CN102595536A - Switch processing method and apparatus thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention discloses a handover processing method and equipment, belonging to the technical field of communication. The method may include: the relay station obtains information, and the information is used to determine whether the mobility management entity MME of the user equipment is in the MME pool of the mobility management entity to which the neighbor base station belongs; if the MME of the user equipment is not in the MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs pool, the relay station determines that the X2 interface between its serving base station and the neighbor base station cannot be used for handover. The above technical solutions can enable the relay station to initiate a correct handover process.

Description

Switch processing methods and equipment

technical field

The present invention relates to the technical field of communications, and in particular to a handover processing method and device.

Background technique

In modern communication systems, relay technology has been used more and more. Taking LTE-A (LTE-Advance, evolution of LTE) technology as an example, it is an upgraded version of LTE (Long Term Evolution, long-term evolution) technology, which uses relay technology to divide the wireless link between the base station and the terminal into The link between the base station and the relay node, and the link between the relay node and the terminal achieve better capacity and coverage. Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an existing LTE-A radio access network, which includes a donor base station (DeNB, Donor eNodeB), a relay node (RN, Relay Node), and the relay node subordinate 3 user equipments (UE, User Equipment). Each user equipment is a terminal, and the three terminals are respectively marked as UE1, UE2 and UE3, and the interface between them and the RN is the Uu interface; the interface between the RN and the DeNB is the Un interface; the interface between the base stations The interface is called an X2 interface; the interface between the base station and a Mobility Management Entity (MME, Mobility Management Entity) or a gateway (GW, Gateway) is an S1 interface. Messages transmitted through the X2 interface are called X2 messages, and messages transmitted through the S1 interface are called S1 messages.

In a relay architecture provided by the prior art, if the Un interface uses the S1 message, then the base station will use the S1 message on the EPC (Evoled packet core network, evolved packet core network) side, and if the Un interface uses the X2 message, then the base station will use the X2 message on the EPC side. The above process is described below by taking, as an example, that the relay station uses the S1 message to send a handover request message to the base station during the handover process of the user equipment.

After receiving the handover request message (S1-AP: HO required message) of the S1 interface, the base station may only modify the S1AP UE ID (user equipment S1 application protocol identifier) of the S1 message, and leave the other parts unchanged, thereby forwarding the S1 handover The request message (S1AP: HO required message) is sent to the MME, and the corresponding S1 handover process is performed. Here S1-AP or S1AP means S1 Application Protocol (S1 Application Protocol). At least the following problems exist in the prior art: it is impossible to reasonably determine whether to use the X2 interface or the S1 interface for switching, which may result in switching failure.

Contents of the invention

The purpose of the embodiments of the present invention is to provide a handover processing method and device, so as to determine to initiate a suitable handover procedure.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a handover processing method is provided, including:

The relay station obtains information, and the information is used to determine whether the mobility management entity MME of the user equipment is in the mobility management entity shared pool MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs;

If the MME of the user equipment is not in the MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs, the relay station determines that the X2 interface between its serving base station and the neighbor base station cannot be used for handover.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, a relay station is provided, including:

The information obtaining unit is used to obtain information, and the information is used to determine whether the mobility management entity MME of the user equipment is in the mobility management entity shared pool MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs;

A handover determination unit, coupled to the information acquisition unit, configured to determine that the X2 interface between the serving base station of the relay station and the neighbor base station cannot be used for handover when the MME of the user equipment is not in the MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the relay station may obtain related information for determining whether the MME pool to which the neighboring base station belongs and the MME pool where the MME of the user equipment is located are the same. If they are not the same, the RN can determine that the X2 interface between its serving base station and the neighbor base station cannot be used for handover, so that it can initiate a correct handover process and reduce the possibility of handover failure.

Description of drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention or the prior art, the following will briefly introduce the drawings that need to be used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art. Obviously, the accompanying drawings in the following description are only These are some embodiments of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can also be obtained according to these drawings without any creative effort.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an LTE-A wireless access network in the prior art;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a handover process provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3a is a schematic diagram of a handover processing method provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3b is a schematic diagram of another handover processing method provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4a is a schematic diagram of a neighbor cell list provided by a relay station to a serving base station according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4b is a schematic diagram of information about the shared pool of mobility management entities to which neighbor base stations belong, provided by the serving base station to the relay station, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4c is a schematic diagram of the relationship between the user equipment, the relay station, the serving base station, and the neighbor base station MME pool provided by the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a relay station provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of another relay station provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of another relay station provided by an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

The following will clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some, not all, embodiments of the present invention. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by persons of ordinary skill in the art without making creative efforts belong to the protection scope of the present invention.

For the convenience of description, take FIG. 2 as an example to briefly introduce a handover process to analyze possible causes of handover failure in the process. When the UE needs to switch from the relay station under the DeNB to the target neighbor base station, the relay station sends a handover request to its DeNB; but the RN does not know whether X2 handover can be performed between the DeNB and the target base station, so it does not know which type to initiate switch (S1/X2 switch). If the X2 handover between the DeNB and the target base station is not possible, once the RN initiates the X2 handover, the DeNB cannot use the X2 message to send the handover request signaling to the target base station. Then the DeNB can only reject the handover request of the relay station through the corresponding X2 message. This delays the switching process.

In the prior art, the X2 interface cannot be used for handover between two base stations, one of the reasons may be that the two base stations do not belong to the same MME pool (Mobility Management Entity Shared Pool). The terminal's MME is in the MME pools to which its serving base station (source base station) belongs, and the two base stations do not belong to the same MMEpool (Mobility Management Entity Shared Pool) means that the terminal's MME is not in any MME pool to which the target base station belongs. When the terminal is handed over from the source base station to the target base station, the MME must be replaced, and the two base stations cannot perform X2 handover. In the LTE system after the introduction of the relay station, since the RN does not know the information of the MME pools to which the target base station belongs, it cannot judge whether X2 handover can be initiated.

Therefore, the present invention will further provide an embodiment of the processing method when handover failure occurs, so as to reduce the handover failure caused by the target base station and the source base station or its relay station belonging to different MME pools. The following briefly introduces the concept of the existing MME pool in the prior art. MME pool refers to a logical area composed of multiple MMEs, and the functions of these MMEs forming the same MME pool are equivalent. In an MME pool, the UE does not need to change the attached MME to obtain NAS (Non-Access-Stratum, non-access stratum) services, and different MME pools can overlap.

Fig. 3a is a schematic diagram of a handover processing method provided by an embodiment of the present invention, the method comprising:

S31a: The relay station obtains information, the information is used to determine whether the mobility management entity MME of the user equipment is in the mobility management entity shared pool MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs;

The information obtained by the relay station is used to determine whether the mobility management entity MME of the user equipment under the relay station is in the MME pool of the MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs, that is, to determine whether the MME pool of the neighbor base station belongs to the MME pool and the user Whether the MME pool where the MME of the device is located is the same, the above two statements are only different in expression, and represent the same solution in essence.

The neighbor base station is the neighbor base station of the relay station (that is, the neighbor base station of the serving base station of the relay station), which may be the neighbor base station corresponding to the neighbor cell of the relay station RN or the neighbor base station of the donor base station DeNB of the RN, etc. .

The information may be the MME pool(s) information of the neighbor base station, and the MME pool(s) information of the neighbor base station may be represented by a GU Group Id list to indicate the MMEpool(s) to which the neighbor base station belongs, and the relay station Based on this, it is judged whether the MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs is the same pool as the MME pool serving the UE subordinate to the relay station, that is, the relay station determines whether the neighbor base station and the UE use the same MME pool. In order to enable the RN to identify which Group Id list corresponds to which neighbor base station, the message may also carry the corresponding neighbor base station identifier.

Or the MME pool information of the neighbor base station can be 1 bit (bit), which is only used to indicate whether the MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs is the same as the MME pool where the MME of the UE is located; in particular, it can also carry the identity of the terminal at the same time, for example CRNTI (Cell Radio Network TemmporaryIdentify Cell Radio Network Temporary Identification). This embodiment does not limit it.

Specifically, the relay station can obtain the above information from OAM (Operation Administration and Maintenance, operation management and maintenance) equipment, or obtain the information from its DeNB. When the RN acquires the information from its DeNB, the DeNB may notify its RN of the information through a new message; the DeNB may also carry the information in an existing message to notify the RN. The existing message may be an X2setup Request/response (X2 setup request/response) message or an eNB configuration update (base station configuration update) message, which is not limited in this embodiment. Thus, the serving base station can notify the RN of the information about the MME pools to which the neighboring base stations belong during the X2 establishment process or the base station configuration update process.

For each neighbor cell, the base station may notify the RN of the MME pool information of the neighbor base station corresponding to the neighbor cell. For example, the base station may add "GU Group Id List" to the neighbor information (Neighbor Information) corresponding to each serving cell in the eNB configuration update message or X2 setup request message or X2 setup response message. Among them, "GU Group IdList" contains a plurality of pools information, which can include all pools information to which the neighbor base station corresponding to the neighbor cell belongs. For example, the number of pools to which the neighbor base station corresponding to the neighbor cell (which can be indicated by the cell mark ECGI) is 10, then the "GU Group Id List" contains the information of 10 pools, that is, 10 GU Group Ids corresponding to the pool . Specifically, a GU Group Id (Globally Unique Group Id) is an information element (IE, information element), which corresponds to a pool area (pool area). GU Group Id can include PLMN (Public Land Mobile Network, Public Land Mobile Network) Id and MME Group Id. Alternatively, 1 bit may be added to the neighbor information corresponding to each serving cell to indicate whether the MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs is the same as the MME pool to which the MME of the UE is located. In addition, the message may further carry a UE identifier, such as CRNTI (Cell Radio Network TemmoraryIdentify), which is not limited in this embodiment.

Of course, the base station may also notify the RN of the MME pool information of the neighbor base station for each neighbor base station. The above message may further carry the identifier of the corresponding neighboring base station. The specific notification method is not limited in this embodiment.

In particular, when the MME pools information of the neighbor base station changes, the RN can obtain the update information of the MME pools of the neighbor base station, for example, the DeNB notifies the RN of the change of the MME pools information through the eNB configuration update message. The eNB configuration update message may include the MME pool(s) information to be added by the neighbor eNB(s), and may also include the MME pool(s) information to be deleted by the neighbor eNB(s). I won't go into details here. Specifically, the MME pool information of the neighbor eNB can be identified by the GU Group Id list. In order to enable the RN to identify which GroupId list corresponds to which neighbor eNB, the message can also carry the corresponding neighbor eNB identifier; or in the definition The message carries 1-bit information, indicating whether the MME pool to which the neighboring base station belongs is the same as the MME pool to which the MME of the UE is located.

Regarding how the RN obtains the neighbor cell information provided by the DeNB, or how the DeNB obtains the neighbor cell identity information obtained from the neighbor cell information provided by the RN, it may be implemented in the following manner: the neighbor cell information may be the ECGI of the neighbor cell. ECGI (E-UTRAN Cell Global Identifier, the only cell identifier in the world) is a Cell ID (cell identifier). ECGI consists of PLMN Identity (public land mobile network identity) and E-UTRAN Cell Identifier (evolved universal terrestrial radio access network cell identity). In this way, the relay station can obtain the corresponding neighbor base station identifier through the ECGI of the neighbor cell. Of course, the label of the neighbor cell or the base station identifier can be expressed in other ways, and the above is only one example, without limitation.

Taking FIG. 4a as an example below, there are three serving cells of the RN, which are cells A, B, and C respectively. The neighbor cells of cell A are cells 1, 2, and 3; the neighbor cells of cell B are cells 3, 4, and 5; the neighbor cells of cell C are cells 6, 7. Among them, cells 1, 2, 3, and 4 are the serving cells of the neighbor base station eNB2; cells 5 and 6 belong to the serving cell of the neighbor base station eNB3, and cell 7 is the serving cell of the neighbor base station eNB4, so the neighbor base stations eNB2, eNB3, and eNB4 are all RN's neighbor base station. After knowing these neighbor cells, the base station can inform the relay station of the MME pool information of the neighbor base stations corresponding to these neighbor cells. Fig. 4b is a schematic diagram of information about the shared pool of mobility management entities to which neighbor base stations belong, provided by the serving base station to the relay station, according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 4b appears in tabular form for ease of description. If the serving base station of the relay station has n (positive integer) neighbor base stations, the serving base station may notify the base station identification (eNB ID) of its n neighbor base stations and the MME pool corresponding to each neighbor base station as shown in Figure 4b the relay station. As mentioned in the previous embodiments, these information can be carried in the eNB configuration update message or X2 setup request message or X2 setupresponse message, which will not be described further in this embodiment.

S32a: If the MME of the user equipment is not in the MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs, the relay station determines that the X2 interface between its serving base station and the neighbor base station cannot be used for handover;

The RN obtains the MME pools information of the neighbor base station. When the RN wants to switch one of its own UEs (such as UE1) to a neighbor base station such as eNB2, the RN can communicate with the terminal according to the MME pools information of the neighbor base station that it has obtained. Compare the corresponding MME information to confirm whether the MME pool where the UE's MME is located is the same as the MME pool(s) to which the neighbor base station belongs. If one of the MME pool(s) to which the neighbor base station belongs is the same pool is the same, then the X2 interface between the serving base station of the RN and the neighbor base station can be used for handover, otherwise it cannot be used for handover. The confirmation of whether the MME pool where the MME of the UE is located is the same as the MME pool(s) to which the neighbor base station belongs can also be expressed as whether the MME of the UE is in the MME pool(s) to which the neighbor base station belongs. The technical solutions represented by the two expressions are exactly the same, but the expression forms are different. When the MME of the user equipment is not in any MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs, the interface between the neighbor base station and the serving base station cannot be used for handover, that is, the X2 handover process cannot be initiated between the two base stations.

In order to illustrate the relationship between the user equipment, the relay station, the serving base station and the neighboring base station MME pool, the following is a brief description using Figure 4c as an example. It should be noted that Figure 4c is only an example scenario, and there are many different implementations Scenes. The user equipment 41 belongs to the relay station 42 , the relay station 42 belongs to the serving base station 43 , and the other base station 44 is a neighbor base station of the serving base station 43 , that is, a neighbor base station of the user equipment 41 and the relay station 42 . As shown in FIG. 4c, there are three MME pools, namely p1, p2 and p3, wherein p1 and p2 are the MME pools to which the serving base station 43 belongs, and p3 is the MME pool to which the neighbor base station 44 belongs. The mobility management entity of the user equipment 41 is M1 in the shared pool p1, and the mobility management entity M1 is not in the shared pool p3 to which the neighbor base station 44 belongs, that is, the shared pool p1 to which the M1 belongs is not in the shared pool p3 to which the neighbor base station 44 belongs. Therefore, it can be determined that the X2 interface between the serving base station 43 and the neighbor base station 44 is unavailable for handover. Of course, there may be other terminals under the relay station 42, so there may be other MMEs in the shared pool p1, such as the shared pool M2, which is not limited in this embodiment.

In the existing LTE/SAE, GUMMEI can be used to uniquely identify an MME. GUMMEI can be composed of PLMN ID, GU Group ID and MMEC, where PLMN is the network identifier; GUGroup ID is the MME pool identifier, which is used to be unique within a PLMN Identifies an MME pool; MMEC is an MME identifier, which is used to uniquely identify an MME within an MME pool. The above-mentioned MME information corresponding to the terminal may be the terminal's MME identifier (such as GUMMEI), and may also be the MME pool identifier (such as GU Group ID) where the terminal's MME is located.

By adopting the solutions of the above embodiments, the RN can determine whether the X2 interface between its serving base station and the neighbor base station can be used for handover, thereby initiating a correct handover process, reducing the possibility of handover failure, and helping to improve handover success Rate.

Fig. 3b is a schematic diagram of another handover processing method provided by an embodiment of the present invention, the method comprising:

S31b: This process is the same as the process 31a in Figure 3a, and will not be repeated;

S32b: Determine whether the MME of the user equipment is in the MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs; this process is to determine whether the MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs is the same as the MME pool where the MME of the user equipment is located;

S33b: If not, the relay station determines that the X2 interface between its serving base station and the neighbor base station cannot be used for handover. This process is the same as the process 32a in FIG. When the X2 interface with the neighbor base station cannot be used for handover, the relay station sends an S1 handover request message to the serving base station to perform S1 handover. Specifically, the relay station may request the serving base station to initiate an S1 handover to the neighbor base station by sending an S1 handover request message to the serving base station. Certainly, the relay station may perform the request in other ways, for example, by sending a specially defined message to request its serving base station to initiate an S1 handover to the neighbor base station, which is not limited in this embodiment.

In the above embodiment, it may optionally include S35b: if the MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs is the same as the MME pool where the MME of the user equipment is located, that is, the MME of the user equipment is in the MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs, then the relay station determines its The X2 interface between the serving base station and the neighbor base station can be used for handover. The embodiment may further include: S36b: The relay station initiates an X2 handover request message to the serving base station to perform X2 handover. Of course, it is also possible if the relay station initiates an S1 handover request message to the serving base station at this time, but the handover process will be more complicated.

In this embodiment, by judging whether the MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs is the same as the MME pool where the MME of the user equipment is located, it is determined whether the X2 interface between the serving base station of the relay station and the neighbor base station can be used for handover, so that a correct Toggle decision. In this way, when the MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs is not the same as the MME pool where the MME of the user equipment is located, it can be determined that the X2 interface cannot be used for handover, that is, the X2 handover between the serving base station and the neighbor base station cannot be performed. Once the UE under the relay station needs to be handed over to the neighbor base station (that is, the neighbor base station with which X2 handover cannot be performed becomes the handover target base station), the relay station may decide to perform S1 handover to reduce the possibility of handover failure.

In the LTE-A technology, the existing handover methods can be divided into two types, namely X2 handover and S1 handover. For the convenience of description, these two kinds of switching are briefly described now. The X2 handover means that the base stations perform handover-related processes through the X2 interface. The S1 handover is different. If the source base station wants to perform handover-related procedures with the handover target base station, it needs to use the S1 interface between the source base station and the core network equipment (such as MME), so it needs to involve the interaction between the source base station and the core network. To some extent, the switching complexity will be increased.

Since the X2 handover does not involve too many core network actions and is relatively simple, usually the relay station can selectively initiate the X2 handover preferentially. If the MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs is not the same as the MME pool where the MME of the user equipment is located, it is necessary to initiate an S1 handover, so that the UE under the relay station can be handed over to the neighbor base station (ie, the handover target base station) smoothly, improving the handover success rate.

It should be noted that, the above embodiments of the handover processing method may be applied to scenarios such as the following, and this embodiment does not limit other possible application scenarios.

Scenario 1, Start up (startup) scenario:

The RN can establish a process through the X2 interface between the RN and the DeNB, and tell the DeNB about the neighbor cell information about the RN. Thus, the DeNB initiates for the RN the process of establishing an X2 interface with the corresponding neighboring base station according to the information of one or more neighboring cells of the RN. If there is already a corresponding X2 interface between the DeNB and the corresponding neighbor base station, then there is no need to repeat the initiation. After the DeNB completes the process of establishing the X2 interface with the neighbor base station, the DeNB will then share the relevant information of the X2 interface with the neighbor base station, such as NO X2 (whether there is an X2 interface), NO HO (whether it can be switched), NO X2HO (whether it can Use the X2 interface to switch) or MME pools info (mobility management entity shared pool information) to notify the RN. The base station can feed back this information to the RN during the X2 setup (X2 interface establishment) process or the eNB configuration (base station configuration) process. Of course, other processes or new messages may also be used to feed back the information to the RN.

Since the base station can obtain the identity of the neighbor base station through the neighbor cell information of the RN, such as ECGI information, the base station can obtain the information of the MME pools to which the neighbor base station belongs through the X2 setup process with the neighbor base station. Therefore, the base station can determine whether the neighbor base station and its own subordinate terminal (the terminal of the RN or the base station's own terminal) use the same MME pool, that is, determine whether the MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs is the same as the MME pool where the MME of the user equipment is located. The base station can feed back the information of the MME pools to which the neighboring base station belongs to the RN, or directly make a judgment and notify the RN, and notify the RN of the judgment result. The notification information can be 1-bit indication information, as described in the previous embodiment, which is not done here described further.

In short, the base station can actively or under the condition of receiving certain triggers, provide the RN with relevant information about the X2 interface between the neighbor base station and the relay station or base station (DeNB), such as NO X2 (whether there is an X2 interface), NO HO (whether it can be switched), NO X2HO (whether it can be switched using the X2 interface) or MME pools info (mobility management entity shared pool information) to notify the RN.

The above-mentioned 1-bit information can also be expressed as NO X2 (whether there is an X2 interface), NO HO (whether it can be switched) or NO X2 HO (whether the X2 interface can be used to switch between each serving cell and the neighbor cell. It can also be that the Two or three of NO X2 (whether there is an X2 interface), NO HO (whether it can be switched), NO X2 HO (whether it can be switched using the X2 interface) information are sent to the RN.

Scenario 2: RN updates its neighbor cell scenario:

The RN sends information about RN neighbor cells to the base station through the eNB configuration update process, and the base station tries to establish a corresponding X2 interface according to the neighbor cell information, and then feeds back relevant interface information to the RN, such as NO X2 or NO HO or NO X2 HO or MME pools info. The base station can feed back the relevant interface information to the RN in the eNB configuration update process, and of course, can also use other processes or new messages to feed back the information to the RN.

Scenario 3: DeNB updates its neighbor cell scenario:

The DeNB may establish an X2 interface with the base station corresponding to the new neighbor cell, but the DeNB does not need to notify the RN of the updated interface information, such as NO X2 or NO HO or NO X2 HO or MMEpools info, etc. immediately. The base station can wait for the RN to report that the new neighbor cell is found, and then send the relevant interface information, and of course, other processes or new messages can be used to feed back the information to the RN. Of course, the DeNB can also take the initiative to notify the RN of the updated relevant interface information, such as NO X2 or NO HO or NO X2 HO or MME pools info, etc. immediately.

The MME pools info in this article mainly means that the information can be the MME pool(s) information of the neighbor base station, or the MME pool information of the neighbor base station can be 1 bit (bit), which is only used to indicate the MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs Whether it is the same as the MME pool where the MME of the UE is located; this embodiment does not limit this. Please refer to Figure 3 and Figure 4 for a more detailed description.

The RN obtains information about whether the neighbor base station corresponding to the serving base station and the neighbor cell of the RN can be used for handover, and whether X2 handover can be performed between the serving base station and the neighbor base station, so that the RN can correctly select the handover type (for example, X2 handover is not possible S1 is used for handover), so as to effectively initiate the correct handover.

In the prior art, the HeNB (Home eNB, home base station) system handover includes the handover between the eNB and the HeNB and the handover between the HeNB and the HeNB, and only supports S1-based handover. In view of the establishment of X2 interfaces between HeNBs and between HeNBs and HeNB GWs, handover based on X2 interfaces in the HeNB system becomes possible. In this case, for HeNBs, there is also a question of whether to initiate X2 handover or S1 handover The switching type decision problem. The solutions described in the embodiments of the present invention are also applicable to the HeNB system, except that the applied entities are different, the content and message format carried in the solutions are consistent with those described in the above solutions of the embodiments of the present invention. For example, in the HeNB system, the application entity is changed from RN to HeNB (such as HeNB1), and DeNB is changed to HeNB GW or HeNB (such as HeNB2).

Corresponding to the foregoing method embodiments, the embodiment of the present invention provides an embodiment of a relay station. As shown in FIG. 5 , the relay station can perform the function of forwarding relay information between the base station and the terminal, which may include:

The information obtaining unit 51 is used to obtain information, and the information is used to determine whether the mobility management entity MME of the user equipment is in the mobility management entity shared pool MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs;

A handover determining unit 52, coupled to the information obtaining unit 51, configured to determine that the X2 interface between the serving base station of the relay station and the neighbor base station cannot be used when the MME of the user equipment is not in the MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs. switch.

The relay station provided in this embodiment has the ability to determine a suitable handover type, reducing the probability of handover failure.

The relay station can be further improved. As shown in FIG. 6, in addition to the information acquisition unit 51 and the handover determination unit 52, it can also include: a handover execution unit 53, which is used to determine the service in the handover determination unit 52. When the X2 interface between the base station and the neighbor base station is not available for handover, an S1 handover request message is sent to the serving base station to perform S1 handover.

In an implementation manner, the relay station shown in FIG. 6 can be further improved, and the information obtained by the information obtaining unit 51 is: information indicating whether the MME of the user equipment is in the MMEpool to which the neighboring base station belongs; correspondingly, The information acquiring unit 51 is configured to provide the information to the handover determining unit 52 .

In another implementation, the relay station shown in FIG. 6 can be further improved. As shown in FIG. 7 , it also includes: a judging unit 54; the information acquired by the information acquiring unit 51 is: indicating that the neighbor base station belongs to information of the MME pool(s); the judgment unit 54 is coupled to the information acquisition unit 51 and the handover determination unit 52 is configured to: based on the information indicating the MMEpool to which the neighbor base station belongs, whether the MME of the user equipment In the MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs, the judgment result is notified to the handover determining unit 52.

Further, the handover determination unit 52 is further configured to: when the MME of the user equipment is in the MME pool to which the neighbor base station belongs, determine that the X2 interface between the serving base station of the relay station and the neighbor base station can be used for handover. Further, the information obtaining unit 51 may include: a first receiving module, configured to obtain the information from an operation management and maintenance OAM device; or, a second receiving module, configured to obtain the information from the serving base station.

The above relay station executes the process described in the method, thereby reducing the possibility of handover failure, so that its serving base station can select a relatively correct handover mode. It should be noted that the base stations described in this embodiment include but are not limited to NodeB, eNodeB, BS and other base stations that provide access services, and their subordinate user equipment includes but not limited to mobile phones, computers, PDA (Personal Digital Assistant , personal digital assistant) and other terminals.

Those of ordinary skill in the art can understand that all or part of the processes in the methods of the above embodiments can be implemented through computer programs to instruct related hardware, and the programs can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. During execution, it may include the processes of the embodiments of the above-mentioned methods. Wherein, the storage medium may be a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a read-only memory (Read-Only Memory, ROM) or a random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), etc.

The embodiment of the present invention can be applied to LTE-A technology and can achieve better technical effects to reduce the possibility of handover failure. Of course, for other similar cellular network wireless communication technologies, the solution provided by this embodiment can also be used , and achieve similar beneficial effects. Therefore, the above descriptions are only a few embodiments of the present invention, and those skilled in the art can make various changes or modifications to the present invention according to the disclosure in the application documents without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Those skilled in the art can understand that the features of the embodiments or different embodiments can be combined with each other to form new embodiments without conflict.

Claims (13)

1. a switching handling method is characterized in that, comprising:

Relay station obtains information, and whether the mobile management entity MME that said information is used for confirming subscriber equipment mobile management entity shared pool MME pool under the neighbours base station;

If the MME of subscriber equipment is not under said neighbours base station among the MME pool, then relay station confirms that the X2 interface between its serving BS and said neighbours base station can not be used for switching.

2. the method for claim 1 is characterized in that, said information is: whether the MME of indication subscriber equipment information among the MME pool under said neighbours base station.

3. the method for claim 1 is characterized in that,

Said information is: the information of indicating the affiliated MME pool in said neighbours base station;

Said method also comprises: based on the information of the MME pool under the said neighbours of the said indication base station, whether the MME of judges equipment is under said neighbours base station among the MME pool.

4. the method for claim 1 is characterized in that, the said information of obtaining comprises:

Obtain said information from Operations,Administration And Maintenance OAM equipment; Perhaps

Obtain said information from said serving BS.

5. method as claimed in claim 4 is characterized in that, saidly obtains said information from said serving BS and comprises:

The X2 that sends from said serving BS sets up request message, X2 sets up response message or the base station configuration updating information, obtains said information; Perhaps

The message of the redetermination that sends from said serving BS, obtain said information.

6. the method for claim 1 is characterized in that, also comprises:

When relay station confirms that X2 interface between its serving BS and said neighbours base station can not be used to switch, initiate S1 handoff request message to said serving BS, switch to carry out S1.

7. like each described method in the claim 1 to 6, it is characterized in that, also comprise:

If among the MME pool, then relay station confirms that the X2 interface between its serving BS and said neighbours base station can be used for switching to the MME of subscriber equipment under said neighbours base station.

8. method as claimed in claim 7 is characterized in that, also comprises: relay station is initiated X2 handoff request message to said serving BS, switches to carry out X2.

9. a relay station is characterized in that, comprising:

Information acquisition unit is used to obtain information, and whether the mobile management entity MME that said information is used for confirming subscriber equipment mobile management entity shared pool MME pool under the neighbours base station;

Switch to confirm to be coupled to said information acquisition unit in the unit, be used under said neighbours base station, during MME pool, not confirming that the serving BS of this relay station and the X2 interface between said neighbours base station can not be used for switching as the MME of subscriber equipment.

10. relay station as claimed in claim 9 is characterized in that, also comprises: judging unit;

The said information that said information acquisition unit is obtained is: the information of indicating the affiliated MMEpool in said neighbours base station;

Said judging unit is coupled to said information acquisition unit and confirms the unit with switching; Be configured to: based on the information of the MME pool under the said neighbours of the said indication base station; Whether the MME of judges equipment and notifies said switching to confirm the unit judged result under said neighbours base station among the MME pool.

11. relay station as claimed in claim 9 is characterized in that, the said information that said information acquisition unit is obtained is: whether the MME of indication subscriber equipment information among the MME pool under said neighbours base station;

Said information acquisition unit is configured to: said information is offered said switching confirm the unit.

12. relay station as claimed in claim 9; It is characterized in that; Said switching confirms that the unit also is used for: when the MME of subscriber equipment during MME pool, confirms that the serving BS of said relay station and the X2 interface between said neighbours base station can be used for switching under said neighbours base station.

13. like each described relay station in the claim 9 to 12, it is characterized in that, also comprise:

Switch performance element, be used for when said switching confirms that the unit confirms that X2 interface between said serving BS and said neighbours base station can not be used to switch, initiating S1 handoff request message to said serving BS, to carry out the S1 switching.

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