The communication path switching between two UE-to-Network Relays includes the following scenarios:
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Layer-3 UE-to-Network Relay with N3IWF switching from/to Layer-3 UE-to-Network Relay with N3IWF.
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Layer-3 UE-to-Network Relay without N3IWF switching from/to Layer-3 UE-to-Network Relay without N3IWF.
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Layer-3 UE-to-Network Relay without N3IWF switching from/to Layer-3 UE-to-Network Relay with N3IWF.
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Layer-2 UE-to-Network Relay switching from/to Layer-2 UE-to-Network Relay.
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Layer-2 UE-to-Network Relay switching from/to Layer-3 UE-to-Network Relay without N3IWF.
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Layer-2 UE-to-Network Relay switching from/to Layer-3 UE-to-Network Relay with N3IWF.
This clause specifies the communication path switching procedures between two UE-to-Network Relays.
When performing the path switching between two 5G ProSe Layer-3 UE-to-Network Relay without N3IWF, or between 5G ProSe Layer-3 UE-to-Network Relay without N3IWF and 5G ProSe Layer-2 UE-to-Network Relay, or between 5G ProSe Layer-3 UE-to-Network Relay without N3IWF and 5G ProSe Layer-3 UE-to-Network Relay with N3IWF, the application layer procedures are used for service continuity support which is out of scope of this specification.
Path switching between two 5G ProSe Layer-3 UE-to-Network Relay with N3IWF is performed using the mechanism specified for Local mobility anchor within untrusted non-3GPP access networks using MOBIKE in
clause 6.2.9 of TS 23.501.
When a 5G ProSe-enabled UE as a 5G ProSe Layer-2 Remote UE in CM-CONNECTED state switches the communication path to Layer-3 UE-to-Network Relay with N3IWF, 5G ProSe-enabled UE's PDU session(s) can handover to the indirect path via Layer-3 UE-to-Network Relay with N3IWF by reusing the procedures specified in
clause 4.9.2 of TS 23.502.
When a 5G ProSe-enabled UE as a 5G ProSe Layer-3 Remote UE switches the communication path from Layer-3 UE-to-Network Relay with N3IWF to an indirect path via Layer-2 UE-to-Network Relay, 5G ProSe-enabled UE's PDU session(s) can handover to the indirect path via Layer-2 UE-to-Network Relay by reusing the procedures specified in
clause 4.9.2 of TS 23.502.
Procedure on Path switching between two 5G ProSe Layer-2 UE-to-Network Relays is specified in
TS 38.300. Xn based (as defined in
clause 4.9.1.2 of TS 23.502) and N2 based (as defined in
clause 4.9.1.3 of TS 23.502) Handover procedure is used for inter-gNB indirect-to-indirect path switching for 5G ProSe Layer-2 Remote UE in CM-CONNECTED with RRC_CONNECTED state with following modification: