CN116761256A

CN116761256A - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN116761256A
Application number: CN202210197457.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 侯海龙; 金哲; 孙欢
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-03-02
Filing date: 2022-03-02
Publication date: 2023-09-15
Also published as: WO2023165340A1

Abstract

The application provides a communication method and a device, and relates to the technical field of communication, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the system information blocks 1 are independently scheduled by a first physical downlink control channel in the first set of control resources and by a second physical downlink control channel in the set of control resources 0, respectively. The bandwidth of the first control resource set is smaller than or equal to the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment, and the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment is smaller than the bandwidth of the control resource set 0. Since the maximum bandwidth of the terminal device is smaller than the bandwidth of the control resource set 0, when the terminal device receives the system information block 1, the terminal device can monitor the first physical downlink control channel in the first control resource set, so as to improve the receiving performance. By configuring different resource control sets for terminal devices with different maximum bandwidths, the terminal devices with different maximum bandwidths can all receive the system information block 1, so that the network is accessed according to the system information block 1, and the communication efficiency is improved.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

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

Background

In a mobile communication network, in an initial access phase, a terminal device needs to first receive a synchronization signal broadcast channel block (synchronous signal/physical broadcast channel block, SS/PBCH block, SSB), and determine a control resource set 0 (control resource set, coreset 0) according to the SSB. Further, the terminal device may receive the system information block 1 (system information block 1, sib1) sent by the base station according to CORESET 0. SIB1 carries information of cell camping and access, SIB1 is sometimes also referred to as residual system information (remaining system information, RMSI).

In the fifth generation (5G) mobile communication technology, new Radio (NR), a low capability terminal device is proposed, and the capability of the device is reduced, for example, an enhanced low capability (enhanced reduced capability, eREDCAP) terminal device, hereinafter referred to as an nreredcap terminal device, relative to a conventional (legacy) terminal device.

Since the maximum bandwidth of the low-capability terminal device may be lower than the bandwidth of CORESET 0 defined in NR or the transmission bandwidth of SIB1, the low-capability terminal device cannot access the network or has low communication efficiency, which affects the user experience of the terminal device.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method and a communication device, which are used for improving the communication efficiency of low-capacity terminal equipment.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method for implementing a function on a terminal device side, for example, the method may be applied to a terminal device or a chip in a terminal device, and embodiments of the present application are not limited to a specific implementation body of the method. Alternatively, the method may be implemented by a plurality of functional modules at the terminal device side, and the method executed by each functional module is also within the protection scope of the present application. Taking the method applied to the terminal equipment as an example, in the method, the terminal equipment determines a first control resource set, the bandwidth of the first control resource set is smaller than or equal to the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment, and the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment is smaller than the bandwidth of the control resource set 0; both the first physical downlink control channel in the first control resource set and the second physical downlink control channel in the control resource set 0 are used for scheduling the system information block 1; the terminal equipment monitors a first physical downlink control channel in a first control resource set.

By implementing the above method, since the maximum bandwidth of the terminal device is smaller than the bandwidth of the control resource set 0, the terminal device may not monitor the second physical downlink control channel in the control resource set 0, but monitor the first physical downlink control channel in the first control resource set when receiving the system information block 1, so that the system information block 1 scheduled according to the first physical downlink control channel accesses the network. Because the network side configures different resource control sets for the terminal devices with different maximum bandwidths, the terminal devices with different maximum bandwidths can all receive the system information block 1, so that the network is accessed according to the system information block 1, and the communication efficiency is improved.

With reference to the first aspect, in one possible design, the frequency domain resources of the system information block 1 are associated with the frequency domain resources of the control resource set 0.

By implementing the method, under the condition that a new SIB1 is not introduced, terminal equipment with different maximum bandwidths can be accessed into a network through the same SIB1, so that signaling overhead is reduced, and the influence on traditional terminal equipment is reduced.

With reference to the first aspect, in one possible design, the bandwidth of the system information block 1 is greater than the maximum bandwidth of the terminal device; the method further comprises the steps of: the terminal equipment receives first partial data of the system information block 1 through first frequency domain resources in a first time unit; the terminal equipment receives second partial data of the system information block 1 in a second time unit through a second frequency domain resource;

Wherein the first frequency domain resource is different from the second frequency domain resource, and the first time unit is different from the second time unit.

By implementing the above method, the terminal device receives the system information block 1 on different frequency resources in different time units, so that more frequency diversity gain can be obtained, and the receiving performance of the system information block 1 can be improved.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method for implementing a function on a terminal device side, for example, the method may be applied to a terminal device or a chip in a terminal device, and embodiments of the present application are not limited to a specific implementation body of the method. Alternatively, the method may be implemented by a plurality of functional modules at the terminal device side, and the method executed by each functional module is also within the protection scope of the present application. Taking the method applied to the terminal equipment as an example, in the method, the terminal equipment determines a first control resource set, the bandwidth of the first control resource set is smaller than or equal to the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment, and the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment is smaller than the bandwidth of the control resource set 0; a first physical downlink control channel in a first control resource set is used for a first scheduling system information block 1, and a second physical downlink control channel in a control resource set 0 is used for scheduling a second system information block 1; the terminal equipment monitors a first physical downlink control channel in a first control resource set.

By implementing the method, the network side configures different resource control sets for the terminal equipment with different maximum bandwidths, and the different resource control sets schedule different system information blocks 1, so that the terminal equipment with different maximum bandwidths can all receive the corresponding system information blocks 1, and the network is accessed according to the system information blocks 1, thereby improving the communication efficiency.

With reference to the second aspect, in one possible design, the frequency domain resources of the first system information block 1 are associated with the frequency domain resources of the first set of control resources.

With reference to the second aspect, in one possible design, the maximum bandwidth of the first system information block 1 is less than or equal to the maximum bandwidth of the terminal device.

By implementing the above method, the terminal device can receive the first system information block 1 in a traditional manner, the complexity of receiving the first system information block 1 is reduced, and the system compatibility is improved.

With reference to the first aspect or the second aspect, in one possible design, the method further includes: the frequency domain starting position of the first control resource set is higher than or equal to the frequency domain starting position of the control resource set 0; and the frequency domain end position of the first set of control resources is lower than or equal to the frequency domain end position of the set of control resources 0.

By implementing the above method, the first control resource set is located in the frequency domain range of the control resource set 0, so that the terminal devices with different maximum bandwidths receive the system information block 1 in the same frequency domain range, and the resource utilization rate can be improved.

With reference to the first aspect or the second aspect, in one possible design, the method further includes: the frequency domain end position of the first control resource set is lower than the frequency domain start position of the control resource set 0; alternatively, the frequency domain starting position of the first control resource set is higher than the frequency domain ending position of the control resource set 0.

By implementing the above method, the first control resource set and the control resource set 0 frequency domain resource do not overlap, so that the system information blocks 1 between the terminal devices with different maximum bandwidths do not interfere with each other, and the system efficiency can be improved.

With reference to the first aspect or the second aspect, in one possible design, determining the first set of control resources includes: the terminal device determines a first control resource set according to first information, wherein the first information is used for indicating the first control resource set, and the first information is predefined or comes from the network device.

In case the first information is predefined, the network signaling overhead may be reduced. In case the first information comes from the network device, the complexity of blind detection of the first set of control resources by the terminal device may be reduced.

With reference to the first aspect or the second aspect, in one possible design, the first information indicates at least one of:

the frequency domain location of the first set of control resources; the bandwidth size of the first set of control resources; a time domain duration of the first set of control resources; the first set of control resources is associated with a time domain location of the search space.

Through the first information, the terminal equipment can determine the first control resource set accurately, and communication efficiency is improved.

With reference to the first aspect or the second aspect, in one possible design, the first information is carried on a physical broadcast channel of the synchronization signal broadcast channel block; or the first information is carried in a radio resource control signaling or a media access control element or downlink control information; alternatively, the first information is carried in an extended physical channel, which is a different channel than the physical broadcast channel.

By implementing the method, when the first information is loaded in the SSB, the design of the PBCH in the existing SSB can be multiplexed, the design is simpler, and meanwhile, the time-frequency synchronous detection of the SSB can be unaffected. When the first information is carried in the radio resource control signaling or the media access control element or the downlink control information or the extended physical channel, the configuration of the first control resource set can be enabled to be more flexible.

With reference to the first aspect or the second aspect, in one possible design, the first information is carried in an extended physical channel, a coding manner adopted by the extended physical channel and a coding manner adopted by a physical broadcast channel are the same, and/or a modulation manner adopted by the extended physical channel and the physical broadcast channel are the same, and/or a scrambling manner adopted by the extended physical channel and the physical broadcast channel is the same.

With reference to the first aspect or the second aspect, in one possible design, the extended physical channel and the synchronization signal broadcast channel block are transmitted in a time division multiplexing manner; or the extended physical channel and the synchronous signal broadcast channel block are transmitted in a frequency division multiplexing mode.

With reference to the first aspect or the second aspect, in one possible design, the first information is carried in an extended physical channel, and the extended physical channel is generated based on the sequence.

With reference to the first aspect or the second aspect, in one possible design, the sequence is generated in the same manner as at least one of the following sequences: a primary synchronization signal sequence; a secondary synchronization signal sequence; demodulating the reference signal sequence; phase tracking a reference signal sequence; a sounding reference signal sequence; channel state information refers to a signal sequence.

By implementing the method, the generation mode of the sequences in the extended physical channel by multiplexing the sequences such as the existing main synchronous signal sequences can reduce the complexity and improve the system compatibility.

With reference to the first aspect or the second aspect, in one possible design, the length of the sequence is the same as the length of the primary synchronization signal sequence or the secondary synchronization signal sequence in the synchronization signal broadcast channel block.

With reference to the first aspect or the second aspect, in one possible design, the method further includes: the terminal equipment receives second information from the network equipment; the second information indicates whether the terminal device is allowed to access the network device; the terminal equipment determines that the network equipment allows the terminal equipment to access according to the second information, and determines that the accessed cell comprises the first control resource set according to the second information.

With reference to the first aspect or the second aspect, in one possible design, the method further includes: the second information is further used to indicate that the first set of control resources is not included in the cell of the network device if the second information prohibits the terminal device from accessing.

By the method, the network side independently indicates whether to prohibit access to the low-capacity terminal equipment (the terminal equipment with the maximum bandwidth smaller than the bandwidth of the control resource set 0), the function can be realized in the SSB searching stage of the terminal equipment, the network is ensured to be controllable to the low-capacity terminal equipment, the configuration of the first control resource set and whether to prohibit access function are jointly designed, and the signaling overhead is saved.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication method for implementing a function on a network device side, for example, may be applied to a network device or a chip in a network device, and embodiments of the present application are not limited to a specific implementation body of the method. Optionally, the method may be implemented by interaction of multiple functional modules at the network device side, where the method executed by each functional module is also within the protection scope of the present application. Taking the example that the method is applied to network equipment, in the method, the network equipment sends a first physical downlink control channel to terminal equipment in a first control resource set, and sends a second physical downlink control channel in a control resource set 0; the bandwidth of the first control resource set is smaller than or equal to the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment, and the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment is smaller than the bandwidth of the control resource set 0; the first physical downlink control channel and the second physical downlink control channel are both used for scheduling the system information block 1; the network device sends a system information block 1 to the terminal device.

With reference to the third aspect, in one possible design, the frequency domain resources of the system information block 1 are associated with the frequency domain resources of the control resource set 0.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication method for implementing a function on a network device side, for example, may be applied to a network device or a chip in a network device, and embodiments of the present application are not limited to a specific implementation body of the method. Optionally, the method may be implemented by interaction of multiple functional modules at the network device side, where the method executed by each functional module is also within the protection scope of the present application. Taking the example that the method is applied to network equipment, in the method, the network equipment sends a first physical downlink control channel to terminal equipment in a first control resource set, and sends a second physical downlink control channel in a control resource set 0; the bandwidth of the first control resource set is smaller than or equal to the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment, and the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment is smaller than the bandwidth of the control resource set 0; a first physical downlink control channel in a first control resource set is used for a first scheduling system information block 1, and a second physical downlink control channel in a control resource set 0 is used for scheduling a second system information block 1; the network device sends a first system information block 1 to the terminal device.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in one possible design, the frequency domain resources of the first system information block 1 are associated with the frequency domain resources of the first set of control resources.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in one possible design, the maximum bandwidth of the first system information block 1 is less than or equal to the maximum bandwidth of the terminal device.

With reference to the third aspect or the fourth aspect, in one possible design, the method further includes: the frequency domain starting position of the first control resource set is higher than or equal to the frequency domain starting position of the control resource set 0; and the frequency domain end position of the first set of control resources is lower than or equal to the frequency domain end position of the set of control resources 0.

With reference to the third aspect or the fourth aspect, in one possible design, the method further includes: the frequency domain end position of the first control resource set is lower than the frequency domain start position of the control resource set 0; alternatively, the frequency domain starting position of the first control resource set is higher than the frequency domain ending position of the control resource set 0.

With reference to the third aspect or the fourth aspect, in one possible design, the method further includes: the network device sends first information to the terminal device, wherein the first information is used for indicating a first control resource set, and the first information indicates at least one of the following:

With reference to the third aspect or the fourth aspect, in one possible design, the first information is carried on a physical broadcast channel of the synchronization signal broadcast channel block; or the first information is carried in a radio resource control signaling or a media access control element or downlink control information; alternatively, the first information is carried in an extended physical channel, which is a different channel than the physical broadcast channel.

With reference to the third aspect or the fourth aspect, in one possible design, the first information is carried in an extended physical channel, and the extended physical channel and the physical broadcast channel adopt the same coding mode, and/or the extended physical channel and the physical broadcast channel have the same modulation mode, and/or the extended physical channel and the physical broadcast channel have the same scrambling mode.

With reference to the third aspect or the fourth aspect, in one possible design, the extended physical channel and the synchronization signal broadcast channel block are transmitted in a time division multiplexing manner; or the extended physical channel and the synchronous signal broadcast channel block are transmitted in a frequency division multiplexing mode.

With reference to the third aspect or the fourth aspect, in one possible design, the first information is carried in an extended physical channel, and the extended physical channel is generated based on the sequence.

With reference to the third aspect or the fourth aspect, in one possible design, the sequence is generated in the same manner as at least one of the following sequences: a primary synchronization signal sequence; a secondary synchronization signal sequence; demodulating the reference signal sequence; phase tracking a reference signal sequence; a sounding reference signal sequence; channel state information refers to a signal sequence.

With reference to the third aspect or the fourth aspect, in one possible design, the length of the sequence is the same as the length of the primary synchronization signal sequence or the secondary synchronization signal sequence in the synchronization signal broadcast channel block.

With reference to the third aspect or the fourth aspect, in one possible design, the method further includes: the network equipment sends second information to the terminal equipment; the second information indicates whether the terminal device is allowed to access the network device, and if the second information prohibits the terminal device from accessing, the second information is further used to indicate that the first set of control resources is not included in the cell of the network device.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus, where the communication apparatus may be a terminal device, a module capable of implementing a function on a terminal device side, or a chip capable of being disposed inside the terminal device. The communication device has a function of implementing the first aspect, for example, the communication device includes a module or a unit or means (means) corresponding to executing part or all of the steps related to the first aspect or the second aspect, where the function or unit or means may be implemented by software, or implemented by hardware, or implemented by executing corresponding software by hardware.

In one possible design, the communication device includes a processing unit and a communication unit, where the communication unit may be configured to receive and send signals to enable communication between the communication device and other devices, e.g., the communication unit is configured to receive configuration information from a network device; the processing unit may be adapted to perform some internal operations of the communication device. The functions performed by the processing unit, the communication unit may correspond to the operations referred to in the above first aspect or the second aspect.

In one possible design, the communication device includes a processor, and may further include a transceiver, where the transceiver is configured to receive signals, and where the processor uses the transceiver to perform the method in any possible design or implementation of the first aspect or the second aspect. Wherein the communications apparatus may further comprise one or more memories for coupling with the processor, the memories may hold computer programs or instructions implementing the functions of the first or second aspects described above. The processor may execute a computer program or instructions stored by the memory, which when executed, cause the communication device to implement the method in any of the possible designs or implementations of the first or second aspect described above.

In one possible design, the communication device includes a processor that may be used to couple with a memory. The memory may hold a computer program or instructions implementing the functions of the first or second aspects described above. The processor may execute a computer program or instructions stored by the memory, which when executed, cause the communication device to implement the method in any of the possible designs or implementations of the first or second aspect described above.

In one possible design, the communication device includes a processor and an interface circuit, wherein the processor is configured to communicate with other devices through the interface circuit and perform the method of any of the possible designs or implementations of the first or second aspect.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus, where the communication apparatus may be a network device, a module capable of implementing a function on a network device side, or a chip capable of being disposed inside the network device. The communication device has a function of implementing the second aspect, for example, the communication device includes a module or a unit or a means corresponding to performing part or all of the operations related to the third aspect or the fourth aspect, where the module or the unit or the means may be implemented by software, or implemented by hardware, or implemented by executing corresponding software by hardware.

In one possible design, the communication device includes a processing unit and a communication unit, where the communication unit may be configured to send and receive signals to enable communication between the communication device and other devices, for example, the communication unit is configured to receive uplink information from the terminal device; the processing unit may be adapted to perform some internal operations of the communication device. The functions performed by the processing unit, the communication unit may correspond to the operations referred to in the above third aspect or fourth aspect.

In one possible design, the communication device includes a processor, and may further include a transceiver, where the transceiver is configured to receive signals, and where the processor uses the transceiver to complete the method in any possible design or implementation of the third aspect or the fourth aspect. Wherein the communications apparatus may further comprise one or more memories for coupling with the processor, the memories may hold computer programs or instructions implementing the functions of the third or fourth aspects described above. The processor may execute a computer program or instructions stored by the memory, which when executed, cause the communication device to implement the method in any possible design or implementation of the third or fourth aspect described above.

In one possible design, the communication device includes a processor that may be used to couple with a memory. The memory may hold a computer program or instructions implementing the functions of the third or fourth aspects described above. The processor may execute a computer program or instructions stored by the memory, which when executed, cause the communication device to implement the method in any possible design or implementation of the third or fourth aspect described above.

In one possible design, the communication device includes a processor and an interface circuit, wherein the processor is configured to communicate with other devices through the interface circuit and perform the method in any possible design or implementation of the third or fourth aspect.

It is to be understood that the above-described processor may be implemented by hardware or may be implemented by software, and when implemented by hardware, the processor may be a logic circuit, an integrated circuit, or the like; when implemented in software, the processor may be a general purpose processor, implemented by reading software code stored in a memory. Further, the above processor may be one or more, and the memory may be one or more. The memory may be integral to the processor or separate from the processor. In a specific implementation process, the memory and the processor may be integrated on the same chip, or may be respectively disposed on different chips.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system including the communication apparatus described in the fifth aspect and the communication apparatus described in the sixth aspect.

In an eighth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein computer-readable instructions which, when read and executed by a computer, cause the computer to implement a method in a possible design of any one of the above first to fourth aspects.

In a ninth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product which, when read and executed by a computer, causes the computer to carry out the method in the design possible for any one of the above first to fourth aspects.

In a tenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a chip comprising a processor coupled to a memory for reading and executing a software program stored in the memory to implement the method in any one of the possible designs of the first to fourth aspects.

In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a communication device comprising a processor and interface circuitry for receiving signals from or transmitting signals to or from other communication devices than the communication device, the processor being for implementing the foregoing first or second aspects, and the method in any possible implementation of the first or second aspects, by logic circuitry or execution of a computer program or instructions.

In a twelfth aspect, there is provided a communication device comprising a processor and interface circuitry for receiving signals from or transmitting signals to or from other communication devices than the communication device, the processor being for implementing the method of the foregoing third or fourth aspect, and any possible implementation of the third or fourth aspect, by logic circuitry or execution of a computer program or instructions.

In a thirteenth aspect, a communications apparatus is provided, comprising a processor and a memory coupled, the processor being configured to execute a computer program or instructions stored in the memory, such that the communications apparatus implements the foregoing first or second aspect, and the method in any possible implementation of the first or second aspect.

In a fourteenth aspect, there is provided a communications apparatus comprising a processor and a memory, the processor and the memory being coupled, the processor being operable to execute a computer program or instructions stored in the memory, to cause the communications apparatus to implement the method of the foregoing third or fourth aspect, and any possible implementation of the third or fourth aspect.

A fifteenth aspect provides a chip comprising a processor and further comprising a memory for executing a computer program or instructions stored in said memory, such that the chip system implements the method of the foregoing first or second aspect, and any possible implementation of the first or second aspect.

In a sixteenth aspect, a chip is provided, the chip comprising a processor, and possibly a memory, for executing a computer program or instructions stored in said memory, such that the chip system implements the method of the foregoing third or fourth aspect, and any possible implementation of the third or fourth aspect.

These and other aspects of the application will be more readily apparent from the following description of the embodiments.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture to which the present application is applicable;

fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of an initial access procedure of a terminal device;

FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of an SSB provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of SIB1 retransmission according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of receiving a first SIB1 by a frequency hopping manner according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of receiving a first SIB1 by a frequency hopping method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating a positional relationship between a first control resource set and CORESET 0 according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating a positional relationship between a first control resource set and CORESET 0 according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating a positional relationship between a first control resource set and CORESET 0 according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating a positional relationship between a first control resource set and CORESET 0 according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a schematic diagram of a positional relationship between SSB and an extended physical channel according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 13 is a schematic diagram of a positional relationship between SSB and an extended physical channel according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 15 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

Embodiments of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings attached to the specification.

The embodiment of the application can be applied to various mobile communication systems, such as: other communication systems, such as NR system long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) systems and future communication systems, are not limited herein.

In the embodiment of the present application, the interaction between the terminal device and the network device is described as an example. Wherein, the terminal equipment: may be simply referred to as a terminal, which is a device having a wireless transceiving function or a chip that may be provided in the device. The terminal device may also be referred to as a User Equipment (UE), an access terminal, or the like. In practical applications, the terminal device in the embodiments of the present application may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer (pad), a computer with a wireless transceiver function, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal, an augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) terminal, a wireless terminal in an industrial control (industrial control), and so on. In the embodiment of the present application, the device for implementing the function of the terminal device may be the terminal device; may be a module or unit that can be applied to a terminal device; or may be a device, such as a chip system, capable of supporting the terminal device to implement the function, which may be installed in the terminal device or used in cooperation with the terminal device. In the embodiment of the application, the chip system can be composed of chips, and can also comprise chips and other discrete devices. Taking a terminal device as an example, the device for implementing the function of the terminal device is described as a technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application.

The terminal device in the present application may be a legacy (legacy) terminal device or a low capability (reduced capability, REDCAP) terminal device, or an enhanced low capability (enhanced reduced capability, eREDCAP) terminal device, or a future reduced capability (further reduced capability, fREDCAP) terminal device.

The legacy terminal device may refer to a legacy or normal or high-capability terminal device, and may also be referred to as a normal (normal) terminal device. In the present application, the legacy terminal device may include an NR enhanced mobile broadband (enhanced mobile broadband, eMBB) terminal device and a REDCAP terminal device. Wherein, the NR eMBB terminal equipment supports larger bandwidth and has higher processing capacity. The REDCAP terminal equipment is a Frequency Range (FR) 1 20MHz/FR2 100MHz terminal equipment defined in release-17, rel-17, version 17 of the third generation partnership project (the 3rd generation partnership project,3GPP).

In the present application, the eREDCAP terminal device refers to a low capability terminal device defined in 3GPP Rel-18, and for convenience of description, the present application refers to a REDCAP terminal device defined in 3GPP Rel-18 as eREDCAP. The legacy terminal device and the eREDCAP terminal device may be distinguished by at least one of:

1. The bandwidth capabilities are different. Bandwidth capability may be expressed in terms of baseband maximum bandwidth processing capability. For example, the maximum bandwidth supported by the REDCAP terminal device in the frequency range1 (FR 1) in 3GPP Rel-17 is 20MHz, and the maximum bandwidth supported by the REDCAP terminal device in the frequency range2 (FR 2) in 3GPP Rel-17 is 100MHz. And the maximum bandwidth supported by the eREDCAP terminal device is 5MHz.

2. The number of the transmitting antennas is different. For example, the eREDCAP terminal device may support 2-receive 1-transmit (2 receive antennas and 1 transmit antenna), or 1-receive 1-transmit (1 receive antenna and 1 transmit antenna). Legacy terminal equipment may support 4-receive 2-transmit (4 receive antennas and 2 transmit antennas).

3. The uplink maximum transmitting power is different, and the uplink maximum transmitting power supported by the eREDCAP terminal equipment is smaller than the uplink maximum transmitting power supported by the traditional terminal equipment.

4. The protocol versions are different. The eREDCAP terminal device may be a terminal device defined in 3GPP Rel-18 or a later version of Rel-18. Legacy terminal devices may be, for example, terminal devices defined in 3GPP Rel-15 or Rel-16 or Rel-17.

5. Carrier aggregation capabilities are different. For example, the eREDCAP terminal device does not support carrier aggregation, and the legacy terminal device may support carrier aggregation. For another example, both the eREDCAP terminal device and the legacy terminal device may support carrier aggregation, but the maximum number of carrier aggregation simultaneously supported by the eREDCAP terminal device is smaller than the maximum number of carrier aggregation simultaneously supported by the legacy terminal device.

6. Duplex capability is different. For example, the eREDCAP terminal equipment supports half duplex frequency division duplexing (frequency division duplexing, FDD). The ebb terminal device supports full duplex FDD.

7. Processing power (availability/capability) is different. For example, the baseband processing capability of the eREDCAP terminal device is lower than that of the conventional terminal device. Wherein the baseband processing capability may include at least one of: the maximum number of multiple input multiple output (multiple input multiple output, MIMO) layers supported by the terminal device when transmitting data, the number of hybrid automatic repeat request (hybrid automatic repeat request, HARQ) processes supported by the terminal device, the maximum transport block size (transmission block size, TBS) supported by the terminal device, and the UE processing time (e.g., UE PDSCH processing time/UE PUSCH processing time/UE CSI calculation time).

8. The peak rates of the uplink and/or downlink transmissions are different. The transmission peak rate refers to the maximum data transmission rate that the terminal device can reach per unit time (e.g., per second). The upstream peak rate supported by the eREDCAP terminal device may be lower than the upstream peak rate supported by the legacy terminal device and/or the downstream peak rate supported by the eREDCAP terminal device may be lower than the downstream peak rate supported by the legacy terminal device, e.g., the peak rate of the eREDCAP terminal device is about 10Mbps.

Network equipment: the wireless access device may be a wireless access device in various systems in a wireless network, for example, the network device may be a node for accessing a terminal device to a wireless access network (radio access network, RAN), which may also be referred to as a RAN device or a base station. Examples of some network devices are: a next generation base station (generation Node B, gndeb), a transmission reception point (transmission reception point, TRP), an evolved Node B (eNB), a radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), a Node B (NB), a base station controller (base station controller, BSC), a base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS), a home base station (e.g., home evolved Node B, or home Node B, HNB), a baseband unit (BBU), or a wireless fidelity (wireless fidelity, wi-Fi) Access Point (AP), etc. In one network architecture, the network device may be a Centralized Unit (CU) node, a Distributed Unit (DU) node, or a network device including a CU node and a DU node. As an example, the interface between a CU and a DU may be referred to as an F1 interface. Alternatively, the CU node may be a CU-CP (control plane) node, a CU-UP (user plane) node, or a node including a CU-CP node and a CU-UP node. The interface between DU and CU-CP may be referred to as the F1-C interface, and the interface between DU and CU-UP may be referred to as the F1-U interface. The network device may be other means of providing wireless communication functionality for the terminal device, as other possibilities. The embodiment of the application does not limit the specific technology and the specific equipment form adopted by the network equipment. For convenience of description, in the embodiment of the present application, a device that provides a wireless communication function for a terminal device is referred to as a network device. In the embodiment of the present application, the device for implementing the function of the network device may be a network device; may be a module or unit that can be applied to a network device; or may be a device, such as a system-on-a-chip, capable of supporting the network device to perform this function, which may be installed in or used in conjunction with the network device.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture to which the present application is applied. As shown in fig. 1, the terminal device may access to the network device to obtain services of an external network (e.g., a Data Network (DN)) through the network device, or communicate with other devices through the network device, such as may communicate with other terminal devices.

In order to realize data transmission between the terminal device and the network device, the terminal device needs to initially access the network device and establish a wireless connection with the network device through a random access procedure. Taking an NR system as an example, as shown in fig. 2, a flow chart of an initial access procedure of a terminal device is shown.

First, the terminal device acquires a synchronization signal block/synchronization signal broadcast channel block (synchronous signal/physical broadcast channel block, SS/PBCH block, SSB) broadcast by the network device.

The SSBs may include, among other things, a primary synchronization signal (primary synchronisation signal, PSS), a secondary synchronization signal (secondary synchronisation signal, SSS), and a physical broadcast channel (physical broadcast channel, PBCH). As shown in fig. 3, 1 SSB occupies 4 orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, OFDM) symbols (symbol), denoted as symbols 0 to 3, in the time domain, and 1 SSB occupies 20 Resource Blocks (RBs) (one RB includes 12 subcarriers), that is, 240 subcarriers, with subcarrier numbers 0 to 239, in the frequency domain. The PSS is located on symbol 0 in the time domain and 46 to 182 th subcarriers in the frequency domain, and the SSS is located on symbol 2 in the time domain and 127 th subcarriers in the frequency domain. In order to protect PSS and SSS, there are respective guard subcarriers. The guard sub-carriers are not used for carrying signals, and the sub-carriers are reserved on both sides of the PSS and the SSS as the guard sub-carriers, respectively, for example, the blank areas on both sides of the SSS in fig. 3 are the guard sub-carriers. The PBCH occupies all the subcarriers of symbol 1 and symbol 3, and occupies a part of the remaining subcarriers (i.e., the subcarriers other than the guard subcarriers among the remaining subcarriers) among all the subcarriers of symbol 2 except the subcarriers occupied by the SSS. For convenience of description, in the following description, OFDM symbols are simply referred to as symbols.

PSS and SSS may be used for time-frequency synchronization of terminal devices with cells, while PBCH is used to carry broadcast information. The broadcast information carried by the PBCH is located in a master information block (master information block, MIB) and PBCH extra payload, and can be specifically referred to as table 1.

TABLE 1 information contained in PBCH

Further, the terminal device acquires MIB from PBCH in SSB. The terminal device may determine the common search space (common search space, CSS) and the configuration information of CORESET0 from the MIB.

In the NR system, SIB1 is transmitted on the frequency domain resource defined by CORESET0, and is scheduled by the network side through CORESET0, and SIB1 is also called residual system information (remaining system information, RMSI). SIB1 scheduling by CORESET0 means that SIB1 is scheduled by a downlink physical control channel (physical downlink control channel, PDCCH) transmitted in CORESET0, and PDCCH is used to carry downlink control information (downlink control information, DCI). The DCI includes scheduling information of SIB1, including scheduling information such as time domain resource allocation information, frequency domain resource allocation information, and modulation coding hierarchy. The transmission of SIB1 on the frequency domain resource defined by CORESET0 means that the initial downlink BWP may be defined by the frequency domain resource of CORESET0, and SIB1 is transmitted within the initial downlink BWP.

Further, the terminal device monitors PDCCH in CORESET 0, where PDCCH is used to carry DCI for scheduling SIB1.

It should be noted that, CORESET defines the candidate time-frequency resource location of PDCCH, and since PDCCH in NR adopts a mechanism of blind detection of terminal, the moment when terminal device listens to PDCCH is defined by Search Space (SS). The SS may be considered a set of PDCCH candidate locations, including a common search space (common search space, CSS) and a user search space (user search space, USS), one SS being associated with one CORESET.

Finally, the terminal equipment acquires SIB1 according to the indication of DCI in the monitored PDCCH. The SIB1 carries information of cell residence and access, and the terminal device may complete cell residence according to the SIB1 and may continue to receive other system information (other system information, OSI), monitor paging (paging) information, initiate a Random Access (RA) procedure, and so on.

In addition, SIB1 is transmitted through a physical downlink shared channel (physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH), a transmission period of SIB1 is 160 milliseconds (ms), and repeated transmission can be performed within 160 ms. The SIB1 default repetition transmission period is 20ms, but the actual repetition period depends on the network implementation. As shown in fig. 4, taking SIB1 retransmission period of 20ms as an example, SIB1 can be retransmitted at most 8 times within 160ms, and the information content of these 8 transmissions is the same.

Although the SIB1 information for 8 times of retransmission is the same in 160ms, the SIB1 scheduling information, such as time domain resource, frequency domain resource, modulation coding scheme (modulation and coding scheme, MCS), etc., for each transmission may be different by dynamically scheduling the SIB1 with the corresponding PDCCH. In addition, the NR introduces the concept of multiple beams, that is, in one repetition transmission period, one piece of information may be repeatedly transmitted in multiple beam directions to improve network coverage, and for SIB1, multi-beam transmission is also introduced, that is, SIB1 in each repetition period may be transmitted in different beam directions, where the transmitted beam directions are consistent with SSB. For example, in fig. 4, SIB1 is repeatedly transmitted in 4 beam directions within one repetition transmission period.

The bandwidth of CORESET0 defined by NR may exceed the maximum bandwidth of the terminal device with the smaller maximum bandwidth, e.g. the maximum bandwidth of the eREDCAP terminal device. The SIB1 and the PDCCH for scheduling SIB1 are transmitted on the frequency domain resource defined by CORESET0, so that the transmission bandwidths of the SIB1 and the PDCCH for scheduling SIB1 may also exceed the maximum bandwidth of the eREDCAP terminal device, which results in that the eREDCAP terminal device cannot completely receive the SIB1 and the PDCCH for scheduling SIB1, and then cannot accurately detect the system broadcast information carried by SIB1, and finally, the eREDCAP terminal device cannot access to the NR network or the cell.

The present application provides a method that enables the eREDCAP terminal device to fully receive SIB1 and schedule PDCCH of SIB1, as will be described in detail below.

In addition, in the embodiments of the present application, the term "exemplary" is used to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any embodiment or design described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the term use of an example is intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion.

The network architecture and the service scenario described in the embodiments of the present application are for more clearly describing the technical solution of the embodiments of the present application, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solution provided by the embodiments of the present application, and those skilled in the art can know that, with the evolution of the network architecture and the appearance of the new service scenario, the technical solution provided by the embodiments of the present application is applicable to similar technical problems.

In the following description of the embodiments of the present application, the interaction between the network device and the terminal device is taken as an example, where the operation performed by the network device may be performed by a chip or a module inside the network device, and the operation performed by the terminal device may be performed by a chip or a module inside the terminal device, where the terminal device may be an eREDCAP terminal device, or may be other types of terminal devices, for example, an NR Rel-18 or later terminal device.

As shown in fig. 5, a flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application is provided, where the method includes:

optionally, S501: the network equipment sends SSB to the terminal equipment; accordingly, the terminal device receives the SSB from the network device.

As previously described, SSBs may include PSS, SSS, and PBCH. The terminal device may determine the configuration information of CORESET 0 according to the MIB in the PBCH, so as to determine information such as a frequency domain position, a bandwidth size (i.e., the number of RBs occupied in the frequency domain), a time domain duration (i.e., the number of symbols occupied in the time domain), and a time domain position of an associated search space of CORESET 0 according to the configuration information of CORESET 0.

S502: the network device transmits a first PDCCH in the first set of control resources and a second PDCCH in CORESET 0.

In the application, the bandwidth of the first control resource set is smaller than or equal to the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment, and the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment is smaller than the bandwidth of CORESET 0. For example, the bandwidth of the first control resource set is 4.32MHz, the maximum bandwidth of the terminal device is 5MHz, and the bandwidth of coreset 0 is 17.28MHz. The maximum bandwidth of the terminal device may refer to the maximum bandwidth of the uplink or downlink of the terminal device on a Radio Frequency (RF) carrier, and may specifically include the maximum bandwidth of the baseband and/or the maximum bandwidth of the radio frequency of the terminal device, which may also be understood as the maximum bandwidth supported by the terminal device, or the maximum channel bandwidth of the terminal device. For example, the maximum bandwidth of the eREDCAP terminal device is 5MHz.

In the application, the network equipment can schedule SIB1 for different types of terminal equipment through different control resource sets aiming at different types of terminal equipment. For example, for terminal devices with larger supported maximum bandwidth, such as NR eMBB terminal devices and REDCAP terminal devices, SIB1 may be scheduled for the above type of terminal device by CORESET 0; for terminal devices with smaller supported maximum bandwidth, for example, NR eREDCAP terminal devices, SIB1 may be scheduled for the terminal devices of the above type through the first set of control resources.

That is, in the present application, the first control resource set may be a control resource set for scheduling SIB1 for a terminal device having a maximum bandwidth less than CORESET 0. Through the first control resource set, terminal equipment with the maximum bandwidth smaller than CORESET 0 can also receive the SIB1, so that the network is accessed according to the SIB1, the user experience of the terminal equipment is improved, and various types of terminal equipment can be accessed to the network.

In the present application, for convenience of description, SIB1 scheduled by a first PDCCH in a first control resource set is referred to as a first SIB1, and SIB1 scheduled by a second PDCCH in CORESET 0 is referred to as a second SIB1 in the following description. In order to increase the scheduling flexibility of the network device, the present application provides the following two implementations:

In the first implementation manner, the first control resource set and the CORESET0 schedule the same SIB1 respectively;

in a second implementation, the first set of control resources is used to schedule a first SIB1, and the second PDCCH in CORESET0 is used to schedule a second SIB1, the first SIB1 and the second SIB1 being different SIB1.

Through the first implementation mode, the NR eREDCAP terminal equipment can be accessed to the existing network through the same SIB1 with the traditional terminal equipment under the condition that a new SIB1 is not introduced, so that signaling overhead is reduced, and the influence on the traditional terminal equipment is reduced.

Through the second implementation manner, SIB1 can be redesigned for the NR eREDCAP terminal device, and if the bandwidth of the first redesigned SIB1 is smaller than or equal to the maximum bandwidth of the NR eREDCAP terminal device, the NR eREDCAP terminal device can timely obtain the complete SIB1, so that the network access efficiency of the NR eREDCAP terminal device is improved.

Specific implementations of the two implementations described above will be described in detail below.

For the first implementation manner, the first SIB1 scheduled by the first PDCCH in the first control resource set and the second SIB1 scheduled by the second PDCCH in the CORESET0 are the same SIB1, and when the first control resource set and the CORESET0 schedule the same SIB1, the scheduling of the first control resource set and the CORESET0 are relatively independent and do not affect each other. That is, for the same SIB1, the network device schedules through a first PDCCH in the first control resource set and a second PDCCH in CORESET0, with a total of two PDCCHs. For legacy terminal devices, such as NR eMBB terminal devices or NR refcap terminal devices, SIB1 may be received through the second PDCCH in CORESET 0; for terminal devices with smaller maximum bandwidth, such as NR eREDCAP terminal devices, SIB1 may be received through a first PDCCH in the first control resource set.

In one embodiment, taking the second PDCCH as an example, DCI in the second PDCCH may indicate information of frequency domain resources, time domain resources, MCS, virtual resource block (virtual resource block, VRB) to physical resource block (physical resource block, PRB) (VRB-to-PRB) mapping, redundancy version, system information indication, and the like of the second SIB1. The legacy terminal device may determine, according to the DCI in the second PDCCH, information such as a frequency domain resource, a time domain resource, an MCS, a VRB-to-PRB mapping, a redundancy version, a system information indication, etc. of the second SIB1, so that the second SIB1 may be received.

In an implementation manner one, in order to realize that the first PDCCH and the second PDCCH schedule the same SIB1, the scheduling information of SIB1 carried by the first PDCCH and the second PDCCH is the same, and the information included in the DCI for scheduling the first SIB1 in the first PDCCH and the information included in the DCI for scheduling the second SIB1 in the second PDCCH are the same, that is, the indication information including frequency domain resource allocation (frequency domain resource assignment, FDRA), time domain resource allocation (time domain resource assignment, TDRA), MCS, redundancy version, system information indication and the like included in the two DCIs the same. In the application, the scheduling information of SIB1 carried by the first PDCCH and the second PDCCH can be agreed to be kept the same by a protocol, and the application can also be realized by a network device, namely the network device ensures that the scheduling information of SIB1 carried by the first PDCCH and the second PDCCH is the same, thereby ensuring that the scheduling of the first PDCCH and the second PDCCH is the same SIB1.

It should be understood that the scheduling information is the same, and the information included in the DCI may be the same or partially the same, for example, the indication information shown in the above examples is the same or partially the same. The same SIB may be scheduled by the first PDCCH and the second PDCCH in other different scheduling manners.

In one implementation, the frequency domain resources of the first SIB1 are associated with the frequency domain resources of CORESET 0. In a specific example, the reference starting point of the frequency domain resource of the first SIB1 is determined according to the starting RB of CORESET 0. For example, the reference starting point of the frequency domain resource of the first SIB1 is the initial RB of CORESET0, the first SIB1 is transmitted in initial downlink (initial DL) BWP, and the initial downlink BWP is defined by the frequency domain resource of CORESET0, that is, the frequency domain resource range of CORESET0 is equal to the frequency domain resource range of the initial downlink BWP, so that the frequency domain resource of the first SIB1 can be considered to be within the frequency domain resource range of CORESET0, or the frequency domain resource allocation of the first SIB1 is based on the frequency domain resource of CORESET 0. Wherein the reference start point may be used to indicate an RB with index 0. Assuming that the index of the starting RB of the frequency domain resource of the network side configured the first SIB1 is x, it is necessary to determine an RB of index 0, so that a specific location of the RB of index x can be determined. If the reference starting point of the frequency domain resource of the first SIB1 is the start RB of CORESET0, the index of the start RB of CORESET0 is 0, so that the specific location of the start RB of the frequency domain resource of the first SIB1 can be determined according to the start RB of CORESET 0.

By the method, the network side can additionally configure the first control resource set with the bandwidth not exceeding the maximum bandwidth of the NR eREDCAP terminal equipment, SIB1 is scheduled in the first control resource set through the first PDCCH, and the bandwidth of the first control resource set does not exceed the maximum bandwidth of the NR eREDCAP terminal equipment, so that the first PDCCH transmitted in the first control resource set does not exceed the maximum bandwidth of the NR eREDCAP terminal equipment, and therefore the first PDCCH received by the NR eREDCAP terminal equipment does not have information loss, thereby improving the performance of the NR eREDCAP terminal equipment for receiving SIB1 and improving the success rate of the NR eREDCAP terminal equipment to access the network.

For implementation two, a first PDCCH in the first set of control resources may be used to schedule a first SIB1 and a second PDCCH in CORESET 0 may be used to schedule a second SIB1.

In a first implementation, the frequency domain resources of the first SIB1 are associated with the frequency domain resources of CORESET 0, that is, the frequency domain resources of the first SIB1 are within the frequency domain resources of CORESET 0, or the frequency domain resources of the first SIB1 are allocated based on the frequency domain resources of CORESET 0.

In a second implementation, the frequency domain resources of the first SIB1 are associated with the frequency domain resources of the first set of control resources, that is, the reference starting point of the frequency domain resources of the first SIB1 is determined from the starting RB of the first set of control resources. For example, the reference starting point of the frequency domain resource of the first SIB1 is the starting RB of the first control resource set, the frequency domain resource of the first SIB1 is within the frequency domain resource range of the first control resource set, or the frequency domain resource of the first SIB1 is allocated based on the frequency domain resource of the first control resource set.

In the second implementation manner, the bandwidth of the first SIB1 may be greater than the maximum bandwidth of the terminal device, or may be less than or equal to the maximum bandwidth of the terminal device, which is not limited by the present application. If the bandwidth of the first SIB1 is smaller than or equal to the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment, the first SIB1 received by the terminal equipment does not have information loss, the receiving performance of the first SIB1 is improved, and the terminal equipment can detect the first SIB1 more quickly and accurately.

The network device specifically adopts the first implementation mode or the second implementation mode, and the network device can be determined according to actual conditions. For example, if resource overhead needs to be reduced, the network device may employ implementation one schedule SIB1; if the SIB1 is correctly detected faster for a terminal device with smaller maximum bandwidth (e.g., NR eREDCAP terminal device) the network device may schedule SIB1 using implementation two. The network device may implicitly indicate which implementation is adopted, for example, scheduling information carried by two PDCCHs is the same, indicating that the SIB1 is scheduled in the first implementation, and scheduling information carried by two PDCCHs is different, indicating that the SIB1 is scheduled in the second implementation. The network device may also indicate which implementation is used to the terminal device through signaling, for example, SIB1, RRC signaling, MAC CE, DCI, PBCH, and other signaling, which implementation is used, which is not limited by the present application.

S503: the terminal equipment determines a first control resource set, and monitors a first PDCCH in the first control resource set.

Optionally, the terminal device may also determine CORESET 0, for example, the terminal device may determine information such as a frequency domain location, a bandwidth size, and a time duration of CORESET 0 according to the SSB, which is not limited in the present application and will not be described herein. If the frequency domain resource of the first SIB1 is associated with the frequency domain resource of CORESET 0, the terminal device may determine a reference starting point of the frequency domain resource of the first SIB1 from the starting RB of CORESET 0.

In the application, the terminal equipment can determine the first control resource set according to the first information, and the first information can be predefined or come from the network equipment.

Wherein the first information is used to indicate the first set of control resources, and the first information may indicate at least one of the following information:

the frequency domain location of the first set of control resources; the bandwidth size of the first set of control resources; a time domain duration of the first set of control resources; a time domain location of a search space associated with the first set of control resources; a time domain location of a search space associated with the first set of control resources; SSB and multiplexing pattern of the first set of control resources. The multiplexing pattern of the SSB and the first control resource set refers to a pattern of time-frequency resource multiplexing of the SSB and the first control resource set, may be one of a plurality of patterns of SSB and CORESET 0 multiplexing, may be newly defined, and is different from any one of the above patterns. Wherein the protocol predefines a plurality of patterns, each pattern corresponds to an index, the indices of the patterns multiplexed by SSB and CORESET 0 are respectively 1, 2 and 3, and the indices of the patterns multiplexed by SSB and CORESET 0 are indicated by the network device through the MIB.

If the first information does not indicate any of the above information, the information may be preset. For example, the first information does not indicate the bandwidth size of the first set of control resources, the bandwidth size of the first set of control resources may be preset, for example, the preset bandwidth size is 4.32MHz. This may reduce the overhead of signaling resources.

The frequency domain position of the first control resource set indicated by the first information may be a relative position, not an absolute position. For example, the frequency domain position of the first control resource set indicated by the first information may be an RB offset value between the first control resource set and the SSB, and in particular, the RB offset value may be an offset value between a minimum RB index of the first control resource set and a minimum RB index of a common resource block (common resource block, common RB) overlapped with the first RB of the SSB. The terminal device may thus determine a specific location of the first set of control resources on the frequency domain based on the frequency domain location of the SSB and the RB offset value between the first set of control resources and the SSB.

For another example, the frequency domain position of the first control resource set indicated by the first information may also be an RB offset value between the first control resource set and CORESET 0, and in particular, the RB offset value may be an offset value between a minimum RB index of the first control resource set and a minimum RB index of CORESET 0. The terminal device may thus determine a specific location of the first set of control resources on the frequency domain according to the frequency domain location of CORESET 0 and the RB offset value between the first set of control resources and CORESET 0.

The maximum bandwidth of the first set of control resources is less than or equal to the maximum bandwidth of the terminal device, and the bandwidth size of the first set of control resources may be as shown in table 2, for example.

TABLE 2

When the bandwidth size of the first control resource set is indicated by the first information, a set of values may be predefined, where the network device indicates one value through the first information, for example, the predefined set of values may be one or more of {6,12,18,24}, where 6 represents a bandwidth corresponding to a bandwidth size of 6 RBs, and the other cases are not repeated.

The time domain duration of the first set of control resources may be predefined by the protocol, e.g. 3 OFDM symbols, or may be indicated by the network device via the first information. In addition, since the bandwidth of the first control resource set is limited, in order to improve the transmission performance of the PDCCH, the time domain duration of the first control resource set may also be greater than 3 symbols, for example, 4, 6, 8 OFDM symbols, etc.

The time domain position of the search space associated with the first control resource set may also refer to the time domain position of the first control resource set, and the search space associated with the first control resource set may be Type0-PDCCH csset. In one embodiment, the time domain position of the search space associated with the first control resource set may be the same as the time domain position of the Type0-PDCCH csset associated with CORESET 0, which may reduce signaling overhead while not affecting the configuration of the existing other SSs. In another embodiment, the time domain position of the search space associated with the first set of control resources may be different from the time domain position of the Type0-PDCCH csset associated with CORESET 0.

In addition, the subcarrier spacing (subcarrier spacing, SCS) and Cyclic Prefix (CP) of the first control resource set, and the SCS and CP of the initial DL BWP defined by the first control resource set may be the same as the SCS and CP of CORESET0, or may be different from the SCS and CP of CORESET0, for example, the network device may configure the SCS and CP of the first control resource set through signaling, which is not limited in the present application.

When the first information is predefined, then the network device may not transmit the first information, the frequency domain location, bandwidth size, time domain duration of the first set of control resources and associated time domain location of the search space, the multiplexing pattern of SSBs and the first set of control resources, etc. are predefined.

Three different implementations when the first information comes from the network device will be described below:

in a first implementation, the network device may send the first information through the PBCH of the SSB, for example, the first information may be carried in MIB of the PBCH or PBCH extra payload. In a specific embodiment, the first information is carried in idle bits in MIB and/or reserved bits in PBCH extra payload. In another embodiment, the first information may also be carried in an existing field in the MIB, for example, the existing field may be multiplexed, that is, the existing field may be used to re-interpret the NR eRedCap UE, for example, the first information may be carried in a pdfcch-ConfigSIB 1 field, a dmrs-TypeA-Position field, a ssb-subsearrieroffset field, or the like in the MIB, where when the first information is carried in the at least one field, the at least one field is not reserved for the terminal device, but is used to carry the first information.

In a second implementation, the first information may also be carried in SIB1 or radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) signaling or a medium access control (medium access control, MAC) Control Element (CE) or DCI. The SIB1 may be the first SIB1 or the second SIB1, and the present application is not limited.

In a third implementation, the first information may also be carried in a physical channel, which is a different channel than the PBCH. The specific contents of the physical channel will be described later, and will not be described here again.

S504: the network equipment sends SIB1 to the terminal equipment; correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives SIB1 according to the monitored first PDCCH.

If the SIB1 scheduled by the network device through the first PDCCH and the second PDCCH is the same, that is, the first SIB1 and the second SIB1 are the same SIB1, and in the case that the bandwidth band of the first SIB1 is less than or equal to the maximum bandwidth of the terminal device, the process of receiving the first SIB1 by the terminal device may be the same as the process of receiving the second SIB1 by the conventional terminal device, which is not described in detail.

In an extended manner, in one embodiment, when the network device schedules SIB1 through the first PDCCH, one PDCCH may schedule a plurality of SIB1, and at this time, after the terminal device monitors the PDCCH, the terminal device may receive the plurality of SIB1, for example, in one SIB1 transmission period, the base station sends only one PDCCH, where the PDCCH schedules a plurality of SIB1 that are repeatedly transmitted in the SIB1 transmission period.

If the SIB1 scheduled by the network device through the first PDCCH and the second PDCCH is the same, i.e. the first SIB1 and the second SIB1 are the same SIB1, and under the condition that the bandwidth band of the first SIB1 is larger than the maximum bandwidth of the terminal device, the terminal device can receive the first SIB1 in a frequency hopping mode, i.e. the terminal device can receive the first SIB1 repeatedly transmitted on different frequency domain resources in different time units, so as to obtain a plurality of partial data of the first SIB1, and the terminal device performs merging processing on the plurality of partial data of the first SIB1 to obtain the first SIB1. The time unit may refer to a time period, and the unit of the time period may be milliseconds or OFDM symbols, and the time length of one time unit is not limited, for example, one time unit may be greater than or equal to the duration occupied by the first SIB1 in the time domain.

Specifically, the terminal device may receive the first SIB1 repeatedly transmitted in N time units, where a portion of data of the first SIB1 is received through one frequency domain resource in one time unit, and the frequency domain resources of the first SIB1 received in at least two time units in the N time units are different, where N is an integer greater than 1.

For example, taking n=2 as an example, the terminal device may receive the first portion of data of the first SIB1 through the first frequency domain resource in the first time unit and receive the second portion of data of the first SIB1 through the second frequency domain resource in the second time unit; the first frequency domain resource is different from the second frequency domain resource, the first frequency domain resource and the second frequency domain resource are part of the frequency domain resource occupied by the first SIB1 respectively, and the first time unit is different from the second time unit.

Several implementations of how a terminal device specifically receives a first SIB1 for repeated transmission on different frequency domain resources at different time units will be described below:

in a first implementation of receiving the first SIB1, the terminal device may receive the first SIB1 on different frequency domain resources in different repetition periods.

For example, the first SIB1 is transmitted within an initial downlink BWP defined by the frequency domain resources of CORESET 0. As shown in fig. 6, taking the first SIB1 repetition period as an example, in each repetition transmission period, the network device transmits the first SIB1 through beam directions 1 to 4, respectively, and the first SIB1 transmitted in each beam direction is the same. Assuming n=2, in the X20 ms (first time unit) of 160ms, the terminal device receives the second part of data of the first SIB1 on the first frequency domain resource; within the Y20 ms (second time unit) of 160ms, the terminal device receives the second portion of data of the first SIB1 on the second frequency domain resource. The first frequency domain resource and the second frequency domain resource are different, and the first frequency domain resource and the second frequency domain resource are part of the frequency domain resource occupied by the first SIB1 respectively. The X20 ms and the Y20 ms may be two 20ms that are continuous in the time domain, or two 20ms that are discontinuous in the time domain, which is not limited in the present application.

In one implementation, when the terminal device receives the first SIB1 on different frequency domain resources in different repetition periods, the beam direction used for receiving the first SIB1 is the same in different repetition transmission periods. In fig. 6, the beam direction used for receiving the first SIB1 in the X20 ms is the same as the beam direction used for receiving the first SIB1 in the Y20 ms, and is the beam direction 1.

In another implementation, when the terminal device receives the first SIB1 on different frequency domain resources in different repetition periods, the beam direction used for receiving the first SIB1 may also be different in different repetition transmission periods. In combination with the above example, the beam direction used for receiving the first SIB1 in the X20 ms is different from the beam direction used for receiving the first SIB1 in the Y20 ms.

In the second implementation manner of receiving the first SIB1, the terminal device may perform frequency hopping reception on the first SIB1 repeatedly transmitted in different beam directions in the same repetition period.

For example, the first SIB1 is transmitted within an initial downlink BWP defined by the frequency domain resources of CORESET 0. As shown in fig. 7, taking the first SIB1 repetition period as an example, in each repetition transmission period, the network device transmits the first SIB1 through beam directions 1 to 4, respectively, and the first SIB1 transmitted in each beam direction is the same. Assuming that n=2, in a first time unit of the X20 ms within 160ms, the terminal device receives part of the data of the first SIB1 of the beam direction 1 on the first frequency domain resource; in a second time unit of the X20 ms in 160ms, the terminal device receives partial data of the first SIB1 of the beam direction 2 on the second frequency domain resource. The first frequency domain resource and the second frequency domain resource are different, and the first frequency domain resource and the second frequency domain resource are part of the frequency domain resource occupied by the first SIB1 respectively.

The first SIB1 which is repeatedly transmitted in different beam directions in the same repeated transmission period is subjected to frequency hopping reception, so that more partial data of the first SIB1 can be received in a shorter time, the receiving performance of the first SIB1 is improved, meanwhile, the terminal equipment can acquire the first SIB1 faster, the receiving time delay of the first SIB1 is reduced, and the terminal equipment can be accessed into a network faster.

When the terminal device receives the first SIB1 through the frequency hopping manner, how to determine the frequency hopping pattern is not limited in this aspect of the present application. Wherein the frequency hopping pattern is used to indicate frequency domain resources of partial data of the first SIB1 each time it is received.

In one implementation, the terminal device may perform frequency hopping reception according to the following principle: first, the intersection of frequency domain resources of multiple frequency hopping is minimum; in principle two, the frequency domain resource aggregate of multiple frequency hopping is the largest.

Through the principle, more different coding bits exist among the received partial data of the first SIB1 can be ensured, so that more coding gains are obtained. The partial data of the first SIB1 received on different frequency domain resources can also obtain more frequency diversity gain, which is beneficial to improving the receiving performance of the first SIB 1.

The terminal device specifically adopts which implementation manner to receive the first SIB1, which may be implemented by the terminal device according to an algorithm, or predefined by a protocol, or signaled by the network device through signaling, where the signaling includes, but is not limited to, SIB1, RRC signaling, MAC CE, DCI, PBCH, and the like. The terminal device may also determine whether to receive the first SIB1 on different frequency domain resources in different time units according to a signal quality or a coverage level, e.g. the terminal device does not perform the above operation when the measured signal quality is above a threshold value, which may be predefined or preconfigured or configured by the network device by signaling when the measured signal quality is below the threshold value.

It should be noted that if the frequency range of the adjacent two frequency hopping receptions exceeds the operation bandwidth of the terminal device, especially exceeds the Radio Frequency (RF) operation bandwidth of the terminal device, the terminal device needs to readjust the RF operation range, that is, perform RF readjustment, before the next frequency hopping reception of the first SIB1. And during the radio frequency retune, the terminal device cannot receive or transmit any data, so the time interval between the adjacent two frequency hopping received first SIB1 cannot be smaller than the radio frequency retune time of the terminal device, or when the time interval between the adjacent two frequency hopping received first SIB1 is smaller than the radio frequency retune time of the terminal device, the terminal device does not receive the first SIB1 during the radio frequency retune.

The present application is not limited to how the terminal device performs the merging process on the multiple pieces of partial data of the first SIB 1. The processing procedure of the terminal equipment for the received data includes, but is not limited to, channel estimation, channel equalization, demodulation, channel decoding and the like.

In the present application, the terminal device performs the merging processing on the plurality of partial data of the first SIB1, and is not limited to the above processing steps. In one implementation, the terminal device performs combining after data demodulation, that is, the terminal device demodulates the multiple pieces of partial data of the first SIB1 received multiple times, performs combining on the multiple pieces of partial data of the first SIB1 obtained by demodulation, and performs channel decoding on the combined data. In another implementation manner, the terminal device performs combining before data demodulation, that is, after performing channel estimation and channel equalization on multiple received partial data of the first SIB1, the terminal device combines multiple obtained partial data of the first SIB1, and performs demodulation, channel decoding and the like on the combined data. Other combining methods, including combining before channel equalization, or combining before channel estimation, etc., may be applied to any method for combining multiple parts of data of the first SIB1, which is not described herein.

In the present application, the terminal device may also receive the second information from the network device. The network device may transmit the second information before transmitting the first information, and the terminal device may receive the second information before receiving the first information, accordingly.

In a first possible design, the second information indicates whether the terminal device is allowed to access the network device, where the terminal device may be referred to as an eREDCAP terminal device, which is not described in detail below. The second information may also indicate that the first SIB1 is scheduled by the first PDCCH in the first set of control resources, or may also indicate that the network device transmits the first set of control resources, or may also be used to indicate that the first set of control resources is included in a cell of the network device, if the second information indicates that the terminal device is allowed to access. The second information may also indicate that the first SIB1 is not scheduled by the first PDCCH in the first set of control resources, or may also indicate that the network device does not transmit the first set of control resources, or may also be used to indicate that the first set of control resources is not included in a cell of the network device, if the second information indicates that access by the terminal device is prohibited.

Specifically, at least when the bandwidth of CORESET 0 is greater than the maximum bandwidth of the terminal device, if the network device indicates that the terminal device is allowed to access through the second information, the network device defaults to send the first control resource set, that is, the network device schedules the first SIB1 through the first PDCCH in the first control resource set; if the network device indicates that the access of the terminal device is forbidden through the second information, the first control resource set is not transmitted by default, i.e. the network device does not schedule the first SIB1 through the first PDCCH in the first control resource set.

Alternatively, it may be: the second information may be used to indicate that the terminal device is allowed access if the network device transmits the first set of control resources. The second information may be used to indicate that access by the terminal device is barred if the network device does not transmit the first set of control resources.

In a first possible design, the terminal device determines, according to the second information, that the network device allows the terminal device to access, and may determine, according to the second information, that the accessed cell includes the first set of control resources. And the terminal equipment determines that the network equipment prohibits the terminal equipment from accessing according to the second information, and the accessed cell can be determined to not comprise the first control resource set according to the second information.

In a second possible design, the second information indicates whether to send the first set of control resources, or the second information is used to indicate whether to schedule the first SIB1 through a first PDCCH in the first set of control resources, or the second information is used to indicate whether the first set of control resources is included in a cell of the network device. Taking the example that the second information indicates whether to transmit the first set of control resources, the second information may also indicate that the terminal device is allowed to access the network device if the second information indicates to transmit the first set of control resources (or indicates that the first SIB1 is scheduled by the first PDCCH in the first set of control resources). The second information may also indicate that the terminal device is barred from accessing the network device if the second information indicates that the first set of control resources is not transmitted (or that the first SIB1 is not scheduled by the first PDCCH in the first set of control resources).

Specifically, when the bandwidth of CORESET 0 is greater than the maximum bandwidth of the terminal device, if the network device sends the first control resource set through the second information indication, allowing the terminal device to access by default; and if the network equipment does not send the first control resource set through the second information indication, the access of the terminal equipment is forbidden by default.

In a second possible design, the terminal device determines, according to the second information, that the network device transmits the first set of control resources, and may determine, according to the second information, that the network device allows the terminal device to access. And the terminal equipment determines that the network equipment does not send the first control resource set according to the second information, and can determine that the network equipment prohibits the terminal equipment from accessing according to the second information.

In the present application, the second information may be carried in the PBCH of the SSB. For example, the second information may be carried in an idle bit in the MIB of the PBCH, or may be carried in other indication fields in the MIB, for example, may be carried in the dmrs-type a-Position indication field in the MIB. For example, if the dmrs-type a-Position indication is pos 3, this means that the terminal device is allowed to access or the network device sends the first set of control resources; if the dmrs-TypeA-Position indication is pos 2, the access of the terminal equipment is forbidden or the network equipment does not send the first control resource set.

In the above method, by simultaneously indicating whether the network device transmits the first control resource set and whether the terminal device is allowed to access through the second information, the two functions can be jointly indicated through one signaling, and signaling overhead is saved.

Further, in the present application, the specific location of the first control resource set in the frequency domain is not limited.

The frequency domain resources of the first set of control resources may be located within the frequency domain resources of CORESET 0 or may be located outside the frequency domain resources of CORESET 0. Several embodiments in which the positional relationship of the first set of control resources to CORESET 0 may exist will be described below:

in a first embodiment, the first set of control resources is located within the frequency domain resources of CORESET 0.

In this embodiment, the frequency domain starting position of the first set of control resources is higher than or equal to the frequency domain starting position of CORESET 0 and/or the frequency domain ending position of the first set of control resources is lower than or equal to the frequency domain ending position of CORESET 0.

For example, as shown in fig. 8, in fig. 8 (a), the frequency domain start position (or start RB) of CORESET 0 is the same as the frequency domain start position (or start RB) of the first control resource set, that is, the minimum RB index of CORESET 0 is the same as the minimum RB index of the first control resource set in the frequency domain.

In fig. 8 (b), the frequency domain end position (or end RB) of CORESET 0 is the same as the frequency domain end position (or end RB) of the first control resource set, i.e., the maximum RB index of CORESET 0 is the same as the maximum RB index of the first control resource set in the frequency domain.

Fig. 8 is merely an example, and the relative position of the first control resource set and the CORESET 0 in the frequency domain may include other positions besides the above two embodiments, for example, the frequency domain starting position of the first control resource set is located at any position, such as 1/2, 1/4, or 3/4, of the frequency domain range of CORESET 0, where the relative position may be configured by a network device, or may be predefined, and the application is not limited thereto. It should be appreciated that the 1/2 or 1/4 or 3/4 positions of the frequency domain range of CORESET 0 described above may be aligned by rounding up or down.

The network device can indicate the frequency domain position of the first control resource set through the first information, so that the complexity of blind detection of the terminal device can be reduced. Or the network device does not indicate the frequency domain position of the first control resource set, and the terminal device determines the frequency domain position of the first control resource set through blind detection, so that network signaling overhead can be reduced.

In the first embodiment, for the terminal device, its initial downlink BWP may still be defined by the frequency domain resource of CORESET 0, i.e. the initial downlink BWP of the terminal device is determined according to the frequency domain resource of CORESET 0, and it may be considered that the terminal device operates on a BWP exceeding its maximum bandwidth.

The network device may also configure the terminal device with two initial downstream BWP. Let the initial downlink BWP defined by the frequency domain resources of the first set of control resources be the first initial downlink BWP and the initial downlink BWP defined by the frequency domain resources of CORESET 0 be the second initial downlink BWP. As shown in fig. 9, since the first control resource set is located within the frequency domain resource range of CORESET 0, the first initial downlink BWP is located within the frequency domain resource range of the second initial downlink BWP.

In a first implementation manner, as shown in (a) of fig. 9, the network device schedules a first SIB1 in a second initial downlink BWP through a first control resource set in the first initial downlink BWP, where the first SIB1 and a second SIB1 scheduled by a second PDCCH may be the same SIB1 or may not be the same SIB1, which is not limited by the present application.

When the terminal device monitors the first PDCCH in the first set of control resources in the first initial downlink BWP, a BWP handover is performed, and the first SIB1 is received by switching to the second initial downlink BWP, where the BWP handover procedure may be either predefined by a protocol or indicated by a network device, e.g. the network device indicates the terminal device to perform BWP handover through DCI, specifically indicated by DCI carried by the first PDCCH.

In a second implementation, as shown in (b) in fig. 9, the network device may also schedule the first SIB1 on the first initial downlink BWP through the first set of control resources in the first initial downlink BWP. The network device may also schedule the second SIB1 on the second initial downlink BWP through the CORSET0 in the second initial downlink BWP at the same time, and the first SIB1 and the second SIB1 may be the same SIB1 or may not be the same SIB1, which is not limited in this aspect of the present application.

The specific implementation manner one or the implementation manner two may be that the network device indicates to the terminal device through signaling, for example, the network device indicates through any signaling of SSB, RRC signaling, MAC CE, DCI. For example, the network device may indicate whether the first SIB1 is transmitted in the first initial downlink BWP or in the second initial downlink BWP through the first DCI in the first PDCCH and/or the second DCI in the second PDCCH. Reserved bits of the first DCI and/or reserved bits of the second DCI may be used to carry the above information.

In a second embodiment, the first set of control resources is outside the frequency domain resource range of CORESET 0.

In this embodiment, the frequency domain end position of the first set of control resources is lower than the frequency domain start position of CORESET 0, or the frequency domain start position of the first set of control resources is higher than the frequency domain end position of CORESET 0.

For example, as shown in fig. 10 (a), the frequency domain start position (or start RB) of CORESET 0 is higher than the frequency domain end position (or end RB) of the first control resource set, i.e., the minimum RB index of CORESET 0 is greater than the maximum RB index of the first control resource set in the frequency domain. Optionally, the frequency domain start position of CORESET 0 is contiguous with the frequency domain end position of the first set of control resources.

In fig. 10 (b), the frequency domain end position (or end RB) of CORESET 0 is lower than the frequency domain start position (or start RB) of the first control resource set, i.e., the maximum RB index of CORESET 0 is smaller than the minimum RB index of the first control resource set in the frequency domain. Optionally, the frequency domain end position of CORESET 0 is contiguous with the frequency domain start position of the first set of control resources.

In the example shown in fig. 10, CORESET 0 is contiguous with the first set of control resources in the frequency domain. In another embodiment, CORESET 0 and the first set of control resources may be discontinuous in the frequency domain, e.g., at least one RB may be spaced between the frequency domain starting position of CORESET 0 and the frequency domain ending position of the first set of control resources, or at least one RB may be spaced between the frequency domain ending position of CORESET 0 and the frequency domain starting position of the first set of control resources.

Likewise, the network device may indicate the frequency domain location of the first control resource set through the first information command, or the network device does not indicate the frequency domain location of the first control resource set, which is not limited by the present application.

Further, in the second embodiment, it is assumed that the initial downlink BWP defined by the frequency domain resources of the first control resource set is the first initial downlink BWP, and the initial downlink BWP defined by the frequency domain resources of CORESET 0 is the second initial downlink BWP. As shown in fig. 11, since the first control resource set is located outside the frequency domain resource range of CORESET 0, the first initial downlink BWP is located outside the frequency domain resource range of the second initial downlink BWP.

In a first implementation manner, as shown in (a) of fig. 11, the network device schedules a first SIB1 in a second initial downlink BWP through a first control resource set in the first initial downlink BWP, where the first SIB1 and a second SIB1 scheduled by a second PDCCH may be the same SIB1 or may not be the same SIB1, which is not limited by the present application.

When the terminal device monitors the first PDCCH in the first set of control resources in the first initial downlink BWP, a BWP handover is performed, and the terminal device is switched to the second initial downlink BWP to receive the first SIB1, where the BWP handover procedure may be either predefined by the protocol or indicated by the network device, e.g. the network device indicates the terminal device to perform the BWP handover through DCI.

In a second implementation, as shown in (b) in fig. 11, the network device may also schedule the first SIB1 on the first initial downlink BWP through the first set of control resources in the first initial downlink BWP.

In addition to the above first and second embodiments, there may be several embodiments in which the frequency domain start position of the first control resource set is the same as the frequency domain start position of the SSB. Specifically, the minimum RB index of the first control resource set is the same as the minimum RB index of the common resource block (common resource block, common RB) overlapped with the first RB of the SSB.

Alternatively, the frequency domain end position of the first set of control resources is the same as the frequency domain end position of the SSB. Specifically, the maximum RB index of the first control resource set is the same as the maximum RB index of the common resource block (common resource block, common RB) overlapped with the last RB of the SSB.

Or the total frequency domain resource range of the first control resource set and the SSB does not exceed the maximum bandwidth of the terminal device. According to the above embodiments, after receiving the SSB, the terminal equipment can receive the first PDCCH and/or the first SIB1 without radio frequency retuning, so that the complexity of the terminal equipment is reduced, and the access time delay of the terminal equipment is reduced.

The above is merely an example, and other situations may exist in which the position relationship between the first control resource set and CORESET 0 in the frequency domain, for example, the frequency domain resource of the first control resource set and the frequency domain resource of CORESET 0 overlap partially, which is not illustrated one by one.

In the foregoing description of the present application, the first information may be carried on an extended physical channel, which may be a newly designed channel, a channel different from the PBCH in the SSB.

A first possible implementation manner, the extended physical channel has at least one of the following common points with the PBCH in the SSB:

the extended physical channel and the PBCH adopt the same coding mode; the modulation mode of the extended physical channel is the same as the modulation mode of the PBCH; the scrambling mode of the extended physical channel is the same as the scrambling mode of the PBCH; the cyclic redundancy check (cyclic redundancy check, CRC) of the extended physical channel is generated in the same manner as the CRC of the PBCH.

Specifically, if the extended physical channel is the same as the PBCH in the same coding manner, the extended physical channel may employ polarization coding (polar coding). If the coding mode adopted by the extended physical channel is different from that adopted by the PBCH, for example, the extended physical channel can adopt a coding mode such as tail-biting convolutional coding (tail biting convolutional coding, TBCC) and the like. The coding scheme of the extended physical channel may be a coding scheme adopted by bits transmitted through the channel.

If the modulation scheme of the extended physical channel is the same as that of the PBCH, the modulation scheme of the extended physical channel may be Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK). If the modulation scheme of the extended physical channel is different from the modulation scheme of the PBCH, the modulation scheme of the extended physical channel may be binary phase shift keying (binary phase shift keying, BPSK) or 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16 quadrature amplitude modulation,16QAM). The modulation scheme of the extended physical channel may be a modulation scheme adopted by bits transmitted through the channel. Similarly, the scrambling mode of the extended physical channel may refer to a scrambling mode adopted by bits transmitted through the channel; the CRC generation method of the extended physical channel may be a CRC generation method adopted by bits transmitted through the channel.

The DMRS of the extended physical channel may be the same as the DMRS of the PBCH, and the multiplexing manner and the sequence used of the DMRS and the data portion including the channel may be the same, specifically, the multiplexing manner of the DMRS and the data portion may refer to the description in the related art, and the sequence generation of the DMRS may refer to 3gpp TS 38.211 section 7.4.1.4, which is not described in detail. The DMRS of the extended physical channel may be different from the DMRS of the PBCH, which is not limited in the present application.

In a second possible implementation manner, the extended physical channel is generated based on a sequence. The sequence may be a pseudo-random series or a low peak to average power ratio (low-peak to average power ratio, low-PAPR) sequence.

The extended physical channel is generated based on a sequence, which may mean that one or more sequences are transmitted in the extended physical channel, and the first information is carried through the one or more sequences.

The generation mode of the sequence in the extended physical channel is the same as the generation mode of at least one of the following sequences:

a primary synchronization signal sequence; a secondary synchronization signal sequence; demodulating the reference signal sequence; phase tracking a reference signal sequence; a sounding reference signal sequence; channel state information reference signal sequences; positioning a reference signal sequence.

By multiplexing the generation mode of the existing sequence, the complexity can be reduced and the system compatibility can be improved.

In one embodiment, the length of the sequence in the extended physical channel is the same as the length of the PSS sequence or SSS sequence in the SSB. Wherein, the length of the PSS sequence or SSS sequence may be 127.

In one embodiment, the frequency domain position of the sequence in the extended physical channel (which may be replaced by the frequency domain position of the extended physical channel) is the same as the frequency domain position of the PSS or SSS in the SSB, for example, as shown in fig. 12, the PSS and SSS in the SSB are transmitted in subcarriers with indices {56,57, …,182}, and the sequence in the extended physical channel may also be transmitted in subcarriers with indices {56,57, …,182 }.

In one embodiment, an association of sequences in the extended physical channel with at least one of a frequency domain location, a bandwidth size, a time domain duration, and a time domain location of an associated search space may be established. Such that the terminal device may determine, from the sequence in the extended physical channel, at least one of a frequency domain location, a bandwidth size, a time domain duration associated with the sequence, and a time domain location of an associated search space.

For example, the sequence in the extended physical channel may be associated with a frequency domain position of the first control resource set, and the frequency domain position relationship between the first control resource set associated with the sequence and CORESET 0 may be as shown in table 3:

TABLE 3 Table 3

/>

The terminal equipment receives the sequence 1 through the extended physical channel, and then can determine that the frequency domain end position of the first control resource set is lower than the frequency domain start position of CORESET 0 or the frequency domain start position of the first control resource set is higher than or equal to the frequency domain start position of CORESET 0 in the frequency domain; the terminal device receives the sequence 2 through the extended physical channel, and then it can determine that in the frequency domain, the frequency domain end position of the first control resource set is lower than the frequency domain start position of CORESET 0, or the frequency domain end position of the first control resource set is lower than or equal to the frequency domain end position of CORESET 0.

In a possible implementation manner, in case the extended physical channel is generated based on a sequence, the sequence may also be used for measurement, for example, the terminal device may perform measurement such as time-frequency synchronization measurement, channel state measurement, radio resource management (radio resource management, RRM) measurement, radio link listening (radio link monitor, RLM) measurement, etc. according to the sequence in the extended physical channel.

Further, the time-frequency resource of the extended physical channel and the time-frequency resource of the existing PBCH may be transmitted in a time-division multiplexing manner, a frequency-division multiplexing manner, or a time-frequency multiplexing manner. Several embodiments in which time-frequency resources of an extended physical channel may exist will be described below:

embodiment one: the extended physical channel is located on a Resource Element (RE) with the PSS both ends set to 0 (set-to-0), and for the specific content of the RE with the PSS both ends set to 0, reference may be made specifically to the design of SSB in fig. 3. For example, as shown in (a) of fig. 13, REs at both ends of the PSS need to be set to 0 in the frequency domain, and thus the REs can be used to transmit the extended physical channel.

Embodiment two: the extended physical channel and the SSB are transmitted in a time division multiplexing mode.

For example, reference may be made to (b) in fig. 13, where the extended physical channel occupies the same frequency domain resources as the SSB, but is transmitted on one or more symbols after the SSB. Of course, the extended physical channel may also be transmitted on one or more symbols preceding the SSB. The extended physical channel may be contiguous with the SSB in the time domain or may be separated by at least one symbol.

Further, the frequency domain resources of the extended physical channel may be completely located in the frequency domain resource range of the SSB, which is a subset of the frequency domain resources of the SSB, or may exceed the frequency domain resource range of the SSB, which is not limited in the present application.

In one possible way, the center frequency of the extended physical channel is the same as the center frequency of the SSB. The center frequency of the SSB may refer to a frequency in the middle of the bandwidth of the SSB.

Embodiment III: the extended physical channel and the SSB are transmitted in a frequency division multiplexing mode.

For example, as shown in (c) of fig. 13, the start position of the frequency domain resource of the extended physical channel may be located above the end position of the frequency domain resource of the SSB in the frequency domain, and the start position of the frequency domain resource of the extended physical channel may be continuous with the end position of the frequency domain resource of the SSB or may be spaced by at least one RB. Of course, in the frequency domain, the end position of the frequency domain resource of the extended physical channel may be located below the start position of the frequency domain resource of the SSB, and the end position of the frequency domain resource of the extended physical channel and the start position of the frequency domain resource of the SSB may be continuous or may be separated by at least one RB.

The time domain resources of the extended physical channel may be a subset of SSB time domain resources, e.g., SSB occupies four symbols, or may occupy one or more of the four symbols. The time domain resources of the extended physical channel may also be partially overlapped or not overlapped with the SSB time domain resources, which is not limited in the present application.

It should be noted that the bandwidth of the extended physical channel is not greater than the maximum bandwidth of the terminal device. Taking the maximum bandwidth of the terminal device as 5MHz as an example, if the SCS of the extended physical channel is 15kHz, the extended physical channel may include not more than 240 consecutive subcarriers, and if the SCS of the extended physical channel is 30kHz, the extended physical channel may include not more than 127 or 132 or 144 consecutive subcarriers.

The extended physical channel may be beam-based transmission, and the number of beams supported by the extended physical channel may be the same as the number of beams supported by the SSB. The index (index) of the extended physical channel may be the same as or different from the SSB index of the PBCH. The extended physical channel and SSB may be quasi co-located (QCL), e.g., the extended physical channel and SSB with the same index may be quasi co-located, including at least one of the following channel properties: doppler spread (Doppler spread), doppler shift (Doppler shift), average gain (average gain), average delay (average delay), delay spread (delay spread), and spatial reception parameters (spatial Rx parameters).

The extended physical channel may be periodically transmitted, for example, the transmission period of the extended physical channel is 5ms/10ms/20ms/40ms/80ms/160ms, etc. In one possible implementation, the period of the extended physical channel may be the same as the period of the SSB. Of course, the period of the extended physical channel may be different from the period of the SSB, for example, greater than the period of the SSB, which is beneficial to reducing resource overhead, and the present application is not limited thereto. In the initial cell selection phase, the terminal device may assume that the period of the extended physical channel is 20ms, the actual transmission period is determined by the network device, and the network device may signal the transmission period of the extended physical channel, for example, SIB1, RRC signaling, MAC CE, DCI, and the like.

The SCS of the extended physical channel may remain the same as that of the SSB, which is advantageous in that the terminal device may directly receive the extended physical channel without converting the SCS after receiving the SSB. Of course, the SCS of the extended physical channel may also be different from the SCS of the SSB, which is not limited by the present application, and is the same as CORESET0 or the SCS of the first control resource set, which is advantageous in that the deployment of the extended physical channel may be more flexible.

The CP of the extended physical channel may remain the same as the CP of the SSB, fixed to a regular CP, which is advantageous in that the symbol duration of the extended physical channel and the SSB are the same. Of course, the CP of the extended physical channel may also be different from the CP of the SSB, which is not limited by the present application, for example, the CP is the same as CORESET0 or the CP of the first control resource set, which is advantageous in that the deployment of the extended physical channel may be more flexible.

The extended physical channel may be located on either a synchronization grid (synchronization raster) or an unsynchronized grid and channel grid (channel ras). If the extended physical channel is located on the synchronization grid, the advantage is that the extended physical channel can be located on the same frequency as the SSB, and the terminal device can receive the extended physical channel without performing radio frequency retuning after receiving the SSB. If the extended physical channel is located on a grid of channels, the advantage is that the extended physical channel can be deployed with more frequency locations and thus more flexible deployment.

The extended physical channel may be considered as an extension of the existing SSB, as part of the new addition of SSB, or as a physical channel independent of SSB.

Further, the extended physical channel may be used to carry data of an existing PBCH in addition to the first information, so as to enhance the performance of the PBCH. For example, all or part of MIB information carried by the existing PBCH and/or PBCH extra payload may be transmitted through the extended physical channel. For another example, for the scenario where the bandwidth of the existing PBCH exceeds the maximum bandwidth of the terminal device, for example, the scenario where the bandwidth of the terminal device is 5MHz and the SCS of the SSB is 30kHz, part of the subcarriers of the PBCH may fall outside the bandwidth range of the terminal device, and PBCH data on these subcarriers may be transmitted through the extended physical channel to enhance the performance of the PBCH.

In the embodiment provided by the application, the method provided by the embodiment of the application is introduced from the interaction angle among the devices. In order to implement the functions in the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the network device or the terminal device may include a hardware structure and/or a software module, and implement the functions in the form of a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure plus a software module. Some of the functions described above are performed in a hardware configuration, a software module, or a combination of hardware and software modules, depending on the specific application of the solution and design constraints.

The division of the modules in the embodiment of the application is schematic, only one logic function is divided, and other division modes can be adopted in actual implementation. In addition, each functional module in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated in one processor, or may exist alone physically, or two or more modules may be integrated in one module. The integrated modules may be implemented in hardware or in software functional modules.

As with the above concept, as shown in fig. 14, the embodiment of the present application further provides a communication apparatus 1400 for implementing the functions of the network device or the terminal device in the above method. For example, the apparatus may be a software module or a system on a chip. In the embodiment of the application, the chip system can be formed by a chip, and can also comprise the chip and other discrete devices. The communication device 1400 may include: a processing unit 1401, and a communication unit 1402.

In the embodiment of the present application, the communication unit may also be referred to as a transceiver unit, and may include a transmitting unit and/or a receiving unit, which are configured to perform the steps of transmitting and receiving by the network device or the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiment, respectively.

The following describes in detail the communication device provided in the embodiment of the present application with reference to fig. 14 to 15. It should be understood that the descriptions of the apparatus embodiments and the descriptions of the method embodiments correspond to each other, and thus, descriptions of details not described may be referred to the above method embodiments, which are not repeated herein for brevity.

The communication unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, transceiving means, etc. The processing unit may also be called a processor, a processing board, a processing module, a processing device, etc. Alternatively, a device for implementing a receiving function in the communication unit 1402 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device for implementing a transmitting function in the communication unit 1402 may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, the communication unit 1402 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. The communication unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, transceiver circuitry, or the like. The receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, or receiving circuit, among others. The transmitting unit may also sometimes be referred to as a transmitter, or a transmitting circuit, etc.

The communication apparatus 1400 performs the functions of the terminal device in the flow shown in fig. 5 in the above embodiment:

the processing unit is used for determining a first control resource set, the bandwidth of the first control resource set is smaller than or equal to the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment, and the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment is smaller than the bandwidth of the control resource set 0; both the first physical downlink control channel in the first control resource set and the second physical downlink control channel in the control resource set 0 are used for scheduling the system information block 1;

And the communication unit is used for monitoring the first physical downlink control channel in the first control resource set.

the processing unit is used for determining a first control resource set, the bandwidth of the first control resource set is smaller than or equal to the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment, and the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment is smaller than the bandwidth of the control resource set 0; a first physical downlink control channel in a first control resource set is used for a first scheduling system information block 1, and a second physical downlink control channel in a control resource set 0 is used for scheduling a second system information block 1;

The communication apparatus 1400 performs the functions of the network device in the flow shown in fig. 5 in the above embodiment:

the processing unit is used for sending a first physical downlink control channel to the terminal equipment in the first control resource set through the communication unit, and sending a second physical downlink control channel in the control resource set 0; the bandwidth of the first control resource set is smaller than or equal to the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment, and the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment is smaller than the bandwidth of the control resource set 0; the first physical downlink control channel and the second physical downlink control channel are both used for scheduling the system information block 1;

A processing unit for transmitting the system information block 1 to the terminal device via the communication unit.

the processing unit is used for sending a first physical downlink control channel to the terminal equipment in the first control resource set through the communication unit, and sending a second physical downlink control channel in the control resource set 0; the bandwidth of the first control resource set is smaller than or equal to the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment, and the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment is smaller than the bandwidth of the control resource set 0; a first physical downlink control channel in a first control resource set is used for a first scheduling system information block 1, and a second physical downlink control channel in a control resource set 0 is used for scheduling a second system information block 1;

a processing unit for transmitting the first system information block 1 to the terminal device via the communication unit.

The foregoing is merely an example, and the processing unit 1401 and the communication unit 1402 may perform other functions, and a more detailed description may refer to the related description in the method embodiment shown in fig. 5, which is not repeated herein.

As shown in fig. 15, a communication apparatus 1500 provided in an embodiment of the present application, where the apparatus shown in fig. 15 may be an implementation of a hardware circuit of the apparatus shown in fig. 14. The communication device may be adapted to perform the functions of the terminal device or the network device in the above-described method embodiments in the flowcharts shown above. For convenience of explanation, fig. 15 shows only major components of the communication apparatus.

As shown in fig. 15, the communication device 1500 includes a processor 1510 and an interface circuit 1520. The processor 1510 and the interface circuit 1520 are coupled to each other. It is understood that the interface circuit 1520 may be a transceiver, a pin, an interface circuit, or an input-output interface. Optionally, the communication device 1500 may further comprise a memory 1530 for storing instructions to be executed by the processor 1510 or for storing input data required by the processor 1510 to run instructions or for storing data generated after the processor 1510 runs instructions.

When the communication apparatus 1500 is used to implement the method shown in fig. 5, the processor 1510 is used to implement the functions of the processing unit 1401, and the interface circuit 1520 is used to implement the functions of the communication unit 1402.

When the communication device is a chip applied to the terminal equipment, the terminal equipment chip realizes the functions of the terminal equipment in the embodiment of the method. The terminal device chip receives information from other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the terminal device, and the information is sent to the terminal device by the network device; alternatively, the terminal device chip sends information to other modules (e.g., radio frequency modules or antennas) in the terminal device, which is sent by the terminal device to the network device.

When the communication device is a chip applied to the network equipment, the network equipment chip realizes the functions of the network equipment in the embodiment of the method. The network device chip receives information from other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the network device, and the information is sent to the network device by the terminal device; alternatively, the network device chip sends information to other modules (e.g., radio frequency modules or antennas) in the network device, which the network device sends to the terminal device.

It is to be appreciated that the processor in embodiments of the application may be a central processing unit, as well as other general purpose processors, digital signal processors, application specific integrated circuits or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. The general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, it may be any conventional processor.

The memory in embodiments of the present application may be random access memory, flash memory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, erasable programmable read-only memory, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, registers, hard disk, removable disk, or any other form of storage medium known in the art.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that embodiments of the present application may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present application may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present application may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present application is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to the application. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the present application without departing from the scope of the application. Thus, it is intended that the present application also include such modifications and alterations insofar as they come within the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.

Claims

1. A method of communication, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that a terminal device determines a first control resource set, wherein the bandwidth of the first control resource set is smaller than or equal to the maximum bandwidth of the terminal device, and the maximum bandwidth of the terminal device is smaller than the bandwidth of a control resource set 0; a first physical downlink control channel in the first control resource set and a second physical downlink control channel in the control resource set 0 are both used for scheduling a system information block 1;

And the terminal equipment monitors the first physical downlink control channel in the first control resource set.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the frequency domain resources of the system information block 1 are associated with the frequency domain resources of the control resource set 0.

3. Method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the bandwidth of the system information block 1 is larger than the maximum bandwidth of the terminal device; the method further comprises the steps of:

the terminal equipment receives first partial data of the system information block 1 through first frequency domain resources in a first time unit;

the terminal equipment receives second partial data of the system information block 1 through second frequency domain resources in a second time unit;

4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the method further comprises:

the frequency domain starting position of the first control resource set is higher than or equal to the frequency domain starting position of the control resource set 0;

and the frequency domain end position of the first control resource set is lower than or equal to the frequency domain end position of the control resource set 0.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising:

the frequency domain end position of the first control resource set is lower than the frequency domain start position of the control resource set 0;

or, the frequency domain starting position of the first control resource set is higher than the frequency domain ending position of the control resource set 0.

6. The method of any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the determining the first set of control resources comprises:

the terminal device determines the first control resource set according to first information, wherein the first information is used for indicating the first control resource set, the first information is predefined or comes from network equipment, and the first information indicates at least one of the following:

the frequency domain location of the first set of control resources;

the bandwidth size of the first set of control resources;

a time domain duration of the first set of control resources;

the first set of control resources is associated with a time domain location of a search space.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first information is carried on a physical broadcast channel of a synchronization signal broadcast channel block;

Or the first information is carried in a radio resource control signaling or a media access control element or downlink control information;

alternatively, the first information is carried in an extended physical channel, which is a different channel than the physical broadcast channel.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the first information is carried in the extended physical channel, the extended physical channel and the physical broadcast channel adopt the same coding scheme, and/or the extended physical channel and the physical broadcast channel have the same modulation scheme, and/or the extended physical channel and the physical broadcast channel have the same scrambling scheme.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the extended physical channel and the synchronization signal broadcast channel block are transmitted by time division multiplexing;

or the extended physical channel and the synchronous signal broadcast channel block are transmitted in a frequency division multiplexing mode.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the first information is carried in the extended physical channel, the extended physical channel being generated based on a sequence.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the sequence is generated in the same manner as at least one of the following sequences:

a primary synchronization signal sequence; a secondary synchronization signal sequence; demodulating the reference signal sequence; phase tracking a reference signal sequence; a sounding reference signal sequence; channel state information refers to a signal sequence.

12. The method according to claim 10 or 11, characterized in that the length of the sequence is the same as the length of the primary or secondary synchronization signal sequence in the synchronization signal broadcast channel block.

13. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, further comprising:

the terminal equipment receives second information from the network equipment; the second information indicates whether the terminal device is allowed to access the network device;

the terminal equipment determines that the network equipment allows the terminal equipment to access according to the second information, and determines that the accessed cell comprises the first control resource set according to the second information.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises:

And if the second information prohibits the access of the terminal equipment, the second information is further used for indicating that the first control resource set is not included in the cell of the network equipment.

15. A method of communication, comprising:

the network equipment sends a first physical downlink control channel to the terminal equipment in a first control resource set, and sends a second physical downlink control channel in a control resource set 0; the bandwidth of the first control resource set is smaller than or equal to the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment, and the maximum bandwidth of the terminal equipment is smaller than the bandwidth of the control resource set 0; the first physical downlink control channel and the second physical downlink control channel are both used for scheduling the system information block 1;

the network device sends the system information block 1 to the terminal device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the frequency domain resources of the system information block 1 are associated with the frequency domain resources of the control resource set 0.

17. The method according to claim 15 or 16, characterized in that the method further comprises:

18. The method according to claim 15 or 16, characterized in that the method further comprises:

19. The method according to any one of claims 15 to 18, further comprising:

the network device sends first information to the terminal device, wherein the first information is used for indicating the first control resource set, and the first information indicates at least one of the following:

the frequency domain location of the first set of control resources;

the bandwidth size of the first set of control resources;

a time domain duration of the first set of control resources;

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the first information is carried on a physical broadcast channel of a synchronization signal broadcast channel block;

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein the first information is carried in the extended physical channel, the extended physical channel and the physical broadcast channel are encoded in the same way, and/or the extended physical channel and the physical broadcast channel are modulated in the same way, and/or the extended physical channel and the physical broadcast channel are scrambled in the same way.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the extended physical channel and the synchronization signal broadcast channel block are transmitted by time division multiplexing;

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the first information is carried in the extended physical channel, the extended physical channel being generated based on a sequence.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the sequence is generated in the same manner as at least one of the following sequences:

25. The method according to claim 23 or 24, wherein the length of the sequence is the same as the length of the primary or secondary synchronization signal sequence in the synchronization signal broadcast channel block.

26. The method according to any one of claims 15 to 25, further comprising:

the network equipment sends second information to the terminal equipment; the second information indicates whether the terminal device is allowed to access the network device; wherein if the second information prohibits the access of the terminal device, the second information is further used for indicating that the first control resource set is not included in the cell of the network device.

27. A communications device comprising a processor and a memory, the processor and the memory coupled, the processor configured to implement the method of any of claims 1-14.

28. A communications device comprising a processor and a memory, the processor and the memory coupled, the processor configured to implement the method of any of claims 15-26.

29. A computer readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer readable storage medium has stored therein a computer program or instructions, which when executed, implement the method of any one of claims 1 to 14 or the method of any one of claims 15 to 26.