WO2022233326A1

WO2022233326A1 - Method, apparatus and device for determining candidate cell, medium, and chip

Info

Publication number: WO2022233326A1
Application number: PCT/CN2022/091249
Authority: WO
Inventors: 范慧芳
Original assignee: 展讯半导体(南京)有限公司
Priority date: 2021-05-07
Filing date: 2022-05-06
Publication date: 2022-11-10
Also published as: CN115314955A

Abstract

The present application discloses a method, apparatus and device for determining a candidate cell, a medium, and a chip. The method comprises: obtaining a candidate cell list, the candidate cell list comprising cell identification information of one or more candidate cells; and reporting the candidate cell list to a first network element, the candidate cell list being used for determining a target candidate cell, the target candidate cell being a cell in which a second network element is to be conditionally handed over, and the first network element and the second network element being network elements in a mobile communication network. In said method, the number of candidate cells during conditional handover can be reduced, and signaling overhead of an Xn interface is reduced.

Description

A method, apparatus, device, medium and chip for determining candidate cell

technical field

The present application relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to a method, apparatus, device, medium and chip for determining a candidate cell.

Background technique

In the 5G New Radio (NR) system, a terminal device (User Equipment, UE) can perform cell handover between an indoor small cell and an outdoor macro base station (Macro Base Station). That is to say, the terminal device can be handed over from an indoor small cell to an outdoor macro cell, and can also be handed over from an outdoor macro cell to an indoor small cell.

Currently, base station handover can be implemented by a conditional handover (Conditional Handover, CHO) method. In the current CHO, the source base station determines the candidate cell of the CHO according to the measurement results reported by the UE, and the source base station sends a CHO request to all the candidate cells to request all the candidate cells to configure the radio side configuration of the candidate cell and the CHO execution condition. The measurement result of the UE is performed according to the measurement event configured by the base station. The measurement time generally refers to the A3 event, and the A3 event refers to that the offset of the adjacent cell exceeds the cell to which the terminal equipment is connected (ie, the cell of the source base station), wherein the adjacent cell and the cell to which the terminal equipment is connected are connected. Can belong to different base stations.

How to determine a candidate cell for a terminal device when performing a conditional handover becomes a hot research issue.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present application discloses a method, apparatus, device, medium and chip for determining a candidate cell, which can reduce the number of selected cells during condition handover and reduce the signaling overhead of the Xn interface.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for determining a candidate cell, the method comprising:

Obtain a list of candidate cells, where the list of candidate cells includes information of one or more candidate cells;

Report the candidate cell list to the first network element, the candidate cell list is used to determine the target candidate cell, the target candidate cell is the cell to be performed conditional handover by the second network element, and the first network element and the second network element are in the mobile communication network. network element.

In one embodiment, the candidate cell list includes one or more of the following information:

cell identification information corresponding to each candidate cell in the candidate cell list;

the working mode of each candidate cell in the candidate cell list;

The public land mobile network identifier PLMN ID to which each candidate cell in the candidate cell list belongs;

The tracking area code TAC of each candidate cell in the candidate cell list.

In one embodiment, the candidate cell list is determined according to one or more of the following:

Determined according to the historical handover record, the historical handover record includes historical cell handover information, and the historical cell handover information is the cell information of the cell that the second network element has accessed after the cell handover; or,

Determined according to the core network-assisted radio access network RAN parameter tuning, the core network-assisted radio access network RAN parameter tuning is delivered by the core network to the second network element; or,

Determined according to the automatic neighbor relationship, the automatic neighbor relationship is used for the first network element to determine the neighbor relationship.

In one embodiment, a measurement event is triggered, and a list of candidate cells is reported to the first network element;

In one embodiment, the measurement event includes one or more of the following events:

A2 event, the A2 event is used to indicate that the signal quality of the serving cell is lower than the first threshold;

A3 event, A3 event is used to indicate that the signal quality offset of the neighboring cell is higher than that of the serving cell;

A4 event, the A4 event is used to indicate that the signal quality of the neighboring cell is higher than the second threshold;

A5 event, the A5 event is used to indicate that the signal quality of the neighboring cell is lower than the third threshold and higher than the fourth threshold.

In an embodiment, the candidate cell list is reported to the first network element through a measurement report or user assistance information UEAssistanceInformation.

In one embodiment, the detected entry into the marked area is triggered, and the list of candidate cells is reported to the first network element, and the marked area is used to mark the second network element when entering the marked area in the connected mode and actively send the candidate cell to the first network element. Cell list.

In one embodiment, the marked area is identified by one or more of the following:

Global cell identification code CGI identification;

Physical layer cell identifier PCI;

Longitude and latitude coordinate information.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for determining a candidate cell, the method comprising:

A target candidate cell is determined according to the candidate cell list, where the target candidate cell is a cell to which the first network element is to perform a conditional handover, and the first network element and the second network element are network elements in the mobile communication network.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an apparatus for determining a candidate cell, the apparatus comprising:

an obtaining unit, configured to obtain a list of candidate cells, where the list of candidate cells includes cell identification information of one or more candidate cells;

The transceiver unit is used to report the candidate cell list to the first network element, and the candidate cell list is used to determine the target candidate cell. A network element in a mobile communication network.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an apparatus for determining a candidate cell, the apparatus comprising:

an acquisition unit, configured to acquire a candidate cell list, where the candidate cell list includes information of one or more candidate cells;

The processing unit is configured to determine a target candidate cell according to the candidate cell list, where the target candidate cell is a cell to which the first network element is to perform conditional handover, and the first network element and the second network element are network elements in the mobile communication network.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, including a processor and a memory, where the memory is used to store a computer program, the computer program includes program instructions, and the processor is configured to invoke the program instructions to execute the first aspect and The candidate cell determination method described in the second aspect.

In a sixth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer-readable storage medium, where one or more instructions are stored in the computer-readable storage medium, and the one or more instructions are suitable for being loaded and executed by a processor as described in the first aspect and the sixth aspect. The candidate cell determination method described in the second aspect.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip, characterized in that the chip is configured to execute the method for determining a candidate cell as described in the first aspect and the second aspect.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip module, wherein the chip module includes a storage device, a chip, and a communication interface, and the chip is configured to execute the method for determining candidate cells as described in the first and second aspects .

In this embodiment of the present application, the second network element may acquire a candidate cell list, where the candidate cell list includes information of one or more candidate cells; report the candidate cell list to the first network element, where the candidate cell list is used to determine the target candidate cell , the target candidate cell is a cell to be conditionally handed over by the second network element, and the first network element and the second network element are network elements in the mobile communication network. With this method, the number of cells to be selected during the conditional handover can be reduced, and the signaling overhead of the Xn interface can be reduced.

Description of drawings

1 is a schematic diagram of an indoor and outdoor communication network architecture according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a schematic flowchart of a method for determining a candidate cell according to an embodiment of the present application;

3 is a schematic diagram of a CGI detection and reporting method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

4 is a schematic flowchart of another method for determining a candidate cell according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a unit of a candidate cell determination device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a simplified schematic diagram of an entity structure of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a simplified schematic diagram of a chip module provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed ways

Exemplary embodiments will be described in detail herein, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Where the following description refers to the drawings, the same numerals in different drawings refer to the same or similar elements unless otherwise indicated. The implementations described in the illustrative examples below are not intended to represent all implementations consistent with this application. Rather, they are merely examples of apparatus and methods consistent with some aspects of the present application as recited in the appended claims.

It should be noted that, herein, the terms "comprising", "comprising" or any other variation thereof are intended to encompass non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article or device comprising a series of elements includes not only those elements, It also includes other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such a process, method, article or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprises a..." does not preclude the presence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or device that includes the element, and further, different implementations of the present application Components, features and elements with the same names in the examples may have the same meaning or may have different meanings, and their specific meanings need to be determined by their explanations in this specific embodiment or further combined with the context in this specific embodiment.

It should be understood that although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various information, such information should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish the same type of information from each other. For example, first information may also be referred to as second information, and similarly, second information may also be referred to as first information, without departing from the scope of this document. The word "if" as used herein can be interpreted as "at the time of" or "when" or "in response to determining", depending on the context. Also, as used herein, the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context dictates otherwise. It should be further understood that the terms "comprising", "comprising" indicate the presence of stated features, steps, operations, elements, components, items, kinds, and/or groups, but do not exclude one or more other features, steps, operations, The existence, appearance or addition of elements, assemblies, items, categories, and/or groups. The terms "or" and "and/or" as used herein are to be construed to be inclusive or to mean any one or any combination. Thus, "A, B or C" or "A, B and/or C" means "any of the following: A; B; C; A and B; A and C; B and C; A, B and C" . Exceptions to this definition arise only when combinations of elements, functions, steps, or operations are inherently mutually exclusive in some way.

It should be understood that, although the steps in the flowcharts in the embodiments of the present application are displayed in sequence according to the arrows, these steps are not necessarily executed in the sequence indicated by the arrows. Unless explicitly stated herein, the execution of these steps is not strictly limited to the order and may be performed in other orders. Moreover, at least a part of the steps in the figure may include multiple sub-steps or multiple stages. These sub-steps or stages are not necessarily executed at the same time, but may be executed at different times, and the execution order is not necessarily sequential. Instead, it may be performed in turn or alternately with other steps or at least a portion of sub-steps or stages of other steps.

It should be noted that, in this article, step codes such as 110 and 120 are used for the purpose of expressing the corresponding content more clearly and briefly, and do not constitute a substantial limitation on the sequence. Those skilled in the art may 120 will be executed first and then 110, etc., but these should all fall within the protection scope of this application.

In the following description, suffixes such as 'module', 'component' or 'unit' used to represent elements are used only to facilitate the description of the present application, and have no specific meaning per se. Thus, "module", "component" or "unit" may be used interchangeably.

In order to better understand the embodiments of the present application, the technical terms involved in the embodiments of the present application are introduced below:

Conditional Handover (CHO) is to let the terminal equipment select the target base station according to the measurement result and initiate the handover execution process. The terminal equipment may initiate a random access procedure to the target cell. In this way, during the signaling interaction between the terminal equipment and the source base station, and the signaling interaction between the source base station and the target base station, the terminal equipment fails to perform cell handover due to the change of the radio link state. In this way, CHO improves the robustness during user switching.

The Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) is the main functional unit of the 5G core network (5GC), which can complete the access and mobility management of terminal equipment, which is equivalent to the Mobility Management Entity. part of the MME).

Session Management Function (SMF) is an important functional unit of 5GC and is responsible for processing user services. It can be regarded as the MME bearer management part and the Serving Gateway (Serving GateWay, SGW) and PDN Gateway (PDN GateWay, PGW). A combination of control plane functions.

The Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) is a network established and operated for the purpose of providing land mobile communication services to the public. This network is usually interconnected with the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to form a communications network on a regional or national scale.

In order to better understand the embodiments of the present application, a network architecture applicable to the embodiments of the present application is described below.

Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an indoor and outdoor communication network architecture according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 1, the communication network architecture is composed of outdoor and indoor network architectures. The outdoor network architecture includes a first network element, other network elements, and a second network element; the indoor network architecture includes an indoor small cell and a first network element. Two network elements. In addition, the first network element, other network elements, and the indoor small cell can all communicate through a specific interface, such as an Xn interface, and they can all communicate with a core network (Core Net, CN).

The first network element may be a network element in a mobile communication network, the first network element may be a serving cell (Serving Cell) where the second network element is located, and the first network element may be an outdoor macro station (Macro Base Station). The cell may also be a cell of an indoor small base station. The indoor small cell may be an access point (Access Point, AP) or the like. The outdoor macro cell or the indoor small cell may provide a wireless communication connection for the second network element through the serving cell. The second network element may be a terminal device, and the second network element may move between the cell of the indoor small cell and the cell of the outdoor macro cell. For example, the second network element may move from the cell of the indoor small cell to the cell of the outdoor macro cell.

In the embodiment of the present application, there are two moving scenarios. One scenario is that the second network element moves from the cell of the outdoor macro cell to the cell of the indoor small cell; the second scenario is that the second network element moves from the indoor small cell A scenario in which the cell moves to the cell of the outdoor macro station. The communication network architecture shown in FIG. 1 takes the first scenario as an example, that is, the scenario in which the second network element is handed over from the cell of the outdoor macro cell to the cell of the indoor small cell. The corresponding method embodiment is the same as the second mobility scenario. The corresponding method embodiments are the same, and details are not described in the embodiments of the present application.

It should be noted that the technical solution of the present invention is applicable to the 5th Generation (5th Generation, 5G) communication system, 4G and 3G communication systems, and various new communication systems in the future, such as 6G , 7G, in-vehicle short-range communication systems, etc. The technical solution of the present invention is also applicable to different network architectures, including but not limited to relay network architecture, dual link architecture, vehicle-to-everything (Vehicle-to-Everything) architecture, in-vehicle short-distance communication architecture and other architectures.

The core network described in the embodiments of the present application may be an evolved packet core (EPC for short), a 5G Core Network (5G core network), or a new type of core network in a future communication system. The 5G Core Network consists of a set of devices, and implements access and mobility management functions (Access and Mobility Management Function, AMF) for functions such as mobility management, and provides functions such as packet routing and forwarding and QoS (Quality of Service) management. User Plane Function (UPF), Session Management Function (SMF) that provides functions such as session management, IP address allocation and management, etc. EPC consists of MME that provides functions such as mobility management and gateway selection, Serving Gateway (S-GW) that provides functions such as packet forwarding, and PDN Gateway (P-GW) that provides functions such as terminal address allocation and rate control.

The network device involved in the embodiments of this application is an entity on the network side that is used to transmit or receive signals, and can be used to convert the received air frame and the Internet Protocol (Internet Protocol, IP) packet to each other, as a A router between a terminal device and the rest of the access network, which may include an IP network and the like. The access network equipment can also coordinate the attribute management of the air interface. For example, the access network device may be an eNB in LTE, a new radio controller (New Radio Controller, NR controller), a gNB in a 5G system, a centralized network element (Centralized Unit), or a The new wireless base station can be a remote radio module, a micro base station, a relay (Relay), a distributed network element (Distributed Unit), a reception point (Transmission Reception Point, TRP) or a transmission point ( Transmission Point, TP), which may be a G node or any other wireless access device in the in-vehicle short-range communication system, but the embodiment of the present application is not limited to this.

A base station (base station, BS for short) in the embodiments of the present application, which may also be referred to as base station equipment, is a device deployed in a radio access network (RAN) to provide a wireless communication function. For example, the equipment that provides base station functions in 2G networks includes base transceiver stations (English: base transceiver station, referred to as BTS), the equipment that provides base station functions in 3G networks includes NodeB (NodeB), and the equipment that provides base station functions in 4G networks. Including evolved NodeB (evolved NodeB, eNB), in wireless local area networks (wireless local area networks, referred to as WLAN), the device that provides base station functions is access point (access point, referred to as AP), 5G New Radio (New Radio) , referred to as NR) in the device gNB that provides base station functions, and the node B (ng-eNB) that continues to evolve, wherein the gNB and the terminal use NR technology for communication, and the ng-eNB and the terminal use E-UTRA (Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access) technology to communicate, both gNB and ng-eNB can be connected to the 5G core network. The base station in the embodiment of the present application also includes a device that provides a base station function in a new communication system in the future, and the like.

The base station controller in this embodiment of the present application is a device for managing base stations, such as a base station controller (BSC) in a 2G network and a radio network controller (RNC) in a 3G network. ), and may also refer to a device for controlling and managing base stations in a new communication system in the future.

The network side network in the embodiment of the present invention refers to a communication network that provides communication services for terminals, including a base station of a radio access network, a base station controller of a radio access network, and a device on the core network side.

The embodiment of the present application defines the unidirectional communication link from the access network to the terminal as the downlink, the data transmitted on the downlink is the downlink data, and the transmission direction of the downlink data is called the downlink direction; The unidirectional communication link is the uplink, the data transmitted on the uplink is the uplink data, and the transmission direction of the uplink data is called the uplink direction.

The terminal in this embodiment of the present application may refer to various forms of user equipment (user equipment, UE for short), access terminal, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, mobile station (mobile station, built as MS), remote station, remote station A terminal, mobile device, user terminal, terminal equipment, wireless communication device, user agent or user equipment. The terminal device may also be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), Handheld devices, computing devices or other processing devices connected to wireless modems, in-vehicle devices, wearable devices with wireless communication capabilities, terminal devices in future 5G networks or future evolved public land mobile communication networks (Public Land Mobile Network, referred to as PLMN), which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

In order to reduce the number of candidate cells and reduce the signaling overhead of the Xn interface, the embodiments of the present application provide a method and apparatus for determining a candidate cell.

Referring to FIG. 2, FIG. 2 provides a schematic flowchart of a method for determining a candidate cell according to an embodiment of the present application. The candidate cell determination method includes the following operations 210 to 220 . The method execution body shown in FIG. 2 may be the second network element, or a chip in the second network element. When the second network element executes the process shown in FIG. 2, the following steps may be included:

210. Obtain a candidate cell list, where the candidate cell list includes cell identification information of one or more candidate cells.

Specifically, the candidate cell list may be determined by the second network element in one or more of the following manners:

Optionally, the candidate cell list may be determined according to a historical handover record, and the historical handover record includes historical cell handover information, and the historical cell handover information is the cell information of the cell accessed by the second network element after the cell handover has been performed. . Wherein, each cell in the historical handover record may be determined by the second network element through a cell handover process, or may be determined by a method of CHO. The number of cells in the historical handover record may be one or more, and the second network element may obtain the cell representation information of each cell to obtain the candidate cell list.

Optionally, the candidate cell list may be determined according to a core network-assisted radio access network (Radio Access Network, RAN) parameter tuning (Core Network assisted RAN parameters tuning), and the core network assisted RAN parameter tuning is: It is delivered by the core network to the second network element. The core network-assisted RAN parameter tuning is to assist the RAN side to minimize the state transition of the second network element and optimize the network behavior of the second network element. The core network-assisted RAN parameter tuning may be obtained from an access and mobility management function (Access and Mobility Management Function, AMF), or may be obtained from a session management function (Session Management Function, SMF).

The AMF may be based on the collected behavior statistics of the second network element, the expected behavior of the second network element, and/or other available information of the second network element, such as the subscribed data network name (Data Network Name, DNN) , User Permanent Identifier (Subscription Permanent Identifier, SUPI) range and other information) to derive core network-assisted RAN parameter tuning. If the expected behavior parameters of the second network element, network configuration parameters, or core network-assisted RAN parameter tuning derived from the SMF are maintained in the AMF, the AMF may use this information to select core network-assisted RAN parameter tuning. If the AMF can derive the mobility pattern (Mobility Pattern) of the second network element, then the AMF can consider the mobility pattern parameters when determining the core network-assisted RAN parameter tuning.

The SMF may use the SMF assisted parameters to derive core network assisted RAN parameter tuning, such as desired behavior parameters of the second network element or network configuration parameters of the second network element. The SMF may send the derived core network-assisted RAN parameter tuning to the AMF, and the AMF stores the core network-assisted RAN parameter tuning as a protocol data unit (Protocol Data Unit, PDU) session-level context.

Optionally, one or more of the following information may be determined according to core network-assisted RAN parameter tuning:

Expected handover (Handover, HO) behavior (Expected HO behavior); for example, the expected interval of inter-RAN (inter-RAN) handover of the second network element.

Expected mobility of the second network element (Expected UE mobility), used to predict whether the second network element is moving or stationary.

Expected moving trajectory of the second network element (Expected UE moving trajectory), the information may be derived from statistical information, expected behavior parameters of the second network element, or subscription information.

Optionally, the candidate cell list may be derived by the AMF or SMF based on RAN parameter tuning assisted by the core network, and sent by the AMF or SMF to the second network element when the PDU session is established or modified.

Optionally, the candidate cell list may be determined according to an automatic neighbor relationship (Automatic Neighbor Relation, ANR) function, where the ANR function is used for the first network element to determine the neighbor relationship. That is, the first network element may obtain the candidate cell list from the surrounding network equipment through the ANR function. Further, the first network element may send the candidate cell list to the second network element.

The automatic neighbor relationship function manages the neighbor relationship list. In the ANR function, there are both neighbor detection functions and neighbor deletion functions. Among them, the adjacent cell detection function is used to discover adjacent cells and add adjacent cells to the adjacent cell relationship list, and the adjacent cell deletion function is used to delete outdated adjacent cell relationships; the adjacent cell deletion function is an internal behavior of the base station. The neighbor cell detection function requires the interaction between the base station and the terminal device to complete. In practical applications, the ANR function implements the addition and management of the neighbor relationship by detecting and reporting the global cell identifier (Cell Global Identifier, CGI) of the target cell.

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of a CGI detection and reporting method. Figure 3 takes the handover of a second network element from an indoor small cell to an outdoor macro cell as an example, and the target cell may be the serving cell of the outdoor macro cell. The number of outdoor macro stations may be one or more, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. In FIG. 3 , the second network element sends a measurement report related to the target cell to the indoor small base station, where the measurement report includes the physical cell identifier (Physical Cell Identifier, PCI) of the target cell, but the measurement report does not include CGI. After the indoor small base station receives the measurement report containing the PCI of the target cell sent by the second network element, the indoor small base station may send indication information to the second network element, and the indication information may instruct the second network element to read the corresponding PCI measurement report. CGI information of the cell, that is, read the CGI information of the target cell. The second network element may acquire CGI information corresponding to the target cell through a broadcast control channel (Broadcast Control Channel, BCCH). When the second network element acquires the CGI of the target cell, the second network element may report the detected CGI of the target cell to the indoor small base station. The indoor small base station determines the newly discovered neighbor cell according to the CGI information of the target cell, that is, when the target cell is not in the neighbor cell list, it adds the target cell to the neighbor cell relationship list, thereby completing the ANR function.

Optionally, the service modes supported by the candidate cells in the candidate cell list include but are not limited to the following two working modes: mode one and mode two. The cell whose working mode is Mode 1 allows access to the second network element that has subscribed to the cell; the cell whose working mode is Mode 2 can allow subscribed users and non-subscribed second NEs, and can provide more information for subscribed users. High access level and faster service rate, etc.

Optionally, the cell identifier information may be a physical layer cell identifier (Physical Cell Identifier, PCI), a cell global identifier (Cell Global Identifier, CGI), and the like.

After the second network element obtains the candidate cell list, it may store it in a first memory, and the first memory may be a memory in the second network element.

220. Report a candidate cell list to the first network element, where the candidate cell list is used to determine a target candidate cell, the target candidate cell is the cell to be conditionally handed over by the second network element, and the first network element and the second network element are A network element in a mobile communication network.

In a possible implementation manner, the reporting of the candidate cell list to the first network element may be implemented by triggering a measurement event. The second network element may trigger a measurement event, and report the candidate cell list to the first network element. Wherein, the measurement event may include one or more of the following time periods:

A3 event, the A3 event is used to indicate that the signal quality offset of the neighboring cell is higher than the signal quality of the serving cell;

The serving cell refers to a cell that is providing a communication service for the second network element, and the neighboring cell refers to a cell adjacent to the serving cell. The first threshold, the second threshold, the third threshold, and the fourth threshold may be configured by the network device, which are not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

In a possible implementation manner, the reporting of the candidate cell list to the first network element may be implemented by triggering the detected entry into the marked area. The second network element can trigger the detected entry into the marked area, and report a list of candidate cells to a network element, where the marked area is used to mark the second network element to actively send candidate cells to the first network element when it enters the marked area in connected mode list.

Optionally, the marked area can be identified in one or more of the following ways:

Global cell identification code CGI identification;

Physical layer cell identifier PCI;

Longitude and latitude coordinate information.

The locally stored candidate cell list in the second network element is associated with the marked area, and may be in one-to-one correspondence.

Optionally, the second network element reports the candidate cell list to the first network element, which may be reported through a measurement report or user assistance information (UEAssistanceInformation).

Optionally, reporting through the measurement report may be implemented by adding an information element (Information Elements, IE) to the measurement report, for example, by adding a candidate cell list information element.

Optionally, the candidate cell list may include one or more of the following information:

the working mode of each candidate cell in the candidate cell list;

The tracking area codes of each candidate cell in the candidate cell list are TAC, where TA is a tracking area (Tracking Area, TA), and the tracking area is an area used for paging and location update.

Through the embodiment of the present application, the second network element may obtain a candidate cell list, and the candidate cell list may include information such as cell identification information, working mode, PLMN ID, and TAC corresponding to each candidate cell in the candidate cell list. The solution of the present application is directed to indoor-to-outdoor or outdoor-indoor cell handover scenarios. In such scenarios, there are usually fewer and fixed cells for the second network element to perform cell handover. For example, the second network element may be handed over from an indoor small cell to a specific outdoor macro cell, or switched from an outdoor macro cell to a specific indoor small cell. It is not necessary to take all the cells covering the vicinity of the room as the cells in the candidate cell list, but the network side determines the candidate cell according to specific parameters. Through this method, the number of cells to be selected during the conditional handover is reduced, and the signaling overhead of the Xn interface is also reduced.

Referring to FIG. 4 , FIG. 4 provides a schematic flowchart of another method for determining a candidate cell according to an embodiment of the present application. The candidate cell determination method includes the following operations 410 to 420 . The method execution body shown in FIG. 4 may be the first network element, or a chip corresponding to the first network element. When the first network element executes the process shown in FIG. 4 , the following steps may be included:

410. Obtain a candidate cell list, where the candidate cell list includes information of one or more candidate cells.

The candidate cell list may be reported by the second network element, and the candidate cell list may include one or more of the following information:

the working mode of each candidate cell in the candidate cell list;

The tracking area code TAC of each candidate cell in the candidate cell list.

Optionally, the reporting of the candidate cell list by the second network element to the first network element may be implemented by triggering a measurement event.

Optionally, the reporting of the candidate cell list by the second network element to the first network element may be implemented by triggering the detected entry into the marked area.

Optionally, the first network element may save the candidate cell list in a second memory, and the first memory may be a memory in the first network element. It should be noted that, each candidate cell in the candidate cell list and the second network element may store the candidate cell list.

420. Determine a target candidate cell according to the candidate cell list, where the target candidate cell is a cell to which the first network element is to perform the conditional handover, and the first network element and the second network element are network elements in the mobile communication network.

The first network element may determine the target candidate cell according to the candidate cell list, and the specific determination method is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, if the first network element is connected to the second network element through a cell whose working mode is mode 1, the candidate cell to be subjected to the conditional handover in the second network element is configured as a cell in the candidate cell list.

Optionally, if the first network element is connected to multiple second network elements through a cell whose working mode is mode 2, the candidate cells to be subjected to the conditional switch among all the second network elements connected to the first network element are configured. is the cell in the candidate cell list.

Through the embodiments of the present application, the first network element may obtain a candidate cell list, and the candidate cell list may include information such as cell identification information, working mode, PLMN ID, and TAC corresponding to each candidate cell in the candidate cell list. Furthermore, the first network element may determine the target candidate cell according to the candidate cell list. Among them, the number of candidate cells in the candidate cell list is small and relatively fixed, which reduces the number of candidate cells in the selected cell list during condition handover, and reduces the signaling overhead of the Xn interface.

Referring to FIG. 5 , FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a unit of an apparatus for determining a candidate cell according to an embodiment of the present application. The candidate cell determination apparatus shown in FIG. 5 can be used to perform some or all of the functions in the method embodiments described in the above-mentioned FIG. 2 and FIG. 4 . The device may be the second network element, or may be a device in the second network element, or a device that can be matched and used with the second network element. The device may also be a device corresponding to the first network element, or a device in the device corresponding to the first network element, or a device that can be matched and used with the device corresponding to the first network element. Wherein, the first network element may be a serving cell in a network device, and the second network element may be a terminal device.

The logical structure of the apparatus may include: an acquisition unit 510, a transceiver unit 520, and a processing unit 530, wherein, when the apparatus is applied to the second network element:

an obtaining unit 510, configured to obtain a candidate cell list, where the candidate cell list includes cell identification information of one or more candidate cells;

The transceiver unit 520 is configured to report a candidate cell list to the first network element, where the candidate cell list is used to determine a target candidate cell, and the target candidate cell is a cell to which the second network element is to perform a conditional handover. The first network element and the second network element It is a network element in a mobile communication network.

In a possible implementation manner, the candidate cell list includes one or more of the following information:

the working mode of each candidate cell in the candidate cell list;

The tracking area code TAC of each candidate cell in the candidate cell list.

In a possible implementation manner, the candidate cell list is determined according to one or more of the following manners:

In a possible implementation manner, a measurement event is triggered, and the above-mentioned transceiver unit 520 is further configured to report the candidate cell list to the first network element;

In one possible implementation, the measurement event includes one or more of the following events:

In a possible implementation manner, the foregoing transceiver unit 520 is further configured to report the candidate cell list to the first network element through a measurement report or user assistance information UEAssistanceInformation.

In a possible implementation manner, the detected entry into the marked area is triggered, the above-mentioned transceiver unit 520 is further configured to report the candidate cell list to the first network element, and the marked area is used to mark the entry of the second network element into the marked area in the connected mode Actively send the candidate cell list to the first network element when it is in the area.

In one possible implementation, the marked area is identified by one or more of the following:

Global cell identification code CGI identification;

Physical layer cell identifier PCI;

Longitude and latitude coordinate information.

When the apparatus is applied to the device corresponding to the first network element:

an obtaining unit 510, configured to obtain a candidate cell list, where the candidate cell list includes information of one or more candidate cells;

The processing unit 530 is configured to determine a target candidate cell according to the candidate cell list, where the target candidate cell is a cell to which the first network element is to perform conditional handover, and the first network element and the second network element are network elements in the mobile communication network.

Please refer to FIG. 6. FIG. 6 is a simplified schematic diagram of the physical structure of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the application. The communication device includes a processor 610, a memory 620, and a communication interface 630. The processor 610, the memory 620, and the communication interface 630 Connected via one or more communication buses. The communication device may be a chip, a chip module, or the like.

The processor 610 is configured to support the communication device to perform the functions corresponding to the methods of FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 described above. It should be understood that in the embodiment of the present application, the processor 610 may be a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU for short), and the processor may also be other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (digital signal processor, DSP for short) ), application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), off-the-shelf programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, etc. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

The memory 620 is used to store program codes and the like. The memory 620 in this embodiment of the present application may be a volatile memory or a nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The non-volatile memory may be read-only memory (ROM for short), programmable read-only memory (PROM for short), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM for short) , Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (electrically EPROM, EEPROM for short) or flash memory. Volatile memory may be random access memory (RAM), which acts as an external cache. By way of example and not limitation, many forms of random access memory (RAM) are available, such as static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), synchronous Dynamic random access memory (synchronous DRAM, referred to as SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (double data rate SDRAM, referred to as DDR SDRAM), enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (enhanced SDRAM, referred to as ESDRAM), Synchronous connection dynamic random access memory (synchlink DRAM, referred to as SLDRAM) and direct memory bus random access memory (direct rambus RAM, referred to as DR RAM).

The communication interface 630 is used to send and receive data, information or messages, etc., and can also be described as a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, and the like.

In this embodiment of the present application, when the communication device is the second network element, the processor 610 calls the program code stored in the memory 620 to perform the following operations:

The processor 610 invokes the program code stored in the memory 620 to obtain a candidate cell list, where the candidate cell list includes cell identification information of one or more candidate cells;

The control communication interface 630 reports the candidate cell list to the first network element. The candidate cell list is used to determine the target candidate cell. The target candidate cell is the cell to be conditionally handed over by the second network element. A network element in a communication network.

the working mode of each candidate cell in the candidate cell list;

The tracking area code TAC of each candidate cell in the candidate cell list.

In a possible implementation manner, a measurement event is triggered, and the communication interface 630 is controlled to report the candidate cell list to the first network element;

In a possible implementation manner, the control communication interface 630 reports the candidate cell list to the first network element through a measurement report or user assistance information UEAssistanceInformation.

In a possible implementation manner, the detected entry into the marked area is triggered, and the communication interface 630 is controlled to report the candidate cell list to the first network element, and the marked area is used to mark the second network element actively entering the marked area in the connected mode. The candidate cell list is sent to the first network element.

Global cell identification code CGI identification;

Physical layer cell identifier PCI;

Longitude and latitude coordinate information.

When the communication device is the device corresponding to the first network element:

The processor 610 invokes the program code stored in the memory 620 to obtain a candidate cell list, where the candidate cell list includes information of one or more candidate cells;

The processor 610 invokes the program code stored in the memory 620 to determine the target candidate cell according to the candidate cell list. network element.

The embodiment of the present application also provides a chip, and the chip may also be included in a chip module.

When the chip is applied to the second network element:

The chip is used to obtain a list of candidate cells, and the list of candidate cells includes cell identification information of one or more candidate cells;

The chip is also used to trigger the reporting of the candidate cell list to the first network element, and the candidate cell list is used to determine the target candidate cell. The target candidate cell is the cell to be performed conditionally by the second network element. It is a network element in a mobile communication network.

the working mode of each candidate cell in the candidate cell list;

The tracking area code TAC of each candidate cell in the candidate cell list.

In a possible implementation manner, a measurement event is triggered, and the chip is further configured to trigger reporting of the candidate cell list to the first network element;

In a possible implementation manner, the chip is further configured to trigger reporting of the candidate cell list to the first network element through a measurement report or user assistance information UEAssistanceInformation.

In a possible implementation manner, the detected entry into the marked area is triggered, and the chip is further configured to trigger reporting of the candidate cell list to the first network element, and the marked area is used to mark the second network element entering the marked area in the connected mode Actively send the candidate cell list to the first network element.

Global cell identification code CGI identification;

Physical layer cell identifier PCI;

Longitude and latitude coordinate information.

The chip is also used to obtain a list of candidate cells, and the list of candidate cells includes information of one or more candidate cells;

The chip is further configured to determine a target candidate cell according to the candidate cell list, where the target candidate cell is a cell to be conditionally handed over by the first network element, and the first network element and the second network element are network elements in the mobile communication network.

Please refer to FIG. 7 . FIG. 7 is a simplified schematic diagram of a chip module according to an embodiment of the application. The chip module includes a storage device 710 , a chip 720 , and a communication interface 730 . When the chip module is applied to a second network element , where:

The chip 720 is configured to obtain a candidate cell list, where the candidate cell list includes cell identification information of one or more candidate cells;

The chip 720 is further configured to trigger the communication interface 730 to report a candidate cell list to the first network element, and the candidate cell list is used to determine a target candidate cell, where the target candidate cell is the cell to be performed conditional handover by the second network element, the first network element and the The second network element is a network element in the mobile communication network.

the working mode of each candidate cell in the candidate cell list;

The tracking area code TAC of each candidate cell in the candidate cell list.

In a possible implementation manner, a measurement event is triggered, and the chip 720 is further configured to trigger the communication interface 730 to report the candidate cell list to the first network element;

In a possible implementation manner, the chip 720 is further configured to trigger the communication interface 730 to report the candidate cell list to the first network element through a measurement report or user assistance information UEAssistanceInformation.

In a possible implementation manner, the detected entry marking area is triggered, the chip 720 is also used to trigger the communication interface 730 to report the candidate cell list to the first network element, and the marking area is used to mark the second network element in the connected mode When entering the marked area, the candidate cell list is actively sent to the first network element.

Global cell identification code CGI identification;

Physical layer cell identifier PCI;

Longitude and latitude coordinate information.

The chip 720 is further configured to obtain a candidate cell list, where the candidate cell list includes information of one or more candidate cells;

The chip 720 is further configured to determine a target candidate cell according to the candidate cell list, where the target candidate cell is a cell to which the first network element is to perform conditional handover, and the first network element and the second network element are network elements in the mobile communication network.

It should be noted that, in the foregoing embodiments, the description of each embodiment has its own emphasis, and for parts that are not described in detail in a certain embodiment, reference may be made to the relevant descriptions of other embodiments.

The steps in the method of the embodiment of the present invention may be adjusted, combined and deleted in sequence according to actual needs.

The units in the processing device in the embodiment of the present invention may be combined, divided, and deleted according to actual needs.

In the above-mentioned embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. A computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the procedures or functions according to the embodiments of the present application result in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. Computer instructions may be stored on or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from a website site, computer, server, or data center over a wire (e.g. coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line) or wireless (eg infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) means to another website site, computer, server or data center. A computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, a data center, or the like that includes an integration of one or more available media. Useful media may be magnetic media (eg, floppy disks, storage disks, magnetic tapes), optical media (eg, DVD), or semiconductor media (eg, Solid State Disk (SSD)), among others.

Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present application, but not to limit them; although the present application has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that: The technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments can still be modified, or some or all of the technical features thereof can be equivalently replaced; and these modifications or replacements do not make the essence of the corresponding technical solutions deviate from the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application. scope.

Claims

A method for determining a candidate cell, comprising:

Obtain a candidate cell list, where the candidate cell list includes information of one or more candidate cells;

Reporting the candidate cell list to the first network element, where the candidate cell list is used to determine a target candidate cell, and the target candidate cell is a cell to be conditionally handed over by the second network element, the first network element and the The second network element is a network element in the mobile communication network.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the candidate cell list includes one or more of the following information:

cell identification information corresponding to each candidate cell in the candidate cell list;

the working mode of each candidate cell in the candidate cell list;

The public land mobile network identifier PLMN ID to which each candidate cell in the candidate cell list belongs to;

The tracking area code TAC of each candidate cell in the candidate cell list.
The method of claim 1, wherein:

The candidate cell list is determined according to one or more of the following ways:

Determined according to the historical handover record, the historical handover record includes historical cell handover information, and the historical cell handover information is the cell information of the cell that the second network element has accessed after the cell handover; or,

Determined according to the core network-assisted radio access network RAN parameter tuning, the core network-assisted radio access network RAN parameter tuning is delivered by the core network to the second network element; or,

Determined according to the automatic neighbor relationship, the automatic neighbor relationship is used for the first network element to determine the neighbor relationship.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the reporting the candidate cell list to the first network element comprises:

triggering a measurement event, and reporting the candidate cell list to the first network element;

The measurement event includes one or more of the following events:

A2 event, the A2 event is used to indicate that the signal quality of the serving cell is lower than the first threshold;

A3 event, the A3 event is used to indicate that the signal quality offset of the neighboring cell is higher than the signal quality of the serving cell;

A4 event, the A4 event is used to indicate that the signal quality of the neighboring cell is higher than the second threshold;

A5 event, the A5 event is used to indicate that the signal quality of the neighboring cell is lower than the third threshold and higher than the fourth threshold.
The method according to claim 1 or 4, wherein the reporting the candidate cell list to the first network element comprises:

The candidate cell list is reported to the first network element through a measurement report or user assistance information UEAssistanceInformation.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the reporting the candidate cell list to the first network element comprises:

Trigger the detected entry to the marked area, and report the candidate cell list to the first network element, where the marked area is used to mark the second network element to actively report to the first network element when the second network element enters the marked area in connected mode Send a list of candidate cells.
The method according to claim 6, wherein:

The marked area is identified in one or more of the following ways:

Global cell identification code CGI identification;

Physical layer cell identifier PCI;

Longitude and latitude coordinate information.
A method for determining a candidate cell, comprising:

Obtain a candidate cell list, where the candidate cell list includes information of one or more candidate cells;

A target candidate cell is determined according to the candidate cell list, where the target candidate cell is a cell to which the first network element is to perform a conditional handover, and the first network element and the second network element are network elements in a mobile communication network.
An apparatus for determining a candidate cell, comprising:

an obtaining unit, configured to obtain a candidate cell list, where the candidate cell list includes information of one or more candidate cells;

A transceiver unit, configured to report the candidate cell list to the first network element, where the candidate cell list is used to determine a target candidate cell, and the target candidate cell is a cell to be conditionally handed over by the second network element, and the first The network element and the second network element are network elements in a mobile communication network.
The device for determining candidate cells according to claim 9, wherein the candidate cell list includes one or more of the following information:

cell identification information corresponding to each candidate cell in the candidate cell list;

the working mode of each candidate cell in the candidate cell list;

The public land mobile network identifier PLMN ID to which each candidate cell in the candidate cell list belongs to;

The tracking area code TAC of each candidate cell in the candidate cell list.
The candidate cell determination device according to claim 9, wherein,

The candidate cell list is determined according to one or more of the following ways:

Determined according to the historical handover record, the historical handover record includes historical cell handover information, and the historical cell handover information is the cell information of the cell that the second network element has accessed after the cell handover; or,

Determined according to the core network-assisted radio access network RAN parameter tuning, the core network-assisted radio access network RAN parameter tuning is delivered by the core network to the second network element; or,

Determined according to the automatic neighbor relationship, the automatic neighbor relationship is used for the first network element to determine the neighbor relationship.
The device for determining a candidate cell according to claim 9, wherein the transceiver unit is specifically configured to:

triggering a measurement event, and reporting the candidate cell list to the first network element;

The measurement event includes one or more of the following events:

A2 event, the A2 event is used to indicate that the signal quality of the serving cell is lower than the first threshold;

A3 event, the A3 event is used to indicate that the signal quality offset of the neighboring cell is higher than the signal quality of the serving cell;

A4 event, the A4 event is used to indicate that the signal quality of the neighboring cell is higher than the second threshold;

A5 event, the A5 event is used to indicate that the signal quality of the neighboring cell is lower than the third threshold and higher than the fourth threshold.
The device for determining a candidate cell according to claim 9 or 12, wherein the transceiver unit is specifically used for:

The candidate cell list is reported to the first network element through a measurement report or user assistance information UEAssistanceInformation.
The device for determining a candidate cell according to claim 9, wherein the transceiver unit is specifically configured to:

Trigger the detected entry into the marked area, and report the candidate cell list to the first network element, where the marked area is used to mark the second network element to actively report to the first network element when it enters the marked area in connected mode Send a list of candidate cells.
The candidate cell determination device according to claim 14, wherein:

The marked area is identified in one or more of the following ways:

Global cell identification code CGI identification;

Physical layer cell identifier PCI;

Longitude and latitude coordinate information.
A candidate cell determination device, characterized in that:

an obtaining unit, configured to obtain a candidate cell list, where the candidate cell list includes information of one or more candidate cells;

The processing unit is configured to determine a target candidate cell according to the candidate cell list, where the target candidate cell is a cell to which the first network element is to perform conditional handover, and the first network element and the second network element are in the mobile communication network. network element.
A communication device, characterized in that it comprises a processor and a memory, wherein the memory is used to store a computer program, the computer program includes program instructions, and the processor is configured to invoke the program instructions to execute the program instructions as claimed in the claims The candidate cell determination method according to any one of 1 to 8, or the candidate cell determination method according to claim 9 is performed.
A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer-readable storage medium stores one or more instructions, and the one or more instructions are adapted to be loaded by a processor and execute any one of claims 1 to 8 One of the candidate cell determination methods, or the candidate cell determination method as claimed in claim 9.
A chip, characterized in that, the chip is used to execute the method for determining a candidate cell according to any one of claims 1 to 8.
A chip module, characterized in that the chip module includes a storage device, a chip, and a communication interface, and the chip is used to execute the method for determining a candidate cell according to any one of claims 1 to 8, or to execute The candidate cell determination method according to claim 9.