CN112954733A - Method executed by user equipment and user equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a method executed by user equipment and the user equipment. The method performed by the user equipment is a method for transmission of beam failure report/Beam Failure Recovery (BFR) performed by a User Equipment (UE) configured with Discontinuous Reception (DRX) function, comprising the steps of: the UE receives a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), and an uplink grant (UL grant) for first transmission/new transmission is indicated in Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmitted on the PDCCH; if the UE has triggered BFR and also has uplink data to be transmitted, the UE starts or restarts a timer drx-InactivetyTimer when receiving the PDCCH; if the UE has only triggered BFRs but no uplink data to transmit, the UE does not start or restart the timer drx-inactivity timer when receiving the PDCCH.

Description

Method executed by user equipment and user equipment

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of wireless communication technology, and more particularly, to a method performed by a user equipment and a corresponding user equipment.

Background

With the rapid growth of mobile communications and the tremendous advances in technology, the world will move to a fully interconnected network society, where anyone or anything can obtain information and share data at any time and anywhere. It is expected that by 2020, the number of interconnected devices will reach 500 billion, of which only about 100 billion may be cell phones and tablets, while others are not machines that talk to humans, but to each other. Therefore, how to design a system to better support the interconnection of everything is a topic that needs to be studied intensively.

For this reason, the research topic of the New 5G Radio Access Technology was proposed in the third Generation partnership project (3GPP) RAN #64 subcontracts, which was held in 3 months in 2016 (see non-patent document: RP-160671New SID Proposal: Study on New Radio Access Technology). In the description of the work project, the working frequency band of a new communication system in the future can be expanded to 100GHz, and at the same time, the enhanced mobile broadband service requirement, the communication requirement of massive internet of things UEs, the service requirement of high reliability requirement and the like will be at least met, and the research work of the project has ended in 2018.

In the study of this problem, it is planned to transmit information using beam (beam)/beamforming (beam forming), and specifically, when communication is performed using a high frequency, a relatively thin beam is transmitted in order to cope with the characteristic that a high frequency channel is faded too fast. However, the information transmission using the thin beam is easily affected by external changes, such as rotation of the mobile phone, and blocking of other objects.

In a transmission scenario adopting beamforming, if a beam failure (beam failure) occurs, the UE sends related request information to the network, for example, a beam failure recovery request or a beam failure report, to request reconfiguration or recover a valid working beam. Such request information may be contained in a MAC CE, referred to herein as a "BFR MAC CE," which is contained in a MAC PDU that is transmitted to the base station over the PUSCH. When the beam transmission failure is detected by the UE, the UE triggers BFR, if no usable PUSCH resource is used for transmitting the MAC CE carrying the BFR, the UE can send a scheduling request through the PUCCH and request the base station to schedule the uplink resource for sending the BFR MAC CE.

After the scheduling request is sent, the UE needs to monitor the PDCCH to receive uplink scheduling of the base station; after obtaining the uplink scheduling resource and sending the BFR MAC CE, the UE also needs to monitor the PDCCH to confirm whether the base station correctly receives the sent BFR MAC CE.

In yet another aspect, the UE may be configured with Discontinuous Reception (DRX) functionality for power saving. Discontinuous Reception (DRX) refers to that when the traffic of the UE is not busy, the UE may not continuously monitor the PDCCH, but periodically wake up to monitor for a period of time, and if the UE does not receive scheduling for the UE during the period of time, the UE will not monitor the PDCCH until the next wake-up time.

The DRX allows the UE not to continuously monitor the PDCCH, thereby achieving the effect of energy saving. BFRs may be triggered at any time and once triggered, the UE is required to continuously monitor the PDCCH, either to obtain the requested uplink resources or to confirm whether the base station correctly received the BFR MAC CE. Therefore, how to perform BFR transmission in DRX mode to avoid additional energy consumption and thus achieve power saving is a problem to be solved.

In addition, after the BFR is triggered, the UE may receive an instruction from the base station that can change the beam direction, and the changed beam direction may overcome the failure of the previous detected beam transmission, and if the BFR MAC CE is continuously reported, the invalid resource occupation and energy consumption will be brought, and how to handle the previously triggered BFR and SR to achieve energy saving is also a problem that needs to be solved.

Disclosure of Invention

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to solving at least the above problems and/or disadvantages and to providing at least the advantages described below.

The object of the present invention is to propose a solution to the problem of how to perform the transmission of BFRs in DRX mode and how to handle these previously triggered BFRs and SRs.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method performed by a user equipment, which is a method for transmission of beam failure report/Beam Failure Recovery (BFR) performed by a User Equipment (UE) configured with Discontinuous Reception (DRX) function, the method comprising the steps of: the UE receives a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), and an uplink grant (UL grant) for first transmission/new transmission is indicated in Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmitted on the PDCCH; if the UE has triggered BFR and also has uplink data to be transmitted, namely at least one logic channel or logic channel group exists or contains data to be transmitted, the UE starts or restarts a timer drx-InactivityTimer when receiving the PDCCH; if the UE only has the triggered BFR but does not have uplink data to transmit, i.e. there is no logical channel or logical channel group or there is uplink data to send, the UE does not start or restart the timer drx-inactivity timer when receiving the PDCCH.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method performed by a user equipment, which is a method for transmission of beam failure report/Beam Failure Recovery (BFR) performed by a User Equipment (UE) configured with Discontinuous Reception (DRX) functionality, the method comprising the steps of: the UE receives a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), and an uplink grant (UL grant) for first transmission/new transmission is indicated in Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmitted on the PDCCH; if the UE can determine that the MAC PDU transmitted in the UL grant only includes the BFR MAC control element BFR MAC CE or only includes the BFR MAC CE and the padding bit when receiving the UL grant, the UE does not start or restart the timer drx-inactivytimer when receiving the PDCCH; if the UE can determine that the MAC PDU transmitted on the UL grant contains not only the BFR MAC CE but also the buffer status report medium access control element BSR MAC CE when receiving the UL grant, or determine that the MAC PDU transmitted on the UL grant contains data from a logical channel/logical channel group, the UE starts or restarts the timer drx-inactivity timer when receiving the PDCCH.

In the above method performed by the user equipment, preferably, the method further includes the steps of: after the UE sends a BFR MAC control element, BFR MAC CE, or sends a MAC PDU carrying the BFR MAC CE to the base station, or a BFR is triggered, if the UE is in DRX mode, the UE considers that the BFR procedure is successfully completed after the timer DRX-retransmission timer ul runs out.

In the above method performed by the user equipment, preferably, the method further includes the steps of: if the downlink control information DCI transmitted on the PDCCH schedules an uplink grant UL grant for new transmission, and a hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ process adopted by the UL grant is the same as a process of a media access control protocol data unit (MAC PDU) used for transmitting a BFR media access control element (BFR MAC CE), if no logical channel or logical channel group has/contains data to be transmitted at the moment, the UE does not start or restart a timer drx-InactivityTimer when receiving the PDCCH; if a downlink transmission is scheduled by the DCI transmitted on the PDCCH, or an uplink transmission is scheduled by the DCI transmitted on the PDCCH, but the HARQ process indicated in the DCI is different from the process of the MAC PDU used for transmitting the BFR MAC CE before, or the PDCCH indicates an uplink new transmission performed on the same HARQ process, and at this time, the UE has uplink data to send, the UE starts or restarts the timer drx-inactivity timer.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method performed by a user equipment, UE, configured with discontinuous reception, DRX, function, of transmission of beam failure report/beam failure recovery, BFR, the method comprising the steps of: after the UE sends a BFR MAC control element, BFR MAC CE, or sends a MAC PDU carrying the BFR MAC CE to the base station, or a BFR is triggered, if the UE is in DRX mode, the UE considers that the BFR procedure is successfully completed after the timer DRX-retransmission timer ul runs out.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method performed by a user equipment, which is a method for transmission of beam failure report/beam failure recovery BFR performed by a user equipment UE configured with a discontinuous reception DRX function, the method comprising the steps of: the UE receives a physical downlink control channel PDCCH; if the downlink control information DCI transmitted on the PDCCH schedules an uplink grant UL grant for new transmission, and a hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ process adopted by the UL grant is the same as a process of a media access control protocol data unit (MAC PDU) used for transmitting a BFR media access control element (BFR MAC CE), if no logical channel or logical channel group has/contains data to be transmitted at the moment, the UE does not start or restart a timer drx-InactivityTimer when receiving the PDCCH; if a downlink transmission is scheduled by the DCI transmitted on the PDCCH, or an uplink transmission is scheduled by the DCI transmitted on the PDCCH, but the HARQ process indicated in the DCI is different from the process of the MAC PDU used for transmitting the BFR MAC CE before, or the PDCCH indicates an uplink new transmission performed on the same HARQ process, and at this time, the UE has uplink data to send, the UE starts or restarts the timer drx-inactivity timer.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method performed by a user equipment, which is a method for transmission of beam failure report/Beam Failure Recovery (BFR) performed by a User Equipment (UE) configured with Discontinuous Reception (DRX) functionality, the method comprising the steps of: the method comprises the steps that UE receives a media access control element (MAC CE) sent by a base station, wherein the MAC CE comprises relevant information used for adjusting/activating a Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) state of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), and the MAC CE carries a cell sequence number; for a cell corresponding to a cell sequence number, that is, a serving cell applicable to an MAC CE, if the serving cell has a triggered BFR or has a pending scheduling request pending SR, and the pending SR is triggered by the BFR, the triggered BFR is cancelled, or the pending SR is cancelled, or both the triggered BFR and the pending SR are cancelled.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method performed by a user equipment, UE, configured with discontinuous reception, DRX, function, of transmission of beam failure report/beam failure recovery, BFR, the method comprising the steps of: when the UE is switched to the partial bandwidth BWP, if a serving cell to which the BWP belongs has triggered BFR or has a pending scheduling request pending SR, and the pending SR is triggered by the BFR, the triggered BFR is cancelled, or the pending SR is cancelled, or both the triggered BFR and the pending SR are cancelled.

In the above method performed by the user equipment, it is preferable that the BWP handover occurs: the UE receives a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), Downlink Control Information (DCI) carried on the PDCCH indicates downlink assignment or uplink transmission, and a BWP ID indicated in the DCI is different from a BWP ID of a currently activated BWP; the timer BWP-inactivity timer associated with the currently active BWP runs out of time and the UE switches to the default BWP or the initial BWP; or when the UE receives the RRC reconfiguration message, the UE switches the activated BWP.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a user equipment comprising: a processor; and a memory having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the user equipment to perform a method according to the above description.

According to the method performed by the user equipment and the corresponding user equipment, the additional energy consumption can be avoided, and therefore energy saving can be achieved.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a method performed by a user equipment UE according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method performed by a user equipment UE according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method performed by a user equipment UE according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method performed by a user equipment UE according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method performed by a user equipment UE according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a method performed by a user equipment UE according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 7 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a user equipment UE according to the present invention.

Detailed Description

The invention is described in detail below with reference to the figures and the detailed description. It should be noted that the present invention should not be limited to the specific embodiments described below. In addition, for the sake of brevity, detailed descriptions of well-known technologies not directly related to the present invention are omitted to prevent confusion of understanding of the present invention.

Before describing in detail, several terms mentioned in the present invention will be explained as follows. Unless otherwise indicated, all terms referred to in the present invention have the following meanings.

UE User Equipment

NR New Radio New generation wireless technology

LTE Long Term Evolution (LTE) Long Term Evolution (Long Term Evolution) technology

eLTE enhanced Long Term Evolution technology

RRC Radio Resource Control (layer)

MAC Medium Access Control (layer)

MAC CE MAC Control Element

MAC PDU MAC Protocol Data Unit

PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel

RA Random Access

SSB Synchronization Signal Block

CSI-RS Channel State Information Reference Signal

TCI Transmission Configuration Indicator transmits a Configuration indication

RSRP Reference Signal Received Power

HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat request

ACTIVE time ACTIVE/ACTIVE period

Non-ACTIVE time period/ACTIVE time period

Physical Uplink Shared Channel of PUSCH (Physical Uplink Shared Channel)

PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel

DRX Discontinuous Reception

BFR beam failure report/beam failure recovery

BSR Buffer Status Report

In the following, an NR mobile communication system and its subsequent evolution are taken as an example application environment, and a base station and a UE device supporting NR are taken as an example, and a plurality of embodiments according to the present invention are specifically described. However, it is to be noted that the present invention is not limited to the following embodiments, but is applicable to more other wireless communication systems, such as an lte communication system, and may be applicable to other base stations and UE devices, such as a base station and a UE device supporting lte. Meanwhile, the invention is not limited to the wireless link interruption scene caused by beam/beam forming, and can also be used in the wireless link interruption scene caused by other reasons.

Since the serving cell includes a primary cell and a secondary cell, the serving cell mentioned hereinafter mainly refers to the secondary cell, and thus the serving cell and the secondary cell may be replaced with each other hereinafter.

Triggering of BFR

For a cell Scell transmitted by using beamforming, once the UE detects that a measurement result (e.g., a decoding error probability of a downlink control channel, or an assumed error rate of the downlink control channel) of a sounding reference signal corresponding to the Scell becomes weak or exceeds a preconfigured threshold, or when a measured L1-RSRP is lower than a configured threshold, a physical layer of the UE indicates to a MAC layer, and such indication is called a Beam Failure Instance (BFI);

in the MAC layer, the UE utilizes a COUNTER BFI _ COUNTER to count the number of received BFIs, and each Scell needing to detect the beam failure has a corresponding COUNTER

BFI_COUNTER：

Each time an instruction is received, the detection timer beamFailureDetectionTimer is started or restarted, and the BFI _ COUNTER value is added by 1, similarly, each Scell needing to detect the beamfailure has a corresponding detection timer beamFailureDetectionTimer;

when the value of BFI _ COUNTER is equal to (or exceeds) a specific value, for example, the value of BFI _ COUNTER is equal to the maximum value of configured BFI plus one (beamfailure identity max count +1), or the value of BFI _ COUNTER is greater than or equal to the maximum value of configured allowed BFI, the MAC layer triggers a beam failure report/Beam Failure Recovery (BFR), which is called triggering BFR for short. Through this procedure, the UE may report information related to beam failure of the Scell to the network side, and may also request to recover the beam failure or request link reconfiguration. It can be considered that, when the BFI _ COUNTER satisfies the above condition, the UE reports the information related to the beam failure of the Scell to the network side, and optionally requests to recover the beam failure or request the link reconfiguration.

When the detection timer beamFailureDetectionTimer expires, the UE sets BFI _ COUNTER to an initial value (e.g., the initial value of BFI _ COUNTER may be zero).

When BFR is triggered, if the UE has available uplink resources, the UE may instruct a Multiplexing and assembly entity (Multiplexing and assembly entity) to generate BFR MAC CE.

The UE may trigger a scheduling request if the UE has no uplink resources available and there is at least one triggered BFR.

After the MAC PDU including the BFR MAC CE is transmitted, the UE needs to monitor the PDCCH to confirm whether the base station correctly receives the transmitted BFR MAC CE. In the monitoring process, when the UE receives a PDCCH, an uplink grant (UL grant) is scheduled for new transmission by the DCI transmitted on the PDCCH, and an HARQ process (HARQ process) used by the UL grant is the same as an HARQ process used for transmitting a MAC PDU of a BFR MAC CE before, such PDCCH may be considered as acknowledgement information of a BFR or response information of the BFR. Based on the response information of the BFR, the UE may consider that the base station correctly received the BFR MAC CE and that the procedure of the BFR was successfully completed.

With respect to DRX

DRX mode herein refers to a UE being configured with DRX functionality, or to doing DRX operation. Non-DRX mode herein refers to a UE that is not configured with DRX functionality or does not perform DRX operation.

In the DRX mode, the UE periodically monitors the PDCCH, where the period is a DRX cycle. When the UE wakes up to monitor the PDCCH following the DRX cycle, the UE starts a timer DRX on duration timer, during which the UE monitors the PDCCH. "monitoring the PDCCH" as referred to herein means receiving the PDCCH at all times when the PDCCH may occur, and detecting whether the PDCCH is scrambled by the C-RNTI of the UE, i.e., whether the PDCCH points to the C-RNTI of the UE (PDCCH addressed to the C-RNTI). If so, the PDCCH is decoded so as to acquire information indicated therein.

The UE may be in an ACTIVE time (ACTIVE time) or an inactive time (Non-ACTIVE time) in DRX mode. non-ACTIVE time in this context refers to a period when the UE is not in ACTIVE time or a time that does not belong to ACTIVE time.

When the UE is configured with DRX cycle, ACTIVE time refers to the following time:

-a timer drx-onDurationTimer, drx-InactivityTimer or drx-RecransmissionTimerDL or drx-RecransmissionTimeUL or ra-ContentionResolutionTimer run period;

-Scheduling Request (SR) sent on PUCCH is pending;

-if the transmitted preamble sequence is not selected from contention based collision random access preamble sequences during a random access procedure, when a PDCCH directed to the C-RNTI of the UE has not been received after successful reception of the RAR.

In DRX mode, when the UE receives a PDCCH indicating an uplink transmission (UL transmission), the UE starts a timer DRX-HARQ-RTT-timerll after completing the uplink transmission, whether new transmission or retransmission. And when the timer drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerUL runs out of time, starting the timer drx-retransmission TimerUL, and entering the ACTIVE time.

During the operation of the timer drx-retransmission timerll, if the PDCCH is received to indicate an uplink transmission (either for a new transmission or for a retransmission), the above steps are repeated, and the timer drx-retransmission timerll is stopped; if the received PDCCH indicates an uplink new transmission, a timer drx-InactivetyTimer is also started;

when the timing drx retransmission timerll runs out of time, the UE will enter the non-ACTIVE time if there are no other conditions to keep the UE in the ACTIVE time.

Hereinafter, several embodiments of the present invention are described in detail.

Example 1

When the UE is configured with DRX functionality and is in non-ACTIVE time, the BFR may be triggered. The triggered BFR may further trigger a scheduling request. When a scheduling request is triggered, if the scheduling request is not cancelled, the scheduling request can be considered as a pending SR. In the prior art, the UE sends a scheduling request on the PUCCH, and the scheduling request is not cancelled yet and is a pending SR, so that the UE enters ACTIVE time and starts to continuously monitor (monitor) the downlink PDCCH.

In the monitoring process, when the UE receives a PDCCH, and an uplink grant (UL grant) is indicated in Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmitted on the PDCCH, and the UL grant is used for first transmission in uplink transmission or new transmission (new transmission), the UE may transmit a BFR MAC CE on the UL grant.

In the prior art, when the UE receives a PDCCH indicating a new uplink transmission, the UE starts (start) or restarts (re-start) the timer drx-inactivity timer. During the operation of the timer drx-inactivity timer, the UE is considered to be in ACTIVE time and needs to continuously monitor the downlink PDCCH.

However, the UE may only need to transmit the BFR at this time and have no other data to transmit, so the UE may re-enter the Non-ACTIVE state after sending the BFR to the base station successfully. Thereby realizing energy saving.

To achieve the above operation, one possible way is to do so, as shown in FIG. 1

S101: the UE receives one PDCCH, and one UL grant is indicated in DCI transmitted on the PDCCH, and the UL grant is used for first transmission/new transmission. The UL grant is an uplink grant and corresponds to an uplink resource. When one UL grant is indicated in the DCI, time, frequency, or other information about resources used for uplink transmission of the UE is included in the DCI.

S102: in one case, this is the case: the UE has triggered BFR and also has uplink data to be transmitted, namely at least one logic channel or logic channel group exists or contains data to be transmitted, and then the UE starts or restarts a timer drx-InactivityTimer when receiving the PDCCH;

s103: in another case, this case refers to: the UE only has the triggered BFR but does not have uplink data to be transmitted, i.e. there is no any logical channel or logical channel group or there is uplink data to be transmitted, so the UE does not start or restart (re-start) the timer drx-inactivity timer when receiving the PDCCH; and preferably, when the UE has only triggered BFRs but no uplink data to transmit and all BFRs triggered before the MAC PDU package can be accommodated by the received UL grant (accmod), the UE does not start or restart (re-start) the timer drx-inactivytimer when receiving the above PDCCH in this case. Here, "all BFRs triggered before the MAC PDU grouping can be accommodated by the received UL grant" means that the generated BFR MAC CE may include all information about the serving cell in which the beam failure occurs, and the MAC PDU formed by the BFR MAC CE and the header (heartbeat) of the MAC PDU may be transmitted on the uplink resource corresponding to the uplink grant without overflow.

As shown in FIG. 2, yet another implementation of the above operation may be

S201: the UE receives a PDCCH, and a UL grant is indicated in DCI transmitted on the PDCCH, and is used for first transmission/new transmission:

s202: in one case, this is the case: when receiving the UL grant, the UE can determine that only the BFR MAC CE is included in the MAC PDU transmitted on the UL grant, or only the BFR MAC CE and padding bits are included, so that the UE does not start or restart (re-start) the timer drx-inactivytimer when receiving the PDCCH.

S203: in other cases, such as when the UE determines that the MAC PDU transmitted on the UL grant contains not only the BFR MAC CE but also the BSR MAC CE, or determines that the MAC PDU transmitted on the UL grant contains data from a logical channel/logical channel group, the UE starts (start) or restarts (re-start) the timer drx-inactivity timer when receiving the PDCCH.

Example 2

Since the "BFR acknowledgement information" is a PDCCH for scheduling uplink new transmission in the prior art, as described above, in the DRX mode, when receiving such a PDCCH for scheduling uplink new transmission, the UE starts (start) or restarts (re-start) the timer DRX-inactivity timer. During the operation of the timer drx-inactivity timer, the UE is considered to be in ACTIVE time and needs to continuously monitor the downlink PDCCH.

Such "BFR acknowledgement information" may function when the UE has data to transmit, however, when the UE has no data to transmit, the time that the UE is in ACTIVE state is rather extended. To avoid such a situation, a method of not transmitting the "BFR response information" so that the UE obtains implicit confirmation may be employed.

As shown in fig. 3, the specific implementation method may be:

s301: when the UE sends a BFR MAC CE to the base station, or sends a MAC PDU carrying the BFR MAC CE to the base station, or after a BFR is triggered, or during the BFR execution, if the UE is in the DRX mode, the UE considers that the BFR procedure is successfully completed after the timer DRX-retransmission timerll runs out. And optionally, the triggered BFR is cancelled.

Through the above operation, after the base station successfully receives the BFR MAC CE, if the UE does not need to be further scheduled, the base station may not send the PDCCH described in the prior art to the UE as the confirmation information, but receive the BFR MAC CE by default; and the UE can obtain such BFR acknowledgement information through the timer drx-retransmission timerll running timeout.

Example 3

Embodiment 2 avoids starting the timer drx-inactivity timer by avoiding providing the PDCCH as "BFR acknowledgement information", thereby avoiding the UE entering ACTIVE time, and achieving the purpose of saving energy.

Embodiment 3 defines the starting condition of the timer drx-inactivity timer, so as to avoid the UE entering ACTIVE time.

In the prior art, when a UE receives a PDCCH indicating a new uplink transmission, the UE starts (start) or restarts (re-start) a timer drx-inactivity timer. If this PDCCH is transmitted only as "BFR acknowledgement information" to the UE, the timer drx-inactivytytimer may not be started when the UE receives the PDCCH as "BFR acknowledgement information" in case that the UE has no data to transmit to the base station, and thus does not enter active.

As shown in fig. 4, the specific implementation may be:

s401: the UE receives one PDCCH,

-S402: if an uplink grant (UL grant) is scheduled for new transmission (new transmission) by the DCI transmitted on the PDCCH, and the HARQ process (process) used by the UL grant is the same as the process used for transmitting the MAC PDU of the BFR MAC CE before, if no logical channel or logical channel group owns/contains uplink data to be transmitted at this time, the UE does not start or restart (re-start) the timer drx-inactivity timer when receiving the PDCCH;

-S403: if the PDCCH does not belong to the above-mentioned case, e.g.

One downlink transmission (DLtransmission) is scheduled for DCI transmitted on this PDCCH; or is

Although one uplink transmission (ul transmission) is scheduled for the DCI transmitted on the PDCCH, the HARQ process indicated in the DCI is different from the process used for transmitting the MAC PDU carrying the BFR MAC CE; or is also

This PDCCH indicates uplink retransmission on the same HARQ process as was used for transmission of the MAC PDU carrying the BFR MAC CE, but at this time the UE has uplink data to transmit,

the UE starts or restarts (re-start) the timer drx-inactivity timer.

Example 4

Example 1 and example 2 may be used in combination.

Example 1 and example 3 may be used in combination.

Example 5

After a BFR is triggered, the UE may receive the MAC CE sent by the base station to adjust/activate the TCI state (TCI state) of the PDCCH, and by adjusting/activating the TCI state, the beam failure that occurred before may be overcome, and the normal operation of the link may be resumed. The UE may perform link detection based on the adjusted beam without reporting BFRs generated before the adjustment occurs.

As shown in FIG. 5, the specific implementation may be

S501: the UE receives a MAC CE transmitted by the base station, which contains relevant information for adjusting/activating the TCI status of the PDCCH. Such a MAC CE usually carries a cell number (cell Index). The cell corresponding to the cell number may be referred to as a serving cell to which the MAC CE is applicable.

S502: for a serving cell to which such a MAC CE is applicable, if the serving cell has a triggered BFR or a pending SR, and the pending SR is triggered by the BFR, the triggered BFR may be cancelled, or the pending SR may be cancelled, or both. And optionally, the value of a COUNTER (BFI COUNTER) related to the beam failure detection may be set to zero or set to an initial value.

The MAC CE for adjusting/activating the TCI State of the PDCCH may be a UE-specific PDCCH TCI State Indication MAC CE (TCI State Indication for UE-specific PDCCH MAC CE), a single-PDCCH multi-TRP TCI State activation MAC CE (TCI State activation MAC CE for single-PDCCH Mtrp), a multi-PDCCH multi-TRP TCI State activation MAC CE (TCI State activation MAC CE for multi-PDCCH Mtrp), or the like.

Example 6

A plurality of BWPs (Bandwidth Part, partial Bandwidth) may be configured on one serving cell. BWP may be activated or deactivated. Detection of Beam Failure is typically performed on activated BWPs. BWPs may be switched, so called BWP switching, i.e. deactivating a currently active BWP while activating another BWP. Since the beam configuration of different BWPs may be different, when the UE performs BWP handover in this serving cell, beam direction adjustment may also occur, so as to overcome the triggered beam failure. In this case, the UE may perform link detection based on the adjusted beam without reporting the BFR generated before the adjustment occurs.

As shown in FIG. 6, the specific implementation may be

S601: when BWP handover (switching) occurs in the UE, if the serving cell to which the BWP belongs has a triggered BFR or a pending SR, and the pending SR is triggered by the BFR, the triggered BFR may be cancelled, or the pending SR may be cancelled, or both. And optionally, the value of a COUNTER (BFI _ COUNTER) related to the beam failure detection may be set to zero or an initial value.

The UE may be handed over BWP in one or more of the following cases:

the UE receives a PDCCH, wherein DCI carried on the PDCCH indicates downlink assignment or uplink transmission, and the BWP ID indicated in the DCI is different from the BWP ID of currently activated BWP (active BWP);

the timer BWP-inactivity timer associated with the currently active BWP runs out of time and the UE switches to the default BWP or the initial BWP;

when the UE receives the RRC reconfiguration message, the UE is instructed to switch the activated BWP.

Example 7

The BFR MAC CE includes at least information of a serving Cell in which the Beam failure has occurred, for example, a Cell number (Cell index). Here, the serving cell in which the beam failure occurs may be simply referred to as a failed cell (failed cell). In addition, if there is a candidate reference signal in the failed cell, information of the candidate reference signal, such as an Identity (ID) of the reference signal, may also be carried, which may also be referred to as information of the serving cell where the beam failure occurs.

Because the uplink resource scheduled by the base station is limited, not all the information related to the serving cell in which the beam failure occurs can be carried in one MAC PDU.

Therefore, an indication may be set in the BFR MAC CE to indicate whether there is information of the serving cell where the beam failure occurs that is not reported, or to indicate whether additional/supplementary uplink transmission or uplink resources are needed to transmit the information of the serving cell where the beam failure occurs that is not reported in the current MAC CE or the current MAC PDU.

Through the indication, the base station can judge whether further uplink resources need to be scheduled for the UE. For example, in a BFR MAC CE, the indicator bit is set to 0, and information indicating that a cell in which beam failure occurs before the MAC PDU package (prior to the MAC PDU assembly) is carried in the MAC PDU, or there is no BFR that has been triggered and has not been reported, or it indicates that all BFRs triggered before the MAC PDU package are reported; if the indicator bit is set to 1, information indicating that not all cells where beam failure occurs before (or at the time of) the MAC PDU packet are carried in the MAC PDU, or that there are BFRs that have been triggered and have not yet been reported, or that not all BFRs that have been triggered before the MAC PDU packet are reported.

When the base station receives the indicator bit of 0, it may not need to further schedule the uplink transmission of the UE; when the base station receives the indication bit of 1, the uplink transmission of the UE can be further scheduled.

Optionally, when the indicator bit is 1, the pending SR triggered on the serving cell where the beam failure occurs, which is not reported by the BFR MAC CE carried in the current MAC PDU, may be cancelled.

The BFR MAC CE may adopt a single record (single entry) or a multiple record (multiple entries) format according to the number of serving cells in which the beam failure occurs, which is reported in the BFR MAC CE. When the beam failure occurs in only one serving cell, adopting a single entry; if the beam failure occurs in more than one serving cell, the format of multiple entries is adopted.

The above-described indicator bits may be provided only in the format of multiple entries. If the BFR MAC CE adopts single entry, it implies that only one serving cell has beam failure or the information of all serving cells having beam failure has been reported.

Example 8

An indication bit may be set in the BFR MAC CE to indicate whether a Buffer Status Report (BSR) needs to be reported. By this indication, the base station may determine whether further uplink resources need to be scheduled for the UE or allocated for BSR transmission. For example, in the BFR MAC CE, the indicator bit may be set to 0, indicating that there is no BSR triggered before the MAC PDU packet is packed; if the indicator bit is set to 1, it indicates that there is a triggered BSR that is not cancelled before the MAC PDU packet.

When the base station receives the indicator bit of 0, it may not need to further schedule the uplink transmission of the UE; when the base station receives the indication bit of 1, the uplink transmission of the UE can be further scheduled.

Alternatively, when the indicator bit is 1, the pending SR triggered by the BSR may be cancelled.

Example 9

Examples 7 and 8 may be used in combination.

For example, indication bits may be respectively set in the BFR MAC CE, one of the indication bits is used to indicate whether there is a case where the serving cell with the beam failure does not report, and the other indication bit is used to indicate whether there is a triggered BSR. The contents of the specific indications can be referred to the descriptions in embodiments 7 and 8.

Also for example, a joint indication may be provided, where the setting indicator bit has two bits, where

00 means that neither triggered BSR nor reported BFR exists

01 denotes the presence of BSR

10 indicates that there is an unreported BFR

11 indicates that there is both a BSR and an unreported BFR

For another example, a common indication bit may be set in the BFR MAC CE:

when there is no triggered BSR (or BSR-triggered pending SR) and there is no triggered BFR yet reported, the indicator bit may be set to 0, and from the perspective of the base station, the indicator bit may be set to 0 to understand that the UE indicates that no additional uplink scheduling or uplink transmission is needed, or no supplemental uplink transmission is needed.

When there is a triggered BSR (or a BSR-triggered pending SR), or there is a triggered BFR that has not yet been reported, or both exist, the UE may set the indicator bit to 1, and from the perspective of the base station, it may be understood that the UE indicates that additional uplink scheduling or uplink transmission is needed, or uplink transmission needs to be supplemented, if the indicator bit is set to 1.

Optionally, when the indicator bit is set to 1, the pending SR triggered by the BSR may be cancelled.

Optionally, when the indicator bit is set to 1, the pending SR triggered on those serving cells where beam failure occurs, which are not reported by the BFR MAC CE carried in the current MAC PDU, can be cancelled

It should be noted that, when "existence" or "nonexistence" of triggered BFRs or BSRs is described in the above procedure, it is relative to a specific time point, for example, before a MAC PDU group package (prior to the MAC PDU assembly) "existence" or "nonexistence" of triggered BFRs or BSRs; as another example, a triggered BFR or BSR "exists" or "does not exist" when or before the UE instructs the multiplexing and assembly entity to generate a BFR MAC CE.

Fig. 7 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a user equipment UE according to the present invention. As shown in fig. 7, the user equipment UE700 includes a processor 701 and a memory 702. The processor 701 may include, for example, a microprocessor, a microcontroller, an embedded processor, or the like. The memory 702 may include, for example, volatile memory (e.g., random access memory RAM), a Hard Disk Drive (HDD), non-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory), or other memory, among others. The memory 702 has stored thereon program instructions. Which when executed by the processor 701 may perform the above-described method performed by the user equipment as described in detail herein.

The program running on the apparatus according to the present invention may be a program that causes a computer to realize the functions of the embodiments of the present invention by controlling a Central Processing Unit (CPU). The program or information processed by the program may be temporarily stored in a volatile memory (such as a random access memory RAM), a Hard Disk Drive (HDD), a nonvolatile memory (such as a flash memory), or other memory system.

A program for implementing the functions of the embodiments of the present invention may be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium. The corresponding functions can be realized by causing a computer system to read the programs recorded on the recording medium and execute the programs. The term "computer system" as used herein may be a computer system embedded in the device and may include an operating system or hardware (e.g., peripheral devices). The "computer-readable recording medium" may be a semiconductor recording medium, an optical recording medium, a magnetic recording medium, a recording medium that stores a program for short-term dynamics, or any other recording medium that is readable by a computer.

Various features or functional blocks of the devices used in the above-described embodiments may be implemented or performed by circuitry (e.g., a single or multiple chip integrated circuits). Circuitry designed to perform the functions described herein may include a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, which may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The circuit may be a digital circuit or an analog circuit. Where new integrated circuit technologies have emerged as a replacement for existing integrated circuits due to advances in semiconductor technology, one or more embodiments of the present invention may also be implemented using these new integrated circuit technologies.

Further, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments. While various examples of the embodiments have been described, the present invention is not limited thereto. Fixed or non-mobile electronic devices installed indoors or outdoors may be used as UE devices or communication devices such as AV devices, kitchen devices, cleaning devices, air conditioners, office devices, vending machines, and other home appliances.

As above, the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the specific configuration is not limited to the above embodiment, and the present invention includes any design modification without departing from the gist of the present invention. In addition, the present invention can be variously modified within the scope of the claims, and embodiments obtained by appropriately combining the technical means disclosed in the different embodiments are also included in the technical scope of the present invention. Further, components having the same effects described in the above embodiments may be substituted for each other.

Claims (10)

1. A method performed by a user equipment, being a method of transmission of beam failure reporting/beam failure recovery, BFR, performed by a user equipment, UE, configured with discontinuous reception, DRX, functionality, the method comprising the steps of:

the UE receives a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), and an uplink grant (UL grant) for first transmission/new transmission is indicated in Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmitted on the PDCCH;

if the UE has triggered BFR and also has uplink data to be transmitted, namely at least one logic channel or logic channel group exists or contains data to be transmitted, the UE starts or restarts a timer drx-InactivityTimer when receiving the PDCCH;

if the UE only has the triggered BFR but does not have uplink data to transmit, i.e. there is no logical channel or logical channel group or there is uplink data to send, the UE does not start or restart the timer drx-inactivity timer when receiving the PDCCH.

2. A method performed by a user equipment, being a method of transmission of beam failure reporting/beam failure recovery, BFR, performed by a user equipment, UE, configured with discontinuous reception, DRX, functionality, the method comprising the steps of:

the UE receives a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), and an uplink grant (UL grant) for first transmission/new transmission is indicated in Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmitted on the PDCCH;

if the UE can determine that the MAC PDU transmitted in the UL grant only includes the BFR MAC control element BFR MAC CE or only includes the BFR MAC CE and the padding bit when receiving the UL grant, the UE does not start or restart the timer drx-inactivytimer when receiving the PDCCH;

if the UE can determine that the MAC PDU transmitted on the UL grant contains not only the BFR MAC CE but also the buffer status report medium access control element BSR MAC CE when receiving the UL grant, or determine that the MAC PDU transmitted on the UL grant contains data from a logical channel/logical channel group, the UE starts or restarts the timer drx-inactivity timer when receiving the PDCCH.

3. The method performed by a user equipment of claim 1 or 2,

the method further comprises the steps of:

after the UE sends a BFR MAC control element, BFR MAC CE, or sends a MAC PDU carrying the BFR MAC CE to the base station, or a BFR is triggered, if the UE is in DRX mode, the UE considers that the BFR procedure is successfully completed after the timer DRX-retransmission timer ul runs out.

4. The method performed by a user equipment of claim 1 or 2,

the method further comprises the steps of:

if the downlink control information DCI transmitted on the PDCCH schedules an uplink grant UL grant for new transmission, and a hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ process adopted by the UL grant is the same as a process of a media access control protocol data unit (MAC PDU) used for transmitting a BFR media access control element (BFR MAC CE), if no logical channel or logical channel group has/contains data to be transmitted at the moment, the UE does not start or restart a timer drx-InactivityTimer when receiving the PDCCH;

if a downlink transmission is scheduled by the DCI transmitted on the PDCCH, or an uplink transmission is scheduled by the DCI transmitted on the PDCCH, but the HARQ process indicated in the DCI is different from the process of the MAC PDU used for transmitting the BFR MAC CE before, or the PDCCH indicates an uplink new transmission performed on the same HARQ process, and at this time, the UE has uplink data to send, the UE starts or restarts the timer drx-inactivity timer.

5. A method performed by a user equipment, being a method of transmission of beam failure reporting/beam failure recovery, BFR, performed by a user equipment, UE, configured with discontinuous reception, DRX, functionality, the method comprising the steps of:

after the UE sends a BFR MAC control element, BFR MAC CE, or sends a MAC PDU carrying the BFR MAC CE to the base station, or a BFR is triggered, if the UE is in DRX mode, the UE considers that the BFR procedure is successfully completed after the timer DRX-retransmission timer ul runs out.

6. A method performed by a user equipment, being a method of transmission of beam failure reporting/beam failure recovery, BFR, performed by a user equipment, UE, configured with discontinuous reception, DRX, functionality, the method comprising the steps of:

the UE receives a physical downlink control channel PDCCH;

if the downlink control information DCI transmitted on the PDCCH schedules an uplink grant UL grant for new transmission, and a hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ process adopted by the UL grant is the same as a process of a media access control protocol data unit (MAC PDU) used for transmitting a BFR media access control element (BFR MAC CE), if no logical channel or logical channel group has/contains data to be transmitted at the moment, the UE does not start or restart a timer drx-InactivityTimer when receiving the PDCCH;

if a downlink transmission is scheduled by the DCI transmitted on the PDCCH, or an uplink transmission is scheduled by the DCI transmitted on the PDCCH, but the HARQ process indicated in the DCI is different from the process of the MAC PDU used for transmitting the BFR MAC CE before, or the PDCCH indicates an uplink new transmission performed on the same HARQ process, and at this time, the UE has uplink data to send, the UE starts or restarts the timer drx-inactivity timer.

7. A method performed by a user equipment, being a method of transmission of beam failure reporting/beam failure recovery, BFR, performed by a user equipment, UE, configured with discontinuous reception, DRX, functionality, the method comprising the steps of:

the method comprises the steps that UE receives a media access control element (MAC CE) sent by a base station, wherein the MAC CE comprises relevant information used for adjusting/activating a Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) state of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), and the MAC CE carries a cell sequence number;

for a cell corresponding to a cell sequence number, that is, a serving cell applicable to an MAC CE, if the serving cell has a triggered BFR or has a pending scheduling request pending SR, and the pending SR is triggered by the BFR, the triggered BFR is cancelled, or the pending SR is cancelled, or both the triggered BFR and the pending SR are cancelled.

8. A method performed by a user equipment, being a method of transmission of beam failure reporting/beam failure recovery, BFR, performed by a user equipment, UE, configured with discontinuous reception, DRX, functionality, the method comprising the steps of:

when the UE is switched to the partial bandwidth BWP, if a serving cell to which the BWP belongs has triggered BFR or has a pending scheduling request pending SR, and the pending SR is triggered by the BFR, the triggered BFR is cancelled, or the pending SR is cancelled, or both the triggered BFR and the pending SR are cancelled.

9. The method performed by the user equipment of claim 8,

the BWP handover occurs as follows:

the UE receives a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), Downlink Control Information (DCI) carried on the PDCCH indicates downlink assignment or uplink transmission, and a BWP ID indicated in the DCI is different from a BWP ID of a currently activated BWP;

the timer BWP-inactivity timer associated with the currently active BWP runs out of time and the UE switches to the default BWP or the initial BWP; or

When the UE receives the RRC reconfiguration message, the UE is instructed to switch the activated BWP.

10. A user equipment, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory having instructions stored thereon,

the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the user equipment to perform the method of any of claims 1-9.

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