CN117242813A

CN117242813A - Path establishment method, path selection device, terminal equipment and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN117242813A
Application number: CN202180097890.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 冷冰雪; 卢前溪
Original assignee: Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp Ltd
Current assignee: Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp Ltd
Priority date: 2021-08-10
Filing date: 2021-08-10
Publication date: 2023-12-15
Also published as: WO2023015454A1

Abstract

The application discloses a path establishment method, a path selection device, terminal equipment and a storage medium, and relates to the technical field of communication. The method comprises the following steps: triggering to establish a multipath link under the condition that a first link exists between a source terminal and a target terminal; wherein the multipath link is a link supporting cooperative operation of the first link and a second link, the second link is a side uplink between the source terminal and the target terminal except for the first link, and the first terminal is one of the source terminal, the target terminal, and a relay terminal. Based on the method provided by the embodiment of the application, the communication between two terminal devices is expanded to a multipath scene, so that the communication quality of the sidestream communication is enhanced.

Description

Path establishment method, path selection device, terminal equipment and storage medium

Technical Field

The embodiment of the application relates to the technical field of communication, in particular to a path establishment method, a path selection device, terminal equipment and a storage medium.

Background

Based on the side-link transmission technique, communication can be performed between the terminal devices.

The direct communication can be established between the terminal equipment and the terminal equipment, and when the two terminal equipment are far away and the direct communication cannot be directly established, the relay of the communication can be performed through one relay terminal.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a path establishment method, a path selection device, terminal equipment and a storage medium. The technical scheme is as follows:

according to an aspect of an embodiment of the present application, there is provided a path establishment method, including:

triggering to establish a multipath link under the condition that a first link exists between a source terminal and a target terminal;

wherein the multipath link is a link supporting cooperative operation of the first link and a second link, the second link is a side uplink between the source terminal and the target terminal except for the first link, and the first terminal is one of the source terminal, the target terminal, and a relay terminal.

under the condition that a first link exists between a source terminal and a target terminal, determining to establish a multipath link in response to the triggering of the first terminal;

Wherein the multipath link is a link supporting cooperative operation of the first link and a second link, the second link being a side link between the source terminal and the target terminal except for the first link, the first terminal being one of the source terminal, the target terminal and a relay terminal, the second terminal being one of the source terminal and the target terminal.

According to an aspect of an embodiment of the present application, there is provided a path selection method, the method including:

mapping a quality of service (Quality of Service, qoS) flow to a protocol stack entity corresponding to at least one of the X sidelobes based on a mapping relationship between the X sidelobes and the protocol stack entity, the protocol stack entity comprising: a packet data convergence protocol (Packet Data Convergence Protocol, PDCP) entity, a radio link control (Radio Link Control, RLC) entity, the X being a positive integer greater than 1;

the QoS flow is transmitted over the at least one label side uplink.

According to an aspect of an embodiment of the present application, there is provided a path establishment apparatus including: a multipath establishment triggering module;

The multi-path establishment triggering module is used for triggering and establishing a multi-path link under the condition that a first link exists between the source terminal and the target terminal;

wherein the multipath link is a link supporting cooperative operation of the first link and a second link, the second link being a side link between the source terminal and the target terminal except for the first link, the apparatus being one of the source terminal, the target terminal, and a relay terminal.

According to an aspect of an embodiment of the present application, there is provided a path establishment apparatus including: a multipath establishment determination module;

the multi-path establishment determination module is used for determining to establish a multi-path link in response to the triggering of the first terminal under the condition that a first link exists between the source terminal and the target terminal;

wherein the multipath link is a link supporting cooperative operation of the first link and a second link, the second link is a side link between the source terminal and the target terminal except for the first link, the first terminal is one of the source terminal, the target terminal, and a relay terminal, and the apparatus is one of the source terminal and the target terminal.

According to an aspect of an embodiment of the present application, there is provided a path selection apparatus, the apparatus including: a mapping module and a transmission module;

the mapping module is configured to map, based on a mapping relationship between X side uplinks and protocol stack entities, qoS flows to a protocol stack entity corresponding to at least one target side uplink in the X side uplinks, where the protocol stack entity includes: a PDCP entity and an RLC entity, wherein X is a positive integer greater than 1;

the transmission module is configured to transmit the QoS flow through the at least one label side uplink.

According to an aspect of an embodiment of the present application, there is provided a terminal device including a processor;

the processor is used for triggering and establishing a multipath link under the condition that a first link exists between the source terminal and the target terminal;

wherein the multipath link is a link supporting cooperative operation of the first link and a second link, the second link is a side uplink between the source terminal and the target terminal except for the first link, and the terminal device is one of the source terminal, the target terminal, and a relay terminal.

The processor is used for responding to the trigger of the first terminal to determine to establish a multipath link under the condition that the first link exists between the source terminal and the target terminal;

wherein the multipath link is a link supporting cooperative operation of the first link and a second link, the second link is a side link between the source terminal and the target terminal except for the first link, the first terminal is one of the source terminal, the target terminal and a relay terminal, and the terminal device is one of the source terminal and the target terminal.

According to an aspect of an embodiment of the present application, there is provided a terminal device including a processor and a transceiver;

the processor is configured to map, based on a mapping relationship between X side uplinks and protocol stack entities, qoS flows to a protocol stack entity corresponding to at least one target side uplink in the X side uplinks, where the protocol stack entity includes: a PDCP entity and an RLC entity, wherein X is a positive integer greater than 1;

the transceiver is configured to transmit the QoS flow over the at least one label side uplink.

According to an aspect of an embodiment of the present application, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein a computer program for execution by a processor to implement the above-described path establishment method or path selection method.

According to an aspect of an embodiment of the present application, there is provided a chip including programmable logic circuits and/or program instructions for implementing the path establishment method or the path selection method described above when the chip is running.

According to an aspect of an embodiment of the present application, there is provided a computer program product or a computer program comprising computer instructions stored in a computer readable storage medium, from which a processor reads and executes the computer instructions to implement the above-described path establishment method or path selection method.

According to the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application, under the condition that the first link is established between the two terminal devices, under the triggering of the first terminal, a multipath link comprising a new second link is established between the two terminal devices, so that the communication between the two terminal devices is expanded to a multipath scene, and the communication quality of the side communication is enhanced.

Drawings

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

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communication system provided by an exemplary embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of sidestream communications provided by an exemplary embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a sidestream end-to-end relay technique provided by an example embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of establishing an end-to-end connection provided by an exemplary embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a protocol stack based on a sidestream terminal-to-terminal relay technique provided by an example embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a radio bearer provided by an exemplary embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a path establishment method provided by an exemplary embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a path establishment method provided by an exemplary embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a path establishment method provided by an exemplary embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a path establishment method provided by an exemplary embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a path establishment method provided by an exemplary embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a path establishment method provided by an exemplary embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a path establishment method provided by an exemplary embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram of a path selection method provided by an exemplary embodiment of the present application;

fig. 15 is a block diagram of a path establishing apparatus provided by an exemplary embodiment of the present application;

fig. 16 is a block diagram of a path establishing apparatus provided by an exemplary embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 17 is a block diagram of a path selection device provided by an exemplary embodiment of the present application;

fig. 18 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

For the purpose of making the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more apparent, the embodiments of the present application will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The network architecture and the service scenario described in the embodiments of the present application are for more clearly describing the technical solution of the embodiments of the present application, and do not limit the technical solution provided by the embodiments of the present application, and those skilled in the art can know that, with the evolution of the network architecture and the appearance of the new service scenario, the technical solution provided by the embodiments of the present application is applicable to similar technical problems.

Referring to fig. 1, a block diagram of a communication system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application is shown, where the communication system may include: a source terminal 12, a target terminal 14, a first relay terminal 16, and a second relay terminal 18.

The source terminal 12, the target terminal 14, the first relay terminal 16, and the second relay terminal 18 include various handheld devices, in-vehicle devices, wearable devices, computing devices, or other processing devices connected to a wireless modem, as well as various forms of user equipment, mobile Stations (MSs), terminals (terminal devices), and the like.

The above-mentioned terminal devices communicate with each other via some kind of air interface technology, such as a PC5 interface. Illustratively, the source terminal 12 and the target terminal 14 are in direct communication on the side-link via the PC5 interface. Illustratively, the indirect communication of the side links between the source terminal 12 and the target terminal 14 is based on the relay of the first relay terminal 16. Illustratively, the indirect communication of the side links between the source terminal 12 and the target terminal 14 is based on the relay of the second relay terminal 18.

Optionally, the terminal device and the network device (not shown in fig. 1) communicate with each other via some air interface technology, such as Uu interface. Illustratively, the source terminal 12 corresponds to a first network device and the target terminal 14 corresponds to a second network device. The network device is a device for providing a wireless communication function for the terminal device. The network devices may include various forms of macro base stations, micro base stations, relay stations, access points, and the like. In systems employing different radio access technologies, the names of network devices may vary, for example in 5G NR systems, called 5G base stations (5G Node b, gndeb/gNB).

The technical scheme of the embodiment of the application can be applied to various communication systems, such as: global mobile communication (Global System of Mobile Communication, GSM) system, code division multiple access (Code Division Multiple Access, CDMA) system, wideband code division multiple access (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, WCDMA) system, general packet Radio service (General Packet Radio Service, GPRS), long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) system, LTE frequency division duplex (Frequency Division Duplex, FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (Time Division Duplex, TDD) system, long term evolution advanced (Advanced Long Term Evolution, LTE-a) system, new Radio, NR system, evolution system of NR system, LTE (LTE-based access to Unlicensed spectrum, LTE-U) system on unlicensed band, NR-U system, universal mobile telecommunication system (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System, UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, wiMAX) communication system, wireless local area network (Wireless Local Area Networks, WLAN), wireless fidelity (Wireless Fidelity, wiFi), next generation communication system or other communication system, etc.

Generally, the number of connections supported by the conventional communication system is limited and easy to implement, however, as the communication technology advances, the mobile communication system will support not only conventional communication but also, for example, device-to-Device (D2D) communication, machine-to-machine (Machine to Machine, M2M) communication, machine type communication (Machine Type Communication, MTC), inter-vehicle (Vehicle to Vehicle, V2V) communication, and internet of vehicles (Vehicle to Everything, V2X) systems, etc. The embodiments of the present application may also be applied to these communication systems.

Before describing the technical scheme of the application, some nouns related to the application are described.

1、LTE D2D/V2X

In long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE), communication between terminal devices is achieved based on Device-to-Device (D2D) communication technology, and communication between terminal devices can also be achieved based on Vehicle-to-X (V2X) technology. Both D2D and V2X are side-link transmission techniques that differ from the manner in which communication data is received or transmitted by a base station in a conventional cellular system.

In a practical scenario, for example, in a V2X-based internet of vehicles system, different vehicle-mounted terminal devices can directly perform sidestream communication, as shown in fig. 2, so that a link for transmitting a message has higher spectral efficiency and lower transmission delay.

Currently, in the third generation partnership project (3rd Generation Partnership Project,3GPP), communication between terminal devices defines two transmission modes: mode a and mode B, respectively. In mode a, the transmission resources of the terminal device are allocated by the base station, and the terminal device transmits data on the side link according to the resources allocated by the base station. The base station may allocate resources for single transmission to the terminal device, or may allocate resources for semi-static transmission to the terminal device. In mode B, the terminal device may select one resource in the resource pool for data transmission.

In Rel (Release) 12 and 13 of 3GPP, a proximity-based services (Proximity based Service, proSe) scenario is mainly studied, which is mainly directed to public security class traffic. In ProSe, the network device configures the position of the resource pool in the time domain, for example, the resource pool is discontinuous in the time domain, so that the terminal device discontinuously transmits or receives data on the side link, thereby achieving the effect of saving power.

In Rel-14/15 of 3GPP, V2X is studied for the scene of car-to-car communication, which is mainly directed to traffic of car-to-car, car-man communication that moves at a relatively high speed. Since the vehicle-mounted system has continuous power supply, power efficiency is not a major problem, and delay of data transmission is a major problem, so that continuous transmission and reception of terminal equipment is required in system design.

In Rel-14 of 3GPP, further enhancements of D2D (Further Enhancements to LTE Device to Device, feD 2D) have been mainly studied, so as to meet the scenario that a wearable device accesses a network through a mobile phone, which is mainly oriented to a scenario of low moving speed and low power access.

2、NR V2X

The V2X in the 5G NR is not limited to a broadcasting scene any more on the basis of the V2X in the LTE, but further expands to a unicast and multicast scene.

Similar to V2X in LTE, V2X in 5G NR also has the above two modes of resource grant of AB. Furthermore, the terminal device may be in a mixed mode, i.e. the resource acquisition may be performed using the mode a, and the resource acquisition may be performed using the mode B. The resource acquisition is indicated by means of a side-link grant, i.e. the side-link grant indicates the time-frequency position of the corresponding physical side-chain control channel (Physical Sidelink Control Channel, PSCCH) and PSSCH resources. Unlike V2X in LTE, V2X in 5GNR introduces feedback-based HARQ retransmissions, not limited to unicast communications, but also multicast communications, except for feedback-free, terminal device-initiated hybrid automatic repeat request (Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest, HARQ) retransmissions.

3. Sidestream terminal-to-terminal (UE-2-UE) relay technique

In Rel-17 ProSe, 3GPP has studied a UE-to-UE relay function based on layer 2, 3 relay, and as shown in fig. 3, a source terminal 301 is connected to a target terminal 303 through a relay terminal 302, and the relay terminal 302 transfers data between the source terminal 301 and the target terminal 303.

The specific connection establishment procedure is shown in fig. 4 as follows: the source terminal, the relay terminal and the target terminal are mutually discovered through discovery (discovery) messages or direct connection request (Direct Connection Request, DCR) messages, the relay terminal can help the source terminal to forward the discovery messages or the DCR messages, relay selection (relay selection) can be carried out after the source terminal and the target terminal discover each other, appropriate relay terminals are selected to respectively establish connection with the source terminal and the target terminal, and then the relay terminals are used as relays to establish end-to-end PC5 connection.

The 3GPP Rel-17 introduces layer two terminal to terminal relay and, with reference to fig. 5, an adaptation layer (ADAPT) is placed over the control plane and user plane RLC layers between the relay terminal and the source/target terminal. The PC5 service data application Specification (Service Data Application Profile, SDAP) layer/PDCP layer and the internetworking protocol (Internet Protocol, IP) layer terminate between the source terminal and the target terminal, while the RLC layer, medium access control (Medium Access Control, MAC) layer and Physical (PHY) layer terminate in each link (i.e., the link between the source terminal and the relay terminal and the link between the relay terminal and the target). There is currently no conclusion whether the adaptation layer is also supported at the PC5 interface between the source terminal and the relay terminal.

For layer two terminal-to-terminal relay:

the adaptation layer of the relay terminal supports sidelink bearer mapping between access PC5RLC channels. For side-uplink relay traffic, different end-to-end bearers (e.g., SRBs, DRBs) of the same remote terminal and/or different remote terminals may be N:1 mapped and data multiplexed on one PC5RLC channel.

The adaptation layer is used for terminal identification (multiplexing data from multiple terminals) supporting sidestream services. The terminal PC5 radio bearer and the identification information of the terminal are included in the adaptation layer so that the target terminal associates the received data packets of the specific PDCP entity associated with the radio bearer of the source terminal.

4. Multiple radio access technology-double connection (Multi RAT Dual Connectivity, MR-DC)

Referring to fig. 6 in combination, when the RLC, MAC and PHY protocol stacks of one radio bearer are located at a Master Node (MN), such radio bearer is referred to as a Master cell group (Master Cell Group, MCG) bearer, otherwise as a secondary cell group (Secondary Cell Group, SCG) bearer, if both exist, as a split bearer.

In the related art, research on a sidestream terminal-to-terminal relay technology is under a single-path scene, namely a source terminal- > a relay terminal- > a target terminal. As communication technologies evolve, multipath relay is very likely to be introduced to further enhance the communication quality of sidestream communication, such as: the reliability is improved, the time delay is reduced, and the method is expanded to a multipath scene: the source terminal- > relay terminal 1/relay terminal 2 … - > target terminal, and data transmission is performed on a plurality of sidestream paths. After considering a plurality of relay terminals, the multipath establishment flow of the side link may affect the behavior of Radio Bearer (RB)/PDCP/RLC in the transmission of multipath scenarios.

In the embodiment of the application, under the condition that the first link is established between the two terminal devices, under the triggering of the first terminal, a multipath link comprising a new second link is established between the two terminal devices, so that the communication between the two terminal devices is expanded to a multipath scene, and the communication quality of the side-line communication is enhanced.

The technical scheme of the application is described and illustrated by the following examples.

Referring to fig. 7, a flowchart of a path establishment method according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. The method is applicable to the communication system shown in fig. 1. The method may comprise the steps of:

step 702: in case that there is a first link between the source terminal and the target terminal, the first terminal triggers the establishment of a multipath link.

Wherein the first link is a side uplink already established between the source terminal and the target terminal. The source terminal refers to a sender terminal device of the sidestream communication, and the target terminal refers to a receiver terminal device of the sidestream communication. Optionally, the first link is a direct sidelink path between the source terminal and the target terminal; or, the first link is a side uplink between the source terminal and the target terminal, which is relayed based on the first relay terminal. In the embodiment of the application, only one first link is established between the source terminal and the target terminal for carrying out the exemplary description, and the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application can be expanded to the scene that a plurality of side links including the first link are established between the source terminal and the target terminal.

Wherein the second link is a sidelink between the source terminal and the target terminal other than the first link. That is, the second link is a new sidelink that is different from the first link. Optionally, the second link is a direct sidelink path between the source terminal and the target terminal; or, the second link is a side uplink between the source terminal and the target terminal, which is relayed based on the second relay terminal.

Wherein the multipath link is a link supporting the co-operation of the first link and the second link. Establishing a multipath link refers to a process of re-establishing a new side-link between two terminal devices for which side-links already exist, thereby enabling cooperation between the two terminal devices using a plurality of side-links. Illustratively, after the multipath link is established, data is transmitted between the source terminal and the target terminal over the first link and the second link.

In the embodiment of the application, the first terminal is one of a source terminal, a target terminal and a relay terminal.

Optionally, the first terminal triggering to establish the multipath link includes: the first terminal sends a multipath connection establishment indication, which is used for indicating establishment of a multipath link.

Illustratively, the multipath connection establishment indication is transmitted via PC 5-RRC; or, the multipath connection establishment indication is transmitted via the PC 5-S; or, the multipath connection establishment instruction is transmitted through a Control Element (CE); or, the multipath connection establishment indication is transmitted through physical layer signaling.

Illustratively, the multipath connection establishment indication is sent by unicast; or, the multipath connection instruction is sent in a multicast mode; or, the multipath connection indication is transmitted by means of broadcasting.

Step 704: in response to a trigger by the first terminal, the second terminal determines to establish a multipath link.

In this embodiment, the second terminal is one of the source terminal and the target terminal.

Optionally, in response to the triggering of the first terminal, the second terminal determining to establish the multipath link includes: the second terminal receives a multipath connection establishment instruction sent by the first terminal, wherein the multipath connection establishment instruction is used for indicating establishment of a multipath link; the second terminal determines to establish a multipath link based on the multipath connection establishment indication.

Optionally, in the case that the first terminal triggers to establish the multipath link, if the second terminal determines to establish the multipath link, the target terminal performs further interaction with the source terminal, for example: and carrying out signaling interaction of the PC5-S layer and safety related signaling interaction to establish a multipath link between the source terminal and the target terminal.

In summary, in the method provided in this embodiment, under the condition that the two terminal devices have established the first link, under the trigger of the first terminal, a multipath link including a new second link is established between the two terminal devices, so that communication between the two terminal devices is expanded to a multipath scene, and thus, communication quality of side communication is enhanced.

In an exemplary embodiment, the establishment of the multipath link may be triggered by at least one of:

(1) The source terminal controls the trigger to establish the multipath link.

I.e. the first terminal is implemented as a source terminal.

(2) The first relay terminal controls the triggering to establish the multipath link.

That is, the first terminal is implemented as a first relay terminal. Wherein the first link is a side uplink between the source terminal and the target terminal that is relayed based on the first relay terminal.

(3) The target terminal controls the trigger to establish the multipath link.

That is, the first terminal is implemented as the target terminal.

In the following, the implementation manner of establishing the multipath link in the above three cases is respectively exemplarily described.

(1) The source terminal controls the trigger to establish the multipath link.

Referring to fig. 8, a flowchart of a path establishment method according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. The method is applicable to the communication system shown in fig. 1. The method may comprise the steps of:

Step 802: the source terminal sends a multipath connection establishment indication to the target terminal.

Wherein the multipath connection establishment indication is used to indicate establishment of a multipath link.

Optionally, the sending, by the source terminal, the multipath connection establishment indication to the target terminal includes: the source terminal sends a first message to the network equipment, wherein the first message is used for reporting to the network equipment that the source terminal requests to trigger establishment of a multipath link; in response to receiving the reply message of the first message, the source terminal sends a multipath connection establishment indication to the target terminal.

That is, before triggering to establish the multipath link, the source terminal needs to interact with the network device corresponding to the source terminal, report to the network device that the source terminal requests to trigger to establish the multipath link, and under the condition that the positive acknowledgement of the first network device is received, the source terminal continues to trigger to establish the multipath link.

Illustratively, the first message is carried in sidestream termination information (Sidelink UE Information, SUI) sent by the source terminal to the network device. Illustratively, the first message includes: relevant information of target terminals of the opposite end, qoS requirements and multipath connection establishment requests.

Optionally, the source terminal performs relay selection, selects the second relay terminal, or selects an alternative relay terminal including the second relay terminal. At this time, the second link is a side link between the source terminal and the target terminal, which is relayed by the second relay terminal.

It may be understood that the foregoing relay selection performed by the source terminal may be performed before step 802, and then inform the target terminal of the opposite terminal of the second relay terminal selected by the source terminal of the opposite terminal or the alternative relay terminals including the second relay terminal through the multipath connection establishment instruction in step 802; the relay selection performed by the source terminal may be performed after step 802, and then the destination terminal of the peer terminal is additionally informed of the second relay terminal selected by the source terminal, or the alternative relay terminals including the second relay terminal.

Optionally, if the PC5 connection between the source terminal and the second relay terminal does not exist, the source terminal will further perform the following steps: a PC5 connection between the source terminal and the second relay terminal is established. At this time, the second link is a side link between the source terminal and the target terminal, which is relayed by the second relay terminal.

It will be appreciated that the establishment procedure of the PC5 connection between the source terminal and the second relay terminal may be implemented before step 802.

Step 804: the target terminal receives the multipath connection establishment instruction sent by the source terminal.

Step 806: the target terminal determines to establish a multipath link based on the multipath connection establishment indication.

Optionally, the target terminal determines to establish the multipath link based on the multipath connection establishment indication, including: the target terminal sends a third message to the network equipment, wherein the third message is used for reporting to the network equipment that the multipath connection establishment instruction sent by the source terminal is received; in response to receiving the reply message of the third message, the target terminal determines to establish a multipath link.

That is, after receiving the multipath connection establishment instruction, the target terminal needs to interact with the network device corresponding to the target terminal, report to the network device that the source terminal requests to trigger establishment of the multipath link, and under the condition of receiving the acknowledgement of the network device, the target terminal performs further interactions with the source terminal, for example: and carrying out signaling interaction of the PC5-S layer and safety related signaling interaction to establish a multipath link.

The third message is illustratively carried in the SUI sent by the target terminal to the network device. Illustratively, the third message includes: relevant information of a source terminal of the opposite terminal, qoS requirements and a multipath connection establishment request.

Optionally, after step 806, the target terminal performs relay selection, and selects a second relay terminal; or the target terminal selects a second relay terminal from the alternative relay terminals indicated by the source terminal. At this time, the second link is a side link between the source terminal and the target terminal, which is relayed by the second relay terminal.

That is, in the case where the source terminal does not indicate to the target terminal the specific implementation of the new second link, such as: the multipath connection establishment instruction does not carry the related information of the second relay terminal, the target terminal can execute relay selection, select the second relay terminal, and instruct the source terminal to establish a second link based on the second relay terminal. In the case where the source terminal indicates a plurality of alternative relay terminals to the target terminal, such as: the multipath connection establishment instruction carries related information of the alternative relay terminals including the second relay terminal, the target terminal can judge whether the alternative relay terminals are available, the second relay terminal is selected from the alternative relay terminals, and then the source terminal is instructed to establish a second link based on the second relay terminal.

Optionally, if the PC5 connection between the target terminal and the second relay terminal does not exist, the target terminal will further perform the following steps: a PC5 connection between the target terminal and the second relay terminal is established. At this time, the second link is a side link between the source terminal and the target terminal, which is relayed by the second relay terminal.

It will be appreciated that the establishment procedure of the PC5 connection between the target terminal and the second relay terminal may be implemented before step 802.

Optionally, in a possible implementation manner, the source terminal unicast sends a multipath connection establishment indication to the target terminal, and correspondingly, the target terminal receives the multipath connection establishment indication sent by the source terminal unicast. In another possible implementation manner, the source terminal multicasts a multipath connection establishment indication, and the target terminal correspondingly receives the multipath connection establishment indication sent by the source terminal multicasts. In another possible implementation manner, the source terminal broadcasts and transmits a multipath connection establishment indication, and the target terminal receives the multipath connection establishment indication transmitted by the source terminal correspondingly.

Optionally, when the unicast, multicast or broadcast sends the multipath connection establishment instruction, the communication between the source terminal and the target terminal may be implemented based on the first relay terminal; or may be implemented based on other relay terminals (e.g., a second relay terminal), where the second link is established independently of the first link.

Optionally, the multipath connection establishment indication is transmitted via PC 5-RRC; or, the multipath connection establishment indication is transmitted through the PC 5-S. Illustratively, the above-described PC5-RRC transmission or PC5-S transmission is a transmission during a sidelink radio resource control reconfiguration (Sidelink RRC reconfiguration).

Optionally, the multipath connection establishment indication carries at least one of the following information:

(1) The multipath connection establishment cause.

The multipath connection establishment cause refers to the reason why the source terminal decides to establish a multipath link between the source terminal and the target terminal.

Optionally, the multipath connection establishment cause includes at least one of the following:

the source terminal supports multipath connections.

Multipath connection refers to a connection implemented through a multipath link.

The source terminal knows that the target terminal supports multipath connections.

QoS requirements of traffic.

For example, in the case where the service is a high-reliability low-delay service, the QoS requirement of the service is high, and the source terminal decides to control the trigger to establish the multipath link.

Triggering of the channel state.

Illustratively, the source terminal determines the channel state based on a fixed bit rate (Constants Bit Rate, CBR) and decides to control the trigger to establish the multipath link in case the channel state of the first link is not good.

Triggering of the reception situation.

Illustratively, the source terminal, upon receiving continuous NACK feedback, decides to control the trigger to establish the multipath link.

High level indication.

(2) Information about the sidelink radio bearer management (Sidelink radio bearer management).

The information related to the side radio bearer management is information for managing addition, deletion, or the like of the side radio bearer. In the case that the source terminal controls the triggering of the multipath establishment procedure, the multipath connection establishment instruction sent by the source terminal to the target terminal may carry relevant information such as uplink radio bearer management.

(3) And the related information of the second relay terminal.

Optionally, the related information of the second relay terminal includes: layer two identification (L2 ID) of the second relay terminal.

That is, before sending the multipath connection establishment instruction, the source terminal performs relay selection, selects the second relay terminal, and carries relevant information of the second relay terminal in the multipath connection establishment instruction, so as to instruct the target terminal to establish the second link based on the second relay terminal.

(4) And the related information of the alternative relay terminals including the second relay terminal.

Optionally, the relevant information of the alternative relay terminal includes: and (5) selecting the layer two identification of the relay terminal.

That is, before sending the multipath connection establishment indication, the source terminal performs relay selection, selects an alternative relay terminal, and carries relevant information of the alternative relay terminal in the multipath connection establishment indication, so as to instruct the target terminal to establish a second link based on the alternative relay terminal. In summary, in the method provided in this embodiment, when two terminal devices have established the first link, the source terminal controls to trigger the multipath establishment procedure to establish a multipath link including the new second link, so as to expand the communication between the two terminal devices to a multipath scene, thereby enhancing the communication quality of the sidestream communication.

An embodiment of the method described above with reference to fig. 8 is illustrated by way of example with reference to fig. 9. As shown in fig. 9, a first link1 for communication by relay based on the relay terminal 1 has been established between the source terminal and the target terminal.

S91: the source terminal triggers the multipath establishment procedure.

S92: the source terminal transmits a multipath connection establishment instruction to the target terminal based on the relay terminal 1.

Illustratively, the multipath connection establishment indication is carried: the multipath connection establishment cause; and information related to the side radio bearer management.

S93: and the source terminal performs relay selection.

Illustratively, the source terminal selects the relay terminal 2 by making a relay selection.

S94: an end-to-end connection between the source terminal and the target terminal is established via the relay terminal 2.

Illustratively, a multipath link supporting the first link1 and the second link2 is established between the source terminal and the target terminal, and link2 is a side uplink for communication based on relay by the relay terminal 2.

Referring to fig. 10, a flowchart of a path establishment method according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. The method is applicable to the communication system shown in fig. 1. The method may comprise the steps of:

Step 1002: the first relay terminal sends a multipath connection establishment instruction to the source terminal and the target terminal.

In this embodiment, the first link is a side uplink between the source terminal and the target terminal, which is relayed by the first relay terminal, so that the first relay terminal can directly communicate with the source terminal or the target terminal, and the first relay terminal sends a multipath connection establishment instruction to the source terminal and the target terminal.

Optionally, the first relay terminal performs relay selection, selects the second relay terminal, or selects an alternative relay terminal including the second relay terminal. At this time, the second link is a side link between the source terminal and the target terminal, which is relayed by the second relay terminal.

It may be appreciated that the relay selection performed by the first relay terminal may be performed before step 1002, and then inform the source terminal and the target terminal of the selected second relay terminal or the alternative relay terminals including the second relay terminal through the multipath connection establishment indication in step 1002; the relay selection performed by the first relay terminal may be performed after step 1002, and then the source terminal and the target terminal may be informed of the second relay terminal selected by the first relay terminal or the alternative relay terminals including the second relay terminal.

Step 1004: the source terminal receives a multipath connection establishment instruction sent by the first relay terminal.

Step 1006: the source terminal determines to establish a multipath link based on the multipath connection establishment indication.

Optionally, the source terminal determines to establish a multipath link based on the multipath connection establishment indication, including: the source terminal sends a fourth message to the network equipment, wherein the fourth message is used for reporting to the network equipment that the multipath connection establishment instruction sent by the first relay terminal is received; in response to receiving the reply message of the fourth message, the source terminal determines to establish a multipath link.

That is, after receiving the multipath connection establishment instruction, the source terminal needs to interact with the network device corresponding to the source terminal, report to the network device that the first relay terminal requests to trigger the multipath establishment procedure, and under the condition of receiving the acknowledgement of the first network device, the source terminal performs further interaction with the target terminal, for example: and carrying out signaling interaction of the PC5-S layer and safety related signaling interaction to establish a multipath link.

The fourth message is illustratively carried in the SUI sent by the source terminal to the network device. Illustratively, the fourth message includes: relevant information of target terminals of the opposite end, qoS requirements and multipath connection establishment requests.

Optionally, after step 1006, the source terminal performs relay selection, and selects a second relay terminal; or the source terminal selects the second relay terminal from the alternative relay terminals indicated by the first relay terminal. At this time, the second link is a side link between the source terminal and the target terminal, which is relayed by the second relay terminal.

That is, in the case where the first relay terminal does not indicate the specific implementation of the new second link to the source terminal, such as: the multipath connection establishment instruction does not carry the related information of the second relay terminal, the source terminal can execute relay selection, select the second relay terminal, and instruct the target terminal to establish a second link based on the second relay terminal. In the case where the first relay terminal indicates a plurality of alternative relay terminals to the target terminal, such as: the multipath connection establishment instruction carries related information of the alternative relay terminals including the second relay terminal, the source terminal can judge whether the alternative relay terminals are available, the second relay terminal is selected from the alternative relay terminals, and then the target terminal is instructed to establish a second link based on the second relay terminal.

It will be appreciated that the establishment procedure of the PC5 connection between the source terminal and the second relay terminal may be implemented before step 1002.

Optionally, after step 1006, the source terminal will also perform the following steps: the source terminal sends a first multipath connection establishment response message to the first relay terminal, wherein the first multipath connection establishment response message is used for informing the first relay terminal whether the source terminal accepts the multipath connection establishment indication sent by the first relay terminal.

Step 1008: and the target terminal receives the multipath connection establishment instruction sent by the first relay terminal.

Step 1010: the target terminal determines to establish a multipath link based on the multipath connection establishment indication.

Optionally, the target terminal determines to establish the multipath link based on the multipath connection establishment indication, including: the target terminal sends a fourth message to the network equipment, wherein the fourth message is used for reporting to the second network equipment that the multipath connection establishment instruction sent by the first relay terminal is received; in response to receiving the reply message of the fourth message, it is determined to establish a multipath link.

That is, after receiving the multipath connection establishment instruction, the target terminal needs to interact with the network device corresponding to the target terminal, report to the network device that the first relay terminal requests to trigger the multipath establishment procedure, and under the condition of receiving the acknowledgement of the second network device, the target terminal performs further interaction with the source terminal, for example: and carrying out signaling interaction of the PC5-S layer and safety related signaling interaction to establish a multipath link.

The fourth message is illustratively carried in the SUI sent by the target terminal to the network device. Illustratively, the fourth message includes: relevant information of a source terminal of the opposite terminal, qoS requirements and a multipath connection establishment request.

Optionally, after step 1010, the target terminal performs relay selection, and selects a second relay terminal; or, the target terminal selects the second relay terminal from the alternative relay terminals indicated by the first relay terminal. At this time, the second link is a side link between the source terminal and the target terminal, which is relayed by the second relay terminal.

That is, in the case where the first relay terminal does not indicate the specific implementation of the new second link to the target terminal, such as: the multipath connection establishment instruction does not carry the related information of the second relay terminal, the target terminal can execute relay selection, select the second relay terminal, and instruct the source terminal to establish a second link based on the second relay terminal. In the case where the first relay terminal indicates a plurality of alternative relay terminals to the target terminal, such as: the multipath connection establishment instruction carries related information of the alternative relay terminals including the second relay terminal, the target terminal can judge whether the alternative relay terminals are available, the second relay terminal is selected from the alternative relay terminals, and then the source terminal is instructed to establish a second link based on the second relay terminal.

It will be appreciated that the establishment procedure of the PC5 connection between the target terminal and the second relay terminal may be implemented before step 1002.

Optionally, after step 1010, the target terminal will also perform the following steps: the target terminal sends a second multipath connection establishment response message to the first relay terminal, wherein the second multipath connection establishment response message is used for informing the first relay terminal whether the target terminal accepts the multipath connection establishment indication sent by the first relay terminal.

Optionally, in one possible implementation manner, the first relay terminal unicast sends a multipath connection establishment indication to the source terminal and the target terminal, and correspondingly, the source terminal receives the multipath connection establishment indication sent by the first relay terminal unicast, and the target terminal receives the multipath connection establishment indication sent by the first relay terminal unicast. In another possible implementation manner, the first relay terminal multicasts a multipath connection establishment instruction, and correspondingly, the source terminal receives the multipath connection establishment instruction sent by the first relay terminal multicasts, and the target terminal receives the multipath connection establishment instruction sent by the first relay terminal multicasts. In another possible implementation manner, the first relay terminal broadcasts and sends a multipath connection establishment instruction, and correspondingly, the source terminal receives the multipath connection establishment instruction sent by the first relay terminal, and the target terminal receives the multipath connection establishment instruction sent by the first relay terminal.

Optionally, the multipath connection establishment indication is transmitted via PC 5-RRC; or, the multipath connection establishment indication is transmitted via the PC 5-S; or, the multipath connection establishment instruction is transmitted through the MAC CE; or, the multipath connection establishment indication is transmitted through physical layer signaling.

(1) The multipath connection establishment cause.

The multipath connection establishment cause refers to the reason why the first relay terminal decides to establish a multipath link between the source terminal and the target terminal.

the need for the first relay terminal to achieve service continuity.

The first relay terminal offloads the need for partial relay transmissions.

(2) And the related information of the second relay terminal.

Optionally, the related information of the second relay terminal includes: layer two identification (L2 ID).

That is, before sending the multipath connection establishment instruction, the first relay terminal performs relay selection, selects the second relay terminal, and carries relevant information of the second relay terminal in the multipath connection establishment instruction, so as to instruct the target terminal and the source terminal to establish a second link based on the second relay terminal.

(3) And the related information of the alternative relay terminals including the second relay terminal.

That is, before sending the multipath connection establishment instruction, the first relay terminal performs relay selection, selects an alternative relay terminal, and carries relevant information of the alternative relay terminal in the multipath connection establishment instruction, so as to instruct the target terminal and the source terminal to establish a second link based on the alternative relay terminal.

In summary, in the method provided in this embodiment, when two terminal devices have established the first link, the first relay terminal controls to trigger the multipath establishment procedure to establish a multipath link including the new second link, so as to expand communication between the two terminal devices to a multipath scene, thereby enhancing communication quality of side-going communication.

An embodiment of the method described above with reference to fig. 10 is illustrated by way of example with reference to fig. 11. As shown in fig. 11, a first link1 for communication by relay based on the relay terminal 1 has been established between the source terminal and the target terminal.

S111: the relay terminal 1 triggers the multipath establishment procedure.

S112: the relay terminal 1 performs relay selection.

Illustratively, the relay terminal 1 selects an alternative relay terminal including the relay terminal 2 by relay selection.

S113: the relay terminal 1 transmits a multipath connection establishment instruction to the source terminal and the target terminal.

Illustratively, the multipath connection establishment indication is carried: the multipath connection establishment cause; the relay terminal 2 is included as an alternative to the relay terminal related information.

S114: and the source terminal performs relay selection.

Illustratively, the source terminal selects relay terminal 2 among the alternative relay terminals.

S115: an end-to-end connection between the source terminal and the target terminal is established via the relay terminal 2.

(3) The target terminal controls the trigger to establish the multipath link.

Referring to fig. 12, a flowchart of a path establishment method according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. The method is applicable to the communication system shown in fig. 1. The method may comprise the steps of:

step 1202: the target terminal sends a multipath connection establishment indication to the source terminal.

Optionally, the sending, by the target terminal, a multipath connection establishment indication to the source terminal includes: the target terminal sends a second message to the network equipment, wherein the second message is used for requesting the network equipment to trigger the establishment of a multipath link; and transmitting a multipath connection establishment indication to the source terminal in response to receiving the response message of the second message.

That is, before triggering the multipath establishment procedure, the target terminal needs to interact with the network device corresponding to the target terminal, report to the network device that the target terminal requests to trigger the multipath establishment procedure, and under the condition of receiving the acknowledgement of the second network device, the target terminal continues to trigger and establish the multipath link.

The second message is illustratively carried in a SUI sent by the target terminal to the network device. Illustratively, the second message includes: relevant information of a source terminal of the opposite terminal, qoS requirements and a multipath connection establishment request.

Optionally, the target terminal performs relay selection, selects the second relay terminal, or selects an alternative relay terminal including the second relay terminal. At this time, the second link is a side link between the source terminal and the target terminal, which is relayed by the second relay terminal.

It may be appreciated that the above-mentioned relay selection performed by the target terminal may be performed before step 1202, and then the source terminal of the opposite terminal is informed of the second relay terminal selected by the target terminal or the alternative relay terminals including the second relay terminal through the multipath connection establishment indication in step 1202; the relay selection performed by the target terminal may be performed after step 1202, and then the source terminal of the opposite terminal may additionally notify the target terminal of the selected second relay terminal, or the alternative relay terminals including the second relay terminal.

It will be appreciated that the establishment procedure of the PC5 connection between the target terminal and the second relay terminal may be implemented before step 1202.

Step 1204: the source terminal receives a multipath connection establishment instruction sent by the target terminal.

Step 1206: the source terminal determines to establish a multipath link based on the multipath connection establishment indication.

Optionally, the source terminal determines to establish a multipath link based on the multipath connection establishment indication, including: transmitting a fifth message to the network device, where the fifth message is used to report to the network device that the multipath connection establishment indication sent by the target terminal is received; in response to receiving the reply message of the fifth message, it is determined to establish a multipath link.

That is, after receiving the multipath connection establishment instruction, the source terminal needs to interact with the network device corresponding to the source terminal, report to the network device that the target terminal requests to trigger the multipath establishment procedure, and under the condition of receiving the acknowledgement of the network device, the source terminal performs further interaction with the target terminal, for example: and carrying out signaling interaction of the PC5-S layer and safety related signaling interaction to establish a multipath link.

The fifth message is illustratively carried in the SUI sent by the source terminal to the first network device. Illustratively, the fifth message includes: relevant information of target terminals of the opposite end, qoS requirements and multipath connection establishment requests.

Optionally, after step 1206, the source terminal performs relay selection, and selects a second relay terminal; or the source terminal selects a second relay terminal from the alternative relay terminals indicated by the target terminal. At this time, the second link is a side link between the source terminal and the target terminal, which is relayed by the second relay terminal.

That is, in the case where the target terminal does not indicate to the source terminal the specific implementation of the new second link, such as: the multipath connection establishment instruction does not carry the related information of the second relay terminal, the source terminal can execute relay selection, select the second relay terminal, and instruct the target terminal to establish a second link based on the second relay terminal. In the case where the target terminal indicates a plurality of alternative relay terminals to the source terminal, such as: the multipath connection establishment instruction carries related information of the alternative relay terminals including the second relay terminal, the source terminal can judge whether the alternative relay terminals are available, the second relay terminal is selected from the alternative relay terminals, and then the target terminal is instructed to establish a second link based on the second relay terminal.

It will be appreciated that the establishment procedure of the PC5 connection between the source terminal and the second relay terminal may be implemented before step 1202.

Optionally, in a possible implementation manner, the target terminal unicast sends a multipath connection establishment indication to the source terminal, and correspondingly, the source terminal receives the multipath connection establishment indication sent by the target terminal unicast. In another possible implementation manner, the target terminal multicasts a multipath connection establishment indication, and correspondingly, the source terminal receives the multipath connection establishment indication sent by the target terminal multicasts. In another possible implementation manner, the target terminal broadcasts and transmits a multipath connection establishment indication, and the source terminal receives the multipath connection establishment indication transmitted by the target terminal correspondingly.

(1) The multipath connection establishment cause.

The multipath connection establishment cause refers to the reason why the target terminal decides to establish a multipath link between the source terminal and the target terminal.

triggering of the reception situation.

Illustratively, the target terminal decides to control the trigger to establish the multipath link upon receipt of successive NACK feedback.

Triggering of the decoding case.

Illustratively, the target terminal decides to control the trigger to establish the multipath link in the event of consecutive failures in decoding.

(2) And the related information of the second relay terminal.

That is, before sending the multipath connection establishment instruction, the target terminal performs relay selection, selects the second relay terminal, and carries relevant information of the second relay terminal in the multipath connection establishment instruction, so as to instruct the source terminal to establish the second link based on the second relay terminal.

That is, before sending the multipath connection establishment indication, the target terminal performs relay selection, selects an alternative relay terminal, and carries relevant information of the alternative relay terminal in the multipath connection establishment indication, so as to instruct the source terminal to establish a second link based on the alternative relay terminal.

In summary, in the method provided in this embodiment, when two terminal devices have established the first link, the target terminal controls the triggering multipath establishment procedure to establish a multipath link including the new second link, so as to expand communication between the two terminal devices to a multipath scene, thereby enhancing communication quality of side-going communication.

An exemplary embodiment of the method described above with reference to fig. 12 is described in conjunction with fig. 13. As shown in fig. 13, a first link1 for communication by relay based on the relay terminal 1 has been established between the source terminal and the target terminal.

S131: the target terminal triggers the multipath establishment procedure.

S132: and the target terminal performs relay selection.

Illustratively, the target terminal selects an alternative relay terminal including the relay terminal 2 through relay selection.

S133: the target terminal transmits a multipath connection establishment instruction to the source terminal based on the relay terminal 1.

S134: and the source terminal performs relay selection.

Illustratively, the source terminal selects the relay terminal 2 among the alternative relay terminals by making a relay selection.

S135: an end-to-end connection between the source terminal and the target terminal is established via the relay terminal 2.

Referring to fig. 14, a flowchart of a path selection method according to an embodiment of the application is shown. The method is applicable to a source terminal in the communication system shown in fig. 1. The method may comprise the steps of:

step 1402: mapping the QoS flow to a protocol stack entity corresponding to at least one target side link in the X side links based on the mapping relation between the X side links and the protocol stack entity, wherein the protocol stack entity comprises: PDCP entity, RLC entity.

The path selection method shown in the present embodiment corresponds to a case in which X side links exist in a multipath scene, where X is a positive integer greater than 1, that is, corresponds to a case in which a multipath link is established between a source terminal and a target terminal.

Step 1404: the QoS flow is transmitted via at least one label side uplink.

In one possible implementation, different side uplinks correspond to different PDCP entities.

That is, in response to the X side uplinks being in one-to-one correspondence with the X PDCP entities and the X RLC entities, respectively, the source terminal determines a target side path based on the higher layer indication, maps the QoS flow to the PDCP entity corresponding to the target side uplink, the RLC entity.

Illustratively, link1 corresponds to PDCP entity 1 and RLC entity 1, and the higher layer instructs mapping of QoS flows to PDCP entity 1 and RLC entity 1 corresponding to link1, and the QoS flows are transmitted through link 1.

In another possible implementation, different side uplinks correspond to the same PDCP entity, which is denoted as the first PDCP entity in the embodiment of the present application.

That is, in response to the X side uplinks corresponding to the same first PDCP entity and the first PDCP entity corresponding to the X RLC entities, the source terminal maps the QoS flow to the first PDCP entity and then maps the QoS flow to at least one RLC entity of the X RLC entities.

Illustratively, link1 corresponds to PDCP entity 1 and RLC entity 1, link2 corresponds to PDCP entity 1 and RLC entity 2, and the source terminal maps the QoS flow to PDCP entity 1, and then to RLC entity 1 and RLC entity 2, and transmits the QoS flow through link1 and link 2.

Optionally, the RB support is configured for replication activation or replication deactivation. Illustratively, RB support is configured for duplicate activation, meaning that the protocol data units (Protocol Data Unit, PDUs) corresponding to the QoS flows support delivery to different RLC entities after duplicate, the different RLC entities transmitting the same PDUs. Illustratively, RB support is configured to duplicate deactivation, meaning that PDU support corresponding to QoS flows is delivered to the same or different RLC entities, and different RLC entities transmit different PDUs.

Optionally, in response to the RB being configured to duplicate for activation and the PDU type of the QoS flow being a data PDU, the QoS flow is mapped to the X RLC entities after being duplicated, respectively.

Illustratively, the RLC entities include RLC entity 1 and RLC entity 2, and for RBs configured to be active, in the case of data PDUs, are post-duplicate for delivery to RLC entity 1 and second RLC entity 2, respectively.

Optionally, in response to the RB being configured to duplicate for activation and the PDU type of the QoS flow being a control PDU, the QoS flow is mapped to at least one RLC entity of the X RLC entities, respectively, after duplication.

Illustratively, the RLC entities include RLC entity 1 and RLC entity 2, and for RBs configured to be active, in the case of control PDUs, are post-duplicate delivered to RLC entity 1 and/or second RLC entity 2, respectively.

Optionally, in response to the RB being configured to duplicate for deactivation and the PDU type of the QoS flow being a data PDU, the QoS flow is mapped to at least one RLC entity of the X RLC entities based on the mapping impact information.

The mapping influence information refers to information that influences the action of delivering the PDU corresponding to the QoS flow to the RLC entity.

Optionally, the mapping influence information includes at least one of the following information:

PDU type.

Exemplary PDU types include: data PDUs and control PDUs.

Data split threshold.

Illustratively, the data splitting threshold is marked as SL-DataSplitThreshold, RLC entity comprising RLC entity 1 and RLC entity 2, if the total data size of PDCP and RLC is greater than the threshold, submitting PDU to RLC entity 1 and/or RLC entity 2; if the total data size of PDCP and RLC is not greater than the threshold, the PDU is submitted to the RLC entity 1.

QoS requirements.

I.e. mapped to RLC entity according to QoS requirements of the RB.

Relay indication.

For example, if the relay terminal informs the source terminal of the service type supported by the relay terminal, the source terminal determines whether to submit the PDU to the RLC entity corresponding to the relay terminal according to the service type currently transmitted.

High level indication.

Network configuration.

Higher layer path preference.

Optionally, the RLC entity corresponds to a priority, the priority being determined based on at least one of:

whether or not the side link corresponding to the RLC entity is a direct link.

For example, in the case where the side uplink corresponding to the RLC entity is a direct communication path, the priority corresponding to the RLC entity is higher.

The order of establishment of the side links corresponding to the RLC entity.

Illustratively, in the case where the order of establishment of the side links corresponding to the RLC entity is early, the priority corresponding to the RLC entity is high.

·QoS。

For example, in the case where the QoS corresponding to the RLC entity is higher, the priority corresponding to the RLC entity is higher.

Channel state.

Illustratively, the channel state is determined based on CBR, and in the case that the channel state is better, the priority corresponding to the RLC entity is higher.

Signal quality.

Illustratively, the signal quality is determined based on the reference signal received power (Reference Signal Receiving Power, RSRP), and in case of better signal quality, the RLC entity corresponds to a higher priority.

In summary, in the method provided in this embodiment, in the case that multiple side links have been established, that is, in the case that multipath links have been established, a routing behavior policy of a protocol stack is specified, so as to facilitate multipath transmission.

It will be appreciated that the above method embodiments may be implemented alone or in combination, and the application is not limited in this regard.

In the above-described respective embodiments, the step performed by the source terminal may individually implement the path establishment method to the source terminal side, the step performed by the first relay terminal may individually implement the path establishment method to the first relay terminal side, and the step performed by the target terminal may individually implement the path establishment method to the target terminal side.

The following are examples of the apparatus of the present application that may be used to perform the method embodiments of the present application. For details not disclosed in the embodiments of the apparatus of the present application, please refer to the embodiments of the method of the present application.

Referring to fig. 15, a block diagram of a path establishment apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. The device has the function of realizing the method example of the first terminal side, and the function can be realized by hardware or can be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The device may be the first terminal described above, or may be provided in the first terminal. As shown in fig. 15, the apparatus 1500 may include: a multipath setup trigger module 1510;

The multipath establishment triggering module 1510 is configured to trigger establishment of a multipath link in a case where a first link exists between the source terminal and the target terminal;

In an alternative embodiment, the second link is a side uplink between the source terminal and the target terminal that is relayed based on a second relay terminal;

or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the second link is a direct sidelink path between the source terminal and a target terminal.

In an alternative embodiment, the first link is a direct sidelink between the source terminal and a target terminal;

or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the first link is a side uplink between the source terminal and the target terminal that is relayed based on a first relay terminal.

In an alternative embodiment, the apparatus further comprises: a relay selection module; the relay selection module is configured to perform relay selection, select a second relay terminal, or select an alternative relay terminal including the second relay terminal.

In an alternative embodiment, the apparatus further comprises: a connection establishment module; the connection establishment module is used for establishing a PC5 connection with the second relay terminal.

In an alternative embodiment, the multipath establishment triggering module 1510 is configured to send a multipath connection establishment indication, where the multipath connection establishment indication is used to indicate that the multipath link is established.

In an alternative embodiment, the multipath connection establishment indication is transmitted by PC 5-RRC; or, the multipath connection establishment indication is transmitted via the PC 5-S; or, the multipath connection establishment instruction is transmitted through the MAC CE; or, the multipath connection establishment indication is transmitted through physical layer signaling.

In an alternative embodiment, the multipath connection establishment indication is sent by unicast; or, the multipath connection instruction is sent in a multicast mode; or, the multipath connection indication is sent by broadcasting.

In an alternative embodiment, the apparatus is the source terminal, and the multipath connection setup triggering module 1510 is configured to send the multipath connection setup indication to the target terminal.

In an alternative embodiment, the multipath connection establishment indication carries at least one of the following information:

The multipath connection establishment cause;

information related to sidelink radio bearer management;

related information of the second relay terminal;

and the related information of the alternative relay terminals including the second relay terminal.

In an alternative embodiment, the multipath connection establishment cause includes at least one of the following:

the source terminal supports multipath connection;

the source terminal knows that the target terminal supports multipath connection;

the requirements of service QoS;

triggering the channel state;

receiving triggering of a situation;

a network indication;

high-level indication.

In an alternative embodiment, the multipath establishment triggering module 1510 is configured to send a first message to a network device, where the first message is used to request triggering to establish the multipath link from the network device; and transmitting the multipath connection establishment indication to the target terminal in response to receiving the response message of the first message.

In an alternative embodiment, the first link is a side uplink between the source terminal and the target terminal that is relayed based on a first relay terminal, the apparatus is the first relay terminal, and the multipath connection establishment triggering module 1510 is configured to send the multipath connection establishment indication to the source terminal and the target terminal.

multipath connection establishment cause:

related information of the second relay terminal;

the first relay terminal realizes the requirement of service continuity;

the first relay terminal offloads the need for partial relay transmissions.

In an alternative embodiment, the apparatus is the target terminal, and the multipath connection setup triggering module 1510 is configured to send the multipath connection setup indication to the source terminal.

multipath connection establishment cause:

related information of the second relay terminal;

receiving triggering of a situation;

triggering of the decoding situation.

In an alternative embodiment, the multipath establishment triggering module 1510 is configured to send a second message to a network device, where the second message is configured to request triggering to establish the multipath link from the network device; and transmitting the multipath connection establishment indication to the source terminal in response to receiving the response message of the second message.

Referring to fig. 16, a block diagram of a path establishment apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. The device has the function of realizing the method example of the second terminal side, and the function can be realized by hardware or can be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The device may be the second terminal described above or may be provided in the second terminal. As shown in fig. 16, the apparatus 1600 may include: a multipath establishment determination module 1610;

the multipath establishment determination module 1610 is configured to determine, in response to a trigger of the first terminal, to establish a multipath link in the case that the first link exists between the source terminal and the target terminal;

or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

In an alternative embodiment, the apparatus further comprises: a relay selection module; the relay selection module is used for executing relay selection and selecting a second relay terminal; or selecting the second relay terminal from the indicated alternative relay terminals.

In an optional embodiment, the multipath establishment determination module 1610 is configured to receive a multipath connection establishment instruction sent by the first terminal, where the multipath connection establishment instruction is used to instruct to establish the multipath link; and determining to establish the multipath link based on the multipath connection establishment indication.

In an alternative embodiment, the first terminal is the source terminal, the apparatus is the target terminal, and the multipath establishment determination module 1610 is configured to receive the multipath connection establishment indication sent by the source terminal.

the multipath connection establishment cause;

information related to sidelink radio bearer management;

related information of the second relay terminal;

The source terminal supports multipath connection;

the requirements of service QoS;

triggering the channel state;

receiving triggering of a situation;

a network indication;

high-level indication.

In an optional embodiment, the multipath establishment determination module 1610 is configured to send a third message to a network device, where the third message is configured to report, to the network device, receipt of the multipath connection establishment indication sent by the source terminal; and determining to establish the multipath link in response to receiving the reply message of the third message.

In an optional embodiment, the first link is a side uplink between the source terminal and the target terminal, where the first terminal is a first relay terminal, and the apparatus is the source terminal or the target terminal, and the multipath establishment determination module 1610 is configured to receive the multipath connection establishment indication sent by the first relay terminal.

multipath connection establishment cause:

related information of the second relay terminal;

the first relay terminal realizes the requirement of service continuity;

the first relay terminal offloads the need for partial relay transmissions.

In an optional embodiment, the multipath establishment determination module 1610 is configured to send a fourth message to a network device, where the fourth message is configured to report, to the network device, receipt of the multipath connection establishment indication sent by the first relay terminal; and determining to establish the multipath link in response to receiving the reply message of the fourth message.

In an alternative embodiment, the first terminal is the target terminal, the apparatus is the source terminal, and the multipath establishment determination module 1610 is configured to receive the multipath connection establishment indication sent by the target terminal.

multipath connection establishment cause:

related information of the second relay terminal;

receiving triggering of a situation;

triggering of the decoding situation.

In an optional embodiment, the multipath establishment determination module 1610 is configured to send a fifth message to a network device, where the fifth message is configured to report, to the network device, receipt of the multipath connection establishment indication sent by the target terminal; and determining to establish the multipath link in response to receiving the reply message of the fifth message.

Referring to fig. 17, a block diagram of a path selection device according to an embodiment of the application is shown. The device has the function of realizing the method example of the terminal equipment side, and the function can be realized by hardware or can be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The device may be the terminal device described above, or may be provided in the terminal device. As shown in fig. 17, the apparatus 1700 may include: a mapping module 1710 and a transmission module 1720;

the mapping module 1710 is configured to map, based on a mapping relationship between X side uplinks and protocol stack entities, a QoS flow to a protocol stack entity corresponding to at least one of the X side uplinks, where the protocol stack entity includes: a PDCP entity and an RLC entity, wherein X is a positive integer greater than 1;

The transmitting module 1720 is configured to transmit the QoS flow over the at least one label side uplink.

In an optional embodiment, the mapping module 1710 is configured to, in response to the X side uplinks corresponding to the X PDCP entities and the X RLC entities, determine the target side uplink based on a higher layer indication, map the QoS flow to the PDCP entity and the RLC entity corresponding to the target side uplink;

or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the mapping module 1710 is configured to map the QoS flow to the first PDCP entity and then map the QoS flow to at least one RLC entity of the X RLC entities in response to the X side uplinks corresponding to the same first PDCP entity and the first PDCP entity corresponding to the X RLC entities.

In an alternative embodiment, RB support is configured for replication activation or replication deactivation;

the mapping module 1710 is configured to copy and activate the RB, where the PDU type of the QoS flow is a data PDU, and map the QoS flow to the X RLC entities after copying the QoS flow;

or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the mapping module 1710 is configured to, in response to the RB being configured to copy and activate, map the QoS flows to at least one RLC entity of the X RLC entities after the QoS flows are copied, where the PDU type of the QoS flows is a control PDU;

Or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the mapping module 1710 is configured to map the QoS flow to at least one RLC entity of the X RLC entities based on mapping impact information in response to the RB being configured to duplicate for deactivation and the PDU type of the QoS flow being a data PDU.

In an alternative embodiment, the mapping effect information includes at least one of the following information:

PDU type; a data splitting threshold; qoS requirements; a relay instruction; high-level indication; configuring a network; higher layer path preference.

In an alternative embodiment, the RLC entity corresponds to a priority, the priority being determined based on at least one of the following information:

whether the side uplink corresponding to the RLC entity is a direct communication path;

the establishment sequence of the side uplink corresponding to the RLC entity;

QoS；

channel state;

signal quality.

It should be noted that, when the apparatus provided in the foregoing embodiment performs the functions thereof, only the division of the respective functional modules is used as an example, in practical application, the foregoing functional allocation may be performed by different functional modules according to actual needs, that is, the content structure of the device is divided into different functional modules, so as to perform all or part of the functions described above.

The specific manner in which the various modules perform the operations in the apparatus of the above embodiments have been described in detail in connection with the embodiments of the method, and will not be described in detail herein.

Referring to fig. 18, a schematic diagram of a terminal device is shown (the communication device may include a processor 1801, a receiver 1802, a transmitter 1803, a memory 1804, and a bus 1805) according to one embodiment of the present application.

The processor 1801 includes one or more processing cores, and the processor 1801 executes various functional applications and information processing by running software programs and modules.

The receiver 1802 and the transmitter 1803 may be implemented as a transceiver 1806, and the transceiver 1806 may be a communication chip.

The memory 1804 is coupled to the processor 1801 via a bus 1805.

The memory 1804 may be used for storing a computer program, and the processor 1801 is used for executing the computer program to implement the steps executed by the terminal device in the above-described method embodiment.

Further, the memory 1804 may be implemented by any type or combination of volatile or nonvolatile storage devices including, but not limited to: RAM (Random-Access Memory) and ROM (Read-Only Memory), EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), flash Memory or other solid state Memory technology, CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read-Only Memory), DVD (Digital Video Disc, high density digital video disc) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices.

The processor and transceiver in the terminal device according to the embodiments of the present application may execute steps executed by the terminal device in any of the methods shown in fig. 7 to 14, which are not described herein.

In one possible implementation, the terminal device includes a processor;

In one possible implementation, the terminal device includes a processor and a transceiver;

The embodiment of the application also provides a computer readable storage medium, wherein the storage medium stores a computer program, and the computer program is used for being executed by a processor of terminal equipment to realize the path establishment method or the path selection method at the terminal equipment side.

Alternatively, the computer-readable storage medium may include: ROM (Read-Only Memory), RAM (Random-Access Memory), SSD (Solid State Drives, solid State disk), optical disk, or the like. The random access memory may include ReRAM (Resistance Random Access Memory, resistive random access memory) and DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory ), among others.

The embodiment of the application also provides a chip, which comprises a programmable logic circuit and/or program instructions and is used for realizing the path establishment method or the path selection method at the terminal equipment side when the chip runs on the terminal equipment.

The embodiment of the application also provides a computer program product or a computer program, wherein the computer program product or the computer program comprises computer instructions, the computer instructions are stored in a computer readable storage medium, and a processor of the terminal equipment reads and executes the computer instructions from the computer readable storage medium so as to realize the path establishment method or the path selection method at the side of the terminal equipment.

It should be understood that the "indication" mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may be a direct indication, an indirect indication, or an indication having an association relationship. For example, a indicates B, which may mean that a indicates B directly, e.g., B may be obtained by a; it may also indicate that a indicates B indirectly, e.g. a indicates C, B may be obtained by C; it may also be indicated that there is an association between a and B.

In the description of the embodiments of the present application, the term "corresponding" may indicate that there is a direct correspondence or an indirect correspondence between the two, or may indicate that there is an association between the two, or may indicate a relationship between the two and the indicated, configured, etc.

References herein to "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or", describes an association relationship of an association object, and indicates that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B, and may indicate: a exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone. The character "/" generally indicates that the context-dependent object is an "or" relationship.

In addition, the step numbers described herein are merely exemplary of one possible execution sequence among steps, and in some other embodiments, the steps may be executed out of the order of numbers, such as two differently numbered steps being executed simultaneously, or two differently numbered steps being executed in an order opposite to that shown, which is not limiting.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that in one or more of the examples described above, the functions described in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, these functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer.

The foregoing description of the exemplary embodiments of the application is not intended to limit the application to the particular embodiments disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the application.

Claims

A method of path establishment, the method being performed by a first terminal, the method comprising:

triggering to establish a multipath link under the condition that a first link exists between a source terminal and a target terminal;

wherein the multipath link is a link supporting cooperative operation of the first link and a second link, the second link is a side uplink between the source terminal and the target terminal except for the first link, and the first terminal is one of the source terminal, the target terminal, and a relay terminal.
The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining the position of the substrate comprises,

the first link is a side uplink which is transferred between the source terminal and the target terminal based on a first relay terminal;

or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the first link is a direct sidelink path between the source terminal and the target terminal.
A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that,

The second link is a direct sidelink path between the source terminal and the target terminal;

or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the second link is a side uplink between the source terminal and the target terminal that is relayed based on a second relay terminal.
A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the method further comprises:

and executing relay selection, and selecting a second relay terminal or selecting alternative relay terminals including the second relay terminal.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising:

a PC5 connection with the second relay terminal is established.
The method of any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the triggering establishes a multipath link, comprising:

and sending a multipath connection establishment instruction, wherein the multipath connection establishment instruction is used for indicating to establish the multipath link.
The method of claim 6, wherein the step of providing the first layer comprises,

the multipath connection establishment indication is transmitted through PC 5-RRC;

or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the multipath connection establishment indication is transmitted through the PC 5-S;

or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the multipath connection establishment instruction is transmitted through a Media Access Control (MAC) cell;

Or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the multipath connection establishment indication is transmitted through physical layer signaling.
The method according to claim 6 or 7, wherein,

the multipath connection establishment instruction is sent in a unicast mode;

or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the multipath connection instruction is sent in a multicast mode;

or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the multipath connection indication is transmitted by means of broadcasting.
The method according to any of the claims 6 to 8, wherein the first terminal is the source terminal, and wherein the sending the multipath connection establishment indication comprises:

and sending the multipath connection establishment indication to the target terminal.
The method of claim 9, wherein the multipath connection establishment indication carries at least one of the following information:

the multipath connection establishment cause;

information related to sidelink radio bearer management;

related information of the second relay terminal;

and the related information of the alternative relay terminals including the second relay terminal.
The method of claim 10, wherein the multipath connection establishment cause comprises at least one of:

the source terminal supports multipath connection;

the source terminal knows that the target terminal supports multipath connection;

A demand for quality of service, qoS;

triggering the channel state;

receiving triggering of a situation;

a network indication;

high-level indication.
The method according to any of the claims 9 to 11, wherein said sending the multipath connection establishment indication to the target terminal comprises:

transmitting a first message to a network device, the first message being used to request a trigger to establish the multipath link to the network device;

and transmitting the multipath connection establishment indication to the target terminal in response to receiving the response message of the first message.
The method according to any one of claims 6 to 8, wherein the first link is a side-link between the source terminal and the target terminal that is relayed based on a first relay terminal, the first terminal being the first relay terminal, the transmitting a multipath connection establishment indication comprising:

and sending the multipath connection establishment indication to the source terminal and the target terminal.
The method of claim 13, wherein the multipath connection establishment indication carries at least one of the following information:

multipath connection establishment cause:

related information of the second relay terminal;

And the related information of the alternative relay terminals including the second relay terminal.
The method of claim 14, wherein the multipath connection establishment cause comprises at least one of:

the first relay terminal realizes the requirement of service continuity;

the first relay terminal offloads the need for partial relay transmissions.
The method according to any of the claims 6 to 8, wherein the first terminal is the target terminal, and wherein the sending the multipath connection establishment indication comprises:

and sending the multipath connection establishment indication to the source terminal.
The method of claim 16, wherein the multipath connection establishment indication carries at least one of:

multipath connection establishment cause:

related information of the second relay terminal;

and the related information of the alternative relay terminals including the second relay terminal.
The method of claim 17, wherein the multipath connection establishment cause comprises at least one of:

receiving triggering of a situation;

triggering of the decoding situation.
The method according to any of the claims 16 to 18, wherein said sending the multipath connection setup indication to the source terminal comprises:

Sending a second message to a network device, wherein the second message is used for requesting to trigger the network device to establish the multipath link;

and transmitting the multipath connection establishment indication to the source terminal in response to receiving the response message of the second message.
A path establishment method, wherein the method is performed by a second terminal, the method comprising:

under the condition that a first link exists between a source terminal and a target terminal, determining to establish a multipath link in response to the triggering of the first terminal;

wherein the multipath link is a link supporting cooperative operation of the first link and a second link, the second link being a side link between the source terminal and the target terminal except for the first link, the first terminal being one of the source terminal, the target terminal and a relay terminal, the second terminal being one of the source terminal and the target terminal.
The method of claim 20, wherein the step of determining the position of the probe is performed,

the first link is a side uplink which is transferred between the source terminal and the target terminal based on a first relay terminal;

or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the first link is a direct sidelink path between the source terminal and the target terminal.
The method according to claim 20 or 21, wherein,

the second link is a direct sidelink path between the source terminal and the target terminal;

or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the second link is a side uplink between the source terminal and the target terminal that is relayed based on a second relay terminal.
The method according to any one of claims 20 to 22, further comprising:

executing relay selection, and selecting a second relay terminal;

or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

and selecting the second relay terminal from the indicated alternative relay terminals.
The method according to any one of claims 20 to 23, further comprising:

a PC5 connection with the second relay terminal is established.
The method of any of claims 20 to 24, wherein determining to establish the multipath link in response to the triggering of the first terminal comprises:

receiving a multipath connection establishment instruction sent by the first terminal, wherein the multipath connection establishment instruction is used for indicating to establish the multipath link;

and determining to establish the multipath link based on the multipath connection establishment indication.
The method of claim 25, wherein the step of determining the position of the probe is performed,

The multipath connection establishment indication is transmitted through PC 5-RRC;

or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the multipath connection establishment indication is transmitted through the PC 5-S;

or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the multipath connection establishment instruction is transmitted through a Media Access Control (MAC) cell;

or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the multipath connection establishment indication is transmitted through physical layer signaling.
The method according to claim 25 or 26, wherein,

the multipath connection establishment instruction is sent in a unicast mode;

or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the multipath connection instruction is sent in a multicast mode;

or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the multipath connection indication is transmitted by means of broadcasting.
The method according to any one of claims 25 to 27, wherein the first terminal is the source terminal, the second terminal is the target terminal, and the receiving the multipath connection establishment indication sent by the first terminal comprises:

and receiving the multipath connection establishment instruction sent by the source terminal.
The method of claim 28, wherein the multipath connection establishment indication carries at least one of:

the multipath connection establishment cause;

information related to sidelink radio bearer management;

related information of the second relay terminal;

And the related information of the alternative relay terminals including the second relay terminal.
The method of claim 29, wherein the multipath connection establishment cause comprises at least one of:

the source terminal supports multipath connection;

the source terminal knows that the target terminal supports multipath connection;

a demand for quality of service, qoS;

triggering the channel state;

receiving triggering of a situation;

a network indication;

high-level indication.
The method according to any of claims 28 to 30, wherein said determining to establish the multipath link based on the multipath connection establishment indication comprises:

transmitting a third message to a network device, where the third message is used to report to the network device that the multipath connection establishment indication sent by the source terminal is received;

and determining to establish the multipath link in response to receiving the reply message of the third message.
The method according to any one of claims 25 to 27, wherein the first link is a side link between the source terminal and the target terminal for relay based on a first relay terminal, the first terminal is the first relay terminal, the second terminal is the source terminal or the target terminal, and the receiving the multipath connection establishment indication sent by the first terminal includes:

And receiving the multipath connection establishment instruction sent by the first relay terminal.
The method of claim 32, wherein the multipath connection establishment indication carries at least one of:

multipath connection establishment cause:

related information of the second relay terminal;

and the related information of the alternative relay terminals including the second relay terminal.
The method of claim 33, wherein the multipath connection establishment cause comprises at least one of:

the first relay terminal realizes the requirement of service continuity;

the first relay terminal offloads the need for partial relay transmissions.
The method of any of claims 32 to 34, wherein the determining to establish the multipath link based on the multipath connection establishment indication comprises:

transmitting a fourth message to a network device, where the fourth message is used to report to the network device that the multipath connection establishment indication sent by the first relay terminal is received;

and determining to establish the multipath link in response to receiving the reply message of the fourth message.
The method according to any of claims 25 to 27, wherein the first terminal is the target terminal and the second terminal is the source terminal, and wherein the receiving the multipath connection establishment indication sent by the first terminal comprises:

And receiving the multipath connection establishment instruction sent by the target terminal.
The method of claim 36, wherein the multipath connection establishment indication carries at least one of:

multipath connection establishment cause:

related information of the second relay terminal;

and the related information of the alternative relay terminals including the second relay terminal.
The method of claim 37, wherein the multipath connection establishment cause comprises at least one of:

receiving triggering of a situation;

triggering of the decoding situation.
The method of any of claims 36 to 38, wherein the determining to establish the multipath link based on the multipath connection establishment indication comprises:

transmitting a fifth message to a network device, where the fifth message is used to report to the network device that the multipath connection establishment indication sent by the target terminal is received;

and determining to establish the multipath link in response to receiving the reply message of the fifth message.
A method of path selection, the method comprising:

mapping a quality of service QoS flow to a protocol stack entity corresponding to at least one target side link in the X side links based on a mapping relationship between the X side links and the protocol stack entity, the protocol stack entity comprising: a packet data convergence protocol PDCP entity and a radio link control RLC entity, wherein X is a positive integer greater than 1;

The QoS flow is transmitted over the at least one label side uplink.
The method of claim 40, wherein mapping QoS flows to a protocol stack entity corresponding to at least one of the X sidelines based on a mapping relationship between the X sidelines and the protocol stack entity, comprises:

responsive to the X side uplinks being in one-to-one correspondence with X PDCP entities and X RLC entities, respectively, determining the target side uplink based on a higher layer indication, mapping the QoS flow to PDCP entities corresponding to the target side uplink;

or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

in response to the X side uplinks corresponding to the same first PDCP entity and the first PDCP entity corresponding to the X RLC entities, mapping the QoS flow to the first PDCP entity and then mapping the QoS flow to at least one RLC entity of the X RLC entities.
The method of claim 41, wherein radio bearer RB support is configured for copy activation or copy deactivation;

the remapping the QoS flow to at least one RLC entity of the X RLC entities, comprising:

responsive to the RB being configured for duplicate activation, and the protocol data unit PDU type of the QoS flow being a data PDU, mapping the QoS flow to the X RLC entities after duplicate;

Or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

responsive to the RB being configured to duplicate for activation, and the PDU type of the QoS flow being a control PDU, mapping the QoS flow after duplication to at least one RLC entity of the X RLC entities, respectively;

or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

responsive to the RB being configured to duplicate for deactivation and the PDU type of the QoS flow being a data PDU, the QoS flow is mapped to at least one RLC entity of the X RLC entities based on mapping impact information.
The method of claim 42, wherein the mapping effect information includes at least one of:

PDU type;

a data splitting threshold;

QoS requirements;

a relay instruction;

high-level indication;

configuring a network;

higher layer path preference.
The method of any of claims 40 to 43, wherein the RLC entity corresponds to a priority, the priority being determined based on at least one of:

whether the side uplink corresponding to the RLC entity is a direct communication path;

the establishment sequence of the side uplink corresponding to the RLC entity;

QoS；

channel state;

signal quality.
A path establishment apparatus, the apparatus comprising: a multipath establishment triggering module;

The multi-path establishment triggering module is used for triggering and establishing a multi-path link under the condition that a first link exists between the source terminal and the target terminal;

wherein the multipath link is a link supporting cooperative operation of the first link and a second link, the second link being a side link between the source terminal and the target terminal except for the first link, the apparatus being one of the source terminal, the target terminal, and a relay terminal.
A path establishment apparatus, the apparatus comprising: a multipath establishment determination module;

the multi-path establishment determination module is used for determining to establish a multi-path link in response to the triggering of the first terminal under the condition that a first link exists between the source terminal and the target terminal;

wherein the multipath link is a link supporting cooperative operation of the first link and a second link, the second link is a side link between the source terminal and the target terminal except for the first link, the first terminal is one of the source terminal, the target terminal, and a relay terminal, and the apparatus is one of the source terminal and the target terminal.
A path selection device, the device comprising: a mapping module and a transmission module;

the mapping module is configured to map a QoS flow to a protocol stack entity corresponding to at least one target side uplink in the X side uplinks based on a mapping relationship between the X side uplinks and the protocol stack entity, where the protocol stack entity includes: a packet data convergence protocol PDCP entity and a radio link control RLC entity, wherein X is a positive integer greater than 1;

the transmission module is configured to transmit the QoS flow through the at least one label side uplink.
A terminal device, characterized in that the terminal device comprises a processor;

the processor is used for triggering and establishing a multipath link under the condition that a first link exists between the source terminal and the target terminal;

wherein the multipath link is a link supporting cooperative operation of the first link and a second link, the second link is a side uplink between the source terminal and the target terminal except for the first link, and the terminal device is one of the source terminal, the target terminal, and a relay terminal.
A terminal device, characterized in that the terminal device comprises a processor;

The processor is used for responding to the trigger of the first terminal to determine to establish a multipath link under the condition that the first link exists between the source terminal and the target terminal;

wherein the multipath link is a link supporting cooperative operation of the first link and a second link, the second link is a side link between the source terminal and the target terminal except for the first link, the first terminal is one of the source terminal, the target terminal and a relay terminal, and the terminal device is one of the source terminal and the target terminal.
A terminal device, the terminal device comprising a processor and a transceiver;

the processor is configured to map a quality of service QoS flow to a protocol stack entity corresponding to at least one target side uplink in the X side uplinks based on a mapping relationship between the X side uplinks and the protocol stack entity, where the protocol stack entity includes: a packet data convergence protocol PDCP entity and a radio link control RLC entity, wherein X is a positive integer greater than 1;

the transceiver is configured to transmit the QoS flow over the at least one label side uplink.
A computer readable storage medium, wherein a computer program is stored in the storage medium, the computer program being for execution by a processor to implement the path establishment method of any one of claims 1 to 39 or the method of any one of claims 40 to 44.
A chip comprising programmable logic circuits and/or program instructions for implementing a path establishment method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 39, or a method as claimed in any one of claims 40 to 44, when the chip is running.
A computer program product or computer program comprising computer instructions stored in a computer readable storage medium, from which a processor reads and executes the computer instructions to implement the path establishment method of any one of claims 1 to 39 or the method of any one of claims 40 to 44.