CN110798877B

CN110798877B - Method for searching network and user equipment

Info

Publication number: CN110798877B
Application number: CN201810873413.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 金辉; 魏珍荣; 沈丽
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-08-02
Filing date: 2018-08-02
Publication date: 2021-09-14
Anticipated expiration: 2038-08-02
Also published as: CN110798877A; WO2020024956A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the application provides a network searching method and user equipment, so that the network searching efficiency of UE (user equipment) in a roaming scene is improved. The embodiment provided by the invention has the advantages that the frequency range of the LTE supported by the UE is cooperatively searched by utilizing the two modulation and demodulation modules on the UE, so that the searching of any PLMN by the UE in a roaming scene to obtain the frequency range (third frequency range) corresponding to the current position of the UE is accelerated, the UE can quickly search the available network to try to reside and register by only searching the third frequency range, and the UE can quickly register to the available network at the current position.

Description

Method for searching network and user equipment

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method for searching a network and a user equipment.

Background

At present, after a UE (User Equipment, such as a mobile phone) is turned on, a first thing is to search for a network, search for an available network, then stay in the network, and initiate registration, and only after the UE successfully registers in the network, the UE can enjoy network services. The operator Network where the successful camping can be performed is called a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) available.

When the UE searches the network after being started, the historical frequency points recorded on the UE and successfully resided are searched. And if the historical frequency point cannot be searched, searching all frequency band bands supported by the UE. Searching for all bands supported by the UE is referred to as full band search.

If the available PLMNs cannot be searched according to the historical frequency points, for example, the UE performs a large-scale movement, such as that the UE roams to another country or region, or the UE moves to a position at a border of 2 countries or regions, or the UE moves to a position at a border of 2 PLMNs, and so on, the UE generally needs to perform a full-band search, and performs a camping attempt and a registration attempt after searching for a network of any PLMN, and if the registration fails, the UE continues to perform PLMN search until the UE successfully registers to the PLMN, which is a long time for searching for a network.

In order to solve the problem that the UE searches for the network slowly in the roaming scene, or the position of the UE at the junction of 2 countries or regions, or the position of the UE at the junction of 2 PLMNs, an optimized solution is as follows: the UE first obtains a Country or a region where the UE is currently located, that is, reads an MCC (Mobile Country Code) in any searchable PLMN, where the PLMN is composed of two parts: MCC and MNC (Mobile Network Code); then, the UE obtains the band information corresponding to the country indicated by the MCC according to the MCC, and searches only the band corresponding to the country.

According to the scheme, the number of bands searched by the UE in the starting process can be reduced by searching the specific band information (only the band corresponding to the country is searched), and the network searching speed is accelerated.

In the above scheme, a period of time is required from the start of the UE to the power-on of the main modem module in the UE to the time when the main modem module reads out the content of the SIM card of the phone card of the mobile phone, the period of time is about 3 to 5 seconds, generally, the MCC acquisition process is performed within the period of time by using the period of time, and if the main modem module does not search for any PLMN to obtain MCC within the period of time, the main modem module performs a normal full-band network searching process, which takes a long time. The Modem module may be a Modem.

At present, in the process of starting up the UE, the success rate of obtaining the MCC by the UE is not high, so that the network searching efficiency of the UE is very low in a roaming scenario.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a network searching method and user equipment, so that the network searching efficiency of UE (user equipment) in a roaming scene is improved.

Drawings

The drawings used in the description of the embodiments will now be briefly described as follows:

fig. 1 is a schematic flowchart of a network searching method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a user equipment according to another embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

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

At present, for a UE supporting dual cards (dual SIM cards), in a roaming scenario, only a Modem (i.e., a master Modem) corresponding to a master card performs an MCC acquisition process, since a time for acquiring MCC is limited (usually, 3 to 5 seconds), a success rate of MCC acquisition is low in a specific time, so that the UE needs to perform full-band search, and a time spent on network searching is long and efficiency is low. Some embodiments provided herein can utilize the dual Modem feature of the mobile phone to speed up the network searching process of the mobile phone.

In the embodiments provided in the present application, the UE is a UE capable of supporting dual-card dual LTE (Long Term Evolution), that is, both cards supported by the UE can support LTE technology. The UE supports dual cards, where the UE may be capable of installing two physical SIM cards, or may be capable of installing one physical SIM card and supporting another virtual SIM card, or may also support two virtual SIM cards. A virtual SIM card, such as an eSIM card (Embedded-SIM). eSIM cards are devices that embed a traditional SIM card directly onto a device chip, rather than being installed into the device as a separate removable component, the user does not have to insert a physical, physical SIM card. This will allow the user more flexibility in choosing a package of operators or changing operators at any time without having to unlock the equipment or purchase new equipment. Two cards supported by the UE, whether they are physical cards or virtual cards, each card needs to correspond to a modem module on the UE, and one card supports LTE also means that the modem module corresponding to the card also supports LTE. Usually, one of the two cards supported by the UE is set as a master card by a user, a modem module corresponding to the card set as the master card may be referred to as a master modem module, and correspondingly, the other card is set as a slave card, and a modem module corresponding to the slave card may be referred to as a slave modem module or a slave modem module. The main Modem module and the auxiliary Modem module may be an entity Modem, that is, a main Modem and an auxiliary Modem, respectively, where an entity Modem may be a Modem chip; the main Modem module and the sub Modem module may also be two modules (the modules may relate to software modules and/or hardware circuits) integrated on one physical Modem, and in some implementations, the functions implemented by the main Modem module and the sub Modem module may be provided by one Modem chip. In some implementations, the baseband chip can be considered to include a Modem, and further includes software and hardware codes or circuits related to channel codec, source codec, and some signaling processing. A Modem (modulator-demodulator) is an electronic device that modulates a digital signal onto an analog signal for transmission, and demodulates the received analog signal to obtain a digital signal. The UE can support dual LTE with dual cards, which also means that the UE has at least two modem modules and two antenna modules, each antenna module may be an antenna or an antenna array, each modem module supports LTE, each antenna module supports LTE communication, each modem module corresponds to a radio frequency unit and an antenna module to implement transceiving and processing of signals, in some implementation manners, one radio frequency unit may support transceiving of signals of two antenna modules, in this case, the number of radio frequency units on the UE may be one, and one radio frequency unit may specifically be a radio frequency chip. The radio frequency chip is responsible for radio frequency transceiving, frequency synthesis and power amplification. The baseband chip is responsible for signal processing and protocol processing. A Modem chip may be a part of a baseband chip on the UE (for example, in case that the baseband chip is a system on chip (soc)), or the Modem chip may be a component other than the baseband chip; alternatively, in some implementations, one Modem chip may be part of a radio frequency chip on the UE (e.g., in case the radio frequency chip is an SoC), and the Modem chip may also be a component other than the radio frequency chip.

Some embodiments of the present application provide a solution: for a mobile phone with dual cards and dual modems (and the main Modem and the auxiliary Modem both support LTE), after the main Modem of the mobile phone is powered on, the main Modem notifies the auxiliary Modem to perform MCC acquisition, so that the main Modem and the auxiliary Modem cooperate and search a part of band respectively, specifically, the main Modem and the auxiliary Modem cooperate and search a part of LTE frequency bands supported by the UE respectively, so that the UE can acquire MCC in a shorter time, the efficiency and success rate of acquiring MCC by the UE are improved, and the network searching efficiency of the UE is improved.

Specifically, the LTE band information to be searched for, which is respectively responsible for the primary and secondary modems, may be obtained through any one of the following possible implementation manners:

implementation mode 1: the RRC (Radio Resource Control) layers of the main Modem and the auxiliary Modem of the mobile phone respectively obtain the LTE band information to be searched, which is respectively responsible for the main Modem and the auxiliary Modem, by reading data items, such as NV items, in the memory.

Implementation mode 2: the NAS layer (Non-access stratum) of the primary Modem of the mobile phone determines and transmits LTE band information to be searched, which is respectively responsible for the primary Modem and the secondary Modem.

In some embodiments, the main Modem and the auxiliary Modem of the entity may also be replaced with a main Modem module and an auxiliary Modem module, respectively, in which case, the main Modem module and the auxiliary Modem module may be two modules integrated on the Modem of one entity.

Example one

The embodiment of the application provides a method for searching a network, which is executed by User Equipment (UE), wherein the UE is provided with a first modulation and demodulation module and a second modulation and demodulation module, and the first modulation and demodulation module and the second modulation and demodulation module both support LTE. The method can be applied to the scenes that the UE is in roaming (such as international roaming), or the scenes that the UE is in the junction of 2 countries or regions, or the scenes that the UE is in the junction of 2 PLMNs, and the like. The UE may be a mobile phone, a PAD, or other network-enabled device.

As shown in fig. 1, the method includes:

s110: the first modem module searches a first frequency range through a first radio frequency unit of the UE so as to obtain first information, wherein the first information is used for determining the geographical position of the UE.

The first information may be a mobile country code MCC, and the third frequency band range is determined according to the first information to be a frequency band corresponding to a country corresponding to the MCC obtained according to the MCC.

Herein, the first modem module may be a primary modem module on the UE, and correspondingly, the second modem module may be a secondary modem module on the UE.

S120: and the first modulation and demodulation module sends a first request to the second modulation and demodulation module, wherein the first request indicates the second modulation and demodulation module to obtain the first information.

Before step S110 or step S120, step S100 may be included: the first modulation and demodulation module receives a starting instruction;

the power-on indication is used to indicate that the UE is powered on, where the power-on may be a state in which a user changes a mobile phone from a power-off state to a power-on state (i.e., a state in which the user can make a call and surf the internet), or may be a state in which the user changes a mobile phone from a flight mode state to a non-flight mode state (i.e., a state in which the user can make a call and surf the internet).

S130: and the second modulation and demodulation module searches a second frequency range through a second radio frequency unit of the UE according to the first request so as to obtain the first information.

The first frequency range and the second frequency range both belong to the frequency range of LTE supported by the UE;

s140: the first modulation and demodulation module determines a third frequency range according to the first information obtained from the first modulation and demodulation module or the first information obtained from the second modulation and demodulation module, wherein the third frequency range is a frequency range corresponding to the current geographic position of the UE.

S150: the first modem module obtains a third frequency band range corresponding to the geographical location, and searches the third frequency band range through at least one of the first radio frequency unit and the second radio frequency unit of the UE, so that the UE can register to an available network corresponding to the geographical location.

When the first radio frequency unit and the second radio frequency unit search the third frequency band range simultaneously, available networks in the third frequency band range can be searched more quickly.

In some embodiments, the first frequency band range and the second frequency band range both belonging to the frequency band range of LTE supported by the UE may include: the sum of the first frequency range and the second frequency range is the frequency range of the LTE supported by the UE, or the sum of the first frequency range and the second frequency range is a subset of the frequency range of the LTE supported by the UE.

In the foregoing method embodiment, the sequence number of each step does not mean the execution sequence, and some or all of the steps may be executed in parallel or executed sequentially, for example, S110 and S120 may be executed after S120 is executed first by S110, or executed after S110 is executed first by S120, or executed simultaneously by S110 and S120, but both S110 and S120 occur after S100.

According to the method, the two modulation and demodulation modules on the UE are utilized to cooperatively search the LTE frequency range supported by the UE, so that the speed of searching any PLMN by the UE in a roaming scene to obtain the MCC corresponding to the current position of the UE is increased, the success rate of obtaining the MCC by the UE in a specific time is further improved, the UE can quickly determine the frequency range (third frequency range) corresponding to the current position of the UE according to the MCC, the UE can quickly search the available network to try to reside and register only by searching the third frequency range, and the UE can quickly register the available network in the current position conveniently. The situation that the UE cannot acquire the MCC in the specific time because the UE cannot search any PLMN quickly enough in the specific time and then needs to perform full-band search is avoided.

Example two

As shown in fig. 2, the UE 200 may include: the processor 202, the memory 201, the first modem module 2041, the second modem module 2042, the first radio frequency unit 205, and the second radio frequency unit 206;

the memory 201 is used for storing instructions;

the processor 202 is configured to invoke the instructions in the memory 201, and control the first modem module 2041, the second modem module 2042, the first radio frequency unit 205, and the second radio frequency unit 206 to execute any method provided in the embodiments of the present application. The above components may be connected by a bus 203.

As shown in fig. 2, the UE 200 may further include a first antenna module 207 and a second antenna module 208, each of which may be a single antenna or an antenna array (including two or more single antennas). Each antenna module may have various forms, for example, 1 transmitting and 1 receiving, 2 transmitting and 2 receiving, 2 transmitting and 4 receiving, etc. The first antenna module 207 corresponds to the first radio frequency unit 205, and under the control of the first radio frequency unit 205, the first antenna module 207 may perform frequency band search, including search of an LTE frequency band. The second antenna module 208 corresponds to the second rf unit 206, and under the control of the second rf unit 206, the second antenna module 208 may perform frequency band search, including search of an LTE frequency band.

In some embodiments, the first rf unit 205 and the second rf unit 206 may respectively correspond to an rf chip of one entity. The Radio Frequency unit may include an RFIC (Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits). In other embodiments, the first rf unit 205 and the second rf unit 206 may be two modules (a module may refer to a software module and/or a hardware circuit) in an rf chip of one entity. In other embodiments, the first rf unit 205 and the second rf unit 206 may be a single rf unit, in which case, the single rf unit may support transceiving of signals of two antenna modules, and the single rf unit may specifically be a single rf chip.

The first modem module 2041 and the second modem module 2042 correspond to a SIM card, respectively. The SIM cards may be physical or virtual, and the number of SIM card slots on the UE may be 1, or two, or 0. The first modem module 2041 may be a primary modem module on the UE, and correspondingly, the first modem module 2042 may be a secondary modem module on the UE. In some implementation manners, when a user sets a certain SIM card as a main card, the modem module corresponding to the SIM card is the main modem module. The first Modem module 2041 and the second Modem module 2042 may be an entity Modem, that is, a primary Modem and a secondary Modem, respectively, where an entity Modem may be specifically a Modem chip; the first Modem module 2041 and the second Modem module 2042 may also be two modules (modules may refer to software modules and/or hardware circuits) integrated on one physical Modem, and in some implementations, the functions implemented by the first Modem module 2041 and the second Modem module 2042 may be provided by one Modem chip. In some cases, the Modem chip is also referred to as a baseband chip, and the baseband chip 204 may be a Modem chip. In other cases, the baseband chip may be considered to include a Modem, and further include software, hardware, or circuits related to channel codec, source codec, and some signaling processing, in which case, the first Modem module 2041 and the second Modem module 2042 may be considered to be integrated in one baseband chip 204, regardless of whether they correspond to one Modem or two modems. When the first Modem module 2041 and the second Modem module 2042 correspond to two modems, the first Modem module 2041 and the second Modem module 2042 may be a Modem chip (or baseband chip), respectively.

The functions implemented by the components in this embodiment may refer to actions performed by the corresponding components in the corresponding method embodiments, and beneficial effects may also refer to the corresponding method embodiments, which are not described again.

EXAMPLE III implementation mode 1

As shown in fig. 3, the internal structure diagrams of the first modem module 2041 and the second modem module 2042 shown in fig. 2 are shown, and how the first modem module 2041 and the second modem module 2042 obtain the LTE band information which needs to be searched and is respectively responsible for, and instruct the radio frequency unit and the antenna module which respectively correspond to the radio frequency unit and the antenna module to perform network searching. In fig. 3, the first rf unit 205 and the second rf unit 206 are respectively connected to an antenna module.

The first modem module 2041 and the second modem module 2042 may respectively include a NAS layer, an RRC layer, and a PHY layer. The first modem module 2041 is a main modem module on the UE, and may further include MTC (Multi-Terminal Control Multi-mobile Terminal Control module), which belongs to a part of the main modem module and is used for communication between the main modem module and the sub modem module. The specific procedure for the UE 200 to perform a method may be as follows:

1. the first modem module 2041 determines that the user is powered on, where powering on includes the user changing the handset from an off state to an on state (i.e., a state in which the user can make a call and surf the internet), or includes the user changing the handset from an airplane mode to a non-airplane mode (i.e., a state in which the user can make a call and surf the internet).

After the first modem module 2041 determines that the user is powered on, first, a search may be performed according to the historical frequency point information, and if a cell where the user can reside is not searched, the first modem module 2041 may further perform the following steps:

A1. the NAS layer of the first modem module 2041 sends a second request to the RRC layer of the first modem module 2041, where the second request is used to instruct the RRC layer of the first modem module 2041 to perform PLMN search to obtain the MCC.

The second request may specifically be a PLMN search request carrying an "acquire geographical location" instruction, and the second request may further carry a first instruction, where the first instruction is used to enable the RRC layer of the first Modem module 2041 to know that dual-antenna network searching is required or called dual-Modem network searching is required or called dual-LTE (Long Term Evolution ) network searching is required (both the primary and secondary Modem modules support LTE); alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the second request may specifically be a PLMN search request carrying a second instruction, where the second instruction is used to enable the RRC layer of the first Modem module 2041 to know that a dual-antenna network search is required, or referred to as a dual-Modem network search, or referred to as a dual-LTE network search.

The dual-LTE network searching means that the first modulation and demodulation module and the second modulation and demodulation module both search LTE frequency bands.

The dual-antenna network searching means that the receiving antennas corresponding to 2 modems (or Modem modules) are used for network searching.

For a UE supporting at least 2 phone cards, when the user inserts only one phone card (i.e. SIM card), the Modem that starts to operate is the first Modem module 2041. When the user inserts more than 1 phone card, the Modem corresponding to the main card set by the user is the first Modem module 2041. The first modem module 2041 generally supports a higher network system; typically, the first modem module 2041 is used for data services. For example, a dual-card UE having both a first Modem (corresponding to card 1) supporting 5G NR (New Radio) and a second Modem (corresponding to card 2) not supporting 5G NR (New Radio), if the user sets card 1 as a master card, the first Modem is referred to as a first Modem module 2041, and the second Modem is referred to as a second Modem module 2042; or, for a UE supporting dual LTE, a Modem corresponding to a phone card that a user usually sets for accessing the internet is called a first Modem module 2041.

B0. The first modem module 2041 sends a first request to the NAS layer of the second modem module 2042 through the MTC module, where the first request is used to instruct the second modem module 2042 to obtain the MCC.

The first request may specifically be a PLMN search request carrying an "acquire geographical location" instruction, and the first request may further carry a third instruction, where the third instruction is used to enable the RRC layer of the second Modem module 2042 to know that a dual-antenna network search or a dual-Modem network search or a dual-LTE network search is required to be performed; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the first request may specifically be a PLMN search request carrying a fourth instruction, where the fourth instruction is used to enable the RRC layer of the second Modem module 2042 to know that a dual-antenna network search or a dual-Modem network search or a dual-LTE network search is required.

B1. The NAS layer of the second modem module 2042 sends a third request to the RRC layer of the second modem module 2042, where the third request is used to instruct the RRC layer of the second modem module 2042 to acquire the MCC (i.e., acquire information of the current country).

The third request may specifically be a PLMN search request carrying an "acquire geographical location" instruction, and the third request may further carry a fifth instruction, where the fifth instruction is used to enable the RRC layer of the second Modem module 2042 to know that a dual-antenna network search or a dual-Modem network search or a dual-LTE network search is required to be performed; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the third request may specifically be a PLMN search request carrying a sixth instruction, where the sixth instruction is used to enable the RRC layer of the second Modem module 2042 to know that a dual-antenna network search or a dual-Modem network search or a dual-LTE network search is required.

A2, the RRC layer of the first modem module 2041 determines the network searching range of the first modem module 2041 according to the second request and a first NV (non-volatile memory) item, where the first NV item records a band range that the first modem module 2041 should search for.

B2, the RRC layer of the second modem module 2042 determines, according to the third request and the second NV item, a band range that the second modem module 2042 searches for, where the second NV item records the band range that the second modem module 2042 should search for.

Note: the first NV item may be the same as or different from the second NV item.

The first NV item and the second NV item are both stored in the same memory, and may be understood as one or a part of a record stored in the memory.

The first NV item and the second NV item respectively record the ranges of bands respectively responsible for searching when the main modulation and demodulation module and the auxiliary modulation and demodulation module are matched with the network searching. The sum of the bands respectively responsible for the primary and secondary modem modules is the band supported by the UE.

In a specific example, the first NV item and the second NV item record respective ranges of bands of the 4G LTE that are respectively responsible for searching when the main modem module and the auxiliary modem module cooperate to search for a network. The sum of the bands respectively responsible for the primary and secondary modem modules may be the band of the 4G LTE supported by the UE. The 4G bands can be searched preferentially because the number of the 5G bands supported by the UE is large, and the network is not easy to be searched; the 3G or 2G systems supported by operators in various countries are different, for example, 3G and 2G support CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) in china telecom, TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) in china mobile 3G support, WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, W-CDMA) in china unicom, and so on, and it is not easy to determine which system the terminal can search for to the end, and therefore, it is not easy to search for 3G or 2G in priority. The UE can preferentially search for the band of the 4G network.

A3, B3, the RRC (Radio Resource Control) layer and the PHY layer (physical layer) of the main and auxiliary modem modules respectively search the band provided by the RRC layer according to the existing flow. Specifically, the PHY layer is indicated by the RRC layer, and the PHY layer indicates its corresponding antenna module through the radio unit to search for a band (a4, B4).

If the first modem module 2041 obtains the MCC first, the first modem module 2041 notifies the second modem module 2042 through the MTC module to stop searching for the PLMN to obtain the MCC;

if the second modem module 2042 obtains the MCC first, the second modem module 2042 sends the obtained MCC to the first modem module 2041 through the MTC module, and the first modem module 2041 notifies the RRC layer of the first modem module 2041 to stop searching for the PLMN to obtain the MCC.

In this embodiment, the steps may not be executed sequentially, and some or all of the steps may be executed in parallel or sequentially.

Fourth embodiment implementation mode 2

In this embodiment, with reference to fig. 3, a slight modification is made on the basis of the third embodiment, and on the basis of fig. 3, steps a2 and B2 may not be included, that is, the manner in which the primary modem module and the secondary modem module obtain the LTE frequency bands that need to be searched and are respectively responsible for may not be read from the memory through the respective RRC layers, but may be respectively transferred to the RRC layers of the primary modem module and the secondary modem module after the NAS layer of the primary modem module determines the LTE frequency bands that need to be searched and are respectively responsible for the primary modem module and the secondary modem module, and specifically, the following may be implemented:

1. the first modem module 2041 determines that the user is powered on.

A1. the NAS layer of the first modem module 2041 sends a second request to the RRC layer of the first modem module 2041, where the second request is used to instruct the RRC layer of the first modem module 2041 to perform PLMN search to obtain the MCC, the second request may specifically be a PLMN search request carrying an "obtain geographical location" instruction, and the second request may further carry first band information, where the first band information is used by the RRC layer of the second modem module 2042 to determine a band to be searched; or, the second request may specifically be a PLMN search request carrying the first band information.

B0. The first modem module 2041 sends a first request to the NAS layer of the second modem module 2042 through the MTC module, where the first request is used to instruct the second modem module 2042 to obtain the MCC, and the first request may further carry second band information, where the second band information is used by the second modem module 2042 to determine a band to be searched; or, the first request may specifically be a PLMN search request carrying the second band information.

The first band information and the second band information record the ranges of bands which are respectively responsible for searching when the main modulation and demodulation module and the auxiliary modulation and demodulation module are matched with network searching. The sum of the first band information and the second band information may be a 4G LTE band supported by the UE.

B1. The NAS layer of the second modem module 2042 sends a third request to the RRC layer of the second modem module 2042, where the third request is used to instruct the RRC layer of the second modem module 2042 to obtain the MCC (i.e., obtain information of the current country),

the third request may specifically be a PLMN search request carrying an "acquire geographical location" indication, and the third request may further carry second band information, where the second band information is used by the RRC layer of the second modem module 2042 to determine a band to be searched; or, the third request may specifically be a PLMN search request carrying the second band information.

The embodiments provided in this application also include any of the following (the numbers of the embodiments provided in this section do not have an explicit correspondence with the numbers of the embodiments provided in other sections herein, and are for convenience only expressed in this section):

1. a method of searching a network, comprising:

the user equipment UE is provided with a first modulation and demodulation module and a second modulation and demodulation module, and the first modulation and demodulation module and the second modulation and demodulation module both support long term evolution LTE;

the first modulation and demodulation module searches a first frequency range through a first radio frequency unit of the UE so as to obtain first information, wherein the first information is used for determining the geographical position of the UE;

the first modulation and demodulation module sends a first request to the second modulation and demodulation module, and the first request indicates the second modulation and demodulation module to obtain the first information;

the second modulation and demodulation module searches a second frequency range through a second radio frequency unit of the UE according to the first request so as to obtain the first information;

the first modulation and demodulation module determines a third frequency band range according to the first information obtained from the first modulation and demodulation module or the first information obtained from the second modulation and demodulation module, wherein the third frequency band range is a frequency band corresponding to the current geographic position of the UE;

the first modem module obtains a third frequency band range corresponding to the geographical location, and searches the third frequency band range through at least one of the first radio frequency unit and the second radio frequency unit of the UE, so that the UE can register to an available network corresponding to the geographical location.

In this embodiment, the two modem modules on the UE are used to cooperatively search the frequency range of the LTE supported by the UE, so that it is accelerated that the UE searches any PLMN in a roaming scene to obtain the frequency range (third frequency range) corresponding to the current location of the UE, and the UE can quickly search an available network therein to try to camp on and register only by searching the third frequency range, so that the UE can quickly register to the available network in the current location.

2. The method according to embodiment 1, wherein the searching for the first frequency band range by the first modem module via the first radio unit of the UE includes:

and after receiving a power-on instruction, the first modulation and demodulation module searches a first frequency range through a first radio frequency unit of the UE, wherein the power-on instruction is used for indicating that the UE is powered on.

3. The method according to embodiment 1 or 2, wherein the first frequency band range and the second frequency band range both belong to a frequency band range of LTE supported by the UE, and the method comprises: the sum of the first frequency range and the second frequency range is the frequency range of the LTE supported by the UE. It can be understood that two modem modules of the UE cooperatively search the frequency band range of the LTE supported by the UE, that is, a first modem module searches a part of the frequency band range of the LTE supported by the UE, and a second modem module searches another part of the frequency band range of the LTE supported by the UE. Compared with the existing scheme, the main modulation and demodulation module needs to independently search the frequency range of the LTE supported by the UE, the search speed is improved, and the network search success rate is also improved.

4. The method according to any of embodiments 1-3, wherein the first information is a mobile country code MCC, and the determining the third frequency band range according to the first information is a frequency band corresponding to a country corresponding to the MCC obtained according to the MCC.

5. The method according to any one of embodiments 1 to 4, wherein the searching, by the first modem module, the first frequency band range through the first radio unit of the UE to obtain the first information includes:

the non-access stratum (NAS) layer of the first modulation and demodulation module sends a second request to a Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer of the first modulation and demodulation module, wherein the second request indicates the RRC layer of the first modulation and demodulation module to obtain the first information;

after receiving the second request, the RRC layer of the first modem module obtains the first frequency range, and instructs the PHY layer of the first modem module to search the first frequency range through the first radio frequency unit of the UE, so as to obtain the first information.

6. The method according to embodiment 5, wherein obtaining the first frequency band range after the RRC layer of the first modem module receives the second request includes:

after receiving the second request, the RRC layer of the first modem module obtains the first frequency range according to the second request and a first non-volatile memory NV item, where the first NV item is used to record the first frequency range; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the second request carries the first frequency range, and the RRC layer of the first modem module obtains the first frequency range from the second request after receiving the second request.

7. The method according to embodiment 5 or 6, wherein the second request comprises:

the second request carries a public land mobile network PLMN search request for acquiring a geographical position indication, and also carries a first indication which is used for enabling an RRC layer of the first modulation and demodulation module to acquire the need of double-antenna network search or double-modulation and demodulation module network search or double-LTE network search; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the second request is a PLMN search request carrying a second indication, where the second indication is used to enable the RRC layer of the first modem module to know that a dual-antenna network search or a dual-modem module network search or a dual LTE network search is required.

8. The method according to any of embodiments 1-7, wherein the first modem module sends a first request to the second modem module, comprising: the NAS layer of the first modem module sends the first request to the NAS layer of the second modem module;

the second modem module searches a second frequency range through a second radio frequency unit of the UE according to the first request, and includes:

and after receiving the first request, the second modem module obtains the second frequency range, and searches the second frequency range through the second radio frequency unit of the UE.

9. The method according to embodiment 8, wherein the searching for the second frequency band range by the second modem module via the second radio unit of the UE includes:

the NAS layer of the second modulation and demodulation module sends a third request to the RRC layer of the second modulation and demodulation module;

and after receiving the third request, the RRC layer of the second modem module obtains the second frequency range, and instructs the PHY layer of the second modem module to search the second frequency range through the second radio frequency unit of the UE.

10. The method according to embodiment 9, wherein obtaining the second frequency range by the RRC layer of the second modem module includes:

the RRC layer of the second modem module obtains the second frequency range according to the third request and a second NV item, where the second NV item is used to record the second frequency range; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the third request carries the second frequency range, and the RRC layer of the second modem module obtains the second frequency range from the third request after receiving the third request.

11. The method according to embodiment 9 or 10, wherein the third request comprises:

the third request carries a PLMN search request for obtaining a geographical location indication, and the third request also carries a third indication, where the third indication is used to enable the RRC layer of the second modem module to know that a dual-antenna network search or a dual-modem module network search or a dual-LTE network search is required to be performed; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the third request is a PLMN search request carrying a fourth indication, where the fourth indication is used to enable the RRC layer of the second modem module to know that a dual-antenna network search or a dual-modem module network search or a dual LTE network search is required.

12. The method according to any one of embodiments 1 to 11, wherein the determining, by the first modem module, the third frequency band range according to the first information obtained from the first modem module or the first information obtained from the second modem module includes:

if the first modem module obtains the first information first, the first modem module informs the second modem module to stop the process of obtaining the first information; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

if the second modem module obtains the first information first, the second modem module sends the obtained first information to the first modem module, and the first modem module stops the process of obtaining the first information after receiving the first information sent by the second modem module.

13. The method according to any of embodiments 1 to 12, wherein the first modem module sends a first request to a second modem module, comprising:

and the first modulation and demodulation module sends the first request to the second modulation and demodulation module through a multi-mobile terminal control Module (MTC) module.

14. A User Equipment (UE), the UE comprising:

a memory to store instructions;

a processor configured to invoke the instructions in the memory to cause the UE to perform the method of any of embodiments 1-13 above.

15. A User Equipment (UE), the UE comprising: the device comprises a processor, a memory, a first modulation and demodulation module, a second modulation and demodulation module, a first radio frequency unit and a second radio frequency unit;

the memory is to store instructions;

the processor is configured to invoke the instructions in the memory and control the first modem module, the second modem module, the first radio frequency unit, and the second radio frequency unit to perform the method according to any of embodiments 1-13.

16. The UE of embodiment 15, wherein the first modem module is a first modem and the second modem module is a second modem; alternatively, the first modem module and the second modem module are integrated in one modem.

17. The UE of embodiment 15 or 16, wherein the first radio frequency unit is a first radio frequency chip, and the second radio frequency unit is a second radio frequency chip; alternatively, the first radio frequency unit and the second radio frequency unit are integrated in one radio frequency chip.

18. A computer program product comprising a computer program which, when executed on a computer, causes the computer to carry out the method of any one of embodiments 1 to 13.

19. A computer program that, when executed on a computer, causes the computer to carry out the method of any one of embodiments 1-13.

20. A computer-readable storage medium, having a computer program stored thereon, wherein the computer program, when executed on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any of embodiments 1-13.

Some embodiments provided by the application can solve the problem that the network search is slow in a UE roaming scene, specifically, how to search for one PLMN quickly to obtain MCC, and then the UE obtains band information corresponding to the country according to the MCC, and only searches for the band corresponding to the country, and by searching for specific band information, the number of bands for the UE to start up and search can be reduced, and the network search speed of the UE can be increased.

According to the embodiments provided by the application, the main modulation and demodulation module and the auxiliary modulation and demodulation module are matched with the network searching, so that the success rate and the speed of MCC acquisition are improved, and the network searching efficiency of the terminal in a roaming scene is improved.

The embodiment of the application provides a terminal device, and the terminal device has a function of realizing the behavior of the terminal device in any one of the method embodiments. The functions can be realized by hardware, and the functions can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to respective sub-functions of the above-described functions. Optionally, the terminal device may be a user equipment.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, where the computer program, when executed by a computer, implements the method flow related to the terminal device in any of the above method embodiments. Specifically, the computer may be the terminal device described above.

The present application further provides a computer program or a computer program product including the computer program, where when the computer program is executed on a computer, the computer is caused to implement the method flows related to the terminal device in any of the above method embodiments. Specifically, the computer may be the terminal device described above.

An embodiment of the present application further provides an apparatus, including: a processing module and a communication interface, wherein the processing module can execute the method flow related to the terminal device in any of the above method embodiments. Further, the apparatus further includes a storage module (e.g., a memory) configured to store instructions, and the processing module is configured to execute the instructions stored by the storage module, and the execution of the instructions stored in the storage module causes the processing module to execute the method flow related to the terminal device in any of the above method embodiments. The apparatus may be a chip or a system of chips.

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

It will also be appreciated that the memory referred to in the embodiments of the application may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The non-volatile Memory may be a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an Electrically Erasable PROM (EEPROM), or a flash Memory. Volatile Memory can be Random Access Memory (RAM), which acts as external cache Memory. By way of example, but not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static random access memory (Static RAM, SRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Synchronous Dynamic random access memory (Synchronous DRAM, SDRAM), Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic random access memory (DDR SDRAM), Enhanced Synchronous SDRAM (ESDRAM), Synchronous link SDRAM (SLDRAM), and Direct Rambus RAM (DR RAM).

It should be noted that the memory described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

It should also be understood that the reference herein to first, second, and various numerical designations is merely a convenient division to describe and is not intended to limit the scope of the present application.

In the present application, "and/or" describes an association relationship of associated objects, which means that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B, which may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone, wherein A and B can be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship.

In the present application, "at least one" means one or more, "a plurality" means two or more. "at least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of the singular or plural items. For example, "at least one (a), b, or c", or "at least one (a), b, and c", may each represent: a, b, c, a-b (i.e., a and b), a-c, b-c, or a-b-c, wherein a, b, and c may be single or plural, respectively.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Relevant parts among the method embodiments of the application can be mutually referred; the apparatus provided in the respective apparatus embodiments is adapted to perform the method provided in the respective method embodiments, so that the respective apparatus embodiments may be understood with reference to the relevant parts in the relevant method embodiments.

The device structure diagrams given in the device embodiments of the present application only show simplified designs of the corresponding devices. In practical applications, the apparatus may include any number of processors, memories, etc. to implement the functions or operations performed by the apparatus in the embodiments of the apparatus of the present application, and all apparatuses that can implement the present application are within the scope of the present application.

The names of the messages/frames/indication information, modules or units, etc. provided in the embodiments of the present application are only examples, and other names may be used as long as the roles of the messages/frames/indication information, modules or units, etc. are the same.

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

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that all or part of the steps in the method for implementing the above embodiments may be implemented by instructing the relevant hardware through a program, which may be stored in a storage medium readable by a device and includes all or part of the steps when executed, such as: FLASH, EEPROM, etc.

The above-mentioned embodiments, the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention have been described in further detail, it should be understood that various embodiments may be combined, and the above-mentioned embodiments are only examples of the present invention and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention, and any combination, modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method of searching a network, comprising:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first modem module searches a first frequency band range through a first radio unit of the UE, and wherein the searching comprises:

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first frequency range and the second frequency range both belong to a frequency range of LTE supported by the UE, and wherein the method comprises: the sum of the first frequency range and the second frequency range is the frequency range of the LTE supported by the UE.

4. The method of any of claims 1-3, wherein the first information is a Mobile Country Code (MCC), and the determining the third frequency band range according to the first information is a frequency band corresponding to a country corresponding to the MCC obtained according to the MCC.

5. The method according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the searching for the first frequency range by the first modem module via the first radio unit of the UE to obtain the first information comprises:

6. The method of claim 5, wherein obtaining the first frequency range by the RRC layer of the first modem module after receiving the second request comprises:

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the second request comprises:

8. The method of any of claims 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7, wherein the first modem module sends a first request to the second modem module, comprising: the NAS layer of the first modem module sends the first request to the NAS layer of the second modem module;

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the second modem module searches the second frequency band range through the second radio unit of the UE, and comprises:

10. The method of claim 9, wherein obtaining the second frequency band range by the RRC layer of the second modem module comprises:

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the third request comprises:

12. The method according to any one of claims 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, and 11, wherein the first modem module determines the third frequency band range according to the first information obtained from the first modem module or the first information obtained from the second modem module, including:

13. The method of any of claims 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, wherein the first modem module sends a first request to a second modem module, comprising:

14. A User Equipment (UE), the UE comprising: the device comprises a processor, a memory, a first modulation and demodulation module, a second modulation and demodulation module, a first radio frequency unit and a second radio frequency unit;

the memory is to store instructions;

the processor is configured to invoke the instructions in the memory to control the first modem module, the second modem module, the first radio frequency unit, and the second radio frequency unit to perform the method according to any one of claims 1-13.