Method performed by network node and network node in a wireless communication system

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a 5G or 6G communication system for supporting a higher data transmission rate. The embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method performed by a network node and a network node. A method performed by a first network node may include: transmitting, by the first network node to a second network node, a first request message related to handover, wherein the first request message includes a first sensing task handover request and sensing task configuration information for reference associated with the first network node, wherein the first sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of user equipment (UE) to the second network node; and receiving, by the first network node from the second network node, a first response message in response to the first request message, wherein the first response message includes information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the first sensing task handover request and information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the sensing task configuration information.

Description

METHOD PERFORMED BY NETWORK NODE AND NETWORK NODE IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

[0001] The present application relates to a technical field of mobile communication, and in particular to a method performed by a network node and a network node in a wireless communication system.

[0002] 5G mobile communication technologies define broad frequency bands such that high transmission rates and new services are possible, and can be implemented not only in “Sub 6GHz” bands such as 3.5GHz, but also in “Above 6GHz” bands referred to as mmWave including 28GHz and 39GHz. In addition, it has been considered to implement 6G mobile communication technologies (referred to as Beyond 5G systems) in terahertz (THz) bands (for example, 95GHz to 3THz bands) in order to accomplish transmission rates fifty times faster than 5G mobile communication technologies and ultra-low latencies one-tenth of 5G mobile communication technologies.

[0003] At the beginning of the development of 5G mobile communication technologies, in order to support services and to satisfy performance requirements in connection with enhanced Mobile BroadBand (eMBB), Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC), and massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC), there has been ongoing standardization regarding beamforming and massive MIMO for mitigating radio-wave path loss and increasing radio-wave transmission distances in mmWave, supporting numerologies (for example, operating multiple subcarrier spacings) for efficiently utilizing mmWave resources and dynamic operation of slot formats, initial access technologies for supporting multi-beam transmission and broadbands, definition and operation of BWP (BandWidth Part), new channel coding methods such as a LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) code for large amount of data transmission and a polar code for highly reliable transmission of control information, L2 pre-processing, and network slicing for providing a dedicated network specialized to a specific service.

[0004] Currently, there are ongoing discussions regarding improvement and performance enhancement of initial 5G mobile communication technologies in view of services to be supported by 5G mobile communication technologies, and there has been physical layer standardization regarding technologies such as V2X (Vehicle-to-everything) for aiding driving determination by autonomous vehicles based on information regarding positions and states of vehicles transmitted by the vehicles and for enhancing user convenience, NR-U (New Radio Unlicensed) aimed at system operations conforming to various regulation-related requirements in unlicensed bands, NR UE Power Saving, Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) which is UE-satellite direct communication for providing coverage in an area in which communication with terrestrial networks is unavailable, and positioning.

[0005] Moreover, there has been ongoing standardization in air interface architecture / protocol regarding technologies such as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) for supporting new services through interworking and convergence with other industries, IAB (Integrated Access and Backhaul) for providing a node for network service area expansion by supporting a wireless backhaul link and an access link in an integrated manner, mobility enhancement including conditional handover and DAPS (Dual Active Protocol Stack) handover, and two-step random access for simplifying random access procedures (2-step RACH for NR). There also has been ongoing standardization in system architecture / service regarding a 5G baseline architecture (for example, service based architecture or service based interface) for combining Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technologies, and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) for receiving services based on UE positions.

[0006] As 5G mobile communication systems are commercialized, connected devices that have been exponentially increasing will be connected to communication networks, and it is accordingly expected that enhanced functions and performances of 5G mobile communication systems and integrated operations of connected devices will be necessary. To this end, new research is scheduled in connection with eXtended Reality (XR) for efficiently supporting AR (Augmented Reality), VR (Virtual Reality), MR (Mixed Reality) and the like, 5G performance improvement and complexity reduction by utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), AI service support, metaverse service support, and drone communication.

[0007] Furthermore, such development of 5G mobile communication systems will serve as a basis for developing not only new waveforms for providing coverage in terahertz bands of 6G mobile communication technologies, multi-antenna transmission technologies such as Full Dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antennas and large-scale antennas, metamaterial-based lenses and antennas for improving coverage of terahertz band signals, high-dimensional space multiplexing technology using OAM (Orbital Angular Momentum), and RIS (Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface), but also full-duplex technology for increasing frequency efficiency of 6G mobile communication technologies and improving system networks, AI-based communication technology for implementing system optimization by utilizing satellites and AI (Artificial Intelligence) from the design stage and internalizing end-to-end AI support functions, and next-generation distributed computing technology for implementing services at levels of complexity exceeding the limit of UE operation capability by utilizing ultra-high-performance communication and computing resources.

[0008] The present disclosure relates to method performed by network node and a network node in a wireless communication system.

[0009] According to an aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there is provided a communication method in a wireless communication system.

[0010] Aspects of the present disclosure provide efficient communication methods in a wireless communication system.

[0011] In order to illustrate and understand technical solutions of embodiments of the present application more clearly and easily, accompanying drawings that need to be used in the description of the embodiments of the present application will be briefly introduced below.

[0012] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecture of system architecture evolution (SAE).

[0013] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecture according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0014] FIG. 3A is a flowchart illustrating a method performed by a first network node according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0015] FIG. 3B is a diagram illustrating a signal flow of a first example according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0016] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a signal flow of a second example according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0017] FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a signal flow of a third example according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0018] FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a signal flow of a fourth example according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0019] FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a signal flow of a fifth example according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0020] FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a signal flow of a sixth example according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0021] FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a signal flow of a seventh example according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0022] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a signal flow of an eighth example according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0023] FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a signal flow of a ninth example according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0024] FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a method performed by a second network node according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0025] FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a method performed by UE according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application.

[0026] FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating a network node according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application.

[0027] FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating UE according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application.

[0028] FIG. 16 is a block diagram of a terminal or user equipment (UE) 1600 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0029] FIG. 17 is a block diagram of a base station (BS) 1700 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0030] FIG. 18 is a block diagram of a network entity 1800 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0031] In order to at least resolve the above problems existing in the prior art, the present disclosure provides a method performed by a network node and a network node.

[0032] According to a first aspect of embodiments of the present application, there is provided a method performed by a first network node, including: transmitting, by the first network node to a second network node, a first request message related to handover, wherein the first request message includes a first sensing task handover request and sensing task configuration information for reference associated with the first network node, wherein the first sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of user equipment (UE) to the second network node; and receiving, by the first network node from the second network node, a first response message in response to the first request message, wherein the first response message includes information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the first sensing task handover request and information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the sensing task configuration information.

[0033] Alternatively, the sensing task configuration information includes at least one of: sensing mode information of the UE; information of a sensing device that interacts a sensing signal with the UE; a sensing task activation indication; sensing task control node information of the UE; and a UE identity corresponding to a sensing report.

[0034] Alternatively, the first request message further includes at least one of: a sensing task configuration information list; and request information that requires the second network node to participate in or assist in the sensing task.

[0035] Alternatively, each sensing task configuration information in the sensing task configuration information list includes at least one of: information identifying the first network node; information identifying the sensing task; information of a sensing service type; information related to a sensing device; information of the sensing area of the first network node; information identifying a receiving node of a sensing report; information about whether a sensing task supports handover.

[0036] Alternatively, the information related to the sensing device includes at least one of: information identifying a sensing group; sensing capability information; sensing mode information; sensing result reporting information; and information related to the reporting of sensing report(s).

[0037] Alternatively, the first response message further includes at least one of: information related to the sensing task of the UE; and a notification about the second network node participating in or assisting in the sensing task, wherein the information related to the sensing task of the UE includes at least one of: information identifying a control node of the sensing task; information identifying a receiving node of the sensing report; sensing area information; sensing mode information; and information related to the reporting of sensing report(s).

[0038] Alternatively, the method further includes: transmitting, by the first network node to the UE, a first configuration message, wherein the first configuration message is used for updating a sensing task configuration to the UE, and wherein the first configuration message includes at least one of: information identifying the sensing task; information of a sensing service type; information related to a sensing device; information identifying a receiving node of the sensing report; information of a sensing area; and information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE.

[0039] Alternatively, when the sensing device is the UE, the information related to the sensing device includes at least one of: information identifying the sensing device; sensing capability information of the sensing device; sensing mode information; sensing result reporting information; and information related to the reporting of sensing report(s).

[0040] Alternatively, the method further includes: receiving, by the first network node from the second network node, a second request message, wherein the second request message includes a second sensing task handover request and / or information about the UE having moved out of a sensing area, wherein the second sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of the sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and the information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area is used for indicating that the UE has moved out of a sensing area of the first network node; and transmitting, by the first network node to the second network node, a second response message in response to the second request message, wherein the second response message includes information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the second sensing task handover request.

[0041] Alternatively, the method further includes: receiving, by the first network node from a fifth network node, a fourth request message, wherein the fourth request message includes a third sensing task handover request and / or information about the UE having moved out of a sensing area, wherein the third sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of the sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and the information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area is used for indicating that the UE has moved out of a sensing area of the first network node; and transmitting, by the first network node to the fifth network node, a fourth response message in response to the fourth request message, wherein the fourth response message includes information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the third sensing task handover request.

[0042] Alternatively, each of the second request message and the fourth request message further includes at least one of: a UE identity or a UE identity list; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; a reason for requesting sensing task handover; information of a sensing area of the second network node; and sensing capability information of the second network node.

[0043] Alternatively, each of the second response message and the fourth response message further includes at least one of: a UE identity or a UE identity list; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; information related to sensing area update; and information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE.

[0044] Alternatively, the method further includes: when the first network node determines that the UE has moved out of the sensing area of the first network node, transmitting, by the first network node to the fifth network node, a fifth request message, wherein the fifth request message includes a fourth sensing task handover request and / or information about the UE having moved out of a sensing area, wherein the fourth sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of the sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and the information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area is used for indicating that the UE has moved out of a sensing area of the first network node; receiving, by the first network node from the fifth network node, a fifth response message in response to the fifth request message, wherein the fifth response message includes information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the fourth sensing task handover request.

[0045] Alternatively, the fifth request message further includes at least one of: a UE identity or a UE identity list; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; information of a cell that finally detected a sensing signal with UE; information of the sensing area of the first network node; and a reason for requesting sensing task handover.

[0046] Alternatively, the fifth response message further includes at least one of: a UE identity or a UE identity list; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; information identifying a base station or a cell currently accessed by the UE; information of a sensing area of the second network node; and information suggesting adjustment of a sensing area range of the first network node.

[0047] Alternatively, the method further includes: transmitting, by the first network node to the second network node, a second configuration message, wherein the second configuration message includes the sensing task configuration information or the sensing task configuration information list; and receiving, by the first network node from the second network node, a second configuration response message, wherein the second configuration response message includes information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the sensing task configuration information or configuration information in the sensing task configuration information list.

[0048] Alternatively, when the second configuration message includes the sensing task configuration information, the second configuration message further includes information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE.

[0049] Alternatively, the second configuration response message further includes at least one of: a UE identity; information identifying the sensing task; and sensing capability information of the second network node.

[0050] Alternatively, the method further includes: receiving, by the first network node from the fifth network node, a third configuration message, wherein the third configuration message includes the sensing task configuration information or the sensing task configuration information list; and transmitting, by the first network node to the fifth network node, a third configuration response message, wherein the third configuration response message includes information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the sensing task configuration information or configuration information in the sensing task configuration information list.

[0051] Alternatively, when the third configuration message includes the sensing task configuration information, the third configuration message further includes information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE.

[0052] Alternatively, the third configuration response message further includes at least one of: a UE identity; information identifying the sensing task; and sensing capability information of the first network node.

[0053] Alternatively, the method further includes: receiving, by the first network node from the second network node, a first notification message, wherein the first notification message includes a sensing report reported by the UE to the second network node; and transmitting, by the first network node to the second network node, a first notification response message, wherein the first notification response message is used for transmitting a feedback about the first notification message to the second network node, wherein if a sensing function is not deployed in the first network node, the sensing report is forwarded to a node in which the sensing function is deployed by the first network node.

[0054] Alternatively, the first notification message further includes at least one of: information identifying a sensing device or a list of information identifying a sensing device; and a sensing area monitoring result of the UE.

[0055] Alternatively, the sensing report includes at least one of: a UE identity; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; sensing mode information; sensing results; and an identity of a sensing device that interacts a sensing signal with the UE.

[0056] Alternatively, the method further includes: receiving, by the first network node from a seventh network node, a third notification message, wherein the third notification message includes a fifth sensing task handover request for requesting handover of the sensing task of the UE to the seventh network node; and transmitting, by the first network node to the seventh network node, a third notification response message, wherein the third notification response message includes information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the fifth sensing task handover request.

[0057] Alternatively, the third notification message further includes at least one of: information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; a reason for requesting sensing task handover; a sensing task configuration update request; sensing mode information of the UE; information of a sensing area of the seventh network node; sensing capability information of the seventh network node; and information identifying a sensing device that collects the sensing report.

[0058] Alternatively, the third notification response message further includes at least one of: a UE identity; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE; and reception feedback information for the sensing report.

[0059] Alternatively, the information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE includes at least one of: an activation indication for commanding the UE to start performing a corresponding sensing task according to sensing configuration; a deactivation indication for commanding the UE to end and / or release the sensing task corresponding to the sensing configuration; a sensing pause indication for commanding the UE to pause transmission or reception of a sensing signal; a sensing recovery indication for commanding the UE to recover the transmission or reception of the sensing signal; a reporting pause indication for commanding the UE to pause reporting of sensing data; and a reporting recovery indication for commanding the UE to recover the reporting of the sensing data.

[0060] According to a second aspect of embodiments of the present application, there is provided a method performed by a second network node, including: receiving, by the second network node from a first network node, a first request message related to handover, wherein the first request message includes a first sensing task handover request and sensing task configuration information for reference associated with the first network node, wherein the first sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of user equipment (UE) to the second network node; and transmitting, by the second network node to the first network node, a first response message in response to the first request message, wherein the first response message includes information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the first sensing task handover request and information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the sensing task configuration information.

[0061] Alternatively, the first request message further includes at least one of: a sensing task configuration information list; and request information that requires the second network node to participate in or assist in the sensing task.

[0062] Alternatively, the method further includes: when the second network node determines that the UE has moved out of a sensing area of the first network node, transmitting, by the second network node to the first network node, a second request message, wherein the second request message includes a second sensing task handover request and / or information about the UE having moved out of a sensing area, wherein the second sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and the information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area is used for indicating that the UE has moved out of the sensing area of the first network node; and receiving, by the second network node from the first network node, a second response message in response to the second request message , wherein the second response message includes information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the second sensing task handover request.

[0063] Alternatively, the method further includes: when the second network node determines that the UE has moved out of a sensing area of the first network node, transmitting, by the second network node to a fifth network node, a third request message, wherein the third request message includes a sixth sensing task handover request and / or information about the UE having moved out of a sensing area, wherein the sixth sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and the information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area is used for indicating that the UE has moved out of the sensing area of the first network node; and receiving, by the second network node from the fifth network node, a third response message in response to the third request message, wherein the third response message includes information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the sixth sensing task handover request.

[0064] Alternatively, the third request message further includes at least one of: a UE identity or a UE identity list; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; a reason for requesting sensing task handover; information of a sensing area of the second network node; and sensing capability information of the second network node.

[0065] Alternatively, the third response message further includes at least one of: a UE identity or a UE identity list; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; information related to sensing area update; and information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE.

[0066] Alternatively, the method further includes: receiving, by the second network node from the fifth network node, a sixth request message, wherein the sixth request message includes a seventh sensing task handover request and / or information about the UE having moved out of a sensing area, wherein the seventh sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and the information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area is used for indicating that the UE has moved out of a sensing area of the first network node; and transmitting, by the second network node to the fifth network node, a sixth response message in response to the sixth request message, wherein the sixth response message includes information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the seventh sensing task handover request.

[0067] Alternatively, the sixth request message further includes at least one of: a UE identity or a UE identity list; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; information of a cell that finally detected a sensing signal with UE; and a reason for requesting sensing task handover.

[0068] Alternatively, the sixth response message further includes at least one of: a UE identity or a UE identity list; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; information of a sensing area of the second network node; and information suggesting adjustment of a range of the sensing area of the first network node.

[0069] Alternatively, the method further includes: receiving, by the second network node from the first network node, a second configuration message, wherein the second configuration message includes the sensing task configuration information or the sensing task configuration information list; and transmitting, by the second network node to the first network node, a second configuration response message, wherein the second configuration response message includes information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the sensing task configuration information or configuration information in the sensing task configuration information list.

[0070] Alternatively, the method further includes: receiving, by the second network node from the fifth network node, a fourth configuration message, wherein the fourth configuration message includes the sensing task configuration information or the sensing task configuration information list; and transmitting, by the second network node to the fifth network node, a fourth configuration response message, wherein the fourth configuration response message includes information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the sensing task configuration information or configuration information in the sensing task configuration information list.

[0071] Alternatively, when the fourth configuration message includes the sensing task configuration information, the fourth configuration message further includes information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE.

[0072] Alternatively, the fourth configuration response message further includes at least one of: a UE identity; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; sensing capability information of the second network node.

[0073] Alternatively, the method further includes: receiving, by the second network node from the UE, a first report message, wherein the first report message includes a sensing report generated by the UE; if a sensing function is deployed in the first network node, transmitting, by the second network node to the first network node, a first notification message, and receiving, from the first network node, a first notification response message, wherein the first notification message includes the sensing report, and wherein the first notification response message is used for transmitting a feedback about the first notification message to the second network node; and if the sensing function is deployed in the fifth network node, transmitting, by the second network node to the fifth network node, a second notification message, and receiving, from the fifth network node, a second notification response message, wherein the second notification message includes the sensing report, and wherein the second notification response message is used for transmitting a feedback about the second notification message to the second network node.

[0074] Alternatively, the first report message further includes at least one of: a sensing area monitoring result of the UE; and information that the UE is about to move out of the sensing area for indicating that the UE is about to move out a sensing area of the second network node.

[0075] Alternatively, the second report message further includes updated sensing task configuration.

[0076] Alternatively, the second notification response message includes at least one of: information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; identities or an identity list of sensing devices; a reception feedback for the sensing report; and a feedback or response for sensing task configuration information.

[0077] According to a third aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by user equipment (UE), including: receiving, by the UE from a first network node, a first configuration message from a second network node; and transmitting, by the UE to the second network node, a message in response to a first configuration message, wherein the first configuration message is included in a first response message transmitted by the second network node to the first network node, and the first response message is a message by which the second network node responds to a first request message transmitted by the first network node, wherein the first request message includes a first sensing task handover request and sensing task configuration information for reference associated with the first network node, wherein the first sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of the UE to the second network node, the first response message includes information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the first sensing task handover request and information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the sensing task configuration information.

[0078] Alternatively, the method further includes: transmitting, by the UE to the second network node, a first report message, wherein the first report message includes a sensing report generated by the UE.

[0079] Alternatively, the first configuration message is a Radio Resource Control (RRC) reconfiguration message, and the first configuration response message is an RRC reconfiguration complete message.

[0080] Alternatively, the first configuration message further includes at least one of: information identifying the sensing task; information of a sensing service type; information related to a sensing device; information identifying a receiving node of the sensing report; information of a sensing area; and information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE.

[0081] According to a fourth aspect of embodiments of the present application, there is provided a method performed by a first network node, including: receiving, by the first network node from a second network node, a second request message, wherein the second request message includes a second sensing task handover request and / or information about UE having moved out of a sensing area, wherein the second sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and the information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area is used for indicating that the UE has moved out of a sensing area of the first network node; and transmitting, by the first network node to the second network node, a second response message in response to the second request message, wherein the second response message includes information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the second sensing task handover request.

[0082] According to a fifth aspect of embodiments of the present application, there is provided a method performed by a first network node, including: receiving, by the first network node from a fifth network node, a fourth request message, wherein the fourth request message includes a third sensing task handover request and / or information about UE having moved out of a sensing area, wherein the third sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and the information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area is used for indicating that the UE has moved out of a sensing area of the first network node; and transmitting, by the first network node to the fifth network node, a fourth response message in response to the fourth request message, wherein the fourth response message includes information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the third sensing task handover request.

[0083] According to a sixth aspect of embodiments of the present application, there is provided a method performed by a first network node, including: when the first network node determines that UE has moved out of a sensing area of the first network node, transmitting, by the first network node to a fifth network node, a fifth request message, wherein the fifth request message includes a fourth sensing task handover request and / or information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area, wherein the fourth sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and the information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area is used for indicating that the UE has moved out of a sensing area of the first network node; and receiving, by the first network node from the fifth network node, a fifth response message in response to the fifth request message, wherein the fifth response message includes information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the fourth sensing task handover request.

[0084] According to a seventh aspect of embodiments of the present application, there is provided a method performed by a first network node, including: transmitting, by the first network node to a second network node, a second configuration message, wherein the second configuration message includes sensing task configuration information or a sensing task configuration information list for reference associated with the first network node; and receiving, by the first network node from the second network node, a second configuration response message, wherein the second configuration response message includes information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the sensing task configuration information or configuration information in the sensing task configuration information list.

[0085] According to an eighth aspect of embodiments of the present application, there is provided a method performed by a first network node, including: receiving, by the first network node to a fifth network node, a third configuration message, wherein the third configuration message includes sensing task configuration information or a sensing task configuration information list for reference associated with the first network node; and transmitting, by the first network node to the fifth network node, a third configuration response message, wherein the third configuration response message includes information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the sensing task configuration information or configuration information in the sensing task configuration information list.

[0086] According to a ninth aspect of embodiments of the present application, there is provided a method performed by a first network node, including: receiving, by the first network node from a second network node, a first notification message, wherein the first notification message includes a sensing report reported by UE to the second network node; and transmitting, by the first network node to the second network node, a first notification response message, wherein the first notification response message is used for transmitting a feedback about the first notification message to the second network node, wherein if a sensing function is not deployed in the first network node, the sensing report is forwarded by the first network node to a node in which the sensing function is deployed.

[0087] According to a tenth aspect of embodiments of the present application, there is provided a method performed by a first network node, including: receiving, by the first network node from a seventh network node, a third notification message, wherein the third notification message includes a fifth sensing task handover request for requesting handover of a sensing task of UE to the seventh network node; and transmitting, by the first network node to the seventh network node, a third notification response message, wherein the third notification response message includes information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the fifth sensing task handover request.

[0088] According to an eleventh aspect of embodiments of the present application, there is provided a method performed by a second network node, including: when the second network node determines that UE has moved out of a sensing area of a first network node, transmitting, by the second network node to the first network node, a second request message, wherein the second request message includes a second sensing task handover request and / or information about the UE having moved out of a sensing area, wherein the second sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and the information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area is used for indicating that the UE has moved out of the sensing area of the first network node; and receiving, by the second network node from the first network node, a second response message in response to the second request message, wherein the second response message includes information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the second sensing task handover request.

[0089] According to a twelfth aspect of embodiments of the present application, there is provided a method performed by a second network node, including: when the second network node determines that UE has moved out of a sensing area of a first network node, transmitting, by the second network node to a fifth network node, a third request message, wherein the third request message includes a sixth sensing task handover request and / or information about the UE having moved out of a sensing area, wherein the sixth sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and the information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area is used for indicating that the UE has moved out of the sensing area of the first network node; and receiving, by the second network node from the fifth network node, a third response message in response to the third request message, wherein the third response message includes information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the sixth sensing task handover request.

[0090] According to a thirteenth aspect of embodiments of the present application, there is provided a method performed by a second network node, including: receiving, by the second network node from a fifth network node, a sixth request message, wherein the sixth request message includes a seventh sensing task handover request and / or information about UE having moved out of a sensing area, wherein the seventh sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and the information about UE having moved out of a sensing area is used for indicating that the UE has moved out of a sensing area of the first network node; and transmitting, by the second network node to the fifth network node, a sixth response message in response to the sixth request message, wherein the sixth response message includes information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the seventh sensing task handover request.

[0091] According to a fourteenth aspect of embodiments of the present application, there is provided a method performed by a second network node, including: receiving, by the second network node from a first network node, a second configuration message, wherein the second configuration message includes sensing task configuration information or a sensing task configuration information list for reference associated with the first network node; and transmitting, by the second network node to the first network node, a second configuration response message, wherein the second configuration response message includes information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the sensing task configuration information or configuration information in the sensing task configuration information list.

[0092] According to a fifteenth aspect of embodiments of the present application, there is provided a method performed by a second network node, including: receiving, by the second network node from a fifth network node, a fourth configuration message, wherein the fourth configuration message includes sensing task configuration information or a sensing task configuration information list for reference associated with the first network node; and transmitting, by the second network node to the fifth network node, a fourth configuration response message, wherein the fourth configuration response message includes information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the sensing task configuration information or configuration information in the sensing task configuration information list.

[0093] According to a sixteenth aspect of embodiments of the present application, there is provided a method performed by a second network node, including: receiving, by the second network node from UE, a first report message, wherein the first report message includes a sensing report generated by the UE; and transmitting the sensing report to a network node in which a sensing function is deployed.

[0094] Alternatively, the transmitting the sensing report to the network node in which the sensing function is deployed may include: if the sensing function is deployed in the first network node, transmitting, by the second network node to the first network node, a first notification message, and receiving, from the first network node, a first notification response message, wherein the first notification message includes the sensing report, and wherein the first notification response message is used for transmitting a feedback about the first notification message to the second network node; and if the sensing function is deployed in a fifth network node, transmitting, by the second network node to the fifth network node, a second notification message, and receiving, from the fifth network node, a second notification response message, wherein the second notification message includes the sensing report, and wherein the second notification response message is used for transmitting a feedback about the second notification message to the second network node.

[0095] According to a seventeenth aspect of embodiments of the present application, there is provided a network node, including: a transceiver for transmitting and receiving a signal; and a processor coupled to the transceiver and configured to perform the above method performed by the network node.

[0096] According to an eighteenth aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided user equipment, including: a transceiver for transmitting and receiving a signal; and a processor coupled to the transceiver and configured to perform the above method performed by the UE.

[0097] According to a nineteenth aspect of the embodiments of the present application, there is provided a computer readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to execute the above-described methods.

[0098] The advantageous effects brought by the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application will be illustrated hereinafter with reference to the specific alternative embodiments, or may be learned from the description of the embodiments, or may be acquainted through implementation of the embodiments.

[0099] Hereinafter, embodiments of the disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0100] In describing the embodiments, descriptions related to technical contents well-known in the art and not associated directly with the disclosure will be omitted. Such an omission of unnecessary descriptions is intended to prevent obscuring of the main idea of the disclosure and more clearly transfer the main idea.

[0101] For the same reason, in the accompanying drawings, some elements may be exaggerated, omitted, or schematically illustrated. Further, the size of each element does not completely reflect the actual size. In the drawings, identical or corresponding elements are provided with identical reference numerals or different reference numerals.

[0102] The advantages and features of the disclosure and ways to achieve them will be apparent by making reference to embodiments as described below in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. However, the disclosure is not limited to the embodiments set forth below, but may be implemented in various different forms. The following embodiments are provided only to completely disclose the disclosure and inform those skilled in the art of the scope of the disclosure, and the disclosure is defined only by the scope of the appended claims. Throughout the specification, the same or like reference numerals designate the same or like elements. Furthermore, in describing the disclosure, a detailed description of known functions or constitution incorporated herein will be omitted in the case that it is determined that the description may make the subject matter of the disclosure unnecessarily unclear. The terms which will be described below are terms defined in consideration of the functions in the disclosure, and may be different according to users, intentions of the operators, or customs. Therefore, the definitions of the terms should be made based on the contents throughout the specification.

[0103] Herein, it will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations, may be performed based on computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be loaded collectively onto at least one processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which perform through any one of, or in any combination of, the at least one processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for performing the functions specified in the flowchart block(s). These computer program instructions may also be stored in a non-transitory computer usable or computer-readable memory that may direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer usable or computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means that perform the function specified in the flowchart block(s). The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a computer executed process such that the instructions that perform on the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus provide steps for executing the functions specified in the flowchart block(s).

[0104] Further, each block may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which includes one or more executable instructions for executing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the blocks may occur out of the order. For example, two blocks(or functions) shown in succession may in fact be performed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be performed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved.

[0105] As used in embodiments of the disclosure, a “~unit” may refer to a software element or a hardware element, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), which performs a predetermined function. However, the term including the word “~unit” does not always have a meaning limited to software or hardware. The “~unit” may be constructed either to be stored in an addressable storage medium or to execute one or more processors. Therefore, the “~unit” includes, for example, software elements, object-oriented software elements, components such as class elements and task elements, processes, functions, properties, procedures, sub-routines, segments of a program code, drivers, firmware, micro-codes, circuits, data, database, data structures, tables, arrays, and parameters. The components and functions provided by the “~unit” may be either combined into a smaller number of components and a “~unit,” or divided into additional components and a “~unit.” Moreover, the components and “~units” may be implemented to reproduce one or more central processing units (CPUs) within a device or a security multimedia card. Further, in the embodiments, the “~unit” may include one or more processors.

[0106] It should be appreciated that the blocks in each flowchart and combinations of the flowcharts may be performed by one or more computer programs which include instructions. The entirety of the one or more computer programs may be stored in a single memory device or the one or more computer programs may be divided with different portions stored in different multiple memory devices.

[0107] Any of the functions or operations described herein can be processed by one processor or a combination of processors. The one processor or the combination of processors is circuitry performing processing and includes circuitry like an application processor (AP, e.g. a CPU), a communication processor (CP, e.g., a modem), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a neural processing unit (NPU) (e.g., an artificial intelligence (AI) chip), a Wi-Fi chip, a Bluetooth® chip, a global positioning system (GPS) chip, a near field communication (NFC) chip, connectivity chips, a sensor controller, a touch controller, a finger-print sensor controller, a display driver integrated circuit (IC), an audio CODEC chip, a universal serial bus (USB) controller, a camera controller, an image processing IC, a microprocessor unit (MPU), a system on chip (SoC), an IC, or the like.

[0108] It will be appreciated that various embodiments of the disclosure according to the claims and description in the specification can be realized in the form of hardware, software or a combination of hardware and software.

[0109] Any such software may be stored in non-transitory computer readable storage media. The non-transitory computer readable storage media store one or more computer programs (software modules), the one or more computer programs include computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to perform a method of the disclosure.

[0110] Any such software may be stored in the form of volatile or non-volatile storage such as, for example, a storage device like read only memory (ROM), whether erasable or rewritable or not, or in the form of memory such as, for example, random access memory (RAM), memory chips, device or integrated circuits or on an optically or magnetically readable medium such as, for example, a compact disk (CD), digital versatile disc (DVD), magnetic disk or magnetic tape or the like. It will be appreciated that the storage devices and storage media are various embodiments of non-transitory machine-readable storage that are suitable for storing a computer program or computer programs comprising instructions that, when executed, implement various embodiments of the disclosure. Accordingly, various embodiments of the present disclosure may provide a program comprising code for implementing apparatus or a method as claimed in any one of the claims of this specification and a non-transitory machine-readable storage storing such a program.

[0111] Hereinafter, the determination of priority between A and B in the present disclosure may refer to various actions such as selecting the one having a higher priority based on a predefined priority rule and performing an operation corresponding thereto, or omitting or dropping an operation corresponding to the one having a lower priority.

[0112] Hereinafter, "A or B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0113] In addition, "at least one of A, B, and C" as described in the present disclosure may be understood to include A, or B, or C, or any combination of A, B, and C.

[0114] In addition, "at least one of A, B, or C" as described in the present disclosure may be understood to include A, or B, or C, or any combination of A, B, and C.

[0115] Furthermore, "A / B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0116] Furthermore, "A, B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0117] Furthermore, "A and B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0118] Furthermore, “if condition A and condition B are satisfied,” as described in the present disclosure, may not be limited to a case where both condition A and condition B are satisfied, but may be understood to include a case where either condition A or condition B is individually satisfied, both condition A and condition B are satisfied, or one or more additional conditions are satisfied in combination.

[0119] Furthermore, throughout this disclosure, ordinal terms such as "first," "second," "third," etc., (and similar qualifiers) are used merely to distinguish between different instances, occurrences, configurations, messages, stages, or aspects of elements, operations, or information as described herein. Unless the context clearly dictates otherwise, the use of such ordinal terms does not itself require that the elements, operations, or information distinguished by these terms be structurally different, numerically distinct, or substantively dissimilar. For example, a "first signal" and a "second signal" may refer to instances of the same signal transmitted at different times or containing the same core information despite minor variations, or they may refer to signals with different content or characteristics, depending on the specific context. Similarly, a "first value" and a "second value" may represent the same magnitude but measured or applied in different circumstances, or they may represent different magnitudes. The interpretation should be guided by the specific technical context, function, and relationship described in the relevant portion of the specification and claims.

[0120] Furthermore, the terms “first ~”, “second ~”, etc., as described in the present disclosure with respect to various elements (e.g., information, objects, operation, sequences, or the like), should not limit those elements. These terms may only be intended to distinguish one element from another, and may not be intended to indicate a specific order. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and, similarly, a second element could be termed a first element.

[0121] Furthermore, even if “first ~” and “second ~” are described in the present disclosure, it may be understood that element(s) referred to by “first ~” and “second ~” may be the same or different. For example, in case of element(s) being information, first information and second information may both be same information and, in some cases, are separate and different information.

[0122] In addition, the terms “if ~” and “in case that ~” as used in the disclosure or claims may be interpreted to include the meanings of “when (or upon) ~,” “in response to ~,” “based on ~,” or “according to ~,” and may be used interchangeably with these expressions. In addition, expressions other than those exemplified herein may also be used, as long as they have substantially the same meaning and do not impair the technical features of the present disclosure.

[0123] For example, the physical layer signaling may be referred to as Layer 1 (L1) signaling and may include downlink control information (DCI). In addition, the higher layer signaling may include a medium access control (MAC) control message, a radio resource control (RRC) signaling message, a non-access stratum (NAS) signaling message, or an application layer message. The RRC signaling message may be referred to as L3 (layer 3) signaling. It should be noted, however, that the higher layer signaling is not limited to the aforementioned examples.

[0124] In addition, the term "not perform" as used in the present disclosure or claims may, in context, be understood to mean that the corresponding step is omitted or skipped. Such a term may be replaced with other terms having the same or substantially equivalent meaning.

[0125] In addition, "transmitting a message including A and B" as described in the present disclosure, may be understood as encompassing both (i) transmitting A and B in a single message, and (ii) transmitting A and B separately via multiple messages (e.g., transmitting a first message including A and a second message including B). This interpretation may also apply to messages that include two or more items (e.g., A, B, C), transmitted either together or separately.

[0126] In addition, "transmitting a message including A and transmitting a message including B" may also be interpreted as transmitting a message including A and B in a single message.

[0127] In the specific embodiments of the present disclosure described below, terms or components included in the disclosure may be expressed in singular or plural form depending on the specific embodiments presented. However, such singular or plural expressions are selected appropriately for convenience of description, and the present disclosure is not limited to a singular or plural number of components. A component expressed in the plural form may be implemented as a single component, and a component expressed in the singular form may be implemented as multiple components.

[0128] The drawings or flowcharts described below illustrate exemplary methods that may be implemented according to the principles of the present disclosure, and various modifications may be made to the methods illustrated in the flowcharts of the present disclosure. For example, although illustrated as a series of steps, various steps in each drawing or flowchart may overlap, occur in parallel, occur in a different order, or be repeated. In other examples, any step may be omitted or replaced with another step.

[0129] The methods and apparatuses proposed in the embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to each embodiment individually, but may also be applied in combination of all or some of the embodiments proposed in the disclosure. Therefore, the embodiments of the present disclosure may be modified and applied without significantly departing from the scope of the present disclosure, as would be understood by those skilled in the art.

[0130] In this case, even if certain wordings are described differently across embodiments, they may be used interchangeably or in substitution or in combination if their underlying concepts are equivalent. For example, for the same or equivalent concept, even if one embodiment uses the expression "A" and another embodiment uses the expression "B", such expressions may be understood interchangeably, in substitution, or in combination.

[0131] The terms used in the following description to refer to access nodes, network entities, messages, interfaces between network entities, various types of identification information, and the like, are provided merely for the convenience of explanation by way of example. Therefore, the present disclosure is not limited to the terms described below, and other terms having equivalent technical meanings may also be used. Such terms may also be interchangeable with terms defined in any 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) technical specifications (TS) where appropriate.

[0132] Hereinafter, a base station is an entity that allocates resources to terminals, and may be at least one of a gNode B, an eNode B, a Node B, a base station (BS), a wireless access unit, a BS controller, or a node on a network.

[0133] Furthermore, the base station of the present disclosure may include a split architecture comprising a central unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU). In this structure, the CU is configured to process the higher layers of the control and user planes, while the DU is configured to process lower-layer radio resource functions. The embodiments of the present disclosure may be equally applicable to 5G base station architectures in which such CU and DU functional splits are implemented.

[0134] A terminal may include a UE, a mobile station (MS), a cellular phone, a smartphone, a computer, or a multimedia system capable of performing communication functions.

[0135] In the disclosure, a downlink (DL) refers to a radio link through which a BS transmits a signal to a UE, and an uplink (UL) refers to a radio link through which a UE transmits a signal to a BS.

[0136] Furthermore, hereinafter, 5th generation (5G) mobile communication technologies (e.g., 5G new radio (NR)), 6th generation (6G) mobile communication technologies may be described by way of example, but the embodiments of the present disclosure may also be applied to other communication systems having similar technical backgrounds or channel types. For example, newly evolved mobile communication systems developed after 5G and 6G may be included. Furthermore, based on determinations by those skilled in the art, the embodiments of the present disclosure may also be applied to other communication systems (e.g., Wi-Fi systems) through some modifications without significantly departing from the scope of the present disclosure

[0137] In the following description, the terms physical channel and signal may be used interchangeably with data or control signal. For example, the term physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) refers to a physical channel through which data is transmitted, but the term PDSCH may also be used to refer to the data itself. That is, in the present disclosure, the expression "transmit a physical channel" may be interpreted as being equivalent to the expression "transmit data or a signal via a physical channel."

[0138] Hereinafter, in the context of the present disclosure, higher layer signaling may refer to signaling corresponding to at least one or any combination of the following: master information block (MIB), system information block (SIB) or SIB M (M = 1, 2, ...), radio resource control (RRC), or medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), or a non-access stratum (NAS) signaling message, or an application layer message. The RRC signaling message may be referred to as L3 (layer 3) signaling.

[0139] In addition, L1 signaling may refer to signaling corresponding to at least one or any combination of signaling techniques using the at least one or any combination of the following physical layer channels or signaling: physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), downlink control information (DCI), user equipment (UE)-specific DCI, group-common DCI, common DCI, scheduling DCI (e.g., DCI used for scheduling downlink or uplink data), non-scheduling DCI (e.g., DCI not used for scheduling downlink or uplink data) physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), or uplink control information (UCI). The L1 signaling message may be referred to as a physical layer signaling.

[0140] Hereinafter, the expression that information is configured by the BS, as used in the present disclosure or claims, may, in context, be understood to mean that the terminal receives the corresponding information from the BS via a physical layer signaling or a higher layer signaling. Such an expression may be replaced with other terms having the same or substantially equivalent meaning.

[0141] Hereinafter, the operational principle of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0142] In order to meet an increasing demand for wireless data communication services since a deployment of 4G communication system, efforts have been made to develop an improved 5G or pre-5G communication system. Therefore, the 5G or pre-5G communication system is also called "Beyond 4G networks" or "Post-LTE systems".

[0143] Wireless communication is one of the most successful innovations in modern history. Recently, a number of subscribers of wireless communication services has exceeded 5 billion, and it continues growing rapidly. With the increasing popularity of smart phones and other mobile data devices (such as tablet computers, notebook computers, netbooks, e-book readers and machine-type devices) in consumers and enterprises, a demand for wireless data services is growing rapidly. In order to meet rapid growth of mobile data services and support new applications and deployments, it is very important to improve efficiency and coverage of wireless interfaces.

[0144] The description is provided below with reference to the accompanying drawings to assist in a comprehensive understanding of various embodiments of the present disclosure as defined by the claims and the equivalents thereof. It includes various specific details to assist in that understanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary. Accordingly, those ordinarily skilled in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the various embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions may be omitted for clarity and conciseness.

[0145] The terms and words used in the following description and claims are not limited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used by the inventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of various embodiments of the present disclosure is provided for illustration purpose only and not for the purpose of limiting the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

[0146] It is to be understood that the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to "a component surface" includes reference to one or more of such surfaces.

[0147] The term "include" or "may include" refers to the existence of a corresponding disclosed function, operation or component which can be used in various embodiments of the present disclosure and does not limit one or more additional functions, operations, or components. In addition, the terms such as "include" or "have" may be construed to denote a certain characteristic, number, step, operation, constituent element, component or a combination thereof, but may not be construed to exclude the existence of or a possibility of addition of one or more other characteristics, numbers, steps, operations, constituent elements, components or combinations thereof.

[0148] The term "or" used in various embodiments of the present disclosure includes any or all of combinations of listed words. For example, the expression "A or B" may include A, may include B, or may include both A and B.

[0149] Unless defined differently, all terms used herein, which include technical terminologies or scientific terminologies, have the same meaning as that understood by a person skilled in the art to which the present disclosure belongs. Such terms as those defined in a generally used dictionary are to be interpreted to have the meanings equal to the contextual meanings in the relevant field of art, and are not to be interpreted to have ideal or excessively formal meanings unless clearly defined in the present disclosure.

[0150] It should to be noted that message or node names, such as "first request message", "first response message", "first notification message", "first notification response message", "first network node", "second network node" and the like, in the present disclosure are only examples, other message or node names may also be used, and "first", "second", etc. contained in the message or node names are merely examples of the messages or nodes, which do not represent a particular order or sequence. The detailed description of unrelated steps is omitted in the present disclosure, and steps in various procedures in the present disclosure may be executed in combination with each other or separately. Execution steps of each procedure are merely examples, and other possible execution orders are not excluded.

[0151] In the present disclosure, a base station (BS) may be an LTE base station, a 4G base station (e.g., eNB), a 5G base station (e.g., gNB, ng-eNB), a 6G base station, a Non Terrestrial Network (NTN) base station, a High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS), a drone base station, a wireless fidelity (WIFI) access point or other types of access points. In addition, in the present disclosure, when a cell accessed by UE is changed from one cell to another, this behavior may be referred to as handover or cell switch. In the description of the present disclosure, "handover" and "cell switch" have the same meaning.

[0152] In the present application, "sensing task" represents a process involving transmission / reception of sensing signals and / or collecting and reporting of sensing data performed by a network node, which may refer to a sensing task that is being performed by a certain sensing device (a sensing task may also be referred to as a sensing service or a sensing business), and may also refer to a sensing task performed by a plurality of sensing devices together. In the present disclosure, in a process of UE performing handover or cell switch, a cell accessed after the UE performs the handover or cell switch is a target cell or a candidate cell, a corresponding base station may be referred to as a target base station or a target network node, a cell accessed before the UE performs the handover or cell switch is a source cell, and a corresponding base station may be referred to as a source base station or a source network node. In addition, in the present disclosure, "user", "UE", "user terminal" or "user terminal equipment" may denote the same meaning, and "node" and "network node" may denote the same meaning, for example, which may be UE, a base station, a core network, a component of a base station (such as centralized unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), etc.) or the like.

[0153] Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) is an important function of a 6G communication system. In a wireless network, UE may participate in a sensing function to perform a sensing task triggered by a network node, for example, transmitting or receiving a sensing signal, and collecting and reporting sensing data or sensing results, etc. Reasonable ISAC technology may improve accuracy of current sensing methods, and may also improve performance of a communication system through collected data. In consideration of mobility of UE, when UE moves between base stations, handover may occur, resulting in interruption of a sensing task performed by the UE such that continuity of the sensing task cannot be ensured.

[0154] To this end, the present disclosure proposes a solution to ensure continuity of a sensing task during movement of UE. FIGS. 1 to 15 discussed below and various embodiments for describing the principles of the present disclosure in this patent documents are only for illustration and should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the present disclosure in any way. Those skilled in the art will understand that the principles of the present disclosure may be implemented in any suitably arranged system or device. In addition, the following documents and description of standards are incorporated into the present disclosure by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein: TS 38.300; TS 38.423; TS 38.413; TS 38.413; and TS 38.331.

[0155] In addition, the present application relates various network nodes, which will be described in details below:

[0156] A first network node: may be a network node device. In an example, a first network node may be an aforementioned BS; in another example, a first network node may be an access point; and in an example, when a base station contains a plurality of components, a first network node may be a component of the base station, such as a CU of the base station, a control plane of a CU of the base station, or a user plane of the CU of the base station.

[0157] A second network node: may be the first network node, or a network node device different from the first network node.

[0158] A third network node: may be UE served by the first network node.

[0159] A fourth network node: may be UE served by the second network node.

[0160] A fifth network node: may be a core network, a network node in which a sensing function is deployed, or a sensing function entity / module.

[0161] A seventh network node: may be a network node device different from the first network node and the second network node.

[0162] FIG. 1 is an exemplary system architecture 100 of System Architecture Evolution (SAE). User Equipment (UE) 101 is a terminal device for receiving data. An evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) 102 is a radio access network, which includes a macro base station (eNodeB / NodeB) that provides UE with interfaces to access the radio network. A mobility management entity (MME) 103 is responsible for managing mobility context, session context and security information of the UE. A serving gateway (SGW) 104 mainly provides functions of user plane, and the MME 103 and the SGW 104 may be in the same physical entity. A packet data network gateway (PGW) 105 is responsible for functions of charging, lawful interception, etc., and may be in the same physical entity as the SGW 104. A policy and charging rules function entity (PCRF) 106 provides quality of service (QoS) policies and charging criteria. A general packet radio service support node (SGSN) 108 is a network node device that provides routing for data transmission in a universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS). A home subscriber server (HSS)109 is a home subsystem of the UE, and is responsible for protecting user information including a current location of the user equipment, an address of a serving node, user security information, and packet data context of the user equipment, etc.

[0163] FIG. 2 is an exemplary system architecture 200 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. Other embodiments capable of using the system architecture 200 do not depart from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0164] User Equipment (UE) 201 is a terminal device for receiving data. A next generation radio access network (NG-RAN) 202 is a radio access network, which includes a base station (a gNB or an eNB connected to 5G core network 5GC, and the eNB connected to the 5GC is also called ng-gNB) that provides UE with interfaces to access the radio network. An access control and mobility management function entity (AMF) 203 is responsible for managing mobility context and security information of the UE. A user plane function entity (UPF) 204 mainly provides functions of user plane. A session management function entity SMF 205 is responsible for session management. A data network (DN) 206 includes, for example, services of operators, access of Internet, service of third parties, etc.

[0165] FIG. 3A is a flowchart illustrating a method performed by a first network node according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application.

[0166] As illustrated in FIG. 3A, in step S310, a first request message related to handover is transmitted by the first network node to a second network node, wherein the first request message includes a first sensing task handover request and sensing task configuration information for reference associated with the first network node, wherein the first sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of user equipment (UE) to the second network node.

[0167] In the present application, the above "handover" may refer to a handover behavior that has been defined in a communication system such as 4G / 5G, may also refer to a new handover type related to a sensing function, for example, a network node leaves the behavior of controlling sensing for UE to another network node to perform. In addition, in the present application, a sensing function (which may be a sensing function entity / module) may be deployed in a base station, a component of a base station, an existing unit or a new unit of a core network, or a unit separate from a base station or a core network. In the present application, the sensing function entity / module should have at least one of following functions: authentication of a sensing task, security assurance of a sensing task, selection of a node participating in a sensing task, generation and distribution of sensing task configuration, activation and deactivation of a sensing task, sensing area management, sensing data processing, provision of sensing reference information, and centralized management and scheduling of sensing tasks of each base station. The base station should have at least one of following functions: transmission of a sensing signal, reception of a sensing signal, collection and transmission of sensing data, selection of a node participating in a sensing task, sensing area management, and sensing mobility management. In addition, the UE should have at least one of following functions: registration of a sensing task, transmission of a sensing signal, reception of a sensing signal, collection and transmission of sensing data, and selection of a node participating in a sensing task.

[0168] In an exemplary embodiment, the first request message, in addition to including the first sensing task handover request and the sensing task configuration information for reference associated with the first network node described above, may further include at one of: a sensing task configuration information list; and request information that requires the second network node to participate in or assist in the sensing task.

[0169] In an exemplary embodiment, the sensing task configuration information for reference associated with the first network node may include at least one of: sensing mode information of the UE; information of a sensing device that interacts a sensing signal with the UE; a sensing task activation indication; sensing task control node information of the UE; and a UE identity corresponding to a sensing report.

[0170] In an exemplary embodiment, each sensing task configuration information in the sensing task configuration information list may include at least one of: information identifying the first network node; information identifying the sensing task; information of a sensing service type; information related to a sensing device; information of a sensing area of the first network node; information identifying a receiving node of a sensing report; and information about whether the sensing task supports handover.

[0171] Specifically, the information related to the sensing device may include at least one of: information identifying a sensing group; sensing capability information; sensing mode information; sensing result reporting information; and information related to the reporting of sensing report(s).

[0172] In an exemplary embodiment, the first request message may be a handover request message, but the present application is not limited hereto. The first request message may also be other existing or newly defined XnAP messages, such as a message newly defined by the ISAC function, and the first request message may be a UE-associated message, or may be a non-UE-associated message. In addition, various information contained in the first request message may be transmitted over an interface in an explicit manner, or may also be contained in a transparent container for transmission.

[0173] In step S320, a first response message in response to the first request message is received by the first network node from the second network node, wherein the first response message includes information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the first sensing task handover request and information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the sensing task configuration information.

[0174] In an exemplary embodiment, the first response message may include at least one of: information related to the sensing task of the UE; and a notification related to the second network node participating in or assisting in the sensing task.

[0175] In an exemplary embodiment, the information related to the sensing task of the UE may include at one of: information identifying a control node of the sensing task; information identifying a receiving node of the sensing report; sensing area information; sensing mode information; and information related to the reporting of sensing report(s).

[0176] In addition, the method may further include: transmitting, by the first network node to the UE, a first configuration message, wherein the first configuration message is used for updating sensing task configuration to the UE.

[0177] In an exemplary embodiment, the first configuration message may include at least one of: information identifying the sensing task; information of a sensing service type; information related to a sensing device; information identifying a receiving node of the sensing report; information of a sensing area; and information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE.

[0178] The steps mentioned in the method will be described in detail below with reference to FIG. 3B.

[0179] FIG. 3B is a diagram illustrating a signal flow of a first example according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application.

[0180] In the example, the UE and the source station are in an RRC connected state. During a process that the UE moves from the source base station to a target base station, the source base station makes a decision to switch the UE to the target base station based on a measurement report and radio resource management (RRM) information. The present application realizes interaction process of sensing information in this process, so that the target base station is informed of related information of a sensing task of the source base station, thereby ensuring continuity of the sensing task during a handover process.

[0181] As illustrated in FIG. 3B, in step 301, the first request message, e.g., a handover request message, is transmitted by the source base station to the target base station.

[0182] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the first request message may include at least one of following items (i.e., at least one of following information or an information list):

[0183] -A user identity (i.e., a UE identity) for identifying UE that is moving / performing handover, such as an NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID, a temporary mobile subscriber identity (TMSI), a radio network temporary identity (RNTI), etc.

[0184] -A sensing task configuration information list for informing the base station of sensing task configuration information related to the current UE, the sensing task configuration information being generated by a sensing function and transmitted to the UE over a network, wherein the sensing function may be deployed in the core network, or may be deployed in the source base station. The information may be used as a reference for configuring the sensing task subsequently after it is received by the target base station. The sensing task configuration information in the sensing task configuration information list not only contains the sensing task configuration information related to the current UE, but also may further contain information of other network nodes (e.g., the base station, other UEs served by the base station) involved in the current sensing task. Each sensing task configuration information in the sensing task configuration information list at least contains one of:

[0185] --information identifying the sensing task, which may also be referred to as a sensing task identity, for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, such as a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID, a Sensing Trace ID, etc.;

[0186] --a base station identity for representing that the sensing task configuration information is related to the base station or configured for the base station, such as an NG-RAN node ID;

[0187] --information of a sensing service type or information of a sensing use case, for indicating a type of the sensing task, such as target object monitoring, intrusion detection, environment monitoring, autonomous driving, road supervision, weather monitoring, life monitoring, smart factories, etc.; and

[0188] --information related to a sensing device, which may also be referred to as "a sensing device information list", containing sensing device information related to configuration of the sensing device, i.e., information such as the specific configuration of the sensing device, etc. Since both the base station and the UE have a capability to transmit and receive signals in the communication network, specific information is required to indicate a signal transmission and reception combination participating in the sensing task and a sensing mode. The information related to the sensing device at least contains one of following information:

[0189] ---Information identifying a sensing device, which may also be referred to as a sensing device identity, for indicating a network node that transmits or receives a sensing signal, which may be a base station identity (e.g., an NG-RAN node ID), may also be a UE identity (e.g., a UE ID), and may further be a device identity newly defined for a sensing device (e.g., a device ID); and an identity of a new sensing device may be allocated by a sensing function to facilitate managing all nodes participating in the sensing task (including the base station and the UE). When the UE identity is included, it may correspond to other UEs served by the base station.

[0190] ---Information identifying the sensing group, which may also be referred to as "a sensing device group identity", "a sensing group identity", "a group identity", "a device group identity", or the like. a group of transceiving nodes of a sensing signal is a sensing group. If a base station A transmits a sensing signal and UE A receives the sensing signal, the base station A and the UE A are a sensing group. The sensing group may be associated to a piece of unique information for identifying the sensing group. If the UE A transmits a sensing signal and the base station A receives the sensing signal, the UE A and the base station A is another sensing group, and information for identifying the sensing group is different from the information for identifying the sensing group consisting of the base station A and the UE A. The information identifying the sensing group may correspond to the transmission and reception of the sensing signal, so as to decompose an overall sensing task into transmission and reception behaviors of a sensing signal between the network nodes.

[0191] ---The sensing capability information may contain at least one of following information:

[0192] ----a maximum value of the number of sensing tasks that may be supported simultaneously;

[0193] ----a maximum value of the number of supported UEs participating in the sensing tasks;

[0194] ----types of supported sensing signals;

[0195] ----supported sensing signal encoding methods;

[0196] ----supported resource multiplexing methods, such as Time Division Duplexing (TDD), Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), etc.;

[0197] ----supported frequency bands of transmitting or receiving the sensing signals;

[0198] ----supported sensing modes;

[0199] ----supported the reporting of sensing report(s) methods.

[0200] ---Sensing mode information, for representing a sensing mode of a corresponding device, which contains at least one of following representation manners:

[0201] ----Manner 1: indicating whether a corresponding device is a transmitting node or a receiving node, or is both a transmitting node and a receiving node; and

[0202] ----Manner 2: a specific signal transceiving mode, for example, a device A transmits a sensing signal and a device B receives the sensing signal, wherein the device A and the device B may be a same device, and the device A / B may be a base station or UE.

[0203] ---A type of a sensing signal, for example, signals in the exsiting communication systems such as a Channel Status Information-Reference　Signal (CSI-RS), a Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS), a Positioning Reference Signal (PRS), a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS), etc., or signals in non-3GPP communication systems such as a bluetooth signal, a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) signal, etc., or signals specifically transmitted for sensing functions such as a radar signal.

[0204] ---Signal transmission / reception configuration indication information, which may be one or more integers / indexes / character strings for indicating resource configuration information during signal transmission or reception, and including resource configuration information of a time domain, a frequency domain or a spatial domain;

[0205] ---Sensing task session status information, for representing a sensing task session status of a certain sensing device or a sensing group, which may contain at least one of following status information:

[0206] ----an inactive status, for representing that a sensing device is configured with a sensing task but does not perform transmission / reception of a sensing signal or reporting of sensing data indicated by the sensing task;

[0207] ----an activated status, for representing that a sensing device is configured with a sensing task and is performing transmission / reception of a sensing signal or reporting of sensing data indicated by the sensing task;

[0208] ----a sensing pause status, for representing that transmission / reception of a sensing signal of a sensing device is paused, wherein a reason for sensing pause may be a poor communication perfromance of a network;

[0209] ----a reporting pause status, for representing that although a sensing device is performing transmission or reception of a sensing signal and collection of sensing data, reporting of the sensing data is paused, wherein a reason for reporting pause may be an excessive network load or an abnormal reporting link; and

[0210] ----an abnormal status, for representing that there is an abnormality in an execution process of a sensing task, for example, there is an error or abnormality in an execution process of a sensing task of a sensing device due to some special reasons.

[0211] ---Sensing result reporting information, a sensing result may be a direct measurement result of a sensing signal by a sensing device, may also be an intermediate result after data analysis processing, or may further be a final sensing result obtained through data analysis processing. The sensing result reporting information may contain at least one of following information:

[0212] ----a measuring result of a sensing signal, for example, a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), a Reference Signal Receiving Quality (RSRQ), path loss, a doppler frequency shift, an Angle of Arrival (AoA), or a Zenith angle of Arrival (ZoA) of a signal;

[0213] ----an intermediate result of sensing, for example, a location and / or shape of a sensing object; a radar cross section of a sensing object; a speed, acceleration and / or direction of an object; sensing environment information, etc.; and

[0214] ----a final result of a sensing task, for example, discovery of an intrusive object, an abnormal traffic condition, an abnormal weather, etc.

[0215] The sensing results may be obtained by a sensing device using a local computing capability to perform analysis, and may also be obtained via an external computing capability.

[0216] ---The information related to the the reporting of sensing report(s), which may contain at least one of following information:

[0217] ----a reporting cycle;

[0218] ----a reporting time period;

[0219] ----time slot information of UE reporting;

[0220] ----a reporting triggering condition, for example, a sensing signal arrives to a certain specified threshold;

[0221] ----one or more integers or character strings for indicating a reporting method of a sensing device; and

[0222] ----reporting resource configuration information, which may be one or more integers or character strings for indicating resource configuration information required by sensing result reporting, and including a time domain, a frequency domain or a spatial domain.

[0223] --The information of the sensing area of the source base station, for indicating a sensing area range of the source base station, that is, for indicating an area that may be covered by a sensing capability of the source base station. UEs within the area may all perform sensing tasks with the base station regardless of whether it is within a range covered by communication of the source base station. The information functions to enable the target base station to be informed of a sensing area range of the source base station and the UE, so that when the UE moves out of the sensing area range of the source base station, the target base station may discover this situation and make a response in time (the specific process will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 4). The information of the sensing area may contain at least one of following information or information lists:

[0224] ---a cell identity list, for example, a Global NG-RAN cell ID list, a PCI list, a CGI list, containing at least one cell identity;

[0225] ---a tracking area list, containing information of at least one tracking area code (TCA);

[0226] ---a tracking area identity (TAI) list (which may also be referred to as "a list of information identifying tracking areas"), containing information on a set of a public land mobile network (PLMA) ID and TAC;

[0227] ---a PLMN ID list, containing at least one PLMN ID;

[0228] ---a radio access network (RAN) area ID list, containing at least one RAN area ID;

[0229] ---a standalone non-public network (SNPN) ID list, containing at least one SNPN ID;

[0230] ---a cellular access gateway (CAG) ID list, containing at least one CAG ID;

[0231] ---a physical area range in reality, for referring to an area range occupied by a certain physical place in reality, for example, a factory, a piece of land, an area of a road, etc., wherein the area range may be identified by a physical area number.

[0232] --The information identifying a receiving node of a sensing report, which may also be referred to as "a receiving node identity of a sensing report", for indicating information of a network node that receives a sensing report. Transmission of the information identifying the receiving node of the sensing report may ensure that the network node accessed after UE moves may be informed of a receiving node of a sensing report of the UE, so that the network node accessed by the UE may forward the sensing report to the receiving node of the sensing report after receiving the sensing report, so as to ensure continuity of the sensing data reporting. The receiving node identity of the sensing report may contain at least one of following information:

[0233] ---information identifying a sensing function, which may also be referred to as "a sensing function identity", for uniquely identifying a logic unit, entity or module corresponding to the sensing function, for example, a sensing function ID;

[0234] ---an address of a sensing function, for example, an IP address, etc.;

[0235] ---information for indentifying a node / entity / module where a sensing function is located, which may also be referred to as "an identity of a node / entity / module where a sensing function is located" (i.e., an identity of a node / entity / module in which a sensing function is deployed), for example, a based station ID (for example, a Global NG-RAN node ID), an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) ID, a Location Management Function (LMF) routing ID; and

[0236] ---address information of an entity or a node receiving a sensing report, for example, an IP address, etc.

[0237] --Information of whether a sensing task supports handover, which may also be referred to as "a sensing task mobility indication" and may be information of a Bool type or an Enumerated type. If the information is No, it represents that the sensing task does not support mobility of UE, and when the UE moves to other base stations (i.e., is handed over to other base stations), sensing configuration of the UE will be automatically released. The information may be associated with a specific use case and its requirements, and in some use cases, when the UE moves out of a communication coverage or a sensing area range of a source base station, it does not need to perform sensing, and thus does not need to handover the sensing task.

[0238] -The sensing task configuration information for reference associated with the source base station, which may also be referred to as "sensing task configuration information related to UE", "sensing task configuration information at a UE level", "UE specific sensing task configuration information" or "sensing task interaction information associated with UE", for performing relevant interaction of a subsequent sensing execution method on the UE that is currently moving between the source base station and the target base station. Different from the sensing task configuration information at a base station level (i.e., a sensing task configuration information list), the sensing task configuration information for reference associated with the source base station is only with respect to the UE that is currently moving, that is, UE specific. The the sensing task configuration information for reference associated with the source base station contains at least one of following information or information lists:

[0239] --Sensing mode information of UE, for representing a sensing mode of the UE, which may be in following representation manners:

[0240] ---Manner 1: indicating whether the UE is a transmitting node or a receiving node, or is both a transmitting node and a receiving node; and

[0241] ---Manner 2: a specific signal transceiving mode, for example, the UE transmits a sensing signal and the UE itself receives the sensing signal (i.e., the UE transmits and receives by itself), or the UE transmits a sensing signal and a base station receives the sensing signal (i.e., the UE transmits and the base station receives), or a base station transmits a sensing signal and the UE receives the sensing signal (i.e., the base station transmits and the UE receives), or UE A transmits a sensing signal and UE B receives the sensing signal (i.e., the UE A transmits and the UE B receives), or the UE B transmits a sensing signal and the UE A receives the sensing signal (i.e., the UE transmits and the UE A receives); and

[0242] --Information of a sensing device that interacts a sensing signal with the UE, for example, a base station ID, a UE ID or a device ID. When the sensing mode of the UE is not that the UE transmits and receives by itself, another network node is required to interact a sensing signal with the UE, for example, the base station transmits the sensing signal and the UE receives the sensing signal, or the UE transmits the sensing signal and the base station receives the sensing signal, or the UE transmits the sensing signal and another UE receives the sensing signal, or another UE transmits the sensing signal and the UE receives the sensing signal.

[0243] --The sensing task session status related information, for representing the session status of a sensing task, which may be information of a Bool type or an Enumerated type. The status represented by the information may be at least one of following status information:

[0244] ---an inactive status, for representing that UE is configured with a sensing task but does not perform transmission / reception of a sensing signal or reporting of sensing data indicated by the sensing task;

[0245] ---an activated status, for representing that UE is configured with a sensing task and is performing transmission / reception of a sensing signal or reporting of sensing data indicated by the sensing task;

[0246] ---a sensing pause status, for representing that transmission / reception of a sensing signal of UE is paused, wherein a reason for sensing pause may be due to a poor communication-related quality of the UE;

[0247] ---a reporting pause status, for representing that although UE is performing transmission or reception of a sensing signal and collection of sensing data, reporting of the sensing data is paused, wherein a reason for reporting pause may be an excessive network load or an abnormal reporting link; and

[0248] ---an abnormal status, for representing that there is an abnormality in an execution process of a sensing task, for example, there is an error or abnormality in an execution process of a sensing task of UE due to some special reasons.

[0249] --A sensing task activation indication: with respect to a case where UE is configured with a sensing task at a source base station but the sensing task is inactivated, the base station transmits this indication to a target base station to let the target base station instructs, through lower-level information such as Radio Resource Control (RRC), Media Access Control (MAC), Control Element (CE), Downlink Control Information (DCI) or the like, the UE to activate transmission / reception, measurement and collection of a sensing signal.

[0250] --Inclined / suggested / recommended / updated sensing task configuration information, i.e., sensing task configuration information after handover of UE, wherein the specific information is the information related to the sensing device in the sensing task configuration information list, that is, for a case where the sensing device is UE, the information may be used as a reference when the target base station controls the sensing task.

[0251] --Sensing task control node information of UE, for representing a control node of a sensing task, wherein the control node may be an entity in which a sensing function is deployed, or a base station that triggers a sensing task to the UE. The control node of the sensing task may manage sensing configuration of the UE, for example, adjust a sensing mode of the UE, adjust parameters of a sensing signal related to the UE, select other UEs to participate in the sensing (for example, the current UE performs transmission of the sensing signal with other selected UEs), or the like. The control node of the sensing function may change as UE moves, and after the sensing task control node information of the UE is adjusted, the adjusted sensing task control node information of the UE needs to be informed to the node where the sensing function is located. The sensing task control node information of the UE may contain at least one of following information:

[0252] ---a base station identity, e.g., a Global NG-RAN node ID;

[0253] ---a core network identity, e.g., an AMF ID; and

[0254] ---information identifying a sensing function, e.g., a sensing function routing ID.

[0255] --A UE identity corresponding to a sensing report, which may be the same as the previous UE identity or may be a different type of a UE identity. After the UE is handed over from the source base station (the first network node) to the target base station, the UE may transmit the sensing report to the target base station it is handed over to, the target base station may forward the sensing report to the source base station, and the source base station requires the UE identity to identify the UE corresponding to the received sensing report. For example, the source base station may store an initial NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID or NG-RAN node UE NGAP ID, and transmit this information to the target base station of the UE; subsequently, no matter which base station the UE moves to, this information will be transmitted to the new target base station to which the UE has moved. After receiving the sensing report of the UE, the new target base station will forward the sensing report of the UE together with the UE identity to the source base station, so that the source base station may identify the UE corresponding to the sensing report.

[0256] -Request information that requires the target base station to participate in or assist in the sensing. As the UE moves, an execution performance of the sensing task of the source base station and the UE may be reduced, and the source base station may request the target base station to which the UE is handed over to assist in performing the sensing on the premise that the target base station also has the sensing capability. Adjacent base stations may interact the sensing capability through an XnAP interface message or other interface messages in advance. In addition to a separate request indication, the request information may also carry specific information for the target base station participating in or assisting in the sensing. Specifically, the request information may contain at least one of following information:

[0257] --relevant configuration that requires a target base station to participate in or assist in sensing, for example, a sensing device identity, sensing mode information, a type of a sensing signal and other parameters, specifically such as the corresponding items in the above-mentioned sensing configuration information list;

[0258] --sensing area information that requires to the target base station to sense, such as the sensing area information in the above-mentioned sensing configuration information list; and

[0259] --an expected sensing quality or outcome, such as a precision of sensing, a result of sensing, a frequency of sensing reporting, or the like.

[0260] -A sensing task handover request, for requesting handover of a sensing task of UE to a target base station, which will be described in detail below with reference to an example of FIG. 4.

[0261] In the present application, the first request message functions to transmit related information of a sensing task performed by UE, which needs to be informed to a target base station, to request the target base station to establish related sources of communication and / or sensing for the UE, thereby ensuring continuity of the sensing task during movement of the UE. In other words, the first request message may enable the target base station to be informed of the related information of the sensing task during a switch preparation process to ensure timely transmission of the related information of the sensing task and prevent sensing task interruption due to movement of the UE.

[0262] In step 302, a first response message in response to the first request message, e.g., a handover request acknowledgement message, is transmitted by the target base station to the source base station.

[0263] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the first response message may include at least one of following information:

[0264] -A user identity (i.e., a UE identity), for identifying UE that is moving / being handed over, for example, a source NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID, a target NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID, a TMSI, a RNTI, etc. This information is used to indentifying UE that is moving / being handed over.

[0265] -Information for representing whether a target node accepts the sensing task configuration information, and may also be referred to as "a feedback or response for sensing task configuration information", which is used to notify the source base station (i.e., the first network node) a status about whether the corresponding sensing task configuration information has been confirmed or accepted. This information (i.e., the feedback or response) may contain at least one of following information:

[0266] --Information identifying the sensing task, which may also be referred to as "a sensing task identity", for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, such as a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID.

[0267] --A sensing task configuration information acknowledgement or acceptance indication, for indicating that the corresponding sensing task configuration information has been acknowledged or accepted. The indication may be in a following manner:

[0268] ---an explicit indication, for example, an indication of a flag type, a Bool type, or an Enumerated type, wherein if the indication is carried, it represents that the target base station acknowledges or accepts the sensing task configuration information; and

[0269] ---an implicit indication, for example, if the first response message is received, it represents that the target base station acknowledges or accepts the sensing task configuration information, or if sensing task configuration information rejection or failure indication is not received, it represents that the target base station acknowledges or accepts the sensing task configuration information.

[0270] --A sensing task configuration information rejection or failure indication, for indicating that the corresponding sensing task configuration fails, in other words, for indicating that the corresponding sensing task configuration information is not acknowledged or accepted. The indication may be in a following manner:

[0271] ---an explicit manner, for example, an indication of a flag type, a Bool type, or an Enumerated type, wherein if the indication is carried, it represents that the sensing task configuration fails; and

[0272] ---an implicit indication, for example, if the first response message is received, it represents that the sensing task configuration fails, or if the sensing task configuration information acknowledgement indication is not received, it represents that the sensing task configuration fails.

[0273] --A rejection or failure cause, for indicating a reason for sensing task configuration rejection or failure, containing at least one of following information:

[0274] ---the target base station does not support a sensing function;

[0275] ---the target base station receives a repeated sensing task; and

[0276] ---a number of sensing tasks supported by the target base station exceeds a maximum value.

[0277] -The information related to the sensing task of the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing interaction result related to UE", contains at least one of following information or information lists:

[0278] --information identifying a control node of the sensing task, wherein after the UE is handed over from the source base station to the target base station, since the UE may further performs transmission of the sensing signal with the source base station within a certain area range, the source base station may be used as a control node of the sensing task performed by the UE; after the UE is handed over from the source base station to the target base station, since the UE may only communicate with the target base station (because the UE and the target base station are in an RRC connected state), the target base station may also be used as a sensing task control node of the UE to adjust configuration of the sensing task related to the UE, for example, select new UE to perform transmission / reception of the sensing signal with the initial UE and / or the target base station, and transmit new sensing task configuration information to the newly selected UE and / or the initial UE through an RRC message. The specific sensing task control node after handover may be determined through base station implementation;

[0279] --the identity of a sensing device interacting a sensing signal with UE, for indicating a network node that transmits or receives a sensing signal, which may be a base station identity, e.g., an NG-RAN node ID, may also be a user identity (a UE ID), and may further be a device identity newly defined for the sensing device (e.g., a device ID);

[0280] --information identifying a sensing group specifically as described in step 301;

[0281] --sensing mode information specifically as described in step 301;

[0282] --a type of a sensing signal specifically as described in step 301;

[0283] --signal transmission / reception configuration indication information is specifically as described in step 301;

[0284] --sensing result reporting information specifically as described in step 301;

[0285] --information related to the reporting of sensing report(s) specifically as described in step 301;

[0286] --information identifying a receiving node of a sensing report specifically as described in step 301; and

[0287] --sensing area information is specifically as described in step 301.

[0288] -A response / notification related to the target base station participating in or assisting in the sensing task, wherein after information related to a sensing task performed by UE at the source base station in the first request message is received, if the trarget base station also has a sensing function, the target base station may decide whether to use its own sensing capability to participate in the sensing task performed by the UE to assist in the sensing. The sensing mode of the target base station after participating in the sensing task does not have to be related to the UE, and may also be that the target base station transmits and receives the sensing signal by itself or selects another UE to perform transmission and reception of the sensing signal. The response / notification related to the target base station participating in or assisting in the sensing task may contain at least one of following information:

[0289] --the identity of a sensing device interacting a sensing signal with UE, for indicating a network node that transmits or receives a sensing signal, which may be a base station identity (e.g., an NG-RAN node ID), may also be a user identity (a UE ID), and may further be a device identity newly defined for the sensing device (e.g., a device ID);

[0290] --information identifying a sensing group specifically as described in step 301;

[0291] --sensing mode information specifically as described in step 301;

[0292] --a type of a sensing signal specifically as described in step 301;

[0293] --signal transmission / reception configuration indication information specifically as described in step 301;

[0294] --sensing result reporting information specifically as described in step 301;

[0295] --information related to the reporting of sensing report(s) specifically as described in step 301; and

[0296] --sensing area information of the target base station specifically as described in step 301.

[0297] -Information for representing whether the target base station accepts a sensing task handover request, which may also be referred to as "a response / reply for a sensing task handover request of UE" and will be described in detail below with reference to an example of FIG. 4.

[0298] In the present application, the target base station (i.e., the second network node) feeds back a negotiation result or acknowledgement information about interaction with respect to the sensing task to the source base station (i.e., the first network node), through the first response message. In other words, the first response message may enable the source base station to be informed of a result about interaction with respect to the sensing task between the source base station and the target base station, to finish a complete bi-directional interaction process between the two base stations.

[0299] In step 303, a first configuration message, e.g., an RRC reconfiguration message, is transmitted to the UE by the source base station.

[0300] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the first configuration message may contain at least one of following information:

[0301] -information identifying the sensing task, which may also be referred to as "a sensing task identity", for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, for example, a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID, a Sensing Trace ID, etc.;

[0302] -information of a sensing service type or a sensing use case, for indicating a type of the sensing task, for example, target object monitoring, intrusion detection, environment monitoring, autonomous driving, road supervision, weather monitoring, life monitoring, smart factories, etc.;

[0303] -information related to the sensing device, which may also be referred to as "a sensing device information list", specifically as described in step 301, wherein the sensing device at this time is the current UE;

[0304] -information identifying a receiving node of a sensing report, which may also be referred to as "a receiving node identity of a sensing report", specifically as described in step 301;

[0305] -sensing area information specifically as described in step 301; and

[0306] -information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing status control indication", and may contain at least one of following information:

[0307] --an activation indication, for notifying (commanding) the UE to start performing a corresponding sensing task according to sensing configuration, for example, to start transmission or reception of a sensing signal, collection and reporting of sensing data indicated by the sensing configuration;

[0308] --a deactivation indication, for notifying (commanding) the UE to end and / or release the sensing task corresponding to the sensing configuration;

[0309] --a sensing pause indication, for notifying (commanding) the UE to pause transmission or reception of the sensing signal;

[0310] --a sensing recovery indication, for notifying (commanding) the UE to recover the transmission or reception of the sensing signal;

[0311] --a reporting pause indication, for notifying (commanding) the UE to pause reporting of sensing data; and

[0312] --a reporting recovery indication, for notifying (commanding) the UE to recover the reporting of the sensing data.

[0313] In the present application, the first configuration message is used for updating the sensing task configuration to the UE to ensure continuity of the sensing task before and after the switch. In an example, the first configuration message may be transmitted by the target base station to the source base station in the first response message through a transparent transmission manner, and the source base station then transmits the first configuration message to the UE. In another example, the first configuration message may be an RRC message or a lower-level message generated and transmitted by the source base station to the UE.

[0314] In the present application, the first configuration message may be a current RRC reconfiguration message, or may also be a newly defined RRC message, or a lower-level message. The first configuration message may be transmitted in an explicit manner, or may be contained in a transparent container for transmission.

[0315] In addition, after the UE is handed over from the source base station to the target base station, the source base station will receive a UE context release message from the target base station, and hereinafter, the source base station will release an air interface or control plane resource related to UE context. In the present application, after the UE that receives the sensing task triggered by the source base station is handed over from the source base station to the target base station, the source base station may maintain a sensing context related to the UE, for example, information such as a UE identity, corresponding sensing task configuration information, or the like.

[0316] Alternatively, after the UE is handed over from the source base station to the target base station, if there are other UEs that perform transmittion of the sensing signal with the UE in the communication coverage of the source base station, the source base station may transmit the RRC reconfiguration message or MAC CE or lower-level message, so that these other UEs release the related sensing tasks, wherein the specific message transmitted by the source base station may be the same as the first configuration message containing the deactivation indication in step 303, which will not be repeated here.

[0317] In step 304, the UE transmits a first configuration response message (an RRC reconfiguration complete message) to the target base station, and this message is a response message for the first configuration message. If during a process of the UE being handed over from the source base station to the target base station, this message may be an RRC reconfiguration complete message which represents that the UE has successfully accessed to the target base station.

[0318] The interaction process of the sensing information performed in the process of the UE being handed over from the source base station to the target base station is described above with reference to FIG. 3B, the interaction process may enable the target base station to be informed of the related information of the sensing task of the source base station so as to ensure the continuity of the sensing task in the handover process.

[0319] In the example described with reference to FIG. 3B, although the first request message transmitted by the first network node (i.e., the source base station) to the second network node (i.e., the target base station) contains the first sensing task handover request for requesting the handover of the sensing task of the UE to the second network node, the second network node may reject the sensing task handover for some reasons. However, when the UE moves within a communication coverage of the second network node, the second network node may still request the first network node to handover the sensing task of the UE to the second network node, or the first network node may still request the handover of the sensing task of the UE to the second network node. This will be described below.

[0320] As described above, when the UE exceeds the communication coverage of the source base station due to movement, the source base station handovers the UE to an adjacent base station (i.e., the target base station). However, since a signal strength required by the sensing task is lower than a signal strength required by communication, after the UE moves out of the communication coverage of the source base station, although the UE cannot communicate with the source base station, the UE may further perform transmission of the sensing signal with the source base station, so the sensing area range may be larger than the communication coverage. Based on this premise, even if the UE moves out of the communication coverage of the source base station, whether the UE is stilled within the sensing area range of the source base station is not determined, and when the UE gradually moves out of the sensing area range of the source base station, it may cause the UE to be unable to continuously perform the sensing task with the source base station due to the sensing signal becoming poor, thus, it is necessary to perform sensing area monitoring on the UE, that is, monitor whether the UE moves out of the sensing area range of the source base station. In the present application, the sensing area range refers to an area range in which a sensing signal transmitted by a base station can be received by UE, and may also refer to an area range in which a sensing task may be effectively performed. In the present application, the sensing area range may be configured by a sensing function, a core network, or a base station, and may also be pre-configured by other network nodes.

[0321] To this end, the present application further proposes schemes of performing the sensing area monitoring on the UE, and specifically, may include following two schemes: Scheme 1: a target base station to which UE is handed over(that is, a base station providing a communication service to the UE) monitors whether the UE moves out of a sensing area range of a source base station (that is, a base station performing a sensing task with the UE); Scheme 2: a source base station (that is, a base station performing a sensing task with UE) monitors whether the UE moves out of a sensing area range of the source base station.

[0322] The Scheme 1 is described below with reference to FIG. 4.

[0323] After it is detected that the UE moves out of the sensing area range of the source base station, it is necessary to determine a control node of the subsequent sensing task of the UE through further interaction between network nodes. In an example, the UE performs a sensing task triggered by the first network node (i.e., the source base station), and after the UE is handed over from the first network node to the second network node (i.e., the target base station), the UE may still perform transmission of the sensing signal with the first network node to perform the sensing task. In the example, the sensing area monitoring may be performed by the second network node on the UE, and although the sensing area range of the first network node may be larger than its own communication coverage and contains a partial communication coverage of the second network node, the sensing area range of the first network node does not have to include the entire communication coverage of the second network node, that is, when the UE moves within the communication coverage of the second network node, the UE may move out of the sensing area range of the first network node. In the present application, the sensing area range of the first network node may be included in the sensing task configuration information to be transmitted to the second network node, for example, as illustrated in the above-described step 301 or step 701 that will be described subsequently.

[0324] When the UE moves within the communication coverage of the second network node, if the second network node discovers that the UE has moved out of the sensing area range of the first network node according to mobility information of the UE, the second network node needs to notify this discovery to the first network node. If the UE will continue to participate in the current sensing task subsequently, the first network node needs to handover the sensing task configuration information related to the UE and the like to the second network node for control and management. If the current sensing task requires the transmission of the sensing signal between the UE and the base station, after the sensing task of the UE is handed over to the second network node for control and management, the UE will perform transmission of the sensing signal with the second network node. In the present application, this change process of the sensing task control node due to the mobility of the UE may be referred to as sensing task handover. In addition, the sensing task handover here is only with respect to the sensing task (for example, transmission and reception of a sensing signal at a UE side) performed by the UE itself, and does not represent the entire sensing task including sensing behaviors of the base station and other UEs.

[0325] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the method described by FIG. 3A may further include: receiving, by the first network node from the second network node, a second request message, wherein the second request message includes a second sensing task handover request and / or information about UE having moved out of a sensing area, wherein the second sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and the information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area is used for indicating that the UE has moved out of a sensing area of the first network node; and transmitting, by the first network node to the second network node, a second response message in response to the second request message, wherein the second response message includes information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the second sensing task handover request.

[0326] In an exemplary embodiment, the second request message may further include at least one of: a UE identity or a UE identity list; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; a reason for requesting sensing task handover; information of a sensing area of the second network node; and sensing capability information of the second network node.

[0327] In an exemplary embodiment, the second response message may include at least one of: a UE identity or a UE identity list; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; information related to sensing area update; and information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE.

[0328] This will be described in detail below with reference to FIG. 4.

[0329] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a signal flow of a second example according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0330] In an example described by FIG. 4, the first network node may be, for example, a source base station, and the second network node may be, for example, a target base station.

[0331] Before step 401 in FIG. 4, the UE has been handed over from the first network node (i.e., the source base station) to the second network node (i.e., the target base station), but the sensing task of the UE is not handed over to the second network node. In addition, the second network node performs the sensing area monitoring on the UE, and determines whether the UE has moved out of the sensing area of the first network node according to a result of the sensing area monitoring.

[0332] When it is determined that the UE has moved out of the the sensing area of the first network node, in step 401, the second network node transmits the second request message to the first network node.

[0333] In the present application, the second request message may contain at least one of following information or information lists:

[0334] -A UE identity or a UE identity list, for example, an RAN node XnAP ID, a TMSI, a radio network temporary identifier (RNI), etc.

[0335] -Information or an information list of a cell accessed by the current UE, for example, a cell identity, a common gateway interface (CGI), etc.

[0336] -Information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE, which may also be referred to as "an identity of a sensing service performed by UE", for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, for example, a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID, a Sensing Trace ID, etc.

[0337] -Information of a sensing service type or a sensing use case, for indicating a type of the sensing task, for example, target object monitoring, intrusion detection, environment monitoring, autonomous driving, road supervision, weather monitoring, life monitoring, smart factories, etc.

[0338] -A sensing task handover request, which may also be referred to as "an indication of requesting a sensing task handover", for requesting handover of the sensing task of the UE to the target base station. In the example, the request may be used for indicating that the second network node discovers that the UE has moved out of the sensing area range of the first network node and is within the sensing area range of the second network node, the UE cannot continue to perform the sensing task of the UE with the first network node, and the sensing task of the UE needs to be handed over to the second network node. After receiving the request, the first network node will consider whether to handover the sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and release its own resource related to controlling the sensing task of the UE. The request may be an explicit indication or may also be an implicit indication, and includes following manners:

[0339] --an explicit indication, for example, a flag type, a Bool type, or an Enumerated type, wherein if second request message carries the indication, it represents that the second network node requests the sensing task handover from the first network node; and

[0340] --an explicit indication, for example, transmitting the second request message represents that the second network node requests the sensing task handover from the first network node.

[0341] In the present application, the sensing task handover may be completed by a means of asking the sensing task control node, and after the first node receives the request, if the first network node replies the information identifying the second network node, it represents that the first network node accepts the sensing task handover request; and if the first network node replies the information identifying the first network node, it represents that the first network node rejects the sensing task handover request.

[0342] -A reason for requesting the sensing task handover, which may be, for example, detecting that the UE has moved out of the sensing area range of the source node, handover from the source node to the target node occurring, or the like.

[0343] -An indication that the UE has moved out of the sensing area, for notifying the first network node of the UE having moved out of its sensing area range. Alternatively, when the second request message does not include the sensing task handover request but includes the indication about the UE having moved out of the sensing area, the first network node may also consider that the second network node requests the first network node to perform the sensing task handover, and makes a decision of whether to handover the sensing task to the second network node depending on the situation.

[0344] -A sensing task configuration update request, which may be a value of a flag type, a Bool type, or an Enumerated type. The second network node may trigger a request for updating the sensing task configuration to the first network node according to the actual network situation and the sensing task execution situation of the UE. After receiving the information, the first network node may provide inclined / suggested / recommended / updated sensing task configuration information to the second network node, and the sensing task configuration information information may be used as a reference when the second network node controls the sensing task. It needs to note that when the second network node does not transmit the sensing task configuration update request to the first network node, the first network node may also actively transmit the inclined / suggested / recommended / updated sensing task configuration information to the second network node, please refer to step 402 for details.

[0345] -Current sensing mode information of the UE, for representing a sensing mode of the UE, that is, the information may enable the target base station to be informed of in which manner the UE performs sensing (that is, specifically transmitting a signal or receiving a signal) and with what device the UE performs transmission and reception of the sensing signal currently. The information may also be contained in the sensing task configuration, but the UE may experience the change of the sensing mode in the second network node, for example, since the UE moves, it causes that the initial sensing mode cannot be continuously performed, or the sensing function adjusts the sensing task configuration of the UE. The sensing mode information has following expression manners:

[0346] --Manner 1: indicating whether the UE is a transmitting node or a receiving node, or is both a transmitting node and a receiving node; and

[0347] --Manner 2: a specific signal transceiving mode, for example, the UE transmits a sensing signal and receives the sensing signal (i.e., transmiting and receiving by itself), or the UE transmits a sensing signal and a base station receives the sensing signal (i.e., the UE transmits and the base station receives), or a base station transmits a sensing signal and the UE receives the sensing signal (i.e., the base station transmits and the UE receives), or UE A transmits a sensing signal and UE B receives the sensing signal (i.e., the UE A transmits and the UE B receives), or the UE B transmits a sensing signal and the UE A receives the sensing signal (i.e., the UE B transmits and the UE A receives), wherein the UE A represents a user terminal itself, and the UE B represents another user terminal.

[0348] -Current sensing task session status information of the UE, is specifically as described in step 301. The information in the second request message functions to enable the first network node to be informed of information such as a sensing signal transmission status, a sensing reporting status or the like of the UE currently so as to provide more references for the first network node to make a decision of transferring the sensing task. For example, when the sensing task session status information of the UE in the second request message represents an inactive status and the sensing function is in the first network node, the first network node may make a decision of releasing the sensing task configuration of the UE according to the execution situation of the sensing task; similarly, if the sensing task session status information of the UE represents an abnormal status, the first network node may slo make a decision of releasing the sensing task configuration of the UE; and for another example, when the sensing task session status information of the UE in the second request message represents a sensing pause status or a reporting pause status, the first network node may may make a decision of recovering the sensing or recovering the reporting according to the network situation.

[0349] -The information of the sensing area of the second network node, which functions to enable the first network node to be informed of the sensing area range of the second network node, and only when a cell where the UE is currently located is contained in the sensing area range of the second network node, the first network node may then make a decision of transferring the sensing task of the UE to the second network node. The information contains at least one of following information or information lists:

[0350] --a cell identity list, for example, a Global NG-RAN cell ID list, a PCI list, a CGI list, containing at least one cell identity;

[0351] --a tracking area list, containing information of at least one TCA;

[0352] --a tracking area identity list, containing information of a set of PLMN ID and TAC;

[0353] --a PLMN ID list, containing at least one PLMN ID;

[0354] --an RAN area ID list, containing at least one RAN area ID;

[0355] --a SNPN ID list, containing at least one SNPN ID;

[0356] --a CAG ID list, containing at least one CAG ID; and

[0357] --a physical area range in reality, for referring to an area range occupied by a certain physical place in reality, which may be identified a physical area number.

[0358] -Sensing capability information of the second network node, which functions to enable the first network node to be informed of a specific sensing capability of the second network node, wherein only when the sensing capability of the second network node may support the current sensing task, the first network node may then make a decision of handing over the sensing task of the UE to the second network node. The first network node may further reasonably allocate network resources to perform the sensing task according to the sensing capability so as to improve performance (e.g., throughput, etc.) of the network. The information contains at least one of following information:

[0359] --a maximum value of the number of sensing tasks that may be supported simultaneously;

[0360] --a maximum value of the number of supported UEs participating in the sensing tasks;

[0361] --supported sensing signals;

[0362] --supported frequency bands of transmitting or receiving the sensing signals;

[0363] --supported sensing modes; and

[0364] --supported the reporting of sensing report(s) methods.

[0365] In the present application, the second request message is used for the second network node to notify the first network node of the movement of the UE between the sensing areas (that is, the UE has moved out of the sensing area range of the first network node), and to request the sensing task handover, that is, the second request message not only contains an indication about the UE having moved out of the sensing area (for representing that the UE has moved out of the sensing area of the first network node), but also includes the sensing task handover request. An advantage of the second request message lies in allowing a network node that currently provides a communication service to UE to interact with a network node that triggers a sensing task to the UE, and to handover the sensing task to the network node that currently provides the communication service to the UE if necessary, thereby avoiding the case of the sensing task interruption after the UE moves out of the sensing area range of the first network node.

[0366] The second request message may be a current XnAP message, for example, an NG-RAN node configuration update message, and may also be a newly defined XnAP message, such as a sensing handover request message. The above information contained in the second request message may be transmitted in an explicit manner, or may also be contained in a transparent container for transmission.

[0367] In addition, each example described in the present application does not limit a relationship between the sensing area range and the communication coverage of the base station, the sensing area range may be larger than the communication coverage, or may be equal to or smaller than the communication coverage, and as long as the base station (the target base station or the source base station) discovers that the UE has moved out of the initial sensing area range (i.e., the sensing area range of the source base station), the target base station may perform the corresponding interaction with the source base station.

[0368] After the first network node receives the second request message of the second network node, the first network node may make a decision according to the second request message, that is, decides whether to handover the sensing task of the UE to the second network node for control and management, and transmit a second response message.

[0369] Specifically, in step 402, the first network node transmits the second response message to the second network node.

[0370] In the present application, the second response message contains at least one of following information:

[0371] -A UE identity or a UE identity list, for example, an RAN node XnAP ID, a TMSI, a C-RNTI, etc.

[0372] -Information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing task identity", for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, for example, a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID, a Sensing Trace ID, etc.

[0373] -Information of a sensing service type or a sensing use case, for indicating a type of the sensing task, for example, target object monitoring, intrusion detection, environment monitoring, autonomous driving, road supervision, weather monitoring, life monitoring, smart factories, etc.

[0374] -Information for representing whether the first network node accepts the sensing task handover request, which may also be referred to as "a response or reply for a sensing task handover request", and may be at least one of following information:

[0375] --an acknowledgement (ACK) of agreeing the sensing task handover request, the information representing a response after the first network node receives the sensing task handover request, the sensing task related information, etc. If the first network node acknowledges the sensing capability of the second network node, and the sensing task session status of the UE is normal in the second network node, the first network node transmits the ACK of agreeing the sensing task handover request. After the first network agrees to handover the sensing task to the second network node, if the UE moves to other network nodes subsequently, the control node information of the sensing task of the UE needs to be updated to the second network node being a control node of the sensing task in the information transmitted by the second network node to other network nodes (see step 301). The ACK of agreeing the sensing task handover request may be an explicit indication or may also be an implicit indication, and the specific indication manner is as follows:

[0376] ---an explicit indication, for example, a flag type, a Bool type, or an Enumerated type, wherein if second response message carries the indication, it represents that the first network node accepts the sensing task handover request of the second network node;

[0377] ---an implicit indication, for example, transmitting the second response message represents that the first network node accepts the sensing task handover request of the second network node; and

[0378] --a negative acknowledgement (NACK) of rejecting the sensing task handover request, for representing that the first network node rejects the sensing task handover request of the second network node. When the response or reply for the sensing task handover request is the NACK of rejecting the sensing task handover request, the second response message may further include a reason for rejecting the sensing task handover request, wherein the reasons for rejecting the sensing task handover may be, for example, that the source base station selects to expand the sensing area range to continue to sense the UE, that the sensing task does not support other network nodes to control it.

[0379] -The inclined / suggested / recommended / updated sensing task configuration information, according to information related to all network nodes that participate in the sensing task together and the sensing task related information of the UE received from the second network node, the first network node may provide a piece of suggested UE sensing task configuration information, and transmit the UE sensing task configuration information to the second network node, wherein the UE sensing task configuration information may be used as a reference when the second network node controls the sensing task. The specific information is as described in step 301. The information may be transmitted when the first network node accepts the sensing task handover request, or may also be transmitted when the first network node rejects the sensing task handover request.

[0380] -The information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing status control indication", for controlling the session status of a sensing task of a sensing device. The determination of the information may take the session status of a current sensing task of the UE as a reference, wherein the session status of the current sensing task of the UE is included in the second request message in step 401. A specific process of determining the sensing task control indication is based on base station implementation. The sensing status control indication may contain at least one of following information:

[0381] --an activation indication, for notifying (commanding) a sensing device to start performing a corresponding sensing task according to sensing configuration, for example, performing transmission or reception of a sensing signal, collection and reporting of sensing data indicated by the sensing configuration;

[0382] --a deactivation indication, for notifying (commanding) the sensing device to end and / or release the sensing task corresponding to the sensing configuration;

[0383] --a sensing pause indication, for notifying (commanding) the sensing device to pause the transmission or reception of the sensing signal;

[0384] --a sensing recovery indication, for notifying (commanding) the sensing device to recover the transmission or reception of the sensing signal;

[0385] --a reporting pause indication, for notifying (commanding) the sensing device to pause reporting of sensing data; and

[0386] --a reporting recovery indication, for notifying (commanding) the sensing device to recover the reporting of the sensing data.

[0387] It needs to explain that the control / management of the session status of the sensing task may be decided by the above first network node, or may be decided by the second network node through implementation.

[0388] -The information related to the sensing area update, according to the information of the sensing area transmitted by the second network node in conjunction with the sensing task control information (e.g., the above sensing task configuration information and / or the sensing task configuration information list related to the UE), the first network node may determine a new sensing area range after the UE moves out of the sensing area range of the first network node, and transmit the updated information to the second network node (i.e., the determined new sensing area range).

[0389] In the present application, the first network node transmits a feedback or negotiation result about the sensing task handover of the UE to the second network node through the second response messsage, so that the second network node may determine subsequent control nodes for the sensing task of UE according to the feedback or negotiation result, and allocate necessary resources related to transmitting or controlling the sensing task to the UE.

[0390] The second response message may be a current XnAP message, for example, an NG-RAN node configuration update acknowledgement message, and may also be a newly defined XnAP message, for example, a sensing handover request acknowledgement.

[0391] In the example described with reference to FIG. 4, after the second network node becomes the sensing task control node of the UE (i.e., a third network node), the second network node may select another UE (e.g., a fourth network node) within the communication coverage to perform the sensing task. In this case, the transmission of the sensing task configuration information to the fourth network node by the second network node is the same as step 303, which will not be repeated here.

[0392] In the above description, the process described with reference to FIG. 4 is used as a supplementary step to be included in the method described in FIG. 3A, however, the present application is not limited hereto. The process described with reference to FIG. 4 may not be included in the method described in FIG. 3A, but is used as a separate method to be performed, which will not be repeated here.

[0393] In the example described with reference to FIG. 4, the second network node performs the sensing area monitoring on the UE, and the second network node directly transmits the result of the sensing area monitoring on the UE to the first network node, however, the present application is not limited hereto, and the second network node may further forward the result of the sensing area monitoring on the UE to the first network node through the core network or the network node in which the sensing function is deployed.

[0394] To this end, in an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the method described with reference to FIG. 3A may further include: receiving, by the first network node from a fifth network node, a fourth request message, wherein the fourth request message includes a third sensing task handover request and / or information about UE having moved out of a sensing area, wherein the third sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and the information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area is used for indicating that the UE has moved out of a sensing area of the first network node; and transmitting, by the first network node to the fifth network node, a fourth response message in response to the fourth request message, wherein the fourth response message includes information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the third sensing task handover request.

[0395] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the fourth request message may further include at least one of: a UE identity or a UE identity list; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; a reason for requesting sensing task handover; information of a sensing area of the second network node; and sensing capability information of the second network node.

[0396] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the fourth response message may further include at least one of: a UE identity or a UE identity list; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; information related to sensing area update; and information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE.

[0397] Hereinafter, this will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 5.

[0398] FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a signal flow of a third example according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application.

[0399] In an example described by FIG. 5, the first network node may be, for example, a source base station, the second network node may be, for example, a target base station, the fifth network node may be, for example, a core network, other network nodes in which the sensing function is deployed or a sensing function entity / module.

[0400] Similar to the example described with reference to FIG. 4, before step 501, the UE has been handed over from the first network node to the second network node, but the sensing task of the UE is not handed over to the second network node. In addition, the second network node performs the sensing area monitoring on the UE, and determines whether the UE has moved out of the sensing area of the first network node according to a result of the sensing area monitoring.

[0401] When it is determined that the UE has moved out of the the sensing area of the first network node, in step 501, the second network node transmits a third request message to the fifth network node.

[0402] In an exemplary embodiment, the third request message may contain at least one of following information or information lists:

[0403] -a UE identity or a UE identity list, for example, an AMF Next Generation Application Protocol (NGAP) UE ID, an RAN NGAP UE ID, a TMSI, an RNTI;

[0404] -information or an information list of a cell accessed by the current UE, for example, a Cell Identity, a CGI, etc.;

[0405] -an identity related to the first network node, for example, a Global NG-RAN node ID, a TAI, a PLMN ID, a SNPN ID, etc., wherein only when this information is carried, the fifth network node (e.g., the core network) know which network node the request message is transmitted to;

[0406] -information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing task identity", for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, for example, a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID, a Sensing Trace ID, etc.;

[0407] -information of a sensing service type or a sensing use case, for indicating a type of the sensing task, for example, target object monitoring, intrusion detection, environment monitoring, autonomous driving, road supervision, weather monitoring, life monitoring, smart factories, etc.;

[0408] -a sensing task handover request, which may also be referred to as "an indication for requesting sensing task handover", specifically as described in step 401;

[0409] -a reason for requesting sensing task handover, specifically as described in step 401;

[0410] -an indication about the UE having moved out of a sensing area, specifically as described in step 401;

[0411] -current sensing mode information of the UE, specifically as described in step 401;

[0412] -current sensing task session status information of the UE, specifically as described in step 401;

[0413] -sensing area information of the second node, specifically as described in step 401; and

[0414] -sensing capability information of the second node, specifically as described in step 401.

[0415] In the present application, the fifth network node may be a core network, a network node in which a sensing function is deployed or a sensing function entity / module. The third request message functions to be able to transmit a sensing area monitoring result and a corresponding sensing task handover request to the fifth network node, so that information contained in the third request message is forwarded by the fifth network node to a network node that needs to receive the information, for example, a network node issuing the sensing task or a network node controlling the sensing task. In other words, an advantage of the message is able to let the second network node forward the information related to the sensing task handover to the corresponding network node through the fifth network node, without requiring the second network node to transmit the information through an Xn interface, and without requiring the second network node to determine the network node that needs to receive the information by itself. In addition, the third request message also requires the fifth network node to store the sensing task related information, for example, information of a node that triggers the sensing task to the UE, information of a network node that controls the sensing task, the UE identity, and the network node that triggers the sensing task to the UE also needs to store the sensing task related information of the UE, for example, the information such as the sensing task configuration information, the UE identity, etc.

[0416] In an exemplary embodiment, the third request message may be an NGAP message or a newly defined network message, and the third request message may be a UE-associated message, or may also be a non-UE-associated message. In addition, the various information contained in the third request message may be transmitted in an explicit manner, or may also be contained in a transparent container for transmission.

[0417] In step 502, according to the received sensing configuration related information, the fifth network node determines that the first network node is a network node that needs to receive the sensing task handover request, and transmits a fourth request message to the first network node.

[0418] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the fourth request message may contain at least one of following information or information lists:

[0419] -a UE identity or a UE identity list, for example, an AMF NGAP UE ID, an RAN NGAP UE ID, a TMSI, an RNTI, wherein it needs to note that the AMF NGAP UE ID and the RAN NGAP UE ID transmitted by the fifth network node (e.g., the core network) to the first network node are context information between the fifth network node and the first network node stored by the fifth network node, which are different from the user identity in step 501;

[0420] -information or an information list of a cell currently accessed by the UE, for example, a Cell Identity, a CGI, etc.;

[0421] -information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing task identity", for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, for example, a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID, a Sensing Trace ID, etc.;

[0422] -information of a sensing service type or a sensing use case, for indicating a type of the sensing task, for example, target object monitoring, intrusion detection, environment monitoring, autonomous driving, road supervision, weather monitoring, life monitoring, smart factories, etc.;

[0423] -a sensing task handover request, which may also be referred to as "an indication for requesting sensing task handover", specifically as described in step 401;

[0424] -a reason for requesting sensing task handover, specifically as described in step 401;

[0425] -an indication about the UE having moved out of a sensing area, specifically as described in step 401;

[0426] -current sensing mode information of the UE, specifically as described in step 401;

[0427] -current sensing task session status information of the UE, specifically as described in step 401;

[0428] -sensing area information of the second node, specifically as described in step 401; and

[0429] -sensing capability information of the second node, specifically as described in step 401.

[0430] In the present application, the fourth request message functions to forward information related to the sensing task handover to the network node (e.g., the first network node) that triggers the sensing task. The advantage of the message is to be able to directly forward the information related to the sensing task handover to the network node that triggers the sensing task, without transmitting the information related to the sensing task handover multiple times between these multiple base stations even if in the case where the UE is handed over between multiple base stations, but directly forward the information to the corresponding base station that needs the information via the fifth network node (e.g., a core network, a network node in which a sensing function is deployed, or a sensing function entity / module).

[0431] In an exemplary embodiment, the fourth request message may be an NGAP message or a newly defined network message, and the fourth request message may be a UE-associated message, or may also be a non-UE-associated message. In addition, various information contained in the fourth request message may be transmitted in an explicit manner, or may also be contained in a transparent container for transmission.

[0432] In step 503, according to sensing configuration related information received from the fifth network node, the first network node makes a decision related to the sensing task (for example, whether to handover the sensing task of the UE to the second network node for management or control), and transmits a fourth response message in response to the fourth request message to the fifth network node.

[0433] In an exemplary embodiment, the fourth response message may contain at least one of following information or information lists:

[0434] -a UE identity or a UE identity list, for example, an AMF NGAP UE ID, an RAN NGAP UE ID, a TMSI, an RNTI, etc., wherein it needs to note that the AMF NGAP UE ID and the RAN NGAP UE ID in the message are the same as those in step 502;

[0435] -information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing task identity", for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, for example, a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID, a Sensing Trace ID, etc.;

[0436] -information of a sensing service type or a sensing use case, for indicating a type of the sensing task, for example, target object monitoring, intrusion detection, environment monitoring, autonomous driving, road supervision, weather monitoring, life monitoring, smart factories, etc.;

[0437] -information for representing whether the first network node accepts the sensing task handover request, which may also be referred to as "a response or reply for a sensing task handover request", specifically as described in step 402;

[0438] -inclined / suggested / recommended / updated sensing task configuration information, specifically as described in step 301;

[0439] -information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing status control indication", specifically as described in step 402; and

[0440] -information related to sensing area update, specifically as described in step 402.

[0441] In the present application, the fourth response message may be used for feeding back a negotiation result about the sensing task handover of the UE to the fifth network node to assist in the sensing interaction between the first network node and the second network node.

[0442] In an exemplary embodiment, the fourth response message may be an NGAP message or a newly defined network message, and the fourth response message may be a UE-associated message, or may also be a non-UE-associated message. In addition, various information contained in the fourth response message may be transmitted in an explicit manner, or may also be contained in a transparent container for transmission.

[0443] In step 504, after receiving the fourth response message, the fifth network node transmits the information in the message to the second network node, that is, transmits a third response message to the second network node.

[0444] In an exemplary embodiment, the third response message may contain at least one of following information or information lists:

[0445] -a UE identity or a UE identity list, for example, an AMF NGAP UE ID, an RAN NGAP UE ID, a TMSI, a C-RNTI, etc., wherein it needs to note that the AMF NGAP UE ID and the RAN NGAP UE ID in the message are the same as those in step 501;

[0446] -information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing task identity", for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, for example, a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID, a Sensing Trace ID, etc.;

[0447] -information of a sensing service type or a sensing use case, for indicating a type of the sensing task, for example, target object monitoring, intrusion detection, environment monitoring, autonomous driving, road supervision, weather monitoring, life monitoring, smart factories, etc.;

[0448] -information for representing whether the first network node accepts the sensing task handover request, which may also be referred to as "a response or reply for a sensing task handover request", specifically as described in step 402;

[0449] -inclined / suggested / recommended / updated sensing task configuration information, specifically as described in step 301;

[0450] -information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing status control indication", specifically as described in step 402; and

[0451] -information related to sensing area update, specifically as described in step 402.

[0452] In the present application, a function of the third response message is: the fifth network node (e.g., the core network) may forward a reply of the sensing task control node (e.g., the second network node) to the network node (e.g., the first network node) that initiates the sensing task handover request, through this message, to complete the interaction for the location change of the UE within the sensing area range between the first network node and the second network node.

[0453] In an exemplary embodiment, the third response message may be an NGAP message or a newly defined network message, and the third response message may be a UE-associated message, or may also be a non-UE-associated message. In addition, various information contained in the third response message may be transmitted in an explicit manner, or may also be contained in a transparent container for transmission.

[0454] In the above description, the process described with reference to FIG. 5 is used as a supplementary step to be included in the method described in FIG. 3A, however, the present application is not limited hereto, and the process described with reference to FIG. 5 may not be included in the method described in FIG. 3A, but is used as a separate method to be performed, which will not be repeated here.

[0455] In the examples described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5, the sensing area monitoring is performed on the UE by the second network node, but the present application is not limited hereto, for example, the sensing area monitoring may also be performed on the UE by the first network node according to the aforementioned Scheme (2), that is, the network node that performs the sensing task with the UE performs the sensing area monitoring.

[0456] To this end, in an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the method described with reference to FIG. 3A may further include: when the first network node determines that the UE has moved out of the sensing area of the first network node, transmitting, by the first network node to the fifth network node, a fifth request message, wherein the fifth request message includes a fourth sensing task handover request and / or information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area, wherein the fourth sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and the information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area is used for indicating that the UE has moved out of the sensing area of the first network node; and receiving, by the first network node from the fifth network node, a fifth response message in response to the fifth request message, wherein the fifth response message includes information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the fourth sensing task handover request.

[0457] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the fifth request message may further include at least one of: a UE identity or a UE identity list; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; information of a cell that finally detected a sensing signal with UE; information of the sensing area of the first network node; and a reason for requesting sensing task handover.

[0458] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the fifth response message may further include at least one of: a UE identity or a UE identity list; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; information identifying a base station or a cell currently accessed by the UE; information of a sensing area of the second network node; and information suggesting adjustment of a range of a sensing area of the first network node.

[0459] Hereinafter, this will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 6.

[0460] FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a signal flow of a third example according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0461] In an example described by FIG. 6, the first network node may be, for example, a source base station, the second network node may be, for example, a target base station, the fifth network node may be, for example, a core network, other network nodes in which the sensing function is deployed or a sensing function entity / module. In the example, the first network node is a network node that triggers sensing configuration (at this time, if the sensing function is deployed in the first network node, the first network node is also a sensing task control node), and the UE is handed over from the first network node to the second network node during the movement. When the UE gradually moves out of the sensing area range of the first network node, according to a strength of a signal and other related measurements, the first network node makes a decision of transferring the sensing task of the UE to other network node, for example, when a strength of a sensing signal in sensing measurement data of the UE received by the first network node is less than a certain threshold, the first network node may determine that the UE is about to move out of the sensing area range of the first network node. Since the first network node cannot determine a location of the UE after moving out of the sensing area range of the first network node, the first network node needs to transmit a request message to the fifth network node to notify the fifth network node of the case of the UE moving out of the sensing area range of the first network node. The fifth network node determines that the second network node is a node that is currently accessed by the UE and performs the sensing task, according to the received sensing task related information. In the example, the first network node and the fifth network node both need to store the sensing task related context of the UE, for example, the sensing task configuration information of the UE, the UE identity, etc.

[0462] Before step 601, the UE has been handed over from the first network node to the second network node, but the sensing task of the UE is not handed over to the second network node. In addition, the first network node performs the sensing area monitoring on the UE, and determines whether the UE moves out of the sensing area range of the first network node according to a result of the sensing area monitoring.

[0463] When the first network node determines that the UE has moved out of the the sensing area of the first network node, in step 601, the first network node transmits a fifth request message to the fifth network node.

[0464] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the fifth request message may contain at least one of following information or information lists:

[0465] -a UE identity or a UE identity list, for example, an AMF NGAP UE ID, an RAN NGAP UE ID, a TMSI, an RNTI, etc., wherein it needs to note that the AMF NGAP UE ID and the RAN NGAP UE ID in this information are the IDs of the UE in the first network node stored by the first network node and the fifth network node (e.g., the core network), which are different from the UE identity (UE ID) in step 602;

[0466] -information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing task identity", for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, for example, a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID, a Sensing Trace ID, etc.;

[0467] -information of a sensing service type or a sensing use case, for indicating a type of the sensing task, for example, target object monitoring, intrusion detection, environment monitoring, autonomous driving, road supervision, weather monitoring, life monitoring, smart factories, etc.;

[0468] -information of a cell in which a sensing signal with UE is last detected, for example, a Cell Identity, a PCI, etc., wherein the information is used for notifying the fifth network node (e.g., the core network or the sensing function entity / module) of a final location of the UE within the sensing area range known by the first network node, as a record of a trace of the movement of the UE within the sensing area range of the first network node, to facilitate coordination of the subsequent sensing task configuration of the UE within sensing area ranges of other network nodes;

[0469] -information of the sensing area of the first network node, wherein the information is used for notifying the fifth network node (the core network or the sensing function entity / module) of a current sensing area range, meanwhile, after the fifth network node receives the information, the fifth network node may further adjust the sensing area range or other configurations of the first network node based on information such as the overall sensing task execution status and result, or provide suggestions of adjusting the sensing area range or other configurations of the first network node;

[0470] -a sensing task handover request, which may also be referred to as "an indication for requesting sensing task handover", specifically as described in step 401;

[0471] -a reason for requesting the sensing task handover, for example, sensing signal loss, the UE moving out of the sensing area range, etc.;

[0472] -an indication about the UE having moved out of the sensing area, specifically as described in step 401; and

[0473] -inclined / suggested / recommended / updated sensing task configuration information, specifically as described in step 301; and

[0474] -latest sensing task configuration information of the UE stored by the first network node, specifically as described in step 301.

[0475] In the present application, a function of the fifth request message is: the first network node (e.g., the sensing task control node) forwards a demand for the sensing task handover to the fifth network node (e.g., the core network, other network nodes in which the sensing function is deployed, or the sensing function entity / module).

[0476] In an exemplary embodiment, the fifth request message may be an NGAP message or a newly defined network message, and the fifth request message may be a UE-associated message, or may also be a non-UE-associated message. In addition, various information contained in the fifth request message may be transmitted in an explicit manner, or may also be contained in a transparent container for transmission.

[0477] In step 602, after receiving the fifth request message, the fifth network node determines a network node (e.g., the second network node) currently accessed by the UE according to the information of the UE, and transmits a sixth request message to the network node.

[0478] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the sixth request message may contain at least one of following information or information lists:

[0479] -a UE identity or a UE identity list, for example, an AMF NGAP UE ID, an RAN NGAP UE ID, a TMSI, an RNTI, etc., wherein it needs to note that the AMF NGAP UE ID and the RAN NGAP UE ID in the information are identitys of the UE in the second network node stored by the fifth network node (e.g., the core network);

[0480] -information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing task identity", for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, for example, a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID, a Sensing Trace ID, etc.;

[0481] -information of a sensing service type or a sensing use case, for indicating a type of the sensing task, for example, target object monitoring, intrusion detection, environment monitoring, autonomous driving, road supervision, weather monitoring, life monitoring, smart factories, etc.;

[0482] -information of a cell that finally detected a sensing signal with UE, for example, a Cell Identity, a PCI, etc., wherein the information is used for notifying the fifth network node (e.g., the core network or the sensing function entity / module) of a final location of the UE within the sensing area range known by the first network node, as a record of a trace of the movement of the UE within the sensing area range of the first network node, to facilitate coordination of the subsequent sensing task configuration of the UE within sensing area ranges of other network nodes;

[0483] -a sensing task handover request, which may also be referred to as "an indication for requesting sensing task handover", specifically as described in step 401;

[0484] -a reason for requesting the sensing task handover, for example, sensing signal loss, the UE moving out of the sensing area, or the like;

[0485] -an indication about the UE having moved out of the sensing area, specifically as described in step 401; and

[0486] -inclined / suggested / recommended / updated sensing task configuration information, specifically as described in step 301.

[0487] In the present application, a function of the sixth request message is: the fifth network node (e.g., the core network or the sensing function entity / module) forwards the sensing task handover request of the first network node to a network node that is providing a communication service to the UE. Since the first network node cannot determine whether the UE is within the sensing area range of the second network node, the fifth network node may assist the first network node in determining a location of the second network node so as to transmit the request message to the second network node.

[0488] In an exemplary embodiment, the sixth request message may be an NGAP message or a newly defined network message, and the sixth request message may be a UE-associated message, or may also be a non-UE-associated message. In addition, various information contained in the sixth request message may be transmitted in an explicit manner, or may also be contained in a transparent container for transmission.

[0489] In addition, it needs to note that the example may require the fifth network node (e.g., the core network or the sensing function entity / module) to store the sensing task configuration information related to the UE to easily associate the received UE information with the corresponding sensing task and provide suggestions related to the sensing task to the first network node in response.

[0490] In step 603, the second network node transmits a sixth response message to the fifth network node.

[0491] In an exemplary embodiment, the sixth response message may contain at least one of following information or information lists:

[0492] -a UE identity or a UE identity list, for example, an AMF NGAP UE ID, an RAN NGAP UE ID, a TMSI, an RNTI, etc., wherein the AMF NGAP UE ID and the RAN NGAP UE ID in the information are the same as those in step 602;

[0493] -information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing task identity", for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, for example, a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID, a Sensing Trace ID, etc.;

[0494] -information of a sensing service type or a sensing use case, for indicating a type of the sensing task, for example, target object monitoring, intrusion detection, environment monitoring, autonomous driving, road supervision, weather monitoring, life monitoring, smart factories, etc.;

[0495] -information for representing whether the second network node accepts the sensing task handover request, which may also be referred to as "a response or reply for a sensing task handover request" and may be at least one of following information:

[0496] --an ACK of agreeing the sensing task handover request, specifically as described in step 401; and

[0497] --an NACK of rejecting the sensing task handover request, for representing that the second network node rejects the sensing task handover request about the UE of the first network node, wherein when a response or reply for the sensing task handover request is the NACK of rejecting the sensing task handover request, the sixth response message may further include a reason for rejecting the sensing task handover request, for example, UE is not within the sensing area range of the second network node, the number of the UEs that perform the sensing task supported by the second network node exceeds a maximum value, the number of the sensing tasks supported by the second network node exceeds a maximum value, or the like;

[0498] -sensing area information of the second network node, specifically as described in step 401; and

[0499] -information suggesting adjustment of the sensing area range of the first network node, wherein it is mentioned in step 602 that the fifth network node (e.g., the core network or the sensing function entity / module) may make a suggestion of adjusting the sensing area range of the first network node, similarly, as an adjacent node of the first network node, after learning the sensing area range of the first network node, the second network node may make a suggestion of adjusting the sensing area range of the first network node based on the sensing task execution situation of the network and some sensing information related to the UE.

[0500] In the present application, the sixth response message is used for transmitting a feedback about the sensing task handover of the UE to the fifth network node, that is, the message is used for a network node that is currently serving the UE to transmit a reply to the sensing task handover request to the fifth network node (e.g., the core network or the sensing function entity / module).

[0501] In an exemplary embodiment, the sixth response message may be an NGAP message or a newly defined network message, and the sixth response message may be a UE-associated message, or may also be a non-UE-associated message. In addition, various information contained in the sixth response message may be transmitted in an explicit manner, or may also be contained in a transparent container for transmission.

[0502] In step 604, the fifth network node transmits a fifth response message to the fifth network node.

[0503] In an exemplary embodiment, the fifth response message may contain at least one of following information or information lists:

[0504] -a UE identity or a UE identity list, for example, an AMF NGAP UE ID, an RAN NGAP UE ID, a TMSI, an RNTI, etc., wherein the AMF NGAP UE ID and the RAN NGAP UE ID in the information are the same as the user identity in step 601;

[0505] -information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing task identity", for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, for example, a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID, a Sensing Trace ID, etc.;

[0506] -information of a sensing service type or a sensing use case, for indicating a type of the sensing task, for example, target object monitoring, intrusion detection, environment monitoring, autonomous driving, road supervision, weather monitoring, life monitoring, smart factories, etc.;

[0507] -information for representing whether the second network node accepts the sensing task handover request, which may also be referred to as "a response or reply for a sensing task handover request" and may be one of following information:

[0508] --an ACK of agreeing the sensing task handover request, specifically as described in step 401;

[0509] --an NACK of rejecting the sensing task handover request, for representing that the second network node rejects the sensing task handover request about the UE of the first network node, wherein when a response or reply for the sensing task handover request is the NACK of rejecting the sensing task handover request, the fifth response message may further include a reason for rejecting the sensing task handover request, for example, UE is not within the sensing area range of the second network node, the number of the UEs performing the sensing task that are supported by the second network node exceeds a maximum value, the number of the sensing tasks supported by the second network node exceeds a maximum value, or the like; and after receiving the NACK of rejecting the sensing task handover request, the first network node may select to notify the fifth network node (e.g., the core network or the sensing function entity / module) to trigger a procedure of releasing the sensing task of the UE, or the UE may also release its own sensing task by itself based on the implementation;

[0510] -information identifying a base station or a cell currently accessed by the UE, wherein since the first network node cannot learn to which network node the UE moves, it requires the fifth network node (e.g., the core network) to transmit the information (i.e., an identity of the base station or the cell currently accessed by the UE) to the first network node in the response message;

[0511] -information of the sensing area of the second network node, specifically as described in step 401;

[0512] -information suggesting adjustment of the sensing area range of the first node, wherein the information may be provided by the fifth network node (e.g., the core network or the sensing function entity / module), or may also be provided by the second network node; and

[0513] -information suggesting a sensing task configuration of the first network node, wherein the specific configuration information is as the at least one item in the sensing task configuration information list in step 301.

[0514] In the present application, the fifth response message may be used for feeding back a negotiation result about the sensing task handover of the UE to the first network node. A function of the message is: the fifth network node (e.g., the core network or the sensing function entity / module) delivers a reply related to the sensing task handover request to the network node (i.e., the first network node) that initiates the sensing task handover request.

[0515] In an exemplary embodiment, the fifth response message may be an NGAP message or a newly defined network message, and the fifth response message may be a UE-associated message, or may also be a non-UE-associated message. In addition, various information contained in the fifth response message may be transmitted in an explicit manner, or may also be contained in a transparent container for transmission.

[0516] In the above description, the process described with reference to FIG. 6 is used as a supplementary step to be included in the method described in FIG. 3A, however, the present application is not limited hereto. The process described with reference to FIG. 6 may not be included in the method described in FIG. 3A, but is used as a separate method to be performed, which will not be repeated here.

[0517] In addition, the network node that triggers the sensing task may also always be used as a sensing task control node of the UE. When the UE moves to other network nodes, the network node that triggers the sensing task may transmit a configuration message related to the sensing task to the other network nodes through an XnAP or other interfaces, and the other network nodes may also transmit it to the UE through an RRC reconfiguration message, other RRC messages, or a lower-level message.

[0518] In the examples described above, the first network node transmits the sensing task configuration information (e.g., the sensing task configuration information and / or the sensing task configuration information list related to the UE) to the second network node during the handover process of the UE, but the present application is not limited hereto. Alternatively, the first network node may also transmit the configuration message related to the sensing task to the second network node in a form of an XnAP message, such as an example described with reference to FIG. 7. The configuration message may be a RAN node level message, that is, it is not related to a certain specific UE and its movement. In addition, the configuration message may also be a UE-level message, that is, configuration information related to a sensing task transmitted for a certain UE or adjusted configuration information related to the sensing task. In addition, transmission of the configuration message may occur before the UE is handed over from the first network node to the second network node, or may also occur after the UE is handed over from the first network node to the second network node.

[0519] Correspondingly, in an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the method described with reference to FIG. 3A may further include: transmitting, by the first network node to the second network node, a second configuration message, wherein the second configuration message includes sensing task configuration information and / or a sensing task configuration information list for reference associated with the first network; and receiving, by the first network node from the second network node, a second configuration response message, wherein the second configuration response message includes information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the sensing task configuration information and / or configuration information in the sensing task configuration information list.

[0520] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, when the second configuration message includes the sensing task configuration information for reference associated with the first network node, the second configuration message further includes information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE.

[0521] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the second configuration response message may further include at least one of: a UE identity; information indicating the sensing task; and sensing capability information of the second network node.

[0522] Hereinafter, this will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 7.

[0523] FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a signal flow of a fourth example according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0524] In the example, the sensing function may be deployed in the first network node, or may also be located in a core network or other network nodes.

[0525] In step 701, the first network node transmits the second configuration message to the second network node.

[0526] In an exemplary embodiment, the second configuration message may contain at least one of following information or information lists:

[0527] -a user identity (i.e., a UE ID), for example, an NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID, a TMSI, a RNTI, etc.;

[0528] -information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing task identity", for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, for example, a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID, a Sensing Trace ID, etc.;

[0529] -information of a sensing service type or a sensing use case, for indicating a type of the sensing task, for example, target object monitoring, intrusion detection, environment monitoring, autonomous driving, road supervision, weather monitoring, life monitoring, smart factories, etc.;

[0530] -when the second configuration message is a RAN node level message, the second configuration message contains the sensing task configuration information list as described in step 301. The network node that triggers the sensing task may transmit the sensing task configuration through the message to other surrounding network nodes, for example, a network node to which the UE may move or a network node accessed after the UE moves. Through the message, a network node that does not participate in the sensing task initially may also receive the sensing task configuration, and may subsequently participate in the sensing task as needed according to the actual situation of the UE movement; and

[0531] -when the second configuration message is a UE-level message, the second configuration message contains the sensing task configuration information related to the UE as described in step 301. The first network node may transmit the UE-specific sensing task configuration to the second network node through the message. In addition, the first network node may further use the message to transmit, to a UE in the communication coverage of the second network node, the information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE (which may also be referred to as "a sensing status control indication"), and the information may contain at least one of following information:

[0532] --an activation indication, for notifying (or commanding) the UE to start performing a corresponding sensing task according to a sensing configuration, for example, performing transmission or reception of a sensing signal, collection and reporting of sensing data indicated by the sensing configuration;

[0533] --a deactivation indication, for notifying (or commanding) the UE to end and / or release the sensing task corresponding to the sensing configuration;

[0534] --a sensing pause indication, for notifying (or commanding) the UE to pause transmission or reception of the sensing signal;

[0535] --a sensing recovery indication, for notifying (or commanding) the UE to recover the transmission or reception of the sensing signal;

[0536] --a reporting pause indication, for notifying (or commanding) the UE to pause reporting of sensing data; and

[0537] --a reporting recovery indication, for notifying (or commanding) the UE to recover the reporting of the sensing data.

[0538] In an exemplary embodiment, the second configuration message may be a current or newly defined XnAP message, and the second configuration message may be a UE-associated message, or may also be a non-UE-associated message. In addition, various information contained in the second configuration message may be transmitted in an explicit manner, or may also be contained in a transparent container for transmission.

[0539] In step 702, the second network node transmits a second configuration response message to the first network node.

[0540] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the second configuration response message may contain at least one of following information or information lists:

[0541] -a user identity (i.e., a UE ID), for example, an NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID, a TMSI, a RNTI, etc.;

[0542] -information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing task identity", for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, for example, a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID, a Sensing Trace ID, etc.;

[0543] -information of a sensing service type or a sensing use case, for indicating a type of the sensing task, for example, target object monitoring, intrusion detection, environment monitoring, autonomous driving, road supervision, weather monitoring, life monitoring, smart factories, etc.; and

[0544] -information for representing whether the second network node accepts the sensing task configuration information and / or configuration information in the sensing task configuration information list, which may also be referred to as "a feedback or response for sensing task configuration information", for notifying the first network node of a status about whether the corresponding sensing task configuration information has been acknowledged or accepted. The feedback or response may contain at least one of following information:

[0545] --a sensing task configuration information acknowledgement or acceptance indication, for indicating that the corresponding sensing task configuration information has been acknowledged or accepted, wherein a manner of the indication containing at least one of:

[0546] ---an explicit indication, wherein when the sensing task configuration information acknowledgement or acceptance indication is received, it represents that the second network node has acknowledged or accepted the sensing task configuration information transmitted by the first network node; and

[0547] ---an implicit indication, wherein when the certain information (e.g., a sensing task configuration information rejection or failure indication) is not received, it represents that the second network node has acknowledged or accepted the sensing task configuration information transmitted by the first network node;

[0548] --a sensing task configuration information rejection or failure indication, for indicating that the corresponding sensing task configuration is rejected or fails, in other words, for indicating that the corresponding sensing task configuration information is not acknowledged or accepted, wherein a manner of the indication containing at least one of:

[0549] ---an explicit indication, wherein when the sensing task configuration information rejection or failure indication is received, it represents that the second network node does not acknowledge or accept the sensing task configuration information transmitted by the first network node, that is, the sensing task configuration fails; and

[0550] ---an implicit indication, wherein when the certain information (i.e., the sensing task configuration information acknowledgement or acceptance indication) is not received, it represents that the second network node does not acknowledge or accept the sensing task configuration information transmitted by the first network node, that is, the sensing task configuration fails;

[0551] --a reason for sensing task configuration rejection or failure, containing at least one of following information:

[0552] ---the second network node does not support the sensing capability;

[0553] ---the sensing task configuration goes beyond the sensing capability of the second network node; and

[0554] ---the UE indicated by the second configuration message has not been within the communication coverage or the sensing area range of the second network node; and

[0555] -sensing task session status information, for notifying the first network node of a sensing task session status of the UE in the second network node, wherein the information is only applicable to the case where the UE performs the sensing task in the second network node, wherein the information contains at least one of following information:

[0556] --an inactive status, for representing that a sensing device is configured with a sensing task but does not perform transmission / reception of a sensing signal or reporting of sensing data indicated by the sensing configuration;

[0557] --an activated status, for representing that a sensing device is configured with a sensing task and is performing transmission / reception of a sensing signal or reporting of sensing data indicated by the sensing configuration;

[0558] --a sensing pause status, for representing that transmission / reception of a sensing signal of a sensing device is paused, wherein a reason for sensing pause may be a poor communication performance of a network;

[0559] --a reporting pause status, for representing that although a sensing device is performing transmission or reception of a sensing signal and collection of sensing data, reporting of the sensing data is paused, wherein a reason for reporting pause may be an excessive network load or an abnormal reporting link; and

[0560] --an abnormal status, for representing that there is an abnormality in an execution process of a sensing task, for example, there is an error or abnormality in an execution process of a sensing task of a sensing device due to some special reasons; and

[0561] -sensing capability information of the second network node, which functions to enable the first network node to be informed of a specific sensing capability of the second network node, wherein only when the sensing capability of the second network node may support the current sensing task, the first network node may then make a decision of transferring the sensing task of the UE to the second network node, wherein the information contains at least one of following information:

[0562] --a maximum value of the number of sensing tasks that may be supported simultaneously;

[0563] --a maximum value of the number of supported UEs participating in the sensing tasks;

[0564] --supported sensing signals;

[0565] --supported frequency bands of transmitting or receiving the sensing signals;

[0566] --supported sensing modes; and

[0567] --supported the reporting of sensing report(s) methods.

[0568] In an exemplary embodiment, the second configuration response message may be a current or newly defined XnAP message, and the second configuration response message may be a UE-associated message, or may also be a non-UE-associated message. In addition, various information contained in the second configuration response message may be transmitted in an explicit manner, or may also be contained in a transparent container for transmission.

[0569] In the above description, the process described with reference to FIG. 7 is used as a supplementary step to be included in the method described in FIG. 3A, however, the present application is not limited hereto. The process described with reference to FIG. 7 may not be included in the method described in FIG. 3A, but is used as a separate method to be performed, which will not be repeated here.

[0570] In the present application, when the sensing function is not deployed in a local BS device (e.g., the first network node or the second network node) but is deployed in network nodes, core networks or sensing function entities / modules (e.g., the fifth network node) other than these base stations, a network node, a core network or a sensing function entity / module (e.g., the fifth network node) in which the sensing function is deployed may transmit the sensing task configuration information to the base station (e.g., the first network node or the second network node). In an example, the fifth network node may transmit a configuration message to the first network node or the second network node. In the example, the fifth network node may select an appropriate base station to trigger the sensing task configuration information, and then an appropriate UE is selected by the selected base station to trigger the sensing task, or the sensing task is triggered to the UE selected by the fifth network node under the base station by the selected base station, that is, all the configurations are transmitted through the RAN node level configuration message; alternatively, the fifth network node may select an appropriate base station and appropriate UE to trigger the sensing task, that is, the sensing task configuration of the UE is transmitted through the UE-level configuration message.

[0571] Correspondingly, in an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the method described with reference to FIG. 3A may further include: receiving, by the first network node from the fifth network node, a third configuration message, wherein the third configuration message includes sensing task configuration information or a sensing task configuration information list for reference associated with the first network node; and transmitting, by the first network node to the fifth network node, a third configuration response message, wherein the third configuration response message includes information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the sensing task configuration information and / or configuration information in the sensing task configuration information list.

[0572] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, when the third configuration message includes the sensing task configuration information for reference associated with the first network node, the third configuration message may further include information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE.

[0573] In an exemplary embodiment, the third configuration response message may further include at least one of: a UE identity; information identifying the sensing task; and sensing capability information of the first network node.

[0574] Hereinafter, this will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 8.

[0575] FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a signal flow of a sixth example according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application.

[0576] In an example described by FIG. 8, the first network node and the second network node each may be a base station, a component of a base station, an access point, or the like, and the fifth network node may be, for example, a core network, other network nodes in which the sensing function is deployed or a sensing function entity / module.

[0577] In step 801, the fifth network node transmits the third configuration message to the first network node or the second network node.

[0578] In an example, the third configuration message may include sensing task configuration information or a sensing task configuration information list related to the UE. When the third configuration message includes the sensing task configuration information related to the UE, the third configuration message may further include information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE (which may also be referred to as "a sensing status control indication"), wherein the information contains at least one of following information:

[0579] -an activation indication, for notifying (or commanding) the UE to start performing a corresponding sensing task according to a sensing configuration, for example, performing transmission or reception of a sensing signal, collection and reporting of sensing data indicated by the sensing configuration;

[0580] -a deactivation indication, for notifying (or commanding) the UE to end and / or release the sensing task corresponding to the sensing configuration;

[0581] -a sensing pause indication, for notifying (or commanding) the UE to pause transmission or reception of the sensing signal;

[0582] -a sensing recovery indication, for notifying (or commanding) the UE to recover the transmission or reception of the sensing signal;

[0583] -a reporting pause indication, for notifying (or commanding) the UE to pause reporting of sensing data; and

[0584] -a reporting recovery indication, for notifying (or commanding) the UE to recover the reporting of the sensing data.

[0585] In an exemplary embodiment, when the third configuration message is a RAN node level configuration message, the third configuration message contains the sensing task configuration information list as described in step 301. The fifth network node (the network node in which the sensing function is deployed or the core network) transmits the sensing task configuration information to the base station (e.g., the first network node or the second network node) through the message, and then the sensing task configuration information is transmitted to the UE selected by the base station by the base station, or the sensing task configuration information is transmitted by the base station to the UE selected by the fifth network node under the base station, so that the base station and the selected UE are enable to participate in the sensing task to perform the necessary transmission of the sensing signal and measurement and collection of the sensing result.

[0586] In another exemplary embodiment, when the third configuration message is a UE-level configuration message, the third configuration message may contain the sensing task configuration information related to the UE as described in step 301.

[0587] In an exemplary embodiment, the third configuration message may be a current NGAP message or newly defined XnAP message, and the third configuration message may be a UE-associated message, or may also be a non-UE-associated message. In addition, various information contained in the third configuration message may be transmitted in an explicit manner, or may also be contained in a transparent container for transmission.

[0588] In step 802, the first network node or the second network node transmits a third configuration response message to the fifth network node.

[0589] In an exemplary embodiment, the third configuration response message may contain at least one of following information or information lists:

[0590] -a user identity (UE identity), for example, an AMF UE NGAP ID, an RAN UE NGAP ID, a TMSI, an RNTI, etc.;

[0591] -information identifying the sensing task, which may also be referred to as "a sensing task identity", for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, for example, a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID, a Sensing Trace ID, etc.;

[0592] -information of a sensing service type or a sensing use case, for indicating a type of the sensing task, for example, target object monitoring, intrusion detection, environment monitoring, autonomous driving, road supervision, weather monitoring, life monitoring, smart factories, etc.;

[0593] -information for representing whether the first network node accepts the sensing task configuration information or configuration information in the sensing task configuration information list, which may also be referred to as "a feedback or response for sensing task configuration information", for notifying the fifth network node of a status about whether the corresponding sensing task configuration information has been acknowledged or accepted, wherein the feedback or response may contain at least one of following information:

[0594] --a sensing task configuration information acknowledgement or acceptance indication, a manner of the indication containing at least one of:

[0595] ---an explicit indication, wherein when the sensing task configuration information acknowledgement or acceptance indication is received, it represents that the first / second network node has acknowledged the sensing task configuration information transmitted by the fifth network node; and

[0596] ---an implicit indication, wherein when the certain information (e.g., a sensing task configuration information rejection or failure indication) is not received, it represents that the first / second network node has acknowledged or accepted the sensing task configuration information transmitted by the fifth network node;

[0597] --a sensing task configuration information rejection or failure indication, a manner of the indication containing at least one of:

[0598] ---an implicit indication, wherein when a sensing task configuration information rejection or failure indication is not received, it represents that the first / second network node does not acknowledge the sensing task configuration information transmitted by the fifth network node, and

[0599] ---an implicit indication, wherein when the certain information (e.g., the sensing task configuration information acknowledgement or acceptance indication) is not received, it represents that the first / second network node does not acknowledge or accept the sensing task configuration information transmitted by the fifth network node;

[0600] --a reason for sensing task configuration information rejection or failure, containing at least one of following information:

[0601] ---the first / second network node does not support the sensing capability, and

[0602] ---the sensing task configuration goes beyond the sensing capability of the first / second network node; and

[0603] ---the UE indicated by the second configuration message has not been within the sensing area range of the first / second network node;

[0604] -sensing task session status information, for notifying the fifth network node (e.g., the network node in which the sensing function is deployed, the core network or the sensing function entity / module) of the sensing task session status of the UE, which may specifically contain at least one of following information:

[0605] --an inactive status, for representing that a sensing device is configured with a sensing task but does not perform transmission / reception of a sensing signal or reporting of sensing data indicated by the sensing configuration;

[0606] --an activated status, for representing that a sensing device is configured with a sensing task and is performing transmission / reception of a sensing signal or reporting of sensing data indicated by the sensing configuration;

[0607] --a sensing pause status, for representing that transmission / reception of a sensing signal of a sensing device is paused, wherein a reason for sensing pause may be a poor communication performance of a network;

[0608] --a reporting pause status, for representing that although a sensing device is performing transmission or reception of a sensing signal and collection of sensing data, reporting of the sensing data is paused, wherein a reason for reporting pause may be an excessive network load or an abnormal reporting link; and

[0609] --an abnormal status, for representing that there is an abnormality in an execution process of a sensing task, for example, there is an error or abnormality in an execution process of a sensing task of a sensing device due to some special reasons; and

[0610] -the sensing capability information of the first / second network node, wherein the fifth network node (e.g., the network node in which the sensing function is deployed, the core network or the sensing function entity / module) may pre-store sensing capability information of the base station, the base station may also dynamically update the sensing capability information to the fifth network node according to actual network situation. A reason for sensing capability information dynamic change may be associated with a degree of a base station resource for communication. The sensing capability information may contain at least one of following information:

[0611] --a maximum value the number of sensing tasks that may be supported simultaneously;

[0612] --a maximum value of the number of supported UEs participating in the sensing tasks;

[0613] --supported sensing signals;

[0614] --supported frequency bands of transmitting or receiving the sensing signals;

[0615] --supported sensing modes; and

[0616] --supported the reporting of sensing report(s) methods.

[0617] In the present application, the third configuration response message is used for transmitting a feedback about the sensing task configuration to the fifth network node. In an exemplary embodiment, the third configuration response message may be a current NGAP message or newly defined network message, and the third configuration response message may be a UE-associated message, or may also be a non-UE-associated message. In addition, various information contained in the third configuration response message may be transmitted in an explicit manner, or may also be contained in a transparent container for transmission.

[0618] In the above description, the process described with reference to FIG. 8 is used as a supplementary step to be included in the method described in FIG. 3A, however, the present application is not limited hereto. The process described with reference to FIG. 8 may not be included in the method described in FIG. 3A, but is used as a separate method to be performed, which will not be repeated here.

[0619] In the present application, when the UE is handed over from the source base station to the target base station and performs communication with the target base station, since the UE only has an RRC connection with the target base station, the sensing result may only be reported to the target base station. If the sensing capability is located in the source base station, and the source base station needs to acquire the sensing result of the UE to analyze the sensing data, the target base station needs to report the sensing report to the source base station. The target base station may also transmit the inclined / suggested / recommended / updated sensing task configuration to the source base station. In an example, the first network node is the source base station, the second network node is the target base station, and after the UE is handed over from the first network node to the second network node, the UE continues to perform the transmission / reception of the sensing signal and the reporting of the sensing data in the second network node, as illustrated in an example of FIG. 9.

[0620] Correspondingly, in an exemplary embodiment, the method described with reference to FIG. 3A may further include: receiving, by the first network node from the second network node, a first notification message, wherein the first notification message includes a sensing report reported by the UE to the second network node; and transmitting, by the first network node to the second network node, a first notification response message, wherein the first notification response message is used for transmitting a feedback about the first notification message to the second network node, wherein if a sensing function is not deployed in the first network node, the sensing report is forwarded by the first network node to a node in which the sensing function is deployed. In the present application, an operation of receiving the first notification message by the first network node from the second network node is performed after the UE is handed over from the first network node to the second network node.

[0621] In an exemplary embodiment, the first notification message may further include at least one of: information identifying a sensing device or a list of identities identifying sensing devices; and a sensing area monitoring result of the UE.

[0622] In an exemplary embodiment, the sensing report includes at least one of: a UE identity; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; sensing mode information; sensing results; and an identity of a sensing device that interacts a sensing signal with the UE.

[0623] Hereinafter, this will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 9.

[0624] FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a signal flow of a seventh example according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application.

[0625] In an example described by FIG. 9, the first network node may be, for example, the source base station, the second network node may be, for example, the target base station, the third / fourth network node may be, for example, the UE, and the fourth network node may be other UEs selected by the second network node according to the sensing task configuration to participate in the sensing task other than the third node.

[0626] In step 901, the third network node (e.g., the UE mentioned in FIG. 3B) or the fourth network node transmits a first report message to the second network node. Specifically, the third network node or the fourth network node may perform transmission / reception of the sensing signal according to the sensing task configuration, and collect the sensing data to form a sensing report, and when reporting conditions in the sensing task configuration information are satisfied, the third network node or the fourth network node transmit the first report message to the second network node, wherein the first report message may include the sensing report reported by the third network node (e.g., the UE) or the fourth network node to the second network node. The first report message may be an existing RRC message, may also be a reporting message defined dedicatedly for ISAC. In addition, the message may be transmitted using an existing signaling radio bearer (SRB) (e.g., an SRB1, an SRB4, or the like), or may also be reported using a radio bear specifically defined for sensing, such as a SRB6, SRB7 or a sensing dedicated data radio bear (DRB). The sensing data may also be transmitted through a user plane or other newly defined protocol planes.

[0627] In an exemplary embodiment, the first report message includes at least one of:

[0628] -a user identity (a UE identity), for example, a TMSI, a C-RNTI, an I-RNTI, etc.;

[0629] -information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing task identity", for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, for example, a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID, a Sensing Trace ID, etc.;

[0630] -information of a sensing service type or a sensing use case, for indicating a type of the sensing task, for example, target object monitoring, intrusion detection, environment monitoring, autonomous driving, road supervision, weather monitoring, life monitoring, smart factories, etc.;

[0631] -a time or time period for data collection, wherein the time for data collection refers to a specific time, and a time period refers to a relative time range;

[0632] -a reporting time, wherein there is a delay from the reporting of the sensing data to reception of the report by the sensing function, thus, the reporting time may assist in analyzing the delay therein;

[0633] -a type of the sensing signal, for example, a CSI-RS, a DMRS, a PRS, an SRS, etc.;

[0634] -sensing mode information, specifically as described in step 301;

[0635] -a specific sensing result, containing at least one of following information:

[0636] --a measurement result of a sensing signal, for example, RSRP and / or RSRQ, path loss, a doppler frequency shift, an AoA, or a ZoA of a signal;

[0637] --an intermediate result of sensing, for example, a location and / or shape of a sensing object; a radar cross section (RCS) of a sensing object; a speed, acceleration and / or direction of an object; sensing environment information, etc.; and

[0638] --a final result of a sensing task, for example, discovery of an intrusive object, an abnormal traffic condition, an abnormal weather, etc.,

[0639] wherein the sensing results may be obtained by a sensing device using a local computing capability to perform analysis, or may also be obtained via an external computing capability; and

[0640] -a device identity of a device that interacts a sensing signal with the UE.

[0641] The information enumerated above constitutes the sensing report, and the information enumerated above may be transmitted in an explicit manner, or may also be placed in a transparent container for transmission. When it is transmitted to the base station in an explicit manner, the base station may use the information in the sensing report to assist in network optimization.

[0642] -the result of the sensing area monitoring of the UE, for example, an indication about the UE being within the sensing area, an indication about the UE having moved out of the sensing area, history information of the UE within the sensing area, or the like, wherein, the result of the sensing area monitoring of the UE will be carried in the first report message only when the sensing area monitoring is performed on the UE;

[0643] -the information that the UE is about to move out of the sensing area, the UE may transmit the sensing report when it detectes that the UE is about to leave the sensing area, and the sensing report may carry this information for informing the network of the UE being about to move out of the sensing area, to further let the network to make corresponding adjustment or interaction;

[0644] -a time when the UE is about to leave the sensing area;

[0645] -a data radio bearer (DRB) ID, for representing a DRB resource used by the data transmission related to the sensing task of the UE;

[0646] In step 902, the second network node transmits a first notification message to the first network node.

[0647] In an exemplary embodiment, the first notification message may contain at least one of following information or information lists:

[0648] -a user identity (i.e., a UE identity), for example, an XnAP NG-RAN UE XnAP ID, a TMSI, a RNTI, etc.;

[0649] -information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing task identity", for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, for example, a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID, a Sensing Trace ID, etc.;

[0650] -information identifying a sensing device or a list of information identifying sensing devices, for example, a base station identity, a user identity. When the sensing devices contain UE, the first notification message needs to carry a UE identity corresponding to the sensing report, as described in step 301, the identity may be the identity transmitted from the source base station to the base station accessed by the UE as the movement of the UE. The source base station stores the identity, and when the sensing report is received, the source base station can identify a user corresponding to the sensing report according to the user identity therein;

[0651] -the sensing report collected by the corresponding sensing device, its specific information is as described in step 901;

[0652] -the result of the sensing area monitoring of the UE, for example, an indication about the UE being within the sensing area, an indication about the UE having moved out of the sensing area, history information of the UE within the sensing area, or the like, the first notification message will carry the sensing area monitoring result of the UE only when the sensing area monitoring is performed on the UE;

[0653] -inclined / suggested / recommended / updated sensing task configuration information, specifically as described in step 301;

[0654] -an indication that the UE is about to leave the sensing area;

[0655] -a time when the UE is about to leave the sensing area; and

[0656] -a DRB ID, for representing a DRB resource used by the data transmission related to the sensing task of the UE.

[0657] In the present application, the first notification message may be a RAN node level message, or may also be a UE-level message. The first notification message may enable the base station to collect the sensing results in time during the movement of the UE, and may update or adjust the sensing configuration according to the actual sensing situation and the network situation.

[0658] In an exemplary embodiment, the first notification message may be a current XnAP message (e.g., an RRC transmission message) or a newly defined network message, and the first notification message may be a UE-associated message, or may also be a non-UE-associated message. In addition, various information contained in the first notification message may be transmitted in an explicit manner, or may also be contained in a transparent container for transmission.

[0659] In step 903, the first network node transmits a first notification response message to the second network node.

[0660] In an exemplary embodiment, the first notification response message may contain at least one of following information or information lists:

[0661] -information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing task identity", for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, for example, a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID, a Sensing Trace ID, etc.;

[0662] -information identifying a sensing device or a list of information identifying sensing devices, for example, a base station identity, a user identity;

[0663] -a reception feedback for the sensing report, containing at least one of:

[0664] --a sensing report reception success indication (which may also be referred to as an indication of acknowledging a sensing report), a manner of the indication containing at least one of:

[0665] ---an explicit indication, wherein when the indication of acknowledging the sensing report is received, it represents that the first network node has received the sensing report transmitted by the second network node, and

[0666] ---an implicit indication, wherein when certain information (e.g., a sensing report reception failure indication) is not received, it represents that the first network node has received the sensing report transmitted by the second network node;

[0667] --a sensing report reception failure indication, a manner of the indication containing at least one of:

[0668] ---an explicit indication, wherein when the sensing report reception failure indication is received, it represents that the first network node does not receive the sensing report transmitted by the second network node, and

[0669] ---an implicit indication, wherein when certain information (e.g., the sensing report reception success indication) is not received, it represents that the first network node does not receive the sensing report transmitted by the second network node;

[0670] -a feedback or response for the sensing task configuration information, for notifying the target base station (e.g., the second network node) of a status about whether the corresponding sensing task configuration information has been acknowledged, wherein the feedback or response may contain at least one of following information:

[0671] --a sensing task configuration information acknowledgement or acceptance indication, a manner of the indication containing at least one of:

[0672] ---an explicit indication, wherein when the sensing task configuration information acknowledgement or acceptance indication is received, it represents that the first network node has acknowledged or accepted the sensing task configuration information transmitted by the second network node, and

[0673] ---an implicit indication, wherein when certain information (e.g., a sensing task configuration information rejection or failure indication) is not received, it represents that the first network node has acknowledged or accepted the sensing task configuration information transmitted by the second network node; and

[0674] --a sensing task configuration information rejection or failure indication, a manner of the indication containing at least one of:

[0675] ---an explicit indication, wherein when the sensing task configuration information rejection or failure indication is received, it represents that the first network node does not acknowledge the sensing task configuration information transmitted by the second network node, and

[0676] ---an implicit indication, wherein when certain information (e.g., the sensing task configuration information acknowledgement or acceptance indication) is not received, it represents that the first network node does not acknowledge the sensing task configuration information transmitted by the second network node.

[0677] In the present application, the first notification response message is used for transmitting a feedback about the first notification message to the second network node. Specifically, after the first network node receives the first notification message, if the sensing function is deployed in the first network node, the first network node performs computation related to the sensing according to information in the received first notification message to obtain a final sensing result, and transmits the first notification response message to the second network node. If the sensing function is not deployed in the first network node, the first network node forwards the sensing report received from the second network node to the network node in which the sensing function is deployed. A function of the first notification response message is that a receiving node of the sensing result or the inclined sensing task configuration information provides feedback information to a tansmitting node.

[0678] In an exemplary embodiment, the first notification response message may be a current XnAP message or a newly defined network message, and the first notification response message may be a UE-associated message, or may also be a non-UE-associated message. In addition, various information contained in the first notification response message may be transmitted in an explicit manner, or may also be contained in a transparent container for transmission. Alternatively, the first network node may not transmit the first notification response message to the second network node after receiving the first notification message (containing the sensing report).

[0679] In addition, the example is not only applicable to the case where the sensing function is deployed in the first network node, but also applicable to the case where the first network node needs to collect the sensing results (for example, the first network node needs to use the sensing results to perform network optimization).

[0680] In the above description, the process described with reference to FIG. 9 is used as a supplementary step to be included in the method described in FIG. 3A, however, the present application is not limited hereto. The process described with reference to FIG. 9 may not be included in the method described in FIG. 3A, but is used as a separate method to be performed, which will not be repeated here.

[0681] In the present application, when the sensing function is not deployed on a local BS device, but is deployed on other network nodes or a core network, the base station may transmit the collected sensing report to the network node in which the sensing function is deployed or the core network, or may also transmit the updated / inclined / recommended / suggested sensing task configuration information to the network node in which the sensing function is deployed or the core network.

[0682] Hereinafter, this will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 10.

[0683] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a signal flow of an eighth example according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0684] In an example described by FIG. 10, the second network node may be, for example, a target base station, the fifth network node may be, for example, a core network, other network nodes in which the sensing function is deployed or a sensing function entity / module.

[0685] In step 1001, the second network node transmits a second notification message to the fifth network node.

[0686] In an exemplary embodiment, the second notification message may contain at least one of following information or information lists:

[0687] -information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing task identity", for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, for example, a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID, a Sensing Trace ID, etc.;

[0688] -information identifying a sensing device or a list of information identifying sensing devices, for example, a base station identity, a user identity;

[0689] -the sensing report collected by the corresponding sensing device, which is collected by the base station or the UE, wherein content of the sensing report is as described in step 901;

[0690] -inclined / suggested / recommended / updated sensing task configuration information, specifically as described in step 301;

[0691] -a DRB ID, for representing a DRB resource used by the data transmission related to the sensing task of the UE;

[0692] As described above, the second notification message may include the sensing report reported by the UE in step 901, and in addition, the second notification message may further include the sensing data measured and collected by the second network node itself according to the sensing configuration. In addition, the second notification message may further contain suggestions or actual update configurations for the sensing task configuration update provided by the second network node according to the actual network situation. The second network node may transmit the collected sensing report and the inclined sensing task configuration to the network node in which the sensing function is deployed or the core network through the message. The message may further enable the base station to collect the sensing results in time during the movement of the UE, and may update or adjust the sensing task configuration according to the actual sensing situation and the network situation.

[0693] In an exemplary embodiment, the second notification message may be a current NGAP message (e.g., a path conversion request message) or a newly defined network message, and the second notification message may be a UE-associated message, or may also be a non-UE-associated message. In addition, various information contained in the second notification message may be transmitted in an explicit manner, or may also be contained in a transparent container for transmission.

[0694] In step 1002, the fifth network node transmits a second notification response message to the second network node.

[0695] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the second notification response message may contain at least one of following information or information lists:

[0696] -information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing task identity", for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, for example, a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID, a Sensing Trace ID, etc.;

[0697] -information identifying a sensing device or a list of information identifying sensing devices, for example, a base station identity, a user identity;

[0698] -a reception feedback for the sensing report, containing at least one of:

[0699] --a sensing report reception success indication (which may also be referred to as an indication of acknowledging a sensing report), wherein a manner of the indication may contain at least one of:

[0700] ---an explicit indication, wherein when the indication of acknowledging the sensing report is received, it represents that the fifth network node has received the sensing report transmitted by the second network node, and

[0701] ---an implicit indication, wherein when certain information (e.g., a sensing report reception failure indication) is not received, it represents that the fifth network node has received the sensing report transmitted by the second network node;

[0702] --a sensing report reception failure indication, wherein a manner of the indication may contain at least one of:

[0703] ---an explicit indication, wherein when the sensing report reception failure indication is received, it represents that the fifth network node does not receive the sensing report transmitted by the second network node, and

[0704] ---an implicit indication, wherein when certain information (e.g., the sensing report reception success indication) is not received, it represents that the fifth network node does not receive the sensing report transmitted by the second network node;

[0705] -a feedback or response for the sensing task configuration information, for notifying the second network node of a status about whether the corresponding sensing task configuration information has been acknowledged, wherein the feedback or response contains at least one of following information:

[0706] --a sensing task configuration information acknowledgement or acceptance indication, wherein a manner of the indication may contain at least one of:

[0707] ---an explicit indication, wherein when the sensing task configuration information acknowledgement or acceptance indication is received, it represents that the fifth network node has acknowledged or accepted the sensing task configuration information transmitted by the second network node, and

[0708] ---an implicit indication, wherein when certain information (e.g., a sensing task configuration information rejection or failure indication) is not received, it represents that the fifth network node has acknowledged or accepted the sensing task configuration information transmitted by the second network node; and

[0709] --a sensing task configuration information rejection or failure indication, wherein a manner of the indication may contain at least one of:

[0710] ---an explicit indication, wherein when the sensing task configuration information rejection or failure indication is received, it represents that the fifth network node does not acknowledge or accept the sensing task configuration information transmitted by the second network node, and

[0711] ---an implicit indication, wherein when certain information (e.g., the sensing task configuration information acknowledgement or acceptance indication) is not received, it represents that the fifth network node does not acknowledge or accept the sensing task configuration information transmitted by the second network node.

[0712] In the present application, the second notification response message is used for transmitting a feedback about the second notification message to the second network node. In an exemplary embodiment, the second notification response message may be a exsiting NGAP message (e.g., a path conversion request response message) or a newly defined network message, and the second notification response message may be a UE-associated message, or may also be a non-UE-associated message. In addition, various information contained in the second notification response message may be transmitted in an explicit manner, or may also be contained in a transparent container for transmission.

[0713] In the example described above, a scenario related to UE switch involves two base stations (i.e., the first network node and the second network node), however, in reality, the movement process of the UE may pass through multiple base stations (i.e., multiple network nodes), that is, multiple switches occur. For example, as in an example described below with reference to FIG. 11, when the UE moves to another network node (e.g., a seventh network node) other than the second network node, if the first node is still a sensing task control node or a node that needs to receive the sensing report, the seventh network node may needs to perform some interactions with the first network node, for example, a sensing task handover request, a sensing task configuration update request, sensing report transmission, etc. as follows:

[0714] -The sensing task handover request: during a process of the UE being handed over from the first network node to the second network node and from the second network node to another network node, a sensing task handover may occur. However, during the movement process of the UE, the first network node may also always be the sensing task control node (i.e., controls the sensing task of the UE), thus, when the UE moves to another base station (e.g., it is the seventh network node in the example described below with reference to FIG. 11), the seventh network node needs to transmit the sensing task handover request to the first network node and perform certain interactions (as described in steps 1101 and 1102 hereinafter). In addition, in order to ensure that the seventh network node may be informed of information of the sensing task control node of the UE (it is the first network node in the example of FIG. 11), during each switch process, as long as the sensing task related to the UE is transmitted to the target base station, it is necessary to carry the sensing task control node information (e.g. a Global NG-RAN node ID) of the UE and an UE identity (e.g., an NG-RAN XnAP UE ID) that can be identified by the target base station in a corresponding message, so that the target base station (e.g., the seventh network node) may identify that the first network node is the sensing task control node of the UE after receiving the corresponding message, and transmit the sensing task handover request to the first network node.

[0715] -The sensing task configuration update request: after the UE moves to the seventh network node, the seventh network node may transmit the sensing task configuration update request to the first network node according to the actual sensing status, the network resource configuration situation, etc., and the first network node may feed back an updated sensing task configuration to the seventh network node.

[0716] -Sensing report transmission: the seventh network node may receive a sensing report transmitted by the UE, and if the first network node is a network node in which the sensing function is deployed or a network node that needs the sensing report, the seventh network node may transmit the sensing report to the first network node. A manner of transmitting the sensing report may be:

[0717] --Hop-by-hop forward: the sensing report is transmitted by the seventh network node to the previous network node accessed by the UE, and then forwarded to the previous network nodes hop by hop until it is transmitted to the first network node at last.

[0718] --Direct forward: There may be identity information of the first network node in the sensing task configuration received by the seventh network node, and if there is a network interface (e.g., XnAP) between the seventh network node and the first network node, the seventh network node may directly transmit the sensing report to the first network node through the network interface. It needs to carry the UE identity that can be identified by the first network node in the sensing report, so that the first network node may determine the UE corresponding to the sensing report. In addition, in order to ensure that the seventh network node may be informed of information of the network node that needs to receive the sensing report (it is the first network node in the example of FIG. 11), during each handover process, as long as the sensing task related to the UE is transmitted to the target base station, it is necessary to carry the information of the node that needs to receive the sensing report and an UE identity (e.g., an NG-RAN XnAP UE ID) that can be identified by the node in a corresponding message, so that the seventh network node may identify that the first network node is the network node that needs to receive the sensing report after receiving the corresponding message, and transmit the sensing report to the first network node.

[0719] --Forward through a core network: If there is no available network interface between the seventh network node and the first network node, the sensing report may be forwarded to the first network node through the core network.

[0720] Correspondingly, in an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the method described with reference to FIG. 3A may further include: receiving, by the first network node from the seventh network node, a third notification message, wherein the third notification message includes a fifth sensing task handover request for requesting handover of a sensing task of the UE to the seventh network node; and transmitting, by the first network node to the seventh network node, a third notification response message, wherein the third notification response message includes information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the fifth sensing task handover request.

[0721] In an exemplary embodiment, the third notification message may further include at least one of: information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; a reason for requesting sensing task handover; a sensing task configuration update request; sensing mode information of the UE; information of a sensing area of the seventh network node; sensing capability information of the seventh network node; and information identifying a sensing device that collects the sensing reports.

[0722] In an exemplary embodiment, the third notification response message may further include at least one of: a UE identity; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE; and reception feedback information for the sensing report.

[0723] Hereinafter, this will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 11.

[0724] FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a signal flow of a ninth example according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0725] In an example described by FIG. 11, the first network node may be, for example, a source base station, the second network node may be a base station, and the seventh network node may be, for example, a target base station, to which the UE is handed over through multiple switch operations, other than the first network node and the second network node.

[0726] Before step 1101 of FIG. 11, the UE has been handed over from the first network node to the seventh network node, but the sensing task of the UE is not handed over to the seventh network node and is still controlled by the first network node. In this case, in step 1101, the seventh network node transmits a third notification message to the first network node.

[0727] In an exemplary embodiment, the third notification message may contain at least one of following information or information lists:

[0728] -information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing task identity", for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, for example, a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID, a Sensing Trace ID, etc.;

[0729] -information of a sensing service type or a sensing use case, for indicating a type of the sensing task, for example, target object monitoring, intrusion detection, environment monitoring, autonomous driving, road supervision, weather monitoring, life monitoring, smart factories, etc.;

[0730] -a sensing task handover request (i.e., an indication for requesting sensing task handover) and a reason for requesting sensing task handover, specifically as described in step 401;

[0731] -a sensing task configuration update request, specifically as described in step 401;

[0732] -current sensing mode information of the UE, specifically as described in step 401;

[0733] -current sensing task session status information of the UE, specifically as described in step 401;

[0734] -information of a sensing area and sensing capability information of the seventh node, specifically as described in step 401; and

[0735] -a sensing report collected by the seventh node and an identity of a device thats collect the sensing report, wherein when the sensing device is the UE, a user identity that can be identified by the first network node is need to be carried, and the user identity is obtained from the previous network node that serves the UE.

[0736] As described above, the third notification message may include a sensing task handover request (i.e., the fifth sensing task handover request) for requesting handover of the sensing task of the UE to the seventh network node. Specifically, the seventh network node determines that the first network node is the sensing task control network node of the UE or the network node that needs to receive the sensing report, according to the sensing task configuration received from the previous network node that serves the UE, thus, the seventh network node transmits the third notification message to the first network node, and this message may enable the base station currently accessed by the UE to complete a control process related to the sensing task in the case of multiple switches.

[0737] In step 1102, the first network node transmits a third notification response message to the seventh network node.

[0738] In an exemplary embodiment, the third notification response message may contain at least one of following information or information lists:

[0739] -information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing task identity", for identifying a sensing task that is performed currently by the UE, for example, a Sensing Service ID, a Sensing Task ID, a Sensing Session ID, a Sensing Trace ID, etc.;

[0740] -information of a sensing service type or a sensing use case, for indicating a type of the sensing task, for example, target object monitoring, intrusion detection, environment monitoring, autonomous driving, road supervision, weather monitoring, life monitoring, smart factories, etc.;

[0741] -a user identity (i.e., a UE identity), for example, an NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID, a TMSI, a RNTI, etc.;

[0742] -information for representing whether the first network node accepts the sensing task handover request, which may also be referred to as "a response or reply for a sensing task handover request", specifically as described in step 402;

[0743] -inclined / suggested / updated / recommended sensing task configuration information, specifically as described in step 402;

[0744] -information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE, which may also be referred to as "a sensing status control indication", specifically as described in step 402;

[0745] -a sensing report reception success indication, specifically as described in step 903; and

[0746] -a sensing report reception failure indication, specifically as described in step 903.

[0747] As described above, the first network node may transmit the third notification response message to the seventh network node according to the information transmitted by the seventh network node, wherein this message is used for feeding back a result about the sensing task interaction between the first network node and the seventh network node to the seventh network node.

[0748] In the above description, the process described with reference to FIG. 11 is used as a supplementary step to be included in the method described in FIG. 3A, however, the present application is not limited hereto. The process described with reference to FIG. 11 may not be included in the method described in FIG. 3A, but is used as a separate method to be performed, which will not be repeated here.

[0749] FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a method performed by a second network node according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0750] As illustrated in FIG. 12, in step S1210, a first request message related to handover is received by the second network node from a first network node, wherein the first request message includes a first sensing task handover request and sensing task configuration information for reference associated with the first network node, wherein the first sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of UE to the second network node; and

[0751] At step S1220, a first response message in response to the first request message is transmitted by the second network node to the first network node, wherein the first response message includes information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the first sensing task handover request and information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the sensing task configuration information.

[0752] In addition, the method may further include: receiving a first configuration response message by the second network node from the UE, wherein the message is a response message for the first configuration message.

[0753] Since the interaction process of the first network node (i.e., the source base station) with the second network node (i.e., the target base station) has been described in detail with reference to FIG. 3B above, it will not be repeatedly described here.

[0754] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the method described by FIG. 12 may further include: when the second network node determines that the UE has moved out of a sensing area of the first network node, transmitting, by the second network node to the first network node, a second request message, wherein the second request message includes a second sensing task handover request and / or information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area, wherein the second sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and the information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area is used for indicating that the UE has moved out of the sensing area of the first network node; and receiving, by the second network node from the first network node, a second response message in response to the second request message, wherein the second response message includes information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the second sensing task handover request.

[0755] Since the above interaction process of the first network node with the second network node has been described in detail with reference to FIG. 4 above, it will not be repeatedly described here.

[0756] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the method described by FIG. 12 may further include: when the second network node determines that the UE has moved out of the sensing area of the first network node, transmitting, by the second network node to a fifth network node, a third request message, wherein the third request message includes a sixth sensing task handover request and / or information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area, wherein the sixth sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and the information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area is used for indicating that the UE has moved out of the sensing area of the first network node; and receiving, by the second network node from the fifth network node, a third response message in response to the third request message, wherein the third response message includes information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the sixth sensing task handover request.

[0757] In an exemplary embodiment, the sixth sensing task handover request may be transmitted as the above-described third sensing task handover request by the fifth network node to the first network node.

[0758] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the third request message may further include at least one of: a UE identity or a UE identity list; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; a reason for requesting sensing task handover; information of a sensing area of the second network node; and sensing capability information of the second network node.

[0759] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the third response message may include at least one of: a UE identity or a UE identity list; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; information related to sensing area update; and information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE.

[0760] Since the above interaction process of the second network node with the fifth network node has been described in detail with reference to FIG. 5 above, it will not be repeatedly described here.

[0761] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the method described by FIG. 12 may further include: receiving, by the second network node from the fifth network node, a sixth request message, wherein the sixth request message includes a seventh sensing task handover request and / or information about the UE having moved out of a sensing area, wherein the seventh sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and the information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area is used for indicating that the UE has moved out of a sensing area of the first network node; and transmitting, by the second network node to the fifth network node, a sixth response message in response to the sixth request message, wherein the sixth response message includes information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the seventh sensing task handover request.

[0762] In an exemplary embodiment, the above-described fourth sensing task handover request may be transmitted as a seventh sensing task handover request by the fifth network node to the second network node.

[0763] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the sixth request message may further include at least one of: a UE identity or a UE identity list; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; information of a cell that finally detected a sensing signal with UE; a reason for requesting sensing task handover.

[0764] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the sixth response message may further include at least one of: a UE identity or a UE identity list; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; information of a sensing area of the second network node; and information suggesting adjustment of a range of a sensing area of the first network node.

[0765] Since the interaction process of the second network node with the fifth network node has been described in detail with reference to FIG. 6 above, it will not be repeatedly described here.

[0766] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the method described by FIG. 12 may further include: receiving, by the second network node from a first network node, a second configuration message, wherein the second configuration message includes sensing task configuration information or a sensing task configuration information list for reference associated with the first network node; and transmitting, by the second network node to the first network node, a second configuration response message, wherein the second configuration response message includes information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the sensing task configuration information or configuration information in the sensing task configuration information list.

[0767] Since the above interaction process of the first network node with the second network node has been described in detail with reference to FIG. 7 above, it will not be repeatedly described here.

[0768] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the method described by FIG. 12 may further include: receiving, by the second network node from a fifth network node, a fourth configuration message, wherein the fourth configuration message includes sensing task configuration information or a sensing task configuration information list for reference associated with the first network node; and transmitting, by the second network node to the fifth network node, a fourth configuration response message, wherein the fourth configuration response message includes information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the sensing task configuration information or configuration information in the sensing task configuration information list. In the present application, information contained in the fourth configuration message and the fourth configuration response message are similar to or the same as the information contained in the third configuration message and the third configuration response message described above with reference to FIG. 8, respectively.

[0769] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, when the fourth configuration message includes the sensing task configuration information for reference associated with the first network node, the fourth configuration message may further include information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE.

[0770] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the fourth configuration response message may further include at least one of: a UE identity; information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; sensing capability information of the second network node.

[0771] Since the above interaction process of the second network node with the fifth network node has been described above in detail with reference to FIG. 8, it will not be repeatedly described here.

[0772] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the method described by FIG. 12 may further include: receiving, by the second network node from the UE, a first report message, wherein the first report message includes a sensing report generated by the UE; if a sensing function is deployed in the first network node, transmitting, by the second network node to the first network node, a first notification message, and receiving, from the first network node, a first notification response message, wherein the first notification message includes the sensing report, and wherein the first notification response message is used for transmitting a feedback about the first notification message to the second network node; and if the sensing function is deployed in the fifth network node, transmitting, by the second network node to the fifth network node, a second notification message, and receiving, from the fifth network node, a second notification response message, wherein the second notification message includes the sensing report, and wherein the second notification response message is used for transmitting a feedback about the second notification message to the second network node.

[0773] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the first report message may further include at least one of: a sensing area monitoring result of the UE; and information that the UE is about to move out of the sensing area, for indicating that the UE is about to move out a sensing area of the second network node.

[0774] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the second notification message may further include an updated sensing task configuration.

[0775] In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, the second notification response message may include at least one of: information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE; identities or an identity list of sensing devices; a reception feedback for the sensing report; and a feedback or response for sensing task configuration information.

[0776] Since the above interaction processes of the UE, the first network node and the second network node has been described above in detail with reference to FIG. 9, these will not be repeatedly described here.

[0777] FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a method performed by UE according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application.

[0778] As illustrated in FIG. 13, at step S1310, a first configuration message from a second network node is received by the UE from the first network node.

[0779] In the present application, the first configuration message may include at least one of: information identifying the sensing task; and information of a sensing service type; information related to a sensing device; information identifying a receiving node of the sensing report; information of a sensing area; and information for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE. In the present application, the UE may complete the updation of the sensing task configuration according to the information included in the first configuration message.

[0780] In the present application, the first configuration message may be included in the first response message transmitted by the second network node to the first network node, and the first response message may be a message of the second network node in response to a first request message transmitted by the first network node, wherein the first request message may include a first sensing task handover request and sensing task configuration information for reference associated with the first network node, wherein the first sensing task handover request may be used for requesting handover of a sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and the first response message may include information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the first sensing task handover request and information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the sensing task configuration information.

[0781] In step S1320, a message in response to the first configuration message is transmitted by the UE to the second network node.

[0782] In addition, the method of FIG. 13 may further include: transmitting, by the UE to the second network node, a first report message, wherein the first report message includes a sensing report generated by the UE. Since it has been described in detail above with reference to FIG. 9, it will not be repeated here again.

[0783] In an example, as in the example described with reference to FIG. 3B, in step 303, the UE may receive the first configuration message from the source base station, and the first configuration message may be, for example, an RRC reconfiguration message. In an example, the target base station transmits a switch request acknowledgement message to the source base station, the switch request acknowledgement message may include an RRC reconfiguration message, and then the UE receives the RRC reconfiguration message from the source base station. In the present application, the first configuration message may be a exsiting RRC reconfiguration message, or may also be a newly defined RRC message, or a lower-level message, and the first configuration message may be transmitted in an explicit manner, or may also be contained in a transparent container for transmission.

[0784] In addition, as illustrated in FIG. 3B, the UE may transmit a message in response to the first configuration message, which may also be referred to as "a first configuration response message", to the target base station, the message may be, for example, an RRC reconfiguration complete message, and the message is a response message for the first configuration message (e.g., the RRC reconfiguration message), representing that the UE has successfully accessed the target base station.

[0785] Since it has been described in detail above with reference to FIG. 3B, it will not be repeated here again.

[0786] FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating a network node according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application.

[0787] As illustrated in FIG. 14, a network node 1400 may include a transceiver 1410 and a processor 1420, wherein the transceiver 1410 may be used for transmitting and receiving a signal, and the processor 1420 may be coupled to the transceiver 1410, and configured to perform the methods described above with reference to FIG. 3A to FIG. 12. The network node 1410 may be any one of the first network node, the second network node, the fifth network node or other network nodes in the methods as described above with reference to FIG. 3A to FIG. 12. For details of operations of the methods, reference may be made to the descriptions of FIG. 3A to FIG.12, which will not be repeated here again.

[0788] FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating UE according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application.

[0789] As illustrated in FIG. 15, UE 1500 may include a transceiver 1510 and a processor 1520, wherein the transceiver 1510 may be used for transmitting and receiving a signal, and the processor 1520 may be coupled to the transceiver 1510, and configured to perform the method described above with reference to FIG. 13. The UE 1510 may be any one of the third network node, the fourth network node or the UE in the methods as described above with reference to FIGS. 3A to FIG.13. For details of operations of the methods, reference may be made to the descriptions of FIGS. 3A to FIG.13, which will not be repeated here again.

[0790] FIG. 16 is a block diagram of a terminal or user equipment (UE) 1600 according to an embodiment of the disclosure. FIG. 16 corresponds to the example of the terminal or UE of FIG. 15.

[0791] The terminal is an electronic device capable of wireless communication, may include a User Equipment (UE), a portable phone, a smartphone, a tablet, an Internet of things (IoT) device, etc., having various form factors, and may perform wireless communication with a base station (BS) through a wireless channel.

[0792] Referring to FIG. 16, the UE 1600 may include at least one transceiver (hereinafter, referred to as simply “transceiver”) 1601, at least one processor (hereinafter, referred to as simply “processor”) 1602, and at least one memory (hereinafter, referred to as simply “memory”) 1603. According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the present disclosure, the transceiver 1601, the processor 1602, and the memory 1603 of the UE 1600 may operate. However, components of the UE 1600 are not limited to the exemplary components illustrated in FIG. 16. In another embodiment, the UE 1600 may further include additional components in addition to the above-mentioned components, or some components may be omitted. Further, in some embodiments, any combination of the transceiver 1601, the processor 1602, or the memory 1603 may be integrated in the form of one component.

[0793] The transceiver 1601 may be a communication circuit or communication circuitry that enables the UE 1600 to perform wireless communication with a node or an entity of a network. For example, the transceiver 1601 may enable the UE 1600 to transmit or receive a signal to or from a BS through cellular communication, or to transmit or receive a signal to or from another UE through cellular communication. For example, the transceiver 1601 may support at least one of various cellular communication technologies including 3rd generation (3G), 4thgeneration (4G), long term evolution (LTE), 5th generation (5G) NR, 6thgeneration (6G), and various cellular wireless communication technologies supported by the transceiver (1601) may include all subsequent generations of evolved wireless communications.

[0794] According to an embodiment, the UE 1600 may include a plurality of transceivers. For example, in the case of supporting evolved-universal terrestrial radio access-new radio (E-UTRA-NR) sual connectivity (EN-DC), the UE 1600 may include a first transceiver supporting the 4G LTE wireless communication and a second transceiver supporting the 5G NR wireless communication. According to another embodiment, in the case of supporting NR-dual connectivity (NR-DC), the UE 1600 may include a plurality of transceivers supporting the 5G NR wireless communication. According to still another embodiment, in the case of supporting near field wireless communication, the UE 1600 may separately include a transceiver supporting at least one standard in the group of wireless communication protocol standards as defined in the protocol standards for Bluetooth®, wireless local area network (WLAN) network (including institute of electrical and electronics engineers (IEEE) 802.11-2016 standard or its amendments, e.g., 802.11ah, 802.11ad, 802.11ay, 802.11ax, 802.11az, 802.11ba, and 802.11be, without being limited thereto).

[0795] According to an embodiment, the transceiver 1601 may include various circuit structures used to transmit or receive signals to or from a BS through a wireless channel. The signals may include control information and data. For example, the transceiver 1601 may include a radio frequency (RF) transmitter for up-converting and amplifying the frequency of a transmitted signal and an RF receiver for low-noise-amplifying a received signal and down-converting the frequency thereof. The transceiver 1601 may output a signal received through a wireless channel to the processor 1602 and may transmit, through a wireless channel, a signal output from the processor 1602.

[0796] The processor 1602 may control general operations of the UE 1600 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The processor 1602 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuit (or circuitry) (IC) chips and may execute various data processings. The processor 1602 may include at least one electric circuit, and may execute instructions (or a program, codes, data, etc.) stored in the memory 1603, individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. Further, the processor 1602 may include a single-core processor or multi-core processor, and may include a processor assembly including a plurality of processing circuits (circuitry) according to a specific implementation scheme.

[0797] The processor 1602 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the transceiver 1601 to control the transceiver 1601.

[0798] The processor 1602 may include at least one processor (or processing circuitry), and the at least one processor may perform the following operations individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. For example, the processor 1602 may include a communication processor (CP) configured to control communication operations and an application processor (AP) configured to control execution of an upper layer (for example, an application layer) . In a specific embodiment, at least a part of the processor 1602 may be included in one chip and the other part of the processor 1602 may be included in another chip. Otherwise, at least one processor may be included in another component, for example, the transceiver 1601 or the memory 1603.

[0799] The processor 1602 may perform or control or cause an operation of the UE 1600 for executing at least one or a combination of methods according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the processor 1602 may control operations of the UE 1600 for processing a downlink signal received from a BS or generating and transmitting an uplink signal to a BS. To this end, the processor 1602 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 1603, so as to control other components of the UE 1600 to enable execution of various operations.

[0800] The memory 1603 corresponds to a hardware storage device capable of temporarily or permanently storing information and may include one or more storage media. For example, the memory 1603 may include a memory assembly including one or more storage media. For example, the one or more storage media may include permanent memory, such as a hard drive, flash memory, or read-only memory (ROM), semipermanent memory, such as random access memory (RAM), cache memory, or a combination thereof.

[0801] The memory 1603 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the processor 1602 and may be accessed by the processor 1602.

[0802] The memory 1603 may store a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1602. According to an embodiment, a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1602 may be either stored in a single memory device or separated and distributedly stored in two or more memory devices. By executing the instructions stored in the memory 1603, the processor 1602 may perform various functions according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0803] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the UE 1600 may be caused to be performed based on execution of instructions (or a computer program or codes) stored in the memory 1603 by at least one processor (or processing circuitry) configured to execute the same individually, collectively, or in any combination thereof, based on processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions, and / or based on components of processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions.

[0804] FIG. 17 is a block diagram of a base station (BS) 1700 according to an embodiment of the disclosure. FIG. 17 corresponds to the example of the network node of FIG. 14.

[0805] The BS 1700 may perform wireless communication with at least one user equipment (UE) located within the area of the BS 1700 through a wireless channel.

[0806] Referring to FIG. 17, the BS 1700 may include at least one transceiver (hereinafter, referred to as simply “transceiver”) 1701, at least one processor (hereinafter, referred to as simply “processor”) 1702, and at least one memory (hereinafter, referred to as simply “memory”) 1703. According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the present disclosure, the transceiver 1701, the processor 1702, and the memory 1703 of the BS 1700 may operate. However, components of the BS 1700 are not limited to the exemplary components illustrated in FIG. 17. In another embodiment, the BS 1700 may further include additional components in addition to the above-mentioned components, or some components may be omitted. Further, in some embodiments, any combination of the transceiver 1701, the processor 1702, or the memory 1703 may be integrated in the form of one component.

[0807] The transceiver 1701 may be a communication circuit or communication circuitry that enables the BS 1700 to perform wireless communication with a node or an entity of a network. For example, the transceiver 1701 may enable the BS 1700 to transmit or receive a signal to or from the UE X00 through cellular communication, or to transmit or receive a signal to or from another network entity through wireless communication. For example, the transceiver 1701 may support various cellular communication technologies including 3rd generation (3G), 4thgeneration (4G), long term evolution (LTE), 5th generation (5G) NR, 6thgeneration (6G), and various cellular wireless communication technologies supported by the transceiver (1701) may include all subsequent generations of evolved wireless communications. According to an embodiment, the transceiver 1701 may include various circuit structures used to transmit or receive signals to or from a UE through a wireless channel. The signals may include control information and data. For example, the transceiver 1701 may include a radio frequency (RF) transmitter for up-converting and amplifying the frequency of a transmitted signal and an RF receiver for low-noise-amplifying a received signal and down-converting the frequency thereof. The transceiver 1701 may output a signal received through a wireless channel to the processor 1702 and may transmit, through a wireless channel, a signal output from the processor 1702.

[0808] Meanwhile, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the BS 1700 may perform communication with a node or an entity of a network through wired or wireless communication. For example, the BS 1700 may perform wired or wireless communication with an adjacent BS, or a node or an entity of a core network through a backhaul network. Although not illustrated in FIG. 17, when the BS 1700 performs wired communication, the BS 1700 may further include a separate network interface for wired communication in addition to the transceiver 1701. The network interface may be referred to as network interface circuitry or communication interface circuitry.

[0809] The processor 1702 may control general operations of the BS 1700 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The processor 1702 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuit (or circuitry) (IC) chips and may execute various data processings. The processor 1702 may include at least one electric circuit, and may execute instructions (or a program, codes, data, etc.) stored in the memory 1703, individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. Further, the processor 1702 may include a single-core processor or multi-core processor, and may include a processor assembly including a plurality of processing circuits (circuitry) according to a specific implementation scheme.

[0810] The processor 1702 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the transceiver 1701 to control the transceiver 1701.

[0811] The processor 1702 may include at least one processor (or processing circuitry), and the at least one processor may perform the following operations individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. In a specific embodiment, at least a part of the processor 1702 may be included in one chip and the other part of the processor 1702 may be included in another chip. Otherwise, at least one processor may be included in another component, for example, the transceiver 1701 or the memory 1703.

[0812] The processor 1702 may perform or control or cause an operation of the BS 1700 for executing at least one or a combination of methods according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the processor 1702 may control operations of the BS 1700 for generating and transmitting a downlink signal to a UE or processing an uplink signal received from a UE. Otherwise, the BS 1700 may transmit or receive a signal to or from a neighboring BS, transfer a signal received from a UE to an upper node of the network, or transmit a signal transferred from an upper node of the network to a UE. To this end, the processor 1702 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 1703, so as to control other components of the BS 1700 to enable execution of various operations.

[0813] The memory 1703 corresponds to a hardware storage device capable of temporarily or permanently storing information and may include one or more storage media. For example, the memory 1703 may include a memory assembly including one or more storage media. For example, the one or more storage media may include permanent memory, such as a hard drive, flash memory, or read-only memory (ROM), semipermanent memory, such as random access memory (RAM), cache memory, or a combination thereof.

[0814] The memory 1703 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the processor 1702 and may be accessed by the processor 1702.

[0815] The memory 1703 may store a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1702. According to an embodiment, a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1702 may be either stored in a single memory device or separated and distributedly stored in two or more memory devices. By executing the instructions stored in the memory 1703, the processor 1702 may perform various functions according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0816] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the BS 1700 may be caused to be performed based on execution of instructions (or a computer program or codes) stored in the memory 1703 by at least one processor (or processing circuitry) configured to execute the same individually, collectively, or in any combination thereof, based on processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions, and / or based on components of processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions.

[0817] The UE or the base station may perform various communication procedures related to the control plane or the user plane by cooperating with one or more network entities based on wireless communication. For example, the UE may communicate with network entity such as an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) or a Session Management Function (SMF) via the base station, or the base station may perform at least one communication procedure by directly transmitting and receiving signals to / from, or relaying signals between, the network entities.

[0818] The structure of the above-described network entity will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings.

[0819] FIG. 18 is a block diagram of a network entity 1800 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0820] The network entity 1800 may include an entity (apparatus, device, or server, etc.) that performs one or more network functions (NFs) or a part of a network function constituting a core network (e.g., a 5th generation (5G) core (5GC)) in a communication system. In this case, multiple NFs may be implemented within a single network entity, or a single NF may be distributed and implemented across a plurality of network entities. In addition, when an NF is implemented within the network entity, the NF may be implemented in the form of software, and in such a case, a program for operating the NF may be stored in memory of the network entity 1800.

[0821] A single NF may be implemented by one or more instances, which may be deployed on the same network entity or distributed across multiple network entities to operate. The instance may be a software unit that logically executes a specific network function, and may be implemented in a form that is decoupled from physical hardware resources. Further, one or more NFs may be implemented in the form of one network slice to operate to satisfy specifications required by a particular service.

[0822] The NF may include at least one of an access and mobility management function (AMF), a session management function (SMF), a local session management function (L-SMF), a user plane function (UPF), a local user plane function (L-UPF), a policy control function (PCF), a unified data management (UDM), a unified data repository (UDR), a network exposure function (NEF), a network repository function (NRF), an application function (AF), a network slice selection function (NSSF), a network data analytics function (NWDAF), a network slice admission control function (NSACF), an authentication server function (AUSF), or a data network (DN).

[0823] Referring to FIG. 18, the network entity 1800 may include at least one network interface 1801, at least one processor 1802 (hereinafter, “processor”), and at least one memory 1803 (hereinafter, “memory”). As described above, a NF may be implemented in the form of a physical device such as the network entity 1800, or may be virtualized and executed in the form of an instance. When implemented as an instance, the NF need not necessarily include physical components as illustrated in FIG. 18. In such a case, the instance may be logically represented as comprising one or more logical functional elements.

[0824] According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the present disclosure, the network interface 1801, the processor 1802, and the memory 1803 of the network entity 1800 may operate. However, components of the network entity 1800 are not limited to the exemplary components illustrated in FIG. 18. In another embodiment, the network entity 1800 may further include additional components in addition to the above-mentioned components, or some components may be omitted. Further, in an embodiment, the network interface 1801, the processor 1802, or the memory 1803 may be integrated in the form of one component.

[0825] The network interface 1801 is a collective term for a transmitter part of the network entity 1800 and a receiver part of the network entity 1800, and may be a communication circuit for transmitting or receiving a signal to or from a user equipment (UE), a base station (BS), or another network entity. Here, the communication circuit may include both a communication circuit for wireless communication and a communication circuit for a wired communication. For example, the network interface 1801 may include a circuit, logic, hardware, etc., configured to exchange a control plane message or a user plane message with a UE, a BS, or other core network entities through wireless communication or wired communication. The network interface 1801 may operate using various protocols (e.g., non-access stratum (NAS) protocol). The network interface 1801 may also be referred to, for convenience of description or depending on implementation, as communication circuitry, network interface circuitry, or a communication interface circuitry.

[0826] The processor 1802 may control general operations of the network entity 1800 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The processor 1802 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuit (or circuitry) (IC) chips and may execute various data processings. The processor 1802 may include at least one electric circuit, and may execute instructions (or a program, codes, data, etc.) stored in the memory 1803, individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. Further, the processor 1802 may include a single-core processor or multi-core processor, and may include a processor assembly including a plurality of processing circuits (circuitry) according to a specific implementation scheme. Further, it should be noted that, according to another embodiment, in a case where NF is implemented in the form of an instance, the network function may be not necessarily configured by physical hardware.

[0827] According to an embodiment, the processor 1802 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the network interface 1801 to control the network interface 1801.

[0828] The processor 1802 may include at least one processor (or processing circuitry), and the at least one processor may perform the following operations individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. In a specific embodiment, at least a part of the processor 1802 may be included in one chip and the other part of the processor 1802 may be included in another chip. Otherwise, at least one processor may be included in another component, for example, the network interface 1801 or the memory 1803.

[0829] The processor 1802 may perform or control or cause an operation of the network entity 1800 for executing at least one or a combination of methods according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the processor 1802 may control operations of the network entity 1800 for exchanging a control plane message or a user plane message with a UE, a BS, or other core network entities through wireless or wired communication, using various protocols (e.g., NAS protocol). To this end, the processor 1802 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 1803, so as to control other components of the network entity 1800 to enable execution of various operations.

[0830] The memory 1803 corresponds to a hardware storage device capable of temporarily or permanently storing information and may include one or more storage media. For example, the memory 1803 may include a memory assembly including one or more storage media. For example, the one or more storage media may include permanent memory, such as a hard drive, flash memory, or read-only memory (ROM), semipermanent memory, such as random access memory (RAM), cache memory, or a combination thereof.

[0831] The memory 1803 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the processor 1802 and may be accessed by the processor 1802.

[0832] The memory 1803 may store a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1802. According to an embodiment, a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1802 may be either stored in a single memory device or separated and distributedly stored in two or more memory devices. By executing the instructions stored in the memory 1803, the processor 1802 may perform various functions according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0833] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the network entity 1800 may be caused to be performed based o...

Claims

1.A method performed by a first network node, comprising:transmitting, by the first network node to a second network node, a first request message related to handover, wherein the first request message comprises a first sensing task handover request and sensing task configuration information for reference associated with the first network node, wherein the first sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of user equipment (UE) to the second network node; andreceiving, by the first network node from the second network node, a first response message in response to the first request message, wherein the first response message comprises information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the first sensing task handover request and information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the sensing task configuration information.2.The method of claim 1, wherein the sensing task configuration information comprises at least one of:sensing mode information of the UE;information of a sensing device that interacts a sensing signal with the UE;a sensing task activation indication;sensing task control node information of the UE; anda UE identity corresponding to a sensing report.3.The method of claim 1, wherein the first request message further comprises at least one of:a sensing task configuration information list; andrequest information that requires the second network node to participate in or assist in the sensing task.4.The method of claim 3, wherein each sensing task configuration information in the sensing task configuration information list comprises at least one of:information identifying the first network node;information identifying the sensing task;information of a sensing service type;information related to a sensing device;information of a sensing area of the first network node;information identifying a receiving node of a sensing report; andinformation about whether the sensing task supports handover,and wherein the information related to the sensing device comprises at least one of:information identifying a sensing group;sensing capability information;sensing mode information;sensing result reporting information; andinformation related to the reporting of sensing report(s).5.The method of claim 1, wherein the first response message further comprises at least one of:information related to the sensing task of the UE; anda notification related to the second network node participating in or assisting in the sensing task,wherein the information related to the sensing task of the UE comprises at one of:information identifying a control node of the sensing task;information identifying a receiving node of the sensing report;sensing area information;sensing mode information; andinformation related to the reporting of sensing report(s).6.The method of claim 1, further comprising:transmitting, by the first network node to the UE, a first configuration message, wherein the first configuration message is used for updating a sensing task configuration to the UE, and wherein the first configuration message comprises at least one of:information identifying the sensing task;information of a sensing service type;information related to a sensing device;information identifying a receiving node of a sensing report;information of a sensing area; andinformation for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE,and wherein when the sensing device is the UE, the information related to the sensing device comprises at least one of:information identifying the sensing device;sensing capability information of the sensing device;sensing mode information;sensing result reporting information; andinformation related to the reporting of sensing report(s).7.The method of claim 1, further comprising:receiving, by the first network node from the second network node, a second request message, wherein the second request message comprises a second sensing task handover request and / or information about the UE having moved out of a sensing area, wherein the second sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of the sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and the information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area is used for indicating that the UE has moved out of a sensing area of the first network node; andtransmitting, by the first network node to the second network node, a second response message in response to the second request message, wherein the second response message comprises information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the second sensing task handover request.8.The method of claim 1, further comprising:receiving, by the first network node from a fifth network node, a fourth request message, wherein the fourth request message includes a third sensing task handover request and / or information about the UE having moved out of a sensing area, wherein the third sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of the sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and the information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area is used for indicating that the UE has moved out of a sensing area of the first network node; andtransmitting, by the first network node to the fifth network node, a fourth response message in response to the fourth request message, wherein the fourth response message comprises information for indicating whether the first network node accepts the third sensing task handover request.9.The method of claim 7, wherein each of the second request message and the fourth request message further comprises at least one of:a UE identity or a UE identity list;information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE;a reason for requesting sensing task handover;information of a sensing area of the second network node; andsensing capability information of the second network node.10.The method of claim 7, wherein each of the second response message and the fourth response message further comprises at least one of:a UE identity or a UE identity list;information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE;information related to sensing area update; andinformation for controlling the session status of the sensing task of the UE.11.The method of claim 1, further comprising:when the first network node determines that the UE has moved out of the sensing area of the first network node, transmitting, by the first network node to the fifth network node, a fifth request message, wherein the fifth request message includes a fourth sensing task handover request and / or information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area, wherein the fourth sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of the sensing task of the UE to the second network node, and the information about the UE having moved out of the sensing area is used for indicating that the UE has moved out of the sensing area of the first network node; andreceiving, by the first network node from the fifth network node, a fifth response message in response to the fifth request message, wherein the fifth response message includes information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the fourth sensing task handover request.12.The method of claim 11, wherein the fifth request message further comprises at least one of:a UE identity or a UE identity list;information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE;information of a cell in which a sensing signal with the UE is last detected;information of the sensing area of the first network node; anda reason for requesting sensing task handover,and wherein the fifth response message further comprises at least one of:a UE identity or a UE identity list;information identifying the sensing task performed by the UE;information identifying a base station or a cell currently accessed by the UE;information of a sensing area of the second network node; andinformation suggesting adjustment of a sensing area range of the first network node.13.A method performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising:receiving, by the UE from a first network node, a first configuration message from a second network node; andtransmitting, by the UE to the second network node, a message in response to the first configuration message,wherein the first configuration message is included in a first response message transmitted by the second network node to the first network node, and the first response message is a message by which the second network node responds to a first request message transmitted by the first network node, andwherein the first request message comprises a first sensing task handover request and sensing task configuration information for reference associated with the first network node, wherein the first sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of the UE to the second network node, andthe first response message comprises information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the first sensing task handover request and information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the sensing task configuration information.14.A first network node comprising:at least one transceiver;at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one transceiver; andat least one memory, communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, storing instructions executable by the at least one processor individually or in any combination to cause the first network node to:transmit, by the first network node to a second network node, a first request message related to handover, wherein the first request message comprises a first sensing task handover request and sensing task configuration information for reference associated with the first network node, wherein the first sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of user equipment (UE) to the second network node; andreceive, by the first network node from the second network node, a first response message in response to the first request message, wherein the first response message comprises information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the first sensing task handover request and information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the sensing task configuration information.15.A user equipment (UE) comprising:at least one transceiver;at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one transceiver; andat least one memory, communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, storing instructions executable by the at least one processor individually or in any combination to cause the UE to:receive, by the UE from a first network node, a first configuration message from a second network node; andtransmit, by the UE to the second network node, a message in response to the first configuration message,wherein the first configuration message is included in a first response message transmitted by the second network node to the first network node, and the first response message is a message by which the second network node responds to a first request message transmitted by the first network node, andwherein the first request message comprises a first sensing task handover request and sensing task configuration information for reference associated with the first network node, wherein the first sensing task handover request is used for requesting handover of a sensing task of the UE to the second network node, andthe first response message comprises information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the first sensing task handover request and information for indicating whether the second network node accepts the sensing task configuration information.

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