CN111132204A

CN111132204A - Method and device for detecting beam failure

Info

Publication number: CN111132204A
Application number: CN201811289333.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 袁世通; 刘凤威; 陈磊; 邱晶
Original assignee: Chengdu Huawei Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Chengdu Huawei Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-10-31
Filing date: 2018-10-31
Publication date: 2020-05-08
Anticipated expiration: 2038-10-31
Also published as: CN111132204B; WO2020088565A1

Abstract

The application provides a method and a device for detecting beam failure, which can optimize a beam failure recovery mechanism. The method comprises the following steps: a first node measures a first reference signal and a second reference signal sent by a second node at a predetermined resource position, wherein the first reference signal is used for performing beam failure detection, the second reference signal is used for demodulating a downlink signal sent by the second node, and when an interval between the first reference signal and the second reference signal in a time domain is smaller than a preset time window, the first node does not measure the first reference signal and the second reference signal at the same time; the first node performs failure detection of the service beam according to a measurement result of the first reference signal or the second reference signal.

Description

Method and device for detecting beam failure

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of access and backhaul integrated IAB technologies, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for detecting beam failure in an IAB network.

Background

The beamforming technology is one of the key technologies of a New Radio (NR), and can effectively resist path loss, thereby improving the coverage area and capacity of a network. Generally, the better the alignment between a beam and a communication device, the greater the signal gain provided by the beam. However, beam failure sometimes occurs due to changes or influences of factors such as sudden fluctuation, malfunction or interruption of a channel, occlusion of a building, and the like. After a beam failure occurs, the communication device needs to switch the current failed beam to another available beam for Beam Failure Recovery (BFR).

In an Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) system, an IAB node is more complex to deploy than a relay in Long Term Evolution (LTE), and can support multi-hop relay. And each IAB node is simultaneously used as a base station device to provide access service for a large number of user equipment. If the IAB node fails to generate a beam, it will affect the services of a large number of users, so that the beam failure recovery needs to be completed at a fast speed.

However, in the existing beam failure recovery mechanism, the speed of beam failure recovery is related to many factors, and if only the speed of beam failure recovery is considered to be increased, performance of the IAB system in other aspects may be degraded, for example, resource overhead is increased, time delay is increased, power consumption of the IAB node is increased, and the like. Therefore, how to optimize the beam failure recovery mechanism in the IAB system is a problem to be considered for the performance of the IAB.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a method and a device for detecting beam failure, which can optimize a beam failure recovery mechanism.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a method for detecting beam failure, the method comprising: a first node measures a first reference signal and a second reference signal sent by a second node at a predetermined resource position, wherein the first reference signal is used for performing beam failure detection, and the second reference signal is used for demodulating a downlink signal sent by the second node, and when an interval between the first reference signal and the second reference signal in a time domain is smaller than a preset time window, the first node does not measure the first reference signal and the second reference signal at the same time; the first node performs failure detection of the service beam according to a measurement result of the first reference signal or the second reference signal.

Optionally, the downlink signal may also be downlink data.

It should be understood that the predetermined resource location may include a protocol definition or a pre-configuration by an upper node, and is not limited in this application. In addition, the resources herein include time domain resources, frequency domain locations, and time frequency resources.

It should be noted that, the interval between the first reference signal and the second reference signal in the time domain is smaller than the preset time window, and includes that the first reference signal and the second reference signal overlap in the time domain.

The technical scheme of the application can be used for the failure detection of the downlink wave beam and can also be used for the failure detection of the uplink wave beam. Taking the failure detection of the downlink beam as an example, the second node is a higher node of the first node, or the first node is a lower node of the second node.

In the technical scheme provided by the application, when the second node has a downlink signal to send at a predetermined resource location, the first node may perform beam failure detection by measuring a demodulation reference signal (i.e., the second reference signal) of the downlink signal, without additionally increasing power consumption of the first node. At this time, since the first node can perform beam failure detection by measuring the second reference signal, the second node may not transmit the first reference signal, and thus the resource overhead of the second node may also be reduced. And when the second node does not send downlink signals on the preset resource position, the second node sends the first reference signals on the preset resource position, and the first node carries out beam failure measurement by measuring the first reference signals, so that beam failure detection can be ensured under the condition that the first node does not receive downlink signals. The beam failure detection is carried out according to the technical scheme provided by the application, and a beam failure recovery mechanism can be optimized. For example, reducing resource overhead, reducing power consumption of the IAB node.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the measuring, by the first node, the first reference signal and the second reference signal sent by the second node at a predetermined resource location includes: the first node measures the second reference signal and does not measure the first reference signal when determining that the downlink signal is received at the preset resource position according to the scheduling of the second node; alternatively, the first node measures the first reference signal when the first node determines that the predetermined resource location is not scheduled for transmission of the downlink signal.

In other words, when the first node determines that a downlink signal exists on a predetermined resource location, the first node performs beam failure detection by measuring a demodulation reference signal, that is, a second reference signal, used for demodulating the downlink signal. And when the first node determines that no downlink signal exists on a certain predetermined resource position, the first node performs beam failure detection by measuring a first reference signal.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementation manners of the first aspect, the performing, by the first node, failure detection on the service beam according to a measurement result of the first reference signal or the second reference signal includes: the first node performs failure detection of the service beam according to a measurement result of the first reference signal or the second reference signal and a decision condition, wherein the decision condition is a condition for evaluating quality of the reference signal set according to a quality parameter of the reference signal.

It should be noted that, when the first node measures the first reference signal at a predetermined resource location, the first node performs failure detection on the service beam according to the measurement result of the first reference signal and the determination condition. The first node measures a second reference signal at a predetermined resource location, and the first node performs failure detection of the service beam according to a measurement result of the second reference signal and a decision condition.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: the first node detects a candidate beam set to obtain a measurement result of a candidate beam, wherein the measurement result of the candidate beam is used for indicating the quality of the candidate beam; the first node starts a timer; after the first node determines that the service beam fails, the method further includes: the first node determines whether a timer has expired and, if the timer has not expired, determines one or more first beams from the set of candidate beams that are available for replacement of the serving beam based on the measurements of the candidate beams.

The first node starts a timer immediately after detecting the candidate beam set and obtaining the measurement result, and the timer is used as a basis for the first node to judge whether the measurement result of the candidate beam set is valid. After the first node starts the timer, if the first node detects that the serving beam fails, at this time, if the timer has not timed out yet, the first node considers that the measurement result of the candidate beam set is still valid. In this case, the first node selects one or more new beams that can be used to replace the service beam from the candidate beam set based on the measurement result of the candidate beam set, and directly enters the beam failure recovery process, and the BFR speed can be increased without waiting for the next candidate beam detection opportunity.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, when an interval between the first reference signal and the second reference signal in the time domain is smaller than a preset window, the first node does not measure the first reference signal and the second reference signal at the same time, including: when the first node measures the second reference signal, the first reference signal is not measured in a preset time window; or when the first node measures the first reference signal, the second reference signal is not measured in a preset time window.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the resource locations of the first reference signal are periodically distributed in a time domain, and a period of the time domain resource of the first reference signal is greater than or equal to a period of a downlink time domain resource between the first node and the second node. Optionally, a period of the time domain resource of the first reference signal is an integer multiple of a period of the downlink time domain resource between the first node and the second node.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a method for detecting beam failure, the method comprising: the second node determines a resource position for sending a first reference signal and a resource position for sending a second reference signal, wherein the first reference signal is used for carrying out beam failure detection, and the second reference signal is used for demodulating a downlink signal sent by the second node; and the second node sends the first reference signal and/or the second reference signal on the determined resource position.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the sending, by the second node, the first reference signal and/or the second reference signal at the determined resource location includes: and when the second node schedules the first node to receive the downlink signal on the determined resource position, the second node does not send the first reference signal on the resource position for sending the second reference signal.

When the second node schedules downlink signal transmission on the determined resource position, the first node may perform beam failure detection by measuring a demodulation reference signal, that is, a second reference signal, of the downlink signal. At this time, the second node may not send the first reference signal on the resource location of the second reference signal, so as to save resource overhead.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the resource locations of the first reference signal are periodically distributed in a time domain, and a period of the time domain resource of the first reference signal is greater than or equal to a period of a downlink time domain resource between the first node and the second node. Optionally, a period of the time domain resource of the first reference signal is an integer multiple of a period of the downlink time domain resource between the first node and the second node.

In a third aspect, the present application provides an apparatus for detecting a beam failure, where the apparatus has a function of the first node in the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect. These functions may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more units corresponding to these functions.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides an apparatus for detecting beam failure, which has the function of the second node in the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect. These functions may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more units corresponding to these functions.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication device comprising a transceiver, a processor, and a memory. The processor is configured to control the transceiver to transmit and receive signals, the memory is configured to store a computer program, and the processor is configured to call and execute the computer program stored in the memory, so that the communication device performs the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication device comprising a transceiver, a processor, and a memory. The processor is configured to control the transceiver to transmit and receive signals, the memory is configured to store a computer program, and the processor is configured to call and execute the computer program stored in the memory, so that the communication device executes the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect.

In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a chip comprising a processor. The processor is configured to read and execute the computer program stored in the memory to perform the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

Optionally, the chip may include a memory, the memory being coupled to the processor. Further optionally, the chip further comprises a communication interface, and the processor is connected to the communication interface. The communication interface is used for receiving signals and/or data needing to be processed, the processor acquires the signals and/or data from the communication interface, processes the signals and/or data, and outputs a processing result through the communication interface.

In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a chip comprising a processor. The processor is adapted to read and execute the computer program stored in the memory to perform the second aspect or the method of any possible implementation of the second aspect.

Alternatively, the memory and the storage may be physically separate units, or the memory and the processor may be integrated together.

In an eleventh aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of the first aspect or any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect.

In a twelfth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the second aspect or the method of any possible implementation of the second aspect.

In the technical scheme provided by the application, when the second node has a downlink signal to send at a predetermined resource location, the first node may perform beam failure detection by measuring a demodulation reference signal (i.e., the second reference signal) of the downlink signal, without additionally increasing power consumption of the first node. At this time, since the first node can perform beam failure detection by measuring the second reference signal, the second node may not transmit the first reference signal, and thus the resource overhead of the second node may also be reduced. When the second node does not send downlink signals on the preset resource position, the first node carries out beam failure measurement by measuring the first reference signal, and can ensure that the first node can also carry out beam failure detection under the condition that no downlink signals are received. The beam failure detection is carried out according to the technical scheme provided by the application, and a beam failure recovery mechanism can be optimized. For example, reducing resource overhead, reducing power consumption of the IAB node.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication system suitable for use in the embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of beam failure detection and BFR.

Fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart diagram of a method 300 for detecting beam failure provided herein.

Fig. 4 is an example of a second node transmitting a reference signal to a first node.

Fig. 5 is another example of a second node transmitting a reference signal to a first node.

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of an effective window of measurement results for a candidate beam.

Fig. 7 (1) and (2) are schematic diagrams of uplink beam failure detection.

Fig. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus 500 provided in the present application.

Fig. 9 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 600 provided in the present application.

Fig. 10 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 700 provided herein.

Fig. 11 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 800 provided herein.

Detailed Description

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

The names of all nodes and messages in the present application are only names set for convenience of description in the present application, and the names may be different in an actual network, and it should not be understood that the present application defines the names of various nodes and messages. On the contrary, any names having the same or similar functions as the nodes or messages used in the present application are considered as methods or equivalent substitutes of the present application and are within the protection scope of the present application, and are not described in detail below.

Considering the high bandwidth of future wireless networks, a New Radio (NR) of 5G considers introducing an Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) scheme to further reduce the deployment cost, improve the deployment flexibility, and thus introduce integrated access and backhaul relay. The relay node supporting the IAB scheme is referred to as an IAB node (IAB node) to distinguish from a relay of Long Term Evolution (LTE). The system including the IAB node is also called a relay system.

In order to better understand the method and apparatus disclosed in the embodiments of the present application, a network architecture used in the embodiments of the present application is first described. Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication system suitable for the embodiment of the present application.

It should be noted that, the communication systems mentioned in the embodiments of the present application include, but are not limited to: a narrowband-internet of things (NB-IoT) system, a Wireless Local Access Network (WLAN) system, an LTE system, a next generation 5G mobile communication system, or a communication system after 5G, such as an NR, a device to device (D2D) communication system, and the like.

FIG. 1 shows an IAB system. An IAB system includes at least a base station 100, and one or more terminal equipments (terminal)101 served by the base station 100, one or more relay nodes (i.e., IAB nodes) 110, and one or more terminal equipments 111 served by the IAB nodes 110. In general, the base station 100 is called a donor base station (DgNB), and the IAB node 110 is connected to the base station 100 through a wireless backhaul link 113. The Donor base station is also referred to as a Donor node in this application, i.e., a Donor node.

The base station 100 includes but is not limited to: an evolved node B (eNB), a Radio Network Controller (RNC), a Node B (NB), a Base Station Controller (BSC), a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), a home base station (HNB), a Base Band Unit (BBU), an evolved lte (lte) base station, an NR base station (next generation node B, gbb), and the like.

Terminal devices include, but are not limited to: user Equipment (UE), a mobile station, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, a station (station, ST) in a Wireless Local Access Network (WLAN), 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 capability, a computing device, other processing devices connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle mounted device, a wearable device, a mobile station in a future 5G network, and a terminal device in a future evolved Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) network, etc. The IAB node is a specific name of a relay node, and is not limited to the configuration of the present application, and may be one of the base station and the terminal device having a relay function, or may be in a separate device form.

The integrated access and backhaul system may also include a plurality of other IAB nodes, such as IAB node 120 and IAB node 130. The IAB node 120 is connected to the IAB node 110 over a wireless backhaul link 123 for access to the network. The IAB node 130 is connected to the IAB node 110 over a wireless backhaul link 133 for access to the network. IAB node 120 serves one or more terminal devices 121 and IAB node 130 serves one or more terminal devices 131. In fig. 1, both IAB node 110 and IAB node 120 are connected to the network through a wireless backhaul link. In the present application, the wireless backhaul links are all from the perspective of the relay node, e.g., wireless backhaul link 113 is the backhaul link of IAB node 110 and wireless backhaul link 123 is the backhaul link of IAB node 120. As shown in fig. 1, one IAB node, e.g., 120, may connect to another IAB node 110, and thus to the network, via a wireless backhaul link, e.g., 123. Also, the relay node may be connected to the network through a multi-stage wireless relay node. It should be understood that the IAB node is used in this application for descriptive purposes only and does not mean that the solution of this application is used only for NR, and in this application, the IAB node may refer to any node or device having a relay function in a general way, and the use of the IAB node and the relay node in this application should be understood to have the same meaning.

For convenience of description, a basic term or concept used in the present application is first defined.

The upper node: the node providing wireless backhaul link resources, e.g., 110, the upper level node, referred to as IAB node 120,

a subordinate node: a node that uses backhaul link resources for data transmission to or reception of data from the network. For example, 120 is referred to as a subordinate node of the relay node 110. The network referred to herein may be a network over a core network or other access network, such as the internet, private network, etc.

And accessing a link: link between UE and IAB node or IAB donor node (IAB donor). Alternatively, the access link may comprise a radio link used by a node to communicate with its subordinate nodes. The access link includes an uplink access link and a downlink access link. The uplink access link is also referred to as uplink transmission of the access link, and the downlink access link is also referred to as downlink transmission of the access link.

A return link: a link between an IAB node and an IAB child node (IAB child node) or an IAB parent node (IAB parentnode). The backhaul link includes a downlink transmission link with the IAB child node or the IAB parent node, and an uplink transmission link with the IAB child node or the IAB parent node. An IAB node transmitting data to an IAB parent node or receiving an uplink transmission from an IAB child node is referred to as an uplink transmission of a backhaul link. The reception of data transmission by an IAB parent node or the transmission of data to an IAB child node is called downlink transmission of a backhaul link. To distinguish between the UE and the IAB node, the backhaul link between the IAB node and the IAB parent node is called a superior backhaul link (parent BH), and the backhaul link between the IAB node and the IAB child node is called a subordinate backhaul link (child BH).

In general, a lower node may be regarded as one terminal device of an upper node. It should be understood that in the integrated access and backhaul system shown in fig. 1, one IAB node is connected to one upper node. However, in future relay systems, in order to improve the reliability of the wireless backhaul link, one IAB node, e.g., 120, may have multiple upper nodes to serve one IAB node at the same time, and the IAB node 130 in fig. 1 may also be connected to the IAB node 120 through the backhaul link 134, that is, the IAB node 110 and the IAB node 120 are both considered as upper nodes of the IAB node 130. The names of the IAB nodes 110,120,130 are not limited to the scenario or network in which they are deployed, and may be any other names such as relay, RN, etc. The use of IAB nodes in this application is only needed for ease of description.

In fig. 1, the wireless link 102,112,122,132,113,123,133,134 may be a bidirectional link including uplink and downlink transmission links, and in particular, the wireless backhaul link 113,123,133,134 may be used for the upper node to provide service for the lower node, such as the upper node 100 providing wireless backhaul service for the lower node 110. It should be appreciated that the uplink and downlink of the backhaul link may be separate, i.e., the uplink and downlink are not transmitted through the same node. The downlink transmission refers to transmission of information or data to a lower node, such as the node 100, and the uplink transmission refers to transmission of information or data to a lower node, such as the node 110, and the upper node, such as the node 100. The node is not limited to being a network node or a terminal device, for example, in the D2D scenario, a terminal device may serve as a relay node for other terminal devices. The wireless backhaul link may in turn be an access link in some scenarios, such as backhaul link 123 may also be considered an access link for node 110, and backhaul link 113 is also an access link for node 100. It should be understood that the above-mentioned upper node may be a base station, and may also be a relay node, and the lower node may also be a terminal device having a relay function, for example, in the D2D scenario, the lower node may also be a terminal device.

The relay nodes shown in fig. 1, e.g. 110,120,130, may exist in two forms: one is existing as an independent access node, and can independently manage terminal devices accessed to a relay node, where the relay node usually has an independent Physical Cell Identifier (PCI), and a relay in this form usually needs to have a complete protocol stack function. Such as Radio Resource Control (RRC) functions, such relays are commonly referred to as layer 3 relays. While another type of relay node and Donor node, such as Donor eNB and Donor gNB, may have the same or different PCIs, and the management of the user is managed by the Donor base station, such as the Donor node, and such relay is generally called layer 2 relay. The layer 2 relay generally exists as a DU of a base station DgNB under a control and bearer separation (CU-DU) architecture of NR, and communicates with a CU through an (F1application protocol, F1-AP) interface or a tunneling protocol, which may be, for example, a general packet radio service tunneling protocol (GTP) protocol, and is not described in detail. The Donor node is a node through which a core network can be accessed, or an anchor base station of a radio access network through which a network can be accessed. And the anchor point base station is responsible for receiving the data of the core network and forwarding the data to the relay node, or receiving the data of the relay node and forwarding the data to the core network. Generally, the Donor node in the relay system is referred to as IAB Donor, i.e. the Donor node, and the two terms may be used interchangeably in this application, it should be understood that the IAB Donor and the Donor node should not be understood as entities or network elements with different functions.

For easy understanding of the technical solution of the present application, first, a beam failure and a beam failure recovery related to the embodiments of the present application are briefly described.

Beamforming, which is one of the key technologies of the 5th generation,5G, can effectively combat path loss, thereby improving network coverage and capacity. Generally, the better the alignment between a beam and a user, the greater the gain of the signal provided by the beam. But in some application scenarios beam failures may occur. For example, in a 5G millimeter wave system, channel fluctuations are severe, which may cause beam failure between two communication devices (e.g., a base station and a terminal device). Also for example, occlusion of a building can cause a beam failure between two communication devices, etc. Taking the communication of the base station and the terminal device as an example, in case of a beam failure, the terminal device will not be able to decode any downlink signal due to beam misalignment between the base station and the terminal device, and the base station will also not be able to decode any uplink signal. If these failures occur repeatedly, Radio Link Failure (RLF) will be trapped. When a downlink beam fails, there may be an opportunity to avoid RLF caused by beam failure if the UE has an alternative or alternative beam to replace the currently failed serving beam. For this reason, after the beam failure occurs, beam failure recovery is performed.

The Beam Failure Recovery (BFR) refers to adjusting a currently failed service beam to an available beam in a candidate beam according to a measurement result of the candidate beam. For downlink beams, beam failure is detected by the terminal device, and beam failure recovery is also triggered by the terminal device. The failure of the uplink beam can be detected by the base station equipment, and the recovery of the beam failure is also triggered by the base station equipment. In a general sense, beam failure recovery mainly refers to recovery of a downlink beam.

The detection and recovery of beam failure mainly includes the following procedures.

1. Configuration of beam failure detection.

The base station apparatus configures a Beam Failure Detection (BFD) Reference Signal (RS) set. Two RSs are typically included in the BFDRS set on the bandwidth where one User Equipment (UE) operates.

2. Performance of beam failure detection.

The beam failure is determined based on a block error rate (BLER) of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) of a hypothetical (lower-temporal) system. In the existing beam failure detection mechanism, a PHY layer of a UE determines that BLER of a PDCCH is greater than or equal to 10% based on an imaginary PDCCH, and reports a Beam Failure Instance (BFI) to an MAC layer. The detection period of the PHY layer is the shortest one of the periods of the two RSs. At the beginning of each detection period, the MAC layer starts a timer configured by the base station device through an RRC message. Before the timer expires, if the MAC layer receives the BFI reported by the PHY layer again, the timer is reset, and the BFI counter is incremented by 1. Before the timer expires, if the MAC layer does not receive the BFI any more, the MAC layer clears the BFI counter.

Alternatively, the timer used at the time of beam failure detection is also referred to as a timer of BFD hereinafter.

3. And (4) judging that the beam fails.

When the BFI accumulates to a preconfigured threshold, the MAC layer declares a beam failure to the base station via an RRC message. Wherein this preconfigured threshold value may be considered as the maximum value of BFI (beam failure instance max count).

4. Transmission of a beam failure recovery request.

After the MAC layer declares a beam failure, the PHY layer starts detecting a candidate beam in the pre-configured set of candidate beams. For example, the preconfigured set of candidate beams comprises 16 candidate beams. And the PHY layer reports a group of candidate beams meeting the RSRP threshold requirement. The MAC layer selects a new beam as an alternative service beam and informs the PHY layer, which sends a random access signal (RACH) to the base station. And if the UE receives the random access response fed back by the base station, the beam recovery is considered to be successful, and the beam direction of the new beam can be communicated.

In the above-described IAB architecture, each IAB node also serves as a base station device for providing access services to a large number of UEs at the same time. Therefore, the BFR speed needs to be faster than in other beam failure recovery scenarios to avoid impacting the traffic of a large number of UEs.

As can be seen from the above-described mechanism for beam failure recovery, the speed of the BFR (or the time that the BFR has elapsed) is related to a number of parameters of the base station side configuration. These parameters include, for example, the length of the timer for BFD, the period of the BFD RS. The longer the length of the timer of the BFD, the larger the period of the BFD RS. The slower the BFR speed. Further, the speed of the BFR is related to the duration of detecting the candidate beam after the beam failure, and the duration of detecting the candidate beam is related to the period of the candidate beam, the longer the period of the candidate beam, the slower the speed of the BFR. The speed of the BFR and the correlation of these parameters can be seen in the diagram shown in fig. 2.

Referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of beam failure detection and BFR. As shown in fig. 2, in the existing beam failure detection and beam failure recovery mechanism, a terminal device detects a candidate beam set and BFD RS configured by a base station in a communication process with the base station. The candidate beam set typically includes a plurality of candidate beams, such as candidate beam 1 and candidate beam 2 shown in fig. 2. Based on the measurement result of the BFD RS and the execution of the beam failure detection described above, the BFI counter provided in the terminal device counts. For example, BFI ═ 1. The terminal device periodically detects the candidate beam set and the BFD RS, and determines that a beam failure occurs once the BFI counter reaches a preset threshold value (e.g., the threshold value is 2). After detecting that the beam failure occurs, the terminal device needs to wait for the next opportunity to measure the candidate beam. And after the next opportunity of measuring the candidate beams arrives, the terminal equipment measures the candidate beam set to obtain a measurement result. After obtaining the measurement result of the candidate beam, the terminal device needs to wait for the time (RO) of the random access signal to initiate the beam failure recovery procedure.

As can be seen from fig. 2, the larger the period of the BFD RS and candidate beam, the slower the BFR speed. For example, between BFI ═ 1 and BFI ═ 2, beam failure may have occurred, but since the period of the currently configured BFD RS is long, the terminal device cannot timely find the beam failure. For another example, when the BFI is 2, the terminal device detects the beam failure, but at this time, the terminal device continues to wait for detecting the candidate beam, and if the cycle of the candidate beam is relatively large, the waiting time is relatively long, and the BFR speed is also slower. Thus, one first thinks of shortening the period of the BFD RS and/or candidate beam. That is, the BFD RS and the candidate beams are distributed more densely in the time domain. However, this requires the base station to frequently transmit the BFD RS and the candidate beam, which may cause additional resource overhead to the base station. And, if the periods of the BFD RS and the candidate beam are shortened, the UE necessarily consumes more power to detect the BFD RS and the candidate beam. In other words, while the speed of the BFR can be increased, other performance of the IAB system is degraded.

Therefore, how to optimize the beam failure recovery mechanism in the IAB system is a problem that needs to be solved urgently.

Therefore, the present application provides a method and an apparatus for detecting beam failure, which can optimize a beam failure recovery mechanism in an IAB system, for example, reduce resource overhead, reduce power consumption of an IAB node, and the like.

Referring to fig. 3, fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a method 300 for detecting beam failure provided by the present application.

The method 300 for detecting beam failure according to the present application may be applied to failure detection of an uplink beam, where the second node is a subordinate node of the first node, or the second node is a terminal device. Optionally, the method 300 may also be used for failure detection of a downlink beam, where the second node is a superior node of the first node, or the second node is a donor base station (i.e., a donor). In the following embodiments, the method 300 for detecting a beam failure provided in the present application is described by taking the failure detection of a downlink beam as an example.

310. The second node transmits the first reference signal and/or the second reference signal on a predetermined resource location. The first node measures a first reference signal and a second reference signal at predetermined resource locations. When the interval of the first reference signal and the second reference signal in the time domain is smaller than a preset time window, the first node does not measure the first reference signal and the second reference signal at the same time.

In the embodiment of the present application, the first reference signal is a reference signal configured by the second node for performing beam failure detection. The first reference signal includes, but is not limited to, the following reference signals: a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a Phase Tracking Reference Signal (PTRS), a tracking RS, a channel Sounding Reference Signal (SRS), a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB), and the like.

The second reference signal is used for the first node to demodulate the downlink signal sent by the second node. The second reference signal includes a demodulation reference signal (DMRS). In the present application, from the perspective of the second node, the second node may schedule a subordinate node (e.g., the first node in this embodiment) to receive a downlink signal at a specific resource location, in which case, the second node transmits the downlink signal and a demodulation reference signal for demodulating the downlink signal at the specific resource location. The demodulation reference signal is the second reference signal described in this application. The predetermined resource locations include a time domain resource location, a frequency domain resource location, and a time-frequency resource location, which is not limited in the present application.

From the perspective of the first node, when the first node is scheduled to receive the downlink signal at a specific resource location, the first node may measure a demodulation reference signal of the downlink signal at the specific resource location, and perform failure detection of the downlink beam according to the demodulation reference signal. Therefore, from the perspective of the first node, the second reference signal is used for demodulating the downlink signal transmitted by the second node on one hand, and is used for performing beam failure detection by the first node on the other hand.

The predetermined resource location in step 310 is a resource location configured by the second node for transmitting the first reference signal. In other words, the period of the predetermined resource location may also be regarded as the period of the first reference signal.

Specifically, the period of the first reference signal is greater than or equal to the period of the downlink time domain resource between the first node and the second node. In this way, for the second node, the transmission of the first reference signal may be reduced, and thus the resource overhead may be saved. For the first node, the measurement of the first reference signal may be reduced, so that the power consumption of the first node may be reduced. In particular, the period of the first reference signal may be an integer multiple, for example, n times, of the period of the downlink time domain resource between the first node and the second node, where n ≧ 1 and is an integer. Preferably, n > 1.

The downlink time domain resource may include a downlink subframe, a downlink timeslot or a downlink symbol, etc. The predetermined resource may be defined by a protocol, or may be a resource configured through signaling, and the application is not limited in this application. In a specific implementation, the second node may configure the downlink time domain resource for the first node through a higher layer signaling, for example, a system message or a Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling. In other words, the downlink time domain resource is configured in advance by the second node through the high layer signaling. Or, the second node sends the first reference signal to the first node on the static or semi-static downlink time domain resource. The downlink time domain resource is not a dynamic time domain resource generally, but in some cases, the flexible subframe may be configured as the downlink time domain resource.

Taking the timeslot as an example, the configuration of the period of the first reference signal may be similar to the configuration of the period of uplink and downlink timeslot matching in a time division multiplexing (TDD) system in Long Term Evolution (LTE) or New Radio (NR).

For example, the period of the uplink and downlink timeslot allocation in the TDD system may be one of the set { ms0p5, ms0p625, ms1, ms1p25, ms2, ms2p5, ms5, ms10}, where ms0p5 represents 0.5ms and ms0p625 represents 0.625 m. ms1 represents 1ms, ms2 represents 2ms, ms2p5 represents 2.5ms, ms5 represents 5ms, and ms10 represents 10 ms. Therefore, the period of the first reference signal can be n times of the period of the downlink time slot in the uplink and downlink time slot configurations, n is greater than or equal to 1 and n is an integer, or the period of the first reference signal is configured to be greater than or equal to the period of the downlink time slot in the uplink and downlink time slot configurations. For example, when the subcarrier spacing is 120KHz, the length of one slot is 0.125 ms. Assuming that the uplink and downlink timeslot configuration between the first node and the second node takes 1.25ms as a period, 10 timeslots are included in one period. Assuming that the second time slot and the fifth time slot of the 10 time slots are used for downlink transmission, the second time slot and the fifth time slot are downlink time slots. The second node may transmit the first reference signal at the position of the second time slot and/or the fifth time slot of any one cycle.

In step 310, the second node may send only the first reference signal, only the second reference signal, or both the first reference signal and the second reference signal.

For example, when the second node does not transmit the downlink signal at the predetermined resource location, the second node transmits the first reference signal at the predetermined resource location. When the second node has downlink signal transmission on the predetermined resource location, the second node transmits the downlink signal and a second reference signal for demodulating the downlink signal on the predetermined resource location, and may not transmit the first reference signal.

For another example, when the second node transmits the downlink signal on the predetermined resource location, the second node transmits the first reference signal in addition to the second reference signal and the downlink signal on the predetermined resource location. Or, in the predetermined resource location, the second node transmits the first reference signal regardless of whether there is downlink signal transmission. Of course, in order to save resource overhead, the second node may not send the first reference signal when sending the second reference signal and the downlink signal on the predetermined resource.

Optionally, the first reference signal and the second reference signal may overlap in the time domain, or there may be an offset. For example, the first reference signal and the second reference signal may be located on the same symbol or symbols within a slot at predetermined resource locations. Alternatively, the first reference signal and the second reference signal may be located on different symbols of the same slot.

Optionally, the downlink signal in this embodiment may also be downlink data.

In one case, the second node transmits the downlink signal and the second reference signal at a predetermined resource location. For a first node, when the first node determines to receive a downlink signal at a predetermined resource location according to scheduling of a second node, the first node measures a second reference signal at the predetermined resource location. Further, the first node performs failure detection on the service beam according to the measurement result of the second reference signal. It is to be understood that the measurement of the second reference signal is used to characterize the quality of the second reference signal.

In another case, the second node does not send downlink signals to the first node at the predetermined resource location, and in order to ensure that the first node performs beam failure detection, the second node sends a first reference signal. For a first node, when the first node determines that a predetermined resource location is not scheduled for data transmission, the first node measures a first reference signal at the predetermined resource location, and performs failure detection on a serving beam according to a measurement result of the first reference signal.

In yet another case, the second node transmits the downlink signal and the second reference signal, as well as the first reference signal, on predetermined resource locations. When the first node determines to receive the downlink signal at the predetermined resource position according to the scheduling of the second node, as an implementation manner, the first node measures the second reference signal and the first reference signal. Further, the first node performs failure detection on the service beam according to the measurement results of the first reference signal and the second reference signal. As another implementation, the first node only measures the second reference signal, and not the first reference signal. For example, the second node transmits the first reference signal in order for other subordinate nodes or UEs of the second node to measure the first reference signal. Here, the other subordinate nodes of the second node may include one or more subordinate nodes other than the first node.

Optionally, if the first reference signal and the second reference signal are offset in the time domain, the first node measures the first reference signal and the second reference signal according to a preset time window. Specifically, the first node does not measure the second reference signal within a preset time window when measuring the first reference signal. Or the first node does not measure the first reference signal within a preset time window when measuring the second reference signal. That is, if the offset of the first reference signal and the second reference signal in the time domain is smaller than or equal to the preset time window, the first node does not measure the second reference signal within the preset time window when measuring the first reference signal, or the first node does not measure the first reference signal within the preset time window when measuring the second reference signal. The first node measures the first reference signal and the second reference signal if the first reference signal and the second reference signal are offset in the time domain by more than a preset time window. It should be understood that the predetermined time window may be 0, which means that the first reference signal and the second reference signal are overlapped in the time domain, and in general, the period of the first reference signal is an integer multiple of the period of the second reference signal.

The predetermined time window in step 310 may also be specified by a network configuration or a protocol. When configured by a network, the configuration may be performed by an upper node or a donor base station. For example, in the IAB architecture of L3, the time window may be configured for the subordinate nodes directly by the superior node. In the IAB architecture of L2, a time window may be configured for the UE by the donor base station. The time window may be one time slot or several time slots, or one or several symbols, etc., and other values may also be configured according to actual measurement requirements.

Optionally, if the superordinate node or the host base station is not configured with a time window, the first node may default to measuring one of the first reference signal and the second reference signal when the first reference signal and the second reference signal overlap in the time domain. When the first reference signal and the second reference signal have an offset in the time domain, the first node needs to measure the first reference lower signal and the second reference signal.

The following describes, by taking the IAB architecture shown in fig. 1 as an example, the second node sending the first reference signal and/or the second reference signal in conjunction with fig. 3.

Referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is an example in which a second node transmits a reference signal to a first node. As shown in fig. 4, it is assumed that the period of the backhaul resource between the first node and the second node is configured to be 1.25ms, i.e., 10 slots. Wherein, the 2 nd timeslot and the 5th timeslot in the 10 timeslots are predetermined locations of Backhaul (BH) resources. In a specific use, when the second node transmits a downlink signal at a predetermined downlink BH resource location, the second node transmits a downlink signal and a second reference signal (e.g., DMRS) for demodulating the downlink signal at the downlink BH resource location. It should be understood that the downstream signal is not shown in fig. 4. When the second node does not transmit a downlink signal in a predetermined certain downlink BH resource location, the second node transmits a first reference signal (e.g., RS shown in fig. 4) in the downlink BH resource location. In other words, when a predetermined downlink BH resource location is not actually scheduled (or scheduled but not used), the second node transmits the first reference signal on the predetermined downlink BH resource location. When a predetermined downlink BH resource is actually scheduled, the first node receives a downlink signal and a second reference signal on the predetermined downlink BH resource.

Or, it can also be said that the second node fixedly transmits the first reference signal in predetermined downlink BH resource locations (e.g., the 2 nd slot and the 5th slot shown in fig. 4) according to the cycle of the first reference signal. However, for the first node, the first node is scheduled to receive the downlink signal in the 2 nd time slot of a certain period, and in the 2 nd time slot of the period, the first node may perform beam failure detection by measuring the DMRS of the downlink signal without measuring the first reference signal. In this case, the second node may not transmit the first reference signal in the time slot in which the first node measures the DMRS. Therefore, the sending of the first reference signal can be reduced, and the resource overhead is saved.

Still alternatively, the periodicity of the first reference signal is predetermined (e.g., protocol specification or second node configuration), and the first reference signal is configured on the downlink backhaul resource location. And the second reference signal is also located at the downlink backhaul resource location in the time domain.

It should be understood that the RS is not transmitted at the downlink BH resource location where the DMRS is transmitted as shown in fig. 4, and may also be expressed as the RS being replaced by the DMRS. That is, the RSs are periodically distributed in the time domain, but in resource locations where DMRSs are transmitted, the RSs may not be transmitted, or the RSs are replaced by the DMRSs. Similar in fig. 5 and 7 below.

As already explained above, the period of the first reference signal may be greater than or equal to the period of the downlink time domain resource. Alternatively, the period of the first reference signal may be greater than or equal to the period of the backhaul resource. The period of the first reference signal and the period of the backhaul resource are shown in fig. 4 as an example. An example is given below where the period of the first reference signal is n times the period of the backhaul resource, n >1 and is an integer.

For example, as shown in fig. 5, fig. 5 is another example of the second node transmitting a reference signal to the first node. In fig. 5, assume n is 2, wherein the backhaul resource has 10 slots as one cycle, wherein the second slot and the fifth slot are preconfigured as downlink backhaul resources. The second node transmits the first reference signal at a resource location configured as a downlink backhaul resource in a static or semi-static manner with 20 timeslots as a cycle. If the second node has a downlink signal to send to the first node at a certain downlink backhaul resource, the second node may not send the first reference signal at this time. And the first node performs beam failure detection by measuring the DMRS of the downlink signal.

It can be understood that, when the value of n is larger, the period of the first reference signal is larger, and the distribution of the first reference signal in the time domain is sparser, that is, the frequency of the second node sending the first reference signal is lower, so that the resource overhead can be saved to a greater extent. In an extreme case, when the second node frequently sends the downlink signal to the first node, or when the second node always has the downlink signal to send to the first node, the first node can perform beam failure detection by measuring a demodulation reference signal (i.e., a second reference signal) of the downlink signal, even without sending the first reference signal by the second node, which can save the resource overhead of the second node to the maximum extent and also save the power consumption of the first node for measuring the first reference signal.

Alternatively, the RS is not transmitted on the downlink BH resource location for transmitting the DMRS as shown in fig. 5, and the RS may also be considered to be replaced by the DMRS.

320. The first node performs failure detection on the service beam according to the measurement result of the first reference signal or the second reference signal.

For each case where the second node transmits the first reference signal and/or the second reference signal at the predetermined resource location as introduced in step 310, the first node measures the first reference signal and the second reference signal at the predetermined resource location. It should be understood that the predetermined resource locations are periodically distributed in the time domain, and the first node performs beam failure detection by measuring the first reference signal and the second reference signal at the predetermined resource locations in terms of time sequence. However, at a particular resource location, the first node measures one of the first reference signal and the second reference signal.

In the technical solution of the present application, the second node may implement beam failure detection by sending the first reference signal and/or the second reference signal at a predetermined resource location. Specifically, when the second node does not send the downlink signal to the first node at the predetermined resource location, the second node sends the first reference signal, so that the first node measures the first reference signal, and further performs failure detection on the service beam (specifically, the downlink beam). When the second node has a downlink signal to send to the first node at the preset resource position, the first node performs failure detection of the service beam by measuring a second reference signal used for demodulating the downlink signal.

In each case where the second node transmits the first reference signal and/or the second reference signal on a predetermined resource location, the first node performs failure detection of the serving beam by measuring which reference signal.

Case 1

The second node transmits a first reference signal on a predetermined resource location, and the first node measures the first reference signal.

The first node measures the first reference signal and performs failure detection of the service beam according to a measurement result of the first reference signal and a determination condition.

The technical solution of case 1 is designed in such a way that it is considered that the first node may not always have downlink signals to receive, and therefore, it is difficult for the second node to determine a semi-static or static downlink scheduling resource, so that the first node performs failure detection on the serving beam by measuring the DMRS of the downlink signals. Therefore, in case 1, when the second node does not send a downlink signal to the first node at the predetermined resource location, the second node configures the first reference signal to the first node, so that the first node performs beam failure detection by measuring the first reference signal.

For example, the second node sends configuration information of the first reference signal to the first node, the configuration information including a period of the first reference signal. The first node receives a first reference signal according to the configuration information.

Also for example, the first reference signal and the second reference signal have a quasi co-located (QCL) relationship. For example, the QCL relationship is illustrated, for example, the upper node transmits a signal using beam a and the lower node receives the signal. If the superior node configures the QCL relationship between beam a and beam B to the subordinate node, the subordinate node may use the reception parameters of the reception beam a when receiving the beam B. Alternatively, the upper node configures the signal a to have a QCL relationship with the signal B for the lower node, and the lower node may use the reception parameters of the received signal a when receiving the signal B.

Specifically, for example, a User Equipment (UE) measures a synchronization signal SSB of a base station, and the UE finds an optimal reception parameter by adjusting the reception parameter. At a certain moment later, the base station schedules the UE to receive the downlink data and simultaneously informs the UE that the DMRS and the SSB of the downlink data have QCL relationship. The UE receives the scheduled downlink data using the reception parameters of the receiving SSB 1. Specifically, in the embodiment of the present application, the first reference signal and the second reference signal have a quasi-co-location relationship, and when the first node receives the second reference signal, the first node may use a receiving parameter for receiving the first reference signal. Alternatively, when the first node receives the first reference signal, the reception parameter for receiving the second reference signal may be used. Optionally, the QCL relationship between the first reference lower signal and the second reference signal may be any one of a type a (type a), a type b (type b), a type c (type c), or a type (type D) in QCL types, which is not limited in the present application.

Further, the second node may configure the first node with two first reference signals, one of which has a QCL relationship with the DMRS, and the other of which does not have a QCL relationship with the DMRS. Assuming that the first node determines that no downlink signal needs to be received at a predetermined certain resource location, the first node measures one of the first reference signals having a QCL relationship with the DMRS. That is, the first node needs to select to measure one of the two first reference signals having a QCL relationship with the DMRS according to whether the DMRS and the two first reference signals have the QCL relationship. Of course, the second node may configure two or more first reference signals for the first node, and may configure one or more of the two or more first reference signals to have a QCL relationship with the DMRS, which is not limited in this application.

The first node measures the bler (lower-temporal PDCCH bler) of the hypothetical PDCCH of the first reference signal. If the hypothetic PDCCH BLER is larger than a preset threshold value, the BFI counter is increased by 1. And when the count of the BFI counter reaches a preset threshold value, the first node judges that the service beam fails to occur, and initiates a BFR process.

Case 2

The second node transmits the downlink signal and the second reference signal on the predetermined resource position, and does not transmit the first reference signal. The first node measures a second reference signal.

Specifically, the first node measures the second reference signal, and performs failure detection of the service beam according to the measurement result of the second reference signal and the determination condition.

Here, as an example, the first node may specifically measure the following parameters of the second reference signal: the quality of the second reference signal is determined by a block error rate (BLER), a Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP), a Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), a Reference Signal Receiving Quality (RSRQ), and the like. Alternatively, the first node may also measure other parameters that can characterize the quality and/or strength of the second reference signal, which is not limited in this application.

It should be understood that the decision condition is a condition for evaluating the quality of the reference signal set according to the quality parameter of the reference signal. For example, the decision condition may be set according to the BLER of the reference signal, or according to RSRP, or according to BLER and RSRP, or may also be set according to other parameters that may characterize the quality of the reference signal. It should also be understood that different decision conditions may be set for different parameters. For example, for BLER, the determination condition may be that if the lower-indicative PDCCH BLER of the second reference signal is greater than or equal to 10%, then it is determined that BFI is generated. For another example, for RSRP, the decision condition may be that if RSRP of the second reference signal is less than 40%, BFI is decided to be generated. It should be noted that 10% and 40% are only examples of threshold values. This determination condition is also applicable to cases 1 and 3.

For example, the second node transmits a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) and a DMRS for demodulating the PDCCH at a predetermined resource location. The first node measures the DMRS and performs beam failure detection by calculating BLER of the hypothetical PDCCH of the DMRS.

Similarly, the first node measures the hypothetic PDCCH BLER for the DMRS. If the hypothetic PDCCH BLER is larger than a preset threshold value, the physical layer of the first node reports a BFI to the MAC layer, and the MAC layer adds 1 to a BFI counter. And when the count of the BFI counter reaches a preset threshold value, the first node judges that the service beam fails to occur, and initiates a BFR process.

When the method 300 for detecting beam failure is applied to an IAB scenario, since an IAB node is usually fixed and serves a large number of UEs, the upper IAB node is likely to need to perform downlink transmission frequently. As described above, shortening the BFD period is one way to speed up BFR, and the BFD period depends on the period of the backhaul resource, the period of the backhaul downlink transmission opportunity, and so on. Since the upper IAB node needs to perform downlink transmission frequently, the period of backhaul resources, the period of backhaul downlink transmission opportunities, and the like are relatively short. Therefore, when the second node has a downlink signal to send to the first node, the first node can obviously shorten the period of BFD by detecting the DMRS of the downlink signal, and thus can increase the BFR speed.

Meanwhile, for the second node, the second node does not need to transmit the short-period (or dense) first reference signal for beam failure detection, and therefore, the resource overhead of the second node can also be reduced.

Case 3

And the second node sends the downlink signal and the second reference signal on a preset resource position, and sends the first reference signal.

In case 3, optionally, as an implementation, the first node measures only the second reference signal and not the first reference signal. Further, the first node performs a failure detection of the serving beam based on the measurement result of the second reference signal. As another implementation, the first node measures the first reference signal and the second reference signal at the same time, and performs failure detection of the service beam according to a measurement result of the first reference signal and a measurement result of the second reference signal. And will not be described in detail herein.

Similarly, the first node measures the hypothetic PDCCH BLER for the DMRS. If the hypothetic PDCCH BLER is larger than a preset threshold value, the physical layer of the first node reports a BFI to the MAC layer, and the MAC layer adds 1 to a BFI counter. If the second node does not transmit downlink signals in the next period, the first node measures the first reference signals (for example, CSI-RS, SSB and the like). Similarly, if the horizontal PDCCH BLER of the first reference signal is greater than a preset threshold, the BFI counter is incremented by 1. And when the count of the BFI counter reaches a preset threshold value, the first node judges that the service beam fails to occur, and initiates a BFR process.

Optionally, the method 300 may further include step 330.

330. The second node determines the resource location where the first reference signal is transmitted and the resource location where the second reference signal is transmitted.

Here, the resource location for transmitting the first reference signal and the resource location for transmitting the second reference signal determined by the second node may be a subset of the predetermined resource locations described in step 310 above, respectively. In other words, the predetermined resource locations are periodically distributed in the time domain. The resource location for transmitting the first reference signal determined by the second node is a part of the predetermined resource locations, and the resource location for transmitting the second reference signal determined by the second node is also a part of the predetermined resource locations. Optionally, for a predetermined resource location, the resource location for transmitting the first reference signal and the resource location for transmitting the second reference signal are complementary sets. Or, in a predetermined resource location, if the second node has downlink signaling, the predetermined resource location is the location where the second reference signal is transmitted. If the second node has no downlink signal transmission on a predetermined resource location, the predetermined resource location is the location where the first reference signal is transmitted. In step 310, the second node transmits the first reference signal and/or the second reference signal at a predetermined resource location, that is, the second node transmits the first reference signal and/or the second reference signal at the resource location determined in step 330.

Optionally, in order to further improve the BFR speed, in this embodiment of the application, the first node detects the candidate beam set while performing measurement on the first reference signal and the second reference signal. Typically, the set of candidate beams is implemented by configuring a set of reference signals. Different reference signals in the set of reference signals are spatially transmitted over different beam bearers. The spatially distinct beams are candidate beams. Thus, when multiple reference signals are included in the reference signal set, there are typically multiple candidate beams that constitute the candidate beam set.

Hereinafter, the one or more new beams selected by the first node from the candidate beam set are referred to as first beams. That is, the first node may select one or more first beams from the candidate beam set based on the measurement results.

Optionally, the first node transmits, to the second node, one or more uplink signals for the one or more first beams, respectively, and the one or more uplink signals are used for determining a target first beam from the one or more first beams.

It should be appreciated that when the first node selects a first beam from the candidate set of beams, then this first beam may be considered the target first beam without involving a process of determining the target first beam from the plurality of first beams. In the following description, for all embodiments relating to determining a first beam of a target, a plurality of first beams is defined by default.

Here, when the first node performs beam failure recovery, the uplink signal transmitted to the second node may include, but is not limited to, a signal carried on a random access channel (rach), a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), and a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH). The following describes a procedure of beam failure recovery by taking the uplink signal carried in the random access channel as an example.

The first node selects one or more first beams from the candidate beam set, and sends a random access request on a non-contention-random access (CFRA) resource or a contention-based random access (CBRA) resource corresponding to each of the one or more first beams. It can be appreciated that the second node sends a plurality of random access requests, which can improve the success rate of beam recovery.

The second node detects one or more random access requests sent by the first node and sends a random access response to the first node. Optionally, the first node may send random access responses for the multiple random access requests respectively, or the first node may also send only one random access response for the multiple random access requests.

The first node monitors a random access response on a control resource set (CORESET) corresponding to each of the plurality of random access requests. The first node may select to determine the first beam corresponding to the first received random access response as the target first beam, or the first node may determine the first beam corresponding to the random access response with the strongest signal strength as the target first beam. For another example, the second node may transmit the random access response only on the first beam corresponding to the random access response with the strongest received power. In this case, the first node receives only one random access response, and determines the first beam corresponding to the random access response as the target first beam.

After determining the target first beam according to any of the above-mentioned manners, the second node and the first node adjust the serving beam to the target first beam. In other words, the first node and the second node treat the target first beam as a new serving beam.

Further, as can be seen from fig. 2 above, the period of the candidate beam is also a factor that affects the speed of the BFR. The larger the period of the candidate beam, the longer the waiting time for the candidate beam to be detected after the beam failure occurs, and thus the longer the BFR will also be.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, optionally, the first node may further set a timer. The first node starts the timer immediately after detecting the candidate beam set and obtaining the measurement result, and the timer is used as a basis for the first node to judge whether the measurement result of the candidate beam set is valid or not. Specifically, if the first node detects that the serving beam fails after starting the timer, at this time, if the timer has not timed out yet, the first node considers that the measurement result of the candidate beam set is still valid. In this case, the first node selects one or more new beams from the candidate beam set that can be used to replace the serving beam based on the measurement result, and directly enters the beam failure recovery procedure without waiting for the next candidate beam detection occasion.

Referring to fig. 6, fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of an effective window of measurement results of candidate beams. As shown in fig. 6, it is assumed that the threshold value of the BFI counter set by the first node is 2 and the default initial value of the BFI counter is 0. Chronologically, after the first node measures the BFD RS, if a preset condition is satisfied, the BFI counter is incremented by 1, as shown in fig. 6 where BFI is 1. The first node measures the candidate beam 1 and starts a timer for the candidate beam 1 immediately after obtaining the measurement result (denoted as measurement result 1). The second node measures the candidate beam 2 and starts a timer for the candidate beam 2 immediately after obtaining the measurement result (denoted as measurement result 2). In fig. 6, a dashed box after the candidate beam 1 represents an effective window of the measurement result 1, and a dashed box after the candidate beam 2 represents an effective window of the measurement result 2. And assuming that the value of the BFI counter reaches a preset threshold value in the BFD RS measuring process of the first node, the second node judges that the service beam fails. If the second node determines that the time at which the serving beam failed falls within the validity window of the measurement result for the candidate beam, the first node considers the measurement result to be still valid. Taking the example shown in fig. 6, when BFI ═ 2 falls within the valid windows of measurement 1 and measurement 2, measurement 1 and measurement 2 are both valid. Therefore, the first node may select a beam satisfying the condition from the candidate beam 1 and the candidate beam 2 according to the measurement result 1 and the measurement result 2, and directly initiate a random access procedure when a next random access opportunity (RO) arrives, so as to perform beam failure recovery. It can be seen that setting the effective window of the measurement result of the candidate beam can speed up the BFR.

For example, continuing with the example of fig. 6, assuming that there is no valid window, after the first node detects candidate beam 1 and candidate beam 2, the value of the BFI counter reaches the preset threshold value 2, and the first node determines that the serving beam fails. At this time, the first node can only wait for the next candidate beam detection opportunity and wait for the RO after detecting the candidate beam and obtaining the measurement result, and then can initiate the random access procedure to perform beam failure recovery. It can be seen that by setting a valid window of measurement results for candidate beams, the first node can be allowed to pre-detect candidate beams before a beam failure occurs. Therefore, after the beam failure occurs, the first node can directly initiate a beam failure recovery process according to the measurement result of the last candidate beam without waiting for the next candidate beam measurement, and the BFR speed can be improved.

In the above embodiments, the method 300 for detecting a beam failure provided in the present application is described by taking the failure detection of a downlink beam as an example. The method 300 is similarly applied to failure detection of the uplink beam.

For example, the upper node may schedule the lower node to transmit a first reference signal at a predetermined resource location, where in the failure detection of the uplink beam, the first reference signal includes, but is not limited to, a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS). And if the lower node has the uplink signal transmission on the preset resource position, the lower node transmits the uplink signal and the second reference signal on the preset resource position. And the superior node measures the second reference signal and performs failure detection on the uplink wave beam according to the measurement result of the second reference signal. If the lower node does not transmit the uplink signal at the predetermined resource location, the lower node transmits the first reference signal at the predetermined resource location. And the superior node measures the first reference signal, judges the quality of the uplink wave beam according to the measurement result of the first reference signal and performs failure detection on the uplink wave beam.

It should be noted that, in the failure detection of the uplink beam, the first reference signal is transmitted on the uplink time domain resource. For example, the period of the first reference signal is greater than or equal to the period of the uplink slot between the upper node and the lower node. Optionally, a period of the first reference signal is an integer multiple of a period of an uplink slot between the upper node and the lower node.

A schematic diagram of uplink beam failure detection is given below, see fig. 7, and fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of uplink beam failure detection. As shown in (1) and (2) of fig. 7, the subcarrier spacing is 120kHz, and the time length of one slot is 0.125 ms. Assume that the period of the backhaul resource is configured to be 1.25ms, i.e., 10 slots. The location of the backhaul resource repeats with 10 slots as a cycle. It is assumed that the second and fifth time slots of the 10 time slots are configured as uplink backhaul resources in a static or semi-static manner. If the upper node schedules the lower node to transmit uplink data, for example, a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) or a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), in the second time slot, the upper node may perform beam failure detection by measuring a DMRS for the uplink data. If the second slot is not actually scheduled for transmission of uplink data, or the second slot is actually scheduled for uplink data transmission but is not used, the lower node transmits the first reference signal (e.g., SRS) in the second slot. In this case, the upper node measures the SRS transmitted by the lower node in the second slot, and performs failure detection of the uplink beam based on the measurement result of the SRS.

It should be noted that fig. 7 only illustrates that the period of the first reference signal is equal to the period of the backhaul resource. The period of the first reference signal may be n times the period of the backhaul resource, n >1 and is an integer.

Alternatively, the SRS is not transmitted at the uplink BH resource location where the DMRS is transmitted as shown in fig. 7, and the SRS may also be considered to be replaced by the DMRS.

In addition, in the failure detection of the uplink beam, an effective window may also be set for the measurement result of each candidate beam, so that the beam recovery procedure may be initiated quickly when a beam failure occurs.

Optionally, the present application further provides a method 400 for detecting beam failure, where the method 400 includes the following steps 410-420.

410. The first node measures a demodulation reference signal which is sent by the second node and used for demodulating the downlink signal, and obtains a measurement result of a demodulation reference signal DMRS.

420. And the first node carries out beam failure detection according to the measurement result of the demodulation reference signal.

Unlike the method 300, in the method 400, if the second node always has a downlink signal to send to the first node, the first node may perform beam failure detection by measuring the DMRS, and the first node does not even need to configure a reference signal for performing beam failure detection, for example, the first reference signal in the method 300.

Further, considering that the DMRS is only transmitted when the second node has downlink data to transmit to the first node, and there is no fixed period, in order to ensure the beam failure detection of the first node, resource locations that are periodically distributed in the time domain, that is, predetermined resource locations, may be configured by a protocol specification or by the second node through a higher layer signaling. When the second node transmits a downlink signal on a predetermined resource position, the second node may not transmit a reference signal for performing beam failure detection, and the first node measures the DMRS of the downlink signal to perform beam failure detection. When the second node does not send downlink signals on the preset resource position, the second node sends a reference signal for beam failure detection so as to be measured by the first node, and thus beam failure detection can be ensured. This scenario is the method 300 described above and will not be described further.

The method 300 for detecting beam failure provided by the present application is described in detail above, and the following describes an apparatus for detecting beam failure provided by the present application.

Referring to fig. 8, fig. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 500 provided in the present application. As shown in fig. 8, the communication device 500 includes a transceiving unit 510 and a processing unit 520.

A transceiver unit 510, configured to measure, at a predetermined resource location, a first reference signal and a second reference signal sent by a second node, where the first reference signal is used to perform beam failure detection, and the second reference signal is used to demodulate a downlink signal sent by the second node, where when an interval between the first reference signal and the second reference signal in a time domain is smaller than a preset time window, the unit 510 is configured to measure the first reference signal and the second reference signal at different times;

a processing unit 520, configured to perform failure detection on a service beam according to a measurement result of the first reference signal or the second reference signal.

Optionally, the communication apparatus 500 may correspond to the method 300 for detecting beam failure and the first node in the embodiments thereof provided in the present application. The communication device 500 comprises respective means for implementing the method 300 and the corresponding operations and/or processes performed by the first node in the embodiments thereof.

Optionally, the communication device 500 may also be a chip or an integrated circuit configured in the first node.

Alternatively, the transceiving unit 510 may be composed of a receiving unit and a transmitting unit.

Alternatively, the transceiver unit 520 may be a transceiver, and the processing unit 520 may be a processor. The transceiver may include a transmitter and a receiver, with both receive and transmit capabilities.

Optionally, the transceiving unit 510 may also be an input/output interface, or an input/output circuit.

Referring to fig. 9, fig. 9 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 600 provided in the present application. As shown in fig. 9, the communication device 600 includes a transceiving unit 610 and a processing unit 620.

A processing unit 610, configured to determine a resource location for sending a first reference signal and a resource location for sending a second reference signal, where the first reference signal is used to perform beam failure detection, and the second reference signal is used to demodulate a downlink signal sent by the second node;

a transceiver unit 610, configured to send a first reference signal and/or a second reference signal at the determined resource location.

Optionally, the communication apparatus 600 may correspond to the method 300 for detecting beam failure and the second node in the embodiments thereof provided in the present application. The communication device 600 comprises respective means for implementing the method 300 and the corresponding operations and/or processes performed by the second node in the embodiments thereof.

Optionally, the communication device 600 may also be a chip or an integrated circuit configured in the second node.

Alternatively, the transceiving unit 620 may be composed of a receiving unit and a transmitting unit.

Alternatively, the processing unit 610 may be a processor. The transceiving unit 620 may be a transceiver. The transceiver may include a transmitter and a receiver, with both receive and transmit capabilities.

Alternatively, the transceiving unit 620 may also be an input/output interface, or an input/output circuit.

Referring to fig. 10, fig. 10 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 700 provided herein. As shown in fig. 10, the communication device 700 includes: one or more processors 701, one or more memories 702, one or more transceivers 703. The processor 701 is configured to control the transceiver 703 to send and receive signals, the memory 702 is configured to store a computer program, and the processor 701 is configured to call and execute the computer program from the memory 702 to perform the method 300 for detecting a beam failure provided herein and the corresponding processes and/or operations performed by the first node in the embodiments.

For example, the communication device 700 may correspond to the first node in the method embodiment. In particular, the processor 701 of the communication device 700 may correspond to the processing unit 520 shown in fig. 8, and the transceiver 703 may correspond to the transceiving unit 510 shown in fig. 8.

For example, processor 701 is configured to perform step 320 shown in FIG. 3. The transceiver 703 is configured to perform step 310 of receiving the first reference signal and the second reference signal from the second node in fig. 3. In addition, the processor 701 is further configured to perform a step of measuring the first reference signal and/or the second reference signal, and a step of determining whether to generate a BFI according to a measurement result of the first reference signal and/or the second reference signal, and a step of determining that the service beam fails. The processor 701 is further configured to determine whether a downlink signal needs to be received at a predetermined resource location according to the scheduling of the second node. The transceiver 703 is further configured to perform the step of receiving the set of candidate beams from the second node. The processor 701 is further adapted to perform the steps of measuring the set of candidate beams and selecting a first beam from the set of candidate beams based on the measurement of the candidate beam. The processor 701 is further configured to perform the steps of starting a timer and determining whether the timer has timed out. The processor 701 is further configured to perform the step of determining one or more first beams from the set of candidate beams based on the measurement of the candidate beams in case the determination timer has not expired.

Referring to fig. 11, fig. 11 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 800 provided herein. As shown in fig. 11, the communication apparatus 800 includes: one or more processors 801, one or more memories 802, one or more transceivers 803. The processor 801 is configured to control the transceiver 803 to send and receive signals, the memory 802 is configured to store a computer program, and the processor 801 is configured to call and execute the computer program from the memory 802 to perform the method 300 for detecting beam failure provided by the present application and the corresponding processes and/or operations performed by the second node in the embodiments.

For example, the processor 801 of the communication device 800 may correspond to the processing unit 610 shown in fig. 9, and the transceiver 803 may correspond to the transceiving unit 620 shown in fig. 9.

For example, the processor 801 is configured to perform the step 330 shown in fig. 3. The transceiver 803 is configured to perform the step 310 of transmitting the first reference signal and/or the second reference signal in fig. 3. The processor 801 is further configured to perform the step of scheduling the first node to receive the downlink signal at the predetermined resource location. The transceiver 803 is further configured to perform the step of transmitting the first reference signal on the predetermined resource location according to the scheduling of the processor, or not transmitting the first reference signal on the predetermined resource, or perform the step of transmitting the downlink signal and the second reference signal on the predetermined resource location according to the scheduling of the processor.

Furthermore, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein computer instructions, which when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the corresponding operations and/or procedures performed by the first node in the method 300 for detecting beam failure of the embodiment of the present application.

The present application also provides a computer program product comprising computer program code to, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the corresponding operations and/or procedures performed by the first node in the method 300 of detecting beam failure of the embodiments of the present application.

The application also provides a chip comprising a processor. The processor is configured to invoke and execute a computer program stored in the memory to perform corresponding operations and/or processes performed by the first node in the method 300 for detecting beam failure according to the embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, the chip further comprises a memory, the memory being connected to the processor. The processor is used for reading and executing the computer program in the memory.

Further optionally, the chip further comprises a communication interface, and the processor is connected to the communication interface. The communication interface is used for receiving signals and/or data needing to be processed, and the processor acquires the signals and/or data from the communication interface and processes the signals and/or data. Optionally, the communication interface may be an input-output interface, and may specifically include an input interface and an output interface. Optionally, the communication interface may be an input-output circuit, and may specifically include an input circuit and an output circuit.

A computer-readable storage medium is provided, which stores computer instructions, which when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform corresponding operations and/or procedures performed by a second node in the method 300 for detecting beam failure according to the embodiment of the present application.

The present application also provides a computer program product comprising computer program code to, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the corresponding operations and/or procedures performed by the second node in the method 300 of detecting beam failure of the embodiments of the present application.

The application also provides a chip comprising a processor. The processor is configured to invoke and execute a computer program stored in the memory to perform corresponding operations and/or processes performed by the second node in the method 300 for detecting beam failure according to the embodiment of the present application.

Further optionally, the chip further comprises a communication interface, and the processor is connected to the communication interface. The communication interface is used for receiving signals and/or data needing to be processed, and the processor acquires the signals and/or data from the communication interface and processes the signals and/or data. Optionally, the communication interface may be an input-output interface, and may specifically include an input interface and an output interface. Alternatively, the communication interface may be an input-output circuit, specifically comprising an input circuit and an output circuit.

Alternatively, the memory and the storage involved in the above embodiments may be physically separate units, or the memory and the processor may be integrated together.

In the above embodiments, the processor may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a microprocessor, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of programs according to the present disclosure. For example, the processor may be a digital signal processor device, a microprocessor device, an analog-to-digital converter, a digital-to-analog converter, or the like. The processor may distribute the functions of control and signal processing of the terminal device or the network device among these devices according to their respective functions. Further, the processor may have the functionality to operate one or more software programs, which may be stored in the memory. The functions of the processor can be realized by hardware, and can also be realized by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above-described functions.

The memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), other types of static storage devices that may store static information and instructions, a Random Access Memory (RAM), or other types of dynamic storage devices that may store information and instructions, an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disc storage, optical disc storage (including compact disc, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc, blu-ray disc, etc.), magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer, etc.

In the embodiment of the present application, "and/or" describes an association relationship of associated objects, and indicates that three relationships may exist, for example, a and/or B may indicate that a exists alone, a and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. Wherein A and B can be singular or plural.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of 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.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, the disclosed system, apparatus and method can be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described embodiments of the apparatus are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the unit is only one logical function division, and there may be other division ways in actual implementation. For example, various elements or components may be combined or may be integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not implemented. 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 not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may not be physical units, that is, 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 technical solution of the present application.

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

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

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

Claims

1. A method for detecting beam failure, comprising:

a first node measures a first reference signal and a second reference signal sent by a second node at a predetermined resource position, wherein the first reference signal is used for performing beam failure detection, and the second reference signal is used for demodulating a downlink signal sent by the second node, and when an interval between the first reference signal and the second reference signal in a time domain is smaller than a preset time window, the first node does not measure the first reference signal and the second reference signal at the same time;

and the first node performs failure detection of the service beam according to the measurement result of the first reference signal or the second reference signal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first node measures a first reference signal and a second reference signal sent by the second node at the predetermined resource location, comprising:

the first node determines that the first node measures the second reference signal and does not measure the first reference signal when receiving the downlink signal at the predetermined resource position according to the scheduling of the second node;

alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the first node measures the first reference signal when the first node determines that the predetermined resource location is not scheduled for transmission of a downlink signal.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first node performs the failed detection of the serving beam according to the measurement result of the first reference signal or the second reference signal, comprising:

the first node performs failure detection of the service beam according to a measurement result of the first reference signal or the second reference signal and a decision condition, wherein the decision condition is a condition for evaluating quality of a reference signal set according to a quality parameter of the reference signal.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

the first node detects a candidate beam set to obtain a measurement result of a candidate beam, wherein the measurement result of the candidate beam is used for indicating the quality of the candidate beam;

the first node starts a timer;

after the first node determines that the serving beam failed, the method further comprises:

the first node determines whether the timer has expired and determines one or more first beams from the set of candidate beams that are available to replace the serving beam based on measurements of the candidate beams if the timer has not expired.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein when the interval between the first reference signal and the second reference signal in the time domain is smaller than a preset window, the first node does not measure the first reference signal and the second reference signal simultaneously, and the method comprises:

when the first node measures the second reference signal, the first reference signal is not measured in a preset time window; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and when the first node measures the first reference signal, the second reference signal is not measured in a preset time window.

6. The method according to any of claims 1-5, wherein the resource locations of the first reference signal are periodically distributed in the time domain, and the period of the time domain resource of the first reference signal is greater than or equal to the period of the downlink time domain resource between the first node and the second node.

7. A method for detecting beam failure, comprising:

a second node determines a resource location for sending a first reference signal and a resource location for sending a second reference signal, wherein the first reference signal is used for performing beam failure detection, and the second reference signal is used for demodulating a downlink signal sent by the second node;

and the second node transmits the first reference signal and/or the second reference signal at the determined resource position.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the second node transmits the first reference signal and/or the second reference signal at the determined resource location, comprising:

and when the second node schedules the first node to receive the downlink signal on the determined resource position, the second node does not send the first reference signal on the resource position of the second reference signal.

9. The method of claim 7 or 8, wherein the resource location of the first reference signal and the resource location of the second reference signal are smaller than a preset time window in a time domain.

10. The method according to any of claims 7-9, wherein the resource locations of the first reference signal are periodically distributed in the time domain, and the period of the time domain resource of the first reference signal is greater than or equal to the period of the downlink time domain resource between the first node and the second node.

11. An apparatus for detecting beam failure, comprising:

a transceiver unit, configured to measure a first reference signal and a second reference signal sent by a second node at a predetermined resource location, where the first reference signal is used to perform beam failure detection, and the second reference signal is used to demodulate a downlink signal sent by the second node, where when an interval between the first reference signal and the second reference signal in a time domain is smaller than a preset time window, the transceiver unit is configured to not measure the first reference signal and the second reference signal at the same time;

and the processing unit is used for carrying out failure detection on the service beam according to the measurement result of the first reference signal or the second reference signal.

12. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein the processing unit is configured to determine whether to receive downlink signals at the predetermined resource locations according to scheduling of the second node;

the transceiver unit is configured to measure the second reference signal and not measure the first reference signal when the processing unit determines to receive a downlink signal at the predetermined resource location; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the transceiver unit is configured to measure the first reference signal when the processing unit determines that the predetermined resource location is not scheduled for transmission of a downlink signal.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the processing unit is configured to perform the failure detection on the service beam according to a measurement result of the first reference signal or the second reference signal and a decision condition, wherein the decision condition is a condition for evaluating quality of a reference signal set according to a quality parameter of the reference signal.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the transceiver unit is further configured to detect a set of candidate beams, and obtain a measurement result of a candidate beam, wherein the measurement result of the candidate beam is used to indicate quality of the candidate beam;

the processing unit is also used for starting a timer;

the processing unit is further configured to determine whether the timer has expired after determining that the serving beam has failed, and determine one or more first beams from the candidate beam set that are available to replace the serving beam based on the measurement of the candidate beam if the timer has not expired.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein when an interval between the first reference signal and the second reference signal in the sub-time domain is smaller than a preset time window, the transceiver unit is configured to:

when the second reference signal is measured, the first reference signal is not measured in a preset time window; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and when the first reference signal is measured, the second reference signal is not measured in a preset time window.

16. The apparatus according to any of claims 11-15, wherein the resource locations of the first reference signal are periodically distributed in the time domain, and the period of the time domain resource of the first reference signal is greater than or equal to the period of the downlink time domain resource between the first node and the second node.

17. An apparatus for detecting beam failure, comprising:

a processing unit, configured to determine a resource location for sending a first reference signal and a resource location for sending a second reference signal, where the first reference signal is used to perform beam failure detection, and the second reference signal is used to demodulate a downlink signal sent by the apparatus;

a transceiver unit, configured to send a first reference signal and/or a second reference signal at the determined resource location.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the transceiver unit is configured to not send the first reference signal on a resource location of the second reference signal when the processing unit schedules the first node to receive downlink signals on the determined resource location.

19. The apparatus of claim 17 or 18, wherein the resource location of the first reference signal and the resource location of the second reference signal are smaller than a preset time window in a time domain.

20. The apparatus according to any of claims 17-19, wherein the resource locations of the first reference signal are periodically distributed in the time domain, and the period of the time domain resource of the first reference signal is greater than or equal to the period of the downlink time domain resource between the first node and the second node.