CN117998436A

CN117998436A - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN117998436A
Application number: CN202211371935.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 戴维德·科齐奥尔; 胡星星
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-11-03
Filing date: 2022-11-03
Publication date: 2024-05-07
Also published as: WO2024094128A1

Abstract

The application relates to the technical field of communication and discloses a communication method and device. The method comprises the following steps: the terminal equipment receives first information from the access network equipment, wherein the first information is used for indicating the access network equipment to have application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service, and the at least one broadcast service comprises a first broadcast service; sending second information to the access network equipment according to the first information, wherein the second information is used for indicating that the terminal equipment is interested in the first broadcast service; and receiving application layer measurement configuration information of a first broadcast service from the access network equipment, wherein the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service is used for carrying out application layer measurement on the first broadcast service. By adopting the method, the terminal equipment can report the second information according to the first information, and then the access network equipment can send the application layer measurement configuration information of the broadcast service to the terminal equipment in a targeted manner (namely, send the information in a unicast mode) according to the second information, so that the flexible regulation and control of the access network equipment are facilitated.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

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

Background

The application layer measurements may also be referred to as quality of experience (quality of experience, qoE) measurements, used to determine traffic flow, traffic throughput, or traffic delay information. For example, the access network device may send the application layer measurement configuration information to the terminal device, and the terminal device performs application layer measurement according to the application layer measurement configuration information. The user experience of the user when using the services can be determined through the application layer measurement results, so that the network is better optimized to improve the user experience.

Broadcasting refers to a transmission technique in which one sender transmits data and a plurality of receivers receive the data. The service transmitted by broadcasting may be referred to as a broadcasting service, for example, the access network device transmits data of the broadcasting service, and the plurality of terminal devices receive the data of the broadcasting service. Among them, broadcast services such as multicast/broadcast services (multicast broadcast service, MBS) introduced by the 5th generation (the 5th generation,5G) communication system.

However, how to implement application layer measurement of broadcast services still requires further research.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method and a communication device, which are used for improving the controllability of application layer measurement of an access network device for executing broadcast service to terminal devices.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, which may be applied to a terminal device or a component (e.g. a circuit or a chip) in a terminal device, where the method is applied to the terminal device, for example, in which the terminal device receives first information from an access network device, where the first information is used to indicate that the access network device has application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service, where the at least one broadcast service includes a first broadcast service; and sending second information to the access network device according to the first information, wherein the second information is used for indicating that the terminal device is interested in the first broadcast service; and receiving application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service from the access network equipment, wherein the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service is used for carrying out application layer measurement on the first broadcast service.

By adopting the method, the terminal equipment can report the second information according to the first information, and then the access network equipment can send the application layer measurement configuration information of the broadcast service to the terminal equipment in a targeted manner (namely, send the information in a unicast mode) according to the second information, so that the flexible regulation and control of the access network equipment are facilitated. Optionally, when the terminal device is not interested in the broadcast service, the terminal device may not send the second information to the access network device, and further, the access network device does not send the application layer measurement configuration information of the broadcast service to the terminal device any more.

In one possible design, the receiving the first information from the access network device includes: receiving a broadcast message from the access network device, the broadcast message including the first information; or receiving a dedicated message from the access network device, the dedicated message comprising the first information.

In one possible design, the broadcast message is carried on the BCCH or MCCH or MTCH; the dedicated message is an RRC reconfiguration message or an RRC connection release message.

In one possible design, the sending the second information to the access network device includes: sending an RRC message to the access network device, the RRC message including the second information; wherein the terminal device is in a connected state.

In one possible design, before sending the RRC message to the access network device, the method further includes: determining that the data of the first broadcast service is about to be received or is about to be received.

In this way, considering that some terminal devices may be interested in the first broadcast service, but the terminal devices do not actually receive the data of the first broadcast service due to some reasons, in the embodiment of the present application, when the terminal devices are about to receive or start to receive the data of the first broadcast service, the terminal devices send second information to the access network device, so as to trigger the access network device to send the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal devices, which can avoid unnecessary transmission caused by that the terminal devices do not receive the data of the first broadcast service (can not perform application layer measurement on the first broadcast service) after the access network device sends the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal devices.

In one possible design, the sending the second information to the access network device includes: and sending an RRC establishment request message or an RRC recovery request message to the access network equipment, wherein the RRC establishment request message or the RRC recovery request message comprises the second information.

In one possible design, the sending the second information to the access network device includes: sending an RRC establishment request message or an RRC recovery request message to the access network equipment; and after establishing or recovering the RRC connection between the terminal equipment and the access network equipment, sending the second information to the access network equipment.

In one possible design, the RRC setup request message or RRC resume request message includes a cause value, where the cause value is used to indicate that the reason for sending the RRC setup request message or the RRC resume request message to the access network device is application layer measurement configuration information that needs to receive a broadcast service.

In one possible design, before sending the second information to the access network device, the method further includes: determining that the data of the first broadcast service is about to be received or is about to be received.

In one possible design, before sending the RRC setup request message or the RRC resume request message to the access network device, the method further includes: determining that the data of the first broadcast service is about to be received or is about to be received.

In one possible design, before sending the RRC setup request message or the RRC resume request message to the access network device, the method further includes: generating a first random number, wherein the first random number is greater than or equal to a probability factor; or generating a second random number, wherein the second random number is smaller than the probability factor, and the waiting time of the terminal equipment is larger than or equal to the back-off time.

In one possible design, the method further comprises: third information from the access network device is received, wherein the third information is used for indicating the probability factor and/or a back-off time range, and the back-off time range is used for determining the back-off time.

In one possible design, the first information includes an identification of the at least one broadcast service.

In one possible design, the second information includes an identification of the first broadcast service.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, where the method may be applied to an access network device or a component (e.g. a circuit or a chip) in the access network device, and the method is applied to the access network device, where the access network device sends first information, where the first information is used to indicate that the access network device has application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service, where the at least one broadcast service includes a first broadcast service; receiving second information from a terminal device, the second information being used to indicate that the terminal device is interested in the first broadcast service; and sending the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal equipment according to the second information, wherein the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service is used for carrying out application layer measurement on the first broadcast service.

By adopting the method, the terminal equipment can report the second information according to the first information, and then the access network equipment can send the application layer measurement configuration information of the broadcast service to the terminal equipment in a targeted manner (namely, send the information in a unicast mode) according to the second information, so that the flexible regulation and control of the access network equipment are facilitated.

In one possible design, the second information is sent based on the first information.

In one possible design, the sending the first information includes: transmitting a broadcast message, the broadcast message including the first information; or sending a dedicated message to the terminal device, the dedicated message comprising the first information.

When the first information is sent through the dedicated message, the access network device may determine whether the first information needs to be sent to the terminal device according to capability information of the terminal device (for example, whether the terminal device supports application layer measurement of a broadcast service), so as to facilitate saving transmission resources.

In one possible design, the receiving the second information from the terminal device includes: and receiving an RRC message from the terminal equipment in a connection state, wherein the RRC message comprises the second information.

In one possible design, the receiving the second information from the terminal device includes: and receiving an RRC establishment request message from the terminal equipment in an idle state or an RRC recovery request message from the terminal equipment in an inactive state, wherein the RRC establishment request message or the RRC recovery request message comprises the second information.

In one possible design, the receiving the second information from the terminal device includes: receiving an RRC establishment request message from the terminal equipment in an idle state or an RRC recovery request message from the terminal equipment in a non-active state; and after establishing or recovering the RRC connection between the terminal equipment and the access network equipment, receiving the second information from the terminal equipment.

It will be appreciated that the method described in the second aspect corresponds to the method described in the first aspect, and the advantages of the related technical features in the first aspect and the second aspect may be referred to each other, which is not repeated.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication device, where the communication device has a function of implementing the first aspect or the second aspect, for example, the communication device includes a module or a unit or means (means) corresponding to the operations of the first aspect or the second aspect, where the module or the unit or means may be implemented by software, or implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by executing corresponding software by hardware.

In one possible design, the communication device includes a processing unit, a communication unit, where the communication unit may be configured to receive and transmit signals to enable communication between the communication device and other devices; the processing unit may be adapted to perform some internal operations of the communication device. The functions performed by the processing unit, the communication unit may correspond to the operations referred to in the above first aspect or the second aspect.

In one possible design, the communication device includes a processor that may be used to couple with a memory. The memory may hold the necessary computer programs or instructions to implement the functions referred to in the first or second aspects above. The processor may execute a computer program or instructions stored by the memory, which when executed, cause the communication device to implement a method in any of the possible designs or implementations of the first or second aspects described above.

In one possible design, the communication device includes a processor and a memory, where the memory may hold necessary computer programs or instructions to implement the functions referred to in the above first or second aspect. The processor may execute a computer program or instructions stored by the memory, which when executed, cause the communication device to implement a method in any of the possible designs or implementations of the first or second aspects described above.

In one possible design, the communication device includes a processor and an interface circuit, wherein the processor is configured to communicate with other devices through the interface circuit and perform the method of any of the possible designs or implementations of the first or second aspect.

It will be appreciated that in the above third aspect, the processor may be implemented by hardware or may be implemented by software, and when implemented by hardware, the processor may be a logic circuit, an integrated circuit, or the like; when implemented in software, the processor may be a general purpose processor, implemented by reading software code stored in a memory. Further, the above processor may be one or more, and the memory may be one or more. The memory may be integral to the processor or separate from the processor. In a specific implementation process, the memory and the processor may be integrated on the same chip, or may be respectively disposed on different chips.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication system, which may comprise a terminal device and an access network device; wherein the terminal device is configured to perform the communication method provided in the first aspect, and the access network device is configured to perform the communication method provided in the second aspect.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a computer readable storage medium having stored therein computer readable instructions which when read and executed by a computer cause the computer to perform the method of any one of the possible designs of the first or second aspects described above.

In a sixth aspect, the application provides a computer program product which, when read and executed by a computer, causes the computer to carry out the method of any one of the possible designs of the first or second aspects described above.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a chip comprising a processor coupled to a memory for reading and executing a software program stored in the memory to implement the method of any one of the possible designs of the first or second aspects.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture to which an embodiment of the present application is applicable;

fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of an application layer measurement according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a flow chart corresponding to a communication method according to a first embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic flow chart corresponding to a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic flow chart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 6 is a schematic flow chart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic flow chart corresponding to the communication method provided in the second embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method according to a second embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a flow chart corresponding to a communication method according to a third embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is a possible exemplary block diagram of an apparatus involved in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of an access network device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present application. The technical solution in the embodiments of the present application may be applied to various communication systems, such as a universal mobile telecommunications system (universal mobile telecommunications system, UMTS), a wireless local area network (wireless local area network, WLAN), a wireless fidelity (WIRELESS FIDELITY, wi-Fi) system, a 4th generation (4th generation,4G) mobile communication system, such as a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, a fifth generation (5th generation,5G) mobile communication system, such as a new radio, NR) system, and a future evolution communication system, such as a sixth generation (6th generation,6G) mobile communication system.

The present application will present various aspects, embodiments, or features about a system that may include a plurality of devices, components, modules, etc. It is to be understood and appreciated that the various systems may include additional devices, components, modules, etc. and/or may not include all of the devices, components, modules etc. discussed in connection with the figures. Furthermore, combinations of these schemes may also be used.

In addition, in embodiments of the present application, words such as "exemplary," "such as" and the like are used to mean examples, illustrations, or descriptions. Any embodiment or design described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the use of the term "example" is intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion. In the embodiments of the present application, "of", "corresponding (corresponding, relevant)" and "corresponding (corresponding)" may be sometimes used in combination, and it should be noted that the meanings to be expressed are consistent when the distinction is not emphasized.

The communication system and the service scenario described in the embodiments of the present application are for more clearly describing the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solution provided in 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 in the embodiments of the present application is applicable to similar technical problems.

To facilitate understanding of the embodiments of the present application, a communication system suitable for use in the embodiments of the present application will be described in detail with reference to the communication system shown in fig. 1. As shown in fig. 1, the radio access network (radio access network, RAN) 100 and the Core Network (CN) 200, optionally, the communication system 1000 may further include an operation administration maintenance (operation administration AND MAINTENANCE, OAM) network element 300.

1. Radio access network 100

The radio access network 100 may include at least one radio access network device (also referred to as access network devices, such as 110a and 110b in fig. 1) and may also include at least one terminal device (such as 120a-120j in fig. 1). Wherein 110a is a base station, 110b is a micro base station, 120a, 120e, 120f and 120j are mobile phones, 120b is an automobile, 120c is an oiling machine, 120d is a home access node (home access point, HAP) arranged indoors or outdoors, 120g is a notebook computer, 120h is a printer, and 120i is an unmanned aerial vehicle. The terminal device may be connected to the radio access network device in a wireless manner. The terminal device and the access network device can be connected with each other in a wired or wireless manner.

(1) Terminal equipment

The terminal device may be a device having a wireless transceiver function and accessing the communication system. A terminal device may also be called a User Equipment (UE), a terminal, a user equipment, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a Mobile Station (MS), a remote station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a terminal unit, a terminal station, a terminal device, a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user device.

For example, the terminal device in the embodiment of the present application may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) computer, a laptop (desktop computer), a tablet (Pad), an unmanned aerial vehicle, a computer with a wireless transceiving function, a Machine Type Communication (MTC) terminal device, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) terminal device, an internet of things (internet of things, ioT) terminal device, a wireless terminal device in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal device in unmanned (SELF DRIVING), a wireless terminal device in remote medical (remote medical), a wireless terminal device in smart grid (SMART GRID), a wireless terminal device in transportation security (transportation safety), a wireless terminal device in smart city (SMART CITY), a wireless terminal device in smart home (smart home) (e.g., a game machine, a smart television, a smart sound box, a refrigerator, a body building device, etc.), a vehicle-mounted terminal device.

(2) Access network device

The access network device is a device which is positioned at the network side of the communication system and has a wireless receiving and transmitting function.

For example, the access network device in the embodiment of the present application may be an Access Point (AP) in a Wi-Fi system, such as a home gateway, a router, a server, a switch, a bridge, etc., a base station, an evolved Node B (eNB), a radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), a base station controller (base station controller, BSC), a base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS), a home base station, a baseband unit (BBU), a wireless relay Node, a wireless backhaul Node, a transmission point (transmission and reception point, TRP), or transmission point, TP, etc., and may also be a next generation base station (gNB) in a 5G system, or a network Node forming a gNB, such as a Centralized Unit (CU), a Distributed Unit (DU), a roadside unit with a base station function (road side unit, RSU), etc., or may also be a satellite, or a future base station of various forms. In addition, the access network device may be a macro base station (e.g. 110a in fig. 1), a micro base station or an indoor station (e.g. 110b in fig. 1), a relay node or a donor node, etc.

2. Core network 200

The core network 200 may comprise one or more core network elements, which may also be referred to as core network devices. The access network device may be connected to the core network element by wireless or wired means. The core network element and the access network device may be independent different physical devices, or the functions of the core network element and the logic functions of the access network device may be integrated on the same physical device, or the functions of part of the core network element and part of the access network device may be integrated on one physical device.

Taking the 5G communication system as an example, the core network 200 may include a session management function (session management function, SMF) network element, a user plane function (user plane function, UPF) network element, a policy control function (policy control function, PCF) network element, an application function (application function, AF) network element, and the like. For a specific description of the various core network elements described above, reference may be made to the relevant technical specifications of the third generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project,3GPP).

3. OAM network element 300

An OAM network element in an embodiment of the present application refers to an entity capable of sending a measurement task to an access network device, where the measurement task is, for example, a quality of experience (quality of experience, qoE) measurement task. The OAM network element may also send configuration information of the access network device to the access network device. The OAM network element may be a network element or a functional entity that is independent of the core network and the radio access network.

It can be understood that the technical solution in the embodiment of the present application may also be applied to other communication systems, and the corresponding names may also be replaced by names of corresponding functions in other communication systems. Fig. 1 is a simplified schematic diagram that is merely illustrative for ease of understanding, and other devices may be included in the communication system, not shown in fig. 1.

The following explains the related technical features related to the embodiments of the present application. It should be noted that these explanations are for easier understanding of the embodiments of the present application, and should not be construed as limiting the scope of protection claimed by the present application.

1. Application layer measurement

In the communication system illustrated in fig. 1, a core network element or an OAM network element may issue a measurement task to an access network device, and the access network device may further instruct a terminal device to perform application layer measurement.

The application layer measurement refers to measurement of the performance of an application layer of the terminal device. For some streaming services, such as including streaming services (STREAMING SERVICE, SS), or voice services, such as multimedia telephony services (multimedia telephony service for IMS, MTSI) including internet protocol (internet protocol, IP) multimedia system (IP multimedia-MEDIA SYSTEM, IMS), the mere signal quality or communication quality of the access layer does not represent the user experience when using these services. Operators want to know the user experience so that the network quality can be better optimized to improve the user experience. Therefore, application layer measurement is actually an important measurement way to improve the user network usage experience.

The manner of initiation of application layer measurements can be divided into signaling-based application layer measurements and management-based application layer measurements. For signaling-based application layer measurements, the measurement tasks may be signalled by the core network element to the access network device to initiate application layer measurements for a particular certain terminal device. For application layer measurement based on management, instead of application layer measurement for a specific terminal device, an access network device receives a message for performing application layer measurement from an OAM network element (or a network management, in the embodiment of the present application, an OAM network element is taken as an example) first, and then selects an appropriate terminal device from terminal devices accessing the access network device to initiate application layer measurement based on a certain policy.

Fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of an application layer measurement according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 2, the process includes the steps of:

S201a or S201b, the access network device acquires an application layer measurement request message, wherein the application layer measurement request message carries application layer measurement configuration information.

In an alternative embodiment, the application layer measurement configuration information may be carried in the application layer measurement request message in the form of a transparent container (container). The container is a bearer similar to a package, and is opened (i.e. parsed) only when the container reaches a final destination. In this case, since the application layer measurement is performed in the application layer measurement layer of the terminal device, the container in which the application layer measurement configuration information is located is only parsed after reaching the application layer measurement layer of the terminal device, but is not parsed in other layers or other devices (e.g., access network devices) except the application layer measurement layer of the terminal device, and is directly encapsulated and forwarded in the form of a container. The application layer measurement layer is an upper layer of the access layer in the following description.

In yet another alternative embodiment, the application layer measurement configuration information may also be carried in a non-container form in the application layer measurement request message. In this case, other layers or other devices (e.g., access network devices) than the application layer of the terminal device may also parse the application layer measurement request message to obtain the specific content of the application layer measurement configuration information.

In yet another alternative embodiment, a portion of the content in the application layer measurement configuration information may be carried in a container form, and another portion of the content may be carried in a non-container form. The application layer measurement configuration information has a plurality of bearing modes in the application layer measurement request message, and is not described one by one.

In addition, the application layer measurement request message may include other information besides the application layer measurement configuration information, for example, at least one of QoE reference (QoE reference), address information of a measurement collection entity (measurement collection entity, MCE), measurement range information, and a service type corresponding to the current measurement. Such information may not be carried in the application layer measurement request message in the form of a container and may therefore be parsed by the access network device.

The QoE reference may be a globally unique identifier, which is used to identify the application layer measurement or QoE measurement requested by the network (or used for access network devices and MCE identification application layer measurement tasks). For example, the QoE reference is constituted by a public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN) (PLMN is constituted by a mobile country code (mobile country code, MCC) and a mobile network code (mobile network code, MNC)) and a QoE measurement collection identity, which is allocated by a management system or operator. The address information of the MCE includes, for example, an IP address of the MCE, where the IP address of the MCE is used by the access network device to send the corresponding measurement result to the MCE after receiving the application layer measurement result reported by the terminal device.

S202, the access network equipment determines the terminal equipment for executing the application layer measurement according to the application layer measurement request message.

In the embodiment of the application, when the initiation modes of the application layer measurement are different, the access network equipment determines the modes of the terminal equipment for executing the application layer measurement are also different. By way of example, the following are:

When the initiation manner of the application layer measurement is the signaling-based application layer measurement, the application layer measurement task is initiated by the core network, and the access network device may receive the application layer measurement request message for a specific terminal device from the core network as illustrated in S201 a. In this case, since the access network device allocates a specific communication interface for communication between the terminal device and the core network when the terminal device accesses the core network, the access network device receives the application layer measurement request message from which communication interface, i.e. determines which terminal device is to initiate application layer measurement according to the correspondence between the communication interface and the terminal device.

When the initiation mode of the application layer measurement is based on the management application layer measurement, the application layer measurement task is initiated by the OAM network element, and the access network device may receive the measurement request message from the OAM network element as illustrated in S201 b. In this case, the access network device may first determine, according to the limiting conditions such as the area range to be measured obtained by analyzing the application layer measurement request message, which terminal devices in all terminal devices accessed to the access network device meet the requirement of the application layer measurement, and then use the terminal devices meeting the requirement as the terminal devices to execute the application layer measurement.

In the embodiment of the present application, the "current application layer measurement" specifically refers to the whole application layer measurement from the start of the current measurement task to the end of the current measurement task, for example, when the application layer measurement is to be performed on a certain session, the whole measurement period from the start of the session to the end of the session is taken as the measurement period of the current application layer measurement. In addition, in one application layer measurement, the terminal device may report only one application layer measurement result, for example, report an application layer measurement result measured in the whole measurement period of one session after the end of the one session, or report multiple application layer measurement results, for example, report an application layer measurement result measured in each 5 seconds according to a period duration of 5 seconds in the one session.

It should be understood that in both of the above-described initiation modes, the access network device will treat the terminal device as the terminal device to perform the application layer measurements only when the terminal device supports the application layer measurements. Whether the terminal device supports the application layer measurement can be reported to the access network device by the terminal device, can be obtained by sending an inquiry message to the terminal device by the access network device and receiving a response message, can also be obtained by pre-configuring the access network device and the terminal device, and is not particularly limited.

It should be noted that the solution in S201a and S201b is only an alternative embodiment. In the embodiment of the present application, the access network device may not determine the terminal device performing the application layer measurement according to the application layer measurement message received from the core network element or the OAM network element. For example, in another alternative embodiment, the access network device may also generate application layer measurement configuration information according to the access network device itself, and determine a terminal device to perform application layer measurement according to its own requirement.

S203, the access network device sends the application layer measurement configuration information bearer in an RRC message to an Access Stratum (AS) in the terminal device to perform the application layer measurement.

In S203, the data bearer form of the application layer measurement configuration information in the RRC message may be a container form, or a non-container form, or a mixed form of both, as described in S201a or S201 b.

Optionally, the RRC message includes other information besides the application layer measurement configuration information, such as an application layer measurement identifier and/or a service type corresponding to the measurement (for indicating which service type the application layer measurement is to be performed for). The application layer measurement identifier may be generated by the access network device for the terminal device and used for identifying application layer measurement configuration information. In general, the application layer measurement identity corresponds to the QoE reference, and the access network device may maintain a correspondence between the application layer measurement identity and the QoE reference.

S204, the AS in the terminal equipment sends the application layer measurement configuration information to an upper layer of the AS in the terminal equipment.

In S204 described above, since the AS is not the final layer to perform the application layer measurement, the AS may forward the application layer measurement configuration information to an upper layer of the AS. The upper layer of the AS may refer to an application layer of the terminal device, may refer to a layer that specifically performs measurement of the application layer, or may be a layer between the application layer and the AS. When the upper layer of the AS is a layer between the application layer and the AS, the upper layer of the AS needs to further forward the application layer measurement configuration information until the application layer measurement configuration information is forwarded to the layer that is finally measured. It should be understood that, when the RRC message includes both the application layer measurement configuration information and the service type and/or the application layer measurement identifier corresponding to the current measurement, the AS may also send the application layer measurement configuration information and the service type and/or the application layer measurement identifier to be measured to an upper layer of the AS at the same time.

The AS of the terminal device may transmit the above information to an upper layer of the AS through an AT (attention) command (command), for example. For example, the AT command may be AT command+ CAPPLEVMC (COMMAND APPLICATION LEVEL MEASUREMENT CONFIGURATION).

S205, the upper layer of AS in the terminal device executes the application layer measurement to obtain the application layer measurement result.

In the embodiment of the application, if the upper layer of the AS receives the application layer measurement configuration information and the service type corresponding to the measurement at the same time, the upper layer of the AS can perform application layer measurement on the application corresponding to the service type corresponding to the measurement according to the application layer measurement configuration information to obtain an application layer measurement result. The application layer measurements may occupy any of 1 byte to 8000 bytes.

In S205, if the terminal device performs the handover of the serving cell during the application layer measurement, the access network device to which the switched serving cell belongs may re-determine whether the serving cell after the handover of the terminal device belongs to the area to be measured, and if so, the access network device to which the switched serving cell belongs may send indication information for continuing to measure to the terminal device to instruct the terminal device to continue to perform the measurement, or the access network device to which the switched serving cell belongs may not need to send the indication information to the terminal device specifically, where the terminal device defaults to continue to measure. If the measurement is not performed, the access network device to which the switched service cell belongs may send the indication information of stopping the measurement to the terminal device to instruct the terminal device to suspend the measurement, or the access network device to which the switched service cell belongs may send the indication information of releasing the application layer measurement configuration information to the terminal device to instruct the terminal device to end the measurement.

S206, the upper layer of AS in the terminal device reports the measurement result of the application layer to the AS in the terminal device.

In S205 and S206 described above, the upper layer of the AS may perform the application layer measurement according to a certain set rule and report the result of the application layer measurement to the AS in the terminal device. The setting rule may be a default rule in the terminal device, or may be a rule pointed out in the application layer measurement configuration information. For example, in one possible set-up rule, the upper layer of the AS performs application layer measurements and reports the application layer measurements according to the period indicated in the application layer measurement configuration information. AS another example, in another possible setup rule, the upper layer of the AS performs application layer measurements during each session (or session of some type) and reports the application layer measurements after the session ends. Assuming that the terminal device passes through 5 service cells in a session process, the upper layer of the AS reports the application layer measurement result of the terminal device to the AS in the whole period from the beginning of the session to the end of the session.

Illustratively, the upper layers of the AS may report the application layer measurement identity in addition to the application layer measurement results to the AS.

Illustratively, the upper layer of the AS may send the above information to the AS through an AT (attention) command. For example, the AT command may be AT command+ CAPPLEVMR (COMMAND APPLICATION LEVEL MEASUREMENT REPORT).

S207, AS in the terminal equipment sends the application layer measurement result to the access network equipment in an RRC message.

In S207 above, the data bearer of the application layer measurement result in the RRC message may be in a container form, or a non-container form, or a mixed form of both, as described in S201a or S201b above. And, the RRC message may include an application layer measurement identifier in addition to the application layer measurement result, so that the access network device or other entity knows that the application layer measurement result is a measurement performed according to which application layer measurement configuration information.

In S207, if the terminal device performs the handover of the serving cell during the process of performing the application layer measurement, the AS may send the application layer measurement result to the access network device to which the handover serving cell belongs. In this case, when the access network device to which the serving cell after handover belongs is different from the access network device to which the serving cell before handover belongs, the access network device that transmits the application layer measurement configuration information (i.e., the access network device in S203) and the access network device that receives the application layer measurement result (i.e., the access network device in S207) are not the same access network device. When the access network device to which the service cell after switching belongs is the same as the access network device to which the service cell before switching belongs, the access network device transmitting the application layer measurement configuration information and the access network device receiving the application layer measurement result are the same access network device. It should be noted that, the access network device to which the serving cell before the handover belongs may send an application layer measurement identifier and a QoE reference (i.e., a corresponding relationship between the application layer measurement identifier and the QoE reference) corresponding to the same application layer measurement configuration information to the access network device to which the serving cell after the handover belongs.

And S208, the access network equipment sends the application layer measurement result of the terminal equipment to the MCE.

The access network device may obtain the QoE reference corresponding to the application layer measurement result reported by the terminal device according to the stored correspondence between the application layer measurement identifier and the QoE reference and the application layer measurement identifier reported by the terminal device; further, the access network device searches the IP address of the corresponding MCE according to the QoE reference, and sends the application layer measurement result to the MCE. Or the access network equipment acquires corresponding application layer measurement configuration information according to the application layer measurement identifier reported by the terminal equipment, acquires the IP address of the MCE corresponding to the application layer measurement configuration information according to the application layer measurement request message issued by the core network element or the OAM network element, and further transmits the application layer measurement result to the MCE, wherein the IP address of the MCE is the IP address of the MCE corresponding to the application layer measurement result.

In the embodiment of the application, after the MCE receives the measurement result of the application layer of the terminal device, the MCE can determine the user experience (such as the quality of call, the fluency of watching video, etc.) of the application in the terminal device by the user according to the measurement result of the application layer, and when the user experience is poor, the MCE can inform the access network device to allocate more wireless resources for the terminal device so as to improve the application performance of the terminal device and the application experience of the user.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, S208 is only an optional step. In another optional implementation manner, the access network device may also determine, by using the application layer measurement result, a user experience of the user using the application in the terminal device, and further adjust, according to the application layer measurement result, a radio resource allocated to the terminal device, so as to improve application performance of the terminal device and improve application experience of the user.

2. Broadcast service

For broadcast services (such as MBS services), two logical channels are currently introduced, namely an MBS control channel (MBS control channel, MCCH) and an MBS traffic channel (MBS TRAFFIC CHANNEL, MTCH), both of which are mapped onto a downlink SHARED CHANNEL, DL-SCH. The MCCH is used to transmit control information, including an identification of a broadcast service and configuration information of the MTCH (e.g., a group-radio network temporary identity, G-RNTI) associated with the broadcast service, and resource information of the received MTCH. MTCH is used to transmit broadcast service data, and each broadcast service may correspond to one MTCH, e.g., broadcast service 1 corresponds to MTCH1 and broadcast service 2 corresponds to MTCH2. Further, the terminal may receive data of the broadcast service in the MTCH according to the scheduling information in the MCCH.

The operating states of the terminal device may include a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) IDLE (rrc_idle) state, an RRC Inactive (Inactive) state, and an RRC CONNECTED (rrc_connected) state. The RRC idle state may be simply referred to as an idle state, the RRC inactive state may be simply referred to as an inactive state, and the RRC connected state may be simply referred to as a connected state. The terminal device may receive the data of the broadcast service in the connected state, however, since maintaining a large number of terminal devices in the connected state by the access network device consumes a large amount of processing resources, the access network device may also instruct the terminal device to enter an idle state or an inactive state, and receive the data of the broadcast service in the idle state or the inactive state.

Based on the description of the related technical features, it is currently considered to perform application layer measurement on the broadcast service, that is, after the access network device receives the application layer measurement configuration information of the broadcast service (such as the broadcast service 1) from the core network element or the OAM network element, the application layer measurement configuration information may be sent to the terminal device, so that the terminal device performs application layer measurement on the broadcast service 1.

For management-based application layer measurement, since the access network device cannot know which terminal devices are interested in the broadcast service 1, and the terminal devices interested in the broadcast service 1 may be in a connection state, an idle state or a non-active state, in one possible implementation manner, after receiving the application layer measurement configuration information of the broadcast service 1, the access network device may send the application layer measurement configuration information of the broadcast service 1 in a broadcast manner. Accordingly, a terminal device (possibly in a connected state, an idle state or an inactive state) located within the coverage area of the access network device may receive the application layer measurement configuration information of the broadcast service 1. If the terminal device is interested in the broadcast service 1, the terminal device may perform application layer measurement on the broadcast service 1 according to the application layer measurement configuration information of the broadcast service 1 when receiving data of the broadcast service.

However, with the above method, the access network device cannot know which terminal devices will perform the application layer measurement of the broadcast service 1, which is inconvenient for the regulation and control of the access network device, so that more terminal devices may perform the application layer measurement of the broadcast service 1, and report the application layer measurement result of the broadcast service 1 to the access network device. Because the information amount of the application layer measurement result of the terminal equipment is large, if more terminal equipment reports the application layer measurement result of the broadcast service 1 to the access network equipment, the load of the access network equipment is heavy.

Based on this, the embodiment of the application provides a communication method, which is used for improving the controllability of the application layer measurement of the broadcast service executed by the access network equipment to the terminal equipment.

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application is described in detail below with reference to a specific embodiment, in which an example will be described based on management application layer measurement, and in which an example will be that the method provided by the embodiment of the present application is applied to the network architecture shown in fig. 1. In addition, the method may be performed by two communication means, for example a first communication means and a second communication means, wherein the first communication means may be an access network device or a communication means capable of supporting the functions required by the access network device to implement the method, but may also be other means, such as a chip or a chip system. The second communication means may be a terminal device or a communication means capable of supporting the functions required by the terminal device to implement the method, but may of course also be other means, such as a chip or a chip system. For ease of description, hereinafter, the method is performed by the access network device and the terminal device, that is, the first communication apparatus is the access network device and the second communication apparatus is the terminal device.

Example 1

In a first embodiment, the access network device may send first information to indicate to the access network device that the access network device has application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service; correspondingly, the terminal equipment can report second information to the access network equipment according to the first information so as to indicate the broadcasting service of interest of the terminal equipment; furthermore, the access network device may send (i.e. send by unicast) the application layer measurement configuration information of the broadcast service of interest to the terminal device in a targeted manner according to the second information.

Fig. 3 is a flow chart corresponding to a communication method according to a first embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 3, the method comprises the steps of:

S301, the access network equipment sends first information, wherein the first information is used for indicating the access network equipment to have application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service.

Here, the factor triggering the access network device to transmit the first information may be various. For example, the OAM network element may send an application layer measurement request message to the access network device, where the application layer measurement request message includes application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service; correspondingly, after receiving the application layer measurement request message, the access network device may store application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service, and send the first information according to the application layer measurement request message.

The at least one broadcast service may include a first broadcast service, and the application layer measurement request message may include an identification of the first broadcast service in addition to the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast, for example. For example, the identifier of the first broadcast service may be an MBS session identifier corresponding to the first broadcast service, and the MBS session identifier corresponding to the first broadcast service may include a temporary mobile group identifier (temporary mobile group identifier, TMGI) of the first broadcast service. Optionally, the MBS session identification of the first broadcast service further comprises a network identification (network identifier, NID), NID and public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN) identification for identifying an independent non-public network.

(1) The first information is explained.

In the embodiment of the application, the first information can be used for triggering the terminal equipment to report the second information.

As a possible implementation, the first information is used to indicate that the access network device has application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service (it should be understood that the first information may not include application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service). That is, the first information triggers the terminal device to report the second information by indicating that the access network device has application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service. The first information is used to indicate that the access network device has application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service, and may be replaced with other possible descriptions, for example, replaced with the first information is used to indicate that the access network device wants or needs to configure the application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service.

In this case, the first information may be an indication of coarse granularity, i.e. the first information only indicates that the access network device has application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service, and not specifically indicates which broadcast services the application layer measurement configuration information has; or it may be an indication of fine granularity, i.e. the first information indicates that the access network device has application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service, and in particular indicates which broadcast services the application layer measurement configuration information has.

When the indication is a coarse granularity indication, the first information may be indication information indicating that the access network device has application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service; the first information may include an identification of at least one broadcast service when it is an indication of fine granularity. The embodiment of the application is mainly described by taking the indication that the first information is fine granularity as an example.

Illustratively, when the first information comprises an identification of at least one broadcast service, the at least one broadcast service may be a broadcast service to which the access network device wishes or needs or is interested in the application layer measurement configuration information. For example, the access network device may receive the application layer measurement request message including application layer measurement configuration information of M broadcast services, and if the broadcast service corresponding to the application layer measurement configuration information that the access network device hopes, needs or is interested in is N broadcast services of the M broadcast services, the first information sent by the access network device may include identification of the N broadcast services.

Optionally, the first information further includes time information and/or area information corresponding to the application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service. Taking the first broadcast service as an example, the time information corresponding to the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service is used for indicating the effective time range of the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service; and in the effective time range, the terminal equipment considers that the access network equipment has the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service. The area information corresponding to the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service is used for indicating the effective area range of the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service; when the terminal equipment is located in the effective area range, the terminal equipment considers that the access network equipment has the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service.

It may be understood that the valid time ranges or valid area ranges corresponding to the application layer measurement configuration information of different broadcast services in at least one broadcast service may be the same or may be different, which is not limited in particular.

The foregoing is described taking the example that the first information triggers the terminal device to report the second information by indicating that the access network device has application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service. In other possible implementations, the first information may not indicate that the access network device has application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service, for example, the first information may be a piece of information or a message that is specifically used to trigger the terminal device to report second information (for example, report a multicast service that is interesting to the terminal device, or report whether the terminal device is interesting to the multicast service); in this case, the terminal device may not be aware of the purpose of the access network device to send the first information when receiving the first information, in order to configure the application layer measurement configuration information of the broadcast service. That is, the embodiment of the present application achieves the purpose of sending the application layer measurement configuration information to the terminal device in a targeted manner through the first information and the second information, but does not represent that the access network device cannot use the first information and the second information as other purposes.

(2) A specific implementation of sending the first information by the access network device is described.

The access network equipment can send first information to at least one terminal equipment in the coverage area of the access network equipment; accordingly, at least one terminal device may receive the first information and store the first information. For example, the terminal device may not release the first information even if the state of the terminal device changes (e.g., the terminal device enters an idle state or an inactive state from a connected state).

As a possible implementation, the access network device may send the first information in a broadcast manner, e.g. the access network device may send a broadcast message over a broadcast control channel (broadcast control channel, BCCH) or MBS control channel or MBS traffic channel, the broadcast message comprising the first information. In this case, the terminal device (in a connected state or an idle state or an inactive state) within the coverage area of the access network device may receive the first information.

Taking the example that the first information is used for indicating that the access network device has the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service, the first information may include the indication information and an identifier of the first broadcast service. If the access network device sends the first information through the MBS control signal, the first information may be part of an MBS broadcast configuration (e.g., MBS session information corresponding to the first broadcast service), for example, the access network device may send the first information when an MBS session corresponding to the first broadcast service starts; accordingly, after receiving the first information, the terminal device may store the first information.

As a further possible implementation, for a terminal device in a connected state, the access network device may send the first information to the terminal device by a dedicated message. The dedicated message may be an RRC reconfiguration message, or may also be an RRC release message (for example, the access network device instructs the terminal device to release the RRC connection through the RRC release message, and carries the first information in the RRC release message). The access network device may acquire capability information of the terminal device, and if the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports application layer measurement of the broadcast service, the access network device sends first information to the terminal device; otherwise, the first information may not be sent to the terminal device, thereby saving transmission resources.

S302, the terminal equipment sends second information to the access network equipment according to the first information, wherein the second information is used for indicating that the terminal equipment is interested in the broadcast service, for example, the second information is used for indicating that the terminal equipment is interested in the first broadcast service.

The terminal device may acquire, according to the first information, application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service of the access network device, and may further send second information to the access network device.

The second information indicates that the terminal device is interested in the broadcast service, which may be a coarse-grained indication, that is, the second information only indicates that the terminal device is interested in the broadcast service, but does not indicate which broadcast services are particularly interested in; for example, when the first information sent by the access network device is an indication with coarse granularity, the second information fed back by the terminal device may also be an indication with coarse granularity, where in this case, if the terminal device is interested in the broadcast service, the second information may be sent to the access network device according to the first information; for another example, when the first information sent by the access network device is an indication with fine granularity, the second information fed back by the terminal device may also be an indication with coarse granularity, where in this case, if the terminal device is interested in any broadcast service in the at least one broadcast service, the second information may be sent to the access network device.

Or the second information may also be an indication of fine granularity, i.e. the second information indicates to the terminal device which broadcast services are of interest, and in particular which broadcast services, such as the first broadcast service, are of interest. For example, when the first information sent by the access network device is an indication with coarse granularity, the second information fed back by the terminal device may be an indication with fine granularity, where the second information may include an identification of all broadcast services interested by the terminal device. For another example, when the first information sent by the access network device is an indication of fine granularity, the second information fed back by the terminal device may be an indication of fine granularity, where the second information may include an identification of a broadcast service of interest to the terminal device in at least one broadcast service.

It will be appreciated that the second information is used to indicate that the terminal device is interested in the first broadcast service, and may be replaced by other possible descriptions, such as: the second information is used for indicating that the terminal device wants to receive the data of the first broadcast service, or wants to receive the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service, or is interested in the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service. Accordingly, the determination by the terminal device in the following description that a certain or some of the at least one broadcast service (such as the first broadcast service) is of interest may also be replaced by other possible descriptions, such as: the terminal device determines data or application layer measurement configuration information or interest in application layer measurement configuration information of a broadcast service or services, such as a first broadcast service, that is/are intended to be received by the terminal device.

S303, the access network equipment sends the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal equipment according to the second information; accordingly, the terminal device receives the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service.

Illustratively, if the second information in S302 is an indication of coarse granularity, in S303, the access network device may send application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service to the terminal device. If the second information in S302 is an indication of fine granularity, in S303, the access network device may send application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal device. The embodiment of the application is mainly described by taking the indication that the second information is fine granularity as an example.

As described above, when the terminal device receives the first information, the terminal device may be in a connected state or an idle state or inactive state, and specific implementation of S302 and S303 will be described below for terminal devices in different states respectively.

(1) Terminal equipment in idle state or inactive state

Case A1:

after receiving the first information, if it is determined that one or some of the at least one broadcast service (such as the first broadcast service) is interested, the terminal device may initiate an RRC setup procedure or an RRC recovery procedure (when the terminal device initiates the RRC setup procedure or the RRC recovery procedure, it is not necessary to consider whether the data of the first broadcast service is about to be received or is about to be received at present).

For example, the terminal device may send an RRC establishment request message or an RRC restoration request message to the access network device, where the RRC establishment request message or the RRC restoration request message includes the cause value and/or the second information, i.e. the terminal device sends the cause value and/or the second information to the access network device in the process of establishing or restoring the RRC connection between the terminal device and the access network device. The reason value is used for indicating that the reason for sending the RRC establishment request message or the RRC restoration request message to the access network equipment is the application layer measurement configuration information of the broadcast service. Accordingly, after receiving the RRC establishment request message or the RRC restoration request message, the access network device may send application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal device. Subsequently, when the terminal device receives the data of the first broadcast service, the terminal device may perform application layer measurement on the first broadcast service according to the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service.

The access network device may send the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal device through an RRC setup message or an RRC restore message (i.e., send the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal device in the process of establishing or restoring the RRC connection); or the access network device may also send the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal device through other possible messages after establishing or recovering the RRC connection, which is not limited in detail.

It will be appreciated that if the RRC setup request message or the RRC restoration request message includes a cause value without including the second information (indication of fine granularity), or may also be considered as the cause value being the second information (indication of coarse granularity), the access network device may consider that the terminal device is interested in all the at least one broadcast service and send application layer measurement configuration information of the at least one broadcast service to the terminal device. In this case, if the at least one broadcast service includes a first broadcast service and a second broadcast service, the terminal device is interested in the first broadcast service and is not interested in the second broadcast service, the terminal device may perform application layer measurement on the first broadcast service according to the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service, and ignore the application layer measurement configuration information of the second broadcast service.

If the RRC establishment request message or the RRC restoration request message includes the second information and does not include the cause value, it may be considered that the cause of the second information implicitly indicates that the RRC establishment request message or the RRC restoration request message is application layer measurement configuration information that needs to receive the broadcast service; or the second information may be considered as a cause value.

In other possible embodiments, the terminal device may initiate an RRC establishment procedure or an RRC recovery procedure to the access network device, and the access network device may obtain the second information according to the resources from which the terminal device initiates the RRC establishment procedure or the RRC recovery procedure. For example, the access network device can obtain the second information based on the random access preamble resource used by the terminal device. For example, the access network device allocates a specific random access preamble resource for the RRC setup procedure or the RRC recovery procedure initiated by the application layer measuring the configuration information, and the access network device can learn whether the terminal device initiates the RRC setup procedure or the RRC recovery procedure by the application layer measuring the configuration information according to the random access preamble resource.

Case A2:

After receiving the first information, if it is determined that one or some of the at least one broadcast service (such as the first broadcast service) is interested, an RRC setup procedure or an RRC recovery procedure may be initiated (when the terminal device initiates the RRC setup procedure or the RRC recovery procedure, it is not necessary to consider whether the data of the first broadcast service is about to be received or is about to be received at present) so as to establish or recover the RRC connection; after establishing or recovering the RRC connection, the terminal device may send second information to the access network device; the terminal device does not need to consider whether to receive or start receiving the data of the first broadcast service currently when initiating the RRC establishment procedure or the RRC recovery procedure and sending the second information. Accordingly, the access network device may send the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal device according to the second information.

That is, case A2 differs from case A1 in that: in case A1, the terminal device sends second information to the access network device during the process of establishing or recovering the RRC connection; in case A2, the terminal device sends the second information to the access network device after establishing or recovering the RRC connection. Other than this distinction, case A2 may refer to case A1.

Case A3:

after receiving the first information, if the terminal device determines that the terminal device is interested in one or some broadcast services (such as the first broadcast service) in the at least one broadcast service, the terminal device may initiate an RRC establishment procedure or an RRC recovery procedure when receiving or starting to receive the data of the first broadcast service; further, the terminal device may send the second information to the access network device during the process of establishing or recovering the RRC connection, or may send the second information to the access network device after the RRC connection is established or recovered.

Or after receiving the first information, the terminal equipment initiates an RRC establishment process or an RRC recovery process when receiving or starting to receive the data of the first broadcast service; further, the terminal device may send the second information to the access network device during the process of establishing or recovering the RRC connection, or may send the second information to the access network device after the RRC connection is established or recovered. Optionally, when the terminal device is about to receive or starts to receive the data of the first broadcast service, it may determine whether the first broadcast service belongs to at least one broadcast service, and if so, initiate an RRC establishment procedure or an RRC recovery procedure.

That is, case A3 differs from case A1 or A2 in that: in case A3, the terminal device initiates an RRC setup procedure or an RRC recovery procedure when receiving or starting to receive data of the first broadcast service. Other than this distinction, case A3 may refer to the description of case A1 or A2.

Case A4:

after receiving the first information, if it is determined that one or some of the at least one broadcast service (such as the first broadcast service) is interested, an RRC setup procedure or an RRC recovery procedure may be initiated (when the terminal device initiates the RRC setup procedure or the RRC recovery procedure, it is not necessary to consider whether the data of the first broadcast service is about to be received or is about to be received at present) so as to establish or recover the RRC connection; after establishing or recovering the RRC connection, if the terminal device determines that the data of the first broadcast service is to be received or starts to be received, the terminal device sends second information to the access network device.

In this case, the second information may be an MBS interest indication (MBS interest indication, MII) for indicating that the terminal device is about to receive or starts to receive or is receiving or interested in receiving the broadcast service.

It will be appreciated that the above emphasis describes the differences between the various situations, and that references may be made to different situations in addition to differences. In the above cases, after the access network device sends the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal device according to the second information, the terminal device may be triggered to enter an idle state or an inactive state, so as to reduce the burden of the access network device.

(2) Terminal equipment in connection state

Case B1:

after receiving the first information, the terminal device may send second information to the access network device if it is determined that one or some of the at least one broadcast service (e.g., the first broadcast service) is of interest. For example, the terminal device may send the second information to the access network device through an RRC message. When the terminal device transmits the second information, it is not necessary to consider whether the terminal device is about to receive or start receiving the data of the first broadcast service. Accordingly, the access network device may send the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal device according to the second information.

Case B2:

After receiving the first information, the terminal device may send second information to the access network device when immediately receiving or starting to receive the data of the first broadcast service if it is determined that the first broadcast service is interested in the at least one broadcast service. Or after receiving the first information, the terminal equipment sends second information to the access network equipment when receiving or starting to receive the data of the first broadcast service; optionally, when the terminal device is about to receive or starts to receive the data of the first broadcast service, it may determine whether the first broadcast service belongs to at least one broadcast service, and if yes, send the second information to the access network device.

In this case, the second information may be MII.

Case B3:

And after receiving the first information, the terminal equipment enters an idle state or a non-activated state. For example, the access network device sends the first information through the RRC release message, and then the terminal device may enter an idle state or an inactive state according to the RRC release message; for another example, after receiving the first information sent by the access network device, the terminal device receives an RRC release message sent by the access network device, and may further enter an idle state or an inactive state according to the RRC release message. Subsequently, the terminal device may initiate an RRC establishment procedure or an RRC recovery procedure when receiving or starting to receive the data of the first broadcast service immediately, and specifically, reference may be made to the above case A3.

In addition, in S303, as a possible implementation, the access network device may determine how many terminal devices are interested in the first broadcast service according to the second information, if the number of terminal devices interested in the first broadcast service is greater, the access network device may select a part of terminal devices from the plurality of terminal devices, and send the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the selected part of terminal devices, so that through flexible regulation of the access network device, it is avoided that there are more devices to report the application layer measurement result of the first broadcast service to the access network device, which results in a heavy burden of the access network device.

It will be appreciated that in other possible embodiments, after receiving the second information from the terminal device, the access network device may also determine, according to other possible reasons, whether to send the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal device. For example, the access network device may determine whether to send the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal device according to the capability information of the terminal device. The capability information of the terminal device can be reported to the access network device by the terminal device. For another example, the access network device may determine whether the terminal device is located in a measurement range corresponding to the first broadcast service, if so, may send application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal device, and if not, may not send application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal device.

The application layer measurement request message received by the access network device from the core network element or the OAM network element may include measurement range information corresponding to the first broadcast service, where the measurement range information is used to indicate a measurement range corresponding to the first broadcast service. The measurement range information may include at least one of: the measurement range includes an identification of at least one cell; an identification of at least one TA included in the measurement range; the identification of at least one TAI corresponding to the measurement range; the measurement range includes an identification of at least one PLMN.

Or the access network device can also not consider whether the terminal device is currently in the measurement range, in which case, the access network device can send the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service and the measurement range information corresponding to the first broadcast service to the terminal device according to the second information; correspondingly, after receiving the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service and the measurement range information corresponding to the first broadcast service, the terminal device may not perform application layer measurement on the first broadcast service first if the application layer measurement configuration information is not currently in the measurement range corresponding to the first broadcast service, and when the application layer measurement configuration information is entered into the measurement range corresponding to the first broadcast service, the terminal device may perform application layer measurement on the first broadcast service. That is, even if the terminal device is not currently within the measurement range corresponding to the first broadcast service, the access network device may send the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal device, so that the application layer measurement may be performed when the terminal device enters the measurement range.

By adopting the method, from the perspective of the access network equipment, the access network equipment can pointedly send the application layer measurement configuration information of the broadcast service to the terminal equipment (namely, send by unicast) according to the second information, thereby being convenient for flexible regulation and control of the access network equipment; from the point of view of the terminal device: when the terminal device is not interested in the first broadcast service, the terminal device may not send the second information to the access network device, and further, the access network device may not send the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal device any more.

For the first embodiment described above, the following points need to be described:

(1) In the above, the manner in which the terminal device determines the broadcast service that the terminal device is interested in may be various, for example, the terminal device may determine whether the broadcast service (such as the first broadcast service) is interested in according to the application layer information stored in the terminal device; the application layer information includes, for example, user service subscription (user service description, USD) information. For example, when the terminal device determines whether a broadcast service is interested in a certain broadcast service, the terminal device may ignore the time information that the broadcast service indicated in the USD starts to transmit, and may ignore some conditions (for example, whether SIB20/21 exists or not, and the frequency point of interest) required for transmitting the broadcast service interest information specified in the current protocol.

The specific implementation of the terminal device to determine that the data of the first broadcast service is to be received or to start to be received may be varied. For example, the USD information of the terminal device may include time information for starting transmission of the first broadcast service, and the terminal device may determine when to receive or start receiving data of the first broadcast service according to the time information. For another example, the terminal device may determine, according to the scheduling information of the access network device, that the data of the first broadcast service is to be received or starts to be received.

(2) In the above, the terminal device may initiate an RRC setup procedure or an RRC recovery procedure. In order to avoid that a plurality of terminal devices initiate an RRC establishment procedure or an RRC recovery procedure at the same time, resulting in a heavy burden on an access network device, the solution provided by the embodiment of the present application is: in the above cases, when the terminal device determines that the RRC establishment procedure or the RRC recovery procedure needs to be initiated, the terminal device may generate a random number, and if the random number is greater than or equal to the probability factor, the terminal device may initiate the RRC establishment procedure or the RRC recovery procedure; if the random number is smaller than the probability factor, the terminal device may not initiate the RRC establishment procedure or the RRC recovery procedure and start waiting, alternatively, when the waiting time of the terminal device is greater than or equal to the backoff time, the terminal device may initiate the RRC establishment procedure or the RRC recovery procedure.

The probability factor may be configured by the access network device for the terminal device, or may be predefined by the protocol, for example. The backoff time may be generated by the terminal device according to a backoff time range, for example, the backoff time range is [0,1] (in milliseconds), and the terminal device may randomly generate a backoff time according to [0,1], for example, the generated backoff time is 0.5 milliseconds, and when the waiting time of the terminal device is greater than or equal to 0.5 milliseconds, the terminal device may initiate an RRC establishment procedure or an RRC recovery procedure. The backoff time range may be configured by the access network device for the terminal device, or may be predefined by a protocol. In the embodiment of the present application, taking an example that the probability factor and/or the backoff time range is configured for the terminal device by the access network device, for example, the access network device may send third information (for example, send in a broadcast manner) to the terminal device, where the third information is used to indicate the probability factor and/or the backoff time range; accordingly, the terminal device may receive the third information, and obtain the probability factor and/or the backoff time range according to the third information.

The embodiment of the application provides a further solution scheme as follows: the access network device broadcasts indication information to indicate whether to allow the terminal device to initiate an RRC setup procedure or an RRC recovery procedure in the current cell due to the application layer measuring configuration information for receiving the broadcast service. For example, the access network device broadcasts indication information 1 in a cell 1 of the access network device, where the indication information 1 indicates that the terminal device is allowed to initiate an RRC establishment procedure or an RRC recovery procedure in the cell 1 due to receiving application layer measurement configuration information of a broadcast service; and, the access network device broadcasts indication information 2 in a cell 2 of the access network device, wherein the indication information 2 indicates that the terminal device is not allowed to initiate an RRC establishment procedure or an RRC recovery procedure in the cell 2 due to the application layer measuring configuration information of the received broadcast service. In this way, by flexibly adjusting the indication information broadcast in different cells, a large number of terminal devices can be prevented from initiating an RRC establishment procedure or an RRC recovery procedure at the same time.

(3) In the embodiment of the present application, management-based application layer measurement is taken as an example, and the method described above may also be applied to signaling-based application layer measurement. In the signaling-based application layer measurement, the access network device may send first information to the specific terminal device, and correspondingly, the specific terminal device sends second information to the access network device according to the first information; furthermore, the access network device can learn the broadcast service of interest of the specific terminal device according to the second information, and send the application layer measurement configuration information of the broadcast service of interest of the specific terminal device to the specific terminal device. Therefore, the access network device can only send the application layer measurement configuration information of the broadcasting service which is interested by the specific terminal device to the characteristic terminal device, and does not send the application layer measurement configuration information of the broadcasting service which is not interested, so that the cost of transmission resources is conveniently saved.

Based on the description of the first embodiment, three possible implementation flows are described below in conjunction with fig. 4, 5 and 6, respectively.

Fig. 4 is a flow chart corresponding to a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 4, the method includes:

s401, the access network equipment acquires the application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service.

For example, the access network device receives an application layer measurement request message from the OAM network element, the application layer measurement request message including application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service.

S402, the terminal equipment sends capability information of the terminal equipment to the access network equipment, wherein the capability information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to support the application layer measurement of the broadcast service; accordingly, the access network device receives capability information of the terminal device. Wherein the terminal device is in a connected state.

S403, the access network equipment sends first information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first information is used for indicating the application layer measurement configuration information of the access network equipment with at least one broadcast service; accordingly, the terminal device receives and stores the first information.

For example, after determining, according to the capability information of the terminal device, that the terminal device supports the application layer measurement of the broadcast service, the access network device may send first information through an RRC message (such as an RRC reconfiguration message), where the first information may include an identifier of at least one broadcast service.

S404, the access network equipment sends RRC release information to the terminal equipment to instruct the terminal equipment to enter an idle state or an inactive state; correspondingly, after receiving the RRC release message, the terminal equipment enters an idle state or a non-activated state according to the RRC release message.

Here, when the terminal device enters the idle state or the inactive state from the connected state, the first information is not released, i.e. the first information is still stored.

S405, the terminal device determines that the data of the first broadcast service is about to be received or starts to be received or is of interest, and the first broadcast service belongs to at least one broadcast service.

S406, the terminal equipment initiates an RRC establishment procedure or an RRC recovery procedure to establish or recover the RRC connection between the terminal equipment and the access network equipment.

S407, the terminal equipment sends capability information of the terminal equipment to the access network equipment, wherein the capability information is used for indicating the capability information of the application layer measurement of the terminal equipment supporting the broadcast service, and the capability information is used for indicating the application layer measurement of the terminal equipment supporting the broadcast service.

It will be appreciated that, if the terminal device enters the connection state from the idle state, the access network device may release the related information (such as the capability information) of the terminal device when the terminal device enters the idle state, so that the capability information of the terminal device may be sent to the access network device after the terminal device enters the connection state (i.e. S407 is executed). If the terminal device enters the idle state from the inactive state, the access network device may not release the related information (such as the capability information) of the terminal device when the terminal device enters the inactive state, so that after the terminal device enters the connected state, the capability information of the terminal device may not need to be sent to the access network device (i.e. S407 is not executed).

S408, the terminal equipment sends second information to the access network equipment, wherein the second information is used for indicating that the terminal equipment is interested in the first broadcast service.

Here, the second information may include an identification of the first broadcast service, for example, the second information may be MII.

S409, the access network device receives the second information and sends the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal device.

Optionally, when the access network device sends the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal device, the access network device also sends the identifier of the first broadcast service and/or the application layer measurement identifier corresponding to the application layer measurement configuration information to the terminal device.

S410, the access network equipment sends an RRC release message to the terminal equipment to instruct the terminal equipment to enter an idle state or an inactive state; correspondingly, after receiving the RRC release message, the terminal equipment enters an idle state or a non-activated state according to the RRC release message.

S411, the terminal equipment receives the data of the first broadcast service in the idle state or the inactive state, and performs application layer measurement on the first broadcast service according to the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service.

Fig. 5 is a flow chart corresponding to a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 5, the method includes:

S501, the access network equipment acquires application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service.

S502, an access network device sends first information, wherein the first information is used for indicating that the access network device has application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service; correspondingly, the terminal equipment in the idle state or the inactive state receives and stores the first information.

S503, the terminal device determines that the data of the first broadcast service is about to be received or starts to be received or is of interest, and the first broadcast service belongs to at least one broadcast service.

S504, the terminal device initiates an RRC setup procedure or an RRC restoration procedure to establish or restore an RRC connection between the terminal device and the access network device.

S505, the terminal equipment sends capability information of the terminal equipment to the access network equipment, wherein the capability information is used for indicating the capability information of the application layer measurement of the terminal equipment supporting the broadcast service, and the capability information is used for indicating the application layer measurement of the terminal equipment supporting the broadcast service.

S506, the terminal equipment sends second information to the access network equipment, wherein the second information is used for indicating that the terminal equipment is interested in the first broadcast service.

S507, the access network device receives the second information and sends the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal device.

S508, the access network equipment sends RRC release information to the terminal equipment to instruct the terminal equipment to enter an idle state or an inactive state; correspondingly, after receiving the RRC release message, the terminal equipment enters an idle state or a non-activated state according to the RRC release message.

S509, the terminal device receives the data of the first broadcast service in the idle state or inactive state, and performs application layer measurement on the first broadcast service according to the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service.

Optionally, before S508 and S509, the terminal device may also receive the data of the first broadcast service in a connected state and perform application layer measurement on the first broadcast service.

Fig. 6 is a flow chart corresponding to a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 6, the method includes:

S601, the access network equipment acquires application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service.

S602, terminal equipment sends capability information of the terminal equipment to access network equipment, wherein the capability information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to support application layer measurement of broadcast service; accordingly, the access network device receives capability information of the terminal device. Wherein the terminal device is in a connected state.

S603, the access network equipment sends first information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first information is used for indicating the application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service of the access network equipment; accordingly, the terminal device receives and stores the first information.

And S604, if the terminal equipment determines that the terminal equipment is interested in the first broadcast service in the at least one broadcast service according to the first information, sending second information to the access network equipment, wherein the second information is used for indicating that the terminal equipment is interested in the first broadcast service.

Here, the second information may include an identification of the first broadcast service. It will be appreciated that the second information is herein distinguished from MII, which is information transmitted under specific conditions (e.g. when the terminal device is receiving or is about to receive data of a broadcast service, the terminal device will transmit the MII), and the terminal device transmits the second information, which may not need to be considered.

S605, the access network equipment receives the second information and sends the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal equipment.

S606, the access network equipment sends an RRC release message to the terminal equipment to instruct the terminal equipment to enter an idle state or an inactive state; correspondingly, after receiving the RRC release message, the terminal equipment enters an idle state or a non-activated state according to the RRC release message.

S607, the terminal device receives the data of the first broadcast service in idle state or inactive state, and performs application layer measurement on the first broadcast service according to the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service.

Optionally, before S606 and S607, the terminal device may also receive the data of the first broadcast service in the connected state and perform an application layer measurement on the first broadcast service.

It will be appreciated that in fig. 4 to 6 described above, the specific implementation of each step may be referred to the description in the first embodiment. The above emphasis describes the differences of fig. 4 to 6, and other matters except the differences can be referred to each other.

Example two

In the first embodiment, the access network device sends the application layer measurement configuration information of the broadcast service to the terminal device in a unicast manner. In the second embodiment, the access network device may send, by broadcasting, application layer measurement configuration information of a broadcast service to the terminal device, and two possible implementation flows are described below with reference to fig. 7 and 8.

Fig. 7 is a flow chart corresponding to the communication method provided in the second embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 7, the method includes:

s701, an access network device sends first information; accordingly, the terminal device may receive the first information.

For example, the access network device may send the first information by broadcasting. The first information may include application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service including the first broadcast service. Unlike the first embodiment, the first information of the first embodiment does not include application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service.

S702, the terminal equipment sends second information to the access network equipment according to the first information, wherein the second information is used for indicating that the terminal equipment is interested in the broadcast service, for example, the second information is used for indicating that the terminal equipment is interested in the first broadcast service.

Here, the implementation of the terminal device sending the second information to the access network device may refer to the first embodiment. The difference from the first embodiment is that: if the terminal device sends the second information through the RRC establishment request message or the RRC restoration request message, after receiving the second information, the access network device may learn that the purpose of establishing or restoring the RRC connection by the terminal device is to send the second information to the access network device, and may further refuse to establish or restore the RRC connection, so as to reduce the burden of the access network device.

In this way, the access network device can learn that the terminal device is interested in the first broadcast service according to the second information reported by the terminal device, that is, the terminal device can execute application layer measurement on the first broadcast service, thereby being convenient for regulation and control of the access network device. For example, after the access network device learns that the number of terminal devices performing application layer measurement on the first broadcast service reaches a certain threshold, the access network device may stop broadcasting the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service; or after the access network device receives the second information, the access network device sends indication information to the OAM network element to indicate that the terminal device is interested in the first broadcast service, so that the OAM network element can know the terminal device executing the application layer measurement on the first broadcast service. After the number of terminal devices performing application layer measurement on the first broadcast service reaches a certain threshold, the OAM network element may send a message for releasing the application layer measurement of the first broadcast service to the access network device, and then the access network device may stop broadcasting the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service.

Fig. 8 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method according to a second embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 8, the method includes:

S801, an access network device sends first information, wherein the first information is used for triggering a terminal device to report second information; accordingly, the terminal device may receive the first information.

For example, the first information is used to indicate application layer measurement configuration information of the access network device having at least one broadcast service.

Here, the specific implementation of the access network device transmitting the first information refers to the first embodiment.

S802, the terminal equipment sends second information to the access network equipment according to the first information, wherein the second information is used for indicating that the terminal equipment is interested in the broadcast service, for example, the second information is used for indicating that the terminal equipment is interested in the first broadcast service.

Here, specific implementation of the terminal device sending the second information to the access network device may refer to S702.

S803, the access network device sends application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service; accordingly, the terminal device receives application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service.

In the embodiment of the present application, the execution order of S801 and S803 may not be limited.

The access network device may transmit the application layer measurement configuration information of the at least one broadcast service by broadcasting, for example. The terminal device receives the application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service, and if the terminal device is interested in the first broadcast service, the terminal device can perform application layer measurement on the first broadcast service according to the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service.

In this way, the access network device can learn that the terminal device is interested in the first broadcast service according to the second information reported by the terminal device, that is, the terminal device can execute application layer measurement on the first broadcast service, thereby being convenient for regulation and control of the access network device.

Example III

In the above-described embodiment one or embodiment two, the description has been made of the implementation of the application layer measurement configuration information for the access network device to transmit the first broadcast service to the terminal device. In the third embodiment, research will be mainly conducted on the implementation related to the application layer measurement result of the first broadcast service reported by the terminal device to the access network device.

Fig. 9 is a flow chart corresponding to a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 9, the method includes:

S901, a first access network device sends application layer measurement configuration information of a first broadcast service to a terminal device; accordingly, the terminal device receives the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service.

For example, the specific implementation of S901 may refer to the description in embodiment one.

Optionally, the first access network device may send, in addition to the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal device, a QoE reference, an application layer measurement identifier to the terminal device (i.e. the AS layer of the terminal device), and further optionally, an identifier of the MCE to the terminal device (i.e. the AS layer of the terminal device). As described above, there is a correspondence between QoE reference and application layer measurement identities. The application layer measurement identities allocated by the first access network device to different terminal devices may be different for the same application layer measurement (or the same QoE reference).

The identity of the MCE may have a correspondence with the address information of the MCE. The access network device sends the identity of the MCE to the terminal device instead of sending the address information of the MCE, so that the security problem caused by the access network device sending the address information of the MCE to the terminal device can be effectively avoided. The OAM network element may allocate an MCE identifier to the address information of each MCE, and notify the access network device of the correspondence between the MCE address information and the MCE identifier, so that when the application layer measurement result reported by the terminal device carries the MCE identifier, the access network device may know the MCE address information corresponding to the application layer measurement result.

Alternatively, the AS layer of the terminal device may send the QoE reference and the application layer measurement identity to an upper layer of the AS layer of the terminal device.

Optionally, the AS layer of the terminal device may preserve the correspondence between QoE reference and the application layer measurement identity.

S902, the terminal equipment performs application layer measurement on the first broadcast service.

Here, when the terminal device starts receiving data of the first broadcast service, the terminal device may start application layer measurement of the first broadcast service. The terminal device may receive the data of the first broadcast service in an idle state or an inactive state or a connection state.

S903, the terminal device sends the application layer measurement result of the first broadcast service to the second access network device.

The terminal device may send the application layer measurement result of the first broadcast service to the second access network device after accessing the second access network device.

For example, one possible scenario is: in S901, after receiving, in a connection state, application layer measurement configuration information of a first broadcast service sent by a first access network device, a terminal device enters an idle state; in S902, the terminal device receives data of the first broadcast service in an idle state, and performs application layer measurement on the first broadcast service; in S903, the terminal device accesses the second access network device, and sends an application layer measurement result of the first broadcast service to the second access network device.

The second access network device and the first access network device may be the same access network device, in which case, when the terminal device enters an idle state, the first access network device releases relevant information of the terminal device, such as a corresponding relationship between a QoE reference and an application layer measurement identifier allocated to the terminal device; or the second access network device and the first access network device may be different access network devices, in which case there is no information about the terminal device in the second access network device, such as a correspondence between QoE reference and an application layer measurement identifier allocated for the terminal device (such as the terminal device moving from the coverage area of the first access network device to the coverage area of the second access network device in an idle state, and accessing the second access network device, so there is no information about the terminal device in the second access network device).

For the scene, when the terminal equipment reports the application layer measurement result of the first broadcast service to the second access network equipment for the first time, the terminal equipment can carry QoE reference and an application layer measurement identifier corresponding to the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service; accordingly, the second access network device may preserve the correspondence between QoE reference and the application layer measurement identity. And then, when the terminal equipment reports the application layer measurement result of the first broadcast service to the second access network equipment, the terminal equipment can carry the corresponding application layer measurement identifier without carrying the corresponding QoE reference. It should be noted that, the QoE reference and the application layer measurement identifier are specific to one application layer measurement configuration information, and if the application layer measurement information is used for a plurality of broadcast services, the QoE reference and the application layer measurement identifier are the same for the application layer measurement results of the broadcast services. In this case, after that, when the terminal device subsequently reports the application layer measurement results of the other services except the first broadcast service in these broadcast services, the terminal device may carry the corresponding application layer measurement identifier, without carrying the corresponding QoE reference.

Optionally, when the terminal device reports the application layer measurement result of the first broadcast service to the second access network device for the first time, the terminal device may also carry the identifier of the corresponding MCE; accordingly, the second access network device may save the identity of the MCE. And then, when the terminal equipment reports the application layer measurement result of the first broadcast service to the second access network equipment, the terminal equipment does not need to carry the corresponding MCE identifier. If the application layer measurement configuration information is used for a plurality of broadcast services, then, when the terminal device reports the application layer measurement results of other services except the first broadcast service in the broadcast services, the corresponding application layer measurement identifier can be carried without carrying the identifier of the corresponding MCE.

Optionally, the second access network device may further send indication information to the terminal device, where the indication information indicates whether the measurement result measured by the application layer is carrying the QoE reference and/or the MCE identifier after the first report of the measurement result of the application layer by the terminal device. If the indication information indicates that the terminal equipment does not need to be carried, after the terminal equipment reports the measurement result of the application layer of the broadcast service for the first time, the terminal equipment does not need to carry the mark of QoE reference and/or MCE when reporting the measurement result of the application layer again; otherwise, the terminal equipment needs to be carried.

S904, when the terminal equipment is switched from the second access network equipment to the third access network equipment, the second access network equipment sends the corresponding relation between QoE reference and application layer measurement identification aiming at the terminal equipment to the third access network equipment.

Optionally, the second access network device may also send, to the third access network device, address information or MCE ID of the MCE corresponding to the application layer measurement of the terminal device (i.e. the application layer measurement identified by QoE reference above).

S905, the terminal device sends the application layer measurement result of the first broadcast service to the third access network device.

Here, when the terminal device sends the application layer measurement result of the first broadcast service to the third access network device, only the application layer measurement identifier may be carried, and the QoE reference may not be carried. After receiving the application layer measurement identifier from the terminal device, the third access network device can acquire the QoE reference corresponding to the application layer measurement result according to the corresponding relationship between the QoE reference and the application layer measurement identifier sent by the second access network device, so that the third access network device can send the QoE reference and the application layer measurement result to the MCE corresponding to the application layer measurement.

Optionally, when the terminal device sends the application layer measurement result of the first broadcast service to the third access network device, the terminal device may not need to carry the identifier of the MCE corresponding to the application layer measurement. After receiving the application layer measurement identifier from the terminal device, the third access network device can learn the identifier of the MCE or the address information of the MCE corresponding to the application layer measurement result according to the identifier of the MCE or the address information of the MCE and the application layer measurement identifier, which MCE the application layer measurement result should be sent to. If the application layer measurement information is used for a plurality of broadcast services, when the terminal device reports the application layer measurement results of other services except the first broadcast service in the broadcast services, the terminal device can carry the corresponding application layer measurement identifier without carrying the identifiers of the corresponding QoE reference and the MCE.

Among them, S904 and S905 are optional steps.

That is, after the terminal device enters the connection state from the idle state, the QoE reference and the application layer measurement identifier may be carried when the application layer measurement result of the broadcast service is reported to the access network device for the first time, and the QoE reference (optionally, the identifier of the MCE may not be carried) may not be carried when the application layer measurement result is reported again. Thus, since the QoE reference is globally unique, the number of occupied bits is large (for example, the QoE reference may occupy 6 bytes, and the MCE identifier may occupy 1 byte), so that the resource overhead for reporting the application layer measurement result of the broadcast service can be effectively reduced.

It can be understood that, if the terminal device receives, in the connected state, the configuration information of the application layer measurement of the first broadcast service sent by the first access network device, and then is in the connected state (i.e. receives, in the connected state, the data of the first broadcast service and performs application layer measurement on the first broadcast service) or in the inactive state (i.e. does not enter the idle state), the terminal device may not need to carry QoE reference (optionally, may not need to carry an MCE identifier) each time the terminal device reports the measurement result of the application layer of the broadcast service to the access network device.

With respect to the first to third embodiments described above, it can be understood that:

(1) The above emphasis describes the differences between the different embodiments of the first to third embodiments, and the first to third embodiments may be referred to each other, except for the other differences; furthermore, in the same embodiment, different implementations or different examples may also be referred to each other.

(2) The step numbers of the flowcharts described in the first to third embodiments are only an example of the execution flow, and do not limit the execution sequence of the steps, and in the embodiment of the present application, there is no strict execution sequence between the steps that have no time sequence dependency relationship with each other. Not all of the steps illustrated in the various flowcharts need to be performed, some of the steps may be deleted based on the various flowcharts as desired, or other steps may be added based on the various flowcharts as desired.

The scheme provided by the embodiment of the application is mainly introduced from the interaction point of the terminal equipment and the access network equipment. It will be appreciated that in order to achieve the above described functionality, the terminal device and the access network device may comprise corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules performing the respective functionality. Those of skill in the art will readily appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as hardware or combinations of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is implemented as hardware or computer software driven hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

The embodiment of the application can divide the functional units of the terminal equipment and the access network equipment according to the method example, for example, each functional unit can be divided corresponding to each function, and two or more functions can be integrated in one unit. The integrated units may be implemented in hardware or in software functional units.

Fig. 10 shows a possible exemplary block diagram of the apparatus involved in an embodiment of the application. As shown in fig. 10, the apparatus 1000 may include: a processing unit 1002, and a communication unit 1003. The processing unit 1002 is configured to control and manage operations of the apparatus 1000. The communication unit 1003 is used to support communication of the apparatus 1000 with other devices. Alternatively, the communication unit 1003, also referred to as a transceiver unit, may include a receiving unit and/or a transmitting unit for performing receiving and transmitting operations, respectively. The apparatus 1000 may further comprise a storage unit 1001 for storing program code and/or data of the apparatus 1000.

The apparatus 1000 may be a terminal device in the above embodiment, or may also be a component (e.g., a circuit or a chip) provided in the terminal device. The processing unit 1002 may support the apparatus 1000 to perform the actions of the terminal device in the examples of the methods above. Or the processing unit 1002 mainly performs internal actions of the terminal device in the method example, the communication unit 1003 may support communication between the apparatus 1000 and other devices.

For example, in one embodiment, the processing unit 1002 is configured to: receiving first information from an access network device, the first information being used to indicate that the access network device has application layer measurement configuration information for at least one broadcast service, the at least one broadcast service including a first broadcast service; and sending second information to the access network device according to the first information, wherein the second information is used for indicating that the terminal device is interested in the first broadcast service; and receiving application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service from the access network equipment, wherein the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service is used for carrying out application layer measurement on the first broadcast service, and the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service is sent according to the second information.

In one possible design, the communication unit 1003 is specifically configured to: receiving a broadcast message from the access network device, the broadcast message including the first information; or receiving a dedicated message from the access network device, the dedicated message comprising the first information.

In one possible design, the communication unit 1003 is specifically configured to: sending an RRC message to the access network device, the RRC message including the second information; wherein the terminal device is in a connected state.

In one possible design, before the communication unit 1003 sends an RRC message to the access network device, the processing unit 1002 is configured to: determining that the data of the first broadcast service is about to be received or is about to be received.

In one possible design, the communication unit 1003 is specifically configured to: and sending an RRC establishment request message or an RRC recovery request message to the access network equipment, wherein the RRC establishment request message or the RRC recovery request message comprises the second information.

In one possible design, the communication unit 1003 is specifically configured to: sending an RRC establishment request message or an RRC recovery request message to the access network equipment; and after establishing or recovering the RRC connection between the terminal equipment and the access network equipment, sending the second information to the access network equipment.

In one possible design, before the communication unit 1003 sends the second information to the access network device, the processing unit 1002 is configured to: determining that the data of the first broadcast service is about to be received or is about to be received.

In one possible design, before the communication unit 1003 sends an RRC setup request message or an RRC resume request message to the access network device, the processing unit 1002 is configured to: determining that the data of the first broadcast service is about to be received or is about to be received.

In one possible design, before the communication unit 1003 sends an RRC setup request message or an RRC resume request message to the access network device, the processing unit 1002 is configured to: generating a first random number, wherein the first random number is greater than or equal to a probability factor; or generating a second random number, wherein the second random number is smaller than the probability factor, and the waiting time of the terminal equipment is larger than or equal to the back-off time.

In one possible design, the communication unit 1003 is further configured to: third information from the access network device is received, wherein the third information is used for indicating the probability factor and/or a back-off time range, and the back-off time range is used for determining the back-off time.

The apparatus 1000 may be an access network device in the above embodiment, or may also be a component (e.g. a circuit or a chip) provided in the access network device. The processing unit 1002 may enable the apparatus 1000 to perform the actions of the access network device in the examples of the methods above. Or the processing unit 1002 mainly performs internal actions of the access network device in the method example, the communication unit 1003 may support communication between the apparatus 1000 and other devices.

For example, in one embodiment, the communication unit 1003 is configured to: transmitting first information, wherein the first information is used for indicating application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service of the access network equipment, and the at least one broadcast service comprises a first broadcast service; receiving second information from a terminal device, the second information being used to indicate that the terminal device is interested in the first broadcast service, the second information being transmitted according to the first information; and sending the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal equipment according to the second information, wherein the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service is used for carrying out application layer measurement on the first broadcast service.

In one possible design, the communication unit 1003 is specifically configured to: transmitting a broadcast message, the broadcast message including the first information; or sending a dedicated message to the terminal device, the dedicated message comprising the first information.

In one possible design, the communication unit 1003 is specifically configured to: and receiving an RRC message from the terminal equipment in a connection state, wherein the RRC message comprises the second information.

In one possible design, the communication unit 1003 is specifically configured to: and receiving an RRC establishment request message from the terminal equipment in an idle state or an RRC recovery request message from the terminal equipment in an inactive state, wherein the RRC establishment request message or the RRC recovery request message comprises the second information.

In one possible design, the communication unit 1003 is specifically configured to: receiving an RRC establishment request message from the terminal equipment in an idle state or an RRC recovery request message from the terminal equipment in a non-active state; and after establishing or recovering the RRC connection between the terminal equipment and the access network equipment, receiving the second information from the terminal equipment.

It should be understood that the division of the units in the above apparatus is merely a division of a logic function, and may be fully or partially integrated into a physical entity or may be physically separated when actually implemented. And the units in the device can be all realized in the form of software calls through the processing element; or can be realized in hardware; it is also possible that part of the units are implemented in the form of software, which is called by the processing element, and part of the units are implemented in the form of hardware. For example, each unit may be a processing element that is set up separately, may be implemented as integrated in a certain chip of the apparatus, or may be stored in a memory in the form of a program, and the functions of the unit may be called and executed by a certain processing element of the apparatus. Furthermore, all or part of these units may be integrated together or may be implemented independently. The processing element described herein may in turn be a processor, which may be an integrated circuit with signal processing capabilities. In implementation, the operations of the above methods or the above units may be implemented by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor element or in the form of software calls through a processing element.

In one example, the unit in any of the above apparatuses may be one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the above methods, for example: one or more Application SPECIFIC INTEGRATED Circuits (ASIC), or one or more microprocessors (DIGITAL SINGNAL processors, DSP), or one or more field programmable gate arrays (field programmable GATE ARRAY, FPGA), or a combination of at least two of these integrated circuit forms. For another example, when the units in the apparatus may be implemented in the form of a scheduler of processing elements, the processing elements may be processors, such as a general purpose central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), or other processor that may invoke a program. For another example, the units may be integrated together and implemented in the form of a system-on-a-chip (SOC).

The above unit for receiving is an interface circuit of the device for receiving signals from other devices. For example, when the device is implemented in the form of a chip, the receiving unit is an interface circuit of the chip for receiving signals from other chips or devices. The above unit for transmitting is an interface circuit of the apparatus for transmitting signals to other apparatuses. For example, when the device is implemented in the form of a chip, the transmitting unit is an interface circuit of the chip for transmitting signals to other chips or devices.

Referring to fig. 11, a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application is provided, so as to implement the operation of the terminal device in the above embodiment. As shown in fig. 11, the terminal device includes: an antenna 1110, a radio frequency portion 1120, a signal processing portion 1130. The antenna 1110 is connected to the radio frequency section 1120. In the downlink direction, the radio frequency part 1120 receives information transmitted from the access network device through the antenna 1110, and transmits the information transmitted from the access network device to the signal processing part 1130 for processing. In the uplink direction, the signal processing portion 1130 processes information of the terminal and sends the processed information to the radio frequency portion 1120, and the radio frequency portion 1120 processes information of the terminal and sends the processed information to the access network device through the antenna 1110.

The signal processing portion 1130 may include a modem subsystem for implementing processing of the various communication protocol layers of data; the system also comprises a central processing subsystem for realizing the processing of the terminal operating system and the application layer; in addition, other subsystems, such as a multimedia subsystem for enabling control of a terminal camera, screen display, etc., a peripheral subsystem for enabling connection with other devices, etc., may also be included. The modem subsystem may be a separately provided chip.

The modem subsystem may include one or more processing elements 1131, including, for example, a host CPU and other integrated circuits. In addition, the modulation and demodulation subsystem may also include a storage element 1132 and an interface circuit 1133. The storage element 1132 is used to store data and programs, but the programs used to perform the methods performed by the terminal in the above methods may not be stored in the storage element 1132, but in a memory other than the modulation and demodulation subsystem, which is loaded for use. Interface circuit 1133 is used to communicate with other subsystems.

The modulation and demodulation subsystem may be implemented by a chip comprising at least one processing element for performing the steps of any of the methods performed by the above terminals and interface circuitry for communicating with other devices. In one implementation, the unit of the terminal implementing each step in the above method may be implemented in the form of a processing element scheduler, for example, the apparatus for a terminal includes a processing element and a storage element, and the processing element invokes the program stored in the storage element to perform the method performed by the terminal in the above method embodiment. The memory element may be a memory element on the same chip as the processing element, i.e. an on-chip memory element.

In another implementation, the program for executing the method executed by the terminal in the above method may be a storage element on a different chip than the processing element, i.e. an off-chip storage element. At this time, the processing element calls or loads a program from the off-chip storage element on the on-chip storage element to call and execute the method executed by the terminal in the above method embodiment.

In yet another implementation, the unit of the terminal implementing each step in the above method may be configured as one or more processing elements, which are disposed on the modem subsystem, where the processing elements may be integrated circuits, for example: one or more ASICs, or one or more DSPs, or one or more FPGAs, or a combination of these types of integrated circuits. These integrated circuits may be integrated together to form a chip.

The units of the terminal for realizing the steps in the method can be integrated together and realized in the form of an SOC (system on chip) which is used for realizing the method. At least one processing element and a storage element can be integrated in the chip, and the processing element invokes the stored program of the storage element to implement the method executed by the terminal; or at least one integrated circuit may be integrated in the chip for implementing the method performed by the above terminal; or may be combined with the above implementation, the functions of part of the units are implemented in the form of processing element calling programs, and the functions of part of the units are implemented in the form of integrated circuits.

It will be seen that the above apparatus for a terminal may comprise at least one processing element and interface circuitry, wherein the at least one processing element is adapted to perform any of the methods performed by the terminal provided by the above method embodiments. The processing element may be configured in a first manner: that is, a part or all of the steps executed by the terminal are executed in a mode of calling the program stored in the storage element; the second way is also possible: i.e. by means of integrated logic circuitry of hardware in the processor element in combination with instructions to perform part or all of the steps performed by the terminal; of course, it is also possible to perform part or all of the steps performed by the terminal in combination with the first and second modes.

The processing elements herein are as described above and may be implemented by a processor, and the functions of the processing elements may be the same as those of the processing units described in fig. 10. Illustratively, the processing element may be a general-purpose processor, such as a CPU, and may also be one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the above methods, such as: one or more ASICs, or one or more microprocessor DSPs, or one or more FPGAs, etc., or a combination of at least two of these integrated circuit forms. The memory element may be implemented by a memory, and the function of the memory element may be the same as that of the memory cell described in fig. 10. The memory element may be one memory or may be a collective term for a plurality of memories.

The terminal shown in fig. 11 is capable of implementing the various processes related to the terminal in the above-described method embodiment. The operations and/or functions of the respective modules in the terminal shown in fig. 11 are respectively for implementing the corresponding flows in the above-described method embodiment. Reference is specifically made to the description of the above method embodiments, and detailed descriptions are omitted here as appropriate to avoid redundancy.

Referring to fig. 12, a schematic structural diagram of an access network device according to an embodiment of the present application is provided, where the access network device (or a base station) may be applied to a system architecture shown in fig. 1, and perform the functions of the access network device in the foregoing method embodiment. As shown in fig. 12, access network device 120 may include one or more DUs 1201 and one or more CUs 1202. The DU 1201 may include at least one antenna 12011, at least one radio frequency unit 12012, at least one processor 12013, and at least one memory 12014. The DU 1201 is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals, converting radio frequency signals into baseband signals, and processing part of baseband signals. CU1202 may include at least one processor 12022 and at least one memory 12021.

The CU 1202 part is mainly used for baseband processing, control of access network devices, and the like. The DU 1201 and CU 1202 may be physically located together or may be physically separate, i.e. distributed base stations. The CU 1202 is a control center of the access network device, and may also be referred to as a processing unit, and is mainly configured to perform a baseband processing function. For example, the CU 1202 may be configured to control the access network device to perform the operation procedure of the method embodiment described above with respect to the access network device.

Further, access network device 120 may optionally include one or more radio units, one or more DUs, and one or more CUs. Wherein the DU may include at least one processor 12013 and at least one memory 12014, the radio frequency unit may include at least one antenna 12011 and at least one radio frequency unit 12012, and the cu may include at least one processor 12022 and at least one memory 12021.

In an example, the CU1202 may be configured by one or more boards, where the multiple boards may support a single access indicated radio access network (such as a 5G network) together, or may support radio access networks of different access schemes (such as an LTE network, a 5G network, or other networks) respectively. The memory 12021 and processor 12022 may serve one or more boards. That is, the memory and the processor may be separately provided on each board. It is also possible that multiple boards share the same memory and processor. In addition, each single board can be provided with necessary circuits. The DU1201 may be formed by one or more single boards, where the multiple single boards may support a single access indicated radio access network (such as a 5G network), or may support radio access networks of different access schemes (such as an LTE network, a 5G network, or other networks). The memory 12014 and processor 12013 may serve one or more boards. That is, the memory and the processor may be separately provided on each board. It is also possible that multiple boards share the same memory and processor. In addition, each single board can be provided with necessary circuits.

The access network device shown in fig. 12 is capable of implementing the various procedures described above in connection with the access network device in the method embodiments. The operations and/or functions of the respective modules in the access network device shown in fig. 12 are respectively for implementing the corresponding flows in the above-described method embodiments. Reference is specifically made to the description of the above method embodiments, and detailed descriptions are omitted here as appropriate to avoid redundancy.

The terms "system" and "network" in embodiments of the application may be used interchangeably. "at least one" means one or more, and "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: cases where A alone, both A and B together, and B alone, where A and B may be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the context-dependent object is an "or" relationship. "at least one of" or the like means any combination of these items, including any combination of single item(s) or plural items(s). For example, "at least one of A, B, or C" includes A, B, C, AB, AC, BC, or ABC, "at least one of A, B, and C" may also be understood to include A, B, C, AB, AC, BC, or ABC. And, unless otherwise specified, references to "first," "second," etc. ordinal words of embodiments of the present application are used for distinguishing between multiple objects and not for defining a sequence, timing, priority, or importance of the multiple objects.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that embodiments of the present application may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present application may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present application may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

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

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

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

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the present application without departing from the spirit or scope of the application. Thus, it is intended that the present application also include such modifications and alterations insofar as they come within the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that the method is applied to a terminal device or a chip in the terminal device, the method comprising:

Receiving first information from an access network device, the first information being used to indicate that the access network device has application layer measurement configuration information for at least one broadcast service, the at least one broadcast service including a first broadcast service;

Transmitting second information to the access network device according to the first information, wherein the second information is used for indicating that the terminal device is interested in the first broadcast service;

And receiving application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service from the access network equipment, wherein the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service is used for carrying out application layer measurement on the first broadcast service.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the first information from the access network device comprises:

receiving a broadcast message from the access network device, the broadcast message including the first information; or alternatively

A dedicated message is received from the access network device, the dedicated message comprising the first information.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said sending second information to the access network device comprises:

Transmitting a radio resource control, RRC, message to the access network device, the RRC message including the second information; wherein the terminal device is in a connected state.

4. A method according to claim 3, characterized in that before sending an RRC message to the access network device, the method further comprises:

Determining that the data of the first broadcast service is about to be received or is about to be received.

5. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said sending second information to the access network device comprises:

and sending an RRC establishment request message or an RRC recovery request message to the access network equipment, wherein the RRC establishment request message or the RRC recovery request message comprises the second information.

6. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said sending second information to the access network device comprises:

Sending an RRC establishment request message or an RRC recovery request message to the access network equipment;

and after establishing or recovering the RRC connection between the terminal equipment and the access network equipment, sending the second information to the access network equipment.

7. The method according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the RRC setup request message or RRC resume request message includes a cause value indicating that the reason for sending the RRC setup request message or the RRC resume request message to the access network device is application layer measurement configuration information for which a broadcast service needs to be received.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein prior to sending the second information to the access network device, the method further comprises:

9. The method according to any of claims 5 to 7, wherein before sending an RRC setup request message or an RRC resume request message to the access network device, the method further comprises:

10. The method according to any of claims 5 to 9, wherein before sending an RRC setup request message or an RRC resume request message to the access network device, the method further comprises:

Generating a first random number, wherein the first random number is greater than or equal to a probability factor; or alternatively

And generating a second random number, wherein the second random number is smaller than the probability factor, and the waiting time of the terminal equipment is larger than or equal to the back-off time.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

Third information from the access network device is received, wherein the third information is used for indicating the probability factor and/or a back-off time range, and the back-off time range is used for determining the back-off time.

12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein the first information comprises an identification of the at least one broadcast service.

13. The method according to any of claims 1 to 12, wherein the second information comprises an identification of the first broadcast service.

14. A communication method, wherein the method is applied to an access network device or a chip in the access network device, the method comprising:

Transmitting first information, wherein the first information is used for indicating application layer measurement configuration information of at least one broadcast service of the access network equipment, and the at least one broadcast service comprises a first broadcast service;

Receiving second information from a terminal device, the second information being used to indicate that the terminal device is interested in the first broadcast service;

And sending the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service to the terminal equipment according to the second information, wherein the application layer measurement configuration information of the first broadcast service is used for carrying out application layer measurement on the first broadcast service.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the transmitting the first information comprises:

transmitting a broadcast message, the broadcast message including the first information; or alternatively

And sending a special message to the terminal equipment, wherein the special message comprises the first information.

16. The method according to claim 14 or 15, wherein said receiving the second information from the terminal device comprises:

and receiving a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message from the terminal equipment in a connection state, wherein the RRC message comprises the second information.

17. The method according to claim 14 or 15, wherein said receiving the second information from the terminal device comprises:

And receiving an RRC establishment request message from the terminal equipment in an idle state or an RRC recovery request message from the terminal equipment in an inactive state, wherein the RRC establishment request message or the RRC recovery request message comprises the second information.

18. The method according to claim 14 or 15, wherein said receiving the second information from the terminal device comprises:

Receiving an RRC establishment request message from the terminal equipment in an idle state or an RRC recovery request message from the terminal equipment in a non-active state;

And after establishing or recovering the RRC connection between the terminal equipment and the access network equipment, receiving the second information from the terminal equipment.

19. The method according to claim 17 or 18, wherein the RRC setup request message or the RRC restoration request message includes a cause value indicating that the reason for sending the RRC setup request message or the RRC restoration request message to the access network device is application layer measurement configuration information for which a broadcast service needs to be received.

20. The method according to any of claims 14 to 19, wherein the first information comprises an identification of the at least one broadcast service.

21. The method according to any of claims 14 to 20, wherein the second information comprises an identification of the first broadcast service.

22. A communications apparatus comprising a processor coupled to a memory, the memory having a computer program stored therein; the processor is configured to invoke a computer program in the memory, causing the communication device to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 13 or the method of any of claims 14 to 21.

23. A computer readable storage medium, characterized in that the storage medium has stored therein a computer program or instructions which, when executed by a computer, implement the method of any one of claims 1 to 13 or the method of any one of claims 14 to 21.

24. A computer program product, characterized in that the computer is caused to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 13 or the method according to any one of claims 14 to 21 when the computer reads and executes the computer program product.

25. A communication system, characterized in that the communication system comprises a terminal and an access network device; wherein the terminal is configured to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 13 and the access network device is configured to perform the method of any of claims 14 to 21.