WO2012159310A1 - Method and apparatus for triggering user equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for triggering a user equipment are disclosed in the present invention. The method includes: transmitting to the user equipment a Non-Access Stratum (NAS) message which carries a trigger address used for the communication between a server and the user equipment (S110); receiving a trigger message the destination IP address of which is the trigger address (S120); transmitting the trigger message to the user equipment through a servicing gateway (SGW), so as to establish, according to the trigger message, the communication connection with the server by the user equipment (S130). The apparatus includes a first transmission module, a reception module and a second transmission module. With the method and apparatus of the invention, by configuring for the user equipment, a packet data network gateway and the server the trigger address for the communication between the server and the user equipment, when needing to trigger the user equipment for communication, the server can trigger the user equipment only by transmitting the trigger message to the trigger address; this avoids the problem in the related art that the network is required to provide the external the interface of the control plane, thereby reducing the modification to the network and having the advantage of simpleness and easy operation.

Description

 Method and apparatus for triggering user equipment

 The present invention relates to the field of communications, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for triggering user equipment in the field of communications. Background technique

 In some cases, the application server needs to be able to trigger the user device to initiate communication between the user device and the application server. At this point, the user equipment needs to be able to receive a trigger indication from the network and establish a connection with the application server. For example, in a Machine Type Communications (MTC) application, the MTC server may need to trigger the MTC terminal to communicate with it. For example, an MTC server used for meter reading applications may need to trigger the meter it manages to report the current meter reading.

 Several control plane-based UE triggering methods are proposed in the standard "TR23.888". Among these methods, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) or System Architecture Evolution (SAE) / Long Term Evolution (LTE) The network provides an interface of the control plane to the outside, thereby receiving a trigger request of the control plane initiated by the application server through the interface.

 However, in the above method, the network is required to provide an interface of the control plane to the outside, which results in a large change to the network and a complicated scheme. Summary of the invention

 To this end, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method and apparatus for triggering a user equipment, which can trigger a user equipment to communicate with a server and reduce modifications to the network.

 In one aspect, the embodiment of the present invention provides a method for triggering a user equipment, where the method includes: sending a non-access stratum NAS message to a user equipment, where the NAS message carries a trigger address used by the server to communicate with the user equipment; And receiving the trigger message sent by the server to the user equipment, so that the user equipment establishes a communication connection with the server according to the trigger message.

In another aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for triggering a user equipment, where the method The method includes: receiving a non-access stratum NAS message sent by the packet data network gateway PGW, where the NAS message carries a trigger address used by the server to communicate with the user equipment, and receiving a trigger message sent by the PGW from the server by using the serving gateway SGW, where The destination IP address of the trigger message is the trigger address; establishing a communication connection with the server according to the trigger message.

 In a further aspect, the embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus for triggering a user equipment, where the apparatus includes: a first sending module, configured to send a non-access stratum NAS message to a user equipment, where the NAS message is carried by the server and a triggering address of the user equipment communication; a receiving module, configured to receive a trigger message that the destination IP address sent by the server is the trigger address; and a second sending module, configured to send the trigger message to the user equipment by using the serving gateway SGW, In order for the user equipment to establish a communication connection with the server according to the trigger message.

 In another aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus for triggering a user equipment, where the apparatus includes: a first receiving module, configured to receive a non-access stratum NAS message sent by a packet data network gateway PGW, where the NAS message carries a triggering address for the server to communicate with the device; a second receiving module, configured to receive a trigger message sent by the PGW from the server by using the serving gateway SGW, where the destination IP address of the trigger message is the trigger address; Establishing a communication connection with the server according to the trigger message.

 Based on the foregoing technical solution, a method and apparatus for triggering a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention, by configuring a trigger address for a user equipment, a packet data network gateway, and a server to communicate with a user equipment, so that the server needs to trigger the user equipment When the communication is performed, only the trigger message is sent to the trigger address to trigger the user equipment, and the interface in the related art that requires the network to provide the control plane to the outside is avoided, so that the network modification can be reduced and the configuration is simple. Easy to operate. DRAWINGS

 In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings to be used in the embodiments of the present invention will be briefly described below. It is obvious that the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention, Those skilled in the art can also obtain other drawings based on these drawings without paying any creative work.

 1 is a schematic block diagram of a network architecture of a system architecture evolution communication system.

2 is a schematic flowchart of a method for triggering a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention. 3 is a schematic flow diagram of a specific embodiment of a method for triggering a user equipment. FIG. 4 is a schematic flowchart of a method for triggering a user equipment according to another embodiment of the present invention.

 5 is a schematic flow diagram of another embodiment of a method for triggering a user equipment. 6 is a schematic flow diagram of still another embodiment of a method for triggering a user equipment. FIG. 7 is a schematic flow chart of a method for triggering a user equipment according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

 8 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus for triggering a user equipment in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 9A through 9C are schematic block diagrams of specific embodiments of an apparatus in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 10 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus for triggering a user equipment in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

 11 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus for triggering a user equipment according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

detailed description

 The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention are clearly and completely described in the following with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. It is obvious that the described embodiments are a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all embodiments. All other embodiments obtained by a person of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention without making creative labor are within the scope of the present invention.

 The embodiment of the present invention will be described by taking the SAE/LTE system as an example. As shown in Figure 1, in the SAE communication system, the user equipment (User Equipment, referred to as "UE") accesses the mobility management entity of the core network through the Evolved Node B ('ΈΝΒ'). Entity, referred to as "MME") / Serving Gateway ("SGW"), is connected to the Packet Data Network (PDN), which is referred to as "PGW".

It should be understood that the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention can be applied to various wireless communication systems, such as: Global System of Mobile communication ("GSM") system, Code Division Multiple Access (Code Division Multiple Access, referred to as "CDMA" system, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) system, General Packet Radio Service ("GPRS"), Long Term Evolution (Long Term Evolution) , referred to as "LTE" system, LTE Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (Time Division Duplex (referred to as "TDD"), Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) communication systems.

 It should also be understood that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the user equipment may also be referred to as a terminal equipment, a mobile station (Mobile Station, referred to as "MS"), a mobile terminal (Mobile Terminal), etc., and the user equipment may be Communicating with one or more core networks via a Radio Access Network ("RAN"), for example, the user equipment may be a mobile phone (or "cellular" phone), a computer with a mobile terminal, etc. For example, the terminal device may also be a device such as an electricity meter, a water meter, a gas meter, etc., which exchanges language and/or data with the wireless access network.

 In the embodiment of the present invention, the base station may be a base station in GSM or CDMA (Base

Transceiver Station (BTS), which can also be a base station (NodeB, referred to as "NB") in WCDMA, or an Evolutional Node B ("ENB or e-NodeB" in LTE). The present invention is not limited, but for convenience of description, the following embodiments will be described by taking ENB as an example.

 In the embodiment of the present invention, the mobility management device may be a mobility management entity (Mobility).

Management Entity (abbreviated as "MME"). In the UMTS system, the mobility management device may also be a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN). For convenience of description, the following embodiments will The MME is described as an example.

 2 shows a schematic flow diagram of a method 100 for triggering a user equipment in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the method 100 includes:

 S110, sending a Non-Access Stratum ("NAS") message to the user equipment, where the NAS message carries a trigger address used by the server to communicate with the user equipment.

 S120: Receive a trigger message that the destination IP address sent by the server is the trigger address. S130: Send the trigger message to the user equipment by using the SGW, so that the user equipment establishes a communication connection with the server according to the trigger message.

 In order to enable the server to trigger the user equipment UE to initiate communication with the server, the packet data network gateway PGW may first send a NAS message carrying a trigger address to the UE to configure the trigger address to the UE. After receiving the trigger message sent by the server with the destination IP address being the trigger address, the PGW sends the trigger message to the UE through the serving gateway SGW, so that the UE can establish a communication connection with the server according to the trigger message.

The method of the embodiment of the invention is provided for the user equipment, the packet data network gateway and the server The triggering address is used for the server to communicate with the user equipment, so that when the server needs to trigger the user equipment to communicate, the triggering of the user equipment can be implemented by sending a trigger message to the triggering address, which avoids the need for the network in the related art. The externally provides an interface to the control plane, which reduces the changes to the network and has the advantage of being easy to operate.

 In the embodiment of the present invention, when the UE is attached to the network, the PGW may send the message to the UE.

In the manner of the NAS message, the trigger address is configured to the UE. In addition to the usual IP address of the UE, the NAS message needs to carry the trigger address for the server to communicate with the UE. It should be understood that the IP address of the UE carried by the NAS message is usually dynamically changed, and the IP address is used by the network element to communicate with the UE based on the control plane; and the trigger address carried by the NAS message is usually statically configured, and is used for The server communicates with the UE based on the data plane.

 It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the trigger address also needs to be configured to the PGW and the server. For example, the trigger address is one of the attributes of the group to which the UE belongs, and is statically configured on the PGW. The trigger address is one of the attributes of the group to which the UE or the UE belongs, and is statically configured on the server. When the server needs to trigger the UE to communicate, The server only needs to send a trigger message to the trigger address to trigger the UE.

 In the embodiment of the present invention, UEs belonging to the same group may be assigned the same trigger address for the server to communicate with the user equipment. For example, an access point (Access Point Name, abbreviated as "APN") is used to indicate a UE group, that is, the UEs in the UE group belong to the same APN, and the UE group is allocated one for the server to communicate with the user equipment. The trigger address, which can be, for example, IP@APN. The trigger address may be configured as one of the attributes of the APN to the PGW corresponding to the APN, or configured as one of the attributes of the UE or the UE group to the server for triggering of the UE or the UE group. Optionally, the trigger address is used by the server to communicate with user equipment belonging to the same access point APN. In the following, the description of the UE group using the APN will be mainly taken as an example, and it should be understood that this is merely an example and should not be construed as limiting the invention.

 In the embodiment of the present invention, the trigger address is an IP address, and optionally, the trigger address may be a unicast address or a multicast address. Regardless of whether the trigger address is a unicast address or a multicast address, the trigger address should ensure that the data whose destination address is the trigger address can be correctly routed from the server to the PGW corresponding to the trigger address.

In the embodiment of the present invention, when the server needs to trigger all the UEs, some UEs, or a certain UE of a certain APN, the server may send a trigger message to the trigger address corresponding to the UE. The trigger message will first arrive at the PGW of the routing domain it belongs to, and then the PGW can use different parties. The method sends the trigger message to the UE through the SGW. In some embodiments of the present invention, the PGW needs to further transmit the trigger indication included in the trigger message to the MME, so that the MME can use the paging message (Paging) to the related UE according to the received trigger indication. Paging. Thus, after receiving the trigger message, the UE can establish a communication connection with the server according to the trigger message.

 It should be understood that after receiving the trigger message, the UE may establish a communication connection with the server, or may not establish a communication connection with the server for various reasons, such as an abnormal state of the UE, or the UE does not belong to one of the UEs triggered by the server. . Therefore, in the embodiment of the present invention, the PGW that receives the trigger message sent by the server sends the trigger message to the UE, so that the UE can establish a communication connection with the server, but does not limit all UEs to be established with the server. Communication connection, the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

 The following describes the PGW sending a trigger message to the UE by different methods in conjunction with FIG. 3 to FIG. 6, respectively.

 FIG. 3 shows a schematic flow diagram of a particular embodiment of a method 200 for triggering a user equipment. As shown in FIG. 3, the method 200 includes:

 5201. In a process in which the UE is attached to the network, the PGW sends a NAS message to the UE, where the NAS message carries a trigger address used by the server to communicate with the UE. In this process, if the trigger address is configured for the APN requested by the UE on the PGW, and the trigger address is used for the server to communicate with one or more user equipments of the APN that the UE needs to establish a connection with, the UE is usually removed. In addition to the IP address, the PGW will also return the trigger address to the UE. The trigger address is, for example, IP@APN. The following is an example of IP@APN. Then, the PGW will establish a list of UEs associated with the IP@APN for the IP@APN, that is, an IP@APN UE list.

 S202: The server sends a trigger message that the destination IP address is the trigger address. Specifically, when the server needs to trigger the UE configured with the trigger address, it only needs to send a trigger message to the trigger address allocated for the UE.

The PGW sends the trigger message to the user equipment of the SGW and the PGW of each user equipment corresponding to the trigger address according to the corresponding relationship between the trigger address and the user equipment. SGW. Specifically, after receiving the trigger message sent to the IP@APN, the PGW copies the received trigger message according to the IP@APN UE list, and uses all the UEs corresponding to the IP@APN UE list. The bearer sends it to the SGW corresponding to these UEs. After receiving the trigger message by the bearer, the SGW corresponding to the user equipment sends a downlink data arrival message to the mobility management entity corresponding to the user equipment when determining that the user equipment is in an idle state. Triggering this ΜΜΕ initiates paging for the user equipment. That is, after the SGW receives the trigger message, if the UE corresponding to the SGW is in an idle state, the downlink data arrival message is sent to the UI, and the paging is initiated to the UE.

 After receiving the downlink data arrival message sent by the SGW, the MME sends a paging message to the RAN to instruct the UE to establish a connection with the network.

 S206. The RAN sends a paging message to the UE, to indicate that the UE establishes a connection with the network.

S207: The UE re-establishes a connection with the network after receiving the paging message.

 S208. After the user equipment establishes a connection with the network, the user equipment receives the trigger message sent by the SGW by using a bearer with the SGW.

 S209. The user equipment establishes a communication connection with the server according to the trigger message.

 It should be understood that, in the above specific embodiment, the trigger address such as IP@APN is transparent to the SGW and the MME, that is, the foregoing method according to the embodiment of the present invention does not need to configure the trigger address to the SGW and the MME.

 The method of the embodiment of the present invention configures a trigger address for the server to communicate with the user equipment for the user equipment, the packet data network gateway, and the server, so that when the server needs to trigger the user equipment to communicate, only the trigger message is sent to the IP address. The triggering of the user equipment can be implemented, and the interface of the related art that requires the network to provide the control plane to the outside is avoided, thereby reducing the modification to the network and having the advantages of being simple and easy to operate.

 4 shows a schematic flow diagram of a method 300 for triggering a user equipment in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 4, the method 300 includes:

 S310. Send a NAS message to the user equipment, where the NAS message carries a trigger address used by the server to communicate with the user equipment.

 S320. The destination IP address sent by the receiving server is a trigger message of the trigger address.

S330. Send a control plane message to each SGW corresponding to the trigger address.

 S340. Determine that the user equipment corresponding to the trigger address is in an active state.

S350. Send the trigger message to the user equipment by using a bearer with the user equipment. After receiving the trigger message that the destination IP address sent by the server is the trigger address, if the user equipment corresponding to the trigger address is determined to be in the active state, the PGW may directly trigger the trigger by using the bearer with the user equipment. a message is sent to the user device; if PGW It is determined that the user equipment corresponding to the trigger address is in an idle state. As shown in FIG. 5, the MME is required to send a paging message to the UE, so that the UE establishes a connection with the network, so that the PGW can send the trigger message to the UE.

 As shown in FIG. 5, a method 400 for triggering a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: S401. In a process in which a UE is attached to a network, a PGW sends a NAS message to a UE, where the NAS message is carried by a server and the UE. The trigger address of the communication. During this process, the PGW will establish a list of SGWs associated with the IP@APN for the IP@APN, namely the IP@APN SGW list. In addition, in the process of attaching the UE, the MME needs to establish a list of related UEs for the IP@APN, that is, an IP@APN UE list, which is used for paging initiated by the MME.

 S402. The server sends a trigger message with the destination IP address being the trigger address, and is used to trigger one or more user equipments of all the user equipments corresponding to the trigger address.

 S403. The PGW sends, according to the corresponding relationship between the trigger address and the SGW, a control plane message to each SGW corresponding to the trigger address according to the established IP@APN SGW list, where the control plane message includes the indication pair and the trigger. The indication information that each user equipment corresponding to the address performs paging.

 Optionally, the control plane message includes an enhanced universal data transmission protocol control plane (General

The Data Transfer Protocol-Control (GTP-C) message, the enhanced GTP-C message includes the trigger address. The control plane message includes a trigger address. Optionally, the control plane message further includes information such as an APN associated with the UE to be triggered.

 S404. The SGW sends the control plane message to the MME, where the control plane message includes indication information indicating that the user equipment corresponding to the trigger address is paged. For example, the control plane message includes information such as an APN associated with the UE to be triggered and an IP@APN address.

 S405. After receiving the control plane message from the SGW corresponding to the user equipment, the MME corresponding to the user equipment performs paging on the user equipment in an idle state, that is, the MME sends a paging message to the RAN to indicate the UE. Establish a connection to the network.

 Optionally, the MME sends a paging message to the RAN for each UE to indicate that the UE establishes a connection with the network. Optionally, the MME sends an enhanced paging message to the RAN, where the paging message carries indication information indicating that the UE establishes a connection with the network. Specifically, the paging message sent by the MME on the S1 interface enhances the indication of supporting IP@APN.

S406. The RAN sends multiple paging messages or an enhanced paging message to the user equipment, to indicate that the UE establishes a connection with the network. Specifically, the paging message sent by the RAN on the air interface is also increased. Strong support for IP@APN instructions.

 5407. After receiving the paging message, the user equipment re-establishes a connection with the network, and establishes a bearer relationship with the PGW.

 S408: The user equipment receives the trigger message by using a re-established bearer with the PGW. That is, after the UE re-establishes the connection with the network, the PGW copies the trigger message, and sends the copied trigger message to the UE by using the re-established bearer of the UE.

 S409: The user equipment establishes a communication connection with the server according to the trigger message.

 It should be understood that, in the foregoing embodiment of the present invention, a bearer may not be established for the UE during the UE attach procedure. For all related trigger-related APNs, only one control plane connection needs to be established between one SGW and one PGW. Similarly, for all ARPs related to the trigger, only one control plane connection needs to be established between the MME and one SGW.

 The method of the embodiment of the present invention configures a trigger address for the server to communicate with the user equipment for the user equipment, the packet data network gateway, and the server, so that when the server needs to trigger the user equipment to communicate, only the trigger message is sent to the IP address. The triggering of the user equipment can be implemented, and the interface of the related art that requires the network to provide the control plane to the outside is avoided, thereby reducing the modification to the network and having the advantages of being simple and easy to operate.

 FIG. 6 shows a schematic flow diagram of yet another embodiment of a method 500 for triggering a user equipment. As shown in FIG. 6, the method 500 includes:

 S501. The PGW sends a NAS message to the UE, where the NAS message carries a trigger address used by the server to communicate with the UE. During this process, the PGW will establish a list of SGWs associated with the IP@APN for the IP@APN, namely the IP@APN SGW list. In addition, in the process of attaching the UE, the MME needs to establish a list of related UEs for the IP@APN, that is, an IP@APN UE list, which is used for paging initiated by the MME.

 S503. The server sends a trigger message to the triggering address of the triggering address, and is used to trigger one or more user equipments in the user equipment corresponding to the triggering address.

 S504: The PGW sends the trigger message to each SGW corresponding to the trigger address by using the trigger bearer corresponding to the trigger address according to the trigger address.

 Optionally, after the PGW sends the NAS message to the UE, or before the PGW sends the trigger message to the SGW, the method 500 includes:

S502. The PGW establishes, according to the correspondence between the trigger address and the SGW, a trigger bearer for transmitting the trigger message between the SGW and the PGW corresponding to the trigger address. It should be understood that each The trigger bearer can only correspond to one APN, and each trigger bearer corresponds to one SGW. For example, if the UE is the first UE that belongs to the APN through the SGW, the SGW will initiate a bearer between the SGW and the PGW for transmitting a trigger message for transmitting the destination IP address to IP@APN.

 S505. After the SGW receives the trigger message on the trigger bearer corresponding to the trigger address,

The SGW knows that this is the data for triggering the UE associated with the IP@APN, and then sends a control plane message to the MME, the control plane message including indication information indicating that each user equipment corresponding to the trigger address is paged.

 Optionally, the control plane message includes an enhanced GTP-C message, the enhanced GTP-C message including the trigger address. The control plane message includes a trigger address. Optionally, the control plane message further includes information such as an APN associated with the UE to be triggered.

 After receiving the control plane message including the trigger address, the MME corresponding to the user equipment performs paging on the user equipment in the idle state according to the corresponding relationship between the trigger address and the user equipment, that is, the MME sends a page to the RAN. A message to instruct the UE to establish a connection with the network.

 Optionally, the MME sends a paging message of each UE related to the trigger message to the RAN, to indicate that the UE establishes a connection with the network. Optionally, the MME sends an enhanced paging message to the RAN, where the paging message carries indication information indicating that the UE establishes a connection with the network. Specifically, the paging message sent by the MME on the S1 interface enhances the indication of supporting IP@APN.

 S507. The RAN sends a plurality of paging messages or an enhanced paging message to the user equipment, to indicate that the UE establishes a connection with the network. Specifically, the paging message sent by the RAN on the air interface also enhances the indication of supporting IP@APN.

 5508. After receiving the paging message, the user equipment re-establishes a connection with the network, and establishes a bearer relationship with the SGW.

 S509: The user equipment receives the trigger message by using a re-established bearer with the SGW. That is, after the UE re-establishes the connection with the network, the SGW copies the trigger message, and sends the triggered trigger message to the UE by using the bearer of the UE related to the trigger address.

 5510. The user equipment establishes a communication connection with the server according to the trigger message.

The method of the embodiment of the present invention configures a trigger address for the server to communicate with the user equipment for the user equipment, the packet data network gateway, and the server, so that when the server needs to trigger the user equipment to communicate, only the trigger message is sent to the IP address. The triggering of the user equipment can be implemented, and the interface in the related art that requires the network to provide the control plane to the outside is avoided, thereby being able to reduce Changes to the network and the advantages of easy operation.

 The method for triggering a UE according to an embodiment of the present invention is described above from the perspective of the PGW, and the method will be described from the perspective of the UE.

 FIG. 7 shows a schematic flow diagram of a method 600 for triggering a user equipment in accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 7, the method 600 includes:

 S610. Receive a non-access stratum NAS message sent by the packet data network gateway PGW, where the NAS message carries a trigger address used by the server to communicate with the user equipment.

 S620: Receive a trigger message sent by the PGW from the server by using the serving gateway SGW, where the destination IP address of the trigger message is the trigger address.

 S630. Establish a communication connection with the server according to the trigger message.

 After the UE receives the NAS message carrying the trigger address, if the server needs to trigger the UE, the server only needs to send a trigger message with the destination address being the trigger address. After the trigger message is received by the PGW, the UE sends the message to the UE through the SGW. After receiving the trigger message, a communication connection with the server is established according to the trigger message.

 The method of the embodiment of the present invention configures a trigger address for the server to communicate with the user equipment for the user equipment, the packet data network gateway, and the server, so that when the server needs to trigger the user equipment to communicate, only the trigger message is sent to the IP address. The triggering of the user equipment can be implemented, and the interface of the related art that requires the network to provide the control plane to the outside is avoided, thereby reducing the modification to the network and having the advantages of being simple and easy to operate.

 Optionally, before S620, the method 600 according to the embodiment of the present invention may further include: the user equipment receives an enhanced paging message from the RAN, where the enhanced paging message carries a user equipment corresponding to the trigger address. Establishing an indication of a connection to the network to facilitate establishing a connection with the network. Specifically, the user equipment receives an enhanced paging message sent by the RAN on the air interface, and the enhanced paging message enhances the indication of supporting IP@APN.

 In the embodiment of the present invention, the trigger address is used by the server to communicate with the user equipment belonging to the same access point APN, and the trigger address is a unicast address or a multicast address, and the trigger address can enable the destination address to be the data of the trigger address. The router is correctly routed to the PGW corresponding to the trigger address.

It should be understood that, in various embodiments of the present invention, the size of the sequence numbers of the above processes does not mean the order of execution, and the order of execution of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic, and should not be taken to the embodiments of the present invention. The implementation process constitutes any limitation. The method of the embodiment of the present invention configures a trigger address for the server to communicate with the user equipment for the user equipment, the packet data network gateway, and the server, so that when the server needs to trigger the user equipment to communicate, only the trigger message is sent to the IP address. The triggering of the user equipment can be implemented, and the interface of the related art that requires the network to provide the control plane to the outside is avoided, thereby reducing the modification to the network and having the advantages of being simple and easy to operate.

 The method for triggering a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above, and an apparatus for triggering a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention will be mainly described below.

 FIG. 8 shows a schematic block diagram of an apparatus 700 for triggering a user equipment in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Figure 8, the apparatus 700 includes:

 The first sending module 710 is configured to send, to the user equipment, a non-access stratum NAS message, where the NAS message carries a trigger address used by the server to communicate with the user equipment;

 The receiving module 720 is configured to receive a trigger message that the destination IP address sent by the server is the trigger address.

 The second sending module 730 is configured to send the trigger message to the user equipment by using the serving gateway SGW, so that the user equipment establishes a communication connection with the server according to the trigger message.

 The device of the embodiment of the present invention configures a trigger address for the server to communicate with the user equipment for the user equipment, the packet data network gateway, and the server, so that when the server needs to trigger the user equipment to communicate, only the trigger message is sent to the IP address. The triggering of the user equipment can be implemented, and the interface of the related art that requires the network to provide the control plane to the outside is avoided, thereby reducing the modification to the network and having the advantages of being simple and easy to operate.

 Optionally, as shown in FIG. 9A, the second sending module 730 includes a first sending unit 731, where the first sending unit 731 is configured to:

 Sending the trigger message to each user equipment according to the load between the SGW of the user equipment corresponding to the trigger address and the packet data network gateway PGW according to the corresponding relationship between the trigger address and the user equipment. SGW;

The SGW corresponding to the user equipment is configured to receive the trigger message by using the bearer, and when determining that the user equipment is in an idle state, triggering the MME by sending a downlink data arrival message to the mobility management entity MME corresponding to the user equipment. Initiating paging of the user equipment, so that after receiving the paging and establishing a bearer with the SGW, the user equipment receives the trigger message by using a bearer with the SGW, and establishes according to the trigger message. A communication connection to the server. Optionally, as shown in FIG. 9B, the second sending module 730 further includes a second sending unit 732, where the second sending unit 732 is configured to:

 Transmitting, by the SGW, a control plane message to each SGW corresponding to the trigger address, where the control plane message includes indication information indicating that the user equipment corresponding to the trigger address is paged,

 After the MME corresponding to the user equipment receives the control plane message from the SGW corresponding to the user equipment, paging the user equipment in an idle state.

 Therefore, after receiving the paging and establishing a bearer with the PGW, the user equipment receives the trigger message by using a bearer with the PGW, and establishes a communication connection with the server according to the trigger message.

 Optionally, as shown in FIG. 9B, the apparatus 700 further includes:

 a determining module 740, configured to determine that the user equipment is in an active state;

 The third sending module 750 is configured to send the trigger message to the user equipment by using a bearer with the user equipment.

 Optionally, as shown in FIG. 9C, the second sending module 730 further includes a third sending unit 733, where the third sending unit 733 is configured to:

 And sending, by the triggering address, the triggering message corresponding to the triggering address to each SGW corresponding to the triggering address,

 After the MME corresponding to the user equipment receives the control plane message including the trigger address, the user equipment in the idle state is paged according to the corresponding relationship between the trigger address and the user equipment, and the control plane message is After the SGW corresponding to the MME receives the trigger message, the control plane message includes indication information indicating that the user equipment corresponding to the trigger address is paged.

 Therefore, after receiving the paging and establishing a bearer with the SGW, the user equipment receives the trigger message by using a bearer with the SGW, and establishes a communication connection with the server according to the trigger message.

 Optionally, as shown in FIG. 9C, the apparatus 700 further includes:

 The establishing module 760 is configured to establish, according to the correspondence between the trigger address and the SGW, the trigger bearer for transmitting the trigger message between the SGW and the PGW corresponding to the trigger address.

Apparatus 700 for triggering a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention may correspond to a packet data network gateway PGW in an embodiment of the present invention, and the above and other of the various modules in apparatus 700 The operations and/or functions are respectively implemented in order to implement the respective processes of the respective methods 100 to 500 in FIGS. 2 to 6, and are not described herein again for the sake of brevity.

 FIG. 10 shows a schematic block diagram of an apparatus 900 for triggering a user equipment in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Figure 10, the apparatus 900 includes:

 The first receiving module 910 is configured to receive a non-access stratum sent by the packet data network gateway PGW.

a NAS message, the NAS message carrying a trigger address for communication of the device by the server;

 The second receiving module 920 is configured to receive a trigger message sent by the PGW from the server by using the serving gateway SGW, where the destination IP address of the trigger message is the trigger address;

 The connection module 930 is configured to establish a communication connection with the server according to the trigger message.

 The device of the embodiment of the present invention configures a trigger address for the server to communicate with the user equipment for the user equipment, the packet data network gateway, and the server, so that when the server needs to trigger the user equipment to communicate, only the trigger message is sent to the IP address. The triggering of the user equipment can be implemented, and the interface of the related art that requires the network to provide the control plane to the outside is avoided, thereby reducing the modification to the network and having the advantages of being simple and easy to operate.

 Optionally, as shown in FIG. 11, the apparatus 900 according to the embodiment of the present invention may further include: a third receiving module 940, configured to receive, by the second receiving module 920, a trigger from the server that is sent by the PGW through the serving gateway SGW. Before the message, the paging message or the enhanced paging message from the radio access network RAN is received, and the enhanced paging message carries indication information for indicating that the device corresponding to the trigger address establishes a connection with the network.

 The apparatus 900 for triggering a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention may correspond to the user equipment UE in the embodiment of the present invention, and the above and other operations and/or functions of the respective modules in the apparatus 900 are respectively implemented in order to implement FIG. 2 to FIG. The corresponding processes of the respective methods 100 to 600 in FIG. 7 are not described herein again for the sake of brevity.

 The device of the embodiment of the present invention configures a trigger address for the server to communicate with the user equipment for the user equipment, the packet data network gateway, and the server, so that when the server needs to trigger the user equipment to communicate, only the trigger message is sent to the IP address. The triggering of the user equipment can be implemented, and the interface of the related art that requires the network to provide the control plane to the outside is avoided, thereby reducing the modification to the network and having the advantages of being simple and easy to operate.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the elements and algorithm steps of the various examples described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, computer software or a combination of both, in order to clearly illustrate hardware and software. Interchangeability, in the above description has been in accordance with function one The composition and steps of the examples are generally described. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the solution. A person skilled in the art can use different methods for implementing the described functions for each particular application, but such implementation should not be considered to be beyond the scope of the present invention.

 A person skilled in the art can clearly understand that, for the convenience and brevity of the description, the specific working process of the system, the device and the unit described above can refer to the corresponding process in the foregoing method embodiment, and details are not described herein again.

 In the several embodiments provided herein, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices, and methods may be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are merely illustrative. For example, the division of the unit is only a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be another division manner, for example, multiple units or components may be combined or Can be integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored, or not executed. In addition, the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interface, device or unit, or an electrical, mechanical or other form of connection.

 The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate, and the components displayed as units may or may not be physical units, that is, may be located in one place, or may be distributed to multiple network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the objectives of the embodiments of the present invention.

 In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present invention may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit. The above integrated unit can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of a software functional unit.

The integrated unit, if implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as a standalone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present invention contributes in essence or to the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium. A number of instructions are included to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the methods described in various embodiments of the present invention. The foregoing storage medium includes: a U disk, a removable hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and the like, which can store program codes. . The above is only the specific embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any equivalent person can be easily conceived within the technical scope of the present invention. Modifications or substitutions are intended to be included within the scope of the invention. Therefore, the scope of the invention should be determined by the scope of the claims.

Claims

Rights request  A method for triggering a user equipment, comprising:  Sending a non-access stratum NAS message to the user equipment, where the NAS message carries a trigger address used by the server to communicate with the user equipment;  Receiving a trigger message that the destination IP address sent by the server is the trigger address, and sending the trigger message to the user equipment by using the serving gateway SGW, so that the user equipment establishes and The communication connection of the server.  2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the trigger address is used by the server to communicate with user equipments belonging to the same access point APN.  3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the trigger address is a unicast address or a multicast address.  The method of claim 1, wherein the sending, by the SGW, the triggering message to the user equipment comprises:  Transmitting the trigger message to the bearer between the SGW of each user equipment and the packet data network gateway PGW corresponding to the trigger address according to the corresponding relationship between the trigger address and the user equipment. Said SGW of each user equipment;  The SGW corresponding to the user equipment is configured to receive the trigger message by using the bearer, and when determining that the user equipment is in an idle state, by sending downlink data to the mobility management entity MME corresponding to the user equipment, a message, triggering, by the MME, to initiate paging to the user equipment,  And the user equipment, after receiving the paging and establishing a bearer with the SGW, receiving the trigger message by using a bearer with the SGW, and establishing, according to the trigger message, The communication connection of the server.  The method of claim 1, wherein the sending, by the SGW, the triggering message to the user equipment comprises:  Sending, by the SGW, a control plane message to each SGW corresponding to the trigger address, where the control plane message includes indication information indicating that paging is performed on the user equipment corresponding to the trigger address. , After the MME corresponding to the user equipment receives the control plane message from the SGW corresponding to the user equipment, paging the user equipment in an idle state, so that the user equipment is in the Receiving the page and establishing a relationship with the PGW After being loaded, the trigger message is received by a bearer with the PGW, and a communication connection with the server is established according to the trigger message.  The method according to claim 5, wherein after the sending a control plane message to each SGW corresponding to the trigger address, the method further includes:  Determining that the user equipment is in an active state;  The trigger message is sent to the user equipment by a bearer with the user equipment.  The method according to claim 1, wherein the sending, by the SGW, the triggering message to the user equipment comprises:  And sending, by the trigger address, the trigger message to each SGW corresponding to the trigger address by using a trigger bearer corresponding to the trigger address,  And after the MME corresponding to the user equipment receives the control plane message that includes the trigger address, and performs paging on the user equipment in an idle state according to the corresponding relationship between the trigger address and the user equipment, where the control is performed. The face message is sent by the SGW corresponding to the MME after receiving the trigger message by using the trigger bearer, where the control plane message includes indicating to page each user equipment corresponding to the trigger address. Instructions,  And the user equipment, after receiving the paging and establishing a bearer with the SGW, receiving the trigger message by using a bearer with the SGW, and establishing, according to the trigger message, The communication connection of the server.  8. The method according to claim 7, wherein in the sending to the user equipment After the NAS message, the method further includes:  And the trigger bearer for transmitting the trigger message between the SGW and the PGW corresponding to the trigger address is established according to the correspondence between the trigger address and the SGW.  The method according to any one of claims 5 to 8, wherein the control plane message comprises an enhanced universal data transmission protocol control plane GTP-C message, the enhanced GTP-C message comprising The trigger address.  A method for triggering a user equipment, comprising: Receiving a non-access stratum NAS message sent by the packet data network gateway PGW, where the NAS message carries a trigger address for the server to communicate with the user equipment; the destination IP address of the trigger message is the trigger address; Establishing a communication connection with the server according to the trigger message.  The method according to claim 10, wherein before the receiving the trigger message from the server sent by the PGW through the serving gateway SGW, the method further comprises: receiving the homing from the radio access network RAN And the enhanced paging message, where the enhanced paging message carries indication information for indicating that the user equipment corresponding to the trigger address establishes a connection with the network, so as to establish a connection with the network.  The method according to claim 10, wherein the trigger address is used by the server to communicate with a user equipment belonging to the same access point APN, and the trigger address is a unicast address or a multicast address.  13. A device for triggering a user equipment, comprising:  a first sending module, configured to send a non-access stratum NAS message to the user equipment, where the NAS message carries a trigger address used by the server to communicate with the user equipment;  a receiving module, configured to receive a trigger message that the destination IP address sent by the server is the trigger address;  And a second sending module, configured to send the trigger message to the user equipment by using a serving gateway SGW, so that the user equipment establishes a communication connection with the server according to the trigger message.  The device according to claim 13, wherein the second sending module comprises a first sending unit, and the first sending unit is configured to:  Transmitting the trigger message to the bearer between the SGW of each user equipment and the packet data network gateway PGW corresponding to the trigger address according to the corresponding relationship between the trigger address and the user equipment. Said SGW of each user equipment;  The SGW corresponding to the user equipment is configured to receive the trigger message by using the bearer, and when determining that the user equipment is in an idle state, by sending downlink data to the mobility management entity MME corresponding to the user equipment, a message, triggering, by the MME, to initiate paging to the user equipment,  And the user equipment, after receiving the paging and establishing a bearer with the SGW, receiving the trigger message by using a bearer with the SGW, and establishing, according to the trigger message, The communication connection of the server. The device according to claim 13, wherein the second sending module comprises a second sending unit, and the second sending unit is configured to: Sending, by the SGW, a control plane message to each SGW corresponding to the trigger address, where the control plane message includes indication information indicating that paging is performed on the user equipment corresponding to the trigger address. ,  After the MME corresponding to the user equipment receives the control plane message from the SGW corresponding to the user equipment, paging the user equipment in an idle state, so that the user equipment is in the After receiving the paging and establishing a bearer with the PGW, the trigger message is received by a bearer with the PGW, and a communication connection with the server is established according to the trigger message.  The device according to claim 15, wherein the device further comprises: a determining module, configured to determine that the user equipment is in an activated state;  And a third sending module, configured to send the trigger message to the user equipment by using a bearer with the user equipment.  The device according to claim 13, wherein the second sending module comprises a third sending unit, where the third sending unit is configured to:  And sending, by the trigger address, the trigger message to each SGW corresponding to the trigger address by using a trigger bearer corresponding to the trigger address,  And after the MME corresponding to the user equipment receives the control plane message that includes the trigger address, and performs paging on the user equipment in an idle state according to the corresponding relationship between the trigger address and the user equipment, where the control is performed. The face message is sent by the SGW corresponding to the MME after receiving the trigger message by using the trigger bearer, where the control plane message includes indicating to page each user equipment corresponding to the trigger address. Instructions,  And the user equipment, after receiving the paging and establishing a bearer with the SGW, receiving the trigger message by using a bearer with the SGW, and establishing, according to the trigger message, The communication connection of the server.  The device according to claim 17, wherein the device further comprises: an establishing module, configured to establish, between the SGW and the PGW corresponding to the trigger address, according to the correspondence between the trigger address and the SGW The trigger bearer for transmitting the trigger message.  19. A device for triggering a user equipment, comprising:  a first receiving module, configured to receive a non-access stratum NAS message sent by the packet data network gateway PGW, where the NAS message carries a trigger address used by the server to communicate with the device; a second receiving module, configured to receive the source that is sent by the PGW through the serving gateway SGW The triggering message of the server, the destination IP address of the trigger message is the trigger address, and the connection module is configured to establish a communication connection with the server according to the trigger message. The device according to claim 19, wherein the device further comprises: a third receiving module, configured to receive, by the second receiving module, a trigger message from the server that is sent by the PGW through the serving gateway SGW Previously, receiving a paging message or an enhanced paging message from the radio access network RAN, the enhanced paging message carrying indication information indicating that the device corresponding to the trigger address establishes a connection with the network.