CN113395717A

CN113395717A - Cell search method, terminal and ground wireless access network node

Info

Publication number: CN113395717A
Application number: CN202010171257.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 周叶; 孙建成
Original assignee: Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd
Current assignee: Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-03-12
Filing date: 2020-03-12
Publication date: 2021-09-14
Anticipated expiration: 2040-03-12
Also published as: CN113395717B

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention provides a cell search method, a terminal and a ground wireless access network node, which are applied to the terminal and comprise the following steps: receiving a first message sent by a ground radio access network node, wherein the first message contains first indication information used for indicating the terminal to search and measure a target non-ground network (NTN) cell covering the terminal based on pre-configuration information, and the pre-configuration information is used for acquiring the coverage condition of the NTN cell; and searching and measuring a target NTN cell based on the pre-configuration information. The embodiment of the invention saves resources during NTN cell search.

Description

Cell search method, terminal and ground wireless access network node

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a cell search method, a terminal, and a ground radio access network node.

Background

In order to implement global wireless access coverage, a Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) architecture is proposed in the industry, which is implemented by mainly using a satellite as a communication base station or using the satellite to forward a wireless communication signal of a ground base station, so as to provide a wireless access service for a wide area under the satellite. With respect to terrestrial base stations, satellite data throughput is generally limited and the cost of transmitting a unit bit of information is also much higher than that of terrestrial networks. Therefore, it is considered necessary to consider the cooperation between the non-terrestrial network and the terrestrial network, so that the ue uses the terrestrial network in the area with the proper terrestrial network coverage and uses the non-terrestrial network only in the area without the proper terrestrial network coverage. To this end, it is necessary to support cell reselection or handover between terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks.

According to the prior art, before cell reselection and handover, a source cell firstly maintains a neighboring cell relation table, and provides frequency point information of neighboring cells to a user terminal through broadcasting or special signaling, and the user terminal searches the neighboring cells according to the frequency point information, measures signals of the neighboring cells, and then selects a target cell from the neighboring cells according to different conditions by a network or the user terminal. However, the typical radius of a non-terrestrial cell is 100km, and the typical moving speed relative to the ground is 7km/s, which means that for any one geographic coordinate point, the cell covering the point changes about once every 20s, that is, the coverage of the non-terrestrial cell is likely to change rapidly with the movement of the satellite, so that for cell reselection or handover from a terrestrial cell to a non-terrestrial cell, the common situation is that the cell changes once in tens of seconds; in this case, if the prior art based on the neighbor relation table and the frequency point configuration is still used, the terrestrial cell will not only be required to know the coverage condition of the non-terrestrial cell at any time, but also the system information will have to be updated frequently, and the measurement configuration of the connected ue will be reconfigured, and the ue will also consume a lot of resources to listen to the system information update and perform configuration.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a cell searching method, a terminal and a ground wireless access network node, which aim to reduce resource waste when searching and measuring a non-ground cell.

The embodiment of the invention provides a cell search method, which is applied to a terminal and comprises the following steps:

receiving a first message sent by a ground radio access network node, wherein the first message contains first indication information used for indicating the terminal to search and measure a target non-ground network (NTN) cell covering the terminal based on pre-configuration information, and the pre-configuration information is used for acquiring the coverage condition of the NTN cell; and searching and measuring a target NTN cell based on the pre-configuration information.

The embodiment of the invention provides a cell search method, which is applied to a ground wireless access network node and comprises the following steps:

sending a first message to a terminal, wherein the first message contains first indication information for indicating the terminal to search and measure a target non-terrestrial network (NTN) cell covering the terminal based on pre-configuration information, and the pre-configuration information is used for acquiring the coverage condition of the NTN cell.

The embodiment of the invention provides a cell search device, which is applied to a terminal and comprises the following components:

a receiving module, configured to receive a first message sent by a ground radio access network node, where the first message includes first indication information used to instruct the terminal to search and measure a target non-ground network NTN cell covering the terminal based on preconfigured information, where the preconfigured information is used to obtain a coverage condition of the NTN cell;

and the searching and measuring module is used for searching and measuring the target NTN cell based on the pre-configuration information.

The embodiment of the invention provides a cell search device, which is applied to a ground wireless access network node and comprises the following components:

the sending module is used for sending a first message to a terminal, wherein the first message contains first indication information used for indicating the terminal to search and measure a target non-terrestrial network (NTN) cell covering the terminal based on preconfigured information, and the preconfigured information is used for acquiring the coverage condition of the NTN cell.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a terminal, including a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and capable of running on the processor, where the processor executes the computer program to implement the method steps of the terminal-side embodiment.

The embodiment of the invention provides a ground radio access network node, which comprises a memory, a processor and a computer program which is stored on the memory and can run on the processor, wherein the processor executes the program to realize the steps of the method of the ground radio access network node side embodiment.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, which, when being executed by a processor, implements the steps of the cell search method.

In the cell searching method, the terminal and the terrestrial radio access network node provided by the embodiment of the invention, the terminal receives the first message sent by the terrestrial radio access network node, the first message contains the first indication information for indicating the terminal to search and measure the target non-terrestrial network NTN cell covering the terminal based on the pre-configuration information, and the pre-configuration information is used for acquiring the coverage condition of the NTN cell, so that the terminal can search and measure the target NTN cell based on the pre-configuration information, the terminal side can search and measure the target NTN cell covering the terminal without informing the system information of the area where the terminal is located by the network side, and the problems that the coverage condition of the non-terrestrial cell at a certain position is rapidly changed in the prior art, the system information of the terrestrial cell where the terminal is located needs to be frequently updated and the terminal connected to the terrestrial cell needs to be reconfigured and measured are avoided, therefore, the problem that the terminal needs to consume a large amount of resources to listen to the system information updating and executing configuration is avoided, and the resources are saved.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are some embodiments of the present invention, and those skilled in the art can also obtain other drawings according to the drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a flowchart illustrating steps of a cell search method applied to a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a flowchart of steps applied to a terrestrial radio access network node according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic step diagram of a fifth embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a block diagram of a cell search apparatus applied to a terminal in an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a block diagram of a cell search apparatus applied to a terrestrial radio access network node according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a second schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a terrestrial radio access network node according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are some, but not all, embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

For the convenience of clearly describing the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, in each embodiment of the present invention, if words such as "first" and "second" are used to distinguish the same items or similar items with basically the same functions and actions, those skilled in the art can understand that the words such as "first" and "second" do not limit the quantity and execution order.

In a general cellular wireless communication mechanism, a user terminal needs to first search for a cell signal, then can read a cell broadcast, perform measurement, report a measurement result, and further trigger operations such as camping, accessing or switching. The search methods for cells of different standards are also different.

For example, for initial search of a New Radio (NR) cell, a user terminal needs to determine a specific search frequency point, a specific search subcarrier interval, and a specific search time point according to frequency band information and a subcarrier interval, and then searches for a cell signal in all possible configuration combinations. If the terminal cannot search any NR cell signal, it may try to search cells of other systems such as Evolved Universal Mobile telecommunications System Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA). This process tends to be quite lengthy. In view of this, for all other situations except for cell initial search, the network may inform the terminal in other ways about which frequency points and which configurations can search for nearby cells, and the method mainly includes the following two methods: the system, frequency point, subcarrier interval and supported frequency band list of each adjacent cell are explicitly or implicitly informed through system information broadcast; or indicate the above information directly for a single user terminal through measurement configuration in dedicated signaling. The information is typically stored in the network node as part of a neighbor relation table. The methods for the network node to acquire these information mainly include two types: one is pre-configuration during network deployment, and the other is obtained by indicating a user equipment to report the information by using an Automatic Neighbor Relation (ANR) mechanism. The two methods either need manual intervention of a maintainer or consume air interface resources of a user terminal, and are only suitable for scenes with slow change of the conditions of the adjacent regions and less possible adjacent regions (such as repeated opening and closing of a single adjacent region), and are not suitable for scenes with rapid change of the conditions of the adjacent regions and more possible adjacent regions (passing through by a plurality of small region fishes) in a non-ground network based on a low-earth satellite.

Specifically, according to the prior art, in order to support the ue camping on or connecting to the terrestrial cell to measure the non-terrestrial cell for reselection or handover to the non-terrestrial cell, the terrestrial cell usually has to consume a lot of air interface resources to continuously update the system information broadcasted by the terrestrial cell, continuously reconfigure the measurement configuration for each ue connecting to the terrestrial cell, and the ue also consumes a lot of resources to listen to the system information update and execution configuration.

In view of the above-mentioned drawbacks, the present invention provides the following embodiments:

as shown in fig. 1, which is a flowchart illustrating a cell search method applied to a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention, the method includes the following steps:

step 101: and receiving a first message sent by the ground wireless access network node.

Specifically, the first message includes first indication information for indicating the terminal to search and measure a target non-terrestrial network (NTN) cell covering the terminal based on preconfigured information, where the preconfigured information is used to obtain a coverage condition of the NTN cell.

It should be noted that the preconfigured information may be ephemeris information or the like.

Specifically, by setting the preconfigured information for obtaining the coverage condition of the NTN cell, when the terminal receives the first message, the terminal can search and measure the target NTN cell covering the terminal based on the preconfigured information through the first indication information in the first message, thereby avoiding the problem that when the terminal residing in or connected to the terrestrial cell measures the NTN cell so as to reselect or switch to the NTN cell, the terrestrial cell needs to consume a large amount of air interface resources to continuously update the system information broadcasted by the terrestrial cell and continuously reconfigure the measurement configuration for each terminal connected to the cell, and avoiding the problem that the terminal needs to waste a large amount of resources to receive the system information update and execute the configuration.

Step 102: and searching and measuring the target NTN cell based on the pre-configuration information.

In this step, specifically, after the terminal receives the first message sent by the ground radio access network node, the terminal may search and measure the target NTN cell based on the preconfigured information, so that the terminal may search and measure the target NTN cell based on the preconfigured information without network notification.

Thus, in this embodiment, the terminal receives the first message sent by the terrestrial radio access network node, and first indication information for instructing the terminal to search and measure a target non-terrestrial network (NTN) cell covering the terminal based on the pre-configuration information is included in the first message, and the pre-configuration information is used for acquiring the coverage condition of the NTN cell, so that the terminal can search and measure the target NTN cell based on the pre-configuration information, the terminal side can search and measure the target NTN cell covering the terminal without informing the network side of the system information of the area where the terminal is positioned, thereby avoiding the rapid change of the covering condition of a non-ground cell at a certain position in the prior art, resulting in the problem that the terrestrial cell in which the coverage terminal is located needs to frequently update system information and reconfigure measurement for the terminal connected to the terrestrial cell, therefore, the problem that the terminal needs to consume a large amount of resources to listen to the system information updating and the configuration execution is avoided.

Specifically, in this embodiment, when receiving a first message sent by a ground radio access network node, a terminal may receive a system information broadcast sent by the ground radio access network node, where the system information broadcast includes the first message; or receiving a dedicated signaling sent by the ground radio access network node, wherein the dedicated signaling contains the first message. This enables the terminal to receive the first message in different ways.

In addition, specifically, in this embodiment, when the terminal searches and measures the target NTN cell based on the preconfigured information, the terminal may determine the target NTN cell covering the terminal according to the geographical location information of the terminal itself based on the preconfigured information, acquire frequency point information and/or physical cell identification information of the target NTN cell based on the preconfigured information, and then search and measure the target NTN cell based on the frequency point information and/or physical cell identification information of the target NTN cell.

That is, the terminal may determine a target NTN cell capable of covering the terminal based on the pre-configured information such as ephemeris and the like and in combination with the geographical location information of the terminal itself, and further determine information such as a frequency point and/or a physical cell identifier of the target NTN cell, and then search and measure the target NTN cell for the corresponding cell frequency point and/or the physical cell identifier.

In addition, in this embodiment, the first message may further include other information to assist the terminal to search and measure the target NTN cell; specifically, the other information included in the first message may be any one of the following items:

first, the first message further includes a non-terrestrial network radio access technology identifier (NTN RAT ID for short) to instruct the terminal to search for an NTN cell belonging to the NTN RAT ID.

In particular, the same site may have multiple non-terrestrial networks covered, and in order to distinguish between these non-terrestrial networks, each non-terrestrial network may be assigned a specific identifier, such as an NTN RAT ID.

At this time, the NTN RAT ID is included in the first message to instruct the terminal to search for the NTN cell belonging to the NTN RAT ID, so that the terminal can search for the NTN cell belonging to the NTN RAT ID based on the NTN RAT ID when receiving the first message, thereby reducing the search range of the target NTN cell covering the terminal.

Second, the first message further includes a measurement interval to instruct the terminal to search and measure the target NTN cell in the measurement interval.

Specifically, in some scenarios, due to the limited capability of the ue, the ue cannot measure signals of the neighboring cell while transmitting data normally with the network. For this case, the network should configure it with periodically occurring empty window periods, called "Measurement intervals" (Measurement gaps). In the measurement interval, the network does not transmit data (neither data is transmitted nor received) with the ue, so that the ue can measure the signal of the neighboring cell by using the time.

At this time, the embodiment instructs the terminal to search and measure the target NTN cell in the measurement interval by including the measurement interval in the first message, so that the terminal searches and measures the target NTN cell in the measurement interval when receiving the first message.

And thirdly, the first message also comprises a cell search condition to indicate the terminal to search and measure the target NTN cell when the cell search condition is met.

Specifically, the first message includes a cell search condition, so that the terminal searches and measures the target NTN cell only when the cell search condition is satisfied when receiving the first message.

Specifically, the cell search condition includes at least one of the following conditions:

the signal quality of the current serving cell is lower than or equal to a first preset quality threshold;

the signal intensity of the current serving cell is lower than or equal to a first preset intensity threshold value;

the measured signal quality of all the cells is lower than or equal to a second preset quality threshold;

the measured signal intensity of all the cells is lower than or equal to a second preset intensity threshold value;

the terminal is located in the beam direction corresponding to the synchronization signal block identifier in the current serving cell.

And fourthly, the first message also comprises a cell search condition and a measurement interval so as to indicate the terminal to search and measure the target NTN cell in the measurement interval when the cell search condition is met.

Specifically, the first message includes a cell search condition and a measurement interval, so that the terminal searches and measures the target NTN cell in the measurement interval only when the cell search condition is satisfied when receiving the first message.

It should be noted that the contents of the cell search condition are the same as the cell search condition described above, and are not described herein again.

In addition, when the first message includes a cell search condition and a measurement interval, after receiving the first message sent by the ground radio access network node, the terminal may also send a second message to the ground radio access network node when detecting that the cell search condition is satisfied, where the second message includes second indication information that the terminal satisfies the cell search condition, or includes information that enables the ground radio access network node to determine that the terminal satisfies the cell search condition.

In addition, after the terminal sends the second message to the ground radio access network node, when detecting that the cell search condition is no longer satisfied, the terminal may send a third message to the ground radio access network node, where the third message includes third indication information that the terminal no longer satisfies the cell search condition, or includes information that enables the ground radio access network node to determine that the terminal no longer satisfies the cell search condition.

For example, if the cell search condition is that "the signal quality of the current serving cell is lower than or equal to the first preset quality threshold", the information that enables the terrestrial radio access network node to determine that the terminal satisfies the cell search condition may be a measurement report, and the measurement report includes the signal quality information of the current serving cell, at this time, the terrestrial radio access network node may determine, according to the signal quality information of the current serving cell, whether the condition that "the signal quality of the current serving cell is lower than or equal to the first preset quality threshold" is satisfied when receiving the first message. Then, when the ground radio access network node determines that the cell search condition is satisfied, it may stop transmitting data with the terminal during the measurement interval, and the terminal starts searching and measuring the target NTN cell. Certainly, when the terminal detects that the cell search condition is no longer met at a certain moment, the terminal can send a third message to the ground wireless access network node again and stop searching the measurement target NTN cell; the terrestrial radio access network node may then determine, based on the third message, that the terminal no longer satisfies the cell search condition, and resume transmission of data with the terminal during the measurement interval.

And fifthly, the first message also comprises a cell reselection condition to indicate the terminal to reselect the resident cell to the target NTN cell when the target NTN cell obtained by measurement meets the cell reselection condition.

Specifically, the terminal can perform cell reselection based on the first message by including the cell reselection condition in the first message.

Certainly, when the first message includes the cell reselection condition, after the terminal receives the first message sent by the ground radio access network node, the terminal may reselect the resident cell to the target NTN cell when the target NTN cell is obtained through searching and measuring and the target NTN cell obtained through detection meets the cell reselection condition. This enables the terminal to perform cell reselection with the target NTN cell as the target cell when searching and measuring the target NTN cell and the target NTN cell satisfies the cell reselection condition.

In addition, specifically, the cell reselection conditions are as follows: the signal quality of the NTN cell is higher than or equal to a third preset quality threshold; or the signal strength of the NTN cell is higher than or equal to a third preset strength threshold.

That is, when the target NTN cell meets the requirement that the signal quality of the NTN cell is higher than or equal to the third preset quality threshold or the signal strength of the NTN cell is higher than or equal to the third preset strength threshold, the terminal may reselect the camping cell to the target NTN cell.

And sixthly, the first message also comprises a measurement result reporting condition to indicate the terminal to report the measurement result when the measurement result reporting condition is met.

Specifically, the first message includes a measurement result reporting condition, so that the terminal can report the measurement result when the measurement result reporting condition is met.

Of course, when the first message includes the measurement result reporting condition, after the terminal receives the first message sent by the ground radio access network node, the terminal may also search and measure to obtain the target NTN cell, and when it is detected that the measurement result reporting condition is satisfied, send a fourth message to the ground radio access network node, where the fourth message includes the measurement result, and the measurement result includes a cell global identity (CGI for short) of the target NTN cell. This enables reporting of measurement results under specific conditions.

In addition, specifically, the reporting condition of the measurement result is as follows: the signal quality of the NTN cell is higher than or equal to a fourth preset quality threshold; or the signal strength of the NTN cell is higher than or equal to a fourth preset strength threshold.

In this way, when the terminal in this embodiment receives the first message sent by the terrestrial radio access network, the terminal searches and measures the target NTN cell based on the preconfigured information for obtaining the coverage of the NTN cell, so that the target NTN cell covering the terminal can be searched and measured without being notified by the network side, the problem that in the prior art, the coverage of a non-terrestrial cell at a certain location is rapidly changed, the terrestrial cell where the terminal is located needs to be frequently updated with system information and the terminal connected to the terrestrial cell needs to be reconfigured with measurement is avoided, and the problem that the terminal will consume a large amount of resources to listen to the system information update and perform configuration is avoided.

In addition, as shown in fig. 2, a flowchart of steps of a cell search method applied to a terrestrial radio access network node in the embodiment of the present invention is shown, where the method includes the following steps:

step 201: a first message is sent to the terminal.

Specifically, the first message includes first indication information for indicating the terminal to search and measure a target NTN cell covering the terminal based on the pre-configuration information, where the pre-configuration information is used to obtain a coverage condition of the NTN cell.

In addition, specifically, when the ground radio access network node sends a first message to a terminal, the first message may be sent to the terminal through system information broadcast; alternatively, the first message is sent to the terminal through dedicated signaling.

Therefore, the ground radio access network node sends the first message to the terminal, and the first message comprises the first indication information for indicating the terminal to search and measure the target NTN cell covering the terminal based on the pre-configuration information, so that the terminal can directly search and measure the target NTN cell covering the terminal based on the pre-configuration information when receiving the first message, the terminal side can search and measure the target NTN cell without informing the system information, the measurement configuration and other information by a network, and the problem that the ground cell where the covering terminal is located needs to frequently update the system information and the terminal connected to the ground cell is subjected to re-configuration measurement due to the fact that the covering condition of a non-ground cell at a certain position is rapidly changed in the prior art is solved.

Further, in this embodiment, the first message may further include other information to assist the terminal in searching and measuring the target NTN cell; specifically, the other information included in the first message may be any one of the following items:

It should be noted that, for the NTN RAT ID, reference may be made to corresponding description of the terminal-side embodiment, and details are not repeated herein.

It should be noted that, for the measurement interval, reference may be made to the corresponding description of the terminal-side embodiment, and details are not repeated here.

In addition, it should be noted that, for specific description of the cell search condition, reference may be made to corresponding description of the terminal-side embodiment, and details are not repeated here.

In addition, when the first message includes a cell search condition and a measurement interval, after the first message is sent to the terminal by the ground radio access network node, a second message sent by the terminal when the terminal detects that the cell search condition is met can be received, wherein the second message includes second indication information that the terminal meets the cell search condition, or includes information that enables the ground radio access network node to judge that the terminal meets the cell search condition; the data transmission within the measurement interval is then stopped based on the second message.

In addition, specifically, after stopping data transmission within the measurement interval based on the second message, a third message sent by the terminal when detecting that the cell search condition is no longer satisfied may also be received, where the third message includes third indication information that the terminal no longer satisfies the cell search condition, or includes information that enables the ground radio access network node to determine that the terminal no longer satisfies the cell search condition; the data transmission is then resumed within the measurement interval based on the third message.

It should be noted that, for a specific introduction of this item, reference may be made to corresponding contents at the terminal side, and details are not described herein again.

Specifically, the cell reselection conditions are as follows: the signal quality of the NTN cell is higher than or equal to a third preset quality threshold; or the signal strength of the NTN cell is higher than or equal to a third preset strength threshold.

It should be noted that, for specific contents of the cell reselection, reference may be made to corresponding contents at the terminal side, and a detailed description thereof is omitted here.

Specifically, when the first message includes a measurement result reporting condition, after the ground radio access network node sends the first message to the terminal, the ground radio access network node may further receive a fourth message sent by the terminal when the measurement result reporting condition is satisfied, where the fourth message includes a measurement result, and the measurement result includes a CGI of the target NTN cell obtained by searching and measuring.

It should be noted that, for the specific content reported by the measurement result in this item, reference may be made to the corresponding content at the terminal side, and a detailed description thereof is omitted here.

In this way, the auxiliary terminal searches and measures the target NTN cell by including one or more of the six items in the first message, and realizes the reselection of the NTN cell and the report of the measurement result.

In this way, the terrestrial radio access network in this embodiment sends the first message to the terminal, so that the terminal can search and measure the target NTN cell based on the preconfigured information for obtaining the coverage of the NTN cell, thereby achieving that the terminal can search and measure the target NTN cell covering the terminal without being notified by the network side, avoiding the problem in the prior art that the coverage of a non-terrestrial cell at a certain location is rapidly changed, which causes the terrestrial cell where the terminal is located to need to frequently update the system information and to reconfigure the terminal connected to the terrestrial cell, and avoiding the problem that the terminal will consume a large amount of resources to listen to the system information update and perform configuration.

The above embodiments will be specifically described below by way of specific embodiments.

The first embodiment: the ground wireless access network node sends a first message through system information broadcasting:

step 1, the ground wireless access network node broadcasts a first message in the system information broadcast of the ground cell to indicate that the terminal which hears the system information broadcast and has corresponding capability searches and measures the NTN cell covering the terminal according to the pre-configured information such as ephemeris and the like. Specifically, when the terminal searches and measures the target NTN cell according to the pre-configuration information such as ephemeris, the target NTN cell capable of covering the terminal can be obtained according to the pre-configuration information such as ephemeris and by combining the geographical position of the terminal, so that information such as a frequency point and a physical cell identifier of the target NTN cell is obtained, and then the NTN cell is searched and measured according to the corresponding cell frequency point and the physical cell identifier.

It should be noted that, the first message may further include an NTN RAT ID to instruct the terminal to search for and measure a target NTN cell belonging to the NTN RAT.

Of course, the first indication message may also be an NTN RAT ID to directly instruct the terminal to search for and measure a target NTN cell belonging to the NTN RAT ID.

And 2, the terminal receives system information broadcast, and searches and measures a target NTN cell according to the information contained in the first message and the pre-configured information such as ephemeris. At this time, if the first message is not included in the system information broadcast, the terminal does not search for and measure the target NTN cell. Furthermore, the terminal may autonomously decide when to initiate measurements for the target NTN cell in particular.

It should be noted that the terminal may be a terminal connected to the terrestrial cell (i.e., in a radio resource control RRC connected state), or may be a terminal camped on the terrestrial cell (i.e., not in an RRC connected state). Specifically, if the first message includes an NTN RAT ID, the terminal should search for and measure a target NTN cell belonging to the NTN RAT.

Second embodiment: the ground wireless access network node sends a first message through dedicated signaling:

step 1, the ground wireless access network node sends a first message to a terminal connected with the ground wireless access network node, wherein the first message comprises first indication information to indicate the terminal to search and measure a target NTN cell according to pre-configuration information such as ephemeris and the like. Specifically, the specific process of the terminal searching for and measuring the target NTN cell may refer to the first embodiment, and is not described herein again.

In addition, the first message may further include a measurement interval to instruct the terminal to search for and measure the target NTN cell in the measurement interval.

And 2, after receiving the first message, the terminal searches and measures the target NTN cell according to the information contained in the first message and the pre-configuration information such as ephemeris and the like. At this time, if the terminal does not receive the first message containing the information sent to the terminal by the ground radio access network node, the terminal will not search and measure the target NTN cell. Furthermore, the terminal may autonomously decide when to initiate measurements for the target NTN cell in particular.

Specifically, if the first message includes an NTN RAT ID, the terminal should search for and measure a target NTN cell belonging to the NTN RAT. In addition, if the first message also includes a measurement interval, the terminal should search for and measure the target NTN cell in this measurement interval.

The third embodiment: the ground wireless access network node sends a first message through system information broadcasting, and instructs the terminal to measure under specific conditions:

step 1, the ground wireless access network node broadcasts a first message in the system information broadcast of a cell to indicate that the system information broadcast is heard and a terminal with corresponding capability searches and measures a target NTN cell according to pre-configured information such as ephemeris and the like. Specifically, the process of the terminal searching for and measuring the target NTN cell may refer to the first embodiment, and is not described herein again.

In addition, specifically, the first message further includes a cell search condition to instruct the terminal to search and measure the target NTN cell when the cell search condition is satisfied. For specific contents of the cell search condition, reference may be made to the above terminal-side embodiment, which is not described herein again.

And 2, the terminal receives system information broadcast, and searches and measures the target NTN cell according to the pre-configuration information such as ephemeris and the like when the cell search condition is met according to the information in the first message. Of course, if the cell search condition is not satisfied, the terminal will not search and measure the target NTN cell.

It should be noted that the terminal may be a terminal connected to the cell (i.e., in an RRC connected state) or a terminal camped on the cell (i.e., not in an RRC connected state).

The fourth embodiment: the ground wireless access network node sends a first message through a special signaling to inform the terminal of measuring under a specific condition, and no measurement interval exists:

step 1, the ground wireless access network node sends a first message to a terminal connected with the ground wireless access network node, wherein the first message comprises first indication information to indicate the terminal to search and measure a target NTN cell according to pre-configuration information such as ephemeris and the like. Specifically, the specific process of the terminal searching for and measuring the target NTN cell may refer to the first embodiment, and is not described herein again. In addition, the first message further includes a cell search condition to instruct the terminal to search and measure the target NTN cell when the cell search condition is satisfied. For specific contents of the cell search condition, reference may be made to the above terminal-side embodiment, which is not described herein again.

And 2, the terminal receives the first message, and searches and measures the target NTN cell according to the pre-configured information such as ephemeris and the like when the cell searching condition is met. Of course, if the cell search condition is not satisfied, the terminal will not search and measure the target NTN cell.

Fifth embodiment: the ground wireless access network node sends a first message through a special signaling to inform a terminal of measuring under a specific condition, and a measurement interval is configured as follows:

specifically, referring to fig. 3, the method comprises the following steps:

In addition, the first message further includes a cell search condition to instruct the terminal to search and measure the target NTN cell when the cell search condition is satisfied. For specific contents of the cell search condition, reference may be made to the above terminal-side embodiment, which is not described herein again.

In addition, the first message further includes a measurement interval to instruct the terminal to search and measure the NTN cell in the measurement interval. In addition, it should be noted that, the terrestrial radio access network node may stop transmitting data with the terminal within the measurement interval immediately after sending the first message, or may stop or restart transmitting data based on the reporting of the terminal in the manner described in steps 3 to 5, step 8, step 10, and step 11.

And step 2, the terminal receives the first message and judges that the cell searching condition is met at a certain moment.

And 3, optionally, the terminal sends a second message to the ground radio access network node, wherein the second message contains either an indication that the cell search condition is met or information enough for the ground radio access network node to deduce that the cell search condition is met. For example, if the cell search condition is that the signal quality of the current serving cell is lower than (or not higher than) a certain threshold, the second message may be a measurement report, which includes the signal quality information of the current serving cell, and the radio access network node may determine whether the condition that the signal quality of the current serving cell is lower than (or not higher than) the certain threshold is met according to the signal quality information of the current serving cell in the second message when receiving the second message.

And 4, optionally, the ground wireless access network node learns that the terminal meets the cell search condition.

And 5, optionally, stopping transmitting data with the terminal by the ground radio access network node in the measurement interval.

And 6, the terminal starts to search and measure the NTN cell in the measurement interval.

And 7, at a certain moment, the terminal judges that the cell search condition is not satisfied any more.

And 8, optionally, the terminal sends a third message to the ground radio access network node, wherein the third message contains indication information that the cell search condition is no longer satisfied or information enough for the ground radio access network node to conclude that the cell search condition is no longer satisfied.

And 9, immediately stopping searching and measuring the NTN cell by the terminal.

Step 10, optionally, the ground radio access network node learns that the terminal no longer satisfies the cell search condition.

Optionally, the terrestrial radio access network node resumes transmitting data with the terminal during the measurement interval, step 11.

In a sixth embodiment, a terminal reselects from a terrestrial cell to a target NTN cell:

step 1, the ground radio access network node sends a system information broadcast according to the manner described in the first embodiment or the third embodiment, where the system information broadcast includes a first message. In addition, the first message also includes cell reselection conditions targeting the target NTN cell, for example:

the measured signal quality of the NTN cell is above (or not below) a certain threshold; or

The measured signal strength of the NTN cell is above (or not below) a certain threshold.

And step 2, the terminal starts to search and measure the NTN cell according to the corresponding method stated in the first embodiment.

And step 3, the terminal searches and detects a target NTN cell.

And 4, the terminal judges whether the measured target NTN cell meets the cell reselection condition.

And 5, if the terminal meets the cell reselection condition, the terminal executes the cell reselection taking the target NTN cell as a target.

Seventh embodiment, the terminal reports the NTN cell measurement result to the ground radio access network node:

step 1, the radio access network node sends a system information broadcast or sends a dedicated signaling to the user terminal, which includes the first message, in the manner described in any of the first to fifth embodiments. Optionally, the first message may further include a measurement result reporting condition of the NTN cell measurement result, for example:

And step 3, the terminal searches and detects a target NTN cell.

And 4, if the first message described in the step 1 contains the measurement result reporting condition, the terminal judges whether the measured NTN cell meets the measurement result reporting condition.

And 5, if the terminal meets the measurement result reporting condition, the terminal sends a fourth message to the ground wireless access network node, wherein the fourth message comprises the measurement result of the NTN cell, and the measurement result comprises the CGI of the NTN cell.

In addition, as shown in fig. 4, a block diagram of a cell search apparatus applied to a terminal in an embodiment of the present invention is shown, where the apparatus includes:

a receiving module 401, configured to receive a first message sent by a terrestrial radio access network node, where the first message includes first indication information used to instruct the terminal to search and measure a target non-terrestrial network NTN cell covering the terminal based on preconfigured information, where the preconfigured information is used to obtain a coverage condition of the NTN cell;

a search measurement module 402, configured to search and measure a target NTN cell based on the preconfigured information.

Optionally, the first message further includes a non-terrestrial network radio access technology identifier NTN RAT ID to instruct the terminal to search for an NTN cell belonging to the NTN RAT ID.

Optionally, the first message further includes a measurement interval to instruct the terminal to search and measure a target NTN cell in the measurement interval.

It should be noted that, the apparatus in the foregoing embodiment can implement all the method steps of the terminal-side method embodiment, and can achieve the same technical effect, which is not described herein again.

In addition, as shown in fig. 5, a block diagram of a cell search apparatus applied to a terrestrial radio access network node in an embodiment of the present invention is shown, where the apparatus includes:

a sending module 501, configured to send a first message to a terminal, where the first message includes first indication information used to indicate the terminal to search and measure an NTN cell of a target non-terrestrial network covering the terminal based on preconfigured information, where the preconfigured information is used to obtain a coverage condition of the NTN cell.

It should be noted that, the apparatus in the foregoing embodiment can implement all the method steps of the terrestrial wireless network access node side method embodiment, and can achieve the same technical effect, which is not described herein again.

Fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 6, the terminal 600 may include: at least one processor 601, memory 602, at least one network interface 604, and other user interfaces 603. The various components in terminal 600 are coupled together by a bus system 605. It is understood that the bus system 605 is used to enable communications among the components. The bus system 605 includes a power bus, a control bus, and a status signal bus in addition to a data bus. For clarity of illustration, however, the various buses are labeled as bus system 605 in fig. 6.

The user interface 603 may comprise, among other things, a display, a keyboard or a pointing device, such as a mouse, a trackball (trackball), a touch pad or a touch screen, etc.

It will be appreciated that the memory 602 in embodiments of the invention may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The non-volatile Memory may be a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an Electrically Erasable PROM (EEPROM), or a flash Memory. Volatile Memory can be Random Access Memory (RAM), which acts as external cache Memory. By way of illustration and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static random access memory (Static RAM, SRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Synchronous Dynamic random access memory (Synchronous DRAM, SDRAM), Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic random access memory (ddr Data Rate SDRAM, ddr SDRAM), Enhanced Synchronous SDRAM (ESDRAM), Synchlink DRAM (SLDRAM), and Direct Rambus RAM (DRRAM). The memory 602 of the systems and methods described in connection with the various embodiments of the invention is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

In some embodiments, memory 602 stores elements, executable modules or data structures, or a subset thereof, or an expanded set thereof, such as: an operating system 6021 and application programs 6022.

The operating system 6021 includes various system programs, such as a framework layer, a core library layer, a driver layer, and the like, and is used for implementing various basic services and processing hardware-based tasks. The application program 6022 includes various application programs such as a Media Player (Media Player), a Browser (Browser), and the like, and is used to implement various application services. A program implementing the method of an embodiment of the invention can be included in the application program 6022.

In the embodiment of the present invention, by calling the computer program or instruction stored in the memory 602, specifically, the computer program or instruction stored in the application program 6022, the processor 601 is configured to:

receiving a first message sent by a ground radio access network node, wherein the first message contains first indication information used for indicating the terminal to search and measure a target non-ground network (NTN) cell covering the terminal based on pre-configuration information, and the pre-configuration information is used for acquiring the coverage condition of the NTN cell;

and searching and measuring a target NTN cell based on the pre-configuration information.

The method disclosed by the above-mentioned embodiment of the present invention can be applied to the processor 601, or implemented by the processor 601. The processor 601 may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capabilities. In implementation, the steps of the above method may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware or instructions in the form of software in the processor 601. The Processor 601 may be a general-purpose Processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other Programmable logic device, discrete Gate or transistor logic device, or discrete hardware components. The various methods, steps and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present invention 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 the method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present invention may be directly implemented by a hardware decoding processor, or implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the decoding processor. The software module may be located in ram, flash memory, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, etc. storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in the memory 602, and the processor 601 reads the information in the memory 602 and completes the steps of the method in combination with the hardware thereof.

It is to be understood that the embodiments described herein may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, or any combination thereof. For a hardware implementation, the Processing units may be implemented within one or more Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), Digital Signal Processing Devices (DSPDs), Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), general purpose processors, controllers, micro-controllers, microprocessors, other electronic units configured to perform the functions described herein, or a combination thereof.

For a software implementation, the techniques described may be implemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) that perform the functions described in the embodiments of the invention. The software codes may be stored in a memory and executed by a processor. The memory may be implemented within the processor or external to the processor.

Optionally, as another embodiment, the processor 601 is further configured to: receiving a system information broadcast sent by the ground wireless access network node, wherein the system information broadcast comprises the first message; or receiving a dedicated signaling sent by the ground radio access network node, wherein the dedicated signaling contains the first message.

Optionally, as another embodiment, the processor 601 is further configured to: based on the pre-configuration information and according to the geographical position information of the terminal, determining a target NTN cell covering the terminal; acquiring frequency point information and/or physical cell identification information of the target NTN cell based on the pre-configuration information; and searching and measuring the target NTN cell based on the frequency point information and/or the physical cell identification information of the target NTN cell.

Optionally, the first message further includes a cell search condition to instruct the terminal to search and measure a target NTN cell when the cell search condition is satisfied.

Optionally, the first message further includes a cell search condition and a measurement interval, so as to instruct the terminal to search and measure a target NTN cell in the measurement interval when the cell search condition is satisfied.

Optionally, as another embodiment, the processor 601 is further configured to: and when the cell search condition is detected to be met, sending a second message to the ground wireless access network node, wherein the second message comprises second indication information that the terminal meets the cell search condition, or information that the ground wireless access network node can judge that the terminal meets the cell search condition.

Optionally, as another embodiment, the processor 601 is further configured to: and when detecting that the cell search condition is not met any more, sending a third message to the ground wireless access network node, wherein the third message comprises third indication information that the terminal does not meet the cell search condition any more, or information that the ground wireless access network node can judge that the terminal does not meet the cell search condition any more.

Optionally, the cell search condition includes at least one of the following conditions: the signal quality of the current serving cell is lower than or equal to a first preset quality threshold; the signal intensity of the current serving cell is lower than or equal to a first preset intensity threshold value; the measured signal quality of all the cells is lower than or equal to a second preset quality threshold; the measured signal intensity of all the cells is lower than or equal to a second preset intensity threshold value; and the terminal is positioned in the beam direction corresponding to the synchronous signal block identifier in the current service cell.

Optionally, the first message further includes a cell reselection condition to indicate that the terminal reselects the camped cell to the target NTN cell when the target NTN cell obtained through measurement satisfies the cell reselection condition.

Optionally, as another embodiment, the processor 601 is further configured to: and when the target NTN cell is obtained through searching and measuring, and the target NTN cell obtained through detection meets the cell reselection condition, reselecting the resident cell to the target NTN cell.

Optionally, the cell reselection condition is: the signal quality of the NTN cell is higher than or equal to a third preset quality threshold; or the signal strength of the NTN cell is higher than or equal to a third preset strength threshold.

Optionally, the first message further includes a measurement result reporting condition to instruct the terminal to report the measurement result when the measurement result reporting condition is met.

Optionally, as another embodiment, the processor 601 is further configured to: and when a target NTN cell is obtained through searching and measuring and the condition that the reporting condition of the measuring result is met is detected, sending a fourth message to the ground wireless access network node, wherein the fourth message contains the measuring result, and the measuring result contains a Cell Global Identity (CGI) of the target NTN cell.

Optionally, the measurement result reporting condition includes: the signal quality of the NTN cell is higher than or equal to a fourth preset quality threshold; or the signal strength of the NTN cell is higher than or equal to a fourth preset strength threshold.

The terminal provided by the embodiment of the present invention can implement each process implemented by the terminal in the foregoing embodiments, and is not described herein again to avoid repetition.

Fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to another embodiment of the present invention, where the terminal in fig. 7 may be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), an electronic reader, a handheld game machine, a Point of Sales (POS), a vehicle-mounted electronic device (vehicle-mounted computer), or the like. As shown in fig. 7, the mobile terminal includes a Radio Frequency (RF) circuit 710, a memory 720, an input unit 730, a display unit 740, a processor 760, an audio circuit 770, a wifi (wireless fidelity) module 780, and a power supply 790. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the handset configuration shown in fig. 7 is not intended to be limiting and may include more or fewer components than those shown, or may combine certain components, or split certain components, or arranged in different components.

The input unit 730 may be used, among other things, to receive numeric or character information input by a user and to generate signal inputs related to user settings and function control of the mobile terminal. Specifically, in the embodiment of the present invention, the input unit 730 may include a touch panel 7301. The touch panel 7301, also called a touch screen, can collect touch operations of a user (for example, operations of the user on the touch panel 7301 by using any suitable object or accessory such as a finger or a stylus pen) on or near the touch panel 7301, and drive the corresponding connection device according to a preset program. Alternatively, the touch panel 7301 may include two parts, i.e., a touch detection device and a touch controller. The touch detection device detects the touch direction of a user, detects a signal brought by touch operation and transmits the signal to the touch controller; the touch controller receives touch information from the touch sensing device, converts the touch information into touch point coordinates, sends the touch point coordinates to the processor 760, and can receive and execute commands sent from the processor 760. In addition, the touch panel 7301 can be implemented by various types such as a resistive type, a capacitive type, an infrared ray, and a surface acoustic wave. The input unit 730 may further include other input devices 7302 in addition to the touch panel 7301, and the other input devices 7302 may be used to receive input numerical or character information and generate key signal inputs related to user settings and function control of the mobile terminal. In particular, other input devices 7302 may include, but are not limited to, one or more of a physical keyboard, function keys (such as volume control keys, switch keys, etc.), a trackball, a mouse, a joystick, a light mouse (a light mouse is a touch-sensitive surface that does not display visual output, or is an extension of a touch-sensitive surface formed by a touch screen), and the like.

Among them, the display unit 740 may be used to display information input by a user or information provided to the user and various menu interfaces of the mobile terminal. The display unit 740 may include a display panel 7401. The Display panel 7401 may be configured by a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), an organic light-Emitting Diode (OLED), or the like.

It should be noted that the touch panel 7301 may cover the display panel 7401 to form a touch display screen, and when the touch display screen detects a touch operation on or near the touch display screen, the touch display screen is transmitted to the processor 760 to determine the type of the touch event, and then the processor 760 provides a corresponding visual output on the touch display screen according to the type of the touch event.

The touch display screen comprises an application program interface display area and a common control display area. The arrangement modes of the application program interface display area and the common control display area are not limited, and can be an arrangement mode which can distinguish two display areas, such as vertical arrangement, left-right arrangement and the like. The application interface display area may be used to display an interface of an application. Each interface may contain at least one interface element such as an icon and/or widget desktop control for an application. The application interface display area may also be an empty interface that does not contain any content. The common control display area is used for displaying controls with high utilization rate, such as application icons like setting buttons, interface numbers, scroll bars, phone book icons and the like.

The RF circuit 710 may be used for receiving and transmitting signals during information transmission and reception or during a call, and in particular, receives downlink information from the network side and then processes the received downlink information to the processor 760; in addition, the design uplink data is sent to the network side. In general, the RF circuit 710 includes, but is not limited to, an antenna, at least one Amplifier, a transceiver, a coupler, a Low Noise Amplifier (LNA), a duplexer, and the like. In addition, the RF circuit 710 may also communicate with networks and other devices via wireless communication. The wireless communication may use any communication standard or protocol, including but not limited to Global System for mobile communications (GSM), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Long Term Evolution (LTE), email, Short Messaging Service (SMS), and the like.

The memory 720 is used for storing software programs and modules, and the processor 760 executes various functional applications and data processing of the mobile terminal by operating the software programs and modules stored in the memory 720. The memory 720 may mainly include a program storage area and a data storage area, wherein the program storage area may store an operating system, an application program required by at least one function (such as a sound playing function, an image playing function, etc.), and the like; the storage data area may store data (such as audio data, a phonebook, etc.) created according to the use of the mobile terminal, and the like. Further, the memory 720 may include high speed random access memory, and may also include non-volatile memory, such as at least one magnetic disk storage device, flash memory device, or other volatile solid state storage device.

The processor 760 is a control center of the mobile terminal, connects various parts of the entire mobile phone using various interfaces and lines, and performs various functions of the mobile terminal and processes data by operating or executing software programs and/or modules stored in the first memory 7201 and calling data stored in the second memory 7202, thereby integrally monitoring the mobile terminal. Alternatively, processor 760 may include one or more processing units.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the processor 760 is configured to receive a first message sent by a terrestrial radio access network node by calling a software program and/or a module stored in the first memory 7201 and/or data stored in the second memory 7202, where the first message includes first indication information for instructing the terminal to search and measure a target non-terrestrial network NTN cell covering the terminal based on preconfigured information, and the preconfigured information is used to obtain a coverage condition of the NTN cell; and searching and measuring a target NTN cell based on the pre-configuration information.

It should be noted that, the terminal provided in the embodiment of the present invention can implement each process implemented by the terminal in the foregoing embodiments, and details are not described here to avoid repetition.

Fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a terrestrial radio access network node according to an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 8, the base station 800 may include at least one processor 801, a memory 802, at least one other user interface 803, and a transceiver 804. The various components in the terrestrial radio access network node 800 are coupled together by a bus system 805. It is understood that the bus system 905 is used to enable communications among the components. The bus system 805 includes a power bus, a control bus, and a status signal bus in addition to a data bus. For clarity of illustration, however, the various buses are labeled in fig. 8 as the bus system 805, which may include any number of interconnected buses and bridges, with one or more processors, represented by the processor 801, and various circuits, represented by the memory 802, being linked together. The bus system may also link together various other circuits such as peripherals, voltage regulators, power management circuits, and the like, which are well known in the art, and therefore, embodiments of the present invention will not be described any further. The bus interface provides an interface. The transceiver 804 may be a number of elements including a transmitter and a receiver that provide a means for communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium. For different user devices, the user interface 803 may also be an interface capable of interfacing externally to a desired device, including but not limited to a keypad, display, speaker, microphone, joystick, etc.

It will be appreciated that the memory 802 in embodiments of the invention may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The non-volatile Memory may be a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an Electrically Erasable PROM (EEPROM), or a flash Memory. Volatile Memory can be Random Access Memory (RAM), which acts as external cache Memory. By way of illustration and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static random access memory (Static RAM, SRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Synchronous Dynamic random access memory (Synchronous DRAM, SDRAM), Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic random access memory (ddr Data Rate SDRAM, ddr SDRAM), Enhanced Synchronous SDRAM (ESDRAM), Synchlink DRAM (SLDRAM), and Direct Rambus RAM (DRRAM). The memory 802 of the systems and methods described in connection with the various embodiments of the invention is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

The processor 801 is responsible for managing the bus system and general processing, and the memory 802 may store computer programs or instructions used by the processor 801 in performing operations, in particular, the processor 801 may be configured to: sending a first message to a terminal, wherein the first message contains first indication information for indicating the terminal to search and measure a target non-terrestrial network (NTN) cell covering the terminal based on pre-configuration information, and the pre-configuration information is used for acquiring the coverage condition of the NTN cell.

The methods disclosed in the embodiments of the present invention described above may be implemented in the processor 801 or implemented by the processor 801. The processor 801 may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capabilities. In implementation, the steps of the above method may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware or instructions in the form of software in the processor 801. The Processor 801 may be a general purpose Processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other Programmable logic device, discrete Gate or transistor logic device, or discrete hardware components. The various methods, steps and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present invention 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 the method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present invention may be directly implemented by a hardware decoding processor, or implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the decoding processor. The software module may be located in ram, flash memory, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, etc. storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in the memory 802, and the processor 801 reads the information in the memory 802, and combines the hardware to complete the steps of the method.

Optionally, as another embodiment, the processor 801 is further configured to: transmitting the first message to the terminal through system information broadcasting; or sending the first message to the terminal through dedicated signaling.

Optionally, as another embodiment, the first message further includes a measurement interval to instruct the terminal to search and measure a target NTN cell in the measurement interval.

Optionally, as another embodiment, the first message further includes a cell search condition to instruct the terminal to search and measure a target NTN cell when the cell search condition is satisfied.

Optionally, as another embodiment, the first message further includes a cell search condition and a measurement interval, so as to instruct the terminal to search and measure a target NTN cell in the measurement interval when the cell search condition is satisfied.

Optionally, as another embodiment, the processor 801 is further configured to: receiving a second message sent by the terminal when the terminal detects that the cell search condition is met, wherein the second message comprises second indication information that the terminal meets the cell search condition or information that the ground radio access network node can judge that the terminal meets the cell search condition; stopping data transmission within the measurement interval based on the second message.

Optionally, as another embodiment, the processor 801 is further configured to: receiving a third message sent by the terminal when detecting that the cell search condition is no longer satisfied, wherein the third message comprises third indication information that the terminal no longer satisfies the cell search condition, or information that the ground radio access network node can judge that the terminal no longer satisfies the cell search condition; resuming data transmission within the measurement interval based on the third message.

The base station provided by the embodiment of the present invention can implement each process implemented by the base station in the foregoing embodiments, and in order to avoid repetition, the same contents are not described again here.

The above description mainly introduces the solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention from the perspective of a terrestrial radio access network node. It is understood that, in order to implement the above functions, the embodiments of the present invention include hardware structures and/or software modules for performing the respective functions. Those of skill in the art will readily appreciate that the present invention can be implemented in hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software for performing the exemplary elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein.

Whether a function is performed as hardware or computer software drives hardware 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 invention.

In the embodiment of the present invention, according to the above method, the ground radio access network node and the like may be divided into functional modules, for example, each functional module may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The integrated module can be realized in a hardware mode, and can also be realized in a software functional module mode.

It should be noted that, the division of the modules in the embodiment of the present invention is schematic, and is only a logic function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation.

It will be clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and simplicity of description, the foregoing division of the functional modules is merely used as an example, and in practical applications, the above function distribution may be performed by different functional modules according to needs, that is, the internal structure of the device is divided into different functional modules to perform all or part of the above described functions. For the specific working processes of the system, the apparatus and the unit described above, reference may be made to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and details are not described here again.

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

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

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present invention may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit. The integrated unit may be implemented in the form of a software functional unit.

The integrated unit, if implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, all or part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium and including instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) or a processor to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present invention. The computer storage medium is a non-transitory (English) medium, comprising: flash memory, removable hard drive, read only memory, random access memory, magnetic or optical disk, and the like.

On the other hand, embodiments of the present invention further provide a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, where the computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the method steps provided in the foregoing embodiments and can achieve the same technical effects, and details are not repeated herein.

Finally, it should be noted that: the above examples are only intended to illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, but not to limit it; although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified, or some technical features may be equivalently replaced; and such modifications or substitutions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the corresponding technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. A cell search method is applied to a terminal, and is characterized by comprising the following steps:

2. The cell search method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the first message sent by the terrestrial radio access network node comprises:

receiving a system information broadcast sent by the ground wireless access network node, wherein the system information broadcast comprises the first message; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and receiving a dedicated signaling sent by the ground radio access network node, wherein the dedicated signaling contains the first message.

3. The cell search method of claim 1, wherein the searching and measuring a target NTN cell based on the preconfigured information comprises:

based on the pre-configuration information and according to the geographical position information of the terminal, determining a target NTN cell covering the terminal;

acquiring frequency point information and/or physical cell identification information of the target NTN cell based on the pre-configuration information;

and searching and measuring the target NTN cell based on the frequency point information and/or the physical cell identification information of the target NTN cell.

4. The cell search method of claim 1, wherein the first message further includes a non-terrestrial network radio access technology identifier (NTN RAT ID) to instruct the terminal to search for NTN cells belonging to the NTN RAT ID.

5. The cell search method of claim 1, wherein the first message further comprises a measurement interval to instruct the terminal to search and measure a target NTN cell within the measurement interval.

6. The cell search method of claim 1, wherein the first message further includes a cell search condition indicating that the terminal searches and measures a target NTN cell when the cell search condition is satisfied.

7. The cell search method of claim 1, wherein the first message further includes a cell search condition and a measurement interval, so as to instruct the terminal to search and measure a target NTN cell in the measurement interval when the cell search condition is satisfied.

8. The cell search method of claim 7, wherein after receiving the first message sent by the terrestrial radio access network node, the method further comprises:

and when the cell search condition is detected to be met, sending a second message to the ground wireless access network node, wherein the second message comprises second indication information that the terminal meets the cell search condition, or information that the ground wireless access network node can judge that the terminal meets the cell search condition.

9. The cell search method of claim 8, wherein after sending the second message to the terrestrial radio access network node, further comprising:

and when detecting that the cell search condition is not met any more, sending a third message to the ground wireless access network node, wherein the third message comprises third indication information that the terminal does not meet the cell search condition any more, or information that the ground wireless access network node can judge that the terminal does not meet the cell search condition any more.

10. The cell search method according to any one of claims 6 to 9, wherein the cell search condition comprises at least one of the following conditions:

and the terminal is positioned in the beam direction corresponding to the synchronous signal block identifier in the current service cell.

11. The cell search method according to claim 1, wherein the first message further includes a cell reselection condition indicating that the terminal reselects the camped cell to the target NTN cell when the target NTN cell obtained through measurement satisfies the cell reselection condition.

12. The cell search method of claim 11, wherein after receiving the first message sent by the terrestrial radio access network node, the method further comprises:

and when the target NTN cell is obtained through searching and measuring, and the target NTN cell obtained through detection meets the cell reselection condition, reselecting the resident cell to the target NTN cell.

13. The cell search method according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the cell reselection condition is:

the signal quality of the NTN cell is higher than or equal to a third preset quality threshold; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the signal strength of the NTN cell is higher than or equal to a third preset strength threshold value.

14. The cell search method of claim 1, wherein the first message further includes a measurement result reporting condition for instructing the terminal to report the measurement result when the measurement result reporting condition is satisfied.

15. The cell search method of claim 14, wherein after receiving the first message sent by the terrestrial radio access network node, further comprising:

and when a target NTN cell is obtained through searching and measuring and the condition that the reporting condition of the measuring result is met is detected, sending a fourth message to the ground wireless access network node, wherein the fourth message contains the measuring result, and the measuring result contains a Cell Global Identity (CGI) of the target NTN cell.

16. The cell search method according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the measurement result reporting condition comprises:

the signal quality of the NTN cell is higher than or equal to a fourth preset quality threshold; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the signal strength of the NTN cell is higher than or equal to a fourth preset strength threshold value.

17. A cell search method is applied to a ground wireless access network node, and is characterized by comprising the following steps:

18. The cell search method of claim 17, wherein the sending the first message to the terminal comprises:

transmitting the first message to the terminal through system information broadcasting; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and sending the first message to the terminal through dedicated signaling.

19. The cell searching method of claim 17, wherein the first message further includes a non-terrestrial network radio access technology identifier (NTN RAT ID) to instruct the terminal to search for NTN cells belonging to the NTN RAT ID.

20. The cell search method of claim 17, wherein the first message further comprises a measurement interval to instruct the terminal to search and measure a target NTN cell within the measurement interval.

21. The cell search method of claim 17, wherein the first message further includes a cell search condition indicating that the terminal searches and measures a target NTN cell when the cell search condition is satisfied.

22. The cell search method of claim 17, wherein the first message further includes a cell search condition and a measurement interval, so as to instruct the terminal to search and measure a target NTN cell in the measurement interval when the cell search condition is satisfied.

23. The cell search method of claim 22, wherein after the sending the first message to the terminal, further comprising:

receiving a second message sent by the terminal when the terminal detects that the cell search condition is met, wherein the second message comprises second indication information that the terminal meets the cell search condition or information that the ground radio access network node can judge that the terminal meets the cell search condition;

stopping data transmission within the measurement interval based on the second message.

24. The cell search method of claim 23, wherein the stopping the data transmission within the measurement interval based on the second message further comprises:

receiving a third message sent by the terminal when detecting that the cell search condition is no longer satisfied, wherein the third message comprises third indication information that the terminal no longer satisfies the cell search condition, or information that the ground radio access network node can judge that the terminal no longer satisfies the cell search condition;

resuming data transmission within the measurement interval based on the third message.

25. The cell search method according to any of claims 21 to 24, wherein the cell search condition comprises at least one of the following conditions:

26. The cell search method according to claim 17, wherein the first message further includes a cell reselection condition indicating that the terminal reselects the camped cell to the target NTN cell when the target NTN cell obtained through measurement satisfies the cell reselection condition.

27. The cell search method of claim 26, wherein the cell reselection condition is:

28. The cell search method of claim 17, wherein the first message further includes a measurement result reporting condition for instructing the terminal to report the measurement result when the measurement result reporting condition is satisfied.

29. The cell search method of claim 28, wherein after sending the first message to the terminal, further comprising:

and receiving a fourth message sent by the terminal when the measurement result reporting condition is met, wherein the fourth message comprises the measurement result, and the measurement result comprises a Cell Global Identity (CGI) of a target NTN cell obtained by searching and measuring.

30. The cell search method according to claim 28 or 29, wherein the reporting condition of the measurement result is:

31. A cell search apparatus applied to a terminal, comprising:

32. A cell search device applied to a ground radio access network node is characterized by comprising:

33. A terminal comprising a memory, a processor and a computer program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, wherein the processor when executing the computer program performs the steps of:

34. The terminal of claim 33, wherein the receiving the first message sent by the terrestrial radio access network node comprises:

35. The terminal of claim 33, wherein the searching and measuring a target NTN cell based on the preconfigured information comprises:

36. The terminal of claim 33, wherein the first message further includes a non-terrestrial network radio access technology identifier (NTN RAT ID) to instruct the terminal to search for NTN cells belonging to the NTN RAT ID.

37. The terminal of claim 33, wherein the first message further comprises a measurement interval to instruct the terminal to search for and measure a target NTN cell within the measurement interval.

38. The terminal of claim 33, wherein the first message further comprises a cell search condition indicating that the terminal searches and measures for a target NTN cell when the cell search condition is satisfied.

39. The terminal of claim 33, wherein the first message further includes a cell search condition and a measurement interval, so as to instruct the terminal to search and measure a target NTN cell in the measurement interval when the cell search condition is satisfied.

40. The terminal of claim 33, wherein the first message further includes a cell reselection condition indicating that the terminal reselects the camped cell to the target NTN cell when the target NTN cell obtained through measurement satisfies the cell reselection condition.

41. The terminal of claim 33, wherein the first message further includes a measurement result reporting condition to instruct the terminal to report the measurement result when the measurement result reporting condition is satisfied.

42. A ground radio access network node comprising a memory, a processor and a computer program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, wherein the processor when executing the computer program performs the steps of:

43. The terrestrial radio access network node of claim 42, wherein the sending the first message to the terminal comprises:

and sending the first message to the terminal through dedicated signaling.

44. The utran node of claim 42, wherein the first message further includes a non-terrestrial network RAT ID (NTN RAT ID) to instruct the terminal to search for NTN cells belonging to the NTN RAT ID.

45. The utran node of claim 42, wherein the first message further includes a measurement interval to instruct the terminal to search for and measure a target NTN cell within the measurement interval.

46. The utran node of claim 42, wherein the first message further includes a cell search condition instructing the terminal to search and measure a target NTN cell when the cell search condition is satisfied.

47. The utran node of claim 42, wherein the first message further includes cell search criteria and measurement intervals to instruct the terminal to search and measure the target NTN cell during the measurement intervals when the cell search criteria are met.

48. The utran node of claim 42, wherein the first message further includes a cell reselection condition indicating that the terminal reselects the camped cell to the target NTN cell when the target NTN cell meets the cell reselection condition.

49. The utran node of claim 42, wherein the first message further includes a measurement result reporting condition to instruct the terminal to report the measurement result when the measurement result reporting condition is satisfied.

50. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, having stored thereon a computer program, characterized in that the computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of the method according to any one of claims 1 to 16, or the steps of the method according to any one of claims 17 to 30.