Communication method and communication device

Abstract

The invention provides a communication method and a communication device, and relates to the field of communication. The method provided by the invention is beneficial to realizing association between the application layer measurement result and the wireless side measurement result, and is beneficial to measurement information collection and network quality maintenance of the network side. The method comprises: a first access network device determines first information and second information, the first information being used for indicating application layer measurement on a first service, and the second information being used for indicating an identifier for reporting the first service; the first access network device sends the first information and the second information to a terminal device; the terminal equipment receives first information and second information from the first access network equipment; and the terminal equipment sends the first application layer measurement result of the first service and the identifier of the first service.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the field of communications, and in particular to a communication method and a communication device. Background Art

[0002] Wireless side measurement is an important means of monitoring network quality. Operators can collect network signal strength, quality, coverage, etc. measured by terminal devices and / or access network devices through wireless side measurement, and optimize problems and faults in the wireless network based on the wireless side measurement results to provide users with better network quality. Application layer measurement is a measurement of the performance of some streaming services or voice services subscribed by terminal devices, which enables operators to better understand the user's service experience, thereby optimizing the network quality corresponding to the service, meeting users' more refined quality experience requirements when using these services, and improving the user experience more accurately.

[0003] However, a single wireless side measurement cannot reveal the user side’s quality experience of a certain service, while a single application layer measurement cannot reveal the user’s overall network quality situation, which is not conducive to problem location when the service quality experience is poor, and brings troubles to the operator’s maintenance and management. Therefore, this problem can be solved by correlating the wireless side measurement results with the application layer measurement results.

[0004] However, currently, it is difficult to associate the measurement results on the wireless side with the measurement results on the application layer, which is not conducive to the collection of measurement information on the network side and the maintenance of network quality, and it is difficult to provide users with more refined network services. Summary of the invention

[0005] The present application provides a communication method and a communication device, which are conducive to the association of application layer measurement results with wireless side measurement results, and are helpful for the collection of measurement information and network quality maintenance on the network side, so as to enable the network side to provide users with more refined network services.

[0006] In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, including: a first access network device determines first information and second information, the first information is used to indicate application layer measurement of a first service, and the second information is used to indicate an identifier for reporting the first service; the first access network device sends the first information and the second information to a terminal device.

[0007] In an embodiment of the present application, the first access network device obtains an identifier of the first service for associating application layer measurement results with wireless side measurement results by sending a second information to the terminal device. This is not limited by whether the access network device can instruct the terminal device to report the application layer measurement results visible to the access network device, nor is it limited by whether the terminal device can support reporting the application layer measurement results visible to the access network device. That is, the terminal device does not need to carry the identifier of the first service through the application layer measurement results visible to the access network device to obtain the identifier, which is conducive to decoupling the necessary connection between "the terminal device reports the application layer measurement results visible to the access network device" and "achieves the association of the application layer measurement results with the wireless side measurement results". When it is necessary to associate the application layer measurement results with the wireless side measurement results, there is no need to rely on the capabilities of the access network device and / or the terminal device, which is conducive to achieving the association of the application layer measurement results with the wireless side measurement results, and is more convenient for the network side to collect measurement information and maintain network quality, making it possible for the network side to provide users with more refined network services.

[0008] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the first access network device receives a first application layer measurement result of a first service from a terminal device; the first access network device receives a wireless side measurement identifier from a second access network device, and the wireless side measurement identifier is an identifier corresponding to a wireless side measurement associated with the access network device carrying the first service and the terminal device; the first access network device sends the wireless side measurement identifier and the first application layer measurement result to a server.

[0009] It should be understood that the first access network device and the second access network device are access network devices that form a dual connection with the terminal device.

[0010] In an embodiment of the present application, the first access network device that receives the first application layer measurement result can obtain an identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the access network device and the terminal device that carry the first service from another access network device in a dual connection scenario, and send the wireless side measurement identifier and the first application layer measurement result to the server, which is beneficial for the server to use the wireless side measurement identifier to associate the first application layer measurement result with the wireless side measurement result.

[0011] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method also includes: the first access network device receives an identifier of the first service from the terminal device; the first access network device sends a wireless side measurement identifier to the second access network device based on the identifier of the first service, and the wireless side measurement identifier is an identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the access network device carrying the first service and the terminal device.

[0012] In an embodiment of the present application, the access network device that receives the identifier of the first service can determine the identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the access network device and the terminal device that carry the first service based on the identifier of the first service, and send the identifier to the access network device that receives the application layer measurement result. This is beneficial for reporting the corresponding wireless side measurement identifier while reporting the first application layer measurement result, which is beneficial for the network side to analyze the measurement results and optimize the network quality.

[0013] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method also includes: the first access network device receives the first application layer measurement result of the first service and the identifier of the first service from the terminal device; the first access network device sends the wireless side measurement identifier and the first application layer measurement result to the server based on the identifier of the first service, and the wireless side measurement identifier is an identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the access network device carrying the first service and the terminal device.

[0014] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is only processed by the radio link control RLC entity and the media intervention control MAC entity of the first access network device, then the wireless side measurement identifier is the first identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the first access network device and the terminal device.

[0015] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is only processed by the RLC entity and the MAC entity of the second access network device, and the wireless side measurement identifier is a second identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the second access network device and the terminal device.

[0016] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementation methods of the first aspect, the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is processed by the RLC entity of the first access network device, the MAC entity of the first access network device, the RLC entity of the second access network device, and the MAC entity of the second access network device, then the wireless side measurement identifier includes a first identifier and a second identifier, the first identifier corresponds to the wireless side measurement associated with the first access network device and the terminal device, and the second identifier corresponds to the wireless side measurement associated with the second access network device and the terminal device.

[0017] In an embodiment of the present application, a method for determining a bearer node of a first service based on an identifier of the first service is provided, so that when an access network device obtains an identifier of the first service corresponding to an application layer measurement, the access network device can determine the access network device that carries the first service based on the identifier of the first service, and obtain a wireless side measurement identifier from the access network device that carries the first service, which is conducive to the association between the application layer measurement results and the wireless side measurement results.

[0018] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, before sending the wireless side measurement identifier, the method also includes: the first access network device sends a first request to the second access network device, and the first request is used to request the second identifier; the first access network device receives the second identifier from the second access network device.

[0019] In an embodiment of the present application, when the first access network device determines that the access network device carrying the first service includes a second access network device, a second identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the second access network device and the terminal device is obtained from the second access network device through a second request, which is beneficial to obtaining all wireless side measurement identifiers corresponding to the application layer measurement results of this time, and is beneficial to improving the accuracy and credibility of subsequent analysis results.

[0020] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method also includes: the first access network device sends a second request to the second access network device, the second request is used to request that the reporting node of the application layer measurement result be changed to the second access network device, and the second request carries the wireless side measurement identifier.

[0021] In an embodiment of the present application, when the reporting node of the application layer measurement results changes and the changed node does not store the wireless side measurement identifier, during the process of the first access network device and the second access network device interacting with each other for change requests or after the change is successful, the access network device that obtained the wireless side measurement identifier during the previous round of reporting sends the identifier to another access network device that forms a dual connection with the terminal device, thereby avoiding the two access network devices from repeatedly executing the process of obtaining the wireless side measurement identifier, saving the computing power of the access network device, and improving the efficiency of associating the application layer measurement results with the wireless side measurement results.

[0022] In combination with the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the identifier of the first service includes a protocol data unit PDU session identifier, or a PDU session identifier and a quality of service QoS flow identifier.

[0023] It should be understood that there is a protocol data unit (PDU) session connection between the terminal device and the core network to provide data transmission services. The PDU session identifier can uniquely identify a PDU session. When there is only a QoS flow of the first service in a PDU session, the access network device carrying the first service can be determined by the PDU session identifier corresponding to the first service.

[0024] Furthermore, when there are QoS flows of multiple services in a PDU session, the IP data flow of the first service can be uniquely identified through the first service PDU session identifier and the QoS flow identifier, which is conducive to accurately determining the access network device carrying the first service.

[0025] In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method, the method comprising: a terminal device receives first information and second information from a first access network device, the first information is used to indicate application layer measurement of a first service, and the second information is used to indicate an identifier for reporting the first service; the terminal device sends a first application layer measurement result of the first service and an identifier of the first service.

[0026] In combination with the second aspect, in some implementation methods of the second aspect, the sending of the first application layer measurement result of the first service and the identifier of the first service includes: the terminal device sending the first application layer measurement result of the first service and the identifier of the first service to the first access network device, or sending the first application layer measurement result of the first service to the first access network device and sending the identifier of the first service to the second access network device.

[0027] In combination with the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the identifier of the first service includes a protocol data unit PDU session identifier, or a PDU session identifier and a quality of service QoS flow identifier.

[0028] In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication method, comprising: a second access network device receives a second request from a first access network device, the second request is used to request a second identifier, the second identifier corresponds to a wireless side measurement associated with the second access network device and a terminal device; the second access network device sends the second identifier to the first access network device.

[0029] In combination with the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the method further includes: receiving a second request from the first access network device, the second request being used to request that the reporting node of the application layer measurement results of the first service be changed to the second access network device, the second request carrying the wireless side measurement identifier.

[0030] In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, comprising a transceiver module and a processing module, wherein the processing module is used to: determine first information and second information, the first information is used to indicate application layer measurement of a first service, and the second information is used to indicate an identifier for reporting the first service; the transceiver module is used to: send the first information and the second information to a terminal device.

[0031] Optionally, the transceiver module is also used to: receive a first application layer measurement result of a first service from a terminal device; receive a wireless side measurement identifier from a second access network device, wherein the wireless side measurement identifier is an identifier corresponding to a wireless side measurement associated with the access network device carrying the first service and the terminal device; and send the wireless side measurement identifier and the first application layer measurement result to a server.

[0032] Optionally, the transceiver module is also used to: receive an identifier of the first service from the terminal device; the processing module is also used to: send a wireless side measurement identifier to a second access network device based on the identifier of the first service, and the wireless side measurement identifier is an identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the access network device carrying the first service and the terminal device.

[0033] Optionally, the transceiver module is also used to: receive the first application layer measurement result of the first service and the identifier of the first service from the terminal device; and, based on the identifier of the first service, send the wireless side measurement identifier and the first application layer measurement result to the server, wherein the wireless side measurement identifier is an identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the access network device carrying the first service and the terminal device.

[0034] Optionally, the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is only processed by the radio link control RLC entity and the media intervention control MAC entity of the first access network device, and the wireless side measurement identifier is the first identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the first access network device and the terminal device.

[0035] Optionally, the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is only processed by the RLC entity and the MAC entity of the second access network device, and the wireless side measurement identifier is a second identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the second access network device and the terminal device.

[0036] Optionally, the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is processed by the RLC entity of the first access network device, the MAC entity of the first access network device, the RLC entity of the second access network device and the MAC entity of the second access network device, then the wireless side measurement identifier includes a first identifier and a second identifier, the first identifier corresponds to the wireless side measurement associated with the first access network device and the terminal device, and the second identifier corresponds to the wireless side measurement associated with the second access network device and the terminal device.

[0037] Optionally, the transceiver module is further used to: send a first request to the second access network device, where the first request is used to request the second identifier; and receive the second identifier from the second access network device.

[0038] Optionally, the transceiver module is further used to: send a second request to the second access network device, the second request is used to request to change the reporting node of the application layer measurement result to the second access network device, and the second request carries the wireless side measurement identifier.

[0039] Optionally, the identifier of the first service includes a protocol data unit PDU session identifier, or a PDU session identifier and a quality of service QoS flow identifier.

[0040] In the fifth aspect, the present application further provides a communication device, including a transceiver module and a processing module, wherein the transceiver module is used to: receive first information and second information from a first access network device, the first information is used to indicate application layer measurement of a first service, and the second information is used to indicate an identifier for reporting the first service; the transceiver module is also used to: send a first application layer measurement result of the first service and an identifier of the first service.

[0041] Optionally, the transceiver module is also used to: send the first application layer measurement result of the first service and the identifier of the first service to the first access network device, or send the first application layer measurement result of the first service to the first access network device and send the identifier of the first service to the second access network device.

[0042] Optionally, the identifier of the first service includes a protocol data unit PDU session identifier, or a PDU session identifier and a quality of service QoS flow identifier.

[0043] In the sixth aspect, the present application also provides a communication device, including a transceiver module and a processing module, wherein the transceiver module is used to: receive a second request from a first access network device, the second request is used to request a second identifier, the second identifier corresponds to a wireless side measurement associated with the second access network device and the terminal device; and, send the second identifier to the first access network device.

[0044] Optionally, the transceiver module is further used to: receive a second request from the first access network device, the second request is used to request to change the reporting node of the application layer measurement result of the first service to the second access network device, and the second request carries the wireless side measurement identifier.

[0045] In a seventh aspect, the present application provides another communication device, including a processor, the processor is coupled to a memory, and can be used to execute instructions in the memory to implement the method in any possible implementation of any of the above aspects, the second aspect, or the third aspect. Optionally, the device also includes a memory. Optionally, the device also includes a communication interface, and the processor is coupled to the communication interface.

[0046] In an eighth aspect, a processor is provided, comprising: an input circuit, an output circuit, and a processing circuit. The processing circuit is used to receive a signal through the input circuit and transmit a signal through the output circuit, so that the processor executes the method in any possible implementation of the first aspect, the second aspect, or the third aspect.

[0047] In the specific implementation process, the processor can be a chip, the input circuit can be an input pin, the output circuit can be an output pin, and the processing circuit can be a transistor, a gate circuit, a trigger, and various logic circuits. The input signal received by the input circuit can be, for example, but not limited to, received and input by a receiver, and the signal output by the output circuit can be, for example, but not limited to, output to a transmitter and transmitted by the transmitter, and the input circuit and the output circuit can be the same circuit, which is used as an input circuit and an output circuit at different times. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific implementation methods of the processor and various circuits.

[0048] In a ninth aspect, a processing device is provided, comprising a processor and a memory. The processor is used to read instructions stored in the memory, and can receive signals through a receiver and transmit signals through a transmitter to execute the method in any possible implementation of the first aspect.

[0049] Optionally, there are one or more processors and one or more memories.

[0050] Optionally, the memory may be integrated with the processor, or the memory may be provided separately from the processor.

[0051] In the specific implementation process, the memory can be a non-transitory memory, such as a read-only memory (ROM), which can be integrated with the processor on the same chip or can be set on different chips respectively. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the type of memory and the setting method of the memory and the processor.

[0052] It should be understood that the relevant data interaction process, such as sending indication information, can be a process of outputting indication information from a processor, and receiving capability information can be a process of receiving input capability information from a processor. Specifically, the processed output data can be output to a transmitter, and the input data received by the processor can come from a receiver. Among them, the transmitter and the receiver can be collectively referred to as a transceiver.

[0053] The processing device in the ninth aspect mentioned above can be a chip. The processor can be implemented by hardware or by software. When implemented by hardware, the processor can be a logic circuit, an integrated circuit, etc.; when implemented by software, the processor can be a general-purpose processor, which is implemented by reading the software code stored in the memory. The memory can be integrated in the processor or can be located outside the processor and exist independently.

[0054] In the tenth aspect, a computer program product is provided, which includes: a computer program (also referred to as code, or instruction), which, when executed, enables a computer to execute a method in any possible implementation of the first aspect, the second aspect, or the third aspect.

[0055] In the eleventh aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, which stores a computer program (also referred to as code, or instructions). When the computer-readable storage medium is run on a computer, the computer executes a method in any possible implementation of the first aspect, the second aspect, or the third aspect. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0056] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system applicable to an embodiment of the present application;

[0057] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of a protocol stack provided for an embodiment of the present application;

[0058] Figure 3 Another protocol stack schematic diagram provided for an embodiment of the present application;

[0059] Figure 4 A schematic flow chart of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0060] Figure 5A schematic flow chart of another communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0061] Figure 6 A schematic flow chart of another communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0062] Figure 7 A schematic flow chart of another communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0063] Figure 8 A schematic block diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0064] Fig. 9 A schematic block diagram of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0065] The technical solution in this application will be described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0066] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, such as: long term evolution (LTE) system, LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (TDD), universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS), fifth generation (5G) system or new radio (NR) or other evolved communication systems.

[0067] The terminal device in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as: user equipment (UE), mobile station (MS), mobile terminal (MT), access terminal, user unit, user station, mobile station, mobile station, remote station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, terminal, wireless communication equipment, user agent or user device, etc.

[0068] The terminal device may be a device that provides voice / data connectivity to users, such as a handheld device or vehicle-mounted device with wireless connection function. At present, some examples of terminals are: mobile phones, tablet computers, laptop computers, PDAs, mobile internet devices (MID), wearable devices, virtual reality (VR) devices, augmented reality (AR) devices, wireless terminals in industrial control, wireless terminals in self driving, wireless terminals in remote medical surgery, wireless terminals in smart grids, wireless terminals in transportation safety, wireless terminals in smart cities, wireless terminals in smart homes, cellular phones, cordless phones, session initiation protocol (SIP) phones, wireless local loop (WLL) stations, personal digital assistants (PDAs), handheld devices with wireless communication functions, computing devices or other processing devices connected to wireless modems, vehicle-mounted devices, wearable devices, terminal devices in 5G networks or future evolved public land mobile communication networks (public land mobile The embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

[0069] As an example but not limitation, in the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. Wearable devices may also be referred to as wearable smart devices, which are a general term for wearable devices that are intelligently designed and developed using wearable technology for daily wear, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothing, and shoes. A wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the user's clothes or accessories. Wearable devices are not only hardware devices, but also powerful functions achieved through software support, data interaction, and cloud interaction. Broadly speaking, wearable smart devices include full-featured, large-sized, and fully or partially independent of smartphones, such as smart watches or smart glasses, as well as devices that only focus on a certain type of application function and need to be used in conjunction with other devices such as smartphones, such as various types of smart bracelets and smart jewelry for vital sign monitoring.

[0070] In addition, in the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device can also be a terminal device in the Internet of Things (IoT) system. IoT is an important part of the future development of information technology. Its main technical feature is to connect objects to the network through communication technology, thereby realizing human-machine interconnection and intelligent network of things-to-things interconnection. The terminal device of the present application can also be a vehicle-mounted unit, a vehicle-mounted module, a vehicle-mounted component, a vehicle-mounted chip or a vehicle-mounted unit built into the vehicle as one or more components or units. The vehicle can implement the method of the present application through the built-in vehicle-mounted unit, vehicle-mounted module, vehicle-mounted component, vehicle-mounted chip or vehicle-mounted unit. Therefore, the embodiments of the present application can be applied to vehicle networking, such as vehicle to everything (V2X), long-term evolution-vehicle (LTE-V), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), etc.

[0071] In addition, the access network device in the embodiment of the present application may also be referred to as a wireless access network device, which may be a transmission reception point (TRP), an evolved NodeB (eNB or eNodeB) in an LTE system, a home base station (for example, home evolved NodeB, or home Node B, HNB), a base band unit (BBU), or a wireless controller in a cloud radio access network (CRAN) scenario, or the access network device may be a relay station, an access point, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, and an access network device in a 5G network or an access network device in a future evolved PLMN network, etc., may be an access point (AP) in a WLAN, may be a gNB in ​​a new radio (NR) system, may be a satellite base station in a satellite communication system, etc., and the embodiment of the present application is not limited.

[0072] The access network device in the embodiment of the present application may include a centralized unit (CU) node, or a distributed unit (DU) node, or an access network device including a CU node and a DU node, or a control plane CU node (CU-CP node) and a user plane CU node (CU-UP node) and an access network device of a DU node. The access network device including the CU node and the DU node can split the protocol layer of the access network device, put the functions of some protocol layers in the centralized control of the CU, and distribute the functions of the remaining part or all of the protocol layers in the DU, which is centrally controlled by the CU. As an implementation method, the CU deployment protocol stack includes a radio resource control (RRC) layer, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, and a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer. The radio link control (RLC) layer, the media access control (MAC) layer, and the physical (PHY) layer in the DU deployment protocol stack. Thus, the CU has the processing capabilities of RRC, PDCP and SDAP. DU has the processing capabilities of RLC, MAC and PHY. The above-mentioned functional division is only an example and does not constitute a limitation on CU and DU. That is to say, there may be other functional divisions between CU and DU, which will not be described in detail in the embodiments of the present application. The functions of CU can be implemented by one entity or by different entities. For example, the functions of CU can be further divided, for example, the control plane (CP) and the user plane (UP) are separated, that is, the control plane (CU-CP) of CU and the user plane (CU-UP) of CU. For example, CU-CP and CU-UP can be implemented by different functional entities, and CU-CP and CU-UP can be coupled with DU to jointly complete the functions of access network equipment. In one possible way, CU-CP is responsible for control plane functions, mainly including RRC and PDCP-C, wherein PDCP-C is mainly responsible for encryption and decryption of control plane data, integrity protection, data transmission, etc. CU-UP is responsible for user plane functions, mainly including SDAP and PDCP-U, wherein SDAP is mainly responsible for processing the data of core network equipment and mapping data flows to bearers. PDCP-U is mainly responsible for data plane encryption and decryption, integrity protection, header compression, sequence number maintenance, data transmission, etc. CU-CP and CU-UP are connected through the E1 interface. CU-CP represents the access network equipment and is connected to the core network equipment through the interface between the core network equipment and the access network equipment.The DU is connected via F1-C (control plane). The CU-UP is connected via F1-U (user plane). In addition, another possible implementation is that the PDCP-C is also in the CU-UP, which is not limited in this application.

[0073] The core network device in the embodiment of the present application refers to the device in the core network (core network, CN) that provides service support for the terminal device. At present, the above-mentioned core network device can be: access and mobility management function (access and mobility management function, AMF) entity, session management function (session management function, SMF) entity, user plane function (user plane function, UPF) entity, etc., which are not listed here one by one. Among them, the above-mentioned AMF entity can be responsible for the access management and mobility management of the terminal device; the above-mentioned SMF entity can be responsible for session management, such as user session establishment, etc.; the above-mentioned UPF entity can be a functional entity of the user plane, mainly responsible for connecting to the external network. It should be noted that the entity in this application can also be referred to as a network element or a functional entity. For example, the AMF entity can also be referred to as an AMF network element or an AMF functional entity. For example, the SMF entity can also be referred to as an SMF network element or an SMF functional entity, etc., and this application does not limit this.

[0074] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a communication system 100 applicable to an embodiment of the present application is shown in FIG. Figure 1 As shown, the communication system 100 includes a core network device 101, a terminal device 102, an access network device 103 and an access network device 104. Among them, the core network device 101 can be a core network that provides service support for the terminal device 102. The core network can provide connection to the terminal device 102, manage the terminal device 102, and complete the service bearer, and provide an interface to the external network as a bearer network. The terminal device 101 can communicate with the access network device 103 and the access network device 104, that is, dual connectivity (DC). The terminal device 102 can receive transmission resources (for example, frequency domain resources, or spectrum resources) through the access network device 103 or the access network device 104 to communicate with the cell. The cell may belong to a macro base station (for example, a macro eNB or a macro gNB, etc.), or may belong to a base station corresponding to a small cell. The small cell here may include: a metro cell, a micro cell, a pico cell, a femto cell, etc. These small cells have the characteristics of small coverage and low transmission power, and are suitable for providing high-speed data transmission services.

[0075] It should be understood that the access network device 103 and the access network device 104 communicating with the terminal device 101 can be base stations belonging to the same radio access technology (radio access technology, RAT) (for example, the access network device 103 and the access network device 104 are both 4G base stations or both are 5G base stations), and the access network device 103 and the access network device 104 can also be base stations belonging to different RATs (for example, the access network device 103 and the access network device 104, one is a 4G base station and the other is a 5G base station), so the DC is also called dual connectivity (multi-RAT dual connectivity, MR-DC) under multiple radio access technologies.

[0076] In a possible implementation, one of the two access network devices in the MR-DC scenario is called a master node (MN), and the other is called a secondary node (SN). It should be noted that MR-DC refers to a certain terminal device. The master base station can provide a control plane connection between the terminal device and the core network, and the secondary base station may not provide a control plane connection between the terminal device and the core network. Exemplarily, the access network device 103 may be a master base station in a dual-connection scenario, and the access network device 104 may be a secondary base station in a dual-connection scenario.

[0077] Below, the access network device is taken as a base station and the terminal device is taken as a UE to explain in detail the form of MR-DC and the network side protocol stack.

[0078] According to the wireless carrier communication standard used by the main base station and the secondary base station, MR-DC may include: Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network and New Radio Technology Dual Connectivity (E-UTRAN new radio dual connectivity, EN-DC), Next Generation Access Network and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network New Radio Dual Connectivity (next generationRAN E-UTRA new radio-dual connectivity, NGEN-DC), New Radio and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network Dual Connectivity (new radio E-UTRAN dual connectivity, NE-DC), and New Radio Dual Connectivity (newradio dual connectivity, NR-DC). Among them: the main base station in EN-DC is an LTE base station (such as eNB) connected to the 4G core network EPC, and the auxiliary base station is an NR base station (such as gNB); the main base station in NGEN-DC is an LTE base station connected to the 5G core network 5GC, and the auxiliary base station is an NR base station; the main base station in NE-DC is an NR base station connected to the 5G core network, and the auxiliary base station is an LTE base station; the main base station in NR-DC is an NR base station connected to the 5G core network, and the auxiliary base station is an LTE base station; the main base station in NR-DC is an NR base station connected to the 5G core network, and the auxiliary base station is an LTE base station; the main base station in NR-DC is an NR base station connected to the 5G core network, and the auxiliary base station is an NR base station.

[0079] It is worth noting that both the main base station and the secondary base station in MR-DC have RRC entities, can generate RRC messages (i.e., control messages, such as measurement messages, etc.), and can send RRC messages to UE. Among them, the secondary base station can directly send the RRC message generated by the secondary base station to the UE (in this case, the RRC message sent by the UE to the secondary base station is also directly sent to the secondary base station. For example, the RRC message between the secondary base station and the UE is called SRB3), and the secondary base station can also notify the main base station of the generated RRC message, and the main base station sends the RRC message to the UE (in this case, the UE transfers the RRC message to the secondary base station through the main base station, that is, the UE sends these RRC messages to the main base station, and the main base station transfers the message to the secondary base station). There is a main cell in the main base station and a main and secondary cell in the secondary base station. The main cell refers to a cell deployed at the main frequency point, and the terminal device initiates the initial connection establishment process, initiates the connection reconstruction process, or indicates as a main cell during the switching process. The primary and secondary cells refer to the cells where the terminal device initiates the random access process, or the cells where the terminal device skips the random access process to initiate data transmission during the secondary base station change process, or the cells of the secondary base station that initiate random access during the synchronous reconfiguration process. The service cell under the secondary base station is called the secondary cell group (SCG), and the cell under the master base station is called the master cell group (MCG). It should be noted that the primary base station and the secondary base station in MR-DC can be various forms and structures of the access network devices mentioned above. Optionally, the primary base station and the secondary base station may use the same CU but different DU, or use the same DU but different CU.

[0080] Optionally, the two access network devices in the MR-DC may provide different RLC entities and MAC entities for the terminal device. In a possible implementation, the service data under the MR-DC architecture may have different bearer types, which may include MCG bearer, SCG bearer and split bearer. Among them, MCG bearer refers to a bearer that transmits data only through the RLC entity and MAC entity of the MN, SCG bearer refers to a bearer that transmits data only through the RLC entity and MAC entity of the SN, and split bearer refers to a bearer that transmits data through the RLC entity and MAC entity of both the MN and the SN.

[0081] Figure 2 FIG. 4 shows a schematic diagram of the protocol stack for MCG bearer, SCG bearer and split bearer on the network side in EN-DC. Figure 2As shown, for the bearer whose PDCP terminates on the MN (called MN terminated bearer), there are different transmission paths on the network side according to the different types of service data bearers. When the service data bearer type is MCG bearer, the downlink (DL) service data directly reaches the MN from the core network, and is processed by the MN's PDCP, RLC, and MAC in turn before being sent to the UE; when the service data bearer type is SCG bearer, the DL service data directly reaches the MN from the core network, and is processed by the MN's PDCP, the SN's RLC, and MAC in turn before being sent to the UE; when the service data bearer type is splitbearer, the DL service data directly reaches the MN from the core network, and is split at the MN's PDCP. Part of the split data is sent to the UE after being processed by the SN's RLC and MAC, and the other part is sent to the UE after being processed by the MN's RLC and MAC, wherein the data separated from the MN's PDCP and needing to be transmitted to the SN and processed by the SN's RLC and MAC is transmitted via the X2 interface. It should be understood that in the case of the MN terminated bearer, the uplink (UL) data from the UE is processed by the MN's PDCP before being sent to the core network.

[0082] For bearers whose PDCP terminates on SN (called SN terminated bearers), there are different transmission paths on the network side depending on the service data bearer type. When the service data bearer type is SCG bearer, DL service data directly reaches SN from the core network, and is processed by SN's PDCP, RLC, and MAC in turn before being sent to UE; when the service data bearer type is MCG bearer, DL service data directly reaches SN from the core network, and is processed by SN's PDCP, MN's RLC, and MAC in turn before being sent to UE; when the service data bearer type is split bearer, DL service data directly reaches SN from the core network, and is split at SN's PDCP. Part of the separated data is sent to UE after being processed by SN's RLC and MAC, and the other part is sent to UE after being processed by MN's RLC and MAC. It should be understood that in the case of SN terminated bearer, UL data from UE is processed by SN's PDCP before being sent to the core network.

[0083] It should be understood that the main base station MN in EN-DC is an LTE base station connected to the 4G core network EPC, and PDCP can adopt evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) technology or NR technology, which is limited in this application.

[0084] Figure 3 The diagram shows the protocol stack diagram for MCG bearer, SCG and splitbearer on the network side in NGEN-DC / NE-DC / NR-DC. The main base stations in NGEN-DC / NE-DC / NR-DC are all base stations connected to 5GC. The 5G core network adopts a quality of service (QoS) flow-based data transmission. QoS flow refers to a service flow with the same service processing characteristics (such as scheduling strategy, queue management strategy, etc.). The minimum granularity of service classification in 5GC is QoS flow. There is a protocol data unit (PDU) session connection between the terminal device and the core network to provide data transmission services. The corresponding PDU session data packets are distinguished according to the QoS flow granularity (that is, a PDU session may include multiple QoS flows). In order to adapt to the QoS architecture in 5GC, a new wireless protocol layer is introduced on the base station side—the service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer. The SDAP layer is used to map each QoS flow from the 5GC to the data radio bearer (DRB) of the wireless access layer, that is, according to the service attributes corresponding to the QoS flow, the data packet corresponding to the QoS flow is placed on the corresponding DRB for transmission. In other words, the relationship between the PDU session, QoS flow, and DRB is as follows: a PDU session can include multiple QoS flows, and these multiple QoS flows under the PDU session can be mapped to multiple DRBs (that is, at least one QoS flow can be mapped under one DRB). QoS flows in different PDU sessions are mapped to different DRBs (that is, QoS flows under different PDU sessions cannot be mapped to the same DRB). In addition, different services have different QoS characteristics (the QoS characteristics in the standard are called 5QI), and a QoS flow may correspond to at least one QoS characteristic.

[0085] like Figure 3As shown, for the bearer terminated on the MN by PDCP, after the QoS flow from the core network is mapped to the DRB through SDAP, if the bearer type of the service data corresponding to the QoS flow is MCG bearer, the service data is then processed by MN's PDCP, RLC, and MAC in sequence and sent to the UE; if the bearer type of the service data is SCG bearer, the data processed by SDAP is then processed by MN's PDCP, SN's RLC, and MAC in sequence and sent to the UE; if the bearer type of the service data is split bearer, the data processed by SDAP is separated in MN's PDCP, and part of the separated data is processed by SN's RLC and MAC and sent to the UE, and the other part is processed by MN's RLC and MAC and sent to the UE, wherein the data separated from MN's PDCP and needs to be transmitted to SN and processed by SN's RLC and MAC is transmitted through the Xn interface. It should be understood that in this case, the UL data from the UE is processed by MN's SDAP / PDCP and sent to the core network.

[0086] For the bearer terminated by PDCP on SN, after the QoS flow from the core network is mapped to the DRB through SDAP, if the bearer type of the service data corresponding to the QoS flow is SCG bearer, the service data is then processed by SN's PDCP, RLC, and MAC in sequence and sent to the UE; if the bearer type of the service data is MCG bearer, the data processed by SDAP is then processed by SN's PDCP, SN's RLC, and MAC in sequence and sent to the UE; if the bearer type of the service data is split bearer, the data processed by SDAP is split by SN's PDCP, and part of the separated data is sent to the UE after being processed by SN's RLC and MAC, and the other part is sent to the UE after being processed by MN's RLC and MAC. It should be understood that in this case, the UL data from the UE is all processed by SN's SDAP / PDCP and sent to the core network.

[0087] To facilitate understanding of the present application, a brief introduction to wireless side measurements and application layer measurements is given below.

[0088] 1. Wireless side measurement

[0089] Wireless side measurement is an important means of monitoring wireless network quality. Operators can collect network signal strength, quality, coverage, etc. measured by terminal devices and / or access network devices through wireless side measurement. Operators can optimize problems and failures in the wireless network based on the wireless side measurement results to provide users with better network quality. For example, wireless side measurement can be performed through minimization of drive-tests (MDT) measurement, L2 (layer 2) measurement, etc.

[0090] MDT measurements include logged MDT and immediate MDT. Immediate MDT is mainly performed on terminals in the radio resource control (RRC) connection state, while logged MDT is mainly performed on terminals in the idle state. Immediate MDT can measure at least one of the following: terminal data volume measurement, throughput measurement, packet transmission delay measurement, packet loss rate measurement, processing delay measurement, etc. Logged MDT can measure one or more of the following: random access channel (RACH) failure measurement, signal strength measurement, connection establishment failure measurement, and radio link failure (RLF) failure measurement.

[0091] L2 measurements are used to collect statistics on some network performance on the network side in order to perform functions such as wireless link management, wireless resource management, and network maintenance. Some L2 measurements are calculated for a terminal, such as service throughput, service flow, terminal processing delay, and terminal air interface delay.

[0092] Currently, operators generally conduct routine network coverage drive tests every month, or conduct call quality drive tests in specific areas in response to user complaints. In order to automatically collect terminal measurement data and improve network optimization efficiency, the above drive tests can be replaced by MDT measurements. The basic idea of ​​this technology is that operators use the commercial terminal equipment of contracted users to perform measurements and send measurement results to partially replace traditional drive testing.

[0093] The measurement types of existing MDT technology can be divided into signal level measurement, quality of service (QoS) measurement and accessibility measurement, etc. Among them, signal level measurement is that the terminal device measures the signal level of the wireless signal and sends the measurement result to the access network device; quality of service (QoS) measurement is usually performed by the access network device to perform QoS measurement, such as: service flow, service throughput, service delay, etc., or the terminal device measures the uplink processing delay, etc., or the access network device and the terminal device jointly measure the air interface delay, that is, measure the time from the data packet passing through the SDAP layer / PDCP layer of the access network device to the data packet reaching the SDAP / PDCP layer of the terminal device; accessibility measurement is that the terminal device records the information of RRC connection establishment failure and sends it to the access network device.

[0094] At present, the basic process of wireless side measurement based on MDT is as follows: the access network device obtains MDT measurement configuration information from the core network device or the management device, and the access network device performs MDT measurement or sends the MDT measurement configuration information to the terminal device, and the terminal device performs measurement based on the configuration information and sends the MDT measurement result to the access network device, and the access network device sends the MDT measurement result to the trace collector entity (TCE).

[0095] There are two ways of MDT measurement: one is signaling based MDT, and the other is management based MDT. Signaling based MDT refers to MDT for a specific UE. After the base station receives the MDT measurement configuration message from the core network, it instructs the specific UE to perform MDT measurement or the base station directly performs MDT measurement on the UE. Only when the user has agreed to perform MDT, the CN will initiate signaling MDT for the UE. The CN will notify the base station of some MDT configuration information and the IP address of TCE or MCE. The MDT configuration information includes: MDT activation type (such as immediate MDT only, logged MDT only, immediate MDT and trace, etc.), MDT area range, MDT mode and configuration parameters of the corresponding mode (such as measurement events of immediate MDT, logging interval and duration of logged MDT, etc.), and PLMN list based on signaling MDT. The management-based MDT is not an MDT for a specific UE. After the base station receives the MDT measurement configuration message from the management device (for example, operation, administration and maintenance (OAM) or element manager (EM), the base station selects a UE from the UEs under the base station to perform MDT measurement. When selecting a UE, the base station may also consider whether the UE agrees to perform MDT. In one implementation, the base station only selects those UEs that have agreed to perform MDT to perform MDT measurement (for example, the core network will notify the base station whether a certain UE agrees to perform MDT, such as the CN notifying the base station that the user indicates that management-based MDT allowed indication is allowed. Furthermore, the PLMN list based on management MDT will also be notified.

[0096] 2. Application layer measurement

[0097] For some streaming services or voice services, such as streaming service and multimedia telephony service for IMS (MTSI) of IP multimedia system, simple wireless side measurement and optimization for wireless side measurement cannot meet the user experience requirements when using these services. In order to enable operators to better understand the user's service experience and thus better optimize the network to more accurately improve the user experience, this can be achieved through quality of experience (QoE) measurement, which can also be called application layer measurement.

[0098] At present, the basic process of application layer measurement based on QoE measurement is as follows: the access network device obtains application layer measurement configuration information from the core network device or the management device, and sends the application layer measurement configuration information to the access layer of the terminal device, the access layer of the terminal device sends the application layer measurement configuration information to the upper layer of the access layer of the terminal device, the upper layer of the access layer of the terminal device receives the application layer measurement configuration information, performs measurement based on the configuration information, and sends the application layer measurement result to the access layer of the terminal device, the access layer of the terminal device sends the application layer measurement result to the access network device, and the access network device sends the application layer measurement result to the measurement collector entity (MCE) device.

[0099] The above-mentioned application layer measurement configuration information (taking QoE measurement as an example) may include one or more of the following: QoE measurement identifier (QoE reference), service type (service type), selected area scope of QoE measurement collection (QMC)), tracking area scope (tracking area (TA) based), tracking area identifier (TAI) based), public land mobile network scope (PLMN area based), measurement collection entity IP address (measurement collection entity IP address), application layer measurement configuration container (container for application layer measurement configuration), slice support list for QoE measurement collection (slice support list for QMC), MDT alignment information (choice MDT alignment information), available RAN visible QoE measurement quantity or measurement indicator (available RAN visible QoE metrics), etc.Among them, the selected area range for QoE measurement collection may further be a cell-based range (Cell based), and may further be a cell ID list for QoE measurement collection (cell ID list for QMC), and may further include a 5G radio access network global cell identifier (NG-RAN CGI); the area range based on tracking may further be a tracking area list for QoE measurement collection (tracking area list for QMC), and may further be a tracking area code (TAC); the range based on the tracking area identifier may further be a tracking area identifier list for QoE measurement collection (TAI list for QMC), and may further be a tracking area identifier (TAI); the range based on the public land mobile network may further be a public land mobile network list for QoE measurement collection (PLMN list for QMC), and may further be a public land mobile network identifier (PLMN identity); the supported slice list may further be a slice supporting a QoE measurement collection item (slice support QMC item), and may further be single network slice selection assistance information (singlenetwork slice selection assistance information) information, S-NSSAI); the MDT alignment information may further be signaling-based MDT measurement (s-based MDT), and further may be a 5G radio access network tracking identifier (NG-RAN trace ID).

[0100] The above-mentioned application layer measurement results may include one or more of the following measurement indicators: an average throughput indicator (the indicator indicates the total number of bits received by the application layer of the UE (such as for streaming media services) within a measurement interval), an initial playback delay indicator (the indicator indicates the initial playback delay at the beginning of streaming media presentation. For example, it can be specifically defined as the time from the moment of acquiring the first segment of the media to the moment of extracting the streaming media from the client buffer), a buffer level indicator (the indicator indicates the duration of time that the media data can still be played starting from the current playback moment), a playback delay indicator (the indicator indicates the playback delay of the streaming media start. For example, it can be specifically defined as the delay from the dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH) player transmitted by the hypertext transfer protocol receiving a play / fallback / start trigger to the media playback), a deterioration duration indicator (the indicator indicates the interval between the Nepal time (NPT) corresponding to the last good quality frame before the deterioration and the Nepal time corresponding to the first subsequent good quality frame), a continuous packet loss indicator (the indicator indicates the continuous loss of real-time transport protocol (real-time transport protocol) protocol, RTP) packets), jitter duration index (jitter refers to the difference between the actual playback time and the expected playback time of a frame exceeding a threshold. The expected playback time of a frame refers to the playback time of the previous playback frame plus (the difference between the Nepal time of the current frame and the Nepal time of the previous playback frame)), desynchronization duration index (desynchronization refers to the absolute time difference between a value A and a value B exceeding a certain threshold. Here, value A refers to the difference between the playback time of the previous playback frame of a video stream and the playback time of the previous playback frame of the voice stream. Here, value B refers to the difference between the expected playback time of the previous playback frame of the video stream and the expected playback time of the previous playback frame of the voice stream), round-trip delay index (this index indicates the round-trip time at the RTP level, plus the additional two-way delay caused by buffering and other processing in the client (RTP level->speaker->microphone->RTP level)), average bit rate index (this index indicates the bit rate of encoding valid media information within the measurement period), and comparable quality viewport switching delay index (comparable quality viewport switchinglatency) (This indicator reports the delay and quality-related factors when the viewing angle moves and the quality degrades. Quality-related factors include quality ranking value and resolution), or the stuttering indicator (This indicator indicates whether stuttering occurs during video streaming, or the length of time it occurs).

[0101] Optionally, the value of the measurement indicator can be a specific value or a range (such as one of good, medium, and poor). The definitions of these indicators can refer to the definitions in the 3GPP protocol. The measurement indicator can also be a comprehensive measurement indicator of multiple indicators such as the above average throughput indicator, initial playback delay indicator, buffer level indicator, playback delay indicator, deterioration duration indicator, continuous packet loss number indicator, jitter duration indicator, out-of-step duration indicator, round-trip delay indicator, average bit rate indicator, analog quality perspective switching delay indicator, or jamming situation indicator, such as a comprehensive indicator obtained by combining the above multiple indicators according to a certain rule. The value of the comprehensive measurement indicator can be a specific value or a range (such as one of good, medium, and poor).

[0102] For the same UE, if an application layer measurement for the first service is performed in the first time period, if the wireless side measurement result of the network carrying the first service in the first time period can be obtained at the same time, then when a certain indicator in the application layer measurement result corresponding to the first service of the UE is not ideal, it can be quickly located whether the unsatisfactory indicator is related to the wireless side measurement result of the first service in the first time period, which is beneficial to the maintenance and management of the first service and the timely optimization of the UE. In other words, if the application layer measurement result of a UE in a certain time period is associated with the wireless side measurement result of the service corresponding to the application layer measurement result, between the UE and the access network equipment, in the time period, it will be beneficial to the optimization of the service quality of the first service and the UE network quality.

[0103] However, the association between the application layer measurement results and the wireless side measurement results depends on the application layer measurement process, that is, the access network device is required to report the wireless side measurement result identifier corresponding to the current application layer measurement result while reporting the application layer measurement result to the MCE, but the wireless side measurement result identifier is maintained by the access network device that carries the service corresponding to the application layer measurement result. In other words, the access network device that reports the application layer measurement result to the MCE needs to know which access network device carries the service corresponding to the application layer measurement result in order to obtain the wireless side measurement result identifier corresponding to the current application layer measurement result, and further realize the association between the application layer measurement result and the wireless side measurement result based on the MCE / TCE.

[0104] At present, if you want to achieve the association between the wireless side measurement results and the application layer measurement results, the access network device that reports the application layer measurement results to the MCE needs to obtain the information of the access network device that carries the service corresponding to the application layer measurement results based on the service information included in the measurement results reported by the terminal device and visible to the access network device, and based on the service information. However, the access network device that reports the application layer measurement results to the MCE may not support instructing the terminal device to report the measurement results visible to the access network device, and / or the access network device does not want to report the application layer measurement visible to the access network device for the terminal device, and / or the terminal device may not support reporting the measurement results visible to the access network device, which brings inconvenience to the association between the application layer measurement results and the wireless side measurement results, and is not conducive to the optimization of the network side.

[0105] In view of this, the present application provides an application layer measurement method, which decouples the two functions of obtaining measurement results visible to the access network device and associating the wireless side measurement results with the application layer measurement results by sending indication information to the terminal device to instruct it to report the identifier of the service corresponding to the application layer measurement, so that the association between the wireless side measurement results and the application layer measurement results no longer depends on the capabilities of the access network device and / or the terminal device, facilitates information collection and network optimization on the network side, and helps the network side provide users with refined services based on the association results.

[0106] In order to make the purpose and technical solution of this application clearer and more intuitive, the network optimization method and communication device of the embodiment of this application will be described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described here are only used to explain this application and are not used to limit this application.

[0107] Before introducing the method and device provided in the embodiments of the present application, the following points are explained.

[0108] First, in the embodiments shown below, each term and English abbreviation, such as reference data or differential data, are illustrative examples given for the convenience of description and should not constitute any limitation to this application. This application does not exclude the possibility of defining other terms that can achieve the same or similar functions in existing or future protocols.

[0109] Second, in the embodiments shown below, the first, second and various numerical numbers are only used for the convenience of description and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

[0110] Third, "at least one" means one or more, and "more than one" means two or more. "And / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist. For example, A and / or B can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. The character " / " generally indicates that the associated objects before and after are in an "or" relationship. "At least one of the following items" or similar expressions refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of single items or plural items. For example, at least one of a, b and c can mean: a, or b, or c, or a and b, or a and c, or b and c, or a, b and c, where a, b, c can be single or multiple.

[0111] Figure 4 FIG. 4 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method 400 provided in an embodiment of the present application. The method 400 may be applicable to the above Figure 1 The system architecture 100 shown in the figure can also be applied to other architectures. The first access network device in the embodiment of the present application can be equivalent to Figure 1 The access network device 103 or the access network device 104 in the embodiment of the present application is not limited to this. Figure 4 As shown, the method 400 includes the following steps:

[0112] S401. A first access network device determines first information and second information, where the first information is used to indicate application layer measurement of a first service, and the second information is used to indicate an identifier for reporting the first service.

[0113] S402: The first access network device sends the first information and the second information to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first information and the second information.

[0114] S403. The terminal device sends a first application layer measurement result of the first service and an identifier of the first service.

[0115] It should be understood that the first information includes at least one item of the service type, application layer measurement configuration, application layer measurement identifier, etc. of the first service. The first information may be information determined by the first access network device, or may be all or part of the measurement configuration information sent by the core network CN device or the OAM device to the first access network device. This application does not limit this. The terminal device performs application layer measurement on the first service based on the application layer measurement configuration in the first information to obtain a first application layer measurement result (the first application layer measurement result may include at least one measurement result of the measurement indicator described above). The first service is one or more services corresponding to the service type indicated in the first information. The first service may be some streaming services or voice services, such as streaming services, multimedia telephony services for IP multimedia subsystem services (MTSI) of Internet Protocol multimedia systems, etc. It should be noted that the first information does not specify which service the first service is, but only specifies the service type corresponding to the first service.

[0116] Optionally, when the first access network device determines that the application layer measurement of the first service needs to be associated with the wireless side measurement or determines that the application layer measurement result of the first service needs to be associated with the wireless side measurement result, the first access network device determines that the second information needs to be sent to the terminal device.

[0117] Optionally, the application layer measurement configuration in the first information can be sent to the terminal device in the form of a container (for example, in the form of a byte string) or a non-container (such as a cell). The access layer of the terminal device cannot perceive the information in the container for the application layer measurement configuration sent in the form of a container, or the information in the container is not visible to the access layer of the terminal device. The application layer measurement configuration sent in the form of a non-container is in a form that can be perceived or visible to the access layer of the terminal device. This application does not specifically limit the form of the application layer measurement configuration.

[0118] It should also be understood that the second information can be explicit indication information, for example, the second information sent by the first access network device to the terminal device explicitly requires the terminal device to report the service information corresponding to this application layer measurement, or report the service information used to associate the application layer measurement results with the wireless side measurement results, and the service information includes the identifier of the first service; the second information can also be implicit indication information, for example, the second information instructs the terminal device to report the application layer measurement start information, and the protocol stipulates that the terminal device needs to report the identifier of the first service corresponding to this application layer measurement at the same time as reporting the application layer measurement start information. It is worth noting that the "second information used to indicate the reporting of the identifier of the first service" described in this application expresses the fundamental purpose of the first access network device sending the information to the terminal device, and does not constitute a specific limitation on the form of achieving this purpose.

[0119] Optionally, the first access network device may send the first information and the second information through one RRC message, or may send the first information and the second information separately through two RRC messages. The terminal device may also send the first application layer measurement result and the identifier of the first service through one RRC message, or may send the first application layer measurement result and the identifier of the first service separately through two RRC messages. This application does not limit this.

[0120] Optionally, the application layer measurement may be a QoE measurement, and the wireless side measurement may be an MDT measurement or an L2 measurement, which is not specifically limited in the present application.

[0121] In an embodiment of the present application, the first access network device obtains an identifier of the first service for associating application layer measurement results with wireless side measurement results by sending a second message to the terminal device. This is not limited by whether the access network device can instruct the terminal device to report the application layer measurement results visible to the access network device, nor is it limited by whether the terminal device can support reporting the application layer measurement results visible to the access network device. That is, the terminal device does not need to carry the identifier of the first service through the application layer measurement results visible to the access network device to obtain the identifier, which is conducive to releasing the binding relationship between "the terminal device reports the application layer measurement results visible to the access network device" and "achieves the association between the application layer measurement results and the wireless side measurement results". When it is necessary to associate the application layer measurement results with the wireless side measurement results, there is no need to rely on the capabilities of the access network device and / or the terminal device, which is conducive to achieving the association between the application layer measurement results and the wireless side measurement results, and facilitates the network side to collect measurement information and maintain network quality.

[0122] If the terminal device establishes connections with both the first access network device and the second access network device, that is, the terminal device is in the MR-DC scenario, then in the above S403, the terminal device sends the first application layer measurement result of the first service and the identifier of the first service, and there are two possible implementation methods: (1) the terminal device sends the first application layer measurement result to the first access network device (or the second access network device), and sends the identifier of the first service to the second access network device (or the first access network device); (2) the terminal device sends the first application layer measurement result and the identifier of the first service to the first access network device (or the second access network device). This application does not limit the order of the first application layer measurement result and the identifier of the first service reported by the terminal device.

[0123] It should be noted that the first access network device involved in S401 and S402 may be different from the first access network device that receives the first application layer measurement result and / or the identifier of the first service in S403. For example, due to the mobility of the terminal device, the terminal device switches from the first access network device involved in S401 and S402 to the first access network device involved in S403.

[0124] Optionally, the node that receives the application layer measurement results can be specified by the access network device (the first access network device or the second access network device) (for example, the access network device sends an indication message to the terminal device, indicating which access network device to report the application layer measurement results to), or it can be decided by the terminal device itself. The node that receives the first service identifier can be specified by the access network device (the first access network device or the second access network device) (for example, specified by the second information), or it can be decided by the terminal device itself. This application does not limit this.

[0125] Next, combine Figure 5 and Figure 6 Two implementation methods of S403 are described in detail respectively.

[0126] Figure 5 The execution process of a communication method provided in this application can be as follows: Figure 5 The method 500 can be applied to the above Figure 1 The system architecture 100 shown in the figure can also be applied to other architectures. The first access network device in the embodiment of the present application can be equivalent to Figure 1 The access network device 103 (or access network device 104) in the second access network device is equivalent to Figure 2 The access network device 104 (or access network device 103) is not limited to this in the embodiment of the present application. Figure 5 In the corresponding method 500, the terminal device sends the first application layer measurement result to the second access network device, and sends the identifier of the first service to the first access network device.

[0127] The method 500 comprises the following steps:

[0128] S501 to S502 are the same as S401 to S402 in the above method 400 and are not described in detail here.

[0129] S503: The terminal device sends the first application layer measurement result to the second access network device. Correspondingly, the second access network device receives the first application layer measurement result.

[0130] S504: The terminal device sends an identifier of the first service to the first access network device. Correspondingly, the first access network device receives the identifier of the first service.

[0131] S505. The first access network device obtains a wireless side measurement identifier based on the identifier of the first service, where the wireless side measurement identifier is an identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the access network device and the terminal device that carry the first service.

[0132] S506. The first access network device sends a wireless measurement identifier to the second access network device.

[0133] S507: The second access network device sends the first application layer measurement result and the wireless side measurement identifier to the server. Correspondingly, the server receives the first application layer measurement result and the wireless side measurement identifier.

[0134] It should be understood that the terminal device has a certain degree of mobility, that is, the terminal device can move out of the network coverage of one access network device and enter the network coverage of another access network device. Therefore, the access network device that determines and sends the first information and the second information in the above S401 and S402 and the access network device that receives the identification of the first service in S503 may not be the same access network device. In the embodiments of the present application, only the access network device that is the first access network device is used as an example for description, and the first access network device and the second access network device both refer to two access network devices that establish communication with the terminal device at a certain moment or a certain period of time, and do not specifically refer to which two access network devices they are, and do not constitute a specific limitation on the access network device to which the terminal device is connected.

[0135] It should be understood that the present application does not limit the execution order of S503 and S504.

[0136] Optionally, the server may be an MCE and / or a TCE, which is not specifically limited in this application. In some examples, the second access network device sends the first application layer measurement result and the wireless side measurement identifier to the MCE, and the TCE receives the wireless side measurement result corresponding to the wireless side measurement identifier.

[0137] In the above S505, after receiving the first service identifier, the first access network device needs to first determine which access network device the first service is carried on, and then obtain the identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the device and the terminal device from the access network device carrying the first service. The embodiment of the present application provides the following two possible implementation methods of S505.

[0138] In a first possible implementation, the first access network device determines which access network device the first service is carried on based on: which access network device's RLC entity and MAC entity process the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service. Correspondingly, there are the following possible situations:

[0139] Case 1: The data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is only processed by the RLC entity and the MAC entity of the second access network device, and the first service is only carried by the second access network device.

[0140] Reference Figure 2 or Figure 3 For example, if the second access network device is MN, the bearer type of the first service in the above situation 1 may be MN terminated MCG bearer or SN terminated MCG bearer; if the second access network device is SN, the bearer type of the first service may be SN terminated SCG bearer or MN terminated SCGbearer. Regardless of whether the first access network device is SN or MN, and regardless of whether the PDCP of the first access network device processes the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service, when the first access network device determines that the RLC entity and MAC entity of the first access network device have not processed the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service, it can be determined that the first service is only carried by the second access network device.

[0141] Case 2: The data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is only processed by the RLC entity and the MAC entity of the first access network device, and the first service is only carried by the first access network device.

[0142] Exemplarily, if the second access network device is MN, the bearer type of the first service in the above situation 2 can be SNterminated SCG bearer or MN terminated SCG bearer; if the second access network device is SN, the bearer type of the first service can be MN terminated MCG bearer or SN terminated MCG bearer.

[0143] If the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service has not been processed by the PDCP entity of the first access network device (i.e., the PDCP is terminated at the second access network device), then the first access network device needs to send a first query request to the second access network device after determining that the RLC entity and MAC entity of the device have processed the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service. The first query request is used to query whether the RLC entity and MAC entity of the second access network device have processed the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service. The first query request should carry the identifier of the first service. When the first access network device receives a response to the first query request from the second access network device, and determines based on the response that the RLC entity and MAC entity of the second access network device have not processed the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service, it can be determined that the first service is only carried by the first access network device.

[0144] If the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is processed by the PDCP entity of the first access network device (i.e., the PDCP terminates at the first access network device), since the data packet is shunted or merged from the PDCP of the first access network device in this case, the PDCP entity of the first access network device stores the transmission path of the data packet or has learned the transmission path of the data packet. The first access network device can determine whether the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service flowing out (or flowing into) the PDCP is only processed by the RLC entity and the MAC entity of the first access network device based on the PDCP entity. In the case where the first access network device determines through the PDCP entity that the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is only processed by the RLC entity and the MAC entity of the first access network device, the first service is only carried by the first access network device.

[0145] Case 3: The data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is processed by the RLC entity of the second access network device, the MAC entity of the second access network device, the RLC entity of the first access network device and the MAC entity of the first access network device, then the first service is jointly carried by the second access network device and the first access network device.

[0146] Reference Figure 2 or Figure 3 It can be seen that when the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is processed by the RLC entity of the second access network device, the MAC entity of the second access network device, the RLC entity of the first access network device and the MAC entity of the first access network device, the bearer type of the first service includes MN terminated split bearer or SNterminated split bearer.

[0147] If the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service has not been processed by the PDCP entity of the first access network device, but the first access network device determines that the RLC entity and MAC entity of the device have processed the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service, then when the response to the above-mentioned first query request shows that the RLC entity and MAC entity of the second access network device have also processed the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service, the first access network device determines that the first service is jointly carried by the second access network device and the first access network device.

[0148] If the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is processed by the PDCP entity of the first access network device, the first access network device can determine the transmission path of the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service through the PDCP entity. When its transmission path includes the RLC entity of the second access network device, the MAC entity of the second access network device, the RLC entity of the first access network device and the MAC entity of the first access network device, the first access network device determines that the first service is jointly carried by the second access network device and the first access network device.

[0149] It should be understood that wireless side measurement is a wireless network quality monitoring performed on access network equipment and terminal equipment. By configuring wireless side measurement for the terminal equipment through the access network equipment carrying the first service (which can be understood as measuring the wireless network quality between the access network equipment and the terminal equipment), the wireless network quality of the access network equipment carrying the first service can be obtained, which is conducive to problem analysis and quality maintenance of the service quality of the first service in combination with the application layer measurement results of the first service.

[0150] It should also be understood that the results of the application layer measurements performed on the first service should be associated with the wireless side measurements performed on the terminal device by the access network device that carries the first service. Also, since the wireless side measurement identifier is included in the wireless side measurement configuration information sent by the core network or management device to the access network device and the identifier is maintained by the access network device, the identifier should be obtained from the access network device that carries the first service.

[0151] In one possible implementation, when the first access network device determines that the second access network device carries the first service (corresponding to the above-mentioned situation 1 and situation 3), the first access network device sends a first request to the second access network device, and the first request is used to request the second identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the second access network device and the terminal device; and receives the second identifier from the second access network device, or obtains indication information from the second access network device, indicating that the wireless side measurement cannot be configured for the terminal device or the second identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the second access network device and the terminal device cannot be obtained.

[0152] In a possible implementation, or when the first access network device determines that the second access network device may carry the first service (corresponding to the above situation 1 and situation 3), the first access network device sends a first request to the second access network device, the first request is used to request the second identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the second access network device and the terminal device; and receives the second identifier from the second access network device or obtains the indication information of the second access network device, indicating that the wireless side measurement cannot be configured for the terminal device or the second identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the second access network device and the terminal device cannot be obtained. In this implementation, the first access network device does not need to send the first query request to the second access network device. In the case corresponding to the above situation 1, the wireless side measurement identifier obtained by the first access network device includes the second identifier; in the case corresponding to the above situation 2, the wireless side measurement identifier obtained by the first access network device includes the first identifier, the first identifier corresponds to the wireless side measurement associated with the first access network device and the terminal device, and is maintained by the first access network device itself; in the case corresponding to the above situation 3, the wireless side measurement identifier obtained by the first access network device includes the first identifier and the second identifier.

[0153] Exemplarily, the first identifier may be an MDT measurement identifier configured by the core network or OAM or EM for the first access network device, for example, a trace ID, and the second identifier may be an MDT measurement identifier configured by the core network or OAM or EM for the second access network device.

[0154] Optionally, the first identifier and the second identifier may be the same identifier or different identifiers, depending on whether the core network or the management device uses the same identifier for the wireless side measurement configuration configured for the MN and the SN, which is not limited in this application. In the case where the first identifier and the second identifier are the same identifier, exemplarily, the wireless side measurement identifier may also include the identifier of the access network device to which the first identifier and the second identifier respectively correspond.

[0155] In a second possible implementation, the first access network device determines on which access network device the first service is carried based on the fact that the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is processed by the PDCP entity and / or the RLC / MAC entity in the access network device. Correspondingly, there are the following possible implementations:

[0156] Implementation method 1: The data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is only processed by the PDCP entity of the second access network device, the RLC entity of the second access network device and the MAC entity of the second access network device, and the first service is only carried by the second access network device.

[0157] Reference Figure 2 or Figure 3In this case, if the second access network device is MN, the bearer type of the first service is MNterminated MCG bearer; if the second access network device is SN, the bearer type of the first service is SNterminated SCG bearer. When the first access network device determines that the PDCP entity, RLC entity and MAC entity of the first access network device have not processed the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service, it can be determined that the first service is only carried by the second access network device.

[0158] Implementation method 2: The data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is only processed by the PDCP entity of the first access network device, the RLC entity of the first access network device and the MAC entity of the first access network device, and the first service is only carried by the first access network device.

[0159] In this case, if the first access network device is MN, the bearer type of the first service is MN terminatedMCG bearer; if the first access network device is SN, the bearer type of the first service is SN terminated SCGbearer. When the first access network device determines, based on the identifier of the first service, that the PDCP entity of the device has processed the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service, and further determines, based on PDCP, that only the RLC entity and MAC entity of the device have processed the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service, it can be determined that the first service is only carried by the first access network device.

[0160] Implementation method three: The data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is processed by the RLC entity of the second access network device, the MAC entity of the second access network device, the RLC entity of the first access network device and the MAC entity of the first access network device, or the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is processed by the PDCP entity of the second access network device, the RLC entity of the first access network device and the MAC entity of the first access network device, or the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is processed by the PDCP entity of the first access network device, the RLC entity of the second access network device and the MAC entity of the second access network device, then the first service is jointly carried by the second access network device and the first access network device.

[0161] Reference Figure 2 or Figure 3In this case, if the second access network device is MN, the bearer type of the first service may be MN terminated split bearer or MN terminated SCG bearer; if the second access network device is SN, the bearer type of the first service may be SN terminated split bearer or SN terminated MCG bearer. When the first access network device determines that the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service has not been processed by the PDCP entity of the first access network device, but the first access network device determines that the RLC entity and MAC entity of the device have processed the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service, or the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service has been processed by the PDCP entity of the first access network device but is not MN terminated MCG bearer or SN terminated SCG bearer, it can be determined that the first service is carried jointly by the second access network device and the first access network device.

[0162] It should be understood that after the first access network device determines the access network device that carries the first service, the manner of obtaining the wireless side measurement identifier is the same as the first possible implementation manner described above, which will not be repeated here.

[0163] In a possible implementation, the first access network device sends a wireless side measurement identifier to the second access network device, and the second access network device that receives the first application layer measurement result from the terminal device sends the first application layer measurement result and the wireless side measurement identifier to the server.

[0164] Optionally, the server may be an MCE and / or a TCE, which is not limited in this application. The second access network device sends the first application layer measurement result and the wireless side measurement identifier to the server, that is, instructs the server to associate the first application layer measurement result with the wireless side measurement result corresponding to the wireless side measurement identifier.

[0165] It should be understood that the wireless side measurement result corresponding to the wireless side measurement identifier includes the wireless side measurement result corresponding to the first access network device and / or the wireless side measurement result corresponding to the second access network device. Therefore, there are three situations in which the first application layer measurement result is associated with the wireless side measurement result: (1) The first application layer measurement result needs to be associated with the wireless side measurement result corresponding to the first access network device; (2) The first application layer measurement result needs to be associated with the wireless side measurement result corresponding to the second access network device; (3) The first application layer measurement result needs to be associated with the wireless side measurement result corresponding to the first access network device and the wireless side measurement result corresponding to the second access network device. Among them, one of the first access network device and the second access network device is MN, and the other is SN. This application does not specifically limit which access network device of the first access network device and the second access network device is MN / SN.

[0166] It should also be understood that during the execution of the above step S505, if the core network or the management device or the network element manager does not send the wireless side measurement configuration information to the first access network device (or the second access network device), the first access network device cannot obtain the first identifier (or the second identifier). In this case, in a possible implementation, the content sent by the second access network device corresponding to step S507 to the server may be the first application layer measurement result and the indication information that the wireless side measurement of the terminal device on a certain access network device cannot be obtained. Exemplarily, the content sent by the second access network device to the server may be: the first application layer measurement result, the first identifier, and the identifier of the second access network device, which is used to indicate that the second access network device cannot perform wireless side measurement for the terminal device. In this way, when the server obtains the first application layer measurement result, it can be known that the first application layer measurement result cannot be associated with all wireless side measurement results, and the use of this set of data to analyze the application layer measurement results can be avoided, which is conducive to improving the accuracy of subsequent analysis results.

[0167] In one possible implementation, the first access network device may instruct the first access network device (or the second access network device) to start wireless side measurement for the terminal device at the same time as obtaining the first identifier (or the second identifier) ​​from the local (or the second access network device) or within a preset time period, so as to ensure the temporal synchronization of the application layer measurement results and the wireless side measurement results, which is conducive to improving the credibility of the analysis results based on the application layer measurement results and the wireless side measurement results.

[0168] As an optional embodiment, the identifier of the first service includes a protocol data unit PDU session identifier, or a PDU session identifier and a quality of service QoS flow identifier.

[0169] It should be understood that there is a protocol data unit (PDU) session connection between the terminal device and the core network to provide data transmission services. The PDU session identifier can uniquely identify a PDU session. When there is only a QoS flow of the first service in a PDU session, the access network device carrying the first service can be determined by the PDU session identifier corresponding to the first service.

[0170] Furthermore, when there are QoS flows of multiple services in one PDU session, the data flow of the first service can be uniquely identified through the first service PDU session identifier and the QoS flow identifier, which is conducive to accurately determining the access network device that carries the first service.

[0171] In one implementation, after the first access network device receives the identifier of the first service, the first access network device sends the identifier of the first service to the second access network device. The second access network device obtains a wireless side measurement identifier based on the identifier of the first service, and the wireless side measurement identifier is an identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the access network device and the terminal device carrying the first service. In this case, the first access network device does not need to perform steps S505 and S506. The second access network device first determines which access network device the first service is carried on based on the identifier of the first service, and then obtains an identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the device and the terminal device from the access network device carrying the first service. For a specific judgment method, refer to the description similar to the above first possible implementation and the second possible implementation in S505, and replace the first access network device described in the above first possible implementation and the second possible implementation in S505 with the second access network device, and the second access network device with the first access network device, which will not be repeated here. If the core network or management device or network element manager does not send the wireless side measurement configuration information to the first access network device (or the second access network device), the second access network device cannot obtain the first identifier (or the second identifier). In this case, in a possible implementation method, the content sent by the second access network device corresponding to step S507 to the server may be the first application layer measurement result and the indication information that the wireless side measurement of the terminal device on a certain access network device cannot be obtained. Exemplarily, the content sent by the second access network device to the server may be: the first application layer measurement result, the first identifier, and the identifier of the second access network device, which is used to indicate that the second access network device cannot perform wireless side measurement for the terminal device. In this way, when the server obtains the first application layer measurement result, it can be known that the first application layer measurement result cannot be associated with all wireless side measurement results, and the use of this set of data to analyze the application layer measurement results can be avoided, which is conducive to improving the accuracy of subsequent analysis results.

[0172] In one implementation, after the first access network device receives the identifier of the first service, the PDCP termination device of the wireless bearer corresponding to the first service obtains the wireless side measurement identifier based on the identifier of the first service, that is, if the PDCP of the wireless bearer corresponding to the first service is terminated at the first access network device, the first access network device obtains the wireless side measurement identifier based on the identifier of the first service. If the PDCP of the wireless bearer corresponding to the first service is terminated at the second access network device, the second access network device obtains the wireless side measurement identifier based on the identifier of the first service. In this case, the first access network device sends the identifier of the first service to the second access network device.

[0173] Figure 6 A schematic flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application. The method 600 can be applied to the above Figure 1 The system architecture 100 shown in the figure can also be applied to other architectures. The first access network device in the embodiment of the present application can be equivalent to Figure 1 The access network device 103 (or access network device 104) in the second access network device is equivalent to Figure 2 The access network device 104 (or access network device 103) is not limited to this embodiment of the present application. Figure 6 In the corresponding method 600, the terminal device sends the first application layer measurement result and the identifier of the first service to the first access network device.

[0174] The method 600 comprises the following steps:

[0175] S601 to S602 in method 600 are the same as S401 to S402 in method 400 and are not described in detail herein.

[0176] S603: The terminal device sends the first application layer measurement result to the first access network device. Correspondingly, the first access network device receives the first application layer measurement result.

[0177] S604: The terminal device sends an identifier of the first service to the first access network device. Correspondingly, the first access network device receives the identifier of the first service.

[0178] S605. The first access network device obtains a wireless side measurement identifier based on the identifier of the first service, where the wireless side measurement identifier is an identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the access network device and the terminal device that carry the first service.

[0179] S606: The first access network device sends the first application layer measurement result and the wireless side measurement identifier to the server. Correspondingly, the server receives the first application layer measurement result and the wireless side measurement identifier.

[0180] It should be understood that the difference between the two implementation methods corresponding to the above S403 is only that the access network devices that receive the identifier of the first service are different, and the method of "obtaining the wireless side measurement identifier based on the identifier of the first service" of the access network devices is the same (that is, S605 can be executed using the method corresponding to S505), which will not be repeated here.

[0181] In a possible implementation, the terminal device may perform periodic measurements according to the application layer measurement configuration included in the first information and obtain application layer measurement results, and periodically send the results.

[0182] As an optional embodiment, the method 600 further includes:

[0183] S607: The first access network device sends a second request to the second access network device, the second request is used to request to change the reporting node of the application layer measurement result to the second access network device, and the second request carries the radio side measurement identifier. Correspondingly, the second access network device receives the second request.

[0184] S608: The second access network device sends a successful response to the second request to the first access network device. Correspondingly, the first access network device receives the response.

[0185] S609: The first access network device sends third information to the terminal device, where the third information is used to instruct to report the application layer measurement result of the first service to the second access network device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the third information.

[0186] S610: The terminal device sends a second application layer measurement result to the second access network device. Correspondingly, the second access network device receives the second application layer measurement result.

[0187] S611: The second access network device sends a second application layer measurement result and a wireless side measurement identifier to the server. Correspondingly, the server receives the second application layer measurement result and the wireless side measurement identifier.

[0188] Optionally, the second request in the above S607 may be initiated by the first access network device, or may be initiated by the second access network device;

[0189] Optionally, the radio side measurement identifier may be carried in the second request, or may be sent through a separate message after S608, which is not limited in the present application.

[0190] Optionally, the second request may also carry an application layer measurement identifier (for example, a QoEreference) to indicate the application layer measurement corresponding to the radio side measurement identifier.

[0191] In an embodiment of the present application, when the reporting node of the application layer measurement result changes and the changed node does not store the wireless side measurement identifier, during the process of the first access network device and the second access network device interacting with each other for change requests or after the change is successful, the access network device that obtained the wireless side measurement identifier during the previous round of reporting sends the identifier to another access network device that forms a dual connection with the terminal device, thereby avoiding the two access network devices from repeatedly executing the process of obtaining the wireless side measurement identifier, saving the computing power of the access network device, and improving the efficiency of associating the application layer measurement results with the wireless side measurement results.

[0192] Figure 7 A schematic flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application. The method 700 can be applied to the above Figure 1 The system architecture 100 shown in the figure can also be applied to other architectures. The first access network device in the embodiment of the present application can be equivalent to Figure 1 The access network device 103 (or access network device 104) in the second access network device is equivalent to Figure 2 The access network device 104 (or access network device 103) is not limited to this embodiment of the present application. Figure 7 In the corresponding method 700, the terminal device sends the first application layer measurement result and the identifier of the first service to the first access network device.

[0193] The method 700 comprises the following steps:

[0194] S701 to S706 are the same as S601 to S606 in the above method 600 and are not described again here.

[0195] S707: The second access network device sends a third request to the first access network device, where the third request is used to request to change the bearer type of the first service and to instruct to update the wireless side measurement identifier. Correspondingly, the first access network device receives the third request.

[0196] S708: The first access network device sends a successful response to the third request to the second access network device. Correspondingly, the second access network device receives the response.

[0197] S709. The first access network device obtains an updated wireless side measurement identifier based on the identifier of the first service. The updated wireless side measurement identifier is an identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the access network device and the terminal device carrying the first service after the bearer type of the first service changes.

[0198] S710: The terminal device sends a third application layer measurement result to the first access network device. Correspondingly, the first access network device receives the third application layer measurement result.

[0199] S711. The first access network device sends a third application layer measurement result and an updated wireless side measurement identifier to the server.

[0200] It should be understood that the change of the first service bearer type may cause the access network device that bears the first service to change accordingly, so the update of the wireless side measurement identifier may be synchronously indicated in the bearer type change request.

[0201] In a possible implementation manner, the first access network device may re-determine the updated wireless side measurement identifier based on the identifier of the first service in the manner described above (for example, the implementation manner of S505 may be adopted).

[0202] In another possible implementation, the third request carries the target bearer type of the first service (which can be understood as the bearer type of the first service after the change is completed), and the first access network device can redetermine the updated wireless side measurement identifier based on the target bearer type.

[0203] Optionally, the indication information for indicating updating the wireless side measurement identifier may be sent by the second access network device to the first access network device after the bearer type is changed successfully, and this application does not limit this.

[0204] Optionally, the request to change the bearer type may also be initiated by the first access network device. In this case, the first access network device may receive the indication information for indicating the update of the wireless side measurement identifier through a successful response to the third request, or receive the indication information separately. This application does not make any specific limitations on this.

[0205] In an embodiment of the present application, by instructing the access network device that has received the identifier of the first service to update the wireless measurement identifier during the process of changing the bearer type of the first service or after the bearer type has changed, it is beneficial to carry the corresponding wireless side measurement identifier when subsequently reporting the application layer measurement results, which is beneficial to improving the accuracy of the association between the application layer measurement results and the wireless side measurement results, and improving the reliability of subsequent analysis results.

[0206] Optionally, the step of changing the bearer type of the first service (S707-S711) may also occur in Figure 6After S611 of the method 600 shown, it is worth noting that because the node to which the terminal device reports the application layer measurement result in method 600 has changed, after S709, the following should also be executed: S712, the first access network device sends an updated wireless side measurement identifier to the second access network device. Correspondingly, the second access network device receives the updated wireless side measurement identifier. And in this case, the step corresponding to S710 should be replaced by: the terminal device sends the third application layer measurement result to the second access network device, and correspondingly, the second access network device receives the third application layer measurement result; and the step corresponding to S711 should be replaced by: the second access network device sends the third application layer measurement result and the updated wireless side measurement identifier to the server.

[0207] Optionally, Figure 6 S607 to S611 of the method 600 corresponding to the embodiment may also be performed in Figure 7 The method 700 shown is executed after S711 corresponding to the method 700, and this application does not make any specific limitation on this.

[0208] Optionally, the step of changing the bearer type of the first service (S707-S711) may also occur in Figure 5 After S507 corresponding to the method 500 shown, this application does not limit this. The fundamental purpose of the bearer type change of the first service is to instruct the access network device that receives the identifier of the first service to update the wireless side measurement identifier at the same time as the bearer type is changed or after the bearer type is successfully changed. If the node that receives the application layer measurement result is also the access network device, the access network device sends the latest application layer measurement result and the updated wireless side measurement identifier to the server after receiving the latest application layer measurement result; if the node that receives the application layer measurement result is not the access network device that receives the identifier of the first service, the access network device that receives the identifier of the first service sends the updated wireless side measurement identifier to the node that receives the application layer measurement result.

[0209] It should be understood that the steps of the above embodiments may be coupled to each other, and this application does not limit this. Moreover, the sequence numbers of the above processes do not mean the order of execution. The execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of this application.

[0210] Combined with the above Figures 4 to 7 , describes in detail the communication method of the embodiment of the present application, and will now be combined with Figures 8 to 9 , describe in detail the communication device of an embodiment of the present application.

[0211] Figure 8 A communication device 800 provided in an embodiment of the present application is shown, and the communication device 800 includes: a transceiver module 801 and a processing module 802.

[0212] In a first possible implementation manner, the communication device 800 is used to execute the steps and processes corresponding to the first access network device.

[0213] Among them, the processing module 802 is used to: determine the first information and the second information, the first information is used to indicate the application layer measurement of the first service, and the second information is used to indicate the identifier of reporting the first service; the transceiver module 801 is used to: send the first information and the second information to the terminal device.

[0214] Optionally, the transceiver module 801 is also used to: receive a first application layer measurement result of a first service from a terminal device; receive a wireless side measurement identifier from a second access network device, where the wireless side measurement identifier is an identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the access network device and the terminal device carrying the first service; and send the wireless side measurement identifier and the first application layer measurement result to the server.

[0215] Optionally, the transceiver module 801 is also used to: receive an identifier of the first service from the terminal device; the processing module is also used to: send a wireless side measurement identifier to the second access network device based on the identifier of the first service, and the wireless side measurement identifier is an identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the access network device and the terminal device carrying the first service.

[0216] Optionally, the transceiver module 801 is also used to: receive a first application layer measurement result of a first service and an identifier of the first service from a terminal device; and, based on the identifier of the first service, send a wireless side measurement identifier and a first application layer measurement result to a server, where the wireless side measurement identifier is an identifier corresponding to a wireless side measurement associated with an access network device and a terminal device carrying the first service.

[0217] Optionally, the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is only processed by the radio link control RLC entity and the media intervention control MAC entity of the first access network device, and the wireless side measurement identifier is the first identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the first access network device and the terminal device.

[0218] Optionally, the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is only processed by the RLC entity and the MAC entity of the second access network device, and the wireless side measurement identifier is a second identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the second access network device and the terminal device.

[0219] Optionally, the data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is processed by the RLC entity of the first access network device, the MAC entity of the first access network device, the RLC entity of the second access network device and the MAC entity of the second access network device, and the wireless side measurement identifier includes a first identifier and a second identifier, the first identifier corresponds to the wireless side measurement associated with the first access network device and the terminal device, and the second identifier corresponds to the wireless side measurement associated with the second access network device and the terminal device.

[0220] Optionally, the transceiver module 801 is further used to: send a first request to the second access network device, where the first request is used to request a second identifier; and receive the second identifier from the second access network device.

[0221] Optionally, the transceiver module 801 is further used to: send a second request to the second access network device, the second request is used to request to change the reporting node of the application layer measurement result to the second access network device, and the second request carries a wireless side measurement identifier.

[0222] Optionally, the identifier of the first service includes a protocol data unit PDU session identifier, or a PDU session identifier and a quality of service QoS flow identifier.

[0223] In a second possible implementation, the communication device 800 is used to execute steps and processes corresponding to the terminal device.

[0224] Among them, the transceiver module 801 is used to: receive first information and second information from the first access network device, the first information is used to indicate application layer measurement of the first service, and the second information is used to indicate the identification of reporting the first service; the transceiver module is also used to: send the first application layer measurement result of the first service and the identification of the first service.

[0225] Optionally, the transceiver module 801 is also used to: send the first application layer measurement result of the first service and the identifier of the first service to the first access network device, or send the first application layer measurement result of the first service to the first access network device and send the identifier of the first service to the second access network device.

[0226] Optionally, the identifier of the first service includes a protocol data unit PDU session identifier, or a PDU session identifier and a quality of service QoS flow identifier.

[0227] In a third possible implementation, the communication device 800 is used to execute the steps and processes corresponding to the second access network device.

[0228] Among them, the transceiver module 801 is used to: receive a second request from the first access network device, the second request is used to request a second identifier, the second identifier corresponds to the wireless side measurement associated with the second access network device and the terminal device; and send the second identifier to the first access network device.

[0229] Optionally, the transceiver module 801 is further used to: receive a second request from the first access network device, the second request is used to request to change the reporting node of the application layer measurement result of the first service to the second access network device, and the second request carries a wireless side measurement identifier.

[0230] It should be understood that the device 800 here is embodied in the form of a functional module. The term "module" here may refer to an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (such as a shared processor, a proprietary processor or a group processor, etc.) and a memory for executing one or more software or firmware programs, a merged logic circuit and / or other suitable components that support the described functions. In an optional example, those skilled in the art can understand that the device 800 can be specifically the first access network device, the second access network device or the terminal device in the above-mentioned embodiment, or the function of the terminal device in the above-mentioned embodiment can be integrated in the device 800, and the device 800 can be used to execute the various processes and / or steps corresponding to the first access network device, the second access network device or the terminal device in the above-mentioned method embodiment, and to avoid repetition, it will not be repeated here.

[0231] The above-mentioned device 800 has the function of implementing the corresponding steps executed by the terminal device in the above-mentioned method; the above-mentioned function can be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above-mentioned function.

[0232] In the embodiments of the present application, Figure 8 The device 800 may also be a chip or a chip system, such as a system on chip (SoC).

[0233] Fig. 9 A schematic block diagram of a channel access device 900 provided in an embodiment of the present application is shown. The device 900 includes a processor 901, a transceiver 902, and a memory 903. The processor 901, the transceiver 902, and the memory 903 communicate with each other through an internal connection path, the memory 903 is used to store instructions, and the processor 901 is used to execute the instructions stored in the memory 903 to control the transceiver 902 to send signals and / or receive signals.

[0234] It should be understood that the device 900 can be specifically the first access network device, the second access network device or the terminal device in the above embodiment, and can be used to execute the various steps and / or processes corresponding to the first access network device, the second access network device or the terminal device in the above method embodiment. Optionally, the memory 903 may include a read-only memory and a random access memory, and provide instructions and data to the processor. A part of the memory may also include a non-volatile random access memory. For example, the memory may also store information about the device type. The processor 901 may be used to execute instructions stored in the memory, and when the processor 901 executes the instructions stored in the memory, the processor 901 is used to execute the various steps and / or processes of the above method embodiment. The transceiver 902 may include a transmitter and a receiver, the transmitter may be used to implement the various steps and / or processes corresponding to the above transceiver for performing the sending action, and the receiver may be used to implement the various steps and / or processes corresponding to the above transceiver for performing the receiving action.

[0235] It should be understood that in the embodiments of the present application, the processor may be a central processing unit (CPU), or other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSP), application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, etc. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor, etc.

[0236] In the implementation process, each step of the above method can be completed by an integrated logic circuit of hardware in a processor or an instruction in the form of software. The steps of the method disclosed in conjunction with the embodiment of the present application can be directly embodied as a hardware processor for execution, or a combination of hardware and software modules in a processor for execution. The software module can be located in a storage medium mature in the art such as a random access memory, a flash memory, a read-only memory, a programmable read-only memory or an electrically erasable programmable memory, a register, etc. The storage medium is located in a memory, and the processor executes the instructions in the memory, and completes the steps of the above method in conjunction with its hardware. To avoid repetition, it is not described in detail here.

[0237] The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, which is used to store a computer program, and the computer program is used to implement the method shown in the above method embodiment.

[0238] The present application also provides a computer program product, which includes a computer program (also referred to as code or instruction). When the computer program runs on a computer, the computer can execute the method shown in the above method embodiment.

[0239] Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the units and algorithm steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered to be beyond the scope of this application.

[0240] Those skilled in the art can clearly understand that, for the convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the systems, devices and units described above can refer to the corresponding processes in the aforementioned method embodiments and will not be repeated here.

[0241] In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are only schematic. For example, the division of the units is only a logical function division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation, such as multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. Another point is that the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be through some interfaces, indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

[0242] The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components shown as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed on multiple network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

[0243] In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit.

[0244] If the functions are implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as independent products, they can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application can be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for a computer device (which can be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of the present application. The aforementioned storage media include: U disk, mobile hard disk, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), disk or optical disk, and other media that can store program codes.

[0245] The above is only a specific implementation of the present application, but the protection scope of the present application is not limited thereto. Any person skilled in the art who is familiar with the present technical field can easily think of changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed in the present application, which should be included in the protection scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application should be based on the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that: include: The first access network device determines first information and second information, where the first information is used to indicate application layer measurement of a first service, and the second information is used to indicate an identifier for reporting the first service; The first access network device sends the first information and the second information to the terminal device.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The method further comprises: The first access network device receives a first application layer measurement result of a first service from a terminal device; The first access network device receives a wireless side measurement identifier from a second access network device, where the wireless side measurement identifier is an identifier corresponding to a wireless side measurement associated with the access network device carrying the first service and the terminal device; The first access network device sends a wireless side measurement identifier and the first application layer measurement result to a server.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The method further comprises: The first access network device receives an identifier of the first service from the terminal device; The first access network device sends a wireless side measurement identifier to the second access network device based on the identifier of the first service, where the wireless side measurement identifier is an identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the access network device carrying the first service and the terminal device.

4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The method further comprises: The first access network device receives, from the terminal device, a first application layer measurement result of the first service and an identifier of the first service; The first access network device sends a wireless side measurement identifier and the first application layer measurement result to a server based on the identifier of the first service, wherein the wireless side measurement identifier is an identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the access network device carrying the first service and the terminal device.

5. The method according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that: The data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is only processed by the radio link control RLC entity and the media intervention control MAC entity of the first access network device, then the wireless side measurement identifier is the first identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the first access network device and the terminal device.

6. The method according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that: The data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is only processed by the RLC entity and the MAC entity of the second access network device, then the wireless side measurement identifier is the second identifier corresponding to the wireless side measurement associated with the second access network device and the terminal device.

7. The method according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that: The data packet corresponding to the identifier of the first service is processed by the RLC entity of the first access network device, the MAC entity of the first access network device, the RLC entity of the second access network device and the MAC entity of the second access network device, then the wireless side measurement identifier includes a first identifier and a second identifier, the first identifier corresponds to the wireless side measurement associated with the first access network device and the terminal device, and the second identifier corresponds to the wireless side measurement associated with the second access network device and the terminal device.

8. The method according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that: Before sending the wireless side measurement identifier, the method further includes: The first access network device sends a first request to the second access network device, where the first request is used to request the second identifier; The first access network device receives the second identifier from the second access network device.

9. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that The method further comprises: The first access network device sends a second request to the second access network device, where the second request is used to request that a reporting node for application layer measurement results be changed to the second access network device, and the second request carries the wireless side measurement identifier.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that The identifier of the first service includes a protocol data unit PDU session identifier, or a PDU session identifier and a quality of service QoS flow identifier.

11. A communication method, characterized in that: The method comprises: The terminal device receives first information and second information from the first access network device, the first information is used to indicate application layer measurement of the first service, and the second information is used to indicate an identifier for reporting the first service; The terminal device sends a first application layer measurement result of the first service and an identifier of the first service.

12. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that The sending of the first application layer measurement result of the first service and the identifier of the first service includes: The terminal device sends the first application layer measurement result of the first service and the identifier of the first service to the first access network device, or sends the first application layer measurement result of the first service to the first access network device and sends the identifier of the first service to the second access network device.

13. The method according to claim 11 or 12, characterized in that: The identifier of the first service includes a protocol data unit PDU session identifier, or a PDU session identifier and a quality of service QoS flow identifier.

14. A communication device, characterized in that: The method comprises a module for implementing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, or comprises a module for implementing the method according to any one of claims 11 to 13.

15. A communication device, characterized in that: include: A processor, wherein the processor is coupled to a memory, the memory stores computer-executable instructions, and the processor executes the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory, so that the processor executes the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, or executes the method according to any one of claims 11 to 13.

16. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that: Used to store a computer program, the computer program comprising instructions for implementing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, or instructions for executing the method according to any one of claims 11 to 13.

17. A computer program product, comprising computer program code, characterized in that: When the computer program code runs on a computer, the computer is enabled to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10 or to execute the method according to any one of claims 11 to 13.

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