CN109996265B - Beam measurement method, apparatus, system, network equipment and terminal equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

The present application provides beam measurement methods, apparatuses, systems, network equipment and terminal equipment. The method includes: a network device determines priorities of K reference signals to be sent, the K reference signals are in one-to-one correspondence with K beams, and each reference signal is sent through a corresponding beam; the network device according to the priority, the reference signal is sent. In the present application, by sending the reference signal to be sent according to the priority, the optimal beam on the network device side can be determined as soon as possible, thereby improving the beam measurement efficiency.

Description

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

technical field

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

Background technique

In the process of space propagation, the quality of wireless signals will be attenuated, and this attenuation phenomenon is called "path loss". The path loss will have a huge impact on the communication system, especially for the communication system in the high-frequency electromagnetic wave (millimeter wave) segment (such as the fifth generation (5G) communication system), the high path loss characteristics of the millimeter wave may will cause the system to not work properly.

In order to achieve better cell coverage, beamforming technology is introduced. The beam is directional and can effectively combat path loss. In order to obtain better system transmission performance, the communication system needs to ensure that the beam on the side of the network device (such as the base station) is well aligned with the beam direction on the side of the terminal device, so it is necessary to continuously track the uplink and downlink beams.

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

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present application provides a beam measurement method, apparatus, system, network device and terminal device, which can improve beam measurement efficiency in a beam tracking process.

In a first aspect, a method for measuring beams is provided, the method includes: a network device determines priorities of K reference signals to be sent, the K reference signals are in one-to-one correspondence with the K beams, and each reference signal passes through the The corresponding beam is sent; the network device sends the reference signal according to the priority.

In the technical solution of the present application, when the network device side sends the reference signals used for measuring beams, it is not sent in random order, but determines the priority of the reference signals to be sent, and sends the reference signals according to the priority. The terminal will also receive the reference signal according to the priority of the reference signal, and measure according to the priority, so that the optimal beam on the network device side can be determined as soon as possible, thereby improving the beam measurement efficiency. With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, a first reference signal in the K reference signals corresponds to a first beam in the K beams, and the first reference signal is the K The reference signal with the highest priority among the reference signals, and the first beam is the current working beam.

Since the working beams on the network equipment side and the terminal equipment side will remain unchanged with a high probability when the channel state conditions are stable, when the attitude or position of the terminal equipment does not change or changes very little, the network equipment side uses the current The working beam sends the reference signal with the highest priority, and the terminal device can measure the reference signal with the highest priority first, that is, measure the current working beam on the network device side first, so as to determine the optimal beam of the network device as soon as possible. Improve beam measurement efficiency.

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

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

At most moments, when the terminal device's attitude changes or moves relatively little, the best beam for the terminal device and the network device is the most likely beam around the current working beam. Therefore, according to the transmission beam of the network device and the current work The spatial relationship of the beams can set different priorities for the beams around the current working beam and the beams whose emission angles differ greatly from the current working beam.

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

The priority of the current cycle is determined according to the measurement result of the reference signal in the previous detection cycle, which can improve the efficiency of the terminal device to determine the optimal beam on the network device side as soon as possible.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: receiving measurement results of at least a part of the K reference signals sent by the terminal device; referring to at least a part of the K reference signals according to According to the measurement result of the signal, the priorities of at least a part of the reference signals in the K reference signals are adjusted.

In a second aspect, a beam measurement method is provided. The method includes: a terminal device measures at least N reference signals among K reference signals sent by a network device based on priorities, where N<K, the K reference signals are the same as the K reference signals. The K beams are in one-to-one correspondence, and each reference signal is sent through the corresponding beam; and the measurement results of part or all of at least N reference signals in the K reference signals are reported to the network device.

The network device sends the reference signal based on the priority, and the terminal device receives the reference signal based on the priority, and measures according to the priority, so that the optimal beam on the network device side can be determined as soon as possible, thereby improving the beam measurement efficiency.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the terminal device performs measurement on at least N reference signals among the K reference signals sent by the network device based on the priority, including: before performing the measurement, the When the attitude or position change of the terminal device satisfies the preset condition, the terminal device measures all the reference signals in the K reference signals.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the terminal device measures at least N reference signals among the K reference signals sent by the network device based on priorities, including: the terminal device measures the K reference signals. Perform measurement on N reference signals among the reference signals; the terminal device determines whether to measure the corresponding values of 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 The beam is measured, wherein the attitude and position change information of the terminal device is used to indicate the attitude and/or position change of the terminal device.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the terminal device determines whether to measure 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 The corresponding beams are measured, including:

The measurement results of at least a part of the N reference signals in the second detection period are better than the corresponding measurement results in the first detection period, and in the process of measuring the N reference signals, the When the attitude or position change of the terminal device does not meet the preset condition, the terminal device determines not to measure the beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals; or,

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

Wherein, the first detection period is before the second detection period.

When the channel state conditions are stable or when the attitude and position of the terminal device change little or no change, the terminal device can measure only a part of the reference signals to determine the optimal beam of the network device, without all the reference signals The measurement can not only improve the beam measurement efficiency, but also reduce the power consumption of the terminal equipment to measure the reference signal, and reduce unnecessary power consumption overhead.

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

Since the working beams on the network equipment side and the terminal equipment side will remain unchanged with a high probability when the channel state conditions are stable, when the attitude or position of the terminal equipment does not change or changes very little, the network equipment side uses the current The working beam sends the reference signal with the highest priority, and the terminal device can measure the reference signal with the highest priority first, that is, measure the current working beam on the network device side first, so as to determine the optimal beam of the network device as soon as possible. Improve beam measurement efficiency.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the terminal device measures at least N reference signals among the K reference signals sent by the network device based on the priority, including: the terminal device detects when the second period, measuring at least N reference signals among the K reference signals sent by the network device based on the priority; and, the working beam includes the highest receiving quality reported by the terminal device to the network device in the first detection period For a beam corresponding to a good reference signal, the first detection period is located 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 the spatial relationship between the K beams and the current working beam of the network device.

At most moments, when the terminal device's attitude changes or moves relatively little, the best beam pair between the terminal device and the network device is most likely the beam around the current working beam. Therefore, according to the transmission beam of the network device and the current working beam on the network device side The spatial relationship can set different priorities for the beams around the current working beam and the beams with a large difference in emission angle from the current working beam. The terminal device can determine the optimal beam of the network device as soon as possible, and improve the beam measurement efficiency.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the terminal device measures at least N reference signals among the K reference signals sent by the network device based on the priority, including: the terminal device detects when the second Periodically measure at least N reference signals among the K reference signals sent by the network device based on the priorities; and, the priorities of the K reference signals are based on the K beams obtained in the first detection cycle for The measurement results of the K reference signals determine that the first detection period is located before the second detection period.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: after M detection periods, the terminal device 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, which can prevent the change of the working beam pair caused by the change of the channel condition, thereby ensuring the optimal performance of the working beam pair between the network device and the terminal device.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the reporting to the network device some or all measurement results of at least N reference signals in the K reference signals includes: the terminal device Feeding back the measurement results of at least N reference signals of at least N reference signals in the K reference signals in the second detection period to the network device, and feeding back some or all of at least N reference signals of the K reference signals to the network device The measurement result of the reference signal in the second detection period is used to determine the priority of some or all of the reference signals of at least N reference signals in the K reference signals in the third detection period, and the third detection period is in the After the second detection cycle.

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 for measuring beams is provided, the method comprising: a terminal device using S receiving beams in K receiving beams to measure reference signals sent by a network device at the first S moments in a detection period, wherein 1≤S<K, the S receiving beams are in one-to-one correspondence with the reference signals sent at the first S moments; according to the measurement result, it is determined whether to use the remaining K-S receiving beams in the K receiving beams to pair all the signals. The measurement is performed on the reference signals sent by the network device at the next K-S moments, wherein the reference signals sent at the previous S moments and the reference signals sent at the next K-S moments are sent through the same beam.

With reference to the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the terminal device uses S receiving beams in the K receiving beams to measure the reference signals sent by the network device at the first S moments in a detection period, including :

In the second detection period, the terminal device uses S receiving beams in the K receiving beams to measure the reference signals sent by the network device at the first S moments; and

The determining, according to the measurement result, whether to use the remaining K-S receiving beams in the K receiving beams to measure the reference signals sent by the network device at the next K-S moments, including:

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, the terminal device determines to no longer use all the beams. The remaining K-S receiving beams in the K receiving beams measure the reference signals sent by the network device at the next K-S times, and the first detection period is located before the second detection period.

When the channel state conditions are stable, the terminal equipment does not necessarily measure all the reference signals sent by the network equipment, but only needs to measure some of the reference signals to determine the optimal beam on the terminal equipment side, without the need to measure all the reference signals. The measurement not only improves the beam measurement efficiency, but also reduces the power consumption of the terminal equipment for measuring the reference signal, and reduces unnecessary power consumption overhead.

With reference to the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: determining S receiving beams in the K receiving beams according to at least one of the following information: attitude information of the terminal device, Location information of the terminal device, and information on whether the antenna of the terminal device is blocked.

With reference to the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the first receiving beam in the S receiving beams corresponds to the reference signal sent at the first moment in the first S moments in the second detection period, and the The reference signal sent at the first moment is the reference signal sent at the first moment in the previous S moments, and the method further includes: determining, by the terminal device, the working beam of the first detection period as the first receiving beam beam, the first detection period precedes the second detection period.

In a fourth aspect, a network device is provided, including a module or unit for executing the method in the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

In a fifth aspect, a terminal device is provided, including a module or unit for executing the method in the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect.

In a sixth aspect, a terminal device is provided, including a module or unit for executing the method in the third aspect or any possible implementation manner of the third aspect.

In a seventh aspect, a communication device is provided, the communication device comprising: at least one processor and a communication interface, the communication interface is used for the communication device to perform information interaction with other communication devices, when the program instruction is in the at least one When executed in the processor, the communication apparatus is caused to execute the method in the first aspect or any of the possible implementation manners of the first aspect.

In an eighth aspect, a communication device is provided, the communication device comprising: at least one processor and a communication interface, the communication interface is used for the communication device to perform information interaction with other communication devices, when the program instruction is in the at least one When executed in the processor, the communication apparatus is caused to execute the method in the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect.

In a ninth aspect, a communication device is provided, the communication device comprising: at least one processor and a communication interface, the communication interface is used for the communication device to perform information interaction with other communication devices, when the program instruction is in the at least one When executed in the processor, the communication apparatus is caused to execute the third aspect or the method in any possible implementation manner of the third aspect.

In a tenth aspect, a communication device is provided, the communication device comprising: a transceiver, a processor and a memory. The processor is used to control the transceiver to send and receive signals, the memory is used to store a computer program, and the processor is used to call and run the computer program from the memory, so that the communication device executes the first aspect or any one of the first aspects may be implemented method in method.

In an eleventh aspect, a communication device is provided, the communication device comprising: a transceiver, a processor and a memory. The processor is used to control the transceiver to send and receive signals, the memory is used to store a computer program, and the processor is used to call and run the computer program from the memory, so that the communication device performs the second aspect or any possible one of the second aspect. implement the method described.

A twelfth aspect provides a communication apparatus, the communication apparatus comprising: a transceiver, a processor, and a memory. The processor is used to control the transceiver to send and receive signals, the memory is used to store a computer program, and the processor is used to call and run the computer program from the memory, so that the communication device executes the third aspect or any possible one of the third aspect. implement the method described.

A thirteenth aspect provides a chip system, where the chip system includes a processor for a network device to implement the functions involved in the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect, for example, generating, Receive, send, or process data and/or information involved in the above methods. In a possible design, the chip system further includes a memory for storing necessary program instructions and data of the terminal device. The chip system may be composed of chips, or may include chips and other discrete devices.

A fourteenth aspect provides a chip system, where the chip system includes a processor for a terminal device to implement the functions involved in the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect, for example, generating, Receive, send, or process data and/or information involved in the above methods. In a possible design, the chip system further includes a memory for storing necessary program instructions and data of the terminal device. The chip system may be composed of chips, or may include chips and other discrete devices.

A fifteenth aspect provides a chip system, where the chip system includes a processor for a terminal device to implement the functions involved in the third aspect or any possible implementation manner of the third aspect, for example, generating, Receive, send, or process data and/or information involved in the above methods. In a possible design, the chip system further includes a memory for storing necessary program instructions and data of the terminal device. The chip system may be composed of chips, or may include chips and other discrete devices.

A sixteenth aspect provides a computer-readable storage medium, where instructions are stored in the computer-readable storage medium, and when the instructions are executed on a computer, cause the computer to execute the first aspect or any one of the first aspects possible implementations of the described methods.

A seventeenth aspect provides a computer-readable storage medium, where instructions are stored in the computer-readable storage medium, and when the instructions are executed on a computer, the computer is made to execute any one of the second aspect or the second aspect possible implementations of the described methods.

An eighteenth aspect provides a computer-readable storage medium, where instructions are stored in the computer-readable storage medium, and when the instructions are executed on a computer, the computer is made to execute the third aspect or any one of the third aspects possible implementations of the described methods.

A nineteenth aspect provides a computer program product comprising instructions that, when the computer program product runs on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method described in the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

A twentieth aspect provides a computer program product comprising instructions that, when the computer program product runs on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method described in the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect.

A twenty-first aspect provides a computer program product comprising instructions that, when the computer program product runs on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method described in the third aspect or any possible implementation manner of the third aspect.

In a twenty-second aspect, a communication system is provided, including the above-mentioned network device and terminal device.

Description of 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 diagram of resource configuration of beam measurement according to an embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 5 is a schematic flowchart of a beam measurement method according to an embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of resource configuration 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 flowchart of a beam measurement method according to another embodiment of the present application.

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

FIG. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus provided by another embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus provided by another embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus provided by another embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus provided by another embodiment of the present application.

Detailed ways

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

The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, for example, a global system for mobile communications (GSM) system, a code division multiple access (CDMA) system, a wideband code division multiple access (wideband) system code division multiple access (WCDMA) system, general packet radio service (GPRS), long term evolution (long termevolution, LTE) system, LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (time division duplex, TDD), universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) communication system, fifth generation (5th generation, 5G) system or new wireless ( newradio, NR) and future sixth-generation communication systems.

In this embodiment of the present 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 memory (also called main memory). The operating system may be any one or more computer operating systems that implement business processing through 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 includes applications such as browsers, address books, word processing software, and instant messaging software. In addition, the embodiments of the present application do not specifically limit the specific structure of the execution body of the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application, as long as the program that records the codes of the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application can be executed to provide the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application. For example, the execution subject of the method provided by the embodiment of the present application may be a terminal device or a network device, or a functional module in the terminal device or network device that can call and execute a program.

Additionally, 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 in this application encompasses a computer program accessible from any computer readable device, carrier or medium. For example, computer readable media may include, but are not limited to: magnetic storage devices (eg, hard disks, floppy disks, or magnetic tapes, etc.), optical disks (eg, compact discs (CDs), digital versatile discs (DVDs) etc.), smart cards and flash memory devices (eg, erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), cards, stick or key drives, etc.). Additionally, 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" may include, but is not limited to, wireless channels and various other media capable of storing, containing, and/or carrying instructions 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 .

The network device 110 may be a device for communicating with the terminal device 120, for example, the network device 110 may be a base station for connecting the terminal device 120 to a radio access network (RAN). For ease of understanding, the embodiments of the present application take the network device 110 as a base station 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 can be understood that, in systems using different wireless access technologies, the names of devices with base station functions may be different. For convenience of description, the embodiments of the present application will collectively refer to a device that provides a wireless communication access function for a terminal device as a base station. For example, the network device 110 may be an evolved node B (evolved node B, eNB) in long term evolution (LTE), or may be a next-generation base station in the fifth generation (5G) system A node (next generation node basestation, gNB) can also be a transmission and reception point (transmission and reception point, TRP), or a network device in a 5G network. The network device 110 may be a macro base station or a micro base station. The coverage of one network device 110 may include one cell, or may include multiple cells.

The terminal device 120 may communicate with one or more core networks (core networks, CN) via an access network device. Terminal equipment may also be referred to as user equipment (UE), access terminal, terminal, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, mobile station, remote station, remote terminal, mobile equipment, user terminal, wireless network equipment, user agent or user device. 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 (personal digital assistant, PDAs), handheld devices with wireless communication capabilities, computing devices or other devices connected to wireless modems, in-vehicle devices, wearable devices, drone devices or Internet of Things, terminals in the Internet of Vehicles, and any form of future network A terminal, a relay user equipment, or a terminal in a future evolved public land mobile network (Public Land Mobile Network, PLMN), and the like. This embodiment of the present application does not limit this. For the convenience of description, in this 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 transmit uplink and downlink signals through a transmission link between the two, wherein the transmission link from the network device 110 to the terminal device 120 may be called a downlink, and the terminal device 120 The transmission link to network device 110 may be referred to as an uplink.

During the 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 will be attenuated, and this attenuation phenomenon is called "path-loss". The path loss will have a huge impact on the communication system, especially for the millimeter wave band (mmWave) communication system (such as 5G communication system), the excessive signal attenuation caused by the high path loss characteristics of the millimeter wave may cause the system to fail to function normally. Work. In order to achieve better cell coverage, a beamforming technology can be introduced. The beam is directional and can effectively combat path loss.

As shown in FIG. 1 , the network device 110 side can be configured with a massive MIMO array, for example, 64, 128, 256 or 1024 antennas or other numbers of antennas can be configured, and multi-antenna communication can improve the wireless signal transmission quality. The above-mentioned beamforming technology is a signal processing technology used for directional signal transmission or reception in the sensor array. It can effectively superimpose the signals by adjusting the phase of each antenna to generate stronger signal gain to overcome path loss, thereby improving the efficiency of wireless signals. Transmission quality is guaranteed.

Beamforming technology 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 is directional, and different beams can have different transmissions. direction. Generally, the narrower the beam, the greater the signal gain. Once the direction of the beam deviates from the receiving end, the receiving end may not receive high-quality wireless signals. Therefore, for the network device as the transmitting end, the network device side needs to use multiple beams with different directions to completely cover the cell it serves. Taking the example shown in FIG. 1 , in the downlink process, the network device 110 may use beams 111 , 112 , 113 , 114 and 115 with different directions to transmit wireless signals in different directions.

The beamforming technology can be applied to the network device side or the terminal device side, that is, the terminal device side can also be configured with an antenna array. Still taking the downlink process as an example, the terminal device can use beams in different directions to receive signals. As shown in FIG.

It should be understood that the number of beams on the network device side and the number of beams on the terminal device side listed in the embodiments of the present application are only illustrative, and do not impose any limitations on 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 referred to as "communication" for short, and the term "communication" may also be described as "data transmission", "signal transmission", "information transmission" or "transmission" Wait. In this embodiment of the present application, transmission may include sending or receiving. Exemplarily, the transmission may be 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 of the present application, the beam on the network device side/terminal device side may be a sending beam or a receiving beam. When the network device/terminal device side is used as the sending end, the beam on the network device side/terminal device side may be referred to as Sending beam, when the network device/terminal device is used as the receiving end, the beam on the network device side/terminal device side can be called the receiving beam; in other words, in the downlink process, the beam on the network device side can be called the sending beam, the terminal The beam on the device side can be called a receiving beam, and in the uplink process, the beam on the network device side can be called a receiving beam, and the beam on the terminal device side can be called a sending beam.

In the uplink process, the network device side can use the transmit beam used in the downlink process to receive signals, that is, the network device side transmit beam in the downlink process can be used as the receive beam in the uplink process; similarly, the terminal device side is in the uplink process. , the receive beam used in the downlink process can be used to transmit the signal, that is, the receive beam in the downlink process on the terminal device side can be used as the transmit beam in the uplink process. The situations on the network device side and the terminal device side in the downlink process are similar, and for brevity, details are not repeated here.

If the network equipment side and the terminal equipment side have beams with different directions, there is a pair of beams (one network equipment side beam and one terminal equipment side beam) whose alignment is the best compared to other beam combinations, so that the receiving end (downlink beam) has the best alignment. In the process, the terminal device is the receiving end, and the network device is the receiving end in the uplink process), and the received signal quality is the best. The pair of beams can be called a beam pair, and the beam pair includes the beam of the transmitter and the beam of the receiver. Still taking the downlink process of FIG. 1 as an example, during the signal transmission process between the network device 110 and the terminal device 120, the transmitting beam 114 of the network device 110 and the receiving beam 122 of the terminal device 120 are a pair of beams with good alignment. The direction alignment or direction deviation of the two beams is small. In the application scenario shown in FIG. 1 , the “beam pair” is the beam 114 on the network device 110 side and the beam 122 on the terminal device 120 side. The following row is an example, the beam 114 May be referred to as the optimal transmit beam, and beam 122 may be referred to as the optimal receive beam. When the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 use the beam pair 114 and 122 for signal transmission, the beam pair 114 and 120 can also be referred to as a working beam pair, wherein the beam 114 can be referred to as a working beam on the network device side, and the beam 122 can be referred to as a working beam pair. It is the working beam on the terminal device side. Of course, any beam that transmits a signal and a beam that receives the signal can be referred to as a "beam pair", and a beam pair with better alignment composed of an optimal transmit beam and an optimal receive beam can be used as a working beam pair.

In the case where both the transmitting end and the receiving end have beam reciprocity for transmitting and receiving, the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 use the beam pair 114 and 122 for signal transmission. In the downlink process, when the network device 110 uses the beam 114 to send wireless signals, The beam 122 on the side of the terminal device 120 is the beam with the best signal reception quality; in the uplink process, when the terminal device 120 uses the beam 122 to send wireless signals, the beam 114 on the side of the network device 110 is also the beam with the best signal reception quality.

The following briefly describes the reciprocity (beamcorrespondence) of the transmitting and receiving beams by taking the transmitting end as the base station and the receiving end as the terminal as an example.

For the base station, if the optimal transmit beam (TRP-Tx-beam) of the base station in the downlink can be equal to the optimal receive beam (TRP-Rx-beam) of the base station in the uplink, or the uplink The optimal receiving beam (TRP-Rx-beam) of the base station is equivalent to the optimal transmitting beam (TRP-Tx-beam) of the base station in the downlink, so it can be said that the base station side has the reciprocity of receiving and transmitting beams, that is, the base station The side meets the Beam correspondence.

Similarly, for the terminal, if the optimal receive beam (UE-Rx-beam) of the terminal in the downlink can be equal to the optimal transmit beam (UE-Tx-beam) of the terminal in the uplink, or it can be The optimal transmission beam (UE-Tx-beam) of the terminal in the uplink is equal to the optimal receiving beam (UE-Rx-beam) of the terminal in the downlink, then it is called that the terminal has the reciprocity of transmitting and receiving beams , that is, the terminal satisfies the Beam correspondence.

Since the terminal device 120 may have mobility, the beam direction of the terminal device 120 may change with the position and posture 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 occurs. Variety. In order to ensure that the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 always use a beam pair with better alignment for signal transmission, it is necessary to continuously perform uplink and downlink beam tracking. But before this, the terminal device 120 first needs to access the network.

Before the terminal device 120 accesses the network, it may first obtain a beam pair with the best performance or reach the access threshold through reference signal measurement, and then initiate a contention-based random access procedure. The process of beam alignment when the terminal device 120 accesses the network will be described in detail below with reference to FIG. 2 .

The network device in this 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 transmits wireless signals using different beams in turn, and the terminal device uses different beams to receive wireless signals. This process may be called beam sweeping; at the same time, the terminal device 120 measures different beam pairs. According to the beam measurement result, 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 wireless signals transmitted by the network device 110 using different beams, and perform beam measurement. If the terminal device 120 has multiple receiving beams, the terminal device 120 can transform different receiving beams to receive wireless signals transmitted by the network device 110 using different beams, and perform beam measurement.

In the embodiment of the present application, in a synchronization sequence block (synchronization sequence block, SSB) scenario, the network device 110 side can 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 , within an SSB burst, the network device 110 side can use different beams to send SSB1 messages, SSB2 messages, SSB3 messages, SSB4 messages, SSB5 messages, and SSB6 messages in sequence. In the embodiment of this application, "different beams" can be understood as beams in different directions or different directions, and beams in different directions send different SSB messages, such as SSB1 message, SSB2 message, SSB3 message, SSB4 message, and SSB5 message shown in FIG. 2 . Both the message and the SSB6 message are different SSB messages; in other words, different SSB messages can indicate different beam directions.

At the same time, the terminal device 120 side can use a certain beam in one SSB burst to receive the SSB messages (SSB1 message to SSB6 message) sent by the network device 110 side, and perform the physical layer reference signal receiving power (L1_reference signal receiving power, RSRP) Measurement (may be referred to as L1-RSRP measurement). As shown in FIG. 2, within an SSB burst, the terminal device 120 can use Beam1 to receive the SSB1 message, SSB2 message, SSB3 message, SSB4 message, SSB5 message, and SSB6 message sequentially sent by the network device 110, and respond to the received The above SSB messages are measured.

If the terminal device has only one beam, the terminal device only needs to measure all the SSB messages sent by the network device in one SSB burst. If the terminal device has multiple beams, the terminal device needs to use different SSB messages in multiple SSB bursts. The beam received the reference signal and measured the received reference signal in each SSB burst. Taking Figure 2 as an example, for example, in the first SSB burst, the terminal device side uses beam Beam1 to receive the SSB1 message, SSB2 message, SSB3 message, SSB4 message, SSB5 message, and SSB6 message that are sequentially sent by the network device side using different beams, And measure the above SSB messages; in the second SSB burst, the network device side repeats the operations in the first SSB burst, that is, using different beams to send SSB1 messages, SSB2 messages, SSB3 messages, SSB4 messages, SSB5 messages in turn , SSB6 message, and the terminal device side uses Beam2 to receive the above SSB message and measure it; in the third SSB burst, the network device side repeats the operations in the first SSB burst, and sends SSB1 message, SSB2 message, SSB3 message in turn message, SSB4 message, SSB5 message, and SSB6 message, the terminal device side uses Beam3 to receive the above-mentioned SSB message and perform measurement.

It should be understood that, in this embodiment of the present application, the measurement performed by the terminal device on the reference signal (such as an SSB message) sent by the network device using the beam may be understood as the beam measurement performed by the terminal device on the beam.

It should also be understood that the number of beams on the terminal equipment side and the network equipment side, the order in which the network equipment uses the beams to send SSB messages, and the order in which the terminal equipment side uses the beams to receive SSB messages in the embodiments of the present application are all schematic, and are not relevant to the present application. The application examples impose no limitations. In the embodiment of this application, the network device side may have other numbers of transmit beams, such as 8, 10, 16, etc., and the UE side may also have other numbers of receive beams, such as 1, 2, 4, 6 one and so on. The network device side can send the SSB message in any order (equivalent to an arbitrary beam direction), and the terminal device side can also receive the SSB message in an arbitrary order (equivalent to an arbitrary direction) beam.

After completing all beam measurements on the network equipment side and the terminal equipment side, the terminal equipment obtains the beam pair with the optimal L1-RSRP or the L1-RSRP reaching the preset threshold. For example, the beam corresponding to the SSB3 message shown in FIG. beam2, for the convenience of description, in this embodiment of the present application, the beam pair is referred to as a beam pair used for access, and the beam pair used for access includes a network device side beam and a terminal device side beam.

In step S220, at the moment of the physical random access channel (PRACH) of the terminal device, the terminal device uses the physical random access channel obtained in S210 and associated with the beam on the network device side in the beam pair used for access The resource initiates a random access channel (RACH) procedure.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 2 , the terminal device initiates the RACH process using the PRACH resource associated with the SSB3 message. The terminal device uses the Beam2 determined in S210 to send a preamble (preamble), and starts a random access response (RAR) window timer (window timer), waiting for a response from the base station side.

It should be noted that the PRACH resources associated with each SSB message sent by the network device side are different, which can also be understood as the one-to-one correspondence between the SSB messages sent by the beams in different directions and the PRACH resources, or it can be understood as the beams in different directions and the PRACH resources. PRACH resources are in one-to-one correspondence.

In step S230, the network device selects an appropriate beam to receive the preamble request from the terminal device according to the resource situation allocated to the terminal device to initiate PRACH, and replies the RAR message to the terminal device according to the processing situation.

Since the SSB messages sent by different beams are associated with PRACH resources, the network device can determine the SSB messages associated with the PRACH resources according to the PRACH resources used by the terminal device, which is equivalent to determining the beam used for access obtained by the terminal device Center the beam on the network device side. As shown in Figure 2, in S230, the terminal device side uses the PRACH resource associated with the SSB3 message to initiate the RACH process, and the network device side can determine the beam pair for access determined by the terminal device according to the PRACH resource used by the terminal device side, including sending Beam for SSB3 messages. According to the reciprocity of the transceiving beams on the network device side, the network device side uses the beam sending the SSB3 message as the receiving beam (ie the above-mentioned "appropriate beam") to receive the preamble sent by the terminal device.

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 process described in S220 and S230, the network device side and the terminal The device side uses beam pairs for access for signal transmission.

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

In step S240, after successfully receiving the RAR message sent by the network device, the terminal device 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 process of the terminal device is completed.

After the terminal device accesses the communication system and enters a radio resource control (RRC) connected state, the beam aligned on the side of the network device and the terminal device is the beam pair determined by the terminal device for access during the access process. As the terminal device moves or changes its attitude, the beam direction of the terminal device changes, and the beam pair that has better alignment between the terminal device and the network device or that can meet certain requirements will also change.

In order to ensure that the beams of the terminal device and the network device are always aligned, it is necessary to continuously perform uplink and downlink beam tracking. In the embodiment of the present application, taking beams that are reciprocal as an example, downlink beam management implements uplink beam management, that is to say, the best transmit beam and the best receive beam obtained in the downlink process can be considered as uplink beams respectively. The best receive beam and the best transmit beam in the process.

The beam tracking process is described in detail below with reference to FIGS. 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), and the set of reference signals is sent by a set of beams configured on the network device side, where each The reference signal corresponds to one transmit beam, and the directions of the group of beams are different. In other words, the network device configures a reference signal for each beam in a group of beams with different directions, and uses the group of beams to transmit the corresponding reference signal, which is equivalent to performing beam measurement on the group of beams.

Each beam in the group of beams transmits the reference signal at different times, and the terminal device uses the same fixed receive beam to receive the reference signal and measure the reference signal at the transmission timing of each reference signal. That is, the network device uses beams in different directions to send reference signals at different times, and the terminal device uses the same beam in the same direction to receive reference signals at different times. The terminal device may feed back the measurement result of the reference signal to the network device, and the network device determines whether the transceiving 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 here may be understood as the measurement result of the reference signal by the terminal device, which is also equivalent to the measurement result of the beam by the terminal device, and may also be referred to as the beam measurement result in some embodiments.

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

The embodiments of the present application are described in conjunction with FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 by taking the reference signal as CSI-RS and the measurement as L1-RSRP measurement as an example.

As shown in FIG. 3 , the network device 310 is configured with a set of CSI-RS reference signals, and the set of reference signals are respectively sent by the beams 311 , 312 , 313 , 314 , 315 and other unshown beams on the network device 310 side, The CSI-RS reference signals are in one-to-one correspondence with the transmit beams. The beam on the network device 310 side can send the CSI-RS reference signals in any order, for example, it can be sent in the order of 311, 312, 313, 314, and 315, or it can be sent in the order of 313, 315, 311, 312, and 314. are sent sequentially, and may also be sent in other sequences.

The terminal device 320 uses the fixed beam 321 to receive the CSI-RS reference signal sent by the network device 310 at different timings. The fixed beam 321 may be the beam with the best reception quality determined by the terminal device during the access process, or may be the beam with the best reception quality determined by the P3 process. The P3 process will be described below with reference to specific embodiments. Not detailed.

As shown in Figure 4, the squares where the numbers 1-40 are located in the figure can represent the beams on the network device side, in which the square 16 can represent the current working beam of the network equipment, the squares 5, 6, 7, 15, 17, 25, 26, 27, and 36 may represent beams in which the network device is configured with CSI-RS.

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

During beam tracking, the network device will configure the current working beam and other beams for measurement. In specific implementation, the number of configured beams can be determined by the network device or implemented by itself. For example, in this embodiment of the present application, the network device configures the current working beam 16 and other nine beams such as 5, 6, 7, 15, 17, 25, 26, 27, and 36 for measurement. In the P2 process, the order in which the network device sends CSI-RS is random, that is to say, the ten beams configured with CSI-RS in Figure 4 can notify the terminal device in any order, and the terminal device does not know the network before receiving the signal. The order in which the device sends CSI-RS (equivalent to the terminal device not knowing the order in which the network device beams send signals), so the terminal device can only determine the best transmission on the network device side only after all the CSI-RS sent by all beams are measured. beam, so as to adjust the working beam, and the beam measurement efficiency is low.

Therefore, how to improve the efficiency of beam measurement is a problem that needs to be solved in the beam tracking process performed to ensure the beam alignment of the network equipment and the terminal equipment. The embodiments of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to FIG. 5 .

FIG. 5 shows a schematic flowchart of a method for measuring a beam according to an embodiment of the present application. The method in FIG. 5 can be applied to the above-mentioned application scenarios and communication systems. The method may include steps S510 to S540 , and each step will be described below with reference to FIG. 5 .

In step S510, the network device determines the priorities of the K reference signals to be sent.

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

The "priority" mentioned here can be understood as the priority of the transmission order, that is, which reference signal is sent first and which reference signal is sent later, wherein the reference signal sent first can be understood as the reference signal with the highest priority, The reference signal sent later can be understood as the reference signal with the second best priority, and the reference signal sent last can be understood as the reference signal with the lowest priority.

It should be understood that the K reference signals are in one-to-one correspondence with the K beams, and the transmission directions of the K beams are different. In this embodiment of the present application, the K reference signals are sent by the K beams in different directions, which are equivalent to the K reference signals K different beam directions can be represented. The determination of the priority of the reference signal in the embodiment of the present application may be understood as determining the priority of the beam transmission order.

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

The number K of reference signals may be preconfigured by the system, or may be determined by the network device, and K≥1.

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

Assuming that the time when the network device performs beam measurement this time is the second detection period, the current working beam of the network device may be the 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 Corresponding beams, wherein the first detection period precedes the second detection period.

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

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

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

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 with the highest priority. That is, the first reference signal among the K reference signals corresponds to the first beam among the K beams, the first reference signal is the reference signal with the highest priority among the K reference signals, and the first beam is among the K beams. working beam. 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 sent first, or the network device sends the reference signal by 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 relationship 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 in the beamforming technology, not only the horizontal angle of the antenna but also the elevation angle of the antenna can be adjusted on the network device side, so the beam on the network device side is a 3D beam, and different beams can cover different areas. The spatial relationship between the K beams and the current working beam described here can be understood as the relationship between the K beams and the emission angles of the current working beam.

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

It should be noted that the beam around the current working beam can be understood as the beam with the smallest angle between the emission direction and the emission direction of the current working beam. Assuming that the emission direction of the current working beam is 0° and the 3dB beam width of the network device is 10°, the transmission A beam with an angle of ±5° can be considered as a beam around the current working beam, and a beam with a transmission angle of ±45° can be considered as a beam with a larger difference from the current working beam. Optionally, if multiple reference signals are at the same priority, the network device may send the multiple reference signals in random order or in any order, or the network device may further determine the priorities of the multiple reference signals, that is, The order of sending the multiple reference signals is determined, 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 the beams around the current working beam as higher priority, and configure the reference signal of the beam with a larger difference from the emission angle of the current working beam as the lower priority. class. Reference signals with higher priorities are sent first, reference signals with lower priorities are sent later, and reference signals with the same priority can be sent in any order by the network device or the order of sending can be further determined.

For another example, the network device may determine the priorities of the reference signals of the current working beam and the reference signals of the beams around the current working beam, and send other configured reference signals in any order.

In this embodiment of the present application, the priority of the reference signal may be understood as the probability that the beam corresponding to the reference signal is well aligned with the receiving beam of the terminal device. For example, if the posture of the terminal device does not change or the antenna does not block or changes, and the blocking is small, the working beams of the terminal device and the network device will remain unchanged with a high probability. Therefore, if the current The reference signal of the working beam is configured with the highest priority, which means that the current working beam of the network device is best aligned with the receiving beam (working beam) of the terminal device, and the probability of beam alignment is the greatest.

As another example, the network device may determine the priorities of the K reference signals according to the measurement results of the K reference signals obtained by the K transmission beams in the first detection period, and the current measurement period of the network device is the second detection period period, the first detection period precedes the second detection period.

In other words, the network device can obtain the measurement results of the K beams corresponding to the K reference signals in the first detection period, and the network device can determine which of the K beams has a better alignment with the working beam of the terminal device according to the measurement results. , which beams are poorly aligned with the working beam of the terminal device. The network device may determine the priorities of the K reference signals in the second detection period according to the measurement result of the previous detection period (ie, 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 (also referred to as the best transmit beam in the first detection period) as the highest priority, and use the reference signal with the highest priority first. The beam sends a reference signal; the network device can also sort the K beams according to the alignment of the K beams or the measurement results (for example, L1-RSRP measurement results) in the first detection period, and use the K beams in sequence according to the above ordering in the second detection period. beams to transmit reference signals.

For another example, if the first detection period does not measure all K beams, the network device may also determine the priority 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 method for determining the priority of the reference signal signal according to the spatial relationship between the K beams and the working beam is described below 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 Figure 6, the network device can configure beams 5, 6, 7, 15, 17, 25, 26, 27, and 36 for measurement. The positional relationship of each beam in the figure can represent the spatial relationship of each beam, where beam 16 is For working beams, the network device can configure the reference signal of beam 16 as the highest priority; configure the reference signals of beams 6, 15, 17, and 26 as the second best, and the four beams can be regarded as a group of beams with the same priority; The reference signals of beams 5, 7, 25, and 27 are configured with low priority, and the four beams can be regarded as a group of beams with the same priority; the reference signal of beam 36 is configured with the lowest priority. In a group of beams with the same priority, the network device may send the reference signals of the group of beams in any order, and may further configure the priority of the reference signals of each beam in the group of beams. In step S520, the network device sends 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 order in which the reference signals are sent. Therefore, in step S520, the network device sends K reference signals according to the order in which each reference signal is sent.

It should be understood that in this 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 send signals.

Taking FIG. 6 as an example, after the network device determines the priority of the reference signal, it can send the reference signal according to the priority of the reference signal. 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), 36. For reference signals with the same priority, the network device may send them in any order or in a random order. Of course, the reference signals with the same priority may be further prioritized, for example, according to the measurement result of the previous cycle.

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

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

Since the network device transmits the reference signal in sequence at different timings, the terminal device uses the working beam to receive the reference signal and perform measurement at the transmission timing of the network device.

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

The network device sends K reference signals based on the priority, and the terminal device also receives the reference signal 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, the terminal device measures at least N reference signals among the K reference signals sent by the network device, and the priority of the N reference signals may be higher than the priority of the other (K-N) reference signals .

Terminal devices can generally be equipped with sensors such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, and SAR detection sensors. These sensors can effectively detect the terminal device's attitude, position changes, and antenna holding conditions (that is, whether the terminal device antenna is blocked or not). ). When the posture of the terminal device and/or the blocked antenna does not change or the transformation is small, the working beam pair on the side of the terminal device and the network device will remain unchanged with a high probability.

Therefore, the network device sends the reference signal according to the priority, and the terminal device can also receive the reference signal according to the priority, and measure the reference signal (or the beam corresponding to the reference signal) according to the priority. There are various manners 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 measuring the reference signals, if the attitude or position change of the terminal device satisfies a preset condition, the terminal device may measure all the reference signals in the K reference signals.

In the embodiment of the present application, if the change in the posture or position of the terminal device meets the preset conditions, it can be understood that the change in the posture or position of the terminal device is relatively large, thus affecting the best beam pair for the alignment between the terminal device and the network device, for example, The rotation angle of the terminal device exceeds a preset value, or the antenna of the terminal device is blocked, or the position change of the terminal device exceeds a preset range, etc. This is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present application, and the preset condition may be based on different sensors. Make adaptive settings.

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

The change in the attitude or position of the terminal device before measuring the reference signal satisfies the preset conditions, which means that the optimal transmission beam of the network device has a high probability of changing compared to the working beam of the terminal device. All reference signals sent by the device are measured to obtain the beam with the best performance.

As another example, the terminal device may measure N reference signals among the K reference signals, N<K; the terminal device determines whether to The beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals are measured, wherein the attitude and position change information of the terminal equipment is used to indicate the attitude and/or position changes of the terminal equipment.

In this embodiment of the present application, if the changes in the attitude and position of the terminal device do not meet the preset conditions, it can be understood that the attitude and position of the terminal equipment do not change or change very little, for example, the attitude change angle of the terminal is within a certain range, or the position of the terminal Move within a certain distance, etc.

The attitude and position change information of the terminal device in the embodiment of the present application may be obtained by measuring the sensor of the terminal device.

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

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

For another example, the terminal device may measure the highest priority reference signal, such as CSI-RS, and then select some reference signals from the suboptimal reference signals for measurement.

Optionally, the reference signal with the highest priority may be the reference signal sent by the working beam on the network device side.

Optionally, the partial reference signals selected by the terminal device from the sub-optimal reference signals may be continuous reference signals sent according to priorities, or may be selected from partial reference signals to receive partial reference signals and perform measurement.

It should be understood that the "continuous reference signal" mentioned here refers to a reference signal with continuous transmission timing. As an example and not a limitation, 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. There may be the following situations .

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 in the process of measuring the N reference signals, the When the attitude or position change does not meet the preset condition, the terminal device determines not to measure the beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals, and the first detection period is before the second detection period.

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

In other words, if the terminal device detects that the measurement results of some or all of the N reference signals in the second detection period are better than the measurement results of some or all of the N reference signals in the first detection period , and when there is no change in the attitude and position of the terminal device during the measurement process or the change is small, the terminal device may not measure the remaining reference signals.

When the attitude or position of the terminal device does not change or the change is small, the working beam of the network device and the terminal device will remain unchanged with a high probability, and the network device will send the reference signal according to the priority of the reference signal. The beam corresponding to the signal has a high probability of being aligned with the working beam of the terminal device. Therefore, when the terminal device receives and measures the reference signal based on the priority, it can only measure the reference signal with higher priority. No measurement is required, so that the terminal device can obtain the best transmission beam of the network device as soon as possible, which improves 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, the terminal equipment When the attitude or position change of the terminal device satisfies the preset condition, the terminal device determines to measure the beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals, and 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 the set configuration threshold, the terminal device determines to The beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals are measured.

In other words, if the terminal device detects that the measurement results of some or all of the N reference signals in the second detection period are better than the measurement results of some or all of the N reference signals in the first detection period , and the attitude and position of the terminal equipment change greatly during the measurement process, then the beam with better alignment between the network equipment and the receiving beam of the terminal equipment may be one of the beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals, Therefore, the terminal equipment needs to measure the remaining reference signals.

For another example, if the measurement results of all the reference signals in the N reference signals in the second detection period are inferior to the corresponding measurement results in the first detection period, the terminal device determines to perform the measurement on the beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals. Measurement, the first detection period precedes the second detection period.

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

In step S540, the terminal device reports the measurement results of part or all of at least N reference signals among the K reference signals to the network device.

Optionally, the terminal device may feed back to the network device the measurement results of at least N reference signals of at least N reference signals in the second detection period to the network device, and the network device may The measurement result of part or all of the N reference signals in the second detection period determines the priority of part or all of the reference signals of at least N reference signals among the K reference signals in the third detection period. Three detection periods follow the second detection period.

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

For example, if the terminal device measures the beams corresponding to the K reference signals and obtains the measurement results of the K reference signals, the terminal device can feed back the measurement results of some or all of the reference signals in the K reference signals to the network device, and the network device The working beam can be adjusted according to the measurement result, and the priority of the reference signal to be sent in the next detection period can also be determined or adjusted according to the measurement result.

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

It should be understood that when the terminal device feeds back the measurement results of N reference signals among the K reference signals, the network device may determine the priorities of all reference signals to be sent in the next detection cycle according to the measurement results of the N reference signals, and also Only the priorities of part of the reference signals to be sent in the next detection period may be determined, and the priorities of the remaining reference signals may be determined according to the spatial relationship of the beams, or the priorities may be randomly configured.

Optionally, the network device may determine whether to adjust the transceiver beam (ie the working beam) on the network device side according to the measurement results of some or all of the reference signals of at least N reference signals in the K reference signals.

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

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

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

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

Optionally, in order to prevent the change of the working beam pair caused by the change of the channel condition, for example, there is an obstruction in the middle, etc., after several (for example, M) detection periods, the terminal device can configure all K reference signals for the network device. Take measurements.

As shown in FIG. 7 , for example, in detection period 1, the terminal device may measure all CSI-RSs sent by the network device (eg, the K reference signals to be sent in step S510 ), and in detection periods 2, 3, and 4 Part of the CSI-RS sent by the network device may be measured (for example, N reference signals among the K reference signals in step S520), and all CSI-RS sent by the network device may be measured again in detection period 5. Equivalent to every three detection cycles, the terminal device measures all the CSI-RS sent by the network device.

The interval of the detection periods in the figure is only illustrative, and the number of the several detection periods may be pre-configured, or may be a fixed value given by the terminal device during implementation.

In the method for measuring beams provided by the embodiments of the present application, the network device sends a reference signal for beam measurement based on the priority, and the terminal device may receive the reference signal sent by the network device based on the priority and perform some or all of the reference signals. The reference signal is measured, wherein, when the attitude or position of the terminal device changes little or no change, the terminal device can determine the beam with better alignment of the network device and the working beam of the terminal device by measuring part of the reference signal, which solves the problem. The problem of low beam measurement efficiency under stable channel conditions. Due to the configuration of the reference signal priority, the terminal device can obtain the beam with better beam alignment as soon as possible, and it is not necessary to measure all the reference signals sent by the network device to obtain the alignment degree. A better beam improves beam measurement efficiency.

At the same time, when the channel condition does not change or changes very little, the terminal equipment only needs to measure the reference signal of the highest priority or the second priority, and does not need to measure all the reference signals, which reduces the time for the terminal equipment to measure the reference signal. Power consumption, reducing unnecessary power consumption overhead.

The above provides a method for measuring beams for the problem of low beam measurement efficiency in the P2 process. For the P3 process, there is also a problem of low beam measurement efficiency, which will be described below with reference to FIG. 3 .

P3 process

In the P2 process mentioned above, the terminal device fixed the receiving beam to measure the different beams sent by the network device, while in the P3 process, the terminal device uses different receiving beams to measure the network device using the fixed transmit beam to send reference signals. Exemplarily, in the P3 process, the network device configures a set of reference signals such as CSI-RS reference signals, the set of reference signals is only bound to the current working beam on the network device side, and is only repeatedly sent in the time dimension. In other words, the network device side uses the current working beam to repeatedly send reference signals in the time dimension, and the repeatedly sent reference signals are a set of reference signals configured by the network device. The terminal device can adjust the receiving beam of the terminal device at the transmission timing of each reference signal of the network device, so as to determine which receiving beam of the terminal device has the best performance. Based on the measurement results of the set of reference signals, the terminal device can adjust the terminal device side transmit and receive beams.

The embodiments of the present application are described in conjunction with FIG. 3 by taking the reference signal as CSI-RS and the measurement as L1-RSRP measurement as an example.

As shown in FIG. 3 , the network device 310 is configured with a set of CSI-RS reference signals, and the set of reference signals is sent by a beam 316 on the network device 310 side, and the beam 316 may be a current working beam on the network device side. The beam 316 on the network device 310 side repeatedly transmits the CSI-RS in the time domain. For example, the beam 316 may transmit the CSI-RS at the first timing, the second timing, the third timing, . . . respectively. In this embodiment of the present application, the working beam on the network device side may be a beam with optimal performance determined in the access process, or may be a beam with optimal performance adjusted by the network device in the P2 process.

The terminal device 320 uses different beams 322 , 323 , 324 and other beams not shown to receive the CSI-RS reference signals sent by the network device 310 at different timings respectively. For example, the terminal device may use beam 322 to receive CSI-RS at a first opportunity, use beam 323 to receive CSI-RS at a second opportunity, use beam 324 to receive CSI-RS at a third opportunity, and so on. Of course, which beam the terminal device uses to receive the reference signal at which timing may be randomly configured.

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

FIG. 8 shows a schematic flowchart of a method for measuring beams according to another embodiment of the present application. The method in FIG. 8 can be applied to the above-mentioned application scenarios and communication systems. The method may include steps S810 to S830 , and each step will be described below with reference to FIG. 8 .

In step S810, the network device sends reference signals to the terminal device using the same beam on the network device side at different times.

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

In step S820, the terminal device uses S receiving beams among the K receiving beams to measure the reference signals sent by the network device at the first S moments in one detection period, where 1≤S<K.

The S receive beams are in one-to-one correspondence with the reference signals sent at the first S times, in other words, each receive beam receives a reference signal sent at one time.

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

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

The S receiving beams may be receiving beams on the side of the terminal device that are well aligned with the working beams on the side of the network device.

The terminal device may determine the S receiving beams according to at least one of the following information: attitude information of the terminal device, position information of the terminal device, information on whether the antenna of the terminal device is blocked, and beams measured by other sensors used to indicate the terminal device Orientation change information.

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

In other words, the terminal device can use the current working beam (that is, the beam with the best reception quality determined in the previous detection period) to receive the reference signal sent by the network device at the first moment. When the channel state is relatively stable, the working beams of the terminal equipment and the network equipment will remain unchanged with a high probability. Therefore, the current working beam on the terminal equipment side is used to measure the reference signal first, and the better alignment can be obtained as soon as possible. beam pair.

As another possible implementation manner, the terminal device may select S beams to measure reference signals from K receiving 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 attitude of the terminal is deflected by 30°, the terminal device can use the current working beam and the beams that are deflected by 30° relative 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 beams of the network device.

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

The reference signal sent at the first S moments and the reference signal sent at the next K-S moments are sent through the same beam.

For example, in the second detection period, the terminal device uses S receiving beams among the K receiving beams to measure the reference signals sent by the network device at the first S moments, if some or all of the S receiving beams are in the second When the measurement result of the detection period is better than the measurement result of the working beam of the terminal equipment in the first detection period, the terminal equipment can determine that the remaining K-S receiving beams in the K receiving beams are no longer used to the network equipment at the next K-S times. The sent reference signal is measured; otherwise, the reference signal sent by the network device at the next K-S moments needs to be measured.

In other words, the measurement results of the terminal equipment using the S receiving beams are better than the measurement results of the working beams of the terminal equipment in the previous period, and the terminal equipment does not need to use other receiving beams to measure the subsequent reference signals sent by the network equipment.

When the channel state is relatively stable, the working beams of the terminal equipment and the network equipment will remain unchanged with a high probability. Therefore, the terminal equipment side uses the better receiving beam to measure the reference signal first, and the measurement result is compared with the previous detection beam. The probability that the measurement result of the working beam of the period is good is greater than the probability that the reference signal measured by other receiving beams is good relative to the measurement result of the working beam of the previous detection period. Therefore, it is not necessary to use other receiving beams for measurement, and get better alignment as soon as possible. beam pair.

For another example, the terminal device can first use the optimal receiving beam (for example, the current working beam or the possibly optimal receiving beam determined according to the sensor result) to measure the reference signal, if the measurement result of the optimal receiving beam is better than the previous one. When detecting the measurement result of the working beam in one period, the terminal device can determine that the reference signal is not to be continuously measured for other remaining receiving beams.

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 can select another receiving beam to measure the next reference signal sent by the network device. Whether the measurement result of the beam is better than the measurement result of the working beam of the previous detection period.

Optionally, 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 use all the remaining receiving beams to measure all the reference signals sent by the network device.

Optionally, the terminal device may adjust the transceiver 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 needs to adjust the working beam on the terminal device side during the P3 process, so the terminal device uses the receive beam to measure the reference signal, which can be understood as the measurement of the receive beam.

In the method for measuring beams provided by the embodiments of the present application, when the attitude or position of the terminal device changes little or not, the terminal device determines the relationship between the terminal device and the network device by measuring the reference signal by using some receiving beams with better performance. The working beam with better alignment of the working beam solves the problem of low beam measurement efficiency under the condition of stable channel. Since the terminal equipment makes a preference for the receiving beam according to the attitude or position change of the terminal equipment when measuring the reference signal, through By using the optimal or better receiving beam to measure the reference signal, the terminal device can obtain the beam with better beam alignment as soon as possible, and it is not necessary to measure all the reference signals sent by the network device to obtain the beam with better alignment. Improved beam measurement efficiency. At the same time, when the channel conditions do not change or the change is small, the terminal equipment only needs to use the optimal receiving beam to measure the reference signal, and does not need to measure all the reference signals, which reduces the power consumption of the terminal equipment to measure the reference signal. Unnecessary power consumption overhead is reduced.

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

The method embodiments of the embodiments of the present application are described in detail above with reference to FIGS. 1 to 8 , and the apparatus embodiments of the embodiments of the present application are described in detail below with reference to FIGS. 9 to 14 . It should be understood that the descriptions of the method embodiments correspond to the descriptions of the apparatus embodiments. Therefore, for the parts not described in detail, reference may be made to the foregoing method embodiments.

FIG. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application. The communication apparatus 900 in FIG. 9 may be the network device mentioned above, for example, 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 above method performed by a network device, specifically, the communication apparatus 900 may be used to perform the method of FIG. 5 , and the description will not be repeated to avoid redundancy.

The communication apparatus 900 shown in FIG. 9 includes a determination module 910 and a transmission module 920 .

The determining module 910 is configured to determine priorities of K reference signals to be sent, the K reference signals are in one-to-one correspondence with the K beams, and each reference signal is sent through a corresponding beam.

The sending module 920 is configured to send the reference signal according to the priority.

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

Optionally, the sending module 920 is specifically configured to send the reference signal according to the priority in the second detection period; and the current working beam includes the terminal equipment report determined by the determining module 910 in the first detection period The beam corresponding to the reference signal with the best received quality, the first detection period is located 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, in the second detection period, determine the priorities of the K reference signals according to the measurement results for the K reference signals obtained by the K beams in the first detection period, and the first A detection period precedes the second detection period.

FIG. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus provided by 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 this embodiment of the present application, the processor 1002 is configured to control and manage the actions of the network device. For example, the processor 1002 is configured to support the network device to perform the method or operation or function shown in FIG. 5 in the foregoing embodiments, and It is used to support the determination of priorities of K reference signals to be sent in the foregoing embodiments, and the reference signals are sent 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 . The communication interface 1003 is used to support the network device to communicate, and the memory 1001 is used to store program codes and data of the network device. The processor 1002 invokes the code stored in the memory 1001 for control and management. The memory 1001 may or may not be coupled with the processor.

The processor 1002 may be 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 devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. It may implement or execute the various exemplary logical blocks, modules and circuits described in connection with this disclosure. The processor may also be a combination that performs computing functions, such as a combination comprising one or more microprocessors, a combination of a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, and the like. 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 or an extended industry standard architecture (EISA) bus, or the like. The bus can be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like. For ease of presentation, only one thick line is used in FIG. 10, but it does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of bus.

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

The communication device 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 among the K reference signals sent by the network device based on the priority, N<K, the K reference signals are in one-to-one correspondence with the K beams, and each reference signal sent through the corresponding beam.

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

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

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

Optionally, the determining module 1120 is specifically configured to determine 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, wherein The posture and position change information of the terminal device is used to indicate the posture and/or position change of the terminal device.

Optionally, the determining module 1120 is specifically configured to: the measurement result of at least a part of the reference signals in the N reference signals in the second detection period is better than the corresponding measurement result in the first detection period; In the process of measuring the number of reference signals, when the attitude or position change of the terminal device does not meet the preset condition, it is determined not to measure the beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals, wherein the first detection period before the second detection period.

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

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

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

Optionally, the priorities of the K reference signals are determined based on the spatial relationship between the K beams and the current working beam of the network device.

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

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

Optionally, the communication apparatus 1100 further includes: a sending module.

Optionally, the sending module is configured to feed back to the network device a measurement result of at least N reference signals of at least N reference signals in the K reference signals in the second detection period, to the network device, among the K reference signals. The measurement results of some or all of the at least N reference signals in the second detection period are used to determine the priority of some or all of the at least N reference signals in the K reference signals in the third detection period , the third detection period is after the second detection period.

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

FIG. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application. The communication apparatus 1200 shown in FIG. 12 may correspond to the terminal equipment described above. The communication apparatus 1200 includes: a processor 1202 . In this embodiment of the present application, the processor 1202 is configured to control and manage the actions of the terminal device. For example, the processor 1202 is configured to support the network device to perform the method or operation or function shown in FIG. 5 in the foregoing embodiments, and It is used to support the measurement of at least N reference signals among the K reference signals sent by the network device based on the priority in the foregoing embodiments. 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 connected to each other through a bus 1204 . The communication interface 1203 is used to support the network device to communicate, and the memory 1201 is used to store program codes and data of the network device. The processor 1202 invokes the code stored in the memory 1201 for control and management. The memory 1201 may or may not be coupled with the processor.

The processor 1202 may be 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 devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. It may implement or execute the various exemplary logical blocks, modules and circuits described in connection with this disclosure. The processor may also be a combination that performs computing functions, such as a combination comprising one or more microprocessors, a combination of a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, and the like. 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 can be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like. For ease of representation, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 12, but it does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of bus.

FIG. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application. The communication apparatus 1300 in FIG. 13 may be the terminal equipment mentioned above, for example, may be a specific example of the terminal equipment 120 in FIG. 1 . The apparatus shown in FIG. 13 may be used to implement the above method performed by a terminal device, specifically, the communication apparatus 1300 may be used to perform the method of FIG. 8 , and the description will not be repeated to avoid redundancy.

The communication device 1300 shown in FIG. 13 includes a measurement module 1310 and a determination module 1320 .

The measurement module 1310 is configured to use S receiving beams in the K receiving beams to measure the reference signals sent by the network device at the first S moments in a detection period, where 1≤S<K, the S receiving beams One-to-one correspondence with the reference signals sent at the first S moments.

The determining module 1320 is configured to determine, according to the measurement result, whether to use the remaining K-S receiving beams in the K receiving beams to measure the reference signals sent by the network device at the next K-S times, wherein the The reference signals sent at the first S time instants and the reference signals sent at the next K-S time instants are sent through the same beam.

Optionally, the measuring module 1310 is specifically configured to measure, in the second detection period, the reference signals sent by the network device at the first S moments by using S receiving beams among the K receiving beams.

Optionally, the determining module 1320 is specifically configured to measure results of some or all beams in the S receiving beams in the second detection period better than the measurement results of the working beams of the terminal device in the first detection period , it is determined that the remaining K-S receiving beams in the K receiving beams are no longer used to measure the reference signals sent by the network device at the next K-S moments, and the first detection period is located in the second detection period. before the cycle.

Optionally, the determining module 1320 is specifically configured to determine S receiving beams in the K receiving beams according to at least one of the following information: attitude information of the terminal device, location information of the terminal device, the Information about whether the antenna of the terminal device is blocked.

Optionally, the first receiving beam in the S receiving beams corresponds to the reference signal sent at the first moment in the first S moments in the second detection period, and the reference signal sent at the first moment is the The reference signal sent at the first moment in the first S moments, the determining module 1320 is specifically configured to determine the working beam of the first detection period as the first receive beam, and the first detection period is in the second detection period. before the cycle.

FIG. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application. The communication apparatus 1400 shown in FIG. 14 may correspond to the terminal equipment described above. The communication device 1400 includes: a processor 1402 . In this embodiment of the present application, the processor 1402 is configured to control and manage the actions of the terminal device. For example, the processor 1402 is configured to support the network device to perform the method or operation or function shown in FIG. 8 in the foregoing embodiments, and It is used to support the use of S receiving beams among the K receiving beams in the foregoing embodiment to measure the reference signals sent by the network device at the first S moments in a detection period, and determine whether to use the K receiving beams according to the measurement results. The remaining K-S receive beams in the receive beams measure the reference signals sent by the network device at the next K-S times. 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 connected to each other through a bus 1404 . The communication interface 1403 is used to support the network device to communicate, and the memory 1401 is used to store program codes and data of the network device. The processor 1402 invokes the code stored in the memory 1401 for control and management. The memory 1401 may or may not be coupled with the processor.

The processor 1402 may be 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 devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. It may implement or execute the various exemplary logical blocks, modules and circuits described in connection with this disclosure. The processor may also be a combination that performs computing functions, such as a combination comprising one or more microprocessors, a combination of a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, and the like. 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 can be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like. For ease of presentation, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 14, but it does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of bus.

Those of ordinary skill in the art can realize that the units and algorithm steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality using different methods for each particular application, but such implementations should not be considered beyond the scope of this application.

Those skilled in the art can clearly understand that, for the convenience and brevity of description, the specific working process of the above-described systems, devices and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, which will not be repeated here.

In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are only illustrative. For example, the division of the units is only a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods. For example, multiple units or components may be combined or Can be integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored, or not implemented. On the other hand, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be through some interfaces, indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units, and may be in electrical, mechanical or other forms.

The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and components displayed as units may or may not be physical units, that is, may be located in one place, or may be distributed to multiple network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution in this embodiment.

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

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as independent products, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application can be embodied in the form of a software product in essence, or the part that contributes to the prior art or the part of the technical solution. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including Several instructions are used to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of the present application. The aforementioned storage medium includes: U disk, removable hard disk, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disk or optical disk and other media that can store program codes .

The above are only specific embodiments of the present application, but the protection scope of the present application is not limited to this. should be covered within the scope of protection of this application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application should be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims (23)

1. a method of measuring beam, is characterized in that, comprises: The network device determines the priorities of the K reference signals to be sent, the K reference signals are in one-to-one correspondence with the K beams, and each reference signal is sent through the corresponding beam, wherein the priorities of the K reference signals are Determined according to the spatial relationship between the K beams and the current working beam and/or the measurement results of reference signals corresponding to some or all of the K beams in the previous detection period; The network device sends the K reference signals in sequence according to the priority; receiving, by the network device, part or all of the measurement results of at least N reference signals among the K reference signals reported by the terminal device, where the part or all of the measurement results of the at least N reference signals is the result of the terminal Obtained by the device by measuring the at least N reference signals, N<K. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein a first reference signal in the K reference signals corresponds to a first beam in the K beams, and the first reference signal is the K For the reference signal with the highest priority among the reference signals, the first beam is the current working beam. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein, according to the priority, the network device sequentially sends the K reference signals, comprising: The network device sends the K reference signals in sequence according to the priority in the second detection period; and The current working beam includes the beam corresponding to the reference signal with the best reception quality reported by the terminal device determined by the network device in the first detection period, and the first detection period is located before the second detection period. 4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising: receiving a measurement result of at least a part of the K reference signals sent by the terminal device; The priorities of at least a part of the K reference signals are adjusted according to the measurement results of at least a part of the K reference signals. 5. A beam measurement method, comprising: The terminal device measures at least N reference signals among the K reference signals sequentially sent by the network device based on the priority, N<K, the K reference signals are in one-to-one correspondence with the K beams, and each reference signal passes through the corresponding beam transmission, wherein the priority of the K reference signals is based on the spatial relationship between the K beams and the current working beam of the network device and/or some or all of the K beams are in the previous Determined by the measurement result of the reference signal corresponding to the detection period; reporting to the network equipment part or all of the measurement results of at least N reference signals in the K reference signals. 6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the terminal device measures at least N reference signals among the K reference signals sent by the network device based on priorities, comprising: Before performing the measurement, when the attitude or position change of the terminal device satisfies a preset condition, the terminal device measures all the reference signals in the K reference signals. 7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the terminal device measures at least N reference signals among K reference signals sent by the network device based on priorities, comprising: The terminal device measures N reference signals in the K reference signals; 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, wherein the attitude of the terminal device and position change information is used to indicate the attitude and/or position change of the terminal device. 8 . The method according to claim 7 , wherein the terminal device determines whether the remaining K-N references are to be used for the remaining K-N references according to the measurement results of the N reference signals and/or the attitude and position change information of the terminal device. 9 . The beam corresponding to the signal is measured, including: The measurement results of at least a part of the N reference signals in the second detection period are better than the corresponding measurement results in the first detection period, and in the process of measuring the N reference signals, the When the attitude or position change of the terminal device does not meet the preset conditions, The terminal device determines not to measure the beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals; or, The measurement results of all the reference signals in the N reference signals in the second detection period are inferior to the corresponding measurement results in the first detection period, and/or in the process of measuring the N reference signals, When the attitude or position change of the terminal device satisfies the preset condition, The terminal device determines to measure the beams corresponding to the remaining K-N reference signals; Wherein, the first detection period is before the second detection period. 9. The method according to any one of claims 5 to 8, wherein a first reference signal among the K reference signals corresponds to a first beam among the K beams, and the first reference signal corresponds to a first beam among the K beams. The reference signal is a reference signal with the highest priority among the K reference signals, and the first beam is a working beam among the K beams. 10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the terminal device measures at least N reference signals among K reference signals sent by the network device based on priorities, comprising: In the second detection period, the terminal device measures at least N reference signals among the K reference signals sent by the network device based on the priority; and The working beam includes a beam corresponding to a reference signal with the best reception quality reported by the terminal device to the network device in a first detection period, and the first detection period is located before the second detection period. 11. The method according to any one of claims 5 to 8, further comprising: After M detection periods, the terminal device 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 some or all of the measurement results of at least N reference signals in the K reference signals, include: The terminal device feeds back, to the network device, a measurement result of a part or all of at least N reference signals of the K reference signals in the second detection period, and at least N of the K reference signals The measurement result of part or all of the reference signals of the reference signals in the second detection period is used to determine the priority of part or all of the reference signals of at least N reference signals in the K reference signals in the third detection period. Three detection periods follow the second detection period. The method according to any one of claims 5 to 8, wherein the N is a preset value or is dynamically configured by the terminal device. 14. A method for measuring beams, comprising: The terminal device uses S receiving beams in the K receiving beams to measure the reference signals sent by the network device at the first S moments in a detection period, where 1≤S<K, the S receiving beams are the same as the previous S receiving beams. The reference signals sent at the S time instants are in one-to-one correspondence; According to the measurement result, it is determined whether to use the remaining K-S receiving beams in the K receiving beams to measure the reference signals sent by the network device at the next K-S times, wherein the reference signals sent at the first S times are The reference signal and the reference signal sent at the next K-S times are sent through the same beam. 15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the terminal device uses S receiving beams in the K receiving beams to measure the reference signals sent by the network device at the first S moments in a detection period, include: In the second detection period, the terminal device uses S receiving beams in the K receiving beams to measure the reference signals sent by the network device at the first S moments; and The determining, according to the measurement result, whether to use the remaining K-S receiving beams in the K receiving beams to measure the reference signals sent by the network device at the next K-S moments, including: 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, the terminal device determines to no longer use all the beams. The remaining K-S receiving beams in the K receiving beams measure the reference signals sent by the network device at the next K-S times, and the first detection period is located before the second detection period. 16. The method according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the method further comprises: S receive beams of the K receive beams are determined according to at least one of the following information: The attitude information of the terminal device, the position information of the terminal device, and the information of whether the antenna of the terminal device is blocked. 17. The method according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the first receive beam in the S receive beams corresponds to the reference signal sent at the first moment in the first S moments in the second detection period , the reference signal sent at the first moment is the reference signal sent at the first moment in the first S moments, and the method further includes: The terminal device determines a working beam of a first detection period as the first receive beam, and the first detection period is before the second detection period. 18. A network device, comprising means for performing the method of any one of claims 1 to 4. 19. A terminal device, characterized by comprising a module for performing the method according to any one of claims 5 to 13. 20. A terminal device, characterized by comprising a module for performing the method according to any one of claims 14 to 17. 21. An apparatus comprising a processor coupled to a memory to execute instructions in the memory to implement the method of any one of claims 1 to 17. 22. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized by storing computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions being configured to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 17. 23. A communication system, characterized by comprising the network device as claimed in claim 18 and the terminal device as claimed in claim 19.

Images