fails, the terminal device may send the indication information to the RAN device (e.g., MN or SN) through the transmission path used for sending the data packet whose integrity protection check succeeds, so that the RAN device may perform corresponding processing. In a specific implementation, the communication method shown in fig. 5 may be used in combination with the communication method shown in fig. 8, which is not described herein.

In the communication method shown in fig. 5 and 8, only two transmission paths are taken as an example for introduction, and when a dupliction radio bearer is configured to associate with more than two transmission paths in the embodiment of the present application, the communication method may refer to a communication method in two transmission paths, which is not described herein again.

For a communication system adopting CA, a terminal device and a RAN device may communicate via multiple carriers, where the carrier where the terminal device initiates initial access is a primary carrier, a cell on the primary carrier is a primary cell, other carriers are secondary carriers, and a cell on the secondary carrier is a secondary cell. In the prior art, a terminal device performs primary cell physical layer detection, and once the physical layer of the terminal device detects that a primary cell is abnormal, for example, T310 is overtime, the physical layer of the primary cell reports the primary cell physical layer abnormality to an RRC layer, and the RRC layer triggers reestablishment of an RRC connection when the primary cell physical layer is abnormal. The interruption time of the terminal equipment is easily caused to be longer, and the user experience is influenced.

In view of this, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication method, which is capable of enabling a terminal device to send, to a RAN device, indication information indicating that a physical layer of a primary cell is abnormal through other auxiliary cells that can operate normally when the physical layer of the primary cell is detected to be abnormal, so that the RAN device can perform corresponding processing, for example, indicate the terminal device to switch to another cell.

As an example, as shown in fig. 9, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, including the following steps.

Step 901, a terminal device communicates with a RAN device through a primary cell and/or M secondary cells, where a carrier of the primary cell is different from a carrier of each of the M secondary cells, and M is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1.

For example, taking the value of M as 3 as an example, the carriers of the M secondary cells are carrier 1, carrier 2, and carrier 3, respectively, and the carrier of the primary cell is carrier 0, where carrier 1, carrier 2, and carrier 3 are all different from carrier 0.

Step 902, when the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, the terminal device sends second indication information to the RAN device through N secondary cells of the M secondary cells, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal. Wherein N is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to M, and N is a positive integer.

It should be noted that the N secondary cells are secondary cells that normally operate in the M secondary cells, and can be used for normal communication between the terminal device and the RAN device. For example, taking the value of M as 5 as an example, M secondary cells are respectively cell 1, cell 2, cell 3, cell 4, and cell 5, and if, in cell 1, cell 2, cell 3, cell 4, and cell 5 can be used for normal communication between the terminal device and the RAN device, the terminal device may send the second indication information to the RAN device through one or more of cell 3, cell 4, and cell 5.

Step 903, after receiving second indication information sent by the terminal device through the N secondary cells, the RAN device sends a handover instruction to the terminal device; the handover command is used for instructing the terminal device to handover to another cell.

It should be noted that the handover instruction is used to instruct the terminal device to handover to another cell, and it is understood that the handover instruction instructs the terminal device to handover the primary cell to another cell. For example, if the other cell indicated by the handover instruction is one of M secondary cells, the handover is an intra-cell handover, and if the other cell indicated by the handover instruction is a provided cell of other RAN devices, the handover is performed for the RAN devices.

For example, the RAN device may send the handover instruction to the terminal device through N secondary cells used by the terminal device to send the second indication information, or may send the handover instruction to the terminal device through other secondary cells capable of working normally in the M secondary cells, which is not limited to this.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may further send third indication information to the RAN device through K secondary cells of the M secondary cells, where the third indication information is used to indicate a candidate master cell group, and the terminal candidate master cell group includes at least one secondary cell of the M secondary cells, where K is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to M, and K is a positive integer. Thereby helping the secondary RAN equipment to determine to which cell to instruct the terminal equipment to handover the primary cell. It should be understood that at least one of the M secondary cells included in the alternative primary cell group is a secondary cell capable of normal operation.

It should be noted that the second indication information and the third indication information may be carried in one signaling, or may be carried in different signaling, which is not limited to this.

And step 904, after receiving the switching instruction, the terminal equipment switches to other cells according to the switching instruction.

In the prior art, for a communication system using CA and MR-DC, a terminal device performs primary cell physical layer detection, and once the physical layer of the terminal device detects that a primary cell is abnormal, for example, T310 is overtime, reports the primary cell physical layer abnormality to an RRC layer, and then triggers reestablishment of RRC connection by the RRC layer when the primary cell physical layer is abnormal. The interruption time of the terminal equipment is easily caused to be longer, and the user experience is influenced.

In view of the above, the present application further provides a communication method. The following describes an embodiment of the present application by taking an MN with a first network device as a terminal device and an SN with a second network device as a terminal device as an example.

In some embodiments, when the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, if the terminal device cannot communicate with the MN through the secondary cell of the MN, the terminal device may send second indication information to the MN through a transmission path between the terminal device and the SN, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal. After receiving the second indication information, the MN sends a switching instruction to the SN, and the SN sends the switching instruction to the terminal equipment through a transmission path between the SN and the terminal equipment, so that the terminal equipment can switch the main cell to other cells. And the switching instruction is used for indicating the terminal equipment to be switched to other cells.

It should be noted that the terminal device being unable to communicate with the MN through the secondary cell of the MN may include a case where the MN does not provide the secondary cell to the terminal device, that is, the MN is only able to communicate with the MN through the primary cell; or, the MN provides M secondary cells to the terminal device, where M is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1, but all the M secondary cells are abnormal and cannot be used for communication between the terminal device and the MN.

For example, when the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, if the terminal device cannot communicate with the MN through the secondary cell of the MN, the terminal device may further send third indication information to the MN through a transmission path between the terminal device and the SN for indicating a candidate primary cell group of the terminal device, where the candidate primary cell group includes at least one secondary cell in M secondary cells, where K is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to M, and K is a positive integer. Thereby helping the secondary RAN equipment to determine to which cell to instruct the terminal equipment to handover the primary cell. It should be understood that at least one of the M secondary cells included in the alternative primary cell group is a secondary cell capable of normal operation.

In other embodiments, when the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, if the terminal device may communicate with the MN through M secondary cells of the MN or communicate with the terminal device through a transmission path between the SN and the terminal device, the terminal device may send second indication information to the MN through N secondary cells of the M secondary cells and/or a transmission path between the SN and the N secondary cells, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal. Wherein M is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1, N is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to M, and N is a positive integer. And after receiving the second indication information, the MN sends a switching instruction to the terminal equipment. The handover command is used for instructing the terminal device to handover to another cell.

For example, the transmission path used by the MN to send the handover instruction to the terminal device may be the same as or different from the transmission path used by the terminal device to send the second instruction information to the MN. For example, the transmission path through which the terminal device sends the second indication information to the MN is a transmission path between the SN and the terminal device, and the transmission path used by the MN to send the handover instruction to the terminal device may be K secondary cells in the M secondary cells. K is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to M, and N is a positive integer.

For example, when the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal, if the terminal device may communicate with the MN through M secondary cells of the MN or communicate with the terminal device through a transmission path between the SN and the terminal device, the terminal device may send third indication information to the MN through S secondary cells of the M secondary cells and/or a transmission path between the SN to indicate a candidate primary cell group, where the candidate primary cell group of the terminal includes at least one secondary cell of the M secondary cells, so as to help the secondary RAN device to determine which cell the terminal device switches the primary cell to. It should be understood that at least one of the M secondary cells included in the alternative primary cell group is a secondary cell capable of normal operation.

The embodiments of the application can be used independently or combined with each other to achieve different technical effects.

In the embodiments provided in the present application, the communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application is introduced from the perspective that the terminal device and the network device are taken as execution subjects. In order to implement each function in the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device or the network device may include a hardware structure and/or a software module, and implement each function in the form of a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure and a software module. Whether any of the above-described functions is implemented as a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure plus a software module depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the technical solution.

Similar to the above concept, as shown in fig. 10, an embodiment of the present application further provides an apparatus 1000, where the apparatus 1000 includes a transceiver module 1002 and a processing module 1001.

In an example, the apparatus 1000 is configured to implement the functions of the terminal device in the communication method shown in fig. 4 or fig. 4. The apparatus may be a terminal device, or an apparatus in a terminal device. Wherein the apparatus may be a system-on-a-chip. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be composed of a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

The transceiver module 1002 is configured to receive a first data packet from a first transmission path; the processing module 1001 is configured to perform integrity protection verification on the first data packet to obtain a first verification result; when the first check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet fails, the transceiver module 1002 is configured to send first indication information through a second transmission path, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the integrity protection check fails and information of the first transmission path.

In an example, the apparatus 1000 is configured to implement the functions of the terminal device in the communication method shown in fig. 5 or fig. 8. The apparatus may be a terminal device, or an apparatus in a terminal device. Wherein the apparatus may be a system-on-a-chip. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be composed of a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

The transceiver module 1002 is configured to receive a first data packet sent by a first network device through a first transmission path, and receive a second data packet sent by a second network device through a second transmission path; the processing module 1001 is configured to perform integrity protection verification on the first data packet when the transceiver module 1002 receives the first data packet, so as to obtain a first verification result; when the transceiver module 1002 receives the second data packet, performing integrity protection verification on the second data packet to obtain a second verification result; then, the transceiver module 1002 is further configured to send first indication information to the first network device through the first transmission path when the first check result indicates that the first packet integrity protection check is successful and the second check result indicates that the second packet integrity protection check is failed, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the second packet integrity protection check is failed. Wherein the first data packet and the second data packet are the same.

In an example, the apparatus 1000 is configured to implement the function of the first network device in the method shown in fig. 5 or to implement the function of the RAN device in the communication method shown in fig. 8. The apparatus may be a network device, or an apparatus in a network device. Wherein the apparatus may be a system-on-a-chip. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be composed of a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

The transceiver module 1002 is configured to send a first data packet to a terminal device through a first transmission path, and send a second data packet to the terminal device through a second transmission path; the first data packet and the second data packet are the same; the processing module 1001 is further configured to trigger the transceiver module 1002 to send a switching instruction to the terminal device through a first transmission path when the transceiver module 1002 receives first indication information sent by the terminal device; the first indication information is used for indicating that the integrity protection check of the second data packet fails, and the switching instruction is used for triggering the terminal device to update the used key for integrity protection and/or the algorithm for integrity protection.

In an example, the apparatus 1000 is configured to implement the function of the terminal device in the method illustrated in fig. 9. The apparatus may be a terminal device, or an apparatus in a terminal device. Wherein the apparatus may be a system-on-a-chip. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be composed of a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

The transceiver module 1002 is configured to communicate with a first network device through a primary cell and/or M secondary cells, where a carrier of the primary cell is different from a carrier of each of the M secondary cells; m is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1;

the processing module 1001 is configured to send, when a physical layer of a primary cell is abnormal, first indication information to a first network device through N secondary cells of the M secondary cells, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal; wherein N is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to M, and N is a positive integer;

the transceiver module 1002 is further configured to receive, through the N secondary cells, a switching instruction sent by the first network device after receiving the first indication information, where the switching instruction is used to instruct the terminal device to switch to another cell.

In an example, the apparatus 1000 is configured to implement the function of the RAN device in the method illustrated in fig. 9. The apparatus may be a network device, or an apparatus in a network device. Wherein the apparatus may be a system-on-a-chip. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be composed of a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

The transceiver module 1002 is configured to communicate with a terminal device through a primary cell and/or M secondary cells, where a carrier of the primary cell is different from a carrier of each of the M secondary cells; m is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1;

the processing module 1001 is configured to trigger the transceiver module 1002 to send a handover instruction to the terminal device through N secondary cells when receiving first indication information sent by the terminal device through N secondary cells of the M secondary cells;

For specific execution processes of the processing module 1001 and the transceiver module 1002, reference may be made to the above description of the method embodiment. The division of the modules in the embodiments of the present application is schematic, and only one logical function division is provided, and in actual implementation, there may be another division manner, and in addition, each functional module in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated in one processor, may also exist alone physically, or may also be integrated in one module by two or more modules. The integrated module can be realized in a hardware mode, and can also be realized in a software functional module mode.

Similar to the above concept, as shown in fig. 11, the embodiment of the present application further provides an apparatus 1100.

In an example, the apparatus 1100 is used to implement the function of the terminal device in the communication method described in fig. 4 or fig. 4, and the apparatus may be the terminal device, or an apparatus in the terminal device. The apparatus 1100 comprises at least one processor 1101 for implementing the functions of the terminal device in the communication method shown in fig. 4 or fig. 7 described above. For example, the processor 1101 may be configured to perform an integrity protection check on the first data packet, resulting in a first check result. Reference is made in detail to the methods, which are not described herein.

In some embodiments, the apparatus 1100 may also include at least one memory 1102 for storing program instructions and/or data. The memory 1102 is coupled to the processor 1101. The coupling in the embodiments of the present application is a spaced coupling or communication connection between devices, units or modules, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form, and is used for information interaction between the devices, units or modules. As another implementation, the memory 1102 may also be located external to the apparatus 1100. The processor 1101 may operate in conjunction with the memory 1102. Processor 1101 may execute program instructions stored in memory 1102. At least one of the at least one memory may be included in the processor.

In some embodiments, the apparatus 1100 may also include a communication interface 1103 for communicating with other devices over a transmission medium, such that the apparatus used in the apparatus 1100 may communicate with other devices. Illustratively, the communication interface 1103 may be a transceiver, circuit, bus, module, or other type of communication interface, which may be a second terminal device or a network device. The processor 1101 transceives data using the communication interface 1103 and is used to implement the methods in the above-described embodiments. Illustratively, the communication interface 1103 may be configured to transmit the first indication information.

In an example, the apparatus 1100 is used to implement the function of the terminal device in the communication method described in fig. 5 or fig. 8, and the apparatus may be the terminal device, or an apparatus in the terminal device. The apparatus 1100 comprises at least one processor 1101 for implementing the functions of the terminal device in the communication method shown in fig. 5 or fig. 8 described above. For example, the processor 1101 may be configured to send first indication information to the first network device via the first transmission path when the first check result indicates that the first packet integrity protection check is successful and the second check result indicates that the second packet integrity protection check is failed, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the second packet integrity protection check is failed. Wherein the first data packet is the same as the second data packet. Reference is made in detail to the methods, which are not described herein.

In an example, the apparatus 1100 is configured to implement the above apparatus 1000 to implement the function of the first network device in the above method shown in fig. 5 or to implement the function of the RAN device in the above communication method shown in fig. 8. The apparatus may be a network device, or an apparatus in a network device. The apparatus 1100 includes at least one processor 1101 configured to implement the functions of the network device in the above-described method. For example, the processor 1101 may be configured to trigger the transceiver module 1102 to send a handover instruction to the terminal device after the transceiver module 1102 receives the first indication information, which is described in detail in the method and will not be described here again.

In some embodiments, the apparatus 1100 may also include a communication interface 1103 for communicating with other devices over a transmission medium, such that the apparatus used in the apparatus 1100 may communicate with other devices. Illustratively, the communication interface 1103 may be a transceiver, circuit, bus, module, or other type of communication interface, which may be a second terminal device or a network device. The processor 1101 transceives data using the communication interface 1103 and is used to implement the methods in the above-described embodiments. Illustratively, the communication interface 1103 may be configured to receive the first indication information, send a switching instruction, and the like.

In an example, the apparatus 1100 is configured to implement the function of the terminal device in the communication method described in fig. 9, and the apparatus may be the terminal device, or an apparatus in the terminal device. The apparatus 1100 comprises at least one processor 1101 for implementing the functions of the terminal device in the communication method shown in fig. 9 described above. For example, the processor 1101 may be configured to trigger sending of the first indication information to the first network device through N secondary cells of the M secondary cells when the physical layer of the primary cell is abnormal. Reference is made in detail to the methods, which are not described herein.

In an example, the apparatus 1100 is configured to implement the apparatus 1000 described above for implementing the function of the RAN device in the method illustrated in fig. 9 described above. The apparatus may be a network device, or an apparatus in a network device. The apparatus 1100 includes at least one processor 1101 configured to implement the functions of the second terminal device in the above-described method. For example, the processor 1101 may be configured to trigger sending of a handover instruction to the terminal device after receiving the first indication information, specifically refer to the detailed description of the method, which is not described herein.

In the embodiment of the present application, a connection medium between the communication interface 1103, the processor 1101, and the memory 1102 is not limited. For example, in fig. 11, the memory 1102, the processor 1101, and the communication interface 1103 may be connected by a bus, and the bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like.

In the embodiments of the present application, the processor may be a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, or a discrete hardware component, and may implement or execute the methods, steps, and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present application. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor or the like. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in a processor.

In the embodiment of the present application, the memory may be a non-volatile memory, such as a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD), and may also be a volatile memory (e.g., a random-access memory (RAM)). The memory is any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited to such. The memory in the embodiments of the present application may also be circuitry or any other device capable of performing a storage function for storing program instructions and/or data.

The method provided by the embodiment of the present application may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When loaded and executed on a computer, cause the processes or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the invention to occur, in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, a network appliance, a user device, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored on a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via wire (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., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., an SSD), among others.

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

Claims

1. A method of communication, the method comprising:

the terminal equipment receives a first data packet sent by first network equipment through a first transmission path and receives a second data packet sent by second network equipment through a second transmission path; wherein the first data packet and the second data packet are the same;

when the terminal equipment receives the first data packet, carrying out integrity protection verification on the first data packet to obtain a first verification result; when the second data packet is received, carrying out integrity protection verification on the second data packet to obtain a second verification result;

and when the first check result indicates that the first data packet integrity protection check is successful and the second check result indicates that the second data packet integrity protection check is failed, the terminal device sends first indication information to the first network device through the first transmission path, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that the second data packet integrity protection check is failed.

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

the terminal equipment receives a switching instruction sent by the first network equipment through the first transmission path after receiving the first indication information; the switching instruction is used for triggering the terminal equipment to update the used key for integrity protection and/or the algorithm for integrity protection.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first indication information further comprises information indicating the second transmission path and/or a cell identity corresponding to the second transmission path, wherein the cell identity corresponding to the second transmission path is used for indicating a cell used for transmitting the second data packet.

4. The method of any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the carrier associated with the first transmission path is different from the carrier associated with the second transmission path.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the carrier associated with the first transmission path comprises a primary carrier.

6. The method of any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the first network device and the second network device are the same or the first network device and the second network device are dual connectivity.

7. The method of any of claims 1 to 6, further comprising:

after the terminal equipment obtains the first verification result, if the second data packet is not received on the second transmission path for more than a first timing duration, when the first verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the first data packet is successful, the reestablishment of the RRC connection is not triggered; or,

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first timing length is predefined; or, the first timing length is configured for the terminal device by the first network device or the second network device.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the first data packet and the second data packet each include second indication information, and the second indication information is used for indicating that the data packet is subjected to a duplication operation and is received through different transmission paths.

10. A method of communication, the method comprising:

a first network device sends a first data packet to a terminal device through a first transmission path, and sends a second data packet to the terminal device through a second transmission path; the first data packet and the second data packet are the same;

when receiving first indication information sent by the terminal equipment, the first network equipment sends a switching instruction to the terminal equipment through the first transmission path;

the first indication information is used for indicating that the integrity protection check of the second data packet fails, and the switching instruction is used for triggering the terminal device to update the used key for integrity protection and/or the algorithm for integrity protection.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first indication information further comprises information indicating the second transmission path and/or a cell identity corresponding to the second transmission path, and the cell identity corresponding to the second transmission path is used for indicating a cell used for transmitting the second data packet.

12. The method of claim 10 or 11, wherein the carrier associated with the first transmission path is different from the carrier associated with the second transmission path.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the carrier associated with the first transmission path comprises a primary carrier.

14. The method according to any of claims 12 to 13, wherein the second transmission path is a transmission path between a second network device and the terminal device, the first network device and the second network device being dual connected.

15. The method of any of claims 10 to 14, further comprising:

the first network device configures a first timing duration for the terminal device, where the first timing duration is a maximum duration for the terminal device to wait for receiving the second data packet on the second transmission path after obtaining the first verification result, and the first verification result is an integrity protection verification result of the first data packet.

16. The method of any of claims 10 to 15, wherein the first network device sending a first data packet to a terminal device over a first transmission path and sending a second data packet to the terminal device over a second transmission path, comprising:

the first network device sends a first data packet to the terminal device through the first transmission path;

after receiving the first acknowledgement, the first network device sends the second data packet to the terminal device through the second transmission path within a second timing duration;

the first acknowledgement is used for indicating that the first data packet is successfully received.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises:

and the first network equipment receives the first acknowledgement, and if the first acknowledgement exceeds a second timing duration, the first network equipment cancels the sending of the second data packet to the terminal equipment through the second transmission path.

18. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 17, wherein the first data packet and the second data packet each include second indication information, and the second indication information is used for indicating that the data packet is subjected to the duplication operation and is received through different transmission paths.

19. A method of communication, the method comprising:

the terminal equipment receives a first data packet from a first transmission path;

the terminal equipment carries out integrity protection verification on the first data packet to obtain a first verification result;

and when the first verification result indicates that the integrity protection verification of the first data packet fails, the terminal equipment sends first indication information through a second transmission path, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the integrity protection verification failure and information of the first transmission path.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the performing, by the terminal device, an integrity protection check on the first data packet to obtain a first check result comprises:

and the terminal equipment performs integrity protection verification on the first data packet on a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer to obtain a first verification result.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the method further comprises:

when the first check result indicates that the integrity protection check of the first data packet fails, the PDCP layer of the terminal device transmits second indication information to a radio resource control, RRC, layer, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the integrity protection check of the terminal device in the first transmission path fails.

22. The method according to any of claims 19 to 21, wherein the cell group associated with the first transmission path is a master cell group, MCG;

the second transmission path is a Radio Link Control (RLC) bearer associated with a Secondary Cell Group (SCG) of a split signaling radio bearer (SRB 1); alternatively, the second transmission path is an RLC bearer of SRB 3.

23. A method of communication, the method comprising:

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the method further comprises:

and the terminal equipment sends second indication information to the first network equipment through K auxiliary cells in the M auxiliary cells, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating a standby main cell group of the terminal equipment, the standby main cell group comprises at least one auxiliary cell in the M auxiliary cells, K is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to M, and K is a positive integer.

25. The method of claim 23 or 24, wherein the method further comprises:

the terminal equipment is also communicated with second network equipment, and the first network equipment is in double connection with the second network equipment;

and when the physical layer of the main cell is abnormal, if the terminal equipment cannot communicate with the first network equipment through the auxiliary cell, the terminal equipment sends the first indication information to the first network equipment through a transmission path between the terminal equipment and the second network equipment.

26. A method of communication, the method comprising:

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the method further comprises:

and the first network equipment sends second indication information to the terminal equipment through K auxiliary cells in the M auxiliary cells, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating a standby main cell group of the terminal equipment, the standby main cell group comprises at least one auxiliary cell in the M auxiliary cells, K is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to M, and K is a positive integer.

28. The method of claim 26 or 27, wherein when the terminal device is further in communication with a second network device and the terminal device is unable to communicate with the first network device through a secondary cell, the first network device and the second network device are in dual connectivity, the method further comprising:

and the first network equipment receives the first indication information sent by the terminal equipment through a transmission path between the first network equipment and the second network equipment.

29. An apparatus for carrying out the method of any one of claims 1 to 28.

30. An apparatus comprising a processor and a memory, the memory having stored therein instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 28.

31. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 28.