CN112806063B

CN112806063B - Method and equipment for cell switching

Info

Publication number: CN112806063B
Application number: CN201980066159.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 卢前溪; 尤心
Original assignee: Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp Ltd
Current assignee: Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp Ltd
Priority date: 2019-04-30
Filing date: 2019-04-30
Publication date: 2024-01-26
Anticipated expiration: 2039-04-30
Also published as: CN112806063A; WO2020220309A1

Abstract

The application provides a method and equipment for cell switching, which can reduce signaling overhead in the switching process of terminal equipment. The method comprises the following steps: the terminal equipment acquires first information from the system message, wherein the first information is used for the terminal equipment to carry out cell switching.

Description

Method and equipment for cell switching

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for cell handover.

Background

A New Radio (NR) system supports cell handover, for example, when a terminal device moves from one cell to another cell, or due to adjustment of Radio traffic load, maintenance of active operation, equipment failure, etc., in order to ensure continuity of communication and quality of service, a communication link between the terminal device and a source base station needs to be transferred to a target base station, i.e., a handover procedure is performed.

For terminal equipment moving at high speed, the terminal equipment needs to perform cell handover frequently. In some scenes, the motion trail of the terminal equipment is determined, such as a high-speed railway scene, in which case, the source base station can send the configuration information of the target cell to the terminal equipment in advance, so that the terminal equipment can adopt the configuration information of the target cell to execute the switching when the terminal equipment performs the cell switching. However, how the source base station instructs the terminal device to perform cell handover is a problem that needs to be solved at present.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a method and equipment for cell switching, which can reduce signaling overhead in the switching process of terminal equipment.

In a first aspect, a method for cell handover is provided, comprising: the terminal equipment acquires first information from the system message, wherein the first information is used for the terminal equipment to carry out cell switching.

In a second aspect, a method for cell handover is provided, comprising: the network equipment sends a system message to the terminal equipment, wherein the system message comprises first information, and the first information is used for the terminal equipment to carry out cell switching.

In a third aspect, a terminal device is provided for performing the method in the first aspect or each implementation manner thereof.

Specifically, the terminal device comprises functional modules for performing the method of the first aspect or its implementation manner.

In a fourth aspect, a network device is provided for performing the method of the second aspect or implementations thereof.

In particular, the network device comprises functional modules for performing the method of the second aspect or implementations thereof described above.

In a fifth aspect, a terminal device is provided comprising a processor and a memory. The memory is used for storing a computer program, and the processor is used for calling and running the computer program stored in the memory and executing the method in the first aspect or various implementation manners thereof.

In a sixth aspect, a network device is provided that includes a processor and a memory. The memory is for storing a computer program and the processor is for calling and running the computer program stored in the memory for performing the method of the second aspect or implementations thereof described above.

A seventh aspect provides an apparatus for implementing the method of any one of the first to second aspects or each implementation thereof.

Specifically, the device comprises: a processor for calling and running a computer program from a memory, causing a device in which the apparatus is installed to perform the method as in any one of the first to second aspects or implementations thereof described above.

In an eighth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided for storing a computer program that causes a computer to perform the method of any one of the above-described first to second aspects or implementations thereof.

A ninth aspect provides a computer program product comprising computer program instructions for causing a computer to perform the method of any one of the first to second aspects or implementations thereof.

In a tenth aspect, there is provided a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any one of the first to second aspects or implementations thereof.

By the technical scheme, the network equipment can send the related information for cell switching to the terminal equipment through the system message, so that the network equipment is prevented from sending all the related information for cell switching to the terminal equipment through the special signaling, and the cost of the special signaling can be saved.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a wireless communication system to which embodiments of the present application apply.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a contention-based random access procedure according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a non-contention based random access procedure according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a method for cell handover according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a handover procedure based on conditional triggering according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 6 is a schematic flow chart diagram of a method for cell handover provided in an embodiment of the present application.

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

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

Fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 10 is a schematic structural view of an apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 11 is a schematic block diagram of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system 100 according to an embodiment of the present application.

As shown in fig. 1, the terminal device 110 is connected to a first network device 130 in a first communication system and a second network device 120 in a second communication system, for example, the first network device 130 is a network device in long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE), and the second network device 120 is a network device in a New Radio (NR).

Wherein the first network device 130 and the second network device 120 may include a plurality of cells.

It should be understood that fig. 1 is an example of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application, and that the embodiment of the present application is not limited to that shown in fig. 1.

As an example, a communication system to which embodiments of the present application are adapted may include at least a plurality of network devices under the first communication system and/or a plurality of network devices under the second communication system.

For example, the system 100 shown in fig. 1 may include one primary network device under a first communication system and at least one secondary network device under a second communication system. At least one auxiliary network device is connected to the one main network device, respectively, to form multiple connections, and is connected to the terminal device 110, respectively, to provide services thereto. Specifically, the terminal device 110 may establish a connection through both the primary network device and the secondary network device.

Optionally, the connection established between the terminal device 110 and the primary network device is a primary connection, and the connection established between the terminal device 110 and the secondary network device is a secondary connection. The control signaling of the terminal device 110 may be transmitted through the primary connection, while the data of the terminal device 110 may be transmitted through both the primary connection and the secondary connection, or may be transmitted through only the secondary connection.

As yet another example, the first communication system and the second communication system in the embodiments of the present application are different, but specific categories of the first communication system and the second communication system are not limited.

For example, the first communication system and the second communication system may be various communication systems, such as: global system for mobile communications (Global System of Mobile communication, GSM), code division multiple access (Code Division Multiple Access, CDMA) system, wideband code division multiple access (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, WCDMA) system, general packet radio service (General Packet Radio Service, GPRS), long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) system, LTE time division duplex (Time Division Duplex, TDD), universal mobile telecommunications system (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System, UMTS), and the like.

The primary network device and the secondary network device may be any access network device.

Alternatively, in some embodiments, the access network device may be a base station (Base Transceiver Station, BTS) in a global system for mobile communications (Global System of Mobile communication, GSM) or code division multiple access (Code Division Multiple Access, CDMA), a base station (NodeB, NB) in a wideband code division multiple access (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, WCDMA) system, or an evolved base station (Evolutional Node B, eNB or eNodeB) in a long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) system.

Optionally, the access network device may also be a next generation radio access network (Next Generation Radio Access Network, NGRAN), or a base station (gNB) in an NR system, or a radio controller in a cloud radio access network (Cloud Radio Access Network, CRAN), or the access network device may be a relay station, an access point, an on-board device, a wearable device, or a network device in a future evolved public land mobile network (Public Land Mobile Network, PLMN), etc.

In the system 100 shown in fig. 1, the first network device 130 is taken as a primary network device, and the second network device 120 is taken as an auxiliary network device.

The first network device 130 may be an LTE network device and the second network device 120 may be an NR network device. Or the first network device 130 may be an NR network device and the second network device 120 may be an LTE network device. Or both the first network device 130 and the second network device 120 may be NR network devices. Or the first network device 130 may be a GSM network device, a CDMA network device, etc., and the second network device 120 may be a GSM network device, a CDMA network device, etc. Or the first network device 130 may be a macro base station (Macrocell), the second network device 120 may be a micro cell base station (Microcell), a pico cell base station (Picocell), or a femto cell base station (Femtocell), etc.

Alternatively, the terminal device 110 may be any terminal device, and the terminal device 110 includes, but is not limited to:

via a wireline connection, such as via a public-switched telephone network (Public Switched Telephone Networks, PSTN), a digital subscriber line (Digital Subscriber Line, DSL), a digital cable, a direct cable connection; and/or another data connection/network; and/or via a wireless interface, e.g., for a cellular network, a wireless local area network (Wireless Local Area Network, WLAN), a digital television network such as a DVB-H network, a satellite network, an AM-FM broadcast transmitter; and/or means of the other terminal device arranged to receive/transmit communication signals; and/or internet of things (Internet of Things, ioT) devices. Terminal devices arranged to communicate over a wireless interface may be referred to as "wireless communication terminals", "wireless terminals" or "mobile terminals". Examples of mobile terminals include, but are not limited to, satellites or cellular telephones; a personal communications system (Personal Communications System, PCS) terminal that may combine a cellular radiotelephone with data processing, facsimile and data communications capabilities; a PDA that can include a radiotelephone, pager, internet/intranet access, web browser, organizer, calendar, and/or a global positioning system (Global Positioning System, GPS) receiver; and conventional laptop and/or palmtop receivers or other electronic devices that include a radiotelephone transceiver. A terminal device may refer to an access terminal, user Equipment (UE), subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, wireless communication device, user agent, or User Equipment. An access terminal may be a cellular telephone, a cordless telephone, a session initiation protocol (Session Initiation Protocol, SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (Wireless Local Loop, WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (Personal Digital Assistant, PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication capabilities, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, a terminal device in a 5G network or a terminal device in a future evolved PLMN, etc.

It should be understood that the terms "system" and "network" are used interchangeably herein.

In the embodiment of the present application, the network device provides services for a cell, and the terminal device communicates with the network device through a transmission resource (for example, a frequency domain resource, or a spectrum resource) used by the cell, where the cell may be a cell corresponding to the network device (for example, a base station), and the cell may belong to a macro base station, or may belong to a base station corresponding to a Small cell (Small cell), where the Small cell may include: urban cells (Metro cells), micro cells (Micro cells), pico cells (Pico cells), femto cells (Femto cells) and the like, and the small cells have the characteristics of small coverage area and low transmitting power and are suitable for providing high-rate data transmission services.

It should be understood that the method of the embodiments of the present application may be used to transmit various types of traffic.

Such as eMBB, whose demand is growing very rapidly, targets users to obtain multimedia content, services and data. Also, for example, an eMBB may be deployed in different scenarios, such as indoor, urban, rural, etc., where the capability and demand are also quite different, and thus may be analyzed in detail in connection with a specific deployment scenario. Also for example URLLC, typical applications of URLLC include: industrial automation, electric power automation, remote medical operation (surgery), traffic safety guarantee and the like. Typical characteristics of mctc include: high connection density, small data volume, delay insensitive traffic, low cost and long service life of the module, etc.

In some special scenarios, the terminal device needs to initiate random access to the network device to establish a connection with the network device. There are various events that trigger the terminal device to perform random access, for example, in the initial access process of the terminal device; in the reestablishing process of the terminal equipment; when the terminal equipment has uplink data to be sent, but detects uplink step-out; the terminal equipment has uplink data to send, but has no scheduling request (scheduling request, SR) resource; under the condition that the terminal equipment needs to perform cell switching; in the case that the base station has downlink data to send, but detects uplink out-of-sync.

The random access of the terminal device may include contention-based random access and non-contention-based random access.

The contention-based random access procedure may be as shown with reference to fig. 2.

S210, the terminal device sends a message1 (MSG 1) to the network device on the random access channel, where the MSG1 includes a random access preamble. Wherein the MSG1 may be a physical layer message.

After receiving the MSG1, the network device may send the MSG2 on a downlink shared channel (downlink share channel, DL-SCH), where the MSG2 may be a random access response (Random Access Response, RAR). Wherein, the MSG2 may be a MAC layer message.

The RAR response carries uplink resource information (temporary cell radio network temporary identifier, T-CRNTI), i.e. temporary CRNTI, that can be used and adjusted by a Timing Advance (TA) of uplink transmission.

Alternatively, the RAR response may be generated by the medium access control (Media Access Control, MAC) layer of the network device. One MSG2 may simultaneously correspond to random access request responses of a plurality of terminal apparatuses.

In S230, after receiving the MSG2, the terminal device determines whether the message belongs to its own RAR message, and when determining that the message belongs to its own RAR message, sends a message3 (MSG 3) in an uplink resource designated by the MSG2, where the MSG3 carries a terminal device specific RNTI. Wherein, the MSG3 may be an RRC layer message.

In step 240, the network device may send an MSG4 message to the terminal device after receiving the MSG 3. The MSG4 includes a contention resolution message and uplink transmission resources allocated by the network device to the terminal device. Wherein, the MSG4 may be a MAC layer message.

After receiving the MSG4, the terminal device may detect whether the specific RNTI sent in the MSG3 is included in the contention resolution message sent by the network device. If so, the terminal equipment is indicated to succeed in the random access process, otherwise, the random access process is considered to fail. After the random access procedure fails, the terminal device needs to initiate the random access procedure again from the first step.

Alternatively, MSG1 and MSG2 may not use the HARQ mechanism, and MSG3 and MSG4 may use the HARQ mechanism.

The terminal device may also initiate a next random access attempt until the maximum number of retransmissions and/or the maximum retransmission time allowed by the network side is reached.

The terminal device typically performs random access by transmitting a preamble to the network device. If the terminal device fails in the current random access after the first preamble transmission, the terminal device may transmit the random access preamble to the network device for a second time, where the transmission power of the second preamble may be the transmission power after the transmission power of the first preamble is power-ramped. The step size of the power ramp may be configured by the network device or may be preconfigured in the terminal device.

The non-contention based random access procedure may be as shown in fig. 3, for example.

S310, the network device sends MSG0 to the terminal device, where the MSG0 may include a preamble configuration message for indicating a preamble of random access. The MSG0 may be a physical layer message.

S320, the terminal device sends MSG1 to the network device, where the MSG1 includes the random access preamble in S310. The MSG1 may be a physical layer message.

S330, the network device sends MSG2 to the terminal device, wherein the MSG2 can be a random access response message. The MSG2 may be a MAC layer message.

In the non-contention based random access procedure, the terminal device may acquire resources of the non-contention random access through RRC signaling and/or PDCCH signaling, and perform random access on the non-contention random access resources.

The random access procedure of the terminal device will be described below by taking a handover procedure as an example. The communication scenario of the handover procedure in the embodiment of the present application is not specifically limited, and may be, for example, an LTE system or an NR system.

When a terminal device using a network service moves from a source cell to a coverage area of a target cell, or due to adjustment of radio transmission traffic load, active operation maintenance, equipment failure, etc., in order to ensure continuity of communication and quality of service of the terminal device, a communication system needs to transfer a communication link between the terminal device and the source cell to the target cell, i.e., perform a cell handover procedure. The source cell may be understood as the cell to which the terminal device is currently connected, and the target cell may be understood as the cell to which the terminal device is about to be handed over.

The mode of cell switching of the terminal device in the embodiment of the present application is not particularly limited, for example, the terminal device may perform intra-station switching, that is, the source cell and the target cell belong to the same base station. For another example, the terminal device may also perform handover between base stations, that is, the source cell and the target cell belong to different base stations.

The embodiment of the application does not limit the interface adopted for the cell switching between the base stations. For example, the cell switch may be based on the X2 interface or the Xn interface, or the cell switch may be based on the S1 interface or the N2 interface.

Taking an Xn interface as an example, the switching process of the terminal device can be divided into the following three phases: handover preparation, handover execution, and handover completion.

The handover preparation may include the terminal device reporting the link quality measurement, sending a handover request to the source base station, and receiving a handover command sent by the source base station.

The handover execution may include the terminal device executing the handover procedure immediately after receiving the handover command transmitted from the source base station. For example, the connection with the source cell may be disconnected and the connection with the target cell may be completed (e.g., performing random access, sending an RRC handover complete message to the target base station, etc.), sequence Number (SN) state transition, data forwarding, etc.

The handover completion may include the target cell and access and mobility management functions (access and mobility management function, AMF) and the user plane functions (user plane function, UPF) performing a link handover, releasing the UE context of the source base station, and so on.

For an NR system, the UE context of the link switching and releasing source base station may be performed by AMF and UPF, and for an LTE system, the UE context of the link switching and releasing source base station may be performed by MME. The system applied in the embodiment of the present application is not particularly limited, and may be applied to an LTE system or an NR system.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 4, the handover preparation stages (401 to 405) may include:

in 401, the source base station triggers the terminal device to perform neighbor cell measurement, so that the terminal device can measure the neighbor cell and report the measurement result to the source base station.

In 402, the source base station evaluates the measurement result reported by the terminal device and decides whether to trigger handover.

If the source base station decides to trigger a handover in 403, a handover request may be sent to the target base station.

In 404, after receiving the handover request sent by the source base station, the target base station may start admitting according to the service information carried by the source base station, and perform radio resource allocation.

In 405, the target base station sends a handover request confirm message to the source base station, and returns the admission result and radio resource configuration information in the target base station to the source base station. The handover preparation phase is thus completed.

The second phase, the handover execution phase (406-408) may include:

in 406, after receiving the handover request acknowledgement message of the target base station, the source base station may trigger the terminal device to perform handover.

In 407, the source base station may forward the buffered data, the incoming data packet, the system sequence number of the data, etc., to the target base station. And, the target base station may buffer data received from the source base station

Furthermore, the terminal device may disconnect from the source base station and establish synchronization with the target base station.

In 408, the terminal device synchronizes to the target base station. The handover execution phase is completed.

The third phase, the handover complete phase (409-412) may include:

in 409, the target base station sends a path switch request to the mobility management function (Access and Mobility Management Function, AMF).

In 410, after the AMF receives the path switch request from the target base station, the AMF performs path switch with the user plane function (User Plane Function, UPF) to clear the path flag of the user plane of the source base station.

In 411, after the path switching is completed, the AMF may send a path switching acknowledgement message to the target base station.

In 412, the target base station sends a terminal device context release message to the source base station informing the source base station that the handover was successful and triggering the source base station to release the terminal device context. So far, the handover is completed.

The terminal equipment starts a T304 timer immediately after receiving the switching command, starts downlink synchronization to the target cell, acquires the master information block (master indication block, MIB) information of the target cell, and then initiates random access. And allowing multiple preamble retransmissions in the random access process until the random access is successful. Further, if the T304 timer expires, indicating a handover failure, the terminal device may directly trigger the RRC connection reestablishment procedure.

The handover procedure in this way is a handover procedure that is entirely controlled by the network. However, for a terminal device moving at a high speed or under a high frequency condition, frequent switching is required. If the above manner is adopted to perform cell switching, the terminal device may not be able to send the measurement report or receive the switching command due to moving to the area with poor coverage at high speed, which may cause the terminal device to be unable to perform cell switching, resulting in service interruption and other problems.

The embodiment of the application provides a handover process based on conditional triggering, which can avoid the problems that the handover preparation time is too long, and the terminal equipment is too late to perform cell handover when the terminal equipment is to be switched.

The network device may configure the handover command for the terminal device in advance, and the network device may also assign the target base station to the terminal device in advance. The handover command may include a condition for triggering the terminal device to perform handover, and when detecting that the target cell satisfies the handover condition, the terminal device may initiate an access request to the target base station.

The handover trigger condition may be a signal quality based trigger condition. For example, the handover trigger condition may include the signal quality of the source cell being below a first threshold. If the terminal device detects that the signal quality of the source cell is lower than the first threshold, the terminal device can perform cell switching. As another example, the handover trigger condition may include the signal quality of the target cell being above a second threshold. If the terminal device detects that the signal quality of the target cell is above the second threshold, the terminal device may perform a handover to the target cell. For another example, the handover triggering condition may include that the signal quality of the source cell is lower than a first threshold and the signal quality of the target cell is higher than a second threshold, and the terminal device may perform handover to the target cell only if both conditions are satisfied.

The first threshold value and the second threshold value may be the same or different. The embodiment of the present application is not particularly limited thereto.

The signal quality of a cell may be characterized by a reference signal received power (reference signal receiving power, RSRP). The terminal equipment can receive the reference signals of the source cell and the target cell, and measure the received power of the reference signals to obtain the RSRP corresponding to the cell. The larger the RSRP value, the better the signal quality of the cell; the smaller the RSRP value, the worse the signal quality of the cell.

The process based on conditional switching is described below in connection with fig. 5.

510, the source base station sends measurement configuration information to the terminal device.

The terminal device sends 520 a measurement report to the source base station.

And 530, the source base station and the target base station exchange switching preparation information.

And 540, the source base station sends a switching command to the terminal equipment.

The handover command includes condition information for a cell or a beam.

550, the terminal device synchronizes with the target base station (the terminal device accesses the target base station) when the condition is satisfied.

However, for a specific handover scenario, such as a high-speed rail scenario, the network device also needs to configure multiple target cells in advance to the terminal device. But for a plurality of terminal devices on a high-speed rail, the network device needs to configure a plurality of target cells to the plurality of terminal devices, respectively. However, the running track of the terminal equipment on the high-speed rail is determined, the problem that the network equipment repeatedly sends the same information to a plurality of terminal equipment exists, and if the network equipment respectively adopts dedicated signaling to independently configure a plurality of target cells to the plurality of terminal equipment, the signaling resource waste is caused.

Similar problems exist for non-terrestrial network communication systems. For example, for a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) system, since the LEO satellite is not stationary relative to the ground but moves at a high speed, its speed of movement relative to the ground can reach 7.75km/s, namely 27216km/h, and the speed of movement is much higher than that of a normal ground or air vehicle.

Thus, for a terminal device that uses LEO satellites for communication, there is a problem in that satellite handoff occurs between the terminal device due to the relative motion between the LEO satellites and the terminal device on the ground. And since the motion trajectory of the satellite is determined, the motion trajectory of the terminal device with respect to the LEO satellite is determined according to the relative motion principle. Thus, for LEO satellite communication systems, condition-based handoff may also be employed to address satellite movement. The LEO satellite may configure other LEO satellites and handover conditions to the terminal device in advance so that the terminal device switches to the target LEO satellite when it detects that the handover conditions are met.

However, LEO communication systems face more serious problems than general terrestrial communication systems:

1. the LEO's moving speed is higher than that of a general vehicle in time, reaching the order of 100x, i.e., the LEO communication system needs to handle 100x moving events in the same time frame.

2. Spatially, LEO satellites have a coverage much larger than the normal cells of a terrestrial network, which can reach tens or hundreds of kilometers. Depending on the density of subscribers in the coverage area using LEO satellite communications, the number of subscribers in a single cell of a non-terrestrial network may reach a large value. Similarly, because LEO satellites have a large coverage area, there are more terminal devices using the same LEO satellite, and one LEO satellite handles more terminal device movement events.

Therefore, with respect to the LEO satellite, since the moving track of the LEO satellite is determined, if the LEO satellite configures a plurality of target LEO satellites to each terminal device using dedicated signaling, respectively, there is also a problem that the same information is repeatedly transmitted to a plurality of terminal devices, and the problem of the LEO communication system is more serious with respect to the ground communication system. Because the LEO satellite needs to configure the target LEO satellite to more terminal devices at the same time, this results in more signaling wastage.

Therefore, how to instruct the terminal device to perform cell handover by the network device is in a deterministic state of high-speed movement is a problem that needs to be solved currently.

The embodiment of the application provides a method for cell switching, which can reduce signaling overhead in the switching process. As shown in fig. 6, the method includes S610.

S610, the network device sends a system message to the terminal device, wherein the system message comprises first information, and the first information is used for the terminal device to perform cell switching.

The network device may broadcast a system message to the terminal device, and after the terminal device receives the system message, the terminal device may acquire first information from the system message to perform cell handover. Alternatively, the network device may refer to a source base station.

The first information may include at least one of the following information: configuration information of the candidate target cell, a T304 timer, dedicated configuration information for random access and handover conditions for handover to the candidate target cell.

The candidate target cell may include one target cell or may include a plurality of target cells. The network device may configure the terminal device with one or more target cells in advance to facilitate handover of the terminal device to the target cells.

Candidate target cells may include non-terrestrial network (non-terrestrial networks, NTN) cells, such as LEO cells; the candidate target cell may also be a terrestrial network cell, which is not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application.

The configuration information of the candidate target cell may include at least one of the following information: a correlation configuration for uplink, a correlation configuration for downlink, a synchronization signal block (synchronization signal block, SSB) correlation configuration and a reference signal correlation configuration. The configuration information of the candidate target cell may include configuration information of the primary and secondary cells.

The T304 timer may be started when the terminal device receives a handover command, and the terminal device may initiate random access to the target cell after receiving the handover command. For the switching process based on the condition switching, the T304 timer can also be started when the terminal equipment automatically judges that the switching condition is met and triggers the switching action. After the T304 timer expires, it indicates that the terminal device fails random access. The T304 timers of different target cells may be the same or different.

The dedicated configuration information for random access is used for the terminal device to initiate random access to the target cell, and the dedicated configuration information for random access of different target cells may be the same or different. The dedicated configuration information for random access may include, for example, a random access preamble or the like.

The handover conditions of the candidate target cell may include at least one of the following conditions: the signal quality of the candidate target cell and the location of the terminal device relative to the target cell.

For the manner of performing cell switching on the signal quality of the target cell, when the terminal device detects that the signal quality of the target cell meets a certain switching condition, the terminal device can switch to the target cell, and the specific manner can refer to the above description and will not be repeated here.

In the case of the location of the terminal device relative to the target cell, the handover conditions for triggering handover are not specifically limited in the embodiment of the present application. For example, the terminal device switches to the target cell as soon as it enters the coverage area of the target cell. For another example, the terminal device may be handed over to the target cell after entering the range of the target cell and being located at the edge position of the source cell.

Of course, the handover condition of the candidate target cell may be a combination of the above conditions, for example, when the terminal device performs handover, not only the location of the terminal device relative to the target cell needs to be considered, but also whether the signal quality of the target cell meets the condition needs to be determined.

For a terminal device moving at a high speed, the network device may configure the terminal device with relevant information for cell handover in advance. In the embodiment of the application, the network device configures the relevant information for cell switching to the terminal device not by the dedicated signaling, but may configure part or all of the relevant information by the system message, so that the overhead of the dedicated signaling can be reduced.

For terminal equipment on a high-speed rail, since the running tracks of all the terminal equipment are the same, candidate target cells configured by the network equipment to the terminal equipment can also be the same. For example, the network device may send the configuration information of the same candidate target cell to all the terminal devices through the system message, without separately sending the same information to each terminal device, and since the system message is sent to the terminal devices in a broadcast manner, this manner can save signaling overhead.

For non-terrestrial communication systems, such as LEO satellite communication systems, one LEO satellite may configure the first information to all terminal devices within its coverage area through a system message, without having to repeatedly send the first information to the terminal devices, which can save signaling overhead.

As an implementation manner, the network device may further send dedicated signaling to the terminal device, where the dedicated signaling may include at least one of the following information: the terminal equipment is in the identification information of the candidate target cell, T304 timer, dedicated configuration information used for random access and switching conditions for switching to the candidate target cell.

The dedicated signaling may be understood as a message sent by the network device to the terminal device in a unicast manner.

The identification information of the terminal device in the candidate target cell may be, for example, a cell radio network temporary identity (cell radio network temporary identifier, C-RNTI).

The C-RNTI may be sent by the source base station to the target base station after the source base station sends the handover request to the target base station, and then the source base station may send the C-RNTI to the terminal device through dedicated signaling. Because the C-RNTI of different terminal devices in the same target base station is different, the source base station sends the C-RNTI information to the terminal devices through special signaling. When the terminal equipment needs to be switched to the target base station, the C-RNTI can be adopted to carry out random access to the target base station.

The system message and the dedicated signaling may comprise the same information, e.g. may each comprise second information, wherein the second information comprises at least one of the following information: and T304 timer for the special configuration information of random access and the switching condition of switching to the candidate target cell. Different information may be included in the system message and the dedicated signaling, for example, the system message may include configuration information of the candidate target cell, and the dedicated signaling may include identification information of the terminal device in the candidate target cell.

In the embodiment of the application, the network device may broadcast the configuration information of the candidate target cell to the terminal device through the system information, and place the identification information of the terminal device in the candidate target cell in the dedicated signaling and send the identification information to the terminal device. For the information such as the T304 timer, the dedicated configuration information for random access, and the handover condition for handover to the candidate target cell, the network device may be broadcasted to the terminal device in a system message, or may use dedicated signaling to send to the terminal device.

For some information included in both the system message and the dedicated signaling, that is, the dedicated signaling includes some information already included in the system message, the terminal device may use the information in the system message to perform cell switching, or may use the information in the dedicated signaling to perform cell switching.

As an example, the terminal device may prioritize the information in dedicated signaling for cell switching. Assuming that the system message and the dedicated signaling both include a T304 timer, the terminal device preferably uses the T304 timer in the dedicated signaling to perform cell handover.

After receiving the system message and the dedicated signaling, the terminal device can perform cell switching according to the information in the dedicated signaling. For information not in the dedicated signaling, the terminal device may obtain from the system message for cell handover.

As yet another example, the dedicated signaling may further include first indication information, through which the network device may indicate to the terminal device which information in the message is used for cell handover, e.g. the first indication information may indicate whether the terminal device needs to perform cell handover based on the information in the system message. Taking the T304 timer as an example, the system message and the dedicated signaling both comprise the T304 timer, the network device can also configure first indication information in the dedicated signaling, if the first indication information indicates the terminal device to perform cell switching based on the T304 timer in the system information, the terminal device makes the T304 timer of the system message perform cell switching; if the first indication information indicates that the terminal equipment does not perform cell switching based on the T304 timer in the system message or indicates that the terminal equipment performs cell switching based on the T304 timer in the dedicated signaling, the terminal equipment performs cell switching by adopting the T304 timer in the dedicated signaling.

The above-described manner may also be used to determine which message the terminal device should use for handover if the information is included in the system message and dedicated signaling, such as dedicated configuration information for random access and handover conditions for handover to the candidate target cell.

The method provided by the embodiment of the application can be applied to a switching process based on conditional switching and also can be applied to a switching process based on unconditional switching.

For the switching mode based on the condition switching, after receiving the system message sent by the network device, the terminal device can detect the target cell according to the switching condition included in the system message, and after detecting that the target cell meets the switching condition, the terminal device can directly initiate random access to the target cell meeting the condition so as to switch to the target cell.

For a handover mode based on unconditional handover, the network device may still configure the first information to the terminal device in advance through a system message. When the terminal equipment needs to be switched, a traditional switching mode based on unconditional switching can be adopted to send a switching request to the network equipment, and the network equipment can send a switching command to the terminal equipment, except that the switching command only comprises configuration information for indicating the target cell to which the terminal equipment should be switched, and the configuration information of the target cell does not need to be sent to the terminal equipment. After receiving the handover command, the terminal device may obtain, from the system message, configuration information of the corresponding target cell according to the indication in the handover command, so as to perform cell handover. This approach can also save signaling overhead in the handover procedure.

The candidate target cell may include a plurality of target cells, that is, configuration information of a plurality of candidate target cells may be included in the system message, and the network device may indicate to the terminal device, through dedicated signaling, which target cell's configuration information is employed to perform handover. For example, the dedicated signaling may include second indication information, which may be used to instruct the terminal device to handover to a first target cell of the plurality of target cells. After receiving the dedicated signaling, the terminal device may perform cell handover according to the system message and/or related information of the first target cell included in the dedicated signaling.

As an example, for the condition-based handover procedure, after receiving the dedicated signaling, the terminal device may first switch to the first target cell according to the handover condition included in the system message and/or the dedicated signaling, and after the first target cell satisfies the handover condition, switch to the first target cell. When the terminal equipment is switched to the first target cell, random access can be initiated to the first target cell according to the system message and/or the related information of the first target cell included in the special signaling.

As yet another example, for an unconditional based handover procedure, the terminal device may initiate random access to the first target cell directly from the system message and/or related information of the first target cell included in the dedicated signaling after receiving the dedicated signaling. The dedicated signaling may be a handover command.

The system message in the embodiment of the present application may be a system message dedicated to handover, for example, the system message may be a system message dedicated to carrying the first information. The system message dedicated for handover may refer to that the system message is different from other system messages existing in the protocol, or that the system message is not multiplexed with the existing system message, but a system message is added to be dedicated for carrying information for handover of the terminal device based on the existing system message.

Alternatively, the system message may be a system information block (system information block, SIB) message.

The system message may be a system message dedicated to carrying the NTN system, that is, the system message may be a system message for a terminal device using the NTN system. Alternatively, the system message may be a system message dedicated to carrying the ground network system, i.e. the system message may be a system message for a terminal device using the ground system.

The network device may also send the receiving location of the system message to the terminal device before the terminal device receives the system message. For example, the network device may send third indication information to the terminal device, where the third indication information is used to indicate a location of a time domain resource and/or a frequency domain resource that receives the system message, and the location of the time domain resource and/or the frequency domain resource may also be referred to as a configuration parameter of the time domain resource and/or the frequency domain resource. After receiving the third indication information, the terminal device may receive the responsive system message at the location of the time domain resource and/or the frequency domain resource indicated by the third indication information.

Configuration parameters of the time domain resources and/or frequency domain resources may include, for example, measurement time configuration of SSBs (measurement timing configurations, MTC).

The third indication information may be used to indicate that the terminal device in the connected state receives the system message.

If the communication system is a non-ground network communication system, after the terminal equipment identifies that the cell is an NTN cell (such as an LEO cell), the terminal equipment can actively receive a system message after switching to the cell.

The cell in which the terminal device is located before switching is the first cell, and the system message may be received after the terminal device is connected to the first cell, that is, the terminal device may receive the system message sent by the base station of the first cell according to the third indication information sent by the base station in which the first cell is located after the terminal device is connected to the first cell.

The embodiment of the application does not specifically limit the first cell, as long as the first cell is the cell where the terminal equipment is located before switching. For example, the first cell may be a cell in which the terminal device is currently located, or the first cell may be any cell in which the terminal device is located before switching to the cell in which the terminal device is currently located. That is, the system message received by the terminal device may be used in a subsequent multiple handover procedure.

For example, the cell in which the terminal device is currently located is cell 1, and the cell in which the terminal device is located before switching to cell 1 is cell 0. The terminal equipment needs to be switched from the cell 1 to the cell 2 due to high-speed movement, and the related information of the cell 2 acquired by the terminal equipment is acquired in a system message, wherein the system message can be sent by a base station where the cell 1 is located or can be sent by a base station where the cell 0 is located.

Similarly, the indication information of the locations of the time domain resource and the frequency domain resource of the received system message may be sent by the base station where the cell 1 is located, or may be sent by the base station where the cell 0 is located.

When the network device broadcasts the related information of the plurality of target cells, the related information of the plurality of target cells can be put in the same system message for broadcasting, so that the signaling cost of broadcasting can be saved, and the signaling cost can be further saved. Alternatively, the network device may also use different system messages to broadcast the information about different target cells, i.e. each system message only broadcasts the information about one target cell, which can provide a more flexible network configuration.

The network device in the embodiment of the present application may refer to a source base station, which may also be referred to as a source cell base station, where the source base station may be configured to broadcast a system message to a terminal device, and may also send a dedicated signaling to the terminal device. The network device in the embodiment of the present application may also refer to a target base station, where the target base station may also be referred to as a target cell base station, and the target base station may be used for random access by the terminal device.

For ease of understanding, the application embodiments are described in detail below in connection with specific embodiments.

For a highly mobile terminal device, a cell where the terminal device is currently located is a cell 0, a base station where the cell 0 is located is a base station 0, the base station 0 detects that the terminal device is in a high-speed moving state, and a moving track of the terminal device is determined, so that the base station 0 can configure a plurality of target cells on a track line for the terminal device according to the moving track of the terminal device. The related information of the plurality of target cells may be, for example, the first information described above, and the related information of the plurality of target cells may be sent to the terminal device through a system message. The base station 0 may further send third indication information to the terminal device, where the third indication information is used to indicate the terminal device to receive configuration parameters of time domain resources and/or frequency domain resources of the system message, and after receiving the third indication information, the terminal device receives the system message on the corresponding time domain resources and/or frequency domain resources.

Assuming that the plurality of target cells may include cell 1 and cell 2, the information related to cell 1 may include information required for handover to cell 1, such as information required for initiating random access to cell 1, including handover conditions that need to be satisfied for handover to cell 1, and the like. Similarly, the information related to cell 2 may include information required for handover to cell 2, such as information required for initiating random access to cell 2, including handover conditions that need to be satisfied for handover to cell 2, and the like. The base station where the cell 1 is located may be referred to as the base station 1, and the base station where the cell 2 is located may be referred to as the base station 2.

The related information of the cell 1 and the related information of the cell 2 may be carried in the same system message, for example, the base station 0 may send the system messages of the cell 1 and the cell 2 to the terminal device by broadcasting one system message. Alternatively, the information related to cell 1 and cell 2 may be carried in different system messages, e.g. the base station 0 broadcasts the information related to cell 1 using a first system message and broadcasts the information related to cell 2 using a second system message.

If the terminal equipment reaches the edge position of the cell 0 and/or enters the coverage area of the cell 1, the base station 0 can send indication information for indicating to switch to the cell 1 to the terminal equipment, and the terminal equipment switches to the cell 1 according to the indication of the base station 0; or the terminal equipment can judge that the cell 1 meets the switching condition according to the switching condition of switching to the cell 1 in the system information, and then switch to the cell 1. Before switching to cell 1, the terminal device may acquire relevant parameters of cell 1 from the system message acquired before, and switch to cell 1 based on the relevant parameters of cell 1.

Along with the movement of the terminal equipment, the terminal equipment can reach the edge position of the cell 1 and/or enter the coverage area of the cell 2, the base station 1 can send indication information for indicating to switch to the cell 2 to the terminal equipment, and the terminal equipment can switch to the cell 1 according to the indication of the base station 1; or the terminal device may also switch to the cell 2 according to the switching condition of switching to the cell 2 in the system message sent by the base station 0, after judging that the cell 2 meets the corresponding switching condition.

Having described in detail the wireless communication method according to the embodiment of the present application, the apparatus according to the embodiment of the present application will be described below with reference to fig. 7 to 11, and technical features described in the method embodiment are applicable to the following apparatus embodiments.

Fig. 7 is a schematic block diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application, which may be any of the terminal devices described above, and the terminal device 700 of fig. 7 includes an acquisition unit 710, where:

an obtaining unit 710, configured to obtain first information from a system message, where the first information is used for the terminal device to perform cell handover.

Optionally, the first information includes at least one of the following information: configuration information of the candidate target cell, a T304 timer, dedicated configuration information for random access and handover conditions for handover to the candidate target cell.

Optionally, the terminal device 700 further comprises a receiving unit 720 for: receiving a special signaling sent by a network device, wherein the special signaling comprises at least one of the following information: the terminal equipment is in the identification information of the candidate target cell, T304 timer, dedicated configuration information for random access and switching conditions for switching to the candidate target cell.

Optionally, the candidate target cell comprises a non-terrestrial network NTN cell.

Optionally, the NTN cell comprises a low earth orbit LEO cell.

Optionally, the terminal device 700 further comprises a processing unit 730 for: and carrying out cell switching according to the information in the special signaling.

Optionally, the system message and the dedicated signaling each include second information, where the second information includes at least one of the following information: t304 timer, dedicated configuration information for random access and handover conditions for handover to candidate target cells, the terminal device 700 further comprises a processing unit 730 for: and when the cell switching is carried out, the cell switching is carried out according to the second information in the special signaling.

Optionally, the dedicated signaling further includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate whether the terminal device performs cell handover based on information in the system message.

Optionally, the system message and the dedicated signaling each include second information, where the second information includes at least one of the following information: and T304 timer for the special configuration information of random access and the switching condition of switching to the candidate target cell.

Optionally, the candidate target cells include a plurality of target cells, and the dedicated signaling includes second indication information, where the second indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to switch to a first target cell in the plurality of target cells.

Optionally, the terminal device 700 further comprises a processing unit 730 for: and switching to the first target cell according to the switching condition of switching to the first target cell, which is included in the special signaling and/or the system information.

Optionally, the terminal device 700 further comprises a receiving unit 720 for: and receiving third indication information sent by the network equipment, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating the position of time domain resources and/or frequency domain resources of the system message.

Optionally, the system message is a system message dedicated to carrying the first information.

Optionally, the system message is a system message dedicated to the NTN system.

Optionally, the cell in which the terminal device is located before handover is the first cell, and the terminal device 700 further includes a receiving unit 720 configured to: the system message is received after connecting to the first cell.

Fig. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application, which may be any of the terminal devices described above, and the terminal device 800 of fig. 8 includes a transmitting unit 810, where:

a sending unit 810, configured to send a system message to a terminal device, where the system message includes first information, where the first information is used for the terminal device to perform cell handover.

Optionally, the sending unit 810 is further configured to: transmitting dedicated signaling to the terminal equipment, wherein the dedicated signaling comprises at least one of the following information: the terminal equipment is in the identification information of the candidate target cell, T304 timer, dedicated configuration information for random access and switching conditions for switching to the candidate target cell.

Optionally, the NTN cell comprises a low earth orbit LEO cell.

Optionally, the dedicated signaling includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate whether the terminal device performs cell handover based on information in the system message.

Optionally, the candidate target cells include a plurality of target cells, and the dedicated signaling includes second indication information, where the second indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to switch to a first target cell in the plurality of candidate cells.

Optionally, the sending unit 810 is further configured to: and sending third indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating the position of the time domain resource and/or the frequency domain resource of the system message.

Optionally, the system message is a system message dedicated to the NTN system.

Optionally, the sending unit 810 is further configured to: and after the terminal equipment is connected to the first cell, sending the system message to the terminal equipment.

Fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 900 provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 900 shown in fig. 9 comprises a processor 910, from which the processor 910 may call and run a computer program to implement the method in the embodiments of the present application.

Optionally, as shown in fig. 9, the communication device 900 may also include a memory 920. Wherein the processor 910 may invoke and run a computer program from the memory 920 to implement the methods in the embodiments of the present application.

Wherein the memory 920 may be a separate device from the processor 910 or may be integrated in the processor 910.

Optionally, as shown in fig. 9, the communication device 900 may further include a transceiver 930, and the processor 910 may control the transceiver 930 to communicate with other devices, and in particular, may send information or data to other devices, or receive information or data sent by other devices.

Wherein transceiver 930 may include a transmitter and a receiver. Transceiver 930 may further include antennas, the number of which may be one or more.

Optionally, the communication device 900 may be specifically a network device in the embodiment of the present application, and the communication device 900 may implement a corresponding flow implemented by the network device in each method in the embodiment of the present application, which is not described herein for brevity.

Optionally, the communication device 900 may be specifically a mobile terminal/terminal device in the embodiment of the present application, and the communication device 900 may implement a corresponding flow implemented by the mobile terminal/terminal device in each method in the embodiment of the present application, which is not described herein for brevity.

Fig. 10 is a schematic structural view of an apparatus of an embodiment of the present application. The apparatus 1000 shown in fig. 10 includes a processor 1010, and the processor 1010 may call and execute a computer program from a memory to implement the methods in the embodiments of the present application.

Optionally, as shown in fig. 10, the apparatus 1000 may further comprise a memory 1020. Wherein the processor 1010 may call and run a computer program from the memory 1020 to implement the methods in embodiments of the present application.

The memory 1020 may be a separate device from the processor 1010 or may be integrated into the processor 1010.

Optionally, the apparatus 1000 may further comprise an input interface 1030. Wherein the processor 1010 may control the input interface 1030 to communicate with other devices or apparatuses, and in particular may obtain information or data sent by the other devices or apparatuses.

Optionally, the apparatus 1000 may further include an output interface 1040. Wherein the processor 1010 may control the output interface 1040 to communicate with other devices or apparatuses, in particular, may output information or data to other devices or apparatuses.

Optionally, the apparatus may be applied to a network device in the embodiments of the present application, and the apparatus may implement a corresponding flow implemented by the network device in each method in the embodiments of the present application, which is not described herein for brevity.

Optionally, the apparatus may be applied to a mobile terminal/terminal device in the embodiment of the present application, and the apparatus may implement a corresponding flow implemented by the mobile terminal/terminal device in each method in the embodiment of the present application, which is not described herein for brevity.

It should be understood that the devices mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may be chips, which may also be referred to as system-on-chip chips, chip systems or system-on-chip chips, etc.

Fig. 11 is a schematic block diagram of a communication system 1100 provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 11, the communication system 1100 includes a terminal device 1110 and a network device 1120.

The terminal device 1110 may be used to implement the corresponding functions implemented by the terminal device in the above method, and the network device 1120 may be used to implement the corresponding functions implemented by the network device in the above method, which are not described herein for brevity.

It should be appreciated that the processor of an embodiment of the present application may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capabilities. In implementation, the steps of the above method embodiments may be implemented by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in software form. The processor may be a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (Digital Signal Processor, DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (Application Specific Integrated Circuit, ASIC), an off-the-shelf programmable gate array (Field Programmable Gate Array, FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware components. The disclosed methods, steps, and logic blocks in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented or performed. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be embodied directly in hardware, in a decoded processor, or in a combination of hardware and software modules in a decoded processor. The software modules may be located in a random access memory, flash memory, read only memory, programmable read only memory, or electrically erasable programmable memory, registers, etc. as well known in the art. The storage medium is located in a memory, and the processor reads the information in the memory and, in combination with its hardware, performs the steps of the above method.

It will be appreciated that the memory in embodiments of the present application may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile 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. The volatile memory may be random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM) which acts as an external cache. By way of example, and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double Data Rate SDRAM (Double Data Rate SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SLDRAM), and Direct RAM (DRRAM). It should be noted that the memory of the systems and methods described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

It should be understood that the above memory is exemplary but not limiting, and for example, the memory in the embodiments of the present application may be Static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM), direct RAM (DR RAM), and the like. That is, the memory in embodiments of the present application is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer-readable storage medium for storing a computer program.

Optionally, the computer readable storage medium may be applied to a network device in the embodiments of the present application, and the computer program causes a computer to execute a corresponding flow implemented by the network device in each method in the embodiments of the present application, which is not described herein for brevity.

Optionally, the computer readable storage medium may be applied to a mobile terminal/terminal device in the embodiments of the present application, and the computer program causes a computer to execute a corresponding procedure implemented by the mobile terminal/terminal device in each method of the embodiments of the present application, which is not described herein for brevity.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product comprising computer program instructions.

Optionally, the computer program product may be applied to a network device in the embodiments of the present application, and the computer program instructions cause the computer to execute corresponding flows implemented by the network device in the methods in the embodiments of the present application, which are not described herein for brevity.

Optionally, the computer program product may be applied to a mobile terminal/terminal device in the embodiments of the present application, and the computer program instructions cause a computer to execute corresponding processes implemented by the mobile terminal/terminal device in the methods in the embodiments of the present application, which are not described herein for brevity.

The embodiment of the application also provides a computer program.

Optionally, the computer program may be applied to a network device in the embodiments of the present application, and when the computer program runs on a computer, the computer is caused to execute a corresponding flow implemented by the network device in each method in the embodiments of the present application, which is not described herein for brevity.

Optionally, the computer program may be applied to a mobile terminal/terminal device in the embodiments of the present application, where the computer program when run on a computer causes the computer to execute corresponding processes implemented by the mobile terminal/terminal device in the methods in the embodiments of the present application, and for brevity, will not be described herein.

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 solution. 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 will be clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, specific working procedures of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to corresponding procedures in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not repeated herein.

In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices, and methods may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, e.g., the division of the units is merely a logical function division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, e.g., multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection via some interfaces, devices or units, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate units may or may not be physically separate, and units shown 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 may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated in 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. For such understanding, the technical solutions of the present application may be embodied in essence or in a part contributing to the prior art or in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, including several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a random access Memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, or other various media capable of storing program codes.

The foregoing is merely specific embodiments of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily think about changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application, and the changes and substitutions are intended to be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A cell handover method based on unconditional handover, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that a terminal device obtains first information from a broadcasted system message, wherein the first information is used for cell switching of the terminal device, the first information comprises configuration information of candidate target cells, a T304 timer and special configuration information for random access, the candidate target cells comprise a plurality of target cells on a running track of the terminal device, and the configuration information is configured by a network device according to the running track of the terminal device;

the terminal equipment sends a switching request to the network equipment when switching is required; and

the terminal equipment receives a switching command sent by the network equipment, wherein the switching command is used for indicating to which target cell the terminal equipment is switched, and does not comprise configuration information of the target cell;

The method further comprises the steps of:

the terminal equipment receives the special signaling sent by the network equipment, wherein the special signaling comprises the identification information of the terminal equipment in the candidate target cell, a T304 timer, special configuration information for random access and first indication information, the first indication information is used for indicating whether the terminal equipment performs cell switching based on the information in the system message,

if the first indication information indicates that the cell switching is performed based on the T304 timer or the special configuration information in the first information, the terminal equipment performs the cell switching by adopting the T304 timer or the special configuration information of the first information; and if the first indication information indicates that the cell switching is performed based on the T304 timer or the special configuration information in the special signaling, the terminal equipment performs the cell switching by adopting the T304 timer or the special configuration information in the special signaling.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the candidate target cells comprise non-terrestrial network NTN cells.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the NTN cell comprises a low earth orbit LEO cell.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the dedicated signaling includes second indication information, the second indication information being used to instruct the terminal device to switch to a first target cell of the plurality of target cells.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

and the terminal equipment receives third indication information sent by the network equipment, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating the position of time domain resources and/or frequency domain resources of the system message.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the system message is a system message dedicated to carrying the first information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the system message is a system message specific to an NTN system.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the cell in which the terminal device was located prior to handover is a first cell, the method further comprising:

the terminal device receives the system message after connecting to the first cell.

9. A cell handover method based on unconditional handover, comprising:

The network equipment broadcasts a system message to terminal equipment, wherein the system message comprises first information, the first information is used for the terminal equipment to carry out cell switching, the first information comprises configuration information of candidate target cells, a T304 timer and special configuration information for random access, the candidate target cells comprise a plurality of target cells on the running track of the terminal equipment, and the configuration information is configured by the network equipment according to the running track of the terminal equipment;

the network equipment receives a switching request sent by the terminal equipment when switching is required; and

the network device sends a switching command to the terminal device, wherein the switching command is used for indicating to which target cell the terminal device is switched, and does not include configuration information of the target cell;

the method further comprises the steps of:

the network device sends special signaling to the terminal device, the special signaling comprises identification information of the terminal device in candidate target cells, a T304 timer, special configuration information for random access and first indication information, the first indication information is used for indicating whether the terminal device performs cell switching based on the information in the system message,

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the candidate target cells comprise non-terrestrial network NTN cells.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the NTN cell comprises a low earth orbit LEO cell.

12. The method according to claim 9, wherein the dedicated signaling includes second indication information, the second indication information being used to instruct the terminal device to switch to a first target cell of the plurality of target cells.

13. The method according to claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

and the network equipment sends third indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating the position of the time domain resource and/or the frequency domain resource of the system message.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the system message is a system message dedicated to carrying the first information.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the system message is a system message specific to an NTN system.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the cell in which the terminal device was located prior to handover is a first cell, the method further comprising:

and the network equipment sends the system message to the terminal equipment after the terminal equipment is connected to the first cell.

17. A terminal device, comprising:

an obtaining unit, configured to obtain first information from a broadcasted system message, where the first information is used for the terminal device to perform cell handover, where the first information includes configuration information of a candidate target cell, a T304 timer, and dedicated configuration information for random access, where the candidate target cell includes a plurality of target cells on a running track of the terminal device, and the configuration information is configured by a network device according to the running track of the terminal device;

the terminal device sends a switching request to the network device when switching is needed, and the terminal device further comprises:

A receiving unit, configured to receive a handover command sent by the network device, where the handover command is used to instruct the terminal device to which target cell to handover to, and does not include configuration information of the target cell;

the receiving unit is further configured to:

receiving a special signaling sent by the network equipment, wherein the special signaling comprises identification information of the terminal equipment in a candidate target cell, a T304 timer, special configuration information for random access and first indication information, the first indication information is used for indicating whether the terminal equipment performs cell switching based on information in the system message,

18. The terminal device of claim 17, wherein the candidate target cells comprise non-terrestrial network NTN cells.

19. The terminal device of claim 18, wherein the NTN cell comprises a low earth orbit LEO cell.

20. The terminal device of claim 17, wherein the dedicated signaling includes second indication information, the second indication information being used to instruct the terminal device to switch to a first target cell of the plurality of target cells.

21. The terminal device of claim 17, wherein the receiving unit is further configured to:

and receiving third indication information sent by the network equipment, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating the position of time domain resources and/or frequency domain resources of the system message.

22. The terminal device of claim 17, wherein the system message is a system message dedicated to carrying the first information.

23. The terminal device of claim 17, wherein the system message is a system message dedicated to an NTN system.

24. The terminal device according to claim 17, wherein the cell in which the terminal device was located before handover is a first cell, the terminal device further comprising a receiving unit configured to:

The system message is received after connecting to the first cell.

25. A network device, comprising a transmitting unit configured to:

broadcasting a system message to a terminal device, wherein the system message comprises first information, the first information is used for the terminal device to perform cell switching, the first information comprises configuration information of candidate target cells, a T304 timer and special configuration information for random access, the candidate target cells comprise a plurality of target cells on a running track of the terminal device, and the configuration information is configured by the network device according to the running track of the terminal device;

the network device receives a switching request sent by the terminal device when switching is needed, and the sending unit is further configured to:

transmitting a handover command to the terminal device, wherein the handover command is used for indicating to which target cell the terminal device is handed over, and does not include configuration information of the target cell;

the transmitting unit is further configured to:

transmitting dedicated signaling to the terminal equipment, wherein the dedicated signaling comprises identification information of the terminal equipment in a candidate target cell, a T304 timer, dedicated configuration information for random access and first indication information, the first indication information is used for indicating whether the terminal equipment performs cell switching based on information in the system message,

26. The network device of claim 25, wherein the candidate target cells comprise non-terrestrial network NTN cells.

27. The network device of claim 26, wherein the NTN cell comprises a low earth orbit LEO cell.

28. The network device of claim 25, wherein the dedicated signaling includes second indication information, the second indication information being used to instruct the terminal device to switch to a first target cell of the plurality of target cells.

29. The network device of claim 25, wherein the sending unit is further configured to:

and sending third indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating the position of the time domain resource and/or the frequency domain resource of the system message.

30. The network device of claim 25, wherein the system message is a system message dedicated to carrying the first information.

31. The network device of claim 25, wherein the system message is a system message specific to an NTN system.

32. The network device of claim 25, wherein the cell in which the terminal device was located prior to handover is a first cell, and wherein the sending unit is further configured to:

and after the terminal equipment is connected to the first cell, sending the system message to the terminal equipment.

33. A terminal device, comprising: a processor and a memory for storing a computer program, the processor being adapted to invoke and run the computer program stored in the memory, to perform the method according to any of claims 1 to 8.

34. A network device, comprising: a processor and a memory for storing a computer program, the processor being adapted to invoke and run the computer program stored in the memory to perform the method of any of claims 9 to 16.

35. A chip, comprising: a processor for calling and running a computer program from a memory, causing a device on which the chip is mounted to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 8.

36. A chip, comprising: a processor for calling and running a computer program from a memory, causing a device on which the chip is mounted to perform the method of any of claims 9 to 16.

37. A computer readable storage medium storing a computer program for causing a computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 8.

38. A computer readable storage medium storing a computer program for causing a computer to perform the method of any one of claims 9 to 16.