CN111698767B

CN111698767B - Method and equipment for requesting system information

Info

Publication number: CN111698767B
Application number: CN201910188000.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 何青春; 常俊仁; 谢曦
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: XFusion Digital Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-03-13
Filing date: 2019-03-13
Publication date: 2021-08-31
Anticipated expiration: 2039-03-13
Also published as: WO2020181943A1; CN111698767A

Abstract

The application relates to a method and equipment for requesting system information, wherein the method for requesting the system information comprises the following steps: transmitting a first message for requesting system information to a network device; receiving a second message from the network equipment, and determining that the second message is a response message of the first message; starting or restarting a first timer to wait for receiving a downlink control channel for scheduling the system information within the running time of the first timer, wherein the terminal device is in an active state within the running time of the first timer. The embodiment of the application controls the opportunity of the terminal equipment entering the dormant state, and improves the success rate of receiving the system information.

Description

Method and equipment for requesting system information

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method and a device for requesting system information.

Background

In the fifth generation mobile communication technology (the 5)^thgeneration, 5G) New Radio (NR) system, system messages are divided into a main system information block (MIB), Remaining Minimum System Information (RMSI), and Other System Information (OSI). The RMSI is, among others, a system information block 1 (SIB 1). Herein, other SIBs except the MIB and the SIB1, such as SIB2 or SIB3, may be referred to as OSI, and OSI with the same period may be encapsulated into one System Information (SI) for transmission.

In the NR system, the SI may be transmitted by a periodic broadcast manner, or may be transmitted according to a request of the terminal device. If the SI is sent according to the request of the terminal device, the terminal device may generally send the request to the base station in a random access procedure, and the base station may send the SI to the terminal device through a broadcast manner or dedicated signaling. For example, the terminal device may request SI from the base station through a first message (Msg1) in a random access procedure, or may request SI from the base station through a third message (Msg3) in a random access procedure.

Described below is a mechanism in which a terminal device requests SI from a base station through Msg1 in a random access procedure, and the base station sends SI to the terminal device through dedicated signaling. If the terminal device is configured with a connected-discontinuous reception (C-DRX) mechanism and the terminal device requests SI from the base station through Msg1 in the random access process, the terminal device sends Msg1 to the base station after entering the activation period of C-DRX to request SI from the base station through Msg 1. After receiving the Msg1, the base station sends a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) for scheduling a Random Access Response (RAR) to the terminal device. After sending the PDCCH for scheduling RAR, the base station sends RAR, and after sending RAR, the base station also sends PDCCH for scheduling SI, and then sends SI again, so that the terminal device can obtain SI. If the terminal device receives the PDCCH for scheduling the SI, the PDCCH may carry a New Data Indication (NDI) that is turned over, so that the terminal device may start a DRX inactivity timer (DRX-inactivity timer) to receive the SI during a running time of the DRX-inactivity timer. However, the PDCCH sent by the base station for scheduling RAR is used for scheduling RAR and is not used for indicating new data, so the PDCCH does not carry NDI, or the carried NDI is not flipped. Then the terminal device will not start drx-inactivity timer after receiving the PDCCH. Then, since the terminal device does not start the DRX-inactivity timer, the active period of the current C-DRX cycle may end very soon, and then the terminal device enters the dormant state. Then, if the terminal device enters the dormant state before receiving the PDCCH for scheduling SI, it is obviously unable to receive the PDCCH for scheduling SI, and therefore unable to receive SI, resulting in loss of SI.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a method and equipment for requesting system information, which are used for improving the success rate of terminal equipment for obtaining SI.

In a first aspect, a first method for requesting system information is provided, the method comprising:

transmitting a first message for requesting system information to a network device;

receiving a second message from the network equipment, and determining that the second message is a response message of the first message;

starting or restarting a first timer to wait for receiving a downlink control channel for scheduling the system information within the running time of the first timer, wherein the terminal device is in an active state within the running time of the first timer.

The method may be performed by a first communication device, for example a terminal equipment or a communication device capable of supporting the terminal equipment to implement the functions required by the method, or for example a chip capable of being provided in the terminal equipment.

In this embodiment of the application, for example, if the second message is RAR, after receiving the second message from the network device, the first timer may be started or restarted, so that the terminal device does not sleep during the running time of the first timer, so as to ensure that the downlink control channel for scheduling the system information from the network device can be received as far as possible, and further receive the system information. By the mode, the time when the terminal equipment enters the dormant state is controlled, and the success rate of receiving the system information is improved.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the starting or restarting the first timer includes:

starting or restarting the first timer upon receiving the second message; or the like, or, alternatively,

starting or restarting the first timer at an end of a time window for receiving the second message.

For example, the first timer may be started or restarted upon receiving the second message, or for the network device, the first timer may be started or restarted after the second message is sent, or the first timer may be started or restarted upon sending the second message. Thus, the starting or restarting of the first timer is timely.

Or, the first timer may be restarted or restarted at the end time of the time window for receiving the second message, and it may be understood that, no matter what time domain position of the time window the terminal device receives the second message, the terminal device may restart or restart the first timer at the end time of the time window, so that the timing duration of the first timer is all used to wait for the downlink control channel used for scheduling the SI, thereby improving the utilization rate of the first timer, and also improving the reception success rate of the downlink control channel used for scheduling the SI.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the method further includes:

acquiring a preset timing duration of the first timer; or the like, or, alternatively,

receiving a third message from the network device, wherein the third message is used for indicating the timing duration of the first timer.

As a first implementation manner of the first timer, the first timer may be implemented by a new timer instead of using an existing timer in the prior art, and may be considered as a timer specifically provided in the embodiment of the present application, or a timer specifically used for implementing the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application. The timing duration of the first timer may be specified by a protocol, for example; alternatively, the timing duration of the first timer may be preconfigured in the terminal device, for example, may be preconfigured in the terminal device by the network device, or may be preconfigured in the terminal device before the terminal device leaves a factory; or, the timing duration of the first timer may also be indicated by the network device, for example, the network device may send a third message to the terminal device, where the third message may indicate the timing duration of the first timer, and after receiving the third message, the terminal device may determine the timing duration of the first timer. The function of the first timer is realized through a special timer, so that the function of the first timer is more definite.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the first timer is an inactivity timer, a downlink retransmission timer, or an uplink retransmission timer in a discontinuous reception mechanism; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the inactivity timer is used for the terminal equipment to wait for receiving downlink newly transmitted data from the network equipment within the operation time of the inactivity timer, the downlink retransmission timer is used for the terminal equipment to wait for receiving downlink retransmitted data from the network equipment within the operation time of the downlink retransmission timer, and the uplink retransmission timer is used for the terminal equipment to send uplink retransmitted data within the operation time of the uplink retransmission timer.

Alternatively, as a second implementation manner of the first timer, the first timer may also be implemented by using a timer existing in the prior art. For example, the first timer may be any one of an inactivity timer, a downlink retransmission timer, or an uplink retransmission timer in the C-DRX mechanism. Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may be in the active state by using any one of the three timers, so as to receive the downlink control channel for scheduling the SI as far as possible in the running time of the first timer, thereby being able to receive the SI. Moreover, the first timer can directly utilize the existing timer in the prior art, which is also convenient for making the technical scheme of the embodiment of the application compatible with the existing protocol.

receiving the downlink control channel for scheduling the system information from the network device;

starting or restarting an inactivity timer, wherein the terminal device is in an active state during the inactivity timer's runtime;

and receiving the system information from the network equipment according to the scheduling of the downlink control channel in the running time of the inactivity timer.

Because the terminal device does not sleep in the running time of the first timer, the downlink control channel for scheduling the system information from the network device can be received, so that the system information is further received, and the success rate of acquiring the system information is improved.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the receiving the system information from the network device includes:

receiving an RRC connection reconfiguration message from the network equipment, wherein the RRC connection reconfiguration message carries the system information; or the like, or, alternatively,

and receiving a special message from the network equipment, wherein the special message carries the system information.

In this embodiment of the present application, when sending the SI, the network device may send the SI by carrying the SI in a dedicated message, where the dedicated message may be a message dedicated to sending the SI under the protection of this embodiment of the present application. For example, the dedicated message is an RRC message, or may be another type of message. The system information is sent through the special message, so that the system information does not need to be mixed with other information for sending, the sending success rate of the system information is improved, and the decoding success rate of the terminal equipment to the system information is also improved.

Or, the network device may also send the SI through an existing message, for example, the network device may send the SI carried in an RRC connection reconfiguration message, or may send the SI carried in another message. The existing message can be multiplexed when the SI is sent, so that the purpose of sending the SI can be achieved, transmission resources can be saved, and the scheme provided by the embodiment of the application is more easily compatible with the existing protocol.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the determining that the second message is a response message of the first message includes:

determining that the second message contains only a RAPID.

Take the example where the first message is Msg1 and the second message is Msg 2. If Msg2 is responding to Msg1 requesting SI, then only RAPID will be included in Msg 2. Therefore, the terminal device may determine that the second message is for responding to the first message, based on the second message including only the RAPID.

receiving a fourth message from the network device;

determining that the fourth message is used for indicating that the terminal equipment is allowed to acquire system information in an inactive period of a discontinuous reception mechanism.

As an optional implementation manner, the permission for the terminal device may be pre-indicated by the network device, for example, the network device may send a fourth message to the terminal device, where the fourth message is used to indicate that the terminal device is allowed to acquire SI in the inactive period of the C-DRX mechanism, and after receiving the fourth message from the network device, the terminal device may determine that SI can be acquired in the inactive period of the C-DRX mechanism. By this mode, the network device can indicate that the terminal device in need can acquire the SI in the inactive period of the C-DRX mechanism, and for other terminal devices, the SI can not be acquired in the inactive period of the C-DRX mechanism, so as to save the power consumption of the terminal device. And since the network device can instruct the terminal device to be able to acquire the SI during the inactive period of the C-DRX mechanism, that is, can instruct the terminal device not to acquire the SI during the inactive period of the C-DRX mechanism, for the SI that has been instructed to be able to acquire during the inactive period of the C-DRX mechanism, the network device can also instruct the terminal device not to acquire the SI during the inactive period of the C-DRX mechanism again, so that the terminal devices may not acquire the SI during the inactive period of the C-DRX mechanism next time after acquiring the SI, so as to save the power consumption of the terminal device.

In a second aspect, a second method for requesting system information is provided, the method comprising:

receiving a first message for requesting system information from a terminal device;

sending a second message to the terminal equipment, wherein the second message is a response message of the first message;

and starting or restarting a first timer to send a downlink control channel for scheduling the system information within the running time of the first timer.

The method may be performed by a second communication device, for example a network device or a communication device capable of supporting a network device to implement the functions required by the method, or for example a chip capable of being provided in a network device. The network device is for example a base station.

With reference to the second aspect, in one possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the starting or restarting the first timer includes:

starting or restarting the first timer when the second message is sent; or the like, or, alternatively,

starting or restarting the first timer at an end time of a time window for transmitting the second message.

With reference to the second aspect, in one possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the method further includes:

and sending a third message to the terminal equipment, wherein the third message is used for indicating the timing duration of the first timer.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the first timer is an inactivity timer, a downlink retransmission timer, or an uplink retransmission timer in the discontinuous reception mechanism; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the inactivity timer is used for the network device to send downlink newly transmitted data within the operation time of the inactivity timer, the downlink retransmission timer is used for the network device to send downlink retransmission data within the operation time of the downlink retransmission timer, and the uplink retransmission timer is used for the network device to wait for receiving uplink retransmission data from the terminal device within the operation time of the uplink retransmission timer.

sending the downlink control channel for scheduling the system information to the terminal equipment;

starting or restarting an inactivity timer;

and transmitting the system information to the terminal equipment according to the scheduling of the downlink control channel in the running time of the inactive timer.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the sending the system information to the terminal device includes:

sending an RRC connection reconfiguration message to the terminal equipment, wherein the RRC connection reconfiguration message carries the system information; or the like, or, alternatively,

and sending a special message to the terminal equipment, wherein the special message carries the system information.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the second message is a response message of the first message, and includes:

the second message contains only RAPID.

and sending a fourth message to the terminal equipment, wherein the fourth message is used for indicating that the terminal equipment is allowed to acquire system information in a non-activation period of a discontinuous reception mechanism.

With regard to the technical effects of the second aspect or any one of its possible implementations, reference may be made to the introduction of the first aspect or various possible implementations of the first aspect.

In a third aspect, a first communication device is provided, for example, the first communication device as described above. The communication device is configured to perform the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect. In particular, the communication device may comprise means for performing the method of the first aspect or any of its possible implementations, for example comprising a processing means and a transceiver means coupled to each other. Illustratively, the communication device is a communication apparatus. Illustratively, the communication device is a terminal device. Wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the receiving and sending module is used for sending a first message for requesting system information to the network equipment;

the transceiver module is further configured to receive a second message from the network device, and determine that the second message is a response message of the first message;

the processing module is configured to start or restart a first timer to wait for receiving a downlink control channel for scheduling the system information during a running time of the first timer, where the communication device is in an active state during the running time of the first timer.

With reference to the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the processing module is configured to start or restart the first timer by:

With reference to the third aspect, in one possible implementation manner of the third aspect,

the processing module is further configured to obtain a preset timing duration of the first timer; or the like, or, alternatively,

the transceiver module is further configured to receive a third message from the network device, where the third message is used to indicate a timing duration of the first timer.

With reference to the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the first timer is an inactivity timer, a downlink retransmission timer, or an uplink retransmission timer in the discontinuous reception mechanism; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the inactivity timer is used for the communication apparatus to wait for receiving downlink newly transmitted data from the network device during the operation time of the inactivity timer, the downlink retransmission timer is used for the communication apparatus to wait for receiving downlink retransmitted data from the network device during the operation time of the downlink retransmission timer, and the uplink retransmission timer is used for the communication apparatus to send uplink retransmitted data during the operation time of the uplink retransmission timer.

the transceiver module is further configured to receive the downlink control channel for scheduling the system information from the network device;

the processing module is further configured to start or restart an inactivity timer, wherein the communication device is in an active state during a running time of the inactivity timer;

the transceiver module is further configured to receive the system information from the network device according to the scheduling of the downlink control channel during the running time of the inactivity timer.

With reference to the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the transceiver module is configured to receive the system information from the network device by:

With reference to the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the processing module is configured to determine that the second message is a response message of the first message by:

determining that the second message contains only a RAPID.

the transceiver module is further configured to receive a fourth message from the network device;

the processing module is further configured to determine that the fourth message indicates that the communication apparatus is allowed to acquire system information during an inactive period of a discontinuous reception mechanism.

With regard to technical effects of the third aspect or any one of its possible implementations, reference may be made to the introduction of the first aspect or various possible implementations of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, a second communication device is provided, for example a second communication device as described above. The communication device is configured to perform the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect. In particular, the communication device may comprise means for performing the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect, for example comprising a processing means and a transceiver means coupled to each other. Illustratively, the communication device is a communication apparatus. Illustratively, the communication device is a network device. Wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the transceiver module is used for receiving a first message for requesting system information from the terminal equipment;

the transceiver module is configured to send a second message to the terminal device, where the second message is a response message of the first message;

the processing module is configured to start or restart a first timer, so as to send a downlink control channel for scheduling the system information within a running time of the first timer.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the processing module is configured to start or restart the first timer by:

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the transceiver module is further configured to send a third message to the terminal device, where the third message is used to indicate a timing duration of the first timer.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the first timer is an inactivity timer, a downlink retransmission timer, or an uplink retransmission timer in the discontinuous reception mechanism; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the inactivity timer is used for the communication device to send downlink newly transmitted data within the operation time of the inactivity timer, the downlink retransmission timer is used for the communication device to send downlink retransmission data within the operation time of the downlink retransmission timer, and the uplink retransmission timer is used for the communication device to wait for receiving uplink retransmission data from the terminal equipment within the operation time of the uplink retransmission timer.

In combination with the fourth aspect, in one possible implementation of the fourth aspect,

the transceiver module is further configured to send the downlink control channel for scheduling the system information to the terminal device;

the processing module is further used for starting or restarting an inactivity timer;

the transceiver module is further configured to send the system information to the terminal device according to the scheduling of the downlink control channel during the running time of the inactivity timer.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the transceiver module is configured to send the system information to the terminal device by:

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the second message is a response message of the first message, and includes:

the second message contains only RAPID.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the transceiver module is further configured to send a fourth message to the terminal device, where the fourth message is used to indicate that the terminal device is allowed to acquire system information in an inactive period of a discontinuous reception mechanism.

With regard to the technical effects of the fourth aspect or any one of the possible implementations of the fourth aspect, reference may be made to the introduction of the second aspect or various possible implementations of the second aspect.

In a fifth aspect, a third communication device is provided, for example a first communication device as described above. The communication device comprises a processor and a transceiver for implementing the method as described in the first aspect or in various possible designs of the first aspect. Illustratively, the communication means is a chip provided in the communication device. Illustratively, the communication device is a terminal device. Wherein, the transceiver is implemented by an antenna, a feeder, a codec, etc. in the communication device, for example, or, if the communication device is a chip disposed in the communication device, the transceiver is, for example, a communication interface in the chip, and the communication interface is connected with a radio frequency transceiving component in the communication device to implement transceiving of information by the radio frequency transceiving component.

In a sixth aspect, a fourth communication device is provided, for example the second communication device as described above. The communication device comprises a processor and a transceiver for implementing the method as described in the second aspect above or in various possible designs of the second aspect. Illustratively, the communication means is a chip provided in the communication device. Illustratively, the communication device is a terminal device. The transceiver is implemented by an antenna, a codec, and the like in the communication device, for example, or, if the communication device is a chip disposed in the communication device, the transceiver is, for example, a communication interface in the chip, and the communication interface is connected with a radio frequency transceiving component in the communication device to implement transceiving of information by the radio frequency transceiving component.

In a seventh aspect, a fifth communication device is provided. The communication device may be the first communication device in the above method design. Illustratively, the communication device is a chip provided in the terminal equipment. The communication device includes: a memory for storing computer executable program code; and a processor coupled with the memory. Wherein the program code stored by the memory comprises instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the fifth communication device to perform the method of the first aspect or any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect.

Wherein, the fifth communication device may further include a communication interface, which may be a transceiver in the terminal equipment, for example, implemented by an antenna, a feeder, a codec, etc. in the communication device, or, if the fifth communication device is a chip disposed in the terminal equipment, the communication interface may be an input/output interface of the chip, for example, an input/output pin, etc.

In an eighth aspect, a sixth communications apparatus is provided. The communication device may be the second communication device in the above method design. Illustratively, the communication device is a chip provided in the network device. The communication device includes: a memory for storing computer executable program code; and a processor coupled with the memory. Wherein the program code stored by the memory comprises instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the fifth communication device to perform the method of the second aspect or any one of the possible embodiments of the second aspect.

Wherein, the sixth communication device may further include a communication interface, and the communication interface may be a transceiver in the network device, for example, implemented by an antenna, a feeder, a codec, and the like in the communication device, or, if the sixth communication device is a chip disposed in the network device, the communication interface may be an input/output interface of the chip, for example, an input/output pin, and the like.

A ninth aspect provides a communication system, which may include the first communication apparatus of the third aspect, the third communication apparatus of the fifth aspect, or the fifth communication apparatus of the seventh aspect, and include the second communication apparatus of the fourth aspect, the fourth communication apparatus of the sixth aspect, or the sixth communication apparatus of the eighth aspect.

A tenth aspect provides a computer storage medium having stored therein instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the first aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a computer storage medium having instructions stored thereon, which when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method as set forth in the second aspect or any one of the possible designs of the second aspect.

In a twelfth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions stored thereon, which when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the first aspect.

In a thirteenth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions stored thereon, which when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the second aspect described above or any one of the possible designs of the second aspect.

In the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device does not sleep during the running time of the first timer, so as to ensure that the downlink control channel for scheduling the system information from the network device can be received as much as possible, thereby further receiving the system information. By the mode, the time when the terminal equipment enters the dormant state is controlled, and the success rate of receiving the system information is improved.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic view of an application scenario according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic view of another application scenario according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a flowchart of a method for requesting system information according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a process of requesting an SI in a first implementation manner of a first timer provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a process of requesting an SI in a second implementation manner of the first timer provided in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device capable of implementing the functions of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is another schematic block diagram of a communication device capable of implementing functions of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device capable of implementing functions of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is another schematic block diagram of a communication device capable of implementing functions of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is another schematic block diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a further schematic block diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application clearer, the embodiments of the present application will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Hereinafter, some terms in the embodiments of the present application are explained to facilitate understanding by those skilled in the art.

1) Terminal equipment, including devices that provide voice and/or data connectivity to a user, may include, for example, handheld devices with wireless connection capability or processing devices connected to wireless modems. The terminal device may communicate with a core network via a 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 device-to-device communication (D2D) terminal device, a V2X terminal device, a machine-to-machine/machine-type communication (M2M/MTC) terminal device, an internet of things (IoT) terminal device, a subscriber unit (subscriber unit), a subscriber station (subscriber state), a mobile station (mobile state), a remote station (remote state), an access point (access point, AP), a remote terminal (remote terminal), an access terminal (access terminal), a user terminal (user terminal), a user agent (user agent), or a user equipment (user device), etc. For example, mobile telephones (or so-called "cellular" telephones), computers with mobile terminal equipment, portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-included mobile devices, and the like may be included. For example, Personal Communication Service (PCS) phones, cordless phones, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones, Wireless Local Loop (WLL) stations, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and the like. Also included are constrained devices, such as devices that consume less power, or devices that have limited storage capabilities, or devices that have limited computing capabilities, etc. Examples of information sensing devices include bar codes, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), sensors, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), laser scanners, and the like.

By way of example and not limitation, in the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. Wearable equipment can also be called wearable smart device or intelligent wearable equipment etc. is the general term of using wearable technique to carry out intelligent design, develop the equipment that can dress to daily wearing, like glasses, gloves, wrist-watch, dress and shoes etc.. A 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 realizes powerful functions through software support, data interaction and cloud interaction. The generalized wearable smart device includes full functionality, large size, and can implement full or partial functionality without relying on a smart phone, such as:

smart watches or smart glasses and the like, and only focus on a certain type of application functions, and need to be used in cooperation with other devices such as smart phones, such as various smart bracelets, smart helmets, smart jewelry and the like for monitoring physical signs.

The various terminal devices described above, if located on a vehicle (e.g., placed in or installed in the vehicle), may be considered to be vehicle-mounted terminal devices, which are also referred to as on-board units (OBUs), for example.

In this embodiment, the terminal device may further include a relay (relay). Or, it is understood that any device capable of data communication with a base station may be considered a terminal device.

2) Network devices, including, for example, Access Network (AN) devices, such as base stations (e.g., access points), may refer to devices in AN access network that communicate with wireless terminal devices over one or more cells over the air interface, or, for example, a network device in vehicle to all (V2X) technology is a Road Side Unit (RSU). The base station may be configured to interconvert received air frames and 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 RSU may be a fixed infrastructure entity supporting the V2X application and may exchange messages with other entities supporting the V2X application. The network device may also coordinate attribute management for the air interface. For example, the network device may include an evolved Node B (NodeB or eNB or e-NodeB) in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system or an advanced long term evolution (LTE-a) system, or may also include a next generation Node B (gNB) in a 5G NR system (also referred to as NR system) or may also include a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU) in a Cloud access network (Cloud RAN) system, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

3) And DRX, under the DRX mechanism, the terminal equipment stops monitoring the PDCCH during the sleep time. DRX is divided into two categories: idle (idle) DRX and C-DRX.

in idle DRX, that is, discontinuous reception when the terminal device is in an idle state, since there is no Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection and no dedicated resource of the terminal device when the terminal device is in the idle state, the terminal device mainly monitors the paging message in idle DRX, and the purpose of discontinuous reception can be achieved as long as the period of the paging message is defined. When the terminal device listens to the user data, it leaves the idle state, for example, it enters the connected state from the idle state.

C-DRX, i.e., DRX with the terminal device in an RRC connected (connected) state. Under C-DRX, the terminal equipment periodically and blindly detects the candidate PDCCH, if the PDCCH can not be detected within a period of time, the terminal equipment enters an OFF state from an active state, and the terminal equipment stops detecting the PDCCH under the OFF state so as to reduce the energy consumption of the terminal equipment. The OFF state may be referred to as a sleep state or a hibernation state, and the active state may be referred to as an active state.

In the DRX mechanism, a plurality of timers (timers) may be involved, for example, including a DRX-duration (on) timer, a DRX-inactivity timer, a DRX-hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) round-trip time delay (RTT) timer Downlink (DL), a DRX-HARQ RTT timer Uplink (UL), a DRX-retransmission (retransmission) timer DL, or a DRX-retransmission timer UL.

Next, the above-described plurality of timers will be described.

And the DRX-on duration timer is used for indicating the number of continuous time units after the terminal equipment enters the DRX period. The terminal device monitors the PDCCH during this time.

Drx-activity timer, which is used to indicate the number of consecutive time units after the PDCCH indicates data transmission, or may be understood as the time when the terminal device detects the downlink control channel indicating data transmission, may be understood as the number of consecutive time units after the terminal device detects the downlink control channel indicating data transmission, or may be understood as the time when the terminal device detects Downlink Control Information (DCI) indicating data transmission, and then detects the control channel. For example, in the run time of the drx-on duration timer, if the terminal device detects a PDCCH and the detected PDCCH is used to indicate data retransmission (it can be understood that the detected PDCCH carries an inverted NDI), the terminal device may start the drx-inactivity timer. The terminal device can continue to monitor the PDCCH during the run time of the drx-inactivity timer. In addition, the network device can send the downlink newly transmitted data to the terminal device during the running time of the drx-inactivity timer, and the terminal device can also receive the downlink newly transmitted data from the network device during the running time of the drx-inactivity timer.

drx-HARQ RTT timer dl is used to indicate the minimum time that the terminal device expects to receive the downlink assignment retransmission, or to indicate the minimum number of consecutive time units before receiving the downlink retransmission, which may also be understood as the minimum retransmission scheduling interval, that is, to indicate how many time units the next downlink data transmission occurs earliest. During the timer running time, the terminal device is in a dormant state. It can be appreciated that during the running of the timer, the terminal device does not monitor the PDCCH. And the terminal equipment starts the timer after receiving the downlink assignment retransmission. The downlink assignment retransmission may refer to a PDCCH for scheduling downlink retransmission data.

drx-HARQ RTT timer ul, for indicating the minimum number of consecutive time units before uplink retransmission, which may also be understood as the minimum retransmission scheduling interval, that is, for indicating how many time units the next uplink data transmission occurs earliest. During the timer running time, the terminal device is in a dormant state. It can be understood that during the running of the timer, the terminal device will not transmit uplink data, and the network device will not receive uplink data. And the terminal equipment starts the timer after receiving the uplink scheduling. The uplink scheduling may refer to a PDCCH for scheduling uplink retransmission data.

Drx-retransmission timer dl for indicating the time for the terminal device to detect the control channel before receiving the downlink retransmission data, or indicating the number of time units of the control channel that are consecutive before receiving the downlink retransmission data. And under the condition that drx-HARQ RTT timerDL is overtime and the terminal equipment fails to decode the received downlink data, drx-retransmission timerDL can be started. And in the running time of the drx-retransmission timerDL, the terminal equipment is in an activated state. It can be understood that during the running time of this timer, the terminal device needs to monitor the PDCCH. In addition, during the running time of drx-retransmission timer dl, the network device may send downlink retransmission data to the terminal device, and the terminal device may receive the downlink retransmission data from the network device.

Sixthly, drx-transmission timer ul for indicating the time when the network device receives the data before receiving the uplink retransmission data, or indicating the number of time units of the control channel which are continuous before receiving the uplink retransmission data. At the time drx-HARQ RTT timerll times out, drx-retransmission timerll may be started. And in the running time of drx-retransmission timer UL, the terminal equipment is in an activated state. It can be understood that during the run time of drx-transmission timer ul, the terminal device needs to monitor the PDCCH. And in the running time of the drx-retransmission timer ul, the terminal device can send uplink retransmission data, and the network device can receive the uplink retransmission data from the terminal device in the running time of the drx-retransmission timer ul.

The above timer is, for example, a drx-on duration timer, drx-inactivity timer, drx-retransmission timer dl, drx-retransmission timer ul, or the like, and is a name used in the LTE system. When the above-mentioned timer is applied to other communication systems, such as a 5G system or other types of communication systems, other names may be used, and there may be corresponding changes in the functions. The embodiment of the present application does not limit this.

4) Inactivity timers described herein are, for example, drx-inactivity timers; a downlink retransmission timer, for example, drx-retransmission timer dl; the uplink retransmission timer is, for example, drx-retransmission timer ul.

5) The downlink control channel may be, for example, a PDCCH, an Enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel (EPDCCH), a Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel (NPDCCH), or other downlink control channels.

6) The terms "system" and "network" in the embodiments of the present application may be used interchangeably. "at least one" means one or more, "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, which may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone, wherein A and B can be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship. "at least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of the singular or plural items. For example, at least one (one) of a, b, or c, may represent: a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, or a-b-c, wherein a, b, c may be single or multiple.

And, unless stated to the contrary, the embodiments of the present application refer to the ordinal numbers "first", "second", etc., for distinguishing a plurality of objects, and do not limit the sequence, timing, priority, or importance of the plurality of objects. For example, the first synchronization signal and the second synchronization signal are used only for distinguishing different synchronization signals, and do not indicate differences in the contents, priorities, transmission orders, importance levels, and the like of the two synchronization signals.

Furthermore, the terms "comprising" and "having" in the description of the embodiments and claims of the present application and the drawings are not intended to be exclusive. For example, a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or modules is not limited to only those steps or modules listed, but may include other steps or modules not listed.

Having described some of the concepts related to the embodiments of the present application, the following describes features related to the embodiments of the present application.

In the NR system, there are two transmission modes of the SI, one is transmission in a broadcast mode, which can be understood that the base station periodically transmits in a broadcast mode without a request from the terminal device; also, on-demand transmission is used, which can be understood as transmission according to a request of a terminal device, and on-demand si refers to on-demand transmission. For example, when the terminal device needs to obtain the SI and the system information broadcast status configured by the base station for the terminal device is "not broadcast", the terminal device may initiate an SI acquisition request to the base station, and the base station sends the SI to the terminal device through a broadcast or dedicated signaling according to the SI acquisition request initiated by the terminal device. For example, in the NR system, in consideration of different traffic types, bandwidth capability of a terminal device, power consumption of the terminal device, or the like, a concept of a bandwidth part (BWP) is introduced, and a base station can configure a maximum of 4 active BWPs to the terminal device per carrier or serving cell. According to the conclusion of the current protocol, it is not necessary to configure the SI common search space for each active BWP, and the base station will periodically broadcast SI in the SI common search space only if the SI common search space is configured. Then for a terminal device, if the active BWP in which the terminal device is located does not configure the SI common search space, the terminal device cannot obtain the SI periodically transmitted by the base station, but can only obtain the SI on an as-needed basis.

The system information broadcast state is configured to the terminal device in advance by the base station, and if the system information broadcast state is "not broadcast", it indicates that the base station does not periodically broadcast the SI, so that the terminal device is required to actively acquire the SI.

If the SI is sent according to the request of the terminal device, the terminal device may generally send the request to the base station in a random access procedure. For example, the terminal device may request SI from the base station through Msg1 in the random access procedure, or may request SI from the base station through Msg3 in the random access procedure, and the base station may send SI to the terminal device through a broadcast manner or dedicated signaling. The mode in which the terminal device requests SI from the base station through Msg1 in the random access process may be referred to as a mode based on Msg1(Msg1 based), and the mode in which the terminal device requests SI from the base station through Msg3 in the random access process may be referred to as a mode based on Msg3(Msg3 based). These two modes are described separately below.

Msg1 based：

If the base station configures Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) resources dedicated to requesting SI in SIB1, the terminal device may request SI from the base station through the PRACH resources configured by the base station, that is, the terminal device may acquire SI in an Msg1 based manner. The PRACH resources include, for example, a random access preamble (preamble), and may also include other resources.

The base station configures PRACH resources dedicated to requesting the SI, which may be understood as configuring a mapping relationship between the PRACH resources and the SI. According to the mapping relation between the PRACH resource and the SI, the terminal equipment sends the Msg1 once, and only one SI can be requested, or a plurality of SIs can be requested. For example, the base station configuration, PRACH resource 1 corresponds to SI #1, and PRACH resource 2 corresponds to SI #2 and SI # 3. Then, if the terminal device uses PRACH resource 1 when transmitting Msg1, it indicates that SI #1 is requested by the terminal device, and if the terminal device uses PRACH resource 2 when transmitting Msg1, it indicates that SI #2 and SI #3 are requested by the terminal device.

The terminal device sends a SI acquisition request to the base station via Msg1 (it can be understood that Msg1 is sent to the base station via PRACH resources dedicated to requesting SI), and the base station sends a response message to Msg1 to the terminal device via a second message (Msg2) in a random access procedure. The Msg2 used to respond to a request for SI typically contains only a Random Access Preamble Identifier (RAPID). Wherein, Msg1 can be preamble, Msg2 can be RAR.

Msg3 based：

If the base station does not configure the terminal device with PRACH resources dedicated to requesting SI, the terminal device may request SI through Msg 3. For example, the base station may notify the terminal device through SIB1 if the terminal device is configured with PRACH resources dedicated to requesting SI. Then, if the terminal device does not acquire information of PRACH resources configured by the base station to be dedicated to requesting SI in the received SIB1, it may be determined that SI is to be requested through Msg 3.

If the terminal device transmits a request message for requesting SI to the base station through the Msg3, the base station may transmit a response message to the terminal device through a fourth message (Msg4) in a random access procedure. Wherein Msg4 may be a contention resolution message.

Described below is a mechanism in which a terminal device requests SI from a base station through Msg1 in a random access procedure, and the base station sends SI to the terminal device through dedicated signaling. If the terminal equipment is configured with a C-DRX mechanism and acquires the SI by adopting an Msg1 based mode, the terminal equipment sends Msg1 in the random access process to the base station after entering the activation period of the C-DRX so as to request the SI from the base station through Msg 1. After receiving the Msg1, the base station sends a PDCCH for scheduling RAR to the terminal device. After sending the PDCCH for scheduling RAR, the base station sends RAR, and after sending RAR, the base station also sends PDCCH for scheduling SI, and then sends SI again, so that the terminal device can obtain SI. If the terminal equipment receives the PDCCH for scheduling SI, the terminal receives SI sent by the special signaling according to the corresponding time-frequency resource position of the PDCCH. However, the PDCCH sent by the base station for scheduling RAR is used for scheduling RAR and is not used for indicating new data transmission, so the PDCCH does not carry NDI. Then the terminal device will not start drx-inactivity timer after receiving the PDCCH. Then, since the terminal device does not start the DRX-inactivity timer, the active period of the current C-DRX cycle may end very soon, and then the terminal device enters the dormant state. Then, if the terminal device enters the dormant state before receiving the PDCCH for scheduling SI, it is obviously unable to receive the PDCCH for scheduling SI, and therefore unable to receive SI, resulting in loss of SI.

In view of this, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application are provided. In this embodiment of the application, for example, if the second message is RAR, after receiving the second message from the network device, the terminal device may start or restart the first timer, so that the terminal device does not sleep during the running time of the first timer, so as to ensure that a downlink control channel for scheduling system information from the network device can be received as far as possible, and further receive the system information. By the mode, the time when the terminal equipment enters the dormant state is controlled, and the success rate of receiving the system information is improved.

The embodiment of the application can be applied to an evolved universal mobile telecommunications system terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) system, or a Next Generation (NG) -RAN system, or can also be applied to a next generation communication system or a similar communication system.

Please refer to fig. 1, which is an application scenario of the present application, or a network architecture applied to the present application, for example, a network architecture of an E-UTRAN system. In fig. 1, the E-UTRAN consists of enbs, providing protocols for the user and control planes of the E-UTRA towards the terminal equipment. The enbs are interconnected via an X2 interface. The eNB is also connected to a Mobility Management Entity (MME) through an S1-MME interface and to a serving gateway (S-GW) through an S1-U interface. In fig. 1, 3 enbs are taken as an example, and the enbs are represented as network devices in fig. 1, which are a first network device, a second network device and a third network device, respectively. In fig. 1, terminal devices are not shown, and actually each eNB in fig. 1 may serve one or more terminal devices, and the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by the terminal devices and the enbs serving the terminal devices.

Please refer to fig. 2, which is another application scenario of the embodiment of the present application, or another network architecture applied to the embodiment of the present application, for example, a network architecture of a NG-RAN system. In fig. 2, the gNB provides NR user plane and control plane protocols towards the terminal device, and the gNB is connected to the core network of the 5G system, the ng-eNB provides E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocols towards the terminal device, and the ng-eNB is also connected to the core network of the 5G system. The gNB and the NG-eNB are interconnected through an Xn interface, and the gNB and the NG-eNB are both connected to an access and mobility management function (AMF)/User Plane Function (UPF) in a 5G core network (5GC) through an NG interface. In fig. 2, the fourth network device and the fifth network device are both a gNB, and the sixth network device and the seventh network device are both a ng-eNB. In fig. 2, the terminal device is not shown, and actually, each of the gnbs or ng-gnbs in fig. 2 may serve one or more terminal devices, and the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application may be executed by the terminal device and the gnbs serving the terminal device, or may also be executed by the terminal device and the ng-eNB serving the terminal device.

Alternatively, in fig. 2, the fourth network device, the sixth network device, and the seventh network device may all be a gNB. The gNB provides NR user plane and control plane protocols towards the terminal device, and is connected to the core network of the 5G system. The gNB and the gNB are interconnected through an Xn interface, and the gNB is connected to the AMF/UPF in the 5G core network through an NG interface. In fig. 2, the terminal device is not shown, and actually each gNB in fig. 2 may serve one or more terminal devices, and the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application may be executed by the terminal device and the gNB serving the terminal device.

The technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application is described in the following with the accompanying drawings of the specification.

An embodiment of the present application provides a method for requesting system information, please refer to fig. 3, which is a flowchart of the method. The method can be applied to the scenario shown in fig. 1 or fig. 2, and in the following description, the method provided by the embodiment of the present application is applied to the application scenario shown in fig. 1 or fig. 2 as an example. In addition, the method may be performed by two communication apparatuses, for example, a first communication apparatus and a second communication apparatus, where the first communication apparatus may be a network device or a communication apparatus capable of supporting the network device to implement the functions required by the method, or the first communication apparatus may be a terminal device or a communication apparatus capable of supporting the terminal device to implement the functions required by the method, and may of course be other communication apparatuses such as a system on chip. The same applies to the second communication apparatus, which may be a network device or a communication apparatus capable of supporting the network device to implement the functions required by the method, or a terminal device or a communication apparatus capable of supporting the terminal device to implement the functions required by the method, and of course, other communication apparatuses such as a system on a chip may also be used. The implementation manners of the first communication device and the second communication device are not limited, for example, the first communication device may be a network device, the second communication device is a terminal device, or both the first communication device and the second communication device are network devices, or both the first communication device and the second communication device are terminal devices, or the first communication device is a network device, and the second communication device is a communication device capable of supporting the terminal device to implement the functions required by the method, and so on. The network device is, for example, a base station.

For convenience of introduction, in the following, the method is performed by a network device and a terminal device as an example, that is, the first communication apparatus is a network device and the second communication apparatus is a terminal device as an example. If the method provided by the embodiment of the present application is applied to the application scenario shown in fig. 1, the network device described below may be any one of the first network device, the second network device, or the third network device in fig. 1, and if the method provided by the embodiment of the present application is applied to the application scenario shown in fig. 2, the network device described below may be any one of the fourth network device, the fifth network device, the sixth network device, or the seventh network device in fig. 2.

S31, the terminal device sends a first message for requesting system information to the network device, and the network device receives the first message for requesting system information from the terminal device.

Hereinafter, the system information is also referred to as SI. For example, in a case that the terminal device needs to obtain the SI and the system information broadcast status configured for the terminal device by the network device is "not broadcast", the terminal device may send a first message to the network device to obtain the SI. For example, in the NR system, the network device may configure the terminal device with a maximum of 4 active BWPs per carrier or serving cell. And the active BWP where the terminal device is located does not configure the SI common search space, the terminal device cannot obtain the SI periodically sent by the network device, but only obtains the SI on demand, so the terminal device can send the first message to the network device.

In this embodiment of the application, the first message is, for example, Msg1 in the random access process, that is, the terminal device may acquire the SI in the Msg1 based manner. For example, the mechanism adopted in the embodiment of the present application is that the terminal device requests the SI from the base station through Msg1 in the random access process, and the base station sends the SI to the terminal device through dedicated signaling.

In this way, the network device configures the PRACH resource dedicated to the request SI, which is understood to be a mapping relationship between the PRACH resource and the SI. The PRACH resource includes, for example, preamble, and may also include other resources. According to the mapping relation between the PRACH resource and the SI, the terminal equipment sends the Msg1 once, and only one SI can be requested, or a plurality of SIs can be requested. For example, the network device configuration, PRACH resource 1 corresponds to SI #1, and PRACH resource 2 corresponds to SI #2 and SI # 3. Then, if the terminal device uses PRACH resource 1 when transmitting Msg1, it indicates that SI #1 is requested by the terminal device, and if the terminal device uses PRACH resource 2 when transmitting Msg1, it indicates that SI #2 and SI #3 are requested by the terminal device. The terminal equipment only needs to select the corresponding PRACH resource according to the SI required.

S32, the network device sends a second message to the terminal device, the terminal device receives the second message from the network device, and the second message is a response message of the first message.

In the embodiment of the present application, the first message is, for example, Msg1 in the random access procedure, and the second message is a response message of the first message, for example, Msg2 in the random access procedure.

The terminal device sends a first message to the network device via Msg1 (e.g., the terminal device sends Msg1 to the network device via PRACH resources dedicated to requesting SI), and the network device sends a response to Msg1 to the terminal device via Msg 2.

The Msg2 responding to the Msg1 requesting SI generally only contains RAPID, and if the Msg2 contains other information besides RAPID, it indicates that the Msg2 is not the Msg2 responding to the Msg1 requesting SI. Therefore, after receiving Msg2, if the Msg2 is determined to contain only RAPID, the end device may determine that Msg2 is Msg2 responding to Msg1 for requesting SI.

S33, the terminal device starts or restarts the first timer to wait for receiving the downlink control channel for scheduling the system information during the running time of the first timer, wherein the terminal device is in an active state during the running time of the first timer. In addition, the network device also starts or restarts the first timer to transmit a downlink control channel for scheduling the system information during the running time of the first timer.

Wherein, if the first timer is not started, the terminal device may start the first timer, and if the first timer is started and is not overtime, the terminal device may restart the first timer. The same is true for network devices.

Of course, the terminal device starts or restarts the first timer, and the network device starts or restarts the first timer, and the occurrence time of the first timer and the occurrence time of the network device may be the same or may be different, which is not limited specifically.

In this embodiment, after receiving the Msg2 from the network device, the terminal device may start or restart the first timer, so that the terminal device does not sleep during the running time of the first timer, so as to ensure as much as possible to receive a downlink control channel for scheduling SI from the network device, thereby further receiving SI. By the mode, the time when the terminal equipment enters the dormant state is controlled, and the receiving success rate of the SI is improved.

For the terminal device, the first timer may be started or restarted when the second message is received, or for the network device, the first timer may be started or restarted after the second message is sent, or the first timer may be started or restarted when the second message is sent. Thus, the starting or restarting of the first timer is timely.

Alternatively, for the terminal device, there may be a defined time window for the reception of the second message, within which the terminal device may receive the second message, which may also be referred to as a reception time window, for example. The time when the terminal device receives the second message may be the starting time of the receiving time window, or the ending time of the receiving time window, or other time between the starting time and the ending time of the receiving time window. For example, the time when the terminal device receives the second message is not the end time of the receiving time window, if the terminal device starts or restarts the first timer when receiving the second message, a part of the running time of the first timer coincides with the remaining time of the receiving time window, and the receiving time window is used for receiving the second message, in the receiving time window, the network device does not send the downlink control channel for scheduling SI, and the terminal device naturally does not receive the downlink control channel for scheduling SI in the receiving time window. Therefore, if a part of the running time of the first timer coincides with the remaining time of the receiving time window, it is a waste of the timing of the first timer, and it is also possible that the remaining timing duration of the first timer is not long enough to wait for receiving the downlink control channel for scheduling SI because of the waste of the part of the time.

Therefore, in view of this factor, the terminal device may restart or restart the first timer at the end time of the time window for receiving the second message (i.e., the receiving time window), and it may be understood that, no matter what time domain position of the receiving time window the terminal device receives the second message, the terminal device may restart or restart the first timer at the end time of the receiving time window, so that the timing duration of the first timer may be all used to wait for the downlink control channel for scheduling the SI, thereby improving the utilization rate of the first timer and also improving the receiving success rate of the downlink control channel for scheduling the SI.

Correspondingly, for the network device, there may be a specified time window for the transmission of the second message, and the network device may transmit the second message within the time window, which may also be referred to as a transmission time window, for example. The time when the network device sends the second message may be the starting time of the sending time window, the ending time of the sending time window, or other time between the starting time and the ending time of the sending time window. Also in view of the above, the network device may be caused to restart or restart the first timer at the end of the time window for transmitting the second message (i.e., the transmission time window).

If the terminal equipment starts or restarts the first timer when receiving the second message, the network equipment starts or restarts the first timer after the second message is sent; alternatively, if the terminal device restarts or restarts the first timer at the end time of the time window for receiving the second message (i.e., the reception time window), the network device also restarts or restarts the first timer at the end time of the time window for transmitting the second message (i.e., the transmission time window). In this way, the terminal device and the network device can maintain the first timer as consistent as possible.

With respect to the first timer, the embodiments of the present application support different implementations, which are described as follows.

As a first implementation manner of the first timer, the first timer may be implemented by a new timer instead of using an existing timer in the prior art, and may be considered as a timer specifically provided in the embodiment of the present application, or a timer specifically used for implementing the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application. The timing duration of the first timer may be specified by a protocol, for example; alternatively, the timing duration of the first timer may be preconfigured in the terminal device, for example, may be preconfigured in the terminal device by the network device, or may be preconfigured in the terminal device before the terminal device leaves a factory; or, the timing duration of the first timer may also be indicated by the network device, for example, the network device may send a third message to the terminal device, where the third message may indicate the timing duration of the first timer, and after receiving the third message, the terminal device may determine the timing duration of the first timer.

Referring to fig. 4, a schematic diagram of requesting SI in a first implementation of the first timer is shown. As can be seen from fig. 4, first, the terminal device is in an on duration period in the C-DRX cycle, in the on duration period, the terminal device may send Msg1 for requesting SI, after receiving Msg1 for requesting SI, the network device sends a PDCCH for scheduling RAR to the terminal device, and then the network device sends RAR to the terminal device, and the terminal device acquires RAR according to scheduling of the PDCCH for scheduling RAR. In the example shown in fig. 4, for example, the terminal device does not start the first timer before receiving the RAR, the terminal device may start the first timer after receiving the RAR, and the terminal device is in an active state within the running time of the first timer, and the timing duration of the first timer is, for example, indicated in advance by the network device through the third message. The network device may also maintain the first timer, and the network device may send the PDCCH for scheduling SI during the operation time of the first timer, and the terminal device may receive the PDCCH for scheduling SI during the operation time of the first timer. The PDCCH for scheduling SI may be scrambled by a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI), for example. After receiving the PDCCH for scheduling SI, the terminal device may start an inactivity timer to receive SI during the operation time of the inactivity timer. Therefore, the terminal device can be considered to be in the active state from the reception of the RAR until the reception of the SI, as shown in fig. 4. In addition, after the terminal device receives the PDCCH for scheduling SI, if the first timer has not timed out, the terminal device may stop the first timer, or may not stop the first timer, and let the first timer continue to run until the first timer times out.

In addition, as can be seen from fig. 4, the terminal device is in an active state after starting or restarting the first timer, where when the terminal device is in the active state maintained by the first timer, it is only required to ensure that the terminal device can receive the PDCCH for scheduling SI, and therefore when the terminal device is in the active state maintained by the first timer, power consumption may be less than that of the terminal device in the on duration period, so as to reduce power consumption of the terminal device as much as possible. Or, when the terminal device is in the active state maintained by the first timer, the power consumption may also be equal to the power consumption of the terminal device in the on duration period, which is not limited specifically.

Alternatively, as a second implementation manner of the first timer, the first timer may also be implemented by using a timer existing in the prior art. For example, the first timer may be any one of an inactivity timer, a downlink retransmission timer, or an uplink retransmission timer in the C-DRX mechanism. Wherein, the inactivity timer is, for example, drx-inactivity timer; a downlink retransmission timer, for example, drx-retransmission timer dl; the uplink retransmission timer is, for example, drx-retransmission timer ul. In the running time of the inactivity timer, the terminal device is in an active state, in the running time of the downlink retransmission timer, the terminal device is in an active state, and in the running time of the uplink retransmission timer, the terminal device is also in an active state. Moreover, the first timer can directly utilize the existing timer in the prior art, which is also convenient for making the technical scheme of the embodiment of the application compatible with the existing protocol.

As can be seen from the foregoing description, the inactivity timer may be used for the terminal device to wait for receiving the downlink newly transmitted data from the network device during the operation time of the inactivity timer, the downlink retransmission timer may be used for the terminal device to wait for receiving the downlink retransmitted data from the network device during the operation time of the downlink retransmission timer, and the uplink retransmission timer may be used for the terminal device to send the uplink retransmitted data during the operation time of the uplink retransmission timer.

Referring to fig. 5, a schematic diagram of requesting SI in a second implementation of the first timer is shown. As can be seen from fig. 5, first, the terminal device is in an on duration period in the C-DRX cycle, in the on duration period, the terminal device may send Msg1 for requesting SI, after receiving Msg1 for requesting SI, the network device sends a PDCCH for scheduling RAR to the terminal device, and then the network device sends RAR to the terminal device, and the terminal device acquires RAR according to scheduling of the PDCCH for scheduling RAR. In the example shown in fig. 5, for example, the terminal device has started the first timer in the on duration period, the terminal device may restart the first timer after receiving the RAR, and the terminal device is in an active state during the running time of the first timer. The network device may also maintain the first timer, and the network device may send the PDCCH for scheduling SI during the operation time of the first timer, and the terminal device may receive the PDCCH for scheduling SI during the operation time of the first timer. The PDCCH used for scheduling SI can be scrambled by C-RNTI, for example. If the first timer is implemented by an inactivity timer, after receiving a PDCCH for scheduling SI, the terminal device may restart the inactivity timer to receive SI during a running time of the inactivity timer; alternatively, if the first timer is not implemented by an inactivity timer, for example, the first timer is an uplink retransmission timer or a downlink retransmission timer, after receiving the PDCCH for scheduling the SI, the terminal device may restart the inactivity timer to receive the SI during the operation time of the inactivity timer. Therefore, the terminal device can be considered to be in the active state from the reception of the RAR until the reception of the SI, as shown in fig. 5.

In addition, as can be seen from fig. 5, the terminal device is in an active state after starting or restarting the first timer, where when the terminal device is in the active state maintained by the first timer, it is only required to ensure that the terminal device can receive the PDCCH for scheduling SI, and therefore when the terminal device is in the active state maintained by the first timer, power consumption may be less than that of the terminal device in the on duration period, so as to reduce power consumption of the terminal device as much as possible. Or, when the terminal device is in the active state maintained by the first timer, the power consumption may also be equal to the power consumption of the terminal device in the on duration period, which is not limited specifically.

After the network device starts or restarts the first timer, the network device may send a downlink control channel for scheduling the SI to the terminal device as long as possible within the running time of the first timer. The terminal device may receive the downlink control channel for scheduling SI from the network device during the running time of the first timer after starting or restarting the first timer. However, the downlink control channel for scheduling the SI generally carries the flipped NDI, so that the terminal device may start or restart the inactivity timer after receiving the downlink control channel for scheduling the SI (or when receiving the downlink control channel for scheduling the SI). Similarly, after the network device sends the downlink control channel for scheduling the SI to the terminal device (or when the network device sends the downlink control channel for scheduling the SI to the terminal device), the network device may also start or restart the first timer because the downlink control channel carries the flipped NDI. Naturally, the terminal device is in the active state during the running time of the inactivity timer, so the network device may send the SI to the terminal device through the dedicated signaling as much as possible during the running time of the inactivity timer, and the terminal device may receive the SI from the network device through the dedicated signaling during the running time of the inactivity timer. The dedicated signaling may be, for example, Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, or may be Downlink Control Information (DCI), a medium access control element (MAC CE), or the like.

Wherein, if the terminal device (or the network device) starts the inactivity timer before receiving the downlink control channel for scheduling SI, and the inactivity timer does not time out (for example, in a possible case, the first timer is implemented by the inactivity timer), the terminal device (or the network device) restarts the inactivity timer after receiving the downlink control channel for scheduling SI (or, when receiving the downlink control channel for scheduling SI); alternatively, if the terminal device (or the network device) does not start the inactivity timer before receiving the downlink control channel for scheduling the SI, or if the inactivity timer is started but has timed out, the terminal device (or the network device) starts the inactivity timer after receiving the downlink control channel for scheduling the SI (or when receiving the downlink control channel for scheduling the SI).

In this embodiment of the present application, when sending the SI, the network device may send the SI by carrying the SI in a dedicated message, where the dedicated message may be a message dedicated to sending the SI under the protection of this embodiment of the present application. At this time, the dedicated message is the dedicated signaling as described above. For example, the dedicated message is an RRC message, or may be another type of message.

Or, the network device may also send the SI through an existing message, for example, the network device may send the SI carried in an RRC connection reconfiguration message (RRC connection reconfiguration), or may send the SI carried in another message. At this time, the existing message is the dedicated signaling as described above. It can be seen that the "dedicated signaling" described in the embodiments of the present application is only used to distinguish from "broadcast signaling". The existing message can be multiplexed when the SI is sent, so that the purpose of sending the SI can be achieved, transmission resources can be saved, and the scheme provided by the embodiment of the application is more easily compatible with the existing protocol.

As can be seen from the foregoing description of the embodiments of the present application, the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application may allow the terminal device to acquire the SI when the terminal device should be in the dormant state of the C-DRX, that is, allow the terminal device to acquire the SI during the inactive period of the C-DRX, or allow the terminal device to delay entering the dormant state of the C-DRX. As an alternative embodiment, the permission for the terminal device may be pre-indicated by the network device, for example, the network device may send a fourth message to the terminal device, where the fourth message is used to indicate that the terminal device is allowed to acquire SI during the inactive period of the C-DRX mechanism, and the terminal device may determine that SI can be acquired during the inactive period of the C-DRX mechanism after receiving the fourth message from the network device.

For example, if the network device sends the fourth message to the terminal device, it is indicated that the terminal device is allowed to acquire the SI during the inactive period of the C-DRX mechanism. The terminal device may be explicitly able to acquire the SI during the inactive period of the C-DRX mechanism as long as it receives the fourth message. In this case, the value of the fourth message may be arbitrary.

Or, the fourth message may carry, for example, 1 bit (bit), and if the value of the 1 bit is "1", it indicates that the fourth message indicates that the terminal device is allowed to acquire the SI in the inactive period of the C-DRX mechanism, and if the value of the 1 bit is "0", it indicates that the fourth message indicates that the terminal device is not allowed to acquire the SI in the inactive period of the C-DRX mechanism. Then, whether the network device allows or disallows the terminal device to acquire the SI in the inactive period of the C-DRX mechanism, the network device may send the fourth message to the terminal device, except that the value of 1 bit carried in the fourth message may be different. After receiving the fourth message, the terminal device can determine whether the SI can be acquired in the inactive period of the C-DRX mechanism according to the value of 1 bit carried in the fourth message.

Of course, whether the terminal device is allowed to acquire the SI in the inactive period of the C-DRX mechanism may not be indicated by the network device, for example, may also be specified by a protocol, and the like, which is not limited specifically.

If the terminal device determines that the SI can be acquired in the inactive period of the C-DRX mechanism, the terminal device may acquire the SI by using the method provided in the embodiment shown in fig. 3. Or, even if the terminal device determines that the SI can be acquired in the inactive period of the C-DRX mechanism, the terminal device may determine whether the SI that needs to be acquired is an urgent SI when the SI needs to be acquired, where the urgent SI refers to an SI that needs to be acquired in a short time, otherwise some operations of the terminal device may not be performed. If the terminal device determines that the SI required to be acquired is an emergency SI, the terminal device may acquire the SI by using the method provided in the embodiment shown in fig. 3. Or, if the terminal device obtains the SI by delaying entering the sleep state when the terminal device should enter the sleep state, the power consumption of the terminal device may be increased. Therefore, if the terminal device determines that the SI that needs to be acquired is not an emergency SI, the terminal device may also not acquire the SI by using the method provided in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, that is, not acquire the SI during the inactive period, but may delay acquiring the SI, for example, may delay to the active state of C-DRX and request the network device for the SI, for example, the terminal device may acquire the SI by Msg3 based.

Alternatively, if the terminal device determines that the SI cannot be acquired in the inactive period of the C-DRX mechanism, the terminal device may delay acquiring the SI, for example, may delay to the active state of the C-DRX before requesting the SI from the network device, for example, the terminal device may acquire the SI through Msg3 based method.

In this embodiment of the present application, after receiving the RAR from the network device, the terminal device may start or restart the first timer, so that the terminal device does not sleep during the running time of the first timer, so as to ensure that a downlink control channel for scheduling an SI from the network device can be received as much as possible, and thus the SI can be further received. In this way, the success rate of the terminal equipment for receiving the SI is improved. Whether the terminal equipment can acquire the SI by adopting the method provided by the embodiment of the application or not can be indicated by the network equipment, so that the implementation mode is flexible.

The following describes an apparatus for implementing the above method in the embodiment of the present application with reference to the drawings. Therefore, the above contents can be used in the subsequent embodiments, and the repeated contents are not repeated.

Fig. 6 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 600 provided in an embodiment of the present application, where the communication device 600 is, for example, a terminal device 600, and the terminal device 600 includes:

a transceiving module 620, configured to send a first message for requesting system information to a network device;

the transceiver module 620 is further configured to receive a second message from the network device, and determine that the second message is a response message of the first message;

a processing module 610, configured to start or restart a first timer, so as to wait for receiving a downlink control channel for scheduling the system information during a running time of the first timer, where the communication device 600 is in an active state during the running time of the first timer.

As an optional implementation, the processing module 610 is configured to start or restart the first timer by:

starting or restarting the first timer when the transceiver module 620 receives the second message; or the like, or, alternatively,

As an alternative to the above-described embodiment,

the processing module 610 is further configured to obtain a preset timing duration of the first timer; or the like, or, alternatively,

the transceiver module 620 is further configured to receive a third message from the network device, where the third message is used to indicate the timing duration of the first timer.

As an optional implementation manner, the first timer is an inactivity timer, a downlink retransmission timer, or an uplink retransmission timer in the discontinuous reception mechanism; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the inactivity timer is used for the communication device 600 to wait for receiving the downlink newly transmitted data from the network device within the operation time of the inactivity timer, the downlink retransmission timer is used for the communication device 600 to wait for receiving the downlink retransmitted data from the network device within the operation time of the downlink retransmission timer, and the uplink retransmission timer is used for the communication device 600 to send the uplink retransmitted data within the operation time of the uplink retransmission timer.

As an alternative to the above-described embodiment,

a transceiver module 620, further configured to receive the downlink control channel for scheduling the system information from the network device;

a processing module 610, further configured to start or restart an inactivity timer, wherein the communication device 600 is in an active state during a running time of the inactivity timer;

the transceiver module 620 is further configured to receive the system information from the network device according to the scheduling of the downlink control channel during the running time of the inactivity timer.

As an optional implementation manner, the transceiver module 620 is configured to receive the system information from the network device by:

As an optional implementation manner, the processing module 610 is configured to determine that the second message is a response message of the first message by:

determining that the second message contains only a RAPID.

As an alternative to the above-described embodiment,

a transceiver module 620, further configured to receive a fourth message from the network device;

the processing module 610 is further configured to determine that the fourth message is used to indicate that the communication device 600 is allowed to acquire the system information during the inactive period of the discontinuous reception mechanism.

It should be understood that the processing module 610 in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by a processor or a processor-related circuit component, and the transceiver module 620 may be implemented by a transceiver or a transceiver-related circuit component.

As shown in fig. 7, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication device 700, where the communication device 700 is, for example, a terminal device 700, and the terminal device 700 includes a processor 710, a memory 720 and a transceiver 730, where the memory 720 stores instructions or programs, and the processor 710 is configured to execute the instructions or programs stored in the memory 720. When the instructions or programs stored in the memory 720 are executed, the processor 710 is configured to perform the operations performed by the processing module 610 in the above embodiments, and the transceiver 730 is configured to perform the operations performed by the transceiver module 620 in the above embodiments.

It should be understood that the communication device 600 or the communication device 700 according to the embodiment of the present application may correspond to the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, and the operations and/or functions of the respective modules in the terminal device 600 or the terminal device 700 are respectively for implementing the corresponding flows in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, and are not described herein again for brevity.

Fig. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 800 according to an embodiment of the present application, where the communication device 800 is, for example, a terminal device 800, and the network device 800 includes:

a transceiving module 820 for receiving a first message for requesting system information from a terminal device;

a transceiver module 820, further configured to send a second message to the terminal device, where the second message is a response message of the first message;

a processing module 810, configured to start or restart a first timer, so as to send a downlink control channel for scheduling the system information within a running time of the first timer.

As an alternative embodiment, the processing module 810 is configured to start or restart the first timer by:

starting or restarting the first timer when the transceiver module 820 transmits the second message; or the like, or, alternatively,

As an optional implementation manner, the transceiver module 820 is further configured to send a third message to the terminal device, where the third message is used to indicate a timing duration of the first timer.

the inactivity timer is used for the communication device 800 to send downlink newly transmitted data within the operation time of the inactivity timer, the downlink retransmission timer is used for the communication device 800 to send downlink retransmission data within the operation time of the downlink retransmission timer, and the uplink retransmission timer is used for the communication device 800 to wait for receiving uplink retransmission data from the terminal device within the operation time of the uplink retransmission timer.

As an alternative to the above-described embodiment,

a transceiver module 820, further configured to send the downlink control channel for scheduling the system information to the terminal device;

a processing module 810, further configured to start or restart an inactivity timer;

the transceiver module 820 is further configured to send the system information to the terminal device according to the scheduling of the downlink control channel during the running time of the inactivity timer.

As an optional implementation manner, the transceiver module 820 is configured to send the system information to the terminal device by:

sending a special message to the terminal equipment, wherein the special message carries the system information

As an optional implementation manner, the second message is a response message of the first message, and includes:

the second message contains only RAPID.

As an optional implementation manner, the transceiving module 820 is further configured to send a fourth message to the terminal device, where the fourth message is used to indicate that the terminal device is allowed to acquire system information in an inactive period of the discontinuous reception mechanism.

It should be understood that the processing module 810 in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by a processor or a processor-related circuit component, and the transceiver module 820 may be implemented by a transceiver or a transceiver-related circuit component.

As shown in fig. 9, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication device 900, where the communication device 900 is, for example, a network device 900, and the network device 900 includes a processor 910, a memory 920 and a transceiver 930, where the memory 920 stores instructions or programs and the processor 910 is configured to execute the instructions or programs stored in the memory 920. When the instructions or programs stored in the memory 920 are executed, the processor 910 is configured to perform the operations performed by the processing module 810 in the above embodiments, and the transceiver 930 is configured to perform the operations performed by the transceiver module 820 in the above embodiments.

It should be understood that the network device 800 or the network device 900 according to the embodiment of the present application may correspond to the network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, and operations and/or functions of the respective modules in the network device 800 or the network device 900 are respectively for implementing the corresponding flows in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, and are not described herein again for brevity.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication device, and the communication device can be terminal equipment or a circuit. The communication apparatus may be used to perform the actions performed by the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 3 described above.

When the communication apparatus is a terminal device, fig. 10 shows a simplified structural diagram of the terminal device. For ease of understanding and illustration, in fig. 10, the terminal device is exemplified by a mobile phone. As shown in fig. 10, the terminal device includes a processor, a memory, a radio frequency circuit, an antenna, and an input-output device. The processor is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, controlling the terminal equipment, executing software programs, processing data of the software programs and the like. The memory is used primarily for storing software programs and data. The radio frequency circuit is mainly used for converting baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing the radio frequency signals. The antenna is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are used primarily for receiving data input by a user and for outputting data to the user. It should be noted that some kinds of terminal devices may not have input/output devices.

When data needs to be sent, the processor performs baseband processing on the data to be sent and outputs baseband signals to the radio frequency circuit, and the radio frequency circuit performs radio frequency processing on the baseband signals and sends the radio frequency signals to the outside in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is sent to the terminal equipment, the radio frequency circuit receives radio frequency signals through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signals into baseband signals and outputs the baseband signals to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signals into the data and processes the data. For ease of illustration, only one memory and processor are shown in FIG. 10. In an actual end device product, there may be one or more processors and one or more memories. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or a storage device, etc. The memory may be provided independently of the processor, or may be integrated with the processor, which is not limited in this embodiment.

In the embodiment of the present application, the antenna and the radio frequency circuit having the transceiving function may be regarded as a transceiving unit of the terminal device, and the processor having the processing function may be regarded as a processing unit of the terminal device. As shown in fig. 10, the terminal device includes a transceiving unit 1010 and a processing unit 1020. A transceiver unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiving device, etc. A processing unit may also be referred to as a processor, a processing board, a processing module, a processing device, or the like. Optionally, a device for implementing the receiving function in the transceiving unit 1010 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device for implementing the transmitting function in the transceiving unit 1010 may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, the transceiving unit 1010 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. A transceiver unit may also sometimes be referred to as a transceiver, transceiving circuitry, or the like. A receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, or the like. A transmitting unit may also sometimes be referred to as a transmitter, or a transmitting circuit, etc.

It should be understood that the transceiver 1010 is configured to perform the transmitting operation and the receiving operation on the terminal device side in the method embodiment shown in fig. 3, and the processing unit 1020 is configured to perform other operations besides the transceiving operation on the terminal device side in the method embodiment shown in fig. 3.

For example, in one implementation, the transceiving unit 1010 is configured to perform S31 and S32 in the embodiment shown in fig. 3. The processing unit 1020 is configured to execute the operation performed by the terminal device in S33 in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, and/or the processing unit 1020 is further configured to execute other processing steps on the terminal device side in the embodiment of the present application.

When the communication device is a chip, the chip includes a transceiver unit and a processing unit. The transceiver unit can be an input/output circuit and a communication interface; the processing unit is a processor or a microprocessor or an integrated circuit integrated on the chip.

When the communication apparatus in the embodiment of the present application is a terminal device, reference may be made to the device shown in fig. 11. As an example, the device may perform functions similar to processor 710 of FIG. 7. In fig. 11, the apparatus includes a processor 1110, a transmit data processor 1120, and a receive data processor 1130. The processing module 610 in the above embodiments may be the processor 1110 in fig. 11, and performs the corresponding functions. The transceiver module 620 in the above embodiments may be the transmit data processor 1120 and/or the receive data processor 1130 in fig. 11.

Although fig. 11 shows a channel encoder and a channel decoder, it is understood that these blocks are not limitative and only illustrative to the present embodiment.

Fig. 12 shows another form of the present embodiment. The processing device 1200 includes modules such as a modulation subsystem, a central processing subsystem, and peripheral subsystems. The communication device in this embodiment may serve as a modulation subsystem therein. In particular, the modulation subsystem may include a processor 1203, an interface 1204. The processor 1203 completes the functions of the processing module 610, and the interface 1204 completes the functions of the transceiver module 620. As another variation, the modulation subsystem includes a memory 1206, a processor 1203, and a program stored in the memory 1206 and operable on the processor, and the processor 1203 executes the program to implement the method on the terminal device side in the method embodiment shown in fig. 3. It should be noted that the memory 1206 may be non-volatile or volatile, and may be located within the modulation subsystem or within the processing device 1200, as long as the memory 1206 can be connected to the processor 1203.

Embodiments of the present application further provide a computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, where the computer program, when executed by a processor, may implement the process related to the network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 3 and provided by the foregoing method embodiments.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, where the computer program, when executed by a processor, can implement the process related to the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 3 and provided by the foregoing method embodiment.

An embodiment of the present application further provides a computer program product containing instructions, where the instructions, when executed, perform the method on the terminal device side in the method embodiment shown in fig. 3.

Embodiments of the present application further provide a computer program product containing instructions, where the instructions, when executed, perform the method on the network device side in the method embodiment shown in fig. 3.

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

It will also be appreciated that the memory referred to in the embodiments of the application may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The non-volatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an electrically Erasable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. Volatile memory can be Random Access Memory (RAM), which acts as external cache memory. By way of example, but not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM, enhanced SDRAM, SLDRAM, Synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct rambus RAM (DR RAM).

It should be noted that when the processor is a general-purpose processor, a DSP, an ASIC, an FPGA or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, or a discrete hardware component, the memory (memory module) is integrated in the processor.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Claims

1. A method of requesting system information, comprising:

sending a random access request message for requesting system information to network equipment;

receiving a random access response message from the network equipment, and determining that the random access response message is a response message of the random access request message;

starting or restarting a first timer to wait for receiving a downlink control channel for scheduling the system information within the running time of the first timer, wherein in the running time of the first timer, a terminal device is in an activated state, and the first timer is an inactive timer, a downlink retransmission timer or an uplink retransmission timer in a discontinuous reception mechanism;

wherein determining that the random access response message is a response message of the random access request message includes:

determining that the random access response message contains only a random access preamble identifier RAPID;

the starting or restarting of the first timer includes:

starting or restarting the first timer when receiving the random access response message; or the like, or, alternatively,

starting or restarting the first timer at an end time of a time window for receiving the random access response message.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

3. The method of claim 1, wherein,

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising:

5. The method of claim 4, wherein receiving the system information from the network device comprises:

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising:

receiving a fourth message from the network device;

7. A method of requesting system information, comprising:

receiving a random access request message for requesting system information from a terminal device;

sending a random access response message to the terminal equipment, wherein the random access response message is a response message of the random access request message and only contains a random access preamble identifier RAPID;

starting or restarting a first timer to send a downlink control channel for scheduling the system information within the running time of the first timer, wherein the first timer is an inactive timer, a downlink retransmission timer or an uplink retransmission timer in a discontinuous reception mechanism;

wherein the starting or restarting the first timer includes:

starting or restarting the first timer when the random access response message is sent; or the like, or, alternatively,

starting or restarting the first timer at an end time of a time window for transmitting the random access response message.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

9. The method of claim 7,

10. The method according to any one of claims 7 to 9, further comprising:

starting or restarting an inactivity timer;

11. The method of claim 10, wherein sending the system information to the terminal device comprises:

12. The method according to any one of claims 7 to 9, further comprising:

13. A communication device, comprising:

a transceiver for transmitting a random access request message for requesting system information to a network device;

the transceiver is further configured to receive a random access response message from the network device;

a processor, configured to determine that the random access response message is a response message of the random access request message;

the processor is further configured to start or restart a first timer, so as to wait for receiving a downlink control channel for scheduling the system information within a running time of the first timer, where the communication device is in an active state within the running time of the first timer, and the first timer is an inactive timer, a downlink retransmission timer, or an uplink retransmission timer in a discontinuous reception mechanism;

wherein the processor is configured to determine that the random access response message is a response message of the random access request message by:

the processor is configured to start or restart the first timer by:

starting or restarting the first timer when the transceiver receives the random access response message; or the like, or, alternatively,

14. The communication device of claim 13,

the processor is further configured to obtain a preset timing duration of the first timer; or the like, or, alternatively,

the transceiver is further configured to receive a third message from the network device, where the third message is used to indicate a timing duration of the first timer.

15. The communication device of claim 13,

the inactivity timer is used for the communication device to wait for receiving downlink newly transmitted data from the network device within the operation time of the inactivity timer, the downlink retransmission timer is used for the communication device to wait for receiving downlink retransmitted data from the network device within the operation time of the downlink retransmission timer, and the uplink retransmission timer is used for the communication device to send uplink retransmitted data within the operation time of the uplink retransmission timer.

16. The communication apparatus according to any one of claims 13 to 15,

the transceiver is further configured to receive the downlink control channel for scheduling the system information from the network device;

the processor is further configured to start or restart an inactivity timer, wherein the communication device is in an active state during a runtime of the inactivity timer;

the transceiver is further configured to receive the system information from the network device according to the scheduling of the downlink control channel during the running time of the inactivity timer.

17. The communications device of claim 16, wherein the transceiver is configured to receive the system information from the network device by:

18. The communication apparatus according to any one of claims 13 to 15,

the transceiver is further configured to receive a fourth message from the network device;

the processor is further configured to determine that the fourth message indicates that the communication device is allowed to acquire system information during an inactive period of a discontinuous reception mechanism.

19. A communication device, comprising:

a transceiver for receiving a random access request message for requesting system information from a terminal device;

the transceiver is further configured to send a random access response message to the terminal device, where the random access response message is a response message of the random access request message, and the random access response message only includes a random access preamble identifier RAPID;

the processor is used for starting or restarting a first timer to send a downlink control channel for scheduling the system information within the running time of the first timer, wherein the first timer is an inactive timer, a downlink retransmission timer or an uplink retransmission timer in a discontinuous reception mechanism;

wherein the processor is configured to start or restart the first timer by:

starting or restarting the first timer when the transceiver transmits the random access response message; or the like, or, alternatively,

20. The communications device of claim 19, wherein the transceiver is further configured to send a third message to the terminal device, and wherein the third message is used to indicate a timing duration of the first timer.

21. The communication device of claim 19,

the inactivity timer is used for the communication device to send downlink newly transmitted data within the operation time of the inactivity timer, the downlink retransmission timer is used for the communication device to send downlink retransmission data within the operation time of the downlink retransmission timer, and the uplink retransmission timer is used for the communication device to wait for receiving uplink retransmission data from the terminal device within the operation time of the uplink retransmission timer.

22. The communication apparatus according to any one of claims 19 to 21,

the transceiver is further configured to send the downlink control channel for scheduling the system information to the terminal device;

the processor is further configured to start or restart an inactivity timer;

the transceiver is further configured to send the system information to the terminal device according to the scheduling of the downlink control channel during the running time of the inactivity timer.

23. The communications device of claim 22, wherein the transceiver is configured to transmit the system information to the terminal device by:

24. The communication device according to any of claims 19 to 21, wherein the transceiver is further configured to send a fourth message to the terminal device, and the fourth message is used to indicate that the terminal device is allowed to acquire system information during an inactive period of a discontinuous reception mechanism.