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EP-4738933-A1 - ACCESS METHOD AND APPARATUS

EP4738933A1EP 4738933 A1EP4738933 A1EP 4738933A1EP-4738933-A1

Abstract

This application relates to the field of communication technologies, and discloses an access method and an apparatus, to reduce unnecessary location verification during access of a terminal device, and reduce an access failure probability of the terminal device. The method includes: A terminal device determines whether location verification needs to be performed on an accessed terminal device in one or more service areas; and the terminal device initiates access to a first service area, where the first service area belongs to the one or more service areas, and the first service area is a service area in which location verification does not need to be performed on the accessed terminal device.

Inventors

  • CHEN, YING
  • DU, YINGGANG
  • QIAO, YUNFEI

Assignees

  • Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20240819

Claims (18)

  1. An access method, comprising: determining, by a first communication apparatus, whether location verification needs to be performed on an accessed terminal device in one or more service areas; and initiating, by the first communication apparatus, access to a first service area, wherein the first service area belongs to the one or more service areas, and the first service area is a service area in which location verification does not need to be performed on the accessed terminal device.
  2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more service areas are candidate service areas to which the first communication apparatus initiates access, the one or more service areas form a set of candidate service areas to which the first communication apparatus initiates access, and the method further comprises: when there is at least one second service area that is in the one or more service areas and in which location verification needs to be performed on the accessed terminal device, removing, by the first communication apparatus, the at least one second service area from the set of candidate service areas.
  3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein determining, by the first communication apparatus, whether location verification needs to be performed on the accessed terminal device in the one or more service areas comprises: receiving, by the first communication apparatus, a first message, wherein the first message comprises one or more of first indication information indicating whether location verification needs to be performed on the accessed terminal device in the first service area, public land mobile network PLMN information corresponding to the first service area, and a location of a reference point of the first service area; and determining, by the first communication apparatus based on the first message, whether location verification needs to be performed on the accessed terminal device in the first service area.
  4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the first message comprises the PLMN information corresponding to the first service area, and determining, by the first communication apparatus based on the first message, whether location verification needs to be performed on the accessed terminal device in the first service area comprises: when the first service area corresponds to a PLMN of one geographical area, determining, by the first communication apparatus, that location verification does not need to be performed on the accessed terminal device in the first service area.
  5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the first message comprises the location of the reference point of the first service area, and determining, by the first communication apparatus based on the first message, whether location verification needs to be performed on the accessed terminal device in the first service area comprises: when a distance between the reference point of the first service area and a boundary between geographical areas is greater than a first threshold, determining, by the first communication apparatus, that location verification does not need to be performed on the accessed terminal device in the first service area.
  6. The method according to claim 2, wherein determining, by the first communication apparatus, whether location verification needs to be performed on the accessed terminal device in the one or more service areas comprises: determining, by the first communication apparatus, a distance between a reference point of each candidate service area in the set of candidate service areas and a boundary between geographical areas; and determining, by the first communication apparatus, that location verification needs to be performed on the accessed terminal device in N candidate service areas that are in the set of candidate service areas and whose reference points have a smallest distance from the boundary between geographical areas, and that location verification does not need to be performed on the accessed terminal device in M-N candidate service areas other than the N candidate service areas, wherein the set of candidate service areas comprises M candidate service areas, M and N are integers, and N is less than M.
  7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the first communication apparatus does not support location verification.
  8. An access method, comprising: receiving, by a second communication apparatus, access initiated by a first communication apparatus to a first service area; and based on whether location verification needs to be performed on an accessed terminal device in the first service area, determining, by the second communication apparatus, whether to accept the access of the first communication apparatus, or determining a service type provided for the first communication apparatus.
  9. The method according to claim 8, wherein determining, by the second communication apparatus based on whether location verification needs to be performed on the accessed terminal device in the first service area, whether to accept the access of the first communication apparatus comprises: when location verification does not need to be performed on the accessed terminal device in the first service area, determining, by the second communication apparatus, to accept the access of the first communication apparatus; when location verification needs to be performed on the accessed terminal device in the first service area, and the first communication apparatus supports location verification, determining, by the second communication apparatus, to accept the access of the first communication apparatus; or when location verification needs to be performed on the accessed terminal device in the first service area, and the first communication apparatus does not support location verification, determining, by the second communication apparatus, to reject the access of the first communication apparatus; and determining, by the second communication apparatus based on whether location verification needs to be performed in the first service area, the service type provided for the first communication apparatus comprises: when location verification does not need to be performed on the accessed terminal device in the first service area, determining, by the second communication apparatus, to provide a service of a first service type for the first communication apparatus; when location verification needs to be performed on the accessed terminal device in the first service area, and the first communication apparatus supports location verification, determining, by the second communication apparatus, to provide a service of a first service type for the first communication apparatus; or when location verification needs to be performed on the accessed terminal device in the first service area, and the first communication apparatus does not support location verification, determining, by the second communication apparatus, to provide a service of a second service type for the first communication apparatus.
  10. The method according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the method further comprises: sending, by the second communication apparatus, a first message to the first communication apparatus, wherein the first message comprises one or more of first indication information indicating whether location verification needs to be performed on the accessed terminal device in the first service area, public land mobile network PLMN information corresponding to the first service area, and a location of a reference point of the first service area.
  11. The method according to claim 9, wherein before determining, by the second communication apparatus based on whether location verification needs to be performed on the accessed terminal device in the first service area, whether to accept the access of the first communication apparatus, or the service type provided for the first communication apparatus, the method further comprises: receiving, by the second communication apparatus, first information from the first communication apparatus, wherein the first information indicates whether the first communication apparatus supports location verification.
  12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the first information comprises information about whether the first communication apparatus supports location verification and/or a version number supported by the first communication apparatus, wherein the version number is used to determine whether the first communication apparatus supports location verification.
  13. A communication apparatus, comprising: a communication unit, configured to: receive and send information; and a processing unit, configured to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 or the method according to any one of claims 8 to 12 by using the communication unit.
  14. A communication apparatus, comprising at least one processor, wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 or the method according to any one of claims 8 to 12.
  15. A communication system, comprising: a first communication apparatus, configured to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7; and a second communication apparatus, configured to perform the method according to any one of claims 8 to 12.
  16. A computer-readable storage medium, wherein the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program or instructions, and when the computer program or the instructions are executed by a communication apparatus, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 or the method according to any one of claims 8 to 12 is implemented.
  17. A chip, wherein the chip reads a computer program stored in a memory, to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 or the method according to any one of claims 8 to 12.
  18. A computer program product, wherein the computer program product comprises computer program code, and when the computer program code is run, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 or the method according to any one of claims 8 to 12 is implemented.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202311057813.X, filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration on August 21, 2023 and entitled "ACCESS METHOD AND APPARATUS", which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD This application relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to an access method and an apparatus. BACKGROUND A non-terrestrial network (non-terrestrial network, NTN) like a satellite has advantages such as wide coverage, a long communication distance, high reliability, high flexibility, and a high throughput, and is not affected by a geographical environment, a climate condition, and a natural disaster. Therefore, the NTN has been widely applied to fields such as aviation communication, maritime communication, and military communication. The NTN is introduced into a mobile communication system, for example, a 5th generation (5th generation, 5G) system, so that not only a communication service can be provided for an area that is difficult to be covered by a terrestrial network, for example, a sea or a forest, but also communication reliability can be enhanced, for example, more stable communication services with better quality are provided for a train, an airplane, and users on such means of transportation, and more data transmission resources are provided, for example, connections of more terminal devices are supported. Currently, NTN communication has been introduced into the 3rd generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project, 3GPP) standard. However, a network device like a satellite usually has large beam coverage, and may cover a plurality of countries, and laws and regulations of different countries may be different. Therefore, the network device like the satellite needs to verify a location of a terminal device. However, due to capabilities and other reasons, some terminal devices do not support location verification, and an access failure is caused. SUMMARY Embodiments of this application provide an access method and an apparatus, to reduce unnecessary location verification during access of a terminal device, and reduce an access failure probability of the terminal device. According to a first aspect, an embodiment of this application provides an access method. The method may be performed by a first communication apparatus. The first communication apparatus herein may be a terminal device, or may be a processor, a module, a chip, a chip system, or the like that is in the terminal device and that implements the method. The method includes: A first communication apparatus determines whether location verification needs to be performed on an accessed terminal device in one or more service areas; and the first communication apparatus initiates access to a first service area, where the first service area belongs to the one or more service areas, and the first service area is a service area in which location verification does not need to be performed on the accessed terminal device. Optionally, the service area may be a service (or coverage) area of one or more beams, a partial service (or coverage) area of a cell, a service (or coverage) area corresponding to one or more cells, or the like. According to the foregoing method, the service areas may be classified, based on whether the service areas cross geographical areas (for example, countries or regions), into a service area in which location verification needs to be performed on the accessed terminal device and a service area in which location verification does not need to be performed on the accessed terminal device. The first communication apparatus (for example, the terminal device) that supports or does not support location verification may preferably select the service area in which location verification does not need to be performed on the accessed terminal device to initiate access. This reduces unnecessary location verification, can reduce an access failure probability of the first communication apparatus that does not support location verification, and reduces power consumption caused by an access failure of the first communication apparatus. In addition, in the foregoing method, a granularity for performing location verification on the accessed terminal device may be a service (or coverage) area of one or more beams, a partial service (or coverage) area of a cell, or the like, instead of only a cell. This can reduce an area that is in a cell and in which location verification needs to be performed on an accessed terminal device, and reduce the unnecessary location verification. In a possible design, the one or more service areas are candidate service areas to which the first communication apparatus initiates access, the one or more service areas form a set of candidate service areas to which the first communication apparatus initiates access, and the method further includes: