CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a National Stage of International Application No. PCT/CN2019/072705, filed Jan. 22, 2019, claims benefit of priority to Chinese Application No. 201810136950.5 filed with the Chinese Patent Office on Feb. 9, 2018, and titled “RELAY NODE SELECTION METHOD AND DEVICE”, the entire contents of which incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

The present application relates to the technical field of wireless communication, and in particular to a method and device for selecting a relay node.

BACKGROUND

In a long term evolution (LTE) system, a centralized control mode of a network is adopted for communication. That is, uplink and downlink data of a user equipment (UE) are transmitted and received under control of the network. As shown inFIG. 1A, communication between UEs is forwarded and controlled by the network, and there is no direct communication link between the UEs. In this way, data transmission between the UE and the network can be referred to as device to network (D2N) transmission.

In addition, device to device (D2D), i.e., a terminal pass-through technology, refers to a way that neighboring terminals can transmit data through a direct link in a close range, without forwarding via a central node (i.e., a base station) or transmitting information between UEs via a traditional cellular link.

In a 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP D2D proximity service includes the following two categories.

D2D Discovery: a UE uses evolved-UMTS terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) to confirm that another UE is nearby. For example, D2D UEs can use this service to find nearby taxis, find nearby friends, etc.

D2D Communication: for UEs that are close to each other, a link is directly established between two UEs, as shown inFIG. 1B, so that a communication link originally transmitted through a network is converted into a local direct communication link, saving a lot of bandwidth and improving network efficiency; or two UEs that are close to each other can use direct link communication to obtain stable, high-speed and low-cost communication services. Proximity service communication is generally performed under the control or assistance of a network, and a base station may even dynamically allocate resources for a UE performing proximity service communication.

Based on the D2D discovery and communication technology, a UE can perform D2D discovery or data transmission with a network or other UEs by means of a relay node. There are two modes of relay nodes.

UE-to-Network Relay.

The way that a UE communicates with a network through a Relay UE is called UE-to-Network Relay, as shown inFIG. 1C. In order to communicate with the network, UE2outside the network coverage uses UE1as a relay node to forward uplink and downlink signals thereof through UE1. The communication between UE1and UE2is realized through D2D communication, and the communication between UE1and the network is realized through cellular communication.

UE-to-UE Relay.

The way that a UE performs discovery/communication with a target UE through a Relay UE is called UE-to-UE Relay, as shown inFIG. 1D. In order to communicate with UE4that is not within UE2's own direct communication range, UE2can forward its own information through UE1. Data transmission between UE1and UE2, and data transmission between UE1and UE4are achieved through D2D communication.

When using communication modes such as UE-to-Network Relay or UE-to-UE Relay, a UE needs to perform D2D discovery or data transmission with a network or other UEs via a relay node. In order to ensure reliability of data transmission, a suitable relay node needs to be selected for the UE. However, at present, there is no method for selecting a relay node for the UE-to-Network Relay or UE-to-UE Relay communication.

SUMMARY

Disclosed in the present application are a method and device for selecting a relay node, which are used to solve the problem of no method for selecting a relay node being available currently for communication modes such as UE-to-Network Relay or UE-to-UE Relay.

On the basis of the above problem, in a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for selecting a relay node.

The method includes: receiving, by a first device, a report message transmitted by at least one relay node; and selecting, by the first device, a target relay node from the at least one relay node, to enable a remote terminal to establish a connection with a target node via the target relay node.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a first device for selecting a relay node. The first device includes a processor, a memory, and a transceiver.

The processor is configured for reading one or more programs in the memory and executing: receiving a report message transmitted by at least one relay node via the transceiver; and selecting a target relay node from the at least one relay node to enable a remote terminal to establish a connection with a target node via the target relay node.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a first device for selecting a relay node. The first device includes: a reception module for receiving a report message transmitted by at least one relay node; and a selection module for selecting a target relay node from the at least one relay node to enable a remote terminal to establish a connection with a target node by means of the target relay node.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-storable medium, with one or more computer programs stored thereon, where the one or more computer programs, when executed by the processor, implement steps of the method performed by the first device.

In the method for selecting a relay node provided by an embodiment of the present application, a first device receives a report message transmitted by at least one relay node, and selects a target relay node from the at least one relay node so that a remote terminal establishes a connection with a target node via the target relay node. According to the embodiments of the present application, a suitable target relay node is selected from the relay nodes that send a report message so that the remote terminal establishes a communication connection with the target node via the target relay node, and transmits data, thereby ensuring reliability of data transmission, and further improving system performance.

