Background
(1) Small Data Transmission (Small Data Transmission).
Research on M2M (Machine to Machine) communications has shown that providing M2M communications over mobile networks has potential market prospects. The M2M service puts many new requirements on the system, and small data transmission is an important requirement, and the characteristics of small data transmission are suitable for MTC (Machine Type Communication) devices that send or receive small amounts of data.
For this reason, the following characteristic requirements for small data transmissions are currently set forth: the system supports that a small amount of data transmission should bring minimum influence to the network (such as signaling overhead, network resources, reconfiguration delay and the like); when a small amount of data needs to be sent, the MTC device may be attached to the network or detached from the network; the definition of the small amount of data should be configurable based on subscription information or the policy of the operator.
(2) A solution for downlink small data transmission.
1) The method uses the established NAS (Non Access Stratum) security context to transmit the downlink SMS (Short Messaging Service) PDU (Protocol Data Unit), the method uses the NAS signaling to transmit Data, and does not need to establish RRC (radio resource Control) security context, the specific process comprises:
and i, performing small data transmission negotiation between an MME (Mobility Management Entity) and a UE (user equipment) in an Attach/TAU (Tracking Area Update) process.
ii, triggering MME to page UE when the downlink short message reaches MME, and establishing RRC connection: an SMS flag (mark) is added in a paging message on an air interface and an S1 interface, so that the UE modifies RRC estabilishment cause from mt-access to mo-signalling (or new cause value: mt-signalling). This RRC cancellation cause allows the eNB (base station) to optimize its resource allocation and configure the UE not to make measurement reports.
And iii, the UE sends a Service Request (Service Request) response paging and carries 'KSIand sequence number' IE (Information Elements) in the message. Thereafter, the MME may encrypt RP-data for subsequent transmissions using "KSI and sequence number" and S-TMSI (temporal Mobile subscriber identity).
Mme sends RP-data in ciphered IE of NAS PDU of downlink NAS transport message, after which eNB sends NAS PDU to UE.
v. ue sends RP-ACK (acknowledgement) in ciphered IE of NAS PDU in UL Information Transfer message, after which eNB sends NAS PDU to MME.
Ue adds a new optional IE in UL Information Transfer to request eNB to release RRC connection.
vii the eNB releases the RRC connection.
2) The established NAS security context is used for transmitting the downlink small data IP packet, NAS signaling is used for transmitting data in the method, the RRC security context does not need to be established, and the specific process comprises the following steps:
the MME and the UE perform small Data transmission negotiation (attach/TAU), activate NAS encryption, and activate a PDN (Packet Data Network) connection.
And ii, when a Downlink IP packet arrives at the S-GW (Serving Gateway), the S-GW caches the IP packet, attaches the IP packet to a Downlink Data Notification message, and transmits the IP packet to the MME. And the S-GW detects whether IP packets arrive at the same UE next time and whether the total size of the IP packets exceeds the value configured by the operator or the subscription information, and if so, the S-GW sends a downlink data Notification request to establish S1 bearer.
And iii, paging by the MME. The addition of the small data flag to the paging message over the air interface and S1 interface allows the UE to change the RRC estipaliform cause from mt-access to mo-signaling (or a new cause: mt-signaling). This RRC cancellation cause allows the eNB to optimize its resource allocation and configure the UE not to perform measurement reporting.
And the MME judges whether to send a small data flag or not and whether to completely execute the next service request procedure or not according to the subscription information. The UE sends a service request message to respond to the paging and carries the 'KSI and sequence number' IE. Thereafter, the MME may encrypt subsequently transmitted IP packets using "KSI and sequence number" and S-TMSI.
And the MME sends an IP Packet and an EPS (Evolved Packet System) bearer ID (bearer identity) in an encrypted IE of the NAS PDU of the S1 downlink NAS transmission message, and then the eNB sends the NAS PDU to the UE.
v. the ue sends an IP packet as a response. The UE sends the IP packet and the EPS bearer ID in the cipher IE of the NAS PDU in the UL Information Transfer message. And then the eNB sends the NAS PDU to the MME, and the MME decrypts the IE, increases the GTP header and sends the GTP header to the S-GW.
Ue adds a new optional IE in UL Information Transfer to request eNB to release RRC connection.
vii the eNB releases the RRC connection.
In the process of implementing the invention, the inventor finds that at least the following problems exist in the prior art:
for idle downlink small data transmission, the existing scheme needs downlink small data to trigger an MME to page UE, and completes the transmission of the downlink small data by using the service request process of UE response paging. When a large amount of MTC equipment needs to perform small data communication, great burden is caused on wireless air interface resources and node signaling resources; moreover, the signaling required for the above procedure may be much larger than the small amount of data to be transmitted, which is not reasonable for both the network and the UE.
Detailed Description
The inventor notices in the process of implementing the invention that: in the current service transmission process, the data transmission process of the system is designed for the H2H (Human to Human) communication requirement, in the current LTE system, for the UE in an idle state, if downlink data needs to be sent to the UE on the network side, the network side needs to page the UE, trigger the UE to initiate a service request process, establish the bearers of the UE at an air interface and an S1 interface, and then perform data transmission based on the bearers; the above processing is for H2H communication, if the above processing is applied to the small data transmission scenario of MTC, it is only a service request procedure, and its signaling overhead may be larger than the data amount of small data to be transmitted, and the system efficiency is very low; when there are a large number of MTC devices that need to send small data, network congestion may result.
In order to reduce signaling overhead and improve system efficiency, there are two main solutions for the small data transmission characteristics of MTC, namely, a small data transmission scheme based on SMS and a small data transmission scheme based on NAS signaling. However, for downlink small data transmission of the UE in idle state, both of these schemes require the downlink small data to trigger the MME to page the UE, and complete transmission of the downlink small data by using the service request process of the UE responding to paging, thereby causing a great burden on wireless air interface resources and node signaling resources.
In view of the foregoing problems, embodiments of the present invention provide a method and an apparatus for transmitting small data, where an RRC signaling is used to transmit downlink small data for an idle UE, so as to optimize a signaling process for small data transmission and avoid a service request process initiated due to small data transmission. In addition, in the process of implementing the embodiment of the present invention, the standard process considered by the inventor comprises: fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a UE-initiated service request procedure, fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an RRC connection establishment of the UE, and fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a paging procedure and a service request procedure triggered by the paging procedure; in fig. 3, after receiving the paging message, the UE establishes an SRB (Signaling Radio Bearer) with the eNB by using an RRC connection establishment procedure to transmit RRC Signaling. The UE sends a NAS message service request message (information) to the network through a NAS container in an RRC connection setup complete message, thereby initiating a service request process.
The technical solutions in the present invention will be described clearly and completely with reference to the accompanying drawings, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present invention, not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.
Example one
The invention provides a Small Data transmission method, which aims at the transmission process of Small Data, wherein the Small Data is Small Data specified by a current protocol, and the Small Data can be Small Data related in the current MTC-based Data transmission process. For example, the description about Small Data size in the current protocol is: "The observed size of The magnetism of The entities on The order of 1K (1024) bytes or less", so that it is known that data having a data length of 1K bytes or less can be referred to as small data; of course, the present invention is not limited to the definition mode in practical application, and may be adjusted according to practical situations, which will not be described in detail in the embodiments of the present invention.
As shown in fig. 4, the method comprises the steps of:
step 401, a core network device (e.g. MME, SGSN (Serving GPRS Supporting Node, Serving GPRS support Node), etc.) determines that there is small data to be sent to the UE in an idle state.
In the embodiment of the invention, the core network equipment can receive the small data and determine that the small data needs to be sent to the UE in an idle state. The manner in which the core network device receives the small data includes, but is not limited to: (1) the MTC server (server) sends the small data to the P-GW, the P-GW sends the small data to the S-GW, and the S-GW sends the small data to the MME; (2) the MTC server sends the small data to an MTC-IWF (inter-working function), and the MTC-IWF sends the small data to the MME.
In step 402, the core network device sends the small data to the access network device (e.g., a base station, an eNB, etc.) through a paging (paging) message.
In the embodiment of the invention, after receiving the small data, the core network equipment can page the UE and carry the small data in the paging message sent to the access network equipment.
Step 403, the access network device receives a paging message carrying small data from the core network device.
Specifically, when there is small data to be sent to the UE in the idle state, the access network device may receive a paging message carrying the small data from the core network device.
In step 404, the access network device sends the small data to the UE through an RRC message.
Specifically, after receiving the paging message, the access network device may page the UE according to normal operation and buffer the small data. After that, the access network device may send the small data to the UE through an RRC message, that is, the access network device sends the small data to the UE through an RRC connection setup message.
In the embodiment of the invention, after the access network equipment pages the UE, the UE needs to respond to the paging and sends an RRC connection request message to the access network equipment; therefore, the access network device may receive the RRC connection request message when the UE responds to the paging, and then the access network device may transmit the small data to the UE through the rrcc connection setup message.
In step 405, the UE receives an RRC message (such as an RRCconnection setup message carrying small data) from the access network device, where the RRC message carries small data that needs to be sent to the UE in the idle state. The UE may then obtain the small data from the RRC message.
In the embodiment of the invention, when the access network equipment pages the UE, the UE needs to respond to the paging and send an RRC connection request message to the access network equipment to initiate an RRC connection establishment process; after that, the UE may receive an RRC connection setup message carrying small data from the access network device.
In step 406, the UE sends an RRC connection setup complete message to the access network device. Wherein, the RRC connection setup complete message carries the information for confirming the received small data.
After receiving the RRC connection setup message, the UE needs to return an RRCconnection setup complete message to the access network device, where the RRCconnection setup complete message carries a UL NAS transport (uplink non-access stratum transport) message and an AS (access stratum) message; in the embodiment of the invention, the information for confirming the received small data can be carried by the UL NAS transport message; or, the information for confirming the received small data is carried by the AS message.
Step 407, the access network device receives an RRC connection setup complete message from the UE, where the RRC connection setup complete message carries information for confirming the received small data.
In step 408, the access network device sends information confirming that the UE has received the small data to the core network device.
In step 409, the core network device receives information from the access network device confirming that the UE has received the small data.
In summary, in the embodiment of the present invention, the core network device may piggyback the small data to the access network device through the paging message, and complete the small data transmission and confirmation process between the access network device and the UE through the RRC signaling, without initiating the subsequent service request process, the core network device may transmit the small data to the UE in an idle state, thereby optimizing the signaling process of small data transmission and avoiding the service request process initiated due to small data transmission; therefore, the signaling overhead in an MTC scene is effectively reduced, the resource consumption of core network equipment and UE is reduced, and the possibility of congestion of the core network equipment is reduced.
Example two
The second embodiment of the present invention provides a method for transmitting small data, which is described in detail with reference to the MTC architecture diagram shown in fig. 5. In the MTC architecture, end-to-end communication between MTC devices and MTC applications may utilize services provided by 3GPP, which provides transport and communication services including 3GPP bearer services, IMS and SMS, and is optimized for MTC communication.
The UE may connect to a 3GPP network (UTRAN, E-UTRAN, GERAN, I-WLAN, etc.) over a Um/Uu/LTE-Uu interface. In the architecture shown in fig. 5, the following models are included: (1) direct model (direct model): direct communication provided by the 3GPP operator, MTC applications do not pass through MTC servers, but are directly connected to the operator network. (2) indiect model (indirect model): MTC service provider controlled communication, MTC server is an entity outside the operator domain, MTCi, MTCsp and mtcms are external interfaces. (3) indelect model: 3GPP operator controlled communication, MTC server is located within the operator network, MTCi, MTCsp and mtcms are the internal interfaces of the PLMN. (4) The method comprises the steps that a hybrid model comprises a direct model and an index model, a user plane is established through the direct model, and control plane signaling is transmitted through the index model.
In the architecture shown in fig. 5, in order to support index model and hybrid model for MTC communication, one or more MTC InterWorking functions (MTC-IWFs) need to be configured in the PLMN network, where the MTC-IWF may be an independent entity or a functional entity on another network element; the MTC-IWF is located on the PLMN internal topology, and transmits signaling between a 3GPP network and an MTC server through an MTCPp interface. The functions of the MTC-IWF include: providing an MTCPs reference point; before establishing a signaling to a 3GPP network, authenticating an MTC server; authorizing a control plane communication request of the MTC server; and supporting the secure communication between the 3GPP network and the MTC server.
Based on the network architecture, as an interface node of the 3GPP facing the MTC server, after the MTC-IWF authenticates the MTC server, the MTC-IWF authorizes the establishment of control plane communication to the MTC server, and sends the received small data sent by the MTC server to the MME through a control message between the MME and the small data.
As shown in fig. 6, based on the network architecture, the transmission process of the downlink small data includes the following steps:
step 1, the authenticated and authorized legal MTC server sends small data to the MTC-IWF through the MTCPp interface, wherein the small data contains the external identification of the UE.
Step 2, the MTC-IWF obtains information such as the internal identification of the UE in the 3GPP network, the service MME, the state of the UE and the like through the external identification of the UE; and forwarding the small data to the MME by using control signaling between the MME and the small data.
In the first mode, the MTC-IWF can obtain the information by inquiring the HSS: the query request message may be an external identity of the UE or a 3GPP internal identity of the UE (provided that an MTC-IWF stores internal and external identity mapping of the UE).
In the second mode, the MTC-IWF maintains the context of the UE, which includes information such as UE identity, serving MME, and UE status.
And step 3, after receiving the small data transmitted by the MTC-IWF, the MME pages the UE and carries the small data encrypted by the NAS security context in the paging message transmitted to the eNB.
And step 4, the eNB pages the UE according to normal operation and caches the small data encrypted by the NAS security context.
And step 5, when the UE responds to the paging, sending an RRC connection request message to initiate an RRC connection establishment process.
And 6, the eNB transmits the small data encrypted by the NAS security context to the UE through an RRC connection setup message.
And step 7, after receiving the small data encrypted by the NAS security context in the RRC connection setup message, the UE can decrypt the small data through the NAS security context at the UE so as to obtain the small data sent by the MTC server, and does not initiate a service request process any more.
In addition, the UE returns an RRC connection setup complete message to the eNB, and confirms the received small data. The UE can carry a small data ACK message through a UL NAS transport message, or the UE can carry a small data ACK message through an AS message.
And step 8, the eNB carries out small data transmission confirmation to the MME through the S1-AP message.
And step 9, the MME performs small data transmission confirmation to the MTC-IWF.
And step 10, the MTC-IWF performs small data transmission confirmation to the MTC server.
EXAMPLE III
Based on the same inventive concept as the above method, an embodiment of the present invention further provides an access network device, as shown in fig. 7, where the access network device includes:
a core network side communication module 11, configured to receive a paging message carrying small data from a core network device;
the user side communication module 12 is configured to send the small data to a corresponding user equipment through a radio resource control RRC message.
The core network side communication module 11 is specifically configured to receive a paging message carrying small data from a core network device when the small data needs to be sent to the user equipment in an idle state.
The user side communication module 12 is specifically configured to send the small data to the user equipment through an RRC connection setup message.
The ue communication module 12 is specifically configured to page the ue, receive an RRC connection request message from the ue when the ue responds to the paging, and send the small data to the ue through the RRC connection setup message.
The user side communication module 12 is further configured to receive, after the ue receives the small data, a connection setup complete message from the ue, where the RRC connection setup complete message carries information for confirming the received small data.
Transmitting an ULNAS transport message carrying information for confirming the received small data through an uplink non-access stratum in the RRC connection setup complete message; or,
and carrying the information for confirming the received small data through the access stratum AS message in the RRC connection setup complete message.
The core network side communication module 11 is further configured to send, to the core network device, information for confirming that the user equipment has received the small data.
The modules of the device can be integrated into a whole or can be separately deployed. The modules can be combined into one module, and can also be further split into a plurality of sub-modules.
Example four
Based on the same inventive concept as the above method, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a core network device, as shown in fig. 8, where the core network device includes:
a determining module 21, configured to determine that there is small data to be sent to the user equipment in an idle state;
a sending module 22, configured to send the small data to the access network device through a paging message.
The core network device further includes:
a receiving module 23, configured to receive, after the access network device receives the information that the user equipment has confirmed to receive the small data, the information that the user equipment has confirmed to receive the small data from the access network device.
The modules of the device can be integrated into a whole or can be separately deployed. The modules can be combined into one module, and can also be further split into a plurality of sub-modules.
EXAMPLE five
Based on the same inventive concept as the above method, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a user equipment, as shown in fig. 9, where the user equipment includes:
a receiving module 31, configured to receive a radio resource control RRC message from an access network device, where the RRC message carries small data that needs to be sent to the user equipment in an idle state;
an obtaining module 32, configured to obtain the small data from the RRC message.
The receiving module 31 is specifically configured to receive an RRC connection setup message carrying the small data from the access network device.
The receiving module 31 is specifically configured to send an RRC connection request message to the access network device when the access network device pages the user equipment; and receiving the RRC connection setup message carrying the small data from the access network equipment.
The user equipment further comprises:
a sending module 33, configured to send an RRC connection setup complete message to the access network device, where the RRC connection setup complete message carries information for confirming the received small data.
Transmitting an ULNAS transport message carrying information for confirming the received small data through an uplink non-access stratum in the RRC connection setup complete message; or,
and carrying the information for confirming the received small data through the access stratum AS message in the RRC connection setup complete message.
The modules of the device can be integrated into a whole or can be separately deployed. The modules can be combined into one module, and can also be further split into a plurality of sub-modules.
Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art will clearly understand that the present invention may be implemented by software plus a necessary general hardware platform, and certainly may also be implemented by hardware, but in many cases, the former is a better embodiment. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the present invention may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute the methods according to the embodiments of the present invention.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the drawings are merely schematic representations of one preferred embodiment and that the blocks or flow diagrams in the drawings are not necessarily required to practice the present invention.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the modules in the devices in the embodiments may be distributed in the devices in the embodiments according to the description of the embodiments, and may be correspondingly changed in one or more devices different from the embodiments. The modules of the above embodiments may be combined into one module, or further split into multiple sub-modules.
The above-mentioned serial numbers of the embodiments of the present invention are merely for description and do not represent the merits of the embodiments.
The above disclosure is only for a few specific embodiments of the present invention, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and any variations that can be made by those skilled in the art are intended to fall within the scope of the present invention.