Communication energy-saving control method, terminal, and network function

Abstract

The present application relates to the technical field of communications, and discloses a communication energy-saving control method, a terminal, and a network function. The communication energy-saving control method in the embodiments of the present application comprises: a terminal sends first information to a network side device, wherein the first information is used for indicating any one of the following: whether an energy-saving operation is authorized; and preference for the energy-saving operation. The technical solution of the present application can solve the problem of poor user experience caused by the mismatch between the current actual communication demand of a terminal and the energy-saving operation executed on the terminal.

Description

Communication energy-saving control method, terminal and network function

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the China Patent Office on February 7, 2024, with application number 202410175396.7 and invention name “Communication Energy Saving Control Method, Terminal and Network Function”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0003] The present application belongs to the field of communication technology, and specifically relates to a communication energy-saving control method, terminal and network function. Background Art

[0004] To achieve energy-saving communications, users can sign a contract with an operator for terminal energy-saving. The operator can then perform energy-saving operations based on the contracted data during terminal communications, such as reducing the terminal's communication rate, lowering the terminal's communication quality, or directly controlling the number of communications made by the terminal. However, during terminal use, there may be a mismatch between the terminal's actual communication needs and the energy-saving operations performed on the terminal, resulting in a poor user experience. Summary of the Invention

[0005] The embodiments of the present application provide a communication energy-saving control method, a terminal and a network function, as well as a communication energy-saving control device, a readable storage medium and a program product, which can solve the problem of poor user experience caused by the mismatch between the current actual communication needs of the terminal and the energy-saving operations performed on the terminal.

[0006] In a first aspect, a communication energy-saving control method is provided, comprising:

[0007] The terminal sends first information to the network side device, where the first information is used to indicate any one of the following:

[0008] Whether energy-saving operations are authorized;

[0009] Tendency towards energy-saving operation.

[0010] In a second aspect, a communication energy-saving control device is provided, comprising:

[0011] The first sending module is configured to send first information to the network side device, where the first information is used to indicate any one of the following:

[0012] Whether energy-saving operations are authorized;

[0013] Tendency towards energy-saving operation.

[0014] In a third aspect, a communication energy-saving control method is provided, including:

[0015] The first network function receives first information sent by the terminal, where the first information is used to indicate any one of the following:

[0016] Whether energy-saving operations are authorized;

[0017] a tendency toward energy-saving operations;

[0018] The first network function sends the first information to a second network function, a third network function, or a fifth network function.

[0019] In a fourth aspect, a communication energy-saving control device is provided, comprising:

[0020] The first receiving module is configured to receive first information sent by a terminal, where the first information is used to indicate any one of the following:

[0021] Whether energy-saving operations are authorized;

[0022] a tendency toward energy-saving operations;

[0023] The second sending module is configured to send the first information to the second network function, the third network function, or the fifth network function.

[0024] In a fifth aspect, a communication energy-saving control method is provided, comprising:

[0025] The third network function obtains first information, where the first information is used to indicate any one of the following:

[0026] Whether energy-saving operations are authorized;

[0027] a tendency toward energy-saving operations;

[0028] A first energy-saving operation is performed according to the first information.

[0029] In a sixth aspect, a communication energy-saving control device is provided, comprising:

[0030] The first acquisition module is configured to acquire first information, where the first information is used to indicate any one of the following:

[0031] Whether energy-saving operations are authorized;

[0032] a tendency toward energy-saving operations;

[0033] The first energy-saving execution module is configured to execute a first energy-saving operation according to the first information.

[0034] In a seventh aspect, a communication energy-saving control method is provided, comprising:

[0035] The second network function receives first information sent by the first network function or the third function, where the first information is used to indicate any one of the following:

[0036] Whether energy-saving operations are authorized;

[0037] a tendency toward energy-saving operations;

[0038] The second network function performs a second energy-saving operation according to the first information.

[0039] In an eighth aspect, a communication energy-saving control device is provided, comprising:

[0040] The second receiving module is configured to receive first information sent by the first network function or the third function, where the first information is used to indicate any one of the following:

[0041] Whether energy-saving operations are authorized;

[0042] a tendency toward energy-saving operations;

[0043] The second energy-saving execution module is configured to execute a second energy-saving operation according to the first information.

[0044] In a ninth aspect, a communication energy-saving control method is provided, comprising:

[0045] The fourth network function receives the first request sent by the second network function;

[0046] The energy-saving auxiliary information is sent to the second network function. In a tenth aspect, a communication energy-saving control device is provided, comprising:

[0047] a third receiving module, configured to receive a first request sent by a second network function, where the first request is used to obtain energy-saving auxiliary information;

[0048] A first auxiliary information generating module, configured to generate energy-saving auxiliary information according to the first request;

[0049] The third sending module is used to send the energy-saving auxiliary information to the second network function.

[0050] In an eleventh aspect, a communication energy-saving control method is provided, comprising:

[0051] The fifth network function receives the first information sent by the first network function, and the fifth network function writes the first information into the contract data of the terminal, where the first information is used to indicate any one of the following:

[0052] Whether energy-saving operations are authorized;

[0053] a tendency toward energy-saving operations;

[0054] If old first information already exists in the fifth network function, the newly received first information overwrites the old first information.

[0055] In a twelfth aspect, a communication energy-saving control device is provided, comprising:

[0056] The fourth receiving module is configured to receive first information sent by the first network function, and write the first information into the contract data of the terminal, where the first information is used to indicate any one of the following:

[0057] Whether energy-saving operations are authorized;

[0058] a tendency toward energy-saving operations;

[0059] The overwriting module is configured to overwrite the old first information with the newly received first information if the old first information already exists in the fifth network function.

[0060] In the thirteenth aspect, a terminal is provided, comprising a processor and a memory, wherein the memory stores programs or instructions that can be run on the processor, and when the programs or instructions are executed by the processor, the steps of the communication energy saving control method as described in the first aspect are implemented.

[0061] In the fourteenth aspect, a network function, a processor and a memory are provided, wherein the memory stores programs or instructions that can be run on the processor, and when the programs or instructions are executed by the processor, the steps of the third, fifth, seventh, ninth and eleventh communication energy-saving control methods are implemented.

[0062] In the fifteenth aspect, a readable storage medium is provided, on which a program or instruction is stored. When the program or instruction is executed by a processor, the steps of the communication energy saving control method as described in the first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth or eleventh aspect are implemented.

[0063] In the sixteenth aspect, a wireless communication system is provided, comprising: a terminal and a network side device, wherein the terminal can be used to execute the steps of the communication control method as described in the first aspect, and the network side device can be used to execute the steps of the communication control method as described in the third, fifth, seventh, ninth or eleventh aspect.

[0064] In the seventeenth aspect, a chip is provided, which includes a processor and a communication interface, the communication interface and the processor are coupled, and the processor is used to run programs or instructions to implement the communication energy-saving control method as described in the first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, or eleventh aspect.

[0065] In the eighteenth aspect, a computer program / program product is provided, which is stored in a storage medium and is executed by at least one processor to implement the steps of the communication control method as described in the first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth or eleventh aspect.

[0066] In an embodiment of the present application, the first information that can reflect the actual needs of the user or the terminal is sent to the network side device, that is, the terminal will send the first information indicating whether to authorize or tend to perform the energy-saving operation to the network side device according to the actual needs, so as to more accurately indicate whether the communication network can perform the energy-saving operation on the terminal. Even if the user has signed the terminal energy-saving contract data with the operator, it can be determined whether to take the energy-saving operation at present according to the actual needs of the terminal, so as to achieve the purpose of more accurately performing the energy-saving operation on the terminal according to the actual needs of the user, avoiding blindly performing the energy-saving operation on the terminal according to the contract data, thereby improving the user experience. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0067] FIG1 shows a block diagram of a wireless communication system to which embodiments of the present application may be applied;

[0068] FIG2 is a flow chart of a communication energy-saving control method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0069] FIG3 is a flow chart of another communication energy-saving control method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0070] FIG4 is a flow chart of another communication energy-saving control method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0071] FIG5 is a flow chart of another communication energy-saving control method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0072] FIG6 is a flow chart of another communication energy-saving control method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0073] FIG7 is a flow chart of another communication control method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0074] FIG8 is a flow chart of a terminal registration process in an embodiment of the present application;

[0075] FIG9 is a schematic diagram of a process of updating an AM policy after terminal registration according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0076] FIG10 is a schematic diagram of a process for determining an AM strategy based on energy-saving auxiliary information in an embodiment of the present application;

[0077] FIG11 is a flow chart of a PDU session establishment process in an embodiment of the present application;

[0078] FIG12 is a schematic diagram of a process for updating an SM policy after a PDU session is established according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0079] FIG13 is a flow chart of determining the SM strategy based on energy-saving auxiliary information in an embodiment of the present application.

[0080] FIG14 is a schematic diagram of a process for updating first information in a UDM according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0081] FIG15 is a schematic diagram of a communication energy-saving control device according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0082] FIG16 is a schematic diagram of another communication energy-saving control device according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0083] FIG17 is a schematic diagram of another communication energy-saving control device according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0084] FIG18 is a schematic diagram of another communication energy-saving control device according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0085] FIG19 is a schematic diagram of another communication energy-saving control device according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0086] FIG20 is a schematic diagram of another communication energy-saving control device according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0087] FIG21 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0088] FIG22 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0089] Figure 23 is a structural diagram of a network-side device in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0090] The following will be combined with the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of this application to clearly describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of this application. Obviously, the embodiments described are 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 are within the scope of protection of this application.

[0091] The terms "first", "second", etc. in this application are used to distinguish similar objects, and are not used to describe the order or precedence of the targets. It should be understood that the terms used in this way are interchangeable where appropriate, so that the embodiments of the present application can be implemented in an order other than those illustrated or described herein, and the objects distinguished by "first" and "second" are generally of the same type, and do not limit the number of objects, for example, the first object can be one or more. In addition, "or" in this application represents at least one of the connected objects. For example, "A or B" covers three options, namely, Option 1: including A but not including B; Option 2: including B but not including A; Option 3: including both A and B. The character " / " generally indicates that the objects associated before and after are in an "or" relationship.

[0092] The term "indication" in this application can be either a direct indication (or explicit indication) or an indirect indication (or implicit indication). A direct indication can be understood as the sender explicitly informing the receiver of specific information, the operation to be performed, or the requested result, etc. in the instruction sent; an indirect indication can be understood as the receiver determining the corresponding information based on the instruction sent by the sender, or making a judgment and determining the operation to be performed or the requested result, etc. based on the judgment result.

[0093] It is worth noting that the technology described in the embodiments of the present application is not limited to the Long Term Evolution (LTE) / LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) system, but can also be used in other wireless communication systems, such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Single-carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) or other systems. The terms "system" and "network" in the embodiments of the present application are often used interchangeably, and the described technology can be used for the systems and radio technologies mentioned above, as well as for other systems and radio technologies. The following description describes a New Radio (NR) system for example purposes, and NR terminology is used in most of the following description, but these technologies can also be applied to systems other than NR systems, such as 6th Generation (6G) communication systems.

[0094] FIG1 shows a block diagram of a wireless communication system applicable to an embodiment of the present application. The wireless communication system includes a terminal 110 and a network-side device 120. The terminal 110 may be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a handheld computer, a netbook, an ultra-mobile personal computer (UMPC), a mobile internet device (MID), an augmented reality (AR), a virtual reality (VR) device, a robot, a wearable device, an aircraft (flight vehicle), a vehicle user equipment (VUE), a ship-borne device, a pedestrian user equipment (PUE), a smart home (home appliances with wireless communication capabilities, such as refrigerators, televisions, washing machines, or furniture), a game console, a personal computer (PC), a teller machine, or a self-service machine, or other terminal-side devices. Wearable devices include: smart watches, smart bracelets, smart headphones, smart glasses, smart jewelry (smart bracelets, smart bracelets, smart rings, smart necklaces, smart anklets, smart anklets, etc.), smart wristbands, smart clothing, etc. Among them, the vehicle-mounted device can also be called a vehicle-mounted terminal, vehicle-mounted controller, vehicle-mounted module, vehicle-mounted component, vehicle-mounted chip or vehicle-mounted unit, etc. It should be noted that the specific type of terminal 110 is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

[0095] The network-side device 120 may include an access network device or a core network device, wherein the access network device may also be referred to as a radio access network (RAN) device, a radio access network function, or a radio access network unit. The access network device may include a base station, a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AS), or a wireless fidelity (WiFi) node. Among them, the base station can be referred to as Node B (NB), Evolved Node B (eNB), the next generation Node B (gNB), New Radio Node B (NR Node B), access point, Relay Base Station (RBS), Serving Base Station (SBS), Base Transceiver Station (BTS), radio base station, radio transceiver, Basic Service Set (BSS), Extended Service Set (ESS), Home Node B (HNB), Home Evolved Node B (home evolved Node B), Transmission Reception Point (TRP) or other appropriate terms in the field. As long as the same technical effect is achieved, the base station is not limited to the target technical vocabulary. It should be noted that in the embodiment of the present application, only the base station in the NR system is used as an example for introduction, and the specific type of the base station is not limited.

[0096] The core network device may include but is not limited to at least one of the following: core network node, core network function, mobility management entity (MME), access mobility management function (AMF), session management function (SMF), user plane function (UPF), policy control function (PCF), policy and charging rules function unit (PCRF), edge application server discovery function (EASDF), unified data management (UDM), unified data storage (UDR), home user server (HSS), centralized network configuration (CNC), network storage function (NRF), network exposure function (NEF), local NEF (L-NEF), binding support function (BNSF), network access function (UE ... Function, BSF), application function (Application Function, AF), etc. It should be noted that in the embodiment of the present application, only the core network device in the NR system is introduced as an example, and the specific type of the core network device is not limited.But not limited to at least one of the following: core network node, core network function, Mobility Management Entity (MME), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), User Plane Function (UPF), Policy Control Function (PCF), Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF), Edge Application Server Discovery Function (EASDF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Unified Data Repository (UDR), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Centralized Network Configuration (CNC), Network Repository Function (NRF), Network Exposure Function (NEF), Local NEF (L-NEF), Binding Support Function (BSF), Application Function (AF), etc. It should be noted that in the embodiments of this application, only the core network equipment in the NR system is introduced as an example, and the specific type of the core network equipment is not limited.

[0097] The communication energy-saving control solution provided by the embodiment of the present application is described in detail below with reference to some embodiments and their application scenarios in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0098] In related technologies, to achieve energy-saving communications, users can sign a contract with an operator for terminal energy-saving, so that the operator can perform energy-saving operations on the terminal according to the contracted data during subsequent terminal communications to achieve energy saving. Specifically, the energy-saving operations can include reducing the terminal's communication rate or reducing the terminal's communication quality. This can be achieved by adjusting some parameters in the AM policy or SM policy during the generation of the terminal's terminal policy, such as the UE-AMBR, UE-Slice-MBR, or QoS parameters. Alternatively, the energy-saving operations can also include controlling the terminal's communication volume, such as deactivating or releasing some PDU sessions of the terminal. The contract data for terminal energy-saving signed by the user and the operator can include, for example, the amount of energy consumption that the user's terminal can use within a preset time period. If the energy consumption of the terminal within the time period exceeds the agreed value, an energy-saving operation will be performed on the terminal. However, in some scenarios, users may need higher quality or normal communication needs. For example, users need to watch ultra-high-definition videos within a certain period of time. If the operator performs energy-saving operations on the terminal based on the contract data signed with the user and reduces the communication rate of the terminal, it will lead to the inability to meet the user's communication needs and reduce the user experience.

[0099] In response to the above-mentioned technical problems, the embodiments of the present application provide a corresponding solution. In this solution, the terminal will send first information to the network side device to indicate whether to authorize or tend to perform energy-saving operations on the terminal according to actual needs, so as to more accurately indicate whether the network side device can perform energy-saving operations on the terminal. Even if the user or the terminal has signed energy-saving contract data with the operator, it can determine whether to take energy-saving operations based on the actual needs of the terminal, so as to achieve the purpose of more accurately performing energy-saving operations on the terminal according to the actual needs of the user, avoiding blindly performing energy-saving operations on the terminal according to the contract data, or avoiding the network side unilaterally directly performing energy-saving operations when the user has not signed energy-saving contract data with the operator, thereby improving user experience.

[0100] The technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present application can be achieved by the terminal sending first information to the network side device to indicate whether to authorize or tend to perform energy-saving operations, and then sending the above first information to the core network device in the network side device. Through the corresponding network functions in the core device, energy-saving operations can be performed on the terminal more accurately according to the actual needs of the user.

[0101] FIG2 is a flow chart of a communication energy-saving control method according to an embodiment of the present application. This step may be performed by a first communication energy-saving control device, which may be provided in a terminal. As shown in FIG2 , the method includes the following steps:

[0102] Step 201: Send first information to a network-side device, where the first information indicates any one of the following:

[0103] Whether energy-saving operations are authorized;

[0104] Tendency towards energy-saving operation.

[0105] Whether the energy-saving operation is authorized can be directly decided based on the first information; and the tendency of the energy-saving operation can be considered as the first information sent by the terminal to inform the network side device of its needs or expectations, but the network side device can also consider other factors or parameters when deciding whether to perform the energy-saving operation.

[0106] In this step, the terminal needs to send the first information including whether to authorize the execution of the energy-saving operation and the tendency towards the energy-saving operation to the network side device according to actual needs, in the expectation that the network side device can consider the above-mentioned first information sent from the terminal even when the energy-saving contract data of the terminal has been signed or there is no energy-saving contract information. The first information can more accurately express the actual needs of the terminal, so that the network side device can make a decision on whether to execute the energy-saving operation based on the actual needs of the terminal.

[0107] The network side device in this embodiment may be a core network device.

[0108] In some embodiments, for example, the first information may include at least one of the following:

[0109] Authorize the network to perform energy-saving operations;

[0110] The network is not authorized to perform energy-saving operations;

[0111] Authorize the network in the target area to perform energy-saving operations;

[0112] Not authorizing energy-saving operations within the target area network;

[0113] Authorize the network to perform energy-saving operations within the target time;

[0114] The network is not authorized to perform energy-saving operations within the target time;

[0115] Authorizes the network to perform energy-saving operations when using the target slice;

[0116] When the target slice is not authorized to be used, the network performs energy-saving operations;

[0117] Authorize network energy-saving operations for specific QoS flows;

[0118] Not authorizing network energy-saving operations for specific QoS flows;

[0119] Tend the network to perform energy-saving operations;

[0120] Do not tend to the network to perform energy-saving operations;

[0121] Tend to perform energy-saving operations on the network in the target area;

[0122] Do not favor energy-saving operations for networks within the target area;

[0123] Tend to perform energy-saving operations on the network within the target time;

[0124] The network is not inclined to perform energy-saving operations within the target time;

[0125] The network tends to perform energy-saving operations when using the target slice;

[0126] When the target slice is not used, the network performs energy-saving operations;

[0127] Emergency communications information.

[0128] Among them, for "authorizing the network to perform energy-saving operations" and "not authorizing the performance of energy-saving operations", the terminal sends an instruction to the network side device, whether the energy-saving operation is allowed to be performed under the current circumstances. For example, if it is a non-authorized instruction, the network side device will not perform energy-saving operations on the terminal during the communication control process; and until it receives the instruction of authorization to perform, it will reconsider the communication control process and perform energy-saving operations on the terminal.

[0129] "Authorize energy-saving operations in target areas" and "Do not authorize energy-saving operations in target areas" are instructions sent to network-side devices, instructing them to determine whether to perform energy-saving operations on the terminal based on the terminal's location. Specifically, energy-saving operations can be disabled in a certain target area but enabled in other areas; or energy-saving operations can be enabled in a certain target area but not in other areas. For example, based on the user's living area or work area, energy-saving operations can be authorized in the user's living area.

[0130] The "Authorize Energy-Saving Operations During Target Time" and "Do Not Authorize Energy-Saving Operations During Target Time" settings send instructions to the network device, instructing it to determine whether to perform energy-saving operations on the terminal based on time. Specifically, energy-saving operations can be disabled during a certain target time but allowed at other times; or energy-saving operations can be enabled during a certain target time but not at other times. For example, if a user uses the terminal to watch ultra-high-definition videos on weekends, energy-saving operations can be disabled during that time.

[0131] "Authorize to perform energy-saving operations on the target slice" and "Do not authorize to perform energy-saving operations on the target slice" are instructions sent to the network-side device, instructing to perform energy-saving operations on the terminal on slices that provide certain services. Specifically, energy-saving operations on the terminal may not be performed on a slice of a certain target service, but may be performed on slices of other services; or energy-saving operations on the terminal may be performed on a slice of a target service, but not on slices of other services. For example, when a user uses a terminal to watch ultra-high-definition video, energy-saving operations on the terminal may not be performed on the slice that provides the video service.

[0132] As for the first information "tendency to perform energy-saving operations; not tend to perform energy-saving operations; tend to perform energy-saving operations within the target area; not tend to perform energy-saving operations within the target area; tend to perform energy-saving operations within the target time; not tend to perform energy-saving operations within the target time; tend to perform energy-saving operations on the target slice; not tend to perform energy-saving operations on the target slice", it is similar to the above-mentioned whether to authorize the execution of energy-saving operations. The only difference is that this tendency is to inform the network side device of its needs or expectations, and the network side device will fully consider the above-mentioned tendency issued by the terminal when making the final decision on whether to perform energy-saving operations.

[0133] The emergency communication information indicates that the user is currently in an emergency situation and that energy-saving operations on the user's terminal cannot be performed at this time.

[0134] Any of the above items can more accurately reflect the actual needs of the terminal. In the embodiment of the present application, by sending the first information including any of the above items that can more accurately reflect the actual needs of the terminal to the network side device, the communication network can determine whether to perform energy-saving operations based on the actual needs of the user, thereby avoiding blindly performing energy-saving operations on the terminal and resulting in poor user experience.

[0135] Specifically, the network side device in the embodiment of the present application can be a core network device, which usually includes multiple network functions, such as a first network function that is connected to the terminal for communication, which can be any one of the multiple network functions of the above-mentioned core network device. After receiving the above-mentioned first information through the first network function, it can be forwarded to other network functions that have the decision-making ability of whether to perform energy-saving operations, so that they can determine whether to perform energy-saving operations on the terminal based on the first information, or the first network function itself has the decision-making ability and can determine whether to perform energy-saving operations based on the first information.

[0136] In an embodiment of the present application, sending the first information to the network side device can be achieved through an existing process in the existing communication network. For example, the first information can be sent to the network side device during the terminal registration stage, PDU session establishment or PDU session modification process.

[0137] Specifically, it can be implemented in the terminal registration stage, and the sending of the first information to the network side device in the above step 201 can include:

[0138] Send a registration request to the first network function, where the registration request carries the first information.

[0139] Alternatively, during the PDU session establishment or modification process, the sending of the first information to the network-side device in step 201 may include at least one of the following:

[0140] Send a non-access layer NAS message to the first network function, where the NAS message includes a PDU session establishment request and the first information, or the NAS message includes a PDU session modification request and the first information.

[0141] Sending a PDU session establishment request to the second network function, where the PDU session establishment request carries the first information;

[0142] Sending a PDU session modification request to the second network function, where the PDU session modification request carries the first information;

[0143] The above-mentioned PDU session establishment request and PDU session modification request can also be carried in the NAS message, but the first information is carried in the PDU session establishment request and the PDU session modification request, and the PDU session establishment request and the PDU session modification request are sent directly to the second network function in a transparent manner.

[0144] In an embodiment of the present application, the first network function may be an access and mobility management function (AMF), which is forwarded by the AMF to a corresponding network function with decision-making capabilities.

[0145] In some cases, in addition to utilizing existing messaging between a terminal and a network-side device to transmit the aforementioned first information, dedicated energy-saving operation instruction information can also be provided, with the terminal sending the energy-saving operation instruction information to the first network function. This energy-saving operation instruction information includes the aforementioned first information. This direct provision of a new communication message to transmit the first information eliminates the need to modify existing messages, facilitating compatibility with existing technologies. Specifically, the first network function can be a network function with decision-making capabilities within a core network device, or a network function with forwarding capabilities. The network function with forwarding capabilities can forward the first information to the network function with decision-making capabilities.

[0146] In the embodiment of the present application, some preset conditions may be set, and the terminal may trigger the sending of the first information to the network side device when the preset conditions are met. Depending on actual needs, the preset conditions may include at least one of the following:

[0147] The preset application is started, emergency communication is started, the location condition, time condition, scene condition and service condition are preset, the cumulative energy consumption of the UE does not exceed the threshold value, and the UE does not receive a notification that the energy consumption credit value on the network side is exhausted.

[0148] The above-mentioned preset conditions can be set based on the terminal's actual requirements for communication rate, communication quality or communication quantity. When a preset application is started on the terminal, such as a video player; emergency communication software is started; the terminal is at a certain target location; the current time is in a target time period; the current terminal is used in a target scenario; the target service provided by the current terminal, such as positioning service, etc., can be regarded as meeting the preset conditions, and then when the above-mentioned preset conditions are met, the first information is started to be sent to the network side device.

[0149] In the embodiment shown in Figure 2, the terminal will send first information including whether to authorize the execution of the energy-saving operation and at least one of the inclination towards the energy-saving operation to the network side device according to actual needs, so as to more accurately indicate whether the network side device can perform the energy-saving operation on the terminal. Even if the user has signed the contract data for terminal energy saving with the operator, it can be determined whether to take the energy-saving operation at the current time point according to the actual needs of the terminal, so as to achieve the purpose of more accurately performing the energy-saving operation on the terminal according to the actual needs of the user, avoiding blindly performing the energy-saving operation on the terminal according to the contract data, thereby improving the user experience.

[0150] As described in the above embodiment, the first network function in the core network device may not be a network function with decision-making capabilities, and it can forward the above-mentioned first information to a network function with decision-making capabilities. Figure 3 is a flow chart of another communication energy-saving control method in an embodiment of the present application, as shown in Figure 3, including the following steps:

[0151] Step 301: A first network function receives first information sent by a terminal, where the first information indicates any one of the following:

[0152] Whether energy-saving operations are authorized;

[0153] a tendency toward energy-saving operations;

[0154] In this embodiment, the first network function can receive the first information sent by the terminal, and the first network function is responsible for communicating with the terminal and has information forwarding capability. Specifically, it can be AMF, which can forward the above-mentioned first information to the network function with decision-making capability after receiving the above-mentioned first information.

[0155] The first information in this step may include at least one of the following:

[0156] Authorize the network to perform energy-saving operations;

[0157] The network is not authorized to perform energy-saving operations;

[0158] Authorize the network in the target area to perform energy-saving operations;

[0159] Not authorizing energy-saving operations within the target area network;

[0160] Authorize the network to perform energy-saving operations within the target time;

[0161] The network is not authorized to perform energy-saving operations within the target time;

[0162] Authorizes the network to perform energy-saving operations when using the target slice;

[0163] When the target slice is not authorized to be used, the network performs energy-saving operations;

[0164] Authorize network energy-saving operations for specific QoS flows;

[0165] Not authorizing network energy-saving operations for specific QoS flows;

[0166] Tend the network to perform energy-saving operations;

[0167] Do not tend to the network to perform energy-saving operations;

[0168] Tend to perform energy-saving operations on the network in the target area;

[0169] Do not favor energy-saving operations for networks within the target area;

[0170] Tend to perform energy-saving operations on the network within the target time;

[0171] The network is not inclined to perform energy-saving operations within the target time;

[0172] The network tends to perform energy-saving operations when using the target slice;

[0173] When the target slice is not used, the network performs energy-saving operations;

[0174] Emergency communications information.

[0175] For an introduction to each item in the above first information, please refer to the above embodiment.

[0176] Step 302: Send the first information to the second network function, the third network function, or the fifth network function.

[0177] Since the first network function does not have decision-making capabilities, in the embodiment of the present application, the above-mentioned first information can be further sent to the second network function, so that the second network function determines whether to perform energy-saving operations on the terminal based on the first information. The second network function with decision-making capabilities can be a policy control function (Policy Control Function, abbreviated as: PCF).

[0178] As described in the above embodiments, in the embodiments of the present application, the above first information may be sent to the network side device during the terminal registration phase, PDU session establishment or PDU session modification process.

[0179] If it is the terminal registration stage, the above step 301 may be specifically as follows:

[0180] receiving a registration request sent by a terminal, where the registration request carries the first information;

[0181] The above step 302 may be specifically as follows:

[0182] Send an AM policy control creation request to the second network function, where the AM policy control creation request includes the first information.

[0183] The second network function in this step can be PCF, which can generate an AM policy for the terminal and refer to the above-mentioned first information in the process of generating the AM policy, and determine whether to perform energy-saving operations based on the first information. Depending on whether the energy-saving operation is performed or not, the AM policy finally generated will also be different.

[0184] In some cases, the first network function needs to send the first information to the third network function. Then the above step 302 is specifically as follows:

[0185] The first network function sends the first information to the third network function, and the third network function sends the first information to the second network function.

[0186] During the PDU session establishment or PDU session modification process, the AMF also needs to send the PDU session establishment request to the third network function, which can be a session management function (Session Management Function, referred to as SMF), then the above step 301 can be specifically as follows:

[0187] The first network function receives a non-access stratum NAS message sent by the terminal, where the NAS message includes a PDU session establishment request and the first information, or the NAS message includes a PDU session modification request and the first information; or

[0188] The first network function receives a non-access stratum NAS message sent by the terminal, where the NAS message includes a PDU session establishment request and carries the above-mentioned first information in the PDU session establishment request.

[0189] The above-mentioned step 302 can be specifically that the first network function sends the above-mentioned PDU session establishment request and the first information to the third network function through a NAS message, or sends a PDU session modification request and the first information.

[0190] Corresponding to the embodiment shown in FIG2 , a new message may be separately set in the communication network to transmit the energy-saving operation instruction message to the network-side device. In this case, the above step 301 may be specifically as follows:

[0191] The first network function receives an energy-saving operation instruction message sent by the terminal, where the energy-saving operation instruction message includes the first information.

[0192] This method of directly adding a new communication message to transmit the first information does not require modification of the existing message, which facilitates compatibility with existing technologies. At the same time, after the first network function forwards it to the second network function, it can determine whether to perform energy-saving operations based on the first information.

[0193] In addition, there is another application scenario. If a fifth network function for storing the contract data of the terminal is set in the communication network, the contract data may be the first information. At this time, the first information sent by the terminal to the first network function can be stored in the fifth network function for use as contract data; or when the fifth network function has stored the contract data in the form of the first information, when the scenario and actual needs of the terminal change, the terminal can send the first information reflecting the current scenario or actual needs to the first network function in the manner described in the above embodiment, and then the first network function forwards it to the fifth network function, thereby overwriting the old first information and storing the updated first data, so that it can more accurately reflect the actual needs of the terminal.

[0194] In some embodiments, before sending the first information to the PCF, EECF, or SMF, the second network function, such as the AMF, may further obtain second information indicating whether the cumulative energy consumption of the terminal exceeds a maximum threshold. The second information is then used to determine whether the cumulative energy consumption of the terminal exceeds the threshold based on the second information. If the cumulative energy consumption of the terminal does not exceed the threshold, the AMF sends the first information to the PCF, EECF, or SMF. The AMF may obtain from the UDM or UDR whether the cumulative energy consumption of the UE exceeds the threshold.

[0195] In the embodiment shown in Figure 3, the first network function forwards the first information of whether to authorize the execution of the energy-saving operation on the terminal to other network functions with decision-making and policy generation capabilities in the network side device, so as to more accurately indicate whether the network side device can perform the energy-saving operation on the terminal. Even if the user has signed the contract data for terminal energy saving with the operator, it can be determined whether to take the energy-saving operation at the current point in time based on the actual needs of the terminal, so as to achieve the purpose of more accurately executing the energy-saving operation on the terminal according to the actual needs of the user, avoiding blindly executing the energy-saving operation on the terminal according to the energy-saving contract information, thereby improving the user experience.

[0196] As described in the above embodiment, in the PDU session establishment scenario, the first information can be sent to the third network function via a PDU session establishment request or a PDU session modification request. The third network function can be an SMF, and the third network function can perform corresponding energy-saving operations after receiving the first information. Figure 4 is a flow chart of another communication energy-saving control method in an embodiment of the present application, as shown in Figure 4, including the following steps:

[0197] Step 401: The third network function obtains first information, where the first information is used to indicate any one of the following:

[0198] Whether energy-saving operations are authorized;

[0199] a tendency toward energy-saving operations;

[0200] In this step, the first information may include at least one of the following:

[0201] Authorize the network to perform energy-saving operations;

[0202] The network is not authorized to perform energy-saving operations;

[0203] Authorize the network in the target area to perform energy-saving operations;

[0204] Not authorizing energy-saving operations within the target area network;

[0205] Authorize the network to perform energy-saving operations within the target time;

[0206] The network is not authorized to perform energy-saving operations within the target time;

[0207] Authorizes the network to perform energy-saving operations when using the target slice;

[0208] When the target slice is not authorized to be used, the network performs energy-saving operations;

[0209] Authorize network energy-saving operations for specific QoS flows;

[0210] Not authorizing network energy-saving operations for specific QoS flows;

[0211] Tend the network to perform energy-saving operations;

[0212] Do not tend to the network to perform energy-saving operations;

[0213] Tend to perform energy-saving operations on the network in the target area;

[0214] Do not favor energy-saving operations for networks within the target area;

[0215] Tend to perform energy-saving operations on the network within the target time;

[0216] The network is not inclined to perform energy-saving operations within the target time;

[0217] The network tends to perform energy-saving operations when using the target slice;

[0218] When the target slice is not used, the network performs energy-saving operations;

[0219] Emergency communications information.

[0220] For detailed description of each item of the above-mentioned first information, please refer to the above-mentioned embodiments.

[0221] Acquiring the first information in step 401 of this embodiment of the present application includes at least one of the following:

[0222] receiving first information sent by a terminal;

[0223] First information sent by a first network function is received.

[0224] The first message sent by the terminal may be a PDU session establishment request or a PDU session modification request sent through a NAS message in the above embodiment, and the first information carried in the above PDU session establishment request or PDU session modification request is directly sent by the terminal to the third network function through transparent transmission.

[0225] Receiving the message sent by the first network function may be that the terminal sends the PDU session establishment request and the first information through a NAS message, or that the PDU session establishment request and the first information are sent through a NAS message, and after being sent to the first network function, the first network function forwards it to the third network function, and extracts the first information from the NAS message.

[0226] Step 402: Execute a first energy-saving operation according to the first information.

[0227] The performing of the first energy-saving operation according to the first information in this step may include at least one of the following:

[0228] sending the first information to the second network function;

[0229] If the first information authorizes or indicates that an energy-saving operation is to be performed, performing at least one of the following: releasing a PDU session or modifying a PDU session, wherein modifying the PDU session includes deleting a QoS flow or modifying QoS parameters of a QoS flow. The second network function has decision-making and policy generation capabilities, such as a PCF. Therefore, in this step, by sending the first information to the second network function, the second network function can perform the energy-saving operation based on the first information.

[0230] Or in another case, that is, the SMF has a PDU session management function. Therefore, when the SMF receives the first information, it can directly perform energy-saving operations based on the first information. Specifically, it can be when the first information authorizes or tends to perform energy-saving operations, and execute at least one of the following: releasing the PDU session or modifying the PDU session, and the modification of the PDU session includes deleting the QoS flow or modifying the QoS parameters of the QoS flow, including setting low-requirement QoS parameters.

[0231] In this embodiment, the third network function performs the first energy-saving operation according to the first information, thereby being able to more accurately indicate whether the network-side device can perform the energy-saving operation on the terminal. Even if the user has signed a contract with the operator for terminal energy-saving contract data, it is possible to determine whether to take the energy-saving operation at the current point in time based on the actual needs of the terminal, so as to achieve the purpose of more accurately performing the energy-saving operation on the terminal according to the actual needs of the user, avoiding blindly performing the energy-saving operation on the terminal according to the contract data, thereby improving the user experience.

[0232] In the embodiments shown in Figures 3 and 4 above, the first information is sent to the second network function, so that the second network function determines whether to perform an energy-saving operation on the terminal based on the first information and can generate a corresponding policy. Figure 5 is a flow chart of another communication energy-saving control method in an embodiment of the present application, as shown in Figure 5, including the following steps:

[0233] Step 501: A second network function receives first information sent by a first network function or a third function, where the first information indicates any one of the following:

[0234] Whether energy-saving operations are authorized;

[0235] a tendency toward energy-saving operations;

[0236] In this step, the second network function has decision-making and policy generation capabilities, such as a PCF, and can receive first information forwarded by the first network function or the third network function. Specifically, the first information includes at least one of the following:

[0237] Authorize the network to perform energy-saving operations;

[0238] The network is not authorized to perform energy-saving operations;

[0239] Authorize the network in the target area to perform energy-saving operations;

[0240] Not authorizing energy-saving operations within the target area network;

[0241] Authorize the network to perform energy-saving operations within the target time;

[0242] The network is not authorized to perform energy-saving operations within the target time;

[0243] Authorizes the network to perform energy-saving operations when using the target slice;

[0244] When the target slice is not authorized to be used, the network performs energy-saving operations;

[0245] Authorize network energy-saving operations for specific QoS flows;

[0246] Not authorizing network energy-saving operations for specific QoS flows;

[0247] Tend the network to perform energy-saving operations;

[0248] Do not tend to the network to perform energy-saving operations;

[0249] Tend to perform energy-saving operations on the network in the target area;

[0250] Do not favor energy-saving operations for networks within the target area;

[0251] Tend to perform energy-saving operations on the network within the target time;

[0252] The network is not inclined to perform energy-saving operations within the target time;

[0253] The network tends to perform energy-saving operations when using the target slice;

[0254] When the target slice is not used, the network performs energy-saving operations;

[0255] Emergency communications information.

[0256] For a detailed introduction to each item in the first information, please refer to the above embodiment.

[0257] Step 502: The second network function performs a second energy-saving operation according to the first information.

[0258] Since the second network function in this step is a network function with the decision-making capability and policy generation capability of whether to perform energy-saving operations, it can determine whether to perform energy-saving operations on the terminal based on the first information and generate corresponding policies.

[0259] Whether to perform energy-saving operations on the terminal in this step can be specifically reflected in the subsequent policies, which can include access management policies (AM policies) and session management policies (SM policies). As described in the above embodiment, the present application can be to transmit the above-mentioned first information to the PCF during the terminal registration phase, PDU session establishment or PDU session modification process, and then the PCF generates a terminal policy with reference to the first information, such as generating an AM policy or an SM policy.

[0260] The first information may include any of the above items. In the embodiment of the present application, the generation strategy may include the following situations:

[0261] A. If power-saving operations are authorized for the terminal, the PCF may require lower values ​​such as UE-AMBR and UE-Slice-MBR when generating policies. In terms of Service Area Restrictions, the allowed area provided to the UE may be reduced.

[0262] B. If the energy-saving operation for the terminal is not authorized, the energy-saving operation does not need to be considered and the terminal policy is executed according to normal needs; or when the communication network is performing energy saving, the energy-saving operation for the terminal is not performed;

[0263] C. If the energy-saving operation is authorized for the terminal in the target area, the PCF considers the authorization to execute the energy-saving operation for the terminal in the target area when generating the policy. That is, the energy-saving operation is authorized only if the terminal is in this area.

[0264] D. If the energy-saving operation for the terminal is not authorized in the target area, the PCF will consider the target area when generating the policy. That is, the energy-saving operation for the terminal will not be authorized only if the terminal is in this area; or when the communication network is performing energy saving, the energy-saving operation for the terminal will not be performed;

[0265] E. If the energy-saving operation is authorized to be performed on the terminal within the target time, the PCF considers the target time when generating the policy. That is, the energy-saving operation is authorized to be performed on the terminal only when the terminal is within the target time.

[0266] F. If the energy-saving operation for the terminal is not authorized within the target time, it means that when the PCF generates the policy, it considers not authorizing the energy-saving operation for the terminal within the target time. That is, no energy-saving operation is required within the target time, which is similar to the existing operation without considering energy-saving communication; or when the communication network is performing energy-saving, no energy-saving operation is performed on the terminal;

[0267] G. If the energy-saving operation on the terminal is authorized in the target slice, it means that when the PCF generates the policy, it considers the use of the above target slice and executes the energy-saving operation on the terminal. That is, the energy-saving operation on the terminal is authorized only when the terminal uses the above target slice;

[0268] H. If the energy-saving operation on the terminal is not authorized on the target slice, it means that when the PCF generates the policy, it considers not authorizing the energy-saving operation on the terminal on the target slice, that is, when using the target slice, there is no need to consider the energy-saving operation, which is similar to the existing operation without considering energy-saving communication; or when the communication network performs energy saving, the energy-saving operation on the terminal is not performed.

[0269] I. If the target QoS flow is authorized to perform energy-saving operations, it means that when the PCF generates the policy, it only considers the energy-saving operations of the QoS flow. For example, when generating the policy, it sets lower QoS parameters (such as longer latency, packet error rate, bit error rate, etc.) for the QoS flow;

[0270] J. If the target QoS flow is not authorized to perform energy-saving operations, it means that the PCF does not perform energy-saving operations on the QoS flow when generating the terminal policy, that is, the QoS parameters of the QoS flow cannot be reduced due to energy-saving requirements.

[0271] For situations where energy-saving operations tend to be performed or not performed, the above contents may apply, with the only difference being that other parameters or information may need to be considered.

[0272] Specifically, in the embodiment of the present application, if it is during the terminal registration stage, receiving the first information sent by the first network function in the above step 501 may include:

[0273] An AM policy control creation request sent by the first network function is received, where the AM policy control creation request includes the first information.

[0274] Step 502 determines whether an energy-saving operation needs to be performed based on specific information carried in the first information, such as at least one item shown in step 501, and then generates an AM policy based on the determination result. Specifically, if the first information indicates authorization or a preference for performing an energy-saving operation, the method may generate a first AM policy and send it to the first network function, which may include:

[0275] The second network function generates a first AM policy for the terminal;

[0276] The second network function sends an AM policy control creation response to the first network function, where the AM policy control creation response includes the first AM policy. The first AM policy is an AM policy generated when the communication network performs an energy-saving operation. Therefore, compared to a case where the energy-saving operation is not considered, the first AM policy has stricter restrictions, such as setting a lower UE-AMBR, setting a lower UE-Slice-MBR, and stricter mobility restrictions, such as fewer allowed areas and more limited RATs.

[0277] If the first information indicates that the energy-saving operation is not to be performed or is not intended to be performed, the method may generate a second AM policy and send it to the first network function, which may specifically include:

[0278] The second network function generates a second AM policy for the terminal;

[0279] The second network function sends an AM policy control creation response to the first network function, where the AM policy control creation response includes a second AM policy. Since the second AM does not consider energy-saving operations, it can be generated by reusing an existing AM policy generation mechanism.

[0280] The parameters included in the first AM policy and the second AM policy may be the same, but the parameter values ​​may be set differently to reflect whether to perform the energy-saving operation on the terminal.

[0281] Specifically, if the PDU session is established, the receiving of the first information sent by the first network function in step 501 may include:

[0282] The second network function receives the SM policy control creation request sent by the third network function, where the SM policy control creation request includes the above-mentioned first information.

[0283] The above step 502 determines whether it is necessary to perform an energy-saving operation based on the specific information carried in the first information, such as at least one item shown in the above step 501, and then reflects the judgment result in the generated SM policy. Specifically, if the first information indicates authorization or a preference for performing an energy-saving operation, the method may further include generating a first SM policy and sending it to the third network function, specifically including:

[0284] The second network function generates a first SM policy for the terminal;

[0285] The second network function sends an SM policy control creation response to the third network function, where the SM policy control creation response includes the first SM policy. The first SM policy is an SM policy generated when the communication network performs an energy-saving operation. Compared with a case where the energy-saving operation is not considered, the first SM policy is more stringent, such as a lower session AMBR (Session-AMBR), a higher PDB (higher PDB), a higher PER (higher PER), a PDU session release indication, a PDU session deactivation indication, etc.

[0286] If the first information indicates that the energy-saving operation is not authorized or is not intended to be performed, the method may further generate a second SM policy and send it to the third network function, specifically including:

[0287] The second network function generates a second SM policy for the terminal;

[0288] The second network function sends an SM policy control creation response to the third network function, where the SM policy control creation response includes the second SM policy. In this scenario, the second SM policy does not take into account the energy-saving operation requirements and is the same as the existing SM policy generation mechanism.

[0289] The parameters included in the first SM policy and the second SM policy may be the same, but the parameter values ​​may be set differently to reflect whether to perform an energy-saving operation on the terminal.

[0290] In some embodiments, the fourth network function may also collect energy-saving auxiliary information, which can be used as information for generating the above-mentioned first AM strategy or first SM strategy. Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, the steps may be further included:

[0291] Receive the energy-saving assistance information sent by the fourth network function, and then generate a first AM policy or a first SM policy according to the energy-saving assistance information. For the first AM policy and the first SM policy generated in consideration of the energy-saving operation, their specific requirements can refer to the introduction in the above embodiment.

[0292] The fourth network function may actively send the energy-saving assistance information, or passively send the energy-saving assistance information. Passive sending of energy-saving assistance information means that when the first information indicates authorization to perform an energy-saving operation, the second network function may send a first request to the fourth network function, the first request being used to obtain energy-saving assistance information, and then receive energy-saving assistance information fed back by the fourth network function. The generation and sending of energy-saving assistance information by the fourth network function will be described in detail in subsequent embodiments.

[0293] In addition, when the first information indicates that the energy-saving operation is not authorized, a second AM policy or a second SM policy can be directly generated. The second AM policy or the second SM policy does not consider the energy-saving operation and can refer to the existing generation mechanism.

[0294] As described in the above embodiments, a fourth network function may be provided in the core network device. The fourth network function may be capable of obtaining energy-saving assistance information and sending the energy-saving assistance information to other network functions, such as the second network function, the first network function, or the third network function, so that the other network functions can perform corresponding processing in the energy-saving operation based on the energy-saving assistance information. For example, the fourth network function may be sent to the second network function, and the second network function may generate an AM policy or an SM policy based on the energy-saving assistance information.

[0295] The embodiment of the present application mainly introduces the fourth network function. FIG6 is a flow chart of another communication energy saving control method in the embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG6 , the method includes the following steps:

[0296] Step 601: The fourth network function receives a first request sent by the second network function;

[0297] In the present application example, the fourth network function can be any one of an application layer function (AF), a network data analytics function (NWDAF), or an energy efficiency control function (EECF). The EECF set up in the network is mainly used to collect energy-saving auxiliary information of the terminal and send the energy-saving auxiliary information to other network functions. The energy-saving auxiliary information can also be called energy-saving information or energy consumption auxiliary information.

[0298] Specifically, in the embodiments of this application

[0299] In this step, after receiving the first request sent by the second network function, the fourth network function may collect energy-saving auxiliary information of the terminal. Specifically, the fourth network function may generate the energy-saving auxiliary information by performing at least one of the following:

[0300] Collect energy consumption information of terminals;

[0301] Collect data rate information of the terminal;

[0302] Collect the accumulated energy consumption of the terminal;

[0303] Collect energy efficiency information of terminals;

[0304] Collect energy consumption, rate, cumulative energy consumption or energy efficiency information of the terminal on a specific target;

[0305] The specific target includes at least one of the following: target time, target slice, target DNN, and target area.

[0306] Specifically, the energy-saving auxiliary information collected and generated in the above manner may include at least one of the following:

[0307] Energy consumption of terminals, PDU sessions, QoS flows, or slices;

[0308] Data volume and data rate of the terminal, PDU session, QoS flow or slice;

[0309] Energy efficiency of terminals, PDU sessions, QoS, or slice flows;

[0310] UE energy saving indication, used to indicate that energy saving should be performed on the UE;

[0311] The PDU session energy saving indication is used to indicate energy saving for a specific PDU session or to perform energy saving at the PDU session level.

[0312] QoS flow energy saving indication is used to indicate energy saving for a specific PDU session or to perform energy saving at the QoS flow level.

[0313] It should be noted that the content of the above energy-saving assistance information, at least in some examples, is intended to enable the second network function to generate an energy-saving strategy based on the energy-saving assistance information, specifically by adjusting parameters in the AM policy or SM policy. For example, for the AM policy, lower UE-AMBR and UE slice-MBR parameters may be set. For the SM policy, lower required QoS parameters may be set, indicating the release of the PDU session, deactivating the PDU session, and indicating QoS deletion.

[0314] Step 602: After obtaining the energy-saving assistance information, the fourth network function sends the energy-saving assistance information to the second network function.

[0315] The above-mentioned energy-saving auxiliary information can reflect the specific energy consumption information of the terminal or PDU session, and can be used as the second network function to generate, modify or adjust the AM or SM policy of the policy, or to generate, modify or adjust the AM or SM policy of the policy based on the energy-saving auxiliary information. Therefore, in this step, the second network function can regenerate the AM policy or SM policy after receiving the energy-saving auxiliary information, so that the final generated AM policy or SM policy can better meet the actual energy consumption of the terminal and achieve the purpose of energy saving.

[0316] It should be noted that in step 601, the first request may also be a subscription request, which is used to request the fourth network function to send energy-saving assistance information based on a specific event. For example, energy-saving assistance information is periodically fed back, and energy-saving assistance information is fed back when the cumulative energy consumption of a specific UE reaches a certain threshold. Accordingly, the first request also includes feedback period information or threshold information. In this regard, in step 602, the fourth network function only feeds back energy-saving assistance information when it determines that the event is met.

[0317] In some embodiments, if the user has signed an energy-saving contract with the operator, specifically, the contract data can be stored in a network function in a core network device in the form of the above-mentioned first information, or in other ways, such as the fifth network function. The fifth network function can be a unified data management function (Unified Data Management, abbreviated as: UDM), or the terminal has stored the first information in the above-mentioned fifth network function by feedback to the network side device. In the above two cases, the terminal can send the first information for indicating whether to authorize or tend to perform the energy-saving operation to the above-mentioned fifth network function according to actual needs, so as to update the first information stored in the fifth network function. The above-mentioned first information can be sent directly by the terminal to the fifth network function, or in some cases, it can be forwarded by other network functions, such as the first network function, which forwards it to the fifth network function after receiving the first information sent by the terminal.

[0318] FIG7 is a flow chart of another communication control method in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG7 , the method includes the following steps:

[0319] Step 701: The fifth network function receives first information sent by the first network function, where the first information indicates any one of the following:

[0320] Whether energy-saving operations are authorized;

[0321] a tendency toward energy-saving operations;

[0322] Specifically, as described in the above embodiment, the first network function may be receiving the first information sent by the terminal, that is, receiving a non-access stratum NAS message sent by the terminal, and carrying the above first information in the NAS message;

[0323] The first network function may be an AMF, and the first information may include:

[0324] Authorize the network to perform energy-saving operations;

[0325] The network is not authorized to perform energy-saving operations;

[0326] Authorize the network in the target area to perform energy-saving operations;

[0327] Not authorizing energy-saving operations within the target area network;

[0328] Authorize the network to perform energy-saving operations within the target time;

[0329] The network is not authorized to perform energy-saving operations within the target time;

[0330] Authorizes the network to perform energy-saving operations when using the target slice;

[0331] When the target slice is not authorized to be used, the network performs energy-saving operations;

[0332] Authorize network energy-saving operations for specific QoS flows;

[0333] Not authorizing network energy-saving operations for specific QoS flows;

[0334] Tend the network to perform energy-saving operations;

[0335] Do not tend to the network to perform energy-saving operations;

[0336] Tend to perform energy-saving operations on the network in the target area;

[0337] Do not favor energy-saving operations for networks within the target area;

[0338] Tend to perform energy-saving operations on the network within the target time;

[0339] The network is not inclined to perform energy-saving operations within the target time;

[0340] The network tends to perform energy-saving operations when using the target slice;

[0341] When the target slice is not used, the network performs energy-saving operations;

[0342] Emergency communications information.

[0343] For the specific content of the first information, please refer to the description in the above embodiment.

[0344] The first network function may send a data configuration update message to the fifth network function, and the data configuration update message may carry the first information. The data configuration update message may be a Nudm_ParameterProvision_Update message.

[0345] Step 702: If the fifth network function already has old first information, the newly received first information will overwrite the old first information.

[0346] Since the newly received first information has better real-time performance and can more accurately reflect the actual needs of the terminal, in this step, after the new first information is received, the new first information will be used to overwrite the old first information.

[0347] The technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application can update the old first information with new first information that can better reflect the actual needs of the terminal after the contract data related to communication energy saving has been signed in the communication network, so that the information stored in the communication network can better reflect the actual needs of the user or the terminal, and serve as the basis for judging whether energy-saving operations can be performed on the terminal in the communication network, thereby better meeting the actual needs of the user, avoiding conflicts between energy-saving operations and the actual needs of the user, and improving the user experience.

[0348] In some embodiments, another network function, such as a sixth network function, may subscribe to the first information stored therein with the fifth network function. Therefore, after the fifth network function completes the update, it sends the first information to the sixth network function. The sixth network function herein includes network functions such as EECF, NWDAF, PCF, AMF, and SMF. For example, if the updated first information indicates that energy-saving operations are not authorized, the PCF will generate a policy for non-energy-saving scenarios, such as an AM policy or an SM policy. Network elements such as the EECF and NWDAF may cease providing energy-saving assistance information to the PCF.

[0349] The technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application can be mainly applied to scenarios such as terminal registration, updating AM policy after terminal registration, determining AM policy based on energy-saving auxiliary information, PDU session establishment process, updating SM policy after PDU session establishment, or determining SM policy based on energy-saving auxiliary information, updating the first information stored in UDM, etc. The following is an explanation of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application based on the interaction processes between terminals or various network functions in the communication system in these scenarios.

[0350] FIG8 is a flow chart of a terminal registration process in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG8 , the registration process includes the following steps:

[0351] Step 801: The terminal sends a registration request to the AMF. The registration request carries first information. The first information can be described in the above embodiment.

[0352] Step 802: The AMF sends an AM policy control creation request to the PCF, and carries the first information in the AM policy control creation request. The registration request may be an Npcf_AMPolicyControl_Create message.

[0353] Step 803: The PCF generates an AM policy based on the first information. Specifically, when it is determined based on the first information that the energy-saving operation on the terminal is authorized, a first AM policy may be generated. When it is determined based on the first information that the energy-saving operation on the terminal is not authorized, a second AM policy may be generated. Since the first AM policy requires energy saving, parameters therein may be conditioned to achieve the purpose of energy saving, such as setting the values ​​of UE-AMBR and UE-Slice-MBR to a lower value. The second AM policy may be set in the same manner as the existing parameter setting method without considering energy saving, without considering the impact of energy saving on the parameter values.

[0354] When generating the first AM policy, an AM policy control creation response is sent to the AMF in step 803a, and the AM policy control creation response carries the above-mentioned first AM policy;

[0355] When generating the second AM policy, an AM policy control creation response is sent to the AMF through step 803b, and the above-mentioned second AM policy is carried in the AM policy control creation response.

[0356] In the technical solution shown in Figure 8 above, the PCF has obtained the first information and established an AM strategy based on the first information. In the communication network, it can be set that the fourth network function actively provides energy-saving auxiliary information to the PCF, so that the PCF updates the AM strategy based on the first information and the energy-saving auxiliary information.

[0357] FIG9 is a schematic diagram of a process for updating an AM policy after terminal registration according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG9 , the process includes the following steps:

[0358] Step 901: The fourth network function sends energy-saving assistance information to the PCF via an AM policy authorization create message or an AM policy authorization update message. The aforementioned fourth network function may be any one of the AF, NWDAF, or EECF, which can collect energy-saving assistance information and provide it to the PCF as reference information for the PCF to perform energy-saving operations. The aforementioned energy-saving assistance information may also be referred to as energy-saving information or energy consumption assistance information, and may include, for example, at least one of the energy consumption of the terminal, PDU session, QoS flow, or slice; the data volume and data rate of the terminal, PDU session, QoS flow, or slice; the energy efficiency of the terminal, PDU session, QoS, or slice flow; the UE energy-saving indication; and the PDU session energy-saving indication. The AM policy authorization create message or AM policy authorization update message in this step may be an Npcf_AMPolicyAuthorization_Create / update message, which can instruct the SMF to create or update the AM policy of the terminal.

[0359] The fourth network function in this step includes an Energy Efficiency Control Function (EECF), which can actively or passively collect the aforementioned energy-saving auxiliary information and send it to the PCF. In this embodiment, the collection and transmission are active, and in subsequent embodiments, the collection and transmission can also be passive.

[0360] Step 902: The PCF determines whether to authorize the energy-saving operation based on the existing first information.

[0361] Step 903: If it is determined based on the first information that the energy-saving operation is authorized, a first AM policy may be generated. If an AM policy has been generated in the previous time period, the AM policy generated this time is to update it. In addition, for example, an AM policy has been generated during the terminal registration process. If the previous AM is also the first AM policy for performing energy-saving operations, the AM policies generated twice may be the same. If the previous AM policy is the second AM policy generated when it is determined based on the first information that the energy-saving operation is not authorized, the two will be different. The first AM policy is more stringent, such as setting a lower UE-AMBR, setting a lower UE-Slice-MBR, and the mobility restrictions are also more stringent, such as fewer allowed areas, and RATs will be more limited. This step further sends the first AM policy to the PCF through the AM policy control update notification. The AM policy control update notification in this step may be an Npcf_AMPolicyControl_Updated Notify message.

[0362] Step 904: If it is determined based on the first information that the energy-saving operation is not authorized, a notification message indicating that the terminal has not performed the energy-saving operation can be sent to the fourth network function, for example, by feeding back that the energy-saving operation has not been performed through an AM policy authorization notification message, where the AM policy authorization notification message can be an Npcf_AMPolicyAuthorization_Notify message.

[0363] Unlike the above embodiment in which the EECF actively collects the energy-saving auxiliary information of the terminal and provides it to the PCF, the PCF can also mainly obtain the energy-saving auxiliary information of the terminal from the EECF. FIG10 is a schematic diagram of a process for determining the AM strategy based on the energy-saving auxiliary information in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG10 , the following steps are included:

[0364] Step 1001: During or after the AM policy generation process in the embodiment shown in FIG8 , the PCF may send a first request to the EECF to request the EECF to obtain energy-saving assistance information, which may also be referred to as energy-saving information or energy consumption assistance information. Specifically, the energy-saving assistance information may be obtained for a terminal, multiple terminals, or a group of terminals. The first request may include the following:

[0365] First, the request may include a time window, which is used to instruct the EECF to collect information such as the UE's energy consumption, data volume, or bit rate. For example, the time window may be one hour or 10 minutes in the future, or the time period from 13:00 to 13:30.

[0366] Second, the request may optionally also include the energy consumption threshold of the terminal, that is, instructing the EECF to provide energy-saving assistance information to the terminal when it is collected that the terminal energy consumption exceeds this energy consumption threshold.

[0367] Step 1002: After receiving the first request sent by the PCF, the EECF may collect energy-saving assistance information of the terminal, which may include:

[0368] First, the energy consumption of the terminal, the cumulative energy consumption of the terminal, the communication data volume of the terminal, the data transmission rate and bit rate of the terminal within the above time window are obtained, and finally energy-saving auxiliary information is generated based on the above information;

[0369] Second, if it is determined whether the accumulated energy consumption of the terminal exceeds the energy consumption threshold of the terminal set above, if it exceeds the energy consumption threshold, energy-saving auxiliary information can be sent to the PCF.

[0370] Step 1003: The EECF sends the energy-saving assistance information obtained in step 1002 to the PCF.

[0371] Step 1004: The PCF generates an AM policy for the terminal based on the energy-saving assistance information. If an AM policy has already been generated for the terminal, this step updates or adjusts the AM policy, including but not limited to setting a lower UE-AMBR and UE-Slice-MBR for energy saving. The PCF initiates the AM policy modification process and sends the generated, updated, or adjusted AM policy to the AMF.

[0372] FIG11 is a flow chart of a PDU session establishment process in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG11 , the process includes the following steps:

[0373] Step 1101: The terminal sends a NAS message to the AMF, and the NAS message carries the first information. Specifically, there may be two cases. The first case is as shown in step 1101a, where the PDU session establishment request and the first information are sent through the NAS message.

[0374] Or in the second case, as shown in step 1101b, a PDU session establishment request is sent through a NAS message, and the above-mentioned first information is carried in the PDU session establishment request. This case is a technical solution for transparent transmission of AMF, in which the first information can be regarded as the terminal sending a PDU session establishment request directly to SMF;

[0375] Step 1102: AMF sends a PDU session establishment request to SMF. The PDU session establishment request may carry the above-mentioned first information, or the PDU session establishment request and the first information are sent to SMF at the same time.

[0376] Step 1103: The SMF sends an SM policy control creation request to the PCF. The SM policy control creation request carries the first information. The SM policy control creation request may be an Npcf_SMPolicyControl_Create message.

[0377] Step 1104: After receiving the first information mentioned above, the PCF can generate an SM policy based on the first information. Specifically, it determines whether to authorize the execution of energy-saving operations on the terminal based on the first information. When the energy-saving operation needs to be authorized, the first SM policy is generated. The first SM policy needs to consider energy-saving requirements. For example, when the PCF generates the first SM policy, some parameters are adjusted to achieve the purpose of energy saving. For example, the generated first SM policy has QoS parameters with lower QoS requirements, such as 5QI, QoS with lower session aggregate maximum bit rate (QoS with lower Session-AMBR), higher PDB (higher PDB), higher bit error rate (higher PER), etc.; or, when the energy-saving operation on the terminal is not authorized, the second SM policy is generated, then the energy-saving requirements should not be considered. The generation mechanism of the second SM policy is the same as the generation mechanism of the existing SM policy, and the energy-saving requirements are not considered.

[0378] When the first SM policy is generated in this step, a policy control creation response can be sent to the SMF through step 1104a, and the first SM policy can be carried in the policy control creation response and sent to the SMF; or when the second SM policy is generated, a policy control creation response can be sent to the SMF through step 1104b, and the second SM policy can be carried in the policy control creation response and sent to the SMF. The above-mentioned policy control creation response can be an Npcf_SMPolicyControl_Response message.

[0379] In the technical solution shown in FIG. 11 above, the PCF has already obtained the first information and established an SM policy based on the first information. In the communication network, a fourth network function can be configured to proactively provide auxiliary information to the PCF, so that the PCF updates the SM policy based on the first information and the energy-saving auxiliary information. FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of a process for updating the SM policy after a PDU session is established in an embodiment of the present application, as shown in FIG. 12 , including the following steps:

[0380] Step 1201: The fourth network function sends energy-saving assistance information to the PCF via an SM policy authorization create message or an SM policy authorization update message. The fourth network function can be any one of the AF, NWDAF, or EECF. It can collect energy-saving assistance information and provide it to the PCF as reference information for energy-saving operations. The energy-saving assistance information can be energy-saving information or energy consumption assistance information, and can include, for example, at least one of the following: energy consumption of the terminal, PDU session, QoS flow, or slice; data volume and data rate of the terminal, PDU session, QoS flow, or slice; energy efficiency of the terminal, PDU session, QoS, or slice flow; UE energy saving indication; and PDU session energy saving indication. The SM policy authorization create message or SM policy authorization update message in this step can be an Npcf_SMPolicyAuthorization_Create / update message, which can instruct the PCF to create or update the terminal's SM policy. The fourth network function in this step includes an Energy Efficiency Control Function (EECF), which can actively or passively collect the energy-saving assistance information and send it to the PCF. This embodiment is a case of active collection and sending, and subsequent embodiments may also be a case of passive collection and sending.

[0381] Step 1202: The PCF determines whether to authorize the energy-saving operation on the terminal based on the existing first information.

[0382] Step 1203: If it is determined based on the first information that the energy-saving operation is authorized, a first SM policy may be generated. The first SM policy may include QoS parameters with lower QoS requirements, such as 5QI, QoS with lower session aggregate maximum bit rate (QoS with lower Session-AMBR), higher PDB, higher bit error rate (higher PER), etc. If an SM policy has been generated in the previous time period, the SM policy generated this time is an update of it. In addition, for example, if an SM policy has been generated during the PUD session establishment process, if the previous SM is also the first SM policy for performing energy-saving operations, the two generated SM policies may be the same. If the previous SM policy is the second SM policy generated when it is determined based on the first information that the energy-saving operation is not to be performed, the two may be different. This step further includes sending the first SM policy to the PCF via an SM policy control update notification. The SM policy control update notification in this step may be an Npcf_AMPolicyControl_Updated Notify message.

[0383] Step 1204: If it is determined based on the first information that the energy-saving operation on the terminal is not authorized, a notification message indicating that the terminal has not performed the energy-saving operation can be sent to the above-mentioned fourth network function, for example, by feedback that the energy-saving operation has not been performed through an SM policy authorization notification message, where the SM policy authorization notification message can be an Npcf_SMPolicyAuthorization_Notify message.

[0384] Unlike the above embodiment in which the EECF actively collects the energy-saving assistance information of the terminal and provides it to the PCF, the PCF can also mainly obtain the energy-saving assistance information of the terminal from the EECF. FIG13 is a schematic diagram of a process for determining the SM policy based on the energy-saving assistance information in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG13 , the process includes the following steps:

[0385] Step 1301: During or after the SM policy is generated in the embodiment shown in FIG11 , the PCF may send a first request to the EECF to request the EECF to obtain energy-saving assistance information, which may also be referred to as energy-saving information or energy-consumption assistance information. Specifically, the first request may be to obtain energy-saving assistance information for a PDU session, multiple PDU sessions, or a QoS flow. The first request may include the following:

[0386] First, the request may include a time window, which is used to instruct the EECF to collect information such as the UE's energy consumption, data volume, or bit rate. For example, the time window may be one hour or 10 minutes in the future, or the time period from 13:00 to 13:30.

[0387] Second, the request may optionally also include the energy consumption threshold of the PDU session or Qos flow, that is, instructing the EECF to provide energy-saving assistance information when the energy consumption of the collected PDU session or Qos flow exceeds the energy consumption threshold. The energy-saving assistance information can also be called energy-saving information or energy consumption assistance information.

[0388] Step 1302: After receiving the first request sent by the PCF, the EECF may collect the energy-saving assistance information of the terminal. Specifically, the process may include:

[0389] First, obtain the energy consumption of the PDU session or QoS flow within the above time window, the cumulative energy consumption of the PDU session or QoS flow, the communication data volume of the PDU session or QoS flow, the data transmission rate and bit rate of the PDU session or QoS flow, and finally generate energy-saving auxiliary information based on the above information;

[0390] Second, if it is determined whether the accumulated energy consumption of the PDU session or Qos flow exceeds the above-set energy consumption threshold, if it exceeds the energy consumption threshold, energy-saving auxiliary information can be sent to the PCF.

[0391] Step 1303: The EECF sends the energy-saving assistance information obtained in step 1302 to the PCF.

[0392] Step 1304: The PCF generates a SM policy for the terminal based on the energy-saving assistance information. If an SM policy has already been generated for the terminal, this step updates or adjusts the SM policy. To achieve energy savings during SM measurement, one implementation involves setting lower QoS parameters, such as Session-AMBR, a higher PDB, or a higher PER. In one implementation, the PCF can also trigger the release or deactivation of a PDU session. The PCF initiates the SM policy modification process and sends the generated, updated, or adjusted SM policy to the SMF.

[0393] FIG14 is a schematic diagram of a process for updating first information in a UDM according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG14 , the process includes the following steps:

[0394] Step 1401. The network function of the core network device, such as the sixth network function, needs to obtain the terminal energy-saving contract data in the process of assisting the terminal in communication. The contract data can be the first information in the above embodiment. At this time, the network function can sign a contract with the UDM or obtain the first information of the terminal energy saving. Specifically, it can be through the sixth network function NF to send a Nudm_SDM_Subscribe Request message to the UDM to realize signing a contract with the UDM or obtaining the first information of the contract.

[0395] Step 1402: The terminal sends a non-access stratum NAS message to the AMF, and the message carries the first information;

[0396] Step 1403: The AMF sends a data configuration update message to the UDM, and carries the first information in the data configuration update message. The data configuration update message may be Nudm_ParameterProvision_Update. After receiving the first information, the UDM overwrites the previously stored old first information based on the newly received first information and feeds back an updated response to the AMF.

[0397] Step 1404: The AMF sends the updated response back to the terminal via a NAS message.

[0398] Step 1405: The UDM sends the updated first information to the sixth network function NF. Specifically, the UDM may feed back the updated first information to the sixth network function NF via a Nudm_SDM_Notification Notify message.

[0399] Step 1406: If the sixth network function NF does not need to obtain the energy-saving contract information of the terminal, it can terminate the contract with the UDM or obtain the terminal energy-saving contract data. Specifically, it can be achieved by sending a Nudm_SDM_Unsubscribe message between the two network functions.

[0400] In the above-mentioned embodiments of the present application, the first information that can better reflect the actual needs of the user or terminal is updated to the UDM, which can be used as reference information for the communication network to determine whether to perform energy-saving operations on the terminal, so that the communication network can more accurately reflect the actual needs of the user or terminal when determining to perform energy-saving operations on the terminal, avoid conflicts between energy-saving operations and actual needs of users, and thus improve user experience.

[0401] The communication energy-saving control method provided in the above embodiment of the present application can be executed by a communication energy-saving control device. In the embodiment of the present application, the communication energy-saving control device is used as an example to illustrate the communication energy-saving control device provided in the embodiment of the present application by executing the method shown in Figures 2 to 7.

[0402] FIG15 is a schematic diagram of a communication energy-saving control device according to an embodiment of the present application, which is capable of executing the method shown in FIG2 . As shown in FIG15 , the device includes a first sending module 11, which is configured to send first information to a network-side device. The first information is configured to indicate any one of the following:

[0403] Whether energy-saving operations are authorized;

[0404] Tendency towards energy-saving operation.

[0405] In some embodiments, the first information includes at least one of the following:

[0406] Authorize the network to perform energy-saving operations;

[0407] The network is not authorized to perform energy-saving operations;

[0408] Authorize the network in the target area to perform energy-saving operations;

[0409] Not authorizing energy-saving operations within the target area network;

[0410] Authorize the network to perform energy-saving operations within the target time;

[0411] The network is not authorized to perform energy-saving operations within the target time;

[0412] Authorizes the network to perform energy-saving operations when using the target slice;

[0413] When the target slice is not authorized to be used, the network performs energy-saving operations;

[0414] Authorize network energy-saving operations for specific QoS flows;

[0415] Not authorizing network energy-saving operations for specific QoS flows;

[0416] Tend the network to perform energy-saving operations;

[0417] Do not tend to the network to perform energy-saving operations;

[0418] Tend to perform energy-saving operations on the network in the target area;

[0419] Do not favor energy-saving operations for networks within the target area;

[0420] Tend to perform energy-saving operations on the network within the target time;

[0421] The network is not inclined to perform energy-saving operations within the target time;

[0422] The network tends to perform energy-saving operations when using the target slice;

[0423] When the target slice is not used, the network performs energy-saving operations;

[0424] Emergency communications information.

[0425] In some embodiments, the first sending module 11 is specifically configured to enable the terminal to send the first information to the network-side device when a preset condition is met.

[0426] In some embodiments, the aforementioned pre-condition includes at least one of the following:

[0427] Start preset applications, start emergency communications, preset location conditions, preset time conditions, preset scene conditions, and preset service conditions.

[0428] In some embodiments, the first sending module 11 is specifically configured to perform any one of the following:

[0429] The terminal sends a registration request to the first network function, where the registration request carries the first information;

[0430] The terminal sends a non-access stratum NAS message to the first network function, where the NAS message includes a PDU session establishment request and the first information, or the NAS message includes a PDU session modification request and the first information;

[0431] The terminal sends a PDU session establishment request to the third network function, where the PDU session establishment request carries the first information;

[0432] The terminal sends a PDU session modification request to the third network function, where the PDU session modification request carries the first information;

[0433] The terminal sends energy-saving operation instruction information to the first network function, where the energy-saving operation instruction information includes the first information.

[0434] Figure 16 is a schematic diagram of another communication energy-saving control device in an embodiment of the present application, which can execute the method shown in Figure 3. As shown in Figure 16, the device includes a first receiving module 21 and a second sending module 22, wherein the first receiving module 21 is used to receive first information sent by the terminal, and the first information is used to indicate any one of the following: whether the energy-saving operation is authorized; the tendency of the energy-saving operation; the second sending module 22 is used to send the first information to the second network function, the third network function or the fifth network function.

[0435] In some embodiments, the first information includes at least one of the following:

[0436] authorizing execution of an energy-saving operation on the terminal;

[0437] not authorizing execution of energy-saving operations on the terminal;

[0438] authorizing execution of an energy-saving operation on the terminal within a target area;

[0439] not authorizing execution of energy-saving operations on the terminal in the target area;

[0440] authorizing execution of an energy-saving operation on the terminal within a target time;

[0441] not authorizing execution of energy-saving operations on the terminal within the target time;

[0442] Authorizing execution of an energy-saving operation on the terminal on a target slice;

[0443] Not authorizing execution of energy-saving operations on the terminal on the target slice;

[0444] tending to perform energy-saving operations on the terminal;

[0445] not tending to perform energy-saving operations on the terminal;

[0446] tending to perform energy-saving operations on the terminal in a target area;

[0447] not tending to perform energy-saving operations on the terminal in the target area;

[0448] tending to perform energy-saving operations on the terminal within a target time;

[0449] not tending to perform energy-saving operations on the terminal within the target time;

[0450] preferring to perform an energy-saving operation on the terminal on a target slice;

[0451] not tending to perform energy-saving operations on the terminal on the target slice;

[0452] Emergency communications information.

[0453] In some embodiments, further comprising:

[0454] An information acquisition module, configured to acquire second information, where the second information is used to indicate whether the accumulated energy consumption of the terminal exceeds a maximum threshold;

[0455] The second sending module 22 is configured to send the first information according to the second information.

[0456] In some embodiments, the second sending module 22 is configured to send the first information when the accumulated energy consumption of the terminal does not exceed a maximum threshold.

[0457] Figure 17 is a schematic diagram of another communication energy-saving control device in an embodiment of the present application, which can execute the method shown in Figure 4. As shown in Figure 17, the device includes a first acquisition module 31 and a first energy-saving execution module 32, wherein the first acquisition module 31 is used to obtain first information, and the first information is used to indicate any one of the following: whether the energy-saving operation is authorized; the tendency of the energy-saving operation; the first energy-saving execution module 32 is used to execute the first energy-saving operation according to the first information.

[0458] In some embodiments, the first acquisition module 31 is configured to perform at least one of the following:

[0459] receiving first information sent by a terminal;

[0460] First information sent by a first network function is received.

[0461] In some embodiments, the first energy-saving execution module 32 is configured to perform at least one of the following:

[0462] sending the first information to the second network function;

[0463] In the case where the first information authorizes or tends to perform an energy-saving operation, the execution includes at least one of the following: releasing the PDU session or modifying the PDU session, and the modification of the PDU session includes deleting the QoS flow or modifying the QoS parameters of the QoS flow.

[0464] Figure 18 is a schematic diagram of another communication energy-saving control device in an embodiment of the present application, which can execute the method shown in Figure 5. As shown in Figure 18, the device includes a second receiving module 41 and a second energy-saving execution module 42. The second receiving module 41 is used to receive the first information sent by the first network function or the third function, and the first information is used to indicate any one of the following: whether the energy-saving operation is authorized; the tendency of the energy-saving operation; the second energy-saving execution module 42 is used to execute the second energy-saving operation according to the first information.

[0465] In some embodiments, the second energy-saving execution module 42 performs at least one of the following:

[0466] When the first information indicates authorization or a preference for performing an energy-saving operation, generating a first AM policy and sending it to the first network function;

[0467] When the first information indicates that the energy-saving operation is not authorized or is not intended to be performed, generating a second AM policy and sending it to the first network function;

[0468] When the first information indicates authorization or a preference for performing an energy-saving operation, generating a first SM policy and sending it to the third network function;

[0469] When the first information indicates that the energy-saving operation is not authorized or is not inclined to be performed, a second SM policy is generated and sent to the third network function.

[0470] In some embodiments, further comprising:

[0471] The auxiliary information receiving module is used to receive energy-saving auxiliary information sent by the fourth network function.

[0472] In some embodiments, further comprising:

[0473] The request module is configured to, before receiving the energy-saving assistance information sent by the fourth network function, send a first request to the fourth network function when the first information indicates authorization to perform the energy-saving operation, wherein the first request is used to obtain the energy-saving assistance information.

[0474] In some embodiments, further comprising:

[0475] AM strategy generation module, used to generate the first AM strategy or the first SM strategy based on energy-saving auxiliary information

[0476] In some embodiments, further comprising:

[0477] The SM policy generating module generates a second AM policy or a second SM policy when the first information indicates that the energy-saving operation is not authorized.

[0478] Figure 19 is a schematic diagram of another communication energy-saving control device in an embodiment of the present application, which can execute the method shown in Figure 6. As shown in Figure 19, the device includes a third receiving module 51, a first auxiliary information generation module 52 and a third sending module 52, wherein the third receiving module 51 is used to receive the first request sent by the second network function; the third sending module 52 is used to send energy-saving auxiliary information to the second network function.

[0479] Figure 20 is a schematic diagram of another communication energy-saving control device in an embodiment of the present application, which can execute the method shown in Figure 7. As shown in Figure 20, the device includes a fourth receiving module 61 and an overlay module 62. The fourth receiving module 61 is used to receive the first information sent by the first network function, and write the first information into the contract data of the terminal. The first information is used to indicate any one of the following: whether the energy-saving operation is authorized; the tendency of the energy-saving operation; the overlay module 62 is used to overwrite the old first information with the newly received first information if the old first information already exists in the fifth network function.

[0480] The communication energy-saving control device provided in the embodiment of the present application can implement the various processes implemented in the method embodiments of Figures 2 to 14 and achieve the same technical effects. To avoid repetition, they will not be described here.

[0481] As shown in Figure 21, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication device 2100, including a processor 2101 and a memory 2102. The memory 2102 stores a program or instruction that can be run on the processor 2101. For example, when the communication device 2100 is a terminal, the program or instruction is executed by the processor 2101 to implement the various steps of the above-mentioned communication control energy-saving method embodiment and achieve the same technical effect. When the communication device 2100 is a network-side device, the program or instruction is executed by the processor 2101 to implement the various steps of the above-mentioned communication energy-saving control method embodiment and achieve the same technical effect. To avoid repetition, it will not be repeated here.

[0482] The present application also provides a terminal including a processor and a communication interface, wherein the communication interface is coupled to the processor, and the processor is configured to execute a program or instruction to implement the steps of the method embodiment shown in FIG2 . This terminal embodiment corresponds to the aforementioned terminal-side method embodiment, and each implementation process and implementation method of the aforementioned method embodiment is applicable to this terminal embodiment and can achieve the same technical effects. Specifically, FIG22 is a schematic diagram of the hardware structure of a terminal implementing an embodiment of the present application.

[0483] The terminal 2200 includes but is not limited to: a radio frequency unit 2201, a network module 2202, an audio output unit 2203, an input unit 2204, a sensor 2205, a display unit 2206, a user input unit 2207, an interface unit 2208, a memory 2209 and at least some of the components of the processor 2210.

[0484] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the terminal 2200 may also include a power supply (such as a battery) to power various components. The power supply may be logically connected to the processor 2210 through a power management system, thereby implementing functions such as charging, discharging, and power consumption management through the power management system. The terminal structure shown in FIG22 does not constitute a limitation of the terminal. The terminal may include more or fewer components than shown, or combine certain components, or arrange the components differently, which will not be described in detail here.

[0485] It should be understood that in the embodiment of the present application, the input unit 2204 may include a graphics processing unit (GPU) 22041 and a microphone 22042, and the graphics processor 22041 processes the image data of the static picture or video obtained by the image capture device (such as a camera) in the video capture mode or the image capture mode. The display unit 2206 may include a display panel 22061, and the display panel 22061 may be configured in the form of a liquid crystal display, an organic light emitting diode, etc. The user input unit 2207 includes a touch panel 22071 and at least one of the other input devices 22072. The touch panel 22071 is also called a touch screen. The touch panel x071 may include two parts: a touch detection device and a touch controller. Other input devices 22072 may include but are not limited to a physical keyboard, function keys (such as volume control keys, switch keys, etc.), a trackball, a mouse, and a joystick, which will not be repeated here.

[0486] In the embodiment of the present application, after receiving downlink data from the network-side device, the RF unit 2201 can transmit the data to the processor 2210 for processing. In addition, the RF unit 2201 can send uplink data to the network-side device. Generally, the RF unit 2201 includes but is not limited to an antenna, an amplifier, a transceiver, a coupler, a low-noise amplifier, a duplexer, etc.

[0487] The memory 2209 can be used to store software programs or instructions and various data. The memory 2209 may mainly include a first storage area for storing programs or instructions and a second storage area for storing data, wherein the first storage area may store an operating system, applications or instructions required for at least one function (such as a sound playback function, an image playback function, etc.). In addition, the memory 2209 may include a volatile memory or a non-volatile memory. Among them, the non-volatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or a flash memory. Volatile memory can be random access memory (RAM), static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDRSDRAM), enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (ESDRAM), synchronous link dynamic random access memory (SLDRAM), and direct RAM bus random access memory (DRRAM). The memory 2209 in the embodiment of the present application includes but is not limited to these and any other suitable types of memory.

[0488] Processor 2210 may include one or more processing units. Optionally, processor 2210 may integrate an application processor and a modem processor. The application processor primarily handles operations related to the operating system, user interface, and application programs, while the modem processor primarily processes wireless communication signals, such as a baseband processor. It is understood that the modem processor may not be integrated into processor 2210.

[0489] The radio frequency unit 1101 is configured to send first information to the network side device, where the first information is configured to indicate any one of the following: whether the energy-saving operation is authorized; or a preference for the energy-saving operation.

[0490] The terminal provided in the embodiment of the present application sends the first information used to indicate whether to authorize or tend to perform energy-saving operations on the terminal to the network side device. The above-mentioned first information can be updated to accurately reflect the actual needs of the user or the terminal, so that the communication network can consider the actual needs of the user or the terminal when performing energy-saving operations, avoid conflicts between energy-saving operations and the actual needs of the user or the terminal, and thus improve user experience.

[0491] It can be understood that the implementation process of each implementation method mentioned in this embodiment can refer to the relevant description of the embodiment shown in method Figure 2, and achieve the same or corresponding technical effects. To avoid repetition, it will not be repeated here.

[0492] Specifically, an embodiment of the present application further provides a network-side device, which can be a network function in a core network device. As shown in Figure 23, the network-side device 2300 includes: a processor 2301, a network interface 2302, and a memory 2303. The network interface 2302 is, for example, a common public radio interface (CPRI).

[0493] Specifically, the network side device 2300 of an embodiment of the present invention also includes: instructions or programs stored in the memory 2303 and executable on the processor 2301. The processor 2301 calls the instructions or programs in the memory 2303 to execute the methods executed by the modules shown in Figures 15-20 and achieve the same technical effects. To avoid repetition, they will not be elaborated here.

[0494] An embodiment of the present application also provides a readable storage medium, on which a program or instruction is stored. When the program or instruction is executed by a processor, the various processes of the method embodiments shown in Figures 2 to 14 above are implemented, and the same technical effect can be achieved. To avoid repetition, it will not be repeated here.

[0495] The processor is the processor in the terminal described in the above embodiment. The readable storage medium includes a computer-readable storage medium, such as a computer read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk. In some examples, the readable storage medium may be a non-transitory readable storage medium.

[0496] An embodiment of the present application further provides a chip, which includes a processor and a communication interface, wherein the communication interface is coupled to the processor, and the processor is used to run programs or instructions to implement the various processes of the method embodiments shown in Figures 2 to 14 above, and can achieve the same technical effects. To avoid repetition, they will not be repeated here.

[0497] It should be understood that the chip mentioned in the embodiments of the present application can also be called a system-level chip, a system chip, a chip system or a system-on-chip chip, etc.

[0498] An embodiment of the present application further provides a computer program / program product, which is stored in a storage medium. The computer program / program product is executed by at least one processor to implement the various processes of the above-mentioned communication energy-saving control method embodiment and can achieve the same technical effect. To avoid repetition, it will not be repeated here.

[0499] An embodiment of the present application also provides a communication system, including: a terminal and a network side device, wherein the terminal can be used to execute the steps of the method shown in Figure 2 as described above, and the network side device can be used to execute the steps of any of the methods shown in Figures 3 to 7 as described above.

[0500] It should be noted that, in this article, the terms "comprise", "include" or any other variants thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion, so that a process, method, article or device comprising a series of elements includes not only those elements, but also other elements not explicitly listed, or also includes elements inherent to such process, method, article or device. In the absence of further restrictions, an element defined by the sentence "comprises a ..." does not exclude the presence of other identical elements in the process, method, article or device comprising the element. In addition, it should be pointed out that the scope of the methods and devices in the embodiments of the present application is not limited to performing functions in the order shown or discussed, and may also include performing functions in a substantially simultaneous manner or in the opposite order according to the functions involved. For example, the described method may be performed in an order different from that described, and various steps may also be added, omitted or combined. In addition, the features described with reference to certain examples may be combined in other examples.

[0501] Through the description of the above embodiments, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that the above-mentioned embodiment methods can be implemented by means of a computer software product plus a necessary general-purpose hardware platform, or of course, by hardware. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium (such as ROM, RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk, etc.) and includes a number of instructions for enabling a terminal or network-side device to execute the methods described in each embodiment of the present application.

[0502] The embodiments of the present application are described above in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, but the present application is not limited to the above-mentioned specific implementation methods. The above-mentioned specific implementation methods are merely illustrative and not restrictive. Under the guidance of this application, ordinary technicians in this field can also make many forms of implementation methods without departing from the purpose of this application and the scope of protection of the claims. These implementation methods are all within the protection of this application.

Claims

1. A communication energy-saving control method, wherein: include: The terminal sends first information to the network side device, where the first information is used to indicate any one of the following: Whether energy-saving operations are authorized; Tendency towards energy-saving operation.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein The first information includes at least one of the following: Authorize the network to perform energy-saving operations; The network is not authorized to perform energy-saving operations; Authorize the network in the target area to perform energy-saving operations; Not authorizing energy-saving operations within the target area network; Authorize the network to perform energy-saving operations within the target time; The network is not authorized to perform energy-saving operations within the target time; Authorizes the network to perform energy-saving operations when using the target slice; When the target slice is not authorized to be used, the network performs energy-saving operations; Authorize network energy-saving operations for specific QoS flows; Not authorizing network energy-saving operations for specific QoS flows; Tend the network to perform energy-saving operations; Do not tend to the network to perform energy-saving operations; Tend to perform energy-saving operations on the network in the target area; Do not favor energy-saving operations for networks within the target area; Tend to perform energy-saving operations on the network within the target time; The network is not inclined to perform energy-saving operations within the target time; The network tends to perform energy-saving operations when using the target slice; When the target slice is not used, the network performs energy-saving operations; Emergency communications information.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: The terminal sends first information to the network side device, including: When a preset condition is met, the terminal sends the first information to the network side device.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein: The preset conditions include at least one of the following: Start preset applications, start emergency communications, preset location conditions, preset time conditions, preset scene conditions, and preset service conditions.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein: The terminal sends first information to the network side device, including any one of the following: The terminal sends a registration request to the first network function, where the registration request carries the first information; The terminal sends a non-access stratum NAS message to the first network function, where the NAS message includes a PDU session establishment request and the first information, or the NAS message includes a PDU session modification request and the first information; The terminal sends a PDU session establishment request to the third network function, where the PDU session establishment request carries the first information; The terminal sends a PDU session modification request to the third network function, where the PDU session modification request carries the first information; The terminal sends energy-saving operation instruction information to the first network function, where the energy-saving operation instruction information includes the first information.

6. A communication energy-saving control device, wherein: include: The first sending module is configured to send first information to the network side device, where the first information is used to indicate any one of the following: Whether energy-saving operations are authorized; Tendency towards energy-saving operation.

7. A communication energy-saving control method, wherein: include: The first network function receives first information sent by the terminal, where the first information is used to indicate any one of the following: Whether energy-saving operations are authorized; a tendency toward energy-saving operations; The first network function sends the first information to a second network function, a third network function, or a fifth network function.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein: Also includes: Obtaining second information, where the second information is used to indicate whether the accumulated energy consumption of the terminal exceeds a maximum threshold; The first information is sent according to the second information.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein The sending the first information according to the second information includes: When the accumulated energy consumption of the terminal does not exceed the maximum threshold, the first information is sent.

10. A communication energy-saving control device, wherein: include: The first receiving module is configured to receive first information sent by a terminal, where the first information is used to indicate any one of the following: Whether energy-saving operations are authorized; a tendency toward energy-saving operations; The second sending module is configured to send the first information to the second network function, the third network function, or the fifth network function.

11. A communication energy-saving control method, wherein: include: The third network function obtains first information, where the first information is used to indicate any one of the following: Whether energy-saving operations are authorized; a tendency toward energy-saving operations; A first energy-saving operation is performed according to the first information.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein The obtaining of the first information includes at least one of the following: receiving first information sent by a terminal; First information sent by a first network function is received.

13. The method according to claim 11 or 12, wherein: The performing the first energy-saving operation according to the first information includes at least one of the following: sending the first information to the second network function; In the case where the first information authorizes or tends to perform an energy-saving operation, the execution includes at least one of the following: releasing the PDU session or modifying the PDU session, and the modification of the PDU session includes deleting the QoS flow or modifying the QoS parameters of the QoS flow.

14. A communication energy-saving control device, wherein: include: The first acquisition module is configured to acquire first information, where the first information is used to indicate any one of the following: Whether energy-saving operations are authorized; a tendency toward energy-saving operations; The first energy-saving execution module is configured to execute a first energy-saving operation according to the first information.

15. A communication energy-saving control method, wherein: include: The second network function receives first information sent by the first network function or the third network function, where the first information is used to indicate any one of the following: Whether energy-saving operations are authorized; a tendency toward energy-saving operations; The second network function performs a second energy-saving operation according to the first information.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein The performing of the second energy-saving operation according to the first information includes at least one of the following: When the first information indicates authorization or a preference for performing an energy-saving operation, generating a first AM policy and sending it to the first network function; When the first information indicates that the energy-saving operation is not authorized or is not intended to be performed, generating a second AM policy and sending it to the first network function; When the first information indicates authorization or a tendency to perform an energy-saving operation, generating a first SM policy and sending it to the third network function; When the first information indicates that the energy-saving operation is not authorized or is not intended to be performed, a second SM policy is generated and sent to the third network function.

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein: Also includes: receiving energy-saving assistance information sent by the fourth network function.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein: Before receiving the energy-saving assistance information sent by the fourth network function, the method further includes: When the first information indicates authorization to perform the energy-saving operation, a first request is sent to the fourth network function, where the first request is used to obtain energy-saving assistance information.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein Also includes: A first AM strategy or a first SM strategy is generated according to the energy-saving assistance information.

20. The method according to claim 18, wherein Also includes: When the first information indicates that the energy-saving operation is not authorized, a second AM policy or a second SM policy is generated.

21. A communication energy-saving control device, wherein: include: The second receiving module is configured to receive first information sent by the first network function or the third function, where the first information is used to indicate any one of the following: Whether energy-saving operations are authorized; a tendency toward energy-saving operations; The second energy-saving execution module is configured to execute a second energy-saving operation according to the first information.

22. A communication energy-saving control method, wherein: include: The fourth network function receives the first request sent by the second network function; Sending energy-saving assistance information to the second network function.

23. The method according to claim 22, wherein The energy-saving assistance information is generated by performing at least one of the following: Collect energy consumption information of terminals; Collect data rate information of the terminal; Collect the accumulated energy consumption of the terminal; Collect energy efficiency information of terminals; Collect energy consumption, rate, cumulative energy consumption or energy efficiency information of the terminal on a specific target; The specific target includes at least one of the following: target time, target slice, target DNN, and target area.

24. A communication energy-saving control device, wherein: include: a third receiving module, configured to receive a first request sent by a second network function, where the first request is used to obtain energy-saving auxiliary information; A first auxiliary information generating module, configured to generate energy-saving auxiliary information according to the first request; The third sending module is used to send the energy-saving auxiliary information to the second network function.

25. A communication energy-saving control method, wherein: include: The fifth network function receives the first information sent by the first network function, and the fifth network function writes the first information into the contract data of the terminal, where the first information is used to indicate any one of the following: Whether energy-saving operations are authorized; a tendency toward energy-saving operations; If old first information already exists in the fifth network function, the newly received first information overwrites the old first information.

26. A communication energy-saving control device, wherein: include: The fourth receiving module is configured to receive first information sent by the first network function, and write the first information into the contract data of the terminal, where the first information is used to indicate any one of the following: Whether energy-saving operations are authorized; a tendency toward energy-saving operations; The overwriting module is configured to overwrite the old first information with the newly received first information if the old first information already exists in the fifth network function.

27. A terminal, wherein: The method comprises a processor and a memory, wherein the memory stores a program or instruction that can be run on the processor, and when the program or instruction is executed by the processor, the steps of the communication energy saving control method according to any one of claims 1 to 5 are implemented.

28. A network function, wherein It includes a processor and a memory, the memory stores a program or instruction that can be run on the processor, and when the program or instruction is executed by the processor, it implements the steps of the communication energy saving control method as described in any one of claims 7-9, 11-13, 15-20, 22, 23, and 25.

29. A readable storage medium, wherein: The readable storage medium stores a program or instruction, and when the program or instruction is executed by the processor, the steps of the communication energy saving control method as described in any one of claims 1-5, 7-9, 11-13, 15-20, 22, 23, and 25 are implemented.

30. A program product, wherein When the program product is executed by a processor, the steps of the communication energy saving control method according to any one of claims 1-5, 7-9, 11-13, 15-20, 22, 23, and 25 are implemented.

Images