CN110971359A

CN110971359A - Method and equipment for indicating beam information in wireless communication network

Info

Publication number: CN110971359A
Application number: CN201811142295.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 高宽栋; 黄煌; 颜矛
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-09-28
Filing date: 2018-09-28
Publication date: 2020-04-07
Anticipated expiration: 2038-09-28
Also published as: WO2020063308A1; CN110971359B

Abstract

The application provides a method for indicating beam information in a wireless communication network, which comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that terminal equipment receives indication information sent by network equipment, wherein the indication information is used for indicating association relations among a plurality of SSBs, and the association relations among the plurality of SSBs comprise the association relations between each SSB and other SSBs in the plurality of SSBs; and determining the associated SSB of the SSB corresponding to the terminal equipment according to the indication information, and executing related operation. The method saves the power consumption of the terminal equipment.

Description

Method and equipment for indicating beam information in wireless communication network

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for indicating beam information.

Background

In existing wireless communication networks (such as 2G, 3G and 4G networks), the operating frequency band of the communication system is in the frequency range below 6GHz, and the available operating frequency band in this frequency range is less and less, which cannot meet the increasing communication demand. In contrast, the frequency range above 6GHz has a large number of underutilized frequency bands. Therefore, research and development are being conducted on next-generation (e.g., 5G) wireless communication networks operating at a frequency band above 6GHz to provide ultra-high speed data communication services. In the frequency range above 6GHz, the frequency bands available for the next generation wireless communication network include frequency bands located at 28GHz, 39GHz, 60GHz, 73GHz, and the like. Because the working frequency band is above 6GHz, the next generation wireless communication network has the remarkable characteristics of a high-frequency communication system, such as large bandwidth and high integrated antenna array, thereby easily realizing higher throughput.

Radio resource management measurement (RRMmeasurement) is measurement performed for a terminal device to perform power control, scheduling, cell selection, cell reselection, handover, radio link detection, connection establishment and reestablishment, and the like. The RRM measurement may be performed in the 5G NR (new radio) using SS/PBCH block (synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block, SSB for short) or CSI-RS (channel state information reference signal). When performing RRM measurement using the SSB, the configuration parameters of the measurement may include a period of an SMTC (SS block based RRM measurement configuration, time configuration of RRM measurement based on a synchronization signal block), a length of the SMTC, an offset of the SMTC, and the like. Only one SMTC needs to be configured for one subcarrier. However, SSBs transmit in the base station on a beam basis, with different beams corresponding to different coverage areas and also to different SSBs. In a high-frequency system, in a configured SMTC window, a terminal device needs to detect all beams, and the number of beams is large, which results in large power consumption.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a method and equipment for indicating beam information, wherein terminal equipment can acquire the incidence relation between synchronous signal blocks SSB so as to selectively perform communication operation, and further, the number of measuring beams is reduced, and the power consumption of the terminal equipment is reduced.

In one aspect, a method of indicating beam information is provided, the method including:

the network equipment sends indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the indication information is used for indicating the incidence relation among the plurality of SSBs;

correspondingly, the terminal device receives indication information sent by the network device, where the indication information is used to indicate an association relationship among the plurality of SSBs, and the association relationship among the plurality of SSBs includes an association relationship between each SSB and other SSBs in the plurality of SSBs; determining the associated SSB of the SSB corresponding to the terminal equipment according to the indication information;

further, the terminal device may perform communication processing on part or all of the associated SSBs of the corresponding SSBs; wherein the communication processing comprises at least one of:

radio resource associated RRM measurements, reception of paging messages, synchronization of SSBs, or reception of system messages, etc.

For example: the terminal device may determine an associated SSB of the SSB corresponding to the terminal device according to the association relationship, and perform RRM measurement on the associated SSB, and the non-associated SSB does not need to perform RRM measurement; or making RRM measurement on the SSB corresponding to the terminal device and the associated SSB, where the associated SSB is one or more, and usually multiple.

With reference to the foregoing solution, in other solutions, the association relationship between the SSBs may also include an association relationship between one SSB and other SSBs in the SSBs;

the association relationship between the plurality of SSBs may also include an association relationship between each of the partial SSBs and other SSBs of the plurality of SSBs;

the association between the plurality of SSBs may include neighboring SSBs of each SSB; or whether each SSB is adjacent to other SSBs.

The plurality of SSBs may be practically used or possible SSBs; other SSBs refer to different indexed or numbered SSBs in the plurality of SSBs;

the plurality of SSBs may be regarded as a group of SSBs;

the incidence relation indicates whether a beam corresponding to a certain SSB is adjacent to beams corresponding to other SSBs, if so, the incidence relation is shown, and if not, the incidence relation is not shown;

for example: if SSB1 is associated with SSB2, then SSB1 is adjacent to SSB2, effectively meaning that the beam to which SSB1 corresponds is adjacent to the beam to which SSB2 corresponds.

In another example, the indication information may indicate neighboring SSBs of the partial SSBs; or whether each SSB in a partial SSB is adjacent to other SSBs.

The indication information can be issued through radio resource control RRC signaling, media access control element MAC-CE, downlink control information DCI or system message.

The association relationship among multiple SSBs may be issued together, or may be issued in multiple times, for example: issuing the association relationship between one SSB and other SSBs at a time, or issuing the association relationship between part of SSBs and other SSBs at a time, or issuing the association relationship between all SSBs and other SSBs at a time.

In addition, if the number of the SSBs is greater than or equal to a preset threshold, the indication information of the plurality of SSBs is sent in a packet mode, and the indication information is packet mode indication information. And if the number of the SSBs is less than or equal to a preset threshold, grouping is not needed, all the SSBs are regarded as a group, and the indication information is directly sent and indicates the adjacent SSBs of each SSB.

The indication information may be sent in a bit mapping manner, or the number or identifier of the adjacent SSB of each SSB may be directly sent, for example: the SSB index.

The indication information of the grouping mode comprises: grouping information of the plurality of SSBs, and for each SSB, information of an associated SSB in a group containing the associated SSB; the grouping information is used to indicate whether each group contains an associated SSB, and the information of the associated SSB in the group containing the associated SSB is used to indicate the associated SSB in the group, for example, to indicate whether each SSB in the group is an associated SSB.

If the indication is performed by using a bit mapping mode, 1 can be used for indicating association, 0 can be used for indicating no association, namely 1 indicates adjacent, and 0 indicates non-adjacent; and vice versa.

The grouping mode is determined according to the number of actually sent or possible sent SSBs.

In another embodiment, since one beam may correspond to one or more SSBs and also to one or more CSI-RSs, the association relationship between the SSBs in the above scheme may also be an association relationship between multiple beams or an association relationship between multiple CSI-RSs.

If the association between multiple beams, the association may include the relationship between each beam and other different indexed or numbered beams; group information for each beam may also be included, as well as the relationship between each beam and other differently indexed or numbered beams within the group. For example: the association relationship may include a relationship between each beam and an adjacent beam, and may also include group information of each beam and a relationship between each beam and an adjacent beam.

If the association relationship is the association relationship among a plurality of CSI-RSs, the association relationship can comprise the relationship between each CSI-RS and other CSI-RSs with different indexes or numbers; group information for each CSI-RS may also be included, as well as the relationship between each CSI-RS and other different indexed or numbered CSI-RS within the group.

On the other hand, one beam may correspond to one or more SSBs and also to one or more CSI-RSs; therefore, in another embodiment, the SSBs may be replaced by CSI-RS, and the association relationship between multiple SSBs is replaced by the association relationship between multiple CSI-RS, which is similar to the scheme in the aspect and will not be described in detail.

On the other hand, the present application also provides respective apparatuses corresponding to the above methods, which correspond to the network device and the terminal device in the above methods, respectively, and corresponding modules or units execute corresponding steps in the methods, for example:

an apparatus for indicating beam information in a wireless communication network, comprising: a sending module: the method comprises the steps of sending indication information to a terminal device, wherein the indication information is used for indicating the association relations among a plurality of Synchronization Signal Blocks (SSBs), and the association relations among the plurality of SSBs comprise the association relations among each SSB and other SSBs.

A wireless communications apparatus, comprising:

a receiving module: the device comprises a receiving module, a processing module and a sending module, wherein the receiving module is used for receiving indication information sent by a network device, and the indication information is used for indicating an association relationship among a plurality of SSBs, and the association relationship among the plurality of SSBs comprises an association relationship between each SSB and other SSBs in the plurality of SSBs;

a processing module: and the association SSB is used for determining the SSB corresponding to the terminal equipment according to the indication information.

Further, the processing module is further configured to: and performing communication processing on part or all of the associated SSBs of the corresponding SSBs.

Each device corresponds to a network device and a terminal device in the method, and may also be a chip therein, and a module may also be referred to as a unit, so that additional features or limitations in the method are also applicable to the device, and are not listed one by one here, and reference may be made to the method.

In another form of the apparatus, the processor may replace the processing module, the receiver may replace the receiving module, and the transmitter may replace the transmitting module.

The present application also provides a computer storage medium having stored thereon a computer program (instructions) which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any of the above aspects.

The present application also provides a computer program product which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of the above aspects.

The present application also provides a communication chip having stored therein instructions that, when run on a terminal, cause the terminal to perform the method of the above aspects.

The present application also provides a communication device comprising a memory, a processor and a computer program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, wherein the processor implements the method according to the above aspects when executing the computer program.

The application also provides a communication system which comprises the network equipment and the terminal equipment.

By the method and the device, the terminal equipment can acquire the association relationship among the plurality of SSBs issued by the network equipment, so that the related communication operation is facilitated; for example: when RRM is performed, the power consumption of the terminal can be saved.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is an exemplary diagram of a communication network according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is an exemplary flow chart of a method of indicating beam information according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic view of an SSB of a method for indicating beam information according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic SSB diagram of another method for indicating beam information according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 6 is a schematic block diagram of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 7 is a schematic block diagram of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 8 is a schematic block diagram of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

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

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

Detailed Description

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

The technical scheme of the embodiment of the 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 (WCDMA) System, a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), a Long term evolution (Long term evolution, LTE) System, an LTE Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) System, an LTE Time Division Duplex (TDD), a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) communication System, a fifth Generation (5th Generation, 5G) System, a new Radio (new NR), or other future communication systems.

Terminal equipment in the embodiments of the present application may refer to user equipment, access terminals, subscriber units, subscriber stations, mobile stations, remote terminals, mobile devices, user terminals, wireless communication devices, user agents, or user devices. The terminal device may also be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a handheld device with Wireless communication function, a computing device or other processing device connected to a Wireless modem, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a terminal device in a 5G Network, a terminal device in a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) for future evolution, or a terminal device in other future communication systems, and the like, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto.

The Network device in the embodiment of the present application may be a device for communicating with a terminal device, where the Network device may be a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) in a Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) System or a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) System, may also be a Base Station (NodeB, NB) in a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) System, may also be an evolved node b (eNB, or eNodeB) in an LTE System, and may also be a wireless controller in a Cloud Radio Access Network (CRAN) scenario, or the network device may be a relay station, an access point, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a network device in a 5G network, a network device in a future evolved PLMN network, or a network device in a future other communication system, and the like, and the embodiment of the present application is not limited.

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

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

For the understanding of the embodiments of the present application, a communication system suitable for the embodiments of the present application will be described in detail with reference to fig. 1.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system 100 suitable for use with embodiments of the present application. As shown in fig. 1, the communication system 100 includes at least one network device 110 and at least one terminal device 120. In the communication system 100, the terminal device and the network device may obtain one or more beam pairs with better communication through a beam management process, where the beam pairs are < Bx, B 'x > and < By, B' y >, where Bx represents a transmission beam of the network device, B 'x represents a reception beam of the terminal device, By represents a transmission beam of the terminal device, and B' y represents a reception beam of the network device. For example, referring to fig. 1, a transmission beam #1 of the network device and a reception beam #0 of the terminal device are one beam pair, and a transmission beam #2 of the network device and a reception beam #2 of the terminal device are one beam pair. The transmission beam #0 of the terminal device and the reception beam #1 of the network device are one beam pair, and the transmission beam #1 of the terminal device and the reception beam #2 of the network device are one beam pair.

Beam alignment of terminal device 120 and network device 110 is required in communication system 100 for proper communication. Since both the terminal device and the network device can be directed to multiple beam directions, proper beam pointing is required for communication. Specifically, in the downstream communication, the network device needs to notify the terminal device of what reception beam should be used to receive a signal transmitted next by the network device, or to notify the terminal device of what transmission beam the signal transmitted next by the network device is transmitted using. In uplink communication, the network device needs to notify the terminal device of what transmission beam should be used for transmitting uplink signals, or notify the terminal device of what reception beam the network device should use for receiving signals transmitted by the terminal. For example, in downlink transmission, the network device may notify the terminal device that the network device transmits using the transmit beam #1, and then the terminal device needs to receive using the receive beam # 0. Alternatively, the network device transmits using transmit beam #1 and notifies the terminal device to receive using receive beam # 0. As another example, in uplink transmission, the network device may inform the terminal device to transmit using transmit beam #0, and then the network device will receive using receive beam # 1. Alternatively, the network device may notify the terminal device that the reception beam used by itself is the reception beam #1, so that the terminal device needs to transmit using the transmission beam # 0.

To facilitate understanding of the embodiments of the present application, a few terms referred to in the present application will be briefly described below.

1. Wave beam: a beam is a communication resource. The beam may be a wide beam, or a narrow beam, or other type of beam. The technique of forming the beam may be a beamforming technique (beamforming) or other technical means. The beamforming technique may specifically be a digital beamforming technique, an analog beamforming technique, a hybrid digital/analog beamforming technique. Different beams may be considered different resources. The same information or different information may be transmitted through different beams. Alternatively, a plurality of beams having the same or similar communication characteristics may be regarded as one beam. One or more antenna ports may be included in a beam for transmitting data channels, control channels, sounding signals, and the like.

A beam, which may also be understood as a spatial resource, may refer to a transmit or receive precoding vector having an energy transmission directivity. The energy transmission directivity may refer to that in a certain spatial position, a signal subjected to precoding processing by the precoding vector has better receiving power, such as meeting a receiving demodulation signal-to-noise ratio, and the like, and the energy transmission directivity may also refer to that the same signal sent from different spatial positions is received by the precoding vector and has different receiving powers. Different precoding vectors may be provided for the same device (e.g., a network device or a terminal device), and different devices may also have different precoding vectors, that is, different beams correspond to each other. Beams can be divided into transmit beams and receive beams, from both transmit and receive perspectives.

Transmitting a beam: refers to transmitting a beam having directivity by using a beamforming technique through multiple antennas.

Receiving a beam: the directional antenna also has directivity in the direction of receiving signals, and points to the incoming wave direction of the transmitting wave beam as much as possible so as to further improve the receiving signal-to-noise ratio and avoid the interference among users.

The beams may also be referred to as spatial filters (spatial filters), or spatial filters (spatial parameters), the transmit beams may also be referred to as spatial transmit filters, and the receive beams may also be referred to as spatial receive filters.

2. Beam pairing relationship: i.e. the pairing between the transmit beam and the receive beam, i.e. the pairing between the spatial transmit filter and the spatial receive filter. A large beamforming gain can be obtained for transmitting signals between the transmitting beam and the receiving beam having the beam pairing relationship.

In one implementation, the transmitting end and the receiving end may obtain the beam pairing relationship through beam training. Specifically, the transmitting end may transmit the reference signal in a beam scanning manner, and the receiving end may also receive the reference signal in a beam scanning manner. Specifically, the transmitting end may form beams with different directivities in space by means of beam forming, and may poll on a plurality of beams with different directivities to transmit the reference signal through the beams with different directivities, so that the power of the reference signal transmitted in the direction in which the transmitted beam is directed may be maximized. The receiving end can also form beams with different directivities in space in a beam forming mode, and can poll on a plurality of beams with different directivities to receive the reference signal through the beams with different directivities, so that the power of the reference signal received by the receiving end can be maximized in the direction pointed by the received beam.

3. Reference signal and reference signal resource: the reference signal may be used for channel measurement or channel estimation, etc. The reference signal resource may be used to configure transmission attributes of the reference signal, such as time-frequency resource location, port mapping relationship, power factor, scrambling code, and the like, and refer to the prior art specifically. The transmitting end device may transmit the reference signal based on the reference signal resource, and the receiving end device may receive the reference signal based on the reference signal resource.

The channel measurement referred to in this application also includes beam measurement, i.e., beam quality information obtained by measuring a reference signal, and the parameter for measuring the beam quality includes Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), but is not limited thereto. For example, the beam quality can also be measured by parameters such as Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR), block error rate (BLER), signal quality indicator (CQI), and the like. In the embodiments of the present application, for convenience of description, the channel measurement involved may be regarded as beam measurement without specific description.

The reference signal may include, for example, a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB), and a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS). Correspondingly, the reference signal resource may include a CSI-RS resource (CSI-RS resource), an SSB resource, and an SRS resource (SRS resource).

The SSB may also be referred to as a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block (SS/PBCH block), and the corresponding SSB resource may also be referred to as a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block resource (SS/PBCH block resource), which may be referred to as SSB resource for short.

In order to distinguish between different reference signal resources, each reference signal resource may correspond to an identification of one reference signal resource, for example, a CSI-RS resource identification (CRI), an SSB resource identification (SSBRI), an SRS Resource Index (SRI). The SSB resource identifier may also be referred to as an SSB identifier (SSB index).

It should be understood that the above listed reference signals and corresponding reference signal resources are only exemplary and should not constitute any limitation to the present application, which does not exclude the possibility of defining other reference signals in future protocols to achieve the same or similar functions.

4. Beam indication information: information indicating the beam used for transmission. Including transmit beams and/or receive beams. The beam indication information may be one or more of: a beam number (or a number, an index (index), an Identifier (ID), etc.), an uplink signal resource number, a downlink signal resource number, an absolute index of a beam, a relative index of a beam, a logical index of a beam, an index of an antenna port corresponding to a beam, an antenna port group index corresponding to a beam, an index of a downlink signal corresponding to a beam, a time index of a downlink synchronization signal block corresponding to a beam, Beam Pair Link (BPL) information, a transmission parameter (Tx parameter) corresponding to a beam, a reception parameter (Rx parameter) corresponding to a beam, a transmission weight corresponding to a beam, a weight matrix corresponding to a beam, a weight vector corresponding to a beam, a reception weight corresponding to a beam, an index of a transmission weight corresponding to a beam, an index of a weight matrix corresponding to a beam, an index of a weight vector corresponding to a beam, an index of a reception weight corresponding to a beam, a transmission weight, At least one of a reception codebook corresponding to a beam, a transmission codebook corresponding to a beam, an index of a reception codebook corresponding to a beam, and an index of a transmission codebook corresponding to a beam. The downlink signal may be one or more of the following: any one of a synchronization signal, a broadcast channel, a broadcast signal demodulation signal, a synchronization signal/broadcast channel block (SSB), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a cell specific reference signal (CS-RS), a UE specific reference signal (US-RS), a downlink control channel demodulation reference signal (DMRS), a downlink data channel demodulation reference signal, and a downlink phase noise tracking signal. The uplink signal may be one or more of the following: the random access method comprises any one of an uplink random access sequence, an uplink Sounding Reference Signal (SRS), an uplink control channel demodulation reference signal, an uplink data channel demodulation reference signal and an uplink phase noise tracking signal.

The beam indication information may also be embodied as a Transmission configuration number (TCI) or a TCI status. A TCI state includes one or more quasi-co-location (QCL) information, each QCL information including an ID of a reference signal (or synchronization signal block) and a QCL type. For example: the terminal device may need to determine a beam for receiving a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) according to a TCI state (usually carried by a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH)) indicated by the network device.

5. Quasi-co-location (QCL): or quasi-parity. The quasi-co-location relationship is used to indicate that the plurality of resources have one or more same or similar communication characteristics, and the same or similar communication configuration may be adopted for the plurality of resources having the co-location relationship. Specifically, the method comprises the following steps. The signals corresponding to the antenna ports having the QCL relationship have the same parameters, or the parameters of one antenna port (which may also be referred to as QCL parameters) may be used to determine the parameters of another antenna port having the QCL relationship with the antenna port, or two antenna ports have the same parameters, or the parameter difference between the two antenna ports is smaller than a certain threshold. Wherein the parameters may include one or more of: delay spread (delayspread), Doppler spread (Doppler spread), Doppler shift (Doppler shift), average delay (averagedelay), average gain, spatial Rx parameters (spatial Rx parameters). Wherein the spatial reception parameters may include one or more of: angle of arrival (AOA), average AOA, AOA extension, angle of departure (AOD), average angle of departure (AOD), AOD extension, receive antenna spatial correlation parameter, transmit beam, receive beam, and resource identification.

Spatial quasi-parity (spatial QCL): a spatial QCL can be considered as a type of QCL. For spatial, it can be understood from either the sender or receiver perspective, respectively: from the transmitting end, if two antenna ports are spatially quasi-co-located, that is, the corresponding beam directions of the two antenna ports are spatially consistent; from the perspective of the receiving end, if the two antenna ports are quasi-co-located in the spatial domain, it means that the receiving end can receive the signals transmitted by the two antenna ports in the same beam direction.

6. Quasi co-location assumption (QCL assignment): it is assumed whether there is a QCL relationship between the two ports. The configuration and indication of the quasi-co-location hypothesis can be used to assist the receiving end in receiving and demodulating the signal. For example, the receiving end can assume that the a port and the B port have QCL relationship, that is, the large scale parameter of the signal measured on the a port can be used for signal measurement and demodulation on the B port. The large-scale parameters may include parameters of the antenna ports described above.

7. Analog beamforming, which may be implemented by radio frequency. For example, a radio frequency link (RF chain) adjusts the phase through a phase shifter to control the change in the direction of the analog beam. Thus, an RF chain can only fire one analog beam at a time.

The application relates to a method for indicating beam information in a wireless communication network, which comprises the following steps:

the method comprises the steps that a network device sends indication information to a terminal device, wherein the indication information is used for indicating the association relations among a plurality of Synchronous Signal Blocks (SSBs), and the association relations among the plurality of SSBs comprise the association relations between each SSB and other SSBs; after receiving the indication information, the terminal device may perform a corresponding communication operation according to the association relationship, for example:

RRM measurement is to measure the SSB corresponding to a beam, and one SMTC needs to be configured for one carrier or frequency band. However, in the high-frequency communication system, SSBs are transmitted in the base station based on beams, one beam corresponds to at least one SSB, and in an SMTC window, the terminal device needs to measure the SSBs corresponding to multiple beams, which results in large power consumption of the terminal.

The terminal device learns the association relationship between the SSBs, and when performing RRM measurement, may reduce the number of beam detections, thereby reducing the power consumption of the terminal device.

Fig. 2 is a schematic flow diagram of indicating beam information, shown from the perspective of device interaction. It should be understood that, in the embodiments of the present application, the method for indicating beam information is described by taking a terminal device and a network device as execution subjects. By way of example and not limitation, the execution body may also be a chip applied to a terminal device and a chip applied to a network device.

S101, the network equipment sends indication information to the terminal equipment, and the indication information carries the association relation among the plurality of SSBs.

Associations between multiple SSBs may include associations of individual SSBs with other SSBs, such as: the SSBs associated with each SSB are, and since one beam may correspond to one or more SSBs, the indication information may indicate an associated beam or an adjacent beam of each beam, that is, the associated SSB or the adjacent SSB of each SSB, or referred to as the SSB having an association relationship with each SSB.

In another example, the indication information may also indicate an association relationship between one SSB and another SSB, or an association relationship between some SSBs in a plurality of SSBs and another SSB.

In summary, the association relationship indicates whether the beam corresponding to each SSB is adjacent to the beams corresponding to other SSBs. In this application, a SSB is adjacent to another SSB, which means that the beam corresponding to the SSB is adjacent to the beam corresponding to another SSB. It can also be said that a SSB is associated or has an association with another SSB.

And S102, after receiving the indication message sent by the network equipment, the terminal equipment acquires the association relationship among the SSBs, and performs related operations according to the association relationship among the SSBs.

The terminal device learns the association relationship between the SSBs, and can determine which of the neighboring SSBs of a certain SSB is, for example, determine the SSBs associated with the SSB corresponding to the terminal device according to the association relationship, and perform related communication operations on the associated SSBs.

The SSB corresponding to the terminal device may be an SSB currently used by the terminal device, for example: the currently used SSB means that the terminal device uses the same parameters as the SSB to receive other information, i.e. the other information has a QCL relationship with the SSB. The QCL relationship may be a quasi co-location relationship between two signals in one or more of doppler spread, doppler shift, average gain, average delay, delay spread, and receive parameters.

For example: the terminal device may obtain the associated SSBs of each SSB, that is, adjacent SSBs, or SSBs having an association relationship, and since the SSBs correspond to the beams, it may obtain the adjacent beams of each beam, and may perform a related operation according to the adjacent beams of the current beam, that is, perform a related communication operation on the adjacent SSBs of the current SSB; the adjacent SSBs of each SSB may be one or more.

The relevant communication operation may be RRM measurement, reception of paging message, synchronization of SSB, or reception of system message, etc.

Such as: if the terminal device needs to perform RRM measurement, only the neighboring SSB of the current SSB needs to be measured (of course, the current SSB may also be measured), and the non-neighboring SSB does not need to perform measurement, thereby reducing the overhead of measurement. The current SSB refers to an SSB corresponding to the terminal device, or a beam corresponding to the SSB where the terminal device is located. The current SSB is also referred to as an SSB used by the terminal device, and some or all of the neighboring SSBs may be measured.

Similarly, the operations such as receiving the paging message, synchronizing the SSBs, or receiving the system message may be performed only on the neighboring SSBs of the current SSB (or the neighboring SSBs and the current SSB), and the non-neighboring SSBs do not need to perform the related communication operation, thereby saving the related overhead.

The following illustrates an indication manner of the indication information:

in the method 1, the association relationship between each SSB and other SSBs in the plurality of SSBs can be indicated by using bitmap.

Assuming that one beam corresponds to one SSB, the number of SSBs required is 16 in total, namely SSBs 0-SSBs 15, as shown in fig. 3 for beams 0-15; wherein SSB1, SSB6 and SSB7 are adjacent to SSB0, and the adjacent representations have an association relationship. That is, the beam corresponding to SSB0 is adjacent to the beams corresponding to SSB1, SSB6, and SSB 7. If we use 1 to represent adjacency and 0 to represent non-adjacency, the bitmap for SSB0, SSB0-SSB15 is: 0100001100000000, indicating that the association of SSB0 requires 16 bits in this case. If SSB0 does not indicate itself, then the bitmap of SSB1-SSB15 is: 100001100000000, respectively; SSBs adjacent to SSB0 are represented as SSB1, SSB6 and SSB7, in which case 15 bits are required to indicate the association of SSB 0.

Of course, if 0 represents adjacent and 1 represents non-adjacent, then 1 of the bitmap is changed to 0 and 0 to 1.

When the terminal device is located in the beam coverage area corresponding to the SSB0, according to the indication information, the correlation operation may be performed only on the SSB1, the SSB6, and the SSB7 (of course, the correlation operation may also be performed on the SSB 0).

Taking RRM measurements as an example, when the terminal device synchronizes or receives SSB0, RRM measurements may be performed only on some or all of SSB1, SSB6, and SSB7 in SSBs 1-15 (of course RRM measurements may also be performed on SSB 0). The RRM measurement may not be required for the SSBs 2-SSB5 and SSBs 8-SSB15, or may be performed as a part of the RRM measurement, and the embodiments of the present invention are not limited thereto.

In the above manner, the adjacent SSBs corresponding to SSBs 1-SSBs 15, respectively, can also be indicated by bitmap. For example: the bitmap corresponding to SSB1 is 1010011100000000, which means that the adjacent SSBs of SSB1 are SSB0, SSB2, SSB5, SSB6 and SSB 7; the bitmap corresponding to SSB9 is 0000011110100111, which means that the SSBs adjacent to SSB9 are SSB5-7, SSB8, SSB10 and SSB 13-15.

The network device may indicate the association relationship between each SSB and other SSBs to the terminal device in the bitmap manner. The indication information can be issued once or divided into a plurality of times.

The indication mode is referred to as accurate indication for short, that is, the information of other SSBs associated with each SSB is issued in a bitmap mode.

Of course, the information of other SSBs associated with part of the SSBs may also be sent down, such as the bitmap of SSB0-SSB 3; or the bitmap information is issued for multiple times, for example: and issuing one bitmap corresponding to the SSB at a time, or issuing 4 bitmaps corresponding to the SSB at a time.

Assuming that the number of SSBs is N, it indicates that the number of bits required by the bitmap of the neighboring SSBs of each SSB is N or N-1, and the total number of bits required by the N SSBs is N × N or N × N (N-1). Therefore, this indication method consumes a large number of bits, especially when the number of N is large, but has an advantage in that adjacent SSBs of each SSB can be accurately indicated.

In method 2, to reduce the number of bits of bitmap, a grouping indication may be performed on a plurality of SSBs.

For example: the total number of beams is 16, which corresponds to SSB0-SSB15 with reference to the left drawing of FIG. 4. The SSBs 0-SSBs 15 are grouped into 4 groups of 4 SSBs, with each row being a group and the SSBs within each group being renumbered, and grouped as shown in the right panel of fig. 4. SSB0-SSB3 in the left diagram correspond to the first group (first row) of the right diagram, numbered 0-3 within the first group, respectively; SSB4-SSB7 correspond to a second group (second row) numbered 0-3 within the second group, respectively; SSB8-SSB11 correspond to the third group (third row) of the right diagram, numbered 0-3 within the third group, respectively; SSB12-SSB15 correspond to the fourth group (fourth row), numbered 0-3 within the fourth group, respectively.

Taking SSB0 as an example, SSBs adjacent to SSB0 are SSB1, SSB6 and SSB7, wherein SSB1 is located in the first group (first row), SSB6 and SSB7 are located in the second group (second row), and the third and fourth groups have no SSBs adjacent to SSB 0.

One way to indicate bitmaps is 110001000011, where 1100 is grouping information indicating whether each group contains SSBs adjacent to SSB0, 1100 indicates that the first and second groups contain SSBs adjacent to SSB0, and the third and fourth groups do not contain SSBs adjacent to SSB 0. 0100 and 0011 respectively indicate the position of a specific neighboring SSB in the group containing the neighboring SSB, i.e., whether each SSB in the group containing the neighboring SSB is a neighboring SSB. 0100 indicates that the first second SSB (i.e., SSB1) is the neighbor SSB of SSB0, 0011 indicates that the second third SSB and the fourth SSB (i.e., SSB6 and SSB7) are the neighbors SSB of SSB 0. This indication saves 4bits compared to the indication in method 1 above.

Another way of indicating bitmap is 11000111, where 1100 is grouping information indicating whether each group contains neighboring SSBs, 1100 indicates that the first group and the second group contain neighboring SSBs, and the third group and the fourth group do not have neighboring SSBs.

0111 collectively indicate the location of a particular neighboring SSB in the group containing neighboring SSBs. Specifically, the last three SSBs in the first and second groups are adjacent SSBs of SSB0, i.e., SSB1, SSB2, and SSB3 (numbering after grouping) in the first and second groups are adjacent SSBs of SSB0, which are numbered SSB1, SSB2, SSB3, SSB5, SSB6, and SSB7 before grouping. However, SSBs 2 and SSBs 5 are not actually adjacent SSBs of SSB0, but in order to save the number of bits, a common indication is adopted, and SSBs 2 and SSBs 5 are also adjacent SSBs of SSB 0. Compared with the above indication mode (the bitmap is 110001000011), two sets of bitmaps are combined into one set, namely 0100 and 0111 are combined into 0111. This way of indication indicates that the accuracy of the neighboring SSB is reduced, but saves 4bits compared to the above one of indication and 8bits compared to the indication in method 1.

The SSBs 1-SSB15 may also each indicate SSBs adjacent to each SSB, respectively, in a bitmap indication manner similar to that described above for SSB 0.

The above bitmap indication mode is referred to as a grouping indication for short, the sending mode of the grouping indication is similar to the sending mode of the precise indication, and the grouping indication can be sent at one time or multiple times, or only part of the bitmap of the SSB can be sent, and the sending mode of the precise indication can be referred to, which is not described herein.

The above description takes the number of SSBs as 16 and 4 groups as an example, the number of SSBs is various, but not limited to 16, and the grouping manner is also various; the specific grouping mode may be protocol agreed, may also be predetermined by the network device and the terminal device, or may be configured by the network device to the terminal device, and in practical application, the grouping mode may be determined according to the number of SSBs actually transmitted or the number of SSBs that may be transmitted.

The following table lists some specific grouping schemes, where L x M indicates that the grouping is into L subgroups, each subgroup having M SSBs, and L xM is greater than or equal to the number of SSBs:

in practical application, the grouping method is not limited to the grouping method listed in the above table, and other grouping methods may be used, and it is only necessary that L xM is greater than or equal to the number of SSBs, and the number of SSBs is the number of SSBs actually transmitted or the number of SSBs that may be transmitted, or may be the total number of SSBs.

When the number of SSBs is large and the number of bits needs to be saved, the above bitmap packet indication is suitable for use. The network device may notify the terminal device of a predetermined SSB quantity threshold in advance, and when the SSB quantity is higher than the threshold, a grouping indication is used, and when the SSB quantity is lower than the threshold, no grouping is performed, and a mode 1 mode indication is used. The above thresholds may also be specified by the protocol.

The threshold value may be any one of

values

4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 24, 25, 28, and 30, which may be configured by the network device to the terminal device, or may be preset by the network device and the terminal device, or may be defined by a protocol. When the network device is configured as a terminal device, a system message configuration may be used, and the system message may be any one of a master information block, a minimum remaining system information, a system information block 1, a system information block 2, a system information block 3, a system information block 4, a system information block 6, a system information block 7, a system information block 8, a system information block 9, a system information block 11, a system information block 12, a system information block 13, a system information block 14, a system information block 15, a system information block 16, a system information block 17, a system information block 18, a system information block 19, a system information block 20, a system information block 21, a system information block 22, a system information block 23, a system information block 24, a system information block 25, and a system information block 26.

In addition, the grouping manner mentioned in the above table may also be configured in advance to the terminal device by the network device, or agreed in advance by the protocol, and the configuration manner of the above threshold may be specifically referred to, which is not described again.

The SSB number threshold and the grouping mode may be issued through configuration information of the network device. The network device may also configure whether the network device sends an association between SSBs.

In the method 3, the network device may also use an SSB number or identifier, such as an SSB index (SSB index), to indicate; that is, the number of the associated SSB of each SSB is issued to the terminal device; the associated SSB is also referred to as a neighboring SSB.

Taking the SSB number SSB index as an example, 6bits may be used to indicate an ssbinder associated with an SSB, and if there are 3 neighboring SSBs around an SSB, 6 × 3 ═ 18bits are needed to indicate. And indicating the SSB associated with each SSB in a similar mode, and then issuing the SSB index associated with each SSB.

The SSB index may be determined according to the number of SSBs actually transmitted. For example, when the number of actually transmitted SSBs is 16, the index number may be from 0 to 15, and a SSB index associated with one SSB may be indicated by using a value of 4 bits.

Similarly, an SSB index mode is adopted for indication, and the SSB index associated with each SSB can be issued by referring to an accurate indication mode; or, referring to the grouping indication mode, firstly grouping the plurality of SSBs, and then issuing group information and the SSB index associated in the group; the specific grouping manner may refer to method 2, and is not described in detail.

The SSB number issuing method is similar to the issuing method in method 1, and may be issued once or many times, or may issue only the SSB index associated with part of SSBs, and may be the issuing method in method 1, which is not described herein.

In the above example, the network device indicates information of other one or more SSBs associated with each SSB, and in another embodiment, the network device may further indicate information of other one or more SSBs not associated with each SSB, that is, information of other one or more SSBs that are not adjacent to or have no association relationship with each SSB; for example: only 0 in bitmap is changed into 1, and 1 is changed into 0, the terminal device knows which SSBs are not adjacent, and the rest are adjacent SSBs.

Of course, in each of the above examples, 1 may be used to indicate non-adjacency and 0 may be used to indicate adjacency.

The network device may also indicate that the partial SSB in the cell is not to make measurements. A repetition factor M1 may be configured, and the network device may indicate that the SSBs of M1 SSBs measure only one SSB, or indicate that M1 SSBs may measure as one SSB, or that M1 SSBs are repeated; the repeated beams, which are used mainly to instruct the base station not to perform RRM measurement, may be received by the terminal device and then the SSB measurement may be reduced according to the value of M1.

In another embodiment, CSI-RS may also be used instead of SSB in the above embodiments, because one beam corresponds to one or more CSI-RS or one or more SSB, so CSI-RS may also indicate a beam or SSB. The indication information in the above embodiments carries the association relationship between the multiple CSI-RSs.

The association relationship between the multiple CSI-RSs may include a CSI-RS associated with each CSI-RS, and since one CSI-RS corresponds to one beam, the indication information may indicate an adjacent beam of each beam, that is, an adjacent CSI-RS of each CSI-RS, or a CSI-RS with an association relationship for each CSI-RS. The other steps of the method are similar to those of the above embodiment and are not described in detail.

In another embodiment, DMRS may be used to replace the SSB in the above embodiments, such as: the DMRS for paging PDCCH, the DMRS for paging PDSCH, the DMRS for PBCH, the DMRS for SIB1, the DMRS for PDCCH of SIB1, the DMRS for PDSCH of SIB1, the DMRS for common search space, the DMRS for control resource set 0, etc. other steps are similar to the above-described embodiments and will not be described in detail.

The protocol may also define several fixed antenna patterns, circular antenna patterns or square antenna patterns. The square antenna pattern may be a rectangular antenna pattern or a square antenna pattern. For example: a square antenna pattern of 4x4, or a circular antenna pattern. In the case of a square antenna pattern, the number of beams defining the antenna pattern may be X × Y, where X represents the number of rows and Y represents the number of columns. The terminal device can infer the adjacent beam according to X and Y, and can acquire the adjacent SSBs of each SSB. The network device can configure the number of rows and columns of antenna beams and inform the terminal device; fixed antenna patterns may also be predefined.

In the present application, various Information sent by a network device to a terminal device, such as an association relationship, an SSB number threshold, a grouping manner, a repetition factor, an antenna pattern, etc., may be configured by the network device and sent to the terminal device, where the configuration Information may be carried in any one or more of a Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), Remaining Minimum System Information (RMSI), a System Information Block (SIB) 1, an SIB2, an SIB3, a Media Access control element (MAC-CE), Downlink Control Information (DCI), a Radio Resource Control (RRC), and System Information; the various information may be specified by a standard or may be predetermined by the network device and the terminal device.

It should be further noted that the method in this embodiment is also applicable to a method for numbering beams of a terminal device, and the terminal device may also notify the network device of an association relationship between multiple SSBs by using a similar method, and only the network device and the terminal device in the above embodiment need to be exchanged, which is not described in detail.

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

It should also be understood that in the embodiment of the present application, "preset" or "predefined" may be implemented by saving a corresponding code, table, or other means that can be used to indicate related information in advance in a device (for example, including a terminal device and a network device), and the present application is not limited to a specific implementation manner thereof.

Based on the method of the above embodiment, the communication apparatus provided by the present application will be described below.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in the present application, where the communication device 300 includes: a communication unit 310 and a processing unit 320.

A communication unit 310, configured to receive indication information sent by a network device, where the indication information is used to indicate an association relationship among multiple SSBs, and the association relationship among the multiple SSBs includes an association relationship between each SSB and other SSBs in the multiple SSBs.

The processing unit 320 is configured to determine an associated SSB of the SSB corresponding to the communication apparatus according to the indication information. Specifically, the processing unit 320 is further configured to perform communication processing on part or all of the associated SSBs of the corresponding SSBs; the content of the communication processing refers to the method embodiment and is not described again.

Optionally, the communication unit 310 is also referred to as a transceiver unit (module), and may include a receiving unit (module) and/or a transmitting unit (module), which are respectively configured to perform the steps of receiving and transmitting by the terminal device in fig. 2 and the method embodiment. Optionally, the communication device 300 may further include a storage unit for storing instructions executed by the communication unit 310 and the processing unit 320.

Communication apparatus 300 is a terminal device, and may be a chip in the terminal device. When the communication device is a terminal equipment, the processing unit may be a processor and the communication unit may be a transceiver. The communication device may further comprise a storage unit, which may be a memory. The storage unit is used for storing instructions, and the processing unit executes the instructions stored by the storage unit so as to enable the communication equipment to execute the method. When the communication device is a chip within a terminal equipment, the processing unit may be a processor, and the communication unit may be an input/output interface, a pin, a circuit, or the like; the processing unit executes the instructions stored in the storage unit (e.g., register, cache memory, etc.), or the storage unit (e.g., read-only memory, random access memory, etc.) in the terminal device, which is located outside the chip, to make the communication device perform the operations performed by the terminal device in the above-mentioned method embodiments

It can be clearly understood by those skilled in the art that, when the steps performed by the communication apparatus 300 and the corresponding advantages are referred to the related description of the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiment, for brevity, no further description is provided herein.

It is to be understood that the communication unit 310 may be implemented by a transceiver and the processing unit 320 may be implemented by a processor. The storage unit may be implemented by a memory. As shown in fig. 6, the communication device 400 may include a processor 410, a memory 420, and a transceiver 430.

The communication apparatus 300 shown in fig. 5 or the communication apparatus 400 shown in fig. 6 can implement the foregoing embodiments and the steps performed by the terminal device in fig. 2, and similar descriptions can refer to the descriptions in the foregoing corresponding methods. To avoid repetition, further description is omitted here.

Fig. 7 shows a schematic structural diagram of an apparatus for indicating beam information provided in the present application, where the apparatus 500 includes a communication unit 510.

A communication unit 510, configured to send indication information to a terminal device, where the indication information is used to indicate an association relationship between multiple SSBs, where the association relationship between multiple SSBs includes an association relationship between each SSB and another SSB in the multiple SSBs.

Optionally, the apparatus 500 further includes a processing unit 520, where the processing unit 520 is configured to generate the indication information.

Optionally, the communication unit 510 may include a receiving unit (module) and/or a transmitting unit (module) for performing the steps of receiving and transmitting by the network device in fig. 2 and the method embodiment, respectively. Optionally, the apparatus 500 may further comprise a storage unit for storing instructions to be executed by the communication unit 510 and the processing unit 520.

The apparatus 500 is a network device in the method embodiment, and may also be a chip in the network device. When the apparatus is a network device, the processing unit may be a processor and the communication unit may be a transceiver. The apparatus may further comprise a storage unit, which may be a memory. The storage unit is used for storing instructions, and the processing unit executes the instructions stored by the storage unit so as to enable the communication equipment to execute the method. When the apparatus is a chip within a network device, the processing unit may be a processor, the communication unit may be an input/output interface, a pin or a circuit, etc.; the processing unit executes instructions stored in a storage unit (e.g., a register, a cache, etc.) inside the chip or a storage unit (e.g., a read-only memory, a random access memory, etc.) outside the chip, so as to cause the communication device to perform the operations performed by the network device in the above method embodiments.

It is clear to those skilled in the art that, when the steps performed by the apparatus 500 and the corresponding advantages are described in the foregoing description of the network device in the method embodiment, for brevity, no further description is provided herein.

It is to be understood that the communication unit 510 may be implemented by a transceiver and the processing unit 520 may be implemented by a processor. The storage unit may be implemented by a memory. As shown in fig. 8, the communication device 600 may include a processor 610, a memory 620, and a transceiver 630.

The communication apparatus 500 shown in fig. 7 or the communication apparatus 600 shown in fig. 8 can implement the foregoing method embodiments and the steps performed by the network device in fig. 2, and similar descriptions may refer to the descriptions in the foregoing corresponding methods. To avoid repetition, further description is omitted here.

The network device in each of the above device embodiments corresponds to the terminal device or the terminal device in the terminal device and method embodiments, and the corresponding module or unit executes the corresponding steps. For example, the method of the communication unit (or transceiver unit, transceiver) performs the steps of transmitting and/or receiving in the method embodiment (or performed by the transmitting unit, the receiving unit, respectively), and the steps other than transmitting and receiving may be performed by the processing unit (processor). The functions of the specific elements may be referred to in the respective method embodiments. The sending unit and the receiving unit can form a transceiving unit, and the transmitter and the receiver can form a transceiver, so that transceiving functions in the method embodiment are realized together; the processor may be one or more.

It should be understood that the above division of the units is only a functional division, and other division methods may be possible in actual implementation.

The terminal device or the network device may be a chip, and the processing unit may be implemented by hardware or software. When implemented in hardware, the processing unit may be a logic circuit, an integrated circuit, or the like. When implemented in software, the processing unit may be a general-purpose processor implemented by reading software code stored in a memory unit, which may be integrated in the processor or may be located separately from the processor.

Fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device 700 provided in the present application. For convenience of explanation, fig. 9 shows only main components of the terminal device. As shown in fig. 9, the terminal device 700 includes a processor, a memory, a control circuit, an antenna, and an input-output means. The terminal device 700 can be applied to the system shown in fig. 1, and performs the functions of the terminal device in the above method embodiment.

The processor is mainly configured to process the communication protocol and the communication data, control the entire terminal device, execute a software program, process data of the software program, and control the terminal device to perform the actions described in the above method embodiments. The memory is used primarily for storing software programs and data. The control circuit is mainly used for converting baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing the radio frequency signals. The control circuit and the antenna together, which may also be called a transceiver, are mainly used for transceiving radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are used primarily for receiving data input by a user and for outputting data to the user.

When the terminal device is turned on, the processor can read the software program in the storage unit, interpret and execute the instruction of the software program, and process the data of the software program. When data needs to be sent wirelessly, the processor outputs a baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit after performing baseband processing on the data to be sent, and the radio frequency circuit performs radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and sends the radio frequency signal outwards in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is sent to the terminal equipment, the radio frequency circuit receives radio frequency signals through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signals into baseband signals and outputs the baseband signals to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signals into the data and processes the data.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that fig. 9 shows only one memory and processor for ease of illustration. In an actual terminal device, there may be multiple processors and memories. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or a storage device, and the like, which is not limited in this application.

As an alternative implementation manner, the processor may include a baseband processor and a central processing unit, where the baseband processor is mainly used to process a communication protocol and communication data, and the central processing unit is mainly used to control the whole terminal device, execute a software program, and process data of the software program. The processor in fig. 9 integrates the functions of the baseband processor and the central processing unit, and those skilled in the art will understand that the baseband processor and the central processing unit may also be independent processors, and are interconnected through a bus or the like. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the terminal device may include a plurality of baseband processors to accommodate different network formats, the terminal device may include a plurality of central processors to enhance its processing capability, and various components of the terminal device may be connected by various buses. The baseband processor may also be expressed as a baseband processing circuit or a baseband processing chip. The central processing unit may also be expressed as a central processing circuit or a central processing chip. The function of processing the communication protocol and the communication data may be built in the processor, or may be stored in the storage unit in the form of a software program, and the processor executes the software program to realize the baseband processing function.

For example, in the embodiment of fig. 9, the antenna and the control circuit with transceiving functions may be regarded as the transceiving unit 701 of the terminal device 700, and the processor with processing functions may be regarded as the processing unit 702 of the terminal device 700. As shown in fig. 9, the terminal device 700 includes a transceiving unit 701 and a processing unit 702. A transceiver unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiving device, etc. Optionally, a device in the transceiver unit 701 for implementing the receiving function may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device in the transceiver unit 701 for implementing the transmitting function may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, the transceiver unit 701 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. For example, the receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, etc., and the sending unit may be referred to as a transmitter, a transmitting circuit, etc.

The terminal device 700 shown in fig. 9 is capable of implementing various processes involving the terminal device in the method embodiment of fig. 2. The operations and/or functions of the modules in the terminal device 700 are respectively for implementing the corresponding flows in the above-described method embodiments. Specifically, reference may be made to the description of the above method embodiments, and the detailed description is appropriately omitted herein to avoid redundancy.

Fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device provided in an embodiment of the present application, for example, a schematic structural diagram of a base station. As shown in fig. 10, the network device 800 may be applied to the system shown in fig. 1, and performs the functions of the network device in the above method embodiments.

The network can be applied to a communication system as shown in fig. 1, and performs the functions of the network device in the above method embodiment. The base station 800 may include one or more radio frequency units, such as a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) 801 and one or more baseband units (BBUs) (which may also be referred to as Digital Units (DUs)) 802.

The RRU 801 may be referred to as a transceiver unit, transceiver, transceiving circuitry, or transceiver, etc., which may include at least one antenna 8011 and a radio frequency unit 8012. The RRU 801 section is mainly used for transceiving radio frequency signals and converting the radio frequency signals and baseband signals, for example, for sending indication information in the above method embodiment. The RRU 801 and the BBU 802 may be physically disposed together or may be physically disposed separately, i.e., distributed base stations.

The BBU 802 is a control center of a base station, and may also be referred to as a processing unit, and is mainly used for performing baseband processing functions, such as channel coding, multiplexing, modulation, spreading, and the like. For example, the BBU (processing unit) 802 can be used to control the base station to perform the operation flow of the above-described method embodiment with respect to the network device.

In an embodiment, the BBU 802 may be formed by one or more boards, and the boards may jointly support a radio access network (e.g., an LTE network) with a single access indication, or may respectively support radio access networks with different access systems (e.g., an LTE network, a 5G network, or other networks). The BBU 802 also includes a memory 8021 and a processor 8022, with the memory 8021 being used to store the necessary instructions and data. The processor 8022 is configured to control the base station to perform necessary actions, for example, to control the base station to execute the operation flow related to the network device in the above method embodiment. The memory 8021 and processor 8022 may serve one or more boards. That is, the memory and processor may be provided separately on each board. Multiple boards may share the same memory and processor. In addition, each single board can be provided with necessary circuits.

It should be appreciated that the network device 800 shown in fig. 10 is capable of implementing various processes involving the network device in the method embodiment of fig. 2. The operations and/or functions of the modules in the network device 800 are respectively configured to implement the corresponding flows in the above-described method embodiments. Specifically, reference may be made to the description of the above method embodiments, and the detailed description is appropriately omitted herein to avoid redundancy.

It should be noted that the communication unit in the embodiment of the present application may also be referred to as a transceiver unit or a transceiver module.

It should be understood that the processing means may be a chip. For example, the processing Device may be a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), an Application-specific integrated Circuit (ASIC), a System on Chip (SoC), a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Network Processor (NP), a digital signal processing Circuit (DSP), a Micro Controller Unit (MCU), a Programmable Logic Device (PLD), or other integrated chips.

In implementation, the steps of the method provided by this embodiment may be implemented by hardware integrated logic circuits in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in a processor.

It should be noted that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capability. In implementation, the steps of the above method embodiments may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The processor may be a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, or discrete hardware components. The processor in the embodiments of the present application may implement or perform the methods, steps, and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present application. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

It will be appreciated that the memory or storage units 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 EPROM (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 (SRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM, enhanced SDRAM, SLDRAM, Synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct rambus RAM (DR RAM). It should be noted that the memory of the systems and methods described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a communication system, which includes a sending end device and a receiving end device. For example, the sending end device is the network device in the above embodiment, and the receiving end device is the terminal device in the above embodiment; or, the sending end device is the terminal device in the above embodiment, and the receiving end device is the network device in the above embodiment.

The embodiments of the present application also provide a computer-readable medium, on which a computer program is stored, and the computer program, when executed by a computer, implements the method in any of the above embodiments.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a computer program product, and when being executed by a computer, the computer program product implements the method in any one of the above embodiments.

An embodiment of the present application further provides a system chip, where the system chip includes: a processing unit and a communication unit. The processing unit may be, for example, a processor. The communication unit may be, for example, an input/output interface, a pin or a circuit, etc. The processing unit can execute computer instructions to cause a chip in the communication device to execute any one of the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application.

Optionally, the computer instructions are stored in a storage unit.

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

In the present application, "at least one" means one or more, "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, which may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone, 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. "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 (one) of a, b, or c, may represent: a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, or a-b-c, wherein a, b, c may be single or multiple.

It should be appreciated that reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present application. Thus, the appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment" or "in an embodiment" in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. It should be understood that, in the various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes do not mean the execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation to the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

Claims

1. A method for indicating beam information in a wireless communication network, the method comprising:

the network equipment sends indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the indication information is used for indicating the association relationship among the plurality of the SSBs, and the association relationship among the plurality of the SSBs comprises the association relationship between each SSB and other SSBs.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the association indicates whether the beam corresponding to each SSB is adjacent to the beams corresponding to other SSBs.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication information is packet mode indication information if the number of the SSBs is greater than or equal to a preset threshold.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of SSBs are grouped into a plurality of groups, each SSB being associated with at least one SSB of at least one group, the indication information comprising: grouping information for a plurality of SSBs, and information for an associated SSB for each SSB in the associated SSB group.

5. The method according to any of claims 1-4, wherein the indication information is issued by radio resource control, RRC, signaling, media Access control, control element, MAC-CE, Downlink control information, DCI, or a System message.

6. A method for indicating beam information in a wireless communication network, the method comprising:

the method comprises the steps that terminal equipment receives indication information sent by network equipment, wherein the indication information is used for indicating association relations among a plurality of SSBs, and the association relations among the plurality of SSBs comprise the association relations between each SSB and other SSBs in the plurality of SSBs;

and determining the associated SSB of the SSB corresponding to the terminal equipment according to the indication information.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the SSB corresponding to the terminal device is an SSB currently used by the terminal device.

8. The method of claim 6 or 7, wherein the method further comprises:

and performing communication processing on part or all of the associated SSBs of the corresponding SSBs.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the communication process comprises at least one of:

radio resource associated RRM measurements, reception of paging messages, synchronization of SSBs, or reception of system messages.

10. An apparatus for indicating beam information in a wireless communication network, comprising:

a sending module: the method comprises the steps of sending indication information to a terminal device, wherein the indication information is used for indicating the association relations among a plurality of Synchronization Signal Blocks (SSBs), and the association relations among the plurality of SSBs comprise the association relations among each SSB and other SSBs.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the indication information is packet mode indication information if the number of the SSBs is greater than or equal to a preset threshold.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the plurality of SSBs are grouped into a plurality of groups, each SSB being associated with at least one SSB of at least one group, the indication information comprising: grouping information for a plurality of SSBs, and information for an associated SSB for each SSB in the associated SSB group.

13. A wireless communications apparatus, comprising:

a processing module: and the association SSB is used for determining the SSB corresponding to the communication device according to the indication information.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the processing module is further configured to:

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the communication process comprises at least one of:

16. A computer-readable medium, on which a computer program is stored which, when executed by a computer, implements the method of any of the preceding claims 1-9.