CN100426803C - Method for responding to request of establishing connection from MBMS point to point - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to multimedia broadcasting/multicasting services, and discloses a method for responding to an MBMS point-to-point connection establishment request, which avoids errors during response, saves system resources and reduces time delay. In the present invention, when a user in the "CELL_DCH" state receives a request to establish a PTP RB, check whether it is currently in a packet domain connection state, if so, reconfigure the existing PTP RB, otherwise require a high-level PMM to establish a PMM Connection establishment response or PTP MBMS service is transmitted through the data path of the existing CS domain connection.

Description

Method for Responding to MBMS Point-to-Point Connection Establishment Request

technical field

The invention relates to multimedia broadcasting/multicasting services, in particular to a method for responding to point-to-point connection establishment requests.

Background technique

After decades of rapid development, mobile communication has become more and more popular among people, but the services it provides are still mainly phone calls and messages. With the rapid development of the Internet (Internet), a large number of multimedia services emerge simultaneously, and people obviously require mobile communications to also support multimedia services. Some multimedia service applications provided by the Internet require multiple users to receive the same data at the same time, such as video on demand, TV broadcasting, video conferencing, online education, interactive games, etc. IP") multicast and broadcast technology, but these services are transplanted to the mobile network. Compared with general data, these services have the characteristics of large data volume, long duration, and delay sensitivity, and the mobile network has specific characteristics. The existing IP multicast and broadcast technologies cannot be directly applied to mobile networks.

In order to effectively utilize mobile network resources and realize the application of mobile multimedia services, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP for short) proposed the Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS for short) ), which is used to provide a point-to-multipoint service in which one data source sends data to multiple users in the mobile network.

As far as the transmission mode is concerned, there are two modes for MBMS service transmission between UTRAN and UE: Point To Multipoint (PTM) mode and Point To Point (PTP) mode. The point-to-multipoint (PTM) mode sends the same data through the MBMS Point-to-Multipoint Traffic Channel (MTCH for short), and all UEs that join the multicast service or are interested in the broadcast service can Receiving; point-to-point (PTP) mode sends data through DTCH (Dedicated Traffic Channel, dedicated traffic channel) logical channel, and only one corresponding UE can receive it. For the initial stage of a service, there will be a counting procedure to help the network side determine the transmission mode of this service. For users who monitor MCCH (MBMS point-to-multipoint Control Channel, MBMS point-to-multipoint control channel) from the beginning, they respond to counting in different forms according to their respective states, and use point-to-multipoint (PTM) according to the judgment of the network side Or point-to-point (PTP) mode reception. The network side will periodically perform recounting operations to determine whether the current transmission mode is optimal. For users who choose to join after the business transmission has started, they only need to establish a connection according to the transmission mode that has been set.

Figure 1 shows a reference structural model of an MBMS system. As shown in the figure, compared with the conventional system, the reference model of the MBMS system has a new mobile network functional entity, that is, the Broadcast-Multicast Service Center (Broadcast-Multicast Service Center, referred to as "BM-SC"), which is the content provider It is used to authorize and initiate the MBMS bearer service in the mobile network, and transmit MBMS content according to the predetermined time plan. In addition, other relevant functional entities in the network are also enhanced, adding MBMS-related functions. The MBMS defined by 3GPP can not only realize plain text low-rate message broadcast and multicast, but also realize high-speed multimedia service broadcast and multicast.

The complete flow of a user receiving a certain MBMS broadcast service is shown in Figure 2. At first, in step 210, the service announcement (Service announcement) notifies the user of the relevant information of the MBMS service; in step 220, the session starts (Session Start), BM- SC prepares to send data; Then, in step 230, MBMS informs (Notification), and radio network controller (Radio Network Controller, referred to as " RNC ") notifies user MBMS multicast data transmission; Step 240 is data transmission process; Finally in step 250 , the session ends (Session Stop), the BM-SC is not ready to send data, and the bearer resources can be released.

The complete flow process of a user receiving a certain MBMS multicast service is shown in Figure 3. At first, in step 310: the user subscribes (Subscription), thereby establishing a connection between the user and the service provider; in step 320: the service announces (Service announcement), notify the user of the relevant information of the MBMS service; in step 330: join (joining), that is, the user notifies the network to prepare to receive the MBMS service; thereafter, in step 340: session start (Session Start), the BM-SC is ready to send data; Step 350: MBMS Notification (MBMS Notification), that is, the RNC notifies the user of MBMS multicast data transmission. In this step, the network side sends a modified service message (MBMS modified services information, referred to as "MSI") to the UE, wherein the network side will send it through MCCH or DCCH (Dedicated Control Channel, Dedicated Control Channel) according to the state of the UE The MSI, in other words, UEs in different states respond to this procedure in different ways to get notified.

Specifically, if it is a UE on CELL_DCH (referring to using point-to-point services and occupying the DCCH channel of the cell), it will be notified by receiving MSI on DCCH or MCCH; if the UE is originally receiving MBMS services, it will receive MSI through MCCH to obtain Notification: If the UE did not receive the MBMS service and did not monitor the MCCH, it receives the notification indication through the physical channel MICH (MBMS notification Indicator Channel, MBMS notification indicator channel), and then receives the MSI by monitoring the MCCH to obtain the notification.

Thereafter, as shown in Figure 3, in step 360: data transmission process; in step 370: session end (Session Stop): BM-SC is not ready to send data, and bearer resources can be released; in step 380: leaving (leaving) , the user is no longer a member of the MBMS multicast group.

In order to make this specification easier to understand, the "MSI" mentioned in the above step 350 and the manner in which the user receives the MSI through the DCCH or MCCH are further explained below.

MSI points out all the changed service information in the cell. There are several information elements (Information Element, referred to as "IE") in MSI, mainly including: each service ID, MBMS service requires UE operation (including obtaining counting information, obtaining point-to-multipoint radio bearer information, requiring establishment of point-to-point connection etc.), the preferred frequency of MBMS service, continuing to acquire MCCH, MBMS re-acquiring MCCH, the number of MBMS neighboring cells, etc. It should be pointed out that when the changed service tends to be stable after a period of time, the service information will be transferred from the MSI to the MBMS Unmodified Services Information (USI for short). It can be seen that all services in MSI and USI provide all MBMS services to users in this cell.

If the user receives the MSI through the MCCH, the message on the MCCH channel is sent periodically in units of a modification period (MP). One MP contains several repetition periods (RPs). All RPs in one MP send the same key message content. Among them, the MSI As key information, it is sent at the beginning of each RP.

At the same time, the user monitors the MCCH or DCCH through the discontinuous reception mechanism and receives key MSI. When there is a change in the MSI that the user is interested in or a high-priority service, the user will continue to read other control messages in the MCCH, such as USI, to Obtain information about receiving MBMS services, and receive MBMS services through MTCH.

At present, both MSI and USI contain several IEs to inform users of information and receiving methods of different services, among which there is an IE "require user operation", which is used to notify users of each service if they want to receive access to this service method. It contains multiple options, such as "get counting information", "get PTM radio bearer (PTM RB) information", "require PTP radio bearer" and so on. Among them, "Require PTP radio bearer" is used to inform users that this service is transmitted in a point-to-point manner, and users in different states respond to this instruction to establish connections in different ways. For example, a user in an idle state will respond through the radio resource control (Radio Resource Control, "RRC") connection establishment process; the UTRANR Registration Area Paging Channel (UTRAN Registration Area Paging Channel, referred to as Users in the state of "URA-PCH") and Cell Paging Channel (CELL Paging Channel, referred to as "CELL_PCH") will respond through the cell update process; users in the state of CELL_DCH will respond by establishing Packet Mobility Management (Packet Mobility Management, referred to as "PMM") connection process response.

For the relevant details involved in the above, please refer to 3GPP TS25.331 V6.6.0 "Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification" (tentatively translated as "Radio Resource Control Protocol Details").

In practical applications, the above solution has the following problems: when receiving MBMS services or packet services for users in the CELL_DCH state, it may not be possible to realize the connection in the packet domain (ie PMM) and at the same time cause waste of resources and lead to radio bearer (RB) The rebuild or reconfiguration process failed.

The main reason for this situation is that the PMM connection is a connection in the user's packet domain, and the user needs to establish a connection in the packet domain to receive the MBMS service through the PTP mode. For a user in the CELL_DCH state, it may have received other MBMS services or packet services before receiving this MBMS service, that is, the user is already in the PMM connection state. At this time, it is completely unnecessary to re-connect the PMM, and it is also an error process that cannot be realized. It not only wastes resources for unnecessary signaling interaction but also increases the delay. At the same time, it may also cause RB reconstruction or reconnection The configuration process failed.

Contents of the invention

In view of this, the main purpose of the present invention is to provide a method for responding to an MBMS point-to-point connection establishment request, so as to avoid errors during response, save system resources and reduce time delay.

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method for responding to an MBMS point-to-point connection establishment request, comprising the following steps:

When a user in the "CELL_DCH" state receives a request to establish a point-to-point radio bearer to receive MBMS services, check whether it is currently in the packet domain connection state, and if so, complete the initialization of MBMS service reception by reconfiguring the existing point-to-point radio bearer process.

Wherein, the user knows whether the point-to-point wireless bearer needs to be established according to the information element "point-to-point radio bearer required" in the MBMS modification service message or MBMS non-change service message received from the dedicated control channel or the MBMS point-to-multipoint control channel. bearer.

In addition, in the method, when a user in the "CELL_DCH" state receives a request to establish a point-to-point radio bearer to receive MBMS services, if it is not in the packet domain connection state, it will notify the upper layer to perform a packet mobility management connection process to respond .

In addition, in the method, when a user in the "CELL_DCH" state receives a request to establish a point-to-point radio bearer to receive MBMS services, if it is not in the packet domain connection state, then use the existing data path of the circuit switching domain connection Transmission of point-to-point MBMS services.

By comparison, it can be found that the main difference between the technical solution of the present invention and the prior art is that when a user in the "CELL_DCH" state receives a request to establish a PTP RB, he checks whether he is currently in the packet domain connection state, and if so, then The existing PTP RB is reconfigured, otherwise the upper layer is required to establish a PMM connection in response or transmit the PTP MBMS service through the data path of the existing CS domain connection.

This difference in technical solution brings obvious beneficial effects, that is, by utilizing the existing packet domain connection, unnecessary signaling procedures are saved, resources are saved and time delay is reduced. At the same time, the response method of the user in the "CELL_DCH" state is clarified, which avoids the failure of the error process or the error in the RB reconfiguration process.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 shows the reference structure model of MBMS system;

Fig. 2 shows the complete flow of a user receiving a certain MBMS broadcast service in the prior art;

Fig. 3 shows the complete flow of a user receiving a certain MBMS multicast service in the prior art;

4 is a flow chart of a method for responding to an MBMS point-to-point connection establishment request according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 5 is a flowchart of a method for responding to an MBMS point-to-point connection establishment request according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

In order to make the object, technical solution and advantages of the present invention clearer, the present invention will be further described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

In general, the principle of the present invention is that when a user in the "CELL_DCH" state receives a request for establishing a point-to-point radio bearer (PTP RB), first check whether the user is currently in the state of packet domain connection. judge. If the user is currently in the state of packet domain connection, the MBMS service reception initialization process is completed by reconfiguring the existing PTP RB, so that the user can avoid errors when responding, save system resources and reduce delay; if The user is not currently connected to the packet domain, and requires the upper layer to establish a PMM connection in response to the instruction "require PTP RB" in the IE "require user operation" to establish a connection, or through the existing circuit switching (CS) domain connection The data path transmits PTP MBMS services. In addition, according to the principle of the present invention, there is also a processing method, that is, no matter whether the user in the "CELL_DCH" state receives a request for establishing a PTP RB to receive MBMS services, whether it is in the state of packet domain connection or not, the RB reconnection will be performed. The establishment process responds to the instruction "require PTP RB" in IE "require user operation" to establish a connection to avoid errors.

The method for responding to the MBMS point-to-point connection establishment request of the first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIG. 4 .

In step 410, the user listens to DCCH or MCCH. Users monitor different channels due to their different states. For example, users in CELL_PCH, URA_PCH and idle mode receive MSI or USI by monitoring MCCH; users in "CELL_DCH" state use point-to-point services, occupy It is the DCCH channel of the cell, so the MSI or USI is received by monitoring the DCCH or MCCH.

Then, enter step 420, judge whether this user receives the request of requesting to set up PTP RB. Specifically, when a service (such as voice service, common data service, facsimile service or other MBMS services transmitted in PTP mode, etc.) " is set to "Require PTP RB", and deliver the MSI or USI. Therefore, the user can judge whether the user has received a request for establishing a PTP RB by monitoring the DCCH or MCCH in step 410. If the user has received a request for establishing a PTP RB, then enter step 430; otherwise, end this process.

In step 430, the status of the user is determined. Since users in different states respond to the indication of IE "request PTP RB" in the MSI or USI to establish a connection in different ways, therefore, in this step, the state of the user should be judged. If the user is in the idle state, then enter step 460; if the user is in the "CELL_DCH" state, then enter step 440; if the user is in the "CELL_PCH" or "URA_PCH" state, then enter step 470.

In step 440, for a user in the "CELL_DCH" state, it is judged whether the user is already in the packet domain connection state, that is, it is judged whether the user has established a PMM connection. In this step, it is necessary to judge whether the user is already connected to the packet domain, because the user does not know whether the user has received other requests to establish a PTP RB before receiving this request. PTP RB's request and has responded to the request. That is to say, when a user receives a request to establish a PTP RB, he does not know whether he has received voice services or other services transmitted in PTP mode. If the user has received the voice service or other services transmitted in the PTP mode, then the user has established a PMM connection and is in the packet domain connection state. The judgment of this step is to adopt different response methods to the request for establishing PTP RB according to the different connection states of the user packet domain, so as to avoid re-establishing the connection for the user who has already established the PMM connection, saving system resources and reducing the time delay. At the same time, RB reconstruction or reconfiguration failures are also prevented.

If it is determined that the user is in the PS domain connection state, that is, a PMM connection has been established, then go to step 480 , otherwise, go to step 450 .

In step 450, the user requests to establish a PMM connection. Because it is stipulated in the existing protocol that the user in the "CELL_DCH" state will respond to the instruction of IE "request PTP RB" by establishing a PMM connection process. Moreover, since the user enters this step before establishing a PMM connection, an error will not be caused by repeatedly establishing a PMM connection.

In step 480, PTP RB reconfiguration is performed. Since the user has already established a PMM connection, only the PTP RB needs to be reconfigured to complete the response to the indication of IE "requiring PTP RB", without wasting resources for signaling interaction, reducing the delay, and RB reconstruction or reconfiguration failures are prevented.

If in step 430, the current user status is judged to be idle, then enter step 460, and establish a connection through RRC. Because it is stipulated in the existing protocol that the user in the idle state responds through the RRC connection establishment process.

If in step 430, the current user state is judged to be "CELL_PCH" or "URA_PCH", then enter step 470, and respond to the connection through the cell update process.

In this embodiment, when a user in the "CELL_DCH" state receives a request to establish a PTP RB, check whether it is currently in the packet domain connection state, and then adopt different response methods according to the difference in the packet domain connection state, thereby avoiding the occurrence of errors , saving system resources and reducing delay.

The second embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. 5 .

In step 510, the user monitors DCCH or MCCH, same as step 410.

Then, enter step 520, determine whether the user receives a request for establishing a PTP RB, same as step 420. If yes, go to step 530; otherwise, end this process.

In step 530, the status of the user is determined. If the user is in the idle state, then enter step 560; if the user is in the "CELL_DCH" state, then enter step 540; if the user is in the "CELL_PCH" or "URA_PCH" state, then enter step 570. This step is exactly the same as step 430 .

In step 540, for the user in the "CELL_DCH" state, it is judged whether the user is already in the PS domain connection state, the same as step 440. If the user is in the PS domain connection state, that is, a PMM connection has been established, then go to step 580 , otherwise, go to step 550 .

In step 550, the MBMS service in PTP mode is transmitted through the data path of the CS domain connection.

In step 580, perform PTP RB reconfiguration, same as step 480.

If in step 530, the current user status is judged to be idle, then enter step 560, and establish a connection through RRC. This step is exactly the same as step 460 .

If in step 530, the current user state is judged to be "CELL_PCH" or "URA_PCH" state, then enter step 570, and respond to the connection through the cell update process. This step is exactly the same as step 470 .

It can be seen that this embodiment is basically the same as the first embodiment, except that when a user in the "CELL_DCH" state receives a request to establish a PTP RB and there is no packet domain connection, the response method to the request is different. In one embodiment, by establishing a PMM connection, the user is in the PS domain connection state, so as to receive the MBMS service. However, in this embodiment, the MBMS service in PTP mode is transmitted through the data path connected to the CS domain. Therefore, this embodiment can fully achieve the effect of the first embodiment.

Although the present invention has been illustrated and described with reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the present invention. The spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims (4)

1. A method for responding to an MBMS point-to-point connection establishment request, characterized in that it comprises the following steps: When a user in the "CELL_DCH" state receives a request to establish a point-to-point radio bearer to receive MBMS services, check whether it is currently in the packet domain connection state, and if so, complete the initialization of MBMS service reception by reconfiguring the existing point-to-point radio bearer process. 2. The method for responding to an MBMS point-to-point connection establishment request according to claim 1, wherein the user knows whether the point-to-point radio bearer needs to be established according to the information element "point-to-point radio bearer required", and the information Elements come from MBMS Amendment Service Messages or MBMS Non-Change Service Messages received from Dedicated Control Channels or MBMS Point-to-Multipoint Control Channels. 3. The method for responding to an MBMS point-to-point connection establishment request according to claim 1 or 2, wherein when a user in the "CELL_DCH" state receives a request for establishing a point-to-point radio bearer to receive MBMS services, if If it is not in the connection state of the packet domain, it notifies the upper layer to perform the packet mobility management connection process in response. 4. The method for responding to an MBMS point-to-point connection establishment request according to claim 1 or 2, wherein when a user in the "CELL_DCH" state receives a request for establishing a point-to-point radio bearer to receive MBMS services, if If it is not connected in the packet domain, use the existing data path connected in the circuit switching domain to transmit the point-to-point MBMS service.

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