RRC Connection Maintenance Method, Related Device, and Readable Storage Medium

Abstract

The present application discloses an RRC connection maintenance method, a related device and a readable storage medium, which belong to the technical field of communication. The RRC connection maintenance method includes a step of a master terminal establishing a first RRC connection with a network side device, the master terminal being a terminal among Q terminals, the master terminal supporting transmission of information of some or all of the Q terminals, and the Q terminals supporting joint reception of data of a first service, where Q is an integer greater than 1.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] (Cross-reference to Related Applications) This application claims the priority of Patent Application No. 202110482606.3 filed in China on April 30, 2021, and all of its contents are incorporated herein by reference.

[0002] This application belongs to the technical field of communications, and particularly relates to an RRC connection maintenance method, related devices, and readable storage media.

Background Art

[0003] In the conventional mechanism, each terminal establishes its own control plane connection and user plane connection with the core network / access network respectively. For example, it is a non-access stratum (NAS) connection of the core network control plane, a radio resource control (RRC) connection of the access network control plane, a protocol data unit (PDU) session of the core network user plane, a data radio bearer (DRB) or a quality of service (QoS) flow of the access network user plane. That is, the control plane connection and the user plane connection of each terminal are independent of each other. Therefore, the RRC connection maintenance and service transmission of each terminal are independent of each other.

[0004] According to the conventional mechanism, when it is desired that two terminals continuously transmit one common service, in order to achieve the effect that the two terminals continuously receive the same service, the user needs to set the service reception and the progress of the reception on one terminal. As a result, the autonomy of multiple terminals jointly receiving the same service becomes low.

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0005] Embodiments of the present application provide an RRC connection maintenance method, related devices, and readable storage media that can solve the problem of the prior art that a plurality of terminals have low autonomy in jointly receiving the same service.

Means for Solving the Problem

[0006] In a first aspect, The method includes a step of establishing a first RRC connection between a master terminal and a network-side device, wherein the master terminal is one of Q terminals, the master terminal supports transmission of information of some or all of the Q terminals, the Q terminals support joint reception of data of a first service, and Q is an integer greater than 1. An RRC connection maintenance method is provided.

[0007] In a second aspect, The method includes a step of a secondary terminal performing a third operation, where the third operation includes: when the secondary terminal has not established an RRC connection with the network-side device, an operation of proxy-transmitting information of the secondary terminal between the secondary terminal and the network-side device via the master terminal; and an operation of establishing a second RRC connection with the network-side device. At least one of the above operations is included, wherein the secondary terminal is any one of the Q terminals, the Q terminals support joint reception of data of a first service, the Q terminals include the master terminal, and Q is an integer greater than 1. An RRC connection maintenance method is provided.

[0008] In a third aspect, The method includes a step of a network-side device maintaining P RRC connections between the network-side device and a second target terminal, where the second target terminal includes some or all of the Q terminals, the Q terminals support joint reception of data of a first service, P is a positive integer, and Q is an integer greater than 1. An RRC connection maintenance method is provided.

[0009] On the fourth side, comprising a first establishment module for establishing a first RRC connection with a network-side device, The master terminal is one of the Q terminals, the master terminal supports the transmission of information of some or all of the Q terminals, the Q terminals support the joint reception of data of a first service, and Q is an integer greater than 1, providing an RRC connection maintenance device.

[0010] On the fifth side, comprising a fourth execution module for executing a third operation, the third operation being When a RRC connection with a network-side device has not been established, an operation of proxy-transmitting the information of the secondary terminal between the secondary terminal and the network-side device via the master terminal, and an operation of establishing a second RRC connection with the network-side device, including at least one of them, The secondary terminal is any one secondary terminal of the Q terminals, the Q terminals support the joint reception of data of a first service, the Q terminals include the master terminal, and Q is an integer greater than 1, providing an RRC connection maintenance device.

[0011] On the sixth side, comprising a maintenance module for maintaining P RRC connections between the network-side device and a second target terminal, the second target terminal includes some or all of the Q terminals, the Q terminals support the joint reception of data of a first service, P is a positive integer, and Q is an integer greater than 1, providing an RRC connection maintenance device.

[0012] On the seventh side, comprising a processor, a memory, and a program or command stored in the memory and executable on the processor, when the program or command is executed by the processor, the steps of the method described in the first side, the second side or the third side are realized, providing a communication device.

[0013] On the eighth side, a communication device comprising a processor and a communication interface, When the communication device is a master terminal, the communication interface is Used to establish a first RRC connection with a network-side device, The master terminal is one of the Q terminals, the master terminal supports the transmission of information of some or all of the Q terminals, the Q terminals support the joint reception of data of the first service, and Q is an integer greater than 1, to provide a communication device.

[0014] When the communication device is a secondary terminal, the communication interface is Used to perform a third operation, the third operation is When no RRC connection is established with the network-side device, an operation of proxy-transmitting the information of the secondary terminal between the secondary terminal and the network-side device via the master terminal, and An operation of establishing a second RRC connection with the network-side device, including at least one of them, The secondary terminal is any one of the Q terminals, the Q terminals support the joint reception of data of the first service, the Q terminals include the master terminal, and Q is an integer greater than 1.

[0015] When the communication device is a network-side device, the communication interface is Used to maintain P RRC connections between the network-side device and a second target terminal, the second target terminal includes some or all of the Q terminals, the Q terminals support the joint reception of data of the first service, P is a positive integer, and Q is an integer greater than 1.

[0016] On the ninth aspect, a readable storage medium is provided, in which a program or command is stored, and when the program or command is executed by a processor, the steps of the method described in the first aspect, the second aspect, or the third aspect are realized.

[0017] On the tenth aspect, a chip is provided, which includes a processor and a communication interface. The communication interface is coupled to the processor, and the processor executes a program or command and is used to realize the method described in the first aspect, the second aspect, or the third aspect.

[0018] On the eleventh aspect, a computer program / program product is provided, which is stored in a non-volatile storage medium and when executed by at least one processor, realizes the method described in the first aspect, the second aspect, or the third aspect.

[0019] On the twelfth aspect, a communication device is provided, which is arranged to execute the steps of the method described in the first aspect, or execute the steps of the method described in the second aspect, or execute the steps of the method described in the third aspect.

Advantages of the Invention

[0020] In the embodiments of the present application, the master terminal among the Q terminals supports the transmission of information of some or all of the Q terminals, so that the network-side device can perform unified or independent RRC connection maintenance for at least two of the Q terminals. In this way, the Q terminals can jointly receive the same service under the control of the network-side device, thereby improving the autonomy of the Q terminals to jointly receive the same service, and further improving the service experience and system efficiency.

Brief Description of the Drawings

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Embodiments for Carrying Out the Invention

[0022] In the following, while referring to the drawings in the embodiments of this application, the technical solutions in the embodiments of this application will be clearly described. Naturally, the described embodiments are part of the embodiments of this application, not all of them. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments in this application shall fall within the protection scope of this application.

[0023] The terms "first", "second", etc. in the description and claims of this application are not for describing a specific order or sequence, but for distinguishing similar objects. It should be understood that these terms may be replaced with each other in appropriate cases so that the embodiments of this application can be implemented in an order other than that illustrated or described herein. Also, the objects distinguished by "first" and "second" are generally of one type, and the number of objects is not limited. For example, the first object may be one or a plurality. In addition, "and / or" in the description and claims means at least one of the connected objects, and the symbol " / " generally means that the related objects before and after are in an "or" relationship.

[0024] It should be noted that the technology described in the embodiments of this application is not limited to the Long Term Evolution (LTE) / LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) system. Furthermore, for example, it is applicable to other wireless communication systems such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), and Single-carrier Frequency-Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA), as well as other systems. The terms "system" and "network" in the embodiments of this application can often be used interchangeably. The described technology can be used in the systems and radio technologies mentioned above, and can also be used in other systems and radio technologies. In the following description, the New Radio (NR) system is described for illustrative purposes, and the NR terminology is used in many of the following explanations. However, these technologies are applicable beyond the NR system, for example, to the 6th Generation (6G) communication system. th Generation, 6G) communication system.

[0025] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a wireless communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application. The wireless communication system includes a terminal 11 and a network-side device 12. The terminal 11 may also be referred to as a terminal device or a user equipment (UE). The terminal 11 may be a mobile phone, a tablet personal computer, a laptop computer (also called a notebook computer), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a palm-top computer, a netbook, an ultra-mobile personal computer (UMPC), a mobile Internet device (MID), a wearable device, or a vehicle user equipment (VUE), a pedestrian user equipment (PUE), etc. The wearable device may include a smart watch, a wristband, headphones, glasses, etc. It should be noted that the specific type of the terminal 11 is not limited in the embodiments of the present application. The network-side device 12 may be a base station or a core network. Here, the base station may be called a Node B, an evolved Node B, an access point, a base transceiver station (BTS), a radio base station, a radio transceiver, a basic service set (BSS), an extended service set (ESS), a B node, an evolved B node (eNB), a home Node B, a home evolved B node, a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point, a WiFi node, a transmitting and receiving point (TRP), or any other suitable term in the art. If the same technical effect can be achieved, the base station is not limited to a specific technical term.It should be noted that in the embodiments of the present application, only the base station in the NR system is taken as an example, but the specific type of the base station is not limited.

[0026] In the following, with reference to the drawings, the embodiments of the present application will be described in more detail by several embodiments and their application scenarios.

[0027] Referring to FIG. 2, FIG. 2 is a flowchart part 1 of the RRC connection maintenance method provided in the embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 2, the RRC connection maintenance method may include the following step 201.

[0028] In step 201, the master terminal establishes a first RRC connection with the network-side device. Here, the master terminal is one of the Q terminals, and Q is an integer greater than 1. The Q terminals may include one master terminal and Q - 1 secondary terminals. The master terminal among the Q terminals can be determined by at least one of the order of accessing the network, the capabilities of the terminals, and the link quality of the terminals. In actual applications, the master terminal among the Q terminals can be changed. For example, when determining the master terminal based on the link quality of the terminals, assume that the Q terminals include UE1 and UE2. At the first time point, if the link quality of UE1 is higher than that of UE2, UE1 can be determined as the master terminal at this time point. At the second time point, if the link quality of UE2 improves and the link quality of UE2 is higher than that of UE1, UE2 can be determined as the master terminal at this time point.

[0029] In the embodiments of the present application, the Q terminals can support the joint reception of data of the first service, that is, the Q terminals can support the joint reception of data of the same service. In the embodiments of the present application, Q terminals that support the joint reception of data of the same service can be regarded as being associated.

[0030] The fact that the Q terminals support the joint reception of the data of the first service can be specifically expressed as any one of the following.

[0031] The types of the data of the first service received by the Q terminals are different, that is, different types of data of the first service are transmitted by different terminals respectively. For example, different data flows are transmitted by different terminals. The data flow can be distinguished by a QoS flow, and the data with the same or similar QoS requirements can be mapped to the same QoS flow. During implementation, different data flows of the first service may be transmitted to the bearers (Radio Bearers, RBs) corresponding to different terminals respectively. For example, a user can receive data flows 1 and 2 of the first service using UE1 and receive data flows 3 and 4 of the first service using UE2 at the same time.

[0032] The types of the data of the first service received by the Q terminals are the same, that is, the same type of data of the first service is divided or copied and transmitted by different terminals. For example, the same data flow is transmitted by different terminals. During implementation, the data of the same RB corresponding to the first service may be divided or copied and transmitted to different terminals. For example, a user can receive data flows 1 and 2 of the first service using UE1 and UE2 at the same time, and the data of the first service received by UE1 and the data of the first service received by UE2 may be the same or different. If they are the same, duplicate detection and deletion can be performed on the data. If they are different, a sorting operation can be performed on the received data.

[0033] It can be understood that the first RRC connection is between the master terminal and the network-side device. After the master terminal establishes an RRC connection with the network-side device, it can directly communicate with the network-side device through the communication interface between the master terminal and the network-side device.

[0034] In an embodiment of the present application, the master terminal can support the transmission of information of some or all of the Q terminals, that is, the master terminal can be used to transmit information of some or all of the Q terminals.

[0035] During implementation, the master terminal's support for the transmission of information of some or all of the Q terminals may include at least one of the following: supporting the transmission of the master terminal's own information and supporting the transmission of information of some or all of the secondary terminals among the Q terminals.

[0036] It should be noted that in an embodiment of the present application, the master terminal's support for the transmission of a terminal's information does not necessarily mean that the terminal's information must be transmitted through the master terminal. For example, assuming that the master terminal supports the transmission of the information of secondary terminal a, if secondary terminal a has not established an RRC connection with the network-side device, the information of secondary terminal a can be transmitted through the master terminal on behalf of it (that is, the location information or reporting information of the secondary terminal is carried on the signaling of the master terminal, and the secondary terminal does not have its own signaling process). If secondary terminal a has established an RRC connection with the network-side device, the information of secondary terminal a may be directly transmitted through the communication interface between secondary terminal a and the network-side device, or may be relayed (also called relaying, forwarding, or assistive transmission) through the master terminal. In addition, the information of the master terminal may also be relayed through other secondary terminals that have established an RRC connection with the network-side device, and specifically can be determined according to the actual situation, and the embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

[0037] The information of the terminal may include at least one of the uplink information of the terminal and the downlink information of the terminal. Optionally, the downlink information may include at least one of bearer configuration information, measurement configuration information, security configuration information, DC configuration information, and carrier aggregation (CA) configuration information. Further, the bearer configuration information may include at least one RB configuration on which the configurations of the service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer, packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, radio link control (RLC) layer, media access control (MAC) layer, and physical (PHY) layer are installed, and at least one RLC bearer configuration on which the configurations of the RLC layer, MAC layer, and PHY layer are installed. The uplink information may include at least one of measurement report information and auxiliary information.

[0038] In the RRC connection maintenance method of this application, the master terminal among the Q terminals establishes a first RRC connection with the network-side device, and the master terminal supports the transmission of information of some or all of the Q terminals. The Q terminals support the joint reception of data of the first service, and Q is an integer greater than 1. In this way, the network-side device can realize the joint reception of the same service by some or all of the Q terminals by maintaining the RRC connection between the master terminal and the network-side device, thereby improving the autonomy of multiple terminals to jointly receive the same service. Furthermore, the service experience and system efficiency can be improved.

[0039] In the embodiments of this application, the interaction method between the Q terminals and the network-side device is related to whether the Q terminals have established an RRC connection with the network-side device. Specifically, it is described as follows.

[0040] In Case 1, among the Q terminals, only the master terminal establishes an RRC connection with the network-side device.

[0041] In this case, the master terminal can support the transmission of information of the Q terminals and can be used to transmit the information of the Q terminals. Thereby, even when a secondary terminal among the Q terminals does not establish an RRC connection with the network-side device, communication with the network-side device can be realized via the master terminal.

[0042] Specifically, when realizing, the information of the master terminal can be directly transmitted via the communication interface between the master terminal and the network-side device. On the other hand, regarding the information of the secondary terminal, since the secondary terminal does not establish an RRC connection with the network-side device, the information of the secondary terminal can be proxy-transmitted via the master terminal.

[0043] Optionally, after the master terminal establishes a first RRC connection with the network-side device, the method further includes a step of the master terminal performing a first operation, where the first operation includes receiving first downlink information of a first secondary terminal, which is any one secondary terminal among the Q terminals, transmitted from the network-side device, and transmitting the first downlink information to the first secondary terminal, and receiving first uplink information transmitted from a second secondary terminal, which is any one secondary terminal among the Q terminals, and transmitting the first uplink information to the network-side device, and includes at least one of the operations.

[0044] In this embodiment, the master terminal can proxy-transmit the information of the secondary terminal between the secondary terminal and the network-side device.

[0045] When specifically implemented, regarding the downlink information of the secondary terminal, the network-side device can transmit it to the master terminal via the communication interface between the master terminal and the network-side device, and then the master terminal can transmit it to the secondary terminal via the inter-terminal communication interface.

[0046] Regarding the uplink information of the secondary terminal, the secondary terminal can transmit it to the master terminal via the inter-terminal communication interface, and then the master terminal can transmit it to the network-side device via the communication interface between the master terminal and the network-side device.

[0047] As can be seen from these, in this case, the network-side device can achieve unified maintenance of the RRC connections of the Q terminals by maintaining the first RRC connection. In this way, the Q terminals can achieve joint reception of the same service under the control of the network-side device, thereby improving the autonomy of the Q terminals to jointly receive the same service, and further improving the service experience and system efficiency.

[0048] When the information of the secondary terminal is proxy-transmitted via the master terminal, security protection can be performed on the information of the secondary terminal during transmission, thereby improving the transmission reliability of the information of the secondary terminal. Optionally, the information of the secondary terminal is The downlink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the network-side device using the first security mechanism and transmitted by the master terminal using the second security mechanism, or the downlink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the network-side device using the third security mechanism, and The uplink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the secondary terminal using a second security mechanism and is transmitted by the master terminal using a first security mechanism, or the uplink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the secondary terminal using a third security mechanism, satisfying at least one of the above conditions. Here, the first security mechanism is a security mechanism between the network-side device and the master terminal, the second security mechanism is a security mechanism between the master terminal and the secondary terminal, and the third security mechanism is a security mechanism between the network-side device and the secondary terminal.

[0049] In this alternative embodiment, in the first embodiment, the information of the secondary terminal is secured between the master terminal and the network-side device and between the master terminal and the secondary terminal, respectively. Specifically, between the master terminal and the network-side device, the information of the secondary terminal can multiplex the security mechanism between the master terminal and the network-side device. Between the master terminal and the secondary terminal, the master terminal is a trusted terminal and is mutually trusted with the secondary terminal, and the information of the secondary terminal is secured using the security mechanism between the master terminal and the secondary terminal. In this embodiment, the information of the secondary terminal is plaintext information for the master terminal.

[0050] In the second embodiment, an end-to-end security mechanism is established between the secondary terminal and the network-side device, and the information of the secondary terminal is guaranteed by this security mechanism. In this embodiment, the information of the secondary terminal is ciphertext information for the master terminal. In this way, the master terminal can be prevented from rewriting the information of the secondary terminal, thereby further improving the transmission reliability of the information of the secondary terminal.

[0051] In an embodiment of the present application, so that Q terminals can jointly receive the same service, the network-side device can establish a first architecture for the joint transmission of the Q terminals.

[0052] The first architecture of the embodiment of the present application can be understood as an architecture similar to reverse dual connection (DC). The reason is that the DC architecture is used for data transmission between one terminal and two network-side devices, while the first architecture is used for data transmission between Q terminals and one network-side device. In addition, since the first architecture includes multiple terminals and is used for the joint transmission of multiple terminals, the first architecture may also be referred to as a multi-UE architecture or a multi-UE joint transmission architecture.

[0053] In Case 1, the master terminal can trigger the establishment of the first architecture by the network-side device in the following manner.

[0054] Optionally, after the master terminal establishes a first RRC connection with the network-side device, the method further includes: the step of the master terminal sending first information to the network-side device, where the first information indicates that the master terminal desires to receive data of the first service jointly with other terminals.

[0055] In this embodiment, the master terminal can trigger the establishment of the first architecture by the network-side device according to the first information, and the first information can be regarded as request information for the master terminal to request the establishment of the first architecture. After the network-side device establishes the first architecture, it can transmit the first service through the first architecture, and realize the joint reception of the first service by the Q terminals.

[0056] In actual applications, after receiving the first information, the network-side device first performs a basic authentication and verification process. After passing the verification, the first architecture can be established. In this way, the transmission reliability of the first architecture can be improved. During implementation, the authentication and verification process may be executed by the core network, or the core network may send the authentication information to the base station for storage, and the base station may perform verification based on the stored information.

[0057] It should be noted that when the master terminal requests the establishment of the first architecture, it may or may not instruct the network-side device which terminal it desires to jointly receive the data of the first service with.

[0058] In the scenario without instruction, the network-side device can determine the terminals associated with the obtained master terminal as secondary terminals that jointly receive the same service as the master terminal. For example, the first architecture may include Q - 1 secondary terminals associated with the same family set plan as the master terminal, but is not limited thereto. In this way, signaling overhead can be saved.

[0059] In the scenario with instruction, the master terminal can report the identification information of the secondary terminal to the network-side device. In this way, the flexibility of determining the secondary terminal can be enhanced.

[0060] Optionally, the first information may further include the related information of at least one secondary terminal, and the related information includes at least one of identification information, authentication information, capability information, and auxiliary information. Here, the Q terminals include the at least one secondary terminal.

[0061] During implementation, as the use of the identification information of the secondary UE, it can be represented as, but not limited to, the Serving-Temporary Mobile Subscription Identifier (S-TMSI). The authentication information of the secondary UE may be referred to as license information and is used by the core network and the Radio Access Network (RAN) to verify the license of the first architecture. The capability information of the secondary UE is used to provide an appropriate placement for the secondary UE. The auxiliary information of the secondary UE may include at least one of the power saving requirements of the secondary UE and the transmission requirements of the secondary UE, etc.

[0062] In Case 2, each of the Q terminals establishes an RRC connection with the network-side device.

[0063] Case 2 may include the following First Embodiment and Second Embodiment.

[0064] In the First Embodiment, each terminal communicates directly through the interface between itself and the network-side device.

[0065] In the First Embodiment, the information transmission pipelines of each terminal are independent and are all transmitted through the interface between itself and the network-side device. For example, assuming that the Q terminals include UE1 and UE2, the information of UE1 is transmitted through the interface between UE1 and the network-side device, and the information of UE2 is transmitted through the interface between UE2 and the network-side device. In this case, the master terminal can only support the transmission of the information of the master terminal.

[0066] In the Second Embodiment, among the Q terminals, there is at least one terminal whose information is relayed through other terminals.

[0067] In the second embodiment, although each of the Q terminals has established an RRC connection with the network-side device, some terminals are affected by factors such as capabilities and link quality, and may temporarily lose the transmission ability of uplink (UL) and / or downlink (DL) RRC signaling. At this time, these terminals need to transmit their own information through other terminals.

[0068] Optionally, after the master terminal establishes a first RRC connection with the network-side device, the method further includes: performing a second operation by the master terminal, where the second operation includes: receiving second downlink information of a fourth secondary terminal, which is any one of the Q terminals and is a secondary terminal sent from the network-side device, and sending the second downlink information to the fourth secondary terminal; and receiving second uplink information sent from a fifth secondary terminal, which is any one of the Q terminals and is a secondary terminal, and sending the second uplink information to the network-side device, and including at least one of the operations.

[0069] In this alternative embodiment, the downlink information of the fourth secondary terminal is relayed via the master terminal, and the fourth secondary terminal may be any one of the Q terminals that does not have the transmission ability of DL RRC signaling. The uplink information of the fifth secondary terminal is relayed via the master terminal, and the fifth secondary terminal may be any one of the Q terminals that does not have the transmission ability of UL RRC signaling.

[0070] As can be seen from these, in the alternative embodiment, the master terminal can support the transmission of information of secondary terminals that do not have the transmission ability of RRC signaling. Of course, the master terminal can also directly support the transmission of information of the Q terminals.

[0071] In actual applications, the fourth secondary terminal and the fifth secondary terminal may be the same secondary terminal or different secondary terminals. When the fourth secondary terminal and the fifth secondary terminal are the same secondary terminal, the transmission of information of the secondary terminal by the master terminal is bidirectional. When the fourth secondary terminal and the fifth secondary terminal are different secondary terminals, the transmission of information of the secondary terminal by the master terminal is unidirectional, and the information in one transmission direction of the secondary terminal is relayed by the master terminal, and the information in the other transmission direction is transmitted through the interface between itself and the network-side device.

[0072] Optionally, the information of the secondary terminal (for example, the fourth secondary terminal or the fifth secondary terminal) can satisfy that the PDCP layer of the packet data convergence protocol passed through is located at the secondary terminal, and the RLC layer passed through is located at the master terminal.

[0073] In this embodiment, the information of the secondary terminal can be transmitted through the RLC bearer path of the master terminal and the path of the PDCP and higher layers of the secondary terminal.

[0074] As can be seen from these, for the RRC connection of the secondary terminal, the RRC layer and the PDCP layer can be maintained end-to-end (between the secondary terminal and the base station), and the PDCP PDU can be relayed through the RLC Bearer of the master terminal.

[0075] In actual applications, the transmission pipeline for transmitting the RRC signaling of the secondary terminal may be arranged by the network-side device. The secondary terminal or the master terminal reports the requirements to the network-side device, and the network-side device can arrange an appropriate path based on the requirements and transmit the RRC signaling of the secondary terminal in an appropriate transmission manner.

[0076] In Case 2, the order in which each of the Q terminals establishes an RRC connection is not limited. The RRC establishment of the secondary terminal may occur after the RRC establishment of the master terminal, or may occur before the RRC establishment of the master terminal.

[0077] Optionally, after the master terminal establishes a first RRC connection with the network-side device, the method includes at least one of the following steps: the master terminal transmits first information to the network-side device, where the first information indicates that the master terminal desires to receive data of the first service jointly with other terminals; the master terminal receives at least one dedicated random access resource transmitted from the network-side device; the master terminal transmits a dedicated random access resource to a third secondary terminal, which is any one of the Q terminals.

[0078] In this alternative embodiment, the RRC establishment of the secondary terminal may occur after the RRC establishment of the master terminal. The trigger condition for the network-side device to establish the first architecture may be, but is not limited to, receiving the first information transmitted from the master terminal, or establishing an RRC connection with a secondary terminal that uses the dedicated random access resource allocated by the network-side device.

[0079] When the trigger condition is that the first information sent from the master terminal is received, in one embodiment, after receiving the first information, the network-side device can first determine the Q-1 terminals that first established an RRC connection with the network-side device as the Q-1 secondary terminals in the first architecture. In another embodiment, the network-side device can send Q-1 dedicated random access resources to the master terminal, and determine the Q-1 terminals that established an RRC connection using the Q-1 dedicated random access resources as the Q-1 secondary terminals in the first architecture.

[0080] When the trigger condition is that an RRC connection is established with a secondary terminal that uses the dedicated random access resource allocated by the network-side device, the network-side device can send the dedicated random access resource in advance. In this case, the network-side device can determine the Q-1 terminals that established an RRC connection using the pre-allocated dedicated random access resource as the Q-1 secondary terminals in the first architecture.

[0081] Optionally, after the master terminal establishes a first RRC connection with the network-side device, the method further includes: a step in which the master terminal sends second information to the network-side device, and the second information includes identification information of Q-1 secondary terminals among the Q terminals.

[0082] In this embodiment, each of the Q terminals can establish an RRC connection. In one embodiment, the master terminal can report the identification information of the Q-1 secondary terminals to the network-side device so that the network-side device determines the association relationship of the Q terminals. In another embodiment, each secondary terminal can report the identification information of the master terminal to the network-side device.

[0083] It should be noted that the above-described Method 1 and Method 2 may be implemented independently or in combination. For example, among the Q secondary terminals, the secondary terminals in the first part can establish an RRC connection through a contention random access process, and the secondary terminals in the second part of the Q secondary terminals can start a non-contention random access process and establish an RRC connection by using dedicated random access resources allocated by the network-side device. After establishing the RRC connection, the secondary terminals in the first part can report the identification information of the master terminal to the network-side device through their own RRC signaling so that the network-side device can know the association relationship between the master terminal and the secondary terminals in the first part. For the secondary terminals in the second part, since they use the dedicated random access resources allocated by the network-side device to start a non-contention random access process and establish an RRC connection, the network side can know the association relationship between the master terminal and the secondary terminals in the second part.

[0084] Referring to FIG. 3, FIG. 3 is a second flowchart of the RRC connection maintenance method provided in the embodiment of the present application. The RRC connection maintenance method in FIG. 3 is executed by a secondary terminal. As shown in FIG. 3, the method may include the following step 301.

[0085] In step 301, the secondary terminal performs a third operation. Here, the third operation is When not established an RRC connection with the network-side device, the operation of proxy-transmitting the information of the secondary terminal between the secondary terminal and the network-side device via the master terminal, and The operation of establishing a second RRC connection with the network-side device, and includes at least one of them. Here, the secondary terminal is any one of the Q secondary terminals, the Q secondary terminals support the joint reception of data of the first service, the Q secondary terminals include the master terminal, and Q is an integer greater than 1.

[0086] When the information of the secondary terminal is proxy - transmitted via the master terminal, the information of the secondary terminal is The downlink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the network - side device using the first security mechanism and is also transmitted by the master terminal using the second security mechanism, or the downlink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the network - side device using the third security mechanism, and The uplink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the secondary terminal using the second security mechanism and is also transmitted by the master terminal using the first security mechanism, or the uplink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the secondary terminal using the third security mechanism, and at least one of these can be satisfied. Here, the first security mechanism is the security mechanism between the network - side device and the master terminal, the second security mechanism is the security mechanism between the master terminal and the secondary terminal, and the third security mechanism is the security mechanism between the network - side device and the secondary terminal.

[0087] In the embodiments of the present application, the secondary terminal can establish an RRC connection through a contention - based random access process or a non - contention - based random access process.

[0088] Optionally, the step for the secondary terminal to establish a second RRC connection with the network - side device is The step for the secondary terminal to receive the dedicated random access resource transmitted from the master terminal, and The step for the secondary terminal to establish a second RRC connection with the network - side device using the dedicated random access resource.

[0089] In this embodiment, the secondary terminal establishes an RRC connection through a non-competitive random access process, and the network-side device can know the association relationship between the master terminal and the secondary terminal without requiring additional signaling instructions, thereby saving signaling overhead.

[0090] Optionally, after the secondary terminal establishes a second RRC connection with the network-side device, the method further includes: a step in which the secondary terminal transmits third information to the network-side device, where the third information includes identification information of the master terminal.

[0091] In this embodiment, the secondary terminal establishes an RRC connection through a contention random access process. After the secondary terminal establishes the RRC connection so that the network-side device knows the association relationship between the master terminal and the secondary terminal, the secondary terminal can indicate the identification information of the master terminal via RRC signaling.

[0092] Optionally, after the secondary terminal establishes a second RRC connection with the network-side device, the method further includes: a step in which the secondary terminal performs a fourth operation, where the fourth operation includes: an operation of transmitting information of the secondary terminal via a first interface, which is a communication interface between the secondary terminal and the network-side device, and an operation of relaying the information of the secondary terminal between the secondary terminal and the network-side device via a first target terminal, where the first target terminal is the master terminal or any other one of the Q secondary terminals.

[0093] In this embodiment, the information of the secondary terminal may be transmitted via the interface between itself and the network-side device, or may be relayed via the master terminal or other secondary terminals. Specifically, it can be determined according to the actual situation, and the embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

[0094] Optionally, when the information of the secondary terminal is relayed via the first target terminal, the information of the secondary terminal satisfies that the PDCP layer through which it passes is located at the secondary terminal, and the RLC layer through which it passes is located at the first target terminal.

[0095] In the RRC connection maintenance method of this embodiment, the secondary terminal may or may not establish an RRC connection. When the RRC connection is not established, the information of the secondary terminal is relayed via the master terminal, and the network-side device can realize unified maintenance of the RRC connections of the Q terminals by maintaining the RRC connection between the master terminal and the network-side device. When the RRC connection is established, the network-side device maintains the RRC connections of the Q terminals respectively. In this way, the Q terminals can jointly receive the same service under the control of the network-side device, thereby improving the autonomy of the Q terminals to jointly receive the same service, and further improving the service experience and system efficiency.

[0096] It should be noted that since this embodiment is an embodiment of the secondary terminal corresponding to the method embodiment in FIG. 2, the related descriptions in the method embodiment in FIG. 2 can be referred to, and the same beneficial effects can be achieved. To avoid repetition, detailed descriptions are omitted here.

[0097] Referring to FIG. 4, FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the RRC connection maintenance method provided in the embodiment of the present application. The RRC connection maintenance method in FIG. 4 is executed by the network-side device. As shown in FIG. 4, the method may include the following step 401.

[0098] In step 401, the network-side device maintains P RRC connections between the network-side device and the second target terminal, where the second target terminal includes some or all of the Q terminals, the Q terminals support joint reception of data of the first service, P is a positive integer, and Q is an integer greater than 1.

[0099] In actual applications, P may be less than or equal to Q and may include the following cases 1) to 3).

[0100] 1) When P is equal to 1, the RRC connection may be between the network-side device and the master terminal among the Q terminals.

[0101] Optionally, the step in which the network-side device maintains P RRC connections includes the step in which the network-side device establishes an RRC connection with the master terminal, and the step in which the network-side device receives first information sent from the master terminal, where the first information instructs that the master terminal desires to receive data of the first service jointly with other terminals, and the step in which the network-side device establishes a first architecture including the Q terminals based on the first information.

[0102] During implementation, the first information is used to trigger the network-side device to establish the first architecture.

[0103] Optionally, the first information further includes related information of at least one secondary terminal, and the related information includes at least one of identification information, authentication information, capability information, and auxiliary information. Here, the Q terminals include the at least one secondary terminal.

[0104] Optionally, after the network-side device maintains P RRC connections, the method includes The step in which the network-side device transmits the downlink information of the Q terminals to the master terminal; The method further includes at least one of the following steps: the network-side device receives the uplink information of the Q terminals transmitted from the master terminal.

[0105] It should be noted that in actual applications, the information of the Q terminals may be transmitted simultaneously or sequentially, and specifically, it can be determined according to the actual situation, and the embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

[0106] Optionally, the information of the secondary terminals among the Q terminals The downlink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the network-side device using a first security mechanism and is transmitted by the master terminal using a second security mechanism, or the downlink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the network-side device using a third security mechanism, The uplink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the secondary terminal using a second security mechanism and is transmitted by the master terminal using a first security mechanism, or the uplink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the secondary terminal using a third security mechanism, and at least one of the above is satisfied. Here, the first security mechanism is a security mechanism between the network-side device and the master terminal, the second security mechanism is a security mechanism between the master terminal and the secondary terminal, and the third security mechanism is a security mechanism between the network-side device and the secondary terminal.

[0107] 2) When P is equal to Q, the Q RRC connections are respectively between the network device and the Q terminals, that is, one RRC connection is established between each terminal and the network device.

[0108] Optionally, the step of the network device maintaining P RRC connections includes: the step of the network device establishing an RRC connection with the master terminal; and the step of the network device respectively establishing Q - 1 RRC connections with Q - 1 terminals, where at least one of the Q - 1 RRC connections is established using dedicated random access resources; and the step of the network device establishing a first architecture including the master terminal and the Q - 1 terminals.

[0109] Specifically, when implementing, the Q - 1 RRC connections may be established together or one by one, and specifically, it can be determined according to the actual situation, and the embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

[0110] Optionally, after the network device establishes an RRC connection with the master terminal and before the network device respectively establishes Q - 1 RRC connections with Q - 1 terminals, the method further includes at least one of: the step of the network device receiving first information sent from the master terminal, where the first information instructs that the master terminal desires to receive data of the first service jointly with other terminals; and the step of the network device sending at least one dedicated random access resource to the master terminal.

[0111] Optionally, the step of the network device maintaining P RRC connections includes: the step of the network device respectively establishing Q RRC connections with the Q terminals; and The step in which the network-side device establishes a first architecture including the Q terminals based on the received third information, and wherein the third information is transmitted by a master terminal among the Q terminals and includes identification information of Q-1 secondary terminals among the Q terminals, or the third information is transmitted by a secondary terminal among the Q terminals, and the third information transmitted by each secondary terminal includes identification information of the master terminal among the Q terminals.

[0112] Optionally, after the network-side device maintains P RRC connections, the method further includes a step in which the network-side device executes a fifth operation, and the fifth operation includes an operation of transmitting information of a seventh secondary terminal including at least one secondary terminal among the Q terminals via a first interface that is a communication interface between the network-side device and the seventh secondary terminal, and an operation of transmitting information of an eighth secondary terminal including at least one secondary terminal among the Q terminals via a second interface that is a communication interface between the network-side device and a third target terminal, where the third target terminal is the master terminal among the Q terminals or any one secondary terminal among the Q terminals excluding the eighth secondary terminal.

[0113] Optionally, the information of the eighth secondary terminal satisfies that the PDCP layer through which it passes is located at the eighth secondary terminal and the RLC layer through which it passes is located at the second target terminal.

[0114] 3) When P is greater than 1 and less than Q, P of the Q terminals may establish RRC connections. The information of each of the P terminals may be transmitted via the interface between itself and the network-side device, or may be relayed via other terminals among the P terminals. The information of the other Q - P terminals can be proxy-transmitted via any one of the P terminals.

[0115] It should be noted that since this embodiment corresponds to the embodiment of the network-side device in the method embodiment of FIG. 2, the related descriptions in the method embodiment of FIG. 2 can be referred to, and the same beneficial effects can be achieved. To avoid repetition, detailed descriptions are omitted here.

[0116] In the embodiments of the present application, the Xth secondary terminal (for example, the 1st secondary terminal to the 8th secondary terminal) can be any one of the Q terminals. In actual applications, different Xth secondary terminals may be the same secondary terminal or different secondary terminals, and specifically can be determined according to the actual situation, and the embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

[0117] In the embodiments of the present application, a plurality of alternative embodiments introduced may be implemented in combination with each other as long as they do not conflict with each other, or may be implemented independently, and the embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

[0118] For ease of understanding, examples are given below for explanation.

[0119] The present application mainly solves the problem of RRC connection maintenance when two or more devices perform joint transmission of services, and may include the following content.

[0120] To achieve the unity of multiple device configurations, the network side can maintain the RRC connections of multiple UEs in any one of the following 1) - 3) methods.

[0121] 1) Maintain one RRC connection between the master UE and the NR node (NR Node B, gNB), and other UE information such as RRC configuration signaling and reporting signaling can all be proxied through the master UE.

[0122] 2) Maintain multiple RRC connections between each UE and the gNB respectively, and the information of each UE is executed individually by each UE.

[0123] 3) Maintain multiple RRC connections between each UE and the gNB respectively, and the UE information can be assisted in transmission through other UEs. For example, the information of the secondary UE can be assisted in transmission by the master UE.

[0124] In the following, the above three methods will be described by examples.

[0125] Example 1 is one RRC connection corresponding to 1).

[0126] First, the UE that first accesses the network can be temporarily determined as the master UE, and the relocation of the master UE can be performed later. Generally, the master UE is a UE with high capabilities and high link quality.

[0127] When the master UE accesses the network, it establishes a legacy RRC connection with the gNB. Then, the master UE reports the requirements for establishing a multi-UE architecture, and optionally, also reports the information of other UEs to the network. The information of other UEs For example, the identification information of the secondary UE such as S-TMSI, The license / authentication information of the secondary UE for the core network and the RAN to verify the license of the multi-UE architecture, The capability information of the secondary UE to provide an appropriate configuration for the secondary UE, For example, other auxiliary information of the secondary UE such as power saving requirements and transmission requirements, or a combination thereof may be included.

[0128] When the base station receives the request information of the multi-UE architecture, it can first perform the basic authentication and verification process. This process may be performed by transmitting it to the core network, or the core network may transmit and store this information to the base station in advance, and the base station can verify it based on the information stored by itself. After passing the verification, the base station decides to establish a multi-UE joint transmission architecture for two or more UEs.

[0129] The base station may send the location information of each UE to the master UE. The location information includes master UE location information, secondary UE1 location information, and secondary UE2 location information.

[0130] The master UE location information may include the bearer location information, measurement location information, security location information, and DC or CA location information of the master UE. Among them, the bearer location information of the master UE may include N0 RB configurations equipped with the configurations of the SDAP, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and PHY layers, or M0 RLC bearer configurations equipped with the configurations of the RLC, MAC, and PHY layers.

[0131] The secondary UE1 location information may include the bearer location information, measurement location information, security location information, and DC or CA location information used by the secondary UE1. Among them, the bearer location information used by the secondary UE1 may include N1 RB configurations equipped with the configurations of the SDAP, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and PHY layers, or M1 RLC bearer configurations equipped with the configurations of the RLC, MAC, and PHY layers.

[0132] The secondary UE2 location information may include the bearer location information, measurement location information, security location information, and DC or CA location information used by the secondary UE2. Among them, the bearer location information used by the secondary UE2 may include N2 RB configurations equipped with the configurations of the SDAP, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and PHY layers, or M2 RLC bearer configurations equipped with the configurations of the RLC, MAC, and PHY layers.

[0133] After receiving the above configuration information, the master UE stores its own configuration information by itself, executes according to the configuration, and the configuration information of the secondary UE is sent to the corresponding secondary UE.

[0134] When the secondary UE receives the configuration information transmitted on behalf by the master UE, it executes according to the configuration.

[0135] When there is content that the secondary UE needs to report via UL RRC signaling such as measurement reports or auxiliary information reports, etc., the secondary UE sends them to the master UE via the interface between UEs, and the master UE composes the RRC signaling and reports the information of the secondary UE together.

[0136] What needs to be explained is the security issue. To solve the security of the secondary UE configuration, there are the following two methods.

[0137] One is to multiplex the security configuration process of the master UE. The master UE and the secondary UE trust each other. After the master UE performs its own security release operations such as decryption and integrity verification, it obtains the message in plaintext. When the master UE sends it to the secondary UE, it performs security protection using the interface process between them, which is equivalent to maintaining security in two segments of gNB - master UE and master UE - secondary UE respectively. Since the configuration data is in plaintext for the master UE, the master UE needs to be a trusted UE.

[0138] Another is to establish end-to-end security operations between the secondary UE and the gNB. That is, the secondary UE establishes an end-to-end security mechanism with the gNB via the master UE. In this way, both the configuration information sent from the gNB to the secondary UE and the reverse reporting information can be guaranteed by the end-to-end security mechanism, with higher security and less demand on the master UE. Since the data of the secondary UE is encrypted data that cannot be explored by the master UE, this method is safer.

[0139] Embodiment 2 is a plurality of RRC connections corresponding to the above (2).

[0140] In this embodiment, RRC connection maintenance is performed for a plurality of UEs in the multi-UE architecture. That is, an independent RRC connection is established for each UE in the architecture, and the configuration information and the reporting information are independently transmitted via their respective RRC connections.

[0141] In this embodiment, the master UE may establish an RRC connection first. After successful establishment, the secondary UE also needs to establish its own RRC connection. There are the following two triggering methods.

[0142] One is that the master UE reports the requirements for establishing the multi-UE architecture, for example, notifies the gNB of the situation of the secondary UE such as the number of secondary UEs. The gNB allocates dedicated random access resources to these secondary UEs, and the master UE distributes the dedicated random access resources to different secondary UEs. Then, the secondary UEs use the dedicated resources to start a non-competitive random access process and establish an RRC connection with the network side.

[0143] Another is that the secondary UE starts the establishment of its own RRC connection. The secondary UE starts a contention random access according to the existing UE operation, carries an RRC connection establishment request in Message (Msg) 3 or MsgA, establishes an RRC connection with the gNB, and then notifies that it is for establishing a multi-UE architecture, and transmits its own master UE identification information to the base station so that the base station can easily allocate subsequent relevant bearers to these UEs, or after all RRC connections are established, the master UE transmits the identification information of the secondary UE to the base station for subsequent association.

[0144] When all RRC connections of the master UE and the secondary UE are established and the requirement to establish a multi-UE architecture is also notified to the base station, the base station then allocates bearers to each of the master UE and the secondary UE based on the service requirements.

[0145] Here, the configuration information of the master UE is transmitted by a unique RRC process, and the content may include the bearer configuration information, measurement configuration information, security configuration information, and DC or CA configuration information of the master UE. Among them, the bearer configuration information of the master UE may include N0 RB configurations carrying the configurations of the SDAP, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and PHY layers, or M0 RLC bearer configurations carrying the configurations of the RLC, MAC, and PHY layers.

[0146] The configuration information of the secondary UE1 is transmitted via a unique RRC process, and the content may include the bearer configuration information, measurement configuration information, security configuration information, and DC or CA configuration information used by the secondary UE1. Among them, the bearer configuration information used by the secondary UE1 may include N1 RB configurations carrying the configurations of the SDAP, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and PHY layers, or M1 RLC bearer configurations carrying the configurations of the RLC, MAC, and PHY layers.

[0147] The consistency of the configuration is guaranteed by the base station.

[0148] When there are requirements for UL RRC reports such as measurement reports or auxiliary information reports for the master UE or the secondary UE, they are each performed using their own RRC connection.

[0149] Example 3 is multiple RRC connections + assisted transmission of the master UE corresponding to the above 3).

[0150] Based on Example 2, this Example 3 introduces another method for maintaining RRC connections for multiple UEs in a multi-UE architecture, that is, establishing independent RRC connections for each UE in the architecture, and the configuration information and reporting information are independently transmitted via their own RRC connections, but only the master UE has DL and / or UL pipelines for transmitting RRC signaling.

[0151] In this Example 3, each UE establishes an RRC connection with the gNB, and the process is similar to that of Example 2. The difference is that in Example 2, the UL / DL RRC signaling of each UE is directly transmitted via the Uu interface between itself and the gNB, while in this Example 3, considering the situation where the secondary UE may not have the transmission capacity of DL / UL RRC signaling due to limited uplink capacity, etc., it can be relayed via the master UE.

[0152] Generally, the master UE needs to establish a dedicated transmission pipeline for the RRC of the secondary UE. For example, it is the transmission of a Signalling Radio Bearer (SRB) 1 message. PDCP is located at the end-to-end secondary UE and gNB, and the RLC bearer may be located between the master UE and the base station. This corresponds to transmitting the RRC signaling of the secondary UE via the transmission pipeline of the master UE, which can be bidirectional or unidirectional. If it is unidirectional, one direction is transmitted via the master UE, and the other direction is transmitted via its own Uu interface.

[0153] The establishment of the transmission pipeline is also arranged by the base station. In response to the secondary UE or the master UE reporting requirements to the gNB, the gNB arranges appropriate paths for them and performs the transmission of RRC signaling in an appropriate transmission mode.

[0154] As can be seen from these, in the embodiments of the present application, the network-side device can maintain one or more RRC connections through a multi-UE joint transmission architecture.

[0155] If there is only one RRC connection, the RRC connection may be a connection established by the master UE with the base station. The arrangement of other secondary UEs is carried on the RRC signaling of the master UE. The UL reports of other secondary UEs are sent by the secondary UEs to the master UE and reported through the RRC process of the master UE.

[0156] When multiple RRC connections are established, the master UE and the secondary UEs each have an RRC connection. The master UE or the secondary UE reports the requirements for establishing the multi-UE architecture to the network, and the network guarantees the consistency of the multiple UE arrangements. The RRC signaling of the secondary UE may be transmitted through its own Uu interface or through the Uu interface of the master UE. When the RRC signaling of the secondary UE is transmitted through the Uu interface of the master UE, the transmission path of the RRC signaling of the secondary UE can be arranged by the base station. The PDCP layer of the secondary UE SRB is located in the secondary UE, and the RLC bearer is located in the master UE.

[0157] In the RRC connection maintenance method provided by the embodiments of the present application, the RAN side can maintain RRC connections individually or uniformly for multiple UE arrangements, thereby enabling the joint transmission of multiple devices under the control of the network side of the UE, and guaranteeing the service experience of the UE and the system efficiency.

[0158] It should be noted that the entity executing the RRC connection maintenance method provided in the embodiments of the present application may be an RRC connection maintenance device, or a control module within the RRC connection maintenance device for executing the RRC connection maintenance method. In the embodiments of the present application, taking the RRC connection maintenance device executing the RRC connection maintenance method as an example, the RRC connection maintenance device provided in the embodiments of the present application will be described.

[0159] Referring to FIG. 5, FIG. 5 is a structural diagram of the RRC connection maintenance device provided in the embodiments of the present application.

[0160] As shown in FIG. 5, the RRC connection maintenance device 500 includes a first establishment module 501 for establishing a first RRC connection with a network-side device, wherein the master terminal is one of the Q terminals, the master terminal supports the transmission of information of some or all of the Q terminals, the Q terminals support the joint reception of data of the first service, and Q is an integer greater than 1.

[0161] Optionally, among the Q terminals, only the master terminal establishes an RRC connection with the network-side device.

[0162] Optionally, the RRC connection maintenance device 500 further includes a first transmission module for transmitting first information to the network-side device, where the first information instructs that the master terminal desires to receive the data of the first service jointly with other terminals.

[0163] Optionally, the first information further includes related information of at least one secondary terminal, and the related information includes at least one of identification information, authentication information, capability information, and auxiliary information. Here, the Q terminals include the at least one secondary terminal.

[0164] Optionally, the RRC connection maintenance device 500 Further comprising a first execution module for executing a first operation, wherein the first operation is Receiving first downlink information of a first secondary terminal, which is any one of the Q secondary terminals transmitted from the network-side device, and transmitting the first downlink information to the first secondary terminal, and Receiving first uplink information transmitted from a second secondary terminal, which is any one of the Q secondary terminals, and transmitting the first uplink information to the network-side device, and including at least one of the operations.

[0165] Optionally, the information of the secondary terminal is The downlink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the network-side device using a first security mechanism and transmitted by the master terminal using a second security mechanism, or the downlink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the network-side device using a third security mechanism, and The uplink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the secondary terminal using a second security mechanism and transmitted by the master terminal using a first security mechanism, or the uplink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the secondary terminal using a third security mechanism, satisfying at least one of the above, and Here, the first security mechanism is a security mechanism between the network-side device and the master terminal, the second security mechanism is a security mechanism between the master terminal and the secondary terminal, and the third security mechanism is a security mechanism between the network-side device and the secondary terminal.

[0166] Optionally, each of the Q terminals establishes an RRC connection with the network-side device.

[0167] Optionally, the RRC connection maintenance device 500 transmits first information instructing that the master terminal desires to receive data of the first service jointly with other terminals to the network-side device, receives at least one dedicated random access resource transmitted from the network-side device, and further includes a second execution module used for at least one of transmitting the dedicated random access resource to a third secondary terminal which is any one of the Q terminals.

[0168] Optionally, the RRC connection maintenance device 500 further includes a second transmission module for transmitting second information to the network-side device, and the second information includes identification information of Q - 1 secondary terminals among the Q terminals.

[0169] Optionally, the RRC connection maintenance device 500 further includes a third execution module for executing a second operation, and the second operation includes at least one of: receiving second downlink information of a fourth secondary terminal which is any one of the Q terminals transmitted from the network-side device, and transmitting the second downlink information to the fourth secondary terminal; receiving second uplink information transmitted from a fifth secondary terminal which is any one of the Q terminals, and transmitting the second uplink information to the network-side device.

[0170] Optionally, the information of the secondary terminal satisfies that the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer through which it passes is located at the secondary terminal, and the radio link control (RLC) layer through which it passes is located at the master terminal.

[0171] The RRC connection maintenance device 500 provided in the embodiments of this application can implement each process realized in the method embodiment of FIG. 2 and achieve similar technical effects. To avoid repetition, detailed descriptions are omitted here.

[0172] Referring to FIG. 6, FIG. 6 is a second structural diagram of the RRC connection maintenance device provided in the embodiments of this application.

[0173] As shown in FIG. 6, the RRC connection maintenance device 600 includes a fourth execution module 601 for executing a third operation, and the third operation includes at least one of the following operations: when the network-side device has not established an RRC connection, proxy-transmitting the information of the secondary terminal between the secondary terminal and the network-side device via the master terminal; and establishing a second RRC connection with the network-side device. Here, the secondary terminal is any one of Q terminals, the Q terminals support joint reception of data of a first service, the Q terminals include the master terminal, and Q is an integer greater than 1. Optionally, the information of the secondary terminal

[0174] satisfies at least one of the following conditions: the downlink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the network-side device using a first security mechanism and transmitted by the master terminal using a second security mechanism, or the downlink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the network-side device using a third security mechanism; and the uplink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the secondary terminal using a second security mechanism and transmitted by the master terminal using a first security mechanism, or the uplink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the secondary terminal using a third security mechanism. ​​Here, the first security mechanism is a security mechanism between the network-side device and the master terminal, the second security mechanism is a security mechanism between the master terminal and the secondary terminal, and the third security mechanism is a security mechanism between the network-side device and the secondary terminal.

[0175] Optionally, the fourth execution module 601 specifically receives the dedicated random access resource transmitted from the master terminal, and is used to establish a second RRC connection with the network-side device using the dedicated random access resource.

[0176] Optionally, the RRC connection maintenance device 600 further includes a second transmission module for transmitting third information to the network-side device, and the third information includes the identification information of the master terminal.

[0177] Optionally, the RRC connection maintenance device 600 further includes a fifth execution module for executing a fourth operation, and the fourth operation includes at least one of an operation of transmitting the information of the secondary terminal via a first interface which is a communication interface between the secondary terminal and the network-side device, and an operation of relaying the information of the secondary terminal between the secondary terminal and the network-side device via a first target terminal, where the first target terminal is the master terminal or any other one of the Q secondary terminals. When the information of the secondary terminal is relayed via the first target terminal, the information of the secondary terminal satisfies that the PDCP layer through which it passes is located at the secondary terminal and the RLC layer through which it passes is located at the first target terminal.

[0178]

[0179] ​The RRC connection maintenance apparatus 600 provided in the embodiments of this application can implement each process realized in the method embodiment of FIG. 3 and achieve similar technical effects. To avoid repetition, detailed descriptions are omitted here.

[0180] Referring to FIG. 7, FIG. 7 is a structural diagram III of the RRC connection maintenance apparatus provided in the embodiments of this application.

[0181] As shown in FIG. 7, the RRC connection maintenance apparatus 700 includes a maintenance module 701 for maintaining P RRC connections between the network-side device and the second target terminal, where the second target terminal includes some or all of the Q terminals, the Q terminals support joint reception of data of a first service, P is a positive integer, and Q is an integer greater than 1.

[0182] Optionally, when P is equal to 1, the RRC connection is between the network-side device and the master terminal among the Q terminals.

[0183] Optionally, the maintenance module 701 specifically establishes an RRC connection with the master terminal, receives first information sent from the master terminal, the first information indicating that the master terminal desires to receive data of the first service jointly with other terminals, and is used to establish a first architecture including the Q terminals based on the first information.

[0184] Optionally, the first information further includes related information of at least one secondary terminal, and the related information includes at least one of identification information, authentication information, capability information, and auxiliary information, where the Q terminals include the at least one secondary terminal.

[0185] Optionally, the RRC connection maintenance apparatus 700 A third transmission module for transmitting the downlink information of the Q terminals to the master terminal, and further includes at least one of a first reception module for receiving the uplink information of the Q terminals transmitted from the master terminal.

[0186] Optionally, the information of the secondary terminals among the Q terminals, the downlink information of the secondary terminals is transmitted by the network-side device using a first security mechanism and transmitted by the master terminal using a second security mechanism, or the downlink information of the secondary terminals is transmitted by the network-side device using a third security mechanism, and at least one of the following is satisfied: the uplink information of the secondary terminals is transmitted by the secondary terminals using a second security mechanism and transmitted by the master terminal using a first security mechanism, or the uplink information of the secondary terminals is transmitted by the secondary terminals using a third security mechanism, wherein the first security mechanism is a security mechanism between the network-side device and the master terminal, the second security mechanism is a security mechanism between the master terminal and the secondary terminal, and the third security mechanism is a security mechanism between the network-side device and the secondary terminal.

[0187] Optionally, when P is equal to Q, each of the Q RRCs is between the network-side device and the Q terminals.

[0188] Optionally, the maintenance module 701 specifically establishes an RRC connection with the master terminal, Establish Q - 1 RRC connections with each of the Q - 1 terminals, and among the Q - 1 RRC connections, there is at least one RRC connection established using dedicated random access resources, and It is used to establish a first architecture including the master terminal and the Q - 1 terminals.

[0189] Optionally, the RRC connection maintenance device 700 A second receiving module for receiving first information transmitted from the master terminal, where the first information instructs that the master terminal desires to receive data of the first service jointly with other terminals, and A fourth transmitting module for transmitting at least one dedicated random access resource to the master terminal, and further includes at least one of them.

[0190] Optionally, the maintenance module 701, specifically Establish Q RRC connections with each of the Q terminals, and Based on the received third information, it is used to establish a first architecture including the Q terminals, Here, the third information is transmitted by the master terminal among the Q terminals and includes identification information of Q - 1 secondary terminals among the Q terminals, or the third information is transmitted by the secondary terminals among the Q terminals, and the third information transmitted by each secondary terminal includes identification information of the master terminal among the Q terminals.

[0191] Optionally, the RRC connection maintenance device 700 Further includes a sixth execution module for executing a fifth operation, and the fifth operation is An operation of transmitting information of a seventh secondary terminal including at least one secondary terminal among the Q terminals through a first interface, which is a communication interface between the network - side device and the seventh secondary terminal, and An operation of transmitting information of an eighth secondary terminal including at least one secondary terminal among the Q terminals via a second interface which is a communication interface between the network-side device and a third target terminal, where the third target terminal is a master terminal among the Q terminals or any one secondary terminal among the Q terminals excluding the eighth secondary terminal.

[0192] Optionally, the information of the eighth secondary terminal satisfies that the PDCP layer through which it passes is located at the eighth secondary terminal and the RLC layer through which it passes is located at the second target terminal.

[0193] The RRC connection maintenance apparatus 700 provided in the embodiments of the present application realizes each process realized in the method embodiments of FIG. 4 and can achieve similar technical effects. To avoid repetition, detailed descriptions are omitted here.

[0194] The RRC connection maintenance apparatus in the embodiments of the present application may be a device, a device equipped with an operating system, or an electronic device, or a component, integrated circuit, or chip within the device or electronic device. The device or electronic device may be a portable terminal or a non-portable terminal. For example, the portable terminal may include the types of terminal 11 listed above, but is not limited thereto. The non-portable terminal may be a server, network attached storage (NAS), personal computer (PC), television (TV), automated teller machine, or kiosk, etc., and is not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application. The device or electronic device may also be a network-side device, and the network-side device may include the types of network-side device 12 listed above, but is not limited thereto, and is not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0195] Optionally, as shown in FIG. 8, the embodiment of the present application further provides a communication device 800, which includes a processor 801, a memory 802, and a program or command stored in the memory 802 and executable on the processor 801. For example, when the communication device 800 is a master terminal, when the program or command is executed by the processor 801, each process of the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 described above is realized, and the same technical effects can be achieved. When the communication device 800 is a secondary terminal, when the program or command is executed by the processor 801, each process of the method embodiment shown in FIG. 3 described above is realized, and the same technical effects can be achieved. When the communication device 800 is a network-side device, when the program or command is executed by the processor 801, each process of the method embodiment shown in FIG. 4 described above is realized, and the same technical effects can be achieved. To avoid repetition, detailed descriptions are omitted here.

[0196] The embodiment of the present application further provides a terminal including a processor and a communication interface.

[0197] When the terminal is the master terminal, the communication interface is used to establish a first RRC connection with a network-side device, wherein the master terminal is one of Q terminals, the master terminal supports the transmission of information of some or all of the Q terminals, the Q terminals support the joint reception of data of a first service, and Q is an integer greater than 1.

[0198] When the communication device is a secondary terminal, the communication interface is used to execute a third operation, and the third operation is when the RRC connection with the network-side device is not established, the operation of proxy-transmitting the information of the secondary terminal between the secondary terminal and the network-side device through the master terminal, including at least one of an operation of establishing a second RRC connection with a network-side device Here, the secondary terminal is any one of Q terminals, the Q terminals support joint reception of data of a first service, the Q terminals include the master terminal, and Q is an integer greater than 1.

[0199] The embodiments of the terminal correspond to the method embodiments on the terminal side described above. Each implementation process and form of the method embodiments described above can all be applied to the embodiments of the terminal, and similar technical effects can be achieved. Specifically, FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of the hardware structure of a terminal for realizing the embodiments of the present application.

[0200] The terminal 900 includes at least a part of components such as a high-frequency unit 901, a network module 902, an audio output unit 903, an input unit 904, a sensor 905, a display unit 906, a user input unit 907, an interface unit 908, a memory 909, and a processor 910, but is not limited thereto.

[0201] Those skilled in the art can understand that the terminal 900 may further include a power source (for example, a battery) for supplying power to each component. The power source is logically connected to the processor 910 by a power management system, and the power management system can further realize functions such as charge and discharge management and power consumption management. The terminal structure shown in FIG. 9 does not limit the terminal. The terminal may include more or fewer components than shown in the figure, or a combination of some components, or different component arrangements, and detailed descriptions are omitted here.

[0202] In an embodiment of the present application, it should be understood that the input unit 904 may include a graphics processing unit (GPU) 9041 that processes still image or video image data acquired by an image capture device (e.g., a camera) in video capture mode or image capture mode, and a microphone 9042. The display unit 906 may include a display panel 9061, and the display panel 9061 can be arranged in the form of a liquid crystal display, an organic light emitting diode, etc. The user input unit 907 includes a touch panel 9071 and other input devices 9072. The touch panel 9071 is also called a touch screen. The touch panel 9071 may include two parts: a touch detection device and a touch controller. The other input devices 9072 may include, but are not limited to, a physical keyboard, function buttons (e.g., volume control buttons, switch buttons, etc.), a trackball, a mouse, an operation lever, and detailed descriptions thereof are omitted here.

[0203] In an embodiment of the present application, after receiving downlink data from a network-side device, the high-frequency unit 901 processes it with a processor 910, and also transmits uplink data to the network-side device. Usually, the high-frequency unit 901 includes, but is not limited to, an antenna, at least one amplifier, a transceiver, a coupler, a low-noise amplifier, a duplexer, etc.

[0204] Memory 909 can be used to store software programs or commands and various data. Memory 909 may mainly include a program or command storage area capable of storing an operating system, applications or commands required for at least one function (such as a voice playback function, an image playback function, etc.), and a data storage area. Further, Memory 909 may include a high-speed random access memory and may further include a non-volatile memory. Here, the non-volatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or a flash memory, for example, at least one disk storage device, a flash memory, or other non-volatile solid-state storage devices.

[0205] Processor 910 may include one or more processing units. Optionally, the Processor 910 can integrate an application processor that mainly processes an operating system, a user interface, applications or commands, etc., and a modem processor such as a baseband processor that mainly processes wireless communication. It is understandable that the above modem processor may not be integrated into the Processor 910.

[0206] Here, when the terminal is the master terminal, the high-frequency unit 901 is used to establish a first RRC connection with the network-side device, Here, the master terminal is one of the Q terminals, the master terminal supports the transmission of information of some or all of the Q terminals, the Q terminals support the joint reception of data of the first service, and Q is an integer greater than 1.

[0207] In this case, the terminal 900 in this embodiment can implement each process of the method embodiment in FIG. 2 of the embodiment of the present application and achieve similar beneficial effects. To avoid repetition, detailed descriptions are omitted here.

[0208] When the communication device is a secondary terminal, the high-frequency unit 901 is used to execute a third operation, and the third operation is when the network-side device has not established an RRC connection, the operation of proxy-transmitting the information of the secondary terminal between the secondary terminal and the network-side device through the master terminal, and the operation of establishing a second RRC connection with the network-side device, including at least one of them, where the secondary terminal is any one of the Q terminals, the Q terminals support the joint reception of data of the first service, the Q terminals include the master terminal, and Q is an integer greater than 1.

[0209] In this case, the terminal 900 in this embodiment can implement each process of the method embodiment in FIG. 3 of the embodiment of the present application and achieve similar beneficial effects. To avoid repetition, detailed descriptions are omitted here.

[0210] The embodiment of the present application further provides a network-side device including a processor and a communication interface. The communication interface is used to maintain P RRC connections between the network-side device and a second target terminal. The second target terminal includes some or all of the Q terminals. The Q terminals support the joint reception of data of the first service. P is a positive integer, and Q is an integer greater than 1. The embodiment of the network-side device corresponds to the method embodiment on the network-side device side described above. Each implementation process and implementation form of the method embodiment described above can all be applied to the embodiment of the network-side device, and similar technical effects can be achieved.

[0211] Specifically, the embodiments of the present application further provide a network-side device. As shown in FIG. 10, the network device 1000 includes an antenna 101, a radio frequency device 102, and a baseband device 103. The antenna 101 is connected to the radio frequency device 102. In the uplink direction, the radio frequency device 102 receives information via the antenna 101 and transmits the received information to the baseband device 103 for processing. In the downlink direction, the baseband device 103 processes the information to be transmitted, transmits it to the radio frequency device 102, and the radio frequency device 102 processes the received information and then transmits it via the antenna 101.

[0212] The above band processing device may be located within the baseband device 103. The method executed by the network-side device in the above embodiments can be realized in the baseband device 103, and the baseband device 103 includes a processor 104 and a memory 105.

[0213] As shown in FIG. 10, the baseband device 103 may include, for example, at least one baseband board, and a plurality of chips are installed on the baseband board. One of the chips is, for example, connected to the memory 105 and is a processor 104 that calls a program in the memory 105 to execute the operations of the network device shown in the above method embodiments.

[0214] The baseband device 103 may further include a network interface 106 for exchanging information with the radio frequency device 102, and the interface is, for example, a common public radio interface (abbreviated as CPRI).

[0215] Specifically, the network-side device of the embodiment of the present application further includes commands or programs stored in the memory 105 and executable on the processor 104. The processor 104 calls the commands or programs in the memory 105 to execute each process in the method embodiment of FIG. 3 or the method executed by each module shown in FIG. 7, and can achieve similar technical effects. To avoid repetition, detailed descriptions are omitted here.

[0216] The embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which a computer program is stored. When the computer program is executed by a processor, each process of the above-described RRC connection maintenance method embodiment is realized, and similar technical effects can be achieved. To avoid repetition, detailed descriptions are omitted here. Here, the computer-readable storage medium is, for example, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, an optical disk, or the like.

[0217] The embodiment of the present application further provides a readable storage medium, which may be non-volatile or volatile. A program or command is stored in the readable storage medium. When the program or command is executed by a processor, each process of the method embodiment of FIG. 2, FIG. 3, or FIG. 4 described above is realized, and similar technical effects can be achieved. To avoid repetition, detailed descriptions are omitted here.

[0218] The embodiment of the present application further provides a computer program product, which is stored in a non-transitory storage medium. When the computer program product is executed by at least one processor, each process of the method embodiment of FIG. 2, FIG. 3, or FIG. 4 described above is realized, and similar technical effects can be achieved. To avoid repetition, detailed descriptions are omitted here.

[0219] Here, the processor is the processor in the terminal described in the above embodiments. The readable storage medium includes computer-readable storage media such as a computer read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

[0220] Embodiments of the present application further provide a chip. The chip includes a processor and a communication interface, the communication interface is coupled to the processor, and the processor executes a program or a command to be used to implement each process of the method embodiments in FIGS. 2, 3, or 4 described above, and the same technical effects can be achieved. To avoid repetition, detailed descriptions are omitted here.

[0221] It should be understood that the chip mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as a system-level chip, a system-on-chip, a chip system, or a system-on-a-chip, etc.

[0222] It should be noted that in this specification, the term "including", "consisting of", or any other variation thereof is intended to include non-exclusive inclusion, so that a process, method, article, or device including a series of elements includes not only those elements but also other elements not explicitly listed, or elements inherent to such a process, method, article, or device. Unless otherwise specified, the element limited by the phrase "including one..." does not exclude the further existence of another same element in the process, method, article, or device including the element. Also, it should be pointed out that the scope of the methods and devices in the embodiments of the present application is not limited to executing functions in the order shown or considered, and may also include executing functions substantially simultaneously or in the reverse order according to such functions. For example, the described method may be executed in an order different from that described, and various steps may be added, omitted, or combined. Also, the features described with reference to any example may be combined in other examples.

[0223] From the description of the above embodiments, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that the method of the above embodiments can be realized in the form of a combination of software and the necessary common hardware platform. Naturally, it may also be realized by hardware, but in many cases, the former is a more preferred embodiment. Based on such an understanding, the technical solution of this application or the part that contributes to the prior art can be implemented in the form of a computer software product. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium (such as ROM / RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk) and includes a plurality of commands for causing a terminal (which may be a mobile phone, computer, server, air conditioner, or network device, etc.) to execute the methods described in the embodiments of this application.

[0224] As described above, the embodiments of this application have been described with reference to the drawings. However, this application is not limited to the above specific embodiments. The above specific embodiments are merely illustrative and not restrictive. Based on the suggestions of this application, many forms that those skilled in the art can achieve without departing from the spirit of this application and the protection scope of the claims all belong to the protection scope of this application.

Claims

1. including the step of a master terminal establishing a first RRC connection with a network-side device, wherein the master terminal is one of the Q terminals, the master terminal supports the transmission of information of some or all of the Q terminals, the Q terminals support the joint reception of data of a first service, and Q is an integer greater than 1, the fact that the Q terminals support the joint reception of data of a first service means that, when the bearers of the data of the first service received by the Q terminals are the same, the data of the same bearer of the first service is split and transmitted by different terminals, and when the data received by the different terminals is different, it includes performing a sorting operation on the received data, a method for maintaining a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein among the Q terminals, only the master terminal establishes an RRC connection with the network-side device.

3. after the master terminal establishes a first RRC connection with the network-side device, further including the step of the master terminal transmitting first information to the network-side device, the first information indicating that the master terminal desires to receive the data of the first service jointly with other terminals, according to the method of claim 2.

4. after the master terminal establishes a first RRC connection with the network-side device, further including the step of the master terminal performing a first operation, the first operation including: receiving first downlink information of a first secondary terminal, which is any one of the Q terminals and is a secondary terminal transmitted from the network-side device, and transmitting the first downlink information to the first secondary terminal; and receiving first uplink information transmitted from a second secondary terminal, which is any one of the Q terminals and is a secondary terminal, and transmitting the first uplink information to the network-side device, including at least one of the operations, according to the method of claim 2.

5. The information of the secondary terminal is that, the downlink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the network-side device using a first security mechanism and transmitted by the master terminal using a second security mechanism, or the downlink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the network-side device using a third security mechanism, The uplink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the secondary terminal using the second security mechanism and is also transmitted by the master terminal using the first security mechanism, or the uplink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the secondary terminal using the third security mechanism, satisfying at least one of the above conditions. The method according to claim 4, wherein the first security mechanism is a security mechanism between the network-side device and the master terminal, the second security mechanism is a security mechanism between the master terminal and the secondary terminal, and the third security mechanism is a security mechanism between the network-side device and the secondary terminal.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of the Q terminals establishes an RRC connection with the network-side device.

7. After the master terminal establishes a first RRC connection with the network-side device, The step of the master terminal transmitting first information to the network-side device, wherein the first information instructs that the master terminal desires to receive data of the first service jointly with other terminals. The step of the master terminal receiving at least one dedicated random access resource transmitted from the network-side device. The method further includes at least one of the steps of the master terminal transmitting a dedicated random access resource to a third secondary terminal, which is any one of the Q secondary terminals. Or, After the master terminal establishes a first RRC connection with the network-side device, The method further includes the step of the master terminal transmitting second information to the network-side device, wherein the second information includes identification information of Q - 1 secondary terminals among the Q terminals. Or, After the master terminal establishes a first RRC connection with the network-side device, The method further includes the step of the master terminal performing a second operation, and the second operation includes: Receiving second downlink information of a fourth secondary terminal, which is any one of the Q secondary terminals transmitted from the network-side device, and transmitting the second downlink information to the fourth secondary terminal. Receiving second uplink information transmitted from a fifth secondary terminal which is any one of the Q secondary terminals among the Q secondary terminals, and transmitting the second uplink information to the network-side device, including at least one of the operations; The information of the secondary terminal satisfies that the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer through which it passes is located at the secondary terminal, and the radio link control (RLC) layer through which it passes is located at the master terminal. The method according to claim 6.

8. Including the step of the secondary terminal performing a third operation, where the third operation is: When not establishing an RRC connection with the network-side device, proxy-transmitting the information of the secondary terminal between the secondary terminal and the network-side device through the master terminal; Including at least one of the operations of establishing a second RRC connection with the network-side device; The secondary terminal is any one of the Q secondary terminals among the Q secondary terminals. The Q secondary terminals support joint reception of data of a first service. The Q secondary terminals include the master terminal, and Q is an integer greater than 1. The Q secondary terminals supporting joint reception of data of a first service means: When the bearers of the data of the first service received by the Q secondary terminals are the same, the data of the same bearer of the first service is split and transmitted by different terminals. If the data received by the different terminals is different, it includes performing a sorting operation on the received data. RRC connection maintenance method.

9. The information of the secondary terminal is: The downlink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the network-side device using a first security mechanism and also transmitted by the master terminal using a second security mechanism, or the downlink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the network-side device using a third security mechanism; The uplink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the secondary terminal using a second security mechanism and also transmitted by the master terminal using a first security mechanism, or the uplink information of the secondary terminal is transmitted by the secondary terminal using a third security mechanism, satisfying at least one of the above. The first security mechanism is a security mechanism between the network-side device and the master terminal, the second security mechanism is a security mechanism between the master terminal and the secondary terminal, and the third security mechanism is a security mechanism between the network-side device and the secondary terminal. The method according to claim 8.

10. The step in which the secondary terminal establishes a second RRC connection with the network-side device is The step in which the secondary terminal receives the dedicated random access resource transmitted from the master terminal, and The step in which the secondary terminal uses the dedicated random access resource to establish a second RRC connection with the network-side device. The method according to claim 8.

11. After the secondary terminal has established a second RRC connection with the network-side device, The method further includes a step in which the secondary terminal transmits third information to the network-side device, and the third information includes identification information of the master terminal. Or After the secondary terminal has established a second RRC connection with the network-side device, The method further includes a step in which the secondary terminal performs a fourth operation, and the fourth operation is An operation of transmitting information of the secondary terminal via a first interface that is a communication interface between the secondary terminal and the network-side device, and An operation of relaying the information of the secondary terminal between the secondary terminal and the network-side device via a first target terminal, where the first target terminal is the master terminal or any other one of the Q terminals, and When the information of the secondary terminal is relayed via the first target terminal, the information of the secondary terminal satisfies the condition that the PDCP layer through which it passes is located at the secondary terminal and the RLC layer through which it passes is located at the first target terminal. The method according to claim 8.

12. The method includes a step in which the network-side device maintains P RRC connections between the network-side device and second target terminals, where the second target terminals include some or all of the Q terminals, the Q terminals support joint reception of data of a first service, P is a positive integer, and Q is an integer greater than 1. The Q terminals supporting the joint reception of the data of the first service means that when the bearers of the data of the first service received by the Q terminals are the same, the data of the same bearer of the first service is split and transmitted by different terminals, and when the data received by the different terminals is different, a sorting operation is performed on the received data, RRC connection maintenance method.

13. When P is equal to 1, the RRC connection is between the network-side device and the master terminal among the Q terminals, The method according to claim 12, wherein when P is equal to Q, each of the Q RRC connections is between the network-side device and the Q terminals.

14. A communication device comprising a processor, a memory, and a program or command stored in the memory and executable on the processor, wherein when the program or command is executed by the processor, the steps of the RRC connection maintenance method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 are realized, or the steps of the RRC connection maintenance method according to any one of claims 8 to 11 are realized, or the steps of the RRC connection maintenance method according to claim 12 or 13 are realized.

15. A chip comprising a processor and a communication interface, the communication interface being coupled to the processor, the processor executing a program or command, and being used to realize the steps of the RRC connection maintenance method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, or the steps of the RRC connection maintenance method according to any one of claims 8 to 11, or the steps of the RRC connection maintenance method according to claim 12 or 13.

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