CN109996265B

CN109996265B - Beam measurement method, device, system, network equipment and terminal equipment

Info

Publication number: CN109996265B
Application number: CN201910260440.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 余小勇; 刘斌
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-04-02
Filing date: 2019-04-02
Publication date: 2021-08-03
Anticipated expiration: 2039-04-02
Also published as: CN109996265A

Abstract

The application provides a beam measuring method, a beam measuring device, a beam measuring system, network equipment and terminal equipment. The method comprises the following steps: the network equipment determines the priority of K reference signals to be sent, wherein the K reference signals correspond to K wave beams one by one, and each reference signal is sent through the corresponding wave beam; and the network equipment sends the reference signal according to the priority. According to the method and the device, the reference signals to be sent are sent according to the priority, so that the optimal beam on the network equipment side can be determined as early as possible, and the beam measurement efficiency is improved.

Description

Beam measurement method, device, system, network equipment and terminal equipment

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a beam measurement method, apparatus, system, network device and terminal device.

Background

In the process of spatial propagation, the quality of the wireless signal is degraded, and this degradation phenomenon is called "path loss". The path loss has a great influence on a communication system, and particularly, for a communication system in a high-frequency electromagnetic wave (millimeter wave) band (for example, a fifth generation (5G) communication system), the high path loss characteristic of the millimeter wave may cause the system to fail to operate normally.

In order to realize better cell coverage, a beam forming technology is introduced, and beams have directivity and can effectively resist path loss. In order to obtain better system transmission performance, the communication system needs to ensure that the beam direction alignment of the beam of the network device side (such as a base station) and the beam of the terminal device side is better, so that uplink and downlink beam tracking needs to be continuously performed.

In the beam tracking process, the terminal device needs to measure all wireless signals for beam measurement (beam measurement) sent by the network device before adjusting the working beam, and the beam measurement efficiency is low.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a beam measuring method, a device, a system, network equipment and terminal equipment, which can improve the beam measuring efficiency in the beam tracking process.

In a first aspect, a method of measuring a beam is provided, the method comprising: the network equipment determines the priority of K reference signals to be sent, wherein the K reference signals correspond to K wave beams one by one, and each reference signal is sent through the corresponding wave beam; and the network equipment sends the reference signal according to the priority.

In the technical scheme of the application, when the network equipment side sends the reference signals for measuring the beams, the reference signals are not sent in a random sequence, but the priority of the reference signals to be sent is determined, the reference signals are sent according to the priority, correspondingly, the receiving end also receives the reference signals according to the priority of the reference signals and measures the reference signals according to the priority, and therefore the optimal beams of the network equipment side can be determined as early as possible, and the beam measuring efficiency is improved. With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, a first reference signal of the K reference signals corresponds to a first beam of the K beams, where the first reference signal is a reference signal with a highest priority among the K reference signals, and the first beam is a current working beam.

Under the condition of stable channel state conditions, the working beams of the network equipment side and the terminal equipment side are kept unchanged with a high probability, when the attitude or the position of the terminal equipment is unchanged or is changed a little, the network equipment side uses the current working beam to send the reference signal with the highest priority, and the terminal equipment can firstly measure the reference signal with the highest priority, namely firstly measure the current working beam of the network equipment side, so that the optimal beam of the network equipment is determined as soon as possible, and the beam measurement efficiency is improved.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the sending, by the network device, the reference signal according to the priority includes: the network equipment sends the reference signal according to the priority in a second detection period; and the current working beam comprises a beam corresponding to a reference signal with the best receiving quality reported by the terminal equipment and determined by the network equipment in a first detection period, wherein the first detection period is before the second detection period.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the determining, by the network device, priorities of K reference signals to be transmitted includes: and the network equipment determines the priority of the K reference signals according to the spatial relationship between the K beams and the current working beam.

The beam around the current working beam and the beam with a larger difference with the emission angle of the current working beam can be set with different priorities according to the space relationship between the transmission beam of the network equipment and the current working beam at the network equipment side.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the determining, by the network device, priorities of K reference signals to be transmitted includes: the network device determines, in a second detection period, priorities of the K reference signals according to measurement results of the K beams for the K reference signals obtained in a first detection period, where the first detection period is located before the second detection period.

The priority of the current period is determined according to the measurement result of the reference signal in the last detection period, so that the efficiency of the terminal equipment for determining the optimal beam on the network equipment side as early as possible can be improved.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: receiving a measurement result of at least one part of the K reference signals sent by the terminal equipment; adjusting the priority of at least a part of the K reference signals according to the measurement result of at least a part of the K reference signals.

In a second aspect, a beam measurement method is provided, which includes: the method comprises the steps that terminal equipment measures at least N reference signals in K reference signals sent by network equipment based on priority, wherein N is less than K, the K reference signals correspond to K wave beams one by one, and each reference signal is sent through the corresponding wave beam; and reporting partial or all measurement results of at least N reference signals in the K reference signals to the network equipment.

The network equipment sends the reference signals based on the priority, the terminal equipment receives the reference signals based on the priority and measures according to the priority, and therefore the optimal wave beam on the network equipment side can be determined as early as possible, and wave beam measuring efficiency is improved.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the measuring, by the terminal device, at least N reference signals of the K reference signals sent by the network device based on the priority includes: before the measurement, when the attitude or position change of the terminal equipment meets a preset condition, the terminal equipment measures all reference signals in the K reference signals.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the measuring, by the terminal device, at least N reference signals of the K reference signals sent by the network device based on the priority includes: the terminal equipment measures N reference signals in the K reference signals; and the terminal equipment determines whether to measure beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals or not according to the measurement results of the N reference signals and/or the attitude and position change information of the terminal equipment, wherein the attitude and position change information of the terminal equipment is used for indicating the attitude and/or position change of the terminal equipment.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the determining, by the terminal device, whether to measure beams corresponding to remaining K-N reference signals according to the measurement results of the N reference signals and/or posture and position change information of the terminal device includes:

at least a part of the N reference signals are better than corresponding measurement results in a first detection period in measurement results of a second detection period, and when the attitude or position change of the terminal equipment does not meet preset conditions in the process of measuring the N reference signals, the terminal equipment determines that beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals are not measured; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the measurement results of all the N reference signals in the second detection period are inferior to the corresponding measurement results in the first detection period, and/or when the attitude or position change of the terminal device meets a preset condition in the process of measuring the N reference signals, the terminal device determines to measure the beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals;

wherein the first detection period precedes the second detection period.

Under the condition of stable channel state conditions or when the attitude and the position of the terminal equipment change slightly or do not change, the terminal equipment can only measure a part of reference signals in the reference signals to determine the optimal beam of the network equipment without measuring all the reference signals, so that the beam measurement efficiency can be improved, the power consumption of the terminal equipment for measuring the reference signals is reduced, and unnecessary power consumption overhead is reduced.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, a first reference signal of the K reference signals corresponds to a first beam of the K beams, the first reference signal is a reference signal with a highest priority among the K reference signals, and the first beam is an operating beam of the K beams.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the measuring, by the terminal device, at least N reference signals of the K reference signals sent by the network device based on the priority includes: the terminal device measures at least N reference signals in the K reference signals sent by the network device based on the priority in a second detection period; and the working beam comprises a beam corresponding to a reference signal with the best receiving quality reported by the terminal device to the network device in a first detection period, and the first detection period is before the second detection period.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the priorities of the K reference signals are determined based on spatial relationships of the K beams and a current working beam of the network device.

At most moments, when the posture of the terminal device changes or the movement is small, the best beam pair of the terminal device and the network device is most probably the beam around the current working beam, so the beam around the current working beam and the beam with a larger difference with the emission angle of the current working beam can be set with different priorities according to the spatial relationship between the transmission beam of the network device and the current working beam at the network device side, the terminal device can determine the optimal beam of the network device as soon as possible, and the beam measurement efficiency is improved.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the measuring, by the terminal device, at least N reference signals of the K reference signals sent by the network device based on the priority includes: the terminal device measures at least N reference signals in K reference signals sent by the network device based on priority in a second detection period; and the priorities of the K reference signals are determined based on measurements for the K reference signals obtained by the K beams during a first detection period, the first detection period being prior to the second detection period.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: and after M detection periods, the terminal equipment measures all the reference signals of the K reference signals.

After a certain detection period, the terminal device measures all the reference signals sent by the network device, so that the change of the working beam pair caused by the change of the channel condition can be prevented, and the optimal performance of the working beam pair of the network device and the terminal device can be ensured.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the reporting, to the network device, a measurement result of part or all of at least N reference signals of the K reference signals includes: the terminal device feeds back measurement results of part or all of the N reference signals in the K reference signals in a second detection period to the network device, where the measurement results of part or all of the N reference signals in the K reference signals in the second detection period are used to determine priorities of part or all of the N reference signals in the K reference signals in a third detection period, and the third detection period is after the second detection period.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the N is a preset value or is dynamically configured by the terminal device.

In a third aspect, a method of measuring a beam is provided, the method comprising: the method comprises the steps that the terminal equipment measures reference signals sent by the network equipment at the first S moments in a detection period by using S receiving beams in K receiving beams, wherein S is more than or equal to 1 and is less than K, and the S receiving beams are in one-to-one correspondence with the reference signals sent at the first S moments; and determining whether to use the remaining K-S receiving beams of the K receiving beams to measure the reference signals transmitted by the network equipment at the next K-S moments, wherein the reference signals transmitted at the previous S moments and the reference signals transmitted at the next K-S moments are transmitted by the same beam.

With reference to the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the measuring, by the terminal device, the reference signals sent by the network device at the first S times in a detection period by using S of the K receive beams includes:

in a second detection period, the terminal device measures the reference signals sent by the network device at the first S moments by using S of the K receiving beams; and

the determining, according to the measurement result, whether to use remaining K-S of the K receive beams to measure the reference signals transmitted by the network device at the next K-S moments includes:

when the measurement result of some or all of the S reception beams in the second detection period is better than the measurement result of the terminal device in the working beam in the first detection period, the terminal device determines that the remaining K-S reception beams in the K reception beams are no longer used for measuring the reference signals sent by the network device at the next K-S times, and the first detection period is before the second detection period.

Under the condition of stable channel state conditions, the terminal device does not necessarily measure all the reference signals sent by the network device, the optimal beam at the terminal device side can be determined only by measuring part of the reference signals, and all the reference signals do not need to be measured, so that the beam measurement efficiency is improved, the power consumption of the terminal device for measuring the reference signals is reduced, and unnecessary power consumption overhead is reduced.

With reference to the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: determining S of the K receive beams according to at least one of: attitude information of the terminal device, position information of the terminal device, and information of whether an antenna of the terminal device is shielded.

With reference to the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner, a first receive beam of the S receive beams corresponds to a reference signal sent at a first time of first S times in a second detection period, where the reference signal sent at the first time is a reference signal sent at a first time of the first S times, and the method further includes: the terminal device determines a working beam of a first detection period as the first receiving beam, wherein the first detection period is before the second detection period.

In a fourth aspect, a network device is provided that includes means for performing the method of the first aspect or any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect.

In a fifth aspect, a terminal device is provided, which includes a module or a unit for executing the method in the second aspect or any one of the possible implementation manners of the second aspect.

A sixth aspect provides a terminal device, which includes means for performing the method of the third aspect or any one of the possible implementations of the third aspect.

In a seventh aspect, a communication device is provided, which includes: at least one processor and a communication interface for information interaction between the communication device and other communication devices, wherein when executed in the at least one processor, the program instructions cause the communication device to perform the method of the first aspect or any of the possible implementations of the first aspect.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a communication apparatus comprising: at least one processor and a communication interface for the communication device to interact with other communication devices, which when executed in the at least one processor causes the communication device to perform the method of any of the second aspects or possible implementations thereof.

In a ninth aspect, there is provided a communication apparatus, comprising: at least one processor and a communication interface, the communication interface being configured to enable the communication apparatus to perform information interaction with other communication apparatuses, and when the program instructions are executed in the at least one processor, the communication apparatus is enabled to perform the method of any one of the above-mentioned third aspect or possible implementation manners of the third aspect.

In a tenth aspect, there is provided a communication apparatus comprising: a transceiver, a processor, and a memory. The processor is configured to control the transceiver to transceive signals, the memory is configured to store a computer program, and the processor is configured to retrieve and execute the computer program from the memory, so that the communication device performs the method of the first aspect or any of the possible implementations of the first aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a communication apparatus comprising: a transceiver, a processor, and a memory. The processor is configured to control the transceiver to transceive signals, the memory is configured to store a computer program, and the processor is configured to retrieve and execute the computer program from the memory, so that the communication device performs the method according to the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect.

In a twelfth aspect, a communication device is provided, which includes: a transceiver, a processor, and a memory. The processor is configured to control the transceiver to transceive signals, the memory is configured to store a computer program, and the processor is configured to retrieve and execute the computer program from the memory, so that the communication apparatus performs the method according to the third aspect or any possible implementation manner of the third aspect.

In a thirteenth aspect, a chip system is provided, which includes a processor, and is configured to enable a network device to implement the functions referred to in the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect, for example, to generate, receive, transmit, or process data and/or information referred to in the method. In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory for storing program instructions and data necessary for the terminal device. The chip system may be formed by a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

In a fourteenth aspect, a chip system is provided, which includes a processor, and is used for a terminal device to implement the functions related to the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect, for example, to generate, receive, transmit, or process data and/or information related to the method. In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory for storing program instructions and data necessary for the terminal device. The chip system may be formed by a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

In a fifteenth aspect, a chip system is provided, which includes a processor, and is configured to enable a terminal device to implement the functions recited in the third aspect or any possible implementation manner of the third aspect, for example, to generate, receive, transmit, or process data and/or information recited in the foregoing method. In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory for storing program instructions and data necessary for the terminal device. The chip system may be formed by a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

In a sixteenth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, having stored therein instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the first aspect or any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect.

A seventeenth aspect provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

In an eighteenth aspect, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the third aspect or any possible implementation manner of the third aspect.

A nineteenth aspect provides a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the first aspect or any of the possible implementations of the first aspect.

In a twentieth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the second aspect or any of the possible implementations of the second aspect.

A twenty-first aspect provides a computer program product comprising instructions for causing a computer to perform the method of the third aspect or any possible implementation of the third aspect, when the computer program product runs on a computer.

In a twenty-second aspect, there is provided a communication system comprising the network device and the terminal device as above.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario of an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a terminal device accessing a network according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of beam measurement according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 4 is a schematic resource configuration diagram of beam measurement according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 5 is a schematic flow chart of a beam measurement method according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 6 is a schematic resource configuration diagram of a beam measurement method according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a beam measurement method according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 8 is a schematic flow chart of a beam measurement method according to another embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to another embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus according to another embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus according to still another embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus according to still another embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solution in the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The technical scheme of the embodiment of the application can be applied to various communication systems, for example: global system for mobile communications (GSM) systems, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) systems, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, LTE Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) systems, LTE Time Division Duplex (TDD), universal mobile telecommunications system (universal mobile telecommunications system, UMTS), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) communication systems, fifth generation (5G) or new radio NR (new generation) systems, and the like.

In the embodiment of the application, the terminal device or the network device includes a hardware layer, an operating system layer running on the hardware layer, and an application layer running on the operating system layer. The hardware layer includes hardware such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Memory Management Unit (MMU), and a memory (also referred to as a main memory). The operating system may be any one or more computer operating systems that implement business processing through processes (processes), such as a Linux operating system, a Unix operating system, an Android operating system, an iOS operating system, or a windows operating system. The application layer comprises applications such as a browser, an address list, word processing software, instant messaging software and the like. Furthermore, the embodiment of the present application does not particularly limit the specific structure of the execution main body of the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, as long as the communication can be performed according to the method provided by the embodiment of the present application by running the program recorded with the code of the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, for example, the execution main body of the method provided by the embodiment of the present application may be a terminal device or a network device, or a functional module capable of calling the program and executing the program in the terminal device or the network device.

In addition, various aspects or features of the present application may be implemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques. The term "article of manufacture" as used herein is intended to encompass a computer program accessible from any computer-readable device, carrier, or media. For example, computer-readable media can include but are not limited to magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic strips, etc.), optical disks (e.g., Compact Disk (CD), Digital Versatile Disk (DVD), etc.), smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), card, stick, or key drive, etc.). In addition, various storage media described herein can represent one or more devices and/or other machine-readable media for storing information. The term "machine-readable medium" can include, without being limited to, wireless channels and various other media capable of storing, containing, and/or carrying instruction(s) and/or data.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of an application scenario of an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 1, the application scenario may include a network device 110 and a terminal device 120.

Network device 110 may be a device for communicating with terminal device 120, for example, network device 110 may be a base station for accessing terminal device 120 to a Radio Access Network (RAN). For convenience of understanding, the embodiment of the present application takes the network device 110 as an example for description. A base station may also sometimes be referred to as an access network device or an access network node. It will be appreciated that in systems employing different radio access technologies, the names of devices that function as base stations may differ. For convenience of description, the apparatuses providing a wireless communication access function for a terminal device are collectively referred to as a base station in the embodiments of the present application. For example, the network device 110 may be an evolved node B (eNB) in Long Term Evolution (LTE), a next generation base station node (gNB) in the fifth generation mobile communication (5G) system, a Transmission and Reception Point (TRP), a network device in a 5G network, or the like. The network device 110 may be a macro base station or a micro base station. A network device 110 may include one cell or a plurality of cells within its coverage area.

The terminal device 120 may communicate with one or more Core Networks (CNs) via an access network device. A terminal device may also be referred to as a User Equipment (UE), an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a wireless network device, a user agent, or a user equipment. The terminal may be a cellular phone (cellular phone), a cordless phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a smart phone (smart phone), a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication function, a computing device or other device connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a drone device or internet of things, a terminal in a vehicle networking and any form of terminal in a future network, a relay user equipment or a terminal in a future evolved Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN), and the like. The embodiments of the present application do not limit this. For convenience of description, in the embodiment of the present application, the UE may also be used to identify the terminal device.

The network device 110 and the terminal device 120 may perform transmission of uplink and downlink signals through a transmission link therebetween, where the transmission link from the network device 110 to the terminal device 120 may be referred to as a downlink (downlink), and the transmission link from the terminal device 120 to the network device 110 may be referred to as an uplink (uplink).

In the process of spatial propagation of the uplink and downlink signals transmitted between the network device 110 and the terminal device 120, the quality of the wireless signal may be degraded, and this degradation phenomenon is referred to as "path-loss". The path loss has a great influence on a communication system, and particularly, for a millimeter wave (mmWave) communication system (e.g., a 5G communication system), the signal attenuation caused by the high path loss characteristic of the millimeter wave may cause the system to fail to work properly. In order to achieve better cell coverage, beam forming (beamforming) technology may be introduced, and beams have directivity, which may effectively combat path loss.

As shown in fig. 1, the network device 110 side may configure a large-scale antenna (massive MIMO) array, for example, 64, 128, 256, or 1024 antennas or other number of antennas may be configured, and the multi-antenna communication may improve transmission quality of wireless signals. The beam forming technology is a signal processing technology used for directional signal transmission or reception in a sensor array, and can effectively superpose signals by adjusting the phase of each antenna to generate stronger signal gain to overcome path loss, thereby providing guarantee for the transmission quality of wireless signals.

The beamforming technique can focus the energy of the wireless signal to form a directional beam (beam) so that the energy of the signal is concentrated in the direction of the receiving end, in other words, the beam has directivity, and different beams can have different transmitting directions. Generally, the narrower the beam, the greater the signal gain. Once the beam is directed away from the receiving end, the receiving end may not receive a high-quality wireless signal, and therefore, for the network device as the transmitting end, the network device side needs to use a plurality of beams with different directions to completely cover the serving cell. Taking the example shown in fig. 1, in the downlink process, the network device 110 may transmit wireless signals to different directions using differently directed

beams

111, 112, 113, 114, and 115.

The beamforming technology may be applied to the network device side, and may also be applied to the terminal device side, that is, the terminal device side may also configure the antenna array. Still taking the following procedure as an example, the terminal device may use beams in different directions to receive signals, and as shown in fig. 1, the terminal device 120 may use

beams

121, 122, 123 in different directions to receive wireless signals transmitted by the network device 110.

It should be understood that the number of beams on the network device side and the number of beams on the terminal device side recited in the embodiments of the present application are merely illustrative, and do not cause any limitation to the embodiments of the present application.

It should also be understood that, in the embodiments of the present application, the term "wireless communication" may also be simply referred to as "communication", and the term "communication" may also be described as "data transmission", "signal transmission", "information transmission" or "transmission", and the like. In embodiments of the present application, the transmission may comprise sending or receiving. For example, the transmission may be an uplink transmission, for example, the terminal device may send a signal to the network device; the transmission may also be downlink transmission, for example, the network device may send a signal to the terminal device. In this embodiment, the beam on the network device side/the terminal device side may be a transmission beam or a reception beam, when the network device/the terminal device side is used as a transmission end, the beam on the network device side/the terminal device side may be called a transmission beam, and when the network device/the terminal device side is used as a reception end, the beam on the network device side/the terminal device side may be called a reception beam; in other words, in the downlink process, the beam on the network device side may be referred to as a transmission beam and the beam on the terminal device side may be referred to as a reception beam, and in the uplink process, the beam on the network device side may be referred to as a reception beam and the beam on the terminal device side may be referred to as a transmission beam.

In the uplink process, the network device side may use the transmission beam used in the downlink process to receive the signal, that is, the transmission beam in the downlink process of the network device side may be used as the reception beam in the uplink process; similarly, in the uplink process, the terminal device side may use the receiving beam used in the downlink process to transmit signals, that is, the receiving beam in the downlink process of the terminal device side may be used as the transmitting beam in the uplink process. The network device side and the terminal device side have similar conditions in the downlink process, and are not described again for brevity.

If there are beams with different directions on the network device side and the terminal device side, there is a pair of beams (one beam on the network device side and one beam on the terminal device side) with the best alignment relative to other beam combinations, so that the received signal quality of the receiving end (the terminal device is the receiving end in the downlink process and the network device is the receiving end in the uplink process) is the best, the pair of beams may be referred to as a beam pair, and the beam pair includes a beam of the transmitting end and a beam of the receiving end. Still taking the downlink process of fig. 1 as an example, in the process of signal transmission between the network device 110 and the terminal device 120, the transmission beam 114 of the network device 110 and the reception beam 122 of the terminal device 120 are beams with a relatively good alignment, the directions of the two beams are aligned or the direction deviation is relatively small, and in the application scenario illustrated in fig. 1, a "beam pair" is a beam 114 on the network device 110 side and a beam 122 on the terminal device 120 side, where in the following behavior example, the beam 114 may be referred to as an optimal transmission beam, and the beam 122 may be referred to as an optimal reception beam. When network device 110 and terminal device 120 use beam pairs 114 and 122 for signal transmission, then beam pairs 114 and 120 may also be referred to as working beam pairs, where beam 114 may be referred to as a network device side working beam and beam 122 may be referred to as a terminal device side working beam. Of course, any one of the beams for transmitting signals and one of the beams for receiving the signals may be referred to as a "beam pair", and the beam pair with the better alignment formed by the optimal transmission beam and the optimal reception beam may be used as a working beam pair.

Under the condition that both the transmitting end and the receiving end have reciprocity of receiving and transmitting beams, the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 use the beam pairs 114 and 122 to perform signal transmission, and in the downlink process, when the network device 110 uses the beam 114 to transmit a wireless signal, the beam 122 on the side of the terminal device 120 is the beam with the best signal receiving quality; in the uplink process, when the terminal device 120 transmits a radio signal using the beam 122, the beam 114 on the network device 110 side is also the beam with the best signal reception quality.

The following describes a brief description of the reciprocity (beam reciprocity) of the transmit and receive beams, taking the transmit end as a base station and the receive end as a terminal.

For a base station, if an optimal transmit Beam (TRP-Tx-Beam) of the base station in downlink can be equated with an optimal receive Beam (TRP-Rx-Beam) of the base station in uplink, or an optimal receive Beam (TRP-Rx-Beam) of the base station in uplink can be equated with an optimal transmit Beam (TRP-Tx-Beam) of the base station in downlink, it can be said that the base station side has reciprocity of transceiving beams, that is, the base station side satisfies becorrespondance.

Similarly, for a terminal, if an optimal reception Beam (UE-Rx-Beam) of the terminal in the downlink can be equated with an optimal transmission Beam (UE-Tx-Beam) of the terminal in the uplink, or an optimal transmission Beam (UE-Tx-Beam) of the terminal in the uplink can be equated with an optimal reception Beam (UE-Rx-Beam) of the terminal in the downlink, it is said that the terminal has reciprocity of transmission and reception beams, that is, the terminal satisfies Beam correspondance.

Since the terminal device 120 may have mobility, the beam direction of the terminal device 120 may change according to the position, posture, and the like of the terminal device 120, so that the beam pair with the best alignment between the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 also changes. In order to ensure that the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 always use the beam pair with better alignment for signal transmission, uplink and downlink beam tracking needs to be continuously performed. But before that the terminal device 120 first needs to access the network.

Before the terminal device 120 accesses the network, a beam pair with optimal performance or reaching an access threshold may be obtained through reference signal measurement, and then a contention-based random access procedure may be initiated. The following describes in detail the process of beam alignment when the terminal device 120 accesses the network with reference to fig. 2.

The network device in the embodiment of the present application may be the network device 110 shown in fig. 1, and the terminal device may be the terminal device 120 shown in fig. 1.

In step S210, the network device 110 sequentially transmits wireless signals using beams with different directions and the terminal device receives wireless signals using different beams, which may be called beam scanning (beam sweeping); meanwhile, the terminal device 120 measures wireless signals transmitted on different beam pairs, which may be referred to as beam measurement (beam measurement); from the beam measurements, the terminal device 120 obtains a beam pair for accessing the network.

If the terminal device 120 has only one receiving beam, the terminal device 120 only needs to use the one receiving beam to receive the wireless signal transmitted by the network device 110 using a different beam, and perform beam measurement. If the terminal device 120 has multiple receive beams, the terminal device 120 may switch different receive beams to receive wireless signals transmitted by the network device 110 using different beams and perform beam measurements.

In the embodiment of the present application, for a Synchronization Sequence Block (SSB) scenario, the network device 110 side may use different beams to sequentially send SSB messages to the terminal device side within one SSB burst. For example, in S210 shown in fig. 2, in one SSB burst, the network device 110 side may sequentially send an SSB1 message, an SSB2 message, an SSB3 message, an SSB4 message, an SSB5 message, and an SSB6 message using different beams, respectively. In the embodiment of the present application, "different beams" may be understood as beams in different directions or different directions, and SSB messages sent by the beams in different directions are different, for example, SSB1 message, SSB2 message, SSB3 message, SSB4 message, SSB5 message, and SSB6 message shown in fig. 2 are all different SSB messages; in other words, different SSB messages may indicate different directions of the beam.

Meanwhile, the terminal device 120 may receive, within one SSB burst, an SSB message (SSB1 to SSB6 message) sent by the network device 110 using a certain beam, and perform physical layer reference signal received power (L1_ reference signal receiving power, RSRP) measurement (which may be referred to as L1-RSRP measurement for short). As shown in fig. 2, in an SSB burst, the terminal device 120 may use Beam1 to receive an SSB1 message, an SSB2 message, an SSB3 message, an SSB4 message, an SSB5 message, and an SSB6 message sequentially sent by the network device 110, and measure the received SSB messages.

If the terminal device has only one beam, the terminal device only needs to measure all SSB messages sent by the network device side in one SSB burst, and if the terminal device has a plurality of beams, the terminal device needs to receive reference signals in the plurality of SSB bursts by using different beams respectively, and measure the reference signals received in each SSB burst. Taking fig. 2 as an example, for example, in the first SSB burst, the terminal device side receives, using Beam1, an SSB1 message, an SSB2 message, an SSB3 message, an SSB4 message, an SSB5 message, and an SSB6 message that are sequentially sent by the network device side using different beams, and measures the SSB messages; in the second SSB burst, the network equipment side repeats the operation in the first SSB burst, namely, different beams are used for sequentially transmitting an SSB1 message, an SSB2 message, an SSB3 message, an SSB4 message, an SSB5 message and an SSB6 message, and the terminal equipment side uses Beam2 to receive the SSB messages and carry out measurement; in the third SSB burst, the network device side repeats the operations in the first SSB burst, and sequentially sends SSB1 message, SSB2 message, SSB3 message, SSB4 message, SSB5 message, and SSB6 message, and the terminal device side receives the SSB messages by using Beam3 and performs measurement.

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, the measurement performed by the terminal device on the reference signal (e.g., the SSB message) transmitted by the network device using the beam may be understood as a beam measurement performed by the terminal device on the beam.

It should also be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, the number of beams on the terminal device side and the network device side, the order in which the network device uses the beams to transmit the SSB messages, and the order in which the terminal device side uses the beams to receive the SSB messages are all schematic, and do not cause any limitation to the embodiment of the present application. In this embodiment, the network device side may have other numbers of transmit beams, for example, 8, 10, 16, and the like, and the UE side may also have other numbers of receive beams, for example, 1, 2, 4, 6, and the like. The network device side may transmit the SSB messages in an arbitrary order (corresponding to an arbitrary beam direction), and the terminal device side may receive the SSB messages in a beam in an arbitrary order (corresponding to an arbitrary direction).

After all the beam measurements of the network device side and the terminal device side are completed, the terminal device obtains a beam pair with the optimal L1-RSRP or the L1-RSRP reaching a preset threshold, for example, a beam and a beam2 corresponding to the SSB3 message shown in fig. 2.

In step S220, at the time of a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) of the terminal device, the terminal device initiates a Random Access (RACH) procedure using the physical random access channel resource associated with the network device side beam in the beam pair for access obtained in S210.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 2, the terminal device initiates the RACH procedure using the PRACH resource associated with the SSB3 message. The terminal device sends a preamble (preamble) using Beam2 determined in S210, and starts a Random Access Response (RAR) window timer (window timer), and waits for a response from the base station side.

It should be noted that PRACH resources associated with each SSB message sent by the network device side are different, and SSB messages sent by beams in different directions may be understood as corresponding to PRACH resources one to one, or beams in different directions may be understood as corresponding to PRACH resources one to one.

In step S230, the network device selects a suitable beam to receive the preamble request of the terminal device according to the resource condition allocated to the terminal device for initiating the PRACH, and replies an RAR message to the terminal device according to the processing condition.

Since SSB messages sent by different beams are associated with PRACH resources, the network device may determine, according to the PRACH resource used by the terminal device, an SSB message associated with the PRACH resource, which is equivalent to determining a beam on the network device side in a beam pair obtained by the terminal device for access. As shown in fig. 2, at S230, the terminal device side initiates a RACH procedure using PRACH resource associated with the SSB3 message, and the network device side may determine that the beam pair determined by the terminal device for access includes a beam transmitting the SSB3 message according to the PRACH resource used by the terminal device side. Based on the reciprocity of the transmission and reception beams on the network device side, the network device side receives the preamble transmitted by the terminal device with the beam transmitting the SSB3 message as a reception beam (i.e., the "appropriate beam" described above).

In other words, in the downlink process described in S210, the terminal device determines that the beam pair used for access has the best reception quality during signal transmission, so that in the uplink processes described in S220 and S230, the network device side and the terminal device side use the beam pair used for access to perform signal transmission.

In step S230, the network device side replies an RAR message to the terminal device side.

In step S240, after the terminal device successfully receives the RAR message sent by the network device, it initiates Msg3, starts a contention resolution timer, and waits for a contention resolution response from the network device.

In step S250, the network device sends a response message to the terminal device, and if the response is successful, the random access procedure of the terminal device is completed.

After the terminal device accesses the communication system and enters a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection state, the beam aligned between the network device and the terminal device side is a beam pair determined by the terminal device for access in the access process. Along with the movement or posture change of the terminal device, the beam direction of the terminal device changes, and then the beam pair with better alignment degree or capable of meeting certain requirements of the terminal device and the network device also changes.

In order to ensure that the beams of the terminal device and the network device are always aligned, uplink and downlink beam tracking needs to be continuously performed. In the embodiment of the present application, taking the beam as a reciprocal example, the following beam management implements uplink beam management, that is, the optimal transmit beam and the optimal receive beam obtained in the downlink process can be regarded as the optimal receive beam and the optimal transmit beam in the uplink process, respectively.

The beam tracking process is described in detail below in conjunction with fig. 3 and 4.

P2 Beam tracking Process (hereinafter referred to as P2 Process)

In the P2 process, the network device may configure a set of reference signals, such as channel state indication-reference signals (CSI-RS), which are transmitted by a set of beams configured on the network device side, where each reference signal corresponds to one transmission beam and the directions of the beams in the set are different. In other words, the network device configures one reference signal for each beam in a set of beams with different directions, and transmits the corresponding reference signal using the set of beams, which is equivalent to performing beam measurement on the set of beams.

Each beam in the group of beams transmits a reference signal in different time, and the terminal device receives the reference signal and measures the reference signal by using the same fixed receiving beam in the transmission opportunity of each reference signal. That is, the network device transmits the reference signal in different times using beams in different directions, and the terminal device receives the reference signal in different times using the same beam in the same direction. The terminal device may feed back the measurement result of the reference signal to the network device, and the network device determines whether the transmit-receive beam of the network device needs to be adjusted based on the measurement result fed back by the terminal device.

It should be understood that the measurement result described herein may be understood as a measurement result of the terminal device on the reference signal, and also corresponds to a measurement result of the terminal device on the beam, and in some embodiments, may also be referred to as a beam measurement result.

It should also be understood that the "beam measurement" described above may be an L1-RSRP measurement made on a reference signal.

The embodiment of the present application takes reference signals as CSI-RS and measurements as L1-RSRP measurements as examples, and is described with reference to fig. 3 and 4.

As shown in fig. 3, the network device 310 configures a set of CSI-RS reference signals, which are transmitted by

beams

311, 312, 313, 314, 315 and other beams not shown, respectively, on the network device 310 side, and the CSI-RS reference signals are in one-to-one correspondence with the transmission beams. The beams on the network device 310 side may transmit the CSI-RS reference signals in any order, for example, the CSI-RS reference signals may be sequentially transmitted in the order of 311, 312, 313, 314, and 315, may be sequentially transmitted in the order of 313, 315, 311, 312, and 314, or may be transmitted in another order.

Terminal device 320 receives CSI-RS reference signals transmitted by network device 310 at different occasions using fixed beam 321. The fixed beam 321 may be a beam with the best reception quality determined by the terminal device in the access procedure, or may be a beam with the best reception quality determined by the P3 procedure, and the P3 procedure will be described below with reference to specific embodiments, which will not be described in detail herein.

As shown in fig. 4, the squares with reference numbers 1 to 40 in the drawing may represent beams on the network device side, where the square 16 may represent a beam currently operated by the network device, and the

squares

5, 6, 7, 15, 17, 25, 26, 27, and 36 may represent beams configured by the network device with CSI-RS.

In this embodiment of the present application, the current working beam of the network device may be a beam on the network device side in a beam pair for access determined when the terminal device accesses the network, or may be an optimal transmission beam determined in the previous P2 process.

When performing beam tracking, the network device configures the current working beam and other beams to perform measurement, and in a specific implementation, the number of configured beams may be determined by the network device or implemented by itself. For example, in the embodiment of the present application, the network device configures the current working beam 16 and nine other beams, such as 5, 6, 7, 15, 17, 25, 26, 27, and 36, to perform measurement. In the process of P2, the order in which the network device transmits CSI-RS is random, that is, ten beams in which CSI-RS are configured in fig. 4 may be notified to the terminal device in any order, and the terminal device does not know the order in which the network device transmits CSI-RS before receiving signals (which is equivalent to the order in which the terminal device does not know the beam transmission signals of the network device), so that the terminal device can determine the best transmission beam on the network device side only after all CSI-RS transmitted by all beams are measured, thereby adjusting the working beam, and the beam measurement efficiency is low.

Therefore, how to improve the efficiency of beam measurement in the beam tracking process performed to ensure the beam alignment of the network device and the terminal device is a problem to be solved. The following describes embodiments of the present application in detail with reference to fig. 5.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic flow chart of a method of measuring a beam according to an embodiment of the present application. The method of fig. 5 may be applied to the application scenario and the communication system described above, and the method may include steps S510 to S540, which are described below with reference to fig. 5.

In step S510, the network device determines the priority of K reference signals to be transmitted.

The K reference signals are in one-to-one correspondence with the K beams, and each reference signal is transmitted through the corresponding beam.

The "priority" mentioned herein may be understood as a priority of a transmission order, that is, which reference signal is transmitted first and which reference signal is transmitted later, wherein the reference signal transmitted first may be understood as a reference signal with the highest priority, the reference signal transmitted later may be understood as a reference signal with a suboptimal priority, and the reference signal transmitted last may be understood as a reference signal with the lowest priority.

It should be understood that K reference signals correspond to K beams one to one, and the transmission directions of the K beams are different, in this embodiment of the application, the K reference signals are transmitted by the K beams in different directions, which is equivalent to that the K reference signals may represent the K different beam directions. In the embodiment of the present application, determining the priority of the reference signal may be understood as determining the priority of the beam transmission order.

It should also be understood that "K reference signals to be transmitted" in the embodiment of the present application may be reference signals configured on the network device side for beam measurement. The reference signal may be, for example, a CSI-RS.

The number K of the reference signals can be pre-configured by the system or can be determined by the network equipment, and K is more than or equal to 1.

The K beams corresponding to the K reference signals may include a current working beam of the network device, where the current working beam of the network device refers to a beam used by the network device for signal transmission with the terminal device before beam tracking.

Assuming that the time for the network device to perform the beam measurement at this time is the second detection period, the current working beam of the network device may be a beam corresponding to a reference signal with the best reception quality reported by the terminal device among the K reference signals determined by the network device in the first detection period, where the first detection period is before the second detection period.

The current working beam of the network device may also be a beam corresponding to a reference signal with the best reception quality reported by the terminal device and determined by the network device in the first detection period, where the number of reference signals measured by the terminal device in the first detection period may be more than K or less than K, and the beam corresponding to the reference signal determined by the terminal device in the first detection period may be a beam different from the beam corresponding to the K reference signals in the second detection period.

The current operating beam of the network device may also be a beam for access determined by the terminal device when accessing the network.

There are various ways for the network device to determine the priority of the K reference signals to be transmitted.

As an example, the network device may set the reference signal corresponding to the current working beam on the network device side as the reference signal of the highest priority. That is, a first reference signal of the K reference signals corresponds to a first beam of the K beams, the first reference signal is a reference signal with a highest priority among the K reference signals, and the first beam is an operating beam of the K beams. In other words, the network device may configure the reference signal of the current working beam as the highest priority, that is, the reference signal of the current working beam is transmitted first, or the network device transmits the reference signal using the current working beam first. As another example, the network device may determine the priorities of the K reference signals according to the spatial relationships between the K beams corresponding to the K reference signals and the current working beam on the network device side.

It should be understood that, since in the beamforming technology, the network device side may adjust not only the horizontal angle of the antenna but also the pitch angle of the antenna, the beam on the network device side is a 3D beam, and different beams may cover different areas, where the spatial relationship between the K beams and the current working beam described herein may be understood as the relationship between the K beams and the transmission angle of the current working beam.

Optionally, at most of the time, since the posture of the terminal device changes or the movement is small, the best beam pair of the terminal device and the network device is most likely to be the beam around the current working beam, so the reference signal of the beam around the current working beam can be configured as the secondary priority, and the reference signal of the beam with a larger difference from the emission angle of the current working beam can be configured as the lowest priority. Alternatively, if the K beams include a current working beam on the network device side, the reference signal of the current working beam may be set as the reference signal with the highest priority, the reference signals of beams around the current working beam in the remaining (K-1) beams are configured as the second priority, and the reference signal of the beam with a larger difference from the emission angle of the current working beam in the remaining (K-1) beams is configured as the lowest priority.

It should be noted that the beams around the current working beam may be understood as the beams with the smallest angle between the transmission direction and the transmission direction of the current working beam, and assuming that the transmission direction of the current working beam is 0 ° and the 3dB beam width of the network device is 10 °, the beams with the transmission angle of ± 5 ° may be considered as the beams around the current working beam, and the beams with the transmission angle of ± 45 ° may be considered as the beams with a larger difference from the transmission angle of the current working beam. Alternatively, if the multiple reference signals are all at the same priority, the network device may send the multiple reference signals in a random order or an arbitrary order, or the network device may further determine the priorities of the multiple reference signals, that is, determine the sending order of the multiple reference signals, for example, which reference signal is sent first and which reference signal is sent later.

For another example, the network device may configure the reference signal of the current working beam and the reference signals of beams around the current working beam as higher priority, and configure the reference signal of a beam with a larger difference from the emission angle of the current working beam as lower priority. The reference signals at higher priority are sent first, the reference signals at lower priority are sent later, the reference signals at the same priority, and the network device may send in any order or further determine the order of sending.

As another example, the network device may determine priorities of the reference signal of the current operating beam and the reference signals of beams around the current operating beam, and transmit the reference signals in an arbitrary order for the other configured reference signals.

In the embodiment of the present application, the priority of the reference signal may be understood as a probability that a beam corresponding to the reference signal is aligned with a receiving beam of the terminal device well. For example, if the posture of the terminal device is not changed or the antenna is not blocked or is changed or blocked less, the operating beams of the terminal device and the network device will be kept unchanged with a higher probability, so that if the reference signal of the current operating beam of the network device is configured to the highest priority, it means that the degree of alignment between the current operating beam of the network device and the receiving beam (operating beam) of the terminal device is the best, and the probability of achieving beam alignment is the highest.

As yet another example, the network device may determine the priorities of the K reference signals according to measurement results of the K transmission beams for the K reference signals obtained in a first detection period, where a period in which the network device currently performs measurement is a second detection period, and the first detection period is before the second detection period.

In other words, the network device may obtain measurement results of K beams corresponding to the K reference signals in the first detection period, and the network device may determine, according to the measurement results, which beam of the K beams is better aligned with the working beam of the terminal device and which beam is worse aligned with the working beam of the terminal device. The network device may determine the priorities of the K reference signals of the second detection period according to the measurement result of the previous detection period (i.e., the first detection period).

For example, the network device may configure the reference signal of the beam with the best alignment in the first detection period (which may also be referred to as the best transmission beam in the first detection period) as the highest priority, and transmit the reference signal using the beam with the highest priority first; the network device may also rank the K beams according to alignment or measurement results (e.g., L1-RSRP measurement results) of the K beams in the first detection period, and sequentially transmit the reference signals using the K beams according to the rank in the second detection period.

For another example, if the first detection period does not measure all K beams, the network device may also determine the priorities of the reference signals of the K beams in the second detection period according to the measurement results of some beams in the first detection period.

The following describes a method for determining the priority of the reference signal according to the spatial relationship between the K beams and the operating beam by taking fig. 6 as an example. In this embodiment of the present application, the K beams include working beams on the network device side. As shown in fig. 6, the network device may configure

beams

5, 6, 7, 15, 17, 25, 26, 27, 36 for measurement, and the position relationship of each beam in the diagram may represent the spatial relationship of each beam, where the beam 16 is an operating beam, and the network device may configure the reference signal of the beam 16 as the highest priority; configuring the reference signals of the

beams

6, 15, 17, 26 to be suboptimal, the four beams can be regarded as a group of beams with the same priority; configuring the reference signals of the

beams

5, 7, 25, 27 to be of low priority, the four beams can be regarded as a group of beams with the same priority; the reference signal for beam 36 is configured to be of lowest priority. In a group of beams with the same priority, the network device may transmit the reference signals of the group of beams in an arbitrary order, or may further configure the priority for the reference signal of each beam in the group of beams. In step S520, the network device transmits the K reference signals according to the priority.

In step S510, the network device determines the priority of the reference signals, that is, determines the transmission order of the reference signals, and thus in step S520, the network device transmits K reference signals according to the transmission order of the respective reference signals.

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, since different reference signals correspond to beams in different directions, the priority of the reference signals is determined, which is equivalent to determining the order in which the beams in different directions transmit signals.

Taking fig. 6 as an example, after determining the priority of the reference signal, the network device may transmit the reference signal according to the priority of the reference signal, and in the embodiment of the present application, the order in which the network device transmits the reference signal may be 16, (15, 17, 6, 26) (the priorities of the reference signals of the group of beams are the same), (5, 7, 25, 27) (the priorities of the reference signals of the group of beams are the same), and 36. For the reference signals with the same priority, the network device may transmit in any order or in a random order, and may further determine the priority for the reference signals with the same priority, for example, according to the measurement result of the previous period.

In step S530, the terminal device measures at least N reference signals of the K reference signals transmitted by the network device based on the priority, where N < K.

The network equipment sequentially transmits the reference signals at different occasions, and the terminal equipment receives the reference signals by using the working beams at the transmission occasions of the network equipment and measures the reference signals.

It should be understood that the working beam described here is the current working beam on the terminal device side.

The network device sends K reference signals based on the priority, and the terminal device also receives the reference signals according to the priority, that is, if the network device sends the reference signal with the highest priority first, the terminal device also receives the reference signal with the highest priority first.

In this embodiment of the present application, a terminal device measures at least N reference signals of K reference signals sent by a network device, where the priority of the N reference signals may be higher than that of other (K-N) reference signals.

The terminal device may be generally equipped with sensors such as an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, and a SAR detection sensor, which can effectively detect the attitude and position changes of the terminal device and the condition that the antenna is held by the hand (i.e. whether the antenna of the terminal device is shielded). When the attitude of the terminal device and/or the antenna is not changed or the change is small, the working beam pair of the terminal device and the network device is kept unchanged with a large probability.

Therefore, the network device transmits the reference signals according to the priority, and the terminal device may also receive the reference signals according to the priority and perform measurement on the reference signals (or beams corresponding to the reference signals) according to the priority. There are various ways for the terminal device to measure at least N reference signals among the K reference signals sent by the network device based on the priority.

As an example, before the measurement of the reference signals, if the attitude or position change of the terminal device meets a preset condition, the terminal device may measure all the reference signals in the K reference signals.

In this embodiment of the present application, the change in the posture or the position of the terminal device satisfies a preset condition, which may be understood as that the change in the posture or the position of the terminal device is large, and thus a best beam pair affecting the alignment between the terminal device and the network device is provided, for example, a rotation angle of the terminal device exceeds a preset value, an antenna of the terminal device is shielded, or a position change of the terminal device exceeds a preset range.

In this embodiment, the change of the posture or the position of the terminal device may be relative to the posture or the position of the terminal device in the last detection period.

The change of the attitude or the position of the terminal device before the measurement of the reference signal meets the preset condition, which means that the optimal transmission beam of the network device is changed with a high probability relative to the working beam of the terminal device, so that all the reference signals transmitted by the network device can be measured to obtain the beam with the optimal performance.

As another example, the terminal device may measure N reference signals of K reference signals, N < K; and the terminal equipment determines whether to measure the beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals or not according to the measurement results of the N reference signals and/or the attitude and position change information of the terminal equipment, wherein the attitude and position change information of the terminal equipment is used for indicating the attitude and/or position change of the terminal equipment.

In the embodiment of the application, the change of the posture and the position of the terminal device does not meet the preset condition, and it can be understood that the posture and the position of the terminal device are not changed or are changed very little, for example, the posture change angle of the terminal is in a certain range, or the position of the terminal moves in a certain distance, and the like.

The attitude and position change information of the terminal equipment in the embodiment of the application can be obtained by measuring through a sensor of the terminal equipment.

Optionally, the N reference signals may be the first N reference signals of the K reference signals transmitted by the network device based on the priority.

For example, the terminal device may only measure the reference signal with the highest priority.

For another example, the terminal device may measure the reference signal with the highest priority, e.g., CSI-RS, and then select a part of the reference signals from the suboptimal reference signals for measurement.

Alternatively, the reference signal with the highest priority may be a reference signal transmitted by an operating beam on the network device side.

Optionally, the partial reference signals selected by the terminal device from the suboptimal reference signals may be continuous reference signals transmitted according to priority, or partial reference signals may be received and measured from the partial reference signals selected by the terminal device.

It should be understood that "continuous reference signals" as used herein refers to reference signals with continuous transmission timings. By way of example and not limitation, the following cases may be adopted when the terminal device determines whether to measure the beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals according to the measurement results of the N reference signals and/or the attitude and position change information of the terminal device.

For example, if the measurement result of at least a part of the N reference signals in the second detection period is better than the corresponding measurement result in the first detection period, and the change in the attitude or position of the terminal device does not satisfy the preset condition in the process of measuring the N reference signals, the terminal device determines not to measure the beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals, where the first detection period is before the second detection period.

Optionally, the second detection period is a current detection period.

In other words, if the terminal device detects that the measurement result of some or all of the N reference signals in the second detection period is better than the measurement result of some or all of the N reference signals in the first detection period, and the terminal device has no or little change in posture and position during the measurement process, the terminal device may not measure the remaining reference signals.

When the attitude or the position of the terminal equipment is not changed or is changed slightly, the working beams of the network equipment and the terminal equipment are kept unchanged at a higher probability, the network equipment transmits the reference signals according to the priority of the reference signals, and the probability that the beams corresponding to the reference signals with higher priority are aligned with the working beams of the terminal equipment is higher, so that the terminal equipment can only measure the reference signals with higher priority and does not need to measure the reference signals with lower priority when receiving and measuring the reference signals based on the priority, and the terminal equipment can obtain the best transmitting beam of the network equipment as soon as possible, thereby improving the beam measurement efficiency.

For another example, if the measurement result of at least a part of the N reference signals in the second detection period is better than the corresponding measurement result in the first detection period, but in the process of measuring the N reference signals, when the posture or position change of the terminal device meets the preset condition, the terminal device determines to measure the beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals, where the first detection period is before the second detection period.

Optionally, when the measurement result of at least a part of the N reference signals in the second detection period is better than the corresponding measurement result in the first detection period and exceeds a set configuration threshold, the terminal device determines to measure the beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals.

In other words, if the terminal device detects that the measurement result of some or all of the N reference signals in the second detection period is better than the measurement result of some or all of the N reference signals in the first detection period, and the terminal device has a larger change in posture and position during the measurement process, the beam of the network device that has better alignment with the receiving beam of the terminal device may be one of the beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals, and therefore the terminal device needs to measure the remaining reference signals.

For another example, if the measurement result of all the N reference signals in the second detection period is inferior to the corresponding measurement result in the first detection period, the terminal device determines to measure the beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals, where the first detection period is before the second detection period.

In other words, when the measurement results of the N reference signals measured by the terminal device are all worse than the corresponding measurement results of the previous week, it can be shown that the alignment degree of the beam corresponding to the N reference signals and the working beam of the terminal device is worse, and then the beam of the network device having better alignment degree with the receiving beam of the terminal device is one of the beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals, so the terminal device needs to measure the remaining reference signals.

In step S540, the terminal device reports a measurement result of part or all of the N reference signals in the K reference signals to the network device.

Optionally, the terminal device may feed back, to the network device, a measurement result of part or all of the N reference signals in the K reference signals in the second detection period, and the network device may determine, according to the measurement result of part or all of the N reference signals in the K reference signals in the second detection period, a priority of part or all of the N reference signals in the K reference signals in a third detection period, where the third detection period is after the second detection period.

In other words, the terminal device may feed back part or all of the measurement results obtained by measuring the reference signal to the network device, and the network device adjusts the priority of the reference signal in the next detection period according to the measurement results fed back by the terminal device.

For example, if the terminal device measures beams corresponding to K reference signals to obtain measurement results of the K reference signals, the terminal device may feed back measurement results of some or all of the K reference signals to the network device, and the network device may adjust the working beams according to the measurement results, and may determine or adjust the priority of the reference signal to be sent in the next detection period according to the measurement results.

For another example, if the terminal device measures beams corresponding to N reference signals to obtain measurement results of the N reference signals, the terminal device may feed back measurement results of some or all of the N reference signals to the network device, and the network device determines or adjusts the priority of the reference signal to be sent in the next detection period according to the measurement results.

It should be understood that, when the terminal device feeds back the measurement results of N reference signals in the K reference signals, the network device may determine the priority of all reference signals to be transmitted in the next detection period according to the measurement results of the N reference signals, may also determine the priority of only part of reference signals to be transmitted in the next detection period, and may determine or randomly configure the priority for the priority determination of the remaining reference signals according to the beam spatial relationship.

Optionally, the network device may determine whether to adjust a transceiving beam (i.e., an operating beam) on the network device side according to a measurement result of some or all of the N reference signals in the K reference signals.

For example, if the terminal device measures N reference signals in the K reference signals, the terminal device feeds back to the network device the measurement results of the N reference signals (which may also be considered as the measurement results of N beams corresponding to the N reference signals), and the network device determines, according to the measurement results of the N reference signals, whether to adjust the current operating beam to a beam of the N beams, which has the best alignment with the operating beam of the terminal device or the best quality of the received signal fed back by the terminal device.

For another example, if the terminal device measures all K reference signals, the terminal device feeds back measurement results of the K reference signals (which may also be considered as measurement results of K beams corresponding to the K reference signals) to the network device, and the network device determines, according to the measurement results of the K reference signals, whether to adjust the current working beam to a beam, of the K beams, that has the best alignment with the working beam of the terminal device or has the best quality of a received signal fed back by the terminal device.

For another example, if the terminal device feeds back the measurement result of a part of the measured reference signals to the network device, the network device determines whether to adjust the current working beam to a beam with the best alignment with the working beam of the terminal device or the best quality of the received signal fed back by the terminal device among the beams corresponding to the part of the reference signals according to the measurement result of the part of the reference signals.

Optionally, N may be a preset value of the terminal device or a random configuration of the terminal device.

Optionally, in order to prevent the working beam pair from changing due to the change of the channel condition, for example, there is a middle occlusion, after a number of (for example, M) detection periods, the terminal device may measure all K reference signals configured by the network device.

As shown in fig. 7, for example, in the detection period 1, the terminal device may measure all CSI-RSs (e.g., K reference signals to be transmitted in step S510) transmitted by the network device, in the

detection periods

2, 3, and 4, some CSI-RSs (e.g., N reference signals from the K reference signals in step S520) transmitted by the network device may be measured, and in the detection period 5, all CSI-RSs transmitted by the network device may be measured again. Equivalently, the terminal device measures all CSI-RSs sent by the network device every three detection periods.

The intervals of the detection periods in the figure are only illustrative, and the number of the detection periods can be pre-configured or the terminal device can give a fixed value when being implemented.

In the method for measuring beams provided by the embodiment of the application, the network device sends the reference signals for beam measurement based on the priority, the terminal device can receive the reference signals sent by the network device and measure part or all of the reference signals in the reference signals based on the priority, wherein, when the attitude or position of the terminal device changes little or not, the terminal device can determine the beam with better alignment with the working beam of the terminal device by measuring part of the reference signal, which solves the problem of low efficiency of measuring the beam under the stable condition of the channel, due to the configuration of the priority of the reference signal, the terminal equipment can obtain the beam with better beam alignment as early as possible, the beam with better alignment can be obtained without measuring all reference signals sent by the network equipment, so that the beam measurement efficiency is improved.

Meanwhile, under the condition that the channel condition is not changed or changes slightly, the terminal equipment only needs to measure the reference signal with the highest priority or the second priority, and does not need to measure all the reference signals, so that the power consumption of the terminal equipment for measuring the reference signals is reduced, and unnecessary power consumption overhead is reduced.

The above provides a method for measuring beams for the problem of inefficient beam measurement in the P2 process, and the problem of inefficient beam measurement also exists in the P3 process, which is described below with reference to fig. 3.

P3 Process

In the above-mentioned P2 procedure, the terminal device fixes the reception beam to measure the different beams transmitted by the network device side, and in the P3 procedure, the terminal device uses the different reception beams to measure the reference signals transmitted by the network device using the fixed transmission beams. For example, in the P3 process, the network device may configure a set of reference signals, e.g., CSI-RS reference signals, which are only bundled with the current operating beam on the network device side and are only repeatedly transmitted in the time dimension. In other words, the network device side repeatedly transmits the reference signal in the time dimension by using the current working beam, and the repeatedly transmitted reference signal is a group of reference signals configured by the network device. The terminal device may adjust the receive beam of the terminal device at the transmission timing of each reference signal of the network device, thereby determining which receive beam of the terminal device has the best performance, and the terminal device may adjust the transmit-receive beam on the terminal device side based on the measurement result of the set of reference signals.

In the embodiment of the present application, reference signals are CSI-RS, and measurements are L1-RSRP measurements, which are taken as examples and are described with reference to fig. 3.

As shown in fig. 3, the network device 310 configures a set of CSI-RS reference signals, which are transmitted by a beam 316 on the network device 310 side, which beam 316 may be the current operating beam on the network device side. The beams 316 on the network device 310 side repeatedly transmit CSI-RS in the time domain, e.g., the beams 316 may transmit CSI-RS at the first, second, and third occasions … …, respectively. In this embodiment of the present application, the working beam on the network device side may be a beam with the optimal performance determined in the access process, or may be a beam with the optimal performance adjusted by the network device in the P2 process.

Terminal device 320 receives CSI-RS reference signals transmitted by network device 310 at different occasions using

different beams

322, 323, 324 and other beams not shown, respectively. For example, the terminal device may receive the CSI-RS at a first opportunity using beam 322, at a second opportunity using beam 323, at a third opportunity using beam 324, etc. Of course, which beam the terminal device uses to receive the reference signal at which time may be randomly configured.

Therefore, in the process of P3, after the terminal device needs to use different beams to receive the reference signals continuously sent by the network device using the current working beam, the terminal device can determine the receiving beam with the optimal performance only after measuring all the reference signals, and the efficiency of measuring the beam is low.

Fig. 8 shows a schematic flow chart of a measurement beam method of another embodiment of the present application. The method of fig. 8 may be applied to the application scenario and the communication system described above, and the method may include steps S810 to S830, which are described below with reference to fig. 8.

In step S810, the network device transmits a reference signal to the terminal device at different times using the same beam on the network device side.

The same beam may be the current operating beam on the network device side.

In step S820, the terminal device measures the reference signals transmitted by the network device at the first S times within a detection period by using S of the K receiving beams, where 1 ≦ S < K.

The S receiving beams correspond to the reference signals transmitted at the previous S moments one by one, in other words, each receiving beam receives the reference signal transmitted at one moment.

The reference signals transmitted at the first S times are transmitted by the same beam on the network device side.

The reference signals sent by the network device at the first S times in a detection period may be the reference signals sent by the network device to the terminal device earlier.

The S reception beams may be reception beams on the terminal device side that have a better alignment with the working beams on the network device side.

The terminal device may determine the S receive beams from at least one of the following information: attitude information of the terminal equipment, position information of the terminal equipment, information of whether an antenna of the terminal equipment is shielded or not, and information measured by other sensors and used for indicating beam direction change of the terminal equipment.

As a possible implementation manner, the terminal device may use a working beam of a first detection period on the terminal device side as a first receiving beam of the S receiving beams, where the first receiving beam corresponds to a reference signal sent at a first time of the first S times in a second detection period, the reference signal sent at the first time is a reference signal sent at a first time of the first S times, and the first detection period is before the second detection period.

In other words, the terminal device may use the current working beam (i.e., the beam with the best reception quality determined in the last detection period) to receive the reference signal transmitted by the network device at the first time. Under the condition that the channel state is stable, the working beams of the terminal equipment and the network equipment are kept unchanged with a high probability, so that the reference signal is firstly measured by using the current working beam at the terminal equipment side, and a beam pair with good alignment can be obtained as soon as possible.

As another possible implementation, the terminal device may select S beam measurement reference signals from the K reception beams on the terminal device side based on the attitude and position change information of the terminal device itself, for example, according to the detection result of the sensor. For example, if the sensor of the terminal device detects that the terminal is tilted by 30 °, the terminal device may use the current working beam and the beam that is tilted by 30 ° with respect to the current working beam as the S receiving beams.

The S receiving beams in the embodiment of the present application may be understood as beams with a higher probability of being well aligned with the working beam of the network device.

In step S830, the terminal device determines whether to use the remaining K-S of the K receive beams to measure the reference signals transmitted by the network device at the next K-S times according to the measurement result.

Wherein the reference signals transmitted at the first S time instants and the reference signals transmitted at the next K-S time instants are transmitted through the same beam.

For example, in the second detection period, the terminal device measures the reference signals sent by the network device at the first S times by using S of the K receive beams, and if the measurement result of some or all of the S receive beams in the second detection period is better than the measurement result of the terminal device in the working beam of the first detection period, the terminal device may determine that the remaining K-S receive beams of the K receive beams are no longer used to measure the reference signals sent by the network device at the next K-S times, otherwise, the reference signals sent by the network device at the next K-S times need to be measured.

In other words, the result of the measurement performed by the terminal device using S receiving beams is better than the result of the measurement performed by the terminal device using the working beam in the previous period, and the terminal device may not use other receiving beams to perform the measurement on the subsequent reference signals transmitted by the network device.

Under the condition that the channel state is stable, the working beams of the terminal equipment and the network equipment are kept unchanged with a higher probability, so that the terminal equipment side uses a better receiving beam to measure the reference signal first, and the probability that the measuring result is better than the measuring result of the working beam in the last detection period is higher than the probability that the measuring result of the reference signal measured by other receiving beams is better than the measuring result of the working beam in the last detection period, so that the measurement can be carried out without using other receiving beams, and the beam pair with better alignment can be obtained as soon as possible.

For another example, the terminal device may first use an optimal receive beam (e.g., the current operating beam or a possibly optimal receive beam determined from the sensor results) to measure the reference signal, and if the measurement result of the optimal receive beam is better than the measurement result of the operating beam in the previous detection period, the terminal device may determine not to use the other remaining receive beams to continue measuring the reference signal.

If the measurement result of the optimal receiving beam is worse than the measurement result of the working beam in the previous detection period, the terminal device may select another receiving beam to measure the next reference signal sent by the network device, and also see whether the measurement result of the receiving beam is better than the measurement result of the working beam in the previous detection period.

Optionally, if the measurement result of the optimal receive beam is worse than the measurement result of the working beam in the previous detection period, the terminal device may use all remaining receive beams to measure all reference signals sent by the network device.

Alternatively, the terminal device may adjust the transmission/reception beam on the terminal device side according to the measurement result of the reference signal.

It should be understood that in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device adjusts the operating beam on the terminal device side in the process of P3, and thus the terminal device uses the receive beam to measure the reference signal, which may be understood as a measurement of the receive beam.

According to the method for measuring the beam, when the attitude or position of the terminal device changes little or no, the terminal device measures the reference signal by using part of the receiving beam with better performance to determine the beam with better alignment degree with the working beam of the network device, and the problem of low efficiency of measuring the beam under the condition of channel stability is solved. Meanwhile, under the condition that the channel condition is not changed or is slightly changed, the terminal equipment only needs to use the optimal receiving beam to measure the reference signal without measuring all the reference signals, so that the power consumption of the terminal equipment for measuring the reference signal is reduced, and unnecessary power consumption overhead is reduced.

It should be understood that beam alignment in the embodiments of the present application may also be understood as beam alignment.

Method embodiments of the present application are described above in detail with reference to fig. 1 to 8, and apparatus embodiments of the present application are described below in detail with reference to fig. 9 to 14. It is to be understood that the description of the method embodiments corresponds to the description of the apparatus embodiments, and therefore reference may be made to the preceding method embodiments for parts not described in detail.

Fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication apparatus 900 in fig. 9 may be the above-mentioned network device, and may be a specific example of the network device 110 in fig. 1. The apparatus shown in fig. 9 may be used to implement the method performed by the network device, and in particular, the communication apparatus 900 may be used to perform the method of fig. 5, and the description is not repeated to avoid redundancy.

The communication apparatus 900 shown in fig. 9 includes a determining module 910 and a transmitting module 920.

A determining module 910, configured to determine priorities of K reference signals to be transmitted, where the K reference signals correspond to K beams one to one, and each reference signal is transmitted through a corresponding beam.

A sending module 920, configured to send the reference signal according to the priority.

Optionally, a first reference signal of the K reference signals corresponds to a first beam of the K beams, where the first reference signal is a reference signal with a highest priority among the K reference signals, and the first beam is a current working beam.

Optionally, the sending module 920 is specifically configured to send the reference signal according to the priority in a second detection period; and the current working beam includes a beam corresponding to a reference signal with the best reception quality reported by the terminal device and determined by the determining module 910 in a first detection period, where the first detection period is before the second detection period.

The determining module 910 is specifically configured to determine the priorities of the K reference signals according to the spatial relationship between the K beams and the current working beam.

The determining module 910 is specifically configured to determine, in a second detection period, priorities of the K reference signals according to measurement results of the K beams for the K reference signals obtained in a first detection period, where the first detection period is located before the second detection period.

Fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication apparatus 1000 shown in fig. 10 may correspond to the network device described above. The communication apparatus 1000 includes: a processor 1002. In an embodiment of the present application, the processor 1002 is configured to control and manage an action of the network device, for example, the processor 1002 is configured to support the network device to execute the method or the operation or the function shown in fig. 5 in the foregoing embodiment, and to support the foregoing embodiment to determine priorities of K reference signals to be sent, and send the reference signals according to the priorities. Optionally, the network device may further include: a memory 1001 and a communication interface 1003; the processor 1002, the communication interface 1003, and the memory 1001 may be connected to each other or connected to each other through a bus 1004. Wherein, the communication interface 1003 is used for supporting the network device to communicate, and the memory 1001 is used for storing the program codes and data of the network device. The processor 1002 calls the code stored in the memory 1001 for control management. The memory 1001 may or may not be coupled to the processor.

The processor 1002 may be, among other things, a central processing unit, a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, transistor logic, a hardware component, or any combination thereof. Which may implement or perform the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure. The processor may also be a combination of computing functions, e.g., comprising one or more microprocessors, a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, or the like. The communication interface 1003 may be a transceiver, circuit, bus, module, or other type of communication interface. The bus 1004 may be a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus, or the like. The bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 10, but this is not intended to represent only one bus or type of bus.

Fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication apparatus 1100 in fig. 11 may be the terminal device mentioned above, and may be a specific example of the terminal device 120 in fig. 1, for example. The apparatus shown in fig. 11 may be used to implement the method performed by the terminal device in the foregoing, and in particular, the communication apparatus 1100 may be used to perform the method of fig. 5, and may implement the embodiments shown in fig. 6 to fig. 7, and in order to avoid redundancy, the description is not repeated.

The communications apparatus 1100 shown in fig. 11 includes a measurement module 1110 and a determination module 1120.

The measurement module 1110 is configured to measure at least N reference signals of K reference signals sent by the network device based on priority, where N is less than K, the K reference signals are in one-to-one correspondence with K beams, and each reference signal is sent through a corresponding beam.

A determining module 1120, configured to determine measurement results of at least N reference signals of the K reference signals according to the measurement of the measuring module 1110.

Optionally, before the measurement, when the posture or the position change of the terminal device meets a preset condition, the measurement module 1110 is specifically configured to measure all reference signals in the K reference signals.

Optionally, the measurement module 1110 is specifically configured to measure N reference signals of the K reference signals.

Optionally, the determining module 1120 is specifically configured to determine whether to measure beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals according to the measurement results of the N reference signals and/or the posture and position change information of the terminal device, where the posture and position change information of the terminal device is used to indicate a posture and/or position change of the terminal device.

Optionally, the determining module 1120 is specifically configured to determine not to measure beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals when a measurement result of at least a part of the N reference signals in a second detection period is better than a corresponding measurement result in a first detection period, and when an attitude or position change of the terminal device during measurement of the N reference signals does not satisfy a preset condition, where the first detection period is before the second detection period.

Optionally, the determining module 1120 is specifically configured to determine to measure beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals when measurement results of all the N reference signals in a second detection period are inferior to corresponding measurement results in a first detection period, and/or when an attitude or position change of the terminal device during measurement of the N reference signals satisfies a preset condition, where the first detection period is before the second detection period.

Optionally, a first reference signal of the K reference signals corresponds to a first beam of the K beams, where the first reference signal is a reference signal with a highest priority among the K reference signals, and the first beam is a working beam of the K beams.

Optionally, the measurement module 1110 is specifically configured to measure, in a second detection period, at least N reference signals of the K reference signals sent by the network device based on the priority; and the working beam comprises a beam corresponding to a reference signal with the best receiving quality reported by the terminal device to the network device in a first detection period, and the first detection period is before the second detection period.

Optionally, the priorities of the K reference signals are determined based on spatial relationships of the K beams to a current operating beam of the network device.

Optionally, the measurement module 1110 is specifically configured to measure, in a second detection period, at least N reference signals of the K reference signals sent by the network device based on the priority; and the priorities of the K reference signals are determined based on measurements for the K reference signals obtained by the K beams during a first detection period, the first detection period preceding the second detection period.

Optionally, the measurement module 1110 is further configured to measure all reference signals of the K reference signals after M detection periods.

Optionally, the communication device 1100 further comprises: and a sending module.

Optionally, the sending module is configured to feed back, to the network device, measurement results of part or all of the N reference signals in the K reference signals in a second detection period, where the measurement results of part or all of the N reference signals in the K reference signals in the second detection period are used to determine priorities of the part or all of the N reference signals in the K reference signals in a third detection period, and the third detection period is after the second detection period.

Optionally, N is a preset value or dynamically configured by the terminal device.

Fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication apparatus 1200 shown in fig. 12 may correspond to the terminal device described earlier. The communication apparatus 1200 includes: a processor 1202. In an embodiment of the present application, the processor 1202 is configured to control and manage the action of the terminal device, for example, the processor 1202 is configured to support the network device to perform the method or the operation or the function shown in fig. 5 in the foregoing embodiment, and to support the network device to measure at least N reference signals of the K reference signals transmitted by the network device based on the priority in the foregoing embodiment. Optionally, the terminal device may further include: a memory 1201 and a communication interface 1203; the processor 1202, the communication interface 1203, and the memory 1201 may be connected to each other or to each other through a bus 1204. The communication interface 1203 is used for supporting the network device to perform communication, and the memory 1201 is used for storing program codes and data of the network device. The processor 1202 calls the code stored in the memory 1201 for control management. The memory 1201 may or may not be coupled to the processor.

The processor 1202 may be, among other things, a central processing unit, a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, transistor logic, a hardware component, or any combination thereof. Which may implement or perform the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure. The processor may also be a combination of computing functions, e.g., comprising one or more microprocessors, a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, or the like. The communication interface 1203 may be a transceiver, circuit, bus, module, or other type of communication interface. The bus 1204 may be a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus, or the like. The bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 12, but this is not intended to represent only one bus or type of bus.

Fig. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication apparatus 1300 in fig. 13 may be the terminal device mentioned above, and may be a specific example of the terminal device 120 in fig. 1, for example. The apparatus shown in fig. 13 may be configured to implement the method performed by the terminal device in the foregoing, and in particular, the communication apparatus 1300 may be configured to perform the method of fig. 8, and a description thereof is not repeated to avoid redundancy.

The communications apparatus 1300 shown in fig. 13 includes a measurement module 1310 and a determination module 1320.

A measurement module 1310, configured to measure, by using S of the K receive beams, reference signals sent by the network device at the first S times in a detection period, where S is greater than or equal to 1 and is less than or equal to S < K, and the S receive beams are in one-to-one correspondence with the reference signals sent at the first S times.

A determining module 1320, configured to determine whether to use the remaining K-S receiving beams of the K receiving beams to measure the reference signals transmitted by the network device at the next K-S time instants, where the reference signals transmitted at the previous S time instants and the reference signals transmitted at the next K-S time instants are transmitted through the same beam according to a measurement result.

Optionally, the measurement module 1310 is specifically configured to measure, in the second detection period, the reference signals sent by the network device at the first S times by using S of the K reception beams.

Optionally, the determining module 1320 is specifically configured to determine, when the measurement result of some or all of the S receiving beams in the second detection period is better than the measurement result of the working beam of the terminal device in the first detection period, that the remaining K-S receiving beams of the K receiving beams are no longer used for measuring the reference signals sent by the network device at the next K-S moments, where the first detection period is before the second detection period.

Optionally, the determining module 1320 is specifically configured to determine S of the K receive beams according to at least one of the following information: attitude information of the terminal device, position information of the terminal device, and information of whether an antenna of the terminal device is shielded.

Optionally, a first receiving beam of the S receiving beams corresponds to a reference signal sent at a first time of the first S times in a second detection period, where the reference signal sent at the first time is a reference signal sent at the first time of the first S times, and the determining module 1320 is specifically configured to determine a working beam of the first detection period as the first receiving beam, where the first detection period is before the second detection period.

Fig. 14 is a schematic configuration diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication apparatus 1400 shown in fig. 14 may correspond to the terminal device described previously. The communication apparatus 1400 includes: a processor 1402. In the embodiment of the present application, the processor 1402 is configured to control and manage the action of the terminal device, for example, the processor 1402 is configured to support the network device to perform the method or the operation or the function shown in fig. 8 in the foregoing embodiment, and to support the measurement on the reference signals sent by the network device at the first S moments in one detection period by using S receiving beams of the K receiving beams in the foregoing embodiment, and determine whether to use the remaining K-S receiving beams of the K receiving beams to measure the reference signals sent by the network device at the next K-S moments according to the measurement result. Optionally, the terminal device may further include: a memory 1401 and a communication interface 1403; the processor 1402, the communication interface 1403, and the memory 1401 may be connected to each other or to each other through a bus 1404. Wherein the communication interface 1403 is used for supporting the network device for communication and the memory 1401 is used for storing program codes and data of the network device. The processor 1402 calls the code stored in the memory 1401 for control management. The memory 1401 may or may not be coupled to the processor.

Processor 1402 may be, among other things, a central processing unit, a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, transistor logic, a hardware component, or any combination thereof. Which may implement or perform the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure. The processor may also be a combination of computing functions, e.g., comprising one or more microprocessors, a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, or the like. The communication interface 1403 may be a transceiver, circuit, bus, module, or other type of communication interface. The bus 1404 may be a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus, or the like. The bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 14, but this is not intended to represent only one bus or type of bus.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps 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.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application or portions thereof that substantially contribute to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium and including instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

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 measuring a beam, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that network equipment determines priorities of K reference signals to be sent, wherein the K reference signals correspond to K beams one to one, each reference signal is sent through the corresponding beam, and the priorities of the K reference signals are determined according to the spatial relationship between the K beams and a current working beam and/or the measurement results of the reference signals corresponding to part or all of the K beams in a last detection period;

the network equipment sequentially sends the K reference signals according to the priority;

the network device receives a partial or total measurement result of at least N reference signals in the K reference signals reported by the terminal device, wherein the partial or total measurement result of the at least N reference signals is obtained by the terminal device through measurement of the at least N reference signals, and N < K.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a first reference signal of the K reference signals corresponds to a first beam of the K beams, wherein the first reference signal is a highest priority reference signal of the K reference signals, and wherein the first beam is a current working beam.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the network device sequentially transmits the K reference signals according to the priority, comprising:

the network equipment sequentially sends the K reference signals according to the priority in a second detection period; and

the current working beam comprises a beam corresponding to a reference signal with the best receiving quality reported by the terminal equipment and determined by the network equipment in a first detection period, and the first detection period is before the second detection period.

4. The method of any of claims 1 to 3, further comprising:

receiving a measurement result of at least one part of the K reference signals sent by the terminal equipment;

adjusting the priority of at least a part of the K reference signals according to the measurement result of at least a part of the K reference signals.

5. A method of beam measurement, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that terminal equipment measures at least N reference signals in K reference signals sequentially sent by network equipment based on priority, N is less than K, the K reference signals correspond to K beams one by one, each reference signal is sent through the corresponding beam, and the priority of the K reference signals is determined according to the spatial relationship between the K beams and the current working beam of the network equipment and/or the measurement result of the reference signal corresponding to the last detection period of part or all of the K beams;

and reporting partial or all measurement results of at least N reference signals in the K reference signals to the network equipment.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the terminal device measures at least N reference signals of the K reference signals transmitted by the network device based on the priority, and comprises:

before the measurement, when the attitude or position change of the terminal equipment meets a preset condition, the terminal equipment measures all reference signals in the K reference signals.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the terminal device measures at least N reference signals of the K reference signals transmitted by the network device based on the priority, and comprises:

the terminal equipment measures N reference signals in the K reference signals;

and the terminal equipment determines whether to measure beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals or not according to the measurement results of the N reference signals and/or the attitude and position change information of the terminal equipment, wherein the attitude and position change information of the terminal equipment is used for indicating the attitude and/or position change of the terminal equipment.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the determining, by the terminal device, whether to measure beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals according to the measurement results of the N reference signals and/or the attitude and position change information of the terminal device includes:

at least a part of the N reference signals have better measurement results in the second detection period than corresponding measurement results in the first detection period, and when the attitude or position change of the terminal device does not meet the preset condition in the process of measuring the N reference signals,

the terminal equipment determines that the wave beams corresponding to the residual K-N reference signals are not measured; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the measurement result of all the N reference signals in the second detection period is inferior to the corresponding measurement result in the first detection period, and/or when the attitude or position change of the terminal device meets a preset condition during the measurement of the N reference signals,

the terminal equipment determines to measure the wave beams corresponding to the residual K-N reference signals;

wherein the first detection period precedes the second detection period.

9. The method according to any of claims 5 to 8, wherein a first reference signal of the K reference signals corresponds to a first beam of the K beams, the first reference signal being a highest priority reference signal of the K reference signals, the first beam being an operating beam of the K beams.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the measuring, by the terminal device, at least N reference signals of the K reference signals transmitted by the network device based on priority comprises:

the terminal device measures at least N reference signals in the K reference signals sent by the network device based on the priority in a second detection period; and

the working beam comprises a beam corresponding to a reference signal with the best receiving quality reported by the terminal device to the network device in a first detection period, and the first detection period is before the second detection period.

11. The method of any of claims 5 to 8, further comprising:

and after M detection periods, the terminal equipment measures all the reference signals of the K reference signals.

12. The method according to any one of claims 5 to 8, wherein the reporting, to the network device, measurement results of part or all of at least N reference signals of the K reference signals comprises:

the terminal device feeds back measurement results of part or all of the N reference signals in the K reference signals in a second detection period to the network device, where the measurement results of part or all of the N reference signals in the K reference signals in the second detection period are used to determine priorities of part or all of the N reference signals in the K reference signals in a third detection period, and the third detection period is after the second detection period.

13. The method according to any one of claims 5 to 8, wherein N is a preset value or is dynamically configured by the terminal device.

14. A method of measuring a beam, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that the terminal equipment measures reference signals sent by the network equipment at the first S moments in a detection period by using S receiving beams in K receiving beams, wherein S is more than or equal to 1 and is less than K, and the S receiving beams are in one-to-one correspondence with the reference signals sent at the first S moments;

and determining whether to use the remaining K-S receiving beams of the K receiving beams to measure the reference signals transmitted by the network equipment at the next K-S moments, wherein the reference signals transmitted at the previous S moments and the reference signals transmitted at the next K-S moments are transmitted by the same beam.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the terminal device uses S of the K receive beams to measure the reference signals transmitted by the network device at the first S times in a detection period, and comprises:

16. The method according to claim 14 or 15, characterized in that the method further comprises:

determining S of the K receive beams according to at least one of:

attitude information of the terminal device, position information of the terminal device, and information of whether an antenna of the terminal device is shielded.

17. The method according to claim 14 or 15, wherein a first one of the S receive beams corresponds to the reference signal transmitted at a first one of the first S time instants in a second detection period, and the reference signal transmitted at the first time instant is the reference signal transmitted at the first one of the first S time instants, and the method further comprises:

the terminal device determines a working beam of a first detection period as the first receiving beam, wherein the first detection period is before the second detection period.

18. A network device comprising means for performing the method of any of claims 1-4.

19. A terminal device, characterized in that it comprises means for carrying out the method according to any one of claims 5 to 13.

20. A terminal device, characterized in that it comprises means for carrying out the method according to any one of claims 14 to 17.

21. An apparatus comprising a processor, coupled to a memory, that executes instructions in the memory to implement the method of any of claims 1-17.

22. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions configured to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 17.

23. A communication system comprising a network device according to claim 18 and a terminal device according to claim 19.