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EP-4742610-A1 - COMMUNICATION METHOD AND APPARATUS

EP4742610A1EP 4742610 A1EP4742610 A1EP 4742610A1EP-4742610-A1

Abstract

This application provides a communication method and apparatus, and relates to the field of communication technologies. This application can simplify a quality of service QoS configuration update process. The method includes: An access network device determines, in a process of performing transmission of a service over a quality of service QoS flow, that a service feature of the service is updated. An updated service feature is used to determine a target QoS configuration of the QoS. Alternatively, the access network device receives first information from a terminal device or a first core network device in the service transmission process. The first information is used to determine the target QoS configuration of the QoS flow. The access network device updates a QoS configuration of the QoS flow based on the target QoS configuration.

Inventors

  • PAN, QI
  • NI, HUI

Assignees

  • Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20240708

Claims (20)

  1. A communication method, comprising: determining, by an access network device in a process of performing transmission of a service over a quality of service QoS flow, that a service feature of the service is updated, wherein an updated service feature is used to determine a target QoS configuration of the QoS flow; or receiving, by the access network device, first information from a terminal device or a first core network device in the service transmission process, wherein the first information is used to determine the target QoS configuration of the QoS flow; and updating, by the access network device, a QoS configuration of the QoS flow based on the target QoS configuration.
  2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: determining, by the access network device, the target QoS configuration of the QoS flow based on the updated service feature or the first information.
  3. The method according to claim 2, wherein determining, by the access network device, the target QoS configuration of the QoS flow comprises: determining, by the access network device, a QoS parameter that needs to be updated in the QoS configuration.
  4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the method further comprises: receiving, by the access network device, multiple QoS configurations for the QoS flow from a second core network device; and determining, by the access network device, the target QoS configuration of the QoS flow comprises: determining, by the access network device, the target QoS configuration in the multiple QoS configurations.
  5. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the method further comprises: sending, by the access network device, second information to the terminal device and/or the first core network device, wherein the second information indicates the target QoS configuration of the QoS flow, and the target QoS configuration indicated by the second information is determined by the access network device based on the updated service feature.
  6. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein when the first information is from the first core network device, the method further comprises: sending, by the access network device, second information to the terminal device, wherein the second information indicates the target QoS configuration of the QoS flow; or when the first information is from the terminal device, the method further comprises: sending, by the access network device, the second information to the first core network device, wherein the second information indicates the target QoS configuration of the QoS flow, wherein the target QoS configuration indicated by the second information is determined by the access network device based on the first information.
  7. The method according to claim 5 or 6, wherein when the access network device sends the second information to the terminal device, the second information is carried in a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of a first data packet, radio resource control RRC signaling, or a media access control control element MAC CE, and the first data packet is a data packet sent by the access network device to the terminal device; or when the access network device sends the second information to the first core network device, the second information is carried in a general packet radio service rate protocol-user plane GTP-U layer of a second data packet, and the second data packet is a data packet sent by the access network device to the first core network device.
  8. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein when the first information is from the first core network device, the method further comprises: sending, by the access network device, seventh information to the first core network device, wherein the seventh information indicates that the access network device fails to update the QoS configuration of the QoS flow; or when the first information is from the terminal device, the method further comprises: sending, by the access network device, the seventh information to the terminal device, wherein the seventh information indicates that the access network device fails to update the QoS configuration of the QoS flow.
  9. The method according to claim 8, wherein when the access network device sends the seventh information to the first core network device, the method further comprises: sending, by the access network device, eighth information to the first core network device, wherein the eighth information indicates a QoS configuration supported by the access network device, and the QoS configuration indicated by the eighth information is used by the first core network device to update the QoS configuration of the QoS flow; or when the access network device sends the seventh information to the terminal device, the method further comprises: sending, by the access network device, the eighth information to the terminal device, wherein the eighth information indicates the QoS configuration supported by the access network device, and the QoS configuration indicated by the eighth information is used by the terminal device to update the QoS configuration of the QoS flow.
  10. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the method further comprises: obtaining, by the access network device, time information, wherein the time information indicates a time period in which the target QoS configuration is valid.
  11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the method further comprises: when the access network device determines that the service feature of the service is updated, sending, by the access network device, the time information to the terminal device and/or the first core network device; or when the first information is from the terminal device, sending, by the access network device, the time information to the first core network device; or when the first information is from the first core network device, sending, by the access network device, the time information to the terminal device.
  12. The method according to claim 10, wherein obtaining, by the access network device, the time information comprises: determining, by the access network device, the time information; or receiving, by the access network device, the time information from the second core network device; or receiving, by the access network device, the time information from the terminal device; or receiving, by the access network device, the time information from the first core network device.
  13. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein updating, by the access network device, the QoS configuration of the QoS flow comprises: performing, by the access network device, resource adjustment, wherein the adjusted resource is used for transmission of the service whose service feature is updated.
  14. A communication method, comprising: determining, by a first communication device in a process of performing transmission of a service over a quality of service QoS flow, that a service feature of the service is updated, wherein the first communication device is a terminal device or a first core network device; and sending, by the first communication device, first information to an access network device based on the updated service feature, wherein the first information is used to determine a target QoS configuration of the QoS flow.
  15. The method according to claim 14, wherein sending, by the first communication device, the first information to the access network device based on the updated service feature comprises: determining, by the first communication device, the target QoS configuration of the QoS flow based on the updated service feature; and sending, by the first communication device, the first information based on the target QoS configuration of the QoS flow, wherein the first information indicates the target QoS configuration of the QoS flow.
  16. The method according to claim 15, wherein determining, by the first communication device, the target QoS configuration comprises: determining, by the first communication device, a QoS parameter that needs to be updated in a QoS configuration of the QoS flow.
  17. The method according to claim 15, wherein the method further comprises: receiving, by the first communication device, multiple QoS configurations for the QoS flow from a second core network device; and determining, by the first communication device, the target QoS configuration comprises: determining, by the first communication device, the target QoS configuration in the multiple QoS configurations.
  18. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 17, wherein the method further comprises: updating, by the first communication device, the QoS configuration of the QoS flow based on the target QoS configuration.
  19. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 17, wherein receiving, by the first communication device, seventh information from the access network device, wherein the seventh information indicates that the access network device fails to update the QoS configuration of the QoS flow, and the access network device updates the QoS configuration of the QoS flow based on the first information.
  20. The method according to claim 19, wherein the method further comprises: receiving, by the first communication device, eighth information from the access network device, wherein the eighth information indicates a QoS configuration supported by the access network device.

Description

This application claims priorities to Chinese Patent Application No. 202310960641.0, filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration on July 31, 2023 and entitled "COMMUNICATION METHOD AND APPARATUS", and to Chinese Patent Application No. 202410408362.8, filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration on April 3, 2024 and entitled "COMMUNICATION METHOD AND APPARATUS", both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. TECHNICAL FIELD This application relates to the communication field, and in particular, to a communication method and apparatus. BACKGROUND In a communication system, a quality of service flow (quality of service flow, QoS flow) is a finest QoS differentiation granularity in a protocol data unit (protocol data unit, PDU) session, and is used to carry a service flow in the PDU session. A network requirement corresponding to a service may dynamically change. For example, a media data volume dynamically changes due to a difference in media content complexity in different game scenarios in a cloud game. Therefore, a QoS configuration corresponding to the QoS flow also needs to be dynamically adjusted, to meet the dynamically changing service requirement. However, an existing QoS configuration adjustment process is complex. Multiple interactions with a core network are required, and signaling exchange is complex. Consequently, it is difficult to meet the dynamically changing service requirement. SUMMARY To resolve the foregoing technical problem, this application provides a communication method and apparatus, to simplify a QoS configuration update process. To achieve the foregoing objective, the following technical solutions are used in this application. According to a first aspect, a communication method is provided. An execution body of the method may be an access network device, or may be a part (for example, a processor, a chip, or a chip system) used in the access network device, or may be a logical module or software that can implement a part or all of functions of the access network device. An example in which the execution body is the access network device is used below for description. The method includes: The access network device determines, in a process of performing transmission of a service over a quality of service QoS flow, that a service feature of the service is updated. An updated service feature is used to determine a target QoS configuration of the QoS flow. Alternatively, the access network device receives first information from a terminal device or a first core network device in the service transmission process. The first information is used to determine the target QoS configuration of the QoS flow. The access network device updates a QoS configuration of the QoS flow based on the target QoS configuration. For example, the first information indicates the target QoS configuration of the QoS flow. For another example, the first information includes information about the target QoS configuration of the QoS flow. For example, in the target QoS configuration, a delay is 10 ms. The first information includes information indicating that the delay is 10 ms. For still another example, the first information includes QoS requirement information corresponding to the target QoS configuration of the QoS flow. For example, in the target QoS configuration, a delay is 10 ms. Correspondingly, the QoS requirement information corresponding to the target QoS configuration is that the delay of the service needs to be within 10 ms. The first information includes the QoS requirement information that the delay needs to be within 10 ms. That the access network device updates the QoS configuration of the QoS flow may be understood as that the access network device activates or establishes the QoS configuration of the QoS flow. To be specific, in the service transmission process, when the access network device determines that the service feature of the service is updated or receives the first information, the access network device updates the QoS configuration of the QoS flow, to dynamically adjust the QoS configuration of the QoS flow in the service transmission process. Compared with a complex procedure, in a multi-level QoS mechanism, in which the access network device is configured to trigger a QoS configuration update and the QoS configuration can be adjusted through only a QoS notification control procedure and a protocol data unit PDU session modification procedure, in this application, the access network device can independently perform a fast QoS configuration update based on a service feature change of the service or the first information from the terminal device or the first core network device, to simplify a QoS configuration update process and effectively ensure a dynamically changing service requirement. In a possible design, the method further includes: The access network device determines the target QoS configuration of the QoS f