Method and device for processing inter-system reselection or switch

Abstract

The present invention discloses a processing method and device for reselecting or switching UE from a TD-SCDMA system to a TD-LTE system. The method includes: receiving, by a PGW, a modify bearer request message sent by an SGW; obtaining, by the PGW, an S5/S8 interface resource in current bearer context information, updating the bearer context information according to the modify bearer request message, and obtaining an S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information; when the PGW determines that the S5/S8 interface resource changes according to the S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information and the interface resource in the current bearer context information, sending back, by the PGW, a modify bearer response message carrying the S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information to the SGW, for enabling the SGW to update the bearer context information according to the modify bearer response message. In the present invention, the scenarios supported by the existing protocol are perfected, and support is provided for reselecting or switching the UE from the TD-SCDMA system to the TD-LTE system and processing under scenarios in which the S5/S8 interface and the Gn/Gp interface are in different networks.

Claims

1. A method for processing inter-system reselection or switch, comprising: (a) receiving, by a packet data network gateway PGW a modify bearer request message sent by a serving gateway SGW; (b) obtaining, by the PGW, an S5/S8 interface resource in current bearer context information, updating the current bearer context information according to the modify bearer request message, and obtaining an S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information; (c) determining, by the PGW, whether the S5/S8 interface resource in the current bearer context information changes according to the S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information and the S5/S8 interface resource in the current bearer context information, and upon determining that the S5/S8 interface resource in the current bearer context information changes, sending back, by the PGW, a modify bearer response message carrying the changed S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information to the SGW, for enabling the SGW to update the bearer context information according to the modify bearer response message, wherein the S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information comprises: a control plane IP address and a control plane tunnel endpoint identifier TEIDC of an S5/S8 interface, and a user plane IP address and a user plane tunnel endpoint identifier TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface, and wherein the sending back, by the PGW, of the modify bearer response message carrying the changed S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information to the SGW specifically comprises: (c1) determining whether the control plane IP address and the TEIDC of the S5/S8 interface change, and upon determining that the control plane IP address and the TEIDC of the S5/S8 interface change, sending back, by the PGW, the modify bearer response message carrying the changed control plane IP address and the changed TEIDC of the changed S5/S8 interface to the SGW, and adding, by the PGW, a first information element IE used for carrying the changed control plane IP address and the changed TEIDC of the changed S5/S8 interface in the modify bearer response message sent back to the SGW; (c2) determining whether the user plane IP address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface change, and upon determining that the user plane IP address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface change, sending back, by the PGW, the modify bearer response message carrying the changed user plane IP address and the changed TEIDU of the changed S5/S8 interface to the SGW, and adding, by the PGW, a second information element IE used for carrying the changed user plane IP address and the changed TEIDU of the changed S5/S8 interface in the modify bearer response message sent back to the SGW; (c3) upon determining that the user plane IP address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface change, and upon determining that the control plane IP address and the TEIDC change, sending back, by the PGW, the modify bearer response message carrying the changed user plane IP address and the changed TEIDU of the changed S5/S8 interface and the changed control plane IP address and the changed TEIDC of the changed S5/S8 interface to the SGW, and adding, by the PGW, the first information element IE used for carrying the changed control plane IP address and the changed TEIDC of the changed S5/S8 interface and the second information element IE used for carrying the changed user plane IP address and the changed TEIDU of the changed S5/S8 interface in the modify bearer response message sent back to the SGW.

2. A packet data gateway PGW, comprising: a non-transitory computer-readable medium tangibly embodying executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of the packet data gateway PGW, cause the processor to implement: a receiving module, configured to receive a modify bearer request message sent by a serving gateway SGW; a processing module, configured to obtain an S5/S8 interface resource in current bearer context information, update the current bearer context information according to the modify bearer request message, and obtain an S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information; a determining module, configured to determine whether the S5/S8 interface resource in the current bearer context information changes according to the S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information and the interface resource in the current bearer context information; and a sending module, configured to, upon the determining module determining that the S5/S8 interface resource in the current bearer context information changes, send back a modify bearer response message carrying the changed S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information to the SGW, for enabling the SGW to update the bearer context information according to the modify bearer response message, wherein the S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information comprises: a control plane IP address and a control plane tunnel endpoint identifier TEIDC of the S5/S8 interface, and a user plane IP address and a user plane tunnel endpoint identifier TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface, wherein the sending module is specifically configured to: (i) determine whether the control plane IP address and the TEIDC of the S5/S8 interface change, and upon determining that the control plane IP address and the TEIDC of the S5/S8 interface change, send back the modify bearer response message carrying the changed control plane IP address and the changed TEIDC of the changed S5/S8 interface to the SGW, and (b) add a first information element IE used for carrying the changed control plane IP address and the changed TEIDC of the changed S5/S8 interface in the modify bearer response message sent back to the SGW; (ii) determine whether the user plane IP address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface change, and upon determining that the user plane IP address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface change, send back the modify bearer response message carrying the changed user plane IP address and the changed TEIDU of the changed S5/S8 interface to the SGW, and add a second information element IE used for carrying the changed user plane IP address and the changed TEIDU of the changed S5/S8 interface in the modify bearer response message sent back to the SGW; (iii) upon determining that the user plane IP address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface change, and upon determining that the control plane IP address and the TEIDC change, send back the modify bearer response message carrying the changed user plane IP address and the changed TEIDU of the changed S5/S8 interface and the changed control plane IP address and the changed TEIDC of the changed S5/S8 interface to the SGW, and add the first information element IE used for carrying the changed control plane IP address and the changed TEIDC of the changed S5/S8 interface and the second information element IE used for carrying the changed user plane IP address and the changed TEIDU of the changed S5/S8 interface in the modify bearer response message sent back to the SGW.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) To illustrate technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention or in the prior art more clearly, a brief introduction on the accompanying drawings which are needed in the description of the embodiments or the prior art is given below. Apparently, the accompanying drawings in the description below are merely some of the embodiments of the present invention, based on which other drawings may be obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art without any creative effort.

(2) FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of signaling interaction of a TAU flow of reselecting a user from a TD-SCDMA system to an LTE system in the prior art;

(3) FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of signaling interaction of a switching flow of switching a user from a TD-SCDMA system to an LTE system in the prior art;

(4) FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a flow of a processing method for reselecting or switching a user from a TD-SCDMA system to a TD-LTE system provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

(5) FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a PGW provided by an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

(6) Aiming at the above-mentioned problems in the prior art, the embodiments of the present invention provide a technical solution of processing inter-system reselection or switch, which is applied to a scenario in which a user is reselected or switched from a TD-SCDMA system to a TD-LTE system. In the technical solution, when a PGW receives a modify bearer request (Modify Bearer Request) message sent by a serving gateway SGW, the PGW obtains an S5/S8 interface resource in current bearer context information, updates the current bearer context information according to the modify bearer request message, and obtains an S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information; when the PGW determines that the S5/S8 interface resource changes according to the S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information and the interface resource in the current bearer context information, the PGW sends back a modify bearer response (Modify Bearer Response) message carrying the S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information to the SGW, for enabling the SGW to update the bearer context information according to the modify bearer response message, such that the scenarios supported by the existing protocol are perfected.

(7) A clear and complete description of technical solutions in the present application will be given below in combination with the accompanying drawings in the present application. Apparently, the embodiments described are merely a part, but not all, of the embodiments of the present invention. All of other embodiments, obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments of the present application without any creative effort, fall into the protection scope of the present application.

(8) As shown in FIG. 3, it is a schematic diagram of a flow of a processing method for reselecting or switching a user from a TD-SCDMA system to an LTE system provided by an embodiment of the present invention, and the method may include the following steps:

(9) Step 301. the PGW receives a modify bearer request message sent by the SGW.

(10) Specifically, when the user is reselected from the TD-SCDMA system to the TD-LTE system, an MME will send a create session request (Create Session Request) message to the SGW, to request to create a new session; when the user is switched from the TD-SCDMA system to the TD-LTE system, the MME will send the modify bearer request (Modify Bearer Request) message to the SGW.

(11) After receiving the create session request message or the modify bearer request message, the SGW sends the modify bearer request message to the PGW, for notifying the PGW of UE position information and RAT type change. Wherein, the modify bearer request message carries an SGW address, a TEID of the SGW side and a RAT type.

(12) Step 302. the PGW obtains an S5/S8 interface resource in current bearer context information, updates the current bearer context information according to the modify bearer request message, and obtains an S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information.

(13) Specifically, after receiving the modify bearer request message sent by the SGW, the PGW may obtain the S5/S8 interface resource from the bearer context information currently stored therein, update the bearer context information currently stored therein according to the modify bearer request message and obtain the S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information.

(14) Wherein, besides the S5/S8 interface resource information, the bearer context information may further include UE position information, UE access network type information, PDN IP, APN (Access Point Name, access point name), bearer number information corresponding to a bearer list and the like.

(15) It should be noted that, when a dynamic PCC rule is configured in the network and the PGW needs. to notify the PCRF of the UE position information and the RAT type information, the PGW triggers an IP-CAN session modification flow to notify the PCRF of the UE position information and the RAT type information.

(16) Step 303. the PGW determines whether the S5/S8 interface resource changes according to the S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information and the interface resource in the current bearer context information. If so, step 304 is implemented; if not, conventional processing is performed.

(17) Specifically, after receiving the modify bearer request message sent by the SGW, the PGW needs to obtain the S5/S8 interface resource in the current bearer context information, update a bearer context according to related information carried in the modify bearer request message and obtain the S5/S8 interface resource (including an S5/S8 control plane IP address and TEIDC and a user plane IP address and TEIDU) in the updated bearer context information, so as to determine whether the S5/S8 interface resource changes according to the S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information and the interface resource in the current bearer context information (i.e., bearer context information before being updated), and when determining that the S5/S8 interface resource changes, the PGW sends back a modify bearer response message carrying the updated S5/S8 interface resource (i.e., the obtained S5/S8 interface resource) to the SGW; if not, the conventional processing is performed according to the existing protocol.

(18) Wherein, the S5/S8 interface resource may include:

(19) a control plane IP address and TEIDC of the S5/S8 interface, and a user plane IP address and TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface.

(20) Step 304. the PGW sends back the modify bearer response message carrying the S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information to the SGW, for enabling the SGW to update the bearer context information according to the modify bearer response message

(21) Specifically, in the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention, after the PGW determines that the S5/S8 interface resource changes, the PGW may carry the S5/S8 interface resource in the updated context (i.e., the obtained S5/S8 interface resource) in the modify bearer response message sent back to the SGW, and the specific implementation may include the following several conditions:

(22) condition 1. when the control plane IP address and the TEIDC of the S5/S8 interface change, the PGW sends back the modify bearer response message carrying the control plane IP address and the TEIDC of the S5/S8 interface to the SGW;

(23) condition 2. when the user plane IP address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface change, the PGW sends back the modify bearer response message carrying the user plane IP address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface to the SGW;

(24) condition 3. when the user plane IP address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface change, and when the control plane IP address and the TEIDC change, the PGW sends back the modify bearer response message carrying the user plane IP address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface and the control plane IP address and the TEIDC to the SGW.

(25) Wherein, in the embodiment of the present invention, the modify bearer response message may be expanded for adding an IE used for carrying the control plane IF address and the TEIDC of the S5/S8 interface, and/or an IE used for carrying the user plane IP address and the TEIDU. Specifically:

(26) when the control plane IP address and the TEIDC of the S5/S8 interface change, the PGW adds a first IE used for carrying the control plane IP address and the TEIDC of the S5/S8 interface in the modify bearer response message sent back to the SGW;

(27) when the user plane IP address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface change, the PGW adds a second IE used for carrying the user plane IP address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface in the modify bearer response message sent back to the SGW;

(28) when the user plane IF address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface change, and when the control plane IP address and the TEIDC change, the PGW adds the first information element IE used for carrying the control plane IP address and the TEIDC of the S5/S8 interface and the second information element IE used for carrying the user plane IP address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface in the modify bearer response message sent back to the SGW.

(29) Wherein, in the embodiment of the present invention, the IE list of the expanded modify bearer response message is as shown in table 3:

(30) TABLE-US-00003 TABLE 3 IE list of expanded modify bearer response message Information Condition/ elements (Information comment (Condition/ elements) P Comment) IE type (IE Type) Instance (Ins.) Cause (Cause) M Cause (Cause) 0 Mobile station ISDN C Mobile station 0 number (MSISDN) ISDN number (MSISDN) Linked EPS bearer C EPS bearer 0 ID (Linked EPS identifier (EBI) Bearer ID) PGW S5/S8 C TAU/Handover Full tunnel 0 interface control flow, needing to identifier (F-TEID) plane full tunnel be carried when identifier (PGW PGW S5/S8 F- S5/S8 F-TEID for TEID changes PMIP based interface or for GTP based Control Plane interface (i.e., PGW- FTEIDC)) Aggregate C Aggregate 0 maximum bit maximum bit rate (Aggregate rate (AMBR) Maximum Bit Rate (APN-AMBR)) APN C APN 0 restriction (APN restriction (APN Restriction) Restriction) Protocol C Protocol 0 configuration configuration options (Protocol options (PCO) Configuration Options (PCO)) Bearer contexts C Bearer 0 modified (Bearer context (Bearer Contexts modified) Context) Bearer contexts C Bearer 1 marked for context (Bearer removal (Bearer Context) Contexts marked for removal) Change reporting C Change reporting 0 action (Change action (Change Reporting Action) Reporting Action) CSG information CO CSG information 0 reporting reporting action (CSG (Closed action (CSG Subscriber Group) Information Information Reporting Action) Reporting Action) Charging gateway C Fully qualified 0 name (Charging domain Gateway Name) name (FQDN) Charging gateway C IP address (IP 0 address (Charging Address) Gateway Address) PGW fully qualified C Fully qualified 0 PDN connection PDN connection setting setting identifier (PGW-FQ- identifier (FQ- CSID) CSID) SGW fully qualified C Fully qualified 1 PDN connection PDN connection setting setting identifier (SGW-FQ- identifier (FQ- CSID) CSID) Recovery (Recovery) C Recovery (Recovery) 0 Private Extension O Private Extension vs

(31) Wherein, the IE list of IE: Bearer Contexts modified in table 3 is as shown in table 4:

(32) TABLE-US-00004 TABLE 4 IE list of Bearer Contexts modified Octets 1 Bearer Context IE Type = 93 (decimal) Octets 2 and 3 Length = n Octets 4 Spare and Instance fields Information Condition/ elements(Information comment (Condition/ IE type (IE elements) P Comment) Type) Instance (Ins.) EPS bearer ID (EPS M EPS bearer 0 Bearer ID) identifier (EBI) Cause (Cause) M Cause (Cause) 0 SI interface SGW full C Full tunnel 0 tunnel identifier (SI identifier (F- SGW F-TEID) TEID) S12 interface SGW C Full tunnel 1 full tunnel identifier (F- identifier (S12 SGW F- TEID TED) S4-U interface SGW C Full tunnel 2 full tunnel identifier (F- identifier (S4-U SGW TEID) F-TEID) S5/S8-U interface C TAU/Handover flow, Full tunnel 3 PGW full tunnel needing to be carried identifier (F- identifier (S5/S8-U when PGW S5/S8-U TEID) PGW F-TEID (i.e., F-TEID changes PGW-FTEIDU)) Charging ID C Charging ID 0 (Charging ID) (Charging ID) Bearer flags (Bearer CO Bearer 0 Flags) flags (Bearer Flags)

(33) Wherein, the PGW-FTEIDC is used for carrying the control plane IP address and the TEIDC of the S5/S8 interface when the control plane IP address and the TEIDC of the S5/S8 interface change; the PGW-FTEIDU is used for carrying the user plane IP address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface when the user plane IP address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface change.

(34) Wherein, the IE types of the PGW-FTEIDC and the PGW-FTEIDU are F-TEID, and the structure thereof may be as shown in table 5:

(35) TABLE-US-00005 TABLE 5 structure of F-TEID Bits Octets 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1 Type (Type) = 87 (decimal) 2 to 3 Length (Length) = n 4 Spare (Spare) instance (Instance) 5 V4 V6 Spare Interface type (Interface type) 6 to 9 Tunnel identifier (TEID/GREKey) m to (m + 3) IPv4 address (IPv4 address) p to (P + 15) IPv6 address (IPv6 address) k to (n + 4) These octet(s) is/are present only if explicitly specified

(36) Wherein, IPv4 address carries a V4 address, and V4 is set as 1; the IPv6 address carries a V6 address, and V6 is set as 1.

(37) It can be seen from the description above that, in the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention, when the PGW receives the modify bearer request message sent by the serving gateway SGW, the PGW obtains the S5/S8 interface resource in the current bearer context information, updates the current bearer context information according to the modify bearer request message, and obtains the S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information; when the PGW determines that the S5/S8 interface resource changes according to the S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information and the interface resource in the current bearer context information, the PGW sends back the modify bearer response message carrying the S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information to the SGW, for enabling the SGW to update the bearer context information according to the modify bearer response message, such that the scenarios supported by the existing protocol are perfected, and support is provided for reselecting or switching the UE from the TD-SCDMA system to the TD-LTE, system and processing under scenarios in which the S5/S8 interface and the Gn/Gp interface are in different networks.

(38) Based on the same technical concept as the above-mentioned method flow, the embodiment of the present invention further provides a PGW, which may be applied to the above-mentioned method embodiment.

(39) As shown in FIG. 4, it is a schematic diagram of a structure of a PGW provided by an embodiment of the present invention, including:

(40) a receiving module 41, configured to receive a modify bearer request message sent by a serving gateway SGW;

(41) a processing module 42, configured to obtain an S5/S8 interface resource in current bearer context information, update the current bearer context information according to the modify bearer request message, and obtain an S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information;
a determining module 43, configured to determine whether the S5/S8 interface resource changes according to the S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information and the interface resource in the current bearer context information;
a sending module 44, configured to, when the determining module 43 determines that the S5/S8 interface resource changes, send back a modify bearer response message carrying the S5/S8 interface resource in the updated bearer context information to the SGW, for enabling the SGW to update the bearer context information according to the modify bearer response message.

(42) Wherein, the S5/S8 interface resource includes:

(43) a control plane IP address and a control plane tunnel endpoint identifier TEIDC of the S5/S8 interface, and a user plane IP address and a user plane tunnel endpoint identifier TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface.

(44) Wherein, the sending module 44 is specifically configured to,

(45) when the control plane IP address and the TEIDC of the S5/S8 interface change, send back the modify bearer response message carrying the control plane IP address and the TEIDC of the S5/S8 interface to the SGW;

(46) when the user plane IP address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface change, send back the modify bearer response message carrying the user plane IF address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface to the SGW;

(47) when the user plane IP address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface change, and when the control plane IP address and the TEIDC change, send back the modify bearer response message carrying the user plane IP address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface and the control plane IP address and the TEIDC to the SGW.

(48) Wherein, the sending module 44 is specifically configured to,

(49) when the control plane IP address and the TEIDC of the S5/S8 interface change, add a first information element IE used for carrying the control plane IP address and the TEIDC of the S5/S8 interface in the modify bearer response message sent back to the SGW;
when the user plane IP address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface change, add a second IE used for carrying the user plane IP address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface in the modify bearer response message sent back to the SGW;
when the user plane IP address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface change, and when the control plane IP address and the TEIDC change, add the first information element IE used for carrying the control plane IP address and the TEIDC of the S5/S8 interface and the second IE used for carrying the user plane IP address and the TEIDU of the S5/S8 interface in the modify bearer response message sent back to the SGW.

(50) By means of the above-mentioned descriptions, those skilled in the art may clearly understand that the present invention may be implemented by software plus a necessary universal hardware platform, and may also be implemented by hardware, but under most conditions, the former is a better implementation. Based on this understanding, the technical solutions in the present invention essentially or the part contributing to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a software product, the computer software product may be stored in a storage medium, and include several instructions for instructing a terminal device (may be a mobile phone, a personal computer, a server, or a network device and the like) to perform the methods in the embodiments of the present invention.

(51) The foregoing descriptions are merely preferred embodiments of the present invention, it should be noted that, those of ordinary skill in the art may make various improvements and modifications on the premise of not deviating from the principle of the present invention, and these improvements and modifications shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.