CN113573246A

CN113573246A - Multicast communication method, device and system

Info

Publication number: CN113573246A
Application number: CN202010348287.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 谭佳瑶; 张向东; 常俊仁
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-04-28
Filing date: 2020-04-28
Publication date: 2021-10-29
Anticipated expiration: 2040-04-28
Also published as: CN113573246B; WO2021218960A1

Abstract

A multicast communication method, device and system are used for ensuring the performance of multicast communication when the beamforming technology is adopted for multicast communication. The method comprises the following steps: when a terminal device is in a non-connection state, determining a first multicast service, wherein the first multicast service is a multicast service which is being received or is interested in being received by the terminal device; the terminal device sends a first message to a network device, wherein the first message is used for indicating the first multicast service and/or available beams. The method can also be realized by the following steps: a terminal device receives a first message from a network device, wherein the first message comprises an incidence relation between a beam and a multicast service; the terminal device measures a first beam, wherein the first beam is associated with a first multicast service, and the first multicast service is a multicast service which is being received or is interested in being received by the terminal device; if the beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a threshold, the terminal device selects the first beam.

Description

Multicast communication method, device and system

Technical Field

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

Background

The wireless communication system supports unicast and multicast downlink data transmission modes. Unicast is primarily a point-to-point communication, e.g., an inter-point communication between a sender and a receiver. Multicast is one of multicast, and involves a group of terminals, and a transmitting end transmits data to a destination terminal in a group corresponding to multicast communication.

The Beamforming (BF) technique is a method for realizing necessary transmission link budget for subsequent communication process by two or more communication parties, i.e. by concentrating the transmitted signals to the beam direction pointing to the receiver to realize signal enhancement and improve the quality of the communication signals. When data transmission is performed in a cell, beams need to be transmitted in different directions in order to cover terminal devices in different area directions. When multicast transmission is performed in a cell, a multicast channel needs to be repeatedly transmitted on each beam, and since the requirements of terminal devices for multicast services may not be completely the same, multicast beams may be transmitted in other positions or directions where there are no terminal devices, which may cause a large waste of resources.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a multicast communication method and device, which are used for improving the resource utilization rate in the multicast communication process.

In a first aspect, a multicast communication method is provided, where an execution subject of the method may be a terminal device, and the method specifically includes: when a terminal device is in a non-connection state, determining a first multicast service, wherein the first multicast service is a multicast service which is being received or is interested in being received by the terminal device; the terminal device sends a first message to a network device, wherein the first message is used for indicating the first multicast service and/or available beams. The first multicast service is reported to the network equipment by the non-connection state terminal device, so that the network equipment can acquire the requirement of the non-connection state terminal device and continue to send the multicast service to the terminal device or send the interested multicast service to the terminal device according to the requirement. When the first message indicates an available beam, the network device may further send the first multicast service to the terminal apparatus on the available beam, so as to improve efficiency of multicast communication.

Alternatively, the first message may be message 1 or message 3 in the random access procedure, or message a in the two-step random access procedure.

In one possible design, the terminal apparatus receives first indication information from the network device, where the first indication information is used to indicate that transmission of the first multicast service is stopped. In response to the first indication information, the terminal apparatus transmits a first message to the network device. Through the first indication information, the terminal device can timely know that the transmission of the first multicast service is stopped, and send a first message to the network equipment, so that the continuity of the first multicast service is ensured.

The first indication information may be carried in a multicast service data packet, or the first indication information is carried in a medium access control element (MAC CE).

In one possible design, the terminal device determines that the first multicast service is not being transmitted. For example, the first multicast service uses a single cell-point to multipoint (SC-PTM) technology, and when detecting that a single cell-multicast transport channel (SC-MTCH) of a group radio network temporary identifier (G-RNTI) corresponding to the first multicast service is not being transmitted, the terminal device sends a first message to the network device. And the terminal equipment sends the first message to the network equipment in time when determining that the first multicast service is not transmitted, thereby ensuring the continuity of the first multicast service.

In one possible design, the terminal device sends the first message to the network device periodically. By periodically sending the first message, the network device can obtain the relevant information of the multicast service which is being received or is interested to be received by the terminal device in time, and schedule the beam resource for the terminal device to transmit the first multicast service, thereby improving the performance of multicast communication.

Optionally, the terminal device receives a second message from the network device, where the second message is used to instruct the terminal device to periodically send the first message; wherein the second message includes second indication information, and the second indication information is used for indicating the terminal device to periodically send the first message; or, the second message includes configuration information, where the configuration information is used to instruct the terminal device to send cycle information of the first message.

For example, the period information includes a period length and/or a start time.

In one possible design, the terminal device receives a third message from the network device, where the third message includes an association relationship between a beam and a multicast service. And the terminal device determines that the transmission of the first multicast service is stopped according to the third message, and then sends the first message to the network equipment so that the network equipment continues to send the first multicast service. The information that the transmission of the first multicast service is stopped can be obtained in time by receiving the third message, and the first message is sent to the network equipment. The third message may include third indication information, where the third indication information is used to instruct the terminal apparatus to send the first message to the network device. And the terminal device sends a first message to the network equipment according to the third indication information.

The terminal device sends the first message, so that the network equipment can obtain the information of the first multicast service which is being received or is interested to be received by the terminal device in time, the beam resource is scheduled for the terminal device to transmit the first multicast service, and the performance of multicast communication is improved.

In one possible design, the terminal apparatus receives a fourth message from the network device, where the fourth message includes an association relationship between a beam and a multicast service; the terminal device selecting a first beam associated with the first multicast service; the terminal device measures the first beam to obtain the beam quality of the first beam.

Optionally, the number of the first beams is one or more.

In one possible design, the beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a threshold, and the available beam is the first beam; or, the beam quality of the first beam is less than the threshold, other beams except the first beam are measured, a second beam with the beam quality greater than or equal to the threshold is selected, and the available beam is the second beam.

In a second aspect, a multicast communication method is provided, which may be implemented by: a terminal device receives a first message from a network device, wherein the first message comprises an incidence relation between a beam and a multicast service; the terminal device measures a first beam, wherein the first beam is associated with a first multicast service, and the first multicast service is a multicast service which is being received or is interested in being received by the terminal device; if the beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a threshold, the terminal device selects the first beam. In this way, the association relationship between the beam and the multicast service is carried in the first message, which can help the terminal device to reselect a proper beam, and improve the efficiency of beam failure recovery and the performance of multicast communication.

Optionally, the first message is beam failure recovery configuration information (BeamFailureRecoveryConfig).

In one possible design, if the beam quality of the first beam is less than a threshold, the terminal device measures a second beam, where the second beam is a beam other than the first beam; the terminal device selecting a second beam having a beam quality greater than or equal to the threshold; and the terminal device reports information for indicating the first multicast service to the network equipment on the time-frequency resource associated with the second beam.

Optionally, the number of the first beams is one or more.

Optionally, the number of the second beams is one or more.

In one possible design, the first message further includes a unicast candidate beam list, where the unicast candidate beam list includes beams for carrying unicast traffic; the measurement of the first beam by the terminal device may be: if the unicast candidate beam list and the beam associated with the first multicast service both comprise the first beam, the first beam is measured. That is, the terminal device preferentially selects an intersection of the unicast candidate beam list and the beam associated with the first multicast service, and measures the first beam in the intersection. It will be appreciated that the beam in the intersection supports both unicast traffic and first multicast traffic, and therefore the first beam in the intersection is preferred.

In one possible design, if the beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a threshold, the terminal device receives unicast traffic from the network device and the first multicast traffic on a time-frequency resource associated with the first beam.

In one possible design, if the beam quality of the first beam is less than a threshold, the terminal device measures other beams in the unicast candidate beam list, selects a third beam with a beam quality greater than the threshold, and reports the information of the first multicast service on a time-frequency resource associated with the third beam. By reporting the information of the first multicast service on the time-frequency resource associated with the third beam, the network device can schedule the third beam to send the first multicast service, and the third beam is a proper beam selected by the terminal device, so that the performance of multicast communication and the efficiency of beam failure recovery can be improved.

In one possible design, the first message further includes a unicast candidate beam list, where the unicast candidate beam list includes beams for carrying data of unicast traffic; the terminal device measures the wave beams in the unicast candidate wave beam list, and receives unicast service from the network equipment on the time-frequency resource associated with the wave beam quality greater than or equal to a first threshold value; receiving the first multicast traffic from the network device on a time-frequency resource associated with the first beam when the beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a second threshold. It is understood that the terminal device may receive the unicast service and the multicast service separately in a time division manner. The threshold for selecting a beam in the unicast candidate beam list, and the threshold for selecting the first beam or the second beam, may be the same or different.

In one possible design, the association relationship between the beam and the multicast service includes any one or a combination of more than one of the following items: multicast service associated with each beam; a beam associated with each multicast service; the terminal device is receiving or interested in receiving the beam associated with the multicast service.

In a third aspect, a multicast communication method is provided, where an execution subject of the method may be a terminal apparatus, and the method is implemented by: a terminal device receives a first message from a network device, wherein the first message comprises a multicast candidate beam list, and the multicast candidate beam list comprises beams for bearing multicast services; the terminal device measures the beams in the multicast candidate beam list; the terminal device selects a first beam, and reports information for indicating a first multicast service to the network equipment on a time-frequency resource associated with the first beam, wherein the beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a threshold, and the first multicast service is a multicast service which is being received or is interested in being received by the terminal device. The network equipment sends the multicast candidate beam list to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can be facilitated to select a proper beam, the terminal device reports the information of the first multicast service, the first multicast service can be received after the beam fails to recover, the continuity of the first multicast service is ensured, the multicast service interested by the terminal device can be received, and the performance of multicast communication is improved.

In one possible design, the terminal device receives the first multicast service on a time-frequency resource associated with the first beam.

In a fourth aspect, a multicast communication method is provided, where an execution subject of the method may be a network device, and the method is implemented by: the network equipment determines to stop transmitting the first multicast service; the network equipment receives a first message from a terminal device, wherein the first message is used for indicating the first multicast service and/or available beams; the network device transmits the first multicast service to the terminal apparatus on the available beam. For the terminal device in the non-connection state, the first multicast service is reported to the network equipment through the terminal device, so that the network equipment can acquire the requirement of the terminal device in the non-connection state, and continue to send the multicast service to the terminal device or send the multicast service of interest to the terminal device according to the requirement. When the first message indicates an available beam, the network device may further send the first multicast service to the terminal apparatus on the available beam, so as to improve efficiency of multicast communication.

In one possible design, the network device sends first indication information to the terminal apparatus, where the first indication information is used to indicate that transmission of the first multicast service is stopped. Through the first indication information, the terminal device can timely know that the transmission of the first multicast service is stopped, and send the first message to the network equipment, so that the continuity of the first multicast service is ensured.

In one possible design, the network device sends a second message to the terminal device, the second message instructing the terminal device to send the first message periodically; wherein the second message includes second indication information, and the second indication information is used for indicating the terminal device to periodically send the first message; or, the second message includes configuration information, where the configuration information is used to instruct the terminal device to send cycle information of the first message. For example, the period information includes a period length and/or a start time.

The mode of periodically sending the first message can enable the network equipment to obtain the information of the first multicast service which is being received or is interested to be received by the terminal device in time, and schedule the beam resource for the terminal device to transmit the first multicast service, thereby improving the performance of multicast communication.

In one possible design, the network device sends a third message to the terminal apparatus; and the terminal device determines that the transmission of the first multicast service is stopped according to the third message, and then sends the first message to the network equipment so that the network equipment continues to send the first multicast service. The third message includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate the terminal apparatus to send the first message to the network device. The terminal device may transmit the first message to the network apparatus according to the third indication information. The terminal device sends the first message, so that the network equipment can obtain the information of the first multicast service which is being received or is interested to be received by the terminal device in time, the beam resource is scheduled for the terminal device to transmit the first multicast service, and the performance of multicast communication is improved.

In a fifth aspect, a multicast communication method is provided, where an execution subject of the method may be a network device, and the method is implemented by: the network equipment sends a first message to the terminal device, wherein the first message comprises an association relation between a beam and multicast service. The network equipment receives a second message from the terminal device, wherein the second message is used for indicating a first beam; and the network equipment sends a first multicast service to the terminal device on the time-frequency resource associated with the first beam, wherein the first multicast service is associated with the first beam. In this way, the association relationship between the beam and the multicast service is carried in the first message, which can help the terminal device to reselect a proper beam, and improve the efficiency of beam failure recovery and the performance of multicast communication.

Optionally, a third message is received at the network device from the terminal apparatus, where the third message is used to request beam failure recovery.

In one possible design, the network device receives a fourth message from the terminal apparatus, where the fourth message indicates the second beam and the first multicast service; and the network equipment sends the first multicast service to the terminal device on the time-frequency resource associated with the first beam.

In one possible design, the association relationship between the beam and the multicast service includes any one or a combination of more than one of the following items: multicast service associated with each beam; a beam associated with each multicast service; a beam associated with a multicast service being received or being of interest to be received by the terminal device; and supporting the beam of multicast service transmission.

In a sixth aspect, a multicast communication method is provided, where an execution subject of the method may be a network device, and the method is implemented by: the method comprises the steps that network equipment receives a first message from a terminal device, wherein the first message is used for requesting beam failure recovery; the network equipment sends a second message to the terminal device, wherein the second message comprises a multicast candidate beam list, and the multicast candidate beam list comprises beams used for bearing multicast services. The network equipment sends the multicast candidate beam list to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can be facilitated to select a proper beam, the terminal device reports the information of the first multicast service, the first multicast service can be received after the beam fails to recover, the continuity of the first multicast service is ensured, the multicast service interested by the terminal device can be received, and the performance of multicast communication is improved.

In a seventh aspect, a communication device is provided, which may be a terminal device, a device (e.g., a chip, or a system of chips, or a circuit) located in the terminal device, or a device capable of being used with the terminal device. In one design, the communication device may include a module corresponding to one or more of the methods/operations/steps/actions described in the first aspect, where the module may be implemented by hardware circuit, software, or a combination of hardware circuit and software. In one design, the apparatus may include a processing module and a communication module. The processing module is used for calling the communication module to execute the receiving and/or sending functions. Exemplarily, the following steps are carried out:

the processing module is used for determining a first multicast service when the processing module is in a non-connection state, wherein the first multicast service is a multicast service which is being received or is interested in being received; the communication module is configured to send a first message to a network device, where the first message is used to indicate the first multicast service and/or an available beam. The first multicast service is reported to the network equipment by the non-connection state terminal device, so that the network equipment can acquire the requirement of the non-connection state terminal device and continue to send the multicast service to the terminal device or send the interested multicast service to the terminal device according to the requirement. When the first message indicates an available beam, the network device may further send the first multicast service to the terminal apparatus on the available beam, so as to improve efficiency of multicast communication.

In one possible design, the communication module is configured to receive first indication information from the network device, where the first indication information is used to indicate that transmission of the first multicast service is stopped. In response to the first indication information, the communication module sends a first message to the network device. Through the first indication information, the terminal device can timely know that the transmission of the first multicast service is stopped, and send a first message to the network equipment, so that the continuity of the first multicast service is ensured.

The first indication information may be carried in a multicast service data packet, or the first indication information is carried in a MAC CE.

In one possible design, the processing module is to determine that the first multicast traffic is not being transmitted. For example, the first multicast service employs an SC-PTM technique, and the terminal apparatus may send a first message to the network device when detecting that transmission of a single-cell multicast transport channel (SC-MTCH) of a G-RNTI corresponding to the first multicast service is stopped. When the transmission of the first multicast service is determined to be stopped, the first message is sent to the network equipment in time, so that the continuity of the first multicast service is ensured.

In one possible design, the communication module is to periodically send the first message to the network device. By periodically sending the first message, the network device can obtain the information of the first multicast service which is being received or is interested to be received by the terminal device in time, and schedule the beam resource for the terminal device to transmit the first multicast service, thereby improving the performance of multicast communication.

Optionally, the communication module is configured to receive a second message from the network device, where the second message is used to instruct to send the first message periodically; the second message comprises second indication information, and the second indication information is used for indicating that the first message is sent periodically; or, the second message includes configuration information, where the configuration information is used to instruct the terminal device to send cycle information of the first message.

In one possible design, the communication module is configured to receive a third message from the network device, where the third message includes an association relationship between a beam and a multicast service. And the processing module is configured to send the first message to the network device according to the third message when it is determined that the transmission of the first multicast service is stopped, so that the network device continues to send the first multicast service. The information that the transmission of the first multicast service is stopped can be obtained in time by receiving the third message, and the first message is sent to the network equipment. The third message may include third indication information, where the third indication information is used to instruct the terminal apparatus to send the first message to the network device. And the terminal device sends a first message to the network equipment according to the third indication information.

In one possible design, the communication module is configured to receive a fourth message from the network device, where the fourth message includes an association relationship between a beam and a multicast service; the processing module is configured to select a first beam associated with the first multicast service; the processing module is configured to measure the first beam to obtain a beam quality of the first beam.

Optionally, the number of the first beams is one or more.

In an eighth aspect, a communication device is provided, which may be a terminal device, a device (e.g., a chip or a system of chips or a circuit) located in the terminal device, or a device capable of being used with the terminal device. In one design, the communication device may include a module corresponding to one or more of the methods/operations/steps/actions described in the second aspect, where the module may be implemented by hardware circuit, software, or a combination of hardware circuit and software. In one design, the apparatus may include a processing module and a communication module. The processing module is used for calling the communication module to execute the receiving and/or sending functions. Exemplarily, the following steps are carried out:

the communication module is configured to receive a first message from a network device, where the first message includes an association relationship between a beam and a multicast service; the processing module is configured to measure a first beam, where the first beam is associated with a first multicast service, and the first multicast service is a multicast service being received or being interested in being received; the processing module selects the first beam if the beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a threshold. In this way, the association relationship between the beam and the multicast service is carried in the first message, which can help the terminal device to reselect a proper beam, and improve the efficiency of beam failure recovery and the performance of multicast communication.

In one possible design, if the beam quality of the first beam is less than a threshold, the processing module is configured to measure a second beam, where the second beam is a beam other than the first beam; and for selecting a second beam having a beam quality greater than or equal to the threshold; the communication module is configured to report, to the network device, information for indicating the first multicast service on the time-frequency resource associated with the second beam.

Optionally, the number of the first beams is one or more.

Optionally, the number of the second beams is one or more.

In one possible design, the first message further includes a unicast candidate beam list, where the unicast candidate beam list includes beams for carrying unicast traffic; the processing module is specifically configured to: if the unicast candidate beam list and the beam associated with the first multicast service both comprise the first beam, the first beam is measured. That is, the terminal device preferentially selects an intersection of the unicast candidate beam list and the beam associated with the first multicast service, and measures the first beam in the intersection. It will be appreciated that the beam in the intersection supports both unicast traffic and first multicast traffic, and therefore the first beam in the intersection is preferred.

In one possible design, if the beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a threshold, the communication module is configured to receive unicast traffic from the network device and the first multicast traffic on a time-frequency resource associated with the first beam.

In one possible design, if the beam quality of the first beam is less than a threshold, the processing module is configured to measure other beams in the unicast candidate beam list, select a third beam with a beam quality greater than the threshold, and report information of the first multicast service on a time-frequency resource associated with the third beam. By reporting the information of the first multicast service on the time-frequency resource associated with the third beam, the network device can schedule the third beam to send the first multicast service, and the third beam is a proper beam selected by the terminal device, so that the performance of multicast communication and the efficiency of beam failure recovery can be improved.

In one possible design, the first message further includes a unicast candidate beam list, where the unicast candidate beam list includes beams for carrying data of unicast traffic; the processing module is configured to measure a beam in the unicast candidate beam list, and receive, through the communication module, a unicast service from the network device on a time-frequency resource associated with a beam of which the beam quality is greater than or equal to a first threshold; receiving, by the communication module, the first multicast traffic from the network device on a time-frequency resource associated with the first beam when the beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a second threshold. It is understood that the terminal device may receive the unicast service and the multicast service separately in a time division manner. The threshold for selecting a beam in the unicast candidate beam list, and the threshold for selecting the first beam or the second beam, may be the same or different.

In a ninth aspect, a communication device is provided, which may be a terminal device, a device (e.g., a chip or a system of chips or a circuit) located in the terminal device, or a device capable of being used with the terminal device. In one design, the communication device may include a module corresponding to one or more of the methods/operations/steps/actions described in the third aspect, where the module may be implemented by hardware circuit, software, or a combination of hardware circuit and software. In one design, the apparatus may include a processing module and a communication module. The processing module is used for calling the communication module to execute the receiving and/or sending functions. Exemplarily, the communication module is configured to receive a first message from a network device, where the first message includes a multicast candidate beam list, and the multicast candidate beam list includes beams for carrying a multicast service; the processing module is configured to measure beams in the multicast candidate beam list, select a first beam, and report information indicating a first multicast service to the network device through the communication module on a time-frequency resource associated with the first beam, where a beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a threshold, and the first multicast service is a multicast service being received by the terminal device or being interested in receiving the multicast service. The network equipment sends the multicast candidate beam list to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can be facilitated to select a proper beam, the terminal device reports the information of the first multicast service, the first multicast service can be received after the beam fails to recover, the continuity of the first multicast service is ensured, the multicast service interested by the terminal device can be received, and the performance of multicast communication is improved.

In a tenth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, which may be a network device, an apparatus (e.g., a chip or a system of chips or a circuit) located in the network device, or an apparatus capable of being used with the network device. In one design, the communication apparatus may include a module corresponding to one or more of the methods/operations/steps/actions described in the fourth aspect, where the module may be a hardware circuit, a software circuit, or a combination of a hardware circuit and a software circuit. In one design, the apparatus may include a processing module and a communication module. The processing module is used for calling the communication module to execute the receiving and/or sending functions. Exemplarily, the following steps are carried out:

the processing module is used for determining to stop transmitting the first multicast service; a communication module, configured to receive a first message from a terminal device, where the first message is used to indicate the first multicast service and/or an available beam; the communication module is further configured to send the first multicast service to the terminal device on the available beam. For the terminal device in the non-connection state, the first multicast service is reported to the network equipment through the terminal device, so that the network equipment can acquire the requirement of the terminal device in the non-connection state, and continue to send the multicast service to the terminal device or send the multicast service of interest to the terminal device according to the requirement. When the first message indicates an available beam, the network device may further send the first multicast service to the terminal apparatus on the available beam, so as to improve efficiency of multicast communication.

In one possible design, the communication module is further configured to send first indication information to the terminal apparatus, where the first indication information is used to indicate that transmission of the first multicast service is stopped. Through the first indication information, the terminal device can timely know that the transmission of the first multicast service is stopped, and send the first message to the network equipment, so that the continuity of the first multicast service is ensured.

In one possible design, the communication module is further configured to send a second message to the terminal device, the second message instructing the terminal device to periodically send the first message; wherein the second message includes second indication information, and the second indication information is used for indicating the terminal device to periodically send the first message; or, the second message includes configuration information, where the configuration information is used to instruct the terminal device to send cycle information of the first message. For example, the period information includes a period length and/or a start time.

In one possible design, the communication module is further configured to send a third message to the terminal device; and the terminal device determines that the transmission of the first multicast service is stopped according to the third message, and then sends the first message to the network equipment so that the network equipment continues to send the first multicast service. The third message includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate the terminal apparatus to send the first message to the network device. The terminal device may transmit the first message to the network apparatus according to the third indication information. The terminal device sends the first message, so that the network equipment can obtain the information of the first multicast service which is being received or is interested to be received by the terminal device in time, the beam resource is scheduled for the terminal device to transmit the first multicast service, and the performance of multicast communication is improved.

In an eleventh aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, where the communication apparatus may be a network device, an apparatus (e.g., a chip or a system of chips or a circuit) located in the network device, or an apparatus capable of being used with the network device. In one design, the communication device may include a module corresponding to one or more of the methods/operations/steps/actions described in the fifth aspect, where the module may be implemented by hardware circuit, software, or a combination of hardware circuit and software. In one design, the apparatus may include a processing module and a communication module. The processing module is used for calling the communication module to execute the receiving and/or sending functions. Exemplarily, the following steps are carried out:

a communication module, configured to receive a first message from a terminal apparatus, where the first message is used to request beam failure recovery; the communication module is configured to send a second message to the terminal device, where the second message includes an association relationship between a beam and a multicast service. In this way, the association relationship between the beam and the multicast service is carried in the first message, which can help the terminal device to reselect a proper beam, and improve the efficiency of beam failure recovery and the performance of multicast communication.

In one possible design, the communication module is further configured to receive a third message from the terminal apparatus, where the third message is indicative of the first beam; the communication module is further configured to send a first multicast service to the terminal apparatus on a time-frequency resource associated with the first beam, where the first multicast service is associated with the first beam.

In one possible design, the communication module is further configured to receive a fourth message from the terminal apparatus, where the fourth message indicates the second beam and the first multicast service; and the network equipment sends the first multicast service to the terminal device on the time-frequency resource associated with the first beam.

In a twelfth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, which may be a network device, an apparatus (e.g., a chip or a system of chips or a circuit) located in the network device, or an apparatus capable of being used with the network device. In one design, the communication apparatus may include a module corresponding to one or more of the methods/operations/steps/actions described in the sixth aspect, where the module may be implemented by hardware circuit, software, or a combination of hardware circuit and software. In one design, the apparatus may include a processing module and a communication module. The processing module is used for calling the communication module to execute the receiving and/or sending functions. Exemplarily, the following steps are carried out: a communication module, configured to receive a first message from a terminal apparatus, where the first message is used to request beam failure recovery; the communication module is configured to send a second message to the terminal apparatus, where the second message includes a multicast candidate beam list, and the multicast candidate beam list includes a beam for carrying a multicast service. The network equipment sends the multicast candidate beam list to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can be facilitated to select a proper beam, the terminal device reports the information of the first multicast service, the first multicast service can be received after the beam fails to recover, the continuity of the first multicast service is ensured, the multicast service interested by the terminal device can be received, and the performance of multicast communication is improved.

In one possible design, the communication module is further configured to receive the first multicast service on a time-frequency resource associated with the first beam.

In a thirteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication apparatus, which includes a communication interface and a processor, where the communication interface is used for the apparatus to communicate with other devices, for example, to receive and transmit data or signals. Illustratively, the communication interface may be a transceiver, circuit, bus, module, or other type of communication interface, and the other device may be a network device. The processor is configured to call a set of programs, instructions or data to perform the method described in the first, second or third aspect and any possible design description of these aspects. The apparatus may also include a memory for storing programs, instructions or data called by the processor. The memory is coupled to the processor, and the processor, when executing instructions or data stored in the memory, may implement the method described in any of the first, second, or third aspects and possible designs of these aspects.

In a fourteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus, which includes a communication interface and a processor, where the communication interface is used for the apparatus to communicate with other devices, for example, to receive and transmit data or signals. Illustratively, the communication interface may be a transceiver, circuit, bus, module, or other type of communication interface, and the other device may be a network device. The processor is configured to call a set of programs, instructions or data to perform the method described in the fourth, fifth or sixth aspect and any possible design description of these aspects. The apparatus may also include a memory for storing programs, instructions or data called by the processor. The memory is coupled to the processor, and the processor, when executing instructions or data stored in the memory, may implement the method of the fourth aspect, the fifth aspect, or the sixth aspect, and any possible design description of these aspects.

In a fifteenth aspect, this application further provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-readable instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause a method as described in the first, second, or third aspect and any possible design of these aspects to be performed.

In a sixteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application further provide a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-readable instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause a method as described in the fourth, fifth, or sixth aspect and any possible design of these aspects to be performed.

In a seventeenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip system, where the chip system includes a processor and may further include a memory, and is configured to implement the method described in the first aspect, the second aspect, or the third aspect and any possible design of these aspects. The chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

In an eighteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a chip system, where the chip system includes a processor and may further include a memory, and is configured to implement the method described in the fourth aspect, the fifth aspect, or the sixth aspect and any possible design of these aspects. The chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

In a nineteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, where the communication system includes the terminal apparatus in the seventh aspect and the network device in the tenth aspect; or, the communication system includes the terminal device of the eighth aspect and the network apparatus of the eleventh aspect; alternatively, the communication system includes the terminal apparatus according to the ninth aspect and the network device according to the twelfth aspect.

A twentieth aspect provides a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause a method as in the first, second or third aspect and any possible design of these aspects to be performed.

A twenty-first aspect provides a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause a method as described in the fourth, fifth or sixth aspect and any possible design of these aspects to be performed.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system architecture according to an embodiment of the present application;

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

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an alternative implementation manner of one of the multicast communication methods in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a second method of multicast communication according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a third method of multicast communication in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a second schematic structural diagram of a communication device in the embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The embodiment of the application provides a multicast communication method and device, so that the quality of multicast communication is ensured when the beamforming technology is adopted for multicast communication. The method and the device are based on the same or similar technical conception, and because the principle of solving the problems of the method and the device is similar, the implementation of the device and the method can be mutually referred, and repeated parts are not repeated. In the description of the embodiment of the present application, "and/or" describes an association relationship of associated objects, which means that three relationships may exist, for example, a and/or B may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship. At least one referred to in this application means one or more; plural means two or more. In addition, it is to be understood that the terms first, second, third and the like in the description of the present application are used for distinguishing between the descriptions and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or order. Reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment" or "some embodiments," or the like, means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in one or more embodiments of the present application. Thus, appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment," "in some embodiments," "in other embodiments," or the like, in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, but rather "one or more but not all embodiments" unless specifically stated otherwise. The terms "comprising," "including," "having," and variations thereof mean "including, but not limited to," unless expressly specified otherwise.

The multicast communication method and apparatus provided in the embodiment of the present application may be applied to a fourth generation (4G) communication system, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE), or may be applied to a fifth generation (5G) communication system, such as a New Radio (NR) 5G, or may be applied to various future communication systems. The technical scheme provided by the application can be applied to a multicast communication scene, and can be but not limited to a multicast communication scene adopting a beam forming technology. Multicast communication may also be referred to as multicast communication or multicast communication may be considered one type of multicast communication. The technical scheme of the embodiment of the application can be applied to any multicast communication scene.

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

Fig. 1 shows an architecture of a communication system to which the multicast communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application is applicable, where the communication system may include a network device 110 and one or more terminal apparatuses 120. Wherein:

the network device 110 is a node in a Radio Access Network (RAN), which may also be referred to as a base station, an access network device, or a node, which may also be referred to as a RAN node (or device). Currently, some examples of nodes 101 are: next generation base station (next generation nodeB, gNB), next generation evolved Node B (next generation evolved Node B, Ng-eNB), Transmission Reception Point (TRP), evolved Node B (evolved Node B, eNB), Radio Network Controller (RNC), Node B (Node B, NB), base station controller (base station controller, BSC), base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS), home base station (e.g., home evolved Node B, or home Node B, HNB), base band unit (base unit, BBU), or wireless fidelity (Wifi) access point (access point, AP), or a device in a 5G communication system, or a network device in a future possible communication system. The network device 110 may also be a device that serves a base station function in device to device (D2D) communication. In the embodiment of the present application, when the network device 110 communicates with the terminal apparatus, the number of the network devices may be one or more, and may belong to the same cell or belong to different cells.

The terminal device 120, which may also be referred to as User Equipment (UE), a Mobile Station (MS), a Mobile Terminal (MT), or the like, is a device that provides voice or data connectivity to a user, and may also be an internet of things device. For example, the terminal device 120 includes a handheld apparatus, an in-vehicle apparatus, and the like having a wireless connection function. Currently, the terminal device 120 may be: mobile phone (mobile phone), tablet computer, notebook computer, palm computer, Mobile Internet Device (MID), wearable device (e.g. smart watch, smart bracelet, pedometer, etc.), vehicle-mounted device (e.g. car, bicycle, electric car, airplane, ship, train, high-speed rail, etc.), Virtual Reality (VR) device, Augmented Reality (AR) device, wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), smart home device (e.g. refrigerator, television, air conditioner, electric meter, etc.), smart robot, workshop device, wireless terminal in self drive (driving), wireless terminal in remote surgery (remote medical supply), wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), wireless terminal in transportation safety (transportation safety), wireless terminal in smart city (city), or a wireless terminal in a smart home (smart home), a flying device (e.g., a smart robot, a hot air balloon, a drone, an airplane), etc. The terminal device 120 may also be a device that serves a terminal function in D2D communication.

The transmission between the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 may be through radio waves, or may be through transmission media such as visible light, laser light, infrared light, optical fibers, and the like. In the embodiment of the present application, an example in which a device that realizes the function of the terminal device 120 is referred to as a terminal is described.

In order to better understand the solution provided by the embodiments of the present application, some concepts, terms and related technologies related to the embodiments of the present application will be described below.

1) Multicast communication:

also known as multicast communication. Wireless communication systems include unicast, multicast, and broadcast. Multicast and broadcast may also be referred to as multicast. The embodiments of the present application are described with respect to multicast communication, which mainly takes multicast communication as an example. Where the unicast communication is a point-to-point communication, such as a point-to-point communication between a network device and a terminal apparatus, or a point-to-point communication between two terminal apparatuses. Multicast communication is a point-to-multipoint communication, unlike unicast communication. For example, a plurality of terminal apparatuses receive the same service from the network device at the same time. For example, a mobile television service is a typical multicast service.

Several examples of multicast/multicast communication techniques are described below.

An evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS) technology is a Multicast technology in an LTE system. In the eMBMS technology, all cells within an area require the same content to be transmitted simultaneously, and if terminal devices are distributed in only a part of the cells, the eMBMS technology transmission efficiency is relatively low.

SC-PTM is a multicast transmission technique. The SC-PTM technique is different from the eMBMS technique in that a cell simultaneously schedules service data to a plurality of terminal apparatuses via G-RNTIs, and each G-RNTI may be associated with a Multimedia Broadcast Service (MBS). In one area, only the cell including the terminal device needs to transmit data, and the cell not including the terminal device does not need to transmit data, so that air interface resources can be saved.

The SC-PTM technique transmits a multicast service on a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH). Unlike the PDSCH carrying unicast data, the PDSCH carrying multicast data is referred to as a multicast PDSCH. In the SC-PTM transmission process, the network device sends Downlink Control Information (DCI) carried on a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) to a group of terminal apparatuses in a cell, and the group of terminal apparatuses receive a multicast PDSCH according to scheduling information included in the DCI, so as to complete transmission of multicast data.

2) The beam forming technology comprises the following steps:

beamforming is a method for realizing necessary transmission link budget for subsequent communication processes by two or more communication parties. That is, the quality of the communication signal is improved by concentrating the transmission signal in the beam direction directed to the receiver and the reception signal in the beam direction directed to the transmitter to enhance the signal.

The beamforming technique may be applied to multicast communication, i.e. transmitting multicast data via multicast beams.

Since the multicast beam using the beamforming technique is narrow, it is necessary to transmit beams in different directions in order to cover terminal apparatuses in different areas in a cell. For example, for system information, it is necessary to transmit the system information in each beam direction of the coverage cell to ensure that terminal devices in different areas can receive the system information.

If the network device transmits in each beam direction for the multicast data, because different terminal devices have different requirements for the multicast service, it may happen that the multicast beam is also transmitted in a position or direction where there is no terminal device, or a terminal device that does not need to receive the multicast service also receives the multicast service in the beam direction where the multicast service is transmitted, which will cause more resource waste.

In one embodiment, the network device may transmit the multicast service in the beam direction in which the terminal device is located when the terminal device needs to receive the multicast service. For a terminal device in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connected state (connected), the network device can learn, through message interaction with the connected terminal, that the terminal device needs to receive multicast service and information of a beam, so that the network device sends the multicast service to the terminal device on the beam reported by the connected terminal device. When the connected terminal device does not need to receive the multicast service, the network device stops sending the multicast service in the beam direction. This way, resource waste can be reduced.

However, this method does not consider whether the non-connected terminal device needs to receive the multicast service, which results in that the non-connected terminal device cannot normally receive the multicast service and affects the multicast communication quality.

Based on this, the embodiments of the present application provide a method for multicast communication, so as to improve the quality of multicast communication using a beamforming technique.

As shown in fig. 2, a flow of one of the multicast communication methods provided in the embodiment of the present application is as follows.

S201, when the terminal device is in a non-connection state, determining a first multicast service.

The first multicast service is a multicast service that the terminal device is receiving or is interested in receiving.

The unconnected state may be an idle (idle) state or an RRC _ inactive (inactive) state. Or may be other non-connected states as the communication system evolves. The RRC _ inactive state indicates that the network device still stores information such as the RRC context and the bearer context of the terminal device after the data packet is completely transmitted.

S202, the terminal device sends a first message to the network device, where the first message is used to indicate the first multicast service and/or an available beam.

The first multicast service is reported to the network equipment by the non-connection state terminal device, so that the network equipment can acquire the multicast service requirement of the non-connection state terminal device and continue to send the multicast service to the terminal device or send the interested multicast service to the terminal device according to the requirement. When the first message indicates an available beam, the network device may further send the first multicast service to the terminal apparatus on the available beam, so as to improve efficiency of multicast communication.

Some alternative implementations of the embodiment of fig. 2 are described in further detail below.

The first message may be for indicating a first multicast service; or, the first message is used for indicating the first multicast service and available beams; alternatively, the first message is used to indicate available beams.

If the first message indicates the first multicast service and does not indicate an available beam, the network device may regard the beam reported by the terminal device in the first message as an available beam. For example, the terminal device sends a first message to the network device on the time-frequency resource associated with the beam 1, where the first message is used to indicate the first multicast service. The network equipment receives a first message from the terminal device on the time-frequency resource associated with beam 1. The network equipment determines that the beam 1 for carrying the first message is an available beam selected by the terminal device, and the network equipment sends the first multicast service to the terminal device on the time-frequency resource associated with the beam 1. The terminal device detects or receives the first multicast service from the network equipment on the time-frequency resource associated with the beam 1.

When the terminal device indicates the first multicast service and the available beam to the network device, the first multicast service and the available beam may be indicated by one message, that is, the first message is simultaneously used to indicate the first multicast service that the terminal device is interested in and the available beam that the terminal device is available, the network device may send the multicast service that is being received or is interested in to the terminal device on the available beam reported by the terminal device, for example, the terminal device reports the multicast service that is interested in as the first multicast service, and reports the available beam as beam 1, and then the network device may select to send the first multicast service to the terminal device on beam 1 reported by the terminal device. Or the terminal device reports that the multicast service of interest is the first multicast service, and reports that the available beams are beam 1 and beam 2, the network device may select to send the first multicast service to the terminal device on beam 2 reported by the terminal device, and optionally, the network device selects beam 2 from beam 1 and beam 2 according to the result of beam measurement to send the multicast service. Alternatively, the terminal device may indicate the multicast service and the beam separately through two messages.

Alternatively, the first message may indicate an available beam without indicating the first multicast service. The network device may further determine a first multicast service that the terminal device is receiving or is interested in receiving. In a possible implementation manner, the network device may determine, according to an available beam reported by the terminal apparatus, the first multicast service associated with the available beam. In this possible implementation, the terminal device and the network device may know in advance a mapping relationship between the beam and the multicast service, and the mapping relationship may be specified by a protocol or notified to the terminal device by the network device, for example, notified to the terminal device by a system message or other messages. In another possible implementation, the network device transmits which multicast services on the available beam and continues to transmit the multicast services on the available beam. For example, the available beam is beam 1, the network device sends multicast service 1 on beam 1, when the terminal device is in a non-connected state, it is determined that the first multicast service being received or interested to be received is multicast service 1, the terminal device reports the available beam to the network device as beam 1, and the network device continues to send multicast service 1 on beam 1. In this way, the network device is prevented from stopping transmitting the multicast service 1 when no connected terminal receives the multicast service 1 on the beam 1, and the continuity of the terminal device 1 for receiving the multicast service 1 can be ensured.

The first message may be a message sent by the terminal device to the network apparatus during the random access. The random access procedure may have different implementation methods. For example, the random access procedure may include a 4-step random access procedure, specifically, the terminal device sends a random access preamble (also referred to as message 1) to the network device, the network device returns a random access response to the terminal device, and the terminal device sends a message 3(Msg3) to the network device, where the message 3 is a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH). For another example, the random access procedure may further include a 2-step random access procedure, specifically, the terminal apparatus sends a message a (msga) to the network device, and the network device sends a message B to the terminal apparatus, where the message a is composed of two parts, and if the message a is composed of a preamble sent by a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) and a message sent by a PUSCH channel, the terminal apparatus may carry uplink data in the message a. The terminal device and the network equipment complete the random access process through two steps of message receiving and sending. Based on this, the first message may be message 1 or message 3 in a 4-step random access procedure, and the first message may also be message a in a 2-step random access procedure.

It can be understood that the unconnected terminal device may report the first multicast service and/or the available beam to the network device through the first message, but the random access is not necessarily achieved by completing the process of the random access.

Several possible implementations of the terminal device sending the first message to the network device are given below.

Implementation mode 1:

before S202 or S201, one or more steps of S203 and S204 may also be included.

S203: the network device decides to stop the transmission of the first multicast service.

For example, a network device transmits first multicast traffic in a first beam direction. The terminal device in the connected state in the first beam direction receives the first multicast service, and at a certain moment, the terminal device in the connected state does not continue to receive the first multicast service, and then the network device stops transmitting the first multicast service in the first beam direction in order to save resources. For a non-connected terminal device in a first beam direction, the non-connected terminal device is capable of receiving a first multicast service from a network device when the network device transmits the first multicast service in the first beam direction. If the network device cannot sense whether a non-connected terminal device needs to continue receiving the first multicast service once the transmission of the first multicast service is stopped. By the embodiment S202 of the present application, the network device can perceive that the unconnected terminal device needs to continue to receive the first multicast service, so that the continuity of receiving the multicast service, which is interested by the unconnected terminal device, is not affected.

S204, the network device sends first indication information to the terminal apparatus, where the first indication information is used to indicate that transmission of the first multicast service is stopped. The terminal device receives the first indication information from the network apparatus.

In response to the first indication information, the terminal apparatus transmits a first message to the network device.

And the terminal device determines that the transmission of the first multicast service is stopped according to the first indication information, and then sends a first message to the network equipment so that the network equipment continues to send the first multicast service.

Optionally, the first indication information may be carried in a multicast service data packet or carried in the MAC CE. For example, the network device carries the first indication information in the data packet of the first multicast service.

Optionally, after determining to stop transmitting the multicast service, the network device sends the first indication information to the terminal device to indicate that transmission of the first multicast service is to be stopped, but does not stop transmission immediately, and may start a timer (timer) while sending the first indication information to the terminal device or start a timer immediately after sending the first indication information, where the network device continues to send the multicast service during the running of the timer, and stops transmission of the multicast service after the timer expires. If the network equipment receives the first message sent by the terminal device during the running of the timer, the network equipment indicates that the non-connected UE interested in the first multicast service exists, and the network equipment expects to continue receiving the first multicast service from the network equipment, the network equipment stops the timer. For example, the timing duration of the timer may be the length of one round-trip time (RTT).

Optionally, after deciding to stop transmitting the multicast service, the network device sends the first indication information to the terminal apparatus, but does not immediately stop transmitting, and the time for continuing transmission is decided by the network device itself.

Therefore, the terminal device can keep receiving the first multicast service by informing the network equipment of the interest of the multicast service in time and hopefully continuously receiving the multicast service, thereby avoiding the inconvenience caused by the transmission stop of the first multicast service, ensuring the continuity of the first multicast service and improving the multicast communication quality.

Implementation mode 2:

s205 is also included before S202 or S201.

S205: the terminal apparatus determines that the first multicast service is not being transmitted.

Namely, the terminal device determines that the first multicast service is not transmitted in a self-detection mode.

Wherein, the terminal device determining that the first multicast service is not being transmitted may include the following several cases. The network device is not transmitting the first multicast service and the terminal device does not detect the first multicast service. Alternatively, the network device transmits the first multicast service, but the terminal device cannot detect or receive the first multicast service, for example, the network device transmits the first multicast service in the other beam direction that does not match the receiving beam of the terminal device, and the terminal device cannot detect or receive the first multicast service.

For example, the first multicast service employs an SC-PTM technique, and the terminal apparatus may send a first message to the network device when detecting that transmission of a single-cell multicast transport channel (SC-MTCH) of a G-RNTI corresponding to the first multicast service is stopped. Implementation mode 3:

the terminal device periodically transmits a first message to the network apparatus.

Optionally, S206 is further included before S202 or S201.

S206: the network device sends a second message to the terminal device, and the terminal device receives the second message from the network device.

The second message is used to instruct the terminal device to periodically transmit the first message.

The second message includes second indication information indicating that the terminal device periodically transmits the first message.

The second message may also contain configuration information for instructing the terminal device to transmit periodic information of the first message. For example, the period information may include a period length and may also include a start time.

Implementation mode 4:

optionally, S207 is further included before S202 or S201.

S207: the network device sends a third message to the terminal apparatus, and the terminal apparatus receives the third message from the network device.

In response to the third message, the terminal device transmits the first message to the network apparatus.

And the terminal device determines that the transmission of the first multicast service is stopped according to the third message, and then sends the first message to the network equipment so that the network equipment continues to send the first multicast service.

The third message may include an association relationship between the beam and the multicast service, and the terminal device determines that transmission of the first multicast service is stopped when the received third message from the network device includes the association relationship between the beam and the multicast service. Optionally, the third message may be a system message or other messages, which is described by taking the system message as an example. The terminal device periodically receives the system message which does not carry the association relationship between the beam and the multicast service before receiving the system message which comprises the association relationship between the beam and the multicast service, and once the system message which comprises the association relationship between the beam and the multicast service is received, the terminal device sends a first message to the network equipment. That is, the network device sends the association relationship between the beam and the multicast service to the terminal device through the system message, which implicitly indicates the terminal device to send the first information to the network device to report the multicast service and the information such as the available beam that are interested in.

Or, the third message includes third indication information, and the third indication information is used for indicating the terminal device to send the first message to the network device. Similarly, the message may be a system message or other message, which is described as an example of the system message. The terminal device receives the system message not carrying the third indication information periodically before receiving the system message comprising the third indication information, and once receiving the system message comprising the third indication information, the terminal device sends the first message to the network equipment.

The above-described embodiments 1 to 4 can be used independently or in combination.

If the first message indicates an available beam, some alternative implementations of determining an available beam are given below.

The available beams may also be considered as the beams selected by the terminal device.

As shown in fig. 3, S208 is further included before S202 or S201.

S208, the network device sends the fourth message to the terminal apparatus, and the terminal apparatus receives the fourth message from the network device.

Wherein the fourth message may include an association relationship between the beam and the multicast service.

S209, the terminal device selects a first beam associated with the first multicast service according to the association relationship between the beam and the multicast service.

S210, the terminal device measures the first beam to obtain the beam quality of the first beam.

If the beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to the threshold, the available beam is the first beam in S202; alternatively, if the beam quality of the first beam is less than the threshold, the terminal device may measure other beams than the first beam, select a second beam with the beam quality greater than or equal to the threshold, and the available beam is the second beam in S202. That is, when the beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to the threshold, the terminal device preferentially reports the first beam corresponding to the first multicast service in which the terminal device is interested to the network device, and when the beam quality of the first beam is less than the threshold, measures other beams, and selects other beams with appropriate beam quality to report to the network device.

It is to be understood that the number of available beams reported by the terminal device may be one or multiple.

If there are multiple available beams reported by the terminal device, the network device may send the first multicast service on multiple beams, or the network device may send the first multicast service on one beam or a part of beams of the multiple beams.

The fourth message here may be a system message or other message. In an optional embodiment, the network device may always carry an association relationship between the beam and the multicast service in the system message, and when determining that the first message needs to be sent to the network device, the terminal device determines an available beam according to the association relationship between the beam and the multicast service carried in the system message. In another alternative embodiment, the fourth message may be similar to the third message in implementation 4, that is, the terminal device periodically receives the system message not carrying the association between the beam and the multicast service before receiving the system message including the association between the beam and the multicast service, and upon receiving the system message including the association between the beam and the multicast service, the terminal device may determine an available beam according to the association between the beam and the multicast service carried in the system message.

In this embodiment of the present application, the association relationship between the beam and the multicast service may include any one or a combination of multiple pieces of information:

(1) multicast service associated with each beam; that is, with beams as granularity, the multicast services supported or associated with each beam (per beam) are configured.

(2) A beam associated with each multicast service; that is, with the multicast service as granularity, the supported or associated beams of each (per) multicast service are configured.

The terminal device in the non-connected state may determine the first beam associated with the first multicast service according to the association relationship between the beam and the multicast service.

If the available beam reported by the terminal device in S202 is the first beam, the network device may send the first multicast service on the first beam. If the available beam reported by the terminal device in S202 is the second beam, the network device may schedule to send the first multicast service on the second beam.

In a terminal device in a connected state, there is a possibility that a beam failure occurs, and when the beam failure occurs, the terminal device needs to perform beam failure recovery. In the process of beam failure recovery, the terminal device needs to report an available beam to the network device. Based on this, based on the same technical idea, as shown in fig. 4, a second method of multicast communication according to the embodiment of the present application has the following flow.

S401, the network device sends a message to the terminal apparatus, and is denoted as a fifth message here for distinguishing from the above message. The terminal apparatus receives the fifth message from the network device.

The fifth message may include an association between the beam and the multicast service.

The terminal device may determine, according to the fifth message, a first beam associated with a first multicast service, where the first multicast service is a multicast service that the terminal device is receiving or interested in receiving.

Optionally, before S401, S400 is further included.

S400, the terminal device sends a message requesting beam failure recovery to the network equipment, and the network equipment receives the message requesting beam failure recovery from the terminal device.

S402, the terminal device measures the first beam.

The first beam is associated with a first multicast service. The first beam may be one or more beams.

S403, if the beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to the threshold, the terminal device selects the first beam.

The terminal device may report information of the first beam to the network device, and the network device learns that the terminal device selects the first beam and sends data to the terminal device on the first beam, where the data may include the first multicast service.

In this way, the association relationship between the beam and the multicast service is carried in the fifth message, which can help the terminal device to reselect a proper beam, and improve the efficiency of beam failure recovery and the performance of multicast communication.

Some alternative implementations of the embodiment of fig. 4 are described below.

Optionally, after S402, S404 to S406 may be included.

S404, if the beam quality of the first beam is smaller than the threshold value, the terminal device measures a second beam, wherein the second beam is other beams except the first beam;

s405, the terminal device selects a second beam having a beam quality greater than or equal to a threshold value.

And S406, the terminal device reports information for indicating the first multicast service to the network equipment on the time-frequency resource associated with the selected second beam.

When the quality of the first beam is smaller than the threshold, the network equipment can acquire the beam available to the terminal device and the information of the first multicast service by reporting the information for indicating the first multicast service to the network equipment on the time-frequency resource associated with the selected second beam, and the network equipment can schedule the second beam to transmit the first multicast service, so that the terminal device receives the first multicast service on the appropriate beam, and the performance of multicast communication and the efficiency of beam failure recovery are improved.

The association between the beam and the multicast service may include any one or a combination of information:

(1) multicast service associated with each beam; that is, with beams as granularity, the multicast services supported or associated with each beam (per beam) are configured. For example, a multicast service list corresponding to each beam may be configured.

(2) A beam associated with each multicast service; that is, with the multicast service as granularity, the supported or associated beams of each (per) multicast service are configured. For example, a beam list (beam list) or a candidate beam list corresponding to each multicast service may be configured. The reference signals and associated Random Access (RA) parameters for the candidate beams may be included in the beam list or candidate beam list. The reference signal may be a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), and the reference signal may also be a synchronization signal block (SS/PBCH block, SSB).

(3) The beam associated with the multicast service that the terminal device is receiving or is interested in receiving. The connected terminal device reports the beam associated with the multicast service being received or interested in receiving to the network device before the beam fails, and the network device may carry the beam information associated with the multicast service being received or interested in receiving by the terminal device in the fifth message.

In this embodiment of the application, the fifth message may be beam failure recovery configuration information (BeamFailureRecoveryConfig).

The terminal device may have both multicast and unicast services, in which case the fifth message may further include a unicast candidate beam list, the unicast candidate beam list including beams for carrying unicast services. Similarly, reference signals and associated RA parameters for the candidate beams may be included in the unicast candidate beam list. The reference signal may be a CSI-RS or an SSB.

In the case where the unicast candidate beam list is included in the fifth message, the terminal apparatus may have the following several alternative implementations.

In one possible embodiment 1, the first beam measured by the terminal device in S402 is a beam in the unicast candidate beam list. That is, the terminal device preferentially selects an intersection of the unicast candidate beam list and the beam associated with the first multicast service, and measures the first beam in the intersection. It will be appreciated that the beam in the intersection supports both unicast traffic and first multicast traffic, and therefore the first beam in the intersection is preferred.

If the beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to the threshold, the terminal device may report information of the first beam to the network device, and the network device learns that the terminal device selects the first beam and sends data to the terminal device on the first beam, where the data may include the first multicast service. The terminal device receives the unicast service and the first multicast service from the network equipment on the time-frequency resource associated with the first beam.

And if the beam quality of the first beam is less than the threshold, the terminal device measures other beams in the unicast candidate beam list, selects a third beam with the beam quality greater than the threshold, and reports the information of the first multicast service on a time-frequency resource associated with the third beam. It is to be understood that, in the case that the unicast candidate beam list is included in the fifth message, it may be combined with the above-described embodiments of S404 to S406, where the second beam in S404 to S406 is a beam in the unicast candidate beam list described herein, and the third beam selected herein is the second beam selected in S404 to S406. Of course, the embodiments of S404 to S406 described above may be applied to the case where the unicast candidate beam list is not included in the fifth message.

In a possible embodiment 2, the terminal device selects and reports the unicast beam and the multicast beam respectively, and receives the unicast service and the multicast service respectively.

Specifically, the terminal device measures the beams in the unicast candidate beam list, the terminal device may report information of the beams with the beam quality greater than or equal to the threshold to the network device, the network device sends the unicast service to the terminal device on the time-frequency resource associated with the beams with the beam quality greater than or equal to the threshold, and the terminal device receives the unicast service from the network device on the time-frequency resource associated with the beams with the beam quality greater than or equal to the threshold;

the terminal device receives a first multicast service from the network equipment on a time-frequency resource associated with a first beam when the beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a threshold value, selects a second beam with the beam quality greater than or equal to the threshold value when the beam quality of the first beam is less than the threshold value, and reports information for indicating the first multicast service to the network equipment on the time-frequency resource associated with the selected second beam. The network equipment sends the first multicast service to the terminal device on the time-frequency resource associated with the second wave beam, and the terminal device receives the first multicast service from the network equipment on the time-frequency resource associated with the selected second wave beam.

It is understood that the terminal device may receive the unicast service and the multicast service separately in a time division manner. The threshold for selecting a beam in the unicast candidate beam list, and the threshold for selecting the first beam or the second beam, may be the same or different.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, the beam quality may include Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), or other types of information, which is not limited in this embodiment.

Two possible expressions of Information Elements (IEs) when the fifth information is beam failure recovery configuration information are given below, and are not limited to the following expressions:

(1)candidateMBSListofBeam SEQUENCE(SIZE(1..maxMBSServices))OF BeamList OF PRACH-ResourceDedicatedBFR。

(2)candidateBeamListofMBS SEQUENCE(SIZE(1..maxBeams))OF MBSServiceList OF PRACH-ResourceDedicatedBFR。

candidate multicast list for beam, SEQUENCE indicates enumeration and SIZE indicates list SIZE.

In the scenario of beam failure recovery, as shown in fig. 5, a flow of a third method of multicast communication provided in the embodiment of the present application is as follows.

S501, the network equipment sends a message to the terminal device, and the message is marked as a sixth message for distinguishing; the terminal apparatus receives the sixth message from the network device.

The sixth message includes a multicast candidate beam list, and the multicast candidate beam list includes beams for carrying multicast services.

S502, the terminal device measures a beam in the multicast candidate beam list.

The multicast candidate beam list may include reference signals for candidate beams and associated RA parameters. The reference signal may be a CSI-RS or an SSB.

S503, the terminal device selects the first beam, and reports information indicating the first multicast service to the network device on the time-frequency resource associated with the first beam.

The beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a threshold value, and the first multicast service is a multicast service which is being received or is interested in being received by the terminal device.

After the terminal device reports the information of the first multicast service, the network equipment sends the first multicast service to the terminal device. The terminal device receives a first multicast service on a time-frequency resource associated with a first beam.

A possible representation of the IE when the sixth information is beam failure recovery configuration information is given as follows:

candidateBeamListofMBS SEQUENCE(SIZE(1..maxBeams))OF PRACH-ResourceDedicatedBFR。

the network equipment sends the multicast candidate beam list to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can be facilitated to select a proper beam, the terminal device reports the information of the first multicast service, the first multicast service can be received after the beam fails to recover, the continuity of the first multicast service is ensured, the multicast service interested by the terminal device can be received, and the performance of multicast communication is improved.

It should be noted that the examples in the application scenarios in the present application only show some possible implementations, and are for better understanding and description of the method in the present application. The skilled person can derive some examples of the evolution according to the indication methods of the reference signals provided by the application.

In the embodiments provided in the present application, the method provided in the embodiments of the present application is introduced from the perspective of the network device, the terminal device, and the interaction between the network device and the terminal device. In order to implement the functions in the method provided by the embodiments of the present application, the network device and the terminal device may include a hardware structure and/or a software module, and the functions are implemented in the form of a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure and a software module. Whether any of the above-described functions is implemented as a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure plus a software module depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the technical solution.

As shown in fig. 6, based on the same technical concept, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication apparatus 600, where the communication apparatus 600 may be a terminal apparatus or a network device, or an apparatus in the terminal apparatus or the network device, or an apparatus capable of being used in cooperation with the terminal apparatus or the network device. In one design, the communication apparatus 600 may include a module corresponding to one to perform the method/operation/step/action performed by the terminal apparatus or the network device in the foregoing method embodiments, where the module may be a hardware circuit, or may be software, or may be implemented by combining a hardware circuit and software. In one design, the communications apparatus may include a processing module 601 and a communications module 602. The processing module 601 is used for calling the communication module 602 to perform the receiving and/or transmitting functions.

When used to perform a method performed by a terminal device:

in a possible embodiment, the processing module 601 is configured to determine, when in a non-connected state, a first multicast service, where the first multicast service is a multicast service being received or being interested in being received;

a communication module 602, configured to send a first message to a network device, where the first message is used to indicate a first multicast service and/or an available beam. In yet another possible embodiment, the communication module 602 is configured to receive a first message from a network device, where the first message includes an association relationship between a beam and a multicast service; a processing module 601, configured to measure a first beam, where the first beam is associated with a first multicast service, and the first multicast service is a multicast service being received or being interested in being received; the processing module selects the first beam if the beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a threshold.

In yet another possible embodiment, the communication module 602 is configured to receive a first message from a network device, where the first message includes a multicast candidate beam list, and the multicast candidate beam list includes beams for carrying a multicast service; the processing module 601 is configured to measure beams in the multicast candidate beam list, select a first beam, and report information indicating a first multicast service to the network device through the communication module 602 on a time-frequency resource associated with the first beam, where a beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a threshold, and the first multicast service is a multicast service being received by or interested in being received by a terminal device.

The communication module 602 is further configured to perform other receiving or transmitting steps or operations performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiments. The processing module 601 may also be configured to perform other corresponding steps or operations, except for transceiving, performed by the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiments, which are not described in detail herein.

When used to perform a method performed by a network device:

in a possible embodiment, the processing module 601 is configured to determine to stop transmitting the first multicast service; a communication module 602, configured to receive a first message from a terminal apparatus, where the first message is used to indicate the first multicast service and/or available beams; the communication module is further configured to send the first multicast service to the terminal device on the available beam.

In yet another possible embodiment, the processing module 601 is configured to invoke the communication module 602 to receive a first message from the terminal device, where the first message is used to request beam failure recovery; and sending a second message to the terminal device, wherein the second message comprises the association relationship between the beam and the multicast service.

In yet another possible embodiment, the processing module 601 is configured to invoke the communication module 602 to receive a first message from the terminal device, where the first message is used to request beam failure recovery; and sending a second message to the terminal device, wherein the second message comprises a multicast candidate beam list, and the multicast candidate beam list comprises beams for bearing multicast services.

The communication module 602 is further configured to perform other receiving or transmitting steps or operations performed by the network device in the above method embodiments. The processing module 601 may also be configured to perform other corresponding steps or operations, except for transceiving, performed by the network device in the foregoing method embodiments, which are not described in detail herein.

When the communication apparatus 600 is specifically a terminal apparatus or a network device, the communication module 602 may be a transmitting unit or a transmitter when transmitting information, and may be a receiving unit or a receiver when receiving information. The transceiver unit may be a transceiver, and the transceiver, the transmitter, or the receiver may be a radio frequency circuit. When the communication apparatus 600 and the communication apparatus 700 include a storage unit, the storage unit is used for storing computer instructions, the processing module 601 is connected to the storage unit in a communication manner, and the processing module 601 executes the computer instructions stored in the storage, so that the communication apparatus 600 executes the method executed by the terminal apparatus or the network device in the above-mentioned method embodiments. The processing module 601 may be a general processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, or an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC).

When the communication device 600 is embodied as a chip, the communication module 602 may be an input and/or output interface, a pin or a circuit, or the like. The processing module 601 can execute computer-executable instructions stored in the storage unit to enable the chip in the communication device 600 to execute the method executed by the terminal device or the network device in the above-mentioned method embodiments. Optionally, the storage unit is a storage unit in the chip, such as a register, a cache, and the like, and the storage unit may also be a storage unit located outside the chip in the terminal, such as a Read Only Memory (ROM) or another type of static storage device that can store static information and instructions, a Random Access Memory (RAM), and the like.

The division of the modules in the embodiments of the present application is schematic, and only one logical function division is provided, and in actual implementation, there may be another division manner, and in addition, each functional module in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated in one processor, may also exist alone physically, or may also be integrated in one module by two or more modules. The integrated module can be realized in a hardware mode, and can also be realized in a software functional module mode.

Fig. 7 shows a communication apparatus 700 provided in this embodiment of the present application, which is used to implement the functions of the terminal apparatus or the network device in the foregoing methods. When the function of the network device is implemented, the apparatus may be the network device, or an apparatus in the network device, or an apparatus capable of being used in cooperation with the network device. When the functions of the terminal device are realized, the device may be the terminal device, may be a device in the terminal device, or may be a device capable of being used in cooperation with the terminal device. Wherein the apparatus may be a system-on-a-chip. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be composed of a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices. The communication apparatus 700 includes at least one processor 720 for implementing the functions of the terminal apparatus or the network device in the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application. The communication device 700 may also include a communication interface 710. In embodiments of the present application, the communication interface may be a transceiver, circuit, bus, module, or other type of communication interface for communicating with other devices over a transmission medium. For example, communication interface 710 is used for devices in communication device 700 to communicate with other devices. Illustratively, when the communication apparatus 700 is a network device, the other device may be a terminal apparatus. When the communication apparatus 700 is a terminal apparatus, the other apparatus may be a network device. The processor 720 utilizes the communication interface 710 to send and receive data and is configured to implement the methods described in the method embodiments above. Exemplarily, the following steps are carried out:

when the functions of the terminal device are implemented:

in a possible embodiment, the processor 720 is configured to determine, when in a non-connected state, a first multicast service, where the first multicast service is a multicast service being received or interested in being received;

a communication interface 710 for sending a first message to a network device, the first message indicating a first multicast service and/or available beams.

In yet another possible embodiment, the communication interface 710 is configured to receive a first message from a network device, where the first message includes an association relationship between a beam and a multicast service; a processor 720, configured to measure a first beam, where the first beam is associated with a first multicast service, and the first multicast service is a multicast service being received or interested in being received; the processing module selects the first beam if the beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a threshold.

In yet another possible embodiment, the communication interface 710 is configured to receive a first message from a network device, where the first message includes a multicast candidate beam list, and the multicast candidate beam list includes beams for carrying a multicast service; the processor 720 is configured to measure beams in the multicast candidate beam list, select a first beam, and report information indicating a first multicast service to the network device through the communication interface 710 on a time-frequency resource associated with the first beam, where a beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a threshold, and the first multicast service is a multicast service being received or being interested in being received by a terminal device.

The communication interface 710 is also used to perform other receiving or transmitting steps or operations performed by the terminal device in the above-described method embodiments. The processor 720 may also be configured to perform other corresponding steps or operations, except for transceiving, performed by the terminal device according to the foregoing method embodiments, which are not described in detail herein.

When used to perform a method performed by a network device:

in one possible embodiment, the processor 720 is configured to determine to stop transmitting the first multicast service; a communication interface 710 for receiving a first message from a terminal device, the first message indicating the first multicast service and/or available beams; the communication module is further configured to send the first multicast service to the terminal device on the available beam.

In yet another possible embodiment, the processor 720 is configured to invoke the communication interface 710 to receive a first message from a terminal device, the first message being used to request beam failure recovery; and sending a second message to the terminal device, wherein the second message comprises the association relationship between the beam and the multicast service.

In yet another possible embodiment, the processor 720 is configured to invoke the communication interface 710 to receive a first message from the terminal device, where the first message is used to request beam failure recovery; and sending a second message to the terminal device, wherein the second message comprises a multicast candidate beam list, and the multicast candidate beam list comprises beams for bearing multicast services.

The communication interface 710 is also used to perform other receiving or transmitting steps or operations performed by the network device in the above-described method embodiments. The processor 720 may also be configured to perform other corresponding steps or operations, except for transceiving, performed by the network device according to the foregoing method embodiments, which are not described in detail herein.

The communications apparatus 700 can also include at least one memory 730 for storing program instructions and/or data. Memory 730 is coupled to processor 720. The coupling in the embodiments of the present application is an indirect coupling or a communication connection between devices, units or modules, and may be an electrical, mechanical or other form for information interaction between the devices, units or modules. Processor 720 may cooperate with memory 730. Processor 720 may execute program instructions stored in memory 730. At least one of the at least one memory may be included in the processor.

The specific connection medium among the communication interface 710, the processor 720 and the memory 730 is not limited in the embodiments of the present application. In the embodiment of the present application, the memory 730, the processor 720 and the communication interface 710 are connected by a bus 740 in fig. 7, the bus is represented by a thick line in fig. 7, and the connection manner between other components is merely illustrative and not limited. The bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 7, but this is not intended to represent only one bus or type of bus.

In the embodiment of the present application, the memory 730 may be a non-volatile memory, such as a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD), and may also be a volatile memory (RAM), for example, a random-access memory (RAM). The memory is any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited to such. The memory in the embodiments of the present application may also be circuitry or any other device capable of performing a storage function for storing program instructions and/or data.

When the communication apparatus 600 and the communication apparatus 700 are specifically chips or chip systems, the output or the reception of the communication module 602 and the communication interface 710 may be baseband signals. When the communication apparatus 600 and the communication apparatus 700 are specifically devices, the communication module 602 and the communication interface 710 may output or receive radio frequency signals. In the embodiments of the present application, the processor may be a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, or a discrete hardware component, and may implement or execute the methods, steps, and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present application. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor or the like. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in a processor.

Some or all of the operations and functions performed by the terminal or some or all of the operations and functions performed by the network device described in the above method embodiments of the present application may be implemented by a chip or an integrated circuit.

In order to implement the functions of the communication apparatus described in fig. 6 or fig. 7, an embodiment of the present application further provides a chip, which includes a processor and is configured to support the communication apparatus to implement the functions related to the terminal apparatus or the network device in the foregoing method embodiments. In one possible design, the chip is connected to or includes a memory for storing the necessary program instructions and data of the communication device.

The embodiment of the application provides a computer readable storage medium, which stores a computer program, wherein the computer program comprises instructions for executing the method embodiment.

Embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the above-described method embodiments to be performed.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, embodiments of the present application may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present application may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present application may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present application is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the application. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

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

While the preferred embodiments of the present application have been described, additional variations and modifications in those embodiments may occur to those skilled in the art once they learn of the basic inventive concepts. Therefore, it is intended that the appended claims be interpreted as including preferred embodiments and all alterations and modifications as fall within the scope of the application.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the embodiments of the present application without departing from the spirit and scope of the embodiments of the present application. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the embodiments of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is also intended to encompass such modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A method of multicast communication, comprising:

when a terminal device is in a non-connection state, determining a first multicast service, wherein the first multicast service is a multicast service which is being received or is interested in being received by the terminal device;

the terminal device sends a first message to a network device, wherein the first message is used for indicating the first multicast service and/or available beams.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

the terminal device receives first indication information from the network equipment, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that the transmission of the first multicast service is stopped.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

the terminal device determines that the first multicast service is not being transmitted.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

the terminal device periodically transmits the first message to the network apparatus.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the method further comprises:

the terminal device receives a second message from the network equipment, wherein the second message is used for instructing the terminal device to periodically send the first message;

wherein the second message includes second indication information, and the second indication information is used for indicating the terminal device to periodically send the first message; or, the second message includes configuration information, where the configuration information is used to instruct the terminal device to send cycle information of the first message.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

the terminal device receives a third message from the network equipment;

the third message includes an association relationship between a beam and a multicast service, and/or the third message includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate the terminal device to send the first message to the network device.

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

the terminal device receives a fourth message from the network equipment, wherein the fourth message comprises an incidence relation between a beam and a multicast service;

the terminal device selecting a first beam associated with the first multicast service;

the terminal device measures the first beam to obtain the beam quality of the first beam.

8. The method of claim 7,

the beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a threshold, the available beam being the first beam; or,

the beam quality of the first beam is less than the threshold, other beams than the first beam are measured, a second beam with a beam quality greater than or equal to the threshold is selected, and the available beam is the second beam.

9. A method of multicast communication, comprising:

a terminal device receives a first message from a network device, wherein the first message comprises an incidence relation between a beam and a multicast service;

the terminal device measures a first beam, wherein the first beam is associated with a first multicast service, and the first multicast service is a multicast service which is being received or is interested in being received by the terminal device;

if the beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a threshold, the terminal device selects the first beam.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first message is beam failure recovery configuration information.

11. The method of claim 9 or 10, wherein the method further comprises:

if the beam quality of the first beam is smaller than a threshold value, the terminal device measures a second beam, wherein the second beam is other beams except the first beam;

the terminal device selecting a second beam having a beam quality greater than or equal to the threshold;

and the terminal device reports information for indicating the first multicast service to the network equipment on the time-frequency resource associated with the second beam.

12. The method according to any of claims 9 to 11, wherein the first message further comprises a unicast candidate beam list comprising beams for carrying unicast traffic;

the terminal device measures a first beam, and comprises:

if the unicast candidate beam list and the beam associated with the first multicast service both comprise the first beam, the first beam is measured.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises:

if the beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a threshold, the terminal device receives the unicast service and the first multicast service from the network equipment on the time-frequency resource associated with the first beam.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises: if the beam quality of the first beam is smaller than a threshold, the terminal device measures other beams in the unicast candidate beam list, selects a third beam with the beam quality larger than the threshold, and reports the information of the first multicast service on a time-frequency resource associated with the third beam.

15. The method according to any of claims 9 to 11, wherein the first message further comprises a unicast candidate beam list comprising beams for carrying data of unicast traffic;

the method further comprises the following steps:

the terminal device measures the wave beams in the unicast candidate wave beam list, and receives unicast service from the network equipment on the time-frequency resource associated with the wave beam quality greater than or equal to a first threshold value; receiving the first multicast traffic from the network device on a time-frequency resource associated with the first beam when the beam quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a second threshold.

16. The method according to any of claims 9 to 15, wherein the association between the beam and the multicast service comprises any one or a combination of:

multicast service associated with each beam;

a beam associated with each multicast service;

a beam associated with a multicast service being received or being of interest to be received by the terminal device;

and supporting the beam of multicast service transmission.

17. A method of multicast communication, comprising:

the network equipment determines to stop transmitting the first multicast service;

the network equipment receives a first message from a terminal device, wherein the first message is used for indicating the first multicast service and/or available beams;

the network device transmits the first multicast service to the terminal apparatus on the available beam.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises:

and the network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal device, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that the transmission of the first multicast service is stopped.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises:

the network equipment sends a second message to the terminal device, wherein the second message is used for instructing the terminal device to send the first message periodically;

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises:

the network equipment sends a third message to the terminal device;

21. A method of multicast communication, comprising:

the network equipment sends a first message to the terminal device, wherein the first message comprises an incidence relation between a beam and multicast service;

the network equipment receives a second message from the terminal device, wherein the second message is used for indicating a first beam;

and the network equipment sends a first multicast service to the terminal device on the time-frequency resource associated with the first beam, wherein the first multicast service is associated with the first beam.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the method further comprises:

the network equipment receives a fourth message from the terminal device, wherein the fourth message is used for indicating a second beam and a first multicast service;

and the network equipment sends the first multicast service to the terminal device on the time-frequency resource associated with the first beam.

23. The method according to claim 21 or 22, wherein the association between the beam and the multicast service comprises any one or a combination of:

multicast service associated with each beam;

a beam associated with each multicast service;

and supporting the beam of multicast service transmission.

24. A communications device for performing the method of any one of claims 1 to 8 or for performing the method of any one of claims 9 to 16.

25. A communications device for performing the method of any one of claims 17 to 20 or for performing the method of any one of claims 21 to 23.

26. A communications apparatus, comprising: a processor coupled to a memory for storing a program or instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the method of any of claims 1-8 to be performed, or cause the method of any of claims 9-16 to be performed.

27. A communications apparatus, comprising: a processor coupled to a memory for storing a program or instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the method of any of claims 17-20 to be performed, or cause the method of any of claims 21-23 to be performed.

28. A communication system comprising a communication apparatus according to claim 24 and a communication apparatus according to claim 25, or comprising a communication apparatus according to claim 26 and a communication apparatus according to claim 27.

29. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable instructions stored thereon, wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed on a communication device, cause the method of any of claims 1-8 to be performed, or cause the method of any of claims 9-16 to be performed, or cause the method of any of claims 17-20 to be performed, or cause the method of any of claims 21-23 to be performed.