Electronic device for transmitting data by splitting the carrier and method for operating the electronic device

Abstract

An electronic device may include: a communication processor; and an application processor configured to send data to be sent via a first cellular communication and / or a second cellular communication to the communication processor, wherein the communication processor includes: a PDCP configured to support a split bearer for sending split data; a first RLC configured to split data received from the PDCP; and a second RLC configured to split data received from the PDCP, wherein the PDCP is configured to receive data to be sent via the first cellular communication and / or the second cellular communication from the application processor, send the data to at least one of the first RLC or the second RLC, and stop sending data to the RLC for receiving data based on a comparison result between a data size temporarily stored in the RLC for receiving data and a first configuration value.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to an electronic device and a method of operating the electronic device, and more particularly, to an electronic device for transmitting data through a split bearer and a method of operating the electronic device. Background Art

[0002] With the distribution of various electronic devices such as smart phones, tablet personal computers (PCs), portable multimedia players (PMPs), personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop PCs, and wearable devices, various wireless communication technologies for communication through the various electronic devices are being developed.

[0003] In order to meet the increased demand for wireless data traffic after the commercialization of the fourth generation (4G) communication system, efforts have been made to develop an improved fourth generation (5G) communication system or a pre-5G communication system. Therefore, the 5G communication system or the pre-5G communication system is referred to as a beyond-4G network communication system or a post-LTE system. In order to achieve high data transmission rates, the implementation of the 5G communication system in the millimeter wave band (e.g., the 60 GHz band) is being considered. In the 5G communication system, technologies such as beamforming, massive MIMO, full-size MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antennas, analog beamforming, and massive antennas are being discussed as a means of reducing propagation path losses in the millimeter wave band and increasing the propagation transmission distance.

[0004] The above information is presented as background information only to assist with understanding the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above may be used as prior art with respect to the present disclosure. Summary of the invention

[0005] A recent communication scheme supporting the fifth generation communication may support a scheme using both the fourth generation communication and the fifth generation communication (E-UTRA-NR dual connectivity (EN-DC)). A communication scheme supporting both the fourth generation communication and the fifth generation communication may use a base station (BS) supporting the fourth generation communication as a primary node and a BS supporting the fifth generation communication as a secondary node.

[0006] The portable terminal and the BS using the EN-DC scheme may transmit data only through the primary path or through both the data transmission path corresponding to the fourth generation communication and the data transmission path corresponding to the fifth generation communication according to the size of data to be transmitted. The data transmission path for data transmission may be determined by the BS, and the portable terminal may use the transmission path determined by the BS.

[0007] However, the data transmission path determined by the BS may not accurately reflect the status of the portable terminal.

[0008] When the BS transmits a signal indicating the use of both the data transmission path corresponding to the fourth generation communication and the data transmission path corresponding to the fifth generation communication (split bearer), the portable terminal may use both data transmission paths to transmit data that can be transmitted through one of the two data transmission paths. This may result in an unnecessary increase in power consumption of the portable terminal.

[0009] In addition, when the portable terminal sends data through all multiple paths, the portable terminal may split and send data without considering the different data processing rates of each transmission path, and the receiving side may receive some data later, which may cause the data processing rate on the receiving side to decrease.

[0010] According to one aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes: at least one communication processor; and an application processor configured to send data to be sent through a first cellular communication and / or a second cellular communication to the at least one communication processor, wherein the at least one communication processor includes: a packet data aggregation protocol (PDCP) configured to support a split bearer, the split bearer being used to send split data generated by splitting the data to a first node corresponding to the first cellular communication and a second node corresponding to the second cellular communication; a first RLC configured to split data received from the PDCP and send the split data to a first MAC corresponding to the first cellular communication; and a second RLC configured to split data received from the PDCP and send the split data to a second MAC corresponding to the second cellular communication, wherein the PDCP is configured to receive data to be sent through the first cellular communication and / or the second cellular communication from the application processor, send the data to at least one of the first RLC or the second RLC, and stop sending the data to the RLC for receiving the data based on a comparison result between a data size temporarily stored in the RLC for receiving the data and a first configuration value.

[0011] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes: at least one communication processor; and an application processor configured to send data to be sent via a first cellular communication and / or a second cellular communication to the at least one communication processor, wherein the at least one communication processor includes: a packet data aggregation protocol (PDCP) configured to support a split bearer, the split bearer being used to send split data generated by splitting the data to a first node corresponding to the first cellular communication and a second node corresponding to the second cellular communication; a first RLC configured to split the data received from the PDCP and send the split data to a first MAC corresponding to the first cellular communication; and a second RLC configured to split the data received from the PDCP. and sends the split data to a second MAC corresponding to the second cellular communication, wherein the PDCP is configured to identify the size of the data temporarily stored in the PDCP, the first RLC, and the second RLC, and based on the comparison result between the identified data size and the first configuration value, operate in one of the first operation mode and the second operation mode, wherein, in the first operation mode, the data temporarily stored in the PDCP is sent to the first RLC and the second RLC, so that no data is stored in the PDCP, and in the second operation mode, the data temporarily stored in the PDCP is not sent, so that the size of the data temporarily stored in the first RLC or the second RLC is not greater than the second configuration value.

[0012] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method for operating an electronic device is provided. The method includes: receiving, by a communication processor, data to be sent to one or more of a first node and a second node from an application processor, the first node being used to perform a first cellular communication with the electronic device, the second node being used to perform a second cellular communication with the electronic device; sending the data to at least one of a first RLC or a second RLC; and stopping sending data to the RLC receiving the data based on a comparison result between a data size temporarily stored in the RLC receiving the data and a first configuration value.

[0013] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes: at least one communication processor; and an application processor configured to send data to be sent through a first cellular communication and / or a second cellular communication to the at least one communication processor, wherein the at least one communication processor includes: a packet data aggregation protocol (PDCP) configured to support a split bearer, the split bearer being used to send split data generated by splitting the data to a first node corresponding to the first cellular communication and a second node corresponding to the second cellular communication; a first radio layer control (RLC) configured to split data received from the PDCP and send the split data to a first medium access control (MAC) corresponding to the first cellular communication; and a second RLC configured to split data received from the PDCP and send the split data to a second MAC corresponding to the second cellular communication, wherein the PDCP is configured to split the data received from the application processor into data units having a preset size, identify a data processing rate of the first RLC and a data processing rate of the second RLC, and distribute the data units to the first RLC and the second RLC based on the data processing rate of the first RLC and the data processing rate of the second RLC.

[0014] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method for operating an electronic device is provided. The method includes: receiving, by a communication processor, data to be sent to one or more of a first node and a second node from an application processor, the first node being used to perform a first cellular communication with the electronic device, and the second node being used to perform a second cellular communication with the electronic device; splitting the data into data units of a preset size by a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) implemented in the communication processor; identifying a data processing rate of a first radio layer control (RLC), the first RLC being configured to split data received from the PDCP and send the split data to a first medium access control (MAC) corresponding to the first cellular communication, and identifying a data processing rate of a second RLC, the second RLC being configured to split data received from the PDCP and send the split data to a second MAC corresponding to the second cellular communication; and distributing the data units to the first RLC and the second RLC based on the data processing rate of the first RLC and the data processing rate of the second RLC.

[0015] The electronic device and the method for operating the electronic device according to various embodiments can distribute data to the first radio layer control (RLC) and the second RLC based on the data processing rate of the first RLC, the data processing rate of the second RLC, and the uplink (UL) grant information of the first cellular communication. Therefore, the electronic device and the method for operating the electronic device according to various embodiments can reduce the data received later by the receiving side.

[0016] The electronic device and the method for operating the electronic device according to various embodiments can control the transmission rate of data sent from the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) to the RLC in consideration of the size of the data present in the RLC and the transmission rate of the data. Therefore, the electronic device and the method for operating the electronic device according to various embodiments can reduce the data received later by the receiving side.

[0017] The electronic device and the method of operating the electronic device according to various embodiments may reduce data received late by a receiving side, thereby preventing a timer that may be generated by the receiving side from being activated and increasing a data processing rate.

[0018] The electronic device and the method of operating the electronic device according to various embodiments can support data transmission using only the main path for data transmission by splitting the bearer in consideration of the data transmission rate. Therefore, data transmission using other paths can be prevented and unnecessary power consumption can be reduced.

[0019] Before proceeding to the following detailed description, it may be helpful to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases used throughout the patent document: the terms "include" and "comprising" and their derivatives mean including but not limited to; the term "or" is inclusive, meaning and / or; the phrases "associated with" and "associated with" and their derivatives may mean including, contained in, interconnected with, containing, contained therein, coupled with, with, communicating with, cooperating with, intertwined, parallel, adjacent to, combined with, having or having the nature of..., etc.; the term "controller" means any device, system or part thereof that controls at least one operation, such a device may be implemented in hardware, firmware or software or some combination of at least two of them. It should be noted that the functionality associated with any particular controller may be centralized or distributed, local or remote.

[0020] In addition, the various functions described below can be implemented or supported by one or more computer programs, each of which is formed by a computer-readable program code and embodied in a computer-readable medium. The terms "application" and "program" refer to one or more computer programs, software components, instruction sets, processes, functions, objects, classes, instances, related data or a part thereof suitable for implementation in a suitable computer-readable program code. The phrase "computer-readable program code" includes any type of computer code, including source code, object code and executable code. The phrase "computer-readable medium" includes any type of medium that can be accessed by a computer, such as a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a hard drive, a compact disk (CD), a digital video disc (DVD) or any other type of memory. "Non-temporary" computer-readable media does not include wired, wireless, optical or other communication links that transmit temporary electrical or other signals. Non-temporary computer-readable media include media that can permanently store data and media that can store data and then overwrite, such as rewritable optical disks or erasable memory devices.

[0021] Definitions for certain words and phrases are provided throughout this patent document, those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that in many, if not most instances, such definitions apply to prior, as well as future uses of such defined words and phrases. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0022] For a more complete understanding of the present disclosure and its advantages, reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals represent like parts:

[0023] Figure 1 shows a block diagram of an electronic device according to various embodiments;

[0024] Figure 2 A block diagram of an electronic device for supporting traditional network communications and 5G network communications according to various embodiments is shown;

[0025] Figure 3 The protocol stack structure of a network 100 for conventional communication and / or 5G communication according to an embodiment is shown;

[0026] Figure 4A A wireless communication system of a network providing traditional communications and / or 5G communications according to various embodiments is shown, Figure 4B A wireless communication system of a network providing traditional communications and / or 5G communications according to various embodiments is shown, and Figure 4C A wireless communication system providing a network for traditional communications and / or 5G communications according to various embodiments is shown;

[0027] Figure 5A block diagram of a wireless communication module of an electronic device according to various embodiments is shown;

[0028] Figure 6 illustrates data transmission by an electronic device using a split bearer according to various embodiments;

[0029] Fig. 7A A block diagram of a wireless communication module of an electronic device according to various embodiments is shown;

[0030] Figure 7B A first RLC (eg, Fig. 7A An embodiment of a first RLC 751) processing a data unit;

[0031] Figure 7C A second RLC (eg, Fig. 7A An embodiment of a second RLC 753) processing a data unit;

[0032] Fig.7D A PDCP sequence number allocation unit (eg, Fig. 7A An embodiment of a PDCP sequence number allocation unit 720) assigning sequence numbers of data units;

[0033] Fig. 7E It shows a case where an electronic device according to various embodiments implements multiple logical channels in uplink resources for data transmission;

[0034] Figure 7F An embodiment is shown in which an electronic device according to various embodiments transmits data only through one path due to a problem in the other of two transmission paths;

[0035] Figure 8 An embodiment in which an electronic device distributes data and specifies its sequence based on data processing rates of a first RLC and a second RLC according to various embodiments is shown;

[0036] Fig. 9 A flowchart showing an operation of a first mode in which an electronic device according to various embodiments selects a data transmission path based on the size of data to be transmitted and the size of data successfully transmitted per unit time;

[0037] Fig. 10A A comparative example is shown in which the electronic device according to various embodiments does not use Fig. 9 The first operating mode shown, Fig. 10B The electronic device according to various embodiments is shown Fig. 9 An embodiment of a first mode of operation is shown in;

[0038] Fig.11 A flowchart showing a second operation mode in which the electronic device according to various embodiments determines whether to stop data transmission based on the size of data to be transmitted and the size of data successfully transmitted per unit time;

[0039] Fig. 12A A comparative example is shown in which the electronic device according to various embodiments does not use Fig.11 The second operating mode shown in Fig. 12B An electronic device according to various embodiments is shown. Fig.11 An embodiment of the second mode of operation shown in;

[0040] Fig.13 A flowchart showing a second operation mode in which the electronic device according to various embodiments determines whether to stop data transmission based on the size of data to be transmitted and the size of data successfully transmitted per unit time;

[0041] Fig.14A An embodiment showing that an electronic device according to various embodiments executes one of a first operation mode and a second operation mode based on a first configuration value, Fig. 14B An embodiment in which the electronic device according to various embodiments performs one of a first operation mode and a second operation mode based on a first configuration value is shown, and Fig. 14C An embodiment in which an electronic device according to various embodiments executes one of a first operation mode and a second operation mode based on a first configuration value is shown;

[0042] Fig.15 A flowchart showing a method of operating an electronic device according to various embodiments is shown;

[0043] Fig.16 An embodiment in which an electronic device according to various embodiments executes one of a first operation mode and a second operation mode based on a first configuration value is shown;

[0044] Fig.17 A flowchart showing a method of operating an electronic device according to various embodiments; and

[0045] Fig.18 A flowchart of a method of operating an electronic device according to various embodiments is shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0046] Discussed below Figures 1 to 18The various embodiments used to describe the principles of the present disclosure in this patent document are exemplary only and should not be interpreted in any way as limiting the scope of the present disclosure. Those skilled in the art will understand that the principles of the present disclosure can be implemented in any appropriately arranged system or device.

[0047] Figure 1 1 is a block diagram illustrating an electronic device 101 in a network environment 100 according to various embodiments. Figure 1 , the electronic device 101 in the network environment 100 may communicate with the electronic device 102 via the first network 198 (e.g., a short-range wireless communication network), or communicate with the electronic device 104 or the server 108 via the second network 199 (e.g., a long-range wireless communication network). According to an embodiment, the electronic device 101 may communicate with the electronic device 104 via the server 108. According to an embodiment, the electronic device 101 may include a processor 120, a memory 130, an input device 150, a sound output device 155, a display device 160, an audio module 170, a sensor module 176, an interface 177, a haptic module 179, a camera module 180, a power management module 188, a battery 189, a communication module 190, a user identification module (SIM) 196, or an antenna module 197. In some embodiments, at least one of the components (e.g., the display device 160 or the camera module 180) may be omitted from the electronic device 101, or one or more other components may be added to the electronic device 101. In some embodiments, some of the components may be implemented as a single integrated circuit.For example, the sensor module 176 (eg, a fingerprint sensor, an iris sensor, or an illumination sensor) may be implemented to be embedded in the display device 160 (eg, a display).

[0048] The processor 120 may run, for example, software (e.g., program 140) to control at least one other component (e.g., hardware component or software component) of the electronic device 101 connected to the processor 120, and may perform various data processing or calculations. According to one embodiment, as at least part of the data processing or calculation, the processor 120 may load a command or data received from another component (e.g., sensor module 176 or communication module 190) into the volatile memory 132, process the command or data stored in the volatile memory 132, and store the resultant data in the non-volatile memory 134. According to an embodiment, the processor 120 may include a main processor 121 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU) or an application processor (AP)) and an auxiliary processor 123 (e.g., a graphics processing unit (GPU), an image signal processor (ISP), a sensor hub processor, or a communication processor (CP)) that is operationally independent or combined with the main processor 121. Additionally or alternatively, the auxiliary processor 123 may be adapted to consume less power than the main processor 121, or adapted to be specifically used for a specified function. The auxiliary processor 123 may be implemented separately from the main processor 121 , or as part of the main processor 121 .

[0049] When the main processor 121 is in an inactive (e.g., sleep) state, the auxiliary processor 123 may control at least some of the functions or states related to at least one component (e.g., display device 160, sensor module 176, or communication module 190) among the components of the electronic device 101 (not the main processor 121), or when the main processor 121 is in an active state (e.g., running an application), the auxiliary processor 123 may control at least some of the functions or states related to at least one component (e.g., display device 160, sensor module 176, or communication module 190) among the components of the electronic device 101 together with the main processor 121. According to an embodiment, the auxiliary processor 123 (e.g., an image signal processor or a communication processor) may be implemented as part of another component (e.g., camera module 180 or communication module 190) that is functionally related to the auxiliary processor 123.

[0050] The memory 130 may store various data used by at least one component of the electronic device 101 (e.g., the processor 120 or the sensor module 176). The various data may include, for example, software (e.g., the program 140) and input data or output data for commands related thereto. The memory 130 may include a volatile memory 132 or a nonvolatile memory 134.

[0051] The program 140 may be stored as software in the memory 130 , and may include, for example, an operating system (OS) 142 , middleware 144 , or applications 146 .

[0052] The input device 150 may receive commands or data from outside the electronic device 101 (eg, a user) to be used by other components of the electronic device 101 (eg, the processor 120). The input device 150 may include, for example, a microphone, a mouse, a keyboard, or a digital pen (eg, a stylus).

[0053] The sound output device 155 can output a sound signal to the outside of the electronic device 101. The sound output device 155 may include, for example, a speaker or a receiver. The speaker can be used for general purposes such as playing multimedia or playing records, and the receiver can be used for incoming calls. Depending on the embodiment, the receiver can be implemented as a separate part from the speaker, or as a part of the speaker.

[0054] The display device 160 may visually provide information to the outside of the electronic device 101 (e.g., a user). The display device 160 may include, for example, a display, a holographic device, or a projector, and a control circuit for controlling a corresponding one of the display, the holographic device, and the projector. According to an embodiment, the display device 160 may include a touch circuit adapted to detect a touch or a sensor circuit (e.g., a pressure sensor) adapted to measure the strength of a force caused by a touch.

[0055] The audio module 170 may convert sound into an electrical signal, or vice versa. According to an embodiment, the audio module 170 may obtain sound via the input device 150, or output sound via the sound output device 155 or an earphone of an external electronic device (e.g., electronic device 102) directly (e.g., wired) or wirelessly connected to the electronic device 101.

[0056] The sensor module 176 may detect an operating state (e.g., power or temperature) of the electronic device 101 or an environmental state (e.g., a user's state) outside the electronic device 101, and then generate an electrical signal or data value corresponding to the detected state. According to an embodiment, the sensor module 176 may include, for example, a gesture sensor, a gyro sensor, an atmospheric pressure sensor, a magnetic sensor, an acceleration sensor, a grip sensor, a proximity sensor, a color sensor, an infrared (IR) sensor, a biometric sensor, a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, or an illumination sensor.

[0057] The interface 177 may support one or more specific protocols to be used to connect the electronic device 101 directly (e.g., wired) or wirelessly to an external electronic device (e.g., the electronic device 102). According to an embodiment, the interface 177 may include, for example, a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI), a universal serial bus (USB) interface, a secure digital (SD) card interface, or an audio interface.

[0058] The connection end 178 may include a connector, wherein the electronic device 101 can be physically connected to an external electronic device (e.g., the electronic device 102) via the connector. According to an embodiment, the connection end 178 may include, for example, an HDMI connector, a USB connector, an SD card connector, or an audio connector (e.g., a headphone connector).

[0059] The haptic module 179 may convert the electrical signal into mechanical stimulation (eg, vibration or motion) or electrical stimulation that can be recognized by the user via his sense of touch or kinesthetic sense. According to an embodiment, the haptic module 179 may include, for example, a motor, a piezoelectric element, or an electrical stimulator.

[0060] The camera module 180 may capture still images or moving images. According to an embodiment, the camera module 180 may include one or more lenses, an image sensor, an image signal processor, or a flash.

[0061] The power management module 188 may manage power supply to the electronic device 101. According to an embodiment, the power management module 188 may be implemented as, for example, at least a part of a power management integrated circuit (PMIC).

[0062] The battery 189 may power at least one component of the electronic device 101. According to an embodiment, the battery 189 may include, for example, a non-rechargeable primary battery, a rechargeable secondary battery, or a fuel cell.

[0063] The communication module 190 may support establishing a direct (e.g., wired) communication channel or a wireless communication channel between the electronic device 101 and an external electronic device (e.g., electronic device 102, electronic device 104, or server 108), and perform communication via the established communication channel. The communication module 190 may include one or more communication processors capable of operating independently from the processor 120 (e.g., an application processor (AP)) and supporting direct (e.g., wired) communication or wireless communication. According to an embodiment, the communication module 190 may include a wireless communication module 192 (e.g., a cellular communication module, a short-range wireless communication module, or a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) communication module) or a wired communication module 194 (e.g., a local area network (LAN) communication module or a power line communication (PLC) module). A corresponding one of these communication modules can communicate with an external electronic device via a first network 198 (e.g., a short-range communication network such as Bluetooth, Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) Direct, or Infrared Data Association (IrDA)) or a second network 199 (e.g., a long-range communication network such as a cellular network, the Internet, or a computer network (e.g., a LAN or a wide area network (WAN))). These various types of communication modules can be implemented as a single component (e.g., a single chip), or these various types of communication modules can be implemented as multiple components separated from each other (e.g., multiple chips). The wireless communication module 192 can identify and authenticate the electronic device 101 in a communication network (such as the first network 198 or the second network 199) using user information (e.g., an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI)) stored in the user identification module 196.

[0064] The antenna module 197 may transmit or receive a signal or power to or from the outside of the electronic device 101 (e.g., an external electronic device). According to an embodiment, the antenna module 197 may include an antenna including a radiating element formed of a conductive material or a conductive pattern formed in or on a substrate (e.g., a PCB). According to an embodiment, the antenna module 197 may include a plurality of antennas. In this case, at least one antenna suitable for a communication scheme used in a communication network (such as the first network 198 or the second network 199) may be selected from the plurality of antennas by, for example, the communication module 190 (e.g., the wireless communication module 192). A signal or power may then be transmitted or received between the communication module 190 and the external electronic device via the selected at least one antenna. According to an embodiment, another component (e.g., a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC)) other than the radiating element may be additionally formed as a part of the antenna module 197.

[0065] At least some of the above components may be connected to each other via an inter-peripheral communication scheme (e.g., a bus, general purpose input output (GPIO), serial peripheral interface (SPI), or mobile industry processor interface (MIPI)) and communicatively transmit signals (e.g., commands or data) therebetween.

[0066] According to an embodiment, a command or data may be sent or received between the electronic device 101 and the external electronic device 104 via the server 108 connected to the second network 199. Each of the electronic device 102 and the electronic device 104 may be a device of the same type as the electronic device 101, or a device of a different type from the electronic device 101. According to an embodiment, all or some operations to be executed in the electronic device 101 may be executed in one or more of the external electronic device 102, the external electronic device 104, or the server 108. For example, if the electronic device 101 should automatically execute a function or service or should execute a function or service in response to a request from a user or another device, the electronic device 101 may request the one or more external electronic devices to execute at least part of the function or service instead of executing the function or service, or the electronic device 101 may request the one or more external electronic devices to execute at least part of the function or service in addition to executing the function or service. The one or more external electronic devices that receive the request may execute the requested at least part of the function or service, or execute another function or another service related to the request, and transmit the result of the execution to the electronic device 101. The electronic device 101 may provide the result as at least a partial reply to the request with or without further processing the result. To this end, for example, cloud computing technology, distributed computing technology, or client-server computing technology may be used.

[0067] Figure 2 2 is a block diagram 200 showing a program 140 according to various embodiments. According to an embodiment, the program 140 may include an operating system (OS) 142, middleware 144, or an application 146 that can be run in the OS 142 for controlling one or more resources of the electronic device 101. The OS 142 may include, for example, Android™, iOS™, Windows™, Symbian™, Tizen™, or Bada™. For example, at least a portion of the program 140 may be preloaded onto the electronic device 101 during manufacturing, or at least a portion of the program 140 may be downloaded from an external electronic device (e.g., the electronic device 102 or the electronic device 104, or the server 108) or updated by the external electronic device during user use.

[0068] OS 142 may control management (e.g., allocation or deallocation) of one or more system resources (e.g., processes, memory, or power) of electronic device 101. Additionally or alternatively, OS 142 may include one or more drivers for driving other hardware devices of electronic device 101 (e.g., input device 150, sound output device 155, display device 160, audio module 170, sensor module 176, interface 177, haptic module 179, camera module 180, power management module 188, battery 189, communication module 190, user identification module 196, or antenna module 197).

[0069] The middleware 144 may provide various functions to the application 146 so that the application 146 can use functions or information provided from one or more resources of the electronic device 101. The middleware 144 may include, for example, an application manager 201, a window manager 203, a multimedia manager 205, a resource manager 207, a power manager 209, a database manager 211, a package manager 213, a connection manager 215, a notification manager 217, a location manager 219, a graphic manager 221, a security manager 223, a telephony manager 225, or a voice identification manager 227.

[0070] The application manager 201 may, for example, manage the life cycle of the application 146. The window manager 203 may, for example, manage one or more graphical user interface (GUI) resources used on the screen. The multimedia manager 205 may, for example, identify one or more formats to be used for playing a media file, and may encode or decode a corresponding media file among the media files using a codec suitable for a corresponding format selected from the one or more formats. The resource manager 207 may, for example, manage the source code of the application 146 or the storage space of the memory 130. The power manager 209 may, for example, manage the capacity, temperature, or power of the battery 189, and may determine or provide relevant information to be used for the operation of the electronic device 101 based at least in part on the corresponding information of the capacity, temperature, or power of the battery 189. According to an embodiment, the power manager 209 may work in conjunction with a basic input / output system (BIOS) (not shown) of the electronic device 101.

[0071] The database manager 211 may, for example, generate, search for, or change a database to be used by the application 146. The package manager 213 may, for example, manage the installation or update of applications distributed in the form of package files. The connection manager 215 may, for example, manage a wireless connection or a direct connection between the electronic device 101 and an external electronic device. The notification manager 217 may, for example, provide a function for notifying a user of the occurrence of a specific event (e.g., an incoming call, message, or alarm). The location manager 219 may, for example, manage location information about the electronic device 101. The graphic manager 221 may, for example, manage one or more graphic effects to be provided to the user or a user interface related to the one or more graphic effects.

[0072] The security manager 223 may, for example, provide system security or user authentication. The phone manager 225 may, for example, manage a voice call function or a video call function provided by the electronic device 101. The voice identification manager 227 may, for example, send the user's voice data to the server 108, and receive from the server 108 a command corresponding to a function that runs on the electronic device 101 based at least in part on the voice data or text data converted at least in part on the voice data. According to an embodiment, the middleware 144 may dynamically delete some existing components or add new components. According to an embodiment, at least a portion of the middleware 144 may be included as a part of the OS 142, or at least a portion of the middleware 144 may be implemented as another software separate from the OS 142.

[0073] Applications 146 may include, for example, a home page 251, a dialer 253, a short message service (SMS) / multimedia message service (MMS) 255, an instant message (IM) 257, a browser 259, a camera 261, an alarm 263, a contact 265, a voice identification 267, an email 269, a calendar 271, a media player 273, an album 275, a watch 277, a health 279 (e.g., for measuring exercise level or bio-information (such as blood sugar)) or an environmental information 281 (e.g., for measuring air pressure, humidity or temperature information) application. According to an embodiment, application 146 may also include an information exchange application (not shown) capable of supporting information exchange between electronic device 101 and an external electronic device. The information exchange application may, for example, include a notification forwarding application suitable for transmitting specified information (e.g., a call, message or alarm) to an external electronic device or a device management application suitable for managing an external electronic device. The notification forwarding application may transmit notification information corresponding to a specific event (e.g., receipt of an email) occurring in another application (e.g., email application 269) of the electronic device 101 to an external electronic device. Additionally or alternatively, the notification forwarding application may receive notification information from the external electronic device and provide the notification information to a user of the electronic device 101.

[0074] The device management application may control the power (e.g., turning on or off) or functions (e.g., adjustment of brightness, resolution, or focus) of the external electronic device or some components of the external electronic device (e.g., a display device or camera module of the external electronic device). Additionally or alternatively, the device management application may support installation, deletion, or updating of applications running on the external electronic device.

[0075] Figure 2 A block diagram 200 of an electronic device 101 for supporting both traditional network communications and 5G network communications according to some embodiments is shown. Figure 2 , the electronic device 101 may include a first communication processor 212, a second communication processor 214, a first radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) 222, a second RFIC 224, a third RFIC 226, a fourth RFIC 228, a first radio frequency front end (RFFE) 232, a second RFFE 234, a first antenna module 242, a second antenna module 244, and an antenna 248. The electronic device 101 may further include a processor 120 and a memory 130. The network 199 may include a first network 292 and a second network 294. According to another embodiment, the electronic device 101 may further include Figure 1 At least one of the components shown, the network 199 may further include at least one other network. According to an embodiment, the first communication processor 212, the second communication processor 214, the first RFIC 222, the second RFIC 224, the fourth RFIC 228, the first RFFE 232, and the second RFFE 234 may be included as at least a part of the wireless communication module 192. According to another embodiment, the fourth RFIC 228 may be omitted or may be included as a part of the third RFIC 226.

[0076] The first communication processor 212 can establish a communication channel of a frequency band to be used for wireless communication with the first network 292, and can support traditional network communication via the established communication channel. According to some embodiments, the first network can be a traditional network including a 2G, 3G, 4G or long term evolution (LTE) network. The second communication processor 214 can establish a communication channel corresponding to a specified frequency band (e.g., about 6 GHz to 60 GHz) among the frequency bands to be used for wireless communication with the second network 294, and can support 5G network communication via the established channel. According to some embodiments, the second network 294 can be a 5G network defined in 3GPP. In addition, according to an embodiment, the first communication processor 212 or the second communication processor 214 can establish a communication channel corresponding to another specified frequency band (e.g., below 6 GHz) among the frequency bands to be used for wireless communication with the second network 294, and can support 5G network communication via the established channel. According to an embodiment, the first communication processor 212 and the second communication processor 214 can be implemented in a single chip or a single package. According to some embodiments, the first communication processor 212 or the second communication processor 214 may be implemented in a single chip or a single package together with the processor 120 , the sub-processor 123 , or the communication module 190 .

[0077] In the case of transmission, the first RFIC 222 may convert a baseband signal generated by the first communication processor 212 into a radio frequency (RF) signal in the range of about 700 MHz to 3 GHz for the first network 292 (e.g., a legacy network). In the case of reception, the RF signal is obtained from the first network 292 (e.g., a legacy network) via an antenna (e.g., the first antenna module 242) and may be pre-processed via an RFFE (e.g., the first RFFE 232). The first RFIC 222 may convert the pre-processed RF signal into a baseband signal so that the baseband signal is processed by the first communication processor 212.

[0078] In the case of transmission, the second RFIC 224 may convert the baseband signal generated by the first communication processor 212 or the second communication processor 214 into an RF signal of the Sub6 frequency band (below 6 GHz) for the second network 294 (e.g., a 5G network) (hereinafter referred to as a 5G Sub6 RF signal). In the case of reception, the 5G Sub6 RF signal is obtained from the second network 294 (e.g., a 5G network) via an antenna (e.g., the second antenna module 244) and may be pre-processed by an RFFE (e.g., the second RFFE 234). The second RFIC 224 may convert the pre-processed 5G Sub6 RF signal into a baseband signal so that the baseband signal is processed by the corresponding communication processor in the first communication processor 212 or the second communication processor 214.

[0079] In the case of transmission, the third RFIC 226 may convert the baseband signal generated by the second communication processor 214 into an RF signal (hereinafter referred to as a 5G Above6 RF signal) of the Above6G 5G frequency band (e.g., approximately 6 GHz to 60 GHz) to be used for the second network 294 (e.g., a 5G network). In the case of reception, the 5G Above6 RF signal is obtained from the second network 294 (e.g., a 5G network) via an antenna (e.g., antenna 248) and may be pre-processed by the third RFFE 236. The third RFIC 226 may convert the pre-processed 5G Above6 RF signal into a baseband signal so that the baseband signal is processed by the second communication processor 214. According to one embodiment, the third RFFE 236 may be implemented as a part of the third RFIC 226.

[0080] According to one embodiment, the electronic device 101 may include a fourth RFIC 228 that is separate from or as part of the third RFIC 226. In this case, the fourth RFIC 228 may convert the baseband signal generated by the second communication processor 214 into an RF signal (hereinafter referred to as an IF signal) of an intermediate frequency band (e.g., approximately 9 GHz to 11 GHz), and may transmit the IF signal to the third RFIC 226. The third RFIC 226 may convert the IF signal into a 5G Above 6 RF signal. In the case of reception, the 5G Above 6 RF signal is received from the second network 294 (e.g., a 5G network) via an antenna (e.g., antenna 248) and may be converted into an IF signal by the third RFFE 226. The fourth RFIC 228 may convert the IF signal into a baseband signal so that the baseband signal is processed by the second communication processor 214.

[0081] According to one embodiment, the first RFIC 222 and the second RFIC 224 may be implemented as at least a portion of a single chip or a single package. According to one embodiment, the first RFFE 232 and the second RFFE 234 may be implemented as at least a portion of a single chip or a single package. According to one embodiment, at least one of the first antenna module 242 or the second antenna module 244 may be omitted or may be combined with another antenna module to process RF signals in multiple frequency bands.

[0082] According to an embodiment, the third RFIC 226 and the antenna 248 may be arranged in the same substrate, and the third antenna module 246 may be formed. For example, the wireless communication module 192 or the processor 120 may be arranged in a first substrate (e.g., a main PCB). In this case, the third RFIC 226 is arranged in a portion (e.g., a lower portion) of a second substrate (e.g., a sub-PCB) separated from the first substrate, and the antenna 248 is arranged in another portion (e.g., an upper portion) so as to form a third antenna module 246. By arranging the third RFIC 226 and the antenna 248 in the same substrate, the length of the transmission line therebetween can be reduced. For example, this can reduce the loss (e.g., attenuation) of the signal in the high frequency band (e.g., about 6 GHz to 60 GHz) for 5G network communication, which is caused by the transmission line. Therefore, the electronic device 101 can improve the quality or speed of communication with the second network 294 (e.g., a 5G network).

[0083] According to one embodiment, the antenna 248 may be implemented as an antenna array including a plurality of antenna elements that may be used for beamforming. In this case, the third RFIC 226 may be, for example, part of a third RFFE 236, and may include a plurality of phase shifters 238 corresponding to the plurality of antenna elements. In the case of transmission, each of the plurality of phase shifters 238 may shift the phase of an external 5G Above6 RF signal to be sent to the electronic device 101 (e.g., a base station of a 5G network) via a corresponding antenna element. In the case of reception, each of the plurality of phase shifters 238 may shift the phase of a 5G Above6 RF signal received from the outside via a corresponding antenna element to the same or substantially the same phase. This may enable transmission or reception via beamforming between the electronic device 101 and the outside.

[0084] The second network 294 (e.g., a 5G network) can operate independently of the first network 292 (e.g., a traditional network) (e.g., Stand-Along (SA)), or can operate by connecting to it (e.g., Non-Stand Alone (NSA)). For example, in a 5G network, there may only be an access network (e.g., a 5G radio access network (RAN) or a next generation RAN (NGRAN)), and a core network (e.g., a next generation core (NGC)) may not exist. In this case, the electronic device 101 can access the access network of the 5G network, and can access an external network (e.g., the Internet) under the control of the core network of the traditional network (e.g., the Evolved Packet Core (EPC)). Protocol information for communicating with a traditional network (e.g., LTE protocol information) or protocol information for communicating with a 5G network (e.g., new radio (NR) protocol information) can be stored in the memory 230 and can be accessed by another component (e.g., the processor 120, the first communication processor 212, or the second communication processor 214).

[0085] Figure 3 A protocol stack structure of a network 100 for conventional communication and / or 5G communication according to an embodiment is shown.

[0086] refer to Figure 3 , the network 100 according to the illustrated embodiment may include an electronic device 101, a traditional network 392, a 5G network 394 and a server 108.

[0087] The electronic device 101 may include an Internet protocol 312, a first communication protocol stack 314, and a second communication protocol stack 316. The electronic device 101 may communicate with the server 108 via a traditional network 392 and / or a 5G network 394.

[0088] According to one embodiment, the electronic device 101 may perform Internet communications associated with the server 108 via an Internet protocol 312 (e.g., TCP, UDP, or IP). The Internet protocol 312 may be implemented by, for example, a main processor (e.g., Figure 1 The main processor 121) runs.

[0089] According to another embodiment, the electronic device 101 may perform wireless communication with the legacy network 392 through the first communication protocol stack 314. According to another embodiment, the electronic device 101 may perform wireless communication with the 5G network 394 through the second communication protocol stack 316. The first communication protocol stack 314 and the second communication protocol stack 316 may be implemented by, for example, one or more communication processors (e.g., Figure 1 The wireless communication module 192) is running.

[0090] The server 108 may include an Internet protocol 322. The server 108 may send and receive data related to the Internet protocol 322 to and from the electronic device 101 through the traditional network 392 and / or the 5G network 394. According to an embodiment, the server 108 may include a cloud computing server that exists outside the traditional network 392 or the 5G network 394. According to another embodiment, the server 108 may include an edge computing server (or a mobile edge computing (MEC) server) located inside at least one of the traditional network or the 5G network 394.

[0091] The legacy network 392 may include an LTE eNode B (eNB) 340 and an EPC 342. The LTE eNB 340 may include an LTE communication protocol stack 344. The EPC 342 may include a legacy NAS protocol 346. The legacy network 392 may perform LTE wireless communication with the electronic device 101 through the LTE communication protocol stack 344 and the legacy NAS protocol 346.

[0092] The 5G network 394 may include an NR gNB 350 and a 5GC 352. The NR gNB 350 may include an NR communication protocol stack 354. The 5GC 352 may include a 5G NAS protocol 356. The 5G network 394 may perform NR wireless communication with the electronic device 101 through the NR communication protocol stack 354 and the 5G NAS protocol 356.

[0093] According to an embodiment, the first communication protocol stack 314, the second communication protocol stack 316, the LTE communication protocol stack 344, and the NR communication protocol stack 354 may include a control plane protocol for sending and receiving control messages, and a user plane protocol for sending and receiving user data. The control message may include a message related to at least one of, for example, security control, bearer setting, authentication, registration, or mobility management. The user data may include, for example, the remaining data other than the control message.

[0094] According to an embodiment, the control plane protocol and the user plane protocol may include a physical (PHY) layer, a media access control (MAC) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, or a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer. The PHY layer may channel code and modulate data received from, for example, a high-level layer (e.g., a MAC layer), send data through a radio channel, demodulate and decode data received through a radio channel, and send data to a high-level layer. The PHY layer included in the second communication protocol stack 316 and the NR communication protocol stack 354 may further perform operations related to beamforming. The MAC layer may logically / physically map, for example, data to a radio channel for sending and receiving data, and perform a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) for error correction. The RLC layer may perform, for example, data concatenation, segmentation or reorganization, and data sequence identification, reordering or duplication detection. The PDCP layer may perform operations related to, for example, encryption of control messages and user data and data integrity. The second communication protocol stack 316 and the NR communication protocol stack 354 may further include a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP). SDAP can manage the allocation of radio bearers based on the Quality of Service (QoS) of user data.

[0095] According to certain embodiments, the control plane protocol may include a radio resource control (RRC) layer and a non-access stratum (NAS) layer. The RRC layer may process control data related to, for example, radio bearer establishment, paging, or mobility management. The NAS may process control messages related to, for example, authentication, registration, or mobility management.

[0096] Figure 4A A wireless communication system of a network providing traditional communications and / or 5G communications according to some embodiments is shown, Figure 4B A wireless communication system of a network providing traditional communications and / or 5G communications according to some embodiments is shown, and Figure 4C A wireless communication system that provides a network for traditional communications and / or 5G communications according to some embodiments is shown. FIG. 4A to FIG. 4C , the network environments 100A to 100C may include at least one of a conventional network and a 5G network. The conventional network may include, for example, a 3GPP standard 4G or LTE eNB 450 (e.g., eNodeB (eNB)) that supports radio access with the electronic device 101 and an evolved packet core (EPC) 451 for managing 4G communications. The 5G network may include, for example, a new radio (NR) gNB 450 (e.g., gNodeB (gNB)) that supports radio access with the electronic device 101 and a fifth generation core (5GC) 452 for managing 5G communications of the electronic device 101.

[0097] According to some embodiments, the electronic device 101 may send and receive control messages and user data through traditional communication and / or 5G communication. The control message may include, for example, a control message related to at least one of security control, bearer establishment, authentication, registration, or mobility management of the electronic device 101. The user data may be, for example, user data other than control messages sent and received between the electronic device 101 and the core network 430 (e.g., EPC 442).

[0098] refer to Figure 4A According to an embodiment, the electronic device 101 can use at least some traditional networks (e.g., LTE eNB440 and EPC 442) to send and receive at least one of control messages or user data to at least some 5G networks (e.g., NR gNB 450 and 5GC 452) and from at least some 5G networks.

[0099] According to certain embodiments, the network environment 100A may include a network environment for providing wireless communication dual connectivity (multi-radio access technology (RAT) dual connectivity (MR-DC)) to the LTE eNB 440 and the NRgNB 450, and for sending control messages to and receiving control messages from the electronic device 101 through a core network 430 of the EPC 442 or the 5GC 452.

[0100] According to certain embodiments, one of the MR-DC environment, LTE eNB 440, or NR gNB 450 may operate as a master node (MN) 410, and the other may operate as a secondary node (SN) 420. MN 410 may be connected to a core network 430, and send and receive control messages. MN 410 and SN 420 may be connected to each other through a network interface, and send and receive messages related to radio resource (e.g., communication channel) management.

[0101] According to certain embodiments, the MN 410 may include an LTE eNB 450, the SN 420 may include an NRgNB 450, and the core network 430 may include an EPC 442. For example, control messages may be sent and received through the LTE eNB 440 and the EPC 442, and user data may be sent and received through the LTE eNB 450 and the NR gNB 450.

[0102] refer to Figure 4B According to some embodiments, the 5G network may independently send control messages and user data to the electronic device 101 and receive control messages and user data from the electronic device 101.

[0103] refer to Figure 4C, according to some embodiments, the legacy network and the 5G network can independently provide data transmission and reception. For example, the electronic device 101 and the EPC 442 can send and receive control messages and user data through the LTE eNB 450. According to another embodiment, the electronic device 101 and the 5GC 452 can send and receive control messages and user data through the NR gNB 450.

[0104] According to some embodiments, the electronic device 101 may be registered in at least one of the EPC 442 or the 5GC 450 and send and receive control messages.

[0105] According to some embodiments, the EPC 442 or the 5GC 452 may communicate with each other and manage the communication of the electronic device 101. For example, the movement information of the electronic device 101 may be sent and received through the interface between the EPC 442 and the 5GC 452.

[0106] Figure 5 A block diagram of a wireless communication module of an electronic device according to various embodiments is shown.

[0107] According to various embodiments, an electronic device (eg, Figure 1 The wireless communication module (eg, Figure 1 The wireless communication module 192 may include multiple software layers for data communication. For example, the communication processor (e.g., Figure 2 The first communication processor 212 or the second communication processor 214) can run and provide multiple software layers. The multiple software layers may include one or more entities. Figure 5 , the wireless communication module 192 may include a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer 510 , a radio layer control (RLC) layer 520 , and a medium access control (MAC) layer 530 .

[0108] According to various embodiments, the PDCP layer 510 may include a PDCP entity 511 for performing operations of receiving data transmitted from the RLC layer 520 and aggregating the received data. In terms of receiving data by the wireless communication module 192 (in the downlink), the PDCP entity 511 may identify a sequence number of each received data and aggregate the received data based on the sequence number. The PDCP entity 511 may perform various processing operations (e.g., integrity verification of the received data) on the received data and send the processed data to various layers (e.g., IP layer) higher than another layer (e.g., the PDCP layer 510). In terms of sending data through the wireless communication module 192 (in the uplink), the PDCP entity 511 may generate data units by splitting the data to be sent into data units having a predetermined size. The PDCP entity 511 may assign a sequence number to each data unit. The PDCP entity 511 may send the generated data unit to the RLC layer 520.

[0109] According to various embodiments, the RLC layer 520 may include an RLC entity (e.g., a first RLC 521 or a second RLC 523) for performing various operations on data transmitted from the PDCP layer 510 or data transmitted from the MAC layer 530. In terms of receiving data by the wireless communication module 192 (in the downlink), the RLC entities 521 and 523 may identify the sequence number of the data transmitted from the MAC layer 530 and process the data (e.g., concatenate, split, or reassemble the data) to transmit it to the PDCP layer 510. In terms of transmitting data by the wireless communication module 192 (in the uplink), the RLC entities 521 and 523 may identify the sequence number of the data transmitted from the PDCP layer 510, and concatenate, split, or reassemble the data to have a size that can be received by the MAC layer 530.

[0110] According to various embodiments, the PDCP entity 511, the first RLC 521, or the second RLC 523 may temporarily store the data in a memory (eg, Figure 1 in a predetermined area of ​​the memory 130 or the memory within the communication module 190).

[0111] According to various embodiments, the MAC layer 530 may include a MAC entity (e.g., a first MAC 531 or a second MAC 533) for performing various operations on data transmitted from the RLC layer 520 or data received from a physical (PHY) layer that transmits or receives data through a radio channel. In terms of receiving data by the wireless communication module 192 (in a downlink), the wireless communication module 192 may process the data received from the physical layer to transmit it to the RLC layer 520. In terms of transmitting data by the wireless communication module 192, the MAC entities 531 and 533 may perform operations of selecting an appropriate transmission channel to transmit the data received from the RLC layer 520 and adding required control information to the data received from the RLC layer 520. The MAC entities 531 and 533 may generate a block status report (BSR) related to the size of the data temporarily stored in the PDCP layer 510 and the RLC layer 520, and transmit the BSR to the BS.

[0112] The wireless communication module 192 of the electronic device 101 according to various embodiments may perform communication with a first node (eg, Figure 4A The first communication processor 520 may transmit or receive control messages and data to or from the first node 410 while performing the first cellular communication. The first cellular communication may be one of various cellular communication schemes supported by the electronic device 101. For example, the first cellular communication may be one of the fourth generation mobile communication schemes (e.g., long term evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), and LTE-Advanced pro (LTE-A pro)), and may correspond to, for example, Figure 2 The first node 410 may be a base station supporting a first cellular communication.

[0113] The wireless communication module 192 of the electronic device 101 according to various embodiments may perform communication with a second node (eg, Figure 4A The second communication processor 530 may transmit data to the second node 420 or receive data from the second node 420 while performing the second cellular communication. The second cellular communication may be one of various cellular communication schemes supported by the electronic device 101 and may correspond to Figure 2 The second node 420 may be a base station supporting the second cellular communication.

[0114] According to various embodiments, an E-UTRA-NR dual connectivity (EN-DC) environment in which the first cellular communication is a fourth-generation mobile communication solution and the second cellular communication is a fifth-generation mobile communication solution is mainly described, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto. For example, various embodiments may be applied to an NR-E-UTRA dual connectivity (NE-DC) environment in which the first cellular communication is a fifth-generation mobile communication solution, the second cellular communication is a fourth-generation mobile communication solution, and an environment in which both the first cellular communication solution and the second cellular communication solution are fifth-generation mobile communication solutions but they support different frequency bands.

[0115] According to various embodiments, the wireless communication module 192 may support (uplink) EN-DC for sending data through one or more of the first cellular communication and the second cellular communication. The wireless communication module 192 may include a first RLC 521 and a first MAC 531 for supporting the first cellular communication implemented in the EN-DC scheme. The wireless communication module 192 may include a second RLC 523 and a second MAC 533 for supporting the second cellular communication implemented in the EN-DC scheme. The PDCP entity 511 may send at least some of the generated data units to the first node 410 through the first cellular communication, and may send some of the generated data units to the second node 420 through the second cellular communication. The PDCP entity 511 may send the data unit sent to the first node 410 to the first RLC 521, and the first RLC 521 may send the received data unit to the first MAC 531. The PDCP entity 511 may send the data unit sent to the second node 420 to the second RLC 523, and the second RLC 523 may send the received data unit to the second MAC 533. A path for sending data through both paths (a path through which the PDCP entity 511 performs transmission to the first MAC 531 via the first RLC 521, and a path through which the PDCP entity 511 performs transmission to the second MAC 533 via the second RLC 523) may be defined as a split bearer. A path through which data is sent to a primary node (e.g., the first node 410) among the two paths may be defined as a primary cell group bearer (MCG bearer). A path through which data is sent to a secondary node (e.g., the second node 420) among the two paths may be defined as a secondary cell group bearer (SCG bearer).

[0116] Figure 6 Data transmission using a split bearer by an electronic device is illustrated according to various embodiments.

[0117] Figure 6 An electronic device 610 (eg, Figure 1 An embodiment in which the electronic device 101) sends data to the BS 620.

[0118] According to various embodiments, a higher layer 611 (eg, an IP layer) of the electronic device 610 may send data to be transmitted to the second node 420 to the PDCP 611 (eg, Figure 5 The PDCP entity 511). The PDCP 611 may generate data units 631, 632, 633, 634, 635, and 636 by splitting the received data 630. The sizes of the split data units 631, 632, 633, 634, 635, and 636 may be the same as each other.

[0119] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 611 may determine whether to use a split bearer based on the size of the data to be transmitted. The PDCP 611 may compare an uplink data split threshold (ul-DataSplitThreshold) received from the first node 410 or the second node 420 with the size of the data, and determine whether to transmit the data through the primary path or the secondary path based on the comparison result. Figures 9 to 13 A detailed embodiment for determining whether to send data via a primary path or a secondary path is described.

[0120] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 611 may send at least some 631, 632, 633, 634, 635, and 636 of the data units 631, 632, 633, 634, 635, and 636 to the first RLC (eg, Figure 5 The first RLC 521 may perform various processes such as concatenating and splitting the received data to send the processed data units 631, 632, and 633 to the first MAC 531. The first MAC 531 may send the processed data units 631, 632, and 633 to the first node 410 through the first cellular communication based on the uplink grant information. The first node 410 may again send the received data units 631, 632, and 633 to a node implemented by the PDCP 625 (e.g., the second node 420).

[0121] Figure 6 The first MAC 531 and the first RLC 521 are illustrated as a first MAC / RLC 615, which is one element for convenience of description, and according to an embodiment, the first MAC 531 and the first RLC 521 may be implemented as one element. Figure 6It is shown that the BS 620 to which the electronic device 610 transmits data is a node implemented as a physical node. According to various embodiments, the third MAC / RCL 621 may be implemented on the first node 410, and the fourth MAC / RLC 623 and PDCP 625 may be implemented on the second node 420. According to another embodiment, the third MAC / RLC 621 and PDCP 625 may be implemented on the first node 410, and the fourth MAC / RLC 623 may be implemented on the second node 420. When data is transmitted between layers included in the electronic device 610 and the BS 620, a header included in the data may change.

[0122] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 611 may send at least some 634, 635, and 636 of the data units 631, 632, 633, 634, 635, and 636 to the second RLC (e.g., Figure 5 The second RLC 523 may process the received data units 634, 635, and 636 and send the processed data units 634, 635, and 636 to the second MAC 533. The second MAC 533 may send the processed data units 634, 635, and 636 to the BS 620 through the second cellular communication based on the uplink grant information of the second cellular communication. For ease of description, Figure 6 The second MAC 533 and the second RLC 523 are shown as the second MAC / RLC 615 as one element, and according to an embodiment, the second MAC 533 and the second RLC 523 may be implemented as more than one element.

[0123] According to various embodiments, the third MAC / RLC 621 of the BS 620 may receive at least some 631 and 632 of the data units 631, 632, and 633 transmitted by the first MAC / RLC 615. The third MAC / RLC 621 may transmit the received data units 631 and 632 to the PDCP 625.

[0124] According to various embodiments, the fourth MAC / RLC 623 of the BS 620 may receive at least some 634, 635, and 636 of the data units 634, 635, and 636 transmitted by the second MAC / RLC 617. The MAC / RLC 623 may transmit the received data units 634, 635, and 636 to the PDCP 625.

[0125] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 625 may aggregate the received data units and generate data obtained by aggregating the data units. The PDCP 625 may send the generated data to the higher layer 627. The data sent to the higher layer 627 may be the same or similar data as the data sent by the higher layer 611 of the electronic device 610.

[0126] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 625 may identify whether the received data units 631, 632, 634, 635, and 636 are a complete data, and aggregate the received data units based on the identification result. The PDCP 625 may identify the sequence numbers of the received data units 631, 632, 634, 635, and 636, and the identification sequence numbers are discontinuous. A discontinuous sequence number may mean that a data unit 633 has not been received. The PDCP 625 may identify that all data units have not been received, and standby without an operation for aggregating data units until a preset timer (t-reordering timer) expires. When some data units 633 are not sent, the timer may be activated. After the timer expires, at least some of the received data units 631, 632, 634, 635, and 636 may be sent to a higher layer 627 (e.g., an IP layer). Among the received data units 631 , 632 , 634 , 635 , and 636 , the data units 634 , 635 , and 636 having a sequence number greater than the unreceived data unit 633 may not be transmitted to the higher layer 627 .

[0127] According to various embodiments, when the preset timer expires, the PDCP 625 may aggregate the received data units and transmit the aggregated data units to the upper layer 627. When the remaining data units 633 are received before the preset timer expires, the PDCP 625 may aggregate the data units regardless of the expiration time of the timer and transmit the aggregated data units to the upper layer 627.

[0128] According to a comparative example, when a packet is not received or a packet (e.g., data unit 633) is received late due to deterioration of the communication state (e.g., deterioration of the data transmission rate of the first cellular communication), a preset timer may be activated, and when the preset timer is activated, the PDCP 625 may standby without aggregating data. Since the PDCP 625 stands by without aggregating data, the data processing rate (throughput) of the PDCP 625 may be reduced. The reduction in the data processing rate of the PDCP 625 may cause a reduction in the processing speed of the upper layer 627 and the application processor (e.g., Figure 1 The phenomenon of the data processing rate of the processor 120). In the following, Fig. 7A Various techniques for preventing this phenomenon are shown, Figure 7BVarious techniques for preventing this phenomenon are shown, Figure 7C Various techniques for preventing this phenomenon are shown, Fig.7D Various techniques for preventing this phenomenon are shown, Fig. 7E Various techniques for preventing this phenomenon are shown, Figure 7F Various techniques for preventing this phenomenon are shown, Figure 8 Various techniques for preventing this phenomenon are shown, and Fig. 9 Various techniques for preventing this phenomenon are shown.

[0129] Fig. 7A A block diagram of a wireless communication module of an electronic device according to various embodiments is shown.

[0130] refer to Fig. 7A , according to various embodiments of the electronic device (eg, Figure 1 The wireless communication module (eg, Figure 1 The wireless communication module 192 may include a controller 710, a PDCP sequence number allocation unit 720, a PDCP PDU distribution unit 730, and a PDCP 740 (e.g., Figure 5 PDCP entity 511), the first RLC 751 (for example, Figure 5 521), the first MAC 761 (eg, Figure 5 531), the second RLC 753 (eg, Figure 5 a second RLC 523) and a second MAC 763 (eg, Figure 5 The second MAC 533).

[0131] According to various embodiments, the controller 710 may control various software or hardware elements (e.g., PDCP sequence number allocation unit 720, PDCP PDU distribution unit 730, PDCP 740, first RLC 751, second RLC 753, first MAC 761, and second RLC 763) included in the wireless communication module 192. According to one embodiment, the controller 710 may be a hardware element (e.g., Figure 2 The controller 710 may be a first communication processor 212 or a second communication processor 214) or a software element. When the controller 710 is a software element, the controller 710 may be included in the wireless communication module 192. For example, the controller 710 may be executed by a communication processor (e.g., the second communication processor 214) included in the wireless communication module 192.

[0132] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 740 may split the data and generate a plurality of data units. In response to determining to use the split bearer, the PDCP 740 may send at least some of the plurality of data units to the first RLC 751 corresponding to the first cellular communication, and send at least some of the plurality of data units to the second RLC 753 corresponding to the second cellular communication. The operation of the PDCP 740 distributing and sending the data units to the first RLC 751 or the second RLC 753 may be defined as routing.

[0133] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 740 may determine the size of a data unit to be transmitted to the first RLC 751 or the second RLC 753 based on the data processing rate of the first RLC 751 and the data processing rate of the second RLC 753, and transmit the data unit to the first RLC 751 and the second RLC 753. The PDCP 740 may perform an operation for determining the size of the data unit under the control of the PDCP PDU distribution unit 730.

[0134] According to various embodiments, the data processing rate of the first RLC 751 may be the size of data that the first RLC 751 transmits to the first MAC 761 within a predetermined time. The data processing rate of the second RLC 753 may be the size of data that the second RLC 753 transmits to the second MAC 763 within a predetermined time.

[0135] According to various embodiments, the data processing rate of the first RLC 751 may be the size of data that the first RLC 751 has successfully transmitted to the third RLC 621 implemented in the receiving side (e.g., BS 620) corresponding to the first RLC 751 within a predetermined time. The first RLC 751 may identify the data processing rate of the first RLC 751 based on a signal (ack signal) indicating that the third RLC 621 has received the data. The data processing rate of the second RLC 753 may be the size of data that the second RLC 753 has successfully transmitted to the fourth RLC 623 implemented in the receiving side (e.g., BS 620) corresponding to the second RLC 753 within a predetermined time. The second RLC 753 may identify the data processing rate of the second RLC 753 based on a signal (ack signal) indicating that the fourth RLC 623 has received the data.

[0136] According to various embodiments, the PDCP PDU distribution unit 730 may receive uplink grant information of the first cellular communication from the controller 710. The uplink grant information is information about resources used by the electronic device 101 to send data through the first cellular communication (e.g., channel number, channel bandwidth, and channel frequency band), and may include the size of data that can be sent through the first cellular communication. The PDCP PDU distribution unit 730 may determine the size of the data unit to be sent to the first RLC 751 based on the uplink grant information of the first cellular communication.

[0137] According to various embodiments, the PDCP PDU distribution unit 730 may receive the data processing rate of the first RLC 751 and the data processing rate of the second RLC 753 from the controller 710, and determine a ratio of the size (volume) of the data unit to be transmitted to the first RLC 751 or the second RLC 753. The PDCP PDU distribution unit 730 may determine the size of the data to be transmitted to the second RLC 753 based on the ratio between the data processing rate of the first RLC 751 and the data processing rate of the second RLC 753. For example, the PDCP PDU distribution unit 730 may determine that a value obtained by multiplying the size of the data unit to be transmitted to the second RLC 753 by the ratio between the data processing rate of the first RLC 751 and the data processing rate of the second RLC 753 is the size of the data unit to be transmitted to the second RLC 753.

[0138] According to various embodiments, the data processing rate of the first RLC 751 may be a property indicating a data transmission rate performed through the first cellular communication. The data processing rate of the second RLC 753 may be a property indicating a data transmission rate performed through the second cellular communication. The PDCP PDU distribution unit 730 may identify the data processing rate of the first RLC 751 and the data processing rate of the second RLC 753, and transmit a relatively large number of data units to the RLC (e.g., the second RLC 753) having a relatively high data processing rate, so that the PDCP of the receiving side (e.g., the second node 420) (e.g., Figure 6 The above operation can prevent the activation of a preset timer in the receiving side (eg, the PDCP of the second node 420 (eg, Figure 6 PDCP 625)) and the data processing rate of PDCP 625 can be improved.

[0139] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 740 may assign sequence numbers of data units to be transmitted to the first RLC 751 or the second RLC 753 under the control of the PDCP sequence number allocation unit 720 .

[0140] According to various embodiments, the PDCP sequence number allocation unit 720 may receive a data processing rate of the first RLC 751 and a data processing rate of the second RLC 753 from the controller 710. The PDCP sequence number allocation unit 720 may assign a sequence number to each data unit so that the receiving side (e.g., BS 620) receives the data units as sequentially as possible. The operation of the receiving side sequentially receiving the data units may mean sequentially receiving the data units in the order of the sequence numbers allocated to the plurality of data units. The PDCP sequence number allocation unit 720 may configure the sequence number based on the data processing rate of the first RLC 751 and the data processing rate of the second RLC 753 so that the data units are sequentially received in the order of the allocated sequence numbers.

[0141] According to various embodiments, the sequence number assigned by the PDCP sequence number allocation unit 720 may be stored in a header included in the data unit.

[0142] According to various embodiments, the data processing rate of the first RLC 751 may be a property indicating a data transmission rate performed through the first cellular communication. The data processing rate of the second RLC 753 may be a property indicating a data transmission rate performed through the second cellular communication. The PDCP sequence number allocation unit 720 may identify the data processing rate of the first RLC 751 and the data processing rate of the second RLC 753, and assign a relatively small sequence number to the RLC (e.g., the second RLC 753) having a relatively high data processing rate, so that the data unit corresponding to the relatively small sequence number arrives at the receiving side (e.g., the PDCP of the second node 420) earlier than the data corresponding to the relatively large sequence number. Figure 6 The above operation may prevent the activation of a preset timer in the receiving side (eg, the PDCP of the second node 420 (eg, Figure 6 PDCP625)) and the data processing rate of PDCP 625 can be improved.

[0143] Figure 7B A first RLC (eg, Fig. 7A An embodiment of a first RLC 751) processing a data unit.

[0144] According to various embodiments, a PDCP PDU distribution unit (e.g., Fig. 7AThe PDPC PDU distribution unit 730 of the embodiment of the present invention can generate a set of data units with consecutive sequence numbers, which can be sent only through one transmission based on the uplink grant information. The size of the data unit set can be determined based on the uplink grant information 771 corresponding to the main path of the data. The uplink grant information 771 may include the maximum size of the data that can be sent in one time period. The set of data units may include data units with consecutive sequence numbers.

[0145] According to various embodiments, the first RLC 751 may receive a PDCP (eg, Fig. 7A The first RLC 751 may group the data units to be sent based on the uplink grant information 771 of the first cellular communication. The uplink grant information 771 may include the maximum size of data that can be sent in a time period. For ease of description, Figure 7B Assume that the maximum size of data that can be transmitted in one period is greater than or equal to the size of two data units and less than or equal to three data units, and the number of data units transmitted to the first RLC 751 is the number of data units to be transmitted to the second RLC (e.g., Figure 7C twice the number of data units of the second RLC 753).

[0146] According to various embodiments, when an electronic device (e.g., Figure 1 When the electronic device 101 of the present invention sends data by splitting the bearer, there is a difference between the sequence numbers of the data units sent in this period and the sequence numbers of the data units to be sent in the next period. For example, there may be a gap between the sequence numbers (No. 1 and No. 2) of the data units 631 and 632 to be sent through the first cellular communication in this period and the sequence numbers (No. 5 and No. 6) of the data units 635 and 636 to be sent through the first cellular communication in the next period. In this case, the first RLC 751 may send at least some of the data units 635 with the sequence number 5 in this period, or send the data unit 635 with the sequence number 5 in the next period instead of in this period.

[0147] According to various embodiments, the first RLC 751 may determine whether to split the data unit 635 based on the difference (gap) between the sequence number of the data unit to be sent in the next period and the sequence number of the data unit to be sent in this period. For example, the first RLC 751 may consider using the data transmission rate of the second cellular unit (e.g., the second RLC (e.g., Fig. 7AWhether to split the data unit 635 is determined based on the difference between the data processing rate of the second RLC 753) and the data transmission rate using the first cellular communication (eg, the data processing rate of the first RLC 751).

[0148] According to various embodiments, when the difference between the data transmission rate using the second cellular communication and the data transmission rate using the first cellular communication is large (for example, when the difference between this period and the next period is large enough to activate a preset timer, if the receiving side (for example, BS 620) receives some of the data units 635 in this period and receives others of the data units 635 in the next period), in the case where the data units 635 are sent in the next period instead of sending some of the data units 635 in this period, the data processing rate on the receiving side can be further increased.

[0149] According to various embodiments, when the difference between the data transmission rate using the second cellular communication and the data transmission rate using the first cellular communication is not large (for example, when the difference between this period and the next period is not large enough to activate a preset timer, if the receiving side (for example, BS 620) receives some of the data units 635 in this period and receives the rest of the data units 635 in the next period), in the case where some data units split from the data unit 635 are sent in this period and the rest of the data unit 635 are sent in the next period instead of sending all of the data units in the next period, the data processing rate on the receiving side may be further increased.

[0150] According to various embodiments, in response to determining not to split the data unit 635, the first RLC 751 may perform padding processing of aggregating the data units 631 and 632 and other data that is not a data unit, and generate data 780 obtained by aggregating the data units 631 and 632 and the padding 772. The size of the aggregated data may be a size obtained by subtracting the size of data that can be transmitted during one period from the size of the data units 631 and 632.

[0151] According to various embodiments, the first RLC 751 may perform padding processing of aggregating the data units 635 and 636 and other data that are not the data units, and generate data 781 obtained by aggregating the data units 635 and 636 and the padding 773 .

[0152] According to various embodiments, the first RLC 751 may transmit the generated data 780 and 781 to the first MAC 761. The first MAC 761 may aggregate the header and the received data 780 and 781 and transmit the generated data 782 and 783 to a higher layer (eg, IP layer).

[0153] Figure 7C A second RLC (eg, Fig. 7A An embodiment of a second RLC 753) processing a data unit.

[0154] According to various embodiments, the second RLC 753 may be from a PDPC (eg, Fig. 7A The second MAC 763 may group the data units to be sent based on the uplink grant information 790 of the second cellular communication. The uplink grant information 790 may include the maximum size of data that can be sent in a time period. For ease of description, Figure 7C It is assumed that the maximum data size transmittable within one period is greater than or equal to the size of two data units and equal to or less than the size of three data units.

[0155] According to various embodiments, the second MAC 763 may determine whether to split the data unit 636 by considering the difference (gap) between the sequence number of the data unit to be transmitted in the next period and the sequence number of the data unit to be transmitted in this period. For example, the second MAC 763 may consider the data transmission rate (e.g., the second RLC (e.g., Fig. 7A Whether to split the data unit 636 is determined based on the difference between the data processing rate of the second RLC 753) and the data transmission rate using the first cellular communication (eg, the data processing rate of the first RLC 751).

[0156] According to various embodiments, when the difference between the data transmission rate using the second cellular communication and the data transmission rate using the first cellular communication is large (for example, when the difference between this period and the next period is large enough to activate a preset timer, if the receiving side (for example, BS 620) receives some of the data units 635 in this period and receives the rest of the data units 635 in the next period), in the case where the data units 635 are sent in the next period instead of sending some of the data units 635 in this period, the data processing rate on the receiving side can be further increased.

[0157] According to various embodiments, when the difference between the data transmission rate using the second cellular communication and the data transmission rate using the first cellular communication is not large (for example, when the difference between this period and the next period is not large enough to activate a preset timer, if the receiving side (for example, BS 620) receives some of the data units 635 in this period and receives the rest of the data units 635 in the next period), in the case where some data units split from the data unit 636 are sent in this period and the rest of the data units 656 are sent in the next period instead of sending all the data units in the next period, the data processing rate on the receiving side may be further increased.

[0158] According to various embodiments, the second MAC 763 may perform padding processing of aggregating data units 634 and 635 and other data that is not a data unit in response to determining not to split the data unit 636. The size of the aggregated data may be a size obtained by subtracting the size of data that can be transmitted during one period from the size of the data units 634 and 635.

[0159] Fig.7D A PDCP sequence number allocation unit (eg, Fig. 7A An embodiment of a PDCP sequence number allocation unit 720) assigning sequence numbers of data units.

[0160] According to various embodiments, the PDCP sequence number allocation unit 720 may assign a sequence number to each data unit so that the receiving side (e.g., BS 620) receives the data units as sequentially as possible. The operation of the receiving side sequentially receiving the data units may mean sequentially receiving the data units in the order of the sequence numbers allocated to the plurality of data units. The PDCP sequence number allocation unit 720 may configure the sequence number based on the data processing rate of the first RLC 751 and the data processing rate of the second RLC 753 so that the data units are sequentially received in the order of the allocated sequence numbers.

[0161] According to various embodiments, the PDCP sequence number allocation unit 720 may allocate sequence numbers so that a data unit having a relatively larger sequence number (tracking sequence number) is not transmitted to the receiving side earlier than a data unit having a relatively smaller sequence number (leading sequence number). The PDCP sequence number allocation unit 720 may allocate sequence numbers so that a plurality of data units included in a set of data units have sequential sequence numbers. The PDCP sequence number allocation unit 720 may allocate a smaller sequence number to a data unit to be transmitted to an RLC having a faster data processing rate based on a data processing rate of the first RLC 751 and a data processing rate of the second RLC 753. Reference Fig.7D, assuming that the data processing rate of the first RLC / MAC 615 is half of the data processing rate of the second RLC / MAC 617. The PDCU sequence number allocation unit 720 may allocate small sequence numbers to data units 631, 632, 633, and 634 to be transmitted to the second RLC 753 having a faster data processing rate, and allocate relatively large sequence numbers to data units 635 and 636 to be transmitted to the first RLC 751 having a relatively slow data processing rate. Through the above scheme, the PDCP 625 of the BS 620 may continuously receive a plurality of data units 631, 632, 633, 634, 635, and 636 according to their sequence numbers.

[0162] According to various embodiments, when data units are transmitted between layers included in the electronic device 610 and the BS 620, headers included in the data units 631, 632, 633, 634, 635, and 636 may be changed by elements included in the layers.

[0163] Fig. 7E It is shown that the electronic device according to various embodiments implements multiple logical channels in uplink resources for data transmission.

[0164] refer to Fig. 7E , electronic devices (e.g. Figure 1 The electronic device 101) uses multiple logical channels 771-a, 771-b and 771-n to send data to the receiving side (for example, Figure 4A of the first node 410 or the second node 420).

[0165] According to various embodiments, the electronic device 101 may use a plurality of logical channels 771-a, 771-b, and 771-n to which resources available to the electronic device 101 are allocated and included in one uplink grant 771. For example, the electronic device 101 may send data through one channel (e.g., 771-a) among the plurality of logical channels 771-a, 771-b, and 771-n, and send various signals (e.g., a control signal or an ack signal) through another channel (e.g., 771-b).

[0166] According to various embodiments, the electronic device 101 can identify a processing rate of an RLC (e.g., a first RLC 751 or a second RLC 753) for data corresponding to each of a plurality of logical channels 771-a, 771-b, and 771-n, and distribute and assign sequence numbers to data units based on the processing rate.

[0167] Figure 7F An embodiment is shown in which the electronic device according to various embodiments transmits data through only one path because the other one of the two transmission paths has a problem.

[0168] refer to Figure 7F Due to a temporary problem in the data transmission path using the first cellular communication, the electronic device (e.g., Figure 1 The electronic device 101) cannot temporarily send data via the first cellular communication. Figure 7F A situation is shown where a problem occurs when some data units 631 and 632 have been completely received.

[0169] According to various embodiments, an electronic device (eg, Figure 1 The electronic device 101) can send multiple data units 633, 634, 635 and 636 to an RLC (e.g., a second RLC 623) corresponding to a data transmission path through which data can be sent (e.g., a data transmission path using a second cellular communication). The electronic device 101 can smoothly send data while maintaining the bearer type through the above method without making unnecessary changes to the bearer type (e.g., a change from a split bearer to a secondary cell group bearer). Through the above scheme, the PDCP 625 of the BS 620 can continuously receive multiple data units 631, 632, 633, 634, 635 and 636 according to their sequence numbers.

[0170] Figure 8 An embodiment in which the electronic device according to various embodiments distributes data and specifies its sequence based on the data processing rates of the first RLC and the second RLC is shown.

[0171] Figure 8 An electronic device 610 (eg, Figure 1 The electronic device 101) sends the data to the second node (eg, Figure 4A An embodiment of the second node 420).

[0172] According to various embodiments, a higher layer 611 (eg, an application layer) of the electronic device 610 may send data to be transmitted to the second node 420 to a PDCP 613 (eg, Figure 5 PDCP entity 511). PDCP 613 may generate data units 631, 632, 633, 634, 635, and 636 by splitting received data 630.

[0173] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 611 may determine whether to use split bearers based on the size of the data to be transmitted. Figures 9 to 13A detailed embodiment of the PDCP 613 determining whether to use the split bearer is described. According to another embodiment, the PDCP 611 may compare an uplink data split threshold (ul-datasplitthreshold) received from the first node 410 or the second node 420 with the data size, and determine whether to use the split bearer based on the comparison result.

[0174] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 613 may send at least some of the data units 631, 632, 633, 634, 635, and 636 to the first RLC (eg, Figure 5 The PDCP 611 may transmit some data units to the first RLC 521 based on the information about the size of the data unit determined by the PDCP PDU distribution unit 730.

[0175] For ease of description, Figure 8 It is assumed that the size of data transmittable through the first cellular communication included in the uplink grant information of the first cellular communication corresponds to two data units, and the data processing rate of the first RLC 521 is half of the data processing rate of the second RLC 523 .

[0176] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 611 may determine to send two data units of the plurality of data units 631, 632, 633, 634, 635, and 636 to the first RLC 521 based on the uplink grant information 810 of the first cellular communication. The PDCP 613 may determine to send four data units of the plurality of data units 631, 632, 633, 634, 635, and 636 to the second RLC 531 based on the data processing rate of the first RLC 521 and the data processing rate of the second RLC 523.

[0177] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 613 may assign sequence numbers of data units to be sent to the first RLC 521 or the second RLC 523 under the control of a PDCP sequence number assignment unit (e.g., 720 of FIG. 7 ). The PDCP sequence number assignment unit 720 may receive a data processing rate of the first RLC 751 and a data processing rate of the second RLC 753 from the controller 710. The PDCP sequence number assignment unit 720 may assign sequence numbers to each data unit so that the receiving side (e.g., BS 620) receives the data units as sequentially as possible. The operation of the receiving side sequentially receiving the data units may mean sequentially receiving the data units in the order of the sequence numbers assigned to the plurality of data units. The PDCP sequence number assignment unit 720 may configure the sequence numbers based on the data processing rate of the first RLC 521 and the data processing rate of the second RLC 523 so that the data units are sequentially received in the order of the assigned sequence numbers.

[0178] refer to Figure 8 For example, the PDCP sequence number allocation unit 730 may allocate sequence numbers 1 and 2 to data units 631 and 632 to be transmitted earlier among four data units to be transmitted to the second RLC 523. The PDCP sequence number allocation unit 730 may allocate sequence number 3 to a data unit 633 to be transmitted earlier among two data units to be transmitted to the first RLC 521. The PDCP sequence number allocation unit 730 may allocate sequence numbers 4 and 5 to data units 634 and 635 to be transmitted later among four data units to be transmitted to the second RLC 523. The PDCP sequence number allocation unit 730 may allocate sequence number 6 to a data unit 636 to be transmitted later among two data units to be transmitted to the first RLC 521.

[0179] The PDCP 611 may determine, based on the uplink grant information of the first cellular communication, to transmit two data units among the plurality of data units 631, 632, 633, 634, 635, and 636 to the first RLC 521. The PDCP 611 may determine, based on the data processing rate of the first RLC 521 and the data processing rate of the second RLC 523, to transmit four data units among the plurality of data units 631, 632, 633, 634, 635, and 636 to the second RLC 531.

[0180] exist Figure 6In an embodiment of the present invention, the total number of data units 631, 632, and 633 that the first MAC / RLC 615 should send to the receiving side (e.g., BS 620) may be three. When it is assumed that the number of data units that can be sent at one time through the first cellular communication is two, the data unit 633 may be sent relatively late. The total number of data units 634, 635, and 636 that the second MAC / RLC 617 should send to the receiving side 620 may be three. Considering that the data processing rate of the second cellular communication is twice that of the first cellular communication, the data units 634, 635, and 636 may arrive at the PDCP 625 of the receiving side 620. In this case, the PDCP 625 may identify that some of the data units have not been received, activate a preset timer (t reordering timer), and stand by until the timer expires without performing an operation for aggregating data units, and the data processing rate of the PDCP 625 may be reduced.

[0181] On the other hand, Figure 8 In the embodiment of FIG. 1 , the total number of data units 631 and 632 that the first MAC / RLC 615 should send to the receiving side (e.g., BS 620) may be two, and the total number of data units 633, 634, 635, and 636 that the second MAC / RLC 617 should send to the receiving side 620 may be four. When it is assumed that the number of data units that can be sent at one time through the first cellular communication is two, and the number of data units that can be sent at one time through the second cellular communication is four, Figure 6 In this case, PDCP 625 may aggregate data units 631, 632, 633, 634, 635, and 636 without activating a timer, and send the aggregated data units to a higher layer 627. Figure 6 In an embodiment, the data processing rate of PDCP625 can be increased.

[0182] Fig. 9 A flowchart illustrating an operation of a first mode in which the electronic device according to various embodiments selects a data transmission path based on the size of data to be transmitted and the size of data successfully transmitted per unit time.

[0183] According to various embodiments, in an electronic device (e.g., Figure 1 The wireless communication module (eg, Figure 1 PDCP (e.g., Figure 5The PDCP entity 511) can determine whether to send data through the primary RLC entity configured as the primary path or through the primary RLC entity configured as the primary path or / and the secondary RLC entity configured as the second path other than the primary path based on the comparison result between the data size to be sent and the uplink data split threshold (ul-datasplitthreshold). For ease of description, the data transmission path using the first cellular communication is defined as the primary path, and the data transmission path using the second cellular communication is defined as the secondary path.

[0184] According to various embodiments, the size of the data to be transmitted may be defined as the size of the data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511, the size of the data temporarily stored in the first RLC (eg, Figure 5 The size of the data in the first RLC 521) and the data temporarily stored in the second RLC (e.g., Figure 5 The sum of the sizes of the data in the second RLC 523).

[0185] According to various embodiments, the uplink data split threshold is a value defined in the NR standard specification (e.g., 3GPPTS 37.340), and may be a value to be compared with to determine whether to split the data. For example, when the size of the data to be sent is greater than or equal to the uplink data split threshold, the wireless communication module 192 may send the data through all of the multiple paths. In another example, when the size of the data to be sent is less than the uplink data split threshold, the wireless communication module 192 may send the data through the primary path. The first node (e.g., Figure 4A 410) or a second node (eg, Figure 4A The second node 420) receives the uplink data splitting threshold. The uplink data splitting threshold can be implemented as the following [Table 1].

[0186] [Table 1]

[0187]

[0188]

[0189] According to various embodiments, the uplink data splitting threshold is a value received from a BS (eg, the first node 410 or the second node 420 ), and may be configured regardless of the state of the electronic device 101 .

[0190] According to the comparative example, when the BS configures the uplink data splitting threshold without considering the state of the electronic device 101, a situation in which the uplink data splitting threshold is smaller than the size of data successfully sent through the main path per unit time may be generated. When the uplink data splitting threshold is smaller than the size of data successfully sent through the main path per unit time, even if the data can be sent only through the main path, a situation in which the data should be sent through both the main path and the auxiliary path may be generated. In this case, all BSs corresponding to the first cellular communication (e.g., the first node 410) and the BSs corresponding to the second cellular communication (e.g., the second node 420) may increase unnecessary power consumption due to the operation of sending a buffer status report (BSR) and the operation of sending data through both the main path and the second path.

[0191] According to a comparative example, the buffer status report is a value related to the size of data to be transmitted, and the BS may allocate resources to be used by the electronic device 101 to transmit data to the electronic device 101 based on the buffer status report. Figure 5 531) and a second MAC (eg, Figure 5 Each of the first MAC 531 and the second MAC 533 may generate a buffer status report. The first MAC 531 may generate a buffer status report based on the size of data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511 and the size of data temporarily stored in the first RLC 521. The second MAC 533 may generate a buffer status report based on the size of data temporarily stored in the PDLC 511 and the size of data temporarily stored in the second RLC 523. In this case, the buffer status report generated by the first MAC 531 and the buffer status report generated by the second MAC 533 may overlap and consider the size of data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511, and thus a phenomenon may be generated in which resources larger than the size of data actually transmitted are allocated.

[0192] Hereinafter, a first operation mode of the electronic device 101 for preventing this phenomenon will be described.

[0193] According to various embodiments, the first operation mode may be an operation mode in which the PDCP 511 transmits data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511 to the first RLC 521 or the second RLC 523 to have the data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511 removed therefrom.

[0194] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may identify the size of data to be transmitted in operation 910. The size of the data to be transmitted may be a value taking into account the size of data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511, the size of data temporarily stored in the first RLC 521, and the size of data temporarily stored in the second RLC 523.

[0195] According to various embodiments, in operation 920, the PDCP 511 may compare the size of the data identified in operation 910 with the first configuration value. The PDCP 511 may identify whether the size of the data is smaller than a preset value.

[0196] According to various embodiments, the first configuration value may be a value related to the size of data successfully transmitted per unit time through the main path. The first configuration value may be the maximum value of the size of data that can be transmitted through only one path. The size of data successfully transmitted per unit time may be a value related to the number of bytes of data that can be transmitted through one transmission block (TB). The size of data successfully transmitted per unit time may be affected by the channel state (or quality) of the main path, the modulation and coding scheme (MCS), the coding rate, the network congestion, the uplink scheduling frequency of the UE, or the number of resource blocks (RBs) allocated to the electronic device 101.

[0197] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may determine a value representing the amount of data successfully transmitted per unit time through the primary path as the first configuration value. The PDCP 511 may determine the first configuration value based on the size of data transmitted per unit time corresponding to the uplink grant and the size of data that can be transmitted at most per time unit.

[0198] According to various embodiments, the size of data transmitted per unit time may be an average value of the size of data transmitted in each of a plurality of time slots. The PDCP 511 may continuously track the size of transmitted data per unit time, and determine the average value of the size of the tracked data as the size of data transmitted per unit time corresponding to the uplink grant.

[0199] According to various embodiments, the size of data that can be transmitted at most per unit time may be the maximum size of data that can be transmitted when inserted into one time slot or frame. The maximum size of data that can be transmitted may be determined in consideration of the maximum MCS, the maximum number of antennas that can be used for data transmission, and the size of a transmission block (TB) when the electronic device 101 receives an allocation of the maximum number of resource blocks.

[0200] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may determine that the first configuration value is larger than the size of data transmitted per unit time corresponding to the uplink grant and smaller than the size of data that can be transmitted at most per time unit. Even when the size of the data to be transmitted is large enough to use two paths, the PDCP 511 may determine or modify the first configuration value to prevent a situation where only one path is used.

[0201] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may determine whether to transmit data through a plurality of paths (eg, a primary path or a secondary path) based on a first configuration value instead of an uplink data splitting threshold.

[0202] PDCP 511 may configure a preset value so that the first configuration value increases with the increase in the size of successful transmission per unit time. PDCP 511 may determine the first configuration value based on the communication quality (e.g., communication status) corresponding to the primary path and the communication quality corresponding to the secondary path. When the communication status of the primary path is good, PDCP 511 may configure the first configuration value to be greater than the uplink data splitting threshold. According to various embodiments, the unit time may be defined as a period during which the electronic device 101 receives the uplink data splitting threshold from the BS (the first node 410 or the second node 420).

[0203] According to various embodiments, in operation 930, the PDCP 511 may transmit the data to one RLC in response to identifying that the size of the data is smaller than the first configuration value.

[0204] According to various embodiments, when the size of the data is not less than the first configuration value, this may mean that the data to be transmitted may be transmitted through only one path (e.g., the primary path) instead of through all of the multiple paths (e.g., the primary path and the secondary path). The PDCP 511 may transmit the data only through the RLC corresponding to the primary path (e.g., the first RLC 521 when the first cellular communication is used as the primary path and the second RLC 523 when the second cellular communication is used as the primary path) regardless of whether the data size is greater than or less than the uplink data splitting threshold. The PDCP 511 may not transmit the data through other RLCs (e.g., the second RLC 523 when the first cellular communication is used as the primary path and the first RLC 512 when the second cellular communication is used as the primary path).

[0205] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may quickly transmit the data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511 to the RLC corresponding to the primary path, thereby reducing the size of the data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511 to close to 0. Through the above scheme, the MAC connected to the RLC corresponding to another path other than the primary path (for example, the second RLC 523 when the first cellular communication is used as the primary path, and the first RLC 521 when the second cellular communication is used as the primary path) may identify 0 as the data size and transmit a buffer status report. Through the above scheme, the size of the data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511 may be considered without overlap, and a phenomenon in which a larger resource is allocated than the size of the data actually transmitted may be prevented.

[0206] According to various embodiments, in operation 940, the PDCP 511 may transmit data to the first RLC 521 and the second RLC 523 in response to identifying that the size of the data is greater than or equal to the first configuration value.

[0207] According to various embodiments, the case where the size of the data is greater than or equal to the first configuration value may mean that if the data is sent only through the primary path, the data transmission rate is reduced. In this case, the PDCP 511 may send the data through all of the multiple paths. The PDCP 511 may send at least some of the data units generated by splitting the data to the first RLC 521, and send other some of the data units to the second RLC 523.

[0208] Fig. 10A A comparative example is shown in which the electronic device according to various embodiments does not use Fig. 9 The first operating mode shown, Fig. 10B The electronic device according to various embodiments is shown Fig. 9 An embodiment of the first operating mode is shown in FIG.

[0209] For the convenience of description, Fig. 10A and 10B It is assumed that the data transmission path using the second cellular communication is the primary path.

[0210] Fig. 10A The illustrated comparison example corresponds to a case in which the electronic device 101 is not operating in the first operation mode, in which case the size of data to be transmitted is greater than or equal to the uplink data splitting threshold.

[0211] refer to Fig. 10A , PDCP (e.g., Figure 5The PDCP 511 may identify the size of the data to be sent. The PDCP 511 may identify the size of the data to be sent based on the size of the data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511, the size of the data temporarily stored in the first RLC (e.g., Figure 5 The size of the data in the first RLC 521), and the data temporarily stored in the second RLC (eg, Figure 5 The size of the data to be sent is identified by the sum of the sizes of the data in the second RLC 523).

[0212] According to various embodiments, the size of the data to be sent may be greater than the uplink data split threshold (ul-datasplitthreshold) and less than the first configuration value. When the data size is less than the first configuration value, this may mean that the data may be sent only through the primary path without having to use both the primary path and the secondary path.

[0213] According to the comparative example, when the electronic device 101 is not operating in the first operation mode, Fig. 10A In the case shown, the electronic device 101 may use both the primary path and the secondary path to transmit data. In this case, all BSs corresponding to the first cellular communication (e.g., the first node 410) and the BSs corresponding to the second cellular communication (e.g., the second node 420) may increase unnecessary power consumption due to the operation of transmitting a buffer status report (BSR) and the operation of transmitting data through both the primary path and the secondary path.

[0214] According to various embodiments, the buffer status report is a value related to the size of data to be transmitted, and the BS may allocate resources to be used by the electronic device 101 to transmit data to the electronic device 101 with respect to the buffer status report. The first MAC (eg, Figure 5 531) and a second MAC (eg, Figure 5 Each of the first MAC 531 and the second MAC 533 may generate a buffer status report. The first MAC 531 may generate a buffer status report based on the size of data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511 and the size of data temporarily stored in the first RLC 521. The second MAC 533 may generate a buffer status report based on the size of data temporarily stored in the PDLC 511 and the size of data temporarily stored in the second RLC 523.

[0215] According to a comparative example, the buffer status report generated by the first MAC 531 and the buffer status report generated by the second MAC 533 may overlap to consider the size of data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511 so that larger resources than the size of data actually transmitted may be allocated.

[0216] Fig. 10BThe embodiment shown in FIG. 1 corresponds to an electronic device 101 with Fig. 9 The first operation mode shown is operated in the case where the size of the data to be sent can be greater than or equal to the uplink data split threshold (ul-datasplitthreshold).

[0217] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may transmit the data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511 to the RLC corresponding to the primary path (eg, the second RLC 523 ) in response to an indication that the size of the data is less than the first configuration value ( T1 ).

[0218] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may quickly send data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511 to the second RLC 523 corresponding to the main path, thereby reducing the size of the data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511 to close to 0. Through the above scheme, the first MAC 531 connected to the RLC corresponding to another path that is not the main path (the first RLC 521) may identify 0 as the data size and send a buffer status report. The buffer status report sent by the first MAC 531 may include information indicating that there is no data to be sent. The BS (e.g., the first node 410) that receives the buffer status report may identify that there is no data to be sent and may not allocate resources for data transmission of the electronic device 101. Through the above scheme, the size of the data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511 may be considered without overlapping, and the phenomenon of allocating larger resources than the size of the data actually sent may be prevented.

[0219] Fig.11 A flowchart of a second operating mode is shown, in which an electronic device according to various embodiments determines whether to stop data transmission (or routing) from PDCP to RLC based on the size of data to be sent and the size of data successfully sent per unit time.

[0220] According to various embodiments, in an electronic device (e.g., Figure 1 The wireless communication module (eg, Figure 1 PDCP (e.g., Figure 5 The PDCP entity 511 of the embodiment of the present invention may determine whether to send data through the primary path or through both the primary path and / or the secondary path based on the comparison result between the data size to be sent and the uplink data split threshold (ul-datasplitthreshold). The operation of PDCP 511 sending the data unit to the first RLC 521 or the second RLC 523 may be defined as routing.

[0221] According to various embodiments, the uplink data splitting threshold is a value received from a BS (eg, the first node 410 or the second node 420 ), and may be configured without considering a state of the electronic device 101 .

[0222] According to the comparative example, when the BS configures the uplink data splitting threshold value without considering the state of the electronic device 101, the uplink data threshold value may be configured to be high or may be higher than the size of the data successfully transmitted through the main path per unit time. When the uplink data splitting threshold value is higher than the size of the data successfully transmitted through the main path per unit time, the electronic device 101 may transmit data only through the main path. This phenomenon may cause the data transmission rate of the electronic device 101 to deteriorate.

[0223] In addition, when the electronic device 101 switches from a state of transmitting data only through the primary path to a state of transmitting data through all of the multiple paths, a lot of data may be temporarily stored in the RLC compared to the data transmission rate of the cellular communication corresponding to the primary path. In this case, the receiving side (e.g., the first node 410 or the second node 420) may receive some of the data units later than other data units. In this case, the PDPC (e.g., the PDPC implemented on the receiving side (e.g., the first node 410 or the second node 420) Figure 6 The PDCP 625 may not receive some data units, the configured timer may be activated, and the receiving side waits without aggregating the received data units before the timer is activated, so that the data processing rate of the PDCP 625 may be reduced.

[0224] Hereinafter, a second operation mode of the electronic device 101 for preventing this phenomenon will be described.

[0225] According to various embodiments, the PDPC 511 may identify the size of data temporarily stored in the RLC in operation 1110. The size of data temporarily stored in the RLC is the size of data temporarily stored in the RLC corresponding to the primary path or the selected path (e.g., the first RLC 521 when the first cellular communication is the primary path and the second RLC 523 when the second cellular communication is the primary path), and may be the size of a portion of data to be transmitted.

[0226] According to various embodiments, in operation 1120, the PDCP 511 may compare the size of the data identified in operation 1110 with the second configuration value. The PDCP 511 may identify whether the size of the data is smaller than the second configuration value.

[0227] According to various embodiments, the second configuration value may be a value related to the size of data successfully transmitted per unit time through the main path. The size of data successfully transmitted per unit time may be a value related to the number of bytes of data that can be transmitted through one transmission block (TB). The size of data successfully transmitted per unit time may be affected by the channel state of the main path, the modulation and coding scheme (MCS), the coding rate, the network congestion, the uplink scheduling frequency of the UE, or the number of resource blocks (RBs) allocated to the electronic device 101. The PDCP 511 may configure a preset value so that the preset value increases as the size of data successfully transmitted per unit time increases.

[0228] According to various embodiments, the PDPC 511 may determine, as a second configuration value, a value representing a maximum size of data that can be temporarily stored in an RLC (the first RLC 521 or the second RLC 523) in order to prevent the receiving side (eg, Figure 6 The data reception delay of BS 620) causes the activation of the timer.

[0229] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may determine the second configuration value in consideration of a processing delay time, which is a time taken to transmit data from the PDCP 511 to an RLC (the first RLC 521 or the second RLC 523). In order to prevent the occurrence of a situation in which the first MAC 531 or the second MAC 533 cannot transmit data to a higher layer (e.g., a PHY layer) at an appropriate timing due to the processing delay time, the PDCP 511 may configure the second configuration value to be higher than the size of the transmitted data per unit time.

[0230] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may determine the second configuration value in consideration of the time that the receiving side waits for receiving some of the data units because some of the data units have not been received. When the second configuration value is large, the amount of data temporarily stored on the RLC side is large, so the receiving side may have a waiting time. The PDCP 511 may configure the second configuration value to be less than a value determined by [Equation 1] below.

[0231] [Equation 1]

[0232] TB_max*t-reordering time / ul grant

[0233] (TB_max: indicates the maximum processing size of data processed by RLC to send data through one time slot (NR) or one subframe (LTE), t-reordering time: indicates the maximum time that the receiving side waits for the arrangement of the received data unit according to the sequence number, ul grant period: indicates the length of one time slot or one subframe)

[0234] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may configure the second configuration value to be larger than the size of data transmitted per unit time and smaller than the value determined by [Equation 1].

[0235] According to various embodiments, the unit time may be defined as a period over which the electronic device 101 receives the uplink data splitting threshold from the BS (the first node 410 or the second node 420).

[0236] According to various embodiments, in operation 1130, PDCP 511 may transmit data to RLC in response to an indication that the data size is less than the second configuration value. When PDCP 511 is transmitting data to RLC (first RLC 521 or second RLC 523), PDCP 511 may maintain data transmission operation.

[0237] According to various embodiments, in operation 1140, the PDCP 511 may stop the operation of transmitting the data to the RLC in response to an indication that the size of the data is greater than or equal to the second configuration value.

[0238] According to various embodiments, PDCP 511 may stop transmission of data stored in PDCP 511 to keep the size of data stored in RLC (e.g., the first RLC 521 or the second RLC 523) equal to or less than a second configuration value, or reduce the transmission rate of data sent (or routed) from PDCP 511 to RLC (e.g., the first RLC 521 or the second RLC 523).

[0239] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may retransmit the data in response to an indication that the data stored in the RLC 521 or the RLC is reduced to be equal to or less than the second configuration value.

[0240] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may perform the second operation mode independently of each of the first RLC 521 and the second RLC 523. In this case, the second configuration values ​​configured in the first RLC 521 and the second RLC 523 may be different from each other. The second configuration value corresponding to the first RLC 521 may be configured differently according to the channel state of the first cellular communication corresponding to the first RLC 521, and the second configuration value corresponding to the second RLC 523 may be configured differently according to the channel state of the second cellular communication corresponding to the second RLC 523.

[0241] Fig. 12A A comparative example is shown in which the electronic device according to various embodiments does not use Fig.11 The second operating mode shown in Fig. 12BAn electronic device according to various embodiments is shown. Fig.11 An embodiment of the second operating mode is shown in FIG.

[0242] For the convenience of description, Fig. 12A and 12B It is assumed that the data transmission path using the second cellular communication is the primary path.

[0243] Fig. 12A The illustrated comparative example shows a case where the electronic device 101 does not operate in the second operation mode.

[0244] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may transmit data to the second RLC 523 corresponding to the primary path in response to an indication that the size of the data to be transmitted is equal to or less than the uplink data splitting threshold.

[0245] When the data processing rate of the second RLC 523 is slower than the data transmission rate from the PDCP 511 to the second RLC 523, the size of the data stored in the second RLC 523 may increase. The PDCP 511 may transmit the data by splitting the bearer in response to an indication that the size of the data to be transmitted (the sum of the size of the data stored in the PDCP 511, the size of the data stored in the first RLC 521, and the size of the data stored in the second RLC 523) is greater than or equal to the uplink data splitting threshold.

[0246] refer to Fig. 12A , the sequence number of the data that should be sent from the second RLC 523 may be 1 to 1000, and the sequence number of the data that should be sent from the first RLC 521 may be 1001. In this case, the receiving side (e.g., the first node 410 or the second node 420) may receive some of the data units later than some of the other data units. For example, the receiving side may receive data with sequence numbers 1 to 500 through the second cellular communication, and receive data with sequence number 1001 through the first cellular communication. The receiving side may not receive data with sequence numbers 501 to 999. In this case, due to the PDPC (e.g., implemented in the receiving side (e.g., the first node 410 or the second node), Figure 6 The PDCP 625 does not receive certain data units, so the configured timer may be activated, and the receiving side will wait without aggregating the received data units before the timer is activated and expires, so that the data processing rate of the PDCP 625 will be reduced.

[0247] Fig. 12B The embodiment shown may correspond to the electronic device 101 with Fig.11 The case where the second operating mode is operated.

[0248] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may operate in the second operation mode so that the size of the data stored in the second RLC 523 is not greater than (or equal to) the second configuration value. The PDCP 511 may control the operation of sending data to the second RLC 523 so that the size of the data stored in the second RLC 523 is not greater than or equal to the second configuration value. For example, the PDCP 511 may stop the operation of sending (or routing) data to the second RLC 523 in response to an indication that the size of the data stored in the second RLC 523 is greater than or equal to the second configuration value (T2_NR). In another example, the PDCP 511 may control the data transmission rate from the PDCP 511 to the second RLC 523 so that the size of the data stored in the second RLC 523 is not greater than the second configuration value. For ease of description, it is assumed that when the PDCP 511 stops data transmission to the second RLC 523, the second RLC 523 stores data units with sequence numbers 1 to 500. In response to an indication that the size of the data stored in the first RLC 521 is smaller than the second configuration value (T2_LTE), the PDCP 511 may continuously send data to the first RLC 521. When it is indicated that the size of the data stored in the first RLC 521 is greater than the second configuration value (T2_LTE), the PDCP 511 may stop the operation of sending data to the first RLC 521.

[0249] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may transmit data through both the primary path and the secondary path in response to an indication that the size of the data to be transmitted (the sum of the size of the data stored in the PDCP 511, the size of the data stored in the first RLC 521, and the size of the data stored in the second RLC 523) is greater than or equal to the uplink data split threshold. The PDCP 511 may transmit the data unit having the sequence number 501 sequentially to the first RLC 521.

[0250] Through the above operations, the electronic device 101 operating in the second operation mode can allow the PDCP 625 of the receiving side (e.g., the first node 410 or the second node 420) to receive data units sequentially, and since the preset timer is not activated, the data processing rate of the PDCP 625 may increase.

[0251] Fig.13 A flowchart of a second operation mode is shown in which the electronic device according to various embodiments determines whether to stop data transmission based on the size of data to be transmitted and the size of data successfully transmitted per unit time.

[0252] According to various embodiments, in operation 1301, a PDCP (eg, Figure 5The PDCP entity 511 of the present invention may identify the size of the data to be transmitted. The size of the data to be transmitted may be a value taking into account the size of the data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511, the size of the data temporarily stored in the first RLC 521, and the size of the data temporarily stored in the second RLC 523.

[0253] According to various embodiments, in operation 1303, the PDCP 511 may compare the size of the data to be transmitted with an uplink data split threshold (up_datasplitthreshold).

[0254] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may determine to transmit the data to the RLC corresponding to the primary path in response to an indication that the size of the data to be transmitted is equal to or less than the uplink data splitting threshold.

[0255] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may determine to send the data by splitting the bearer in response to an indication that the size of the data to be sent is greater than or equal to the uplink data splitting threshold. The PDCP 511 may determine to send at least some of the data units generated by splitting the data to the first RLC (e.g., Figure 5 521) and sends the rest of the data unit to a second RLC (e.g., Figure 5 The second RLC 523).

[0256] According to various embodiments, in operation 1305, PDCP 511 may identify whether the size of data stored in the RLC corresponding to the main path is equal to or less than a second configuration value in response to an identification that the size of data to be sent is equal to or less than an uplink data splitting threshold (operation 1303 is).

[0257] According to various embodiments, in operation 1307, the PDCP 511 may perform a routing operation of sending the data to the RLC in response to an indication that the data size is less than the second configuration value (operation 1305 is). When the PDCP 511 is sending data to the RLC (the first RLC 521 or the second RLC 523), the PDCP 511 may maintain the routing of the data.

[0258] According to various embodiments, in operation 1309 , the PDCP 511 may stop the operation of routing the data to the RLC in response to the data size being greater than or equal to the identification of the second configuration (No in operation 1305 ).

[0259] According to various embodiments, PDCP 511 may stop transmission of data stored in PDCP 511 to keep data stored in RLC (e.g., first RLC 521 or second RLC 523) equal to or less than a second configuration value or reduce a data transmission rate from PDCP 511 to RLC (e.g., first RLC 521 or second RLC523).

[0260] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may retransmit the data in response to an indication that the size of the data stored in the RLC 521 or 523 is reduced to be equal to or less than a preset value.

[0261] According to various embodiments, in operation 1311, in a state where data is sent through both the primary path and the secondary path, PDCP 511 may identify whether the size of the data stored in the RCL corresponding to the selected path is equal to or less than a second configuration value in response to an indication that the size of the data to be sent is greater than or equal to the uplink data splitting threshold (No in operation 1303).

[0262] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may independently implement the second operation mode of the first RLC 521 and the second RLC 523. For example, the second configuration value corresponding to the first RLC 521 and the second configuration value corresponding to the second RLC 523 may be different from each other. The selected path may be a data transmission path corresponding to the RLC in which the second operation mode is implemented.

[0263] According to various embodiments, in operation 1313, the PDCP 511 may perform a routing operation that sends the data to the RLC corresponding to the selected path in response to an indication that the data size is less than the second configuration value (operation 1311 is yes). When the PDCP 511 is sending data to the RLC (the first RLC 521 or the second RLC 523), the PDCP 511 may maintain the data transmission operation.

[0264] According to various embodiments, in operation 1315 , the PDCP 511 may stop the operation of routing the data to the RLC corresponding to the selected path in response to an indication that the size of the data is greater than or equal to the second configuration value (No in operation 1311 ).

[0265] According to various embodiments, PDCP 511 may stop transmission of data stored in PDCP 511 to keep data stored in RLC (e.g., first RLC 521 or second RLC 523) equal to or less than a second configuration value or reduce a data transmission rate from PDCP 511 to RLC (e.g., first RLC 521 or second RLC523).

[0266] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may retransmit the data in response to an indication that the data stored in the RLC 521 or the RLC is reduced to be equal to or less than the second configuration value.

[0267] According to various embodiments, the electronic device 101 may selectively use the reference Figures 9 to 13 The first operation mode and the second operation mode described herein. For example, the PDCP 511 may compare the uplink data splitting threshold with the first configuration value. The PDCP 511 may operate in the first operation mode in response to an indication that the uplink data splitting threshold is less than the first configuration value. The PDCP 511 may operate in the second operation mode in response to an indication that the uplink data splitting threshold is greater than the first configuration value.

[0268] According to various embodiments, in order to transmit data by splitting the bearer, the PDCP 511 may transmit at least some of the data units to the first RLC 521 and transmit other some of the data units to the second RLC 523. In operation 1303, the PDCP 511 may use the split bearer in response to an indication that the size of the data to be transmitted is greater than or equal to the uplink data splitting threshold. The PDCP 511 may use reference figures 7 to 8. Fig. 9 The PDCP 511 may determine the size of the data unit sent to the first RLC 521 based on the uplink grant information of the first cellular communication. The PDCP 511 may identify the data processing rates of the first RLC 521 and the second RLC 523 and determine the size of the data unit sent to the second RLC 523. The PDCP 511 may assign sequence numbers of the data units based on the data processing rates of the first RLC 521 and the second RLC 523.

[0269] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may determine the first configuration value based on the average value of the size of the transmission data per unit time corresponding to the unit time. The PDCP 511 may determine that the maximum value among the values ​​of the size of the transmission data per unit time is the second configuration value. For example, the PDCP 511 may identify the uplink grant information in each 2.5 ms period, and determine the average value of the size of the transmission data per unit time included in the uplink grant information as the first configuration value. [Table 2] shows a detailed embodiment of determining the first configuration value.

[0270] [Table 2]

[0271]

[0272] Fig.14AAn embodiment showing that an electronic device according to various embodiments executes one of a first operation mode and a second operation mode based on a first configuration value, Fig. 14B An embodiment showing that an electronic device according to various embodiments executes one of a first operation mode and a second operation mode based on a first configuration value, Fig. 14C An embodiment is shown in which an electronic device according to various embodiments executes one of a first operation mode and a second operation mode based on a first configuration value.

[0273] According to various embodiments, a PDCP (e.g., Figure 5 The PDCP 511 of the embodiment can configure a preset value so that the first configuration value increases as the size of the data successfully sent per unit time increases. When the communication state of the main path is good, the PDCP 511 can configure the first configuration value to be greater than the uplink data splitting threshold. Figures 14A to 14C It shows the case where the first configuration value is greater than the uplink data splitting threshold.

[0274] refer to Fig.14A , the PDCP 511 may identify the size of the data to be transmitted. The size of the data to be transmitted may be a value taking into account the size of the data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511, the size of the data temporarily stored in the first RLC 521, and the size of the data temporarily stored in the second RLC 523.

[0275] According to various embodiments, when the size of the data to be transmitted is less than an uplink data split threshold (ul-DataSplitThreshold), the PDCP 511 may operate in a first operation mode, as indicated by reference numeral 1411. The PDCP 511 may send the data to be transmitted to the RLC corresponding to the primary path.

[0276] According to various embodiments, when the size of the data to be transmitted is greater than the data splitting threshold but less than the first configuration value, the PDCP 511 may operate in the first operation mode as indicated by reference numeral 1413. The PDCP 511 may send the data to be transmitted to the RLC corresponding to the primary path.

[0277] According to various embodiments, when the size of the data to be transmitted is greater than the uplink data splitting threshold and greater than the first configured value, as shown in reference numeral 1415, the PDCP 511 may operate in the second operation mode. The PDCP 511 may transmit the data to be transmitted to the RLC corresponding to the primary path and the RLC corresponding to the other path (e.g., the secondary path). The PDCP 511 may compare the size of the data stored in each RLC (the first RLC 521 and the second RLC 523) with the configured second threshold, and determine whether to stop data transmission to each RLC (the first RLC 521 and the second RLC 523) based on the comparison result.

[0278] Fig. 14B An embodiment is shown in which the data processing rate of a primary path (eg, a data transmission path using a first cellular communication) is faster than the data processing rate of another path (eg, a data transmission path using a second cellular communication).

[0279] refer to Fig. 14B , the PDCP 511 may identify the size of the data to be transmitted. The size of the data to be transmitted may be a value taking into account the size of the data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511, the size of the data temporarily stored in the first RLC 521, and the size of the data temporarily stored in the second RLC 523.

[0280] According to various embodiments, when the size of the data to be transmitted is less than the uplink data splitting threshold as indicated by reference numeral 1421, the PDCP 511 may operate in the first operation mode. The PDCP 511 may send the data to be transmitted to the RLC corresponding to the primary path.

[0281] According to various embodiments, when the size of the data to be transmitted is greater than the data splitting threshold but less than the first configuration value, the PDCP 511 may operate in the first operation mode as indicated by reference numeral 1423. The PDCP 511 may send the data to be transmitted to the RLC corresponding to the primary path or the other path. The PDCP 511 may send the data to be transmitted to the RLC corresponding to the selected path between the primary path and the other path.

[0282] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may identify that a data processing rate of a main path (e.g., a data transmission path using a first cellular communication) is faster than a data processing rate of another path (e.g., a data processing rate using a second cellular communication), and change the data transmission path. The PDCP 511 may send data to the RLC corresponding to the changed transmission path.

[0283] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may identify that the data processing rate of the main path (e.g., the data transmission path using the first cellular communication) is slower than the data processing rate of another path (e.g., the data transmission rate using the second cellular communication), and the data transmission path may not be changed. The PDCP 511 may send the data to the RLC corresponding to the previous transmission path.

[0284] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may compare a larger value (max) between a first configuration value (first configuration value_primary) corresponding to the primary path and a first configuration value (first configuration value_secondary) corresponding to another path with the data size.

[0285] According to various embodiments, when the size of the data to be transmitted is greater than the uplink data splitting threshold and greater than the first configured value, as indicated by reference numeral 1425, the PDCP 511 may operate in the second operation mode. The PDCP 511 may transmit the data to be transmitted to the RLC corresponding to the primary path and the RLC corresponding to the other path. The PDCP 511 may compare the size of the data stored in each RLC (the first RLC 521 and the second RLC 523) with the configured second threshold, and determine whether to stop data transmission to each RLC (the first RLC 521 and the second RLC 523) based on the comparison result.

[0286] Fig. 14C Another embodiment of the first operating mode is shown.

[0287] Fig.14A and 14B An embodiment is shown in which the PDCP 511 transmits data to an RLC while operating in a first operation mode. Fig. 14C An embodiment is shown in which the PDCP 511 splits and transmits data to all of two RLCs while operating in the first operation mode.

[0288] refer to Fig. 14C , the PDCP 511 may identify the size of the data to be transmitted. The size of the data to be transmitted may be a value taking into account the size of the data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511, the size of the data temporarily stored in the first RLC 521, and the size of the data temporarily stored in the second RLC 523.

[0289] According to various embodiments, when the size of the data to be transmitted is less than the uplink data splitting threshold, the PDCP 511 may operate in the first operation mode as indicated by reference numeral 1431. The PDCP 511 may send the data to be transmitted to the RLC corresponding to the primary path.

[0290] According to various embodiments, when the size of the data to be transmitted is greater than the data splitting threshold but less than the first configuration value, the PDCP 511 may operate in the first operation mode, as indicated by reference numeral 1433. The PDCP 511 may send the data to be transmitted to the RLC corresponding to the primary path and the RLC corresponding to the other path.

[0291] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may transmit the data unit to the RLC corresponding to the primary path and the RLC corresponding to the other path. The method in which the PDCP 511 transmits the data unit to the two RLCs may be implemented based on the data processing rate of the RLCs, and has been described with reference to Figures 6 to 8 Detailed embodiments thereof are described.

[0292] According to various embodiments, when the size of the data to be transmitted is greater than the uplink data splitting threshold and greater than the first configuration value, as indicated by reference numeral 1435, the PDCP 511 may operate in the second operation mode. The first configuration value may be the sum of the first configuration value corresponding to the first cellular communication and the first configuration value corresponding to the second cellular communication. The PDCP 511 may send the data to be transmitted to the RLC corresponding to the primary path and the RLC corresponding to the other path. The PDCP 511 may compare the size of the data stored in each RLC (the first RLC 521 and the second RLC 523) with the configured second threshold, and determine whether to stop data transmission to each RLC (the first RLC 521 and the second RLC 523) based on the comparison result.

[0293] Fig.15 A flowchart of a method of operating an electronic device according to various embodiments is shown.

[0294] Fig.15 Shown is a reference FIG. 14A to FIG. 14C The operations of the first operating mode and the second operating mode are described.

[0295] According to various embodiments, at operation 1510, a PDCP (eg, Figure 5 The PDCP entity 511 of the present invention may identify the size of the data to be transmitted. The size of the data to be transmitted may be a value taking into account the size of the data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511, the size of the data temporarily stored in the first RLC 521, and the size of the data temporarily stored in the second RLC 523.

[0296] According to various embodiments, in operation 1520, the PDCP 511 may compare the size of the data to be transmitted with an uplink data split threshold (up_datasplitthreshold).

[0297] According to various embodiments, in operation 1530, the PDCP 511 may determine to operate in the first operation mode in response to an indication that the size of data to be transmitted is equal to or less than the uplink split threshold (No in operation 1520).

[0298] According to various embodiments, in operation 1540 , the PDCP 511 may identify whether the data size is greater than the first configuration value in response to the indication that the data size to be transmitted is greater than the uplink data splitting threshold (Yes in operation 1520 ).

[0299] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may determine to operate in the first operation mode in operation 1530 in response to an indication that the size of data to be transmitted is smaller than the uplink data splitting threshold (No in operation 1540 ).

[0300] According to various embodiments, in operation 1550 , the PDCP 511 may determine to operate in the second operation mode in response to an indication that the size of the data to be transmitted is greater than the uplink data splitting threshold (Yes in operation 1540 ).

[0301] Fig.16 An embodiment is shown in which an electronic device according to various embodiments executes one of a first operation mode and a second operation mode based on a first configuration value.

[0302] According to various embodiments, a PDCP (e.g., Figure 5 The PDCP 511 of the embodiment can configure a preset value so that the first configuration value increases as the size of the data successfully sent per unit time increases. When the communication state of the main path is not good, the PDCP 511 can configure the first configuration value to be less than the uplink data splitting threshold. Fig.16 It shows the case where the first configuration value is less than the uplink data splitting threshold.

[0303] refer to Fig.16 , the PDCP 511 may identify the size of the data to be transmitted. The size of the data to be transmitted may be a value taking into account the size of the data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511, the size of the data temporarily stored in the first RLC 521, and the size of the data temporarily stored in the second RLC 523.

[0304] According to various embodiments, when the size of the data to be transmitted is less than the first configuration value corresponding to the primary path, the PDCP 511 may operate in the first operation mode, as indicated by reference numeral 1611. The PDCP 511 may directly transmit the data to be transmitted to the RLC corresponding to the primary path, so that the data stored in the PDCP 511 becomes 0.

[0305] According to various embodiments, when the size of the data to be transmitted is greater than the first configuration value and less than the uplink data splitting threshold, the PDCP 511 may operate in the second operation mode as indicated by reference numeral 1613. The PDCP 511 may transmit the data to be transmitted to the RLC corresponding to the primary path. The PDCP 511 may compare the size of the data stored in the RLC corresponding to the primary path with the second configuration value, and stop data transmission or control the rate based on the comparison result.

[0306] According to various embodiments, when the size of the data to be transmitted is greater than the uplink data splitting threshold, as indicated by reference numeral 1615, the PDCP 511 may operate in the second operation mode. The PDCP 511 may transmit the data to be transmitted to the RLC corresponding to the primary path and the RLC corresponding to the other path. The PDCP 511 may compare the size of the data stored in each RLC (the first RLC 521 and the second RLC 523) with the configured second threshold, and determine whether to stop data transmission to each RLC (the first RLC 521 and the second RLC 523) based on the comparison result.

[0307] Fig.17 A flow chart of a method 1700 of operating an electronic device according to various embodiments is shown.

[0308] Fig.17 Shown is a reference Fig.16 The operations of the first operating mode and the second operating mode are described.

[0309] According to various embodiments, at operation 1710, a PDCP (eg, Figure 5 The PDCP entity 511 of the present invention may identify the size of the data to be transmitted. The size of the data to be transmitted may be a value taking into account the size of the data temporarily stored in the PDCP 511, the size of the data temporarily stored in the first RLC 521, and the size of the data temporarily stored in the second RLC 523.

[0310] According to various embodiments, in operation 1720, the PDCP 511 may compare the size of data to be transmitted with a first configuration value.

[0311] According to various embodiments, in operation 1730, the PDCP 511 may operate in the first operation mode in response to an indication that the size of the data to be transmitted is less than the first configuration value (No of operation 1720). The PDCP 511 may directly transmit the data to be transmitted to the RLC corresponding to the primary path, so that the data stored in the PDCP 511 becomes 0.

[0312] According to various embodiments, in operation 1740 , the PDCP 511 may compare the data size with the uplink data splitting threshold in response to an indication that the size of the data to be transmitted is greater than the first configuration value (Yes in operation 1720 ).

[0313] According to various embodiments, in operation 1750, the PDCP 511 may operate in a second operation mode using multiple paths (e.g., a primary path and another path) in response to an indication that the data size is greater than the uplink data splitting threshold (yes in operation 1740). The PDCP 511 may compare the size of the data stored in each RLC (the first RLC 521 and the second RLC 523) with the configured second threshold, and determine whether to stop data transmission to each RLC (the first RLC 521 and the second RLC 523) based on the comparison result.

[0314] According to various embodiments, in operation 1760, the PDCP 511 may use one path (e.g., the primary path) in the second operation mode in response to an indication that the data size is less than the uplink data splitting threshold (No in operation 1740). The PDCP 511 may send the data to be transmitted to the RLC corresponding to the primary path. The PDCP 511 may compare the size of the data stored in the RLC corresponding to the primary path with the second configuration value, and stop data transmission or control the rate based on the comparison result.

[0315] According to various embodiments, the electronic device may include: at least one communication processor; and an application processor configured to send data to be sent via a first cellular communication and / or a second cellular communication to the at least one communication processor, wherein the at least one communication processor includes: a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) configured to support a split bearer for sending split data generated by splitting the data to a first node corresponding to the first cellular communication and a second node corresponding to the second cellular communication; a first RLC configured to split data received from the PDCP and send the split data to a first MAC corresponding to the first cellular communication; and a second RLC configured to split data received from the PDCP and send the split data to a second MAC corresponding to the second cellular communication, wherein the PDCP is configured to receive data to be sent via the first cellular communication and / or the second cellular communication from the application processor, send the data to at least one of the first RLC or the second RLC, and stop sending the data to the RLC receiving the data based on a comparison result between the data size temporarily stored in the RLC and a first configuration value.

[0316] In the electronic device according to various embodiments, the PDCP may be configured to determine the first configuration value based on a size of data successfully transmitted per unit time through the first cellular communication or the second cellular communication.

[0317] In the electronic device according to various embodiments, the PDCP may be configured to determine the first configuration value based on a size of data transmitted to an RLC receiving data from the PDCP.

[0318] In the electronic device according to various embodiments, the PDCP may be configured to start transmitting data to the RLC receiving data again in response to an indication that the size of the data temporarily stored in the RLC receiving the data is smaller than the first configuration value.

[0319] In an electronic device according to various embodiments, the PDCP may be configured to compare a value related to the size of the data with an uplink data split threshold (ul-DataSplitThreshold) received from one of the first node and the second node, and in response to an indication that the value related to the size of the data is greater than the uplink data split threshold, send at least some of the data to the first RLC and send other some of the data to the second RLC.

[0320] In the electronic device according to various embodiments, the value related to the data size may include a value indicating the sum of sizes of data temporarily stored in the PDCP, the first RLC, and the second RLC.

[0321] In an electronic device according to various embodiments, the PDCP may be configured to stop sending data to the first RLC in response to an indication that the size of data temporarily stored in the first RLC is greater than a value related to the size of data sent via the first cellular communication per unit time, and to stop sending data to the second RLC in response to an indication that the size of data temporarily stored in the second RLC is greater than a value related to the size of data sent via the first cellular communication per unit time.

[0322] In an electronic device according to various embodiments, the PDCP may be configured to start sending data to the first RLC again in response to an indication that the size of data temporarily stored in the first RLC is less than a first configuration value, or to start sending data to the second RLC again in response to an indication that the size of data temporarily stored in the second RLC is less than the first configuration value.

[0323] In an electronic device according to various embodiments, the PDCP may be configured to compare the size of data temporarily stored in the RLC for receiving data with a first configuration value, and in response to an indication that the size of data temporarily stored in the RLC for receiving data is greater than the first configuration value, stop sending data to the RLC for receiving data.

[0324] In the electronic device according to various embodiments, the first configuration value may be determined based on a quality status of the first cellular communication or the second cellular communication.

[0325] The electronic device according to various embodiments may include: at least one communication processor; and an application processor configured to send data to be sent through a first cellular communication and / or a second cellular communication to the at least one communication processor, wherein the at least one communication processor includes: a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) configured to support a split bearer for sending split data generated by splitting the data to a first node corresponding to the first cellular communication and a second node corresponding to the second cellular communication; a first RLC configured to split data received from the PDCP and send the split data to a first MAC corresponding to the first cellular communication; and a second RLC configured to split data received from the PDCP and send the split data to a first MAC corresponding to the first cellular communication. The PDCP receives the data and sends the split data to a second MAC corresponding to the second cellular communication, wherein the PDCP is configured to identify the size of the data temporarily stored in the PDCP, the first RLC and the second RLC, and based on the comparison result between the identified data size and the first configuration value, operate in one of a first operation mode and a second operation mode, in the first operation mode, send the data temporarily stored in the PDCP to the first RLC and the second RLC, so that no data is stored in the PDCP, and in the second operation mode, do not send the data temporarily stored in the PDCP, so that the size of the data temporarily stored in the first RLC or the second RLC is not greater than the second configuration value.

[0326] In an electronic device according to various embodiments, the PDCP may be configured to operate in a first operating mode in response to an indication that the identified data size is less than a first configuration value, and to operate in a second operating mode in response to an indication that the identified data size is greater than the first configuration value.

[0327] In an electronic device according to various embodiments, when a first configuration value is greater than or equal to an uplink data split threshold (ul-DataSplitThreshold), the PDCP may be configured to send data temporarily stored in the PDCP to one of a first RLC and a second RLC in response to an identification that the identified data size is greater than the uplink data split threshold and less than the first configuration value.

[0328] In an electronic device according to various embodiments, the PDCP may be configured to compare a first configuration value corresponding to a first RLC with a first configuration value corresponding to a second RLC, and send data temporarily stored in the PDCP to the RLC corresponding to the larger configuration value between the first RLC and the second RLC.

[0329] In an electronic device according to various embodiments, when a first configuration value is less than an uplink data split threshold (ul-DataSplitThreshold), the PDCP may be configured to send data temporarily stored in the PDCP to one of a first RLC and a second RLC in response to an identification that a size of the identified data is greater than the first configuration value and less than the uplink data split threshold.

[0330] According to various embodiments, the electronic device may include: at least one communication processor; and an application processor configured to send data to be sent via a first cellular communication and / or a second cellular communication to the at least one communication processor, wherein the at least one communication processor includes: a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) configured to support a split bearer, the split bearer being used to send split data generated by splitting the data to a first node corresponding to the first cellular communication and a second node corresponding to the second cellular communication; a first radio layer control (RLC) configured to split data received from the PDCP and send the split data to a first medium access control (MAC) corresponding to the first cellular communication; and a second RLC configured to split data received from the PDCP and send the split data to a second MAC corresponding to the second cellular communication, wherein the PDCP is configured to split the data received from the application processor into data units having a preset size, identify a data processing rate of the first RLC and a data processing rate of the second RLC, and distribute the data units to the first RLC and the second RLC based on the data processing rate of the first RLC and the data processing rate of the second RLC.

[0331] In the electronic device according to various embodiments, the PDCP may be configured to determine the number of data units to be distributed to the first RLC based on uplink grant information of the first cellular communication.

[0332] In the electronic device according to various embodiments, the PDCP may be configured to determine the number of data units to be distributed to the second RLC based on the number of data units to be distributed to the first RLC, a data processing rate of the first RLC, and a data processing rate of the second RLC.

[0333] In the electronic device according to various embodiments, the PDCP may be configured to distribute a larger number of data units to an RLC having a faster data processing rate among the first RLC and the second RLC.

[0334] In the electronic device according to various embodiments, the PDCP may be configured to specify a transmission sequence of the data unit based on a data processing rate of the first RLC and a data processing rate of the second RLC.

[0335] In an electronic device according to various embodiments, the PDCP may be configured to send a data unit to the first RLC and the second RLC based on a comparison result between a value related to the size of data received from an application processor and a value related to the size of data sent from the PDCP to the first RLC and the second RLC, so that the size of the data temporarily stored in the PDCP becomes equal to or smaller than a preset value.

[0336] In an electronic device according to various embodiments, the PDCP may be configured to send a data unit through a transmission path corresponding to one of the first RLC and the second RLC in response to an indication that a size of data received from an application processor is greater than an uplink data split threshold (ul-datasplitthreshold) received from one of the first node and the second node and is less than a value related to a size of data sent per unit time.

[0337] In an electronic device according to various embodiments, the PDCP may be configured to send a data unit through all of a transmission path corresponding to a first RLC and a transmission path corresponding to a second RLC in response to an indication that data received from an application processor is greater than an uplink data split threshold (ul-datasplitthreshold) received from one of a first node and a second node and is greater than a value related to a size of data sent per unit time.

[0338] In an electronic device according to various embodiments, the PDCP may be configured to send a data unit through one of a transmission path corresponding to a first RLC and a transmission path corresponding to a second RLC in response to data received from an application processor being less than an uplink data split threshold (ul-datasplitthreshold) received from one of the first node or the second node and being greater than a value related to a size of data sent per unit time, and being less than an identifier of the uplink data split threshold.

[0339] In the electronic device according to various embodiments, the PDCP may be configured to control the size of data temporarily stored in the RLC corresponding to the used path to be no greater than a preset value.

[0340] In an electronic device according to various embodiments, the PDCP may be configured to stop sending data to the first RLC in response to an indication that a size of data temporarily stored in the first RLC is greater than or equal to a value related to a size of data sent per unit time via the first cellular communication when some of the data units are sent to the first RLC.

[0341] In the electronic device according to various embodiments, the PDCP may be configured to start transmitting the data unit to the first RLC again in response to an indication that the size of the data temporarily stored in the first RLC is smaller than a value related to data transmitted per unit time.

[0342] Fig.18 A flow chart of a method 1800 of operating an electronic device according to various embodiments is shown.

[0343] According to various embodiments, at operation 1810, a PDCP (eg, Figure 5 The PDCP 511 may receive a PDCP message sent by an application processor (e.g., Figure 1 data sent by the processor 120).

[0344] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may split the received data into a plurality of data units in operation 1820. The sizes of the split data units may be the same as each other.

[0345] According to various embodiments, in operation 1830, the PDCP 511 may identify the first RLC (eg, Figure 5 The data processing rate of the first RLC521) and the second RLC (eg, Figure 5 The data processing rate of the second RLC523).

[0346] According to various embodiments, the data processing rate of the first RLC 521 may be the data transmitted by the first RLC 521 to the first MAC within a predetermined time (eg, Figure 5 The data processing rate of the second RLC 523 may be the size of the data sent by the second RLC 523 to the second MAC (e.g., Figure 5 The size of the data of the second MAC 533).

[0347] According to various embodiments, in operation 1840 , the PDCP 511 may distribute the data unit to the first RLC 521 and the second RLC 523 based on the data processing rate of the first RLC 521 and the data processing rate of the second RLC 523 .

[0348] According to various embodiments, the PDCP 511 may determine the size of the data unit transmitted to the first RLC 521 based on the uplink grant information of the first cellular communication. The PDCP 511 may identify the data processing rates of the first RLC 521 and the second RLC 523 and determine the size of the data unit transmitted to the second RLC 523. The PDCP 511 may assign sequence numbers of the data units based on the data processing rates of the first RLC 521 and the second RLC 523.

[0349] The method of operating an electronic device according to various embodiments may include: an operation of receiving, through a communication processor, data to be sent to one or more of a first node for performing a first cellular communication with the electronic device or a second node for performing a second cellular communication with the electronic device from an application processor; an operation of sending data to at least one of a first RLC or a second RLC; and stopping sending data to the RLC receiving data based on a comparison result between a data size temporarily stored in the RLC receiving data when the data is sent and a first configuration value.

[0350] The method of operating the electronic device according to various embodiments may further include an operation of determining the first configuration value based on a size of data successfully transmitted through the first cellular communication or the second cellular communication per unit time.

[0351] In the method of operating an electronic device according to various embodiments, the operation of determining the first configuration value may include an operation of determining the first configuration value based on a size of data transmitted to an RLC that receives data from a PDCP.

[0352] The method of operating the electronic device according to various embodiments may further include, in response to an indication that the size of the data temporarily stored in the RLC receiving the data is smaller than the first configuration value, starting to transmit the data to the RLC receiving the data again.

[0353] The method of operating an electronic device according to various embodiments may further include comparing a value related to the size of the data with an uplink data split threshold (ul-DataSplitThreshold) received from one of the first node and the second node; and sending at least some of the data to the first RLC and sending other of the data to the second RLC in response to an indication that the value related to the size of the data is greater than the uplink data split threshold, wherein the value related to the size of the data includes a value indicating the sum of the sizes of the data temporarily stored by the PDCP, the first RLC and the second RLC.

[0354] A method for operating an electronic device according to various embodiments may include: an operation of receiving, through a communication processor, data to be sent to one or more of a first node for performing a first cellular communication with the electronic device or a second node for performing a second cellular communication; an operation of splitting the data into data units having a preset size through a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) implemented in the communication processor; an operation of identifying a data processing rate of a first radio layer control (RLC) and a data processing rate of a second RLC, the first RLC being configured to split data received from the PDCP and send the split data to a first medium access control (MAC) corresponding to the first cellular communication, the second RLC being configured to split data received from the PDCP and send the split data to a second MAC corresponding to the second cellular communication; and distributing the data units to the first RLC and the second RLC based on the data processing rate of the first RLC and the data processing rate of the second RLC.

[0355] In the method of operating the electronic device according to various embodiments, the operation of distributing the data unit may include an operation of determining the number of data units to be distributed to the first RLC based on uplink grant information of the first cellular communication.

[0356] In a method of operating an electronic device according to various embodiments, the operation of distributing data units may include an operation of determining the number of data units to be distributed to the second RLC based on the number of data units to be distributed to the first RLC, the data processing rate of the first RLC, and the data processing rate of the second RLC.

[0357] In the method of operating an electronic device according to various embodiments, the operation of distributing the data units may include distributing a larger number of data units to an RLC having a faster data processing rate among the first RLC and the second RLC.

[0358] The method of operating the electronic device according to various embodiments may further include an operation of specifying a transmission sequence of the data unit based on a data processing rate of the first RLC and a data processing rate of the second RLC.

[0359] In a method of operating an electronic device according to various embodiments, an operation of distributing a data unit may include an operation of sending a data unit to a first RLC and a second RLC based on a comparison result between a value related to a size of data received from an application processor and a value related to a size of data sent per unit time from a PDCP to a first RLC and a second RLC, so that the size of the data stored in the PDCP becomes equal to or less than a preset value.

[0360] The method of operating an electronic device according to various embodiments may further include an operation of stopping sending data to the first RLC in response to an indication that a size of data temporarily stored in the first RLC is greater than or equal to a value related to a size of data sent through the first cellular communication per unit time when some of the data units are sent to the first RLC.

[0361] The method of operating an electronic device according to various embodiments may further include transmitting the data unit to the first RLC again in response to an indication that the data size temporarily stored in the first RLC is smaller than a value related to the data size transmitted per unit time.

[0362] The electronic device according to various embodiments may be one of various types of electronic devices. The electronic device may include, for example, a portable communication device (e.g., a smart phone), a computer device, a portable multimedia device, a portable medical device, a camera, a wearable device, or a household appliance. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the electronic device is not limited to those electronic devices described above.

[0363] It should be understood that the various embodiments of the present disclosure and the terms used therein are not intended to limit the technical features set forth herein to specific embodiments, but include various changes, equivalent forms or alternative forms for corresponding embodiments. For the description of the accompanying drawings, similar reference numerals may be used to refer to similar or related elements. It will be understood that the nouns in the singular form corresponding to the term may include one or more things unless the relevant context clearly indicates otherwise. As used herein, each of the phrases such as "A or B", "at least one of A and B", "at least one of A or B", "A, B or C", "at least one of A, B and C" and "at least one of A, B or C" may include any one or all possible combinations of the items listed together with the corresponding one of the multiple phrases. As used herein, terms such as "1st" and "2nd" or "first" and "second" may be used to simply distinguish the corresponding component from another component, and do not limit the component in other aspects (e.g., importance or order). It will be understood that if an element (e.g., a first element) is referred to as being “combined with another element (e.g., the second element)”, “combined to another element (e.g., the second element)”, “connected with another element (e.g., the second element)”, or “connected to another element (e.g., the second element)” when the terms “operably” or “communicatively” are used or when the terms “operably” or “communicatively” are not used, it means that the element may be directly (e.g., wired) connected to the other element, wirelessly connected to the other element, or connected to the other element via a third element.

[0364] As used herein, the term "module" may include units implemented in hardware, software, or firmware, and may be used interchangeably with other terms (e.g., "logic," "logic block," "portion," or "circuit"). A module may be a single integrated component adapted to perform one or more functions or a minimum unit or portion of the single integrated component. For example, according to an embodiment, a module may be implemented in the form of an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC).

[0365] The various embodiments described herein may be implemented as software (e.g., program 140) including one or more instructions stored in a storage medium (e.g., internal memory 136 or external memory 138) that can be read by a machine (e.g., electronic device 101). For example, under the control of a processor, a processor (e.g., processor 120) of the machine (e.g., electronic device 101) may call at least one of the one or more instructions stored in the storage medium and execute the at least one instruction with or without the use of one or more other components. This enables the machine to operate to perform at least one function according to the at least one instruction called. The one or more instructions may include code generated by a compiler or code that can be run by an interpreter. A machine-readable storage medium may be provided in the form of a non-transitory storage medium. Among them, the term "non-transitory" only means that the storage medium is a tangible device and does not include a signal (e.g., an electromagnetic wave), but the term does not distinguish between data being semi-permanently stored in a storage medium and data being temporarily stored in a storage medium.

[0366] According to an embodiment, the method according to various embodiments of the present disclosure may be included and provided in a computer program product. The computer program product may be traded between a seller and a buyer as a product. The computer program product may be released in the form of a machine-readable storage medium (e.g., a compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM)), or may be downloaded via an application store (e.g., Play Store TM ) The computer program product may be published (e.g., downloaded or uploaded) online, or the computer program product may be distributed (e.g., downloaded or uploaded) directly between two user devices (e.g., smart phones). If published online, at least part of the computer program product may be temporarily generated, or at least part of the computer program product may be at least temporarily stored in a machine-readable storage medium (such as a memory of a manufacturer's server, an application store's server, or a forwarding server).

[0367] According to various embodiments, each component (e.g., module or program) in the above-mentioned components may include a single entity or multiple entities. According to various embodiments, one or more components in the above-mentioned components may be omitted, or one or more other components may be added. Alternatively or additionally, multiple components (e.g., module or program) may be integrated into a single component. In this case, according to various embodiments, the integrated component may still perform the one or more functions of each component in the multiple components in the same or similar manner as a corresponding component in the multiple components before integration. According to various embodiments, the operations performed by a module, program or another component may be performed sequentially, in parallel, repeatedly or in a heuristic manner, or one or more operations in the operations may be run or omitted in different orders, or one or more other operations may be added.

Claims

1. An electronic device, comprising: at least one communications processor; as well as an application processor configured to send data to be sent via the first cellular communication and / or the second cellular communication to the at least one communication processor, Wherein, the at least one communication processor comprises: A packet data convergence protocol PDCP, configured to support a split bearer, the split bearer being used to send split data generated by splitting the data to a first node corresponding to the first cellular communication and a second node corresponding to the second cellular communication; A first radio layer control RLC configured to split the first data received from the PDCP and send the split first data to a first medium access control MAC corresponding to the first cellular communication; and a second RLC configured to split second data received from the PDCP and send the split second data to a second MAC corresponding to the second cellular communication, The PDCP is configured to receive data to be sent through the first cellular communication and / or the second cellular communication from the application processor, send the data to at least one of the first RLC or the second RLC, and stop sending the data to the RLC receiving the data based on a comparison result that the size of the data temporarily stored in the RLC receiving the data is greater than the first configuration value, The first configuration value is determined based on the size of data successfully transmitted through the first cellular network or the second cellular network per unit time and the maximum time that the receiving side waits for receiving data.

2. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein: The PDCP is configured to determine the first configuration value based on a size of data successfully transmitted per unit time through the first cellular communication or the second cellular communication.

3. The electronic device according to claim 2, wherein: The PDCP is configured to determine the first configuration value based on a size of data transmitted to the RLC receiving data from the PDCP.

4. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein: The PDCP is configured to, in response to an indication that the size of the data temporarily stored in the RLC for receiving the data is smaller than the first configuration value, start sending the data to the RLC for receiving the data again.

5. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein: The PDCP is configured to compare a value related to the data size with an uplink data split threshold ul-DataSplitThreshold received from one of the first node and the second node, and in response to an indication that the value related to the data size is greater than the uplink data split threshold, send at least some of the data to the first RLC and send other some of the data to the second RLC.

6. The electronic device according to claim 5, wherein: The value related to the data size includes a value indicating the sum of the sizes of data temporarily stored in the PDCP, the first RLC, and the second RLC.

7. The electronic device according to claim 5, wherein: The PDCP is configured to, in response to an indication that the size of data temporarily stored in the first RLC is larger than a value related to the size of data sent per unit time via the first cellular communication, stop sending data to the first RLC, and in response to an indication that the size of data temporarily stored in the second RLC is larger than a value related to the size of data sent per unit time via the second cellular communication, stop sending data to the second RLC.

8. The electronic device according to claim 7, wherein: The PDCP is configured to start sending data to the first RLC again in response to an indication that the size of data temporarily stored in the first RLC is less than a first configuration value, and to start sending data to the second RLC again in response to an indication that the size of data temporarily stored in the second RLC is less than the first configuration value.

9. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein: The PDCP is configured to compare the data size temporarily stored in the RLC for receiving data with a first configuration value, and stop sending data to the RLC for receiving data in response to an indication that the data size temporarily stored in the RLC for receiving data is greater than the first configuration value.

10. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein: The first configuration value is determined based on a quality status of the first cellular communication or the second cellular communication.

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