CN111771402B

CN111771402B - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN111771402B
Application number: CN201880089058.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 陈京军; 东宁; 耿晓馥
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-06-29
Filing date: 2018-06-29
Publication date: 2021-12-10
Anticipated expiration: 2038-06-29
Also published as: WO2020000434A1; CN111771402A

Abstract

The application discloses a communication method and device. The method comprises the following steps: activating an auxiliary carrier when receiving an instruction for activating the auxiliary carrier; performing one or more searches for a serving cell; and acquiring the timing information of the serving cell and synchronizing with the serving cell. A corresponding apparatus is also disclosed. By adopting the scheme of the application, the auxiliary carrier can be activated quickly by acquiring the auxiliary carrier service area timing by carrying out continuous cell search without waiting for the network side to configure the DMTC.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

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

Background

Licensed-assisted access (LAA) refers to using Long Term Evolution (LTE) network technology in an unlicensed frequency band, and based on a carrier aggregation architecture, a licensed frequency band carrier is used as a primary cell (PCell) and an unlicensed frequency band carrier is used as a secondary cell (SCell). Meanwhile, in order to ensure coexistence with other technologies working in an unlicensed frequency band, a listen-before-talk (LBT) channel contention access mechanism is adopted.

In LAA, when the terminal device is in a connected state, the network side may configure measurement time configuration (DMTC) measurement of a discovery signal of an unauthorized frequency point for the terminal device. Based on a Discovery Reference Signal (DRS) measurement result and a service requirement reported by the terminal device, the network side may configure an SCell of an unlicensed frequency point for the terminal device and activate a secondary carrier (SCC), at this time, the terminal device has a capability of receiving downlink data on the unlicensed frequency point.

However, the network side may not configure the DMTC measurement yet, and directly configure a media access control layer control element (MAC CE) that activates the SCC for the terminal device. The terminal device may activate the SCC blindly and acquire the SCC service area timing by searching for a synchronization signal.

One existing scheme is that terminal equipment only performs cell search once, and stores 10ms of data to search for synchronization signals, which may not search for cells; or, the synchronization signal can be searched until the network side configures DMTC measurement, so as to obtain the SCC service area timing. The disadvantages of this solution are: only searching once to quit the cell which can not be searched; if the network side waits for the DMTC measurement configuration, the SCC service area timing may not be obtained until a long time, and then the SCC is further activated.

Another conventional scheme is that the terminal device stores 160ms air interface data, and searches for multiple times with a sliding window with an interval of 6ms until a synchronization signal is searched. The disadvantages of this solution are: the terminal equipment is difficult to realize, huge data needs to be cached at one time, and more computing resources are occupied at one time.

The above existing schemes may result in SCC activation failure under LAA or long SCC activation time.

Therefore, how to improve the efficiency of SCC activation under LAA is an urgent problem to be solved.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method and device for accelerating the activation of an auxiliary carrier.

In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, including: activating an auxiliary carrier when receiving an instruction for activating the auxiliary carrier; performing one or more searches for a serving cell; and acquiring timing information of the serving cell, and synchronizing with the serving cell.

In this aspect, the secondary carrier can be activated faster by acquiring the secondary carrier service area timing by performing continuous cell search without waiting for the network side to configure the DMTC period.

With reference to the first aspect, in a first possible implementation manner, the performing one or more times of serving cell search includes: searching for the discovery signal transmitted by the serving cell one or more times.

With reference to the first aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a second possible implementation manner, the performing one or more times of serving cell search includes: and carrying out one or more times of service cell searching until the service cell is searched.

In the implementation mode, one or more times of serving cell search is carried out until the serving cell is searched, so that the success rate of serving cell search and secondary carrier activation is improved.

With reference to the first aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a third possible implementation manner, the performing one or more times of serving cell search includes: the cell search is performed for a set number of times, which is related to the maximum number of cell searches defined by the protocol, the period in which the measurement time arrangement of the search signal is arranged, and the processing time of the cell search.

In the implementation mode, the maximum cell search times are specified, and the success rate of searching the serving cell and activating the auxiliary carrier is improved.

With reference to the first aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner, after receiving the instruction to activate the secondary carrier, the method further includes: performing radio resource management, and/or receiving configuration information of a period of a synchronization signal.

In the implementation mode, the wireless resource management measurement is carried out in advance, so that the measurement reporting can be accelerated; after the auxiliary carrier is activated, the periodic configuration information of the synchronization signal can be received, and the activation of the auxiliary carrier can be accelerated.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, including: sending an instruction for activating the auxiliary carrier to the terminal equipment; transmitting, within a serving cell, an exploration signal for the serving cell; receiving a request of the terminal device to synchronize to the serving cell; and synchronizing the terminal device to the serving cell.

With reference to the second aspect, in a first possible implementation manner, after the sending the instruction to activate the secondary carrier to the terminal device, the method further includes: and sending the configuration information of the period of the synchronous signal to the terminal equipment.

In a third aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, which can implement the communication method in the first aspect. For example, the communication device may be a chip (such as a baseband chip, or a communication chip, etc.) or a terminal device. The above-described method may be implemented by software, hardware, or by executing corresponding software by hardware.

In one possible implementation, the communication device has a structure including a processor, a memory; the processor is configured to support the apparatus to perform corresponding functions in the above-described communication method. The memory is used for coupling with the processor, which holds the necessary programs (instructions) and/or data for the device. Optionally, the communication apparatus may further include a communication interface for supporting communication between the apparatus and other network elements.

In another possible implementation manner, the communication device may include a unit module that performs corresponding actions in the above method.

In yet another possible implementation, the wireless communication device includes a processor and a transceiver, the processor is coupled to the transceiver, and the processor is configured to execute a computer program or instructions to control the transceiver to receive and transmit information; the processor is further configured to implement the above-described method when the processor executes the computer program or instructions. The transceiver may be a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, or an input/output interface. When the communication device is a chip, the transceiver is a transceiver or an input/output interface.

When the communication device is a chip, the sending unit may be an output unit, such as an output circuit or a communication interface; the receiving unit may be an input unit, such as an input circuit or a communication interface. When the communication device is a network device, the sending unit may be a transmitter or a transmitter; the receiving unit may be a receiver or a receiver.

In a fourth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, which can implement the communication method in the second aspect. For example, the communication device may be a chip (such as a baseband chip, or a communication chip, etc.) or a network device, and the above method may be implemented by software, hardware, or by executing corresponding software by hardware.

In one possible implementation, the communication device has a structure including a processor, a memory; the processor is configured to support the apparatus to perform corresponding functions in the above-described communication method. The memory is used for coupling with the processor and holds the programs (instructions) and data necessary for the device. Optionally, the communication apparatus may further include a communication interface for supporting communication between the apparatus and other network elements.

In another possible implementation manner, the communication device may include a unit module for performing corresponding actions in the above method.

When the communication device is a chip, the receiving unit may be an input unit, such as an input circuit or a communication interface; the sending unit may be an output unit, such as an output circuit or a communication interface. When the communication device is a terminal device, the receiving unit may be a receiver (also referred to as a receiver); the sending unit may be a transmitter (also referred to as transmitter).

In a fifth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, having stored thereon a computer program or instructions, which, when executed, implement the method of the above aspects.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the above aspects.

Drawings

The drawings that accompany the detailed description can be briefly described as follows.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system to which the present application relates;

fig. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic flowchart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a block diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 5 is a block diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 6 is a schematic hardware structure diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 7 is a schematic hardware structure diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

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

Fig. 1 presents a schematic view of a communication system to which the present application relates. The communication system may include at least one network device 100 (only 1 shown) and one or more terminal devices 200 connected to the network device 100.

The network device 100 may be a device capable of communicating with the terminal device 200. The network device 100 may be any device having a wireless transceiving function. Including but not limited to: a base station NodeB, an evolved node b, a base station in the fifth generation (5G) communication system, a base station or network device in a future communication system, an access node in a WiFi system, a wireless relay node, a wireless backhaul node, and the like. The network device 100 may also be a wireless controller in a Cloud Radio Access Network (CRAN) scenario. The network device 100 may also be a small station, a Transmission Reference Point (TRP), or the like. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technologies and the specific device forms used by the network devices.

The terminal device 200 is a device with a wireless transceiving function, and can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, hand-held, worn or vehicle-mounted; can also be deployed on the water surface, such as a ship and the like; and may also be deployed in the air, such as airplanes, balloons, satellites, and the like. The terminal device may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer (Pad), a computer with a wireless transceiving function, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an Augmented Reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in self driving (self driving), a wireless terminal in remote medical (remote medical), a wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in transportation safety (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in smart city (smart city), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), and the like. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the application scenarios. A terminal device may also sometimes be referred to as a User Equipment (UE), an access terminal device, a UE unit, a mobile station, a remote terminal device, a mobile device, a terminal (terminal), a wireless communication device, a UE agent, a UE device, or the like.

It should be noted that the terms "system" and "network" in the embodiments of the present invention may be used interchangeably. The "plurality" means two or more, and in view of this, the "plurality" may also be understood as "at least two" in the embodiments of the present invention. "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. In addition, the character "/" generally indicates that the preceding and following related objects are in an "or" relationship, unless otherwise specified.

The application provides a communication method and a communication device, which can accelerate the activation of an auxiliary carrier by acquiring the timing of an auxiliary carrier service area through continuous cell search without waiting for the configuration of a DMTC cycle on a network side.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. Wherein:

s101, the network equipment sends an instruction for activating the auxiliary carrier to the terminal equipment. And the terminal equipment receives the instruction for activating the secondary carrier.

In this embodiment, the network device directly sends the instruction for activating the secondary carrier to the terminal device without configuring the DMTC. The instruction may be, for example, a MAC CE. The DMTC configures information such as a transmission period, an offset, and a window length of the search signal.

And S102, the terminal equipment activates the auxiliary carrier.

And the terminal equipment directly activates the auxiliary carrier without waiting for the network side to configure the DMTC cycle according to the instruction for activating the auxiliary carrier. Specifically, the terminal device performs an auxiliary carrier resynchronization procedure to activate the auxiliary carrier. After the auxiliary carrier is activated, the terminal equipment has the capability of receiving downlink data on the unauthorized frequency point. At this time, the terminal device is generally in a connected state.

S103, the network equipment sends the exploration signal of the service cell in the service cell.

And the network equipment transmits the exploring signal in one or more cells corresponding to the secondary carrier. The terminal equipment determines a serving cell according to the quality of the received exploration signal. The probe signal includes a Synchronization Signal (SS) and the like. The synchronization signals include Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS) and Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS). The terminal device measures a cell specific reference signal (CRS), a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS), and the like according to the received synchronization signal, thereby determining a serving cell.

S104, the terminal equipment searches for one or more service cells to acquire the timing information of the service cells.

The terminal equipment searches and determines the serving cell through one or more searches. For example, in an LAA scenario in LTE, when a terminal device receives a MAC CE for activating a secondary carrier sent by a network device and does not receive a DMTC configuration, it initiates a cell search with a window length of 6ms, and if the cell search does not reach a search signal at this time, the terminal device continues to initiate a cell search with a window length of 6ms, and continues for N times until a cell is searched, and cell timing information is obtained. Wherein N is more than or equal to 1. For another example, in a 5G scenario, after receiving a MAC CE activating an SCC, the terminal device searches for an SSB with a window length of 5ms, and if the SSB is not searched in the cell search, the terminal device initiates a cell search again until the SSB is searched. Of course, the window length is only an example, and the present application does not limit this.

S105, the terminal device sends a request for synchronizing to the service cell to the network device. The network device receives the synchronization request. And synchronizing the terminal equipment to the serving cell.

After the terminal device searches the exploration signal and acquires the timing information of the serving cell, it may send a synchronization request to the network device according to the timing information, requesting synchronization to the serving cell.

Further, after the cell is searched, the terminal device may start to perform Radio Resource Management (RRM) measurement. RRM measurements, i.e., mobility measurements, are used to perform services such as camping, handover, and reselection for the terminal device. Further, after the cell is searched, the terminal device may also receive the periodic configuration information of the synchronization signal. The SSB period and RRM measurement are not required to be configured at the network side, and the activation process of the auxiliary carrier is accelerated.

For example, in a 5G scenario, the secondary carrier configuration is not activated, the network device does not configure the period of the SSB of the secondary carrier serving cell, and does not configure the RRM measurement of the secondary carrier, the MAC CE activating the secondary carrier is directly sent to the terminal device, and the period of the SSB and the RRM measurement are configured to the terminal device after a period of time.

Aiming at the situation that the auxiliary carrier configuration is not activated in a 5G scene, the network configures the period of the SSB of the auxiliary carrier service area, but the RRM measurement of the auxiliary carrier is not configured, the MAC CE for activating the auxiliary carrier is directly sent to the terminal equipment, and the RRM measurement of the auxiliary carrier is configured to the terminal equipment after a period of time. The terminal equipment can do mobility measurement in advance without depending on network side configuration measurement.

The present embodiment is applicable to LTE and next generation communication systems (e.g., 5G). In 5G, the concept of synchronization signal blocks (SS/PBCH blocks, SSB) is introduced. One or more SS/PBCH blocks constitute a Burst set of synchronization signal blocks (SS Burst). The synchronization signal block defines a window transmission of, for example, 5ms within the burst set, regardless of the period of the burst set. The period of the synchronization signal block of each carrier can be configured by a higher layer, and if not, the terminal equipment blindly detects the period of the synchronization signal block. The period of the synchronization signal block may be 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160ms, for example.

According to the communication method provided by the embodiment of the application, the timing of the service area of the auxiliary carrier is obtained by performing continuous cell search without waiting for the DMTC period configured on the network side, so that the activation of the auxiliary carrier can be accelerated.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. The flow mainly relates to the operation of the terminal device, and the interaction with the network device can refer to the embodiment shown in fig. 2. Wherein:

s201, the terminal equipment receives an instruction of activating the auxiliary carrier.

In this embodiment, the network device directly sends the instruction for activating the secondary carrier to the terminal device without configuring the DMTC. The instruction may be, for example, a MAC CE.

S202, the terminal equipment performs secondary carrier resynchronization.

The terminal equipment performs secondary carrier resynchronization (SCC resynchnization) to activate the secondary carrier.

S203, the terminal device performs a cell search, and does not search for a cell? If so, activating the auxiliary carrier wave and ending; otherwise, proceed to S204.

The terminal device performs one or more serving cell searches. And if the cell is searched, acquiring the timing information of the cell and carrying out cell synchronization. If the cell is not searched, the search is continued, and whether the maximum cell search times are reached is judged.

S204, whether the serving cell search reaches the maximum cell search times? If so, activating the auxiliary carrier wave and ending; otherwise, S203 is continued.

The maximum cell search times may be set in advance. The maximum cell search frequency is related to the maximum cell search frequency specified by the protocol, a Period (DMTC _ Period) in which measurement Time allocation of probe signals is allocated, and a processing Time (CSU _ Process _ Time) of cell search.

Specifically, the maximum cell search count is the maximum cell search count specified by the protocol and is the period configured by the DMTC/the processing time of the platform cell search.

The maximum cell search number specified by the protocol is, for example, 72, and DMTC _ Period is 40 ms.

For example, in a 5G scenario, the maximum number of cell searches may be 20.

According to the communication method provided by the embodiment of the application, the timing of the service area of the auxiliary carrier is obtained by carrying out continuous cell search without waiting for the configuration of a DMTC cycle on a network side, so that the activation of the auxiliary carrier can be accelerated; the maximum cell search times are specified, and the success rate of searching the serving cell and activating the auxiliary carrier is improved.

The method of embodiments of the present invention is set forth above in detail and the apparatus of embodiments of the present invention is provided below.

Based on the same concept of the communication method in the foregoing embodiment, as shown in fig. 4, the present embodiment further provides a communication device 1000, which can be applied to the communication method shown in fig. 2 or fig. 3. The communication apparatus 1000 may be the terminal device 200 shown in fig. 1, or may be a component (e.g., a chip) applied to the terminal device 200. The communication device 1000 comprises a processing unit 11 and may further comprise a receiving unit 12; wherein:

the processing unit 11 is configured to activate the secondary carrier when receiving an instruction to activate the secondary carrier;

the processing unit 11 is further configured to perform one or more serving cell searches;

the processing unit 11 is further configured to acquire timing information of the serving cell, and synchronize with the serving cell.

In one implementation, the processing unit 11 is configured to search for an exploration signal transmitted by the serving cell one or more times.

In another implementation, the processing unit 11 is configured to perform one or more serving cell searches until the serving cell is searched.

In yet another implementation, the processing unit 11 is configured to perform the cell search for a set number of times, where the set number of times is related to a maximum cell search number specified by a protocol, a period configured by a measurement time configuration of a search signal, and a processing time of the cell search.

In yet another implementation manner, the processing unit 11 is further configured to perform radio resource management; and/or

The receiving unit 12 is configured to receive configuration information of a period of a synchronization signal.

More detailed descriptions about the processing unit 11 and the receiving unit 12 can be directly obtained by referring to the related descriptions of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 2 or fig. 3, which are not repeated herein.

Based on the same concept of the communication method in the above embodiment, as shown in fig. 5, the embodiment of the present application further provides another communication device 2000, which can be applied to the communication method shown in fig. 2 or fig. 3. The communication device 2000 may be the network device 100 shown in fig. 1, or may be a component (e.g., a chip) applied to the network device 100. The communication device 2000 includes a transmitting unit 21, a receiving unit 22, and a processing unit 23; wherein:

the sending unit 21 is configured to send an instruction for activating an auxiliary carrier to the terminal device;

the transmitting unit 21 is further configured to transmit a probe signal of a serving cell in the serving cell;

the receiving unit 22 is configured to receive a request of the terminal device to synchronize to the serving cell;

the processing unit 23 is configured to synchronize the terminal device to the serving cell.

In one implementation, the sending unit 21 is further configured to send configuration information of a period of a synchronization signal to the terminal device.

More detailed descriptions about the sending unit 21, the receiving unit 22, and the processing unit 23 may be directly obtained by referring to the related descriptions of the network device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 2 or fig. 3, which are not repeated herein.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication device, and the communication device is used for executing the communication method. Some or all of the above communication methods may be implemented by hardware or may be implemented by software.

Alternatively, the communication device may be a chip or an integrated circuit when embodied.

Optionally, when part or all of the communication method of the foregoing embodiment is implemented by software, the communication apparatus includes: a memory for storing a program; a processor for executing the program stored in the memory, when the program is executed, the communication apparatus is enabled to implement the communication method provided by the above-mentioned embodiment.

Alternatively, the memory may be a physically separate unit or may be integrated with the processor.

Alternatively, when part or all of the communication method of the above embodiments is implemented by software, the communication apparatus may include only a processor. The memory for storing the program is located outside the communication device and the processor is connected to the memory by means of a circuit/wire for reading and executing the program stored in the memory.

The processor may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Network Processor (NP), or a combination of a CPU and an NP.

The processor may further include a hardware chip. The hardware chip may be an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a Programmable Logic Device (PLD), or a combination thereof. The PLD may be a Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a General Array Logic (GAL), or any combination thereof.

The memory may include volatile memory (volatile memory), such as random-access memory (RAM); the memory may also include a non-volatile memory (non-volatile memory), such as a flash memory (flash memory), a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD); the memory may also comprise a combination of memories of the kind described above.

Fig. 6 shows a simplified schematic diagram of a terminal device. For easy understanding and illustration, in fig. 6, the terminal device is exemplified by a mobile phone. As shown in fig. 6, 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. 6. 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, an antenna and a radio frequency circuit having a transceiving function may be regarded as a receiving unit and a transmitting unit (which may also be collectively referred to as a transceiving unit) of a terminal device, and a processor having a processing function may be regarded as a processing unit of the terminal device. As shown in fig. 6, the terminal device includes a receiving unit 31, a processing unit 32, and a transmitting unit 33. The receiving unit 31 may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, etc., and the transmitting unit 33 may also be referred to as a transmitter, a transmitting circuit, etc. A processing unit may also be referred to as a processor, a processing board, a processing module, a processing device, or the like.

For example, in one embodiment, the receiving unit 31 is configured to perform the functions of the terminal device in steps S101 and S103 in the embodiment shown in fig. 2; the processing unit 32 is configured to perform steps S102 and S104 in the embodiment shown in fig. 2; and the transmitting unit 33 is configured to execute the functions of the terminal device in step S105 in the embodiment shown in fig. 2.

Fig. 7 shows a simplified schematic diagram of a network device. The network device includes a radio frequency signal transceiving and converting portion 42, which includes a receiving unit 41 and a transmitting unit 43 (which may also be collectively referred to as a transceiving unit). The radio frequency signal receiving, transmitting and converting part is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals and converting the radio frequency signals and baseband signals; the 42 part is mainly used for baseband processing, network equipment control and the like. The receiving unit 41 may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, etc., and the transmitting unit 43 may also be referred to as a transmitter, a transmitting circuit, etc. Portion 42 is generally a control center of the network device and may be generally referred to as a processing unit for controlling the network device to perform the steps described above with respect to the network device in fig. 2. Reference is made in particular to the description of the relevant part above.

Section 42 may include one or more boards, each of which may include one or more processors and one or more memories, the processors being configured to read and execute programs in the memories to implement baseband processing functions and control of the network devices. If a plurality of single boards exist, the single boards can be interconnected to increase the processing capacity. As an optional implementation, multiple boards may share one or more processors, multiple boards may share one or more memories, or multiple boards may share one or more processors at the same time.

For example, in one embodiment, the sending unit 43 is configured to perform the functions of the network device in steps S101 and S103 in the embodiment shown in fig. 2; and the receiving unit 41 is configured to perform the function of the network device in step S105 in the embodiment shown in fig. 2.

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 division of the unit is only one logical function division, and other division may be implemented 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. The shown or discussed mutual coupling, direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units through some interfaces, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

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

Claims

1. A method of communication, comprising:

activating the auxiliary carrier when receiving an instruction for activating the auxiliary carrier before the measurement time configuration is not configured;

performing one or more searches for a serving cell;

and acquiring the timing information of the serving cell and synchronizing with the serving cell.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said performing one or more searches for a serving cell comprises:

searching for the discovery signal transmitted by the serving cell one or more times.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein said performing one or more searches for a serving cell comprises:

and carrying out one or more times of service cell searching until the service cell is searched.

4. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein said performing one or more searches for a serving cell comprises:

the cell search is performed for a set number of times, which is related to the maximum number of cell searches defined by the protocol, the period in which the measurement time arrangement of the search signal is arranged, and the processing time of the cell search.

5. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein after receiving the instruction to activate the secondary carrier, further comprising:

performing radio resource management, and/or receiving configuration information of a period of a synchronization signal.

6. A method of communication, comprising:

before the measurement time configuration is not configured, sending an instruction for activating an auxiliary carrier to the terminal equipment;

transmitting, within a serving cell, an exploration signal for the serving cell;

receiving a request of the terminal device to synchronize to the serving cell;

and synchronizing the terminal equipment to the serving cell.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein after sending the instruction to activate the secondary carrier to the terminal device, further comprising:

and sending the configuration information of the period of the synchronous signal to the terminal equipment.

8. A communications apparatus, comprising: a processing unit;

the processing unit is used for activating the auxiliary carrier when receiving an instruction for activating the auxiliary carrier before the measurement time configuration is not configured;

the processing unit is further configured to perform one or more serving cell searches;

the processing unit is further configured to acquire timing information of the serving cell and synchronize with the serving cell.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processing unit is operative to search for an discovery signal transmitted by the serving cell one or more times.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 or 9, wherein the processing unit is configured to perform one or more serving cell searches until the serving cell is searched.

11. The apparatus according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the processing unit is configured to perform a set number of cell searches, the set number being related to a maximum number of cell searches defined by a protocol, a period configured by a measurement time configuration of a discovery signal, and a processing time of the cell search.

12. The apparatus of claim 8 or 9, wherein the processing unit is further configured to perform radio resource management; and/or further comprising a receiving unit;

the receiving unit is used for receiving the configuration information of the period of the synchronous signal.

13. A communications apparatus, comprising: a transmitting unit, a receiving unit and a processing unit;

the sending unit is used for sending an instruction for activating the auxiliary carrier to the terminal equipment before the measurement time configuration is not configured;

the sending unit is further configured to send, in a serving cell, an exploration signal of the serving cell;

the receiving unit is used for receiving a request of the terminal equipment for synchronizing to the serving cell;

the processing unit is configured to synchronize the terminal device to the serving cell.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the transmitting unit is further configured to transmit configuration information of a period of a synchronization signal to the terminal device.

15. A communications device comprising a processor and transceiver means, the processor being coupled to the transceiver means and the processor being configured to execute a computer program or instructions to control the transceiver means to receive and transmit information; the computer program or instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to implement the method of any of claims 1 to 7.

16. A computer-readable storage medium, in which a computer program or instructions are stored which, when executed by a processor, implement the method of any one of claims 1 to 7.