Dual Steering Mobility Between Terrestrial and Non-Terrestrial Networks
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing communication systems face challenges in enabling terminals to seamlessly switch between terrestrial and satellite base stations to maintain continuous service connectivity, particularly in integrated or cooperative networks combining both.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus for providing terminal mobility that allows a terminal to establish and maintain simultaneous connections with both terrestrial and satellite base stations through dual steering capabilities, involving RRC connected states, PDU session establishment, and specific resource setup procedures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a terminal simultaneously accesses both satellite base station and terrestrial base station, then service continuity is improved, but connection establishment difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The terminal performs preliminary actions by establishing RRC connected states with both base stations before actual service transmission. The dual steering capability information is prepared and transmitted in advance during the registration phase, enabling the network to pre-configure dual connectivity parameters and resource allocation before service commencement, thus simplifying the actual connection establishment process while ensuring continuous service delivery
Solution Approach 2:
The connection establishment process is segmented into distinct phases: first establishing RRC connected state with a primary base station, then establishing with a secondary base station. The PDU session establishment is divided into separate procedures for each base station, allowing independent configuration and resource setup for each connection path, which reduces the overall complexity of managing multiple simultaneous connections
2Adaptability or versatility
If dual steering function is implemented, then traffic management flexibility is improved, but signaling procedures increase
Solution Approach 1:
Dual steering capability information is transmitted and processed in advance during the registration phase, before actual traffic needs to be routed. The network pre-establishes the capability framework and configuration parameters, so that when traffic steering is needed, the terminal can quickly switch between base stations without undergoing full reconfiguration procedures, thus reducing signaling overhead while maintaining traffic management flexibility
Solution Approach 2:
The RRC connected state establishment serves multiple functions: it simultaneously prepares the terminal for both primary and secondary base station connections, establishes dual steering capability, and configures resource allocation for future traffic routing. This multi-functional approach consolidates multiple signaling procedures into a single establishment phase, reducing overall signaling time while enabling flexible traffic management
Data Source
AI summary
A method of a terminal may comprise: establishing RRC connected states with a first base station and a second base station; transmitting, to a mobility management function entity and via the first base station, a PDU session establishment request message including dual steering capability information indicating support of a dual steering function of the terminal; performing a first RAN-specific resource setup procedure according to a first PDU session request of the mobility management function entity; establishing a first session with the first base station according to the first RAN-specific resource setup procedure; performing a second RAN-specific resource setup procedure according to a second PDU session request of the mobility management function entity; and establishing a second session with the second base station according to the second RAN-specific resource setup procedure.