CN119653434A - Switching method and communication device - Google Patents

Abstract

Translated fromChinese

本申请实施例公开了一种切换方法及通信装置，涉及通信技术领域，解决了终端设备在上行拥塞时因重建立导致的业务中断的问题。该方法包括：在检测到上行拥塞的情况下，向网络设备发送第一测量报告；第一测量报告用于触发网络设备指示终端设备向目标邻区切换。本申请实施例应用于终端设备发生上行拥塞的过程中。

The embodiment of the present application discloses a switching method and a communication device, which relates to the field of communication technology and solves the problem of service interruption caused by re-establishment of a terminal device when uplink congestion occurs. The method comprises: when uplink congestion is detected, sending a first measurement report to a network device; the first measurement report is used to trigger the network device to instruct the terminal device to switch to a target neighboring area. The embodiment of the present application is applied to the process in which uplink congestion occurs in a terminal device.

Description

Switching method and communication device

Technical Field

The embodiment of the application relates to the technical field of communication, in particular to a switching method and a communication device.

Background

In the related art, when the terminal device detects uplink congestion, a reestablishment procedure is triggered through radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC). However, in the reestablishment process, the terminal equipment needs to perform network searching and residence processes, and can resume data transmission on the reestablished cell after the random access is successful, so that the service is interrupted.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a switching method and a communication device, which can avoid service interruption caused by reestablishment when terminal equipment is in uplink congestion.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the present application provides the following technical solutions:

In a first aspect, a handover method is provided, which may be performed by a terminal device, or by a component of the terminal device, such as a processor, a chip, or a system-on-chip of the terminal device, or by a logic module or software capable of implementing all or part of the terminal device. The following description will be made with an example in which the method is executed by the terminal device. The switching method comprises the steps of sending a first measurement report to the network equipment under the condition that uplink congestion is detected, wherein the first measurement report is used for triggering the network equipment to instruct the terminal equipment to switch to a target neighbor cell.

In the application, the terminal equipment sends the first measurement report to the network equipment under the condition of detecting the uplink congestion, so that the network equipment can instruct the terminal to switch to a target cell meeting a switching threshold in the measurement report through the first measurement report. Based on this, in the embodiment of the present application, when the terminal device detects the uplink congestion, the uplink congestion is solved by switching, instead of solving the uplink congestion by reestablishing. Compared with reestablishment, the terminal equipment in the switching process can directly carry service data to switch to the adjacent cell without causing service interruption, thereby solving the problem of service interruption caused by reestablishment when uplink congestion occurs in the prior art.

With reference to the first aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the first measurement report includes a first signal strength of the target neighboring cell, where the first signal strength is a signal strength determined based on a second signal strength and meeting a handover condition, and the second signal strength is a signal strength obtained by measuring a signal of the target neighboring cell.

Based on the method, the terminal equipment can trigger and generate the first measurement report by adjusting the signal strength of the target neighbor cell under the condition that the measured signal strength of the target neighbor cell does not meet the switching condition, so that the switching can be directly triggered in an uplink congestion scene, and the situation that the switching cannot be performed due to the fact that the signal strength of the target neighbor cell does not meet the switching condition is avoided.

With reference to the first aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the target neighbor cell is a neighbor cell, where RSRP of the multiple neighbor cells is greater than the first threshold and/or SINR is greater than the second threshold.

Based on the method, the terminal equipment can select the neighbor cell with better signal strength from the neighbor cells as the target neighbor cell, so that the network quality after the terminal equipment is switched is improved, and the network experience of a user is improved.

With reference to the first aspect, in one possible implementation manner, at least one of the same-frequency neighbor cell and the different-frequency neighbor cell of the serving cell of the terminal device is included in the multiple neighbor cells.

Based on the method, the terminal equipment can select the target neighbor cell from the same-frequency neighbor cell and the different-frequency neighbor cell, the selection range of the terminal equipment is larger, the probability of selecting the target neighbor cell by the terminal equipment is higher, and the network quality of the selected target neighbor cell is better.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, in a case that the multiple neighboring cells include the inter-frequency neighboring cell of the serving cell, the method further includes sending first indication information to the network device, where the first indication information is used to indicate the network device to configure configuration information of the inter-frequency neighboring cell for the terminal device, receiving second indication information from the network device, where the second indication information includes configuration information of the inter-frequency neighboring cell, and performing inter-frequency measurement based on the configuration information of the inter-frequency neighboring cell to determine signal strength of the inter-frequency neighboring cell.

Based on the measurement result, the terminal equipment triggers the inter-frequency measurement through the first indication information, so that the terminal equipment can measure the inter-frequency neighbor cell and determine the signal strength of the inter-frequency neighbor cell.

With reference to the first aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the first indication information includes a third signal strength of the serving cell, where the third signal strength is a signal strength determined based on a fourth signal strength that is less than a third threshold, and the fourth signal strength is a signal strength obtained by measuring a signal of the serving cell.

Based on the above, the terminal device can adjust the signal strength of the serving cell to the signal strength satisfying the inter-frequency measurement triggering condition under the condition that the measured signal strength of the serving cell does not satisfy the inter-frequency measurement triggering condition, so that the inter-frequency measurement can be started in the uplink congestion scene, and the terminal device can select the target neighbor cell by integrating the measurement result of the same-frequency measurement and the measurement result of the inter-frequency measurement.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes receiving third indication information from the network device, where the third indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to switch to the target neighboring cell, and responding to the third indication information to switch to the target neighboring cell.

Based on the method, after the terminal equipment sends the first measurement report to the network equipment, the terminal equipment switches to the target neighbor cell based on the indication of the network equipment, so that the problem of service interruption is solved through switching in an uplink congestion scene.

With reference to the first aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the method further includes starting a first timer after the handover to the target neighbor cell, where a duration of the first timer is a duration that the terminal device prohibits the handover back to the serving cell.

Based on the above, after the terminal equipment cuts out from the service cell with the uplink congestion, the timer is set to ensure that the terminal equipment does not cut back to the service cell with the uplink congestion in the preset time, so that the terminal equipment is prevented from cutting back to the service cell and then generating the uplink congestion again.

In a second aspect, a communication device is provided for implementing the various methods described above. The communication means may be a terminal device of the first aspect or any implementation manner of the first aspect, or an apparatus comprising the terminal device, or an apparatus, such as a chip, comprised in the terminal device. The communication device comprises corresponding modules, units or means (means) for implementing the above method, where the modules, units or means may be implemented by hardware, software, or implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules or units corresponding to the functions described above.

In some possible designs, the communication device may include a processing module and a transceiver module. The transceiver module, which may also be referred to as a transceiver unit, is configured to implement the transmitting and/or receiving functions of any of the above aspects and any possible implementation thereof. The transceiver module may be formed by a transceiver circuit, transceiver or communication interface. The processing module may be configured to implement the processing functions of any of the aspects described above and any possible implementation thereof.

In some possible designs, the transceiver module includes a transmitting module and a receiving module for implementing the transmitting and receiving functions in any of the above aspects and any possible implementation thereof, respectively.

In a third aspect, there is provided a communications apparatus comprising at least one processor, the processor being operable to execute a computer program or instructions stored in a memory to cause the communications apparatus to perform the method of any of the above aspects. The memory may be coupled to the processor or may be separate from the processor. The communication means may be a terminal device of the first aspect or any implementation manner of the first aspect, or an apparatus comprising the terminal device, or an apparatus, such as a chip, comprised in the terminal device.

In some possible designs, the communication device includes a memory for holding necessary program instructions and data.

In one possible implementation, the processor includes logic circuitry and an input interface and/or an output interface. Wherein the output interface is for performing the act of transmitting in the respective method and the input interface is for performing the act of receiving in the respective method.

In one possible implementation, the communication device further includes a communication interface and a communication bus, the processor, the memory, and the communication interface being connected by the communication bus. The communication interface is used for executing the actions of the transceiving in the corresponding method. The communication interface may also be referred to as a transceiver. Optionally, the communication interface comprises a transmitter for performing the act of transmitting in the respective method and a receiver for performing the act of receiving in the respective method.

In some possible designs, the communication device, when it is a system-on-chip, may be formed from a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

It will be appreciated that where the communications apparatus provided by any one of the second to third aspects is a chip, the above-described transmitting actions/functions may be understood as outputs and the above-described receiving actions/functions may be understood as inputs.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a computer readable storage medium having stored therein a computer program or instructions which, when run on a communications device, cause the communications device to perform the method of any one of the above aspects or any implementation thereof.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a communications apparatus, cause the communications apparatus to perform the method of any one of the above aspects or any implementation thereof.

Technical effects brought about by any implementation manner of the second aspect to the fifth aspect may be referred to technical effects brought about by corresponding implementation manners of the first aspect, and are not described here again.

Wherein, it should be noted that, various possible implementation manners of any one of the above aspects, on the premise that the schemes are not contradictory, the combination can be carried out.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a switching process according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 2 is a system architecture diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a switching method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a flow chart of another switching method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5is a schematic diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 6 is a schematic hardware structure of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In the description of the present application, "/" means that the related objects are in a "or" relationship, for example, a/B may mean a or B, and "and/or" in the present application is merely an association relationship describing the related objects, means that three relationships may exist, for example, a and/or B, and that three cases of a alone, a and B together, and B alone exist, wherein a, B may be singular or plural, unless otherwise stated.

In the description of the present application, unless otherwise indicated, "a plurality" means two or more than two. "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 (a, b, or c) of a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, or a-b-c may be represented, wherein a, b, c may be single or plural.

In addition, in order to facilitate the clear description of the technical solution of the embodiments of the present application, in the embodiments of the present application, the words "first", "second", etc. are used to distinguish the same item or similar items having substantially the same function and effect. It will be appreciated by those of skill in the art that the words "first," "second," and the like do not limit the amount and order of execution, and that the words "first," "second," and the like do not necessarily differ.

In embodiments of the application, words such as "exemplary" or "such as" are used to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any embodiment or design described herein as "exemplary" or "e.g." in an embodiment should not be taken as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the use of words such as "exemplary" or "such as" is intended to present related concepts in a concrete fashion that may be readily understood.

It is appreciated that reference throughout this specification to "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present application. Thus, the various embodiments are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment throughout the specification. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. It should be understood that, in various embodiments of the present application, the sequence number of each process does not mean that the execution sequence of each process should be determined by the function and the internal logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

It is to be understood that in the present application, "when" and "if" both refer to a corresponding process that is performed under some objective condition, the time is not limited, and the judgment action is not required when the process is performed, nor is other limitations meant to exist.

It can be appreciated that some optional features of the embodiments of the present application may be implemented independently in some scenarios, independent of other features, such as the scheme on which they are currently based, to solve corresponding technical problems, achieve corresponding effects, or may be combined with other features according to requirements in some scenarios. Accordingly, the device provided in the embodiment of the present application may also implement these features or functions accordingly, which will not be described herein.

In the present application, the same or similar parts between the embodiments may be referred to each other unless specifically stated otherwise. In the embodiments of the present application, and the respective implementation/implementation methods in the embodiments, if there is no specific description and logic conflict, terms and/or descriptions between different embodiments, and between the respective implementation/implementation methods in the embodiments, may be consistent and may refer to each other, and technical features in the different embodiments, and the respective implementation/implementation methods in the embodiments, may be combined to form a new embodiment, implementation, or implementation method according to their inherent logic relationship. The embodiments of the present application described below do not limit the scope of the present application.

The technical solution provided by the embodiments of the present application may be used in various communication systems, which may be a third generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project,3GPP) communication system, for example, a fourth generation (4th generation,4G) long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, a fifth generation (5th generation,5G) new wireless (NR) system, a car networking (vehicle to everything, V2X) system, a system of LTE and NR hybrid networking, or a device-to-device (D2D) system, a machine-to-machine (machine to machine, M2M) communication system, an internet of things (Internet of Things, ioT), and other next generation communication systems, etc. Or the communication system may be a non-3 GPP communication system without limitation.

The above-mentioned communication system to which the present application is applied is merely illustrative, and the communication system to which the present application is applied is not limited thereto, and is generally described herein, and will not be described in detail.

The network device in the embodiment of the application is an entity on the network side for sending signals, receiving signals, or sending signals and receiving signals. The network device may be a device deployed in a radio access network (radio access network, RAN) to provide wireless communication functions for the terminal device, and may include, for example, an evolved base station (NodeB or eNB or e-NodeB, evolutional Node B) in an LTE system or an LTE-advanced (LTE-a) system, such as a conventional macro base station eNB and a micro base station eNB in a heterogeneous network scenario. Or may include a next generation node B (next generation node B, gNB) in a New Radio (NR) system. Or may include a transmission reception point (transmission reception point, TRP), a home base station (e.g., home evolved NodeB, or home Node B, HNB), a Base Band Unit (BBU), a base band pool (BBU pool), or a wireless fidelity (WIRELESS FIDELITY, wiFi) Access Point (AP), etc. Or may include a base station in a non-terrestrial network (non-TERRESTRIAL NETWORK, NTN), i.e., deployed on a flying platform or satellite, where the network device may act as a layer 1 (L1) relay, or may act as a base station, or may act as an access backhaul integrated (INTEGRATED ACCESS AND backhual, IAB) node. Or the network device may be a device in the IoT that implements base station functionality, such as drone communication, V2X, D2D, or machine-to-machine (machine to machine, M2M).

In some possible scenarios, the network device may also be a module or unit capable of implementing the functionality of the base station part, e.g. the network device may be a Centralized Unit (CU), a Distributed Unit (DU), a CU-Control Plane (CP), a CU-User Plane (UP), or a Radio Unit (RU), etc. The CUs and DUs may be provided separately or may be included in the same network element, e.g. in a baseband unit (BBU). The RU may be included in a radio frequency device or unit, such as in a remote radio unit (remote radio unit, RRU), an active antenna processing unit (ACTIVE ANTENNA unit, AAU), or a remote radio head (remote radio head, RRH).

In different systems, CUs (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DUs or RUs may also have different names, but the meaning will be understood by those skilled in the art. For example, the network device may be a network device or a module of a network device in an open radio access network (ora) system. In ORAN systems, a CU may also be referred to as an open (O) -CU, a DU may also be referred to as an O-DU, a CU-CP may also be referred to as an O-CU-CP, a CU-UP may also be referred to as an O-CU-UP, and a RU may also be referred to as an O-RU. Any unit of CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU and RU in the present application may be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of software and hardware modules.

In the embodiment of the application, the form of the network device is not limited, and the device for realizing the function of the network device can be the network device, or can be a device capable of supporting the network device to realize the function, such as a chip system. The apparatus may be installed in or used in cooperation with a network device.

The terminal device in the embodiment of the application is an entity used for receiving signals, transmitting signals or receiving signals and transmitting signals at the user side. The terminal device may be a User Equipment (UE), an access terminal, a terminal unit, a subscriber station, an end station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a user terminal terminal equipment, TE), a mobile device, a wireless communication device, a terminal agent, a tablet (pad), a handheld device with wireless communication capability, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle mounted device, a vehicle mounted communication module, a wearable device, or the terminal apparatus in a fifth generation mobile communication technology (5th generation,5G) network or a public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN) evolving after 5G, the access terminal may be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol, SIP) phone, wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) station, personal Digital Assistant (PDA), handheld device with wireless communication function, computing device or other processing device connected to wireless modem, in-vehicle device, unmanned aerial vehicle, robot, point of sale (POS) machine, customer-terminal device (CPE-premises equipment) or wearable device, virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) terminal device, wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), wireless terminal in unmanned (SELF DRIVING), wireless terminal in telemedicine (remote medium), wireless terminal in smart grid (SMART GRID), wireless terminals in transportation security (transportation safety), wireless terminals in smart city (SMART CITY), wireless terminals in smart home (smart home), etc. Or the terminal device may be a terminal having a communication function in the internet of things (internet of things, iot), such as a terminal in V2X (e.g., an internet of vehicle device), a terminal in D2D communication, or a terminal in M2M communication, or the like. The terminal device may be mobile or stationary.

The embodiment of the application does not limit the form of the terminal equipment, and the device for realizing the function of the terminal equipment can be the terminal equipment or can be a device capable of supporting the terminal equipment to realize the function, such as a chip system. The device can be installed in or matched with the terminal equipment. In the embodiment of the application, the chip system can be composed of chips, and can also comprise chips and other discrete devices.

In order to facilitate understanding of the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application, a brief description of related technologies of the present application is first provided. Briefly described as follows:

1. Uplink congestion

Uplink congestion refers to congestion of an uplink between a terminal device and a network device (e.g., a base station), and uplink data transmission transmitted by the terminal device is blocked. The occurrence of upstream congestion can seriously affect the user's network experience.

Upstream congestion is typically caused by the following reasons:

The number of terminal devices residing in a cell is large, and the schedulable air interface resources of a base station corresponding to the cell are limited. At this time, if the base station is not configured or does not trigger load balancing, the air interface resources allocated by the base station to the terminal device residing in the cell may not meet the uplink traffic transmission requirement of the terminal device, so that uplink congestion occurs in the terminal device.

The downlink transmission of the cell is normal for the reason 2, but the uplink traffic transmission is highly interfered. At this time, the base station cannot schedule a larger modulation and coding scheme (Modulation and Coding Scheme, MCS) and Radio Bearer (RB) for the terminal device, and the uplink grant of the terminal device is kept smaller, at this time, uplink congestion occurs in the terminal device.

And 3, the terminal equipment is at the edge position of the coverage area of the resident cell, but the terminal equipment does not meet the switching condition at the moment, and the base station cannot be triggered to instruct the terminal equipment to switch. In this case, both uplink and downlink of the terminal device will generate larger interference, and both uplink and downlink transmission of the terminal device will be blocked, resulting in uplink congestion and downlink congestion of the terminal device.

And 4, the uplink congestion of the terminal equipment is caused by abnormal uplink scheduling or uplink configuration of the cell where the terminal equipment resides.

At present, a method for detecting whether uplink congestion occurs by the terminal equipment comprises a radio link failure (radio link failure, RLF) detection mechanism and an uplink continuous congestion detection mechanism.

1. The radio link abnormality detection mechanism specifically comprises a radio link failure detection mechanism of a 1.1 radio link control (radio link control, RLC) layer and a radio link failure detection mechanism of a 1.2 medium access control (MEDIA ACCESS control, MAC) layer.

The radio link failure detection mechanism of the RLC layer comprises that the RLC layer of the terminal equipment transmits an RLC service data unit (SERVICE DATA unit, SDU) in an uplink mode, the RLC SDU cannot be transmitted to a base station due to uplink abnormality, or the terminal equipment cannot receive RLC STATUS feedback transmitted by the base station due to downlink abnormality, and the number of times of uplink RLC Polling retransmission of the terminal equipment exceeds a threshold, and radio link failure is triggered.

The MAC layer radio link failure detection mechanism of the 1.2 is that the MAC layer of the terminal equipment applies for uplink authorization through a scheduling request (scheduling request, SR). The SR sending reaches the maximum threshold, but does not obtain the uplink authorization, the terminal equipment returns to the Random Access (RA) flow to apply for the uplink authorization, the RA failure times exceed the threshold, and the radio link failure is triggered.

2. The uplink continuous congestion detection mechanism comprises uplink continuous congestion and uplink continuous interference.

The uplink continuous congestion includes that the terminal equipment continuously (for example, continuously for a plurality of periods) detects the uplink congestion in a preset time.

The uplink continuous interference includes that the terminal equipment continuously detects uplink congestion, and detects that a reference signal received power (REFERENCE SIGNAL RECEIVING power, RSRP) of a serving cell is greater than a first threshold, and a signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) is less than a second threshold.

The step of detecting uplink congestion by the terminal device specifically includes:

In case 1, the terminal device detects that the first PDCP SDU buffer time of the packet data convergence layer protocol (PACKET DATA convergence protocol, PDCP) queue is greater than or equal to a first time threshold (applicable to a scenario in which the network device side is not configured with a PDCP discard timer).

And 2, detecting that the number ratio of the target PDCP SDUs is larger than or equal to a first ratio by the terminal equipment, wherein the target PDCP SDUs are PDCP SDUs which are discarded after the timer is overtime (suitable for a scene that the network equipment side is configured with a PDCP discard timer).

Aiming at the scheme of detecting uplink congestion by the terminal equipment, if the terminal equipment detects RLF, the terminal equipment triggers a reestablishment flow through a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) message. However, the following problems exist in this process:

when the measurement is carried out on the current service cell in the reestablishment flow of the terminal equipment, the measurement abnormality of the service cell is not found, the terminal equipment is highly likely to reestablish to the current service cell, and the terminal equipment still generates uplink congestion after reestablishment. Even if the terminal equipment is re-established to other cells, service transmission can still be recovered after network searching, residence and random access are successful, so that service transmission interruption time of the terminal equipment is longer. In addition, RLF generally occurs under the situation that the uplink or downlink is completely abnormal, but when uplink congestion is caused by large uplink interference of the terminal device and small allocation authorization of the base station to the terminal device continuously, the terminal device cannot trigger the RLF flow, so that the problem of uplink congestion of the terminal device cannot be solved.

Aiming at the scheme of detecting the uplink congestion by the terminal equipment, if the terminal equipment detects the uplink congestion, the terminal equipment sets the current service cell as a bad cell through RRC and triggers the terminal equipment to reestablish to other cells. However, the following problems exist in this process:

The terminal equipment reestablishes to other cells, and service transmission can be recovered only after network searching, residence and random access are successful, so that service transmission interruption time of the terminal equipment is longer. In addition, the signal strength of the cell selected when the terminal equipment is reestablished only meets the residence threshold, and the reestablished cell may not be the optimal cell, so that the service transmission of the terminal equipment is difficult to recover after reestablishment.

2. Redirecting

Redirection refers to the process by which a terminal device is redirected from one cell to another cell in a connected state. In the redirection process, the terminal equipment is disconnected with the service cell, network searching, residence and random access processes are carried out, and after the random access is successful, the terminal equipment carries out service data transmission in the newly accessed cell. In the redirection process, the terminal equipment cannot carry the service data to redirect. The terminal device needs to interrupt the service transmission first and resume the service transmission after redirection.

3. Handover

A handover refers to a procedure in which a terminal device is handed over from one cell to another cell in a connected state. In the switching process, the terminal equipment can carry the service data to switch without interrupting the service transmission.

Taking an LTE network or an NR network as an example, the handover procedure includes handover triggering, handover measurement, handover decision and handover execution.

The switching trigger refers to a process that the terminal equipment triggers switching measurement. For the same-frequency cell, the terminal equipment can periodically measure the signal intensity of the frequency point of the same-frequency cell, and for the different-frequency cell, the terminal equipment can trigger event reporting after the measured signal intensity of the current service cell is weaker than the different-frequency measurement threshold, and then trigger the terminal equipment to carry out different-frequency measurement.

The switching measurement refers to a process that the terminal equipment measures the signal strength of the same-frequency/different-frequency neighbor cell signals according to the measurement configuration of the network equipment, and when the signal strength of the target neighbor cell meets a measurement event, a measurement report corresponding to the measurement event is generated and reported to the network equipment.

The switching decision refers to a process that after the network equipment receives a measurement report reported by the terminal equipment, the network equipment interacts with the neighboring network equipment, the core network equipment and other equipment to decide that the terminal equipment is switched to a target neighboring cell.

The switching execution refers to the process that the network equipment reconfigures the information of the target neighbor cell to the terminal equipment, and the terminal equipment initiates switching random access to the target neighbor cell after receiving the reconfiguration information of the target neighbor cell.

Fig. 1 shows a specific procedure of handover in the related art, and as shown in fig. 1, the current handover procedure includes the following S101-S110.

S101, the source network device sends a Handover (HO) measurement configuration to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the HO measurement configuration from the source network device.

As an example, the source network device may be a source NR base station (NR Node B, gNB) in an NR network.

S102, the terminal equipment performs measurement based on the switching measurement configuration.

S103, the terminal equipment sends an A1 event or an A2 event measurement report to the source network equipment. Correspondingly, the source network device receives an A1 event or an A2 event measurement report from the terminal device.

In other words, the terminal device generates an A1 event or A2 event measurement report when the measurement result satisfies the A1 event or the A2 event. The terminal device sends an A1 event or an A2 event measurement report to the source network device.

As an example, the A1 event is that the serving cell measurement is above a threshold of 1. The event A2 is that the serving cell measurement is below threshold 2.

Wherein, the above S101-S103 correspond to the above handover triggering procedure.

And S104, the source network equipment performs measurement and issuing on the terminal equipment.

In a possible implementation manner, the source network device issues measurement configuration information of the inter-frequency neighbor cell during the inter-frequency measurement to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can perform the inter-frequency measurement.

S105, the terminal equipment measures the signal intensity of the cell and determines the measurement result.

S106, the terminal equipment reports the measurement result to the source network equipment. Accordingly, the source network device receives the measurement result from the terminal device.

In one possible implementation manner, when the measurement result meets the corresponding measurement event, the terminal device generates a measurement report corresponding to the measurement event, and sends the measurement report to the terminal device.

Measurement events include an A3 event-A6 event, and a B1 event-B2 event in addition to the A1 event A2 event described above.

The event A3 is that the neighbor cell measurement is higher than the serving cell measurement + offset value (offset).

And A4, the event is that the neighbor cell measurement result is higher than the threshold 3.

The event A5 is that the measurement result of the serving cell is lower than the threshold 4 and the measurement result of the neighbor cell is higher than the threshold 5.

The A6 event is that the neighbor measurement is higher than the measurement of Scell + offset value (offset).

B1 event is that the measurement result of the different system cell is higher than the threshold 6.

And B2, the event is that the measurement result of the different system cell is higher than a threshold 7, and the measurement result of the SPcell is lower than a threshold 8.

The measurement report corresponding to each switching event can carry the measurement result of the cell triggering the switching event in the switching event, so that the source network equipment can instruct the terminal equipment to switch according to the measurement result.

Wherein, the above S104-S106 correspond to the above handover measurement procedure.

And S107, the source network equipment makes a switching decision.

In other words, the source network device makes a handover decision based on the handover event in the measurement report, selecting a handover cell and a handover policy.

Wherein S107 corresponds to the handover decision process.

S108, the source network equipment, the target network equipment and the core network equipment are interacted to perform handover preparation.

As an example, in an NR network, the target network device is a target gNB and the core network device is a 5G core network (5G core network,5GC) device.

S109, the source network device, the target network device, and the core network device all complete the handover preparation.

In other words, the source network device, the target network device, and the core network device apply for and allocate resources to the terminal device, and determine that the handover preparation is completed after applying for and allocating resources.

S110, the source network device sends switching indication information to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives the switching indication information from the source network equipment.

Wherein, the above-mentioned S108-S110 correspond to the above-mentioned switching execution process.

And the terminal equipment initiates the switching to the target network equipment according to the switching indication information, and transmits service data through the target network equipment after switching to the target network equipment.

As can be seen from the above description of the related art of the present application, when the terminal device and the network device transmit data through the air interface, the terminal device may have uplink congestion due to a large number of cell residence users, a large uplink interference, an abnormal uplink scheduling or abnormal configuration, and other reasons. After the terminal equipment is congested in the uplink, if the terminal equipment continues to reside in the current cell, uplink service transmission of the terminal equipment is blocked, uplink service data cannot be normally transmitted, and network experience of a user is affected.

Currently, in order to avoid that uplink service data cannot be normally transmitted when a terminal device is congested, when the terminal device detects that the terminal device is congested, a reestablishment procedure is generally triggered by RRC. However, in the reestablishment process, the terminal equipment needs to perform network searching and residence processes, and can resume data transmission on the reestablished cell after the random access is successful, so that the service is interrupted.

In order to solve the technical problems in the prior art, the embodiment of the application provides a handover method, in which a terminal device sends a first measurement report to a network device when uplink congestion is detected, so that the network device can instruct the terminal device to handover to a target cell meeting a handover threshold in the measurement report through the first measurement report. Based on this, in the embodiment of the present application, when the terminal device detects the uplink congestion, the uplink congestion is solved by switching, instead of solving the uplink congestion by reestablishing. Compared with reestablishment, the terminal equipment in the switching process can directly carry service data to switch to the adjacent cell without causing service interruption, thereby solving the problem of service interruption caused by reestablishment when uplink congestion occurs in the prior art.

The switching method provided by the embodiment of the application can be applied to a communication system shown in fig. 2, and the communication system comprises a network device 201 and a terminal device 202 as shown in fig. 2.

The network device 201 is configured to trigger the terminal device 202 to perform handover according to a measurement report reported by the terminal device 202. The terminal device 202 is configured to perform handover according to the instruction of the network device 201, and perform service data transmission in the new cell after handover to the new cell.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of an example of a handover method according to an embodiment of the present application. The method is described by taking interaction between a network device and a terminal device as an example. Of course, the main body for executing the network device action in the method may also be a device/module in the network device, for example, a chip, a processor, a processing unit, etc. in the network device, and the main body for executing the terminal device action in the method may also be a device/module in the terminal device, for example, a chip, a processor, a processing unit, etc. in the terminal device, which is not limited in detail in the embodiment of the present application. The processing performed by a single execution body (e.g., a network device or a terminal device) in embodiments of the present application may also be divided into execution by multiple execution bodies, which may be logically and/or physically separated. As shown in fig. 3, an exemplary switching method provided by an embodiment of the present application includes:

and S301, the terminal equipment sends a first measurement report to the network equipment under the condition that the terminal equipment detects uplink congestion. Accordingly, the network device receives a first measurement report from the terminal device.

The first measurement report is used for triggering the network equipment to instruct the terminal equipment to switch to the target neighbor cell.

As an example, after the terminal device measures the serving cell and the neighbor cell, when the measurement result meets the handover event, the first measurement report is a measurement report generated according to the handover event. At this time, the first measurement report is used for reporting a measurement event determined by the terminal device according to the current measurement result to the network device.

As an example, the measurement event reported by the first measurement report includes the A3 event-A5 event described above, and at least one of the B1 event and the B2 event. For an understanding of the A3 event-A5 event, and the B1 event and the B2 event, reference is made to the foregoing descriptions, and no further description is given here.

In one possible implementation manner, the terminal device detects whether the terminal device generates uplink congestion in the foregoing manner. And under the condition that the terminal equipment is congested in the uplink, the terminal equipment determines corresponding measurement events according to the current measurement results of the serving cell and the neighbor cells, and sends a first measurement report to the network equipment after generating the first measurement report according to the determined measurement events so as to trigger the network equipment to instruct the terminal equipment to switch to the target neighbor cells.

In the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment sends the first measurement report to the network equipment under the condition of detecting the uplink congestion, so that the network equipment can instruct the terminal equipment to switch to a target cell meeting a switching threshold in the measurement report through the first measurement report. Based on this, in the embodiment of the present application, when the terminal device detects the uplink congestion, the uplink congestion is solved by switching, instead of solving the uplink congestion by reestablishing. Compared with reestablishment, the terminal equipment in the switching process can directly carry service data to switch to the adjacent cell without causing service interruption, thereby solving the problem of service interruption caused by reestablishment when uplink congestion occurs in the prior art.

In addition, compared with the prior art that the terminal equipment detects the RLF and then triggers the reestablishment flow, in the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment directly triggers the switching flow after detecting the uplink congestion, and the terminal equipment can be switched to the neighbor cell with the best measurement result in the switching flow and can not be switched to the current service cell, so that the problem of the uplink congestion of the terminal equipment caused by reestablishing the terminal equipment to the current cell is avoided.

In one possible implementation, the first measurement report includes a first signal strength of the target neighbor cell, where the first signal strength is a signal strength determined based on a second signal strength that satisfies a handover condition, and the second signal strength is a signal strength obtained by measuring a signal of the target neighbor cell.

Optionally, the second signal strength is greater than the first signal strength. That is, the terminal device adjusts the actually measured smaller signal strength to a larger signal strength satisfying the handover condition, so that the terminal device can generate the first measurement report according to the larger signal strength.

In other words, when the terminal device experiences uplink congestion, the measured signal strength of the neighboring cell and the measured signal strength of the serving cell may not meet the condition for triggering the measurement event, which may cause the terminal device to fail to generate and report the measurement report of the handover event, and further cause the terminal device to fail to handover to the neighboring cell. At this time, in order to enable the terminal device to meet the condition of triggering the measurement event, the measurement report of the handover event is reported, and the terminal device may adjust the measured signal strength of the neighboring cell, so that the terminal meets the handover condition.

For the A3 event, the terminal device selects, as the target neighbor cell, the neighbor cell with the strongest signal strength from the multiple neighbor cells, where the measured signal strength of the target neighbor cell is less than or equal to the serving cell measurement result+offset value, and does not satisfy the triggering condition of the A3 event.

At this time, the terminal device adjusts the signal strength of the target neighbor cell to be greater than the signal strength of the serving cell measurement result+offset value so that the target neighbor cell satisfies the condition of triggering the A3 event. And the terminal equipment generates a first measurement report corresponding to the A3 event, and sends the first measurement report to the network equipment after carrying the adjusted signal strength of the target neighbor cell into the first measurement report.

In another example, for the A4 event, the terminal device selects a neighboring cell with a signal strength greater than a threshold 9 (the threshold 9 is smaller than the threshold 3) from the same-frequency neighboring cells of the multiple neighboring cells as a target neighboring cell, and the signal strength of the target neighboring cell is less than or equal to the threshold 3 because the terminal device does not trigger the A4 event currently.

At this time, the terminal device adjusts the signal strength of the target neighboring cell to be greater than the signal strength of the threshold 3, so that the target neighboring cell satisfies the condition of triggering the A4 event. And the terminal equipment generates a first measurement report corresponding to the A4 event, and sends the first measurement report to the network equipment after carrying the adjusted signal strength of the target neighbor cell into the first measurement report.

In another example, for the B1 event, the terminal device selects a neighboring cell with signal strength greater than the threshold 8 (the threshold 8 is less than the threshold 6) from the inter-frequency neighboring cells of the multiple neighboring cells as the target neighboring cell, and the signal strength of the target neighboring cell is less than or equal to the threshold 6 because the terminal device does not trigger the B2 event currently.

At this time, the terminal device adjusts the signal strength of the target neighboring cell to be greater than the signal strength of the threshold 6, so that the target neighboring cell satisfies the condition of triggering the B1 event. And the terminal equipment generates a first measurement report corresponding to the B1 event, and sends the first measurement report to the network equipment after carrying the adjusted signal strength of the target neighbor cell into the first measurement report.

Based on the method, the terminal equipment can trigger and generate the first measurement report by adjusting the signal strength of the target neighbor cell under the condition that the measured signal strength of the target neighbor cell does not meet the switching condition, so that the switching can be directly triggered in an uplink congestion scene, and the situation that the switching cannot be performed due to the fact that the signal strength of the target neighbor cell does not meet the switching condition is avoided.

It should be noted that the terminal device may also adjust the signal strength of cells other than the target neighbor cell, for example, the serving cell, scell, and SPcell, so that the terminal device satisfies the corresponding measurement event, which is not limited in the present application.

In one possible implementation, the target neighbor cell is a neighbor cell of the plurality of neighbor cells having an RSRP greater than the first threshold and/or an SINR greater than the second threshold.

In other words, in the embodiment of the present application, after the terminal device starts the same-frequency measurement and/or different-frequency measurement, a measurement list is generated according to the measurement result. The terminal device selects a neighbor cell satisfying a condition (i.e. RSRP is greater than a first threshold and/or SINR is greater than a second threshold) from the measurement list as a target neighbor cell.

In a possible implementation, in the case that the measurement list includes a plurality of neighboring cells satisfying the above condition, the terminal device selects a neighboring cell with the best signal quality as the target neighboring cell. For example, in the case where a plurality of neighbor cells satisfying the above conditions are included in the measurement list, the terminal device selects a neighbor cell having the largest RSRP and/or SINR as a target neighbor cell.

Based on the method, the terminal equipment can select the neighbor cell with better signal strength from a plurality of neighbor cells as a target neighbor cell so as to improve the network quality after the terminal equipment is switched and improve the network experience of users, and meanwhile, the scheme also solves the problem that service transmission is difficult to recover after the terminal equipment is reestablished due to the fact that the cell with the signal strength only meeting the residence threshold is selected for reestablishment when the terminal equipment is reestablished in the related technology.

In one possible implementation, the plurality of neighbors includes at least one of a co-frequency neighbor and a different-frequency neighbor of a serving cell of the terminal device.

Based on the method, the terminal equipment can select the target neighbor cell from the same-frequency neighbor cell and the different-frequency neighbor cell, the selection range of the terminal equipment is larger, the probability of selecting the target neighbor cell by the terminal equipment is higher, and the network quality of the selected target neighbor cell is better.

The following describes an example of a complete procedure in which a terminal device detects uplink congestion and sends a measurement report:

and the terminal equipment periodically or continuously monitors whether uplink congestion occurs, and when the uplink congestion is monitored, the terminal equipment determines whether a target adjacent cell with RSRP larger than a first threshold and/or SINR larger than a second threshold exists in the adjacent cells according to the measurement result of the current common-frequency measurement and/or the different-frequency measurement.

If the target neighbor cell exists and the target neighbor cell does not meet the triggering switching event currently, the terminal equipment adjusts the measured first signal strength of the target neighbor cell to be second signal strength so as to reach the triggering condition of the measuring event, and further the terminal equipment generates a first measuring report for reporting the measuring event according to the second signal strength. After that, the terminal device sends a first measurement report to the network device, so that the network device instructs the terminal device to perform handover to the target neighbor cell.

In one possible implementation manner, after the terminal device sends the first measurement report to the network device, the network device instructs the terminal device to switch to the target neighboring cell, and the terminal device switches to the target neighboring cell according to the instruction of the network device. Hereinafter, a handover procedure of the terminal device will be described in detail.

Illustratively, after S301, the network device and the terminal device may implement the handover of the terminal device in the manner described in S302-S303 shown in fig. 3:

s302, the network equipment sends third indication information to the terminal equipment. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the third indication information from the network device.

The third indication information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to switch to the target neighbor cell.

In a possible implementation manner, the third indication information is handover indication information, and the third indication information specifically includes handover configuration information of the target neighboring cell, for example, information such as frequency of the target neighboring cell, handover event, and the like.

And S303, responding to the third indication information, and switching the terminal equipment to the target neighbor cell.

In a possible implementation manner, the terminal device switches to the target neighboring cell according to the switching configuration information of the target neighboring cell indicated by the third indication information, and continues to perform service transmission through the target neighboring cell after the switching is completed.

It should be noted that, in a complete handover procedure of a terminal device, in addition to interaction between the terminal device and the network device of the serving cell, interaction is also required between one or more of the terminal device, the network device of the serving cell, the network device of the target neighboring cell, and the core network device, so that the core network device and the network device of the target neighboring cell establish session connection for the terminal device, and release the session connection established by the serving cell for the terminal device. The specific switching process can refer to the prior art, and the application is not repeated.

Based on the method, after the terminal equipment sends the first measurement report to the network equipment, the terminal equipment switches to the target neighbor cell based on the indication of the network equipment, so that the problem of service interruption is solved through switching in an uplink congestion scene.

In one possible implementation manner, after the terminal device is switched from the serving cell to the target neighboring cell, because the serving cell is congested, if the terminal device is switched back to the serving cell in a short time, the uplink congestion of the terminal device is still more likely to occur. Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device can prohibit the terminal device from switching the serving cell for a short time by setting the timer.

The process in which the terminal device sets the timer to prohibit the terminal device from switching the serving cell for a short time may be implemented by S304 as shown in fig. 3:

S304, after switching to the target adjacent cell, the terminal equipment starts a first timer.

The duration of the first timer is the duration of the terminal equipment which prohibits switching back to the service cell.

In other words, the terminal device prohibits handover back to the original serving cell until the first timer expires. After the first timer expires, the terminal device may switch normally. After the first timer times out, the terminal device may perform cell switching according to an actual measurement result, where the switched cell may be an original serving cell or may be another cell that satisfies a switching condition, which is not limited in the present application.

Based on the above, after the terminal equipment cuts out from the service cell with the uplink congestion, the timer is set to ensure that the terminal equipment does not cut back to the service cell with the uplink congestion in the preset time, so that the terminal equipment is prevented from cutting back to the service cell and then generating the uplink congestion again.

In a possible implementation manner, before sending the first measurement report, the terminal device needs to select the target neighboring cell according to the measurement result of the neighboring cell. The neighbor cells of the service cell comprise same-frequency neighbor cells and different-frequency neighbor cells, and correspondingly, the measurement of the neighbor cells by the terminal equipment comprises same-frequency measurement and different-frequency measurement. The common-frequency measurement is periodically performed by the terminal equipment, and the different-frequency measurement is performed when the terminal equipment meets the measurement triggering condition.

Since the on-channel measurement is a measurement performed with a fixed period, the measurement list of the terminal device generally includes measurement results of on-channel cells after the terminal device detects uplink congestion. However, the inter-frequency measurement is a measurement performed by the terminal device when the condition is satisfied (e.g., the terminal device may trigger the inter-frequency measurement when the A2 event is satisfied), and thus the terminal device may not start the inter-frequency measurement when the terminal device detects uplink congestion.

Under the condition that the terminal equipment does not start inter-frequency measurement, if no neighbor cell with good signal quality (for example, RSRP is greater than a first threshold and/or SINR is greater than a second threshold) exists in the result of the same-frequency measurement, the terminal equipment cannot select a target neighbor cell from the same-frequency neighbor cells, and further the terminal equipment cannot adjust the signal strength of the target neighbor cell to switch.

In addition, even if a neighboring cell with better signal quality exists in the result of the same-frequency measurement, the terminal equipment cannot determine whether a neighboring cell with better signal quality exists in the different-frequency neighboring cell because the different-frequency measurement is not started by the terminal equipment. This may result in the terminal device not being handed over to the neighbor cell with the best signal quality, affecting the quality of service transmission of the terminal device.

Therefore, when the terminal equipment detects uplink congestion, if the terminal equipment does not start pilot frequency measurement at the moment, the terminal equipment can trigger the terminal equipment to start pilot frequency measurement by adjusting the measured signal strength of the serving cell. Illustratively, as shown in FIG. 4, this process may be implemented by the following S401-S403:

S401, the terminal equipment sends first indication information to the network equipment. Correspondingly, the network device receives the first indication information from the terminal device.

The first indication information is used for indicating the network equipment to configure configuration information of the different-frequency neighbor cell for the terminal equipment.

In one possible implementation manner, the terminal device generates the first indication information when the signal quality of the serving cell is poor and the pilot frequency measurement needs to be started.

Optionally, the terminal device is preconfigured with an inter-frequency measurement threshold, and if the signal quality of the serving cell is smaller than the inter-frequency measurement threshold, the terminal device sends first indication information to the network device to indicate the network device to configure configuration information of an inter-frequency neighbor cell for the terminal device.

An example, the inter-frequency measurement threshold of the terminal device may be a trigger threshold of an A2 event (A2 event is that the serving cell measurement result is below threshold 2). And the terminal equipment generates an A2 event measurement report and sends the A2 event measurement report to the network equipment under the condition that the signal quality of the serving cell is smaller than a threshold 2. After receiving the A2 event measurement report from the terminal equipment, the network equipment configures configuration information of the different-frequency neighbor cell for the terminal equipment.

S402, the network equipment sends second indication information to the terminal equipment. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the second indication information from the network device.

The second indication information comprises configuration information of the inter-frequency neighbor cell.

S403, the terminal equipment performs inter-frequency measurement based on configuration information of the inter-frequency neighbor cell, and determines signal strength of the inter-frequency neighbor cell.

Based on the measurement result, the terminal equipment triggers the inter-frequency measurement through the first indication information, so that the terminal equipment can measure the inter-frequency neighbor cell and determine the signal strength of the inter-frequency neighbor cell.

In one possible implementation, the first indication information includes a third signal strength of the serving cell, where the third signal strength is a signal strength less than a third threshold determined based on a fourth signal strength, and the fourth signal strength is a signal strength obtained by measuring a signal of the serving cell.

In other words, if the terminal device detects uplink congestion, it determines whether the terminal device starts an inter-frequency measurement threshold, and if the terminal device starts inter-frequency measurement, the terminal device selects a target neighbor cell according to the content related to S301, and reports the first measurement report.

If the terminal equipment does not start inter-frequency measurement and the terminal equipment is configured with an inter-frequency measurement threshold, the terminal equipment adjusts the measured signal strength (fourth signal strength) of the current serving cell to be smaller than the signal strength (third signal strength) of the inter-frequency measurement threshold, and at the moment, the terminal equipment sends first indication information to the network equipment to indicate that the terminal equipment needs to start inter-frequency measurement. The network equipment configures configuration information of the inter-frequency neighbor cell to the terminal equipment, and the terminal equipment performs inter-frequency measurement on the inter-frequency neighbor cell according to the configuration information of the inter-frequency neighbor cell configured by the network equipment.

If the terminal equipment does not start the inter-frequency measurement and the terminal equipment is not configured with the inter-frequency measurement threshold, the fact that the terminal equipment cannot conduct the inter-frequency measurement is indicated. In this case, the terminal device determines whether there is a target neighbor cell whose RSRP is greater than the first threshold and/or SINR is greater than the second threshold in the measurement result of the same-frequency measurement, and if so, the terminal device selects the target neighbor cell according to the content related to S301, and reports the first measurement report. If not, the terminal device may not execute the procedure related to the handover in the embodiment of the present application.

In an example, in the embodiment of the present application, the inter-frequency measurement threshold is a trigger threshold of an A2 event. And under the condition that the terminal equipment does not start inter-frequency measurement and is provided with an inter-frequency measurement threshold, the terminal equipment adjusts the signal strength measured by the current serving cell to be smaller than the signal strength of the threshold 2, at the moment, the terminal equipment triggers an A2 event to generate an A2 event measurement report, and sends the A2 event measurement report to the network equipment. After the network equipment receives the A2 event measurement report, the network equipment determines that the signal quality of the current service cell of the terminal equipment meets the inter-frequency measurement condition, and then configures configuration information of the inter-frequency neighbor cell for the terminal equipment.

Based on the above, the terminal device can adjust the signal strength of the serving cell to the signal strength satisfying the inter-frequency measurement triggering condition under the condition that the measured signal strength of the serving cell does not satisfy the inter-frequency measurement triggering condition, so that the inter-frequency measurement can be started in the uplink congestion scene, and the terminal device can select the target neighbor cell by integrating the measurement result of the same-frequency measurement and the measurement result of the inter-frequency measurement.

The scheme provided by the embodiment of the application is mainly introduced from the interaction point of network elements. Correspondingly, the embodiment of the application also provides a communication device which is used for realizing the various methods. The communication device may be a network device in the above method embodiment, or an apparatus including the above network device, or a component that may be used for the network device, or the communication device may be a terminal device in the above method embodiment, or an apparatus including the above terminal device, or a component that may be used for the terminal device. It will be appreciated that the communication device, in order to achieve the above-described functions, comprises corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules performing the respective functions. 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 modules of the communication device according to the above method embodiment, for example, each functional module can be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one processing module. The integrated modules may be implemented in hardware or in software functional modules. It should be understood that the division of the modules in the embodiment of the present application is illustrative, and is merely a logic function division, and other division manners may be implemented in practice.

By way of example, FIG. 5 illustrates a schematic diagram of a communication device 50, including a processing module 501 and a communication module 502. Optionally, a storage module 503 is also included. The memory module 503 is used to store program codes and data of the communication device 50.

Taking the example that the communication device 50 may be a terminal device in the above embodiment of the method, or an apparatus including the above terminal device, or a component that may be used for the terminal device, then:

And the processing module 501 is configured to instruct the communication module 502 to send a first measurement report to the network device when uplink congestion is detected, where the first measurement report is used to trigger the network device to instruct the terminal device to switch to the target neighbor cell.

In one possible implementation, the first measurement report includes a first signal strength of the target neighbor cell, where the first signal strength is a signal strength determined based on a second signal strength that satisfies a handover condition, and the second signal strength is a signal strength obtained by measuring a signal of the target neighbor cell.

In one possible implementation, the target neighbor cell is a neighbor cell of the plurality of neighbor cells having an RSRP greater than the first threshold and/or an SINR greater than the second threshold.

In one possible implementation, the plurality of neighbors includes at least one of a co-frequency neighbor and a different-frequency neighbor of a serving cell of the terminal device.

In a possible implementation manner, the processing module 501 is further configured to instruct the communication module 502 to send first instruction information to the network device, where the first instruction information is used to instruct the network device to configure configuration information of an inter-frequency neighboring cell for the terminal device, instruct the communication module 502 to receive second instruction information from the network device, where the second instruction information includes configuration information of the inter-frequency neighboring cell, and perform inter-frequency measurement based on the configuration information of the inter-frequency neighboring cell to determine signal strength of the inter-frequency neighboring cell.

In one possible implementation, the first indication information includes a third signal strength of the serving cell, where the third signal strength is a signal strength less than a third threshold determined based on a fourth signal strength, and the fourth signal strength is a signal strength obtained by measuring a signal of the serving cell.

In a possible implementation manner, the processing module 501 is further configured to instruct the communication module 502 to receive third instruction information from the network device, where the third instruction information is used to instruct the terminal device to switch to the target neighboring cell, and respond to the third instruction information to switch to the target neighboring cell.

In a possible implementation manner, the processing module 501 is further configured to start a first timer after the handover to the target neighbor cell, where the duration of the first timer is a duration that the terminal device prohibits the handover back to the serving cell.

All relevant contents of each step related to the above method embodiment may be cited to the functional description of the corresponding functional module, which is not described herein.

Alternatively, the modules in fig. 5 may also be referred to as units, for example, the processing modules may be referred to as processing units, and the transceiver modules may be referred to as transceiver units. In addition, in the embodiment shown in fig. 5, the names of the respective units may be other than those shown in the drawings, and for example, the transceiver module may also be referred to as a communication module or a communication unit.

The individual units in fig. 5 may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium if implemented in the form of software functional modules and sold or used as separate products. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the embodiments of the present application may be essentially or a part contributing to the prior art or all or part of the technical solution may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, including several instructions to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) or a processor (processor) to perform all or part of the steps of the method described in the embodiments of the present application. The storage medium storing the computer software product includes various media capable of storing program codes such as a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (random access memory, RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk.

In an embodiment of the application, the communication device 50 is presented in the form of individual functional modules that are divided in an integrated manner. A "module" herein may refer to a particular ASIC, an electronic circuit, a processor and memory that execute one or more software or firmware programs, an integrated logic circuit, and/or other device that can provide the described functionality. In a simple embodiment, one skilled in the art will appreciate that the communication device 50 may take the form of the communication device shown in fig. 6.

Referring to fig. 6, the communication device comprises a processor 601 and a transceiver 602, and optionally a memory 603 coupled to the processor 601.

The processor 601 may be a general purpose central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), microprocessor, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of the programs of the present application. Processor 601 may also include multiple CPUs, and processor 601 may be a single-Core (CPU) processor or a multi-core (multi-CPU) processor. A processor herein may refer to one or more devices, circuits, or processing cores for processing data (e.g., computer program instructions).

The processor 601, the memory 603 and the transceiver 602 are connected by a bus. The transceiver 602 is used for communicating with other communication devices. Alternatively, transceiver 602 may include a transmitter and a receiver. The means for implementing the receiving function in transceiver 602 may be considered a receiver for performing the steps of receiving in embodiments of the present application. The means for implementing the transmit function in transceiver 602 may be considered a transmitter for performing the transmit steps in embodiments of the present application.

In a first possible implementation, see fig. 6, the communication device further comprises a memory 603. The memory 603 may be a ROM or other type of static storage device, a RAM or other type of dynamic storage device that can store static information and instructions, or that can store information and instructions, or an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a compact disk read-only memory (compact disc read-only memory) or other optical disk storage, optical disk storage (including compact disk, laser disk, optical disk, digital versatile disk, blu-ray disk, etc.), magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer, as embodiments of the application are not limited in this respect. The memory 603 may be separate or integrated with the processor 601. Wherein the memory 603 may contain computer program code. The processor 601 is arranged to execute computer program code stored in the memory 603 for implementing the method provided by the embodiments of the present application.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform any of the methods described above.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform any of the methods described above.

The embodiment of the application also provides a chip comprising a processor and an interface, wherein the processor is coupled with the memory through the interface, and when the processor executes the computer program or the instructions in the memory, any one of the methods provided by the embodiment is executed.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication system which comprises the terminal equipment and the network equipment in the embodiment.

In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using a software program, it may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in accordance with embodiments of the present application are produced in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center by a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, digital subscriber line (digital subscriber line, DSL) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). Computer readable storage media can be any available media that can be accessed by a computer or data storage devices including one or more servers, data centers, etc. that can be integrated with the media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a solid state disk (solid state drive STATE DISK, SSD) or the like).

Although the application is described herein in connection with various embodiments, other variations to the disclosed embodiments can be understood and effected by those skilled in the art in practicing the claimed application, from a study of the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other elements or steps, and the "a" or "an" does not exclude a plurality. A single processor or other unit may fulfill the functions of several items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage.

While the application has been described in connection with the features and embodiments thereof, it will be apparent that various modifications and combinations thereof can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the application. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are merely exemplary illustrations of the present application as defined in the appended claims and are considered to cover any and all modifications, variations, combinations, or equivalents that fall within the scope of the application. 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.

The foregoing is merely an embodiment of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application should be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims (12)

Translated fromChinese

1.一种切换方法，其特征在于，包括：1. A switching method, comprising:在检测到上行拥塞的情况下，向网络设备发送第一测量报告；所述第一测量报告用于触发所述网络设备指示终端设备向目标邻区切换。When uplink congestion is detected, a first measurement report is sent to the network device; the first measurement report is used to trigger the network device to instruct the terminal device to switch to the target neighboring cell.2.根据权利要求1所述的方法，其特征在于，所述第一测量报告包括所述目标邻区的第一信号强度，所述第一信号强度为基于第二信号强度确定的满足切换条件的信号强度；所述第二信号强度为对所述目标邻区的信号进行测量获得的信号强度。2. The method according to claim 1 is characterized in that the first measurement report includes a first signal strength of the target neighboring cell, the first signal strength is a signal strength that satisfies a switching condition and is determined based on a second signal strength; and the second signal strength is a signal strength obtained by measuring the signal of the target neighboring cell.3.根据权利要求1或2所述的方法，其特征在于，所述目标邻区为多个邻区中参考信号接收功率RSRP大于第一门限和/或信号与干扰加噪声比SINR大于第二门限的邻区。3. The method according to claim 1 or 2 is characterized in that the target neighboring cell is a neighboring cell among multiple neighboring cells whose reference signal received power RSRP is greater than a first threshold and/or whose signal to interference plus noise ratio SINR is greater than a second threshold.4.根据权利要求3所述的方法，其特征在于，所述多个邻区中包括所述终端设备的服务小区的同频邻区和异频邻区中的至少之一。4. The method according to claim 3 is characterized in that the multiple neighboring cells include at least one of the same-frequency neighboring cell and the different-frequency neighboring cell of the service cell of the terminal device.5.根据权利要求4所述的方法，其特征在于，在所述多个邻区中包括所述服务小区的异频邻区的情况下，所述方法还包括：5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that, when the multiple neighboring cells include an inter-frequency neighboring cell of the serving cell, the method further comprises:向所述网络设备发送第一指示信息；所述第一指示信息用于指示所述网络设备为所述终端设备配置异频邻区的配置信息；Sending first indication information to the network device; the first indication information is used to instruct the network device to configure configuration information of an inter-frequency neighboring cell for the terminal device;接收来自所述网络设备的第二指示信息，所述第二指示信息包括所述异频邻区的配置信息；receiving second indication information from the network device, where the second indication information includes configuration information of the inter-frequency neighboring cell;基于所述异频邻区的配置信息进行异频测量，确定所述异频邻区的信号强度。Perform inter-frequency measurement based on the configuration information of the inter-frequency neighboring cell to determine the signal strength of the inter-frequency neighboring cell.6.根据权利要求5所述的方法，其特征在于，所述第一指示信息包括所述服务小区的第三信号强度；所述第三信号强度为基于第四信号强度确定的小于第三门限的信号强度；所述第四信号强度为对所述服务小区的信号进行测量获得的信号强度。6. The method according to claim 5 is characterized in that the first indication information includes a third signal strength of the service cell; the third signal strength is a signal strength less than a third threshold determined based on a fourth signal strength; and the fourth signal strength is a signal strength obtained by measuring the signal of the service cell.7.根据权利要求1-6任一项所述的方法，其特征在于，所述方法还包括：7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the method further comprises:接收来自所述网络设备的第三指示信息，所述第三指示信息用于指示所述终端设备切换到所述目标邻区；receiving third indication information from the network device, where the third indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to switch to the target neighboring cell;响应于所述第三指示信息，向所述目标邻区进行切换。In response to the third indication information, switching to the target neighboring cell is performed.8.根据权利要求7所述的方法，其特征在于，所述方法还包括：8. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that the method further comprises:在切换到所述目标邻区之后，启动第一定时器；所述第一定时器的时长为所述终端设备禁止切回所述服务小区的时长。After switching to the target neighboring cell, a first timer is started; the duration of the first timer is the duration during which the terminal device is prohibited from switching back to the serving cell.9.一种通信装置，其特征在于，包括：用于执行如权利要求1-8任一项所述方法的功能单元；其中，所述功能单元所执行的动作通过硬件实现或通过硬件执行相应的软件实现。9. A communication device, characterized in that it comprises: a functional unit for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8; wherein the action executed by the functional unit is implemented by hardware or the corresponding software is implemented by hardware.10.一种通信装置，其特征在于，包括：处理器；10. A communication device, comprising: a processor;所述处理器与存储器连接，所述存储器用于存储计算机执行指令，所述处理器执行所述存储器存储的所述计算机执行指令，以使所述通信装置实现如权利要求1-8任一项所述的方法。The processor is connected to a memory, the memory is used to store computer-executable instructions, and the processor executes the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory, so that the communication device implements the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8.11.一种计算机可读存储介质，其特征在于，包括指令，当所述指令在计算机上运行时，使得所述计算机执行如权利要求1-8任一项所述的方法。11. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized by comprising instructions, which, when executed on a computer, enable the computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8.12.一种计算机程序产品，其特征在于，包括指令，当所述指令在计算机上运行时，使得所述计算机执行如权利要求1-8任一项所述的方法。12. A computer program product, characterized in that it comprises instructions, and when the instructions are executed on a computer, the computer is caused to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8.