From the above description, it may be seen that steps 1-1 and 1-2 in the above process may be executed independently or successively. The first configuration message may be a control plane message (for example, an F1AP message, such as a UE Context Setup/Modification Request message, or an RRC message, or a newly defined message) or a user plane message (for example, an F1-U message, such as DL USER DATA messages, or a newly defined message), or other messages. The second configuration message may be a control plane message (for example, an F1AP message, such as a UE Context Setup/Modification Response message, or an RRC message, or a newly defined message), or a user plane message (for example, an F1-U message, such as DL DATA DELIVERY STATUS message, or a newly defined message), or other messages.
In addition, the above steps 1-1 and 1-2 are described in a way that the first node and the second node interact. It is understandable that for each of the above optional embodiments, the steps involved in the interaction between the first node and the second node, for example, the step that the second node transmits a first message to the first node, and the step that the second node transmits a second message to the first node may be described separately from the first node or the second node, that is, the first node may be used as the execution subject of each optional implementation scheme, or the second node may be used as the execution subject of the scheme.
Alternatively, with the above first node as the execution subject, the above communication method may include: transmitting a second message, wherein the second message is used to inform the second node of the transmission and/or storage (or caching) of the user data packet by the first node.