Method and apparatus for providing relay service using a relay user equipment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10326520-B2
Application number	US-201715815919-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 17, 2017
Priority date	May 19, 2015
Publication date	Jun 18, 2019
Grant date	Jun 18, 2019

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method and an apparatus for providing a relay service. A second message sent by an MME is received by a P-GW, where the second message includes a first identifier of remote UE; an uplink packet filter of the remote UE is determined according to the first identifier of the remote UE; and an uplink TFT of relay UE is determined, where the uplink TFT includes the uplink packet filter of the remote UE, and the uplink packet filter of the remote UE is used by the relay UE to map an uplink data packet of the remote UE to an EPS bearer of the relay UE.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for providing a relay service, applied to a mobility management entity (MME), comprising:
receiving a first message sent by a relay user equipment (UE), wherein the first message is used to request to provide the relay service to a remote UE, and the first message comprises a globally unique temporary identity (GUTI) of the remote UE;
obtaining a first identifier of the remote UE according to the GUTI of the remote UE;
sending a second message to a packet data network-gateway (P-GW), wherein the second message comprises the first identifier of the remote UE;
receiving a third message sent by the P-GW, wherein the third message comprises an uplink traffic flow template (TFT), the uplink TFT comprises an uplink packet filter of the remote UE, and the uplink packet filter of the remote UE is used by the relay UE to map an uplink data packet of the remote UE to an evolved packet data (EPS) bearer of the relay UE; and
sending a fourth message to the relay UE, wherein the fourth message comprises the uplink TFT,
wherein the first message further comprises a second identifier of the remote UE, and the method further comprises determining an address of the P-GW according to the second identifier of the remote UE, and establishing a packet data network (PDN) connection between the relay UE and the P-GW.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the identifier of the remote UE comprises: an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) of the remote UE or an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the remote UE.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the third message further comprises a first TFT, the first TFT is used by the relay UE to route a downlink data packet of the remote UE to a bearer on a PC5 interface between the relay UE and the remote UE; and the fourth message further comprises the first TFT.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein after the sending the fourth message to the relay UE, the method further comprises:
sending a fifth message to the P-GW, wherein the fifth message is used to request for a bearer resource, the fifth message is used to cause the P-GW to update a downlink TFT of the relay UE, the downlink TFT comprises a downlink packet filter of the remote UE, and the downlink packet filter of the remote UE is used to map the downlink data packet of the remote UE to the EPS bearer of the relay UE.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the obtaining a first identifier of the remote UE according to the GUTI of the remote UE comprises:
obtaining context information of the remote UE according to the GUTI of the remote UE, and obtaining the first identifier of the remote UE from the context information of the remote UE.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the obtaining context information of the remote UE according to the GUTI of the remote UE comprises:
determining, according to the GUTI of the remote UE, an original mobility management entity MME corresponding to the remote UE;
sending a sixth message to the original MME, wherein the sixth message is used to obtain the context information of the remote UE, and the sixth message comprises the GUTI of the remote UE; and
receiving the context information of the remote UE that is sent by the original MME.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the sixth message further comprises attach request information or a tracking area update message, and the attach request information or the tracking area update message is used by the original MME to verify the remote UE.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the second identifier is a linked EPS bearer identifier (LBI) or an access point name (APN).

9. A method for providing a relay service, applied to relay user equipment UE, comprising:
sending a first message to a mobility management entity (MME), wherein the first message is used to request to provide the relay service to a remote (UE), and the first message comprises a globally unique temporary identity (GUTI) of the remote UE;
receiving a fourth message sent by the MME, wherein the fourth message comprises an uplink traffic flow template (TFT), and the uplink TFT comprises an uplink packet filter of the remote UE;
mapping an uplink data packet of the remote UE to an evolved packet data (EPS) bearer of the relay UE according to the uplink TFT; and
sending the uplink data packet of the remote UE to a packet data network-gateway (P-GW) by using the EPS bearer of the relay UE, wherein the first message further comprises a second identifier of the remote UE, and the second identifier is used by the MME to determine an address of the P-GW of the remote UE, and establish a packet data network (PDN) connection between the relay UE and the P-GW.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the fourth message further comprises a first TFT; and the method further comprises:
routing a downlink data packet of the remote UE to a bearer on a PC5 interface according to the first TFT, wherein the PC5 is an interface between the relay UE and the remote UE.

11. The method according to claim 9 , wherein after the receiving a fourth message sent by the MME, the method further comprises:
generating a first TFT; and
routing a downlink data packet of the remote UE to a bearer on a PC5 interface according to the first TFT, wherein the PC5 is an interface between the relay UE and the remote UE.

12. The method according to claim 9 , wherein before the sending a first message to an MME, the method further comprises:
receiving attach request information or a tracking area update message sent by the remote UE, wherein the attach request information or the tracking area update message is used by an original MME corresponding to the remote UE to verify the remote UE.

13. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the second identifier is a linked EPS bearer identifier (LBI) or an access point name (APN).

14. A User equipment (UE) for providing a relay service, comprising:
a transceiver;
a memory comprising instructions; and
a processor coupled to the transceiver and the memory, wherein when executed by the processor, the instructions cause the processor to be configured to:
send, via the transceiver, a first message to a mobility management entity (MME), wherein the first message is used to request to provide a relay service to remote UE, and the first message comprises a globally unique temporary identity (GUTI) of the remote UE;
receive, via the transceiver, a fourth message sent by the MME, wherein the fourth message comprises an uplink traffic flow template (TFT), and the uplink TFT comprises an uplink packet filter of the remote UE;
map an uplink data packet of the remote UE to an evolved packet data (EPS) bearer of the relay UE according to the uplink TFT; and
send, via the transceiver, the uplink data packet of the remote UE to a packet data network-gateway (P-GW) by using the EPS bearer of the relay UE, wherein the first message further comprises a second identifier of the remote UE, and the second identifier is used by the MME to determine an address of the P-GW of the remote UE, and establish a packet data network (PDN) connection between the relay UE and the P-GW.

15. The user equipment according to claim 14 , wherein the fourth message further comprises a first TFT; and the instructions further cause the processor to be configured to:
route a downlink data packet of the remote UE to a bearer on a PC5 interface according to the first TFT, wherein the PC5 is an interface between the relay UE and the remote UE.

16. The user equipment according to claim 14 , where

Assignees

• Huawei Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Ouyang Guowei
• Jin Hui
• Yi Qiang
• He Yue

Classifications

• H04W72/20

  Control channels or signalling for resource management · CPC title

• H04L63/0245

  Filtering by information in the payload · CPC title

• H04W88/04

  adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user · CPC title

• H04B7/15528 Primary

  Control of operation parameters of a relay station to exploit the physical medium · CPC title

• H04W28/06

  Optimizing {the usage of the radio link}, e.g. header compression, information sizing {, discarding information (system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365)} · CPC title