Latency measurement method and related apparatus therefor

Abstract

Provided in the present application is a latency measurement method, comprising: acquiring a first latency and a second latency of a first data packet, the first latency being the latency between a user plane apparatus and a terminal device, and the second latency being the latency between the user plane apparatus and an access network apparatus; and, according to the first latency and the second latency, determining a target latency, the target latency being the latency between the terminal device and the access network apparatus. In the solution provided by the present application, determining an air interface latency does not need to specifically transmit multiple data packets carrying timestamps for measurement between the terminal device and the access network apparatus, thus reducing overheads caused by measuring the air interface latency, and accordingly improving the air interface capacity of the access network apparatus and the terminal device.

Description

A method for measuring time delay and related device

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office on December 12, 2023, with application number 202311709589.8 and invention name “A method for delay measurement and related devices thereof”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0002] The present application relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a method for measuring delay and a related device thereof. Background Art

[0003] Some services that guarantee latency and reliability, such as ultra-relaible and low latency communication (URLLC), have high requirements for quality of service (QoS). In practical applications, to ensure latency and reliability, network devices must be able to promptly detect link quality and make appropriate adjustments.

[0004] Latency is a crucial aspect of QoS. Real-time latency measurement enables visual QoS management of URLLC services. Currently, QoS Monitoring can measure packet latency between terminal devices and user plane functions (UPFs) in the core network. This includes measuring uplink and downlink packet latency (also known as air interface latency) between terminal devices and access network devices, as well as uplink and downlink packet latency between access network devices and UPFs.

[0005] Among them, if the air interface delay of each data packet is to be measured, the data packet needs to be sent back and forth between the access network device and the terminal device, and each time it carries a timestamp, the overhead is extremely large and affects the air interface capacity of the access network device and the terminal device.

[0006] Summary of the Invention

[0007] The present application provides a method for measuring delay, which is used to measure the air interface delay of each data packet with low overhead. The present application also provides corresponding devices, systems, computer-readable storage media, and computer program products.

[0008] In a first aspect, the present application provides a delay measurement method, comprising: obtaining a first delay and a second delay of a first data packet, where the first delay is the delay between a user plane device and a terminal device, and the second delay is the delay between the user plane device and an access network device; and determining a target delay based on the first delay and the second delay, where the target delay is the delay between the terminal device and the access network device.

[0009] The delay measurement method of the present application can be applied to delay measurement of various types of communication services, such as URLLC services, but not limited to URLLC services, and can also be other types of communication services that require measurement of air interface delay.

[0010] In this application, a user plane device may be a device in the core network that can perform user plane functions, such as a user plane function (UPF) network element. An access network device may be any type of base station, and a terminal device may be a device with air interface transmission capabilities or a combination of devices with air interface transmission capabilities and other devices.

[0011] In this application, the first delay may be a delay measured using a user plane protocol between a terminal device and a user plane device, such as the delay between the terminal device and the user plane device measured using a performance measurement functionality (PMF) protocol. The delay may be the round trip time (RTT), uplink delay, or downlink delay between the terminal device and the user plane device. RTT is also called round trip delay.

[0012] In the present application, the second delay may be the delay between the user plane device and the access network device measured through the QoS monitoring process. The delay may be the RTT, uplink delay, or downlink delay between the user plane device and the access network device.

[0013] In the present application, the target delay may be the air interface delay between the terminal device and the access network apparatus, and the target delay may be the difference between the first delay and the second delay.

[0014] In the present application, the process of the first aspect mentioned above can be performed by a user plane device or by other devices in the core network. If performed by other devices, it is only necessary to obtain the first delay and the second delay from the user plane device.

[0015] In this first aspect, for each data packet, the air interface delay between the terminal device and the access network device can be calculated by obtaining a first delay between the terminal device and the user plane device, and a second delay between the user plane device and the access network device. This method of determining the air interface delay eliminates the need to specifically send multiple timestamped data packets between the terminal device and the access network device for measurement, reducing the overhead associated with measuring air interface delay and thereby improving the air interface capacity of the access network device and the terminal device.

[0016] In one possible implementation, the first delay is the round-trip delay between the user plane device and the terminal equipment; the second delay is the round-trip delay between the user plane device and the access network device; and the target delay is the round-trip delay between the terminal equipment and the access network device.

[0017] In this possible implementation, the first delay and the second delay are both RTT, and the determined target delay is also the RTT of the air interface. The RTT of the air interface can be obtained by the first delay and the second delay, reducing the overhead caused by measuring the RTT of the air interface.

[0018] In one possible implementation, the first delay is the uplink delay between the terminal device and the user plane device; the second delay is the uplink delay between the access network device and the user plane device; and the target delay is the uplink delay between the terminal device and the access network device.

[0019] In this possible implementation, the first delay and the second delay are both uplink delays, and the determined target delay is also the uplink delay of the air interface. The uplink delay of the air interface can be obtained through the first delay and the second delay, reducing the overhead incurred for measuring the uplink delay of the air interface.

[0020] In one possible implementation, the first delay is the downlink delay between the user plane device and the terminal equipment; the second delay is the downlink delay between the user plane device and the access network device; and the target delay is the downlink delay between the terminal equipment and the access network device.

[0021] In this possible implementation, the first delay and the second delay are both downlink delays, and the determined target delay is also the downlink delay of the air interface. The downlink delay of the air interface can be obtained through the first delay and the second delay, reducing the overhead incurred for measuring the downlink delay of the air interface.

[0022] In one possible implementation, obtaining the first delay and the second delay of the first data packet includes: the user plane device sends the first data packet, the first data packet includes a first indication and a second indication, the first indication is used to instruct the access network device to perform service quality QoS monitoring, and the second indication is used to instruct the terminal device to report first information, and the first information is related to the first delay; the user plane device receives the first information and the second information, the second information is QoS monitoring information of the access network device, wherein the first information is used to determine the first delay, and the second information is used to determine the second delay.

[0023] In this possible implementation, the user plane device may carry a first indication and a second indication in each data packet sent. The first indication may be a QoS monitoring indication, and the second indication may be an RTT indication, an uplink delay indication, or a downlink delay indication. In this application, by using the first and second indications, the user plane device can complete two measurements using a single data packet, measuring both the first delay and the second delay, thereby improving the accuracy of the air interface delay measurement for a single data packet.

[0024] In a possible implementation, the first information and the second information of the first data packet are associated with each other.

[0025] In this possible implementation, the first information and the second information of the first data packet are associated with each other. The user plane device or other network element used to calculate the target delay can accurately calculate the first delay and the second delay of the same data packet based on the association, and then determine the corresponding air interface delay.

[0026] In a possible implementation, the first information and the second information are associated through a first identifier.

[0027] In this possible implementation, the first identifier may be a number or index used to mark a data packet sent by the user plane device, or may be other identifiers, such as a sequence number (SN). By associating the first information with the second information, the calculation speed of the air interface delay can be improved.

[0028] In a possible implementation manner, the first information and the second information are included in the same message.

[0029] In this possible implementation, the first information and the second information are included in the same message. After receiving the message, the user plane device can directly calculate the first delay and the second delay to obtain the air interface delay without having to look up the association relationship, thereby further improving the calculation speed of the air interface delay.

[0030] In one possible implementation, when a terminal device is associated with a device-side time sensitive network translator (DS-TT), the DS-TT connects the terminal device, the first delay is the delay between the DS-TT and the user plane device, and the target delay is the delay between the terminal device and the access network device.

[0031] In this possible implementation, the DS-TT and the terminal device are typically connected via a wired connection, which also introduces latency. In this case, the target latency can be the difference between the first and second latency periods, minus the latency between the DS-TT and the terminal device. For scenarios involving both DS-TT and the terminal device, further subtracting the latency between the DS-TT and the terminal device improves air interface latency accuracy.

[0032] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: acquiring a third delay between the user plane apparatus and the application server; and determining a delay between the terminal device and the application server based on the first delay and the third delay.

[0033] In this possible implementation, the delay between the terminal device and the application server may be the sum of the first delay and the third delay. This calculation may quickly determine the end-to-end delay between the terminal device and the application server in the data network (DN).

[0034] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: the user plane device receiving a packet-by-packet QoS monitoring instruction from the control plane device, where the packet-by-packet QoS monitoring instruction is used to instruct the user plane device to perform QoS monitoring on each data packet sent.

[0035] In this possible implementation, the packet-by-packet QoS monitoring indication may be sent by the application function (AF), and may be gradually sent to the UPF via the policy control function (PCF), session management function (SMF), and packet-by-packet QoS monitoring indication. The AF sends segmented packet-by-packet QoS monitoring indications, indicating that the delay between the user plane device and the access network device, the user plane device and the terminal device, and the access network device and the terminal device is measured for each data packet. By controlling the packet-by-packet delay measurement by the AF, the application requirements can be better met.

[0036] A second aspect of the present application provides a delay measurement method, including: an access network device receives a first data packet, the first data packet includes a first indication and a second indication, the first indication is used to instruct the access network device to perform service quality QoS monitoring, and the second indication is used to instruct the terminal device to report first information; the access network device performs QoS monitoring between the access network device and the user plane device according to the first indication; the access network device sends a first data packet to the terminal device and receives first information from the terminal device; the access network device sends first information and second information to the user plane device, the second information is QoS monitoring information of the access network device, wherein the first information is used to determine a first delay, and the second information is used to determine a second delay, the first delay is the delay between the user plane device and the terminal device, and the second delay is the delay between the user plane device and the access network device, the first delay and the second delay are used to determine a target delay, and the target delay is the delay between the terminal device and the access network device.

[0037] In the present application, the access network device can perform QoS monitoring between the access network device and the user plane device according to the first indication, and send a first data packet to the terminal device according to the second indication to complete the delay measurement between the terminal device and the user plane device, and then return the first information and the second information to the user plane device. The access network device does not need to measure the air interface delay between the terminal device and the user plane device. The user plane device can determine the air interface delay between the terminal device and the access network device based on the first information and the second information, thereby reducing the overhead incurred for measuring the air interface delay, thereby improving the air interface capacity of the access network device.

[0038] In one possible implementation, the message containing the first information includes a third indication, which is used to instruct the access network device to add the second information to the message containing the first information; the access network device adds the second information to the message containing the first information according to the third indication.

[0039] In this possible implementation, when the terminal device returns the first information to the access network device, it can add a third indication to the message containing the first information to instruct the access network device to also add the second information to the message, so that the access network device reports the first information and the second information to the user plane device via one message.

[0040] A third aspect of the present application provides a delay measurement method, including: a terminal device receives a first data packet, the first data packet includes a second indication, and the second indication is used to instruct the terminal device to report first information; the terminal device determines the first information based on the second indication; the terminal device sends the first information to the access network device, and the first information is used to determine a first delay, and the first delay is the delay between the user plane device and the terminal device.

[0041] In the present application, the terminal device only needs to return the first information to the access network device according to the second indication, and does not need to send data packets carrying timestamps to the access network device multiple times in order to measure the air interface delay, thereby reducing the overhead caused by measuring the air interface delay and improving the air interface capacity of the terminal device.

[0042] In one possible implementation, the method also includes: the terminal device adds a third indication in the message containing the first information, and the third indication is used to instruct the access network device to add the second information to the message containing the first information; the above-mentioned step: the terminal device sends the first information to the access network device, including: the terminal device sends a message containing the first information and the third indication to the access network device.

[0043] In this possible implementation, when the terminal device returns the first information to the access network device, it can add a third indication to the message containing the first information to instruct the access network device to also add the second information to the message, so that the access network device reports the first information and the second information to the user plane device via one message.

[0044] In a possible implementation, the second indication in the first data packet is a message of the round-trip time RTT; correspondingly, the first information is response information of the round-trip time RTT.

[0045] In a possible implementation manner, the second indication in the first data packet is used to instruct sending an uplink synchronization message. Correspondingly, the message including the first information is an uplink synchronization message.

[0046] In one possible implementation, the second indication in the first data packet is used to indicate the sending of a downlink synchronization message, and the downlink synchronization message also includes a downlink delay indication, and the downlink delay indication is used to indicate that the terminal device reports the downlink delay between the user plane device and the terminal device; correspondingly, the first information is the downlink synchronization delay, and the first delay is the downlink delay between the user plane device and the terminal device.

[0047] In the above-mentioned implementation methods, the second indication indicates different contents in different forms, so that the terminal device returns the corresponding RTT response information, uplink synchronization message or downlink synchronization message, thereby completing the measurement of RTT, uplink delay or downlink delay.

[0048] A fourth aspect of the present application provides a communication device, the communication device comprising a transceiver module and a processing module;

[0049] A processing module, configured to: obtain a first delay and a second delay of a first data packet, where the first delay is a delay between a user plane device and a terminal device, and the second delay is a delay between the user plane device and an access network device;

[0050] The processing module is further configured to determine a target delay based on the first delay and the second delay, where the target delay is the delay between the terminal device and the access network apparatus.

[0051] In one possible implementation, the first delay is the round-trip delay between the user plane device and the terminal equipment; the second delay is the round-trip delay between the user plane device and the access network device; and the target delay is the round-trip delay between the terminal equipment and the access network device.

[0052] In one possible implementation, the first delay is the uplink delay between the terminal device and the user plane device; the second delay is the uplink delay between the access network device and the user plane device; and the target delay is the uplink delay between the terminal device and the access network device.

[0053] In one possible implementation, the first delay is the downlink delay between the user plane device and the terminal equipment; the second delay is the downlink delay between the user plane device and the access network device; and the target delay is the downlink delay between the terminal equipment and the access network device.

[0054] In one possible implementation, the transceiver module is configured to send a first data packet, the first data packet including a first indication and a second indication, the first indication being used to instruct an access network apparatus to perform quality of service (QoS) monitoring, and the second indication being used to instruct a terminal device to report first information, the first information being related to a first delay;

[0055] The transceiver module is further configured to receive first information and second information, where the second information is QoS monitoring information of the access network device, wherein the first information is used to determine the first delay, and the second information is used to determine the second delay.

[0056] In a possible implementation, the first information and the second information of the first data packet are associated with each other.

[0057] In a possible implementation, the first information and the second information are associated through a first identifier.

[0058] In a possible implementation manner, the first information and the second information are included in the same message.

[0059] In one possible implementation, when a terminal device is associated with a DS-TT and a terminal device, the DS-TT connects the terminal device, the first delay is the delay between the DS-TT and the user plane device, and the target delay is the delay between the terminal device and the access network device.

[0060] In one possible implementation, the transceiver module is further configured to obtain a third time delay between the user plane device and the application server;

[0061] The processing module is further configured to determine the delay between the terminal device and the application server according to the first delay and the third delay.

[0062] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module is further configured to receive a packet-by-packet QoS monitoring instruction from the control plane device, where the packet-by-packet QoS monitoring instruction is used to instruct the user plane device to perform QoS monitoring on each data packet sent.

[0063] A fifth aspect of the present application provides a communication device, the communication device comprising a transceiver module and a processing module;

[0064] a transceiver module, configured to receive a first data packet, the first data packet including a first instruction and a second instruction, the first instruction being used to instruct the access network device to perform quality of service (QoS) monitoring, and the second instruction being used to instruct the terminal device to report the first information;

[0065] a processing module, configured to perform QoS monitoring between the access network device and the user plane device according to the first indication;

[0066] The transceiver module is further configured to send a first data packet to the terminal device and receive first information from the terminal device;

[0067] The transceiver module is also used to send first information and second information to the user plane device, where the second information is QoS monitoring information of the access network device, wherein the first information is used to determine the first delay, and the second information is used to determine the second delay. The first delay is the delay between the user plane device and the terminal device, and the second delay is the delay between the user plane device and the access network device. The first delay and the second delay are used to determine the target delay, and the target delay is the delay between the terminal device and the access network device.

[0068] In one possible implementation, the processing module is further used to add the second information to the message containing the first information when the message containing the first information includes a third indication, and the third indication is used to instruct the access network device to add the second information to the message containing the first information.

[0069] A sixth aspect of the present application provides a communication device, the communication device comprising a transceiver module and a processing module;

[0070] a transceiver module, configured to receive a first data packet, the first data packet including a second instruction, the second instruction being configured to instruct the terminal device to report the first information;

[0071] a processing module, configured to determine the first information according to the second indication;

[0072] The transceiver module is further used to send first information to the access network device, where the first information is used to determine a first delay, which is the delay between the user plane device and the terminal equipment.

[0073] In a possible implementation, the processing module is further configured to add a third indication to the message containing the first information, where the third indication is configured to instruct the access network device to add the second information to the message containing the first information;

[0074] The transceiver module is further configured to send a message containing the first information and the third indication to the access network device.

[0075] In a possible implementation, the second indication in the first data packet is a message of the round-trip time RTT; correspondingly, the first information is response information of the round-trip time RTT.

[0076] In a possible implementation manner, the second indication in the first data packet is used to instruct sending an uplink synchronization message. Correspondingly, the message including the first information is an uplink synchronization message.

[0077] In one possible implementation, the second indication in the first data packet is used to indicate the sending of a downlink synchronization message, and the downlink synchronization message also includes a downlink delay indication, and the downlink delay indication is used to indicate that the terminal device reports the downlink delay between the user plane device and the terminal device; correspondingly, the first information is the downlink synchronization delay, and the first delay is the downlink delay between the user plane device and the terminal device.

[0078] In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a communication device, comprising: a processor, a memory, and a transceiver. The memory stores a computer program or computer instructions, the processor is configured to call and execute the computer program or computer instructions stored in the memory, so that the processor implements the operations processed in the first aspect and any one of the implementations, and the transceiver is configured to transmit and receive signals, such as implementing the reception operations in the first aspect and any one of the implementations.

[0079] In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, comprising: a processor, a memory, and a transceiver. The memory stores a computer program or computer instructions, the processor is configured to call and execute the computer program or computer instructions stored in the memory, so that the processor implements the operations processed in the second aspect and any one of the implementations, and the transceiver is configured to transmit and receive signals, such as implementing the receiving operations in the second aspect and any one of the implementations.

[0080] In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a communication device comprising: a processor, a memory, and a transceiver. The memory stores a computer program or computer instructions, the processor is configured to call and execute the computer program or computer instructions stored in the memory, so that the processor implements the operations described in the third aspect and any one of the implementations, and the transceiver is configured to transmit and receive signals, such as implementing the reception operations described in the third aspect and any one of the implementations.

[0081] In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which includes a processor, and the processor is used to execute the first aspect and any implementation method of the first aspect.

[0082] In an eleventh aspect of the present application, a communication device is provided, which includes a processor, and the processor is used to execute the second aspect and any implementation method of the second aspect.

[0083] In a twelfth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which includes a processor, and the processor is used to execute the third aspect and any implementation method of the third aspect.

[0084] The thirteenth aspect of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium comprising computer instructions, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute the implementation method of the first aspect and any one of the aspects.

[0085] In a fourteenth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium comprising computer instructions, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute the implementation of the second aspect and any one of the above.

[0086] In a fifteenth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium comprising computer instructions, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute the third aspect and any one of the implementation methods.

[0087] In a sixteenth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising instructions, characterized in that when the computer program product is run on a computer, the computer is enabled to execute the implementation method of the first aspect and any one of the instructions.

[0088] In a seventeenth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising instructions, characterized in that when the computer program product is run on a computer, the computer is caused to execute the implementation method of the second aspect and any one of the instructions.

[0089] In an eighteenth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising instructions, characterized in that when the computer program product is run on a computer, the computer is enabled to execute the implementation method of the third aspect and any one of the instructions.

[0090] In a nineteenth aspect, the present application provides a chip device comprising a processor for calling a computer program or computer instruction in the memory so that the processor executes the above-mentioned first aspect and any one of the implementation methods.

[0091] Optionally, the processor is coupled to the memory via an interface.

[0092] The twentieth aspect of the present application provides a chip device, including a processor, for calling a computer program or computer instruction in the memory so that the processor executes the above-mentioned second aspect and any one of the implementation methods.

[0093] Optionally, the processor is coupled to the memory via an interface.

[0094] In the twenty-first aspect of the present application, a chip device is provided, comprising a processor for calling a computer program or computer instruction in the memory so that the processor executes the third aspect and any one of the implementation methods described above.

[0095] Optionally, the processor is coupled to the memory via an interface.

[0096] In aspect 22 of the present application, a communication system is provided, which includes a terminal device, an access network device and a user plane device, wherein the user plane device is used to execute the above-mentioned first aspect and any one of the implementation methods; the access network device is used to execute the above-mentioned second aspect and any one of the implementation methods; and the terminal device is used to execute the above-mentioned third aspect and any one of the implementation methods.

[0097] The technical effects of the fourth, seventh, tenth, thirteenth, sixteenth, nineteenth and twenty-second aspects of this application can be understood by referring to the first aspect and the technical effects of any possible implementation method of the first aspect.

[0098] The technical effects of the fifth, eighth, eleventh, fourteenth, seventeenth and twentieth aspects of this application can be understood by referring to the second aspect and the technical effects of any possible implementation method of the second aspect.

[0099] The technical effects of the sixth, ninth, twelfth, fifteenth, eighteenth and twenty-first aspects of this application can be understood by referring to the third aspect and the technical effects of any possible implementation method of the third aspect. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0100] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0101] FIG2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of service quality monitoring provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0102] FIG3 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a method for delay measurement provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0103] FIG4 is a schematic diagram of a communication architecture for delay measurement according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0104] FIG5A is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a method for delay measurement provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0105] FIG5B is a schematic diagram of an example structure of a data packet provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0106] FIG5C is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of round-trip delay provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0107] FIG6A is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a method for delay measurement provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0108] FIG6B is another exemplary schematic diagram of round-trip delay provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0109] FIG7A is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a method for delay measurement provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0110] FIG7B is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of uplink delay provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0111] FIG8A is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a method for delay measurement provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0112] FIG8B is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of downlink delay provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0113] FIG9 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0114] FIG10 is another schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0115] FIG11 is another schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0116] FIG12 is another schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0117] The following describes the embodiments of the present application in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the embodiments described are only part of the embodiments of the present application, not all of the embodiments. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that with the development of technology and the emergence of new scenarios, the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application are also applicable to similar technical problems.

[0118] The terms "first," "second," and the like in the specification and claims of this application and in the accompanying drawings are used to distinguish similar objects and are not necessarily used to describe a particular order or precedence. It should be understood that the terms used in this manner are interchangeable where appropriate so that the embodiments described herein can be implemented in an order other than that illustrated or described herein. In addition, the terms "including" and "having," as well as any variations thereof, are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions, e.g., a process, method, system, product, or apparatus comprising a series of steps or units is not necessarily limited to those steps or units explicitly listed, but may include other steps or units that are not explicitly listed or that are inherent to these processes, methods, products, or apparatus.

[0119] This application provides a method for measuring latency, which is used to measure the air interface latency of each data packet with minimal overhead. This application also provides corresponding devices, systems, computer-readable storage media, and computer program products, etc. These are described in detail below.

[0120] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, such as: long term evolution (LTE) system, LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (TDD), universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS), world-wide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) communication system, fifth generation (5G) system, new generation (NR) communication system or future sixth generation communication system, etc.

[0121] The part of various communication systems operated by operators can be called an operator network. The operator network can also be called a public land mobile network (PLMN) network, which is a network established and operated by the government or an operator approved by the government for the purpose of providing land mobile communication services to the public. It is mainly a public network in which mobile network operators (MNOs) provide mobile broadband access services to users. The operator network or PLMN network described in the embodiments of the present application can be a network that meets the requirements of the third generation partnership project (3GPP) standards, referred to as a 3GPP network. Usually, 3GPP networks are operated by operators, including but not limited to fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication networks, fourth-generation (4G) mobile communication networks or third-generation (3G) mobile communication technology networks. It also includes the future sixth-generation (6G) mobile communication network.

[0122] The communication system architecture is typically divided into two parts: the access network and the core network. The access network implements functions related to wireless access. The core network primarily implements functions such as user plane management and control plane management through various network elements. The following uses Figure 1 as an example to describe the communication system involved in the embodiments of this application.

[0123] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 1, the communication system includes an access and mobility management function (AMF), a session management function (SMF) network element, a policy control function (PCF) network element, a user plane function (UPF) network element, a network exposure function (NEF), an application function (AF), a unified data management (UDM), terminal equipment (also known as user equipment (UE)), an access network equipment (radio access network, RAN), and a data network (DN), etc.

[0124] The following is a brief introduction to each network function (or network element) shown in FIG1 .

[0125] Terminal equipment: may be referred to as user equipment, access terminal, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, mobile station, remote station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, terminal, wireless communication device, user agent or user device.

[0126] The terminal device can be a device that provides voice / data to users, for example, a handheld device or vehicle-mounted device with a wireless connection function. At present, some examples of terminals include: mobile phones, tablet computers, laptop computers, PDAs, mobile internet devices (MIDs), wearable devices, virtual reality (VR) devices, augmented reality (AR) devices, wireless terminals in industrial control, wireless terminals in self-driving, wireless terminals in remote medical surgery, wireless terminals in smart grids, wireless terminals in transportation safety, wireless terminals in smart cities, wireless terminals in smart homes, cellular phones, cordless phones, session initiation protocol (SIP) phones, wireless local loop (WLL) stations, personal digital assistants (PDAs), handheld devices with wireless communication capabilities, computing devices or other processing devices connected to wireless modems, wearable devices, terminal devices in 5G networks or terminal devices in future evolved public land mobile communication networks, etc. The embodiments of the present application are not limited to this.

[0127] As an example and not a limitation, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. Wearable devices may also be called wearable smart devices, which are a general term for wearable devices that are intelligently designed and developed using wearable technology for daily wear, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothing, and shoes. A wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the user's clothes or accessories. Wearable devices are not only hardware devices, but also achieve powerful functions through software support, data interaction, and cloud interaction. Broadly speaking, wearable smart devices include those that are fully functional, large in size, and can achieve complete or partial functions without relying on smartphones, such as smart watches or smart glasses, as well as those that only focus on a certain type of application function and need to be used in conjunction with other devices such as smartphones, such as various smart bracelets and smart jewelry for vital sign monitoring.

[0128] In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device can also be a terminal device in the Internet of Things (IoT) system. IoT is an important part of the future development of information technology. Its main technical feature is to connect objects to the network through communication technology, thereby realizing an intelligent network of human-machine interconnection and object-to-object interconnection.

[0129] It should be noted that the terminal device and the access network device can communicate with each other using a certain air interface technology (such as NR or LTE technology). The terminal devices can also communicate with each other using a certain air interface technology (such as NR or LTE technology).

[0130] In the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device may be replaced by a device for implementing the functions of the terminal device, or a device capable of supporting the terminal device to implement the functions, such as a chip system or chip, which may be installed in the terminal device. In addition, the chip system may be composed of a chip or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

[0131] An access network device (also known as a wireless access network) may be a device with wireless transceiver functions. The access network device may be a device that provides wireless communication function services, usually located on the network side, including but not limited to: a next-generation base station (gNodeB, gNB) in a fifth-generation communication system, a next-generation base station in a sixth-generation (mobile communication system), a base station in a future mobile communication system or an access node in a WiFi system, etc., an evolved node B (eNB) in an LTE system, a radio network controller (RNC), a node B (NB), a base station controller (BSC), a home base station (e.g., home evolved NodeB, or home Node B, HNB), a wireless access point, a base band unit (BBU), a transmission reception point (TRP), a transmitting point (TP), a base transceiver station (BTS), etc. In a network structure, the access network device may include a centralized unit (CU) node, or a distributed unit (CU) node. The access network device provides services for the cell, and the user equipment communicates with the base station through the transmission resources used by the cell (for example, frequency domain resources, or spectrum resources). The cell can be a cell corresponding to a base station (for example, a base station). The cell can belong to a macro base station or a base station corresponding to a small cell. The small cell here can include: a metro cell, a micro cell, a pico cell, a femto cell, etc. These small cells have the characteristics of small coverage and low transmission power, and are suitable for providing high-speed data transmission services. The access network device can be a macro base station, a micro base station or an indoor station (, and can also be a relay node or a donor node. The device that provides wireless communication services to user equipment in the V2X communication system, the cloud radio access network (cloud radio access The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form used by the access network equipment.

[0132] The access network equipment provides access to the terminal device and may include RAN equipment and access network (AN) equipment. RAN equipment is mainly wireless network equipment of the 3GPP network, and AN can be access network equipment defined by non-3GPP.

[0133] RAN equipment: Mainly responsible for radio resource management, quality of service (QoS) management, data compression and encryption, and other functions on the air interface side. RAN equipment can include various forms of base stations, such as macro base stations, micro base stations (also known as small stations), relay stations, access points, etc. In systems using different wireless access technologies, the names of devices with base station functions may vary. For example, in fifth-generation (5G) systems, they are called RAN or gNB (5G NodeB); in LTE systems, they are called evolved NodeB (eNB or eNodeB); in third-generation (3G) systems, they are called NodeB, etc.

[0134] AN equipment: This network element allows terminal devices to interconnect with the 3GPP core network using non-3GPP technologies. Non-3GPP technologies include wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), and code division multiple access (CDMA) networks.

[0135] The UDM network element (also known as the unified data management network element, unified data management network element entity, data management device, or unified data management network element device) is a core network device that primarily processes terminal device identification, access authentication, registration, and mobility management. The unified data management is a control plane device.

[0136] PCF network element (also known as policy control network element, policy control function network element, policy control equipment, policy control function network element entity, etc.): mainly responsible for billing at the session and service flow level, service quality bandwidth guarantee and mobility management, terminal device policy decision-making and other policy control function network elements.

[0137] SMF network element (also known as session management function network element): mainly performs session management, execution of PCF control policies, UPF selection, terminal device Internet Protocol address allocation and other functions.

[0138] AMF network element (also known as access and mobility management function entity, access and mobility management device, access and mobility management function network element, access management device, mobility management device) is a type of core network equipment, mainly used for mobility management and access management, etc. It can be used to implement other functions of the mobility management entity (MME) except session management, such as lawful interception, or access authorization (or authentication), user equipment registration, mobility management, tracking area update process, reachability detection, selection of session management function network element, mobile state transition management and other functions.

[0139] UPF network element (also known as user plane equipment, user plane function network element, user plane function network element, user plane functional entity): mainly includes the following functions: data packet routing and transmission, packet detection, service usage reporting, QoS processing, uplink packet detection, downlink data packet storage and other user plane related functions.

[0140] The AF network element is similar to an application server, interacting with other 5G core network control planes (NFs) to provide business services. The AF can exist for different application services and can be owned by the operator or a trusted third party. For example, its primary function is to inform the PCF of the latest third-party enterprise's business requirements for a specific application. Based on these requirements, the PCF generates corresponding quality of service (QoS) rules to ensure that the services provided by the network meet the requirements set by the third party.

[0141] It should be noted that the application server in the embodiment of the present application includes an application function (AF) and / or an application server (AS) or other equipment (or functions or network elements, etc.) that can support or provide application services (or business services), and the embodiment of the present application does not limit this.

[0142] NEF network element can also be called network exposure equipment, network exposure functional entity, network exposure functional network element, network capability exposure functional entity, network capability exposure functional equipment, network capability exposure functional network element, or network capability exposure equipment. NEF is mainly used to support the opening of capabilities and events, such as securely opening the services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions to the outside world.

[0143] It should be understood that the RAN, SMF, PCF or AF in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as a communication device or communication equipment, which may be a general device or a dedicated device, and the present application does not make any specific limitations on this.

[0144] It should also be understood that the above naming is only used to distinguish different functions, and does not mean that these devices are independent physical devices. This application does not limit the specific form of the above devices. For example, they can be integrated into the same physical device, or they can be different physical devices. In actual deployment, network functions (or simply referred to as functions), network elements or devices can be combined. For example, the access and mobility management function network element can be combined with the session management function network element; the session management function network element can be combined with the user plane function network element. When two functions are combined, the interaction between the two functions provided in the embodiment of the present application becomes the internal operation of the combined function or can be omitted.

[0145] It is understandable that the above functions can be network elements in hardware devices, software functions running on dedicated hardware, or a combination of hardware and software, or virtualized functions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform).

[0146] It should be noted that the naming of each device in Figure 1 (such as AF, SMF, PCF, AMF, etc.) is only a name, and the name does not limit the function of the device itself. In 5G networks and other future networks, the above-mentioned devices may also have other names, and this application does not specifically limit this. For example, in a 6G network, some or all of the above-mentioned network elements may use the terminology in 5G, or may be other names, etc., which are uniformly explained here and will not be repeated below.

[0147] In the embodiment of the present application, the direction from the terminal device to the application server (or the user plane functional network element) is called the uplink direction, and correspondingly, the direction from the application server (or the user plane functional network element) to the terminal device is called the downlink direction.

[0148] Currently, when the user plane function network element receives downlink data packets, it encapsulates the packets into the same quality of service (QoS) flow based on the packet detection rule (PDR) pre-configured by the session management function network element. The session management function network element's PDR is derived from the policy and charging control rule (PCC Rules) of the policy management function network element. Each QoS flow's QoS flow identifier (QFI) is associated with a QoS profile. The network side applies the same QoS guarantees to packets belonging to the same QoS flow based on the QoS parameters in the QoS profile. QoS guarantees include, but are not limited to, latency, forwarding priority, and packet loss rate.

[0149] The policy management function (PFM) generates PCC rules, and the session management function (SMF) derives the QoS requirements for the corresponding QoS flows based on the PCC rules. QoS requirements are typically expressed using QoS parameters. Within PCC rules, the packet delay budget (PDB) can be used to define transmission delay requirements.

[0150] The delay can be measured through QoS monitoring, which can be achieved through flow-granularity monitoring or node-granularity monitoring.

[0151] Flow-granular monitoring can be achieved by the SMF network element sending the QoS monitoring policy of the QoS flow to the UPF network element through the Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session establishment or modification process. The UPF network element then initiates the packet delay measurement between the (R)AN device and the UPF network element, and the (R)AN device initiates the delay measurement of the uplink / downlink data packets on the Uu interface.

[0152] When the UPF sends a downlink data packet, if all user plane nodes in the communication system are time-synchronized, the UPF adds a transmission timestamp (such as T1 in Figure 2) to the downlink packet. The (R)AN device calculates the downlink delay based on the time it receives the packet (such as T2 in Figure 2) and sends the downlink delay and Uu interface delay to the UPF in an uplink packet.

[0153] In the absence of uplink service data packets, the (R)AN device can send a dummy uplink data packet to the UPF network element as a snoop response packet. The UPF network element can calculate the transmission delay of each segment of the uplink and downlink packets based on the information reported by the (R)AN device, the time when the (R)AN device sends the uplink message (such as T3 in Figure 2), and the time when the data packet is received (T4 in Figure 2).

[0154] If the UPF network element and the (R)AN device do not support time synchronization, the UPF network element records the local time when the downlink message is sent. The (R)AN device provides the UPF network element with the Uu interface uplink / downlink packet delay measurement results and local packet transmission and reception times via the N3 interface. The anchor UPF network element calculates the packet round-trip time based on the local uplink message reception time and the information reported by the (R)AN device. If the uplink and downlink delays between the (R)AN device and the UPF network element are symmetrical, the one-way delay can be calculated by dividing by 2.

[0155] The UPF network element can report the QoS monitoring results to the SMF according to certain conditions (such as reaching the SMF reporting threshold) for subsequent application layer alarms or other QoS policy decisions.

[0156] Node-level QoS monitoring can provide node-level latency estimation results. Unlike the aforementioned QoS flow-level QoS monitoring, node-level monitoring estimates core network packet latency based on the GTP-U (General Packet Radio System Tunneling Protocol for the User Plane) Echo request / response in the user plane transmission path. Simply put, the uplink / downlink packet latency between the (R)AN device and the UPF network element at the aforementioned QoS flow level is used to estimate the core network packet latency using the GTP-U Echo request / response in the user plane transmission path. GTP-U is used to carry user data within the GPRS core network and between the radio access network and the core network. The transmitted user data can be any of the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4), Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), Ethernet, or Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) packets.

[0157] Figure 1 above shows a simplified architecture diagram of the communication system. In fact, the architecture of the communication system may be slightly different in different scenarios, such as non-roaming scenarios and roaming scenarios. The non-roaming scenario can also be divided into an architecture based on a service interface and an architecture based on a reference point. The roaming scenario can also be divided into an architecture based on a service interface and an architecture based on a reference point. The roaming scenario can also be subdivided into a roaming scenario of local breakout (LBO) and a roaming scenario of home routed (HR). The roaming scenario of LBO can also be divided into an architecture based on a service interface and an architecture based on a reference point; the roaming scenario of HR can also be divided into an architecture based on a service interface and an architecture based on a reference point. Regardless of the architecture, the delay measurement method provided in the embodiment of the present application can be applied.

[0158] The following describes the delay measurement method provided by the embodiment of the present application in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. This process can be performed by a user plane device or by other devices in the core network (such as: SMF network element, PCF network element or AF network element). As shown in Figure 3, an embodiment of the delay measurement method provided by the embodiment of the present application includes:

[0159] 301. Obtain a first delay and a second delay of a first data packet, where the first delay is the delay between the user plane device and the terminal equipment, and the second delay is the delay between the user plane device and the access network device.

[0160] In this application, a user plane device may be a device in the core network that can perform user plane functions, such as a UPF network element. An access network device may be any type of base station, and reference may be made to the previous description of access network devices for further understanding. A terminal device may be a device with air interface transmission capabilities, or a combination of a device with air interface transmission capabilities and other devices.

[0161] In this application, the first delay may be a delay measured using a user plane protocol between a terminal device and a user plane device, such as the delay between the terminal device and the user plane device measured using a performance measurement functionality (PMF) protocol. The delay may be the round trip time (RTT), uplink delay, or downlink delay between the terminal device and the user plane device. RTT is also called round trip delay.

[0162] In the present application, the second delay may be the delay between the user plane device and the access network device measured through the QoS monitoring process. The delay may be the RTT, uplink delay, or downlink delay between the user plane device and the access network device.

[0163] For an understanding of the PMF protocol and the relationship between QoS monitoring and terminal devices, access network devices, and user plane devices, refer to Figure 4. As shown in Figure 4, the terminal device includes, from bottom to top, Layer 1 (L1), the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, the Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, and the Service Data Application Protocol (SDAP) layer. The user plane device includes, from bottom to top, Layer 1 (L1), Layer 2 (L2), the User Datagram Protocol / Internet Protocol (UDP / IP) layer, and the GTP-U layer. Furthermore, the upper layers of both the terminal device and the user plane device include the PMF protocol layer. The access network device's layer structure relative to the terminal device is identical to that of the terminal device, and its layer structure relative to the user plane device is identical to that of the user plane device.

[0164] Among them, L1 can be a physical layer, and L2 can be a network layer.

[0165] MAC layer, used to arbitrate network capacity.

[0166] The RLC layer is used for error correction and flow control.

[0167] The PDCP layer is used to process packet data carried by the network layer on the air interface, such as IP data flow.

[0168] The SDAP layer is used for cross-air interface QoS flow processing, such as mapping a specific QoS flow in a PDU session to the corresponding data radio bearer.

[0169] UDP / IP layer, used for data transmission.

[0170] The GTP-U layer is used to carry user data within the GPRS core network and between the wireless access network and the core network.

[0171] 302. Determine a target delay based on the first delay and the second delay, where the target delay is the delay between the terminal device and the access network device.

[0172] In the present application, the target delay may be the air interface delay between the terminal device and the access network apparatus, and the target delay may be the difference between the first delay and the second delay.

[0173] In the embodiments of the present application, for each data packet, the air interface delay between the terminal device and the access network device can be calculated by obtaining a first delay between the terminal device and the user plane device, and a second delay between the user plane device and the access network device. This first delay and the second delay are then used to calculate the air interface delay between the terminal device and the access network device. This method of determining the air interface delay eliminates the need to specifically send multiple timestamped data packets between the terminal device and the access network device for measurement, reducing the overhead incurred in measuring the air interface delay and thereby improving the air interface capacity of the access network device and the terminal device.

[0174] The first delay, second delay and target delay can all be RTT, uplink delay or downlink delay. The delay measurement process for different situations is introduced below.

[0175] 1.1, RTT delay measurement;

[0176] As shown in FIG5A , another embodiment of the delay measurement provided by the embodiment of the present application includes:

[0177] 501. The AF network element sends a subscription request for service quality monitoring to the PCF network element.

[0178] The subscription request can optionally carry a per-packet QoS Monitoring type, indicating that QoS monitoring is required for each packet. This per-packet QoS Monitoring type can be segmented per-packet QoS Monitoring, which can apply per-packet QoS Monitoring to the communication link between the user plane device and the access network device, the communication link between the user plane device and the terminal device, or the communication link between the access network device and the terminal device. Alternatively, per-packet QoS Monitoring can be applied to all of these links.

[0179] 502. The PCF network element sends the PCC rules to the SMF network element. The PCC rules include information on packet-by-packet service quality monitoring.

[0180] The per-packet QoS monitoring information may be a per packet QoS Monitoring type.

[0181] 503. The SMF network element sends a QoS monitoring request to the UPF network element.

[0182] The QoS monitoring request includes the per packet QoS Monitoring type.

[0183] 504. The UPF network element sends a first data packet, which includes a first indication and a second indication.

[0184] The first indication is used to instruct the access network device to perform quality of service (QoS) monitoring. The first indication may be a QoS monitoring indication, and the second indication may be an RTT indication.

[0185] The structure of the first data packet can be understood by referring to FIG. 5B . As shown in FIG. 5B , the header of the first data packet includes a QoS monitoring indication in a GTP-U header, and a payload includes an RTT indication.

[0186] 505. The access network device reports QoS Monitoring information to the UPF network element.

[0187] The step 505 can be understood by referring to the method of determining the delay by QoS Monitoring in FIG. 2 .

[0188] 506. The terminal device sends an RTT response (Echo) to the UPF network element through the access network device.

[0189] Regarding sending an RTT response, the PMF in the terminal device may send a PMF-Echo Request message to the PMF in the UPF network element through the user, and the PMF in the UPF may respond with a PMF-Echo Response message to each PMF. Similarly, the PMF in the UPF may send a PMF-Echo Request message to the PMF in the UE through the user, and the PMF in the UE may respond with a PMF-Echo Response message to each PMF. Of course, a new protocol layer may also be used to implement the same function, and this application does not limit this.

[0190] 507. The UPF network element determines the target delay.

[0191] The UPF network element can determine the RTT (first delay) between the access network device and the UPF network element through the QoS Monitoring of the above step 505, and can determine the RTT (second delay) between the terminal device and the UPF network element through the RTT response. Then, the target delay is obtained by subtracting the first delay from the second delay, that is, the air interface RTT between the terminal device and the access network device.

[0192] Regarding how to determine whether the first delay and the second delay correspond to the same data packet, the first delay and the second delay corresponding to the same data packet can be determined by associating the first information and the second information corresponding to the first data packet. During the RTT delay measurement process, the first information can be an RTT response, which is used to determine the first delay, i.e., the RTT between the UPF network element and the terminal device. The second information can be RTT QoS monitoring information, which is used to determine the second delay, i.e., the RTT between the UPF network element and the access network device.

[0193] The association relationship between the first information and the second information of the first data packet can be maintained in a variety of ways, such as maintaining the association relationship between the first information and the second information of the first data packet through a first identifier. The first identifier can be a number or index used to mark the data packet sent by the user plane device, or it can be other identifiers, such as a sequence number (SN). For example, the first delay and the second delay corresponding to the first data packet can be determined by the application layer SN number of the PMF layer RTT Request and the corresponding GTP-U SN number, and the E2E delay (first delay) corresponding to the application layer SN number of the PMF layer RTT Request minus the delay (second delay) of the QoS Monitoring of the corresponding GTP-U SN number can be the RTT (target delay) of the air interface. Optionally, the delay association between RTT echo and QoS Monitoring can be done through the original SN or the new SN. When a new SN number is used to associate the above-mentioned first information and second information, the first information and the second information can also carry the correspondence between the new SN and the original SN. The UPF network element can use the correspondence between the new SN and the original SN to determine the first delay and the second delay corresponding to the same data packet, and then determine the corresponding air interface delay.

[0194] The process of determining the RTT of the air interface can be understood by referring to Figure 5C. As shown in Figure 5C, delay 511 represents the RTT between the user plane device and the terminal equipment, and delay 512 represents the RTT between the user plane device and the access network device. By subtracting delay 512 from delay 511, the RTT of the air interface, that is, the RTT between the access network device and the terminal equipment, can be obtained.

[0195] According to the solution provided by the embodiment of the present application, the user plane device can complete two measurements through one data packet, namely, measuring the first delay and the second delay, wherein the first delay and the second delay are associated through a first identifier, and the UPF network element can accurately calculate the corresponding data packet air interface delay. In this way, the measurement overhead of the air interface delay is reduced, and the accuracy of the air interface delay measurement can be improved.

[0196] 1.2, RTT delay measurement;

[0197] As shown in FIG6A , another embodiment of the delay measurement provided by the embodiment of the present application includes:

[0198] In the embodiment of the present application, steps 601 to 604 are the same as steps 501 to 504, and can be understood by referring to the previous introduction.

[0199] 605. The terminal device sends an RTT Echo to the access network apparatus, where the RTT Echo includes the third indication.

[0200] The third instruction is used to instruct the access network device to add the second information to the message containing the first information.

[0201] 606. The access network device adds the second information to the RTT Echo according to the third instruction.

[0202] The second information may be QoS monitoring information of RTT, which is used to determine the RTT between the access network device and the UPF network element.

[0203] 607. The access network device sends an RTT Echo including the first information and the second information to the access network device.

[0204] By sending the first information and the second information in the same message, the user plane device can directly calculate the first delay and the second delay after receiving the message, and then obtain the air interface delay without looking up the association relationship, thereby further improving the calculation speed of the air interface delay.

[0205] 608. The UPF network element determines the target delay based on the RTT Echo.

[0206] This step 608 can be understood with reference to the above step 507, and the air interface delay of RTT can be understood with reference to the above Figure 6B. Delay 611 represents the RTT between the user plane device and the terminal device, and delay 612 represents the RTT between the user plane device and the access network device. The air interface RTT, that is, the RTT between the access network device and the terminal device, can be obtained by subtracting delay 612 from delay 611.

[0207] The embodiments of Figures 5A and 6A provided in the embodiments of the present application can utilize the end-to-end packet-by-packet delay monitoring between the terminal device and the UPF network element and the packet-by-packet delay monitoring between the access network device and the UPF network element to obtain the RTT delay of the air interface, thereby reducing the overhead incurred for measuring the air interface delay, thereby improving the air interface capacity of the terminal device and the access network device.

[0208] 2. Measurement of uplink delay;

[0209] As shown in FIG7A , another embodiment of the delay measurement provided by the embodiment of the present application includes:

[0210] In the embodiment of the present application, steps 701 to 703 are the same as steps 501 to 503, and can be understood by referring to the previous introduction.

[0211] 704. The UPF network element sends a first data packet, which includes a first indication and a second indication.

[0212] Different from the above step 504, the second instruction is used to instruct sending an uplink synchronization message.

[0213] 705. The terminal device / DS-TT sends an uplink synchronization message, where the uplink synchronization message includes a third indication.

[0214] The third instruction is used to instruct the access network device to add the second information to the uplink synchronization message.

[0215] When the terminal device is associated with a user-side time sensitive network translator (DS-TT) and the DS-TT is connected to the terminal device, the uplink synchronization message may be sent by the DS-TT and sent to the access network device through the air interface of the terminal device.

[0216] 706. The access network device adds the second information to the uplink synchronization message according to the third instruction.

[0217] During the uplink delay measurement process, the second information is uplink QoS monitoring information, which is used to determine the uplink delay between the access network device and the UPF network element.

[0218] 707. The access network device sends an uplink synchronization message containing the first information and the second information to the UPF network element.

[0219] During the uplink delay measurement process, the first information can be the timestamp of the uplink synchronization message sent by the terminal device, which is used to determine the first delay through the timestamp when the UPF network element receives the uplink synchronization message, that is, the uplink delay between the terminal device and the UPF network element.

[0220] 708. The UPF network element determines the target delay based on the uplink synchronization message.

[0221] The process of determining the uplink delay of the air interface can be understood by referring to Figure 7B. As shown in Figure 7B, taking the association of the terminal device to the DS-TT and the terminal device as an example, delay 711 represents the uplink delay between the DS-TT and the user plane device, delay 712 represents the uplink delay between the access network device and the user plane device, and delay 713 represents the air interface delay from the DS-TT to the terminal device. As can be seen from Figure 7B, the uplink delay of the air interface = delay 711 - delay 712 - delay 713.

[0222] Of course, if the terminal device is not associated with DS-TT, but directly sends the uplink synchronization message through the air interface similar to FIG5C , there will be no delay 713 . In this case, the uplink delay of the air interface = delay 711 - delay 712 .

[0223] In the embodiment of the present application, it can be seen from the processes introduced in Figures 7A and 7B above that the uplink delay of the air interface is obtained by utilizing the end-to-end packet-by-packet delay monitoring between the terminal device and the UPF network element and the packet-by-packet delay monitoring between the access network device and the UPF network element, thereby reducing the overhead incurred in measuring the uplink delay of the air interface and improving the air interface capacity of the terminal device and the access network device.

[0224] 3. Measurement of downlink delay;

[0225] As shown in FIG8A , another embodiment of the delay measurement provided by the embodiment of the present application includes:

[0226] In the embodiment of the present application, steps 801 to 803 are the same as steps 501 to 503, and can be understood by referring to the previous introduction.

[0227] 804. The UPF network element sends a first data packet, which includes a first indication and a second indication.

[0228] Different from the above step 504, the second indication in the first data packet is used to instruct the sending of a downlink synchronization message, and the downlink synchronization message also includes a downlink delay indication, which is used to instruct the terminal device to report the downlink delay between the user plane device and the terminal device.

[0229] 805. The terminal device / DS-TT sends the downlink delay to the UPF network element through the access network device.

[0230] During the measurement of the downlink delay, the first information in the embodiment described in FIG3 may be the downlink delay.

[0231] 806. The access network device reports QoS Monitoring information to the UPF network element.

[0232] This step 805 can be understood by referring to the above-mentioned Figure 2 part about the way of determining the delay by QoS Monitoring. The QoS Monitoring information is the second information in the embodiment introduced in Figure 3. During the downlink delay measurement process, the second information is the downlink QoS monitoring information, which is used to determine the downlink delay between the UPF network element and the access network device.

[0233] 807. The UPF network element determines the target delay.

[0234] The process of determining the downlink delay of the air interface can be understood by referring to FIG8B . As shown in FIG8B , taking the association of a terminal device with a DS-TT as an example, delay 811 represents the downlink delay between the DS-TT and the user plane device, delay 812 represents the downlink delay between the access network device and the user plane device, and delay 813 represents the delay of the air interface from the DS-TT to the terminal device. As can be seen from FIG8B , the downlink delay of the air interface = delay 811 - delay 812 - delay 813.

[0235] Of course, if the terminal device is not associated with DS-TT, but directly receives the downlink synchronization message through the air interface similar to FIG5C , there will be no delay 813 . In this case, the downlink delay of the air interface = delay 811 - delay 812 .

[0236] In the embodiment of the present application, it can be seen from the processes introduced in Figures 8A and 8B above that the downlink delay of the air interface is obtained by utilizing the end-to-end packet-by-packet delay monitoring between the terminal device and the UPF network element and the packet-by-packet delay monitoring between the access network device and the UPF network element, thereby reducing the overhead incurred in measuring the downlink delay of the air interface and improving the air interface capacity of the terminal device and the access network device.

[0237] In the several embodiments introduced above, the second indication indicates different contents in different forms, so that the terminal device returns the corresponding RTT response information, uplink synchronization message or downlink delay, thereby completing the measurement of RTT, uplink delay or downlink delay.

[0238] In the embodiment of the present application, a third delay between the user plane device and the application server may also be obtained; and the delay between the terminal device and the application server may be determined based on the first delay and the third delay.

[0239] It should be noted that the above process of determining the target delay is explained using the UPF network element as an example. In fact, this process can be performed by other devices in the core network. If performed by other devices, it is only necessary to obtain the first delay and the second delay from the user plane device.

[0240] The above describes the communication system and the delay measurement method of the embodiment of the present application. The following describes the communication device in the embodiment of the present application.

[0241] Please refer to Figure 9, which is a schematic diagram of an implementation of the communication device provided in this application. The communication device 900 includes a processing module 901 and a transceiver module 902. The communication device 900 can implement the functions of the communication device (including a user plane device, an access network device or a terminal device) in the above-mentioned method embodiment, and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects possessed by the above-mentioned method embodiment. In the embodiment of the present application, the communication device 900 can be a user plane device, an access network device or a terminal device, or it can be an integrated circuit or component inside the user plane device, access network device or terminal device, such as a chip, or it can be an integrated circuit or component integrated with the user plane device, access network device or terminal device.

[0242] Please refer to Fig. 10, which is another schematic structural diagram of a communication device 1000 provided in this application. The communication device 1000 at least includes an input and output interface 1002. The communication device 1000 may be a chip or an integrated circuit.

[0243] Optionally, the communication device further includes a logic circuit 1001 .

[0244] The transceiver module 902 shown in FIG9 may be a communication interface, which may be the input / output interface 1002 in FIG10 , which may include an input interface and an output interface. Alternatively, the communication interface may be a transceiver circuit, which may include an input interface circuit and an output interface circuit.

[0245] Optionally, when the communication device 1000 is the user plane device, access network device or terminal equipment in the aforementioned embodiment, the input and output interface 1002 is used to input and output information; the logic circuit 1001 is used to execute the method executed by the user plane device, access network device or terminal equipment in the aforementioned embodiment.

[0246] The logic circuit 1001 and the input / output interface 1002 may also execute other steps executed by the communication device in any embodiment and achieve corresponding beneficial effects, which will not be described in detail here.

[0247] In a possible implementation, the processing module 901 shown in FIG. 9 may be the logic circuit 1001 in FIG. 10 .

[0248] Optionally, the logic circuit 1001 may be a processing device, and the functions of the processing device may be partially or entirely implemented by software. The functions of the processing device may be partially or entirely implemented by software.

[0249] Optionally, the processing device may include a memory and a processor, wherein the memory is used to store a computer program, and the processor reads and executes the computer program stored in the memory to perform corresponding processing and / or steps in any one of the method embodiments.

[0250] Alternatively, the processing device may include only a processor. A memory for storing the computer program is located outside the processing device, and the processor is connected to the memory via circuits / wires to read and execute the computer program stored in the memory. The memory and processor may be integrated or physically separate.

[0251] Optionally, the processing device may be one or more chips, or one or more integrated circuits. For example, the processing device may be one or more field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), system-on-chips (SoCs), central processor units (CPUs), network processors (NPs), digital signal processors (DSPs), microcontroller units (MCUs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), or other integrated chips, or any combination of the above chips or processors.

[0252] Please refer to Figure 11, which shows a communication device 1100 involved in the above embodiments provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 1100 can specifically be a communication device serving as a user plane device, an access network device or a terminal device in the above embodiments.

[0253] Herein, a possible logical structure diagram of the communication device 1100 is shown. The communication device 1100 may include but is not limited to at least one processor 1101 and a communication port 1102 .

[0254] Further optionally, the device may also include at least one of a memory 1103 and a bus 1104. In an embodiment of the present application, the at least one processor 1101 is used to control and process the actions of the communication device 1100.

[0255] In addition, the processor 1101 can be a central processing unit, a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application-specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, a transistor logic device, a hardware component, or any combination thereof. It can implement or execute the various exemplary logic blocks, modules, and circuits described in conjunction with the disclosure of this application. The processor can also be a combination that implements computing functions, such as a combination of one or more microprocessors, a combination of a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, and so on. Those skilled in the art will clearly understand that for the convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the systems, devices, and units described above can refer to the corresponding processes in the aforementioned method embodiments and will not be repeated here.

[0256] It should be noted that the communication device 1100 shown in Figure 11 can be specifically used to implement the steps implemented by the user plane device, access network device or terminal equipment in the aforementioned method embodiment, and to achieve the corresponding technical effects of the user plane device, access network device or terminal equipment. The specific implementation methods of the communication device shown in Figure 11 can refer to the description in the aforementioned method embodiment, and will not be repeated here one by one.

[0257] Please refer to Figure 12, which is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device 1200 involved in the above embodiments provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 1200 may specifically be a communication device serving as a user plane device, access network device, or terminal device in the above embodiments. The structure of the communication device may refer to the structure shown in Figure 12.

[0258] The communication device 1200 includes at least one processor 1201 and at least one network interface 1204. Further optionally, the communication device also includes at least one memory 1202, at least one transceiver 1203 and one or more antennas 1205. The processor 1201, the memory 1202, the transceiver 1203 and the network interface 1204 are connected, for example, via a bus. In an embodiment of the present application, the connection may include various interfaces, transmission lines or buses, etc., which are not limited in this embodiment. The antenna 1205 is connected to the transceiver 1203. The network interface 1204 is used to enable the communication device to communicate with other communication devices through a communication link. For example, the network interface 1204 may include a network interface between the communication device and a core network device, such as an S1 interface, and the network interface may include a network interface between the communication device and other communication devices (such as other radio access networks or core network devices), such as an X2 or Xn interface.

[0259] Processor 1201 is primarily used to process communication protocols and communication data, control the entire communication device, execute software programs, and process data from software programs, for example, to support the communication device in performing the actions described in the embodiments. The communication device may include a baseband processor and a central processing unit. The baseband processor is primarily used to process communication protocols and communication data, while the central processing unit is primarily used to control the entire communication device, execute software programs, and process data from software programs. Processor 1201 in Figure 12 may integrate the functions of both a baseband processor and a central processing unit. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the baseband processor and the central processing unit may also be independent processors interconnected via a bus or other technology. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that a terminal device may include multiple baseband processors to accommodate different network standards, multiple central processing units to enhance its processing capabilities, and various components of the terminal device may be connected via various buses. The baseband processor may also be referred to as a baseband processing circuit or a baseband processing chip. The central processing unit may also be referred to as a central processing circuit or a central processing chip. The functionality for processing communication protocols and communication data may be built into the processor or stored in memory as a software program, which is executed by the processor to implement the baseband processing functionality.

[0260] The memory is primarily used to store software programs and data. Memory 1202 can exist independently and be connected to processor 1201. Alternatively, memory 1202 can be integrated with processor 1201, for example, within a single chip. Memory 1202 can store program code for executing the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, and execution is controlled by processor 1201. The various computer program codes executed can also be considered drivers for processor 1201.

[0261] Figure 12 shows only one memory and one processor. In an actual terminal device / access network device, multiple processors and multiple memories may exist. Memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or storage device. The memory may be a storage element on the same chip as the processor, i.e., an on-chip storage element, or an independent storage element, which is not limited in the present embodiment.

[0262] The transceiver 1203 can be used to support the reception or transmission of radio frequency signals between the communication device and the terminal. The transceiver 1203 can be connected to the antenna 1205. The transceiver 1203 includes a transmitter Tx and a receiver Rx. Specifically, one or more antennas 1205 can receive radio frequency signals. The receiver Rx of the transceiver 1203 is used to receive the radio frequency signal from the antenna, convert the radio frequency signal into a digital baseband signal or a digital intermediate frequency signal, and provide the digital baseband signal or digital intermediate frequency signal to the processor 1201 so that the processor 1201 can further process the digital baseband signal or digital intermediate frequency signal, such as demodulation and decoding. In addition, the transmitter Tx in the transceiver 1203 is also used to receive a modulated digital baseband signal or digital intermediate frequency signal from the processor 1201, convert the modulated digital baseband signal or digital intermediate frequency signal into a radio frequency signal, and transmit the radio frequency signal through one or more antennas 1205. Specifically, the receiver Rx can selectively perform one or more stages of down-mixing and analog-to-digital conversion on the RF signal to obtain a digital baseband signal or a digital intermediate frequency signal. The order of the down-mixing and analog-to-digital conversion processes is adjustable. The transmitter Tx can selectively perform one or more stages of up-mixing and digital-to-analog conversion on the modulated digital baseband signal or digital intermediate frequency signal to obtain a RF signal. The order of the up-mixing and digital-to-analog conversion processes is adjustable. The digital baseband signal and the digital intermediate frequency signal may be collectively referred to as digital signals.

[0263] The transceiver 1203 may also be referred to as a transceiver module, a transceiver, a transceiver device, etc. Optionally, a device in the transceiver module that implements a receiving function may be referred to as a receiving unit, and a device in the transceiver module that implements a transmitting function may be referred to as a transmitting unit. That is, the transceiver module includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. The receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, an input port, a receiving circuit, etc., and the transmitting unit may be referred to as a transmitter, a transmitter, or a transmitting circuit, etc.

[0264] It should be noted that the communication device 1200 shown in Figure 12 can be specifically used to implement the steps implemented by the user plane device, access network device or terminal equipment in the aforementioned method embodiments, and to achieve the corresponding technical effects of the user plane device, access network device or terminal equipment. The specific implementation methods of the communication device 1200 shown in Figure 12 can refer to the description in the aforementioned method embodiments, and will not be repeated here one by one.

[0265] An embodiment of the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium storing one or more computer-executable instructions. When the computer-executable instructions are executed by a processor, the processor executes a method as a possible implementation method of the user plane device, access network device or terminal equipment in the aforementioned embodiment.

[0266] An embodiment of the present application also provides a computer program product (or computer program) storing one or more computers. When the computer program product is executed by the processor, the processor executes the method of the possible implementation method of the above-mentioned user plane device, access network device or terminal device.

[0267] An embodiment of the present application also provides a chip system, which includes at least one processor for supporting a communication device to implement the functions involved in the possible implementation methods of the above-mentioned communication device. Optionally, the chip system also includes an interface circuit, which provides program instructions and / or data to the at least one processor. In one possible design, the chip system may also include a memory, which is used to store the necessary program instructions and data for the communication device. The chip system can be composed of chips, or it can include chips and other discrete devices, wherein the communication device can specifically be a user plane device, an access network device or a terminal device in the aforementioned method embodiment.

[0268] An embodiment of the present application further provides a communication system, which includes the user plane device, access network device and terminal equipment in any of the above embodiments.

[0269] In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are merely schematic. For example, the division of the unit is only a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods, such as multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. Another point is that the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interface, device or unit, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

[0270] The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate, and the components shown as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed across multiple network units. Some or all of the units may be selected to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment according to actual needs.

[0271] In addition, the functional units in the various embodiments of the present application can be integrated into a processing module, or each unit can exist physically separately, or two or more units can be integrated into one unit. The above-mentioned integrated unit can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of a software functional unit. If the integrated unit is implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application is essentially or the contributing part or all or part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product, and the computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including several instructions for enabling a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a wireless access network, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the method of each embodiment of the present application. The aforementioned storage medium includes various media that can store program code, such as a USB flash drive, a mobile hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk.

Claims

1. A delay measurement method, characterized in that: include: Acquire a first delay and a second delay of a first data packet, wherein the first delay is a delay between a user plane device and a terminal device, and the second delay is a delay between the user plane device and an access network device; A target delay is determined according to the first delay and the second delay, where the target delay is the delay between the terminal device and the access network apparatus.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The first delay is a round-trip delay between the user plane device and the terminal equipment; The second delay is a round-trip delay between the user plane device and the access network device; The target delay is the round-trip delay between the terminal device and the access network apparatus.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The first delay is an uplink delay between the terminal equipment and the user plane device; The second delay is an uplink delay between the access network device and the user plane device; The target delay is the uplink delay between the terminal equipment and the access network device.

4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The first delay is a downlink delay between the user plane device and the terminal equipment; The second delay is a downlink delay between the user plane device and the access network device; The target delay is the downlink delay between the terminal equipment and the access network device.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: The obtaining of the first delay and the second delay of the first data packet comprises: The user plane device sends the first data packet, where the first data packet includes a first indication and a second indication, where the first indication is used to instruct the access network device to perform quality of service QoS monitoring, and the second indication is used to instruct the terminal device to report first information, where the first information is related to the first delay; The user plane device receives the first information and the second information, where the second information is QoS monitoring information of the access network device, wherein the first information is used to determine a first delay, and the second information is used to determine the second delay.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that The first information and the second information of the first data packet are associated with each other.

7. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that The first information and the second information are associated through a first identifier.

8. The method according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that: The first information and the second information are included in the same message.

9. The method according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that: When the terminal device is associated with a user-side delay-sensitive network conversion device DS-TT, the DS-TT connects the terminal device, the first delay is the delay between the DS-TT and the user plane device, and the target delay is the delay between the terminal device and the access network device.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that: The method further comprises: Acquire a third delay between the user plane device and the application server; A delay between the terminal device and the application server is determined according to the first delay and the third delay.

11. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The method further comprises: The user plane device receives a packet-by-packet QoS monitoring instruction from the control plane device, where the packet-by-packet QoS monitoring instruction is used to instruct the user plane device to perform QoS monitoring on each data packet sent.

12. A delay measurement method, characterized in that: include: The access network device receives a first data packet, wherein the first data packet includes a first indication and a second indication, wherein the first indication is used to instruct the access network device to perform quality of service QoS monitoring, and the second indication is used to instruct the terminal device to report first information; The access network device performs QoS monitoring between the access network device and the user plane device according to the first instruction; The access network device sends the first data packet to the terminal device, and receives first information from the terminal device; The access network device sends first information and second information to the user plane device, wherein the second information is QoS monitoring information of the access network device, wherein the first information is used to determine a first delay, and the second information is used to determine a second delay, and the first delay The first delay is the delay between the user plane device and the terminal equipment, the second delay is the delay between the user plane device and the access network device, the first delay and the second delay are used to determine the target delay, and the target delay is the delay between the terminal equipment and the access network device.

13. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that The message containing the first information includes a third indication, and the third indication is used to instruct the access network device to add the second information to the message containing the first information; The access network device adds the second information to the message containing the first information according to the third instruction.

14. A delay measurement method, characterized in that: include: The terminal device receives a first data packet, where the first data packet includes a second indication, where the second indication is used to instruct the terminal device to report first information; The terminal device determines the first information according to the second instruction; The terminal device sends the first information to the access network device, where the first information is used to determine a first delay, where the first delay is a delay between the user plane device and the terminal device.

15. The method according to claim 14, characterized in that The method further comprises: The terminal device adds a third indication to the message where the first information is located, where the third indication is used to instruct the access network device to add the second information to the message where the first information is located; The terminal device sends the first information to the access network device, including: The terminal device sends a message including the first information and the third indication to the access network device.

16. The method according to claim 14 or 15, characterized in that The second indication in the first data packet is a message of the round-trip time RTT; correspondingly, the first information is response information of the round-trip time RTT.

17. The method according to claim 14 or 15, characterized in that The second indication in the first data packet is used to indicate sending an uplink synchronization message, and correspondingly, the message containing the first information is an uplink synchronization message.

18. The method according to claim 14 or 15, characterized in that The second indication in the first data packet is used to instruct sending a downlink synchronization message, the downlink synchronization message also includes a downlink delay indication, and the downlink delay indication is used to instruct the terminal device to report the downlink delay between the user plane device and the terminal device; Correspondingly, the first information is a downlink synchronization delay, and the first delay is a downlink delay between the user plane device and the terminal equipment.

19. A communication device, characterized in that: The communication device comprises: a transceiver module and a processing module; The transceiver module is used to perform the transceiver operation of the method described in any one of claims 1 to 11, 12 to 13, and 14 to 18, and the processing module is used to perform the processing operation of the method described in any one of claims 1 to 11, 12 to 13, and 14 to 18.

20. A communication device, characterized in that: The communication device comprises: Memory, for storing computer instructions; A processor, configured to execute a computer program or computer instruction stored in the memory, so that the communication device performs the method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, 12 to 13, and 14 to 18.

21. A communication device, characterized in that: The communication device comprises a processor, and the processor is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, 12 to 13, and 14 to 18.

22. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that: A computer program is stored thereon, and when the computer program is executed by a communication device, the communication device executes the method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, 12 to 13, and 14 to 18.

23. A computer program product comprising instructions, characterized in that When the method is executed on a computer, the computer is caused to execute the method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 11, 12 to 13, and 14 to 18.

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