Communication method, apparatus, and system, electronic device, storage medium, and product

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to the technical field of communications, and in particular, provides a communication method, apparatus, and system, an electronic device, a storage medium, and a product. According to the present disclosure, a tethered link / connection between a first terminal and a second terminal is identified on the basis of first information provided by a first client of the first terminal; and the transmission quality of the tethered link / connection is measured. The technical solution provided by the present disclosure can improve measurement accuracy to a certain extent, solve the problem of identification of a tethered device, and reduce dependency on the tethered device for measurement.

Description

Communication method and device, system, electronic device, storage medium and product

[0001] Cross-reference to related applications

[0002] The present application is based on the Chinese patent application No. 202410887940.0, filed on July 3, 2024, entitled "Communication method and device, system, electronic device, storage medium and product", and claims priority to the Chinese patent application No. 202410887940.0, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference into the present application. TECHNICAL FIELD

[0003] The present disclosure relates to the technical field of communication, and in particular, to a communication method and device, system, electronic device, storage medium and product. BACKGROUND

[0004] Tethered devices (e.g., tethered terminals, i.e., Tethered UE) refer to devices connected to terminals in a tethered form, such as AR glasses, smart watches, etc. Different from other types of terminals, the end-to-end path of a tethered device includes one or more tethered links between the tethered device and the tethered terminal (e.g., a 5G phone, a 3GPP UE, etc.), which can be in the form of a wireless or wired connection. In order to meet the end-to-end QoS requirements of the tethered device session, the consumer needs to obtain the state of the tethered link through measurement and analysis, and take it into account when determining the QoS of the 5G system link. Taking delay (i.e., Delay) measurement as an example, the related art provides a segment-by-segment delay measurement solution based on ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) and an end-to-end delay measurement solution based on RTP (Real-Time Transport Protocol).

[0005] However, the end-to-end delay measurement based on RTP relies on the tethered device and cannot measure the delay after the N6 interface, i.e., cannot identify the specific delay between the 5G terminal and the tethered device through the core network. The segment-by-segment delay measurement is based on ICMP measurement between the UPF (User Plane Function) network element of the core network and the tethered device, but this measurement method does not support UPF retrieval of RTT between the UPF and the application server and further exposure of the delay result to the AF. In summary, in the prior art, there is a lack of effective solutions for measuring the transmission quality of the tethered link. SUMMARY

[0006] The present disclosure is proposed in view of the above problems. The present disclosure provides a communication method and device, system, electronic device, storage medium and product.

[0007] According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a communication method applied to a first terminal is provided, the method comprising:

[0008] identifying a tethered link / connection between the first terminal and a second terminal based on first information provided by a first client of the first terminal;

[0009] measuring a transmission quality of the tethered link / connection.

[0010] According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a communication method applied to a server is provided, the method comprising:

[0011] identifying a tethered link / connection between the first terminal and a second terminal based on first information provided by a first client of the first terminal, and / or, based on fifth information provided by a third client, and / or, based on sixth information provided by a second client;

[0012] measuring a transmission quality of the tethered link / connection.

[0013] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a communication device is provided, arranged in a terminal, comprising:

[0014] an identifying unit configured to identify a tethered link / connection between the first terminal and a second terminal based on first information provided by a first client of the first terminal;

[0015] a measuring unit configured to measure a transmission quality of the tethered link / connection.

[0016] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a communication device is provided, arranged in a server, comprising:

[0017] an identifying unit configured to identify a tethered link / connection between the first terminal and a second terminal based on first information provided by a first client of the first terminal, and / or, based on fifth information provided by a third client, and / or, based on sixth information provided by a second client;

[0018] a measuring unit configured to measure a transmission quality of the tethered link / connection.

[0019] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a communication system is provided, comprising:

[0020] a server configured to implement the method performed by the server in any of the preceding embodiments;

[0021] a first terminal configured to implement the method performed by the first terminal in any of the preceding embodiments.

[0022] a second terminal, the second terminal being a tethered terminal of the first terminal.

[0023] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic device is provided, including a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored on the memory, the processor executing the computer program to implement the method of any of the above embodiments.

[0024] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a computer readable storage medium is provided, having stored thereon a computer program / instructions, which, when executed by a processor, implement the method of any of the above embodiments.

[0025] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a computer program product is provided, including a computer program / instructions, which, when executed by a processor, implement the method of any of the above embodiments.

[0026] As will be described in detail below, according to a communication method and apparatus, system, electronic device, storage medium and product of embodiments of the present disclosure, the first client related to the Personal IoT Networks (PIN) established by the application enable layer in the present disclosure is applied to identify the tethered link / connection between the terminal and the tethered device behind it, which can solve the problem that the tethered device cannot be recognized by the 3GPP network in the related art; further, the communication connection relationship between the client and the server in the application enable layer can be used to initiate the transmission quality measurement for the tethered link from the application enable layer of the 3GPP network. On the one hand, the measurement method does not depend on the tethered device, avoiding the problem that the tethered device cannot communicate with the 3GPP network, on the other hand, the measurement method is communicated by the 3GPP network side (i.e. the first terminal can be a 3GPP terminal) and the core network, further solving the problem that the tethered device cannot communicate with the core network, resulting in the link quality after N6 cannot be measured, which can more accurately distinguish the link quality of the tethered link and the link quality after N6. In summary, the technical solution provided by the present disclosure can use the application enable layer to identify and measure the transmission quality of the tethered link, and use the tethered link state, the application enable layer can communicate with the AF to correspondingly adjust the dynamic QoS policy, the present disclosure can improve the measurement accuracy to a certain extent, solve the identification problem of the tethered device, and reduce the measurement dependency of the tethered device.

[0027] It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended to provide further explanation of the subject technology. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0028] The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The accompanying drawings provide illustration of embodiments of the present disclosure and are part of the specification. The drawings illustrate the principles of the present disclosure and, together with the written description, serve to explain the principles of the present disclosure. In the drawings:

[0029] FIG. 1 is a flow diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0030] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0031] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0032] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0033] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0034] FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0035] FIG. 7 is an interaction flow diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0036] FIG. 8 is an interaction flow diagram of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0037] FIG. 9 is an interaction flow diagram of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0038] FIG. 10 is an interaction flow diagram of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0039] FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a communication apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0040] FIG. 12 is a block diagram of another communication apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0041] FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0042] FIG. 14 is a hardware block diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0043] FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram of a computer-readable storage medium according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0044] In order to make the objectives, technical solutions and advantages of the present disclosure more obvious, the following will describe the example embodiments according to the present disclosure in detail with reference to the drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present disclosure, rather than all the embodiments of the present disclosure, and it should be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to the example embodiments described herein.

[0045] The present disclosure is applied to any scenario containing a tethered device. Among them, the tethered device can be connected to the tethered device in a tethered form, and the tethered device generally has network communication capability. For example, the tethered device can be an AR glasses, a VR helmet, a smart bracelet and the like wearable device, and the tethered device can generally be a mobile phone (hereinafter referred to as 3GPP UE), a computer and the like terminal, which can generally realize interaction with the core network and other communication devices through the 3GPP network. Generally, the tethered device is not a 3GPP device and cannot directly access the 3GPP network, and thus the tethered device can access the 3GPP network by connecting to the 3GPP UE.

[0046] In the present disclosure, the tethered device can include three types: tethered independent device, tethered display device and 5G-based relay tethered device (also referred to as relay tethered device, which divides part of the extended reality (Extended Reality, XR) running on the cloud). The vertical application layer is used to deploy various vertical applications. Specifically, the vertical application layer of the tethered device can deploy the client of the vertical application, and the vertical application layer of the tethered device can also deploy the client of the corresponding vertical application. These clients can interact with each other and with the application server in the vertical application layer. The vertical application layer (VAL) can include one or more vertical applications, and the VAL server (Server) provides services for the VAL client (Client). The present disclosure does not have special restrictions on the type and number of vertical applications.

[0047] For ease of understanding, the following will be described by taking XR application as an example. The XR application can include at least one of a virtual reality (Virtual Reality, VR) application and an augmented reality (Augmented Reality, AR) application. Based on the classification of the tethered device, the tethered device corresponding to the XR application can also be divided into: tethered XR device and tethered display XR device (or tethered display device). Among them, the XR application program client of the tethered XR device is deployed on the tethered device, for example, tethered independent AR glasses, tethered AR glasses with 5G relay, etc., without listing. The tethered display XR device is to deploy the XR application program client on the 3GPP UE.

[0048] Further, the present disclosure is applied to any scenario requiring transmission quality measurement of the tethered link. In this scenario, the background art gives some prior art solutions, but these solutions either rely too much on the tethered device, resulting in the inability to measure the transmission delay after N6, or do not support exposing the delay result to the AF. These solutions are all from the tethered device side, and the transmission quality measurement of the tethered link is poor, which cannot meet the actual scene requirements.

[0049] To solve this problem, the present disclosure provides a new design concept: using the application enablement layer to identify and measure the transmission quality of the tethered link, wherein the connection of the application enablement layer can be a PIN (Personal IoT Networks) connection or other connections. When other connections are used, the device information of the tethered device can be provided for other connections through the subscription data carried by the PEMC (PIN Element with Management Capability) in the PIN connection, so as to solve the problem that the tethered device cannot be identified by the 3GPP network, and to bring the tethered link into the control range of the 3GPP network.

[0050] The present disclosure provides a communication method, which can be executed in a first terminal. Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a flowchart of a communication method provided by the present disclosure, as shown in FIG. 1, the method comprises:

[0051] S101, identifying a tethered link / connection between the first terminal and a second terminal based on first information provided by a first client of the first terminal.

[0052] S102, measuring the transmission quality of the tethered link / connection.

[0053] It should be noted that in actual scenarios, S101 and S102 do not need to be repeatedly executed every time, nor do they need to be closely executed. There can be other steps or processes between them, and the present disclosure does not have special limitations on this. If S101 has been executed and successfully identified the tethered link / connection between the first terminal and the second terminal, S101 does not need to be repeatedly executed subsequently, and only S102 needs to be executed. It is only necessary to ensure that before S102, the tethered link / connection between the first terminal and the second terminal can be identified by using the first information provided by the first client.

[0054] For ease of understanding, first, the device architecture relationship is described in conjunction with FIGS. 2-5, wherein FIGS. 2-5 are architecture diagrams of a communication system provided by the present disclosure.

[0055] The first terminal in the present disclosure, i.e., the 3GPP UE shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, includes a client deployed on the first terminal, where the client can include but is not limited to at least one of the following: an application client (AC), a vertical application layer client (i.e., a VAL client), and an application enabler layer (which can also be referred to as a service enabler layer) client. The application enabler layer client can be one or more, and examples can include but are not limited to a SEAL client, a SEALDD (Service Enabler Architecture Layer Data Delivery) client, a PINAPP client (or referred to as a PIN client), and the like. For example, in the communication system shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 5, the application enabler layer of the first terminal is deployed with a PIN client and a SEALDD client. For another example, in the communication system shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 4, the application enabler layer of the first terminal is deployed with a PIN client.

[0056] As the tethered terminal of the first terminal, the tethered terminal can include a client deployed on the tethered terminal, where the client can include but is not limited to at least one of the following: an application client, a vertical application layer client (i.e., a VAL client), and an application enabler layer (which can also be referred to as a service enabler layer) client. The application enabler layer client can be one or more, and examples can include but are not limited to a SEAL client, a SEALDD client, a PINAPP client (or referred to as a PIN client), and the like. For example, in the communication system shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 4, the application enabler layer of the first terminal is deployed with a PIN client and a SEALDD client. For another example, in the communication system shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 5, the application enabler layer of the first terminal is deployed with a PIN client.

[0057] In addition, it needs to be noted that the vertical application layer client can be deployed on the first terminal or on the tethered device. Taking the XR client as an example of the vertical application layer client, in the communication system shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, the XR client is deployed on the vertical application layer of the tethered terminal (i.e., the tethered UE) and is served by the XR server; for another example, in the communication system shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, the XR client is deployed on the vertical application layer of the first terminal (i.e., the 3GPP UE) and is served by the XR server. In a specific implementation scenario, the deployment mode of the vertical application layer client can be different based on the type of the tethered terminal.

[0058] In an exemplary embodiment, when the second terminal (i.e., the tethered UE) is a tethered display device, a third client (also referred to as a VAL client, such as the XR client in FIGS. 4 and 5) of the vertical application layer is deployed on the first terminal (i.e., the 3GPP UE); a fourth client (such as the PIN client or the SEALDD client on the tethered UE side in FIGS. 4 or 5) is deployed on the second terminal, and the second client interacts with the fourth client to perform the measurement; and / or, when the second terminal is a tethered standalone device or a relayed tethered device (such as a tethered standalone AR glasses, tethered AR glasses with a 5G relay, etc.), the third client (i.e., the VAL client, such as the XR client in FIGS. 2 and 3) of the vertical application layer is deployed on the second terminal (i.e., the tethered UE); the third client interacts with the second client to perform the measurement. The fourth client has the same application type as the second client.

[0059] The second client (such as the SEALDD client in FIG. 3) or the fourth client (i.e., the PIN client) of the second terminal is connected to the third client.

[0060] As can be seen from FIGS. 2-5, in the application enabling layer, the client and the server can communicate and interact with each other, and thus, the disclosure aims to measure the quality of the tethered link / connection through the application enabling layer. To achieve this purpose, the problem that the tethered terminal cannot directly access the 3GPP network, i.e., the problem that the 3GPP network cannot recognize the tethered terminal behind the terminal, still needs to be solved. To solve this problem, the disclosure reuses the management function of the PEMC, takes the PEMC as the first client, and takes the device information of the second device collected by the first client in the registration process as the first information, so that based on the first information, the tethered link / connection between the first terminal and the second terminal can be recognized.

[0061] In an exemplary preferred embodiment, when the first client and / or the fifth client applies for registration to the first server, in addition to carrying the above-mentioned first information, the registration request can also carry a device type identifier. The fifth client is a client of the same type as the first client deployed on the tethered device, i.e., the fifth client is a PIN client deployed on the tethered UE. The device type identifier can be used to specifically identify the tethered device, or each type of device can be identified respectively. Based on this, for the first server, the first server can receive the registration request from the first client and / or the fifth client; the registration request carries the device type identifier. In this way, the first server can further more clearly obtain the information of the tethered device.

[0062] In a real scenario, when the first client can provide the first information to the outside, the PIN connection has been successfully created and is in use, and the PIN server has received the address of the PEMC and the PIN server has been authorized to communicate with the PEMC. In this case, the 3GPP UE acts as the PEGC and the PEMC, the tethered UE acts as the Personal IoT Network Element (PINE), and the XR application server (hereinafter referred to as the third server) acts as the PIN server (hereinafter referred to as the first server).

[0063] Specifically, the first client involved in the present disclosure can be a Personal IoT Network Element with Management Capability (PEMC). The first information provided by the PEMC can at least be used to describe the device information of the second terminal. At this time, there can be different implementation manners, for example, the first information can only include the device information of the second terminal, or the first information can only include the device information of all terminals / devices in the personal IoT network.

[0064] In an exemplary embodiment, the first information can include but is not limited to at least one of the following:

[0065] An address of the second terminal;

[0066] An identity of the second terminal;

[0067] A connection protocol of the second terminal;

[0068] A personal IoT PIN identity of the second terminal;

[0069] A personal IoT PIN client identity of the second terminal;

[0070] A location of the second terminal;

[0071] A capability of the second terminal.

[0072] Alternatively, in another exemplary embodiment, the first information can include but is not limited to at least one of the following:

[0073] An address of the terminal;

[0074] An identity of the terminal;

[0075] A connection protocol of the terminal;

[0076] A personal IoT PIN identity of the terminal;

[0077] A personal IoT PIN client identity of the terminal;

[0078] A location of the terminal;

[0079] the capability of the terminal.

[0080] The capability of the terminal is used to indicate whether the terminal has the capability of being a gateway PEGC, whether it can be a PEMC, etc.

[0081] Based on this, for any network element in the 3GPP network, as long as it can interact with the first client to obtain the first information, it can identify the tethered terminal behind the first terminal, so as to include the tethered terminal, the tethered link / connection, into the network management range of 3GPP.

[0082] Based on this, the present disclosure provides two measurement methods:

[0083] One is to directly measure the transmission quality based on the PIN client (i.e. the first client), which can be seen in FIG. 2 and FIG. 4. At this time, in an exemplary embodiment, the transmission quality is measured based on the first client. For ease of description hereinafter, this case can also be represented as: the second client and the first client are the same client, and the first server (i.e. the PIN server) and the second server are the same server. In other words, the first client and the second client are the same client, both of which are PIN clients; the first server and the second server are the same server, both of which are PIN servers.

[0084] In this embodiment, since the PIN connection has been successfully created and registered, the interaction of measurement information can be directly realized based on the PIN connection, so as to realize the transmission quality measurement of the tethered link / connection. The specific measurement method is described hereinafter.

[0085] The other is to measure the transmission quality based on other clients (marked as second clients) of the application enablement layer, such as FIG. 3 and FIG. 5. At this time, in an exemplary embodiment, the transmission quality is measured based on the second client, wherein the first information is obtained by the second client (SELADD client) of the first terminal through the first client (i.e. the PEMC).

[0086] It should be noted that the second client involved in the present disclosure can include but is not limited to the SELADD client, as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 5, the second client and the first client can be connected through the PIN3 interface, so that the second client can obtain the first information based on the PIN3 interface and identify the tethered terminal. It should be noted that in actual scenarios, the client deployed in the application enablement layer and capable of interacting with the first client can be used as the second client to implement the present scheme, and the present disclosure does not particularly limit the scope of the second client.

[0087] For the second client, it can be served by the second server. Specifically, when the tethering device side also deploys a client of the same type of application (denoted as the fourth client), the second client and the fourth client are served by the second server. The second server includes: a service enabling architecture layer data transmission (SEALDD) server, and / or, a PINAPP server (which can also be referred to as a PIN server), and the second client is a SEALDD client and / or a PIN client. Specifically, the type of the second server is related to the type of the application. When the second client is a SEALDD client, the second server is a SEALDD server. When the second client is a PIN client, the second server is a PINAPP server.

[0088] In this embodiment, tethering device identification based on the first information is also required, so as to establish a communication connection between the SEALDD server and the SEALDD client based thereon. Specifically, before performing S102, the method can further include the following steps:

[0089] Step A: At the application enabling layer, a regular data transmission connection between the second client and the second server is established.

[0090] Step B: Based on the first information, a regular data transmission connection between the second client and the fourth client (see FIG. 5) or between the second client and the third client (see FIG. 3, the SEALDD client and the XR client establish a connection) is established.

[0091] Among them, the fourth client refers to a client deployed on the tethering terminal and of the same type of application as the second client. For example, in the communication system shown in FIG. 5, the SEALDD client deployed on the tethering UE is the fourth client.

[0092] In specific implementation, the regular data transmission connection (i.e., regular data transmission connection) between the 3GPP side client and the application server in step A can be implemented by using any existing technology, for example, the manner defined in TS23.433 clause 9.2.2.2, which is not exhaustively described. The cross-device communication connection between the two clients in step B can be established by device discovery based on the first information. In addition, steps A and B have no restrictions on the order of execution, and they can be executed in the order of A first and B second, or B first and A second, or simultaneously.

[0093] Based on this, no matter what method is used, the tethering link / connection between the first terminal and the second terminal can be identified based on the first information. Then, the transmission quality measurement can be performed.

[0094] Based on the foregoing, the following is a summary description of FIGS. 2-5.

[0095] The communication system as shown in FIG. 2 is suitable for implementing a transmission quality measurement scenario for tethered XR devices using PINAPP. As shown in FIG. 2, the XR application client runs on the tethered XR device, which is tethered to the 3GPP UE and potentially uses PINAPP capabilities to support the XR application. For example, the 3GPP UE can be regarded as PEGC and PEMC, which can provide transmission quality measurement services for the XR application.

[0096] The communication system as shown in FIG. 3 is suitable for a scenario in which SEALDD uses the PIN management capability of PINAPP to discover tethered devices, and then performs tethered link measurement on the tethered XR device. As shown in FIG. 3, the SEALDD client can obtain tethered device information (i.e., first information) from the PEMC using the PIN-3 interface.

[0097] The communication system as shown in FIG. 4 is suitable for implementing a transmission quality measurement scenario for tethered display devices (i.e., Tethered Display device) using PINAPP. As shown in FIG. 4, the XR client is deployed in the 3GPP UE, and the tethered display device is connected to the 3GPP UE for display. The PIN client is installed on the tethered display device for measuring and managing media transmission.

[0098] The communication system as shown in FIG. 5 is suitable for a scenario in which SEALDD uses the PIN management capability of PINAPP to discover tethered devices, and then performs tethered link measurement on the tethered display device. As shown in FIG. 5, the SEALDD client can obtain tethered device information (i.e., first information) from the PEMC using the PIN-3 interface. In addition, the SEALDD-UUc interface can be further defined to support the interaction between the SEALDD client on the tethered UE and the SEALDD client on the 3GPP UE through the interface.

[0099] The following describes how to implement transmission quality measurement. For ease of description, the following describes the second client in detail. It should be understood that when the first client and the second client are the same client, i.e., the scheme is directly implemented through the PIN client, the second client in the following specific implementation mode is replaced by the first client, the second server is replaced by the first server, and the fourth client (i.e., the SEALDD client on the tethered UE) is replaced by the fifth client (i.e., the PIN client on the tethered UE), and no further description is provided.

[0100] Specifically, the transmission quality involved in the present disclosure can include, but is not limited to, at least one of the following: delay information, jitter, bit rate, packet loss rate, quality of service (QoS). Depending on different actual scenarios, the measurement content can be different, which will not be described herein. In the following, the delay information (i.e., Delay information) is taken as an example for illustration. It should be understood that when the communication connection is established between the clients and between the clients and the server, other types of transmission quality measurement can also be measured by using the existing technology or other self-defined manner, which will not be described herein.

[0101] Specifically, when the transmission quality information includes the delay information, the implementation of measuring the transmission quality of the tethered link / connection in S102 can include the following steps:

[0102] receiving second information from the second server, the second information being used to indicate the transmission quality measurement; the second information including at least one of the following: first terminal information; second terminal information; application traffic identifier; measurement requirement;

[0103] authenticating the second server;

[0104] when the authentication is passed, performing the delay measurement.

[0105] The terminal information involved in the first terminal information and the second terminal information can include, but is not limited to, at least one of the following: identifier of the terminal, address of the terminal, location of the terminal, etc. The application traffic identifier can be denoted as Application traffic identifiers, which is used to distinguish the application types that need to be measured for the transmission quality. The measurement requirement can include, but is not limited to, at least one of the following: measurement content, measurement condition, measurement time, etc., which will not be listed exhaustively.

[0106] In this embodiment, even if the communication connection has been established between the second server and the second client, the authentication is still needed before the specific measurement is performed. Only when the authentication is passed, the second client will perform the specific measurement. The present disclosure does not have special limitation on the way and content of the authentication, which can be realized based on the related scheme in the existing technology, which will not be described herein.

[0107] When the delay measurement is performed, the delay measurement can be performed based on the time information of the information received by each device. It should be understood that the time information is related to the delay information. In the actual implementation scenario, the delay information can be directly the time information, or the delay information can also be the processed information based on the time information. For example, the time information can be the time when each device receives the information, and the delay information can be the difference based on the time information, i.e., the information of the specific delay amount.

[0108] Further, when the delay measurement is based on the time information of each device receiving the information, the method can further include: sending third information to the fourth client and / or the third client, the third information indicating that the delay measurement is performed; and sending fourth information to the second server, the fourth information carrying the delay information.

[0109] The step can be implemented in two ways in a specific implementation.

[0110] In a possible embodiment, the second client can be the master, and the second client can interact with other devices to obtain the delay between the first terminal and the second terminal and between the first terminal and the server, and report the delay to the server. Specifically, the second client can send information 1 carrying the time T1 to the fourth client and / or the third client, and the opposite side can feed back information 2, the information 2 carrying the time T2 at which the opposite side receives the information 1; and the second client can send information 3 carrying the time T3 to the second server, and the second server can feed back information 4, the information 4 carrying the time T4 at which the second server receives the information 3. Thus, the second client can obtain the time information including T1-T4. Based on this, the second client can send fourth information to the second server, and the delay information carried in the fourth information can specifically be T1-T4; and / or the time difference (for example, the difference between T2 and T1, the difference between T4 and T3).

[0111] In another possible embodiment, the uplink measurement and / or the downlink measurement can also be implemented in a sequential manner. Specifically, the downlink measurement can be implemented in the following manner: the second server, the second client, the fourth client, and the third client are sequentially arranged, and downlink information is sequentially sent, and the time at which each device receives the information is carried in the downlink information. In this way, the third client (i.e., the VAL layer client) can directly obtain the delay in each stage of the downlink measurement. Similarly, the uplink measurement can be implemented in the following manner: the fourth client, the second client, and the second server are sequentially arranged, and uplink information is sequentially sent, and the time at which each device receives the information is carried in the uplink information. In this way, the second server can obtain the time at which each device receives the information in the uplink information transmission process, and thus obtain the delay in the uplink information transmission process. Based on this, the second server can send a transmission quality measurement result to the third server, and the transmission quality measurement result carries the time delay information.

[0112] In the specific implementation of the delay measurement, the time information or the delay information needs to be carried in the information, and the related information can be carried in the packet header or the data body. Further, the various types of information can be a PING packet constructed using an ICMP PING protocol, which can also be referred to as a link monitoring packet. Alternatively, an ICMP timestamp method can be used to add a timestamp (i.e., time information) in the packet header of the information. Alternatively, an independent measurement packet can be generated for data transmission quality measurement, and the measurement packet can carry a sending time. The type of the measurement packet or the information carried by the measurement packet can be specifically used to indicate that the measurement packet is a measurement packet that needs to be measured by PING.

[0113] For example, the fourth information carries the delay information in the packet header or the data body. The fourth information can be a link monitoring packet based on an ICMP PING protocol, and / or the fourth information can be an independent data packet for data transmission quality measurement.

[0114] Correspondingly, the disclosure also provides another communication method applied to a server. Please refer to FIG. 6, which is a flowchart of another communication method provided by the disclosure. As shown in FIG. 6, the method comprises the following steps:

[0115] S601, identifying a tethered link / connection between a first terminal and a second terminal based on first information provided by a first client of the first terminal, and / or based on fifth information provided by a third client, and / or based on sixth information provided by a second client.

[0116] It should be noted that the server applied in this embodiment can be a first server and / or a second server, for example, a SEALDD server, a PINAPP server, and the like deployed in an application enablement layer.

[0117] In addition, it should also be noted that the first information, the fifth information, and the sixth information involved in this step have the same content, or the first information, the fifth information, and the sixth information all have device information of the second terminal. Based on the first information of the first client, the first information can be obtained by the third client and the second client, so that the third client and the second client can both provide the corresponding information to the server. For example, when the method is applied to the second server, the sixth information provided by the second client can be used to identify the tethered link / connection between the first terminal and the second terminal. For another example, when the method is applied to the first server, the first information provided by the first client can be used to identify the tethered link / connection between the first terminal and the second terminal.

[0118] S602, measuring a transmission quality of the tethered link / connection.

[0119] Specifically, the method shown in FIG. 6 is the opposite side of the method shown in FIG. 1. The following is a brief description of the parts repeated on the opposite side, and the details are as described above.

[0120] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the first client is a personal Internet of Things network element management client (PEMC) with management function. The first information can include, but is not limited to, at least one of the following: address of the terminal; identification of the terminal; connection protocol of the terminal; personal Internet of Things PIN identification of the terminal; personal Internet of Things PIN client identification of the terminal; location of the terminal; and capability of the terminal.

[0121] The first information can include only the device information of the second terminal, or the device information of all terminals / devices in the personal Internet of Things. Similarly, the fifth information and / or the sixth information can also include only the device information of the second terminal, or the device information of all terminals / devices in the personal Internet of Things. Details are not repeated here.

[0122] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the transmission quality is measured by the second client, and the first information is provided by the second client of the first terminal and the first client. Details are not repeated here, which can be referred to the related description of FIG. 3 and FIG. 5 above.

[0123] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the second client and the first client are the same client, and the first server and the second server are the same server. Details are not repeated here, which can be referred to the related description of FIG. 2 and FIG. 4 above.

[0124] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, when the second terminal is a tethered display device, the third client of the vertical application layer is deployed on the first terminal, the fourth client is deployed on the second terminal, the second client and the fourth client interact to perform measurement; and / or, when the second terminal is a tethered independent device or a relay tethered device, the third client of the vertical application layer is deployed on the second terminal, and the third client and the second client interact to perform measurement. Details are not repeated here, which can be referred to the related description of FIG. 2 and FIG. 5 above.

[0125] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the second client is served by a second server, and the second server includes a service enabling architecture layer data transmission (SEALDD) server. The second client is a SEALDD client, and the second information is obtained based on the communication between the first client and the second client.

[0126] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the transmission quality includes at least one of the following: delay information, jitter, bit rate, packet loss rate, and quality of service (QoS).

[0127] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, before the measuring of the transmission quality of the tethered link / connection, the method further comprises: receiving a transmission quality measurement request from a third server;

[0128] The method further comprises: sending a transmission quality measurement result to the third server.

[0129] In this embodiment, the transmission quality measurement request can be initiated by the third server of the vertical application layer (i.e. the VAL server, or the XR server in FIG. 1-5) to the second server. Thus, the second server performs the method as shown in FIG. 6, measures to obtain the transmission quality measurement result, and feeds back the transmission quality measurement result to the third server. Specifically, the transmission quality measurement result is related to a specific measurement type. For example, when the transmission quality measurement request is used to request the measurement of delay information, the transmission quality measurement result at least includes the delay information; when the transmission quality measurement request is used to request the measurement of bit rate, the transmission quality measurement result at least includes the bit rate.

[0130] It should be noted that the method provided by this embodiment is applicable to the uplink measurement or the measurement manner of information interaction between the second client and other devices mentioned above. When the downlink measurement is used to implement the present solution, the step of feeding back the transmission quality measurement result to the third server is not required.

[0131] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, when the transmission quality includes delay information, for the second server, the specific implementation manner of measuring the transmission quality of the tethered link / connection in S604 can include the following steps:

[0132] sending second information to the second client, the second information being used to instruct the delay measurement; the second information including at least one of the following: first terminal information; second terminal information; application flow identifier; measurement requirement;

[0133] receiving fourth information from the second client, the fourth information carrying the delay information.

[0134] It should be noted that the method provided by this embodiment is applicable to the uplink measurement or the measurement manner of information interaction between the second client and other devices mentioned above. When the downlink measurement is used to implement the present solution, the step of receiving the fourth information is not required.

[0135] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the delay information is carried in the packet header or data body of the fourth information; wherein, the fourth information is a link monitoring data packet based on the ICMP PING protocol; or, the fourth information is an independent data packet for data transmission quality measurement. Please refer to the foregoing description, and no further description is provided herein.

[0136] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, when the server is the first server, the method further comprises: receiving a registration request from the first client and / or the fifth client; the registration request carrying a device type identifier.

[0137] As described above, in one preferred solution when the PIN client requests registration from the PIN server, the registration request can also carry a device type identifier. The device type identifier can be used to specifically identify tethered devices, or it can also be identified for each type of device. Based on this, the first server can further more clearly obtain the information of the tethered device.

[0138] For a clearer description of the present solution, please refer to FIGS. 7-10.

[0139] For example, FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of the interaction flow of a communication method provided by the present disclosure. Specifically, FIG. 7 shows a PIN-based SEALDD measurement solution for tethered XR devices. Before the measurement is implemented, the following prerequisites need to be met: first, the UE or PINE has been pre-configured or has discovered the address (e.g., IP address, FQDN, URI) of the PIN server; second, the UE or PINE has registered in the PIN server, so that the PIN connection can be established. The following is a specific description. As shown in FIG. 7, the method comprises the following steps:

[0140] Step 1: Create a PIN.

[0141] After the processing of step 1, the PIN (i.e., the PIN connection) has been successfully created and is in use. Thus, the 3GPP UE can act as PEGC and PEMC, and the tethered XR device acts as PINE. The SEALDD server can act as the PIN server. During PIN creation, the PIN APP server provides device information to the PEMC on the 3GPP UE, i.e., the first information described above.

[0142] Step 2: Establish a SEALDD regular data transmission connection based on the first information in step 1.

[0143] Specifically, the connection between the SEALDD server and the 3GPP UE can be implemented by existing technologies, for example, in the manner defined in TS23.433 clause 9.2.2.2.

[0144] Step 3, the VAL server sends a transmission quality measurement subscription request (i.e. the aforementioned transmission quality measurement request) to the SEALDD server. In this step, the transmission quality measurement subscription request can optionally contain the tethered device (i.e. the second terminal) information. If the authorization is successful, the SEALDD server will send a response (i.e. the transmission quality measurement subscription response) to the VAL server, which can contain the subscription ID and expiration time.

[0145] Step 4, perform SEALDD transmission quality measurement.

[0146] In a specific implementation, the SEALDD transmission quality measurement can be implemented in a manner known in the art, for example, in TS 23.433 clause 9.7.2.1.

[0147] Step 5, the SEALDD client uses the first information (i.e. the tethered device information from the first client PEMC) to measure the transmission quality between the SEALDD client and the tethered device.

[0148] Further preferably, the SEALDD client on the 3GPP UE can interact with the XR client (i.e. the third client) on the tethered UE to implement the transmission quality measurement between the first terminal and the second terminal based on the ICMP PING protocol.

[0149] Step 6, the SEALDD server reports the transmission quality measurement result to the VAL server through a notification message. The transmission quality measurement result can include but is not limited to at least one of the following: delay, jitter, bit rate, packet loss rate, etc., without being exhaustive.

[0150] Exemplarily, FIG. 8 is an interaction flow diagram of another communication method provided by the present disclosure. Specifically, FIG. 8 shows a PIN-based SEALDD measurement scheme for a tethered display device. Before the measurement is implemented, the following prerequisites need to be met: first, the UE or PINE has been pre-configured or has discovered the address (e.g. IP address, FQDN, URI) of the PIN server; second, the UE or PINE has registered with the PIN server, so that the PIN connection can be established. The following is a specific description. As shown in FIG. 8, the method includes the following steps:

[0151] Step 1, create a PIN.

[0152] After the processing of step 1, the PIN (i.e. the PIN connection) has been successfully created and is in use. Thus, the 3GPP UE can act as PEGC and PEMC, the tethered display device acts as PINE. The SEALDD server can act as PIN server. During PIN creation, the PIN APP server provides the device information, i.e. the first information above, to the PEMC on the 3GPP UE.

[0153] Step 2, based on the first information in step 1, establish a SEALDD regular data transfer connection.

[0154] 2. Establish a regular data transfer connection using the information received in step 1.

[0155] In particular, the connection between the SEALDD server and the 3GPP UE can be implemented by means of existing technology, e.g. as defined in TS 23.433 clause 9.2.2.2.

[0156] Optionally, the SEALDD client can use the first information (i.e. the device information from the PEMC) to send a regular data transfer connection request to the tethered UE to establish a connection between the 3GPP UE and the tethered device.

[0157] Step 3, the VAL server sends a transfer quality measurement subscription request (i.e. the transfer quality measurement request above) to the SEALDD server. In this step, optionally, the transfer quality measurement subscription request can contain the device information of the tethered device (i.e. the second terminal). If the authorization is successful, the SEALDD server will send a response (i.e. the transfer quality measurement subscription response) to the VAL server, which can contain the subscription ID and the expiration time.

[0158] Step 4, perform SEALDD transfer quality measurement.

[0159] In particular, the SEALDD transfer quality measurement can be implemented by means of existing technology, e.g. as defined in TS 23.433 clause 9.7.2.1.

[0160] Step 5, the SEALDD client uses the first information (i.e. the device information of the tethered device from the first client PEMC) to measure the transfer quality between the SEALDD client and the tethered device.

[0161] Further preferably, in order to measure the tethered display device, the SEALDD client on the 3GPP UE interacts with the SEALDD client on the tethered UE to perform the measurement based on the ICMP PING protocol or using the monitoring packets in the established SEALDD connection of the tethered link.

[0162] Step 6, the SEALDD server reports the transmission quality measurement result to the VAL server through a notification message. The transmission quality measurement result can include, but is not limited to, at least one of the following: delay, jitter, bit rate, packet loss rate, etc., without being exhaustive.

[0163] For example, FIG. 9 is an interaction flow diagram of another communication method provided by the present disclosure. Specifically, FIG. 9 shows a PIN APP-based measurement scheme for tethered XR devices. Before this measurement implementation, the following prerequisites need to be met: first, the PIN has been successfully created and is in use. Thus, the 3GPP UE can act as the PEGC and the PEMC, the tethered XR device acts as the PINE, and the XR server can act as the PIN server. Second, the PIN server has received the address of the PEMC, and the PIN server has been authorized to communicate with the PEMC. The following is a specific description.

[0164] As shown in FIG. 9, the method includes the following steps:

[0165] Step 1, the PIN server sends a PIN measurement request to the PEMC. The PIN measurement request includes PIN client ID(s), security credentials (which can be used for authentication).

[0166] Step 2, upon receiving the request from the PIN server, the PEMC checks (or is called authentication) whether the PIN server has been authorized.

[0167] Step 3, if authorized (i.e., through authorization authentication), the PEMC sends a PIN measurement response to the PIN server.

[0168] Step 4, the PEMC initiates a delay measurement (when the transmission quality measurement request includes a delay measurement).

[0169] Specifically, the PEMC can initiate a link monitoring packet, which can be a PING packet constructed using the ICMP PING protocol at this time; or the link monitoring packet can use the ICMP timestamp method to add a timestamp in the packet header to form; or the link monitoring packet is an independent measurement packet generated for data transmission quality measurement (wherein the measurement packet can carry a sending time, and its type or carried content can be used to indicate to the PINE that the packet is a measurement packet and needs to be measured by the PINE)

[0170] In a specific implementation, the time information can be obtained through the interaction between the second client (in this embodiment, the second client is the same as the first client, both of which are the PEMC in the PIN client) and other devices as described above. Specifically, the PEMC can encapsulate and send the local time T1 to the tethered device (at this time, the PIN client ID is used as the PINE). The PINE responds with the time T2, indicating the time when it receives the packet. The PEMC encapsulates and sends the network link monitoring data packet and the local time T3 to the PIN server. The PIN server responds with the time T4, indicating the time when it receives the packet.

[0171] Step 5: The PEMC sends a PIN measurement report to the PIN server.

[0172] Specifically, the report carries delay information, and specifically, the delay information can be calculated based on T1, T2, T3, and T4, or it can be the T1, T2, T3, and T4 times themselves. The delay of the tethered link is equivalent to the difference between T1 and T2. The delay between the bound UE and the server is equivalent to the difference between T3 and T4. This can be further subdivided based on the 5GC measurement.

[0173] Step 6: Optionally, after receiving the measurement report from the PEMC, the PIN server can further request the network delay from the 5GS, thereby further decomposing the delay duration T5 between the bound UE and the server. Thus, the transmission delay after N6 can be obtained based on T3, T4, and T5, which can be specifically: the difference between T3 and T4, and further subtracting the value obtained by T5.

[0174] For example, FIG. 10 is an interaction flow diagram of another communication method provided by the present disclosure. Specifically, FIG. 10 shows a PIN-based SEALDD measurement scheme for a tethered XR device. Before the measurement is implemented, the following prerequisites need to be met: based on the first information provided by the PEMC, a SEALDD connection has been established, and the establishment method of the SEALDD connection is not described here. It should be noted that for the tethered display device, the SELADD client in step four below is deployed on the tethered terminal, and the connection between the two terminals is also established by the SEALDD client on the tethered terminal. The following is a specific description. As shown in FIG. 10, the method includes the following steps:

[0175] Step 1: An ongoing regular data transmission connection has been established.

[0176] In a specific implementation, it can be implemented by existing technologies, such as clause 9.2.2.2.

[0177] Step 2, the VAL server sends a SEALDD transmission quality measurement subscription request to the SEALDD server.

[0178] Exemplarily, the request includes an identifier of the application traffic (e.g., VAL service ID, VAL server ID), requirements of the transmission quality measurement (e.g., delay, jitter, bit rate, packet loss rate), and a target UE of the measurement (e.g., a single UE, a group of UEs, or all UEs), and can further include a reporting criterion, a reporting frequency, a spatial condition, and a time condition.

[0179] Step 3, after receiving the request, the SEALDD server performs authorization authentication. If the authorization is successful, the SEALDD server will send a response to the VAL server, which contains a subscription ID and an expiration time.

[0180] Step 4, if the list of transmission quality measurement requirements provided by the VAL server in step 2 indicates that the delay needs to be measured, the SEALDD server starts the DL packet delay measurement. When the SEALDD server sends the DL monitoring packet, the SEALDD server encapsulates the DL monitoring packet with the local time T1 (i.e., a DL SEALDD packet with a SEALDD DL monitoring header and VAL traffic as the payload, or a pseudo DL SEALDD packet generated for data transmission quality monitoring). The SEALDD server considers the spatial and / or time conditions when starting / resuming the transmission quality measurement. If the conditions are not met, the SEALDD server will stop / pause the transmission quality measurement.

[0181] Step 5, the SEALDD client receives the DL monitoring data packet (or referred to as the measurement packet), and records the local time T2.

[0182] Step 6, the SEALDD client on the tethered UE receives the DL monitoring data packet, and records the local time T3.

[0183] Step 7, the uplink measurement can be taken in a similar manner.

[0184] Specifically, the SEALDD client encapsulates the UL monitoring packet (i.e., a UL SEALDD packet with a SEALDD UL monitoring header and VAL traffic as the payload, or a pseudo UL SEALDD packet generated for data transmission quality monitoring), wherein the local time T2 recorded in step 5, the local time T3 recorded in step 6, and the local time T4 when the SEALDD client sends the UL monitoring packet.

[0185] Step 8, when the SEALDD server receives the UL monitoring packet, the SEALDD server records the local time T5 and calculates the latency of T1, T2, T3, T4, T5. The SEALDD server can also calculate the bit rate, jitter and packet loss rate of a specific period on a specific SEALDD connection by recording the status of the SEALDD packet carrying the VAL traffic or the pseudo SEALDD data packet generated for the transmission quality measurement report. The SEALDD server also evaluates the reporting criteria (if present in the SEALDD transmission quality measurement subscription request) to generate a transmission quality measurement report.

[0186] Step 9, the SEALDD server reports the data transmission quality measurement results (e.g. delay, jitter, bit rate, packet loss rate) to the VAL server through a notification message.

[0187] In summary, the solution provided by the present disclosure solves the identification problem of tethered devices by using PINAPP for tethered device discovery and SEALDD or PINAPP for transmission quality measurement (including tethered links). On the one hand, the measurement method does not rely on tethered devices, avoiding the problem that tethered devices cannot communicate with the 3GPP network. On the other hand, the measurement method is communicated with the core network by the 3GPP network side (i.e. the first terminal can be a 3GPP terminal), further solving the problem that the link quality after N6 cannot be measured due to the inability of tethered devices to communicate with the core network, and being able to more accurately distinguish the link quality of tethered links and the link quality after N6. In summary, the technical solution provided by the present disclosure can use the application enablement layer to identify and measure the transmission quality of tethered links, and use the tethered link state to communicate with the AF for dynamic QoS policy adjustment. The present disclosure can improve the measurement accuracy to a certain extent, solve the identification problem of tethered devices, and reduce the measurement dependency on tethered devices.

[0188] Further, to measure tethered XR devices, the SEALDD client on the 3GPP UE interacts with the XR client on the tethered UE to measure based on the ICMP ping protocol. To measure tethered display devices, the SEALDD client on the 3GPP UE interacts with the SEALDD client on the tethered UE to measure based on the ICMP ping protocol or using monitoring packets in the established SEALDD connection of the tethered link.

[0189] In addition, the present disclosure also provides a communication device arranged in a terminal. Please refer to FIG. 11, which is a structural block diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure. The communication device 1100 includes:

[0190] The identification unit 1110 is configured to identify the tethering link / connection between the first terminal and the second terminal based on first information provided by a first client of the first terminal.

[0191] The measurement unit 1120 is configured to measure the transmission quality of the tethering link / connection.

[0192] In an exemplary embodiment, the first client is a personal Internet of Things network element management client (PEMC) with management functions; and the first information includes at least one of the following: an address of the terminal; an identity of the terminal; a connection protocol of the terminal; a personal Internet of Things PIN identity of the terminal; a personal Internet of Things PIN client identity of the terminal; a location of the terminal; and a capability of the terminal.

[0193] In an exemplary embodiment, the transmission quality is measured by a second client; and the first information is obtained by the second client of the first terminal through the first client.

[0194] In an exemplary embodiment, when the second terminal is a tethering display device, a third client is deployed on the first terminal; a fourth client is deployed on the second terminal, and the second client and the fourth client interact to perform the measurement; and / or, when the second terminal is a tethering independent device or a relay tethering device, the third client is deployed on the second terminal; and the third client and the second client interact to perform the measurement.

[0195] In an exemplary embodiment, the second client is the same client as the first client; and the first server is the same server as the second server.

[0196] In an exemplary embodiment, the second client is served by a second server; the second server includes a service-enabling architecture layer data transmission (SEALDD) server and / or a PIN APP server; the second client is a SEALDD client and / or a PIN client; and the first information is obtained based on communication between the first client and the second client.

[0197] In an exemplary embodiment, the apparatus further includes an establishment unit (not shown in FIG. 11) configured to, before the measurement of the transmission quality of the tethering link / connection, establish a data transmission connection between the second client and the second server at an application-enabling layer; and based on the first information, establish a data transmission connection between the second client and a fourth client or between the second client and a third client.

[0198] In an exemplary embodiment, the transmission quality includes at least one of the following: delay information, jitter, bit rate, packet loss rate, and quality of service (QoS).

[0199] In an exemplary embodiment, when the transmission quality comprises delay information, the measurement measurement unit 1120 is specifically configured to: receive second information from the second server, the second information being used to instruct to perform delay measurement; the second information comprising at least one of the following: first terminal information; second terminal information; application traffic identifier; measurement requirement; authenticating the second server; and when the authentication is passed, performing delay measurement.

[0200] In an exemplary embodiment, the measurement measurement unit 1120 is specifically configured to: perform delay measurement based on time information of each device receiving information; wherein the time information is related to the delay information; further, the measurement measurement unit 1120 is specifically configured to: send third information to the fourth client and / or the third client, the third information instructing to perform delay measurement; and send fourth information to the second server, the fourth information carrying the delay information.

[0201] In an exemplary embodiment, the delay information is carried in a packet header or data body of the fourth information; wherein the fourth information is an ICMP PING protocol-based link monitoring data packet; and / or, the fourth information is an independent data packet for data transmission quality measurement.

[0202] In addition, the present disclosure also provides another communication device arranged in a server, please refer to FIG. 12, FIG. 12 is a structural block diagram of another communication device provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure, the communication device 1200 comprises:

[0203] The identification unit 1210 is configured to identify the tethered link / connection between the first terminal and the second terminal based on first information provided by a first client of the first terminal, and / or based on fifth information provided by a third client, and / or based on sixth information provided by a second client.

[0204] The measurement unit 1220 is configured to measure the transmission quality of the tethered link / connection.

[0205] In an exemplary embodiment, the first client is a personal internet of things network element management client with management function (PEMC); and the first information comprises at least one of the following: address of the terminal; identifier of the terminal; connection protocol of the terminal; personal internet of things PIN identifier of the terminal; personal internet of things PIN client identifier of the terminal; location of the terminal; and capability of the terminal.

[0206] In an exemplary embodiment, the transmission quality is measured based on the second client; and the first information is provided by the second client of the first terminal and the first client.

[0207] In an exemplary embodiment, when the second terminal is a tethered display device, the third client is deployed on the first terminal; the fourth client is deployed on the second terminal, and the second client interacts with the fourth client to perform the measurement; and / or, when the second terminal is a tethered independent device or a relay tethered device, the third client is deployed on the second terminal; the third client interacts with the second client to perform the measurement.

[0208] In an exemplary embodiment, the second client is the same client as the first client; and the second server is the same server as the first server.

[0209] In an exemplary embodiment, the second client is served by a second server; the second server comprises a service-enabling architecture layer data transmission (SEALDD) server, and the second client is a SEALDD client; and the second information is obtained based on communication between the first client and the second client.

[0210] In an exemplary embodiment, the transmission quality comprises at least one of the following: delay information, jitter, bit rate, packet loss rate, and quality of service (QoS).

[0211] In an exemplary embodiment, the apparatus further comprises a transceiver (not shown in FIG. 12) configured to receive a transmission quality measurement request from a third server before the measurement of the transmission quality of the tethered link / connection; and further configured to send a transmission quality measurement result to the third server.

[0212] In an exemplary embodiment, when the transmission quality comprises delay information, the measurement unit 1220 is specifically configured to send second information to the second client, the second information being used to instruct to perform delay measurement; the second information comprises at least one of the following: first terminal information; second terminal information; application flow identification; measurement requirement; and receive fourth information from the second client, the fourth information carrying the delay information.

[0213] In an exemplary embodiment, the delay information is carried in a packet header or data body of the fourth information; the fourth information is a link monitoring data packet based on an ICMP PING protocol; or the fourth information is an independent data packet for data transmission quality measurement.

[0214] In an exemplary embodiment, when the server is a first server, the apparatus further comprises a registration unit (not shown in FIG. 12) configured to receive a registration request from the first client and / or a fifth client; the registration request carries a device type identification.

[0215] Further, the present disclosure also provides a communication system. Please refer to FIG. 13, which is a structure block diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The communication system 1300 includes:

[0216] a server 1310 configured to implement the method performed by the server in any of the preceding embodiments;

[0217] a first terminal 1320 configured to implement the method performed by the first terminal in any of the preceding embodiments;

[0218] a second terminal 1330, which is a tethered terminal of the first terminal 1320.

[0219] The parts of the apparatus not detailed herein can refer to the related descriptions of the method in the preceding embodiments.

[0220] FIG. 14 is a hardware block diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The electronic device 1400 according to the embodiment of the present disclosure at least includes a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory, and the processor executes the computer program to implement the communication method according to any of the preceding embodiments.

[0221] The electronic device 1400 shown in FIG. 14 specifically includes a central processing unit (CPU) 1401, a graphics processing unit (GPU) 1402, and a memory 1403. These units are connected to each other through a bus 1404. The central processing unit (CPU) 1401 and / or the graphics processing unit (GPU) 1402 can be used as the processor described above, and the memory 1403 can be used as the memory storing the computer readable instructions described above. In addition, the electronic device 1400 can also include a communication unit 1405, a storage unit 1406, an output unit 1407, an input unit 1408, and an external device 1409, and these units are also connected to the bus 1404.

[0222] FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram of a computer readable storage medium according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 15, the computer readable storage medium 1500 according to the embodiment of the present disclosure has a computer program / instruction 1501 stored thereon. The computer program / instruction 1501 is executed by a processor to implement the communication method according to any of the preceding embodiments of the present disclosure. The computer readable storage medium includes, but is not limited to, for example, volatile memory and / or non-volatile memory. The volatile memory may, for example, include random access memory (RAM) and / or cache memory, etc. The non-volatile memory may, for example, include read-only memory (ROM), hard disk, flash memory, optical disc, magnetic disc, etc.

[0223] The present disclosure still further provides a computer program product, comprising computer program / instructions, which, when executed by a processor, implement the communication method according to any one of the preceding embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0224] The above describes the basic principles of the present disclosure in conjunction with specific embodiments, but it should be noted that the advantages, benefits, effects and the like mentioned in the present disclosure are only examples and are not limiting, and these advantages, benefits, effects and the like cannot be considered as necessary for each embodiment of the present disclosure. In addition, the specific details of the above disclosure are only for the purpose of example and for the purpose of understanding, and are not limiting, and the above details do not limit the present disclosure to be necessarily implemented with the above specific details.

[0225] The block diagrams of the devices, apparatuses, equipment, systems involved in the present disclosure are only illustrative examples and are not intended to require or imply that the connections, arrangements, configurations are as shown in the block diagrams. As those skilled in the art will recognize, these devices, apparatuses, equipment, systems can be connected, arranged, configured in any manner. Words such as "include", "contain", "have" and the like are open-ended words, mean "including but not limited to", and can be used interchangeably. The words "or" and "and" used herein mean the word "and / or", and can be used interchangeably unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. The word "such as" used herein means the phrase "such as but not limited to", and can be used interchangeably.

[0226] In addition, as used herein, "or" used in the listing of items "at least one of the items" indicates a disjunctive list, such that, for example, a list of "at least one of A, B, or C" means A or B or C, or AB or AC or BC, or ABC (i.e., A and B and C). In addition, the word "example" does not mean that the described example is preferred or better than other examples.

[0227] It should also be noted that in the systems and methods of the present disclosure, the components or steps can be decomposed and / or recombined. These decompositions and / or recombinations should be considered equivalents of the present disclosure.

[0228] Various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made to the techniques described herein without departing from the teachings of the technology defined by the appended claims. In addition, the scope of the claims of the present disclosure is not limited to the specific aspects of the process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, means, methods and acts of the above described. Processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods or acts currently existing or later developed that perform substantially the same function or achieve substantially the same result as the corresponding aspects described herein can be utilized. Accordingly, the appended claims include within their scope such processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods or acts.

[0229] The above description of the disclosed aspects is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure. Various modifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein can be applied to other aspects without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

[0230] The above description has been presented to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure. Furthermore, the purpose of the above description is not intended to limit the embodiments of the present disclosure to the form disclosed herein. Although various example aspects and embodiments have been discussed above, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate a variety of modifications, alternatives, permutations, additions, and sub-combinations, which fall within the scope of the disclosed aspects.

Claims

1. A method for communication, applied to a first terminal, the method comprising: identifying a tethering link / connection between the first terminal and a second terminal based on first information provided by a first client of the first terminal; and measuring a transmission quality of the tethering link / connection. The first client is a personal internet of things (PIoT) element management client (PEMC) with a management function. The first information comprises at least one of: an address of the terminal; an identity of the terminal; a connection protocol of the terminal; a PIoT personal identification (PIN) of the terminal; a PIoT PIN client identification of the terminal; a location of the terminal; and a capability of the terminal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, The transmission quality is measured by a second client. When the second terminal is a tethering display device, a third client is deployed on the first terminal, and a fourth client is deployed on the second terminal, and the second client interacts with the fourth client to perform the measurement. When the second terminal is a tethering independent device or a tethering relay device, the third client is deployed on the second terminal, and the third client interacts with the second client to perform the measurement. The second client is served by a second server. The second server comprises a service-enabling architecture layer data transmission (SEALDD) server and / or a PIoT application (PINAPP) server, and the second client is a SEALDD client and / or a PIN client. The first information is obtained based on a communication between the first client and the second client. The second client is the same as the first client, and the second server is the same as the first server. Before the measurement of the transmission quality of the tethering link / connection, the method further comprises: establishing a data transmission connection between the second client and the second server at an application-enabling layer; and establishing a data transmission connection between the second client and the fourth client or between the second client and the third client based on the first information. The transmission quality comprises at least one of: delay information, jitter, bit rate, packet loss rate, and quality of service (QoS).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein, When the transmission quality comprises the delay information, the measurement of the transmission quality of the tethering link / connection comprises: receiving second information from the second server, the second information being used to instruct to perform delay measurement, and the second information comprising at least one of: first terminal information, second terminal information, application traffic identification, and measurement requirement; authenticating the second server; and performing delay measurement when the authentication is passed. The performing of the delay measurement comprises: performing delay measurement based on time information of information received by each device, wherein the time information is related to the delay information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein, The performing of the delay measurement based on the time information of the information received by each device comprises: sending third information to the fourth client and / or the third client, the third information instructing to perform delay measurement; and sending fourth information to the second server, the fourth information carrying the delay information. ​ ​ 5. The method of claim 3, wherein, ​ ​ ​ 6. The method of claim 3, wherein, ​ 7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein, ​ ​ ​ 8. The method of any one of claims 1-7, wherein, ​ 9. The method according to any one of claims 1-7, wherein, ​ ​ ​ ​ 10. The method of claim 9, wherein, ​ ​ ​ ​ 11. The method of claims 1-10, wherein, The delay information is carried in a packet header or data body of the fourth information. The fourth information is an ICMP PING protocol-based link monitoring data packet; and / or the fourth information is an independent data packet for data transmission quality measurement. 12.A communication method applied to a server, the method comprising: identifying a tethered link / connection between a first terminal and a second terminal based on first information provided by a first client of the first terminal, and / or based on fifth information provided by a third client, and / or based on sixth information provided by a second client; measuring a transmission quality of the tethered link / connection.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein, The first client is a personal Internet of Things (PIoT) element management client (PEMC) having a management function. The first information comprises at least one of the following: an address of the terminal; an identity of the terminal; a connection protocol of the terminal; a PIoT identity of the terminal; a PIoT client identity of the terminal; a location of the terminal; a capability of the terminal.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein, The transmission quality is measured by the second client; The first information is provided by a second client of the first terminal.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein, When the second terminal is a tethered display device, the third client is deployed on the first terminal; the fourth client is deployed on the second terminal, and the second client and the fourth client interact to perform the measurement. and / or, When the second terminal is a tethered independent device or a relayed tethered device, the third client is deployed on the second terminal; the third client and the second client interact to perform the measurement.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein, The second client is served by a second server; The second server comprises a service-enabling architecture layer data transmission (SEALDD) server, and the second client is a SEALDD client. The second information is obtained based on communication between the first client and the second client.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein, The second client and the first client are the same client; and the first server and the second server are the same server.

18. The method of any one of claims 13-17, wherein, The transmission quality comprises at least one of the following: delay information, jitter, bit rate, packet loss rate, and quality of service (QoS). 19.The method of any one of claims 13-18, wherein, Before the measuring of the transmission quality of the tethered link / connection, the method further comprises receiving a transmission quality measurement request from a third server. The method further comprises sending a transmission quality measurement result to the third server.

20. The method of any one of claims 13-19, wherein, When the transmission quality comprises delay information, the measuring of the transmission quality of the tethered link / connection comprises: sending second information to the second client, the second information being used to instruct to perform delay measurement, and the second information comprising at least one of the following: first terminal information; second terminal information; application flow identity; and measurement requirement; receiving fourth information from the second client, the fourth information carrying the delay information.

21. The method of any one of claims 12-20, wherein, The delay information is carried in a packet header or data body of the fourth information. The fourth information is a link monitoring data packet based on an ICMP PING protocol, or the fourth information is an independent data packet for measuring data transmission quality.

22. The method of claim 12, wherein, When the server is a first server, the method further comprises: receiving a registration request from the first client and / or a fifth client, the registration request carrying a device type identifier. 23.A communication apparatus, arranged in a terminal, comprising: an identification unit configured to identify a tethering link / connection between the first terminal and a second terminal based on first information provided by a first client of the first terminal; a measurement unit configured to measure transmission quality of the tethering link / connection. 24.A communication apparatus, arranged in a server, comprising: an identification unit configured to identify a tethering link / connection between a first terminal and a second terminal based on first information provided by a first client of the first terminal, and / or based on fifth information provided by a third client, and / or based on sixth information provided by a second client; a measurement unit configured to measure transmission quality of the tethering link / connection. 25.A communication system, comprising: a server configured to implement the method of any one of claims 12-22; a first terminal configured to implement the method of any one of claims 1-11; a second terminal, the second terminal being a tethered terminal of the first terminal. 26.An electronic device comprising a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory, the processor executing the computer program to implement the method of any one of claims 1-22. 27.A computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program / instructions, the computer program / instructions being executed by a processor to implement the method of any one of claims 1-22. 28.A computer program product comprising a computer program / instructions, the computer program / instructions being executed by a processor to implement the method of any one of claims 1-22.

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