WO2021120018A1

WO2021120018A1 - Communication method and apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO2021120018A1
Application number: PCT/CN2019/126094
Authority: WO
Inventors: 于海凤; 李秉肇; 陈磊; 许斌
Original assignee: 华为技术有限公司
Priority date: 2019-12-17
Filing date: 2019-12-17
Publication date: 2021-06-24
Also published as: CN114731642A

Abstract

Disclosed in the present application are a communication method and apparatus. The method comprises: a terminal device receives first information from a network device, the first information being used to instruct the terminal device to acquire multicast configuration information by means of a system message, and the multicast configuration information being used to instruct the terminal device to receive a multicast service; and then receiving the system message from the network device, the system message comprising the multicast configuration information. By using the described solution, in one aspect, a terminal device can receive a multicast service without entering a connected state, which can effectively reduce the signaling overhead required for the establishment of RRC connection between the terminal device and a network device, and also reduce the delay in the terminal device acquiring a multicast configuration; in another aspect, since a network device can send multicast configuration information by means of a system message, the processing burden and signaling overhead of the network device are effectively reduced compared with sending multicast configuration information to the terminal device respectively by means of unicast, and the flexibility of network device regulation and control is also increased.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical field

This application relates to the field of wireless communication technology, and in particular to a communication method and device.

Background technique

In a wireless communication system, a multicast transmission technology is a transmission technology in which one sender sends data and multiple receivers receive the data; for example, a network device sends data and multiple terminal devices receive the data. Among them, one possible multicast transmission technology is a single cell point to multipoint (single cell point to multipoint, SC-PTM) technology.

When a multicast transmission technology (such as SC-PTM technology) is used to transmit a multicast service, the terminal device needs to obtain the multicast configuration information first, and then receive the multicast service based on the multicast configuration information.

However, how the terminal device obtains the multicast configuration information still needs further research.

Summary of the invention

The present application provides a communication method and device, which are used to reduce the signaling overhead of obtaining multicast configuration information by a terminal device in an idle state or an inactive state.

In the first aspect, the embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, which may be applied to a terminal device, or may also be applied to a chip inside the terminal device. Take the application of this method to a terminal device as an example. In this method, the terminal device receives first information from a network device. The first information is used to instruct the terminal device to obtain multicast configuration information through system messages. To instruct the terminal device to receive the multicast service; and then to receive the system message from the network device, the system message including the multicast configuration information.

Using this solution, on the one hand, the terminal device does not need to enter the connected state, which can effectively reduce the signaling overhead required for the establishment of the RRC connection between the terminal device and the network device, and also reduce the delay for the terminal device to obtain the multicast configuration; on the other hand, On the one hand, since network equipment can send multicast configuration information through system messages, compared to sending multicast configuration information to terminal equipment separately through unicast, it effectively reduces the processing burden and signaling overhead of network equipment, and also increases The flexibility of network equipment regulation is improved.

In one possible design, the terminal device is in the RRC idle state or the RRC inactive state.

In a possible design, the multicast configuration information includes the G-RNTI associated with the multicast service and the identifier of the multicast service.

In a possible design, the first information is carried in a paging message from a network device.

In this way, since the first information is carried in the paging message, there is no need to send the first information separately, which can effectively save transmission resources.

In a possible design, the paging message includes a paging record list, and the paging record list does not include the identification of the terminal device.

In this way, since the identification of the terminal device may not be included in the paging record list, the resource overhead of the paging message can be effectively saved.

In a possible design, the first information includes the identifier of the multicast service.

In a possible design, the first information is carried by the first downlink control information from the network device, and the first downlink control information is used for scheduling paging messages.

In this way, since the first information is carried in the first downlink control information, there is no need to send the first information separately, which can effectively save transmission resources.

In a possible design, the first information is first downlink control information from a network device, and the first downlink control information is used to schedule paging messages; wherein, the first downlink control information temporarily passes through the first wireless network. Identifies RNTI scrambling, and the first RNTI is different from the P-RNTI; or, the first downlink control information is transmitted through preset time-frequency resources.

In this way, the first downlink control information implicitly instructs the terminal device to obtain the multicast configuration information through the system message, which can effectively save transmission resources.

In a possible design, the first information is carried in a downlink message when the terminal device performs a random access process; wherein the downlink message is a contention resolution message; or, the downlink message is the second downlink control information, and the second downlink control information Used to schedule the contention resolution message.

In a possible design, the method further includes: the terminal device sends the identification of the terminal device and/or the identification of the multicast service to the network device in the random access process.

In a possible design, the terminal device receiving the system message from the network device includes: the terminal device has the same system message change period or the same frame or the same subframe or the same time slot or the same The sub-slot receives system messages from network equipment.

When a network device carries multicast configuration information in a system message, it is equivalent to a change in the system message. Normally, the network device needs to notify the terminal device that the current system message has changed through the system message change instruction, and then receives the system message The terminal device that changes the instruction will reacquire the system message in the next system message change cycle. In the embodiment of the present application, the network device can send the first information to the terminal device. Accordingly, after the terminal device receives the first information, it can change the period or the same frame or subframe in the same system message where the first information is located. Or the same time slot or the same sub-slot receives system messages from the network device, that is, the terminal device may not rely on the system message change indication to receive the system message, so that the terminal device can obtain the multicast configuration information in a more timely manner.

In the second aspect, the embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, which can be applied to a network device, or can also be applied to a chip inside the network device. Taking this method applied to a network device as an example, in this method, the network device can send first information, the first information is used to instruct the terminal device to obtain multicast configuration information through a system message, and the multicast configuration information is used for Instruct the terminal device to receive the multicast service; and send the system message, the system message including the multicast configuration information.

Since the communication method described in the second aspect described above corresponds to the communication method described in the first aspect, the related beneficial effects of the communication method described in the second aspect can be referred to the first aspect, which will not be repeated here.

In a possible design, the first information is carried in a paging message.

In a possible design, the first information includes an identifier of the multicast service.

In a possible design, the first information is carried in first downlink control information, and the first downlink control information is used to schedule paging messages.

In a possible design, the first information is first downlink control information, and the first downlink control information is used to schedule paging messages; wherein, the first downlink control information passes through the first radio The network temporary identifier RNTI is scrambled, and the first RNTI is different from the paging radio network temporary identifier P-RNTI; or, the first downlink control information is carried on a preset time-frequency resource.

In a possible design, the first information is carried in a downlink message during the random access procedure performed by the terminal device; wherein, the downlink message is a contention resolution message; or, the downlink message is a second downlink message. Control information, where the second downlink control information is used to schedule the contention resolution message.

In a possible design, before sending the first information, the method further includes: receiving the terminal device identifier and/or the multicast service identifier sent by the terminal device; according to the terminal device identifier and/or The identifier of the multicast service determines that the terminal device needs to obtain the multicast configuration information.

In a possible design, before sending the first information, the method further includes: determining that the number of RRC connections of the network device is greater than a first threshold.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication device. The communication device may be a terminal device or a chip set inside the terminal device. The communication device has the function to implement the first aspect described above. For example, the communication device includes a module or unit or means corresponding to the steps involved in the first aspect described above, and the function or unit or means can be implemented by software , Or it can be realized by hardware, or it can be realized by hardware executing corresponding software.

In a possible design, the communication device includes a processing unit and a communication unit. The communication unit can be used to send and receive signals to achieve communication between the communication device and other devices. For example, the communication unit is used to receive The first information of the network device; the processing unit can be used to perform some internal operations of the communication device. The functions performed by the processing unit and the communication unit may correspond to the steps involved in the first aspect described above.

In a possible design, the communication device includes a processor, and may also include a transceiver. The transceiver is used to send and receive signals. The processor executes program instructions to complete any possible design or design in the first aspect. The method in the implementation mode. Wherein, the communication device may further include one or more memories, and the memories are used for coupling with the processor. The one or more memories may be integrated with the processor, or may be provided separately from the processor, which is not limited in this application. The memory may store necessary computer programs or instructions to realize the functions involved in the first aspect described above. The processor can execute the computer program or instruction stored in the memory, and when the computer program or instruction is executed, the communication device realizes the method in any possible design or implementation manner of the first aspect.

In a possible design, the communication device includes a processor and a memory, and the memory can store necessary computer programs or instructions for realizing the functions involved in the first aspect. The processor can execute the computer program or instruction stored in the memory, and when the computer program or instruction is executed, the communication device realizes the method in any possible design or implementation manner of the first aspect.

In a possible design, the communication device includes at least one processor and an interface circuit, where at least one processor is used to communicate with other devices through the interface circuit and execute any possible design or implementation of the first aspect described above. The method executed by the terminal device in the mode.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication device. The communication device may be a network device or a chip set inside the network device. The communication device is capable of implementing the functions involved in the above second aspect. For example, the communication device includes modules or units or means corresponding to the steps involved in the above second aspect, and the functions or units or means can be implemented by software, or It is realized by hardware, and it can also be realized by hardware executing corresponding software.

In a possible design, the communication device includes a processing unit and a communication unit. The communication unit can be used to send and receive signals to achieve communication between the communication device and other devices. For example, the communication unit is used to communicate with the terminal. The device sends the first information; the processing unit can be used to perform some internal operations of the communication device. The functions performed by the processing unit and the communication unit may correspond to the steps involved in the second aspect described above.

In a possible design, the communication device includes a processor, and may also include a transceiver. The transceiver is used to send and receive signals, and the processor executes program instructions to complete any possible design or design in the second aspect. The method in the implementation mode. Wherein, the communication device may further include one or more memories, and the memories are used for coupling with the processor. The one or more memories may be integrated with the processor, or may be provided separately from the processor, which is not limited in this application. The memory can store the necessary computer programs or instructions for realizing the functions involved in the second aspect described above. The processor can execute the computer program or instruction stored in the memory, and when the computer program or instruction is executed, the communication device realizes the method in any possible design or implementation manner of the second aspect.

In a possible design, the communication device includes a processor and a memory, and the memory can store necessary computer programs or instructions for realizing the functions involved in the second aspect. The processor can execute the computer program or instruction stored in the memory, and when the computer program or instruction is executed, the communication device realizes the method in any possible design or implementation manner of the second aspect.

In a possible design, the communication device includes at least one processor and an interface circuit, where at least one processor is used to communicate with other devices through the interface circuit, and execute any possible design or implementation of the second aspect above. The method in the way.

In a fifth aspect, this application provides a computer-readable storage medium that stores computer-readable instructions. When the computer reads and executes the computer-readable instructions, the computer executes the first aspect or Any possible design method of the second aspect.

In a sixth aspect, this application provides a computer program product, which when a computer reads and executes the computer program product, causes the computer to execute any one of the possible design methods of the first aspect or the second aspect.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a chip that includes a processor, and the processor is coupled with a memory, and is configured to read and execute a software program stored in the memory to implement the above-mentioned first aspect or second aspect. Any one of the possible design methods.

These and other aspects of the application will be more concise and understandable in the description of the following embodiments.

Description of the drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture to which an embodiment of this application is applicable;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of another network architecture to which the embodiments of this application are applicable;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of another network architecture to which the embodiments of this application are applicable;

Figure 4a is a schematic diagram of multicast service transmission by network equipment;

Figure 4b is a schematic diagram of terminal equipment acquiring multicast configuration information;

FIG. 5 is an example diagram of multiple terminal devices in an idle state or in an inactive state acquiring multicast configuration information; FIG.

Figure 6a is a schematic diagram of a four-step random access process provided by an embodiment of this application;

FIG. 6b is a schematic diagram of a two-step random access process provided by an embodiment of this application;

Fig. 6c is a schematic diagram of paging frames and paging occasions in a paging cycle provided by an embodiment of the application;

FIG. 6d is a schematic diagram of time slots included in a PO provided by an embodiment of the application;

Fig. 6e is a schematic diagram of SC-MCCH and SC-MTCH provided by an embodiment of the application;

FIG. 6f is a schematic diagram of the repetition period and modification period of the SC-MCCH provided by an embodiment of the application;

FIG. 7a is a schematic flowchart corresponding to the communication method provided in Embodiment 1 of this application; FIG.

FIG. 7b is a schematic diagram of system messages periodically sent by a network device according to an embodiment of the application;

FIG. 8a is a schematic diagram of a process corresponding to the communication method provided in the second embodiment of the application; FIG.

FIG. 8b is another example diagram of obtaining multicast configuration information by multiple terminal devices in an idle state or in an inactive state; FIG.

FIG. 9a is a schematic flowchart corresponding to the communication method provided in the fourth embodiment of this application; FIG.

FIG. 9b is another example diagram of obtaining multicast configuration information by multiple terminal devices in an idle state or in an inactive state;

FIG. 10 is a possible exemplary block diagram of a device involved in an embodiment of this application;

FIG. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device provided by an embodiment of this application;

FIG. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device provided by an embodiment of this application.

Detailed ways

The following describes the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, rather than all the embodiments.

First, some terms in the embodiments of the present application are explained to facilitate the understanding of those skilled in the art.

(1) Terminal device: It can be a wireless terminal device that can receive network device scheduling and instruction information. A wireless terminal device can be a device that provides voice and/or data connectivity to users, or a handheld device with wireless connection function, or Other processing equipment connected to the wireless modem. A terminal device can communicate with one or more core networks or the Internet via a radio access network (RAN). The terminal device can be a mobile terminal device, such as a mobile phone (or called a "cellular" phone, mobile phone). phone)), computers and data cards, for example, can be portable, pocket-sized, handheld, built-in computer or vehicle-mounted mobile devices, which exchange language and/or data with the wireless access network. For example, personal communication service (PCS) phones, cordless phones, session initiation protocol (SIP) phones, wireless local loop (WLL) stations, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and tablets Computers (Pad), computers with wireless transceiver functions and other equipment. Wireless terminal equipment can also be called system, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, mobile station (MS), remote station (remote station), access point ( access point (AP), remote terminal equipment (remote terminal), access terminal equipment (access terminal), user terminal equipment (user terminal), user agent (user agent), subscriber station (SS), user terminal equipment (customer premises equipment, CPE), terminal (terminal), user equipment (user equipment, UE), mobile terminal (mobile terminal, MT), etc. The terminal device may also be a wearable device and a next-generation communication system, for example, a terminal device in a 5G communication system or a terminal device in a public land mobile network (PLMN) that will evolve in the future.

(2) Network equipment: It can be a device in a wireless network. For example, a network device can be a radio access network (RAN) node (or device) that connects terminal equipment to the wireless network, and it can also be called a base station. . At present, some examples of RAN equipment are: new generation Node B (gNodeB), transmission reception point (TRP), evolved Node B (evolved Node B, eNB), wireless network in 5G communication system Controller (radio network controller, RNC), node B (Node B, NB), base station controller (BSC), base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS), home base station (for example, home evolved NodeB), Or home Node B, HNB, baseband unit (BBU), or wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) access point (AP), etc. In addition, in a network structure, the network device may include a centralized unit (CU) node, or a distributed unit (DU) node, or a RAN device including a CU node and a DU node. In addition, in other possible situations, the network device may be another device that provides wireless communication functions for the terminal device. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the network device. For ease of description, in the embodiments of the present application, a device that provides a wireless communication function for a terminal device is called a network device.

(3) The working state of the terminal device: The working state of the terminal device may include radio resource control (RRC) idle (RRC_IDLE) state, RRC inactive (Inactive) state and RRC_CONNECTED state. Among them, the RRC idle state can be referred to as an idle state for short, the RRC inactive state can be referred to as an inactive state for short, and the RRC connected state can be referred to as a connected state for short. The three working states are described below.

Idle state: After the terminal device is connected to the network device through the initial random access process, the network device can store the device parameters of the terminal device. If the terminal device does not communicate with the network device for a long time, the network device will store the device of the terminal device When the parameter is deleted, the state of the terminal device at this time is the idle state. When in the idle state, the terminal device does not have an RRC connection, and can perform cell selection and reselection, monitor the paging channel, and track area update (tracking area update, TAU). If a terminal device in an idle state needs to communicate with a network device, it needs to initiate a random access procedure again.

Connected state: After the terminal device is connected to the network device through the initial random access process, the device parameter of the terminal device can be stored in the network device. During this period, the terminal device can communicate with the network device. The state of the terminal device at this time is It is connected. When in the connected state, the terminal device can send and receive dedicated data, and according to the activity of the terminal device, discontinuous reception (DRX) can be used to save air interface resources and the power of the terminal device.

Inactive state: The terminal device in the inactive state disconnects the RRC connection from the network device and does not need to continuously monitor the downlink data, so as to achieve the same power saving effect as the idle state, but both the terminal device and the network device in the inactive state The context information of the terminal device is saved. When the terminal device needs to enter the connected state, the network device can configure the inactive terminal device to enter the connected state based on the saved context information.

(4) The terms "system" and "network" in the embodiments of this application can be used interchangeably. "At least one" means one or more, and "plurality" means two or more. "And/or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, indicating that there can be three types of relationships, for example, A and/or B, which can mean: the existence of A alone, both A and B, and B alone, where A, B can be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the associated objects before and after are in an "or" relationship. "The following at least one item (a)" or similar expressions refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of a single item (a) or a plurality of items (a). For example, "at least one of A, B, and C" includes A, B, C, AB, AC, BC, or ABC.

And, unless otherwise specified, the ordinal numbers such as "first" and "second" mentioned in the embodiments of this application are used to distinguish multiple objects, and are not used to limit the order, timing, priority, or importance of multiple objects. degree. For example, the first threshold and the second threshold are only for distinguishing different thresholds, but do not indicate the difference in priority or importance of the two thresholds.

The technical solution of the present application will be further described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of the specification.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture to which an embodiment of this application is applicable. As shown in FIG. 1, the terminal device 130 can access a wireless network to obtain services from an external network (such as the Internet) through the wireless network, or communicate with other devices through the wireless network, for example, it can communicate with other terminal devices. The wireless network includes a radio access network (RAN) device 110 and a core network (core network, CN) device 120. The RAN device 110 is used to connect the terminal device 130 to the wireless network, and the CN device 120 is used to Manage terminal equipment and provide a gateway for communication with the external network. It should be understood that the number of devices in the communication system shown in FIG. 1 is only for illustration, and the embodiment of the present application is not limited to this. In actual applications, the communication system may also include more terminal devices 130 and more RAN devices. 110, may also include other devices.

The CN may include multiple CN devices 120. When the network architecture shown in FIG. 1 is applicable to a 5G communication system, the CN device 120 may be an access and mobility management function (AMF) entity, session management A function (session management function, SMF) entity or a user plane function (UPF) entity, etc., when the network architecture shown in FIG. 1 is applicable to an LTE communication system, the CN device 120 may be a mobility management entity (mobility management entity). entity, MME) and serving gateway (serving gateway, S-GW), etc.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of another network architecture to which the embodiments of this application are applicable. As shown in Figure 2, the network architecture includes CN equipment, RAN equipment and terminal equipment. Among them, the RAN equipment includes a baseband device and a radio frequency device. The baseband device can be implemented by one node or by multiple nodes. The radio frequency device can be implemented remotely from the baseband device, or integrated in the baseband device, or part of its functions. Independent integration, part of the functions are integrated in the baseband device. For example, in an LTE communication system, the RAN equipment (eNB) includes a baseband device and a radio frequency device, where the radio frequency device can be arranged remotely relative to the baseband device, for example, a remote radio unit (RRU) is arranged relative to the BBU Remote wireless unit.

The communication between RAN equipment and terminal equipment follows a certain protocol layer structure. For example, the control plane protocol layer structure can include the radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) layer and the packet data convergence protocol (packet data convergence protocol, PDCP) layer. , Radio link control (RLC) layer, media access control (MAC) layer and physical layer and other protocol layer functions; user plane protocol layer structure can include PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer And the function of the protocol layer such as the physical layer; in a possible implementation, the PDCP layer may also include a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer.

The RAN equipment can be implemented by one node to implement the functions of the RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC protocol layers, or multiple nodes can implement the functions of these protocol layers. For example, in an evolution structure, RAN equipment may include CUs and DUs, and multiple DUs may be centrally controlled by one CU. As shown in Figure 2, CU and DU can be divided according to the protocol layer of the wireless network. For example, the functions of the PDCP layer and the above protocol layers are set in the CU, and the protocol layers below the PDCP, such as the RLC layer and MAC layer, are set in the DU.

This type of protocol layer division is just an example, it can also be divided in other protocol layers, for example, in the RLC layer, the functions of the RLC layer and above protocol layers are set in the CU, and the functions of the protocol layers below the RLC layer are set in the DU; Or, in a certain protocol layer, for example, part of the functions of the RLC layer and the functions of the protocol layer above the RLC layer are set in the CU, and the remaining functions of the RLC layer and the functions of the protocol layer below the RLC layer are set in the DU. In addition, it can also be divided in other ways, for example, by time delay. The functions that need to meet the time delay requirements for processing time are set in the DU, and the functions that do not need to meet the delay requirements are set in the CU.

In addition, the radio frequency device can be integrated independently, not placed in the DU, can also be integrated in the DU, or partly remote and partly integrated in the DU, and there is no restriction here.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of another network architecture to which the embodiments of this application are applicable. Compared with the network architecture shown in Figure 2, in Figure 3, the control plane (CP) and the user plane (UP) of the CU can also be separated and implemented by dividing them into different entities, namely the control plane (CP) CU entity ( That is, the CU-CP entity) and the user plane (UP) CU entity (ie, the CU-UP entity).

In the above network architecture, the signaling generated by the CU can be sent to the terminal device through the DU, or the signaling generated by the terminal device can be sent to the CU through the DU. The DU may directly pass the protocol layer encapsulation without analyzing the signaling and transparently transmit it to the terminal device or CU. In the following embodiments, if the transmission of such signaling between the DU and the terminal device is involved, at this time, the sending or receiving of the signaling by the DU includes this scenario. For example, RRC or PDCP layer signaling will eventually be processed as PHY layer signaling and sent to the terminal device, or converted from received PHY layer signaling. In this architecture, the RRC or PDCP layer signaling can also be considered to be sent by the DU, or sent by the DU and radio frequency loading.

The network architecture shown in Fig. 1, Fig. 2 or Fig. 3 can be applied to various radio access technology (RAT) communication systems, such as LTE communication system or 5G (or called The new radio (NR) communication system may also be a transitional system between an LTE communication system and a 5G communication system. The transitional system may also be referred to as a 4.5G communication system, and of course it may also be a future communication system. The network architecture and business scenarios described in the embodiments of this application are intended to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of this application, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of this application. Those of ordinary skill in the art will know that with communication With the evolution of the network architecture and the emergence of new business scenarios, the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application are equally applicable to similar technical problems.

The devices in the following embodiments of the present application may be located in terminal equipment or network equipment according to their realized functions. When the above CU-DU structure is adopted, the network device may be a CU node, or a DU node, or a RAN device including a CU node and a DU node.

In the network architecture shown in Fig. 1, Fig. 2 or Fig. 3, the network device can transmit service data to the terminal device in a multicast manner, for example, through the SC-PTM technology to realize the multicast transmission. In the SC-PTM technology, a physical downlink shared channel (physical downlink share channel, PDSCH) can be used to transmit multicast services. Different from the PDSCH carrying unicast services, the PDSCH carrying multicast services can be called multicast PDSCH. A network device can send downlink control information (DCI) carried on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) to a group of terminal devices in a cell. DCI is used to schedule multicast carrying multicast services PDSCH and DCI can be scrambled using group-radio network temporary identity (G-RNTI) associated with the multicast service. After receiving the DCI, the group of terminal devices may receive the multicast PDSCH according to the scheduling information included in the DCI.

Refer to Figure 4a, which illustrates a situation where a network device performs two multicast service transmissions. The network equipment can allocate G-RNTI 1 for multicast service 1 and G-RNTI 2 for multicast service 2. That is, the G-RNTI associated with multicast service 1 is G-RNTI 1, and the G-RNTI associated with multicast service 2. RNTI is G-RNTI 2. In order to receive multicast service 1, the first group of terminal devices (for example, including terminal device 1, terminal device 2, and terminal device 3) need to obtain multicast configuration information of multicast service 1 (for example, multicast configuration information may include multicast service 1 The associated G-RNTI 1), and according to the G-RNTI 1, receives the DCI1 sent by the network device for scheduling the multicast PDSCH1 (the multicast PDSCH1 is used to carry the multicast service 1), and then receives the multicast PDSCH1. Similarly, in order to receive the multicast service 2, the second group of terminal devices (for example, including the terminal device 4, the terminal device 5, and the terminal device 6) needs to obtain the multicast configuration information of the multicast service 2.

Regarding how the terminal device obtains the multicast configuration information, one possible implementation is that when the terminal device is in an idle state or in an inactive state, the network device can page the terminal device, and the terminal device can initiate a random access process, and After the random access process is successful, an RRC connection is established with the network device to enter the connected state, and then the network device can send the multicast configuration information of the multicast service to the terminal device in a unicast manner. The process of obtaining multicast configuration information by a terminal device in an idle state or in an inactive state will be described in detail below with reference to FIG. 4b.

Fig. 4b is a schematic diagram of a process for a terminal device to obtain multicast configuration information of a multicast service. As shown in Fig. 4b, taking the terminal device 1 as an example, the process may include:

Step 401: The terminal device 1 sends a request message to the core network device. The request message is used to request the multicast service that the terminal device 1 is interested in, such as the multicast service 1.

Here, the message may be a registration request message, an attachment request message, a protocol data unit (protocol data unit, PDU) session establishment request message or a PDU session modification message, or other possible non-access stratum (NAS) ) The message is not limited.

In step 402, the core network device, according to the request message of the terminal device 1, after determining that the terminal device 1 is a legal device and the terminal device is qualified to obtain the multicast service 1, configures the terminal device 1 for the data transmission of the multicast service 1. parameter.

Further, the core network device may maintain the correspondence between the identifier of the terminal device 1 and the identifier of the multicast service that the terminal device 1 is interested in. The core network device can also inform one or more network devices of the identity of the terminal device 1 and the identity of the multicast service that the terminal device 1 is interested in. In this way, the identity of the terminal device 1 and the terminal can be maintained in one or more network devices. Correspondence between the identifiers of the multicast services that the device 1 is interested in.

Step 403: The core network device receives the data of the multicast service 1.

Step 404: The core network device sends paging indication information to one or more network devices, and the one or more network devices include the network device 1.

Here, after the core network device receives the data of the multicast service 1, it can obtain information about the multicast service 1 according to the correspondence between the identification of the terminal device it maintains and the identification of the multicast service that the terminal device is interested in. The identification of the terminal device of interest (such as terminal device 1 and terminal device 2). The terminal device 1 and the terminal device 2 are both located within the coverage of the network device 1, and the terminal device 1 is in the idle state and the terminal device 2 is in the connected state, and the core network device can generate paging indication information, which may include The identification list of the terminal equipment that needs to be paged (for example, it may include the identification of the terminal equipment 1, but because the terminal equipment 2 is in the connected state, it may no longer include the identification of the terminal equipment 2), so that the terminal equipment that is paged can enter the connection state.

Exemplarily, since the core network device knows that the terminal device 2 is in the connected state and is located within the coverage of the network device 1, it can transmit the data of the multicast service 1 to the network device 1, that is, the core network device knows that After broadcasting the network device connected to the terminal device of interest in service 1, the data of the multicast service 1 can be transmitted to the network device. Correspondingly, if the subsequent network device 1 determines to send the data of the multicast service 1 through multicast, it can send the data of the multicast service 1 to the terminal equipment (such as terminal equipment) interested in the multicast service 1 through the multicast method. 1 and terminal equipment 2).

Step 405: The network device 1 receives the paging indication information, and sends control information for scheduling the paging message to the terminal device 1.

Exemplarily, the network device 1 determines the terminal device that needs to be paged, such as the terminal device 1, according to the paging indication information. Furthermore, the network device 1 may determine the PO corresponding to the terminal device 1 according to the identifier of the terminal device 1, and then send the control information on the PO corresponding to the terminal device 1.

Step 406: The terminal device 1 receives the control information.

Here, the terminal device 1 may determine the PO corresponding to the terminal device 1 according to the identification of the terminal device, and then monitor the control information on the PO.

Step 407: The network device 1 sends a paging message on the resource indicated by the control information.

Step 408: After receiving the control information, the terminal device 1 receives a paging message on the resource indicated by the control information.

Step 409: According to the paging message, the terminal device 1 determines that it needs to establish an RRC connection with the network device 1, and then initiates a random access process.

Here, the random access process may be a four-step random access process or a two-step random access process, and the specific implementation of the four-step random access process and the two-step random access process can be referred to later. After the terminal device 1 initiates the random access process, if the random access is successful, the terminal device 1 can enter the RRC connected state.

Step 410: The network device 1 sends the multicast configuration information to the terminal device 1 in the connected state.

Here, taking the multicast service 1 as an example, if the network device 1 determines to send the data of the multicast service 1 in multicast, it can assign the associated G-RNTI to the multicast service 1; the multicast configuration information may include multicast G-RNTI associated with service 1.

In step 411, the terminal device 1 receives the multicast configuration information, and can subsequently receive the data of the multicast service 1 according to the G-RNTI associated with the multicast service 1.

Exemplarily, the network device 1 may also send multicast configuration information to the terminal device 2 in the connected state, and the subsequent terminal device 2 may receive the data of the multicast service 1 according to the G-RNTI associated with the multicast service 1.

Using the above method, the terminal device in the idle state or inactive state needs to enter the connected state first, and then the network device sends the multicast configuration information to the terminal device through unicast, resulting in the terminal in the idle state or inactive state The signaling overhead required for the device to obtain multicast configuration information is relatively large. Especially when there are a large number of terminal devices in the idle or inactive state in the network, each terminal device needs to establish an RRC connection with the network device, and the network device needs to send multicast configuration information to each terminal device separately, resulting in The signaling overhead is greatly increased. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, an example diagram of obtaining multicast configuration information by using the above method for multiple terminal devices in an idle state or in an inactive state.

Based on this, the embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and device, which are used to reduce the signaling overhead required for a terminal device in an idle state or an inactive state to obtain multicast configuration information.

Exemplarily, the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application may include two possible solutions, which are referred to as solution one and solution two for ease of description. In scheme one, the network device sends the first information to the terminal device in the idle state or in the inactive state. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the first information from the network device, and the first information is used to instruct the terminal device to use a common channel or system The message obtains the multicast configuration information; the terminal device can then receive the common channel or system message and obtain the multicast configuration information. Using this solution, on the one hand, the terminal device does not need to enter the connected state, which can effectively reduce the signaling overhead required for the establishment of the RRC connection between the terminal device and the network device, and also reduce the delay for the terminal device to obtain the multicast configuration; on the other hand, On the one hand, since network devices can send multicast configuration information through public channels or system messages, compared to sending multicast configuration information to terminal devices separately through unicast, the processing burden and signaling overhead of network devices are effectively reduced. , It also increases the flexibility of network equipment regulation. In the second solution, the network device can send multicast configuration information to the terminal device during the random access process of the terminal device, compared to the way that the network device sends the multicast configuration information to the terminal device after the terminal device enters the connected state. In other words, it can effectively reduce signaling overhead.

The relevant technical features involved in the embodiments of the present application will be introduced below. It should be noted that these explanations are for making the embodiments of the present application easier to understand, and should not be regarded as limiting the scope of protection required by the present application.

One, scrambling

Scrambling is a processing method of digital signals, which uses scrambling code to XOR with the original signal to obtain a new signal. Usually the role of uplink physical channel scrambling is to distinguish different terminal devices, and downlink scrambling can distinguish between cells and channels. Among them, the scrambling code can be used to scramble and descramble the original signal. For example, a scrambling code can be used to scramble the DCI, specifically, a cyclic redundancy check (cyclic redundancy check, CRC) field of the DCI can be scrambled. Correspondingly, the terminal device descrambles the received DCI. Specifically, the terminal device descrambles the CRC field of the DCI using a corresponding type of scrambling code to determine the format or type of the DCI.

The scrambling codes involved in the embodiments of this application mainly include: temporary cell radio network temporary identifier (TC-RNTI), random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI), search Call the radio network temporary identity (paging radio network tempory identity, P-RNTI), G-RNTI.

2. Random access process

The random access process refers to the process from when a terminal device sends a random access signal to try to access the network, to the process before a basic signaling connection is established with the network device. The random access signal can be used to initiate a random access process. For example, the random access signal can be a random access preamble. The random access process may also be referred to as random access or random access mode, which is not distinguished in this application, and can be used instead in the following description.

According to whether the random access preamble sent by the terminal device is selected by the terminal device itself, the random access process can be divided into a contention-based random access process and a non-contention-based random access process. Among them, for the contention-based random access process, the terminal device can select the preamble; for the non-contention-based random access process, the network device can allocate the preamble to the terminal device.

The following takes the contention-based random access process as an example to describe some steps included in the random access process initiated by a terminal device in an idle state or an inactive state. Exemplarily, the embodiment of the present application provides two random access procedures, which are a four-step random access procedure and a two-step random access procedure, respectively.

Fig. 6a is a schematic diagram of a four-step random access process provided by an embodiment of this application. As shown in Figure 6a, it includes the following steps:

Step 0: The network device sends random access configuration information to the terminal device, and the terminal device can receive the random access configuration information from the network device. This step may be used to perform the preparatory work before the random access process, and is not a step included in the random access process. Here, the random access configuration information may be used to configure random access parameters, and the random access parameters may include a random access preamble set.

Step a1: The terminal device sends a random access request to the network device. The random access request may include a random access preamble, and the network device receives the random access preamble from the terminal device. Among them, the random access request is also called the first message or message 1 (Msg1) in the random access process.

Here, the random access preamble sent by the terminal device to the network device may be a random access preamble selected by the terminal device from the random access preamble set for random access obtained in step 0.

Step a2: After detecting the random access preamble sent by the terminal device, the network device sends a random access response (RAR) to the terminal device, and the terminal device receives the random access response from the network device. The access response is also called the second message or message 2 (Msg2) in the random access process.

Exemplarily, when the network device detects the random access time-frequency resource for sending the preamble, it can calculate the RA-RNTI (the generation of RA-RNTI is related to the time-frequency resource used by the terminal device to send the preamble), and the network device uses RA-RNTI scrambles DCI. The network device sends the response information for the preamble to the terminal device. The terminal device knows the time-frequency resource information for sending the preamble, and can also calculate the RA-RNTI, and then use the RA-RNTI on the PDCCH to monitor the DCI (DCI is used for Schedule the PDSCH carrying Msg2), and then receive Msg2 according to the monitored DCI.

Exemplarily, Msg2 may include timing advance command (TAC), uplink grant (uplink grant), TC-RNTI, and the like. Among them, the uplink authorization is used to indicate the uplink resources allocated by the network device to the terminal device, and the TC-RNTI is the temporary identifier allocated by the network device to the terminal device.

Step a3: The terminal device sends uplink signaling to the network device, and the network device receives the uplink signaling from the terminal device. Among them, the uplink signaling is also called the third message or message 3 (Msg3) in the random access process.

Exemplarily, the terminal device may send Msg3 on the uplink resource indicated by the uplink grant according to the timing advance (TA) indicated by the TAC. Msg3 may include common control channel (CCCH) information.

Exemplarily, Msg3 may be an RRC connection establishment request message, an RRC connection reestablishment request message, an RRC connection restoration request message, and the like.

Step a4: The network device receives Msg3 and sends a contention resolution message (CRM) to the terminal device. Accordingly, the terminal device can receive a contention resolution message from the network device, where the contention resolution message is also called the fourth message Or message 4 (Msg4).

Here, when the network device sends the contention resolution message to the terminal device, the TC-RNTI may be used to scramble the DCI for scheduling the contention resolution message. Correspondingly, after the terminal device monitors the TC-RNTI scrambled DCI, it can receive the contention resolution message according to the DCI, and combine the contention resolution identifier (CRID) in the contention resolution message with the common control channel carried in Msg3 The information is matched, and if the matching is successful, the terminal device considers that the contention resolution is successful, that is, the random access is successful, and then enters the connected state or completes the establishment of the RRC connection; otherwise, the terminal device considers the random access failed.

Figure 6b is a schematic diagram of a two-step random access process provided by an embodiment of this application. As shown in Figure 6b, it includes the following steps:

Step b1: The terminal device sends MsgA to the network device.

Here, MsgA can also be referred to as message A, including random access preamble and uplink signaling, which is equivalent to Msg1 and Msg3 in the four-step random access process in Figure 6a. It can also be understood as combining Msg1 and Msg3. Put it in "Send together".

Exemplarily, there may be a correspondence between the random access resources and the PUSCH, and the correspondence may be pre-configured. When a terminal device triggers random access, it can select a random access resource to send a random access preamble, and send uplink signaling on the PUSCH corresponding to the selected random access resource (for example, it can be an RRC connection establishment request or RRC Messages such as connection re-establishment or RRC connection re-recovery), and then can monitor the MsgB sent by the network device.

Step b2, the network device sends MsgB to the terminal device.

Here, MsgB is the response information to the random access request, which may also be referred to as message B, and includes at least one of the response information to the random access preamble and the response information to the uplink signaling. The response information for the random access preamble is the random access response information, which can include TA commands, TC-RNTI, and UL grant; the response information for the uplink signaling is the contention resolution message.

It should be noted that in the current two-step random access process, when a network device sends a contention resolution identifier to a terminal device in an idle or inactive state, the possible method is: the network device uses a common RNTI to DCI (The DCI is used for scheduling contention resolution messages) scramble, correspondingly, the terminal device monitors the DCI according to the public RNTI, and receives the contention resolution message according to the received DCI, and then judges whether the random access is successful.

3. Paging message

In a wireless communication system, network equipment will send messages to terminals according to different business needs. For example, network equipment can send short messages to terminal equipment, such as system message update instructions, earthquake or tsunami notifications, etc.; The terminal equipment in the active state or the connected state can receive short messages. For another example, a network device can send a paging message (used to page a terminal device) to a terminal device. For this type of paging message, the terminal device in the idle or inactive state can receive it, while the terminal device in the connected state cannot Need to receive.

The paging message is introduced below. The network device may periodically send paging messages. As shown in FIG. 6c, in a paging cycle, there may be multiple paging frames (PF), and each PF may have multiple POs. Taking terminal device 1 as an example, both network device and terminal device 1 can determine the PO corresponding to terminal device 1 according to the identification of terminal device 1, and then the network device can send DCI on the PO corresponding to terminal device 1 (the DCI is used for scheduling search Paging message, the DCI is scrambled using P-RNTI), and the paging message is sent on the time-frequency resource indicated by the DCI; accordingly, the terminal device 1 can use the P-RNTI on the PO to monitor the DCI, and according to the received The DCI receives the paging message and obtains the specific content of the paging message. Exemplarily, the paging message may include a paging record list (PagingRecordlist), and the paging record list includes one or more terminal device identities. After receiving a paging message, a terminal device in an idle or inactive state can initiate a random access process to the network device if it is determined that the identification of the terminal device is included in the paging record list; if it is determined that the paging record list is not Including the identification of the terminal device, you can continue to receive paging messages in the next paging cycle.

Furthermore, the 5G communication system supports multi-beam operation. In order to achieve full coverage of paging, paging with beam scanning can be performed. In the context of beam scanning, the time length of a PO is the time length of a beam scanning period, and a PO can contain A group of PDCCH monitoring moments. That is to say, referring to Figure 6d, a PO can contain multiple slots (each slot contains a PDCCH monitoring moment), and the number of slots contained in a PO is determined by the system synchronization block broadcasted by the system ( The number of system synchronization blocks (SSB) is determined, and the k-th PDCCH monitoring moment in a PO corresponds to the k-th SSB beam.

In the embodiment of this application, after the network device receives the paging instruction information sent by the core network device, if it determines that the terminal device needs to be paged, it can send the DCI used to schedule the paging message, and then send it on the resource indicated by the DCI Paging message.

Further, after the network device receives the paging instruction information sent by the core network device, it can also determine whether it needs to generate a short message according to requirements (such as whether there is a system message change, whether there is an earthquake or tsunami that needs to be notified). If a message changes or there is an earthquake or tsunami that needs to be notified, a short message is generated, and the short message includes a system message change instruction or an earthquake or tsunami notification. As shown in Table 1, it is an example of short message content.

Table 1: Examples of short message content

According to Table 1, the short message includes 8 bits, of which 1 bit (ie bit 1) is used to carry system message change instructions, 1 bit (ie bit 2) is used for ETWS messages and CMAS messages, and the remaining 6 bits (Ie, bits 3-8) are reserved bits.

After the network device generates the short message, the short message can be carried in the DCI used to schedule the paging message. The DCI used to schedule the paging message can also include a short message indicator. The short message indicator can include 2 In an example, when the value of 2 bits is "00", it means that the 2 bits are reserved bits; when the value of 2 bits is "01", it means that the DCI includes the search Paging message scheduling information; when the value of 2 bits is "10", it means that the DCI includes short messages; when the value of 2 bits is "11", it means that the DCI includes paging message scheduling Information and short messages.

Four, public channel

The common channel can be a channel shared by multiple terminal devices, that is, multiple terminal devices can receive information on the channel. For example, the common channel can be a multicast control channel (multicast control channel) or a single cell MBMS point-to-multipoint control channel (SC-MCCH), which is not specifically limited.

Taking the common channel as the SC-MCCH as an example, the SC-MCCH will be introduced below.

Two logical channels are introduced in SC-PTM technology, including SC-MCCH and single cell multicast transport channel (SC-MTCH), of which there is only one SC-MCCH, which is used to transmit control information, including SC -MTCH configuration information. SC-MTCH is used to transmit multicast service data, and each multicast service corresponds to one SC-MTCH, as shown in Figure 6e.

The SC-MCCH is sent in a periodic manner. Exemplarily, the network device may broadcast the configuration information of SC-MCCH through a system message (such as system information block (SIB) 20), and the configuration information includes the modification period of the SC-MCCH and the repetition period of the SC-MCCH, etc. , As shown in Figure 6f. The network device periodically sends the SC-MCCH according to the repetition period of the SC-MCCH configured by the SIB20. SC-MCCH uses the modification period mechanism, that is, the content carried by the SC-MCCH sent by the network device in the repetitive period of a modification period is the same. If the content carried by the SC-MCCH needs to be modified, the network device can start from the boundary of the modification period Send the SC-MCCH that carries the modified content, that is, the updated SC-MCCH. Among them, the network equipment may also send a SC-MCCH modification notification from the boundary of the modification period, and the modification notification is carried in the DCI scrambled based on the single cell-notification radio network temporary identification (single cell-notification RNTI, SC-N-RNTI) . When the terminal device receives the SC-MCCH modification notification, it can receive the SC-MCCH carrying the modified content, that is, the SC-MCCH modification notification and the SC-MCCH carrying the modified content can be sent in the same modification period. As shown in Figure 6f.

Based on the above description of related features, the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application will be described in detail below in conjunction with Embodiment 1 to Embodiment 4.

Example one

In the first embodiment, a possible implementation of the communication method will be described based on the above scheme 1.

FIG. 7a is a schematic diagram of a process corresponding to the communication method provided in Embodiment 1 of this application, as shown in FIG. 7a, including:

Step 701: The network device sends first information to the terminal device, where the first information is used to instruct the terminal device to obtain multicast configuration information of the multicast service through a common channel or a system message.

Exemplarily, the first information may also be used to indicate a change in a common channel or system message, where a change in a common channel can be understood as a change in the information carried by the common channel. For example, the information carried by the common channel before the change does not include much information. The multicast configuration information of the broadcast service, and the information carried by the changed common channel includes the multicast configuration information of the multicast service; similarly, the change of the system message can be understood as the change of the information carried by the system message, such as the system before the change The information carried in the message does not include the multicast configuration information of the multicast service, and the information carried in the changed system message includes the multicast configuration information of the multicast service. Regarding the common channel, taking the common channel as SC-MCCH as an example, referring to the previous introduction, it can be seen that the network device can send a SC-MCCH modification notification to indicate that the terminal device SC-MCCH has changed; in this embodiment of the application, The network device may also send the first information to the terminal device to indicate that the SC-MCCH of the terminal device has changed. Further, the first information may also indicate the multicast configuration information of the changed SC-MCCH to carry the multicast service. For system messages, the network device may send a system message change instruction to indicate that the terminal device system message has changed; in this embodiment of the application, the network device may also send first information to the terminal device to indicate that the terminal device system message has occurred. Further, the first information may also indicate that the changed system message carries the multicast configuration information of the multicast service.

In the following, the first information instructs the terminal device to obtain the multicast configuration information of the multicast service through the system message as an example for description. The first information indicates that the terminal device obtains the multicast configuration information of the multicast service through the common channel. A piece of information indicates that the terminal device obtains the relevant description of the multicast configuration information of the multicast service through the system message. For example, in the following introduction, the content of the system message can be adaptively replaced with the content of the common channel.

Correspondingly, in step 702, the terminal device receives the first information from the network device.

Here, the multicast service is used as multicast service 1. When multiple terminal devices (such as terminal device 1, terminal device 2, terminal device 3, terminal device 4, and terminal device 5) are interested in multicast service 1, Steps 401 to 404 described in FIG. 4b can be performed, and the corresponding relationship between the identification of the terminal device and the identification of the multicast service that the terminal device is interested in can be maintained in the core network device and the network device. After the core network device receives the data of the multicast service 1, it can send paging indication information to one or more network devices (for example, if the terminal device 1 to the terminal device 5 are in an idle state, the paging indication information may include the terminal device 1 to the identification of the terminal device 5), so that the terminal device 1 to the terminal device 5 enter the connected state to receive the data of the multicast service 1. Taking terminal device 1 and terminal device 2 located within the coverage area of network device 1, and terminal device 3, terminal device 4, and terminal device 5 located within the coverage area of network device 2, for example, after network device 1 receives the paging instruction information, The terminal device 2 can be paged first, and then the terminal device 2 enters the connected state. Further, the core network device knows that the terminal device 2 interested in the multicast service 1 is connected to the network device 1, and then the data of the multicast service 1 It is transmitted to the network device 1 so that the subsequent network device 1 can send the data of the multicast service 1 to the corresponding terminal device. After the network device 2 receives the paging instruction information, it can page the terminal device 3 first, and then the terminal device 3 enters the connected state. Furthermore, the core network device learns that the terminal device 3 interested in the multicast service 1 is connected to the network device 2 If connected, the data of the multicast service 1 can be transmitted to the network device 2, so that the subsequent network device 2 can send the data of the multicast service 1 to the corresponding terminal device.

Take network device 1 as an example. After network device 1 receives the data of multicast service 1 transmitted by the core network device, if it determines to send the data of multicast service 1 in multicast mode, it can obtain the multicast configuration of multicast service 1 Information 1. Among them, the network device 1 may determine whether to send the data of the multicast service 1 in a multicast manner according to various bases, which are not limited in the embodiment of the present application. There may be multiple ways for the network device to obtain the multicast configuration information 1 of the multicast service 1. For example, refer to the existing solutions.

Exemplarily, the multicast configuration information of the multicast service may include the identifier of the multicast service and the G-RNTI associated with the multicast service, and the identifier of the multicast service may be information used to identify the multicast service, for example, the multicast service The identifier of may include the Internet protocol (IP) and/or port number of the multicast service. The identifier of the multicast service may be sent by the application server to the core network device, and then sent by the core network device to the network device. The multicast configuration information of the multicast service may also include at least one of the following: bandwidth part (BWP) information corresponding to the G-RNTI associated with the multicast service, the PDSCH scrambling sequence of the multicast service, and the information associated with the multicast service. G-RNTI DRX parameters, demodulation reference signal and rate matching reference signal. The BWP information corresponding to G-RNTI includes at least one of the following: bandwidth, frequency position, subcarrier spacing (SCS), cyclic prefix (CP) length, control-resource set (CORESET) ) Related configuration information and PDSCH-related configuration information. COREST information is used to indicate the time-frequency resource where the PDCCH scrambled by G-RNTI is located; the PDSCH scrambling sequence of the multicast service is used for terminal equipment to use the PDSCH scrambling sequence to decode Scrambling the PDSCH of multicast services; G-RNTI DRX parameters are used for terminal equipment to use the DRX parameters for G-RNTI detection; demodulation reference signal is used for terminal equipment to use the demodulation reference signal for G-RNTI scheduling PDSCH demodulation ; The rate matching reference signal is used for the terminal equipment to exclude the position corresponding to the demodulation reference signal when receiving the PDSCH scheduled by the G-RNTI. The identification of the terminal device mentioned above may be information used to identify the terminal device, such as the international mobile subscriber identification number (IMSI) or the temporary mobile subscriber identification number (SAE-temporary mobile subscriber identity, S- TMSI).

Further, after the network device 1 receives the data of the multicast service 1 transmitted by the core network device, it can send the first information to the terminal device 1 to instruct the terminal device 1 to obtain the multicast configuration information 1 through the system message, so as to reduce the number of terminal devices 1. Enter the connected state to obtain the signaling overhead caused by the multicast configuration information 1.

In an example, before the network device 1 sends the first information to the terminal device 1, it can also determine whether the number of RRC connections of the network device 1 is greater than the first threshold. The number of RRC connections of the network device 1 can be understood as: The number of terminal devices that establish an RRC connection with network device 1. For example, if network device 1 determines that the number of RRC connections is greater than the first threshold, it means that the number of terminal devices that establish RRC connections with network device 1 is large, and the processing burden of network device 1 is relatively large, and network device 1 can send terminal device 1 to terminal device 1. Send the first information to reduce the processing burden of network device 1; if the number of RRC connections of network device 1 is less than or equal to the first threshold, network device 1 can page terminal device 1 to enter the connected state to obtain multicast configuration information, or The first information may also be sent to the terminal device 1, and the specific operation to be performed depends on the internal implementation of the network device 1.

In another example, before the network device 1 sends the first information to the terminal device 1, it may also determine the terminal device that has established an RRC connection with the network device 1 and the requested multicast service is the same as the multicast service requested by the terminal device 1. Whether the number of terminals is greater than the second threshold (or whether it is determined whether the number of terminal devices that have established an RRC connection with the network device 1 and are interested in the multicast service 1 is greater than the second threshold), if it is greater than the second threshold, the network device 1 can Send the first information to the terminal device 1. If it is less than or equal to the second threshold, the network device 1 can page the terminal device 1 to enter the connected state to obtain the multicast configuration information 1, or can also send the first information to the terminal device 1.

The foregoing first threshold or second threshold may be agreed upon by a protocol; or, it may also be pre-configured for the network device 1. For example, the first threshold or the second threshold may be related to the processing capability of the network device 1.

Exemplarily, if the terminal device 2 enters the connected state to obtain the multicast configuration information 1 of the multicast service 1, and the terminal device 1 obtains the multicast configuration information 1 of the multicast service 1 through the system message, the multicast configuration obtained by the terminal device 1 The information 1 and the multicast configuration information 1 obtained by the terminal device 2 may be the same.

In the embodiments of the present application, there may be multiple implementation manners for the network device to send the first information to the terminal device, and three possible manners are exemplarily described below.

Way 1

The paging message sent by the network device to the terminal device may carry the first information. Further, the paging message may also include a paging record list. When the terminal device receives the paging message sent by the network device, if it is determined that the identification of the terminal device is included in the paging message, it can initiate a random access process to enter the connected state to obtain the multicast configuration information; If the message does not include the identification of the terminal device, it can be determined according to the first information that the multicast configuration information needs to be acquired through a system message.

Exemplarily, there may be multiple ways of indicating the first information. In an example, the first information may include 1 bit. For example, the value of this bit is 1, which indicates that the terminal device is instructed to obtain the multicast configuration information of the multicast service through system messages; the value of this bit is 0, which indicates that the terminal device is not instructed to obtain the multicast configuration information through system messages. Multicast configuration information of the multicast service. For another example, if the paging message includes the first information, it indicates that the terminal device is instructed to obtain the multicast configuration information of the multicast service through the system message, and the paging message does not include the first information, it indicates that the terminal device is not instructed to obtain the multicast configuration information through the system message. Multicast configuration information of the multicast service.

In yet another example, the first information may include the identification of the multicast service. For example, when the paging message includes the identifier of the multicast service, it means that the terminal device is instructed to obtain the multicast configuration information of the multicast service corresponding to the identifier of the multicast service through the system message. When the paging message does not include the terminal device The identifier of indicates that the terminal device is not instructed to obtain the multicast configuration information of the multicast service corresponding to the identifier of the multicast service through a system message. Exemplarily, the existing paging message can be extended, such as adding a first field to the paging message, and the first field is used to carry the first information. The first field can be PagingforService-IEs. The following is an example of the format of the expanded paging message:

Way 2

The network device sends the first DCI to the terminal device. The first DCI is used to schedule a paging message. The first DCI may transmit the first information in an explicit or implicit manner, thereby instructing the terminal device to obtain multicast configuration information through a system message.

In an example, the first DCI includes first information. For example, the first information may include 1 bit, and for example, the first information may include the identifier of a multicast service; and then, after the terminal device receives the first DCI, it may One information determines that the multicast configuration information needs to be obtained through system messages. If the first DCI includes a short message, the reserved bits in the short message can be used to carry the first information, so that the resource overhead of the first DCI can be saved.

Further, the reserved bits may have a corresponding relationship with the identifier of the multicast service, and the corresponding relationship may be one-to-one (for example, one bit corresponds to the identifier of one multicast service) or one-to-many (for example, one bit corresponds to multiple multicast services). Service ID) or many-to-many (for example, multiple bits correspond to multiple multicast service IDs). For example, if the corresponding relationship is one-to-one, that is, bits 3-8 respectively correspond to the identifiers of multicast service 1 to multicast service 6, then after the terminal device receives the first DCI, if the value of bit 3 is 1, It is determined that the multicast configuration information of the multicast service 1 needs to be acquired through system messages. The reserved bits may have a corresponding relationship with the identifier of the multicast service, which may be predefined by the protocol, or may also be configured by the network device for the terminal device, for example, the network device may configure the terminal device through a broadcast message.

Optionally, the format of the first DCI may be DCI format 1A or DCI format 6-2 or other possible formats, which are not limited here.

In this example, since the network device adds the first information to the first DCI (or the first information is carried in the first DCI), it can be understood that the first DCI explicitly instructs the terminal device to pass the system message Obtain multicast configuration information.

In another example, the first DCI may be scrambled by the first RNTI, which is different from the P-RNTI, and the terminal device may determine that it needs to be obtained through the system message after receiving the first DCI scrambled by the first RNTI Multicast configuration information. Among them, the first RNTI can be a newly defined RNTI, the first RNTI can be predefined by the protocol, or configured by the network device for the terminal device before the paging process, for example, the network device can use a broadcast message (broadcast message can be (RRC signaling) is configured for terminal equipment. In this example, the network device may not change the content of the first DCI, but scramble the first DCI through the first RNTI, thereby implicitly instructing the terminal device to obtain multicast configuration information through system messages. In this case Below, the first DCI can also be understood as the first information.

In another example, the network device may send the first DCI on the first preset time-frequency resource, and then after receiving the first DCI on the first preset time-frequency resource, the terminal device may determine that it needs to obtain the DCI through a system message. Broadcast configuration information. The first preset time-frequency resource may be predefined by the protocol, or configured by the network device for the terminal device before the paging process, for example, the network device may be configured for the terminal device through a broadcast message. The first preset time-frequency resource may be the time-frequency resource corresponding to part of the PDCCH listening moments among the multiple PDCCH listening moments included in the PO corresponding to the terminal device. For example, the PO corresponding to the terminal device includes 10 PDCCH listening moments, which are respectively PDCCH monitoring time 1 to PDCCH monitoring time 10, then the first preset time-frequency resource may be the time-frequency resource corresponding to PDCCH monitoring time 2 and PDCCH monitoring time 5. In other words, if the terminal device receives the first DCI at PDCCH monitoring time 2 or PDCCH monitoring time 5, it can be determined that the multicast configuration information needs to be acquired through system messages.

In this manner, after the terminal device receives the first DCI, it can obtain the multicast configuration information through the system message without receiving the paging message. Therefore, after the network device sends the first DCI, it does not need to send the paging message. Paging messages of terminal equipment, thereby saving paging signaling overhead.

Way 3

The network device can send a downlink message to the terminal device during the random access process of the terminal device. The downlink message can carry the first information in an explicit or implicit manner, that is, instruct the terminal device to pass the system message in an explicit or implicit manner. Obtain multicast configuration information. Among them, the downlink message may be Msg4 in the four-step random access process or the second DCI for scheduling Msg4, or the downlink message may also be MsgB in the two-step random access process or the third DCI for scheduling MsgB. .

Exemplarily, the network device may establish and store the mapping relationship between the identifier of the terminal device (and/or the identifier of the multicast service that the terminal device is interested in) and the access reason. Among them, the access reasons may include multiple types. For ease of description, the embodiment of this application divides the access reasons into two types. The first type of access reason is to obtain multicast configuration information. The reasons for entry are collectively referred to as the second reason for entry. There are many ways for the network equipment to establish the mapping relationship between the identification of the terminal equipment and the access reason. For example, after the network equipment determines to transmit the data of the multicast service 1 in the multicast mode, it can determine that it is interested in the multicast service 1. The reason for the access of the terminal device is to obtain the multicast configuration information 1 of the multicast service 1. As shown in Table 2, an example of the mapping relationship between the identification of the terminal device and the access reason is stored for the network device.

Table 2: Example of the mapping relationship between terminal device identification and access reason

终端设备的标识Identification of terminal equipment	接入原因Reason for access
终端设备1的标识Identification of terminal device 1	第一种接入原因The first reason for access
终端设备2的标识Identification of terminal device 2	第一种接入原因The first reason for access
终端设备3的标识Identification of terminal device 3	第一种接入原因The first reason for access
终端设备4的标识Identification of terminal device 4	第二种接入原因The second reason for access

Exemplarily, since the random access process of the terminal device may be a four-step random access process or a two-step random access process, the following describes these two situations respectively.

Case 1: The random access process is a four-step random access process

For scenario 1, the Msg3 sent by the terminal device to the network device may include the identification of the terminal device and/or the identification of the multicast service that the terminal device is interested in. The identification of the multicast service of interest and the pre-stored mapping relationship determine the access reason of the terminal device. Alternatively, the Msg3 sent by the terminal device to the network device may include the access reason value, and accordingly, the network device can determine the access reason of the terminal device according to the access reason value.

Among them, there may be multiple ways for the terminal device to determine the reason for access. For example, after the core network device determines that the data of the multicast service arrives, it can send the identifier of the multicast service to the network device. For example, the paging instruction information sent by the core network device to the network device carries the identifier of the multicast service; Paging indication information, when paging the terminal device, the identifier of the multicast service can be carried in the paging message to indicate the arrival of the data of the multicast service of the terminal device; accordingly, if the terminal device determines the information carried in the paging message The identifier of the multicast service is the identifier of the multicast service of interest, and then an access reason value (the access reason value is used to indicate the acquisition of multicast configuration information) can be generated, carried in the aforementioned Msg3, and sent to the network device.

In an example, the Msg3 sent by the terminal device to the network device includes the identity of the terminal device and/or the identity of the multicast service that the terminal device is interested in. Accordingly, the network device is based on the identity of the terminal device and/or the terminal device is interested in If it is determined that the access reason of the terminal device is the first type of access reason, the first information may be carried in the Msg4 sent to the terminal device, and the first information may include 1. One bit or the identifier of the multicast service, and then after the terminal device receives the Msg4, it can determine according to the Msg4 that it needs to obtain the multicast configuration information through the system message. In this example, because the content of the network device Msg4, that is, the first information is added to Msg4 (or the first information is carried in Msg4), it can be understood that Msg4 carries the first information in an explicit manner, that is, through The explicit method instructs the terminal device to obtain multicast configuration information through system messages.

In another example, the Msg3 sent by the terminal device to the network device may include the identity of the terminal device and/or the identity of the multicast service that the terminal device is interested in. The identification of the multicast service of interest and the pre-stored mapping relationship, if it is determined that the access reason of the terminal device is the first type of access reason, the second DCI may be sent to the terminal device, and the second DCI is used for scheduling Msg4. The second DCI may carry the first information in an explicit or implicit manner, that is, in an explicit or implicit manner, instruct the terminal device to obtain multicast configuration information through system messages. For example, the second DCI may include the first information (explicit) , Or the second DCI can be scrambled with a newly defined second RNTI (implicit), or the second DCI can be carried on a second preset time-frequency resource (implicit).

In this manner, after the terminal device receives the second DCI, it can obtain multicast configuration information through system messages without receiving Msg4. Therefore, after the network device sends the second DCI, it does not need to send Msg4 again, thereby saving signaling. Overhead.

Scenario 2: The random access process is a two-step random access process

For scenario 2, the MsgA sent by the terminal device to the network device may include the identity of the terminal device and/or the identity of the multicast service that the terminal device is interested in. Correspondingly, the network device is based on the identity of the terminal device and/or the sense of the terminal device. The identification of the multicast service of interest and the pre-stored mapping relationship determine the access reason of the terminal device. Alternatively, the MsgA sent by the terminal device to the network device may include the access reason value, and accordingly, the network device can determine the access reason of the terminal device according to the access reason value.

In an example, the MsgA sent by the terminal device to the network device may include the identity of the terminal device and/or the identity of the multicast service that the terminal device is interested in. Accordingly, the network device can be based on the identity of the terminal device and/or the sense of the terminal device. The identification of the multicast service of interest and the pre-stored mapping relationship. If it is determined that the access reason of the terminal device is the first type of access reason, the first information may be carried in the MsgB sent to the terminal device, and the first information may include 1 bit or the identifier of the multicast service, and then after the terminal device receives the MsgB, it can determine according to the MsgB that it needs to obtain the multicast configuration information through a system message. In this example, because the content of the network device MsgB, that is, the first information is added to MsgB (or the first information is carried in MsgB), it can be understood that MsgB carries the first information in an explicit manner, that is, through The explicit method instructs the terminal device to obtain multicast configuration information through system messages.

In another example, the MsgA sent by the terminal device to the network device may include the identity of the terminal device and/or the identity of the multicast service that the terminal device is interested in. The identification of the multicast service of interest and the pre-stored mapping relationship, if it is determined that the access reason of the terminal device is the first type of access reason, a third DCI may be sent to the terminal device, and the third DCI is used for scheduling MsgB. The third DCI may carry the first information in an explicit or implicit manner, that is, in an explicit or implicit manner, instruct the terminal device to obtain multicast configuration information through system messages. For example, the third DCI may include the first information (explicit) , Or the third DCI can be scrambled with a newly defined third RNTI (implicit), or the third DCI can be carried on a third preset time-frequency resource (implicit).

In this example, after the terminal device receives the third DCI, it can obtain multicast configuration information through system messages without receiving MsgB. Therefore, after the network device sends the third DCI, it does not need to send MsgB, thereby saving signaling. Overhead.

Step 703: The network device sends a system message, and the system message includes the multicast configuration information.

Correspondingly, in step 704, the terminal device receives the system message from the network device, and then obtains the multicast configuration information.

Exemplarily, in step 703, the network device may periodically send the system message. For example, the network device may send the system message according to the repetition period of the system message. After the network device obtains the multicast configuration information, it can carry the multicast configuration information in the system message. To facilitate distinction, in the embodiment of the present application, the system message that does not carry the multicast configuration information is called the first system message, and the system message that carries the multicast configuration information is called the second system message. Refer to Figure 7b, which is a schematic diagram of system messages periodically sent by a network device; in the system message change period 0, the network device sends the first system message, and then the network device obtains the multicast configuration information, and then carries the multicast configuration information In the system message, the second system message is further sent in the system message change period 1 and the system message change period 2. It should be noted that in a system message change period, the content of the system message sent by the network device according to the repetition period may be the same.

In a possible implementation, after receiving the first information, the terminal device can immediately receive the system message to obtain the multicast configuration information, or it can be ready to receive the system message at the time of the latest system message transmission, or it can be in the first The second system message from the network device is received in the same system message change cycle or the same frame or the same subframe or the same time slot or the same sub-slot (sub-slot) where the information is located. For example, referring to Figure 7b, the first information and the second system message in period 2 are in the same system message change period, and after receiving the first information, the terminal device can receive the same system message change period (that is, the system message change period). 2) The second system message within. In this way, the terminal device can obtain the multicast configuration information in time, which reduces the delay for the terminal device to obtain the multicast configuration.

In another possible implementation manner, after receiving the first information, the terminal device may receive the system message at the first moment to obtain the multicast configuration information. Among them, the terminal device may determine the first moment in multiple ways. In an example, the first moment may be predefined by the protocol. For example, the first moment may be the closest to the end time of the time domain resource carrying the first information. Frame boundary or subframe boundary or slot boundary. In another example, the network device may send instruction information to the terminal device, the instruction information may be used to indicate the first moment, and then the network device may determine the first moment according to the instruction information; wherein the instruction information may be included in the first information, Or the instruction information and the first information can be sent through the same message, which is not specifically limited. In this way, the first moment is indicated by the network device, which can effectively ensure that the terminal device obtains the multicast configuration information through the system message, and avoids the terminal device from needing to continuously detect the system message for a long time.

In this example, the indication information may indicate the first moment in multiple ways. For example, in a possible indication manner, the indication information may include time information at the first moment. For example, the first time is a time in absolute time (such as coordinated universal time (UTC) or global positioning system (GPS) time). Take UTC time as an example. If the first time is X1 hour X2 minutes X3 seconds X4 milliseconds X5 microseconds, the indication information may include the values of X1, X2, X3, X4, and X5. In another possible indication manner, the indication information can be used to indicate the first duration, and the first duration can be understood as a time offset; based on the end time of the time domain resource carrying the first information, the first time The first time length is added to the end time of the time domain resource of a piece of information to get the first time; that is, the first time length can be the time length between the end time of the time domain resource carrying the first information and the first time. Or, the first duration is a time offset of the first moment relative to the end moment of the time domain resource carrying the first information. The unit of the first duration can be a time unit measured in absolute time, such as seconds, milliseconds, microseconds, or nanoseconds; or, it can also be a time slot, mini-slot, subframe, etc.; or, it can also be other The possible time units are not specifically limited.

With the above method, since the network device can instruct the terminal device to obtain the multicast configuration information through the system message, the terminal device does not need to enter the connected state to obtain the multicast configuration information. On the one hand, it can effectively save the signaling overhead and reduce the terminal equipment. The delay of obtaining the multicast configuration; on the other hand, since the network device can instruct the terminal device to obtain the multicast configuration information through a system message, the flexibility of network device control is improved.

Example two

In the second embodiment, a possible process of the solution involved in the first embodiment will be described.

FIG. 8a is a schematic flowchart of a communication method provided in Embodiment 2 of this application. As shown in FIG. 8a, the method includes:

Assuming that terminal device 1, terminal device 2, and terminal device 3 are terminal devices that are interested in multicast service 1, and terminal device 1, terminal device 2, and terminal device 3 are all within the coverage of network device 1, terminal device 1 and The terminal device 2 is in an idle state or an inactive state, and the terminal device 3 is in a connected state.

In step 801, the core network device receives the data of the multicast service 1.

In step 802, the core network device sends paging instruction information to the network device 1, and the paging instruction information includes the identities of the terminal device 1 and the terminal device 2.

Here, according to the corresponding relationship maintained by the core network equipment, it can be known that the terminal equipment that is interested in the multicast service 1 includes the terminal equipment 1, the terminal equipment 2, and the terminal equipment 3. Since the terminal equipment 3 is in the connected state, the paging instruction information is displayed. The identification of the terminal device 1 and the terminal device 2 may be included.

Further, the core network device learns that the terminal device 3 is in the connected state and is located within the coverage of the network device 1, and can send the data of the multicast service 1 to the network device 1. Accordingly, the network device 1 can receive the multicast service 1 data.

If the network device 1 determines to send the data of the multicast service 1 in multicast mode, it can generate multicast configuration information and send the multicast configuration information to the terminal device 3, and then the terminal device 3 can receive the multicast according to the multicast configuration information Data for business 1.

In step 803, the network device 1 receives the paging instruction information, and determines that the terminal device 1 and the terminal device 2 need to be paged.

In step 804, the network device 1 sends a paging message 2 to the terminal device 2, and the paging record list in the paging message 2 includes the identification of the terminal device 2.

In step 805, after receiving the paging message 2 from the network device 1, the terminal device 2 establishes an RRC connection with the network device 1, and then the terminal device 2 enters the connected state.

In step 806, the network device 1 sends the multicast configuration information of the multicast service 1 to the terminal device 2, and then the terminal device 2 can receive the data of the multicast service 1 according to the multicast configuration information.

Here, the network device 1 can send the multicast configuration information to the terminal device 2 in a variety of possible ways, for example, through DCI, medium access control control element (MAC CE), or RRC signaling, specifically Not limited.

Step 807: The network device 1 sends the paging message 1 to the terminal device 1. The paging message 1 includes the first information (such as the identifier of the multicast service 1), and the paging record list in the paging message 1 does not include the terminal device. 1’s logo.

Here, the network device 1 may send the paging message 1 to the terminal device 1 after determining that the number of RRC connections of the network device 1 is greater than or equal to the first threshold.

In step 808, the terminal device 1 receives the paging message 1, and determines according to the paging message 1 that it is necessary to obtain the multicast configuration information of the multicast service 1 through a system message.

In step 809, the network device 1 sends a system message, and the system message includes the multicast configuration information of the multicast service 1.

In step 810, the terminal device 1 receives the system message, and obtains the multicast configuration information of the multicast service 1, and then the terminal device 1 can receive the data of the multicast service 1 according to the multicast configuration information.

According to the above content, when there are a large number of terminal devices in idle state or inactive state in the network, by adopting the above method, the network device can instruct some terminal devices to obtain multicast configuration information through system messages, thereby realizing that some terminal devices can pass The system message obtains the multicast configuration information, and another part of the terminal devices enters the connected state to obtain the multicast configuration information. As shown in Figure 8b, compared to all the terminal devices in the idle or inactive state enter the connected state to obtain the multicast configuration information ( As shown in Figure 5), the signaling overhead is greatly reduced.

Example three

According to the description in the second embodiment above, the terminal device 1 is in the idle state or inactive state to receive the data of the multicast service 1, and the terminal device 2 and the terminal device 3 are in the connected state to receive the data of the multicast service 1. In the process shown in Figure 8a, the coverage area of the network device 1 includes three terminal devices interested in the multicast service 1 as an example. In specific implementation, the coverage area of the network device 1 may include a large number of pairs. The terminal devices that are interested in the multicast service 1 may have a large number of terminal devices in a connected state to receive the data of the multicast service 1, resulting in a large processing burden on the network device 1.

Based on this, the embodiment of the present application can provide a solution. For example, the network device 1 can instruct the terminal device in the connected state to receive the data of the multicast service 1 in the idle state or the inactive state, thereby reducing the processing burden of the network device 1. . This solution can be applied to the scenario described in the second embodiment, or can also be applied to other possible scenarios, for example, it can also be applied to the scenario described in FIG. 4b, which is not specifically limited.

Exemplarily, following the example in the second embodiment, the network device 1 may send a first message to the terminal device 2, and the first message is used to instruct the terminal device 2 to receive the data of the multicast service 1 in the idle state or the inactive state, or In other words, the first message is used to instruct the terminal device 2 to release from the connected state to the idle state or the inactive state without releasing the multicast configuration information of the multicast service 1. For example, the first message may be an RRC connection release message or an RRC connection suspension message. The RRC connection release message or the RRC connection suspension message may include field 1, which is used to carry indication information, and the indication information is used to indicate not to release the multicast service 1 The multicast configuration information. Field 1 may include 1 bit. When the value of this bit is 1, it indicates not to release the multicast configuration information of multicast service 1, or when the RRC connection release message or the RRC connection suspension message includes field 1, it indicates not to Release the multicast configuration information of the multicast service 1. The first message may also be other possible RRC messages, which is not specifically limited. Correspondingly, after receiving the first message, the terminal device 2 can release from the connected state to the idle state or the inactive state without releasing the multicast configuration information of the multicast service 1, that is, receive the multicast service in the idle state or the inactive state 1 data.

In the embodiment of the present application, since the terminal device 2 does not release the multicast configuration information of the multicast service 1, it can receive the data of the multicast service 1 in the idle state or the inactive state. The terminal device 2 does not release the multicast configuration information of the multicast service 1 or other possible description methods. For example, the terminal device 2 does not release the data radio bearer (data radio bearer) configured by the network device 1 for the terminal device to carry the multicast service 1. radio bearer, DRB).

Exemplarily, the network device 1 instructs the terminal device in the connected state to go to the idle state or the inactive state to receive the data of the multicast service 1, which may depend on the internal implementation of the network device 1.

In a possible implementation (referred to as implementation 1), the network device 1 can instruct the terminal device closer to the network device 1 (or the terminal device with close coverage) to receive the multicast service in the idle state or in the inactive state. The data of 1, and the terminal device far away from the network device 1 (or the terminal device with far coverage) can receive the data of the multicast service in the connected state. Since the reception quality of the near-covered terminal equipment is better, the near-covered terminal equipment can go to the idle state or inactive state to receive the data of the multicast service 1, which can effectively reduce the network equipment on the basis of ensuring that it receives the multicast service. The processing burden. The network device 1 can determine the terminal device close to the network device 1 in a variety of ways. For example, the network device 1 can determine the terminal device's reference signal receiving power (reference signal receiving power, RSRP) and reference signal receiving quality (reference signal receiving quality). , RSRQ), received signal strength indication (RSSI), and channel quality information (channel quality information, CQI) to determine whether the terminal device is a terminal closer to network device 1 equipment. For another example, the network device 1 may determine whether the terminal device is a terminal device close to the network device 1 according to the measurement result of the channel sounding reference signal (SRS) of the terminal device. For example, if the network device 1 determines that the RSRP of the terminal device 2 is greater than the third threshold, it means that the terminal device 2 is closer to the network device 1, and can then send a first message to the terminal device 2 to instruct the terminal device 2 to release from the connected state To the idle state or the inactive state without releasing the multicast configuration information of the multicast service 1, that is, instruct the terminal device 2 to go to the idle state or the inactive state to receive the data of the multicast service 1. The third threshold may be pre-arranged by the protocol, or determined by the network device itself, and is not specifically limited.

In this implementation, considering the mobility of the terminal device, for example, the terminal device 2 may move from a location closer to the network device 1 to a location farther from the network device 1; when the terminal device 2 moves to a location relatively far from the network device 1 In a remote location, if the data of the multicast service 1 is still received in the idle state or in the inactive state, an abnormality may occur. To solve this problem, the embodiments of the present application can provide a solution. For example, when the terminal device determines that it is not suitable to receive multicast service 1 data in the idle state or the inactive state, it can initiate random access to enter the connected state. Receive multicast service 1 data. This solution can be applied to the terminal device 2 described above, or can also be applied to other terminal devices that are not suitable for receiving the data of the multicast service 1 in the idle state or the inactive state, and the specifics are not limited.

There are many ways for the terminal device to determine whether it is suitable to receive the data of the multicast service 1 in the idle state or the inactive state. For example, the terminal device may determine whether it is suitable for the idle state based on at least one of RSRP, RSRQ, and RSSI. Or the inactive state receives the data of the multicast service 1. For example, following the above example, when the terminal device 2 receives the data of the multicast service 1 in the idle state or the inactive state, if it is determined that the RSRP of the terminal device 2 is less than the fourth threshold, it can initiate random access to enter the connected state. Receive multicast service 1 data. Wherein, the fourth threshold may be determined by the network device and sent to the terminal device.

In addition, after the data transmission of the multicast service 1 is completed, the network device 1 can also keep at least one terminal device interested in the multicast service 1 in the connected state, so that the subsequent core network equipment can determine the data of the multicast service 1 After arrival, it can be learned that the data of the multicast service 1 needs to be sent to the network device 1 based on the terminal device in the connected state. Among them, the network device 1 can determine which terminal device or devices remain in the connected state according to at least one of RSRP, RSRQ, RSSI, and CQI of the terminal device; for another example, the network device 1 can determine which terminal device is in the connected state according to the measurement result of the terminal device's SRS Determine which terminal device or devices continue to be in the connected state; for example, the network device 1 determines whether the RSRP of the terminal device is greater than the fifth threshold, and if so, it can determine whether the terminal device is still in the connected state. For another example, the terminal device may also determine whether to continue to be in the connected state according to at least one of RSRP, RSRQ, and RSSI. For example, if the terminal device determines that the RSRP of the terminal device is greater than the sixth threshold, it may determine to continue to be in the connected state. The fifth threshold may be predefined by the protocol or determined by the network device itself; the sixth threshold may be determined by the network device and sent to the terminal device. In one example, the fifth threshold and the sixth threshold may be the same.

In another possible implementation manner (referred to as implementation manner 2), the network device 1 can instruct the terminal device far away from the network device 1 to receive the data of the multicast service 1 in the idle state or in the inactive state, and the distance from the network device 1 1 Nearer terminal equipment can receive multicast service data in the connected state. By adopting this scheme, by letting the terminal equipment with far coverage go to idle state or inactive state to receive multicast services, it can effectively reduce the processing burden of network equipment; for example, to ensure that the terminal equipment with far coverage is in idle state or inactive state. The state can effectively receive the multicast service. In the embodiment of the present application, the network device may use a low-order modulation method or other possible methods to transmit the multicast service.

For example, if network device 1 determines that the RSRP of terminal device 2 is less than or equal to the seventh threshold, it means that terminal device 2 is far from network device 1, and can send a first message to terminal device 2 instructing terminal device 2 to connect The state is released to the idle state or the inactive state without releasing the multicast configuration information of the multicast service 1, that is, the terminal device 2 is instructed to go to the idle state or the inactive state to receive the data of the multicast service 1. The seventh threshold may be predefined by the protocol or determined by the network device itself.

It should be noted that the difference between implementation 2 and implementation 1 is that: in implementation 1, terminal devices near coverage are allowed to receive multicast service 1 data in the idle/inactive state, while in implementation In 2, it is to let the terminal equipment of the remote coverage go to the idle state/inactive state to receive, other than this difference, the two can refer to each other. For example, in implementation 2, "the terminal device determines whether it is suitable for receiving the data of multicast service 1 in the idle or inactive state" and "after the data transmission of multicast service 1 is completed, the network device 1 can still maintain at least The specific implementation of "a terminal device interested in the multicast service 1 continues to be in the connected state" can be adaptively referred to the relevant description of the foregoing implementation manner 1.

Example four

In the fourth embodiment, a possible implementation of the communication method will be described based on the second solution above.

Fig. 9a is a schematic flowchart corresponding to the communication method provided in the fourth embodiment of this application. As shown in Fig. 9a, the method includes:

Step 901: During the random access process, the terminal device sends the identification of the terminal device and/or the identification of the multicast service that the terminal device is interested in to the network device.

Step 902: The network device receives the identifier of the terminal device and/or the identifier of the multicast service that the terminal device is interested in.

Step 903: The network device determines the access reason of the terminal device according to the identifier of the terminal device and/or the identifier of the multicast service that the terminal device is interested in and the stored mapping relationship. If the access reason of the terminal device is to obtain the multicast configuration information, step 904 is executed; otherwise, the random access process continues to be executed.

Step 904: The network device sends a downlink message in the random access process to the terminal device, and the downlink message includes multicast configuration information.

Step 905: The terminal device receives the downlink message and obtains the multicast configuration information.

Exemplarily, the foregoing random access process may be a four-step random access process or a two-step random access process. If the foregoing random access process may be a four-step random access process, then in step 901, the terminal device may be in Msg3 It carries the identifier of the terminal device and/or the identifier of the multicast service that the terminal device is interested in, and then in step 904, the downlink message sent by the network device may be Msg4, or may also be DCI for scheduling Msg4. If the foregoing random access process can be a two-step random access process, in step 901, the terminal device can carry the identification of the terminal device and/or the identification of the multicast service that the terminal device is interested in in MsgA, and then in step 904 , The downlink message sent by the network device may be MsgB, or may also be DCI for scheduling MsgB.

With the above method, the network device can send the multicast configuration information to the terminal device during the random access process, which can effectively save the signaling overhead for the terminal device to obtain the multicast configuration information.

Regarding the above-mentioned Embodiments 1 to 4, it should be noted that: (1) The above-mentioned Embodiments 1 and 4 can be implemented separately in different scenarios, or can be implemented in combination in the same scenario, or different implementations The different solutions involved in the examples can also be implemented in combination (for example, part or all of the solutions involved in the third embodiment can be implemented in combination with the second embodiment), and the specifics are not limited. For example, referring to Figure 9b, when there are a large number of terminal devices in the idle state or inactive state in the network (for ease of description, these terminal devices are divided into three groups), the network device can indicate the first group The terminal device enters the connected state to obtain the multicast configuration information, instructs the second group of terminal devices to obtain the multicast configuration information through system messages (that is, the method in Embodiment 1 is adopted), and the random access process of the third group of terminal devices passes The downlink message sends the multicast configuration information to the group of terminal devices (that is, the method in the fourth embodiment is adopted). In specific implementation, which terminal devices are allowed by the network device to enter the connected state to obtain multicast configuration information, which terminal devices are allowed to obtain multicast configuration information through system messages, and which terminal devices send the multicast configuration through downlink messages during the random access process The information depends on the internal implementation of the network device and is not limited in detail.

(2) The step numbers of the flowcharts described in the embodiments of the present application (for example, Figures 7a, 8a, and 9a) are only an example of the execution process, and do not constitute a restriction on the order of execution of the steps. There is no strict execution sequence among steps that have no time sequence dependency relationship among the application embodiments.

The foregoing mainly introduces the solution provided by the embodiment of the present application from the perspective of interaction between the network device and the terminal device. It can be understood that, in order to implement the above-mentioned functions, the network device or the terminal device may include a hardware structure and/or software module corresponding to each function. Those skilled in the art should easily realize that in combination with the units and algorithm steps of the examples described in the embodiments disclosed herein, the embodiments of the present application can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a certain function is executed by hardware or computer software-driven hardware depends on the specific application and design constraint conditions of the technical solution. Professionals and technicians can use different methods for each specific application to implement the described functions, but such implementation should not be considered beyond the scope of this application.

The embodiment of the present application may divide the terminal device and the network device into functional units according to the foregoing method examples. For example, each functional unit may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one unit. The above-mentioned integrated unit can be implemented in the form of hardware or software functional unit.

In the case of using an integrated unit, FIG. 10 shows a possible exemplary block diagram of a device involved in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 10, the apparatus 1000 may include: a processing unit 1002 and a communication unit 1003. The processing unit 1002 is used to control and manage the actions of the device 1000. The communication unit 1003 is used to support communication between the apparatus 1000 and other devices. Optionally, the communication unit 1003 is also called a transceiving unit, and may include a receiving unit and/or a sending unit, which are used to perform receiving and sending operations, respectively. The device 1000 may further include a storage unit 1001 for storing program codes and/or data of the device 1000.

The apparatus 1000 may be the terminal device in any of the foregoing embodiments, or may also be a chip provided in the terminal device. The processing unit 1002 may support the apparatus 1000 to perform the actions of the terminal device in the above method examples. Alternatively, the processing unit 1002 mainly executes the internal actions of the terminal device in the method example, and the communication unit 1003 can support communication between the apparatus 1000 and the network device. For example, the communication unit 1003 may be used to perform step 702 and step 704 in FIG. 7a, step 808 and step 810 in FIG. 8a, and step 901 and step 905 in FIG. 9a.

In one embodiment, the communication unit 1003 is configured to: receive first information from a network device, the first information is used to instruct the terminal device to obtain multicast configuration information through a system message, and the multicast configuration information is used to Instruct the terminal device to receive the multicast service; and, receive the system message from the network device, the system message including the multicast configuration information.

In a possible design, the terminal device is in a radio resource control RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state.

In a possible design, the multicast configuration information includes the group-radio network temporary identifier G-RNTI associated with the multicast service and the identifier of the multicast service.

In a possible design, the first information is carried in a paging message from the network device.

In a possible design, the first information is carried by first downlink control information from the network device, and the first downlink control information is used to schedule paging messages.

In a possible design, the first information is first downlink control information from the network device, and the first downlink control information is used to schedule paging messages; wherein, the first downlink control information is The control information is scrambled by the first RNTI, and the first RNTI is different from the P-RNTI; or, the first downlink control information is transmitted by using a preset time-frequency resource.

In a possible design, the communication unit 1003 is further configured to send the identification of the terminal device and/or the identification of the multicast service to the network device during the random access process.

In a possible design, the communication unit 1003 is specifically configured to: receive information from the network device in the same system message change cycle or the same frame or the same subframe or the same time slot or the same subslot where the first information is located. The said system message.

The apparatus 1000 may be the network device in any of the foregoing embodiments, or may also be a chip provided in the network device. The processing unit 1002 can support the apparatus 1000 to execute the actions of the network device in the above method examples. Alternatively, the processing unit 1002 mainly executes the internal actions of the network device in the method example, and the communication unit 1003 can support communication between the apparatus 1000 and the terminal device. For example, the processing unit 1002 can be used to perform step 803 in Fig. 8a and step 903 in Fig. 9a; the communication unit 1003 can be used to perform step 701, step 703 in Fig. 7a, step 804, step 806, and step in Fig. 8a. 807, step 809, and step 902 and step 904 in FIG. 9a.

In one embodiment, the communication unit 1003 is configured to send first information, the first information is used to instruct the terminal device to obtain multicast configuration information through a system message, and the multicast configuration information is used to instruct the terminal device to receive Multicast service; and, sending the system message, the system message including the multicast configuration information.

In a possible design, the terminal device is in an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state.

In one possible design, the first information is carried in a paging message.

In a possible design, the first information is carried in the first downlink control information, and the first downlink control information is used to schedule paging messages.

In a possible design, the first information is first downlink control information, and the first downlink control information is used to schedule paging messages; wherein, the first downlink control information is scrambled by the first RNTI, and the first downlink control information is scrambled by the first RNTI. An RNTI is different from P-RNTI; or, the first downlink control information is carried on a preset time-frequency resource.

In a possible design, before sending the first information, the communication unit 1003 is further configured to: receive the terminal device identifier and/or the multicast service identifier sent by the terminal device; the processing unit 1002 It is used to determine that the terminal device needs to obtain the multicast configuration information according to the identifier of the terminal device and/or the identifier of the multicast service.

In a possible design, before the communication unit 1003 sends the first information, the processing unit 1002 is further configured to: determine that the number of RRC connections of the network device is greater than a first threshold.

It should be understood that the division of units in the above device is only a division of logical functions, and may be fully or partially integrated into one physical entity in actual implementation, or may be physically separated. In addition, the units in the device can be all implemented in the form of software called by processing elements; they can also be implemented in the form of hardware; part of the units can be implemented in the form of software called by the processing elements, and some of the units can be implemented in the form of hardware. For example, each unit can be a separate processing element, or it can be integrated in a certain chip of the device for implementation. In addition, it can also be stored in the memory in the form of a program, which is called and executed by a certain processing element of the device. Features. In addition, all or part of these units can be integrated together or implemented independently. The processing element described here can also become a processor, which can be an integrated circuit with signal processing capabilities. In the implementation process, each step of the above method or each of the above units may be implemented by an integrated logic circuit of hardware in a processor element or implemented in a form of being called by software through a processing element.

In an example, the unit in any of the above devices may be one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the above methods, for example: one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or, one or Multiple microprocessors (digital singnal processors, DSPs), or, one or more field programmable gate arrays (Field Programmable Gate Arrays, FPGAs), or a combination of at least two of these integrated circuits. For another example, when the unit in the device can be implemented in the form of a processing element scheduler, the processing element can be a processor, such as a general-purpose central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), or other processors that can call programs. For another example, these units can be integrated together and implemented in the form of a system-on-a-chip (SOC).

The above receiving unit is an interface circuit of the device for receiving signals from other devices. For example, when the device is implemented as a chip, the receiving unit is an interface circuit used by the chip to receive signals from other chips or devices. The above unit for sending is an interface circuit of the device for sending signals to other devices. For example, when the device is implemented in the form of a chip, the sending unit is an interface circuit used by the chip to send signals to other chips or devices.

Please refer to FIG. 11, which is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the application. It may be the terminal device in the above embodiment, and is used to implement the operation of the terminal device in the above embodiment. As shown in FIG. 11, the terminal device includes: an antenna 1110, a radio frequency part 1120, and a signal processing part 1130. The antenna 1110 is connected to the radio frequency part 1120. In the downlink direction, the radio frequency part 1120 receives the information sent by the network device through the antenna 1110, and sends the information sent by the network device to the signal processing part 1130 for processing. In the upstream direction, the signal processing part 1130 processes the information of the terminal equipment and sends it to the radio frequency part 1120, and the radio frequency part 1120 processes the information of the terminal equipment and sends it to the network equipment via the antenna 1110.

The signal processing part 1130 may include a modem subsystem, which is used to process the various communication protocol layers of the data; it may also include a central processing subsystem, which is used to process the terminal device operating system and application layer; in addition, it may also Including other subsystems, such as multimedia subsystems, peripheral subsystems, etc., where the multimedia subsystem is used to control the terminal device camera, screen display, etc., and the peripheral subsystem is used to realize the connection with other devices. The modem subsystem can be a separate chip.

The modem subsystem may include one or more processing elements 1131, for example, including a main control CPU and other integrated circuits. In addition, the modem subsystem may also include a storage element 1132 and an interface circuit 1133. The storage element 1132 is used to store data and programs, but the program used to execute the method executed by the terminal device in the above method may not be stored in the storage element 1132, but is stored in a memory outside the modem subsystem, When in use, the modem subsystem is loaded and used. The interface circuit 1133 is used to communicate with other subsystems.

The modem subsystem can be implemented by a chip, the chip includes at least one processing element and an interface circuit, wherein the processing element is used to execute each step of any method executed by the above terminal device, and the interface circuit is used to communicate with other devices. In one implementation, the unit for the terminal device to implement each step in the above method can be implemented in the form of a processing element scheduler. For example, the device for the terminal device includes a processing element and a storage element, and the processing element calls the program stored by the storage element to Perform the method performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment. The storage element may be a storage element whose processing element is on the same chip, that is, an on-chip storage element.

In another implementation, the program used to execute the method executed by the terminal device in the above method may be a storage element on a different chip from the processing element, that is, an off-chip storage element. At this time, the processing element calls or loads a program from the off-chip storage element on the on-chip storage element to call and execute the method executed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment.

In yet another implementation, the unit of the terminal device that implements each step in the above method may be configured as one or more processing elements, and these processing elements are arranged on the modem subsystem, where the processing elements may be integrated circuits, For example: one or more ASICs, or, one or more DSPs, or, one or more FPGAs, or a combination of these types of integrated circuits. These integrated circuits can be integrated together to form a chip.

The units of the terminal device that implement each step in the above method can be integrated together and implemented in the form of an SOC, and the SOC chip is used to implement the above method. The chip can integrate at least one processing element and a storage element, and the processing element can call the stored program of the storage element to implement the method executed by the above terminal device; or, the chip can integrate at least one integrated circuit to implement the above terminal The method executed by the device; or, it can be combined with the above implementations. The functions of some units are implemented in the form of calling programs by processing elements, and the functions of some units are implemented in the form of integrated circuits.

It can be seen that the above apparatus for terminal equipment may include at least one processing element and an interface circuit, wherein at least one processing element is used to execute any of the methods performed by the terminal equipment provided in the above method embodiments. The processing element can execute part or all of the steps executed by the terminal device in the first way: calling the program stored in the storage element; or in the second way: combining instructions through the integrated logic circuit of the hardware in the processor element Part or all of the steps performed by the terminal device are executed in a manner; of course, part or all of the steps executed by the terminal device can also be executed in combination with the first manner and the second manner.

The processing element here is the same as that described above, and can be implemented by a processor, and the function of the processing element can be the same as that of the processing unit described in FIG. 10. Exemplarily, the processing element may be a general-purpose processor, such as a CPU, or one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the above method, such as: one or more ASICs, or, one or more microprocessors DSP , Or, one or more FPGAs, etc., or a combination of at least two of these integrated circuit forms. The storage element can be realized by a memory, and the function of the storage element can be the same as the function of the storage unit described in FIG. 12. The storage element may be realized by a memory, and the function of the storage element may be the same as the function of the storage unit described in FIG. 10. The storage element can be a single memory or a collective term for multiple memories.

The terminal device shown in FIG. 11 can implement various processes involving the terminal device in the method embodiment illustrated in FIG. 7a, FIG. 8a, or FIG. 9a. The operations and/or functions of the various modules in the terminal device shown in FIG. 11 are used to implement the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments. For details, please refer to the descriptions in the above method embodiments. To avoid repetition, detailed descriptions are appropriately omitted here.

Please refer to FIG. 12, which is a schematic structural diagram of a network device provided by an embodiment of this application. It is used to implement the operation of the network device in the above embodiment. As shown in FIG. 12, the network equipment includes: an antenna 1201, a radio frequency device 1202, and a baseband device 1203. The antenna 1201 is connected to the radio frequency device 1202. In the uplink direction, the radio frequency device 1202 receives the information sent by the terminal device through the antenna 1201, and sends the information sent by the terminal device to the baseband device 1203 for processing. In the downlink direction, the baseband device 1203 processes the information of the terminal device and sends it to the radio frequency device 1202, and the radio frequency device 1202 processes the information of the terminal device and sends it to the terminal device via the antenna 1201.

The baseband device 1203 may include one or more processing elements 12031, for example, a main control CPU and other integrated circuits. In addition, the baseband device 1203 may also include a storage element 12032 and an interface 12033. The storage element 12032 is used to store programs and data; the interface 12033 is used to exchange information with the radio frequency device 1202. The interface is, for example, a common public radio interface. , CPRI). The above apparatus for network equipment may be located in the baseband apparatus 1203. For example, the above apparatus for network equipment may be a chip on the baseband apparatus 1203. The chip includes at least one processing element and an interface circuit, wherein the processing element is used to execute the above network. For each step of any method executed by the device, the interface circuit is used to communicate with other devices. In one implementation, the unit for the network device to implement each step in the above method can be implemented in the form of a processing element scheduler. For example, the device for the network device includes a processing element and a storage element, and the processing element calls the program stored by the storage element to Perform the method performed by the network device in the above method embodiment. The storage element may be a storage element with the processing element on the same chip, that is, an on-chip storage element, or a storage element on a different chip from the processing element, that is, an off-chip storage element.

In another implementation, the unit of the network device that implements each step in the above method may be configured as one or more processing elements, and these processing elements are arranged on the baseband device. The processing elements here may be integrated circuits, such as one Or multiple ASICs, or, one or more DSPs, or, one or more FPGAs, or a combination of these types of integrated circuits. These integrated circuits can be integrated together to form a chip.

The units for the network equipment to implement each step in the above method can be integrated together and implemented in the form of a system-on-a-chip (SOC). For example, the baseband device includes the SOC chip for implementing the above method. At least one processing element and storage element can be integrated in the chip, and the processing element can call the stored program of the storage element to implement the method executed by the above network device; or, at least one integrated circuit can be integrated in the chip to implement the above network The method executed by the device; or, it can be combined with the above implementations. The functions of some units are implemented in the form of calling programs by processing elements, and the functions of some units are implemented in the form of integrated circuits.

It can be seen that the above apparatus for a network device may include at least one processing element and an interface circuit, wherein at least one processing element is used to execute any of the methods performed by the network device provided in the above method embodiments. The processing element can execute part or all of the steps executed by the network device in the first way: calling the program stored in the storage element; or in the second way: combining instructions through the integrated logic circuit of the hardware in the processor element Part or all of the steps performed by the network device are executed in the method; of course, part or all of the steps executed by the network device above can also be executed in combination with the first method and the second method.

The processing element here is the same as that described above, and can be implemented by a processor, and the function of the processing element can be the same as that of the processing unit described in FIG. 10. Exemplarily, the processing element may be a general-purpose processor, such as a CPU, or one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the above method, such as: one or more ASICs, or, one or more microprocessors DSP , Or, one or more FPGAs, etc., or a combination of at least two of these integrated circuit forms. The storage element may be realized by a memory, and the function of the storage element may be the same as the function of the storage unit described in FIG. 12. The storage element may be realized by a memory, and the function of the storage element may be the same as the function of the storage unit described in FIG. 10. The storage element can be a single memory or a collective term for multiple memories.

The network device shown in FIG. 12 can implement various processes involving the network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 7a, FIG. 8a, or FIG. 9a. The operations and/or functions of the various modules in the network device shown in FIG. 12 are used to implement the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments. For details, please refer to the descriptions in the above method embodiments. To avoid repetition, detailed descriptions are appropriately omitted here.

Those skilled in the art should understand that the embodiments of the present application can be provided as methods, systems, or computer program products. Therefore, this application may adopt the form of a complete hardware embodiment, a complete software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware. Moreover, this application may adopt the form of a computer program product implemented on one or more computer-usable storage media (including but not limited to disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, etc.) containing computer-usable program codes.

This application is described with reference to flowcharts and/or block diagrams of methods, equipment (systems), and computer program products according to this application. It should be understood that each process and/or block in the flowchart and/or block diagram, and the combination of processes and/or blocks in the flowchart and/or block diagram can be realized by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions can be provided to the processor of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, an embedded processor, or other programmable data processing equipment to generate a machine, so that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing equipment are used to generate It is a device that realizes the functions specified in one process or multiple processes in the flowchart and/or one block or multiple blocks in the block diagram.

These computer program instructions can also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can guide a computer or other programmable data processing equipment to work in a specific manner, so that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including the instruction device. The device implements the functions specified in one process or multiple processes in the flowchart and/or one block or multiple blocks in the block diagram.

These computer program instructions can also be loaded on a computer or other programmable data processing equipment, so that a series of operation steps are executed on the computer or other programmable equipment to produce computer-implemented processing, so as to execute on the computer or other programmable equipment. The instructions provide steps for implementing the functions specified in one process or multiple processes in the flowchart and/or one block or multiple blocks in the block diagram.

Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to the application without departing from the spirit and scope of the application. In this way, if these modifications and variations of this application fall within the scope of the claims of this application and their equivalent technologies, then this application is also intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims

A communication method, characterized in that the method is suitable for terminal equipment, and includes:

Receiving first information from a network device, where the first information is used to instruct the terminal device to obtain multicast configuration information through a system message, and the multicast configuration information is used to instruct the terminal device to receive a multicast service;

Receiving the system message from the network device, where the system message includes the multicast configuration information.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the terminal device is in a radio resource control RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the multicast configuration information includes the group-wireless network temporary identifier G-RNTI associated with the multicast service and the identifier of the multicast service.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the first information is carried by a paging message from the network device.
The method according to claim 4, wherein the paging message includes a paging record list, and the paging record list does not include the identification of the terminal device.
The method according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the first information includes an identifier of the multicast service.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the first information is carried by first downlink control information from the network device, and the first downlink control information is used for scheduling Paging message.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the first information is first downlink control information from the network device, and the first downlink control information is used for scheduling search Call news

Wherein, the first downlink control information is scrambled by the first radio network temporary identifier RNTI, and the first RNTI is different from the paging radio network temporary identifier P-RNTI; or, the first downlink control information is It is transmitted by preset time-frequency resources.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the first information is carried in a downlink message when the terminal device performs a random access process;

Wherein, the downlink message is a contention resolution message; or, the downlink message is second downlink control information, and the second downlink control information is used to schedule the contention resolution message.
The method according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 9, characterized in that the method further comprises:

Send the identifier of the terminal device and/or the identifier of the multicast service to the network device during the random access process.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein receiving the system message from the network device comprises:

The system message from the network device is received in the same system message change period or the same frame or the same subframe or the same time slot or the same subslot where the first information is located.
A communication method, characterized in that it comprises:

Sending first information, where the first information is used to instruct a terminal device to obtain multicast configuration information through a system message, and the multicast configuration information is used to instruct the terminal device to receive a multicast service;

The system message is sent, and the system message includes the multicast configuration information.
The method according to claim 12, wherein the terminal device is in an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state.
The method according to claim 12 or 13, wherein the multicast configuration information includes the G-RNTI associated with the multicast service and the identifier of the multicast service.
The method according to any one of claims 12 to 14, wherein the first information is carried in a paging message.
The method according to claim 15, wherein the paging message includes a paging record list, and the paging record list does not include the identification of the terminal device.
The method according to claim 15 or 16, wherein the first information includes an identifier of the multicast service.
The method according to any one of claims 12 to 14, wherein the first information is carried in first downlink control information, and the first downlink control information is used to schedule paging messages.
The method according to any one of claims 12 to 14, wherein the first information is first downlink control information, and the first downlink control information is used for scheduling paging messages;

Wherein, the first downlink control information is scrambled by a first radio network temporary identifier RNTI, and the first RNTI is different from a paging radio network temporary identifier P-RNTI; or, the first downlink control information is carried in Preset time and frequency resources.
The method according to any one of claims 12 to 14, wherein the first information is carried in a downlink message when the terminal device performs a random access process;

Wherein, the downlink message is a contention resolution message; or, the downlink message is second downlink control information, and the second downlink control information is used to schedule the contention resolution message.
The method according to claim 12, 13, 14 or 20, characterized in that, before sending the first information, the method further comprises:

Receiving the identifier of the terminal device and/or the identifier of the multicast service sent by the terminal device;

According to the identifier of the terminal device and/or the identifier of the multicast service, it is determined that the terminal device needs to obtain the multicast configuration information.
The method according to any one of claims 12 to 21, wherein before sending the first information, the method further comprises:

It is determined that the number of RRC connections is greater than the first threshold.
A communication device, characterized in that it comprises a communication unit and a processing unit;

The processing unit controls the communication unit to perform: receiving first information from a network device, where the first information is used to instruct the communication device to obtain multicast configuration information through a system message, and the multicast configuration information is used to indicate The communication device receives a multicast service; and, receives the system message from the network device, the system message including the multicast configuration information.
The apparatus according to claim 23, wherein the first information is carried in a paging message from the network device.
The apparatus according to claim 23, wherein the first information is carried by first downlink control information from the network device, and the first downlink control information is used for scheduling paging messages.
The device according to claim 23, wherein the first information is carried in a downlink message when the communication device performs a random access process;

Wherein, the downlink message is a contention resolution message; or, the downlink message is second downlink control information, and the second downlink control information is used to schedule the contention resolution message.
The device according to any one of claims 23 to 26, wherein the communication unit is further configured to:

The system message from the network device is received in the same system message change period or the same frame or the same subframe or the same time slot or the same subslot where the first information is located.
A communication device, characterized in that it comprises a communication unit and a processing unit;

The processing unit controls the communication unit to perform: sending first information, the first information is used to instruct the terminal device to obtain multicast configuration information through a system message, and the multicast configuration information is used to instruct the terminal device to receive the multicast configuration information. And sending the system message, the system message including the multicast configuration information.
The apparatus according to claim 28, wherein the first information is carried in a paging message.
The apparatus according to claim 28, wherein the first information is carried in first downlink control information, and the first downlink control information is used for scheduling paging messages.
The apparatus according to claim 28, wherein the first information is carried in a downlink message when the terminal device performs a random access process;

Wherein, the downlink message is a contention resolution message; or, the downlink message is second downlink control information, and the second downlink control information is used to schedule the contention resolution message.
The apparatus according to claim 28 or 31, wherein the communication unit is further configured to receive the identifier of the terminal device and/or the identifier of the multicast service sent by the terminal device;

The processing unit is configured to determine that the terminal device needs to obtain the multicast configuration information according to the identifier of the terminal device and/or the identifier of the multicast service.
The apparatus according to any one of claims 28 to 32, wherein before the communication unit sends the first information, the processing unit is further configured to determine that the number of RRC connections is greater than a first threshold.
A communication device, which is characterized by comprising at least one processor and an interface circuit, wherein the at least one processor is used to communicate with other devices through the interface circuit, and perform as described in any one of claims 1 to 22. The method described.
A computer-readable storage medium, characterized by comprising a program, and when the program is executed by a processor, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 22 is executed.