Handover method, device and system in multi-connection network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12507130-B2
Application number	US-202117925911-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 7, 2021
Priority date	May 29, 2020
Publication date	Dec 23, 2025
Grant date	Dec 23, 2025

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a handover method, a network device and a system in a multi-connectivity network. The method includes: determining a type of a user of a terminal during a handover procedure of the terminal to a multi-connectivity network of the construction operator; determining a user plane split policy corresponding to the terminal according to the type of the user of the terminal; and switching a user plane channel of the terminal to a user plane channel of a first standard network of the construction operator, in a case that the user plane split policy is split-disabled, and switching the user plane channel of the terminal to the user plane channel of the first standard network and a user plane channel of a second standard network of the construction operator, in a case that the user plane split policy is split-enabled.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A handover method in a multi-connectivity network, performed by a network device of a construction operator, comprising:
determining a type of a user of a terminal during a handover procedure of the terminal to a multi-connectivity network of the construction operator, wherein the type comprises: a first type indicating that the user is a user of a sharing operator or a second type indicating that the user is a user of the construction operator; determining a user plane split policy corresponding to the terminal according to the type of the user of the terminal; switching a user plane channel of the terminal to a user plane channel of a first standard network of the construction operator, in a case that the user plane split policy corresponding to the terminal is split-disabled, and switching the user plane channel of the terminal to the user plane channel of the first standard network and a user plane channel of a second standard network of the construction operator, in a case that the user plane split policy corresponding to the terminal is split-enabled, wherein the first standard network and the second standard network are networks of different network standards; and switching a control plane of the terminal to a control plane channel of the second standard network of the construction operator.

2 . The handover method according to claim 1 , wherein determining the user plane split policy corresponding to the terminal according to the type of the user of the terminal comprises:
determining that the user plane split policy corresponding to the terminal is split-disabled, in a case that the type of the user of the terminal is the first type; and determining that the user plane split policy corresponding to the terminal is split-enabled, in a case that the type of the user of the terminal is the second type.

3 . The data transmission method according to claim 1 , wherein determining the user plane split policy corresponding to the terminal according to the type of the user of the terminal comprises:
determining the user plane split policy corresponding to the terminal, according to the type of the user of the terminal and an occupancy rate of user plane air interface resources provided by a base station in the second standard network and occupied by all terminals, of which users are of the same type as the terminal, in a case that a networking mode comprises splitting user plane data from the base station in the second standard network or splitting user plane data from a base station in the first standard network.

4 . The handover method according to claim 3 , wherein determining the user plane split policy corresponding to the terminal, according to the type of the user of the terminal and the occupancy rate of the user plane air interface resources provided by the base station in the second standard network and occupied by all terminals, of which users are of the same type as the terminal comprises:
determining whether the occupancy rate of the user plane air interface resources provided by the base station in the second standard network and occupied by all terminals belonging to users of the sharing operator reaches a threshold, in a case that the type of the user of the terminal is the first type, determining that the user plane split policy corresponding to the terminal is split-disabled, in a case that the occupancy rate reaches the threshold, and determining that the user plane split policy corresponding to the terminal is split-enabled, in a case that the occupancy rate does not reach the threshold; and determining that the user plane split policy corresponding to the terminal is split-enabled, in a case that the type of the user of the terminal is the second type.

5 . The handover method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
after determining the user plane split policy corresponding to the terminal, storing the user plane split policy corresponding to the terminal in association with identification information of the terminal.

6 . The handover method according to claim 5 , wherein storing the user plane split policy corresponding to the terminal in association with the identification information of the terminal comprises:
setting a split switch of a user plane channel of the second standard network corresponding to the identification information of the terminal to an off state, in a case of determining that the user plane split policy corresponding to the terminal is split-disabled; and setting the split switch of the user plane channel of the second standard network corresponding to the identification information of the terminal to an on state, in a case of determining that the user plane split policy corresponding to the terminal is split-enabled.

7 . The handover method according to claim 6 , wherein the split switch is set at a base station in the second standard network, in a case that a networking mode comprises splitting user plane data from the base station in the second standard network or splitting user plane data from a base station in the first standard network, and the split switch is set at a core network device, in a case that the networking mode comprises splitting user plane data from the core network of the second standard network.

8 . The handover method according to claim 1 , wherein determining the type of the user of the terminal comprises:
obtaining identification information of the terminal from control plane information or through an interface with a network device to which the terminal is connected before the handover procedure of the terminal, in response to receiving the control plane information of the terminal; and determining the type of the user of the terminal according to the identification information of the terminal.

9 . The handover method according to claim 1 , wherein determining the type of the user of the terminal during the handover procedure of the terminal to the multi-connectivity network of the construction operator comprises:
in a case that an interface is set between the network device of the construction operator and a network device to which the terminal is connected before the handover procedure of the terminal, obtaining a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) number of the terminal through the interface, and determining the type of the user of the terminal according to the PLMN number; or in a case that no interface is set between the network device of the construction operator and a network device to which the terminal is connected before the handover procedure of the terminal, obtaining the PLMN number of the terminal through a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection establishment process with the terminal, and determining the type of the user of the terminal according to the PLMN number.

10 . The handover method according to claim 1 , wherein the first standard network is a Fifth-Generation mobile network, and the second standard network is a Fourth-Generation mobile network or a Third-Generation mobile network.

11 . A network device in a multi-connectivity network, comprising:
a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor and storing instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: determine a type of a user of a terminal during a handover procedure of the terminal to a multi-connectivity network of the construction operator, wherein the type comprising: a first type indicating that the user is a user of a sharing operator or a second type indicating that the user is a user of the construction operator; determine a user plane split policy corresponding to the terminal according to the type of the user of the terminal; switch a user plane ch

Assignees

• China Telecom Co Ltd

Inventors

• Xie Weiliang
• Zhang Xin
• Chen Jiangang
• Li Peng
• Lu Na
• Li Zhijun

Classifications

• H04W84/042

  Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems · CPC title

• H04W36/22

  for handling the traffic · CPC title

• H04W8/18

  Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data · CPC title

• H04L45/851

  Dynamic network selection or re-selection, e.g. after degradation of quality · CPC title

• H04W88/06

  adapted for operation in multiple networks {or having at least two operational modes}, e.g. multi-mode terminals · CPC title