CN117751662A

CN117751662A - Bandwidth portion BWP switching method and device, communication equipment and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN117751662A
Application number: CN202280002761.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李艳华
Original assignee: Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co Ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-07-21
Filing date: 2022-07-21
Publication date: 2024-03-22
Also published as: WO2024016293A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the disclosure provides a bandwidth part BWP switching method and device, communication equipment and storage medium. The bandwidth part BWP switching method is performed by the first type terminal, and it is determined whether the first type terminal falls back to the target downlink BWP or remains in the currently active downlink BWP according to whether the first type terminal is configured with an inactivity timer (301).

Description

Bandwidth portion BWP switching method and device, communication equipment and storage medium

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of wireless communication technologies, but is not limited to the field of wireless communication technologies, and in particular, to a method and apparatus for switching a bandwidth portion BWP, a communication device, and a storage medium.

Background

In the new generation communication technology, a terminal may operate based on a Bandwidth Part (BWP). That is, the terminal does not need to monitor the entire bandwidth, needs to monitor a specific BWP, and transmits and receives data on the specific BWP.

In the current third generation partnership project (3rd Generation Partnership Project,3GPP) standardization, new terminal types, i.e. capability reduction (Reduced capability, redcap) UEs, which may also be referred to as lightweight (NR-lite) or Redcap terminals, are proposed.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the disclosure provides a bandwidth part BWP switching method and device, communication equipment and storage medium.

According to a first aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a bandwidth portion BWP switching method, wherein the method is performed by a first type of terminal, and the method includes:

and determining whether the first type terminal falls back to the target downlink BWP or remains in the current activated downlink BWP according to whether the first type terminal is configured with an Inactivity Timer (Inactivity Timer).

In one embodiment, the determining that the first type of terminal falls back to the target downlink BWP or remains in the currently active downlink BWP according to whether the first type of terminal is configured with an inactivity timer includes at least one of the following:

when the first type of terminal is not configured with the inactivity timer, determining to keep the current active downlink BWP;

when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer and the target downlink BWP, determining to fall back to the target downlink BWP when the inactivity timer times out;

and when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer and the target downlink BWP is not configured, determining to keep in the current active downlink BWP.

In one embodiment, the target downlink BWP is a plurality of alternative downlink BWP; different said alternative downlink BWP have different priorities;

the determining, when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer and the target downlink BWP is configured with the target downlink BWP, to fall back to the target downlink BWP when the inactivity timer times out includes:

when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer, and when the alternative downlink BWP which is not configured with the first priority and the alternative downlink BWP which is configured with the second priority are determined, the alternative downlink BWP which falls back to the second priority when the inactivity timer times out is determined;

or,

when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer, determining that the alternative downlink BWP with the first priority is configured with the alternative downlink BWP with the second priority, and determining that the alternative downlink BWP with the first priority falls back to the first priority when the inactivity timer times out;

wherein the first priority is higher than the second priority.

In one embodiment, the alternative downstream BWP of the target downstream BWP comprises:

lack of downlink BWP;

or,

initial downstream BWP.

In one embodiment, the initial downlink BWP comprises at least one of:

an initial downlink BWP of the first type terminal;

an initial downlink BWP of a second type of terminal, wherein the bandwidth supported by the second type of terminal is larger than the bandwidth supported by the first type of terminal;

and the initial downlink BWP of the third class of terminals, wherein the bandwidth supported by the third class of terminals is larger than the bandwidth supported by the second class of terminals.

In one embodiment, the priority of the alternative downlink BWP comprises at least one of:

the priority of the default downlink BWP is higher than the priority of the initial downlink BWP of the first type terminal;

the priority of the initial downlink BWP of the first type of terminal is higher than that of the second type of terminal;

the priority of the initial downlink BWP of the second class of terminals is higher than the priority of the initial downlink BWP of the third class of terminals.

In one embodiment, configuration information for configuring the initial downlink BWP of the first type terminal is carried in a system information block.

In one embodiment, the initial downlink BWP comprises at least one of:

receiving an initial downlink BWP of the system message;

receiving an initial downlink BWP of the paging message;

An initial downlink BWP of the random access response message is received.

In one embodiment, when the first type of terminal uses the initial downlink BWP for receiving the paging message as the target downlink BWP and the initial downlink BWP for receiving the paging message is plural, the target downlink BWP is: an initial downlink BWP for receiving the paging message selected based on a preset selection rule.

In one embodiment, the preset selection rule includes:

performing modular operation on the total number of the initial downlink BWPs of the received paging message according to the identification information of the first type of terminal;

and selecting the initial downlink BWP of the received paging message with the corresponding label as the target downlink BWP according to the modulo operation result.

In one embodiment, the restart condition of the inactivity timer comprises:

in the case that the first type of terminal is configured with the default downlink BWP and the currently activated downlink BWP is not the default downlink BWP, the number of times of data scheduling received by the first type of terminal reaches a predetermined number of times;

or,

and in the case that the first type of terminal does not configure the lack downlink BWP and the currently activated downlink BWP is not the initial downlink BWP, the number of times of data scheduling received by the first type of terminal reaches a predetermined number of times.

According to a second aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a bandwidth part BWP configuration method, wherein the method is performed by a network device, the method comprising:

and determining whether to configure an inactivity timer for the target terminal according to the type of the target terminal, wherein the inactivity timer is used for the target terminal to fall back to the target downlink BWP.

In one embodiment, the determining whether to configure the inactivity timer for the target terminal according to the type of the target terminal includes:

when the target terminal is a first type terminal, determining that the inactivity timer is not configured for the target terminal;

and/or the number of the groups of groups,

and when the target terminal is not the first type terminal, determining to configure the inactivity timer for the target terminal.

A third aspect according to an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a bandwidth portion BWP determining method, wherein the method is performed by a network device, the method comprising:

determining downlink BWP of the current work of a first type terminal according to whether the first type terminal is configured with an inactive timer; and the downlink BWP of the current work of the first type of terminal is used for the network equipment to send downlink information.

In one embodiment, the determining, according to whether the first type of terminal is configured with an inactivity timer, the downlink BWP that the first type of terminal currently works includes at least one of the following:

when the first type of terminal is not configured with the inactivity timer, determining that the first type of terminal is kept in the current active downlink BWP;

when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer and is configured with a target downlink BWP, determining that the first type of terminal falls back to the target downlink BWP when the inactivity timer is overtime;

and when the first-type terminal is configured with the inactivity timer and the target downlink BWP is not configured, determining that the first-type terminal remains in the current active downlink BWP.

the determining that the first type of terminal falls back to the target downlink BWP when the inactivity timer expires when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer and the target downlink BWP is configured with the target downlink BWP, includes:

when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer and is determined to be not configured with the alternative downlink BWP of the first priority and configured with the alternative downlink BWP of the second priority, determining that the first type of terminal falls back to the alternative downlink BWP of the second priority when the inactivity timer times out;

Or,

when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer and the alternative downlink BWP with the first priority is determined to be configured with the alternative downlink BWP with the second priority, determining that the first type of terminal falls back to the alternative downlink BWP with the first priority when the inactivity timer times out;

wherein the first priority is higher than the second priority.

lack of downlink BWP;

or,

initial downstream BWP.

In one embodiment, the initial downlink BWP comprises at least one of:

an initial downlink BWP of the first type terminal;

In one embodiment, the initial downlink BWP comprises at least one of:

receiving an initial downlink BWP of the system message;

receiving an initial downlink BWP of the paging message;

an initial downlink BWP of the random access response message is received.

In one embodiment, the preset selection rule includes:

In one embodiment, the restart condition of the inactivity timer comprises:

or,

A fourth aspect of embodiments according to the present disclosure provides a bandwidth portion BWP switching device, where the device is applied to a first type of terminal, the device including:

and the first determining module is configured to determine whether the first type terminal falls back to the target downlink BWP or remains in the current activated downlink BWP according to whether the first type terminal is configured with an inactivity timer.

In one embodiment, the first determination module is configured to:

and/or the number of the groups of groups,

And/or the number of the groups of groups,

the first determination module is configured to:

or,

wherein the first priority is higher than the second priority.

lack of downlink BWP;

or,

initial downstream BWP.

In one embodiment, the initial downlink BWP comprises at least one of:

an initial downlink BWP of the first type terminal;

In one embodiment, the initial downlink BWP comprises at least one of:

receiving an initial downlink BWP of the system message;

receiving an initial downlink BWP of the paging message;

An initial downlink BWP of the random access response message is received.

In one embodiment, the preset selection rule includes:

In one embodiment, the restart condition of the inactivity timer comprises:

or,

According to a fifth aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a bandwidth part BWP configuration apparatus, wherein the apparatus is applied to a network device, the apparatus comprising:

and the second determining module is configured to determine whether to configure an inactivity timer for the target terminal according to the type of the target terminal, wherein the inactivity timer is used for the target terminal to fall back to the target downlink BWP.

In one embodiment, the second determination module is configured to:

and/or the number of the groups of groups,

A sixth aspect according to an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a bandwidth portion BWP determining apparatus, wherein the apparatus is applied to a network device, the apparatus including:

a third determining module, configured to determine, according to whether a first type of terminal is configured with an inactivity timer, a downlink BWP where the first type of terminal currently works; and the downlink BWP of the current work of the first type of terminal is used for the network equipment to send downlink information.

In one embodiment, the third determination module is configured to:

and/or the number of the groups of groups,

the third determination module is configured to:

or,

Wherein the first priority is higher than the second priority.

lack of downlink BWP;

or,

initial downstream BWP.

In one embodiment, the initial downlink BWP comprises at least one of:

an initial downlink BWP of the first type terminal;

In one embodiment, the initial downlink BWP comprises at least one of:

receiving an initial downlink BWP of the system message;

receiving an initial downlink BWP of the paging message;

an initial downlink BWP of the random access response message is received.

In one embodiment, the preset selection rule includes:

In one embodiment, the restart condition of the inactivity timer comprises:

Or,

According to a seventh aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a communication device, wherein the communication device includes:

a processor;

a memory for storing the processor-executable instructions;

wherein the processor is configured to: for implementing the method of the first or second or third aspect when the executable instructions are executed.

An eighth aspect according to an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a computer storage medium, wherein the computer storage medium stores a computer executable program that, when executed by a processor, implements the method of the first aspect or the second aspect or the third aspect.

According to the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the disclosure, the first type terminal determines whether the first type terminal falls back to the target downlink BWP or remains in the current activated downlink BWP according to whether the first type terminal is provided with the non-activated timer or not, and the first type terminal does not fall back to the BWP when certain conditions are met by falling back to the target downlink BWP, so that unnecessary BPW fall back of the first type terminal is reduced, and power consumption generated by the BWP fall back of the first type terminal is reduced.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of embodiments of the disclosure.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the disclosure and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the embodiments of the disclosure.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a wireless communication system according to an exemplary embodiment;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a BW scheme with different bandwidths for a terminal according to an exemplary embodiment;

fig. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a BWP switching method according to an exemplary embodiment;

fig. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a BWP configuration method according to an exemplary embodiment;

fig. 5 is a flow chart illustrating a BWP determination method according to an exemplary embodiment;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a BWP switching device according to an exemplary embodiment;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural view of a BWP configuration device according to an exemplary embodiment;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural view of a BWP determining apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment;

fig. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of a UE according to an exemplary embodiment;

Fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of a network device according to an exemplary embodiment.

Detailed Description

Reference will now be made in detail to exemplary embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. When the following description refers to the accompanying drawings, the same numbers in different drawings refer to the same or similar elements, unless otherwise indicated. The implementations described in the following exemplary embodiments do not represent all implementations consistent with the embodiments of the present disclosure. Rather, they are merely examples of apparatus and methods consistent with aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure.

The terminology used in the embodiments of the disclosure is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the embodiments of the disclosure. As used in this disclosure, the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should also be understood that the term "and/or" as used herein refers to and encompasses any or all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

It should be understood that although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used in embodiments of the present disclosure to describe various information, these information should not be limited to these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one type of information from another. For example, the first information may also be referred to as second information, and similarly, the second information may also be referred to as first information, without departing from the scope of embodiments of the present disclosure. The word "if" as used herein may be interpreted as "at … …" or "at … …" or "responsive to a determination", depending on the context.

It is to be understood that the description of the various embodiments of the present disclosure emphasizes the differences between the various embodiments, and that the same or similar features may be referred to each other for brevity and will not be repeated.

Referring to fig. 1, a schematic structural diagram of a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the disclosure is shown. As shown in fig. 1, the wireless communication system is a communication system based on a cellular mobile communication technology, and may include: a number of terminals 11 and a number of network devices 12.

Where the terminal 11 may be a device providing voice and/or data connectivity to a user. The terminal 11 may communicate with one or more core networks via a radio access network (Radio Access Network, RAN), and the terminal 11 may be an internet of things UE, such as a sensor device, a mobile phone (or "cellular" phone) and a computer with an internet of things UE, for example, a stationary, portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-built-in or vehicle-mounted device. Such as a Station (STA), subscriber unit (subscriber unit), subscriber Station (subscriber Station), mobile Station (mobile Station), mobile Station (mobile), remote Station (remote Station), access point, remote UE (remote terminal), access UE (access terminal), user terminal, user agent (user agent), user device (user equipment), or user UE (UE). Alternatively, the terminal 11 may be an unmanned aerial vehicle device. Alternatively, the terminal 11 may be a vehicle-mounted device, for example, a car-driving computer having a wireless communication function, or a wireless communication device externally connected to the car-driving computer. Alternatively, the terminal 11 may be a roadside device, for example, a street lamp, a signal lamp, or other roadside devices having a wireless communication function.

The network device 12 may be a device for communicating with a terminal in a wireless communication system. Wherein the wireless communication system may be a fourth generation mobile communication technology (the 4th generation mobile communication,4G) system, also known as a long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) system; alternatively, the wireless communication system may be a 5G system, also known as a New Radio (NR) system or a 5G NR system. Alternatively, the wireless communication system may be a next generation system of the 5G system. Among them, the access network in the 5G system may be called NG-RAN (New Generation-Radio Access Network, new Generation radio access network). Or, an MTC system.

Network device 12 may be referred to as a radio access network device, and may include, for example, access network devices such as base stations (e.g., access points), which may refer to devices in an access network that communicate with terminals over the air through one or more cells.

Wherein the network device 12 may be an evolved access device (eNB) employed in a 4G system. Alternatively, the network device 12 may be an access device (gNB) in a 5G system that employs a centralized and distributed architecture. When the network device 12 employs a centralized and distributed architecture, it typically includes a Centralized Unit (CU) and at least two Distributed Units (DUs). A protocol stack of a packet data convergence protocol (Packet Data Convergence Protocol, PDCP) layer, a radio link layer control protocol (Radio Link Control, RLC) layer, and a medium access control (Media Access Control, MAC) layer is provided in the centralized unit; a Physical (PHY) layer protocol stack is provided in the distribution unit, and the specific implementation of the network device 12 is not limited by the embodiment of the present disclosure.

A wireless connection may be established between the network device 12 and the terminal 11 over a wireless air interface. In various embodiments, the wireless air interface is a fourth generation mobile communication network technology (4G) standard-based wireless air interface; or, the wireless air interface is a wireless air interface based on a fifth generation mobile communication network technology (5G) standard, for example, the wireless air interface is a new air interface; alternatively, the wireless air interface may be a wireless air interface based on a 5G-based technology standard of a next generation mobile communication network.

In one embodiment, an E2E (End to End) or D2D (device to device) connection may also be established between the terminals 11. Such as V2V (vehicle to vehicle, vehicle-to-vehicle) communications, V2I (vehicle to Infrastructure, vehicle-to-road side equipment) communications, and V2P (vehicle to pedestrian, vehicle-to-person) communications among internet of vehicles communications (vehicle to everything, V2X).

When a connection is established between terminals, if one or more terminals function as a base station in communication between terminals, the one or more terminals may also be regarded as the network device, and the other terminals may be regarded as the terminals 11. For example, in the internet of vehicles scenario, the vehicle-mounted terminal a reports its capability information (such as antenna capability information) to another vehicle-mounted terminal B, and the vehicle-mounted terminal B controls communication between the vehicle-mounted terminal a and the vehicle-mounted terminal B according to the capability information, i.e. the vehicle-mounted terminal B acts as a head car in the vehicle network, where the vehicle-mounted terminal B may be regarded as the network device and the vehicle-mounted terminal a may be regarded as the terminal 11.

In one embodiment, the above wireless communication system may further include a network management device 13. A plurality of network devices are respectively connected with the network management device 13. The network management device 13 may be a core network device in a wireless communication system, for example, the network management device 13 may be a mobility management entity (Mobility Management Entity, MME) in an evolved packet core network (Evolved Packet Core, EPC). Alternatively, the network management device may be other core network devices, such as a Serving GateWay (SGW), a public data network GateWay (Public Data Network GateWay, PGW), a policy and charging rules function (Policy and Charging Rules Function, PCRF) or a home subscriber server (Home Subscriber Server, HSS), etc. The embodiment of the present disclosure is not limited to the implementation form of the network management device 13.

In the current 3GPP standardization, a new terminal type is proposed, called Reduced capability UE or simply NR-lite or Redcap terminals. Such devices meet the following requirements based on the general requirements in 5G NR-lite: (1) low cost, low complexity; (2) a degree of coverage enhancement; (3) power saving; (4) some terminals are 1RX and some are 2RX; (5) After introduction of the Redcap user of the R18 version of the 5G standard, the BandWidth (BW) thereof is further reduced.

Fig. 2 shows BW schemes with different bandwidths configured for a terminal, such as BW1 or BW3 schemes. For example, BW1 and BW3 configured for a terminal have different bandwidths. Wherein for BW1 scheme, data (Data) channels, control (Control) channels, and Radio Frequency (RF) channels cannot be transmitted beyond the range of 5MHz in Downlink (DL) and Uplink (UL) directions. For BW3 schemes, control channels and radio frequency channels cannot be transmitted beyond 20MHz in the downlink and uplink directions, and data channels cannot be transmitted beyond 5 MHz.

In the downlink direction, one UE may configure at most 4 BWP per element carrier, but only one active BWP at a time. The active BWP indicates an operation bandwidth employed by the UE within the cell operation bandwidth, and outside of the BWP, the UE does not receive PDSCH (physical downlink shared channel ), PDCCH (physical downlink control channel, physical downlink control channel), CSI-RS (channel-state information reference signal, channel state information reference signal), or the like, but may be exceptional if used to make radio resource related measurements or transmit SRS (Sounding Reference Signal ).

For enhanced capability reduction (enhanced Reduced capability, eRedCap) terminals, the main scenario is a large number of sensors (sensors) and industrial sensors, so the number of terminals is relatively large, and the paging capacity before the network will not be enough to support the paging requirement, so the network is required to configure a plurality of downlink paging initial BWP. After the unredcap terminal is introduced, how to make the fallback needs to be reconsidered. For example, for a terminal operating in BW1, the meaning of falling back is not very great because the bandwidth of the current operation is already relatively small.

Fig. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a bandwidth part BWP switching method according to an exemplary embodiment. The bandwidth part BWP switching method is performed by a terminal in the wireless communication system shown in fig. 1, which is a first type of terminal. As shown in fig. 3, the bandwidth part BWP switching method may include:

step 301: and determining whether the first type of terminal falls back to the target downlink BWP or remains in the current activated downlink BWP according to whether the first type of terminal is configured with an inactivity timer.

The BWP switching method provided in this embodiment is performed by the first type of terminal. The first class of terminals may be terminals supporting bandwidths less than a preset threshold, or specific types of terminals, or any terminals supporting bandwidths less than the bandwidths supported by the second class of terminals.

By way of example, the first type of terminal may be an eRedCap terminal or the like. The second class of terminals may include any terminal other than the first class of terminals, and may be, for example, a RedCap terminal or an enhanced mobile bandwidth (enhance Mobile Broadband, eMBB), etc.

The first type of terminals may operate based on BWP. One first type terminal may be configured with a plurality of BWP simultaneously. But the first class of terminals operates on an active BWP on a serving cell at the same time.

In some examples, the inactivity timer may be in a one-to-one correspondence, and/or a one-to-many correspondence, with the terminal configured BWP.

In some examples, the inactivity timer comprises: BWP inactivity timer and/or secondary cell (Scell) inactivity timer.

The network device may configure the inactivity timers used on the respective BWP for the first type of terminal. If the first type of terminal is configured with an inactivity timer, automatically falling back to the target downlink BWP from the currently active BWP when the inactivity timer expires.

If the first type of terminal is not configured with the inactivity timer, the downlink BWP is kept currently activated, and if the first type of terminal is not configured with the inactivity timer, the first type of terminal does not fall back to the target downlink BWP, so that the BWP fall back of the first type of terminal configured with the inactivity timer is at least reduced.

In some embodiments, the target downlink BWP is a default downlink BWP of the first type of terminal.

In other embodiments, the target downlink BWP is a default downlink BWP when the first type of terminal is configured with the default downlink BWP. When the first type of terminal is not configured with the default downlink BWP and is configured with the initial downlink BWP, the target downlink BWP may be the initial downlink BWP.

Wherein, the initial downlink BWP is a downlink BWP configured by the network device for the terminal through the system message. The lack of downlink BWP is a BWP with a smaller bandwidth that is specifically set for the terminal by the network device based on power saving considerations.

In summary, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the target downlink BWP may be a BWP having a bandwidth smaller than that of the BWP currently activated by the first type terminal, so that the BWP monitored by the first type terminal may be reduced by the BWP fallback, so that power consumption may be saved.

In some examples, it may be determined whether the first type terminal is configured with an inactivity timer currently activating downlink BWP usage according to BWP configuration information of the first type terminal.

Wherein the first type of terminal may receive a BWP configuration message from the network device, the BWP configuration message being used for the first type of terminal to configure an inactivity timer used by the BWP.

In the embodiment of the present disclosure, by determining, by the first type terminal, whether the first type terminal is configured with the inactivity timer according to whether the first type terminal falls back to the target downlink BWP or remains in the current active downlink BWP, by falling back to the target downlink BWP with a narrower bandwidth, the power consumption of the user equipment can be reduced, and by remaining in the current active downlink BWP, unnecessary BWP switching when the bandwidth of the current active downlink BWP is narrower can be suppressed, thereby implementing flexible switching of the downlink BWP of the first type terminal.

In an embodiment, in step 301, the determining that the first type of terminal falls back to the target downlink BWP or remains in the currently active downlink BWP according to whether the first type of terminal is configured with an inactivity timer may include at least one of the following:

In this embodiment, if the inactivity timer is not configured by the first type terminal, the first type terminal may keep on currently activating downlink BWP, and perform downlink BWP handover when receiving BWP handover indication information (e.g., DCI) sent by the network device. For example, the BWP switch indication information indicates that the first type of terminal activates the lack of downlink BWP and deactivates the currently activated downlink BWP.

If the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer, the first type of terminal will fall back to the target downlink BWP when the inactivity timer expires. The target downstream BWP may be a default downstream BWP or an initial downstream BWP.

In this embodiment, when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer, if the first type of terminal is configured with the default downlink BWP, the first type of terminal will fall back to the default downlink BWP when the inactivity timer times out.

When the first type of terminal is not configured with the default downlink BWP and is configured with the initial downlink BWP, the first type of terminal may fall back to the initial downlink BWP when the inactivity timer expires.

In some examples, if a terminal of the first type is configured with the inactivity timer, the terminal of the first type is not configured with the lack of downlink BWP and is not configured with the initial downlink BWP, and the terminal of the first type may remain in the current active downlink BWP when the inactivity timer times out.

In other examples, if the inactivity timer configured by the first type of terminal is used to fall back to the default downlink BWP and is not used to fall back to the initial downlink BWP, the first type of terminal determines to remain in the current active downlink BWP when the inactivity timer times out when the default downlink BWP is not configured.

In one embodiment, the restart conditions of the inactivity timer include only the following:

and in the case that the first type of terminal is configured with the default downlink BWP and the currently activated downlink BWP is not the default downlink BWP, the number of times of data scheduling received by the first type of terminal reaches a predetermined number of times or a switch to currently activated downlink BWP command is received.

The predetermined number of times may be set according to actual application needs, for example, the predetermined number of times may be set to 1 time.

In one embodiment, the protocol is agreed that a first type of terminal (i.e., a first type of user) may configure a BWP inactivity timer on the premise of being configured with a default downlink BWP; that is, if the default BWP is not configured, the BWP inactivity timer is not required to be configured.

In one embodiment, the protocol convention entails configuring the default downstream BWP for the first type of terminal (i.e., first type of user).

In one embodiment, the protocol is agreed that the first type of user fails to configure the BWP inactivity timer if the BWP inactivity timer is configured without configuring the default downlink BWP.

In this embodiment, since the inactivity timer is used for dropping back to the default downlink BWP and is not used for dropping back to the initial downlink BWP, if the first-type terminal is not configured with the default downlink BWP, the first-type terminal will remain in the current active downlink BWP when the inactivity timer times out, regardless of whether the first-type terminal is configured with the initial downlink BWP.

In one embodiment, the method further comprises at least one of:

and when the first type of terminal is configured with the non-activated timer, the first type of terminal is configured with an initial downlink BWP and the lack downlink BWP is not configured, determining that a target downlink BWP is a downlink BWP with smaller bandwidth in the initial downlink BWP and the current activated downlink BWP when the non-activated timer is overtime.

In this embodiment, if the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer, and the first type of terminal is configured with the initial downlink BWP and the default downlink BWP is not configured, the first type of terminal compares the bandwidth of the initial downlink BWP with the bandwidth of the current active downlink BWP, and works on the downlink BWP with the smaller bandwidth when the inactivity timer times out.

In one embodiment, the BWP is a plurality. Different said alternative downstream BWP have different priorities. When BWP fallback is performed, the BWP may be fallback to a high priority BWP according to the priority.

Illustratively, the smaller the bandwidth of the BWP, the higher the priority of the BWP.

In some embodiments, when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer and configured with the target downlink BWP, determining to fall back to the target downlink BWP when the inactivity timer expires may include:

or when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer, and when the alternative downlink BWP configured with the first priority is determined to be configured with the alternative downlink BWP of the second priority, determining to fall back to the alternative downlink BWP of the first priority when the inactivity timer times out; wherein the first priority is higher than the second priority.

Wherein the priority of the alternative downstream BWP of the target downstream BWP may be used to determine whether the alternative downstream can be prioritized as the target downstream BWP falling back when the inactivity timer expires.

In this embodiment, when configuring the downlink BWP for the terminal, the network device may configure a corresponding priority for the downlink BWP, where each BWP corresponds to one priority, and the priorities corresponding to each BWP may be the same or different. In addition, the priority of the downlink BWP may be that the first type of terminal sets the priority corresponding to the BWP according to the bandwidth of each BWP, and the smaller the bandwidth of the BWP is, the higher the priority corresponding to the BWP is, or the first type of terminal sets the priority corresponding to the BWP according to the transmission quality of the BWP.

In one embodiment, the alternative downstream BWP of the target downstream BWP comprises: lack of downlink BWP or initial downlink BWP.

In some examples, the default downstream BWP has a first priority and the initial downstream BWP has a second priority.

In this embodiment, when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer and configured with the default downlink BWP, the first type of terminal may fall back to the default downlink BWP when the inactivity timer times out. When the first type terminal is configured with the inactivity timer, upon determining that the lack downlink BWP is not configured and the initial downlink BWP is configured, the first type terminal may fall back to the initial downlink BWP upon timeout of the inactivity timer.

In one embodiment, the initial downlink BWP comprises at least one of:

an initial downlink BWP of the first type terminal;

an initial downlink BWP of a second type terminal, wherein the bandwidth supported by the second type terminal is larger than the bandwidth supported by the first type terminal;

Wherein the second class of terminals may include: and (3) a RedCAP terminal. The third class of terminals may include: the supported bandwidth is larger than any terminal of the second class of terminals. Illustratively, the third class of terminals may include: mobile broadband (enhanced Mobile Broadband, eMBB) terminals are enhanced.

The initial downlink BWP of the second type terminal and the initial downlink BWP of the third type terminal may be configured by a system information block, which may be, for example, system information block 1 (System InformationBlock 1, sib1).

In this embodiment, if the first type of terminal is configured with the default downlink BWP, the first type of terminal will fall back to the default downlink BWP when the inactivity timer expires. If the first type of terminal is not configured with the default downlink BWP and is configured with the initial downlink BWP, the first type of terminal may fall back to the initial downlink BWP when the inactivity timer expires. If the first type of terminal is not configured with the default downlink BWP and is not configured with the initial downlink BWP, the first type of terminal may fall back to the initial downlink BWP configured for the second type of terminal or the initial downlink BWP configured for the third type of terminal when the inactivity timer expires. Wherein the initial downlink BWP configured for the second type of terminal has a higher priority than the initial downlink BWP configured for the third type of terminal.

In this embodiment, the first type of terminal may configure the initial downlink BWP based on the configuration information of the initial downlink BWP carried in the system information block and sent by the network device.

In some examples, the configuration information of the initial downlink BWP of the first type terminal or the indication information of the configuration information may be carried in the system information block 1 (SIB 1) or in the newly created SIB.

For example, configuration information of an initial downlink BWP of the first type terminal or indication information of the configuration information is represented using all or part of reserved bits in SIB 1. The indication information is used for informing the first type terminal in which system information message or SIB the configuration information of the initial downlink BWP of the first type terminal can be received.

For another example, the newly created SIB is used to carry configuration information of the initial downlink BWP of the first type terminal or indication information of the configuration information. Wherein the newly created SIB is for example SIB1-bis (System Information Block Type bis).

In one embodiment, the initial downlink BWP comprises at least one of:

receiving an initial downlink BWP of the system message;

receiving an initial downlink BWP of the paging message;

an initial downlink BWP of the random access response message is received.

In some examples, the initial downlink BWP may have at least one of the following search spaces: random access response (Random Access Response, RAR) search space, paging search space, and system message search space.

In some examples, when the initial downlink BWP is one, the first type of terminal may use the initial downlink BWP as the target downlink BWP.

In some examples, when there are a plurality of initial downlink BWP, the first type terminal may select one initial downlink BWP as the target downlink BWP according to a rule, such as randomly selecting one initial downlink BWP; it is also possible to select a predetermined type of initial downlink BWP as the target downlink BWP, such as the predetermined type of initial downlink BWP for receiving the paging message.

In some examples, the initial downlink BWP for receiving the paging message may be plural, for example, two downlink initial bwrps may be configured for the first type of terminal, which includes a paging search space for receiving the paging message, and one downlink initial bwrp may be selected as the target downlink bwrp from the two downlink initial bwrps for receiving the paging message.

In one embodiment, the preset selection rule includes:

Specifically, the preset selection rule may be a module of the total number of downlink initial BWP according to the identification information (UE-ID) of the first type of terminal; according to the modulo index (index), the initial downlink BWP of the received paging message of the corresponding label is selected as the target downlink BWP.

For example, three initial downlink BWP receiving the paging message are configured for the first type of terminal, and are arranged according to 0, 1, and 2, and the modulo operation result can be corresponding to 0, 1, or 2 as index, which is used as the target downlink BWP.

In one embodiment, the restart condition of the inactivity timer comprises at least one of:

in the case that the first type of terminal is configured with the default downlink BWP and the currently activated downlink BWP is not the default downlink BWP, the number of times of data scheduling received by the first type of terminal reaches a predetermined number of times or receives an instruction to switch to the currently activated downlink BWP;

in the case that the first type of terminal does not configure the default downlink BWP and the currently activated downlink BWP is not the initial downlink BWP, the number of times of data scheduling received by the first type of terminal reaches a predetermined number of times or receives a switch to currently activated downlink BWP instruction.

In this embodiment, when the restart condition of the inactivity timer is met, the inactivity timer is restarted and is used to count the time when the first type of terminal currently activates downlink BWP to be inactive, so as to ensure that the first type of terminal currently activates downlink BWP can be timely dropped back to the target downlink BWP.

Fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a bandwidth part BWP configuration method, which is performed by a network device in the wireless communication system shown in fig. 1, according to an exemplary embodiment. As shown in fig. 4, the bandwidth part BWP configuration method may include:

step 401: and determining whether to configure an inactivity timer for the target terminal according to the type of the target terminal, wherein the inactivity timer is used for the target terminal to fall back to the target downlink BWP.

The BWP configuration method provided by the present embodiment is performed by the network device. The network device, such as a base station, needs to determine the downlink BWP where the target terminal currently works, and may determine whether to configure an inactivity timer for the target terminal according to the type of the target terminal.

The network equipment comprises a base station, a relay station, a remote radio unit and the like, and can also be core network side equipment.

The target terminal may operate based on BWP. A target terminal may be configured with multiple BWP simultaneously, but the target terminal may only have at most one active BWP on one serving cell at the same time.

The network device may configure the target terminal with inactivity timers for use on the respective BWP. If the target terminal is configured with an inactivity timer, the target terminal turns on a function of automatically dropping from the currently active BWP back to the target downstream BWP. If the target terminal is not configured with the inactivity timer, the target terminal will remain in the currently active downlink BWP.

In some examples, when the target terminal is configured with the lack downlink BWP, the target downlink BWP is the lack downlink BWP; when the target terminal is not configured with the default downlink BWP and is configured with the initial downlink BWP, the target downlink BWP may be the initial downlink BWP.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, the network device determines whether to configure the inactivity timer for the target terminal according to the type of the target terminal, so that the inactivity timer can be used for the target terminal to fall back to the target downlink BWP with narrower bandwidth, the power consumption of the user device can be reduced, and the flexible switching of the BWP of the target terminal is realized.

In one embodiment, the method may further comprise:

if the configuration of the inactive timer for the target terminal is determined, sending configuration information to the target terminal; wherein the configuration information includes an inactivity timer configured for the target terminal.

In one embodiment, in step 401, the determining whether to configure the inactivity timer for the target terminal according to the type of the target terminal may include:

and/or determining to configure the inactivity timer for the target terminal when the target terminal is not a first type terminal.

The type of the target terminal is used for determining whether the target terminal is a first type terminal.

The first class of terminals may be terminals supporting bandwidths less than a preset threshold, or specific types of terminals, or any terminals supporting bandwidths less than the bandwidths supported by the second class of terminals.

For example, the first type of terminal may be an eRedCap terminal, and the second type of terminal may be a RedCap terminal.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a bandwidth part BWP determination method, which is performed by a network device in the wireless communication system shown in fig. 1, according to an exemplary embodiment. As shown in fig. 5, the bandwidth part BWP determining method may include:

step 501: determining downlink BWP of the current work of a first type terminal according to whether the first type terminal is configured with an inactive timer; and the downlink BWP of the current work of the first type of terminal is used for the network equipment to send downlink information.

The BWP determination method provided by the present embodiment is performed by the network device. The network equipment comprises a base station, a relay station, a remote radio unit and the like, and can also be core network side equipment.

Illustratively, the first type of terminal may be an enhanced reduced capability eRedCAP terminal or the like. The second type of terminal may include any terminal other than the first type of terminal, and illustratively, the second type of terminal may be: an ebb terminal or a RedCap terminal, etc.

The first type of terminals may operate based on BWP. A first type of terminal may be configured with multiple BWP simultaneously, but the first type of terminal operates on one active BWP on one serving cell at the same time.

In some examples, the inactivity timer comprises: BWP inactivity timer and/or secondary cell inactivity timer.

In other embodiments, when the first type of terminal is configured with the default downlink BWP, the target downlink BWP is the default downlink BWP. When the first type of terminal is not configured with the default downlink BWP and is configured with the initial downlink BWP, the target downlink BWP may be the initial downlink BWP.

In summary, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the target downlink BWP may be a BWP with a bandwidth smaller than that of the BWP currently activated by the first type terminal, so that the BWP monitored by the first type terminal may be reduced through the BWP fallback, so that power consumption may be saved.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, the network device determines the downlink BWP currently operated by the first type terminal according to whether the first type terminal is configured with the inactivity timer, so that the network device sends downlink information according to the downlink BWP currently operated by the first type terminal.

In this embodiment, if the first type of terminal does not configure the inactivity timer, it is determined that the first type of terminal continues to keep currently activated downlink BWP.

If the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer, determining that the first type of terminal will fall back to the target downlink BWP when the inactivity timer expires. The target downstream BWP may be a default downstream BWP or an initial downstream BWP.

In this embodiment, when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer, if the first type of terminal is configured with the default downlink BWP, it is determined that the first type of terminal falls back to the default downlink BWP when the inactivity timer is overtime; when the first type of terminal is not configured with the default downlink BWP and is configured with the initial downlink BWP, it may be determined that the first type of terminal falls back to the initial downlink BWP when the inactivity timer expires.

In some examples, if the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer, the first type of terminal is not configured with the lack of downlink BWP and is not configured with the initial downlink BWP, and it is determined that the first type of terminal remains in the current active downlink BWP when the inactivity timer times out.

In other examples, if the inactivity timer configured by the first type terminal is used to fall back to the default downlink BWP and is not used to fall back to the initial downlink BWP, the first type terminal is determined to remain in the current active downlink BWP when the inactivity timer times out when the first type terminal is not configured with the default downlink BWP.

In one embodiment, the method further comprises at least one of:

and when the first type of terminal is configured with the non-activated timer, the first type of terminal is configured with an initial downlink BWP and is not configured with the lack downlink BWP, determining that the target downlink BWP is the downlink BWP with smaller bandwidth in the initial downlink BWP and the current activated downlink BWP when the non-activated timer is overtime.

In one embodiment, the target downlink BWP is a plurality of alternative downlink BWP. Different said alternative downstream BWP have different priorities. When BWP fallback is performed, the BWP may be fallback to the high priority BWP according to the priority.

In some embodiments, the determining that the first type of terminal falls back to the target downlink BWP when the inactivity timer expires when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer and configured with the target downlink BWP comprises:

Or when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer and the alternative downlink BWP with the first priority is determined to be configured with the alternative downlink BWP with the second priority, determining that the first type of terminal falls back to the alternative downlink BWP with the first priority when the inactivity timer is overtime; wherein the first priority is higher than the second priority.

In one embodiment, the alternative downstream BWP of the target downstream BWP comprises an absence downstream BWP or an initial downstream BWP.

In one embodiment, the initial downlink BWP comprises at least one of:

an initial downlink BWP of the first type terminal;

Wherein the second class of terminals may include: and (3) a RedCAP terminal. The third class of terminals may include: and an eMBB terminal.

In this embodiment, if the first type of terminal is configured with the default downlink BWP, the first type of terminal will fall back to the default downlink BWP when the inactivity timer expires. If the first type of terminal is not configured with the default downlink BWP and is configured with the initial downlink BWP, the first type of terminal may fall back to the initial downlink BWP when the inactivity timer expires.

If the first type of terminal is not configured with the default downlink BWP and is not configured with the initial downlink BWP, the first type of terminal may fall back to the initial downlink BWP configured for the second type of terminal or the initial downlink BWP configured for the third type of terminal when the inactivity timer expires. Wherein the initial downlink BWP configured for the second type of terminal has a higher priority than the initial downlink BWP configured for the third type of terminal.

In this embodiment, the network device may send, to the first type terminal, configuration information of the initial downlink BWP carried in the system information block, where the configuration information is used for the first type terminal to configure the initial downlink BWP.

In some examples, the configuration information of the initial downlink BWP of the first type terminal or the indication information of the configuration information may be carried in the system information block 1 (System Information Block Type, sibb 1) or in the newly created SIB.

In one embodiment, the initial downlink BWP comprises at least one of:

receiving an initial downlink BWP of the system message;

Receiving an initial downlink BWP of the paging message;

an initial downlink BWP of the random access response message is received.

In some examples, the first downlink initial BWP information may have at least one of the following search spaces: random access response search space, paging search space, and system message search space.

In some examples, the initial downlink BWP for receiving the paging message may be plural, for example, two downlink initial BWPs may be configured for the first type terminal, which includes a paging search space for receiving the paging message, and one downlink initial BWP may be selected from the two downlink initial BWPs for receiving the paging message as the target downlink BWP.

In one embodiment, the preset selection rule includes:

Specifically, the preset selection rule may be a module of the total number of downlink initial BWP according to the identification information (UE-ID) of the first type of terminal; according to the modulo index, selecting the initial downlink BWP of the received paging message with the corresponding label as the target downlink BWP.

In order to further explain any embodiments of the disclosure, several specific embodiments are provided below.

The embodiment of the disclosure provides a BWP switching method, which can be used for BWP switching of a specific type of terminal.

Wherein the specific type of terminal may be an enhanced reacap type terminal.

Based on the above embodiments, the BWP inactivity timer is not configured for a specific type of terminal.

As one example: if BWP inactivity timer is configured for the specific type of terminal; the BWP inactivity timer is only used for the specific type of terminal to fall back to the default downlink BWP.

As one example: if the lack downlink BWP is configured for the specific type of terminal, after the BWP inactivity timer expires, the specific type of terminal drops back to the lack downlink BWP; if the lack of downlink BWP is not configured, the current working downlink BWP is kept.

In one embodiment, the protocol is agreed that the first type of user may configure a BWP inactivity timer on the premise of being configured with a default downlink BWP; that is, if the default BWP is not configured, the BWP inactivity timer is not required to be configured.

As one example: the restart conditions of the BWP inactivity timer are:

if the terminal is configured with a default downlink BWP and the currently active downlink BWP is not the default downlink BWP, the specific type of terminal receives a schedule of data once or a switch to the currently active downlink BWP command and the BWP inactivity timer is restarted.

Based on the above embodiment, if the default downlink BWP is configured for the specific type of terminal, after the BWP inactivity timer expires, the specific type of terminal falls back to the default downlink BWP; if no default downlink BWP is configured, switching to a specific downlink initial BWP.

As one example: the target downstream BWP then switches to the initial downstream BWP in SIB1 configured for the second type of user (either the initial downstream BWP that may be configured for the eMBB user or the initial downstream BWP that may be configured for the Redcap user of R17).

Further, the priority of the downlink initial BWP configured for the Redcap user of R17 is higher than the priority of the initial downlink BWP configured for the eMBB user.

As another example: the target downlink BWP switches to either SIB1-bis or the downlink initial BWP configured for the specific type of user in SIB1 (if only one is configured).

Further, if there is no downlink initial BWP configured for the specific type of user, switching to the initial downlink BWP configured for the second type of user in SIB 1.

As yet another example: the target downlink BWP is switched to the downlink BWP configured for the specific type of user in SIB1-bis (if multiple ones are configured), and then selected according to the following rule:

as an embodiment: the predetermined type of downlink initial BWP may be a downlink initial BWP configured for a specific type of terminal and including an RAR search space.

As another embodiment: the predetermined type of downlink initial BWP may be a downlink initial BWP configured for a specific type of terminal and including a system message search space.

As yet another embodiment: the predetermined type of downlink initial BWP may be any type of downlink initial BWP configured for a specific type of terminal:

the network device is configured with a downstream initial BWP (third type) for system message reception;

The network device is configured with a downlink initial BWP (first type) for paging message reception;

the network device is configured with a downlink initial BWP (second type) for RAR message reception;

as yet another example: the predetermined type of initial downlink BWP may be an initial BWP for paging listening; at this time, if a plurality of initial BWP for paging listening are configured, the terminal selects one of the downlink initial BWP through a predetermined selection rule.

As an embodiment: the predetermined selection rules may be:

the terminal is switched to the downlink initial BWP of the monitoring of the Paging; the monitoring and paging determining mode is obtained through a UE-ID modular approach: P-BWP = ue_id mod Nn, where Nn is the total number of downlink initial BWP s for which the paging search space is configured.

As one example: if the BWP inactivity timer is used for the specific type of terminal to fall back to lack of downlink BWP or initial downlink BWP, the restart condition of the BWP inactivity timer may be:

if the terminal is configured with a default BWP and the currently active BWP is not the default BWP, the terminal receives a schedule of data once or a restart of the inactivity timer when receiving a switch to the currently active downlink BWP instruction; or,

if the terminal does not configure the default BWP and the currently active BWP is not the target downlink BWP, the terminal receives a schedule of data once or a switch to the currently active downlink BWP command and then the timer is not restarted.

The following are device embodiments of the present disclosure that may be used to perform corresponding method embodiments of the present disclosure. For details not disclosed in the embodiments of the apparatus of the present disclosure, please refer to corresponding method embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 6 is a block diagram of a bandwidth part BWP switching device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The bandwidth part BWP switching means may be applied to the first type of terminal. As shown in fig. 6, the bandwidth part BWP switching apparatus 100 may include:

the first determining module 110 is configured to determine whether the first type terminal falls back to the target downlink BWP or remains in the currently activated downlink BWP according to whether the first type terminal is configured with an inactivity timer.

In one embodiment, the first determination module 110 is configured to:

and/or the number of the groups of groups,

the first determination module 110 is configured to:

or,

wherein the first priority is higher than the second priority.

lack of downlink BWP;

or,

initial downstream BWP.

In one embodiment, the initial downlink BWP comprises at least one of:

an initial downlink BWP of the first type terminal;

In one embodiment, the initial downlink BWP comprises at least one of:

receiving an initial downlink BWP of the system message;

receiving an initial downlink BWP of the paging message;

an initial downlink BWP of the random access response message is received.

In one embodiment, the preset selection rule includes:

In one embodiment, the restart condition of the inactivity timer comprises:

or,

Fig. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a bandwidth part BWP configuration apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The bandwidth part BWP configuration means may be applied to a network device. As shown in fig. 7, the bandwidth part BWP configuration apparatus 200 may include:

a second determining module 210, configured to determine, according to a type of a target terminal, whether to configure an inactivity timer for the target terminal, where the inactivity timer is used for the target terminal to fall back to a target downlink BWP.

In one embodiment, the second determination module 210 is configured to:

and/or the number of the groups of groups,

Fig. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a bandwidth part BWP determining apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The bandwidth part BWP determining means may be applied to a network device. As shown in fig. 8, the bandwidth part BWP determining apparatus 300 may include:

a third determining module 310, configured to determine, according to whether the first type of terminal is configured with an inactivity timer, a downlink BWP where the first type of terminal currently works; and the downlink BWP of the current work of the first type of terminal is used for the network equipment to send downlink information.

In one embodiment, the third determination module 310 is configured to:

and/or the number of the groups of groups,

And/or the number of the groups of groups,

the third determination module 310 is configured to:

or,

wherein the first priority is higher than the second priority.

Lack of downlink BWP;

or,

initial downstream BWP.

In one embodiment, the initial downlink BWP comprises at least one of:

an initial downlink BWP of the first type terminal;

In one embodiment, the initial downlink BWP comprises at least one of:

receiving an initial downlink BWP of the system message;

Receiving an initial downlink BWP of the paging message;

an initial downlink BWP of the random access response message is received.

In one embodiment, the preset selection rule includes:

In one embodiment, the restart condition of the inactivity timer comprises:

or,

It should be noted that, as will be understood by those skilled in the art, the apparatus provided in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented separately or together with some apparatuses in the embodiments of the present disclosure or some apparatuses in the related art.

The specific manner in which the various modules perform the operations in the apparatus of the above embodiments have been described in detail in connection with the embodiments of the method, and will not be described in detail herein.

The embodiment of the disclosure provides a communication device, which comprises:

a processor;

a memory for storing the processor-executable instructions;

wherein the processor is configured to: and when the executable instructions are executed, the BWP switching method or the BWP configuration method or the BWP determining method provided by any of the foregoing technical solutions are implemented.

The processor may include various types of storage medium, which are non-transitory computer storage media, capable of continuing to memorize information stored thereon after a power down of the communication device.

Here, the communication apparatus includes: UE or network device.

The processor may be coupled to the memory via a bus or the like for reading an executable program stored on the memory, for example, at least one of the methods shown in fig. 3-5.

Fig. 9 is a block diagram of a UE800, according to an example embodiment. For example, the UE800 may be an internet of things UE, such as a sensor device, a mobile phone (or "cellular" phone), and a computer with an internet of things UE, e.g., a stationary, portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-built-in, or vehicle-mounted device.

Referring to fig. 9, ue800 may include one or more of the following components: a processing component 802, a memory 804, a power component 806, a multimedia component 808, an audio component 810, an input/output (I/O) interface 812, a sensor component 814, and a communication component 816.

The processing component 802 generally controls overall operation of the UE800, such as operations associated with display, telephone calls, data communications, camera operations, and recording operations. The processing component 802 may include one or more processors 820 to execute instructions to generate all or part of the steps of the methods described above. Further, the processing component 802 can include one or more modules that facilitate interactions between the processing component 802 and other components. For example, the processing component 802 can include a multimedia module to facilitate interaction between the multimedia component 808 and the processing component 802.

The memory 804 is configured to store various types of data to support operations at the UE 800. Examples of such data include instructions for any application or method operating on the UE800, contact data, phonebook data, messages, pictures, videos, and the like. The memory 804 may be implemented by any type or combination of volatile or nonvolatile memory devices such as Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), read-only memory (ROM), magnetic memory, flash memory, magnetic or optical disk.

The power supply component 806 provides power to the various components of the UE 800. The power components 806 may include a power management system, one or more power sources, and other components associated with generating, managing, and distributing power for the UE 800.

The multimedia component 808 includes a screen between the UE800 and the user that provides an output interface. In some embodiments, the screen may include a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and a Touch Panel (TP). If the screen includes a touch panel, the screen may be implemented as a touch screen to receive input signals from a user. The touch panel includes one or more touch sensors to sense touches, swipes, and gestures on the touch panel. The touch sensor may sense not only the boundary of a touch or slide action, but also the duration and pressure associated with the touch or slide operation. In some embodiments, the multimedia component 808 includes a front camera and/or a rear camera. The front camera and/or the rear camera may receive external multimedia data when the UE800 is in an operation mode, such as a photographing mode or a video mode. Each front camera and rear camera may be a fixed optical lens system or have focal length and optical zoom capabilities.

The audio component 810 is configured to output and/or input audio signals. For example, the audio component 810 includes a Microphone (MIC) configured to receive external audio signals when the UE800 is in an operational mode, such as a call mode, a recording mode, and a voice recognition mode. The received audio signals may be further stored in the memory 804 or transmitted via the communication component 816. In some embodiments, audio component 810 further includes a speaker for outputting audio signals.

The I/O interface 812 provides an interface between the processing component 802 and peripheral interface modules, which may be a keyboard, click wheel, buttons, etc. These buttons may include, but are not limited to: homepage button, volume button, start button, and lock button.

The sensor component 814 includes one or more sensors that provide status assessment of various aspects for the UE 800. For example, the sensor component 814 may detect an on/off state of the device 800, a relative positioning of components, such as a display and keypad of the UE800, the sensor component 814 may also detect a change in position of the UE800 or a component of the UE800, the presence or absence of user contact with the UE800, an orientation or acceleration/deceleration of the UE800, and a change in temperature of the UE 800. The sensor assembly 814 may include a proximity sensor configured to detect the presence of nearby objects without any physical contact. The sensor assembly 814 may also include a light sensor, such as a CMOS or CCD image sensor, for use in imaging applications. In some embodiments, the sensor assembly 814 may also include an acceleration sensor, a gyroscopic sensor, a magnetic sensor, a pressure sensor, or a temperature sensor.

The communication component 816 is configured to facilitate communication between the UE800 and other devices, either wired or wireless. The UE800 may access a wireless network based on a communication standard, such as WiFi,2G,3G,4G, or 5G, or a combination thereof. In one exemplary embodiment, the communication component 816 receives broadcast signals or broadcast related information from an external broadcast management system via a broadcast channel. In one exemplary embodiment, the communication component 816 further includes a Near Field Communication (NFC) module to facilitate short range communications. For example, the NFC module may be implemented based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, infrared data association (IrDA) technology, ultra Wideband (UWB) technology, bluetooth (BT) technology, and other technologies.

In an exemplary embodiment, the UE800 may be implemented by one or more Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), digital Signal Processors (DSPs), digital Signal Processing Devices (DSPDs), programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), controllers, microcontrollers, microprocessors, or other electronic elements for executing the methods described above.

In an exemplary embodiment, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium is also provided, such as memory 804 including instructions executable by processor 820 of UE800 to generate the above-described method. For example, the non-transitory computer readable storage medium may be ROM, random Access Memory (RAM), CD-ROM, magnetic tape, floppy disk, optical data storage device, etc.

As shown in fig. 10, an embodiment of the present disclosure shows a structure of a network device. For example, the network device 900 may be provided as various network elements, such as the aforementioned access network elements and/or network functions.

Referring to fig. 10, network device 900 includes a processing component 922 that further includes one or more processors and memory resources represented by memory 932 for storing instructions, such as applications, executable by processing component 922. The application programs stored in memory 932 may include one or more modules that each correspond to a set of instructions. Further, processing component 922 is configured to execute instructions to perform any of the methods described above as applied to the network device, e.g., as shown in any of fig. 3-5.

The network device 900 may also include a power component 926 configured to perform power management for the network device 900, a wired or wireless network interface 950 configured to connect the network device 900 to a network, and an input output (I/O) interface 958. The network device 900 may operate based on an operating system stored in memory 932, such as Windows Server TM, mac OS XTM, unixTM, linuxTM, freeBSDTM, or the like.

Other embodiments of the disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the disclosure disclosed herein. This disclosure is intended to cover any adaptations, uses, or adaptations of the disclosure following the general principles of the disclosure and including such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice within the art to which the disclosure pertains. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the disclosure being indicated by the following claims.

It is to be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown in the drawings, and that various modifications and changes may be effected without departing from the scope thereof. The scope of the present disclosure is limited only by the appended claims.

Claims

A bandwidth part BWP switching method, wherein the method is performed by a first type of terminal, the method comprising:

and determining whether the first type of terminal falls back to the target downlink BWP or remains in the current activated downlink BWP according to whether the first type of terminal is configured with an inactivity timer.
The method of claim 1, wherein the determining that the first type of terminal falls back to the target downlink BWP or remains in the currently active downlink BWP according to whether the first type of terminal is configured with an inactivity timer comprises at least one of:

When the first type of terminal is not configured with the inactivity timer, determining to keep the current active downlink BWP;

when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer and the target downlink BWP, determining to fall back to the target downlink BWP when the inactivity timer times out;

and when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer and the target downlink BWP is not configured, determining to keep in the current active downlink BWP.
The method of claim 2, wherein the target downstream BWP is a plurality of alternative downstream BWP; different said alternative downlink BWP have different priorities;

the determining, when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer and the target downlink BWP is configured with the target downlink BWP, to fall back to the target downlink BWP when the inactivity timer times out includes:

when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer, and when the alternative downlink BWP which is not configured with the first priority and the alternative downlink BWP which is configured with the second priority are determined, the alternative downlink BWP which falls back to the second priority when the inactivity timer times out is determined;

or,

When the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer, determining that the alternative downlink BWP with the first priority is configured with the alternative downlink BWP with the second priority, and determining that the alternative downlink BWP with the first priority falls back to the first priority when the inactivity timer times out;

wherein the first priority is higher than the second priority.
A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the alternative downstream BWP of the target downstream BWP comprises:

lack of downlink BWP;

or,

initial downstream BWP.
The method of claim 4, wherein the initial downstream BWP comprises at least one of:

an initial downlink BWP of the first type terminal;

an initial downlink BWP of a second type of terminal, wherein the bandwidth supported by the second type of terminal is larger than the bandwidth supported by the first type of terminal;

and the initial downlink BWP of the third class of terminals, wherein the bandwidth supported by the third class of terminals is larger than the bandwidth supported by the second class of terminals.
The method of claim 5, wherein the priority of the alternative downstream BWP comprises at least one of:

the priority of the default downlink BWP is higher than the priority of the initial downlink BWP of the first type terminal;

The priority of the initial downlink BWP of the first type of terminal is higher than that of the second type of terminal;

the priority of the initial downlink BWP of the second class of terminals is higher than the priority of the initial downlink BWP of the third class of terminals.
The method of claim 5 or 6, wherein configuration information for configuring the initial downlink BWP of the first type terminal is carried in a system information block.
The method of any of claims 4 to 7, wherein the initial downstream BWP comprises at least one of:

receiving an initial downlink BWP of the system message;

receiving an initial downlink BWP of the paging message;

an initial downlink BWP of the random access response message is received.
The method of claim 2, wherein when the first type of terminal has an initial downlink BWP for receiving a paging message as the target downlink BWP and the initial downlink BWP for receiving a paging message is plural, the target downlink BWP is: an initial downlink BWP for receiving the paging message selected based on a preset selection rule.
The method of claim 9, wherein the preset selection rule comprises:

performing modular operation on the total number of the initial downlink BWPs of the received paging message according to the identification information of the first type of terminal;

And selecting the initial downlink BWP of the received paging message with the corresponding label as the target downlink BWP according to the modulo operation result.
The method of claim 4, wherein the restart condition of the inactivity timer comprises:

in the case that the first type of terminal is configured with the default downlink BWP and the currently activated downlink BWP is not the default downlink BWP, the number of times of data scheduling received by the first type of terminal reaches a predetermined number of times;

or,

and in the case that the first type of terminal does not configure the lack downlink BWP and the currently activated downlink BWP is not the initial downlink BWP, the number of times of data scheduling received by the first type of terminal reaches a predetermined number of times.
A bandwidth part BWP configuration method, wherein the method is performed by a network device, the method comprising:

and determining whether to configure an inactivity timer for the target terminal according to the type of the target terminal, wherein the inactivity timer is used for the target terminal to fall back to the target downlink BWP.
The method of claim 12, wherein the determining whether to configure the inactivity timer for the target terminal according to the type of the target terminal comprises:

When the target terminal is a first type terminal, determining that the inactivity timer is not configured for the target terminal;

and/or the number of the groups of groups,

and when the target terminal is not the first type terminal, determining to configure the inactivity timer for the target terminal.
A bandwidth part BWP determination method, wherein the method is performed by a network device, the method comprising:

determining downlink BWP of the current work of a first type terminal according to whether the first type terminal is configured with an inactive timer; and the downlink BWP of the current work of the first type of terminal is used for the network equipment to send downlink information.
The method of claim 14, wherein the determining, according to whether the first type of terminal is configured with an inactivity timer, a downlink BWP in which the first type of terminal is currently operating comprises at least one of:

when the first type of terminal is not configured with the inactivity timer, determining that the first type of terminal is kept in the current active downlink BWP;

when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer and is configured with a target downlink BWP, determining that the first type of terminal falls back to the target downlink BWP when the inactivity timer is overtime;

And when the first-type terminal is configured with the inactivity timer and the target downlink BWP is not configured, determining that the first-type terminal remains in the current active downlink BWP.
The method of claim 15, wherein the target downstream BWP is a plurality of alternative downstream BWP; different said alternative downlink BWP have different priorities;

the determining that the first type of terminal falls back to the target downlink BWP when the inactivity timer expires when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer and the target downlink BWP is configured with the target downlink BWP, includes:

when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer and is determined to be not configured with the alternative downlink BWP of the first priority and configured with the alternative downlink BWP of the second priority, determining that the first type of terminal falls back to the alternative downlink BWP of the second priority when the inactivity timer times out;

or,

when the first type of terminal is configured with the inactivity timer and the alternative downlink BWP with the first priority is determined to be configured with the alternative downlink BWP with the second priority, determining that the first type of terminal falls back to the alternative downlink BWP with the first priority when the inactivity timer times out;

Wherein the first priority is higher than the second priority.
The method of claim 15 or 16, wherein the alternative downstream BWP of the target downstream BWP comprises:

lack of downlink BWP;

or,

initial downstream BWP.
The method of claim 17, wherein the initial downstream BWP comprises at least one of:

an initial downlink BWP of the first type terminal;

an initial downlink BWP of a second type of terminal, wherein the bandwidth supported by the second type of terminal is larger than the bandwidth supported by the first type of terminal;

and the initial downlink BWP of the third class of terminals, wherein the bandwidth supported by the third class of terminals is larger than the bandwidth supported by the second class of terminals.
The method of claim 18, wherein the priority of the alternative downstream BWP comprises at least one of:

the priority of the default downlink BWP is higher than the priority of the initial downlink BWP of the first type terminal;

the priority of the initial downlink BWP of the first type of terminal is higher than that of the second type of terminal;

the priority of the initial downlink BWP of the second class of terminals is higher than the priority of the initial downlink BWP of the third class of terminals.
The method according to claim 18 or 19, wherein configuration information for configuring the initial downlink BWP of the first type terminal is carried in a system information block.
The method of any of claims 17 to 20, wherein the initial downstream BWP comprises at least one of:

receiving an initial downlink BWP of the system message;

receiving an initial downlink BWP of the paging message;

an initial downlink BWP of the random access response message is received.
The method of claim 15, wherein when the first type of terminal has an initial downlink BWP for receiving a paging message as the target downlink BWP and the initial downlink BWP for receiving a paging message is plural, the target downlink BWP is: an initial downlink BWP for receiving the paging message selected based on a preset selection rule.
The method of claim 22, wherein the preset selection rule comprises:

performing modular operation on the total number of the initial downlink BWPs of the received paging message according to the identification information of the first type of terminal;

and selecting the initial downlink BWP of the received paging message with the corresponding label as the target downlink BWP according to the modulo operation result.
The method of claim 17, wherein the restart condition of the inactivity timer comprises:

In the case that the first type of terminal is configured with the default downlink BWP and the currently activated downlink BWP is not the default downlink BWP, the number of times of data scheduling received by the first type of terminal reaches a predetermined number of times;

or,

and in the case that the first type of terminal does not configure the lack downlink BWP and the currently activated downlink BWP is not the initial downlink BWP, the number of times of data scheduling received by the first type of terminal reaches a predetermined number of times.
A bandwidth part BWP switching device, applied to a first type of terminal, comprising:

and the first determining module is configured to determine whether the first type terminal falls back to the target downlink BWP or remains in the current activated downlink BWP according to whether the first type terminal is configured with an inactivity timer.
A bandwidth part BWP configuration apparatus, wherein the apparatus is applied to a network device, the apparatus comprising:

and the second determining module is configured to determine whether to configure an inactivity timer for the target terminal according to the type of the target terminal, wherein the inactivity timer is used for the target terminal to fall back to the target downlink BWP.
A bandwidth part BWP determining apparatus, wherein the apparatus is applied to a network device, the apparatus comprising:

A third determining module, configured to determine, according to whether a first type of terminal is configured with an inactivity timer, a downlink BWP where the first type of terminal currently works; and the downlink BWP of the current work of the first type of terminal is used for the network equipment to send downlink information.
A communication device, wherein the communication device comprises:

a processor;

a memory for storing the processor-executable instructions;

wherein the processor is configured to: for implementing the method of any one of claims 1 to 24 when said executable instructions are executed.
A computer storage medium storing a computer executable program which when executed by a processor implements the method of any one of claims 1 to 24.