Communication method, and device, apparatus and storage medium

Abstract

The present application relates to a communication method, and a device, an apparatus and a storage medium. The method comprises: when a terminal device meets a trigger condition, establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection, wherein the trigger condition comprises one of the following conditions: the terminal device receiving a request or data from an ambient Internet-of-Things device, the terminal device needing to send, to the network, data or signaling related to the ambient Internet-of-Things device, and the terminal device receiving a paging message of a network device paging a terminal device of an intermediate node type.

Description

Communication method, device, apparatus and storage medium Cross-references

[0001] This application refers to Chinese patent application No. 202410174104.8, filed on February 7, 2024, entitled “Communication Method, Equipment, Device and Storage Medium”, which is incorporated into this application in its entirety by reference. Technical Field

[0002] The present application relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a communication method, device, apparatus and storage medium. Background Art

[0003] Ambient Internet of Things (A-loT) devices are passive terminals or terminals with limited energy storage capacity. They transmit uplink information by reflecting downlink signals transmitted by the network or wireless signals in the environment.

[0004] In related technologies, A-IoT devices do not communicate or connect directly to the network, but instead connect to an intermediate node, which then connects to the network. However, when a terminal device acts as an intermediate node, the network currently cannot determine how to manage the terminal device that handles the AIoT device business. Summary of the Invention

[0005] Based on this, a communication method, device, apparatus and storage medium are provided.

[0006] In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which is applied to a terminal device and includes:

[0007] The terminal device establishes a radio resource control RRC connection when a trigger condition is met;

[0008] Among them, the trigger condition includes one of the following conditions: the terminal device receives a request or data from the environmental Internet of Things device, the terminal device needs to send data or signaling related to the environmental Internet of Things device to the network, and the terminal device receives a paging message from a terminal device of the intermediate node type that is paged by a network device.

[0009] In one embodiment, the method further includes: the terminal device sending type information of the terminal device to the network device, and the type information is used to determine whether the terminal device serves as an intermediate node between the environmental Internet of Things device and the network device.

[0010] In one embodiment, the type information is carried in the connection establishment cause information of the RRC connection; if the terminal device is in the RRC idle state, establishing the radio resource control RRC connection includes:

[0011] The terminal device sends an RRC connection establishment request message to the network device;

[0012] In which, the RRC connection establishment request message includes the connection establishment reason information; the connection establishment reason information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things device, or to indicate that the terminal device has business needs for the environmental Internet of Things device.

[0013] In one embodiment, the type information is carried in the connection recovery reason information of the RRC connection; if the terminal device is in an RRC inactive state, establishing a radio resource control RRC connection includes:

[0014] The terminal device sends an RRC connection recovery request message to the network device;

[0015] Among them, the RRC connection recovery request message includes the connection recovery reason information, and the connection recovery reason information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things device, or to indicate that the terminal device has business needs for the environmental Internet of Things device.

[0016] In one embodiment, establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection includes:

[0017] The terminal device selects a target classification as the access classification of the terminal device, the target classification including terminal signaling of the RRC layer caused by non-paging or the terminal device as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things device;

[0018] According to the access classification of the terminal device, the terminal device performs a unified access control judgment to determine whether access to the network device is allowed.

[0019] In one embodiment, after the terminal device performs a unified access control judgment based on the access classification of the terminal device to determine whether to allow access to the network device, the method further includes:

[0020] If so, the terminal device accesses the network device; if not, the terminal device prohibits the access attempt corresponding to the access classification information within a preset time period.

[0021] In one embodiment, the type information is carried in the terminal capability information, and the method further includes:

[0022] After the terminal device enters the RRC connected state, reporting the terminal capability information to the network device;

[0023] Among them, the terminal capability information includes at least one of first capability information and second capability information; the first capability information is used to indicate whether the terminal device supports serving as the intermediate node, and the second capability information is used to indicate the air interface capability between the terminal device and the environmental Internet of Things device.

[0024] In one embodiment, the second capability information includes at least one of the following information: frequency information, bandwidth information, physical layer signal supporting association with the environmental Internet of Things device, coding method information, modulation method information, beam capability information, and power control capability information.

[0025] In one embodiment, the type information is carried in the indication information, and the method further includes:

[0026] After the terminal device enters the RRC connection state, the indication information is reported to the network device, where the indication information is used to indicate the terminal device to serve as the intermediate node.

[0027] In a second aspect, the present application provides a method for indicating an intermediate node. Applied to a network device, the method includes:

[0028] The network device receives an RRC connection request message sent by the terminal device;

[0029] Establish an RRC connection with the terminal device according to the RRC connection request message.

[0030] In one embodiment, the method further comprises:

[0031] The network device receives type information of the terminal device sent by the terminal device, where the type information is used to determine whether the terminal device serves as an intermediate node between the environmental Internet of Things device and the network device.

[0032] In one embodiment, the type information is carried in the connection establishment cause information of the RRC connection; if the terminal device is in the RRC idle state, the RRC connection request message includes an RRC connection establishment request message;

[0033] Among them, the RRC connection establishment request message includes the connection establishment reason information, and the connection establishment reason information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things device, or to indicate that the terminal device has business needs for the environmental Internet of Things device.

[0034] In one embodiment, the type information is carried in the connection recovery reason information of the RRC connection; if the terminal device is in an RRC inactive state, the RRC connection request message includes an RRC connection recovery request message;

[0035] Among them, the RRC connection recovery request message includes the connection recovery reason information, and the connection recovery reason information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things device, or to indicate that the terminal device has business needs for the environmental Internet of Things device.

[0036] In one embodiment, the method further comprises:

[0037] The network device sends a paging message to a terminal device of the intermediate node type.

[0038] In one embodiment, the type information is carried in the terminal capability information, and the method further includes:

[0039] After the terminal device enters the RRC connected state, the network device performs at least one of an operation of requesting the terminal device to report capabilities related to the intermediate node and an operation of receiving the terminal capability information reported by the terminal device;

[0040] Among them, the terminal capability information includes at least one of first capability information and second capability information; the first capability information is used to indicate whether the terminal device supports serving as the intermediate node, and the second capability information is used to indicate the air interface capability between the terminal device and the environmental Internet of Things device.

[0041] In one embodiment, the second capability information includes at least one of the following information: frequency information, bandwidth information, physical layer signal supporting association with the environmental Internet of Things device, coding method information, modulation method information, beam capability information, and power control capability information.

[0042] In one embodiment, the type information is carried in the indication information, and the method further includes:

[0043] After the terminal device enters the RRC connection state, the network device performs at least one of an operation of requesting the terminal device to report the terminal type and an operation of receiving the indication information reported by the terminal device, where the indication information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node.

[0044] In a third aspect, the present application provides a terminal device, including a memory, a transceiver, and a processor:

[0045] memory for storing computer programs;

[0046] a transceiver, configured to transmit and receive data under the control of the processor;

[0047] A processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform the following operations:

[0048] When the trigger condition is met, a radio resource control RRC connection is established;

[0049] Among them, the trigger condition includes one of the following conditions: the terminal device receives a request or data from the environmental Internet of Things device, the terminal device needs to send data or signaling related to the environmental Internet of Things device to the network, and the terminal device receives a paging message from a terminal device of the intermediate node type that is paged by a network device.

[0050] In one embodiment, the terminal device further performs the following operations:

[0051] The type information of the terminal device is sent to the network device through the transceiver, and the type information is used to determine whether the terminal device serves as an intermediate node between the environmental Internet of Things device and the network device.

[0052] In one embodiment, if the terminal device is in an RRC idle state, the type information is carried in the connection establishment cause information of the RRC connection; then, establishing a radio resource control RRC connection includes:

[0053] Sending an RRC connection establishment request message to the network device;

[0054] Among them, the RRC connection establishment request message includes the connection establishment reason information, and the connection establishment reason information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things device, or to indicate that the terminal device has business needs for the environmental Internet of Things device.

[0055] In one embodiment, the type information is carried in the connection recovery reason information of the RRC connection; if the terminal device is in an RRC inactive state, establishing a radio resource control RRC connection includes:

[0056] Sending an RRC connection recovery request message to the network device;

[0057] Among them, the RRC connection recovery request message includes the connection recovery reason information, and the connection recovery reason information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things device, or to indicate that the terminal device has business needs for the environmental Internet of Things device.

[0058] In one embodiment, establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection includes:

[0059] Selecting a target classification as the access classification of the terminal device, the target classification including terminal signaling of the RRC layer caused by non-paging or the terminal device as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things device;

[0060] Based on the access classification of the terminal device, a unified access control judgment is performed to determine whether access to the network device is allowed.

[0061] In one embodiment, after performing a unified access control judgment based on the access classification of the terminal device to determine whether the terminal device is allowed to access the network device, the terminal device further performs the following operations:

[0062] If so, the terminal device accesses the network device; if not, the access attempt corresponding to the access classification information is prohibited within a preset time period.

[0063] In one embodiment, the type information is carried in the terminal capability information, and the terminal device further performs the following operations:

[0064] After the terminal device enters the RRC connected state, reporting the terminal capability information to the network device;

[0065] Among them, the terminal capability information includes at least one of first capability information and second capability information; the first capability information is used to indicate whether the terminal device supports serving as the intermediate node, and the second capability information is used to indicate the air interface capability between the terminal device and the environmental Internet of Things device.

[0066] In one embodiment, the second capability information includes at least one of the following information: frequency information, bandwidth information, physical layer signal supporting association with the environmental Internet of Things device, coding method information, modulation method information, beam capability information, and power control capability information.

[0067] In one embodiment, the type information is carried in the indication information, and the terminal device further performs the following operations:

[0068] After the terminal device enters the RRC connection state, the indication information is reported to the network device, where the indication information is used to indicate the terminal device to serve as the intermediate node.

[0069] In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a network device, including a memory, a transceiver, and a processor:

[0070] memory for storing computer programs;

[0071] a transceiver, configured to transmit and receive data under the control of the processor;

[0072] A processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform the following operations:

[0073] Receiving an RRC connection request message sent by a terminal device through a transceiver;

[0074] Establish an RRC connection with the terminal device according to the RRC connection request message.

[0075] In one embodiment, the network device further performs the following operations:

[0076] The type information of the terminal device sent by the terminal device is received by the transceiver, and the type information is used to determine whether the terminal device serves as an intermediate node between the environmental Internet of Things device and the network device.

[0077] In one embodiment, the type information is carried in the connection establishment cause information of the RRC connection; if the terminal device is in the RRC idle state, the RRC connection request message includes an RRC connection establishment request message;

[0078] Among them, the RRC connection establishment request message includes the connection establishment reason information, and the connection establishment reason information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things device, or to indicate that the terminal device has business needs for the environmental Internet of Things device.

[0079] In one embodiment, the type information is carried in the connection recovery reason information of the RRC connection; if the terminal device is in an RRC inactive state, the RRC connection request message includes an RRC connection recovery request message;

[0080] Among them, the RRC connection recovery request message includes the connection recovery reason information, and the connection recovery reason information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things device, or to indicate that the terminal device has business needs for the environmental Internet of Things device.

[0081] In one embodiment, the network device further performs the following operations:

[0082] A paging message for a terminal device of the intermediate node type is sent through the transceiver.

[0083] In one embodiment, the type information is carried in the terminal capability information, and after the terminal device enters the RRC connected state, the network device further performs at least one of the following operations:

[0084] Requesting the terminal device to report capabilities related to the intermediate node through the transceiver; receiving the terminal capability information reported by the terminal device through the transceiver;

[0085] Among them, the terminal capability information includes at least one of first capability information and second capability information; the first capability information is used to indicate whether the terminal device supports serving as the intermediate node, and the second capability information is used to indicate the air interface capability between the terminal device and the environmental Internet of Things device.

[0086] In one embodiment, the second capability information includes at least one of the following information: frequency information, bandwidth information, physical layer signal supporting association with the environmental Internet of Things device, coding method information, modulation method information, beam capability information, and power control capability information.

[0087] In one embodiment, the type information is carried in the indication information, and after the terminal device enters the RRC connected state, the network device further performs at least one of the following operations:

[0088] Requesting the terminal device to report the terminal type through the transceiver;

[0089] The indication information reported by the terminal device is received through the transceiver, where the indication information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node.

[0090] In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, applied to a terminal device, the device comprising:

[0091] A trigger module, used to determine trigger conditions;

[0092] A sending module, configured to establish a radio resource control (RRC) connection when a trigger condition is met;

[0093] Among them, the trigger condition includes one of the following conditions: the terminal device receives a request or data from the environmental Internet of Things device, the terminal device sends data or signaling related to the environmental Internet of Things device to the network, and the terminal device receives a paging message from a terminal device of the intermediate node type that is paged by a network device.

[0094] In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, applied to a network device, the device comprising:

[0095] A receiving module, configured to receive an RRC connection request message sent by a terminal device;

[0096] A processing module, configured to establish an RRC connection with the terminal device according to the RRC connection request message;

[0097] Among them, the triggering conditions of the RRC connection request message include: the terminal device receives a request or data from the environmental Internet of Things device, the terminal device sends data or signaling related to the environmental Internet of Things device to the network, and the terminal device receives a paging message from a terminal device of the intermediate node type that is paged by the network device.

[0098] In a seventh aspect, the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor, implements the communication method described in the first or second aspect.

[0099] In an eighth aspect, the present application further provides a computer program product, comprising a computer program, which, when executed by a processor, implements the communication method described in the first or second aspect.

[0100] The above description is only an overview of the technical solution of the present application. In order to more clearly understand the technical means of the present application, it can be implemented in accordance with the contents of the specification. In order to make the above and other purposes, features and advantages of the present application more obvious and easy to understand, the specific implementation methods of the present application are listed below. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0101] Various other advantages and benefits will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the detailed description of the embodiments below. The accompanying drawings are for illustration purposes only and are not to be considered as limiting the present application. The same reference numerals are used throughout the drawings to denote the same components. In the drawings:

[0102] FIG1 is an application scenario diagram of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0103] FIG2 is a signaling interaction diagram of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0104] FIG3 is a signaling interaction diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0105] FIG4 is a signaling interaction diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0106] FIG5 is a signaling interaction diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0107] FIG6 is a signaling interaction diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0108] FIG7 is a signaling interaction diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0109] FIG8 is a structural block diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0110] FIG9 is a structural block diagram of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0111] FIG10 is a diagram showing the internal structure of a terminal device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0112] FIG11 is an internal structure diagram of a network device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0113] The following embodiments of the technical solution of the present application will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following embodiments are only used to more clearly illustrate the technical solution of the present application and are therefore only examples and are not intended to limit the scope of protection of the present application.

[0114] Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by those skilled in the art to which this application belongs; the terms used herein are only for the purpose of describing specific embodiments and are not intended to limit this application; the terms "including" and "having" and any variations thereof in the specification and claims of this application and the above-mentioned figure descriptions are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions.

[0115] In the description of the embodiments of this application, the technical terms "first" and "second" are used only to distinguish different objects and should not be understood to indicate or imply relative importance or implicitly specify the quantity, specific order, or primary and secondary relationship of the indicated technical features. In the description of the embodiments of this application, the meaning of "plurality" is more than two, unless otherwise clearly and specifically defined.

[0116] References herein to "embodiments" mean that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiments may be included in at least one embodiment of the present application. The appearance of this phrase in various places in the specification does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, nor does it constitute an independent or alternative embodiment that is mutually exclusive of other embodiments. It is understood, both explicitly and implicitly, by those skilled in the art that the embodiments described herein may be combined with other embodiments.

[0117] In the description of the embodiments of this application, the term "and / or" is simply a description of the association relationship between associated objects, indicating that three relationships can exist. For example, A and / or B can represent the following three situations: A exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. In addition, the character " / " in this document generally indicates that the associated objects are in an "or" relationship.

[0118] In the description of the embodiments of the present application, the term "multiple" refers to more than two (including two). Similarly, "multiple groups" refers to more than two groups (including two groups), and "multiple pieces" refers to more than two pieces (including two pieces).

[0119] In the description of the embodiments of the present application, the technical terms "center", "longitudinal", "lateral", "length", "width", "thickness", "up", "down", "front", "back", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inside", "outside", "clockwise", "counterclockwise", "axial", "radial", "circumferential", etc., indicating the orientation or position relationship, are based on the orientation or position relationship shown in the accompanying drawings, and are only for the convenience of describing the embodiments of the present application and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore cannot be understood as a limitation on the embodiments of the present application.

[0120] In the description of the embodiments of the present application, unless otherwise clearly specified or limited, technical terms such as "installed," "connected," "connected," and "fixed" should be understood in a broad sense. For example, they can refer to fixed connections, detachable connections, or integration; mechanical connections, electrical connections, or communication connections; direct connections, indirect connections through an intermediate medium, and internal connections between two components or interactions between two components. For those of ordinary skill in the art, the specific meanings of the above terms in the embodiments of the present application can be understood according to specific circumstances.

[0121] In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of this application more clear, the following further describes this application in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are only used to explain this application and are not intended to limit this application.

[0122] First, the establishment and restoration of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection in the related art will be described below.

[0123] When a terminal device is in RRC Idle (RRC_IDLE) mode and receives a request from an upper layer, it triggers the RRC connection establishment process. The terminal device may first perform a Unified Access Control (UAC) process based on the type of access attempt to determine whether the terminal device is allowed to access the network device. If it is determined that the terminal device is allowed to access the network device, the terminal device sends an RRC Connection Establishment Request (RRC Establish Request) to the network device, requesting the resumption of the suspended RRC connection. The RRC Connection Establishment Request carries the reason for establishing the connection.

[0124] When the terminal device is in the RRC inactive (RRC_INACTIVE) state, when the terminal device receives a request from an upper layer or an access stratum (AS) layer, the RRC connection recovery process is triggered. The terminal device can first perform a UAC process based on the type of access attempt to determine whether the terminal device is allowed to access the network device. If it is determined that the terminal device is allowed to access the network device, the terminal device sends an RRC connection recovery request (RRC Resume Request) to the network device, requesting the resumption of the suspended RRC connection. The RRC connection recovery request carries the reason for resuming the connection.

[0125] The AS layer request includes a Radio Access Network (RAN) paging request or a RAN update request.

[0126] It should be understood that the UAC process is a unified access control mechanism designed to prevent congestion caused by too many terminal devices accessing the cell at the same time. Before accessing, the terminal device determines whether to initiate access based on the relevant mechanism. The UAC process is as follows:

[0127] First, the Non-Access Stratum (NAS) layer of the terminal device determines the Access Identity (Access Identity) based on the information stored in the Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) card in the terminal device and the current Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) information of the terminal device.

[0128] Secondly, the terminal device determines the access category (Access Category) based on the type of access attempt. The Access Category is determined by the NAS layer, and the specific categories are shown in Table 1. Alternatively, the Access Category of some access attempts, such as RAN paging requests or RAN update requests, can also be determined by the RRC layer.

[0129] Table 1

[0130]

[0131] After determining the Access Identity and Access Category, the NAS determines the reason for establishing or resuming the connection based on the mapping table and sends it to the AS layer. For some access attempts, such as RAN update requests, the RRC layer can also determine the reason for establishing or resuming the connection. The mapping table can be shown in Table 2.

[0132] Table 2

[0133]

[0134] Finally, after the AS layer of the terminal device obtains the Access Identity and Access Category, it determines whether to allow access based on the information in the System Information Block (SIB) 1. The information in SIB1 refers to the parameters corresponding to each Access Category, such as the probability of allowing access and the duration of the prohibition if access is not allowed.

[0135] In the present application, in order to solve the problem that the network cannot determine how to manage the terminal device that processes the business of the environmental Internet of Things device, a communication method, device, apparatus and storage medium are proposed. When the trigger condition is met, the terminal device establishes a radio resource control RRC connection; wherein the trigger condition includes one of the following conditions: the terminal device receives a request or data from the environmental Internet of Things device, the terminal device needs to send data or signaling related to the environmental Internet of Things device to the network, and the terminal device receives a paging message from a terminal device of the network device paging intermediate node type. Since the terminal device establishes an RRC connection when the trigger condition is met, it can interact with the network device based on the business of the environmental Internet of Things device processed by the terminal device during or after the RRC connection process, thereby realizing the management of the terminal device that processes the business of the environmental Internet of Things device.

[0136] The following describes the application scenarios of the communication method provided in this application.

[0137] FIG1 is an application scenario diagram of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG1 , a terminal device 101 is connected to an environmental IoT device 102 and a network device 103, respectively. When the environmental IoT device 102 needs to connect or communicate with the network device 103, it can first connect to the terminal device 101, and then connect to the network device 103 via the terminal device 101. The environmental IoT device 102 can send a request message or service data to the terminal device 101, and the destination transmission node of the request message or service data is the network device 103. Subsequently, the terminal device 101 establishes an RRC connection.

[0138] The terminal device 101 involved in the embodiment of the present application may be a device that provides voice and / or data connectivity to a user, a handheld device with wireless connection function, or other processing devices connected to a wireless modem. In different systems, the name of the terminal device may also be different. For example, in a 5G system, the terminal device may be called a user equipment (UE). A wireless terminal device may be a USB storage device, other personal computer memory devices, and a dongle. It may also communicate with one or more core networks (CN) via a radio access network (RAN). A wireless terminal device may be a mobile terminal device, such as a mobile phone (or "cellular" phone) and a computer with a mobile terminal device. For example, it may be a portable, pocket-sized, handheld, computer-built-in, or vehicle-mounted mobile device that exchanges language and / or data with a radio access network. For example, Personal Communication Service (PCS) phones, cordless phones, Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) phones, Wireless Local Loop (WLL) stations, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), personal computers, tablet computers, Machine-type Communication (MTC) terminal devices, etc. Wireless terminal devices may also be referred to as systems, subscriber units, subscriber stations, mobile stations, mobile stations, remote stations, access points, remote terminal devices, access terminal devices, user terminal devices, user agents, user devices, and wireless access points and routers / modems that meet the limitations of this definition, but are not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0139] The environmental Internet of Things device 102 involved in the embodiment of the present application can be a device that, around a specific goal, completes the collection, transmission and application of environment and related information in a fast and accurate manner through the integration of various possible technical approaches.

[0140] The access network device 103 involved in the embodiment of the present application can be a base station, which can include multiple cells providing services to the terminal. Depending on the specific application scenario, the base station can also be called an access point, or it can be a device in the access network that communicates with the wireless terminal device through one or more sectors on the air interface, or other names. The network device can be used to exchange received air frames with Internet Protocol (IP) packets, and serve as a router between the wireless terminal device and the rest of the access network, where the rest of the access network may include an Internet Protocol (IP) communication network. The network device can also coordinate the attribute management of the air interface. For example, the network device involved in the embodiment of the present application can be an evolutionary network device (eNB or e-NodeB) in the long term evolution (LTE) system, a 5G base station (gNB) in the 5G network architecture (next generation system), etc., or a home evolved Node B (HeNB), a relay node, a home base station (femto), a pico base station (pico), a network test device, etc., which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. In some network structures, network devices may include centralized unit (CU) nodes and distributed unit (DU) nodes, and the centralized unit and the distributed unit may also be arranged geographically separately.

[0141] It should be understood that the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application can be applicable to a variety of communication systems. For example, applicable systems may be long term evolution (LTE) systems, LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) systems, LTE time division duplex (TDD) systems, advanced long term evolution (LTE-A) systems, universal mobile telecommunication systems (UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) systems, 5G new air interface (NR) systems and their evolved communication systems, etc. These various systems may include terminal devices and network equipment. The system may also include a core network part, such as an evolved packet system (EPS), a 5G system (5GS), and the like.

[0142] The following will be combined with the drawings in the embodiments of this application to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of this application. Obviously, the embodiments described are only part of the embodiments of this application, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments in this application, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without making creative efforts are within the scope of protection of this application.

[0143] In one embodiment, a communication method is provided for describing how a terminal device establishes an RRC connection with a network device. FIG2 is a flow chart of the communication method. As shown in FIG2 , the communication method includes S201-S202:

[0144] S201. When the triggering conditions are met, the terminal device triggers the establishment of a radio resource control RRC connection.

[0145] Among them, the triggering conditions include one of the following conditions: the terminal device receives a request or data from the environmental Internet of Things device, the terminal device needs to send data or signaling related to the environmental Internet of Things device to the network, and the terminal device receives a paging message from a terminal device of the network device paging intermediate node type.

[0146] In this application, when an ambient IoT device needs to connect or communicate with a network device, it can send a request or data to a terminal device, causing the terminal device to forward the request or data to the network device. Alternatively, when a terminal device needs to process the services of an ambient IoT device, the terminal device can also send data or signaling related to the ambient IoT device to the network device. Alternatively, the network device can also proactively send a paging message to an intermediate node type terminal device.

[0147] It should be understood that the embodiments of the present application do not limit the requests or data from the aforementioned ambient IoT devices, and can be any request generated by the ambient IoT devices or any service data transmitted between the ambient IoT devices and network devices. Accordingly, the embodiments of the present application do not limit the data or signaling related to the aforementioned ambient IoT devices, and can be any service data or service signaling related to the ambient IoT devices.

[0148] For example, the request or data from the environmental Internet of Things device can be a signaling sent by the environmental Internet of Things to the terminal device, which is used for processes such as accessing the network, establishing a session connection or registration; or it can be statistical data reported by the environmental Internet of Things device to the network, such as ambient temperature information.

[0149] In other embodiments, the terminal device may also determine the need to enter the RRC_CONNECTED state based on the services related to the environmental Internet of Things device, and send the signaling from the environmental Internet of Things device to the base station or core network; or, the terminal device may execute processes such as the environmental Internet of Things device accessing the network, establishing a session connection, or registering based on the signaling of the environmental Internet of Things device.

[0150] It should be understood that the embodiments of the present application do not impose any restrictions on when the above-mentioned paging message is sent. When the network device needs to interact with the terminal device or the environmental Internet of Things device as an intermediate node for the service of the environmental Internet of Things device, a paging message can be sent to the terminal device, thereby instructing the terminal device to establish an RRC connection with the network device.

[0151] It should be noted that the destination transmission node for the request or data from the AIoT device is the network device. That is, the terminal device acts as an intermediary node between the AIoT device and the network device, and is responsible for forwarding the request message or service data to the network device after subsequently instructing the network device to act as an intermediary node.

[0152] Exemplarily, the terminal device may include a relay node, an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node, a user equipment (UE), and the like.

[0153] The above-mentioned RRC connection may include RRC connection establishment (RRC connection establishment) and RRC connection resume (RRC connection resume).

[0154] In some embodiments, the terminal device may send type information of the terminal device to the network device, where the type information is used to determine whether the terminal device serves as an intermediate node between the ambient IoT device and the network device.

[0155] It should be understood that the embodiments of the present application do not limit when the terminal device sends the type information of the terminal device to the network device. In some embodiments, the terminal device may send the type information of the terminal device to the network device during the RRC connection process, or the terminal device may send the type information of the terminal device to the network device after establishing RRC.

[0156] Accordingly, during the RRC connection establishment process, the terminal device type information may be carried in the connection establishment reason information of the RRC connection, or carried in the connection recovery reason information of the RRC connection. After the RRC connection is established, the terminal device type information may be carried in the terminal capability information or indication information.

[0157] Exemplarily, during the RRC connection process, when the type information is carried in the connection establishment reason information of the RRC connection, if the terminal device is in the RRC idle state, the RRC connection includes RRC connection establishment. Accordingly, the terminal device can send an RRC connection establishment request message to the network device.

[0158] Among them, the RRC connection establishment request message includes connection establishment reason information, and the connection establishment reason information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things device, or is used to indicate that the terminal device has business needs for the environmental Internet of Things device.

[0159] Exemplarily, during the RRC connection process, when the type information is carried in the connection recovery reason information of the RRC connection, if the terminal device is in the RRC inactive state, the RRC connection includes RRC connection recovery. Accordingly, the terminal device can send an RRC connection recovery request message to the network device.

[0160] Among them, the RRC connection recovery request message includes connection recovery reason information, and the connection recovery reason information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things device, or to indicate that the terminal device has business needs for the environmental Internet of Things device.

[0161] In some embodiments, a terminal device may first select a target classification as its access classification. The target classification includes RRC layer terminal signaling caused by non-paging or the terminal device acting as an intermediate node for ambient IoT devices. Subsequently, based on the terminal device's access classification, the terminal device performs a unified access control judgment to determine whether to allow access to the network device.

[0162] In some embodiments, if access to the network device is allowed, the terminal device generates RRC connection cause information and adds the RRC connection cause information to the RRC connection request. Subsequently, the terminal device sends the RRC connection request to the network device.

[0163] In some embodiments, if the unified access control determines that the terminal device is not allowed to access the network device, the terminal device prohibits access attempts corresponding to the access classification information within a preset time period. That is, when access is not allowed, access attempts of this category will be prohibited for a period of time.

[0164] The preset time period may be set according to actual conditions, for example, 10 minutes, 5 minutes, etc.

[0165] It should be understood that the embodiment of the present application does not limit how to perform unified access control judgment to determine whether the terminal device is allowed to access the network device based on the access classification information of the terminal device. The terminal device can make judgment based on the mapping table, which can be shown in Table 2.

[0166] For example, if the process of accessing the network is to establish an RRC connection, the terminal device selects the access category with the access category number 8, that is, "terminal signaling of the RRC layer caused by non-paging", or selects the access category corresponding to "terminal device as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things" (for example, the access category number is 11). Subsequently, the terminal device performs a unified access control judgment based on the access category to determine whether the terminal device is allowed to access the network device. If it is determined that access is allowed, the terminal device indicates the connection establishment reason as "terminal device as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things" in the RRC connection establishment request.

[0167] Exemplarily, if the process of accessing the network is RRC connection recovery, the terminal device can select an access classification with an access classification number of 8, i.e., "terminal signaling at the RRC layer caused by non-paging", based on at least one of the access type information and terminal condition information, or select the access classification corresponding to "terminal device as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things" (for example, access classification number 11). Subsequently, the terminal device performs a unified access control judgment based on the access classification to determine whether the terminal device is allowed to access the network device. If it is determined that access is allowed, the terminal device indicates the connection recovery reason as "terminal device as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things" in the RRC connection recovery request.

[0168] S202. The network device establishes an RRC connection with the terminal device.

[0169] In this step, the terminal device may send an RRC connection request message to the network device when establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection. The network device may establish an RRC connection with the terminal device based on the RRC connection request message.

[0170] In some embodiments, after establishing RRC, the type information may be carried in the terminal capability information. Accordingly, after the terminal device enters the RRC connected state, the network device may perform at least one of an operation of requesting the terminal device to report capabilities related to the intermediate node and an operation of receiving the terminal capability information reported by the terminal device.

[0171] In some embodiments, the type information is carried in the terminal capability information reported by the terminal device. Accordingly, after the terminal device enters the RRC connected state, the terminal device can indicate the type information as the terminal device capability information to the network device through the terminal capability reporting method. Subsequently, the network device determines whether the terminal device serves as an intermediate node between the ambient IoT device and the network device based on the type information.

[0172] Accordingly, the type information may include at least one of first capability information and second capability information. The first capability information is used to indicate whether the terminal device supports serving as an intermediate node, and the second capability information is used to indicate the air interface capability between the terminal device and the ambient IoT device.

[0173] Exemplarily, the second capability information includes at least one of the following information: frequency information, bandwidth information, physical layer signals associated with supporting environment IoT devices, coding method information, modulation method information, beam capability information, and power control capability information.

[0174] In some embodiments, after establishing RRC, the type information can be carried in the indication information. Accordingly, after the terminal device enters the RRC connection state, the network device can perform at least one of the operations of requesting the terminal device to report the terminal type and receiving the indication information reported by the terminal device, thereby indicating the terminal device as an intermediate node through the indication information.

[0175] The indication information is carried in an RRC message, a Medium Access Control Element (MAC CE), or uplink control information (UCI). That is, after initial access, the terminal device can directly indicate to the network device that the terminal device is acting as an intermediate node through an RRC message, MAC CE, or UCI.

[0176] The RRC message includes an RRC connection establishment complete message and an RRC connection recovery complete message, or may also include any other RRC message.

[0177] In some embodiments, after a terminal device sends its type information to a network device, the network device may determine whether the terminal device is acting as an intermediate node based on the type information. If the terminal device is acting as an intermediate node, the network device may perform management actions such as paging, configuration, access and mobility management function (AMF) selection, and authentication on the intermediate node based on the service needs of the ambient IoT device.

[0178] In the communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application, a terminal device establishes a radio resource control (RRC) connection when a trigger condition is met; wherein the trigger condition includes one of the following conditions: the terminal device receives a request or data from an environmental IoT device, the terminal device needs to send data or signaling related to the environmental IoT device to the network, or the terminal device receives a paging message from a network device that is a paging intermediate node type terminal device. Since the terminal device establishes an RRC connection when the trigger condition is met, it can communicate with the network device based on the services of the environmental IoT device processed by the terminal device during or after the RRC connection process, thereby achieving management of the terminal device that processes the services of the environmental IoT device.

[0179] The following describes how a terminal device sends its type information to a network device in different ways.

[0180] In some cases, the terminal device may report the type information of the terminal device to the network device when the terminal device is in a connected state.

[0181] FIG3 is a signaling interaction diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG3 , the communication method includes S301:

[0182] S301. After the terminal device is connected to the network device, it sends type information of the terminal device to the network device. The type information is used to indicate whether the terminal device serves as an intermediate node between the environmental Internet of Things device and the network device.

[0183] In some embodiments, the type information is carried in the terminal capability information reported by the terminal device.

[0184] Among them, the type information includes at least one of the first capability information and the second capability information; the first capability information is used to indicate whether the terminal device supports serving as an intermediate node, and the second capability information is used to indicate the air interface capability between the terminal device and the environmental Internet of Things device.

[0185] The second capability information includes at least one of the following information: frequency information, bandwidth information, physical layer signals associated with supporting environmental IoT devices, coding method information, modulation method information, beam capability information, and power control capability information.

[0186] In some other embodiments, the type information is carried in an RRC message, a media access control element MAC CE, or uplink control information UCI.

[0187] The type information includes indication information, and the indication information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node.

[0188] Exemplarily, the RRC message includes an RRC connection establishment complete message, an RRC connection recovery complete message, terminal assistance information (UE Assistance Information), etc.

[0189] Accordingly, the following describes how to establish an RRC connection by paging the terminal device after the network device has determined the access type of the terminal device.

[0190] FIG4 is a signaling interaction diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG4 , the communication method includes S401-S403:

[0191] S401. The terminal device enters the RRC idle state or the RRC inactive state.

[0192] S402. When there is a business demand from an environmental IoT device, the network device sends a paging message to the terminal device serving as an intermediate node. The paging message is used to instruct the terminal device to enter a connected state.

[0193] The paging message may include the terminal device's identity document (ID), for example, ng-5G-S-TMSI or I-RNTI.

[0194] S403. The terminal device initiates an RRC connection establishment request or an RRC connection recovery request to the network device.

[0195] For example, after receiving a paging message, a terminal device in an RRC inactive state initiates a connection recovery process. The terminal device selects the access category with access category number 0 in Table 2 and performs a UAC judgment based on the selected access category. If the judgment result is that access is allowed, the UE sends an RRC connection recovery request, in which the reason for resuming the connection is set to mt-Access.

[0196] For example, after receiving a paging message, a terminal device in the RRC idle state initiates a connection establishment process. The terminal device selects the access category with access category number 0 in Table 2 and performs a UAC judgment based on the selected access category. If the judgment result is that access is allowed, the UE sends an RRC connection establishment request, in which the reason for resuming the connection is set to mt-Access.

[0197] For example, if the terminal device performs a UAC judgment based on the selected access category and the judgment result is that access is not allowed, then access attempts of this category will be prohibited for a period of time.

[0198] In some cases, the terminal device may report the device type to the network device when establishing an RRC connection.

[0199] FIG5 is a signaling interaction diagram of another communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG5 , a mobile terminated (MT) access attempt is shown. The communication method includes S501-S505:

[0200] S501: The terminal device determines access classification information of the terminal device.

[0201] Exemplarily, the terminal device selects the access category with access category number 8 in Table 2, or selects the access category corresponding to "terminal device as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things" (for example, access category number 11).

[0202] S502: The terminal device performs a unified access control judgment based on the access classification to determine whether the terminal device is allowed to access the network device.

[0203] If yes, execute S503; if no, execute S505.

[0204] S503. The terminal device generates RRC connection reason information and adds the RRC connection reason information to the RRC connection request.

[0205] Exemplarily, if the RRC is in an RRC inactive state, the RRC connection request refers to an RRC connection restoration request message. The terminal device sets the reason for resuming the connection in the RRC connection restoration request message to acting as an intermediate node. Exemplarily, if the RRC is in an RRC idle state, the RRC connection request refers to an RRC connection establishment request message. During RRC connection establishment, the terminal device sets the reason for establishing the connection in the RRC connection establishment request to acting as an intermediate node.

[0206] S504. The terminal device sends an RRC connection request to the network device.

[0207] S505: The terminal device prohibits access attempts corresponding to the access classification information within a preset time period.

[0208] Figure 6 is a signaling interaction diagram of another communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 6, an access attempt initiated by a mobile terminal (Mobile original, MO) is attempted. The communication method includes S601-S607:

[0209] S601. The environmental Internet of Things device sends a request message or service data to the terminal device, and the destination transmission node of the request message or service data is a network device.

[0210] For example, the ambient IoT device sends a random access request or a data reporting request to the terminal device. Alternatively, upon receiving service data, the terminal device initiates data or signaling transmission to the network device, thereby causing the terminal device to send a connection establishment or connection recovery request to the network device.

[0211] S602: The terminal device determines access classification information of the terminal device.

[0212] Exemplarily, the terminal device selects the access category with access category number 8 in Table 2, or selects the access category corresponding to "terminal device as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things" (for example, access category number 11).

[0213] S603: The terminal device performs a unified access control judgment based on the access classification to determine whether the terminal device is allowed to access the network device.

[0214] If yes, execute S604; if no, execute S607.

[0215] S604: The terminal device determines the RRC connection reason information and adds the RRC connection reason information to the RRC connection request.

[0216] Exemplarily, if the RRC is in an RRC inactive state, the RRC connection request refers to an RRC connection restoration request message. The terminal device sets the reason for resuming the connection in the RRC connection restoration request message to acting as an intermediate node. Exemplarily, if the RRC is in an RRC idle state, the RRC connection request refers to an RRC connection establishment request message. During RRC connection establishment, the terminal device sets the reason for establishing the connection in the RRC connection establishment request to acting as an intermediate node.

[0217] S605. The terminal device sends an RRC connection request to the network device.

[0218] S606: The network device sends configuration information of serving as an intermediate node to the terminal device.

[0219] The above configuration information can be a shared configuration or a dedicated configuration, and the terminal device can complete the operation of the environmental Internet of Things business based on the configuration information.

[0220] S607: The terminal device prohibits access attempts corresponding to the access classification information within a preset time period.

[0221] In some embodiments, if the network device is unsure which terminal devices within its coverage area can serve as intermediate nodes, or is unsure of the location of the terminal devices serving as intermediate nodes, or wants to page all intermediate node devices to enter the RRC_CONNECTED state, a paging message can be generated to page the terminal devices that can serve as intermediate nodes. Figure 7 is a signaling interaction diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 7, the communication method includes S701-S702:

[0222] S701: A network device sends a paging message. The paging message may be used as a terminal device of an intermediate node.

[0223] The paging message may include indication information, and the indication information may be used to instruct the network device to page the terminal device that may serve as an intermediate node.

[0224] It should be understood that the embodiments of the present application do not limit the above-mentioned indication information. In some embodiments, the above-mentioned indication information can be implemented by 1 bit. For example, the appearance of this bit indicates that the network device pages all terminal devices that can serve as intermediate nodes.

[0225] S702: The terminal device responds to the network device.

[0226] The terminal device may be an intermediate node type terminal or a terminal supporting intermediate node capabilities.

[0227] In some embodiments, after receiving a paging message, if the terminal device is of an intermediate node type or supports intermediate node capabilities, an RRC connection establishment process or an RRC connection recovery process is initiated. The terminal device indicates in the RRC connection establishment process that the reason for establishing the connection of the terminal device is as an intermediate node, or indicates in the RRC connection recovery process that the reason for resuming the connection of the terminal device is as an intermediate node.

[0228] In some embodiments, after receiving a paging message, if the terminal device is of an intermediate node type or supports intermediate node capabilities, it reports information that it is an intermediate node. Exemplarily, after receiving a paging message, if the terminal device is in the RRC_IDLE state or the RRC_INACTIVE state, it first enters the RRC_CONNECTED state, and the terminal device reports that it is an intermediate node type terminal or reports that it supports intermediate node capabilities.

[0229] In some implementations, after the terminal device receives the paging message, when the terminal device is in the RRC_CONNECTED state, the terminal device can report its own location information.

[0230] In some embodiments, the information of the intermediate nodes may also be configured by the core network operation and maintenance (Operation and Maintenance) server to the access network device. Accordingly, the core network device may configure the information of the intermediate nodes within the coverage area of ​​the access network device to the access network device.

[0231] The above-mentioned intermediate node information includes one or more items of information such as the intermediate node's identification, location, and capability.

[0232] In the communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application, a terminal device establishes a radio resource control (RRC) connection when a trigger condition is met; wherein the trigger condition includes: the terminal device receiving a request or data from an environmental IoT device, the terminal device sending data or signaling related to the environmental IoT device to the network, or the terminal device receiving a paging message from a network device that is a paging intermediate node type terminal device. Since the terminal device initiates the establishment of an RRC connection with the network device when the trigger condition is met, the terminal device can communicate with the network device based on the services of the environmental IoT device processed by the terminal device during or after the RRC connection process, thereby achieving management of the terminal device that processes the services of the environmental IoT device.

[0233] It should be understood that, although the steps in the flowcharts of the above embodiments are shown in sequence as indicated by the arrows, these steps are not necessarily performed in the order indicated by the arrows. Unless otherwise specified herein, there is no strict order restriction on the execution of these steps, and these steps can be performed in other orders. Moreover, at least a portion of the steps in the flowcharts of the above embodiments may include multiple steps or multiple stages, and these steps or stages are not necessarily performed at the same time, but can be performed at different times. The execution order of these steps or stages is not necessarily to be performed in sequence, but can be performed in turn or alternately with other steps or at least a portion of steps or stages in other steps.

[0234] Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiments of the present application further provide a communication device for implementing the aforementioned communication method. The implementation solution provided by the device is similar to the implementation solution described in the aforementioned method. Therefore, the specific limitations in the one or more communication device embodiments provided below can be found in the above-mentioned limitations on the communication method and will not be repeated here.

[0235] In one embodiment, as shown in FIG8 , a communication device 800 is provided, including: a triggering module 801 and a sending module 802 , wherein:

[0236] The trigger module 801 is used to determine a trigger condition.

[0237] The sending module 802 is configured to establish a radio resource control RRC connection when a trigger condition is met.

[0238] Among them, the triggering conditions include one of the following conditions: the terminal device receives a request or data from the environmental Internet of Things device, the terminal device needs to send data or signaling related to the environmental Internet of Things device to the network, and the terminal device receives a paging message from a terminal device of the network device paging intermediate node type.

[0239] In one embodiment, as shown in FIG9 , a communication device 900 is provided, including: a receiving module 901 and a processing module 902 , wherein:

[0240] The receiving module 901 is used to receive the RRC connection request message sent by the terminal device.

[0241] The processing module 902 is used to establish an RRC connection with the terminal device according to the RRC connection request message.

[0242] It should be noted here that the above-mentioned device provided in the embodiment of the present application can implement all the method steps implemented in the above-mentioned method embodiment and can achieve the same technical effect. The parts and beneficial effects of this embodiment that are the same as those in the method embodiment will not be described in detail here.

[0243] It should be noted that the division of units in the embodiments of the present application is schematic and is merely a logical functional division. In actual implementation, other division methods may be used. Furthermore, the functional units in the various embodiments of the present application may be integrated into a single processing unit, or each unit may exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integrated into a single unit. The aforementioned integrated units may be implemented in the form of hardware or software functional units.

[0244] If the integrated module is implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a processor-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application, or the part that contributes to the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes a number of instructions for enabling a computer device (which can be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) or a processor to execute all or part of the steps of the various embodiments of the present application.

[0245] As shown in Figure 10, an embodiment of the present application also provides a communication device, which can be a terminal device to implement the above-mentioned communication method on the terminal device side. The terminal device includes a processor 1001, a memory 1002, a transceiver 1003 and a user interface 1004.

[0246] The transceiver 1003 is configured to receive and send data under the control of the processor.

[0247] In FIG10 , the bus architecture may include any number of interconnected buses and bridges, specifically linking together various circuits of one or more processors represented by a processor and a memory represented by a memory. The bus architecture may also link together various other circuits such as peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art and are therefore not further described herein. The bus interface provides an interface. The transceiver may be a plurality of components, including a transmitter and a receiver, providing a unit for communicating with various other devices over a transmission medium, such as a wireless channel, a wired channel, an optical cable, and the like. For different user devices, the user interface 1004 may also be an interface capable of connecting to required external or internal devices, including but not limited to a keypad, a display, a speaker, a microphone, a joystick, and the like.

[0248] The processor 1001 is responsible for managing the bus architecture and general processing, and the memory 1002 can store data used by the processor 1001 when performing operations.

[0249] In some embodiments, the processor may be a CPU (central processing unit), an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) or a CPLD (Complex Programmable Logic Device), and the processor may also adopt a multi-core architecture.

[0250] The processor calls the program stored in the memory to execute any method provided in the embodiments of the present application according to the obtained executable instructions. The processor and the memory can also be arranged physically separately.

[0251] As shown in Figure 11, an embodiment of the present application also provides a communication device to implement the above-mentioned communication method on the network device side, including a processor 1101, a memory 1102 and a transceiver 1103.

[0252] The transceiver 1103 is configured to receive and send data under the control of the processor 1101 .

[0253] In FIG11 , the bus architecture may include any number of interconnected buses and bridges, specifically linking together various circuits of one or more processors represented by a processor and a memory represented by a memory. The bus architecture may also link together various other circuits such as peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art and are therefore not further described herein. The bus interface provides an interface. The transceiver may be a plurality of components, i.e., a transmitter and a receiver, providing a unit for communicating with various other devices over a transmission medium, such as a wireless channel, a wired channel, an optical cable, or the like. The processor is responsible for managing the bus architecture and general processing, and the memory may store data used by the processor 1101 when performing operations.

[0254] The processor can be a central processing unit (CPU), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or a complex programmable logic device (CPLD), and the processor can also adopt a multi-core architecture.

[0255] The present application also provides a processor-readable storage medium, which can be any available medium or data storage device that can be accessed by the processor, including but not limited to magnetic storage (such as floppy disks, hard disks, tapes, magneto-optical disks (MO), etc.), optical storage (such as CDs, DVDs, BDs, HVDs, etc.), and semiconductor storage (such as ROMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, non-volatile memories (NAND FLASH), solid-state drives (SSDs)), etc.

[0256] In one embodiment, the present application also provides a computer program product, including a computer program, which implements the above-mentioned communication method when executed by a processor.

[0257] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that all or part of the processes in the above-mentioned embodiments can be implemented by instructing the relevant hardware through a computer program, and the computer program can be stored in a non-volatile computer-readable storage medium. When the computer program is executed, it can include the processes of the embodiments of the above-mentioned methods. Among them, any reference to memory, database or other media used in the embodiments provided in this application may include at least one of non-volatile and volatile memory. Non-volatile memory may include read-only memory (ROM), magnetic tape, floppy disk, flash memory, optical memory, high-density embedded non-volatile memory, resistive random access memory (ReRAM), magnetic random access memory (MRAM), ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM), phase change memory (PCM), graphene memory, etc. Volatile memory may include random access memory (RAM) or external cache memory, etc. By way of illustration and not limitation, RAM can be in various forms, such as static random access memory (SRAM) or dynamic random access memory (DRAM). The database involved in the various embodiments provided herein may include at least one of a relational database and a non-relational database. Non-relational databases may include, but are not limited to, distributed databases based on blockchains. The processor involved in the various embodiments provided herein may be, but are not limited to, a general-purpose processor, a central processing unit, a graphics processing unit, a digital signal processor, a programmable logic unit, a data processing logic unit based on quantum computing, and the like.

[0258] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the embodiments of the present application can be provided as methods, systems, or computer program products. Therefore, the present application can adopt the form of a complete hardware embodiment, a complete software embodiment, or an embodiment in combination with software and hardware. Moreover, the present application can adopt the form of a computer program product implemented on one or more computer-usable storage media (including but not limited to magnetic disk storage and optical storage, etc.) that contain computer-usable program code.

[0259] The present application is described with reference to the flowchart and / or block diagram of the method, device (system), and computer program product according to the embodiment of the present application. It should be understood that each process and / or box in the flowchart and / or block diagram, and the combination of the process and / or box in the flowchart and / or block diagram can be implemented by computer-executable instructions. These computer-executable instructions can be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, an embedded processing machine or other programmable data processing device to produce a machine, so that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing device produce a device for implementing the function specified in one process or multiple processes in the flowchart and / or one box or multiple boxes in the block diagram.

[0260] These processor-executable instructions may also be stored in a processor-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing device to operate in a specific manner, so that the instructions stored in the processor-readable memory produce a product including an instruction device that implements the functions specified in one or more processes in the flowchart and / or one or more boxes in the block diagram.

[0261] The technical features of the above embodiments can be combined arbitrarily. To make the description concise, not all possible combinations of the technical features in the above embodiments are described. However, as long as there is no contradiction in the combination of these technical features, they should be considered to be within the scope of this specification.

[0262] Obviously, those skilled in the art may make various changes and modifications to this application without departing from the spirit and scope of this application. Thus, if these modifications and variations of this application fall within the scope of the claims of this application and their equivalents, this application is intended to include these modifications and variations.

[0263] Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present application, rather than to limit them. Although the present application has been described in detail with reference to the aforementioned embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that they can still modify the technical solutions described in the aforementioned embodiments, or make equivalent replacements for some or all of the technical features therein. These modifications or replacements do not deviate the essence of the corresponding technical solutions from the scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, and they should all be included in the scope of the claims and specification of the present application. In particular, as long as there is no structural conflict, the various technical features mentioned in the various embodiments can be combined in any way. The present application is not limited to the specific embodiments disclosed herein, but includes all technical solutions that fall within the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A communication method, applied to a terminal device, comprising: The terminal device establishes a radio resource control RRC connection when a trigger condition is met; Among them, the trigger condition includes one of the following conditions: the terminal device receives a request or data from the environmental Internet of Things device, the terminal device needs to send data or signaling related to the environmental Internet of Things device to the network, and the terminal device receives a paging message from a terminal device of the intermediate node type that is paged by a network device.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein The method further comprises: The terminal device sends type information of the terminal device to the network device, where the type information is used to determine whether the terminal device serves as an intermediate node between the environmental Internet of Things device and the network device.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein: The type information is carried in the connection establishment cause information of the RRC connection; If the terminal device is in an RRC idle state, establishing a radio resource control RRC connection includes: The terminal device sends an RRC connection establishment request message to the network device; In which, the RRC connection establishment request message includes the connection establishment reason information; the connection establishment reason information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things device, or to indicate that the terminal device has business needs for the environmental Internet of Things device.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein: The type information is carried in the connection recovery cause information of the RRC connection; If the terminal device is in an RRC inactive state, establishing a radio resource control RRC connection includes: The terminal device sends an RRC connection recovery request message to the network device; Among them, the RRC connection recovery request message includes the connection recovery reason information, and the connection recovery reason information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things device, or to indicate that the terminal device has business needs for the environmental Internet of Things device.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein: The establishing of a radio resource control RRC connection includes: The terminal device selects a target classification as the access classification of the terminal device, the target classification including terminal signaling of the RRC layer caused by non-paging or the terminal device as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things device; According to the access classification of the terminal device, the terminal device performs a unified access control judgment to determine whether access to the network device is allowed.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein: After the terminal device performs unified access control judgment based on the access classification of the terminal device to determine whether to allow access to the network device, the method further includes: If so, the terminal device is connected to the network device; If not, the terminal device prohibits the access attempt corresponding to the access classification information within a preset time period.

7. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein: The type information is carried in the terminal capability information, and the method further includes: After the terminal device enters the RRC connected state, reporting the terminal capability information to the network device; Among them, the terminal capability information includes at least one of first capability information and second capability information; the first capability information is used to indicate whether the terminal device supports serving as the intermediate node, and the second capability information is used to indicate the air interface capability between the terminal device and the environmental Internet of Things device.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein: The second capability information includes at least one of the following information: frequency information, bandwidth information, physical layer signal supporting association with the environmental Internet of Things device, coding method information, modulation method information, beam capability information, and power control capability information.

9. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein: The type information is carried in the indication information, and the method further includes: After the terminal device enters the RRC connection state, the indication information is reported to the network device, where the indication information is used to indicate the terminal device to serve as the intermediate node.

10. A communication method, applied to a network device, comprising: The network device receives an RRC connection request message sent by the terminal device; Establish an RRC connection with the terminal device according to the RRC connection request message.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein: Also includes: The network device receives type information of the terminal device sent by the terminal device, where the type information is used to determine whether the terminal device serves as an intermediate node between the environmental Internet of Things device and the network device.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein The type information is carried in the connection establishment cause information of the RRC connection; if the terminal device is in the RRC idle state, the RRC connection request message includes an RRC connection establishment request message; Among them, the RRC connection establishment request message includes the connection establishment reason information, and the connection establishment reason information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things device, or to indicate that the terminal device has business needs for the environmental Internet of Things device.

13. The method according to claim 11, wherein The type information is carried in the connection recovery reason information of the RRC connection; if the terminal device is in an RRC inactive state, the RRC connection request message includes an RRC connection recovery request message; Among them, the RRC connection recovery request message includes the connection recovery reason information, and the connection recovery reason information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things device, or to indicate that the terminal device has business needs for the environmental Internet of Things device.

14. The method according to claim 10, wherein: The method further comprises: The network device sends a paging message to a terminal device of the intermediate node type.

15. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 13, wherein: The type information is carried in the terminal capability information, and the method further includes: After the terminal device enters the RRC connected state, the network device performs at least one of an operation of requesting the terminal device to report capabilities related to the intermediate node and an operation of receiving the terminal capability information reported by the terminal device; Among them, the terminal capability information includes at least one of first capability information and second capability information; the first capability information is used to indicate whether the terminal device supports serving as the intermediate node, and the second capability information is used to indicate the air interface capability between the terminal device and the environmental Internet of Things device.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein The second capability information includes at least one of the following information: frequency information, bandwidth information, physical layer signal supporting association with the environmental Internet of Things device, coding method information, modulation method information, beam capability information, and power control capability information.

17. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 13, wherein: The type information is carried in the indication information, and the method further includes: After the terminal device enters the RRC connection state, the network device performs at least one of an operation of requesting the terminal device to report the terminal type and an operation of receiving the indication information reported by the terminal device, where the indication information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node.

18. A terminal device, wherein: Includes memory, transceiver and processor: memory for storing computer programs; a transceiver, configured to transmit and receive data under the control of the processor; A processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform the following operations: When the trigger condition is met, a radio resource control RRC connection is established; Among them, the trigger condition includes one of the following conditions: the terminal device receives a request or data from the environmental Internet of Things device, the terminal device needs to send data or signaling related to the environmental Internet of Things device to the network, and the terminal device receives a paging message from a terminal device of the intermediate node type that is paged by a network device.

19. The terminal device according to claim 18, wherein: The terminal device further performs the following operations: The type information of the terminal device is sent to the network device through the transceiver, and the type information is used to determine whether the terminal device serves as an intermediate node between the environmental Internet of Things device and the network device.

20. The terminal device according to claim 19, wherein: The type information is carried in the connection establishment cause information of the RRC connection; If the terminal device is in an RRC idle state, establishing a radio resource control RRC connection includes: Sending an RRC connection establishment request message to the network device; Among them, the RRC connection establishment request message includes the connection establishment reason information, and the connection establishment reason information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things device, or to indicate that the terminal device has business needs for the environmental Internet of Things device.

21. The terminal device according to claim 19, wherein: The type information is carried in the connection recovery cause information of the RRC connection; If the terminal device is in an RRC inactive state, establishing a radio resource control RRC connection includes: Sending an RRC connection recovery request message to the network device; Among them, the RRC connection recovery request message includes the connection recovery reason information, and the connection recovery reason information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things device, or to indicate that the terminal device has business needs for the environmental Internet of Things device.

22. The terminal device according to any one of claims 18 to 21, wherein: The establishing of a radio resource control RRC connection includes: Selecting a target classification as the access classification of the terminal device, the target classification including terminal signaling of the RRC layer caused by non-paging or the terminal device as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things device; Based on the access classification of the terminal device, a unified access control judgment is performed to determine whether access to the network device is allowed.

23. The terminal device according to claim 22, wherein: After performing unified access control judgment according to the access classification of the terminal device to determine whether the terminal device is allowed to access the network device, the terminal device further performs the following operations: If so, the terminal device is connected to the network device; If not, the access attempt corresponding to the access classification information is prohibited within a preset time period.

24. The terminal device according to any one of claims 19 to 21, wherein: The type information is carried in the terminal capability information, and the terminal device further performs the following operations: After the terminal device enters the RRC connected state, reporting the terminal capability information to the network device; Among them, the terminal capability information includes at least one of first capability information and second capability information; the first capability information is used to indicate whether the terminal device supports serving as the intermediate node, and the second capability information is used to indicate the air interface capability between the terminal device and the environmental Internet of Things device.

25. The terminal device according to claim 24, wherein: The second capability information includes at least one of the following information: frequency information, bandwidth information, physical layer signal supporting association with the environmental Internet of Things device, coding method information, modulation method information, beam capability information, and power control capability information.

26. The terminal device according to any one of claims 19 to 21, wherein: The type information is carried in the indication information, and the terminal device further performs the following operations: After the terminal device enters the RRC connection state, the indication information is reported to the network device, where the indication information is used to indicate the terminal device to serve as the intermediate node.

27. A network device, wherein: Includes memory, transceiver and processor: memory for storing computer programs; a transceiver, configured to transmit and receive data under the control of the processor; A processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform the following operations: Receiving an RRC connection request message sent by a terminal device through a transceiver; Establish an RRC connection with the terminal device according to the RRC connection request message.

28. The network device according to claim 27, wherein: The network device further performs the following operations: The type information of the terminal device sent by the terminal device is received by the transceiver, and the type information is used to determine whether the terminal device serves as an intermediate node between the environmental Internet of Things device and the network device.

29. The network device according to claim 28, wherein: The type information is carried in the connection establishment cause information of the RRC connection; if the terminal device is in the RRC idle state, the RRC connection request message includes an RRC connection establishment request message; Among them, the RRC connection establishment request message includes the connection establishment reason information, and the connection establishment reason information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things device, or to indicate that the terminal device has business needs for the environmental Internet of Things device.

30. The network device according to claim 28, wherein The type information is carried in the connection recovery reason information of the RRC connection; if the terminal device is in an RRC inactive state, the RRC connection request message includes an RRC connection recovery request message; Among them, the RRC connection recovery request message includes the connection recovery reason information, and the connection recovery reason information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node of the environmental Internet of Things device, or to indicate that the terminal device has business needs for the environmental Internet of Things device.

31. The network device according to claim 27, wherein: The network device further performs the following operations: A paging message for a terminal device of the intermediate node type is sent through the transceiver.

32. The network device according to any one of claims 28 to 30, wherein: The type information is carried in the terminal capability information. After the terminal device enters the RRC connected state, the network device further performs at least one of the following operations: Requesting the terminal device to report the capabilities related to the intermediate node through the transceiver; receiving, by the transceiver, the terminal capability information reported by the terminal device; Among them, the terminal capability information includes at least one of first capability information and second capability information; the first capability information is used to indicate whether the terminal device supports serving as the intermediate node, and the second capability information is used to indicate the air interface capability between the terminal device and the environmental Internet of Things device.

33. The network device according to claim 32, wherein: The second capability information includes at least one of the following information: frequency information, bandwidth information, physical layer signal supporting association with the environmental Internet of Things device, coding method information, modulation method information, beam capability information, and power control capability information.

34. The network device according to any one of claims 28 to 30, wherein: The type information is carried in the indication information. After the terminal device enters the RRC connected state, the network device further performs at least one of the following operations: Requesting the terminal device to report the terminal type through the transceiver; The indication information reported by the terminal device is received through the transceiver, where the indication information is used to indicate that the terminal device serves as an intermediate node.

35. A communication device, applied to a terminal device, comprising: A trigger module, used to determine trigger conditions; A sending module, configured to establish a radio resource control (RRC) connection when a trigger condition is met; Among them, the trigger condition includes one of the following conditions: the terminal device receives a request or data from the environmental Internet of Things device, the terminal device needs to send data or signaling related to the environmental Internet of Things device to the network, and the terminal device receives a paging message from a terminal device of the intermediate node type that is paged by a network device.

36. A communication device, applied to a network device, comprising: A receiving module, configured to receive an RRC connection request message sent by a terminal device; A processing module is used to establish an RRC connection with the terminal device according to the RRC connection request message.

37. A processor-readable storage medium, wherein: The processor-readable storage medium stores a program, and the program is configured to cause the processor to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 17.

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