CN109842930B

CN109842930B - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN109842930B
Application number: CN201711192794.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 蒋鹏; 施弘哲; 管鹏; 刘建琴; 秦熠
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-11-24
Filing date: 2017-11-24
Publication date: 2021-08-20
Anticipated expiration: 2037-11-24
Also published as: CN109842930A; WO2019100776A1

Abstract

The application discloses a communication method and device. The method comprises the following steps: receiving a reference signal sent by network equipment; measuring the reference signal to obtain at least two beam qualities; transmitting reference beam quality information and differential beam quality information to the network device; wherein the step size of the differential beam quality corresponds to the carrier frequency and/or the type of the reference signal. A corresponding apparatus is also disclosed. By adopting the scheme of the application, the adopted step length corresponds to the carrier frequency and/or the type of the reference signal, so that the beam quality needing to be reported in a differential mode can be reasonably quantized, and the terminal equipment can accurately report the beam quality.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a communication method and apparatus.

Background

Higher antenna array gain can be achieved in new generation wireless (NR) communication systems using beams for transmission, i.e., by transmitting signals spatially towards a particular direction. Therefore, beam management (beam management) is a key technology in NR. In the beam management process, the network device sends reference signals to the terminal device on a plurality of beams, and the terminal device feeds back the measured beam quality to the network device after receiving and measuring.

According to the configuration of the network equipment, the quality of the wave beams reported by the terminal equipment at one time is 2 or 4 at most. When the number of the reported beam qualities is more than 1, reporting the beam qualities in a differential mode, namely directly reporting the beam quality with the best quality as a reference value, and reporting the difference value of the rest beam qualities and the reference beam quality, wherein the difference value is expressed as integral multiple of the step length.

The value range of the beam quality of the reference beam is fixed, and the quantization step is also a fixed value on the premise of determining the reporting bit number. The beam quality of the differential beam is relative to the beam quality of the reference beam, the actual relative quantization ranges are different in different application scenarios, and under the condition that the current protocol has agreed the bit number reported by the beam quality of the differential beam, if a fixed step length is adopted, the differential beam is difficult to adapt to various scenarios, and better quantization precision cannot be obtained.

Therefore, how to configure a more appropriate quantization step size by the network device and how to select an appropriate step size by the terminal device to report the differential beam quality information are problems to be solved, which ensure that the beam quality is reported with high precision.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method and a communication device for accurately reporting beam quality.

In a first aspect of the present application, a communication method is provided, including: receiving a reference signal sent by network equipment; measuring the reference signal to obtain at least two beam qualities; and sending reference beam quality information and differential beam quality information to the network device; wherein the step size of the differential beam quality corresponds to a frequency range and/or a type of the reference signal. In the aspect, the adopted step length corresponds to the carrier frequency and/or the type of the reference signal, so that the beam quality needing to be reported in a differential mode can be reasonably quantized, and the terminal equipment can accurately report the beam quality.

In a second aspect of the present application, a communication method is provided, including: sending a reference signal to the terminal equipment; receiving reference beam quality information and differential beam quality information sent by the terminal equipment; wherein the step size of the differential beam quality corresponds to a frequency range and/or a type of the reference signal. In this aspect, the step length used by the terminal device corresponds to the carrier frequency and/or the type of the reference signal, so that the beam quality to be reported differentially can be reasonably quantized, and the network device can obtain accurate beam quality.

With reference to the first aspect and the second aspect of the present application, in one possible implementation manner, each frequency range corresponds to at least one step.

With reference to the first aspect and the second aspect of the present application, in another possible implementation manner, each type of the reference signal corresponds to at least one step; wherein the types of the reference signals include a synchronization signal block and a channel state information reference signal.

In a third aspect of the present application, a communication method is provided, including: receiving a first step length sent by network equipment; quantizing the beam quality to be reported in a differential mode according to the first step length or a pre-stored second step length; and sending the quantized differential beam quality information to the network device. In the aspect, by configuring the step lengths of the two differential beam qualities, the terminal device selects one of the step lengths to quantize the beam quality to be reported differentially, so that the beam quality to be reported differentially can be quantized reasonably, and the terminal device can accurately report the beam quality.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: when the first step length sent by the network device is received, the quantizing the beam quality to be differentially reported according to the first step length or a pre-stored second step length specifically includes: and quantizing the beam quality needing to be reported in a differential mode according to the first step length. In this implementation manner, if the terminal device obtains a new step configured by the network device, the quality of the beam to be differentially reported is quantized by default according to the new step.

In another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: and sending selection information of the step length to the network equipment, wherein the selection information is used for selecting the first step length or selecting the second step length when the beam quality needing to be reported differentially is quantized. In this implementation manner, when the terminal device obtains a new step length configured by the network device, the terminal device may select a pre-stored step length or a configured new step length to quantize the beam quality to be differentially reported, and notify the network device of the selection information of the step length, thereby increasing flexibility of supplementary selection.

In a fourth aspect of the present application, a communication method is provided, including: sending the first step length to the terminal equipment; sending a reference signal to the terminal equipment; and receiving differential beam quality information sent by the terminal equipment, wherein the differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing the beam quality needing to be reported differentially by the terminal equipment according to the first step length or a pre-stored second step length. In this aspect, by configuring the step sizes of the two differential beam qualities, the terminal device selects one of the step sizes to quantize the beam quality to be differentially reported, so that the beam quality to be differentially reported can be reasonably quantized, and the network device can obtain accurate beam quality.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: and receiving the step length selection information sent by the terminal equipment.

With reference to the third aspect and the fourth aspect of the present application, in a possible implementation manner, the selection information of the step size is located in the differential beam quality information or in other uplink control information. In this implementation, the differential beam quality information may include the selection information of the step size, or may notify the network device of the selection information of the step size through additional uplink control information.

In a fifth aspect of the present application, a communication method is provided, including: receiving a first reference signal and a second reference signal sent by network equipment; respectively measuring the first reference signal and the second reference signal to obtain a first beam quality and a second beam quality; and sending first differential beam quality information and second differential beam quality information to the network equipment, wherein the first differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing first beam quality to be differentially reported according to the step length of the first reference signal, and the second differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing second beam quality to be differentially reported according to the step length of the first reference signal. In this aspect, when receiving two reference signals sent by the network device, the terminal device may quantize the quality of two differential beams according to a step size corresponding to one of the reference signals, thereby simplifying the reporting process of the beam quality.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: performing power offset on the second beam quality needing differential reporting according to a power offset value relative to the first beam quality; and the second differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing the quality of the second beam after the power offset which needs to be reported differentially according to the step length of the first reference signal. In this implementation, the beam qualities measured on different types of reference signals may be different, and if the beam quality to be differentially reported corresponding to the second reference signal is quantized by using the step length of the first reference signal, it may not be guaranteed that the beam quality to be differentially reported can be differentially quantized. Therefore, before quantization, the power offset value of the transmission power of the second reference signal relative to the transmission power of the first reference signal may be used to perform power offset on the second beam quality to be reported differentially, and then the second beam quality after power offset to be reported differentially is quantized according to the step length of the first reference signal.

In another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: according to the first reference beam quality value and the step length of the first reference signal, performing differential quantization on the second reference beam quality value to obtain third differential beam quality information; and sending the third differential beam quality information to the network equipment. In the implementation manner, the first reference beam quality is used as a reference, and the second reference beam quality is differentiated to obtain third differential beam quality information, so that the overhead of reporting the beam quality can be further saved.

In a sixth aspect of the present application, a communication method is provided, including: sending a first reference signal and a second reference signal to the terminal equipment; and receiving first differential beam quality information and second differential beam quality information sent by the terminal device, wherein the first differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing first beam quality to be differentially reported according to the step length of the first reference signal, and the second differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing second beam quality to be differentially reported according to the step length of the first reference signal. In this aspect, when the network device sends two reference signals, the receiving terminal device quantizes the two differential beam qualities obtained according to the step length corresponding to one of the reference signals, so that the obtaining process of the beam qualities is simplified, and accurate beam qualities can be obtained.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: obtaining the quality of a third wave beam according to the step length of the first reference signal and the quality information of the second differential wave beam; and performing power compensation on the third beam quality according to the power offset value to obtain the second beam quality.

In another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: receiving third differential beam quality information sent by the terminal device, wherein the third differential beam quality information is differential quantization information of the reference value of the second beam quality relative to the reference value of the first beam quality; and obtaining the second reference beam quality value according to the third differential beam quality information and the first reference beam quality value.

A seventh aspect of the present application provides a communication apparatus, which can implement the above communication method. For example, the communication device may be a chip (such as a baseband chip, or a communication chip, etc.) or a device (such as a terminal device, etc.). The above-described method may be implemented by software, hardware, or by executing corresponding software by hardware. In one possible implementation, the communication device has a structure including a processor, a memory; the processor is configured to support the apparatus to perform corresponding functions in the above-described communication method. The memory is used for coupling with the processor, which holds the necessary programs (instructions) and/or data for the device. Optionally, the communication apparatus may further include a communication interface for supporting communication between the apparatus and other network elements.

In another possible implementation manner, the communication device may include a receiving unit, a processing unit, and a transmitting unit. The receiving unit, the processing unit and the sending unit are respectively used for realizing receiving, processing and sending functions in the method. For example, the receiving unit is configured to receive a reference signal sent by a network device; the processing unit is used for measuring the reference signal to obtain at least two beam qualities; and the transmitting unit is used for transmitting the reference beam quality information and the differential beam quality information to the network equipment; wherein the step size of the differential beam quality corresponds to a frequency range and/or a type of the reference signal. For another example, the receiving unit is configured to receive a first step size sent by a network device; the processing unit is configured to quantize the beam quality to be differentially reported according to the first step size or a pre-stored second step size; and the sending unit is used for sending the quantized differential beam quality information to the network equipment. For another example, the receiving unit is configured to receive a first reference signal and a second reference signal sent by a network device; the processing unit is configured to measure the first reference signal and the second reference signal respectively to obtain a first beam quality and a second beam quality; and the transmitting unit is configured to transmit first differential beam quality information and second differential beam quality information to the network device, where the first differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing a first beam quality to be differentially reported according to a step size of the first reference signal, and the second differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing a second beam quality to be differentially reported according to the step size of the first reference signal.

When the communication device is a chip, the receiving unit may be an input unit, such as an input circuit or a communication interface; the sending unit may be an output unit, such as an output circuit or a communication interface. When the communication apparatus is a device, the receiving unit may be a receiver (also referred to as a receiver); the sending unit may be a transmitter (also referred to as transmitter).

In an eighth aspect of the present application, a communication apparatus is provided, which can implement the above communication method. For example, the communication device may be a chip (e.g., a baseband chip, or a communication chip, etc.) or a device (e.g., a network device, a baseband single board, etc.). The above-described method may be implemented by software, hardware, or by executing corresponding software by hardware.

In one possible implementation, the communication device has a structure including a processor, a memory; the processor is configured to support the apparatus to perform corresponding functions in the above-described communication method. The memory is used for coupling with the processor and holds the programs (instructions) and data necessary for the device. Optionally, the communication apparatus may further include a communication interface for supporting communication between the apparatus and other network elements.

In another possible implementation, the communication device may include a transmitting unit and a receiving unit. The receiving unit and the sending unit are respectively used for realizing the receiving and sending functions in the method. For example, the sending unit is configured to send a reference signal to a terminal device; the receiving unit is used for receiving the reference beam quality information and the differential beam quality information sent by the terminal equipment; wherein the step size of the differential beam quality corresponds to a frequency range and/or a type of the reference signal. For another example, the sending unit is configured to send the first step size to the terminal device; the sending unit is further configured to send a reference signal to the terminal device; and the receiving unit is configured to receive the differential beam quality information sent by the terminal device, where the differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing the beam quality to be differentially reported by the terminal device according to the first step size or a pre-stored second step size. For another example, the sending unit is configured to send the first reference signal and the second reference signal to the terminal device; and the receiving unit is configured to receive first differential beam quality information and second differential beam quality information sent by the terminal device, where the first differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing a first beam quality to be differentially reported according to a step length of the first reference signal, and the second differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing a second beam quality to be differentially reported according to the step length of the first reference signal.

In a ninth aspect of the present application, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions, which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the above-described aspects.

In a tenth aspect of the present application, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the above aspects.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments or the background art of the present application, the drawings required to be used in the embodiments or the background art of the present application will be described below.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is an interaction diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3a is a diagram illustrating the state of reference beam quality information;

FIG. 3b is a diagram illustrating the state of the differential beam quality information;

FIG. 4a is a diagram illustrating the relationship between the step size and the frequency range;

FIG. 4b is a diagram illustrating the relationship between the step size and the type of the reference signal;

FIG. 4c is a diagram illustrating the relationship between the step size and the carrier frequency configured according to the SS/PBCH block;

FIG. 4d is a diagram illustrating the relationship between the step size and the carrier frequency according to the CSI-RS configuration;

fig. 5 is an interaction diagram of another communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application;

FIGS. 6a to 6c are schematic diagrams illustrating the selection of step sizes;

fig. 7 is an interaction diagram of another communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a simplified hardware architecture of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a simplified hardware architecture of a network device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

The embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the drawings.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a communication system. The communication system may include at least one network device 100 (only 1 shown) and one or more terminal devices 200 connected to the network device 100.

The network device 100 may be a device capable of communicating with the terminal device 200. The network device 100 may be any device having a wireless transceiving function. Including but not limited to: a base station (e.g., a base station NodeB, an evolved base station eNodeB, a base station in the fifth generation (5G) communication system, a base station or network device in a future communication system, an access node in a WiFi system, a wireless relay node, a wireless backhaul node), etc. The network device 100 may also be a wireless controller in a Cloud Radio Access Network (CRAN) scenario. Network device 100 may also be a network device in a 5G network or a network device in a future evolution network; but also wearable devices or vehicle-mounted devices, etc. The network device 100 may also be a small station, a Transmission Reference Point (TRP), or the like. Although not expressly stated herein.

The terminal device 200 is a device with wireless transceiving function, which can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, hand-held, worn or vehicle-mounted; can also be deployed on the water surface (such as a ship and the like); and may also be deployed in the air (e.g., airplanes, balloons, satellites, etc.). The terminal device may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer (Pad), a computer with a wireless transceiving function, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an Augmented Reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in self driving (self driving), a wireless terminal in remote medical (remote medical), a wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in transportation safety (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in smart city (smart city), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), and the like. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the application scenarios. A terminal device may also be sometimes referred to as a User Equipment (UE), an access terminal device, a UE unit, a UE station, a mobile station, a remote terminal device, a mobile device, a UE terminal device, a terminal (terminal), a wireless communication device, a UE agent, or a UE device, etc.

It should be noted that the terms "system" and "network" in the embodiments of the present application may be used interchangeably. The "plurality" means two or more, and in view of this, the "plurality" may also be understood as "at least two" in the embodiments of the present application. "and/or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, which may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. In addition, the character "/" generally indicates that the preceding and following related objects are in an "or" relationship, unless otherwise specified.

Fig. 2 is a schematic interaction flow diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application, where the method may include the following steps:

s201, the network equipment sends a reference signal to the terminal equipment. And the terminal equipment receives the reference signal sent by the network equipment.

S202, the terminal equipment measures the reference signals to obtain the quality of at least two wave beams.

S203, the terminal equipment sends reference beam quality information and differential beam quality information to the network equipment; wherein the step size of the differential beam quality corresponds to the carrier frequency and/or the type of the reference signal. And the network equipment receives the reference beam quality information and the differential beam quality information sent by the terminal equipment.

The network device transmits the reference signal to the terminal device through one or more transmission beams. The terminal device receives the reference signal through one or more receive beams. The terminal equipment measures the received reference signals to obtain the quality of a plurality of wave beams. Then, the terminal device reports the beam quality to the network device. It should be noted that, in an implementation manner, the terminal device may report all the measured beam qualities to the network device, for example, if the terminal device measures 3 beam qualities, the terminal device reports the 3 beam qualities to the network device. In another implementation, the terminal device may report the beam quality greater than the threshold value of the measured beam qualities to the network device, for example, the terminal device measures 3 beam qualities, where 2 beam qualities are greater than the threshold value, and the terminal device reports the 2 beam qualities to the network device.

The beam quality can be measured in any of the following parameters: reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), and signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR). The beam quality is described below with reference to RSRP, if not otherwise stated.

According to the configuration of the network equipment, the quality of the wave beams reported by the terminal equipment at one time is 2 or 4 at most. And when the number of the reported beam qualities is more than 1, reporting the beam qualities in a differential mode, namely directly reporting the beam quality with the best quality as a reference value, and reporting the difference values of the rest beam qualities and the reference beam quality. Specifically, as shown in the state diagram of the reference beam quality information shown in fig. 3a, the RSRP ranges from-140 dBm to-44 dBm, and the reference beam quality information of 7 bits is adopted for reporting, and the step size of the reference beam quality is 1 dBm. As shown in the state diagram of the differential beam quality information shown in fig. 3b, 4 bits of differential beam quality information are adopted for reporting, for example, it is assumed that the beam quality to be reported includes 3 values: if the reference beam quality value is-85 dBm, 87dBm and 89dBm, and the step length of the differential beam quality is 2dBm, the terminal equipment needs to send "0001" and "0010" to the network equipment, and the network equipment analyzes that the difference value between the reference beam quality value and the difference value corresponding to "0001" and "0001" is-2 dBm, and calculates that the beam quality of the terminal equipment is-85 dBm, 87dBm and-87 dBm; similarly, the beam mass for "0010" is calculated to be-89 dBm. The scheme of the application is used for determining the step size of the differential beam quality information.

In one scenario, for example, in a case where the network device is configured to mainly use a direct path, the number of beams in a low frequency range is small, the angular difference of the beam pointing angles is large, and the beam quality deviation range between multiple beams measured by the same terminal device is large; the number of beams in the high-frequency range is large, the angle difference of the beam pointing angles is small, and the beam quality deviation range among the beams measured by the same terminal device is small. For another example, when the network device is configured to mainly use the reflection path, the situation is opposite, the beam in the low frequency range is smaller because of the smaller reflection loss, and the beam quality deviation range between the reflection beams measured by the same terminal device is smaller; and because the reflection loss of the wave beam in the high-frequency range is large, the difference of the reflected wave beam measured by the terminal equipment is large, and the deviation range of the wave beam quality is large. In the above scenario, if the terminal device uses a fixed step length, it cannot be guaranteed that the beam quality that needs to be differentially reported can be reasonably differentially quantized. Thus, in one implementation of the present application, the step size of the differential beam quality corresponds to a frequency range. Specifically, each frequency range corresponds to at least one step, and the step corresponding to different frequency ranges is different. As shown in fig. 4a, the step size is a graph of the relationship between frequency ranges, in this example, divided into N frequency ranges, and each frequency range corresponds to one step size. When receiving a reference signal transmitted by a network device through a plurality of beams, a terminal device determines a frequency range in which the plurality of beams are located, thereby determining a step corresponding to the frequency range.

In another scenario, the reference signal may be a synchronization signal block (SS/PBCH block) or a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS), and the beam quality measured on different types of reference signals may be different. If the terminal device adopts a fixed step length for different reference signals, it cannot be guaranteed that the beam quality needing to be reported differentially can be reasonably quantized differentially. In another implementation of the present application, the differential beam quality corresponds to a type of the reference signal. Specifically, each type of reference signal corresponds to at least one step. As shown in fig. 4b, the relation between the step size and the type of the reference signal is illustrated, in this example, CSI-RS and SS/PBCH block correspond to one step size respectively. When receiving a reference signal sent by a network device through a plurality of beams, a terminal device determines the type of the received reference signal, thereby determining the step length corresponding to the type of the reference signal.

In addition, when the SS/PBCH block is transmitted, the complexity of blind detection needs to be reduced, and therefore, the frequency range should be divided more finely than the frequency range corresponding to the CSI-RS, that is, the frequency range needs to be divided according to the type of the reference signal. In yet another implementation of the present application, the step size corresponds to a frequency range and a type of the reference signal. As shown in fig. 4c, when the type of the reference signal is SS/PBCH block, the frequency range is divided into three ranges, that is, the step size configured according to SS/PBCH block is shown as a graph of the relationship between the carrier frequency and the step size configured according to SS/PBCH block: less than 3GHz, 3GHz to 6GHz and more than 6 GHz. Each frequency range corresponds to at least one step. In this example, there is one step per frequency range. As shown in fig. 4d, when the reference signal is CSI-RS, the frequency range is divided into two according to the relation between the step size configured by the CSI-RS and the carrier frequency: less than 6GHz and greater than 6 GHz. Each frequency range corresponds to at least one step. In this example, there is one step per frequency range. When receiving a reference signal transmitted by a network device through a plurality of beams, a terminal device determines the type of the received reference signal and the frequency range in which the plurality of beams are located, thereby determining the step size corresponding to the type and the frequency range of the reference signal.

After determining the step length of the differential beam quality, the terminal equipment quantizes the beam quality to be reported differentially according to the step length to obtain one or more pieces of differential beam quality information. Then, the reference beam quality information and the differential beam quality information are transmitted to the network device.

According to the communication method provided by the embodiment of the application, the adopted step length corresponds to the carrier frequency and/or the type of the reference signal, so that the beam quality needing to be reported in a differential mode can be reasonably quantized, and the terminal equipment can accurately report the beam quality.

Fig. 5 is an interaction diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application, where the method may include the following steps:

s501, the network equipment sends the first step length to the terminal equipment. And the terminal equipment receives the first step length sent by the network equipment.

S502, the network equipment sends a reference signal to the terminal equipment. The terminal device receives the reference signal.

S503, the terminal device measures the reference signal to obtain at least two beam qualities.

And S504, the terminal equipment quantizes the beam quality to be reported differentially according to the first step length or a pre-stored second step length.

And S503, the terminal equipment sends the quantized differential beam quality information to the network equipment. And the network equipment receives the differential beam quality information, wherein the differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing the beam quality needing to be reported differentially by the terminal equipment according to the first step length or a pre-stored second step length.

The second pre-stored step length has various implementation manners, for example, a step length for differential beam quantization agreed by a protocol, where the step length may be pre-stored in the terminal device when the terminal device leaves a factory, and the terminal device performs differential quantization by default using the step length when other indication information of the network device is not received; for another example, when the terminal device accesses the network, the network device may initially allocate a step size for differential beam quantization, the terminal device stores the step size, and the terminal device performs differential quantization by default using the step size when no other indication information of the network device is received. However, the network device may configure a new step size of the quality of the differential beam to be transmitted to the terminal device according to a specific transmission scenario, for example, when the communication environment changes (mainly direct transmission or mainly reflected refraction), and the change of the reference signal is measured (synchronous signal block or CSI-RS). At this time, the terminal device may select an appropriate step size from the pre-stored step size and the step size subsequently sent by the network device according to the actually measured beam quality, so as to quantize the beam quality to be differentially reported.

In an implementation manner, when the first step length sent by the network device is received, S504 specifically is: and quantizing the beam quality needing to be reported in a differential mode according to the first step length. Specifically, as shown in fig. 6a, if the network device does not have an extra transmission step length, the terminal device uses a pre-stored step length as a step length of differential quantization; if the network device additionally sends a step length to the terminal device, the terminal device selects the step length sent by the network device as the step length of the differential quantization. Therefore, the terminal equipment adopts the step length sent by the network equipment according to the actual situation, and can reasonably quantize the beam quality needing to be reported in a differential mode. The network device defaults that the terminal device adopts the sent step length as the step length of the differential quantization, so the network device can accurately obtain the beam quality reported by the terminal device according to the step length, the reference beam quality information and the differential beam quality information.

In another implementation, the method further comprises: and the terminal equipment sends step length selection information to the network equipment, wherein the selection information is used for selecting the first step length or selecting the second step length when the beam quality needing to be reported differentially is quantized. And the network equipment receives the selection information of the step length sent by the terminal equipment. Although the network device sends a new step length, the terminal device may autonomously select the step length of the differential beam quality according to the beam quality obtained through actual measurement, and thus the terminal device needs to notify the selection information of the step length to the network device, so that the network device can obtain the actually reported beam quality according to the step length selected by the terminal device, the reference beam quality information and the differential beam quality information.

Specifically, the selection information of the step size is located in the differential beam quality information. As shown in fig. 6b, if the network device does not have an extra transmission step length, the terminal device uses a pre-stored step length as a step length of differential quantization, and all 4 bits are reported as differential beam quality information; if the network device additionally sends a step size to the terminal device, the terminal device may select a pre-stored step size or a new step size to be sent as a step size for differential quantization, and the 4-bit differential beam quality information includes selection information of the step size. For example, 1 bit occupying 4 bits of differential beam quality information is used for the selection information including the step size. For example, a prestored step size is used as "0", and a new step size for transmission is used as "1"; or the new step size transmitted is represented by "0" and the pre-stored step size is represented by "1". Wherein, the 1 bit of the selection information for characterizing the step size may be a high bit or a low bit of the differential beam quality information.

Specifically, the selection information of the step size is located in other Uplink Control Information (UCI). Here, the other uplink control information is any uplink control information other than the uplink control information transmitting the above-described differential beam quality information. As shown in fig. 6c, if the network device does not have an extra transmission step length, the terminal device uses a pre-stored step length as a step length of differential quantization, and all 4 bits are reported as differential beam quality information; if the network device additionally sends a step length to the terminal device, the terminal device may select a pre-stored step length or a new sent step length as a step length of differential quantization, and all 4 bits are reported as differential beam quality information, and an additional 1 bit is used to represent the selection information of the step length.

After receiving the selection information of the step length, the network device can accurately obtain the beam quality reported by the terminal device according to the step length represented by the selection information, the reference beam quality information and the differential beam quality information.

In the above implementation manner, the first step size sent by the network device may be only valid for the current measurement, or may be stored as a new pre-stored step size by the terminal device, and is continuously used in the subsequent measurement until a new first step size is received again.

According to the communication method provided by the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment selects one step length to quantize the beam quality needing to be reported in a differential mode by configuring the step lengths of the two differential beam qualities, so that the beam quality needing to be reported in the differential mode can be reasonably quantized, and the terminal equipment can accurately report the beam quality.

Fig. 7 is an interaction flow diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application, where the method may include the following steps:

s701, the network equipment sends the first reference signal and the second reference signal to the terminal equipment. And the terminal equipment receives the first reference signal and the second reference signal sent by the network equipment.

S702, measuring the first reference signal and the second reference signal respectively to obtain a first beam quality and a second beam quality;

s703, sending first differential beam quality information and second differential beam quality information to the network device, where the first differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing a first beam quality to be differentially reported according to a step size of the first reference signal, and the second differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing a second beam quality to be differentially reported according to the step size of the first reference signal.

In this embodiment, the network device transmits two reference signals, such as an SS/PBCH block and a CSI-RS, through a plurality of beams, respectively. Of course, other reference signals may be transmitted. After receiving the two reference signals, the terminal device measures the two reference signals respectively to obtain two beam quality sets, wherein one beam quality set comprises one or more first beam qualities, and the other beam quality set comprises one or more second beam qualities. The terminal equipment can quantize the beam quality needing to be reported differentially in each beam quality set according to the step length. The step sizes of the differential beam quality corresponding to the two reference signals may be the same or different. The terminal device may send the reference beam quality information and the differential beam quality information for each beam quality set to the network device, respectively. The terminal device may also quantize the first beam quality and the second beam quality that need to be reported differentially, with the step size of the differential beam quality corresponding to one of the reference signals as a reference, and jointly report the obtained first differential beam quality information and the obtained second differential beam quality information. After receiving the first differential beam quality information and the second differential beam quality information, the network equipment obtains the beam quality corresponding to the reported first reference signal according to the step length serving as the reference, the first reference beam quality and the first differential beam quality information; and obtaining the beam quality corresponding to the reported second reference signal according to the step length serving as the reference, the second reference beam quality and the second difference beam quality information. Therefore, the network equipment can obtain the beam quality corresponding to the two reported reference signals according to the step length of the quality of one differential beam, and the realization is simple.

In one implementation of the present application, the method further includes: relative to the first beam quality, the terminal equipment performs power offset on the second beam quality needing differential reporting according to a power offset value; and the second differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing the quality of the second beam after the power offset which needs to be reported differentially according to the step length of the first reference signal. After the network device receives the first differential beam quality information and the second differential beam quality information, the method further includes: obtaining the quality of a third wave beam according to the step length of the first reference signal and the quality information of the second differential wave beam; and performing power compensation on the third beam quality according to the power offset value to obtain the second beam quality. In this implementation, the beam qualities measured on different types of reference signals may be different, for example, if the beam quality to be differentially reported corresponding to the second reference signal is quantized by using the step length of the first reference signal, it may not be guaranteed that the beam quality to be differentially reported can be differentially quantized. Therefore, before quantization, the power offset value of the transmission power of the second reference signal relative to the transmission power of the first reference signal may be used to perform power offset on the second beam quality to be reported differentially, and then the second beam quality after power offset to be reported differentially is quantized according to the step length of the first reference signal. For example, the quality of beams receiving the CSI-RS is measured, where the quality of beams to be reported includes: -85dBm, -87dBm and-89 dBm; measuring the beam quality of the received SS/PBCH block, wherein the beam quality to be reported comprises the following steps: -101dBm, -103dBm and-105 dBm. And quantizing-87 dBm and-89 dBm by adopting the step length corresponding to the CSI-RS, wherein the step length is-2 dBm, the reference beam quality is-85 dBm, and the beam quality range capable of being quantized is-85 dBm to-101 dBm according to the 4-bit differential beam quality information. The beam quality required to be reported by SS/PBCH block in a differential mode is-103 dBm and-105 dBm, and exceeds the range of quantization by adopting the step length corresponding to CSI-RS. Therefore, by adopting the method of the implementation mode, the power offset is firstly carried out on the beam quality which needs to be reported differentially by the SS/PBCH block according to the offset value of the transmitting power. For example, if the offset value of the transmitting power of the SS/PBCH block and the CSI-RS predetermined by the network device and the terminal device is-5 dBm, the beam quality to be reported after the power offset corresponding to the SS/PBCH block is: -96dBm, -98dBm and-100 dBm. And then, the terminal equipment quantizes the beam quality which needs to be differentially reported after the power offset corresponding to the SS/PBCH block according to the step length corresponding to the CSI-RS. The terminal equipment sends the first difference beam quality information and the second difference beam quality information to the network equipment, the network equipment analyzes the first difference beam quality information and the second difference beam quality information to obtain the first beam quality and the second beam quality corresponding to the first difference beam quality information and the second difference beam quality information respectively, and then the network equipment carries out power compensation on the second beam quality. For example, according to the above example, the network device parses to obtain the second beam quality as-96 dBm, -98dBm, and-100 dBm, and then the network device performs power compensation on each second beam quality, i.e., adds-5 dBm on the basis of each second beam quality, and finally obtains the actual second beam quality as-101 dBm, -103dBm, and-105 dBm. Therefore, the beam quality of the SSB needing to be reported in a differential mode can be quantized in the joint reporting process.

In another implementation manner of the present application, on the terminal device side, the method further includes: the terminal equipment performs differential quantization on the quality value of the second reference beam according to the quality value of the first reference beam and the step length of the first reference signal to obtain third differential beam quality information; and the terminal equipment sends the third differential beam quality information to the network equipment. On the network equipment side, the method further comprises: the network device receives third differential beam quality information sent by the terminal device, wherein the third differential beam quality information is differential quantization information of a reference value of the second beam quality relative to a reference value of the first beam quality; and the network equipment obtains the second reference beam quality value according to the third differential beam quality information and the first reference beam quality value. In the implementation manner, in order to further save the overhead of reporting the beam quality, the first reference beam quality is used as a reference, and the second reference beam quality is differentiated to obtain third differential beam quality information. The step size for performing the difference may be a step size corresponding to the first difference beam quality, or may be an additional step size. For example, the first reference beam quality information may be 7 bits, and the first, second, and third differential beam qualities may each be 4 bits. The terminal device may simultaneously transmit the first, second, and third differential beam quality information, that is, the first, second, and third differential beam quality are located in one signaling, or may transmit the first, second, and third differential beam quality information, respectively. After receiving the first, second and third differential beam qualities, the network device may obtain the first differential beam quality, the second differential beam quality and the second reference beam quality that are reported differentially according to the step length corresponding to the first differential beam quality and the first, second and third differential beam qualities.

According to the communication method provided by the embodiment of the application, when the terminal equipment receives two reference signals sent by the network equipment, the quality of two differential beams can be quantized according to the step length corresponding to one of the reference signals, so that the reporting process of the beam quality is simplified.

The method of the embodiments of the present application is set forth above in detail and the apparatus of the embodiments of the present application is provided below.

Fig. 8 shows a simplified schematic diagram of a terminal device. For easy understanding and illustration, in fig. 8, the terminal device is exemplified by a mobile phone. As shown in fig. 8, the terminal device includes a processor, a memory, a radio frequency circuit, an antenna, and an input-output device. The processor is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, controlling the terminal equipment, executing software programs, processing data of the software programs and the like. The memory is used primarily for storing software programs and data. The radio frequency circuit is mainly used for converting baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing the radio frequency signals. The antenna is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are used primarily for receiving data input by a user and for outputting data to the user. It should be noted that some kinds of terminal devices may not have input/output devices.

When data needs to be sent, the processor performs baseband processing on the data to be sent and outputs baseband signals to the radio frequency circuit, and the radio frequency circuit performs radio frequency processing on the baseband signals and sends the radio frequency signals to the outside in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is sent to the terminal equipment, the radio frequency circuit receives radio frequency signals through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signals into baseband signals and outputs the baseband signals to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signals into the data and processes the data. For ease of illustration, only one memory and processor are shown in FIG. 8. In an actual end device product, there may be one or more processors and one or more memories. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or a storage device, etc. The memory may be provided independently of the processor, or may be integrated with the processor, which is not limited in this embodiment.

In the embodiment of the present application, an antenna and a radio frequency circuit having a transceiving function may be regarded as a receiving unit and a transmitting unit (which may also be collectively referred to as a transceiving unit) of a terminal device, and a processor having a processing function may be regarded as a processing unit of the terminal device. As shown in fig. 8, the terminal apparatus includes a receiving unit 801, a processing unit 802, and a transmitting unit 803. The receiving unit 801 may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, etc., and the transmitting unit 803 may also be referred to as a transmitter, a transmitting circuit, etc. A processing unit may also be referred to as a processor, a processing board, a processing module, a processing device, or the like.

For example, in one embodiment, the receiving unit 801 is configured to perform step S201 of the embodiment shown in fig. 2; a processing unit 802 for executing step S202 of the embodiment shown in fig. 2; and a sending unit 803 for executing step S203 of the embodiment shown in fig. 2.

For another example, in another embodiment, the receiving unit 801 is configured to perform steps S501 and S502 of the embodiment shown in fig. 5; a processing unit 802 for executing steps S503 and S504 of the embodiment shown in fig. 5; and a sending unit 803 for executing step S505 of the embodiment shown in fig. 5.

For another example, in another embodiment, the receiving unit 801 is configured to perform step S701 of the embodiment shown in fig. 7; a processing unit 802 for executing step S702 of the embodiment shown in fig. 7; and a sending unit 803 for executing step S703 of the embodiment shown in fig. 7.

Fig. 9 shows a simplified network device structure. The network device includes a radio frequency signal transceiving and converting portion and a portion 902, and the radio frequency signal transceiving and converting portion includes a receiving unit 901 portion and a transmitting unit 903 portion (which may also be collectively referred to as a transceiving unit). The radio frequency signal receiving, transmitting and converting part is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals and converting the radio frequency signals and baseband signals; the 902 part is mainly used for baseband processing, network equipment control and the like. The receiving unit 901 may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, etc., and the transmitting unit 903 may also be referred to as a transmitter, a transmitting circuit, etc. Part 902 is typically a control center of the network device, which may be generally referred to as a processing unit, for controlling the network device to perform the steps described above with respect to the second communication apparatus in fig. 5 or fig. 9. Reference is made in particular to the description of the relevant part above.

Section 902 may comprise one or more boards, each board may comprise one or more processors and one or more memories, the processors being configured to read and execute programs in the memories to implement baseband processing functions and control of network devices. If a plurality of single boards exist, the single boards can be interconnected to increase the processing capacity. As an optional implementation, multiple boards may share one or more processors, multiple boards may share one or more memories, or multiple boards may share one or more processors at the same time.

For example, in one embodiment, the sending unit 903 is configured to execute step S201 in the embodiment shown in fig. 2; and a receiving unit 901 for performing step S203 of the embodiment shown in fig. 2.

For another example, in another embodiment, the sending unit 903 is configured to execute steps S501 and S502 of the embodiment shown in fig. 5; and a receiving unit 901 for executing step S505 of the embodiment shown in fig. 5.

For another example, in another embodiment, the sending unit 903 is configured to execute step S701 of the embodiment shown in fig. 7; and a receiving unit 901, configured to execute step S703 of the embodiment shown in fig. 7.

As another alternative, with the development of system-on-chip (SoC) technology, all or part of the functions of the 902 part and the 901 part may be implemented by SoC technology, for example, by a base station function chip, which integrates a processor, a memory, an antenna interface, and other devices, and a program of the related functions of the base station is stored in the memory, and the processor executes the program to implement the related functions of the base station. Optionally, the base station function chip can also read a memory outside the chip to implement the relevant functions of the base station.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

It is clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one logical division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit.

In the above embodiments, the implementation may be wholly or partially realized by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When loaded and executed on a computer, cause the processes or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the application to occur, in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in or transmitted over a computer-readable storage medium. The computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center by wire (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)), or wirelessly (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device, such as a server, a data center, etc., that incorporates one or more of the available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., Digital Versatile Disk (DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., Solid State Disk (SSD)), among others.

One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that all or part of the processes in the methods of the above embodiments may be implemented by hardware related to instructions of a computer program, which may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, and when executed, may include the processes of the above method embodiments. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media that can store program codes, such as a read-only memory (ROM) or a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

Claims

1. A method of communication, comprising:

receiving a reference signal sent by network equipment;

measuring the reference signal to obtain at least two beam qualities;

transmitting reference beam quality information and differential beam quality information to the network device; the differential beam quality information is a difference value between the beam quality to be reported and the reference beam quality, the step length of the differential beam quality corresponds to a frequency range, or the step length of the differential beam quality corresponds to the type of the reference signal, or the step length of the differential beam quality corresponds to the frequency range and the type of the reference signal, the beam quality deviation ranges between beams in different frequency ranges are different, and the beam quality measured on different types of reference signals is different.

2. A method of communication, comprising:

sending a reference signal to the terminal equipment;

receiving reference beam quality information and differential beam quality information sent by the terminal equipment; the differential beam quality information is a difference value between the beam quality to be reported and the reference beam quality, the step length of the differential beam quality corresponds to a frequency range, or the step length of the differential beam quality corresponds to the type of the reference signal, or the step length of the differential beam quality corresponds to the frequency range and the type of the reference signal, the beam quality deviation ranges between beams in different frequency ranges are different, and the beam quality measured on different types of reference signals is different.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 or 2, characterized in that at least one step is associated with each frequency range.

4. The method of any of claims 1-2, wherein each type of reference signal corresponds to at least one step size; wherein the types of the reference signals include a synchronization signal block and a channel state information reference signal.

5. A method of communication, comprising:

receiving a first reference signal and a second reference signal sent by network equipment;

respectively measuring the first reference signal and the second reference signal to obtain a first beam quality and a second beam quality;

performing power offset on the second beam quality needing differential reporting according to a power offset value relative to the first beam quality; the second differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing the second beam quality after the power offset which needs to be reported differentially according to the step length of the first reference signal;

and sending first differential beam quality information and second differential beam quality information to the network equipment, wherein the first differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing the first beam quality to be differentially reported according to the step length of the first reference signal, and the second differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing the second beam quality to be differentially reported according to the step length of the first reference signal.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the method further comprises:

according to the first reference beam quality value and the step length of the first reference signal, performing differential quantization on the second reference beam quality value to obtain third differential beam quality information;

and sending the third differential beam quality information to the network equipment.

7. A method of communication, comprising:

sending a first reference signal and a second reference signal to the terminal equipment;

receiving first differential beam quality information and second differential beam quality information sent by the terminal device, wherein the first differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing first beam quality needing to be differentially reported according to the step length of the first reference signal, and the second differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing second beam quality needing to be differentially reported according to the step length of the first reference signal;

obtaining the quality of a third wave beam according to the step length of the first reference signal and the quality information of the second differential wave beam;

and performing power compensation on the third beam quality according to the power offset value to obtain the second beam quality.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving third differential beam quality information sent by the terminal device, wherein the third differential beam quality information is differential quantization information of the reference value of the second beam quality relative to the reference value of the first beam quality;

and obtaining a second reference beam quality value according to the third differential beam quality information and the first reference beam quality value.

9. A communications apparatus, comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive a reference signal sent by a network device;

the processing unit is used for measuring the reference signal to obtain at least two beam qualities;

a transmitting unit, configured to transmit reference beam quality information and differential beam quality information to the network device; the differential beam quality information is a difference value between the beam quality to be reported and the reference beam quality, the step length of the differential beam quality corresponds to a frequency range, or the step length of the differential beam quality corresponds to the type of the reference signal, or the step length of the differential beam quality corresponds to the frequency range and the type of the reference signal, the beam quality deviation ranges between beams in different frequency ranges are different, and the beam quality measured on different types of reference signals is different.

10. A communications apparatus, comprising:

a transmitting unit, configured to transmit a reference signal to a terminal device;

a receiving unit, configured to receive reference beam quality information and differential beam quality information sent by the terminal device; the differential beam quality information is a difference value between the beam quality to be reported and the reference beam quality, the step length of the differential beam quality corresponds to a frequency range, or the step length of the differential beam quality corresponds to the type of the reference signal, or the step length of the differential beam quality corresponds to the frequency range and the type of the reference signal, the beam quality deviation ranges between beams in different frequency ranges are different, and the beam quality measured on different types of reference signals is different.

11. An apparatus according to claim 9 or 10, wherein each frequency range corresponds to at least one step.

12. The apparatus according to any one of claims 9 to 10, wherein each type of reference signal corresponds to at least one step; wherein the types of the reference signals include a synchronization signal block and a channel state information reference signal.

13. A communications apparatus, comprising:

the receiving unit is used for receiving a first reference signal and a second reference signal sent by network equipment;

the processing unit is used for respectively measuring the first reference signal and the second reference signal to obtain a first beam quality and a second beam quality;

the processing unit is further configured to perform power offset on the second beam quality to be differentially reported according to a power offset value relative to the first beam quality; the second differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing the second beam quality after the power offset which needs to be reported differentially according to the step length of the first reference signal;

a sending unit, configured to send first differential beam quality information and second differential beam quality information to the network device, where the first differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing a first beam quality to be differentially reported according to a step size of the first reference signal, and the second differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing a second beam quality to be differentially reported according to the step size of the first reference signal.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein:

the processing unit is further configured to perform differential quantization on the second reference beam quality value according to the first reference beam quality value and the step length of the first reference signal to obtain third differential beam quality information;

the transmitting unit is further configured to transmit the third differential beam quality information to the network device.

15. A communications apparatus, comprising:

a transmitting unit, configured to transmit a first reference signal and a second reference signal to a terminal device;

a receiving unit, configured to receive first differential beam quality information and second differential beam quality information sent by the terminal device, where the first differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing a first beam quality to be differentially reported according to a step length of the first reference signal, and the second differential beam quality information is obtained by quantizing a second beam quality to be differentially reported according to the step length of the first reference signal;

the processing unit is used for obtaining third beam quality according to the step length of the first reference signal and the second differential beam quality information; and performing power compensation on the third beam quality according to the power offset value to obtain the second beam quality.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein:

the receiving unit is further configured to receive third differential beam quality information sent by the terminal device, where the third differential beam quality information is differential quantization information of the reference value of the second beam quality relative to the reference value of the first beam quality;

the processing unit is further configured to obtain a second reference beam quality value according to the third differential beam quality information and the first reference beam quality value.

17. A computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any of claims 1, 3-4 and 5-6.

18. A computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any of claims 2-4 and 7-8.