CN111586852B

CN111586852B - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN111586852B
Application number: CN201910118053.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李军; 铁晓磊; 米翔
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-02-15
Filing date: 2019-02-15
Publication date: 2023-05-09
Anticipated expiration: 2039-02-15
Also published as: WO2020164460A1; CN111586852A

Abstract

A communication method and device are used for flexibly configuring uplink scheduling-free resources in uplink scheduling-free transmission. The method comprises the following steps: and the terminal equipment receives the time advance from the network equipment, and resets the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource according to the time advance. The terminal equipment does not need to wait until the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource is invalid and then update the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource, and can actively reset the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource, so that the configuration of the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource is more flexible, and the flexibility of configuring the uplink scheduling-free resource can be improved. In addition, when the terminal device receives the time advance sent by the network device, it can determine that the time advance is valid at the moment, and the preconfigured uplink resource can be necessarily used when the time advance is valid, and at the moment, the valid duration of the preconfigured uplink resource is reset, so that the use time of the preconfigured uplink resource can be prolonged to the maximum extent.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of mobile communications technologies, and in particular, to a communication method and apparatus.

Background

Currently, uplink non-scheduled transmission is introduced in the narrowband internet of things (narrow band internet of things, NB-IoT), where the uplink non-scheduled transmission may also be referred to as grant-free transmission or uplink transmission in preconfigured resources or transmission in preconfigured uplink resources, and the like, hereinafter both referred to as uplink non-scheduled transmission. In uplink scheduling-free transmission, a base station configures uplink scheduling-free resources for a terminal device in advance, wherein the uplink scheduling-free resources can also be called as preconfigured uplink resources (preconfigured uplink resources, PUR). When a Time Advance (TA) is valid, the terminal device in an idle state may use the preconfigured uplink resource to transmit uplink data. Specifically, when the terminal device in the idle state has uplink data to transmit, if the TA is determined to be valid, the uplink data transmission can be directly performed on the preconfigured uplink resource according to a predetermined transmission mode without scheduling of the base station.

In the prior art, the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource is configured or predefined for the terminal equipment by the base station, and the terminal equipment is allowed to use the preconfigured uplink resource when in an idle state in the effective duration. Whether the uplink scheduling-free resource is in a predefined mode or in a base station configuration mode, the terminal equipment can reconfigure the effective duration of the pre-configured uplink resource only after the effective duration of the pre-configured uplink resource is invalid, and both the uplink scheduling-free resource configuration modes are not flexible enough, so that how to more flexibly configure the uplink scheduling-free resource is a technical problem to be solved.

Furthermore, the terminal device and the base station can release the preconfigured uplink resources only after the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resources is over, and the method for releasing the preconfigured uplink resources also affects the flexibility of uplink scheduling-free resource configuration.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and device, which are used for flexibly configuring uplink scheduling-free resources in uplink scheduling-free transmission.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, which may be applied to a terminal device, or may be applied to a structure or an apparatus provided in the terminal device, for example, a chip system, or a circuit system, etc., where the method is applied to the terminal device, for example, and the method includes: the terminal equipment receives the time advance from the network equipment, and resets the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource according to the time advance.

By the method, the terminal equipment does not need to wait for the effective duration of the pre-configured uplink resource to be updated after the effective duration of the pre-configured uplink resource is invalid, and the terminal equipment can actively reset the effective duration of the pre-configured uplink resource according to the time advance, so that the configuration of the effective duration of the pre-configured uplink resource is more flexible, and the flexibility of configuring the uplink scheduling-free resource can be improved. In addition, the improvement of the method is that the terminal equipment can actively reset the effective duration of the pre-configured uplink resource, and through the method, the terminal equipment resets the effective duration of the pre-configured uplink resource according to the time advance, when the terminal equipment receives the time advance sent by the network equipment, the terminal equipment can determine that the time advance is effective at the moment, and the pre-configured uplink resource can be used necessarily under the condition that the time advance is effective, and the effective duration of the pre-configured uplink resource is reset at the moment, so that the use time of the pre-configured uplink resource can be prolonged to the maximum extent.

In one possible design, resetting the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource includes: the terminal equipment restarts the timer, and the preconfigured uplink resource is effective before the timer is overtime.

By the method, the terminal equipment resets the effective duration of the pre-configured uplink resource by restarting the timer, and the method is simple and easy to realize.

In one possible design, resetting the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource includes: and the terminal equipment determines the starting time of the first duration according to the receiving time of the time advance, and the preconfigured uplink resources in the first duration are effective.

By the method, the terminal equipment determines the starting time of the first time length according to the receiving time of the time advance, so that the preset effective time length of the uplink resource can be reset under the condition that the time advance is determined to be effective, and the use time of the preset uplink resource can be prolonged to the maximum extent.

In one possible design, the terminal device sends the preamble sequence to the network device before the terminal device receives the time advance from the network device.

In one possible design, after the terminal device receives the time advance from the network device, the terminal device restarts the time advance timer, which is valid until it times out.

In one possible design, the preamble sequence is carried on pre-configured uplink resources. The preamble sequence may also be carried on transmission resources specifically configured for the preamble sequence.

By the method, the preamble sequence is loaded on the pre-configured uplink resource, and a new transmission resource is not required to be configured for the preamble sequence, so that the communication resource can be saved.

In one possible design, the time advance is carried in either downlink control information (downlink control information, DCI) or medium access control (medium access control, MAC) control element (MAC control element, MAC CE).

In one possible design, the terminal device is in an idle state.

In a second aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method applicable to a network device, and also applicable to a structure or an apparatus provided in the network device, for example, a chip system, or a circuit system, etc., where the method is applied to the network device, for example, and the method includes: the network equipment sends the time advance to the terminal equipment, and the network equipment resets the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource according to the time advance.

In one possible design, resetting the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource includes: the network device restarts the timer, and the preconfigured uplink resource is valid before the timer times out.

In one possible design, resetting the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource includes: the network equipment determines the starting time of the first duration according to the sending time of the time advance, and the preconfigured uplink resources in the first duration are effective.

In one possible design, a network device receives a preamble sequence from a terminal device.

In one possible design, the network device restarts the time advance timer, and the time advance timer expires with the time advance being valid.

In one possible design, the preamble sequence is carried on pre-configured uplink resources.

In one possible design, the time advance is carried in the DCI or MAC CE.

In one possible design, the terminal device is in an idle state.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus, which may be a terminal device, or a structure or an apparatus disposed in a terminal device, for example, a chip system, or a circuitry, where the communication apparatus includes at least one processor, where the at least one processor is configured to couple with a memory, read and execute an instruction in the memory, so as to implement receiving a time advance from a network device, and reset an effective duration of a preconfigured uplink resource according to the time advance.

In one possible design, the processor may be specifically configured to implement: and restarting a timer, wherein the pre-configured uplink resource is valid before the timer is overtime.

In one possible design, the processor may be specifically configured to implement: and determining the starting time of a first time according to the receiving time of the time advance, wherein the preconfigured uplink resource in the first time is effective.

In a possible design, the processor is further configured to implement: and sending the preamble sequence to the network equipment.

In a possible design, the processor is further configured to implement: restarting a time advance timer, wherein the time advance timer is valid before timeout.

In one possible design, the preamble sequence is carried on the preconfigured uplink resource.

In one possible design, the time advance is carried in DCI or MAC CE.

In one possible design, the communication device is a terminal device in an idle state.

Optionally, the communication device may further include the memory, where a processor is coupled to the memory, and the processor may read the instructions in the memory to implement the functions of the processor.

Optionally, the above communications apparatus may further include a transceiver configured to support the communications apparatus to receive or transmit signaling or data, for example, the transceiver may be configured to implement receiving a time advance from a network device, and may be configured to implement transmitting a preamble sequence to the network device.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus, which may be a network device, or a structure or an apparatus disposed in a network device, for example, a chip system, or a circuitry, where the communication apparatus includes at least one processor, where the at least one processor is configured to couple with a memory, read and execute an instruction in the memory, so as to implement sending a time advance to a terminal device, and reset an effective duration of a preconfigured uplink resource according to the time advance.

In one possible design, the processor may be specifically configured to implement: and determining the starting time of a first time according to the sending time of the time advance, wherein the preconfigured uplink resource in the first time is effective.

In a possible design, the processor is further configured to implement: and receiving a preamble sequence from the terminal equipment.

In one possible design, the time advance is carried in DCI or MAC CE.

In one possible design, the terminal device is in an idle state.

Optionally, the above communication apparatus may further include a transceiver, configured to support the communication apparatus to perform signaling or data reception or transmission, for example, the transceiver may be configured to implement sending a time advance to a terminal device, and may be configured to implement receiving a preamble sequence from the terminal device.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, configured to implement the method in the first aspect or any one of the designs of the first aspect, including a corresponding functional module, for example, including a processing unit, a transceiver unit, and the like, configured to implement the steps in the above method, respectively.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communications device, configured to implement a method in any one of the designs of the second aspect or the second aspect, including a corresponding functional module, for example including a processing unit, a transceiver unit, and so on, configured to implement steps in the above method, respectively.

In a seventh aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a chip or chip system, which may be coupled to a transceiver for implementing any one of the possible designs of the first aspect and the first aspect, or any one of the possible designs of the second aspect and the second aspect. The chip system comprises at least one chip and may also comprise other discrete devices.

In an eighth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication system, where the system includes a terminal device in any one of the above third aspect or any one of the possible designs of the third aspect, and a network device in any one of the above fourth aspect or any one of the possible designs of the fourth aspect.

In a ninth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, which includes the communication device of the fifth aspect, and the communication device of the sixth aspect.

In a tenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements any one of the possible designs of the first aspect and the first aspect, or any one of the possible designs of the second aspect and the second aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product, which when executed by a computer, may cause the computer to implement any one of the possible designs of the first aspect and the first aspect, or any one of the possible designs of the second aspect and the second aspect.

In addition, another communication method and device are provided in the embodiments of the present application, which are used for flexibly configuring uplink scheduling-free resources in uplink scheduling-free transmission.

In a twelfth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide another communication method, which may be applied to a terminal device, or may be applied to a structure or an apparatus provided in the terminal device, for example, a chip system, or a circuit system, etc., to illustrate that the method is applied to the terminal device, where the method includes: the terminal equipment receives a first message from the network equipment, wherein the first message comprises a time advance and first indication information, the first indication information is used for indicating to release the pre-configured uplink resource, and the terminal equipment releases the pre-configured uplink resource.

By the method, the terminal equipment does not need to wait until the effective duration of the pre-configured uplink resources is over to release the pre-configured uplink resources, and the pre-configured uplink resources can be released when the time advance is updated according to the scheduling of the network equipment, so that the flexibility of releasing the pre-configured uplink resources can be enhanced, and the flexibility of configuring the uplink scheduling-free resources can be improved.

In one possible design, after the terminal device receives the first message from the network device, the terminal device may also send a second message to the network device, where the second message is used to acknowledge the first message.

By the method, the terminal equipment can inform the network equipment of receiving the first message, so that the network equipment releases the preconfigured uplink resource under the condition that the terminal equipment is ensured to receive the first message.

In one possible design, the terminal device sends a preamble sequence to the network device.

In one possible design, the terminal device restarts the time advance timer, and the time advance timer expires with the time advance being valid.

In one possible design, the time advance is carried in the DCI or MAC CE.

In one possible design, the terminal device is in an idle state.

In a thirteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide another communication method applicable to a network device, and also applicable to a structure or an apparatus provided in the network device, for example, a chip system, or a circuit system, etc., to illustrate that the method is applied to the network device, where the method includes: the network equipment sends a first message to the terminal equipment, wherein the first message comprises a time advance and first indication information, the first indication information is used for indicating to release the preconfigured uplink resources, and the network equipment releases the preconfigured uplink resources.

In one possible design, the network device may also receive a second message from the terminal device before releasing the preconfigured uplink resource, where the second message is used to acknowledge the first message.

In one possible design, the time advance is carried in the DCI or MAC CE.

In one possible design, the terminal device is in an idle state.

In a fourteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides another communication apparatus, which may be a terminal device, or may be a structure or an apparatus disposed in a terminal device, for example, a chip system, or a circuitry, where the communication apparatus includes at least one processor, where the at least one processor is configured to couple with a memory, read and execute an instruction in the memory, so as to implement receiving a first message from a network device, where the first message includes a time advance and first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate that a preconfigured uplink resource is released, and release the preconfigured uplink resource.

In a possible design, the processor is further configured to implement: after receiving the first message from the network device, a second message is sent to the network device, the second message being used to acknowledge the first message.

In one possible design, the time advance is carried in DCI or MAC CE.

Optionally, the above communications apparatus may further include a transceiver configured to support the communications apparatus to receive or transmit signaling or data, for example, the transceiver may be configured to receive a first message from a network device, may be configured to transmit a second message to the network device after receiving the first message from the network device, and may be configured to transmit a preamble sequence to the network device.

In a fifteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides another communication apparatus, which may be a network device, or may be a structure or an apparatus disposed in a network device, for example, a chip system, or a circuitry, where the communication apparatus includes at least one processor, where the at least one processor is configured to couple with a memory, read and execute an instruction in the memory, so as to implement sending a first message to a terminal device, where the first message includes a time advance and first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate that a preconfigured uplink resource is released, and release the preconfigured uplink resource.

In a possible design, the processor is further configured to implement: and before the processor releases the preconfigured uplink resource, receiving a second message from the terminal equipment, wherein the second message is used for confirming the first message.

In one possible design, the time advance is carried in DCI or MAC CE.

In one possible design, the terminal device is in an idle state.

Optionally, the above communications apparatus may further include a transceiver configured to support the communications apparatus to receive or transmit signaling or data, for example, the transceiver may be configured to implement sending a first message to a terminal device, may be configured to implement receiving a second message from the terminal device before the processor releases the preconfigured uplink resource, and may be configured to implement receiving a preamble sequence from the terminal device.

In a sixteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide another communication device, configured to implement the method in the twelfth aspect or any of the designs of the twelfth aspect, including a corresponding functional module, for example, including a processing unit, a transceiver unit, and so on, configured to implement the steps in the above method, respectively.

In a seventeenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides another communication device, configured to implement the method in the thirteenth aspect or any one of the designs of the thirteenth aspect, including a corresponding functional module, for example including a processing unit, a transceiver unit, and so on, configured to implement the steps in the above method, respectively.

In an eighteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a chip or chip system, which may be coupled to a transceiver for implementing any one of the possible designs of the twelfth aspect and the twelfth aspect described above, or any one of the possible designs of the thirteenth aspect and the thirteenth aspect. The chip system comprises at least one chip and may also comprise other discrete devices.

In a nineteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication system, where the system includes a terminal device in any one of the foregoing fourteenth or fourteenth possible designs, and a network device in any one of the foregoing fifteenth or fifteenth possible designs.

In a twentieth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication system, which includes the communication device of the sixteenth aspect and the communication device of the seventeenth aspect.

In a twenty-first aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, which when executed by a processor, implements any one of the possible designs of the twelfth aspect and the twelfth aspect, or any one of the possible designs of the thirteenth aspect and the thirteenth aspect.

In a twenty-second aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product, which when executed by a computer, may cause the computer to implement any one of the possible designs of the twelfth aspect and the twelfth aspect described above, or any one of the possible designs of the thirteenth aspect and the thirteenth aspect.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of a random access procedure provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a time advance according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a communication system to which embodiments of the present application are applicable;

fig. 4 is a flowchart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5a is a schematic diagram of a transmission preamble sequence according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5b is a schematic diagram of another transmission preamble provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of yet another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of another terminal device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of another network device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

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

In the following, some terms in the embodiments of the present application are explained for easy understanding by those skilled in the art.

1) Terminal devices, including devices that provide voice and/or data connectivity to a user, may include, for example, a handheld device having wireless connectivity, or a processing device connected to a wireless modem. The terminal device may communicate with the core network via a radio access network (radio access network, RAN), exchanging voice and/or data with the RAN. The terminal device may include a User Equipment (UE), a wireless terminal device, a mobile terminal device, a subscriber unit (subscriber unit), a subscriber station (subscriber station), a mobile station (mobile station), a mobile station (mobile), a remote station (remote station), an Access Point (AP), a remote terminal device (remote terminal), an access terminal device (access terminal), a user terminal device (user terminal), a user agent (user agent), or a user equipment (user device), etc. For example, mobile telephones (or "cellular" telephones) computers with mobile terminal devices, portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-built-in or vehicle-mounted mobile devices, smart wearable devices, and the like may be included. Such as personal communication services (personal communication service, PCS) phones, cordless phones, session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol, SIP) phones, wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) stations, personal digital assistants (personal digital assistant, PDAs), and the like. But also limited devices such as devices with lower power consumption, or devices with limited memory capabilities, or devices with limited computing capabilities, etc. Examples include bar codes, radio frequency identification (radio frequency identification, RFID), sensors, global positioning systems (global positioning system, GPS), laser scanners, and other information sensing devices.

By way of example, and not limitation, in embodiments of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. The wearable device can also be called as a wearable intelligent device, and is a generic name for intelligently designing daily wear by applying wearable technology and developing wearable devices, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothes, shoes and the like. The wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the clothing or accessories of the user. The wearable device is not only a hardware device, but also can realize a powerful function through software support, data interaction and cloud interaction. The generalized wearable intelligent device includes full functionality, large size, and may not rely on the smart phone to implement complete or partial functionality, such as: smart watches or smart glasses, etc., and focus on only certain types of application functions, and need to be used in combination with other devices, such as smart phones, for example, various smart bracelets, smart helmets, smart jewelry, etc. for physical sign monitoring.

2) A network device, including for example a base station (e.g., an access point), may refer to a device in an access network that communicates over the air-interface, through one or more cells, with wireless terminal devices. The network device may be operable to inter-convert the received air frames with Internet Protocol (IP) packets as a router between the terminal device and the rest of the access network, which may include an IP network. The network device may also coordinate attribute management for the air interface. For example, the network device may include an evolved base station (NodeB or eNB or e-NodeB, evolutional Node B) in a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system or an evolved LTE system (LTE-Advanced, LTE-a), or may also include a next generation NodeB (next generation node B, gNB) in a fifth generation mobile communication technology (5G) New Radio (NR) system, or may also include a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU) in a cloud access network (CloudRAN) system, which embodiments of the present application are not limited.

3) Machine type communication (machinet type communication, MTC), also known as inter-machine communication (machine to machine, M2M), or internet of things (internet of things, ioT), as the name implies, refers to communication between objects, and further, to communication between machines, the communication nodes in this manner may be referred to as MTC terminals. The main possibility of future internet of things communication covers various aspects such as smart power grids, smart agriculture, intelligent transportation, smart home, medical detection monitoring, logistics detection, industrial detection monitoring, automobile networking, intelligent communities, environment detection and the like.

An important class of MTC communication systems is communication systems based on existing Cellular network infrastructure, which class of MTC communication is commonly referred to as Cellular MTC or Cellular IoT (CIoT for short). The third generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project,3GPP) standard organization has been concerned with the development of Cellular MTC and actively developing standardization of related technologies. Specifically, for Cellular MTC services, the current demands on networks and UEs mainly include:

large coverage requirements: traffic for MTC is currently visible generally not requiring very high traffic rates but is required to be able to support significant coverage. The large coverage refers to that the MTC base station has a strong coverage enhancement technology, and can provide communication services for user equipment with a large penetration loss (20 dB). User equipment, such as smart home, smart meter reading services, smart water/electricity meters, etc., are typically installed indoors, even in basements, and existing cellular network technology has difficulty in providing reliable communication services for devices in these locations, while MTC base stations have to provide robust connectivity services for such devices.

Extremely high number of connections: for large-scale deployment of intelligent water/electricity meters, intelligent communities, monitoring, automobiles, wearable equipment and other terminal equipment of the Internet of things, a large number of terminal equipment (more than tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands) of the type can exist under one MTC base station, which is far higher than the number of mobile terminals facing the prior art.

Low cost (low cost): the cost of the MTC terminal equipment must be low compared with the existing mobile terminal, and low cost is a precondition that the MTC equipment can be deployed in mass.

Low power consumption (low power consumption): due to the diversity of practical applications and various deployment environments of MTC terminal devices, MTC terminal devices are generally powered by batteries, which would consume extremely high labor and time costs if the batteries are to be replaced for such a huge number of devices. MTC devices often require extremely low power consumption levels for their functional devices, so that the devices may have longer standby times, reducing the number of battery replacements.

4) The narrowband internet of things (narrow band internet of things, NB-IoT) is an MTC-oriented network and is an important network in the future communication field. Currently, 3GPP standards are researching to be based on cellular networks, and by designing a new air interface, the characteristics of narrowband technology are fully utilized to carry IoT services, which is called NB-IoT. In comparison with conventional cellular networks, the traffic and terminal equipment of the NB-IoT system has the following characteristics:

(1) Traffic low rate: NB-IoT traffic produces smaller data packets than traditional cellular networks, while often being less delay sensitive.

(2) Mass connection requirements: for large-scale deployment of intelligent water/electricity meters, intelligent homes, automobiles, wearable devices and other internet of things terminal devices, a large number of terminal devices of this type may be covered under one NB-IoT base station, for example, the number may exceed tens of thousands.

(3) Low cost requirements: NB-IoT systems require lower cost of terminal equipment than existing cellular network terminal equipment to enable mass deployment of terminal equipment. The low cost requirement requires low implementation complexity for the terminal device.

(4) Low power consumption requirements: the NB-IoT system requires lower power consumption of the terminal device, thereby saving battery power of the terminal device, ensuring the ultra-long standby time of the terminal device, and further saving labor cost for replacing the battery.

(5) Coverage enhancement requirements: since most NB-IoT systems are deployed in environments where network coverage is poor, such as electricity meters, water meters, etc., are often installed indoors and even where wireless network signals are poor, such as in basements, there is a need to enhance network coverage through coverage enhancement techniques.

To address the low cost, deep coverage, etc., requirements described above, NB-IoT systems have many unique designs. For example, to achieve deep coverage, control channels (e.g., narrowband physical downlink control channel (narrow physical downlink control channel, NPDCCH)) and data channels (e.g., narrowband physical downlink shared channel (narrow physical cownlink shared channel, NPDSCH), narrowband physical uplink shared channel (narrow physical uplink shared channel, NPUSCH)) of NB-IoT systems employ a repeated transmission approach to increase the likelihood of successful reception by poorly covered terminal devices through hundreds or thousands of repeated transmissions for the same content.

5) The random access procedure refers to a procedure from when the terminal device transmits a random access preamble (random access preamble) to when attempting to access the network, until a basic signaling connection is established with the network device. Random access is a very critical step in a mobile communication system and is the last step in which a terminal device establishes a communication link with a network device. For example, the terminal device performs information interaction with the network device through a random access process to complete subsequent operations, such as calling, resource request, or data transmission, and the terminal device can also realize uplink time synchronization with the system through random access.

The random access procedure may be classified into a contention random access procedure and a contention-free random access procedure. The embodiments of the present application mainly take a contention-based random access procedure as an example for illustration.

The contention-based random access procedure may generally include 4 steps, as shown with reference to fig. 1:

step 101, the terminal device sends a random access preamble (random access preamble) to the network device, and the network device receives the random access preamble from the terminal device, wherein the random access preamble is also called a 1 st message (MSG 1) in the random access procedure.

Step 102, the network device sends a random access response (random access response, RAR) message to the terminal device, and the terminal device receives the RAR message from the network device, wherein the RAR message is also called as a 2 nd message (MSG 2) in the random access procedure.

Step 103, the terminal device sends uplink signaling for establishing a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) connection to the network device, and the network device receives the uplink signaling from the terminal device. The uplink signaling is also called as a 3 rd message (MSG 3) in the random access procedure, and may generally include an RRC signaling part, a medium access control element (media access control control element, MAC CE), and the like, where the RRC signaling may be different according to different scenarios, for example, an RRC connection establishment request, an RRC reestablishment request, and an RRC recovery request, and the like.

Step 104, the network device sends an RRC connection setup message to the terminal device, and the terminal device receives the RRC connection setup message from the network device, where the RRC connection setup message is also called a 4 th message (MSG 4) in the random access procedure.

6) Time Advance (TA), which refers to the offset of the uplink transmission relative to the downlink, can also be understood as (N) of the uplink radio frame i before the corresponding downlink radio frame i _TA +N _TA _offset )×T _s Start of seconds, where N _TA Is a specified time advance control variable, and the specific value can be configured through a base station. N (N) _{TA offset} Is the offset of the advance control variable at the time of designation, T _s Refers to a time unit, which may be 1/(15000×2048) seconds, as shown in fig. 2. The purpose of the TA is to enable uplink signals sent by terminal devices at different distances from the base station to reach the base station at the same time. For a specific description of TA, reference may be made to protocol ts36.211section 8.

7) The terms "system" and "network" in embodiments of the present application may be used interchangeably, and the terms "field" and "domain" may be used interchangeably. The term "plurality" means two or more, and in view of this, the term "plurality" may also be understood as "at least two" in the embodiments of the present application. "at least one" may be understood as one or more, for example as one, two or more. For example, including at least one means including one, two or more, and not limiting what is included, e.g., including at least one of A, B and C, then included may be a, B, C, a and B, a and C, B and C, or a and B and C. "at least two" is understood to mean two or more. Likewise, the understanding of the description of "at least one" and the like is similar. "and/or", describes an association relationship of an association object, and indicates that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B, and may indicate: the three cases of A alone, A and B together, or B alone exist. The character "/", unless otherwise specified, generally indicates that the associated object is an "or" relationship.

And, unless specified to the contrary, the embodiments of the present application refer to the ordinal terms "first," "second," etc., as used to distinguish between multiple objects, and are not to be construed as limiting the order, timing, priority, or importance of the multiple objects.

The embodiments of the present application may be applicable to various types of communication systems, for example, NB-IoT systems, MTC systems, eMTC systems, LTE-a systems, new Radio (NR) systems, new communication systems that emerge in future communication developments, or the like. As long as there is a time advance required to be sent by one entity in the communication system, another entity needs to receive the time advance, and resets the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource according to the time advance, the communication method provided by the embodiment of the application can be adopted.

Referring to fig. 3, in order to illustrate a communication system applicable to the embodiments of the present application, the communication system illustrated in fig. 3 includes a network device and six terminal devices, and any one of the terminal devices 1 to 6 may send uplink data to the network device. In addition, the terminal apparatuses 4 to 6 may also constitute one sub-communication system. The network device may send downlink information to the terminal device 1, the terminal device 2, the terminal device 3, and the terminal device 5 may send downlink information to the terminal device 4 and the terminal device 6 based on a device-to-device (D2D) technology. Fig. 3 is merely a schematic diagram, and the type of the communication system, and the number, type, and the like of devices included in the communication system are not particularly limited.

The network architecture and the service scenario described in the embodiments of the present application are for illustrating the technical solution of the embodiments of the present application, and do not constitute a limitation to the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application, and as a person of ordinary skill in the art can know, with evolution of the network architecture and occurrence of a new service scenario, the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application is equally applicable to similar technical problems.

Based on the communication system shown in fig. 3, in general, when there is uplink data to be sent to the network device by the terminal device 2, uplink transmission resources are applied to the network device. The network device sends uplink transmission scheduling information to the terminal device 2. The terminal device 2 performs uplink data transmission according to the uplink transmission scheduling information. The NB-IoT Release 16 will study uplink non-scheduled transmission (grant-free transmission or uplink transmission in preconfigured resources or transmission in preconfigured uplink resources), and in the uplink non-scheduled transmission, when the terminal device 2 has uplink data to send to the network device, the uplink transmission is directly performed on uplink non-scheduled resources preconfigured by the network device for the terminal device 2 according to a predetermined sending manner, where the uplink non-scheduled resources may also be referred to as preconfigured uplink resources (preconfigured uplink resources, PUR). In the present application, the name of the uplink non-scheduling resource is not limited, and in the embodiments of the present application, the uplink non-scheduling resource is referred to as a preconfigured uplink resource as an example.

Based on the communication system shown in fig. 3, any one of the terminal apparatuses 1 to 6 may be in two states: an idle state or a connected state. The terminal device in idle state can be understood as being in sleep state, and periodically wake up to monitor paging. If the terminal equipment in the idle state monitors paging or the terminal equipment in the idle state has uplink data to send, the terminal equipment in the idle state wakes up to initiate a random access process to enter a connection state, and sends the uplink data or receives the downlink data in the connection state. The terminal device in the connected state has awakened from the sleep state, has established a connection with the network device, and can transmit uplink data or receive downlink data. The uplink scheduling-free transmission studied in NB-IoT Release 16 can be applied to terminal devices in the connected state as well as to terminal devices in the idle state. The terminal device in idle state does not need to initiate random access process to the network device when performing uplink scheduling-free transmission, that is, the terminal device in idle state does not need to enter a connection state when performing uplink scheduling-free transmission, and can directly perform uplink scheduling-free transmission. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, a terminal device in an idle state may also be referred to as an idle state terminal device, or an idle terminal device; the terminal device in the connection state in the embodiment of the present application may also be referred to as a connection state terminal device, or the like.

Based on the communication system shown in fig. 3, the locations of the respective terminal apparatuses 1 to 6 are different, and the time at which the uplink data transmitted by the respective terminal apparatuses arrives at the network apparatus may be different, which may cause interference between users. Therefore, when each of the terminal devices 1 to 6 performs uplink scheduling-free transmission, an effective time advance must be used, so that data transmitted when each terminal device performs uplink scheduling-free transmission can arrive at the network device at the same time, thereby avoiding interference between the terminal devices.

Taking the communication system shown in fig. 3 as an example of NB-IoT, for an idle terminal device, the network device may estimate an uplink timing of the terminal device, and send a TA to the terminal device according to the estimated uplink timing, where the terminal device adjusts uplink transmission time according to the TA, so that the time when uplink data sent by each terminal device in a cell arrives at the network device is the same. After the network device sends the TA to the terminal device, a time advance timer (time alignment timer, TA timer) is started, after the terminal device receives the TA, the same TA timer is started, both the network device and the terminal device maintain the TA timer, and whether the TA is valid can be judged according to whether the TA timer is overtime. If the TA timer does not timeout, the TA is considered valid, otherwise, the TA is considered invalid. When the idle terminal equipment has uplink data to transmit, if the TA timer is determined not to be overtime, that is, the TA is determined to be effective, the uplink data transmission can be directly performed on the pre-configured uplink resources according to a pre-defined transmission mode without the scheduling of the network equipment. It should be noted that, the "TA is valid" or "TA valid" in the embodiment of the present application may be understood that the TA is accurate, that is, it may be guaranteed that uplink data sent by the terminal device using the TA may be the same as uplink data sent by other terminal devices arrives at the network device, so that interference between terminal devices is avoided. In the embodiments of the present application, the "TA is invalid" or "TA is invalid" may be understood that the TA is inaccurate, and the time when uplink data sent by the terminal device by using the TA and uplink data sent by other terminal devices arrive at the network device is different, so that interference between terminal devices may be caused.

Currently, the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource is configured or predefined by the base station for the terminal device, and the terminal device is allowed to use the preconfigured uplink resource when in an idle state in the effective duration. Whether the uplink scheduling-free resource is in a predefined mode or in a base station configuration mode, the terminal equipment can reconfigure the effective duration of the pre-configured uplink resource only after the effective duration of the pre-configured uplink resource is invalid, and both the uplink scheduling-free resource configuration modes are not flexible enough, so that the technical problem to be solved is how to configure the uplink scheduling-free resource more flexibly.

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and a device, which are used for flexibly configuring uplink scheduling-free resources in uplink scheduling-free transmission. The method and the device are based on the same inventive concept, and because the principles of solving the problems by the method and the device are similar, the implementation of the device and the method can be referred to each other, and the repetition is not repeated.

Referring to fig. 4, a flowchart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. The method comprises the following steps:

step 201: the network device sends the time advance to the terminal device, and the terminal device receives the time advance from the network device. In this embodiment of the present application, the time advance may be a time advance sent by the network device to the terminal device for the first time, or may be an updated time advance sent by the network device to the terminal device, which is not limited in this application.

The time advance may be carried in downlink control information (downlink control information, DCI) or medium access control (medium access control, MAC) control element (MAC control element, MAC CE). The time advance bearing in DCI may be understood as transmitting the time advance through DCI, and similarly, the time advance bearing in MAC CE may be understood as transmitting the time advance through MAC CE.

In the embodiment of the present application, the time advance sent by the network device to the terminal device may be a time advance sent by the network device to the terminal device specifically, where the time advance is a time advance applicable to the terminal device.

The communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application may be applied to a terminal device in an idle state, or may be applied to a terminal device in a connected state, and in this embodiment of the present application, the application of the method to a terminal device in an idle state is illustrated as an example, and the terminal devices referred to hereinafter refer to terminal devices in an idle state unless special description is provided.

In a possible implementation, before performing step 201, the terminal device may further send a preamble sequence to the network device, and, correspondingly, before performing step 201, the network device may further receive the preamble sequence from the terminal device. The preamble sequence may be a dedicated preamble sequence assigned to a specific terminal device by the network device, or may be a preamble sequence in a random access procedure, i.e. a random access preamble. Referring to fig. 5 a-5 b, fig. 5a illustrates a preamble sequence (preamble) as an example of a random access preamble (random access preamble) in a random access procedure, and fig. 5b illustrates a preamble sequence (preamble) as an example of a dedicated preamble sequence sent by a network device to a specific terminal device.

For example, the preamble sequence sent by the terminal device to the network device may be carried on the newly configured dedicated resource, wherein the carrying of the preamble sequence on the newly configured dedicated resource may be understood as sending the preamble sequence on the newly configured dedicated resource.

For example, the preamble sequence sent by the terminal device to the network device may be carried on a preconfigured uplink resource, where the preamble sequence carried on the preconfigured uplink resource may be understood as sending the preamble sequence on the preconfigured uplink resource, or may be understood as that a resource for sending the preamble sequence belongs to the preconfigured uplink resource, or may be understood as that a resource for sending the preamble sequence is a part or all of the preconfigured uplink resource. By the method, the terminal equipment can send the preamble sequence by using the preconfigured uplink resource after the TA timer is overtime, new resources are not required to be allocated to the preamble sequence, and the resource utilization rate can be improved.

In a possible implementation manner, after performing step 201, the terminal device may further restart (restart or reset) the time advance timer (time alignment timer, TA timer); accordingly, after performing step 201, the network device may also restart (restart or reset) the time advance timer. The time advance timer is valid before overtime, which can be understood as the valid time of the TA timer for controlling TA, or the time of the TA timer for controlling the terminal device to consider the TA valid, or the time of the TA timer for controlling the terminal device to consider the uplink timing of the current serving cell to be aligned, or the time of the TA timer before overtime to consider the uplink timing to be aligned. Restarting the time advance timer may be understood as restarting the timing of the time advance timer.

Step 202a: the network device resets the effective duration of the pre-configured uplink resources (preconfigured uplink resources, PUR) according to the time advance.

In this embodiment of the present application, the preconfigured uplink resource refers to an uplink scheduling-free resource preconfigured by a network device for a terminal device in uplink scheduling-free transmission, and when uplink data of the terminal device needs to be sent to the network device in uplink scheduling-free transmission, the uplink transmission is directly performed on the uplink scheduling-free resource preconfigured by the network device for the terminal device according to a predetermined sending mode, and the name of the preconfigured uplink resource is not limited in this application.

In this embodiment, the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource may be understood as a duration that the preconfigured uplink resource may be used by the terminal device, or it may be understood that the terminal device in an idle state may use the preconfigured uplink resource within the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource, or the terminal device in an idle state considers that the preconfigured uplink resource is effective within the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource, or the terminal device in an idle state considers that the preconfigured uplink resource is active within the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource. In the embodiment of the present application, the preconfigured uplink resource is valid in the valid duration, and when the preconfigured uplink resource is valid, the terminal device is allowed to use the preconfigured uplink resource.

Based on the above step 202a, the network device resets the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource according to the time advance, which may be implemented by any one of the following two ways:

in one aspect, the network device may restart (restart or reset) a timer, where the preconfigured uplink resource is valid before the timer expires, and may release the preconfigured uplink resource after the timer expires, where the timer may also be referred to as a preconfigured uplink resource timer (PUR resource timer), and the name of the timer is not limited in this application. In this embodiment of the present application, the pre-configured uplink resource is valid before the timer times out, which may be understood as the valid time of the timer for controlling the pre-configured uplink resource, or may be understood as the time of the timer for controlling the terminal device to consider the pre-configured uplink resource valid, or may be understood as the time of the timer for controlling the terminal device to consider the pre-configured uplink resource to be usable, or may be understood as the time of the timer before the timer times out to consider the pre-configured uplink resource to be usable. Restarting the timer is understood to mean restarting the timer.

In the second mode, the network device may determine, according to the sending time of the time advance, a starting time of the first duration, where the preconfigured uplink resource is valid. The preconfigured uplink resource in the first duration is valid, which can be understood as the valid duration of the preconfigured uplink resource in the first duration, and can also be understood as the fact that the terminal equipment considers that the preconfigured uplink resource is usable in the first duration.

Based on the second manner, the network device may exemplarily determine the transmission time of the time advance as the start time of the first duration. For example, if the time advance is transmitted through DCI, a start subframe n or an end subframe n of NPDCCH carrying the DCI may be determined as a start time of a first duration, and if the length of the first duration is assumed to be m subframes, the first duration refers to a duration from subframe n to subframe n+m-1. For another example, if the time advance is transmitted through the MAC CE, the start subframe n or the end subframe n of the NPDSCH carrying the MAC CE may be determined as the start time of the first duration, and if the length of the first duration is assumed to be m subframes, the first duration refers to a duration from the subframe n to the subframe n+m-1. For example, the network device may add the transmission time of the time advance to a preset offset value to obtain the start time of the first time length. For example, if the time advance is sent through DCI, the starting subframe n of the NPDCCH carrying the DCI may be added to the preset offset value x to obtain the starting time n+x of the first duration, and if the length of the first duration is assumed to be m subframes, the first duration refers to a duration from subframe n+x to subframe n+x+m-1. For another example, if the time advance is sent through the MAC CE, the starting subframe n of the NPDSCH carrying the MAC CE may be added to the preset offset value x to obtain the starting time n+x of the first duration, and if the length of the first duration is assumed to be m subframes, the first duration refers to a duration from the subframe n+x to the subframe n+x+m-1.

Step 202b: and the terminal equipment resets the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource according to the time advance. Illustratively, the terminal device resets the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource according to the time advance, which may be implemented in any one of the following two manners, but is not limited to:

in mode 1, the terminal device may restart (restart or reset) a timer, and the preconfigured uplink resource is valid before the timer expires. The timer has the same meaning as the timer in the first mode, and will not be described herein in detail. The timer in this embodiment 1 may be the same timer as that in the first embodiment, or may be a different timer, and this is not a limitation in the present application. In this application, the same timer may be understood as having the same time duration of the timer, or may be understood as having the same time duration of the timer and the same time when the timer starts to count.

In the mode 2, the terminal device may determine, according to the time of receiving the time advance, a starting time of the first duration, where the preconfigured uplink resource is valid. The preconfigured uplink resource in the first duration is valid, which can be understood as the valid duration of the preconfigured uplink resource in the first duration, and can also be understood as the fact that the terminal equipment considers that the preconfigured uplink resource is usable in the first duration.

Based on the above manner 2, the terminal device may exemplarily determine the reception time of the time advance as the start time of the first duration. For example, assuming that a time advance is transmitted through DCI, an end subframe n of an NPDCCH carrying the DCI may be determined as a start time of a first duration, and if it is assumed that the length of the first duration is m subframes, the first duration refers to a duration from subframe n to subframe n+m-1. For another example, assuming that the time advance is transmitted through the MAC CE, the end subframe n of the NPDSCH carrying the MAC CE may be determined as a start time of a first time period, and if the length of the first time period is assumed to be m subframes, the first time period refers to a time period from subframe n to subframe n+m-1. For example, the terminal device may add the reception time of the time advance to a preset offset value to obtain the start time of the first time length. For example, if the time advance is sent through DCI, the end subframe n of the NPDCCH carrying the DCI may be added to the preset offset value x to obtain the start time n+x of the first duration, and if the length of the first duration is assumed to be m subframes, the first duration refers to a duration from subframe n+x to subframe n+x+m-1. For another example, if the time advance is sent through the MAC CE, the end subframe n of the NPDSCH carrying the MAC CE may be added to the preset offset value x to obtain the start time n+x of the first duration, and if the length of the first duration is assumed to be m subframes, the first duration refers to a duration from the subframe n+x to the subframe n+x+m-1.

In one possible implementation manner, the indication information of the network device may trigger the terminal device to reset the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource according to the time advance. Based on an example of this implementation, the network device may send a time advance and reset indication information to the terminal device, where the terminal device receives the time advance and reset indication information from the network device, where the reset indication information is used to indicate that the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource is reset, and then the terminal device resets the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource according to the time advance and the reset indication information. In this implementation, the timing advance and the reset instruction information may be transmitted simultaneously or separately.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the execution sequence of the step 202a and the step 202b is not limited. For example, in one possible implementation, step 202a is performed first, and then step 202b is performed. In another possible implementation, step 202b is performed first, and then step 202a is performed. In yet another possible implementation, step 202a and step 202b are performed simultaneously.

By the method provided by the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment does not need to wait for the effective duration of the pre-configured uplink resource to be updated after the effective duration of the pre-configured uplink resource is invalid, and the terminal equipment can actively reset the effective duration of the pre-configured uplink resource according to the time advance, so that the configuration of the effective duration of the pre-configured uplink resource is more flexible, and the flexibility of configuring the scheduling-free uplink resource can be improved. In addition, the improvement of the method is that the terminal equipment can actively reset the effective duration of the pre-configured uplink resource, and through the method, the terminal equipment resets the effective duration of the pre-configured uplink resource according to the time advance, when the terminal equipment receives the time advance sent by the network equipment, the terminal equipment can determine that the time advance is effective at the moment, and the pre-configured uplink resource can be used necessarily under the condition that the time advance is effective, and the effective duration of the pre-configured uplink resource is reset at the moment, so that the use time of the pre-configured uplink resource can be prolonged to the maximum extent.

The communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application is illustrated in the following with reference to fig. 6. Referring to fig. 6, a flowchart of another communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application is shown, where in fig. 6, a terminal device is an idle UE (idle UE) and a network device is an eNB. The method shown in fig. 6 includes the steps of:

Step 501: the idle UE sends a preamble sequence to the eNB, which receives the preamble sequence from the idle UE. In this example, the preamble sequence is taken as an example to be a dedicated preamble sequence sent by the eNB to the specific idle UE, where the dedicated preamble sequence of the specific idle UE may be understood as the preamble sequence only applies to the idle UE.

Step 502: the eNB sends the time advance to the idle UE, and the idle UE receives the time advance from the eNB.

Step 503a: the eNB restarts the time advance timer and the preconfigured uplink resource timer.

Step 503b: the idle UE restarts the time advance timer and the pre-configured uplink resource timer.

In this example, the timer restarted by the eNB in step 503a and the timer restarted by the idle UE in step 503b may be the same timer or different timers.

By the method, after the idle UE receives the time advance sent by the eNB, if the pre-configured uplink resource timer is overtime or is about to overtime, the idle UE cannot use or is about to use the pre-configured uplink resource, and by the method, the idle UE restarts the pre-configured uplink resource timer after receiving the time advance sent by the eNB, so that the idle UE cannot use the pre-configured uplink resource after the time advance is updated.

The communication method described in the application is used for solving the technical problem that the effective duration of updating the preconfigured uplink resource is not flexible enough in the prior art. In addition to this technical problem, another technical problem exists in the prior art. In the prior art, the terminal equipment and the base station can release the preconfigured uplink resources only after the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resources is over, and the method for releasing the preconfigured uplink resources is not flexible enough, and how to release the preconfigured uplink resources flexibly is another technical problem to be solved.

The embodiment of the application provides another communication method and device for flexibly releasing the pre-configured uplink resources in the uplink scheduling-free transmission. The method and the device are based on the same inventive concept, and because the principles of solving the problems by the method and the device are similar, the implementation of the device and the method can be referred to each other, and the repetition is not repeated.

Referring to fig. 7, a flowchart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. The method comprises the following steps:

step 601: the network equipment sends a first message to the terminal equipment, and the terminal equipment receives the first message from the network equipment, wherein the first message comprises a time advance and first indication information, and the first indication information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to release the preconfigured uplink resource.

In the embodiment of the present application, the meanings of the time advance and the preconfigured uplink resource are the same as those in the embodiment provided in fig. 4, and will be referred to each other, and will not be repeated here.

The communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application may be applied to an idle state terminal device or a connection state terminal device, and in the embodiment of the present application, the application of the method to an idle state terminal device is illustrated as an example, and the terminal devices referred to hereinafter refer to idle state terminal devices unless special description is provided.

In the embodiment of the present application, the first message may be carried in DCI or MAC CE. The first message being carried on DCI may be understood as sending the first message through DCI, and similarly, the first message being carried on MAC CE may be understood as sending the first message through MAC CE. Taking the example of sending the first message through DCI, at least two fields may be included in the DCI, where one field is used to indicate the time advance and the other field is used to indicate the release and/or reservation of the preconfigured uplink resources. Illustratively, the DCI indicates the time advance may indicate an absolute time advance or an indirect time advance. For example, the DCI may indicate to release and/or reserve the preconfigured uplink resources with 1 bit, for example, to release the preconfigured uplink resources when the 1 bit value is 1, to reserve the preconfigured uplink resources when the 1 bit value is 0, or to release the preconfigured uplink resources when the 1 bit value is 0, and to reserve the preconfigured uplink resources when the 1 bit value is 1. Taking the example of sending the first message through the MAC CE, assuming that MSG2 is used to send the first message, MSG2 itself may carry the time advance, and a field in MSG2 except for the time advance may be re-interpreted as releasing and/or reserving the preconfigured uplink resource.

In a possible implementation manner, the network device may send the first message by using a dedicated RNTI (radio network temporary identifier) to scramble, i.e. DCI and/or NPDSCH carrying the first message may be scrambled by using a dedicated RNTI, and correspondingly, the terminal device may use the dedicated RNTI to descramble, by which only the terminal device may receive the first message.

In a possible implementation, when the network device sends the first message through MSG2, the RA-RNTI may be used for scrambling, and correspondingly, the terminal device may use the RA-RNTI for descrambling. In this implementation manner, a random access preamble sequence identifier (random access preamble ID, RAPID) may also be carried in MSG2, and each terminal device may receive the first message belonging to itself according to the RAPID.

In the embodiment of the application, the search space (search space) used when the network device sends the first message may include a search space of PUR or a type2-NPDCCH-CSS (CSS: common search space). The search space of the PUR refers to a search space specifically defined for the PUR, and may specifically include a period, an offset, or an aggregation level (aggregation level) of the search space, etc.

In a possible implementation, before performing step 601, the terminal device may further send a preamble sequence to the network device, and, correspondingly, before performing step 601, the network device may further receive the preamble sequence from the terminal device. The preamble sequence may be a dedicated preamble sequence sent by the network device to a specific terminal device, or may be a preamble sequence in a random access procedure.

For example, the preamble sequence sent by the terminal device to the network device may be carried on a newly configured dedicated resource or on a preconfigured uplink resource. See the relevant description in fig. 4 for details.

In a possible implementation manner, after performing step 601, the terminal device may further restart (restart or reset) the time advance timer (time alignment timer, TA timer); accordingly, after performing step 601, the network device may also restart (restart or reset) the time advance timer. The meaning of the time advance timer can be seen from the relevant description in fig. 4.

In a possible implementation, after performing step 601, the terminal device sends a second message to the network device, and the network device receives the second message from the terminal device. The second message is used to acknowledge the first message, wherein the second message is used to acknowledge the first message, which may be understood as the terminal device informing the network device that the first message was received via the second message. The second message may be understood as an acknowledgement message, which may be used to acknowledge receipt of the first message by the terminal device, or may also be used to acknowledge receipt of the time advance and/or the first indication information included in the first message. In this example, the second message may be a physical layer message, which is sent through NPUSCH format 2 or NPUSCH format 1, or a higher layer message, which may be, for example, a release acknowledgement (release confirmation) MAC CE. The second message may be sent by a preconfigured uplink resource, or may be sent by a resource dynamically configured by the base station.

Step 602a: the network device releases the preconfigured uplink resources.

Step 602b: and the terminal equipment releases the preconfigured uplink resources.

By the communication method provided in fig. 7, the terminal device and the network device do not need to wait until the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resource is invalid to release the preconfigured uplink resource, so that when the network device sends the time advance to the terminal device, the preconfigured uplink resource can be released, and the preconfigured uplink resource can be flexibly released.

Another communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application is illustrated in the following with reference to fig. 8. Referring to fig. 8, a flowchart of another communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application is shown, where fig. 8 illustrates an example in which a terminal device is an idle UE (UE in idle state) and a network device is an eNB. The method shown in fig. 8 includes the steps of:

step 701: the idle UE sends a preamble sequence to the eNB, which receives the preamble sequence from the idle UE. In this example, the dedicated preamble sequence sent by the eNB to the specific idle UE is exemplified.

Step 702: the eNB sends a first message to the idle UE, and the idle UE receives the first message from the eNB. The first message comprises a time advance and first indication information, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to release the preconfigured uplink resource.

Step 703: the idle UE sends a second message to the eNB, which receives the second message from the idle UE. The second message acknowledges receipt of the first message.

Step 704a: and the eNB releases the preconfigured uplink resources.

Step 704b: the idle UE releases the preconfigured uplink resources.

By the method provided in fig. 8, when the eNB detects that the idle UE transmits uplink data through the preconfigured uplink resource, it is determined that the time advance of the idle UE is inaccurate, and meanwhile, the eNB resources are relatively tight, when the preconfigured uplink resource is wanted to be released, the time advance and the first indication information can be simultaneously transmitted to the idle UE through the first message, so that signaling overhead can be saved.

Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiment of the present application also provides a terminal device, which may have a structure as shown in fig. 9, and has the behavior function of the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiment. As shown in fig. 9, the terminal device 900 may include a transceiver unit 901 and a processing unit 902, where the transceiver unit 901 may be configured to receive a time advance from a network device, and the processing unit 902 may be configured to reset an effective duration of a preconfigured uplink resource according to the time advance. Alternatively, the transceiver unit 901 may be configured to receive a first message from a network device, where the first message includes a time advance and first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate to release a preconfigured uplink resource, and the processor unit 902 may be configured to release the preconfigured uplink resource. In implementation, terminal device 900 may also have a storage unit 903, where storage unit 903 may be coupled to processing unit 902 for storing programs, instructions, etc. needed for the processing unit 902 to perform functions.

In one possible design, the processing unit 902 is specifically configured to implement:

and restarting a timer, wherein the pre-configured uplink resource is valid before the timer is overtime.

and determining the starting time of a first time according to the receiving time of the time advance, wherein the preconfigured uplink resource in the first time is effective.

In a possible design, the transceiver unit 901 is further configured to implement:

after receiving the first message from the network device, sending a second message to the network device, the second message being used to acknowledge the first message.

and sending the preamble sequence to the network equipment.

In a possible design, the processing unit 902 is further configured to implement:

restarting a time advance timer, wherein the time advance timer is valid before timeout.

In one possible design, the time advance is carried in downlink control information DCI or medium access control element MAC CE.

In one possible design, the terminal device 900 is a terminal device in an idle state.

In addition, the terminal device according to the embodiment of the present application may further have a structure as shown in fig. 10, where the terminal device 1000 may include at least one processor 1002, and the at least one processor 1002 is configured to couple to a memory, and read and execute instructions in the memory to implement the steps involved in the terminal device in the method provided by the embodiment of the present application. Optionally, the terminal device 1000 may further comprise a transceiver 1001 for supporting the reception or transmission of signaling or data by the communication means. The transceiver 1001 in the terminal device 1000 shown in fig. 10 may be used to implement the functions of the transceiver unit 901 described above, for example, the transceiver 1001 may be used for the terminal device 1000 to perform the step shown as S201 in the communication method shown in fig. 4 and the step shown as S601 in the communication method shown in fig. 7, and the processor 1002 may be used to implement the functions of the processing unit 902 described above, for example, the processor 1002 may be used for the terminal device 1000 to perform the step shown as S202b in the communication method shown in fig. 4 and the step shown as S602b in the communication method shown in fig. 7. In addition, transceiver 1001 may be coupled to antenna 1003 for supporting communication by terminal device 1000. Optionally, the terminal device 1000 can further include a memory 1004, in which a computer program and instructions are stored, where the memory 1004 can be coupled to the processor 1002 and/or the transceiver 1001, for supporting the processor 1002 to call the computer program and instructions in the memory 1004 to implement the steps involved in the terminal device in the method provided in the embodiment of the present application; in addition, the memory 1004 may also be used for storing data related to the method embodiments of the present application, for example, for storing data, instructions necessary to support the interaction performed by the transceiver 1001, and/or for storing configuration information necessary for the terminal device 1000 to perform the method described in the method embodiments of the present application.

Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiment of the present application further provides a network device, which may have a structure as shown in fig. 11, and has the behavior function of the network device in the foregoing method embodiment. As shown in fig. 11, the network device 1100 may include a transceiver unit 1101 and a processing unit 1102, where the transceiver unit 1101 may be configured to send a time advance to a terminal device, and the processing unit 1102 may be configured to reset an effective duration of a preconfigured uplink resource according to the time advance. Alternatively, the transceiver 1101 may be configured to send a first message to a terminal device, where the first message includes a time advance and first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate that a preconfigured uplink resource is released, and the processing unit 1102 may be configured to release the preconfigured uplink resource. In implementation, the network device 1100 may also have a storage unit 1103, where the storage unit 1103 may be coupled with the processing unit 1102 for storing programs, instructions, etc. needed for the processing unit 1102 to perform functions.

In a possible design, the processing unit 1102 is specifically configured to implement:

and determining the starting time of a first time according to the sending time of the time advance, wherein the preconfigured uplink resource in the first time is effective.

In a possible design, the transceiver unit 1101 is further configured to implement:

and before the processing unit 1102 releases the preconfigured uplink resource, receiving a second message from the terminal equipment, where the second message is used to confirm the first message.

and receiving a preamble sequence from the terminal equipment.

In a possible design, the processing unit 1102 is further configured to implement:

In one possible design, the terminal device is in an idle state.

In addition, the network device according to the embodiment of the present application may further have a structure as shown in fig. 12 and the network device 1200 may include at least one processor 1202, where the at least one processor 1202 is configured to couple to a memory, and read and execute instructions in the memory to implement steps involved in a terminal device in a method provided by an embodiment of the present application. Optionally, the terminal device 1000 may further comprise a transceiver 1201 for supporting the communication means for signaling or data reception or transmission. The transceiver 1201 in the network device 1200 shown in fig. 12 may be used to implement the functions of the transceiver unit 901 described above, for example, the transceiver 1201 may be used for the network device 1200 to perform the step shown as S201 in the communication method shown in fig. 4 and the step shown as S601 in the communication method shown in fig. 7, and the processor 1202 may be used to implement the functions of the processing unit 902 described above, for example, the processor 1202 may be used for the network device 1200 to perform the step shown as S202a in the communication method shown in fig. 4 and the step shown as S602a in the communication method shown in fig. 7. Further, a transceiver 1201 may be coupled to antenna 1203 for supporting communication with network device 1200. Optionally, the network device 1200 may further include a memory 1204, in which a computer program, instructions are stored, and the memory 1204 may be coupled to the processor 1202 and/or the transceiver 1201, for supporting the processor 1202 to call the computer program, instructions in the memory 1204 to implement the steps involved in the network device in the method provided in the embodiments of the present application; in addition, the memory 1204 may also be used to store data related to embodiments of the methods of the present application, for example, to store data, instructions necessary to support the transceiver 1201 in performing the interactions, and/or to store configuration information necessary for the network device 1200 to perform the methods described by embodiments of the present application.

Based on the same conception as the above method embodiment, the present application further provides a computer readable storage medium, on which some instructions are stored, which when invoked by a computer to execute, may cause the computer to perform the method according to any one of the above method embodiments and any one of the possible designs of the method embodiments. In the embodiment of the present application, the computer readable storage medium is not limited, and may be, for example, RAM (random-access memory), ROM (read-only memory), or the like.

Based on the same conception as the above method embodiments, the present application also provides a computer program product which, when executed by a computer call, can perform the method embodiments as well as the methods involved in any possible design of the above method embodiments.

Based on the same conception as the above method embodiments, the present application also provides a chip coupled with a transceiver for performing the method referred to in any one of the possible implementations of the above method embodiments, wherein "coupled" means that the two components are directly or indirectly joined to each other, which may be fixed or movable, which may allow a flowing liquid, an electrical signal or other type of signal to be communicated between the two components.

In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When loaded and executed on a computer, produces a flow or function in accordance with embodiments of the present invention, in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored in or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another, for example, by wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital Subscriber Line (DSL)), or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that contains an integration of one or more available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy Disk, a hard Disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), or the like.

The various illustrative logical blocks and circuits described in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the general purpose processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a digital signal processor core, or any other similar configuration.

The steps of a method or algorithm described in the embodiments of the present application may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software element executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. The software elements may be stored in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. In an example, a storage medium may be coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC, which may reside in a terminal device. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside in different components in a terminal device.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

Although the invention has been described in connection with specific features and embodiments thereof, it will be apparent that various modifications and combinations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are merely exemplary illustrations of the present invention as defined in the appended claims and are considered to cover any and all modifications, variations, combinations, or equivalents that fall within the scope of the invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention also include such modifications and alterations insofar as they come within the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.

Claims

1. A method of communication, comprising:

the terminal equipment receives the time advance from the network equipment;

and the terminal equipment resets the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resources according to the time advance and prolongs the service time of the preconfigured uplink resources.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein resetting the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resources comprises:

and restarting a timer by the terminal equipment, wherein the preconfigured uplink resource is valid before the timer is overtime.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein resetting the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resources comprises:

and the terminal equipment determines the starting time of a first time according to the receiving time of the time advance, and the preconfigured uplink resource in the first time is effective.

4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the method further comprises:

and the terminal equipment sends a preamble sequence to the network equipment.

5. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the terminal device is a terminal device in an idle state.

6. A method of communication, comprising:

the terminal equipment sends a preamble sequence to the network equipment through the preconfigured uplink resource;

the terminal equipment receives a first message from the network equipment, wherein the first message comprises a time advance and first indication information, and the first indication information is used for indicating to release the preconfigured uplink resource;

and the terminal equipment releases the preconfigured uplink resources.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein after the terminal device receives the first message from the network device, the method further comprises:

the terminal device sends a second message to the network device, where the second message is used to confirm the first message.

8. A method according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that the terminal device is a terminal device in an idle state.

9. A method of communication, comprising:

the network equipment sends a time advance to the terminal equipment;

and the network equipment resets the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resources according to the time advance and prolongs the service time of the preconfigured uplink resources.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein resetting the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resources comprises:

And restarting a timer by the network equipment, wherein the preconfigured uplink resource is valid before the timer is overtime.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein resetting the effective duration of the preconfigured uplink resources comprises:

and the network equipment determines the starting time of a first time according to the sending time of the time advance, and the preconfigured uplink resource in the first time is effective.

12. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 11, wherein the method further comprises:

the network device receives a preamble sequence from the terminal device.

13. A method according to any of claims 9 to 12, wherein the terminal device is a terminal device in an idle state.

14. A method of communication, comprising:

the network equipment receives a preamble sequence sent by the terminal equipment through the preconfigured uplink resource;

the network equipment sends a first message to the terminal equipment, wherein the first message comprises a time advance and first indication information, and the first indication information is used for indicating to release the preconfigured uplink resource;

and the network equipment releases the preconfigured uplink resources.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein prior to the network device releasing the preconfigured uplink resources, the method further comprises:

the network device receives a second message from the terminal device, where the second message is used to acknowledge the first message.

16. A method according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the terminal device is a terminal device in an idle state.

17. A communication device, comprising:

a transceiver unit for receiving the time advance from the network device;

and the processing unit is used for resetting the effective duration of the pre-configured uplink resource according to the time advance and prolonging the use time of the pre-configured uplink resource.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the processing unit is specifically configured to:

restarting a timer, wherein the preconfigured uplink resource is valid before the timer is overtime.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the processing unit is specifically configured to:

20. The apparatus of any of claims 17 to 19, wherein the transceiver unit is further configured to:

and sending the preamble sequence to the network equipment.

21. An arrangement according to any of claims 17-20, characterized in that the communication means is a terminal device in an idle state.

22. A communication device, comprising:

a transceiver unit, configured to send a preamble sequence to a network device through a preconfigured uplink resource, and receive a first message from the network device, where the first message includes a time advance and first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate to release the preconfigured uplink resource;

and the processing unit is used for releasing the preconfigured uplink resources.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the transceiver unit is further configured to:

24. The apparatus of claim 22 or 23, wherein the communication means is a terminal device in an idle state.

25. A communication device, comprising:

The receiving and transmitting unit is used for transmitting the time advance to the terminal equipment;

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the processing unit is specifically configured to:

27. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the processing unit is specifically configured to:

28. The apparatus of any one of claims 25 to 27, wherein the transceiver unit is further configured to:

and receiving a preamble sequence from the terminal equipment.

29. The apparatus according to any of claims 25 to 28, wherein the terminal device is a terminal device in an idle state.

30. A communication device, comprising:

a transceiver unit, configured to receive a preamble sequence sent by a terminal device through a preconfigured uplink resource, and send a first message to the terminal device, where the first message includes a time advance and first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate to release the preconfigured uplink resource;

31. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the transceiver unit is further configured to:

and before the processing unit releases the preconfigured uplink resource, receiving a second message from the terminal equipment, wherein the second message is used for confirming the first message.

32. The apparatus of claim 30 or 31, wherein the terminal device is a terminal device in an idle state.

33. A computer readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed, cause the method of any of claims 1-16 to be performed.

34. A communication system comprising a communication device according to any of claims 17-21 and a communication device according to any of claims 25-29.

35. A communication system comprising a communication device according to any of claims 22-24 and a communication device according to any of claims 30-32.