CN109309519B

CN109309519B - Communication method and device thereof

Info

Publication number: CN109309519B
Application number: CN201710636632.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 尚鹏; 施弘哲; 蒋鹏; 金黄平; 毕晓艳
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-07-28
Filing date: 2017-07-28
Publication date: 2021-05-11
Anticipated expiration: 2037-07-28
Also published as: CN109309519A; WO2019020080A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and a device thereof, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the network equipment determines to trigger aperiodic beam scanning aiming at the terminal equipment; sending first downlink control information carrying scanning indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the scanning indication information is used for triggering the terminal equipment to perform aperiodic beam scanning; and the terminal equipment receives the first downlink control information carrying the scanning indication information from the network equipment, and performs aperiodic beam scanning according to the scanning indication information. The embodiment of the application can rapidly trigger the aperiodic beam scanning and improve the beam management efficiency.

Description

Communication method and device thereof

Technical Field

The embodiment of the application relates to the technical field of communication, in particular to a communication method and a device thereof.

Background

The beam forming is a signal preprocessing technology based on an antenna array, and generates a directional beam by adjusting the weighting coefficient of each array element in the antenna array, so that obvious antenna array gain can be obtained. Generally, the narrower the beam, the greater the signal gain. At the same time, however, once the beam direction deviates from the user, the user does not receive a high quality radio signal. To ensure that antenna array gain is achieved, the beams on the base station side and the user side need to be aligned to ensure smallZone coverage and link quality. Especially for narrow beamforming techniques, errors in the selection of the beam direction may result in a significant reduction in the signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR). Therefore, how to quickly align the beams becomes a fifth generation mobile communication (5)^thGeneration) one of the key technologies for Beam Management (BM) in systems.

In a 3rd generation partnership project (3 GPP) related conference, downlink beam management in a New Radio (NR) can be divided into three phases: p-1, P-2 and P-3. In the stage of P-1, the terminal equipment can select one or more transmitting beams through measurement and establish transceiving beam association with one or more receiving beams. The transmission beam in the established transceiving beam association may be from one or more transmission access points (TRPs), and the reception beam may be from the terminal device. Through the established receiving and transmitting beam association, normal communication service can be carried out between the TRP and the terminal equipment. In the P-2 phase, the terminal device may update the transmit beam of the one or more transceiver beam associations based on the measurement results. The transmit beam may still be from one or more TRPs but is generally smaller than the candidate range for the P-1 phase. In the P-3 phase, the terminal device may update the receive beams in one or more of the transceive beam associations according to the measurement results. The receive beams may still come from the terminal device. It will be appreciated that the P-2 phases and P-3 phases are a subset of the P-1 phases. The P-1 stage is mainly prone to periodic triggering, and the P-2/P-3 stage is mainly used for further beam optimization (beam refinement) or fast beam tracking (beam tracking) and is suitable for aperiodic triggering.

In order to avoid channel quality degradation caused by movement, rotation and channel blockage of a terminal device, how to trigger aperiodic beam scanning quickly is an urgent problem to be solved in order to avoid occurrence of system interruption (output) in advance.

Disclosure of Invention

An embodiment of the present application provides a communication method and a device thereof, which can rapidly trigger aperiodic beam scanning and improve beam management efficiency.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, including:

step 1: the network equipment determines to trigger aperiodic beam scanning aiming at the terminal equipment;

step 2: the network equipment sends first downlink control information carrying scanning indication information to the terminal equipment, and the scanning indication information is used for triggering the terminal equipment to perform aperiodic beam scanning.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a network device comprising means for performing the steps of the first aspect above.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a network device, including at least one processing element and at least one storage element, where the at least one storage element is configured to store a program and data, and the at least one processing element is configured to execute the method provided in the first aspect of the embodiments of the present application.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a network device comprising at least one processing element (or chip) for performing the method of the first aspect above.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication program which, when executed by a processor, is operable to perform the method of the first aspect above.

A sixth aspect provides a program product, e.g. a computer readable storage medium, comprising the program of the fifth aspect.

It can be seen that, in the first to sixth aspects, the network device sends the downlink control information carrying the scanning indication information to the terminal device under the condition that it is determined that the terminal device is triggered to perform aperiodic beam scanning, so that aperiodic beam scanning can be triggered quickly, occurrence of system interruption is avoided in advance, channel quality degradation is avoided, and beam management efficiency is improved.

Based on the first aspect to the sixth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the network device sends at least one type of beam configuration information to the terminal device before determining that the aperiodic beam scanning is triggered for the terminal device, where any type of beam configuration information includes at least one of beam scanning width information, beam scanning range information, beam scanning direction information, and beam scanning density information. The network device transmits at least one type of beam configuration information to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can select one type of beam configuration information from the at least one type of beam configuration information to determine the beam scanning assistance information.

In a possible implementation manner based on the first aspect to the sixth aspect, the beam configuration information is obtained by the network device according to a current receiving beam configuration of the terminal device, and the beam configuration information thus obtained is related to a current receiving beam of the terminal device. For example, the beam configuration information may be obtained by configuring, by the network device, the current receiving beam of the terminal device as a center, and the beam scan width information in the beam configuration information obtained in this way may be a scaling multiple of the beam width of the current receiving beam based on the terminal device, and the beam scan range information may be an angle range that needs to be scanned by both sides of the current receiving beam of the terminal device as the center.

In a possible implementation manner according to the first to sixth aspects, the first downlink control information further includes beam configuration indication information, where the beam configuration indication information is used to indicate one of at least one type of beam configuration information, that is, the network device instructs the terminal device which type of beam configuration information is selected from the at least one type of beam configuration information, so that the terminal device determines the beam scanning assistance information.

Based on the first aspect to the sixth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, after the network device sends the first downlink control information carrying the scanning indication information to the terminal device, the method further performs the following steps: receiving beam scanning assistance information from a terminal device; configuring aperiodic beam scanning information according to the beam scanning auxiliary information; and sending the aperiodic beam scanning information to the terminal equipment. The network equipment configures aperiodic beam scanning information according to the beam scanning auxiliary information reported by the terminal equipment and sends the aperiodic beam scanning information to the terminal equipment so that the terminal equipment can perform aperiodic beam scanning according to the aperiodic beam scanning information under the condition of receiving the beam scanning indication information.

Based on the first aspect to the sixth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, after the network device sends the first downlink control information carrying the scanning indication information to the terminal device, the method further performs the following steps: determining beam scanning auxiliary information according to the trigger type and the terminal equipment capability information sent by the terminal equipment; configuring aperiodic beam scanning information according to the beam scanning auxiliary information; and sending the aperiodic beam scanning information to the terminal equipment. The network equipment autonomously determines the beam scanning auxiliary information without the reporting of the terminal equipment, and the terminal equipment performs aperiodic beam scanning according to the aperiodic beam scanning information under the condition of receiving the beam scanning indication information.

Based on the first aspect to the sixth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the first downlink control information further includes trigger type indication information, and the trigger type indication information is used to indicate that the trigger type is a first trigger type or a second trigger type. When the trigger type indication information indicates the first trigger type, the terminal equipment can be prompted to achieve the purpose of beam optimization through aperiodic beam scanning, and then the system performance can be improved; when the trigger type indication information indicates the second trigger type, the terminal device can be prompted to achieve the purpose of beam tracking through aperiodic beam scanning, and then system interruption can be avoided in advance.

Based on the first aspect to the sixth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, before the network device sends the first downlink control information carrying the scanning indication information to the terminal device, the method further performs the following steps: sending second downlink control information carrying trigger type indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the trigger type indication information is used for indicating that the trigger type is a first trigger type or a second trigger type; transmitting a beam scanning request message to the terminal device; receiving beam scanning assistance information from a terminal device; configuring aperiodic beam scanning information according to the beam scanning auxiliary information; and sending the aperiodic beam scanning information to the terminal equipment. After the network equipment and the terminal equipment perform handshake, the network equipment triggers the terminal equipment to perform aperiodic beam scanning, so that the aperiodic beam scanning can be triggered quickly, and the beam management efficiency is improved.

Based on the first aspect to the sixth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the first trigger type does not satisfy a first preset trigger condition corresponding to the current beam scanning attribute information, and the second trigger type satisfies a second preset trigger condition corresponding to the reporting information received from the terminal device. It can be understood that the network device determines whether to trigger the terminal device to perform aperiodic beam scanning according to the current beam scanning attribute information to achieve the purpose of beam optimization, and the network device determines whether to trigger the terminal device to perform aperiodic beam scanning according to the report information sent by the terminal device to achieve the purpose of beam tracking.

Based on the first aspect to the sixth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, before the network device sends the first downlink control information carrying the scanning indication information to the terminal device, the method further performs the following steps: sending second downlink control information to the terminal device, where the second downlink control information carries at least one of beam type switching indication information or port relation indication information, the beam type switching indication information is used to indicate whether to switch beam types, and the port relation indication information is used to indicate whether an antenna port of a current sending beam of the network device and an antenna port of a last sending beam are in a quasi co-location relation; transmitting a beam scanning request message to the terminal device; receiving beam scanning assistance information from a terminal device; configuring aperiodic beam scanning information according to the beam scanning auxiliary information; and sending the aperiodic beam scanning information to the terminal equipment. The terminal equipment determines beam scanning auxiliary information according to at least one of the beam type switching indication information or the port relation indication information and reports the beam scanning auxiliary information to the network equipment, so that the aims of rapidly triggering non-periodic beam scanning and improving beam management efficiency can be achieved.

The beam scanning auxiliary information is a descriptive word, and is used for describing the capability of a receiving beam on the terminal equipment side to participate in beam scanning on one hand; on the other hand, the method is used for describing reference information required by the terminal equipment when the network equipment side configures the aperiodic beam scanning information or describing the number of times of repetition of beam scanning participated by the transmitting beam of the network equipment side. The beam scanning auxiliary information may be the number of receiving beams to be scanned on the terminal device side, the number of repetitions of the reference signal resource, or other names used to describe the essence of the above-described technique.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides another communication method, including:

step 1: the terminal equipment receives first downlink control information carrying scanning indication information from the network equipment;

step 2: and the terminal equipment performs aperiodic beam scanning according to the scanning indication information.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a terminal device comprising means or units (means) for performing the steps of the seventh aspect above.

In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a terminal device, comprising at least one processing element and at least one memory element, wherein the at least one memory element is configured to store a program and data, and the at least one processing element is configured to execute the method provided in the seventh aspect of the embodiments of the present application.

In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a terminal device comprising at least one processing element (or chip) for performing the method of the seventh aspect above.

In an eleventh aspect, the present application provides a communication program which, when executed by a processor, is adapted to perform the method of the seventh aspect above.

A twelfth aspect provides a program product, such as a computer readable storage medium, comprising the program of the eleventh aspect.

It can be seen that in the seventh to twelfth aspects, the terminal device performs aperiodic beam scanning when receiving the scanning indication information sent by the network device, so that triggering of aperiodic beam scanning can be quickly achieved, occurrence of system interruption is avoided in advance, degradation of channel quality is avoided, and beam management efficiency is improved.

Based on the seventh aspect to the twelfth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, before the terminal device receives the first downlink control information carrying the scanning indication information from the network device, the method further performs the steps of: receiving at least one beam configuration information from the network device, the beam configuration information including at least one of beam sweep width information, beam sweep range information, beam sweep direction information, and beam sweep density information. The terminal device may store the at least one type of beam configuration information, so as to determine one type of beam configuration information from the at least one type of beam configuration information according to the beam configuration indication information sent by the network device or according to the trigger type indication information and the preset capability information.

Based on the seventh aspect to the twelfth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the beam configuration information is obtained by the network device according to the current receiving beam configuration of the terminal device, for example, by configuring the current receiving beam of the terminal device as a center.

In a possible implementation manner, the first downlink control information further includes beam configuration indication information, where the beam configuration indication information is used to indicate one of at least one beam configuration information, so that the terminal device selects one beam configuration information from the at least one beam configuration information according to the beam configuration indication information.

Based on the seventh aspect to the twelfth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, before the terminal device performs aperiodic beam scanning according to the scanning indication information, the method further performs the steps of: determining beam scanning auxiliary information according to the beam configuration indication information; transmitting beam scanning assistance information to the network device; aperiodic beam scan information is received from a network device. The terminal equipment selects a beam configuration information according to the beam configuration indication information, and then determines beam scanning auxiliary information according to the selected beam configuration information.

Based on the seventh aspect to the twelfth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, before the terminal device performs aperiodic beam scanning according to the scanning indication information, the aperiodic beam scanning information is received from the network device, so that in a case where the scanning indication information is received, beam scanning can be performed according to the aperiodic beam scanning information.

Based on the seventh aspect to the twelfth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the first downlink control information further includes trigger type indication information, and the trigger type indication information is used to indicate that the trigger type is the first trigger type or the second trigger type. Under the first trigger type, the terminal equipment performs aperiodic beam scanning to achieve the aim of beam optimization; under the second trigger type, the terminal equipment performs aperiodic beam scanning to achieve the purpose of beam tracking.

Based on the seventh aspect to the twelfth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, before the terminal device performs aperiodic beam scanning according to the scanning indication information, the method further performs the steps of: determining beam configuration information according to the trigger type indication information and the preset capability information; determining beam scanning auxiliary information according to the determined beam configuration information; transmitting beam scanning assistance information to the network device; aperiodic beam scan information is received from a network device.

Based on the seventh aspect to the twelfth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, before the terminal device receives the first downlink control information carrying the scanning indication information from the network device, the method further performs the steps of: receiving second downlink control information carrying trigger type indication information from the network equipment, wherein the trigger type indication information is used for indicating that the trigger type is a first trigger type or a second trigger type; receiving a beam scanning request message from a network device; determining beam scanning auxiliary information according to the trigger type indication information and the preset capability information; transmitting beam scanning assistance information to the network device; aperiodic beam scan information is received from a network device.

Based on the seventh aspect to the twelfth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the first trigger type corresponds to that the current beam scanning attribute information does not satisfy a first preset trigger condition, and the second trigger type corresponds to that the reporting information received from the terminal device satisfies a second preset trigger condition.

Based on the seventh aspect to the twelfth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, before the terminal device receives the first downlink control information carrying the scanning indication information from the network device, the method further performs the steps of: receiving second downlink control information from the network device, where the second downlink control information carries at least one of beam type switching indication information or port relation indication information, the beam type switching indication information is used to indicate whether to switch the beam type, and the port relation indication information is used to indicate whether an antenna port of a current transmission beam of the network device and an antenna port of a last transmission beam are in a quasi co-location relation; receiving a beam scanning request message from a network device; determining beam scanning auxiliary information according to at least one of beam type switching indication information or port relation indication information; transmitting beam scanning assistance information to the network device; aperiodic beam scan information is received from a network device.

The preset capability information refers to the self beam capability information of the terminal device, and may include a beam width, a scanning range, a scanning density, a scanning direction, and the like that can be achieved by a receiving beam of the terminal device. The preset capability information may be different in different scenes of the terminal device.

Drawings

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

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

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

fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of another communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic flowchart of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic flowchart of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a simplified schematic diagram of an apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a simplified structural diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is a simplified schematic diagram of an apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a simplified structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

Hereinafter, some terms in the present application are explained to facilitate understanding by those skilled in the art.

1) A terminal device, also called a User Equipment (UE), a Mobile Station (MS), a Mobile Terminal (MT), etc., is a device that provides voice and/or data connectivity to a user, for example, a handheld device with a wireless connection function, a vehicle-mounted device, etc. Currently, some examples of terminals are: a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer, a notebook computer, a palm top computer, a Mobile Internet Device (MID), a wearable device, a Virtual Reality (VR) device, an Augmented Reality (AR) device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in self driving (self driving), a wireless terminal in remote surgery (remote medical supply), a wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in transportation safety (smart security), a wireless terminal in city (smart city), a wireless terminal in home (smart home), and the like.

2) A Radio Access Network (RAN) is the part of a network that accesses terminals to the radio network. A RAN node (or device) is a node (or device) in a radio access network, which may also be referred to as a base station. Currently, some examples of RAN nodes are: a gbb, a Transmission Reception Point (TRP), an evolved Node B (eNB), a Radio Network Controller (RNC), a Node B (NB), a Base Station Controller (BSC), a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), a home base station (e.g., home evolved Node B, or home Node B, HNB), a Base Band Unit (BBU), a Station (STA), a wireless fidelity (Wifi), or an Access Point (AP), etc. In addition, in one network configuration, the RAN may include a Centralized Unit (CU) node and a Distributed Unit (DU) node. The structure separates the protocol layers of the eNB in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, the functions of part of the protocol layers are controlled in the CU in a centralized way, the functions of the rest part or all of the protocol layers are distributed in the DU, and the CU controls the DU in a centralized way.

3) "plurality" means two or more, and other terms are analogous. "and/or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, which may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture to which an embodiment of the present application is applied, where the network architecture may be a network architecture of a wireless communication system, and may include a terminal device and a network device. It should be noted that the number and form of the terminal devices and the network devices shown in fig. 1 are not limited to the embodiment of the present application, and in practical applications, one network device may connect to a plurality of terminal devices. The network devices may be connected to core network devices, which are not shown in fig. 1. The network device may be a base station, and the base station may include a baseband unit (BBU) and a Remote Radio Unit (RRU). BBU and RRU can be placed in different places, for example: RRU is remote and is placed in an open area with high telephone traffic, and BBU is placed in a central machine room. The BBU and the RRU can also be placed in the same machine room. The BBU and RRU can also be different components under one chassis.

It should be noted that, the wireless communication systems mentioned in the embodiments of the present application include, but are not limited to: narrowband band-internet of things (NB-IoT), global system for mobile communications (GSM), enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) system, code division multiple access (CDMA 2000) system, time division-synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) system, Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, fifth generation mobile communication system, and future mobile communication system.

In this embodiment, the network device is a device deployed in a radio access network and configured to provide a wireless communication function for a user equipment. The network devices may include various forms of macro base stations, micro base stations (also known as small stations), relay stations, access points, TRPs, etc. In systems using different radio access technologies, the names of devices having a base station function may be different, for example, in an LTE system, referred to as eNB or eNodeB, and in a third Generation (3rd Generation, 3G) system, referred to as NB. For convenience of description, in all embodiments of the present application, the above-mentioned apparatus for providing a wireless communication function for a user equipment is collectively referred to as a network device.

The terminal devices referred to in the embodiments of the present application may include various handheld devices, vehicle mounted devices, wearable devices, computing devices, or other processing devices connected to a wireless modem with wireless communication capability. For convenience of description, in all embodiments of the present application, user equipment connected to a network device is collectively referred to as terminal equipment.

Of the three phases divided by the NR downlink beam management, the P-1 phase is mainly prone to periodic (periodic) beam scanning, and the P-2/P-3 phase is mainly intended for further beam optimization and is prone to non-periodic (non-periodic) beam scanning (including semi-continuous (semi-periodic) beam scanning and aperiodic (aperiodic) beam scanning).

In order to avoid the channel quality degradation caused by the movement, rotation and channel blockage of the mobile terminal, how to rapidly trigger the aperiodic beam scanning is an urgent problem to avoid the occurrence of system interruption in advance.

In view of this, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and apparatus thereof, which can rapidly trigger aperiodic beam scanning, avoid occurrence of system interruption in advance, avoid channel quality degradation, and improve beam management efficiency.

The aperiodic beam scanning information related to the embodiment of the present application may include reference signal resource configuration information, measurement report configuration information, and the like. The reference signal resource configuration information includes configured reference signal resources, repetition times of the reference signal resources, and the like, and the measurement report configuration information includes measurement parameters to be reported by the configured terminal device, a reporting period of a measurement report, and the like. The reference signal may be a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), or may be another reference signal. The reference signal resource may be a time-frequency resource corresponding to the reference signal, and the like. The measurement parameters may include, but are not limited to, Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP), Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), Reference Signal Receiving Quality (RSRQ), signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), and the like. The reporting period of the measurement report may indicate when the terminal device reports the measurement report.

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to fig. 2 to 6.

Referring to fig. 2, it is a schematic flowchart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application, where the method is introduced from the perspective of interaction between a terminal device and a network device, and the method may include, but is not limited to:

step S201: the network equipment determines to trigger aperiodic beam scanning aiming at the terminal equipment;

in one possible implementation, the network device determines whether to trigger an aperiodic beam scan for the terminal device based on the current beam scan attribute information.

The beam scanning attribute information may include, but is not limited to, beam width, beam scanning density, beam scanning direction, beam scanning range, etc. The beam width may be a wide beam or a narrow beam. The beam scan density may be an oversampling factor (oversampling factor). The beam scanning direction may be a horizontal direction, a vertical direction, or a horizontal + vertical direction. The beam sweep range refers to a beam sweep angle range.

The current beam scanning attribute information refers to beam scanning attribute information of a P-1 stage, which may be beam scanning attribute information of a network device side at the stage, or beam scanning attribute information of a terminal device side at the stage, and this is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

The network device may determine whether the current beam scanning attribute information satisfies a first preset trigger condition through the following several conditions, and then determine whether to trigger aperiodic beam scanning for the terminal device.

The first condition is as follows: the beam width of the P-1 stage is a wide beam, and the beam width required by the aperiodic beam scanning is a narrow beam, that is, one of the first preset trigger conditions is a narrow beam, it can be determined that the current beam scanning attribute information does not satisfy the first preset trigger condition;

case two: the beam scanning range of the P-1 stage is smaller, and the beam scanning range of the aperiodic beam scanning is larger, namely the second preset trigger condition is larger than or equal to the preset beam scanning range, and if the current beam scanning range is smaller than the preset beam scanning range, the current beam scanning attribute information can be determined not to meet the first preset trigger condition;

case three: the beam scanning density of the P-1 stage is larger, the beam scanning density of the aperiodic beam scanning is larger, namely the third preset trigger condition is larger than or equal to the preset beam scanning density, and if the current beam scanning density is smaller than the preset beam scanning density, the current beam scanning attribute information can be determined not to meet the first preset trigger condition;

case four: the beam scanning direction of the P-1 stage is the horizontal direction or the vertical direction, the non-periodic beam scanning needs to increase the vertical direction or the horizontal direction, that is, the fourth of the first preset trigger conditions is two beam scanning directions, so that under the condition that the beam scanning direction needs to be increased, it can be determined that the current beam scanning attribute information does not meet the first preset trigger condition;

it should be noted that the four cases do not limit that the current beam scanning attribute information does not satisfy the first preset trigger condition, and in practical application, whether the current beam scanning attribute information satisfies the first preset trigger condition may be determined by a combination of at least two cases of the four cases, and whether the current beam scanning attribute information satisfies the first preset trigger condition may be determined by other manners.

Under the condition that the current beam scanning attribute information does not meet the first preset trigger condition, the network device may determine that aperiodic beam scanning needs to be triggered for the terminal device. The aperiodic beam scan can correspond to a P-2 phase, a P-3 phase, or a combination of P-2 and P-3 phases. The P-2 phase and the P-3 phase may be scanned separately or jointly. For aperiodic beam scanning, especially for the P-3 phase, the network device needs to configure aperiodic beam scanning information corresponding to the terminal device, including reference signal resource configuration information and measurement report configuration information.

The network device may determine, as the first trigger type, a trigger type of aperiodic beam scanning triggered when the current beam scanning attribute information does not satisfy a first preset trigger condition.

In another possible implementation manner, the network device determines whether to trigger aperiodic beam scanning for the terminal device according to the reported information received from the terminal device.

The reporting information may be a measurement report, and the measurement report may include at least one of measurement parameters such as RSRP, RSSI, RSRQ, and SINR. The reported information may also be feedback information, where the feedback information may include hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) statistical information, and the like, and when there is data transmission between the terminal device and the network device, the terminal device may send the feedback information to the network device.

The network device may determine whether the reported information satisfies a second preset trigger condition through the following two conditions, and further determine whether to trigger aperiodic beam scanning for the terminal device.

The first condition is as follows: if one or more measurement parameters in the measurement report received from the terminal device are lower than the measurement parameter or the preset threshold of the measurement parameters, if so, it may be determined that the reported information satisfies the second preset trigger condition, that is, one of the second preset trigger conditions is the preset threshold lower than the measurement parameter. The preset threshold of a certain measurement parameter may correspond to different values in different scenarios, and the specific value of the preset threshold is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

Case two: taking the HARQ statistical information as an example, whether the HARQ statistical information received from the terminal device is greater than or equal to the preset HARQ statistical number or not may be determined, if so, that the reported information satisfies the second preset trigger condition, that is, at this time, the second preset trigger condition is greater than or equal to the preset HARQ statistical number. The specific value of the preset HARQ statistical quantity is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

It should be noted that the two situations do not limit that the reported information meets the second preset trigger condition, and in practical application, whether the reported information meets the second preset trigger condition may be determined by a combination of the two situations, and whether the reported information meets the second preset trigger condition may be determined by other manners.

When the reported information satisfies the second preset trigger condition, the network device may determine that aperiodic beam scanning needs to be triggered for the terminal device, and may determine the trigger type of the aperiodic beam scanning triggered in this case as the second trigger type.

It can be understood that the first trigger type is that the network device actively triggers the aperiodic beam scanning according to its own information, and mainly aims at further optimization of the P-1 stage, so that the terminal device can achieve the purpose of beam optimization through the aperiodic beam scanning, thereby improving system performance and avoiding channel quality degradation; the second trigger type is that when the terminal device sends information to the network device due to movement, rotation, channel blockage or the like of the terminal device, the network device triggers aperiodic beam scanning according to the information sent by the terminal device, so that the terminal device can be prompted to achieve the purpose of beam tracking through the aperiodic beam scanning, and system interruption can be avoided in advance.

Step S202: the network equipment sends first downlink control information carrying scanning indication information to the terminal equipment; correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives first downlink control information carrying scanning indication information from the network equipment;

after or at the same time of determining that aperiodic beam scanning is triggered for the terminal device, the network device sends first downlink control information carrying scanning indication information to the terminal device, wherein the scanning indication information is used for triggering the terminal device to perform aperiodic beam scanning.

The downlink control information may be dci (downlink control information) in an LTE system, and may also be downlink control information in a future communication system, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. Taking DCI as an example, the scanning indication information may occupy one bit in the existing DCI format, for example, when the bit is "1", it indicates that the terminal device is triggered to perform aperiodic beam scanning; a new bit may be added to the existing DCI format, for example, when the bit is "1", it indicates that the terminal device is triggered to perform aperiodic beam scanning.

Step S203: the terminal equipment performs non-periodic beam scanning according to the scanning indication information;

and the terminal equipment performs aperiodic beam scanning when receiving the first downlink control information carrying the scanning indication information. And under the condition of receiving the aperiodic beam scanning information sent by the network equipment, the terminal equipment performs aperiodic beam scanning according to the aperiodic beam scanning information.

In the embodiment described in fig. 2, the network device sends the downlink control information carrying the scanning indication information to the terminal device under the condition that it is determined that the terminal device is triggered to perform aperiodic beam scanning, so that aperiodic beam scanning can be triggered quickly, and beam management efficiency is improved.

Referring to fig. 3, a flow chart of another communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application is illustrated, where the method is introduced from the perspective of interaction between a terminal device and a network device, and the method may include, but is not limited to:

step S301: the network equipment sends beam configuration information to the terminal equipment; accordingly, the terminal device receives the beam configuration information from the network device;

the network device configures at least one type of beam configuration information for the terminal device, and any type of beam configuration information may include at least one of beam scanning width information, beam scanning range information, beam scanning direction information, and beam scanning density information.

The beam run-length information may include horizontal beam-length information and vertical beam-length information, i.e., a horizontal beam-length value and a vertical beam-length value. The beam width may be half-power beam width (HPBW), First Null Beam Width (FNBW), or the like. The beam scanning range information refers to beam scanning angle range information. The beam scanning direction information may include a horizontal direction, a vertical direction, and a horizontal direction + a vertical direction. The beam scan density information refers to the size of the oversampling factor.

It is understood that the four kinds of information included in different beam configuration information may be different, and the content of the four kinds of information included in different beam configuration information may be different. For example, the beam configuration information 1 includes beam scan width information 1 and beam scan range information 1, the beam configuration information 2 includes beam scan direction information 1 and beam scan density information 1, and the beam configuration information 3 includes beam scan width information 2 and beam scan range information 1, the beam configuration information 1 is different from the information type included in the beam configuration information, and the beam configuration information 3 is different from the information content included in the beam configuration information 1.

In an embodiment, the beam configuration information is obtained by the network device according to the current receiving beam configuration of the terminal device, for example, the network device performs configuration with the current receiving beam of the terminal device as the center to obtain the beam configuration information.

In this case, the content included in the beam configuration information may be the same as or different from the content included in the beam configuration information. The difference may be embodied in the beam sweep width information and the beam sweep range information.

In such an embodiment, the beam sweep width information may be a scaling factor, e.g., 1.5 times, 2 times, or 1 time, 1.5 times, etc., based on the beam width of the current receive beam of the terminal device, i.e., scaled down or scaled up based on the beam width of the current receive beam of the terminal device. The beam scanning range information may be an angle range to be scanned at both sides of the current receiving beam of the terminal device. In other words, in this embodiment, the beam sweep width information and the beam sweep range information are associated with the attribute information of the current reception beam.

The network device may configure at least one type of beam configuration information in Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, and send RRC signaling carrying the at least one type of beam configuration information to the terminal device. The network device may also configure and transmit the beam configuration information in other manners.

Step S302: the network equipment determines to trigger aperiodic beam scanning aiming at the terminal equipment;

step S303: the network equipment sends first downlink control information carrying scanning indication information to the terminal equipment; correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives first downlink control information carrying scanning indication information from the network equipment;

the specific implementation process of step S302 and step S303 can refer to step S201 and step S202 in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, and is not described herein again.

Step S304: the terminal equipment determines beam scanning auxiliary information;

in a possible implementation manner, the first downlink control information further includes beam configuration indication information, where the beam configuration indication information is used to indicate one of at least one type of beam configuration information. It is to be understood that the beam configuration indication information indicates what beam configuration information the terminal device employs.

The terminal equipment can determine a beam configuration information according to the beam configuration indication information, and obtain beam scanning auxiliary information according to the beam configuration information. Specifically, the algorithm or the manner of obtaining the beam scanning assistance information according to the beam configuration information is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

In a possible implementation manner, the first downlink control information further includes trigger type indication information, and the trigger type indication information is used to indicate that the trigger type is the first trigger type or the second trigger type.

The terminal device may determine the beam configuration information according to the trigger type indication information and the preset capability information, that is, select one beam configuration information from at least one beam configuration information. And then the terminal equipment obtains beam scanning auxiliary information according to the determined beam configuration information. The preset capability information refers to the self beam capability information of the terminal device, and may include a beam width, a scanning range, a scanning density, a scanning direction, and the like that can be achieved by a receiving beam of the terminal device. The preset capability information may be different in different scenes of the terminal device. It can be understood that, the terminal device compares the preset capability information with at least one beam configuration information in the trigger type indicated by the trigger type indication information, and then selects one beam configuration information matched with the preset capability information, thereby determining the beam scanning auxiliary information.

In the above two possible implementations, the beam scanning assistance information is a descriptive word and is not to be construed as a limitation to the embodiments of the present application, and may be described by other names in the future.

The beam scanning auxiliary information refers to auxiliary information related to the beam scanning receiving capability of the terminal device, which is required by the network device when the network device configures the resource of the measurement reference signal required by the beam scanning of the terminal device, or the number of times of repeating the measurement reference signal resource on the time-frequency resource, or the cycle type of the beam scanning of the terminal device, or the reporting cycle of the measurement report. In the embodiment of the present application, a specific implementation manner of the beam scanning assistance information is not limited, and some possible implementation manners, such as the number of receiving beams to be scanned, are listed, and these implementation manners conform to the description of the technical essence of the beam scanning assistance information. Other names for describing the technical essence of the beam scanning assistance information should fall within the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

The embodiments of the present application take the number of receive beams to be scanned as an example. After determining the beam configuration information, the terminal device determines the number of the receiving beams to be scanned according to the beam configuration information. The number of the receiving beams to be scanned may be a specific value or a value interval.

Step S305: the terminal equipment sends beam scanning auxiliary information to the network equipment; accordingly, the network device receives the beam scanning auxiliary information from the terminal device;

step S306: the network equipment configures aperiodic beam scanning information according to the beam scanning auxiliary information;

step S307: the network equipment sends aperiodic beam scanning information to the terminal equipment; accordingly, the terminal device receives aperiodic beam scanning information from the network device;

step S308: the terminal equipment carries out non-periodic beam scanning;

and the network equipment performs aperiodic beam scanning according to the received aperiodic beam scanning information under the condition of receiving the beam scanning indication information, namely performs scanning according to the reference signal resource configuration information and performs measurement reporting according to the measurement report configuration information.

In the embodiment described in fig. 3, before sending downlink control information carrying scanning indication information to the terminal device, the network device sends at least one type of beam configuration information, so that the terminal device determines one type of beam configuration information, determines beam scanning auxiliary information according to the determined beam configuration information, and feeds back the beam scanning auxiliary information to the network device, so that the network device can accurately configure aperiodic beam scanning information, thereby avoiding waste of resources, and being beneficial to the network device and the terminal device to quickly implement aperiodic beam scanning and quickly implement beam alignment.

Please refer to fig. 4, which is a flowchart illustrating another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application, and the method is introduced from the perspective of interaction between a terminal device and a network device, and the same parts as those in the embodiments shown in fig. 2 and fig. 3 are not described again, and the method may include, but is not limited to:

step S401: the network equipment sends second downlink control information carrying trigger type indication information to the terminal equipment; correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives second downlink control information carrying trigger type indication information from the network equipment;

step S402: the network equipment sends a beam scanning request message to the terminal equipment; accordingly, the terminal device receives a beam scanning request message from the network device;

it should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the execution sequence of step S401 and step S402 is not limited, and the two steps may be executed simultaneously, or step S402 may be executed before step S401. And meanwhile, the processing speed can be improved and the processing time can be shortened by executing the method.

In an embodiment, in addition to the trigger type indication information being carried in the second downlink control information, the beam scanning request message may also be carried in the second downlink control information, so that downlink signaling overhead may be saved.

In one embodiment, the beam scanning request message and the trigger type indication information are carried in different downlink control information.

Step S403: the terminal equipment determines beam scanning auxiliary information according to the trigger type indication information and the preset capability information;

and if the trigger type indicated by the trigger type indication information is the first trigger type, the terminal equipment determines the maximum number of the receiving beams to be scanned according to the preset capability information. It should be noted that, if the number of the receiving beams to be scanned, which is determined by the terminal device, is 1, it indicates that the terminal device portion needs or does not have the capability to perform the P-3 stage aperiodic beam scanning at this time.

If the trigger type indicated by the trigger type indication is the second trigger type, the terminal device may determine the minimum number of the reception beams to be scanned according to the preset capability information. The minimum number of the receiving beams to be scanned refers to the minimum number of the receiving beams required by the terminal device to satisfy the full scan, for example, in the case that the beam scanning range is the largest, but the beam scanning width is wider, and the beam scanning density is smaller (the beam scanning interval is larger), the terminal device may feed back the minimum number of the receiving beams to be scanned.

In an embodiment, if the trigger type indicated by the trigger type indication is the second trigger type, the terminal device may determine the number of receive beams during the beam scanning in the P-1 phase as the number of receive beams to be scanned.

Step S404: the terminal equipment sends beam scanning auxiliary information to the network equipment; accordingly, the network device receives the beam scanning auxiliary information from the terminal device;

step S405: the network equipment configures aperiodic beam scanning information according to the beam scanning auxiliary information;

step S406: the network equipment sends aperiodic beam scanning information to the terminal equipment; accordingly, the terminal device receives aperiodic beam scanning information from the network device;

step S407: the network equipment determines to trigger aperiodic beam scanning aiming at the terminal equipment;

the network device may determine that the terminal device needs to be triggered to perform aperiodic beam scanning when the network device sends aperiodic beam scanning information to the terminal device.

Step S408: the network equipment sends first downlink control information carrying scanning indication information to the terminal equipment; correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives first downlink control information carrying scanning indication information from the network equipment;

step S409: the terminal equipment carries out non-periodic beam scanning;

and the terminal equipment performs aperiodic beam scanning according to the received aperiodic beam scanning information under the condition of receiving the beam scanning indication information.

In the embodiment described in fig. 4, after the network device and the terminal device perform handshake, the network device triggers the terminal device to perform aperiodic beam scanning, which can quickly trigger aperiodic beam scanning and improve beam management efficiency.

Please refer to fig. 5, which is a flowchart illustrating another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application, and the method is introduced from the perspective of interaction between a terminal device and a network device, and details of the method are the same as those in the embodiments shown in fig. 2, fig. 3, and fig. 4, and the method may include, but is not limited to:

step S501: the network equipment determines to trigger aperiodic beam scanning aiming at the terminal equipment;

step S502: the network equipment sends first downlink control information carrying scanning indication information to the terminal equipment; correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives first downlink control information carrying scanning indication information from the network equipment;

step S503: the network equipment determines beam scanning auxiliary information according to the trigger type and the terminal equipment capability information sent by the terminal equipment;

the terminal device sends the terminal device capability information to the network device in the initial access process, and the terminal device capability information includes a receiving beam number interval supportable by the terminal device and may also include other capability information of the terminal device.

If the trigger type is the first trigger type, the network device may determine that the number of receive beams to be scanned of the terminal device is the maximum number of receive beams supportable by the terminal device.

If the trigger type is the first trigger type, the network device may determine that the number of receive beams to be scanned of the terminal device is the minimum number of receive beams supportable by the terminal device.

In one embodiment, if the trigger type is the first trigger type, the network device may determine that the number of receive beams to be scanned by the terminal device is the same as the number of receive beams in the P-1 phase.

Step S504: the network equipment configures aperiodic beam scanning information according to the beam scanning auxiliary information:

step S505: the network equipment sends aperiodic beam scanning information to the terminal equipment; accordingly, the terminal device receives aperiodic beam scanning information from the network device;

step S506: the terminal equipment carries out non-periodic beam scanning;

In the embodiment described in fig. 5, the terminal device does not need to report the beam scanning assistance information to the network device, and the network device may autonomously determine the beam scanning assistance information.

Please refer to fig. 6, which is a flowchart illustrating another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application, and the method is introduced from the perspective of interaction between a terminal device and a network device, and details of the method are the same as those in the embodiments shown in fig. 2, fig. 3, and fig. 4, and the method may include, but is not limited to:

step S601: the network equipment sends second downlink control information to the terminal equipment, wherein the second downlink control information carries at least one of beam type switching indication information or port relation indication information; correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives the second downlink control information from the network equipment;

wherein, the beam type switching indication information is used to indicate whether the terminal device switches the beam type of the receiving beam, and the beam type may be a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) beam or other beams.

The beam type switching indication information may occupy one bit in the existing DCI format, for example, when the bit is "0", it indicates not to switch the beam type, that is, the receiving beam type used by the terminal device at the current time is the same as the last time; when the bit is "1", the switching beam type is indicated. The scan indication information may also add a bit in the existing DCI format to indicate whether to switch the beam type.

The antenna port relationship indication information is used to indicate whether an antenna port of a current transmission beam of the network device and an antenna port of a last transmission beam are in a quasi co-located (QCL) relationship. The antenna port of the current transmission beam may be an antenna port corresponding to a transmission beam participating in the aperiodic beam scanning at this time on the network device side, and the antenna port of the last transmission beam may be an antenna port corresponding to a transmission beam participating in the aperiodic beam scanning at the last time on the network device side. It should be noted that the antenna ports referred to in the embodiments of the present application are all logical antenna ports.

The embodiment of the present application does not limit the method for determining, by the network device, whether the antenna port of the current transmission beam and the antenna port of the last transmission beam are in the QCL relationship, for example, the network device may determine according to whether the antenna port of the current transmission beam and the antenna port of the last transmission beam are located on the same panel, and assuming that the antenna port 1 of the current transmission beam and the antenna port 4 of the last transmission beam are located on the same panel, it may be considered that the antenna port 1 of the current transmission beam and the antenna port 4 of the last transmission beam are in the QCL relationship.

The network device may determine that the antenna port of the current transmission beam and the antenna port of the last transmission beam are in a QCL relationship when at least one antenna port of the current transmission beam and at least one antenna port of the last transmission beam are in a QCL relationship.

The antenna port relation indication information may occupy one bit in the existing DCI format, for example, when the bit is "0", the antenna port that indicates that the current transmission beam and the antenna port that transmitted the beam last time are in a QCL relation, and in this case, the terminal device performs aperiodic beam scanning to achieve the purpose of beam optimization; when the bit is "1", it indicates that the antenna port of the current transmission beam and the antenna port of the last transmission beam are not in the QCL relationship. The antenna port relation indication information may also add a bit in the existing DCI format to indicate whether the QCL relation exists.

In the related definition of 3GPP NR, two antenna ports are considered to be QCL relationship if the large scale characteristics of the channel corresponding to the symbol on one antenna port can be derived from the symbol transmitted by the other antenna port. The large scale features include at least one of: delay spread, doppler shift, average gain, average delay, and spatial reception parameters. QCL definitions may be updated according to the evolution of NR, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited to the current definitions.

Step S602: the network equipment sends a beam scanning request message to the terminal equipment; accordingly, the terminal device receives a beam scanning request message from the network device;

it should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the execution sequence of step S601 and step S602 is not limited, and the two steps may be executed simultaneously, or step S602 may be executed before step S601. And meanwhile, the processing speed can be improved and the processing time can be shortened by executing the method.

In an embodiment, in addition to that at least one of the beam type switching indication information or the port relation indication information may be carried in the second downlink control information, the beam scanning request message may also be carried in the second downlink control information, so that downlink signaling overhead may be saved.

In one embodiment, the beam scanning request message and at least one of the beam type switching indication information or the port relation indication information are carried in different downlink control information.

Step S603: the terminal equipment determines beam scanning auxiliary information according to at least one of the beam type switching indication information or the port relation indication information;

under the condition that the second downlink control information includes the beam type switching indication information, if the beam type switching indication information indicates that the beam type is not switched, the terminal device may determine the beam scanning auxiliary information reported last time as the beam scanning auxiliary information of this time, or the terminal device determines the beam scanning auxiliary information according to the preset capability information; if the beam type switching indication information indicates to switch the beam type, the terminal device determines the beam scanning assistance information according to the new beam type, and the specific determination manner or algorithm is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

Under the condition that the second downlink control information comprises port relation indication information, if the port relation indication information indicates that an antenna port of a current transmission beam of the network equipment is in a QCL (quaternary Command level) relation with an antenna port of a last transmission beam, the terminal equipment determines beam scanning auxiliary information such as the maximum number of receiving beams to be scanned according to preset capability information; if the port relation indication information indicates that the antenna port of the current transmission beam of the network device and the antenna port of the last transmission beam are not in the QCL relation, the terminal device may determine the beam scanning auxiliary information reported last time as the beam scanning auxiliary information of this time, or determine the beam scanning auxiliary information according to the preset capability information.

And under the condition that the second downlink control information comprises the beam type switching indication information and the port relation indication information, the terminal equipment determines the beam scanning auxiliary information by comprehensively considering the beam type switching indication information and the port relation indication information.

Step S604: the terminal equipment sends beam scanning auxiliary information to the network equipment; accordingly, the network device receives the beam scanning auxiliary information from the terminal device;

step S605: the network equipment configures aperiodic beam scanning information according to the beam scanning auxiliary information;

step S606: the network equipment sends aperiodic beam scanning information to the terminal equipment; accordingly, the terminal device receives aperiodic beam scanning information from the network device;

step S607: the network equipment determines to trigger aperiodic beam scanning aiming at the terminal equipment;

step S608: the network equipment sends first downlink control information carrying scanning indication information to the terminal equipment; correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives first downlink control information carrying scanning indication information from the network equipment;

step S609: the terminal equipment carries out non-periodic beam scanning;

In the embodiment described in fig. 6, the terminal device determines the beam scanning assistance information according to at least one of the beam type switching indication information or the port relationship indication information, and reports the beam scanning assistance information to the network device, which can also achieve the purpose of rapidly triggering the aperiodic beam scanning and improving the beam management efficiency.

Fig. 7 is a simplified schematic diagram of a device according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in fig. 7, the device may be a terminal device 10, or may be a chip or a circuit, for example, a chip or a circuit that may be disposed on a terminal device. The terminal device 10 may correspond to the terminal device in the above-described method.

The device may include a processor 110 and a memory 120. The memory 120 is configured to store instructions, and the processor 110 is configured to execute the instructions stored by the memory 120 to implement step S203 in the method corresponding to fig. 2; step S304 and step S308 in the method corresponding to fig. 3; steps S403 and S409 in the method corresponding to fig. 4; step S506 in the method corresponding to fig. 5; as in steps S603 and S609 of the corresponding method of fig. 6.

Further, the apparatus may further include a receiver 140 and a transmitter 150. Further, the device may further comprise a bus system 130, wherein the processor 110, the memory 120, the receiver 140 and the transmitter 150 may be connected via the bus system 130.

The processor 110 is configured to execute the instructions stored in the memory 120 to control the receiver 140 to receive the signal and control the transmitter 150 to transmit the signal, thereby completing the steps of the terminal device in the above-mentioned method. Wherein the receiver 140 and the transmitter 150 may be the same or different physical entities. When the same physical entity, may be collectively referred to as a transceiver. The memory 220 may be integrated in the processor 210 or may be provided separately from the processor 210.

As an implementation, the functions of the receiver 140 and the transmitter 150 may be realized by a transceiving circuit or a dedicated chip for transceiving. The processor 110 may be considered to be implemented by a dedicated processing chip, processing circuit, processor, or a general-purpose chip.

As another implementation manner, a manner of using a general-purpose computer to implement the terminal device provided in the embodiment of the present application may be considered. I.e., program code that implements the functions of the processor 110, the receiver 140, and the transmitter 150, is stored in the memory, and a general-purpose processor implements the functions of the processor 110, the receiver 140, and the transmitter 150 by executing the code in the memory.

For the concepts, explanations, detailed descriptions and other steps related to the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application related to the apparatus, reference is made to the descriptions of the foregoing methods or other embodiments, and details are not repeated here.

Fig. 8 is a simplified structural schematic diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application. The terminal device may be adapted for use in the system shown in fig. 1. For convenience of explanation, fig. 8 shows only main components of the terminal device. As shown in fig. 8, the terminal device 10 includes a processor, a memory, a control circuit, an antenna, and an input-output means. The processor is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, controlling the whole terminal equipment, executing software programs and processing data of the software programs. The memory is used primarily for storing software programs and data. The control circuit is mainly used for converting baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing the radio frequency signals. The control circuit and the antenna together, which may also be called a transceiver, are mainly used for transceiving radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are used primarily for receiving data input by a user and for outputting data to the user.

When the terminal device is turned on, the processor can read the software program in the storage unit, interpret and execute the instruction of the software program, and process the data of the software program. When data needs to be sent wirelessly, the processor outputs a baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit after performing baseband processing on the data to be sent, and the radio frequency circuit performs radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and sends the radio frequency signal outwards in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is sent to the terminal equipment, the radio frequency circuit receives radio frequency signals through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signals into baseband signals and outputs the baseband signals to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signals into the data and processes the data. In the embodiment of the present application, the processor may be configured to perform aperiodic beam scanning and may also be configured to determine beam scanning assistance information. The memory may be used to store programs needed by the processor to perform aperiodic beam scans and may also be used to store programs for the processor to determine beam scan aiding information.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that fig. 8 shows only one memory and processor for ease of illustration. In an actual terminal device, there may be multiple processors and memories. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or a storage device, and the like, which is not limited in this application.

As an alternative implementation manner, the processor may include a baseband processor and a central processing unit, where the baseband processor is mainly used to process a communication protocol and communication data, and the central processing unit is mainly used to control the whole terminal device, execute a software program, and process data of the software program. The processor in fig. 8 integrates the functions of the baseband processor and the central processing unit, and those skilled in the art will understand that the baseband processor and the central processing unit may also be independent processors, and are interconnected through a bus or the like. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the terminal device may include a plurality of baseband processors to accommodate different network formats, the terminal device may include a plurality of central processors to enhance its processing capability, and various components of the terminal device may be connected by various buses. The baseband processor can also be expressed as a baseband processing circuit or a baseband processing chip. The central processing unit can also be expressed as a central processing circuit or a central processing chip. The function of processing the communication protocol and the communication data may be built in the processor, or may be stored in the storage unit in the form of a software program, and the processor executes the software program to realize the baseband processing function.

For example, in the embodiment of the present application, the antenna and the control circuit having the transceiving function may be regarded as the transceiving unit 101 of the terminal device 10, and the processor having the processing function may be regarded as the processing unit 102 of the terminal device 10. As shown in fig. 8, the terminal device 10 includes a transceiving unit 101 and a processing unit 102. A transceiver unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiving device, etc. Alternatively, a device for implementing a receiving function in the transceiver unit 101 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device for implementing a sending function in the transceiver unit 101 may be regarded as a sending unit, that is, the transceiver unit 101 includes a receiving unit and a sending unit, the receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, and the like, and the sending unit may be referred to as a transmitter, a sending circuit, and the like.

According to the foregoing method, fig. 9 is a simplified schematic diagram of a device provided in the present embodiment, as shown in fig. 9, the device may be the network device 20, or may be a chip or a circuit, such as a chip or a circuit that may be disposed in the network device. The network device 20 corresponds to the network device in the above method. The device may include a processor 210 and a memory 220. The memory 220 is configured to store instructions, and the processor 210 is configured to execute the instructions stored by the memory 220, so as to enable the apparatus to implement the foregoing step S201 in the method corresponding to fig. 2; step S302 and step S306 in the method corresponding to fig. 3; steps S405 and S407 in the method corresponding to fig. 4; step S501, step S503 and step S504 in the method corresponding to fig. 5; as in steps S605 and S607 in the method corresponding to fig. 6.

Further, the network may also include a receiver 240 and a transmitter 250. Still further, the network may also include a bus system 230.

The processor 210, the memory 220, the receiver 240 and the transmitter 250 are connected via the bus system 230, and the processor 210 is configured to execute instructions stored in the memory 220 to control the receiver 240 to receive signals and control the transmitter 250 to transmit signals, thereby completing the steps of the network device in the above method. Wherein the receiver 240 and the transmitter 250 may be the same or different physical entities. When the same physical entity, may be collectively referred to as a transceiver. The memory 220 may be integrated in the processor 210 or may be provided separately from the processor 210.

As an implementation manner, the functions of the receiver 240 and the transmitter 250 may be considered to be implemented by a transceiving circuit or a dedicated chip for transceiving. Processor 210 may be considered to be implemented by a dedicated processing chip, processing circuit, processor, or a general-purpose chip.

As another implementation manner, a manner of using a general-purpose computer to implement the network device provided in the embodiment of the present application may be considered. I.e. program code that implements the functions of the processor 210, the receiver 240 and the transmitter 250, is stored in a memory, and a general-purpose processor implements the functions of the processor 210, the receiver 240 and the transmitter 250 by executing the code in the memory.

According to the foregoing method, fig. 10 is a simplified schematic structural diagram of a network device provided in this embodiment of the present application, such as a schematic structural diagram of a base station. As shown in fig. 10, the base station can be applied to the system shown in fig. 1. The base station 20 includes one or more radio frequency units, such as a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) 201 and one or more baseband units (BBUs) (also referred to as digital units, DUs) 202. The RRU201 may be referred to as a transceiver unit, transceiver circuit, or transceiver, etc., which may include at least one antenna 2011 and a radio unit 2012. The RRU201 is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals and converting the radio frequency signals and baseband signals, for example, for sending downlink control information described in the above embodiments to a terminal device. The BBU202 is mainly used for performing baseband processing, controlling a base station, and the like. The RRU201 and the BBU202 may be physically disposed together or may be physically disposed separately, that is, distributed base stations.

The BBU202 is a control center of a base station, and may also be referred to as a processing unit, and is mainly used for performing baseband processing functions, such as channel coding, multiplexing, modulation, spreading, and the like. For example, the BBU (processing unit) can be used to control the base station to execute the operation flow related to the network device in the above method embodiment.

In an example, the BBU202 may be formed by one or more boards, and the boards may support a radio access network (e.g., an LTE network) of a single access system together, or may support radio access networks of different access systems respectively. The BBU202 also includes a memory 2021 and a processor 2022. The memory 2021 is used to store the necessary instructions and data. The processor 2022 is configured to control the base station to perform necessary actions, for example, to control the base station to perform the operation procedures related to the network device in the above method embodiments. The memory 2021 and the processor 2022 may serve one or more boards. That is, the memory and processor may be provided separately on each board. Multiple boards may share the same memory and processor. In addition, each single board can be provided with necessary circuits.

According to the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication system, which includes the foregoing network device and one or more terminal devices.

It should be understood that in the embodiments of the present application, the processor may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), and the processor may also be other general-purpose processors, Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, and the like. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

The memory may include both read-only memory and random access memory, and provides instructions and data to the processor. The portion of memory may also include non-volatile random access memory.

The bus system may include a power bus, a control bus, a status signal bus, and the like, in addition to the data bus. For clarity of illustration, however, the various buses are labeled as a bus system in the figures.

In implementation, the steps of the above method may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in a processor. The software module may be located in ram, flash memory, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, etc. storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in a memory, and a processor reads information in the memory and completes the steps of the method in combination with hardware of the processor. To avoid repetition, it is not described in detail here.

It should also be understood that reference herein to first, second, third, fourth, and various numerical designations is made only for ease of description and is not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

It should be understood that the term "and/or" herein is merely one type of association relationship that describes an associated object, meaning that three relationships may exist, e.g., a and/or B may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. In addition, the character "/" herein generally indicates that the former and latter related objects are in an "or" relationship.

It should be understood that, in the various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes do not mean the execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation to the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The above description is only for the specific embodiments of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application, and shall be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of communication, comprising:

under the condition that the beam scanning attribute information of the network equipment in the P-1 stage does not meet a first preset triggering condition, determining that aperiodic beam scanning is triggered aiming at the terminal equipment and determining that the triggering type of the aperiodic beam scanning is a first triggering type;

or, the network device determines to trigger aperiodic beam scanning for the terminal device and determines that the trigger type of the aperiodic beam scanning is a second trigger type when the reported information received from the terminal device meets a second preset trigger condition;

the network equipment sends first downlink control information carrying scanning indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the scanning indication information is used for triggering the terminal equipment to carry out aperiodic beam scanning; the first downlink control information further includes trigger type indication information, where the trigger type indication information is used to indicate that the trigger type is the first trigger type or the second trigger type; the trigger type indication information is used for the terminal equipment to determine beam scanning auxiliary information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein before the network device determines to trigger aperiodic beam scan for a terminal device, further comprising:

the network device sends at least one type of beam configuration information to the terminal device, wherein the beam configuration information comprises at least one of beam scanning width information, beam scanning range information, beam scanning direction information and beam scanning density information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the beam configuration information is obtained by the network device according to a current receiving beam configuration of the terminal device.

4. The method according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the first downlink control information further comprises beam configuration indication information, and the beam configuration indication information is used for indicating one of the at least one beam configuration information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein after the network device sends the first downlink control information carrying the scanning indication information to the terminal device, the method further comprises:

the network equipment receives beam scanning auxiliary information from the terminal equipment;

the network equipment configures aperiodic wave beam scanning information according to the wave beam scanning auxiliary information;

and the network equipment sends the aperiodic beam scanning information to the terminal equipment.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein after the network device sends the first downlink control information carrying the scanning indication information to the terminal device, the method further comprises:

the network equipment determines beam scanning auxiliary information according to the trigger type and the terminal equipment capability information sent by the terminal equipment;

7. The method of claim 1, before the network device sends the first downlink control information carrying the scanning indication information to the terminal device, further comprising:

the network device sends second downlink control information to the terminal device, wherein the second downlink control information carries at least one of beam type switching indication information or port relation indication information, the beam type switching indication information is used for indicating whether a beam type is switched, and the port relation indication information is used for indicating whether an antenna port of a current sending beam of the network device and an antenna port of a last sending beam of the network device are in a quasi co-location relation;

the network equipment sends a beam scanning request message to the terminal equipment;

8. A method of communication, comprising:

the terminal equipment receives first downlink control information carrying scanning indication information from the network equipment; the first downlink control information further comprises trigger type indication information, and the trigger type indication information is used for indicating that the trigger type is a first trigger type or a second trigger type;

the terminal equipment determines beam configuration information according to the trigger type indication information and preset capability information, determines beam scanning auxiliary information according to the beam configuration information, and sends the beam scanning auxiliary information to the network equipment;

and the terminal equipment performs aperiodic beam scanning according to the scanning indication information.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein before the terminal device receives the first downlink control information carrying the scanning indication information from the network device, the method further comprises:

the terminal device receives at least one type of beam configuration information from the network device, wherein the beam configuration information comprises at least one of beam scanning width information, beam scanning range information, beam scanning direction information and beam scanning density information.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the beam configuration information is obtained by the network device according to a current receiving beam configuration of the terminal device.

11. The method according to claim 9 or 10, wherein the first downlink control information further comprises beam configuration indication information, and the beam configuration indication information is used for indicating one of the at least one beam configuration information.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein before the terminal device performs aperiodic beam scanning according to the scanning indication information, the method further comprises:

the terminal equipment determines beam scanning auxiliary information according to the beam configuration indication information;

the terminal equipment sends the beam scanning auxiliary information to the network equipment;

the terminal device receives aperiodic beam scanning information from the network device.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein before the terminal device performs aperiodic beam scanning according to the scanning indication information, the method further comprises:

14. The method according to claim 8 or 10, wherein before the terminal device performs aperiodic beam scanning according to the scanning indication information, the method further comprises:

the terminal equipment determines beam configuration information according to the trigger type indication information and preset capability information;

the terminal equipment determines beam scanning auxiliary information according to the determined beam configuration information;

15. The method according to claim 8, wherein before the terminal device receives the first downlink control information carrying the scanning indication information from the network device, the method further comprises:

the terminal device receives second downlink control information from the network device, where the second downlink control information carries at least one of beam type switching indication information or port relation indication information, the beam type switching indication information is used to indicate whether to switch a beam type, and the port relation indication information is used to indicate whether an antenna port of a current transmission beam of the network device and an antenna port of a last transmission beam are in a quasi co-location relation;

the terminal equipment receives a beam scanning request message from the network equipment;

the terminal equipment determines beam scanning auxiliary information according to at least one of the beam type switching indication information or the port relation indication information;

16. A network device comprising a processor and a transceiver;

the processor is configured to determine that aperiodic beam scanning is triggered for the terminal device and determine that a trigger type of the aperiodic beam scanning is a first trigger type when the beam scanning attribute information in the P-1 stage does not satisfy a first preset trigger condition;

or, under the condition that the report information received from the terminal equipment meets a second preset trigger condition, determining to trigger the aperiodic beam scanning for the terminal equipment and determining that the trigger type of the aperiodic beam scanning is a second trigger type;

the transceiver is configured to send first downlink control information carrying scanning indication information to the terminal device, where the scanning indication information is used to trigger the terminal device to perform aperiodic beam scanning; the first downlink control information further includes trigger type indication information, where the trigger type indication information is used to indicate that the trigger type is the first trigger type or the second trigger type; the trigger type indication information is used for the terminal equipment to determine beam scanning auxiliary information.

17. The network device of claim 16,

the transceiver is further configured to transmit at least one type of beam configuration information to the terminal device, where the beam configuration information includes at least one of beam scan width information, beam scan range information, beam scan direction information, and beam scan density information.

18. The network device of claim 17, wherein the beam configuration information is obtained by the network device according to a current receiving beam configuration of the terminal device.

19. The network device according to claim 17 or 18, wherein the first downlink control information further comprises beam configuration indication information, and the beam configuration indication information is used for indicating one of the at least one beam configuration information.

20. The network device of claim 16,

the transceiver is further configured to receive beam scanning assistance information from the terminal device;

the processor is further configured to configure aperiodic beam scanning information according to the beam scanning auxiliary information;

the transceiver is further configured to send the aperiodic beam scanning information to the terminal device.

21. The network device of claim 16,

the processor is further configured to determine beam scanning assistance information according to the trigger type and the terminal device capability information sent by the terminal device;

22. The network device of claim 16, wherein the network device,

the transceiver is further configured to send second downlink control information to the terminal device, where the second downlink control information carries at least one of beam type switching indication information or port relation indication information, the beam type switching indication information is used to indicate whether a beam type is switched, and the port relation indication information is used to indicate whether an antenna port of a current transmission beam of the network device and an antenna port of a last transmission beam are in a quasi co-location relation;

the transceiver is further configured to send a beam scanning request message to the terminal device;

23. A terminal device comprising a processor and a transceiver;

the transceiver is used for receiving first downlink control information carrying scanning indication information from network equipment; the first downlink control information further comprises trigger type indication information, and the trigger type indication information is used for indicating that the trigger type is a first trigger type or a second trigger type;

the processor is configured to determine beam configuration information according to the trigger type indication information and preset capability information, determine beam scanning assistance information according to the beam configuration information, and send the beam scanning assistance information to the network device; and performing non-periodic beam scanning according to the scanning indication information.

24. The terminal device of claim 23,

the transceiver is further configured to receive at least one beam configuration information from the network device, where the beam configuration information includes at least one of beam sweep width information, beam sweep range information, beam sweep direction information, and beam sweep density information.

25. The terminal device of claim 24, wherein the beam configuration information is obtained by the network device according to a current receiving beam configuration of the terminal device.

26. The terminal device according to claim 24 or 25, wherein the first downlink control information further comprises beam configuration indication information, and the beam configuration indication information is used for indicating one of the at least one beam configuration information.

27. The terminal device of claim 26,

the processor is further configured to determine beam scanning assistance information according to the beam configuration indication information;

the transceiver is further configured to transmit the beam scanning assistance information to the network device;

the transceiver is further configured to receive aperiodic beam scan information from the network device.

28. The terminal device according to claim 23 or 25,

the processor is further configured to determine beam configuration information according to the trigger type indication information and preset capability information;

the processor is further configured to determine beam scanning assistance information according to the determined beam configuration information;

29. The terminal device of claim 23,

the transceiver is further configured to receive second downlink control information from the network device, where the second downlink control information carries at least one of beam type switching indication information or port relationship indication information, the beam type switching indication information is used to indicate whether to switch a beam type, and the port relationship indication information is used to indicate whether an antenna port of a current transmission beam of the network device and an antenna port of a last transmission beam are in a quasi-co-location relationship;

the transceiver further configured to receive a beam scanning request message from the network device;

the processor is further configured to determine beam scanning assistance information according to at least one of the beam type switching indication information or the port relation indication information;