CN113810924B

CN113810924B - Cell measurement method and device

Info

Publication number: CN113810924B
Application number: CN202010535917.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 刘海义; 徐波; 赵辰; 师江伟; 王洲
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-06-12
Filing date: 2020-06-12
Publication date: 2023-12-08
Anticipated expiration: 2040-06-12
Also published as: CN113810924A; WO2021249001A1

Abstract

The application discloses a cell measurement method and a cell measurement device, which are applied to the technical field of wireless communication and are used for improving the cell access efficiency and the cell access success rate of terminal equipment. The base station sends first measurement configuration information to the terminal equipment; the first measurement configuration information comprises measurement gap configuration information of a first target cell and measurement gap configuration information of a second target cell; the first target cell and the second target cell are cells to be measured by the terminal equipment, and the cell frequency point of the first target cell is different from the cell frequency point of the second target cell.

Description

Cell measurement method and device

Technical Field

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

Background

In a communication system, in order to ensure service continuity and communication quality of a terminal device, the terminal device generally needs to perform cell measurement, so as to implement cell reselection (reselection) and cell handover (handover). Wherein the types of cell measurements include common frequency measurements, inter-frequency/inter-system measurements.

When the terminal device performs inter-frequency/inter-system measurement during initial access or in a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) connected state (rrc_connection), in order to ensure radio link quality between the UE and the current serving cell, the UE generally stops receiving signals and data of its serving cell and receives signals of other cells for inter-frequency measurement or inter-system measurement during a specified period of time. After the time period is over, the UE resumes receiving the signal and data of the serving cell. This period of time is referred to as measurement gap (measurement gap). And the terminal equipment receives the reference signals of the adjacent cells in the measurement gap, measures the reference signals of the adjacent cells, and sends a measurement report to the base station managing the service cell after the measurement is completed (measurement report). And then the base station switches the terminal equipment to a cell with better signal quality according to the measurement report.

Currently, before cell measurement is performed, a terminal device needs to perform measurement configuration by a base station that manages a serving cell, and send measurement configuration information to the terminal device. The terminal device can determine the position of each measurement gap according to the received measurement configuration information so as to perform neighbor cell measurement. The gap length is typically measured to be 6 milliseconds (ms). Wherein, the measurement configuration information includes: measurement of the gap repetition period (measurement gap repetition period, MGRP) (also known as measurement of the gap period), measurement of the gap length (measurement gap length, MGL) (simply referred to as measurement of the gap length), and measurement of the gap offset (measurement of the gap offset).

In order to improve the cell measurement efficiency, the terminal device should be able to receive all the reference signals of the neighbor cells to be measured in the measurement gap. However, in the prior art, in the same frequency band (FR), the network device only determines measurement configuration information of one measurement gap for one terminal device, and the time domain positions of the reference signals transmitted by different neighbor cells may be different. Therefore, the measurement gap determined by the terminal device according to the measurement configuration information may not include the time domain positions of the reference signals of some neighbor cells to be measured, so that the terminal device cannot receive the reference signals of the neighbor cells to be measured, and further cannot complete the measurement of all the cells to be measured.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a cell measurement method and a cell measurement device, which are used for improving the success rate and the efficiency of cell measurement of terminal equipment.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a cell measurement method, where a base station sends first measurement configuration information to a terminal device; the first measurement configuration information comprises measurement gap configuration information of a first target cell and measurement gap configuration information of a second target cell; the first target cell and the second target cell are cells to be measured by the terminal equipment, and the cell frequency point of the first target cell is different from the cell frequency point of the second target cell.

The method may be performed by a base station, by a communication device such as a network device or an access network device, or by a communication device or a communication apparatus, such as a chip, capable of supporting the functions required by the communication device to implement the method. By the method, under the same frequency band, if the target cell to be measured comprises the first target cell and the second target cell, and the frequency points of the first target cell and the second target cell are different, at this time, the base station can configure measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell and measurement gap configuration information of the second target cell for the terminal equipment, so that the terminal equipment can measure the first target cell and the second target cell of different cell frequency points in the configured measurement gap according to the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell and the measurement gap configuration information of the second target cell, and measurement of all the cells to be measured is completed, thereby improving the cell measurement efficiency and the cell measurement success rate.

A possible implementation manner, a base station receives first measurement information from the terminal device; the first measurement information includes: first timing deviation information of a serving cell of the terminal device and the first target cell; the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell is determined according to synchronous signal measurement timing configuration (SS/PBCH block measurement time configuration, SMTC) information of the first target cell relative to the service cell; and the SMTC information of the first target cell relative to the serving cell is determined according to the first timing deviation information and the SMTC information of the first target cell.

By the method, the base station can determine the first timing deviation information of the serving cell of the terminal equipment and the first target cell according to the first measurement information sent by the terminal equipment, so that the SMTC information of the neighbor cell (first target cell) of the terminal equipment relative to the serving cell can be determined according to the first timing deviation information and the SMTC information of the first target cell, further, the measurement gap of the first target cell is measured according to the timing configuration of the serving cell of the terminal equipment, and the success rate of the terminal equipment for measuring the first target cell is improved.

A possible implementation manner, the measurement gap configuration information includes: measuring the gap offset;

the measured gap offset of the first target cell is determined according to an SMTC offset included in SMTC information of the first target cell relative to the serving cell.

By the method, the base station can determine the offset of the first target cell relative to the serving cell according to the SMTC information of the first target cell relative to the serving cell, so as to determine the measurement gap offset in the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell, and the terminal equipment can measure the synchronous signal/physical broadcast channel block (SS/PBCH block, SSB) of the first target cell at the corresponding position according to the measurement gap offset.

A possible implementation manner, the measurement gap configuration information further includes: measuring the gap period; the SMTC information of said first target cell comprises: an SMTC period of said first target cell; the SMTC information of said second target cell comprises: an SMTC period of said second target cell; the measurement gap period of the first target cell is determined according to the SMTC period of the first target cell and the SMTC period of the second target cell; the measured gap period of the first target cell is greater than the SMTC period of the first target cell; and/or the measured gap period of the first target cell is greater than the SMTC period of the second target cell.

By the method, the base station can configure the measurement gap period for the first target cell and the second target cell, so that the problem that the complexity of the terminal equipment is increased possibly caused by the fact that the target cells with a plurality of different frequency points need to be measured in the same frequency band is reduced, and the measurement gap period of each target cell can be larger than the measurement gap period set by the target cell for measuring one frequency point in the same frequency band. For example, the measured gap period of the first target cell is greater than the SMTC period of the first target cell; and/or the measured gap period of the first target cell is greater than the SMTC period of the second target cell. Further, the measurement gap period of the first target cell can be set to be the sum of the SMTC period of the first target cell and the SMTC period of the second target cell, and at this time, the calculation capacity required by the terminal equipment for measuring the target cells with different frequency points is the same as the capacity of the terminal equipment for measuring the target cells with the same frequency point, so that the target cells with different frequency points are measured simultaneously on the premise of not increasing the power consumption of the terminal equipment, the efficiency of measuring the inter-frequency cells is improved, the problem that the terminal equipment can not finish the measurement of the inter-frequency cells is avoided, the scheduling complexity of the base station for realizing the measurement of the inter-frequency cells for the terminal equipment is reduced, and the performance of cell measurement is improved as a whole.

A possible implementation manner, the base station sends second measurement configuration information to the terminal device; the second measurement configuration information is used for indicating measurement gap configuration information of a third target cell; the cell frequency point of the third target cell is the same as the cell frequency point of the first target cell; the measurement gap configuration information of the third target cell is the same as the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell.

By the method, if the cell frequency points of the target cells are the same, the same measurement gap configuration information can be configured for the target cells of the same cell frequency point in order to reduce the complexity of configuring the measurement gap configuration information for the terminal equipment by the base station, so that the terminal equipment can measure SSB (single-service broadcast) sent by all the target cells of the same frequency point under the measurement gap configuration information, and the cell measurement efficiency is improved.

A possible implementation manner, the base station receives the capability reported by the terminal equipment; the capability is used for indicating that the terminal equipment does not configure measurement gap configuration information under the measurement of a first frequency point; the base station sends third measurement configuration information to the terminal equipment; the third measurement configuration information is used for indicating the terminal equipment not to configure measurement gap when measuring a fourth target cell; the cell frequency point of the fourth target cell is the first frequency point; the first frequency point is different from the cell frequency point of the first target cell and the cell frequency point of the second target cell.

By the method, the base station can determine whether the terminal equipment can realize cell measurement under the measurement-free gap according to the reporting capability of the terminal, so that configuration of measurement gap configuration information for the terminal equipment supporting the measurement-free gap is avoided, the complexity of scheduling the terminal equipment by the base station is reduced, and the resource overhead is reduced.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a cell measurement method, where a terminal device receives first measurement configuration information from a base station, where the first measurement configuration information includes measurement gap configuration information of a first target cell and measurement gap configuration information of a second target cell; the terminal equipment measures the reference signal of the first target cell on a time window corresponding to the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell; and measuring the reference signal of the second target cell on a time window corresponding to the measurement gap configuration information of the second target cell.

The method may be performed by the terminal device or may be performed by the communication device or a cell measurement apparatus, e.g. a chip, capable of supporting the functions required by the communication device to implement the method. By the method, under the same frequency band, if the target cell to be measured comprises the first target cell and the second target cell, and the frequency points of the first target cell and the second target cell are different, at this time, the terminal equipment can measure the gap configuration information according to the measurement gap of the first target cell and the measurement gap configuration information of the second target cell, and can measure the first target cell and the second target cell of different cell frequency points in the configured measurement gap, thereby completing the measurement of all the cells to be measured, and further improving the cell measurement efficiency and the success rate of cell measurement.

A possible implementation manner, before the terminal device receives the first measurement configuration information from the base station, the method further includes: the terminal equipment sends first measurement information to the base station; the first measurement information includes: first timing deviation information of a serving cell of the terminal device and the first target cell; the first timing deviation information is used for determining SMTC information of the first target cell relative to a serving cell of the terminal device; the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell is determined according to SMTC information of the first target cell relative to a serving cell of the terminal device.

By the method, the terminal equipment can send the determined first timing deviation information of the first target cell relative to the service cell to the base station, so that the base station can configure measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell for the terminal equipment according to the first measurement information sent by the terminal equipment to the base station, the timing of the first target cell measured by the terminal equipment relative to the service cell is adapted, and the measurement success rate of the first target cell measured by the terminal equipment is improved.

A possible implementation manner, the measurement gap configuration information includes: measuring the gap offset; the SMTC information of said first target cell relative to said serving cell comprises: an SMTC offset of said first target cell relative to said serving cell; the measurement gap offset of the first target cell is determined according to the SMTC offset included in the SMTC information of the first target cell relative to the serving cell; the terminal equipment measures the reference signal of the first target cell in a measurement gap time window corresponding to the measurement gap offset of the first target cell; the time domain position of the reference signal of the first target cell corresponds to a time window corresponding to SMTC information of the first target cell.

By the method, the base station determines the delay of the first target cell relative to the serving cell according to the SMTC offset of the first target cell relative to the serving cell, reported by the terminal equipment, so that the SMTC offset of the first target cell relative to the serving cell configures the measurement gap offset of the first target cell, so that the terminal equipment determines the measurement gap time window of the first target cell according to the measurement gap offset of the first target cell, and in the measurement time window, the terminal equipment can receive the SSB sent by the first target cell, thereby improving the success rate of the terminal equipment for measuring the first target cell.

A possible implementation manner, the measurement gap configuration information further includes: measuring the gap period; the SMTC information of said first target cell relative to said serving cell comprises: an SMTC period of said first target cell relative to said serving cell; the measurement gap period of the first target cell is determined according to the SMTC period of the first target cell and the SMTC period of the second target cell; the measured gap period of the first target cell is greater than the SMTC period of the first target cell; and/or the measured gap period of the first target cell is greater than the SMTC period of the second target cell; and the terminal equipment measures the reference signal of the first target cell when the measurement gap period of the first target cell arrives.

By the method, the terminal equipment can realize the measurement of the inter-frequency cells of the first target cell and the second target cell on the premise of not remarkably increasing the complexity of the measurement.

A possible implementation manner, the terminal device receives second measurement configuration information; the second measurement configuration information is used for indicating measurement gap configuration information of the third target cell; the measurement gap configuration information of the third target cell is the same as the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell; the cell frequency point of the third target cell is the same as the cell frequency point of the first target cell; and the terminal equipment measures the reference signal of the third target cell according to the second measurement configuration information.

By the method, the terminal equipment can adopt the same measurement gap configuration information to measure different target cells of the same frequency point, so that the measurement complexity is reduced.

A possible implementation manner, the terminal device reports the capability to the base station; the capability is used for indicating that the terminal equipment does not configure measurement gap configuration information under the measurement of a first frequency point; the terminal equipment receives third measurement configuration information sent by the base station; the third measurement configuration information is used for indicating the terminal equipment not to configure measurement gap when measuring a fourth target cell; the cell frequency point of the fourth target cell is the first frequency point; the first frequency point is different from the cell frequency point of the first target cell and the cell frequency point of the second target cell.

According to the method, when the terminal equipment supports the cell measurement capability of the non-measurement gap for the different frequency, the method can report the measurement capability to the base station, so that the base station avoids configuring the corresponding measurement gap for the terminal equipment, and when the terminal equipment is used for measuring the fourth target cell, the non-measurement gap mode can be adopted for carrying out the cell measurement of the different frequency according to the third measurement configuration information, and the influence of the terminal equipment on the transmission of service data of the terminal equipment when the terminal equipment is used for measuring the cell is avoided.

In a third aspect, the application provides a cell measurement apparatus, for example a base station as described above. The base station is adapted to perform the method of the first aspect or any of the possible implementation manners described above. In particular, the base station may comprise means for performing the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation manner, e.g. comprising a processing module and a transceiver module.

The transceiver module may include a transmitting module and a receiving module, which may be different functional modules or may be the same functional module, but may implement different functions (the transmitting module is used to implement a function of transmitting a signal, and the receiving module is used to implement a function of receiving a signal). The base station is illustratively a communication device, or a chip or other component disposed in a communication device. Illustratively, the communication device is a network device, an access network device, or the like. For example, the transceiver module may also be implemented by a transceiver, and the processing module may also be implemented by a processor. Alternatively, the transmitting module may be implemented by a transmitter, and the receiving module may be implemented by a receiver, and the transmitter and the receiver may be different functional modules, or may be the same functional module, but may implement different functions (the transmitter is used for implementing a function of transmitting a signal, and the receiver is used for implementing a function of receiving a signal). If the base station is a communication device, the transceiver is implemented, for example, by an antenna, feeder, codec, etc. in the communication device. Alternatively, if the base station is a chip provided in the communication device, the transceiver (or the transmitter and the receiver) is, for example, a communication interface (or, in other words, an interface circuit) in the chip, and the communication interface is connected to a radio frequency transceiver component in the communication device, so as to implement the transmission and reception of information through the radio frequency transceiver component.

Regarding the technical effects brought about by the alternative embodiments of the above section, reference may be made to the description of the technical effects of the first aspect or the corresponding embodiments.

In a fourth aspect, a cell measurement apparatus is provided, for example the cell measurement apparatus is a terminal device as described above. The terminal device is configured to perform the method of the second aspect or any of the possible embodiments described above. In particular, the terminal device may comprise means for performing the method of the second aspect or any of the possible embodiments, e.g. comprising a processing means and a transceiver means. The transceiver module may include a transmitting module and a receiving module, which may be different functional modules or may be the same functional module, but may implement different functions (the transmitting module is used to implement a function of transmitting a signal, and the receiving module is used to implement a function of receiving a signal). The terminal device is illustratively a communication device, or a chip or other component provided in a communication device. For example, the transceiver module may also be implemented by a transceiver, and the processing module may also be implemented by a processor. Alternatively, the transmitting module may be implemented by a transmitter, and the receiving module may be implemented by a receiver, and the transmitter and the receiver may be different functional modules, or may be the same functional module, but may implement different functions (the transmitter is used for implementing a function of transmitting a signal, and the receiver is used for implementing a function of receiving a signal). If the terminal device is a communication device, the transceiver is implemented, for example, by an antenna, a feeder, a codec, etc. in the communication device. Alternatively, if the terminal device is a chip provided in the communication device, the transceiver (or the transmitter and the receiver) is, for example, a communication interface (or, in other words, an interface circuit) in the chip, and the communication interface is connected to a radio frequency transceiver component in the communication device, so as to implement the transmission and reception of information through the radio frequency transceiver component.

Regarding the technical effects brought about by the alternative embodiments of the above section, reference may be made to the description of the technical effects of the second aspect or the corresponding embodiments.

In a fifth aspect, a cell measurement apparatus is provided, such as a base station as described above. The cell measurement apparatus includes a processor and a communication interface (or interface circuit) that may be used to communicate with other apparatuses or devices. Optionally, a memory may be included for storing computer instructions. The processor and the memory are coupled to each other for implementing the method described in the first aspect or various possible embodiments. Alternatively, the base station may not include a memory, which may be located external to the base station. The processor, the memory and the communication interface are coupled to each other for implementing the method described in the first aspect or various possible embodiments. For example, the processor, when executing the computer instructions stored in the memory, causes the base station to perform the method of the first aspect or any one of the possible implementation manners described above. The base station is illustratively a communication device, or a chip or other component disposed in a communication device. Wherein if the base station is a communication device, the communication interface is for example implemented by a transceiver (or a transmitter and a receiver) in said communication device, for example by an antenna, a feeder, a codec etc. in said communication device. Alternatively, if the base station is a chip provided in the communication device, the communication interface is, for example, an input/output interface of the chip, such as an input/output pin or the like, and the communication interface is connected to a radio frequency transceiver component in the communication device so as to implement the transmission and reception of information through the radio frequency transceiver component.

In a sixth aspect, a cell measurement apparatus is provided, such as a terminal device as described above. The cell measurement apparatus includes a processor and a communication interface (or interface circuit) that may be used to communicate with other apparatuses or devices. Optionally, a memory may be included for storing computer instructions. The processor and the memory are coupled to each other for implementing the method described in the second aspect or various possible embodiments. Alternatively, the terminal device may not include a memory, which may be located external to the terminal device. The processor, memory and communication interface are coupled to each other for implementing the method described in the second aspect or various possible embodiments. For example, the processor, when executing the computer instructions stored in the memory, causes the terminal device to perform the method of the second aspect or any one of the possible embodiments described above. The communication device is illustratively a terminal device, or an in-vehicle device, or the like. For example, the terminal device may be an in-vehicle device, or may be a chip or other component provided in the in-vehicle device. Wherein if the terminal device is a communication device, the communication interface is for example implemented by a transceiver (or a transmitter and a receiver) in said communication device, for example by an antenna, a feeder, a codec etc. in said terminal device. Alternatively, if the terminal device is a chip provided in the communication device, the communication interface is, for example, an input/output interface of the chip, such as an input/output pin or the like, and the communication interface is connected to a radio frequency transceiver component in the communication device so as to implement the transmission and reception of information through the radio frequency transceiver component.

In a seventh aspect, a chip is provided, the chip comprising a processor and a communication interface, the processor being coupled to the communication interface for implementing the method provided by the first aspect or any of the alternative embodiments described above.

Optionally, the chip may further comprise a memory, for example, the processor may read and execute a software program stored in the memory, to implement the method provided by the first aspect or any of the optional embodiments described above. Alternatively, the memory may be located outside the chip, rather than within the chip, and the processor may read and execute a software program stored in an external memory, so as to implement the method provided in the first aspect or any of the alternative embodiments.

In an eighth aspect, a chip is provided, the chip comprising a processor and a communication interface, the processor being coupled to the communication interface for implementing the method provided by the second aspect or any of the alternative embodiments described above.

Optionally, the chip may further comprise a memory, for example, the processor may read and execute a software program stored in the memory to implement the method provided by the second aspect or any optional embodiment described above. Alternatively, the memory may be located outside the chip, rather than within the chip, and the processor may read and execute a software program stored in an external memory, to implement the method provided in the second aspect or any of the alternative embodiments.

A ninth aspect provides a communication system comprising the cell measurement apparatus of the third aspect, the cell measurement apparatus of the fifth aspect, or the cell measurement apparatus of the seventh aspect, and the cell measurement apparatus of the fourth aspect, the cell measurement apparatus of the sixth aspect, or the cell measurement apparatus of the eighth aspect.

In a tenth aspect, a computer readable storage medium is provided for storing a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method as described in the first aspect or any one of the possible implementations.

In an eleventh aspect, a computer readable storage medium is provided for storing a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method as described in the second aspect or any one of the possible embodiments.

In a twelfth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions for storing a computer program for causing a computer to carry out the method of the first aspect or any one of the possible implementations thereof when the computer program is run on the computer.

In a thirteenth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions for storing a computer program for causing a computer to carry out the method of the second aspect or any one of the possible implementations thereof when the computer program is run on the computer.

Drawings

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

fig. 2A is a schematic diagram of a time domain position of a reference signal according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2B is a schematic diagram of a measurement gap measurement according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2C is a schematic diagram of a measurement gap position according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2D is a schematic diagram of determining system frame and frame timing offset according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2E is a schematic diagram of time domain positions of SMTC and reference signals of different frequency cells according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2F is a schematic diagram of time domain positions of reference signals of measurement gap and inter-frequency cells according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2G is a schematic diagram of time domain positions of SMTC and reference signals of different frequency cells according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2H is a schematic diagram of time domain positions of reference signals of measurement gap and inter-frequency cells according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 3 is a flowchart of a cell measurement method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4A is a schematic diagram illustrating a cell measurement method provided in fig. 3 according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4B is a schematic diagram illustrating a cell measurement method provided in fig. 3 according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a cell measurement device according to an embodiment of the present application;

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

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a cell measurement device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

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

Fig. 1 shows a possible communication system architecture to which the cell measurement method provided by the embodiment of the present application is applicable. Referring to fig. 1, the communication system includes: network device 101 (e.g., network device 101a, network device 101b, network device 101c in fig. 1), and terminal device 102.

The network device 101 is responsible for providing radio access related services to the terminal device 102, and implementing radio physical layer functions, resource scheduling and radio resource management, quality of service (Quality of Service, qoS) management, radio access control, and mobility management (e.g., cell reselection and handover) functions. The network device 101 and the terminal device 102 are connected through Uu interface, so as to realize communication between the terminal device 102 and the network device 101. The terminal device 102 is a device in a cell access network managed by the network device 101. Of course, the number of terminal devices 102 in fig. 1 is merely an example, and in practical applications, the network device 101 may provide services for a plurality of terminal devices 102.

Each network device 101 is responsible for managing at least one cell. As shown in fig. 1, network device 101a is responsible for managing cell a, network device 101B is responsible for managing cell B, and network device 101C is responsible for managing cell C and cell D. In the communication system, each cell provides access service for terminal equipment by using a corresponding carrier frequency point.

It should be noted that the frequency points used in different cells may be the same or different. The present application is not limited to the communication technology used in each cell, and the communication technology used in different cells may be the same or different. The network device 101 in fig. 1 may be, for example, an access network device, such as a base station. The access network device corresponds to different devices in different systems, for example, may correspond to an eNB in a 4G system, corresponds to an access network device in 5G in a 5G system, for example, a gNB, or is an access network device in a communication system that is evolved subsequently. Illustratively, cell a, cell B, cell C, and cell D may all be LTE cells using 4G communication technology; or cell a, cell B, cell C and cell D may all be NR cells using 5G communication technology; or a part of cells in the cell A, the cell B, the cell C and the cell D are LTE cells, and a part of cells are NR cells.

Fig. 1 includes a dual connectivity architecture between network devices 101, where network device 101a is, for example, a primary network device and network device 101b is, for example, a secondary network device. The terminal device may communicate with both network devices. For example, fig. 1 is an EN-DC architecture, and network device 101a is an LTE network device, and network device 101b is an NR network device; alternatively, fig. 1 is a NE-DC architecture, then network device 101a is a NR network device, network device 101b is an LTE network device, and so on.

Terminal device 102 includes a device that provides voice and/or data connectivity to a user, and in particular, includes a device that provides voice to a user, or includes a device that provides data connectivity to a user, or includes a device that provides voice and data connectivity to a user. For example, may include a handheld device having wireless connectivity, or a processing device connected to a wireless modem. The terminal device may communicate with the core network via a radio access network (radio access network, RAN), exchange voice or data with the RAN, or interact voice and data with the RAN. The terminal device may include a User Equipment (UE), a wireless terminal device, a mobile terminal device, a device-to-device (D2D) terminal device, a vehicle-to-all (vehicle to everything, V2X) terminal device, a machine-to-machine/machine-type communication (M2M/MTC) terminal device, an internet of things (internet of things, ioT) terminal device, a subscriber unit (subscriber unit), a subscriber station (subscriber station), a mobile station (mobile station), a remote station, an Access Point (AP), a remote terminal (remote terminal), an access terminal (access terminal), a user terminal (user terminal), a user agent (user agent), or a user equipment (user device), etc. For example, mobile telephones (or "cellular" telephones) computers with mobile terminal devices, portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-built mobile devices, and the like may be included. Such as personal communication services (personal communication service, PCS) phones, cordless phones, session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol, SIP) phones, wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) stations, personal digital assistants (personal digital assistant, PDAs), and the like. But also limited devices such as devices with lower power consumption, or devices with limited memory capabilities, or devices with limited computing capabilities, etc. Examples include bar codes, radio frequency identification (radio frequency identification, RFID), sensors, global positioning systems (global positioning system, GPS), laser scanners, and other information sensing devices.

By way of example, and not limitation, in embodiments of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. The wearable device can also be called as a wearable intelligent device or an intelligent wearable device, and is a generic name for intelligently designing daily wear and developing wearable devices, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothes, shoes, and the like, by applying wearable technology. The wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the clothing or accessories of the user. The wearable device is not only a hardware device, but also can realize a powerful function through software support, data interaction and cloud interaction. The generalized wearable intelligent device includes full functionality, large size, and may not rely on the smart phone to implement complete or partial functionality, such as: smart watches or smart glasses, etc., and focus on only certain types of application functions, and need to be used in combination with other devices, such as smart phones, for example, various smart bracelets, smart helmets, smart jewelry, etc. for physical sign monitoring.

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

In the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment can also comprise a relay. Or it is understood that all that is capable of data communication with a base station can be seen as a terminal device.

The network device 101, for example, comprises AN Access Network (AN) device, such as a base station (e.g., AN access point), may refer to a device in the access network that communicates with a wireless terminal device over one or more cells over AN air interface, or a network device in a vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2X) technology is, for example, a Road Side Unit (RSU). The base station may be configured to inter-convert the received air frames with IP packets as a router between the terminal device and the rest of the access network, which may include an IP network. The RSU may be a fixed infrastructure entity supporting V2X applications, which may exchange messages with other entities supporting V2X applications. The network device may also coordinate attribute management for the air interface. For example, the network device may include an evolved base station (NodeB or eNB or e-NodeB, evolutional Node B) in an LTE system or advanced long term evolution (long term evolution-advanced, LTE-a), or may also include a next generation node B (next generation node B, gNB) in a fifth generation mobile communication technology (the 5th generation,5G) NR system (also simply referred to as an NR system) or may also include a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU) in a Cloud access network (Cloud radio access network, cloud RAN) system, and embodiments of the present application are not limited. The network devices may also include core network devices including, for example, access and mobility management functions (access and mobility management function, AMF) or user plane functions (user plane function, UPF), etc. Since the embodiment of the present application mainly relates to an access network device, in the following, the network devices refer to access network devices unless otherwise specified.

In the embodiment of the present application, the means for implementing the function of the network device may be the network device, or may be a means capable of supporting the network device to implement the function, for example, a chip system, and the apparatus may be installed in the network device. In the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, the device for implementing the function of the network device is exemplified by the network device, and the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is described.

In addition, the architecture shown in fig. 1 may be applied in a variety of communication scenarios, for example, fifth generation (The 5th Generation,5G) communication systems, future sixth generation communication systems and other communication systems of evolution, long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) communication systems, car-to-anything (vehicle to everything, V2X), long term evolution-car networking (LTE-V), car-to-car (vehicle to vehicle, V2V), car networking, machine-type communication (Machine Type Communications, MTC), internet of things (internet of things, ioT), long term evolution-machine-to-machine (LTE-machine to machine, LTE-M), machine-to-machine (machine to machine, M2M), and so on.

The terms "system" and "network" in embodiments of the application may be used interchangeably. "at least one" means one or more, and "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or", describes an association relationship of an association object, and indicates that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B, and may indicate: a alone, a and B together, and B alone, wherein a, B may be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the context-dependent object is an "or" relationship. "at least one of" or the like means any combination of these items, including any combination of single item(s) or plural items(s). For example, at least one (one) of a, b, or c may represent: a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, or a-b-c, wherein a, b, c may be single or plural.

And, unless otherwise indicated, the terms "first," "second," and the like according to the embodiments of the present application are used for distinguishing between multiple objects, and are not used for limiting the order, timing, priority, importance, or the like of the multiple objects.

In the following, some terms in the embodiments of the present application are explained for easy understanding by those skilled in the art.

1) Multiple radio access technology dual connectivity (multi-RAT dual connectivity, MR-DC)

In the LTE system, a terminal device supports simultaneous access to two network devices, which is called dual connectivity (dual connectivity, DC), where one network device is a primary network device and the other network device is a secondary network device. In the development and evolution process of the wireless communication system, an operator deploys a 5G NR system and an LTE system at the same time, and a terminal device also supports network devices that access LTE and NR at the same time, and since LTE is also called evolved universal terrestrial radio access (evolved universal terrestrial radio access, E-UTRA), this access mode is called EN-DC. In EN-DC mode, the network device of LTE is a primary network device and the network device of NR is a secondary network device. Of course, with the evolution of the system, the new air interface and the evolved universal terrestrial radio access dual connection (NR E-UTRA dual connectivity, NE-DC) can be supported in the future, namely, the network equipment of NR is the main network equipment, and the network equipment of LTE is the auxiliary network equipment. These DC modes may also be collectively referred to as MR-DC, since both EN-DC and NE-DC end devices will access network devices of two different radio access technologies.

2) Neighbor cell measurement

In a wireless communication system, in order to ensure service continuity, a terminal acquires continuous service of a wireless network by switching between cells having different coverage areas or reselecting a cell. When the terminal equipment moves to the cell edge, the network equipment can issue measurement control tasks such as the same frequency, different frequency or different system and the like so as to enable the terminal equipment to perform neighbor switching to the same frequency, different frequency or different system.

The scenario of cell switching or reselection includes various scenarios, for example, scenario 1, in which the location of the terminal is moved after the terminal accesses the current serving cell, for example, when the terminal is far from the current serving cell, the terminal may need to perform cell switching or cell reselection. Scenario 2, when the service quality of the cell currently serving the terminal is poor (e.g., the signal strength is low), the terminal may perform cell handover or cell reselection to access to a neighbor cell with better signal. The current serving cell is a cell which currently provides service for the terminal, and the neighbor cell can be understood as other cells except the serving cell, which can be searched by the terminal in the serving cell.

For example, the terminal has no RRC link with the current serving cell in the rrc_idle state and the rrc_inactive state. When the signal quality of the service cell where the terminal resides is lower than a certain threshold, neighbor cell measurement can be performed to measure the signal quality of the neighbor cell, and if the signal quality meets the condition, the terminal is switched to the neighbor cell and resides in the neighbor cell. The procedure of the terminal switching from the serving cell to the other cell is a cell reselection procedure in the rrc_idle state and the rrc_inactive state.

For another example, when the terminal is in the rrc_connected state, an RRC connection exists between the terminal and the current serving cell. The current serving cell can configure the terminal to perform neighbor cell measurement through RRC signaling. And the terminal reports the measurement result of the adjacent cell to the service cell, and the service cell switches the terminal to a cell with better signal quality according to the measurement result. The procedure of switching from the serving cell to the neighbor cell in the rrc_connected state of the terminal is a cell switching (Handover) procedure. Thus, a terminal camping on the current serving cell may measure related information (e.g., signal quality) of the neighbor cell to use as a basis for cell handover or cell re-establishment. It will be appreciated that the above-described cell reselection or cell handover procedure is based on measurements of neighboring cells.

3) And the measurement configuration information is sent to the terminal equipment by the base station and is used for enabling the terminal equipment to carry out cell measurement according to the measurement configuration information. In general, the base station may transmit the measurement configuration information through RRC signaling. Wherein, the measurement configuration information may include, but is not limited to, at least one of the following measurement parameters: a measurement object, a neighbor cell list to be measured, or a measurement gap configuration parameter (measurement gap period, measurement gap length, measurement gap start position).

In the embodiment of the application, after the base station sends the measurement configuration information once to the terminal equipment, the base station can also instruct the base station to adjust the value of at least one measurement parameter by sending the measurement configuration information again. In this way, the base station can flexibly reconfigure the measurement parameters.

The base station instructs the base station to adjust the value of any measurement parameter through measurement configuration information, which may include, but is not limited to, the following forms:

the measurement configuration information comprises the value of the measurement parameter after adjustment.

The measurement configuration information includes an adjustment value of the measurement parameter, where the adjustment value may be a difference between an adjusted value of the measurement parameter and a value before adjustment.

The measurement configuration information comprises an adjustment instruction of the measurement parameters. The terminal equipment can determine the value of the measurement parameter after adjustment according to the adjustment instruction of the measurement parameter and the mode agreed with the base station.

4) And the measurement report is obtained after the terminal equipment performs cell measurement and reported to the base station.

In the case that the terminal device receives the reference signal of at least one neighbor cell to be measured in the measurement gap, the measurement report may include a measurement result of the terminal device on the at least one neighbor cell to be measured (the measurement result of the at least one neighbor cell to be measured is an actual measurement value), or include measurement results of all neighbor cells to be measured (where the measurement result of the neighbor cell to be measured, in which the terminal device does not receive the reference signal, is null or zero).

Under the condition that the terminal equipment does not receive the reference signal of the neighbor cell to be measured in the measurement gap, the terminal equipment can not report the measurement report, or the reported measurement report is empty, or the measurement result of each neighbor cell to be measured in the reported measurement report is empty or zero.

For example, the measurement result of each neighboring cell to be measured may be a signal quality parameter of the neighboring cell to be measured. Optionally, the signal quality parameter may comprise one or more of the following parameters: reference signal received power (reference signalreceived power, RSRP), signal to interference plus noise ratio (signal to interference plus noise ratio, SINR), received signal strength indication (received signal strength indication, RSSI), reference signal received quality (reference signalreceived quality, RSRQ).

5) Reference signal

The terminal device may perform cell search, cell measurement, etc. through a reference signal (e.g., a synchronization signal) issued by the network device. In NR, the reference signal measured by the terminal device may include: synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block (SSB), channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), etc.

For example, fourth generation (The 4 ^th The reference signals of long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) cells in Generation, 4G) communication technology, cell reference signals (cell reference signal, CRS), are evenly distributed over each subframe.

Fifth generation (The 5) ^th Reference signal of new air interface (NR) cell in Generation, 5G) communication technology-synchronization signal block (synchronization signal block, SSB), wherein SSBs are concentrated within 5ms in time domain, one SSB occupies 4 OFDM symbols, is composed of 1 PSS,1 SSS,2 PBCH symbols, and is arranged in order of PSS-PBCH-SSS-PBCH. Wherein, PSS is mainly used for coarse synchronization, SSS is used for fine synchronization and measurement based on SSB, and PBCH is used for broadcasting system information at cell level.

As shown in fig. 2A, SSBs are sent in a period, and multiple SSBs may be sent in a period, where multiple SSBs may be concentrated in a certain time window in the period to form a SSB burst. Wherein the SSB period may be 5ms, 10ms, 20ms,40ms, 80ms, 160ms, etc., and the SSB periods of different NR cells may also be different. By way of example, assuming an SSB period of 20ms, SSB burst may be transmitted concentrated on the first or second 5 ms.

6) Synchronization Signal Measurement Timing Configuration (SMTC)

In order to avoid the high power consumption caused by unnecessary searches by the terminal device, NR introduced the concept of SMTC. SMTC is a window configured by the network for the terminal device to make SSB measurements. The UE need only make SSB measurements within the SMTC window and not outside the window. SMTC may configure the period and offset of SMTC according to the period and offset of SSB. The terminal measures the NR SSB based on the SMTC window configured by the network side, and the SMTC can be configured according to the SSB of different frequency points. For co-channel measurements in the connected state, the network may configure at most two SMTC windows on one frequency point for the terminal device. For inter-frequency measurements in the connected state, the network may configure at most one SMTC window on each frequency point for the terminal device. The configuration parameters of an SMTC window include: SMTC timing: the SMTC window period and offset information. The period of SMTC may be 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160ms. SMTC duration: the SMTC window length, granularity of SMTC window length is also 1ms, and the length may be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5ms.

7) Measuring gap

At present, the network device can configure a neighbor cell measurement method for the terminal according to the capability of the terminal, the issued different frequency, different system measurement control task and the like. The cell measurement method 1 can be mainly classified into 2 types: based on the measurement of the gap (measurement gap). Within the measurement gap, the terminal interrupts reception and transmission of data with the serving cell, and performs neighbor measurement. Cell measurement method 2: neighbor measurement based on No gap (No gap), i.e. measurement not based on measurement gap. The following is an example.

As shown in fig. 2B, when a terminal device (UE) has only a single reception path, signals can be received only at one frequency point at the same time, that is, signals of only one cell can be received at the same time. When the UE receives data transmitted by its serving cell, if measurement operations such as inter-frequency measurement or inter-system measurement need to be performed on other cells, the receiver needs to leave the current frequency point to the frequency point to be measured for a period of time. In order to ensure the radio link quality between the UE and the current serving cell, the UE typically stops receiving signals and data of its serving cell and receives signals of other cells for inter-frequency measurement or inter-system measurement during a specified period of time. After the time period is over, the UE resumes receiving the signal and data of the serving cell. This period of time is referred to as the measurement gap.

Taking the scenario 2 as an example, the user carries the terminal in the range of the cell 1, the terminal resides in the cell 1, and the terminal can perform neighbor measurement based on the measurement gap on the assumption that the signal strength of the cell 1 is smaller than a preset value (may be a pre-stored value). Specifically, the terminal interrupts data transmission and reception with the cell 1 in the measurement gap, detects the synchronization signal of the cell 2, establishes synchronization with the synchronization signal of the cell 2 and the cell 2, and performs correlation measurement by the reference signal transmitted by the cell 2, thereby completing measurement of the cell 2. If the measurement result of the cell 2 indicates that the signal strength of the cell 2 is greater than the preset value, the terminal is switched to the cell 2 and resides in the cell 2.

Wherein the measurement gap may be pre-configured or configured by the base station. For example, when a terminal accesses cell 1, cell 1 allocates a measurement gap for the terminal so that the terminal performs neighbor measurement within the measurement gap. FIG. 2C shows a schematic diagram of a measurement gap provided by an embodiment of the present application. Measuring gap includes: a measurement slot length (measurement gap length, MGL), a measurement slot repetition period (measurement gap repetition period, MGRP), a measurement offset (measurement gapOffset) for configuring a starting position of a measurement gap. The terminal may determine a system frame number (system frame number, SFN) and a subframe (subframe) corresponding to a starting position of the measurement gap according to the 3 parameters. Specifically, the system frame number (system frame number, SFN) and subframe (subframe) corresponding to the start position of the measurement gap may satisfy the following conditions:

SFN mod t=floor (measurement gap Offset/10);

subframe = measure gap Offset mod 10;

T＝MGRP/10；

wherein FLOOR (measurement gap Offset/10) is used to indicate that the value of measurement gap Offset/10 is rounded down. Measurement gap Offset mod 10 is used to indicate that measurement gap Offset takes the remainder of 10. Illustratively, the MGL may be 6ms at maximum. The measurement gap offset (measurement gap offset) may have a value ranging from 0 to 39, or from 0 to 79, etc. The terminal device may calculate the time domain position of the measurement gap according to the above measurement gap configuration parameters.

When the measurement gap is configured for measurement, the UE detects the synchronous signals of other cells in the configured measurement gap, synchronizes the synchronous signals of other cells with the synchronous signals of other cells, and performs related measurement on the reference signals sent by other cells, thereby completing measurement on other cells.

For the cell measurement method 2, the terminal does not need to interrupt data transmission and reception with the serving cell in the measurement gap, and can also perform neighbor cell measurement. Therefore, for the serving cell, measurement gap is not required to be allocated to the terminal, so that transmission resources are saved. When the terminal has a plurality of receiving paths, the combined receiving of a plurality of different frequency bands can be supported, and the capability of directly measuring different frequencies/different systems under the condition of no need of configuring measurement gap is provided. Therefore, the data transmission of the original service area is not interrupted, and the service of the original service area of the terminal is not influenced. However, considering that the terminal devices in the LTE cell and the NR cell belonging to the same Frequency Range (FR) cannot interfere with each other when measuring networks of different systems, in the NSA/SA connection state, in the LTE and the NR of the same FR, it is still necessary to measure the NR different frequency neighbor cell or the LTE measurement NR different system through the measurement gap. For example, in the scenes of LTE measurement NR, EN-DC measurement LTE abnormal frequency, EN-DC measurement NR abnormal frequency, SA measurement LTE abnormal system, etc., measurement gap assistance needs to be configured for measurement.

At present, all frequency points under the same FR are uniformly configured in measurement gap. For a terminal supporting FR1 and FR2 to independently configure measurement gap, FR1 all frequency bands or FR2 all frequency bands are respectively and independently configured with one measurement gap. For terminals which do not support the independent configuration of measurement gap of frequency bands FR1 and FR2, unified measurement gap is required to be configured for UE during measurement. The measurement gap configuration information includes period, offset, and length. The measurement gap configuration information, once configured by the RRC message, will periodically appear at a fixed offset position until configured again by the RRC message.

8) Systematic frame and frame timing offset (SFN and frame timing difference, SFTD)

When a TDD cell and an FDD cell are combined, and the FDD cell are combined, time asynchronization can occur among the cells, and the timing and the system frame number are not aligned.

In NR systems, time alignment may not be possible when the base stations are networked. For example, after the EN-DC architecture is configured for the LTE base station, the LTE master base station configures a measurement gap for the terminal device, and the terminal device measures the synchronization signal from the NR secondary base station within the measurement gap. However, the time of the LTE main base station and the NR auxiliary base station may be misaligned, resulting in that the measurement gap configured by the LTE main base station and the NR auxiliary base station are not aligned in time, which may cause that the measurement gap configured by the LTE main base station cannot completely cover or cannot cover the synchronization signal from the NR auxiliary base station, which may cause that the measurement result obtained by the terminal device is inaccurate, or may cause that the terminal device cannot complete the measurement. For this reason, system frame number and frame timing difference SFTD measurement are introduced, specifically, the terminal may determine SFTD according to the received signals between the serving cell and the inter-frequency neighbor, and the time difference delay2-delay1 of the signals. Thereby obtaining the time difference between the cell of the NR auxiliary base station and the cell of the LTE main base station. So that the terminal can inform the network device of the determined SFTD through the air interface message. The network device may determine SMTC and measurement gap configurations for measurement SSB relative to serving cell timing based on SFTDs between the current cell and the neighbor cells.

In the SA network architecture, there may be a problem that the time cannot be aligned between the NR base station and the LTE base station, and between the NR base station and the different-frequency NR base station. In order to solve the problem that the serving base station does not know the time difference between the base station of the neighboring cell and the serving base station (inter-frequency cell is not synchronized), a system frame and frame timing offset SFTD measurement may also be used for determining the system frame and timing offset between the cells.

For example, as shown in fig. 2D, when the terminal is in MR-DC, the terminal device determines delay time delay2 of the received signal according to the received signal of the PCell (e.g. the received signal of the system frame number sfn=0), and determines delay time delay1 of the received signal according to the received signal of the NR Cell (e.g. the received signal of the system frame number sfn=n), thereby determining delay2-delay1 of the signals between the neighboring Cell and the serving Cell, so as to determine SFTD. The SFTD may include, among other things, an SFN frame number difference and a frame boundary time difference. The terminal may notify the network device of the determined SFTD through an air interface message. The network device may convert the frame timing of SSBs of the neighbor cells into SSB configuration information with respect to the serving cell timing according to SFTDs between the neighbor cells and the serving cells, thereby configuring SMTC configuration information and measurement gap configuration information with respect to the serving cell timing accordingly.

Considering that when the terminal measures the inter-frequency or inter-system NR neighbor SSB, the SMTC is required to determine the sending position of the NR SSB, and the measurement of the gap stop service area data receiving and scheduling is also required. I.e. the terminal needs to configure SMTC based on both Measurement gap (Measurement gap) configured at the network side and synchronization signal Measurement timing. One possible way is that the terminal may combine SMTC configuration information and measurement gap configuration information, measure using the overlap window of SMTC and measurement gap, and measure the different frequency or different system NR neighbor SSB.

Since SSBs of NR are periodically configured, the period may be various, and SSBs may be in the first 5ms (first half frame) or in the second 5ms (second half frame), the location of SSBs is flexible, and SSBs and SMTCs of different frequency point cells are likely to be misaligned in the time domain for a timing asynchronous network. As shown in fig. 2E, the system frame and frame timing offset of the serving cell of the UE corresponding to the cell of the frequency point f1 is SFTD1, SMTC determined according to SFTD1 is f1-SMTC, and SSB with frequency point f1 may be covered, where the period of SSB is 20ms, and the period of the corresponding f1-SMTC is also 20ms. The system frame and frame timing deviation of the cell 2 of the frequency point f2 corresponding to the serving cell of the UE is SFTD2, SMTC determined according to SFTD2 is f2-SMTC, and SSB with frequency point f2 can be covered, the period of SSB is 20ms, and the period of the corresponding f2-SMTC is also 20ms.

For the same FR, NR measurement of all frequency points is a unified configuration measurement gap. The parameters of the measurement gap may include period, offset, and length, and once the parameters of the measurement gap are configured, the location where the measurement gap occurs is fixed in period. At this time, the measurement gap cannot be associated with SSB and SMTC positions different from each frequency point cell. For example, as shown in fig. 2F, the measurement gap set for the measurement gap configured for the terminal coincides with F1-SMTC, and the period of the measurement gap is 40ms. At this time, the measurement gap may cover f1-SMTC, but cannot cover f2-SMTC, resulting in that the terminal cannot measure the neighbor cell with the frequency point f2 in the measurement gap.

For another example, for a timing synchronized network, SSBs and SMTCs of different frequency point cells are likely to be misaligned in the time domain, since SSBs can be in either the first 5ms (first half frame) or the second 5ms (second half frame). As shown in fig. 2G, the SSB configured in the cell of the frequency point f1 is 5ms in the first period, the SSB has a period of 20ms, SMTC determined according to the SSB is f1-SMTC, the offset is 0ms, the period of f1-SMTC is also 20ms, and the SSB of the frequency point f1 can be covered. The SSB configured by the cell 2 of the frequency point f2 is 5ms later, the period of the SSB is 20ms, the SMTC determined according to the SSB is f2-SMTC, the offset is 5ms, the period of the f2-SMTC is also 20ms, and the SSB with the frequency point f2 can be covered. At this time, one measurement gap cannot be configured for measuring SSB with frequency point f1 and frequency point f 2. For example, as shown in fig. 2H, the measurement gap set for the measurement gap configured for the terminal coincides with f2-SMTC, and the period of the measurement gap is 40ms. At this time, the measurement gap may cover f2-SMTC, but cannot cover f1-SMTC, resulting in that the terminal cannot measure a neighbor cell with frequency point f1 in the measurement gap.

In summary, in NSA or SA system, because the measurement gap configured by each frequency point in a unified manner and the SSB and SMTC configured by each frequency point cell are inconsistent in time domain, when the SSB time domain positions of different frequency point cells are inconsistent, the SMTC time domain positions of each frequency point are different, and the terminal measurement is performed by using overlapping windows of SMTC and measurement gap, the situation that the measurement gap and SMTC windows are not overlapped occurs, that is, the measurement gap configured by the network device may not include SSB of a neighboring cell base station, so that the terminal device cannot receive SSB from a neighboring cell base station in the measurement gap, and therefore the terminal device cannot measure SSB of an NR heterogeneous/heterogeneous system neighboring cell, and the NSA system cannot normally add SCG cell to reside in 5G cell, or the SA system NR cannot normally switch to heterogeneous neighboring cell, and cannot drop or switch to the best neighboring cell.

In order to improve the success rate and the efficiency of cell measurement of terminal equipment, the embodiment of the application provides a cell measurement method. The cell measurement method provided by the embodiment of the application can be applied to various scenes in which different frequencies/different systems are required to be measured by a measurement gap measurement mode in the communication system shown in fig. 1, for example, an LTE measurement scene in a 4G communication technology, and the following scenes supporting a dual-connection (Dual Connectivity, DC) technology in a 5G communication technology: EN-DC (EUTRA-NR Dual Connectivity) scene, NE-DC (NR-EUTRA Dual Connectivity), NR-DC, and non-DC scene, SA scene and NSA scene in 5G communication technology. It is assumed that the terminal device 102 accesses a cell a (cell a is a serving cell) managed by the network device 101a, and a cell B, a cell C, and a cell D are neighbor cells determined by the network device 101a for the terminal device 102. For example, in the LTE measurement scenario and the non-DC scenario, the network device 101a sends measurement configuration information to the terminal device 102, where the measurement configuration information includes measurement gap configuration parameters and a neighbor cell list to be measured (including cell B, cell C, and cell D); the terminal equipment 102 determines the time domain position of the measurement gap according to the measurement configuration information, performs cell measurement in the measurement gap, and reports a measurement report to the network equipment 101a after the measurement is completed; the network device 101a switches the terminal device to a cell with better signal quality according to the signal quality parameters of each cell in the measurement report. For another example, in each scenario supporting the dual connectivity technology, cell a is a primary cell (PCell) of the terminal device 102, and the network device 101a is a primary base station of the terminal device 102. The network device 101a sends measurement configuration information to the terminal device 102, wherein the measurement configuration information comprises measurement gap configuration parameters and a neighbor cell list to be measured (comprising a cell B, a cell C and a cell D); the terminal equipment 102 determines the time domain position of the measurement gap according to the measurement configuration information, performs cell measurement in the measurement gap, and reports a measurement report to the network equipment 101a after the measurement is completed; the network device 101a configures a secondary cell (SCell) for the terminal device 102 according to the signal quality parameters of each cell in the measurement report, thereby implementing adding a secondary cell group (secondary cell group, SCG) for the terminal device 102.

The following describes a cell measurement method according to an embodiment of the present application with reference to the flowchart shown in fig. 3. It should be noted that, the method flowchart shown in fig. 3 is not limited to the cell measurement method provided by the present application, and the cell measurement method provided by the present application may include more or fewer steps than the method shown in fig. 3.

Step 301: the base station determines a first target cell and a second target cell to be measured by the terminal equipment.

The cell frequency point of the first target cell is different from the cell frequency point of the second target cell.

Step 302: and the base station configures measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell and measurement gap configuration information of the second target cell for the terminal equipment.

The manner of determining the measurement gap configuration information of each target cell is illustrated below. The method comprises the following steps:

step 3021: the base station receives first measurement information from the terminal equipment;

wherein the first measurement information may include: and the first timing deviation information of the serving cell of the terminal equipment and the first target cell. In a specific implementation process, the terminal device may determine a delay time delay1 of the reference signal of the system frame number SFN1 of the receiving serving cell according to the reference signal of the receiving serving cell. The terminal device may determine, according to the reference signal received by the first target cell, a delay time delay2 for the terminal device to receive the reference signal of the first target cell in the system frame number SFN2, so that the terminal device may determine the first timing deviation information according to a time difference between the delay2 and the delay1. Therefore, the terminal equipment can report the first timing deviation information and the system frame number to the base station.

Alternatively, the first measurement information may further include second timing offset information of the serving cell of the terminal device and the second target cell. In a specific implementation process, the terminal device may determine a delay1 of the reference signal of the receiving serving cell in the system frame number SFN1 according to the reference signal of the receiving serving cell. The terminal device may determine, according to the received reference signal of the second target cell, delay3 of the reference signal of the second target cell received by the terminal device at the system frame number SFN3, so that the terminal device may determine the second timing deviation information according to a time difference between delay3 and delay1. Thus, the terminal equipment can report the second timing deviation information and the system frame number to the base station.

The first timing offset information and the second timing offset information may be transmitted to the base station at the same time, or may be transmitted to the base station separately in a time-sharing manner, and are not limited thereto.

Step 3022: and the base station determines the SMTC information of the first target cell relative to the serving cell according to the first timing deviation information and the SMTC information of the first target cell.

In step 3022, the base station may determine SFTD of the first target cell relative to the serving cell according to the first timing deviation information of the first target cell and the corresponding SFN reported by the terminal measurement.

The time domain position of the reference signal of the first target cell corresponds to a time window corresponding to SMTC information of the first target cell. For example, taking the reference signal as SSB as an example, the base station may determine SMTC information of the first target cell according to SSB configuration information of the first target cell. Thus, the base station may determine SMTC information of the first target cell based on the serving cell frame timing based on SFTD of the first target cell relative to the serving cell and SMTC information of the first target cell. Hereinafter SMTC information of the first target cell is denoted as SMTC (1).

Similarly, the base station may determine SMTC information of the second target cell relative to the serving cell according to the second timing deviation information and SMTC information of the second target cell.

Specifically, the base station may determine SFTD of the second target cell relative to the serving cell according to the second timing deviation information of the second target cell reported by the terminal measurement and the corresponding SFN. Thus, the base station may convert SMTC information of the second target cell into SMTC information of the second target cell with reference to the serving cell frame timing. Hereinafter SMTC information of the second target cell is denoted as SMTC (2).

Considering that the terminal device can measure for different target cells of the same frequency point, and the configuration information of the reference signals under the same frequency point is the same, the base station can configure the same measurement gap information for different target cells of the same frequency point. For example, if the base station determines a third target cell to be measured by the terminal device; the cell frequency point of the third target cell is the same as the cell frequency point of the first target cell; at this time, the STMC information of the third target cell is also the same as that of the first target cell, and the SFTD of the third target cell relative to the serving cell is also the same as that of the first target cell relative to the serving cell. Thus, the measurement gap configuration information of the third target cell may be the same as the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell. Thus, the base station may send second measurement configuration information to the terminal device; the second measurement configuration information is used for indicating measurement gap configuration information of the third target cell; the measurement gap configuration information of the third target cell is the same as the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell.

Step 3023: and the base station determines the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell according to the SMTC information of the first target cell relative to the service cell.

In a possible implementation manner, the base station determines the measurement gap offset of the first target cell according to the offset of the SMTC of the first target cell relative to the serving cell.

For example, the base station may determine, according to SMTC (1), a measurement gap offset1 of the measurement gap of the first target cell, so that a time domain position of the measurement gap is consistent with a time domain position of the first target cell relative to an SMTC of the serving cell, and thus, the terminal device may be caused to measure the reference signal of the first target cell at a position corresponding to the measurement gap.

Similarly, the base station may determine measurement gap configuration information of the second target cell according to SMTC information of the second target cell relative to the serving cell.

In a possible implementation manner, the base station determines the measurement gap offset of the second target cell according to the offset of the SMTC of the second target cell relative to the serving cell.

For example, the base station may determine, according to SMTC (2), a measurement gap offset2 of the measurement gap of the second target cell, so that a time domain position of the measurement gap is consistent with a time domain position of the second target cell relative to the SMTC of the serving cell, and thus, the terminal device may be caused to measure the reference signal of the second target cell at a position corresponding to the measurement gap.

In summary, the base station may configure a measurement gap offset (n) for each frequency point according to the determined SMTC (n) of the target cell of each frequency point, so that the position of the measurement gap of each frequency point is consistent with the SMTC (n) of each frequency point, and thus, when the terminal device adopts the measurement gap, the terminal device can measure the reference signal of the target cell of each frequency point.

There are a number of arrangements for measuring the period of gap. For example, different measurement gap periods may be determined for different target cells, or the same measurement gap period may be set. Taking the measurement gap period of the first target cell as an example, there are various ways to determine the measurement gap period of each target cell, and the following are exemplified in ways 1-2.

A possible implementation manner, the measurement gap configuration information further includes: measuring the gap period; the SMTC information of said first target cell comprises: an SMTC period of said first target cell; the SMTC information of said second target cell comprises: and the SMTC period of said second target cell.

And the base station determines the measurement gap period of the first target cell according to the SMTC period of the first target cell and the SMTC period of the second target cell.

Wherein, mode 1: the measured gap period of the first target cell is greater than the SMTC period of the first target cell; the measured gap period of the first target cell is greater than the SMTC period of the second target cell.

For example, as shown in fig. 4A, the SMTC period of the first target cell is 20ms, and the SMTC period of the second target cell is 20ms; the measurement gap period of the first target cell may be set to 30ms and the measurement gap offset of the first target cell may be set to offset1. At this time, the terminal device may measure the reference signal of the first target cell when the measurement gap period of the first target cell arrives according to the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell. The measurement gap period of the second target cell may be set to 30ms and the measurement gap offset of the second target cell may be set to offset2. At this time, the terminal device may measure the reference signal of the second target cell when the measurement gap period of the second target cell arrives according to the measurement gap configuration information of the second target cell.

In order to reduce the complexity of the configuration information, the measurement gap period of the first target cell may be the same as the measurement gap period of the second target cell, or the measurement gap periods of different target cells may be configured according to different target cells, which is not limited herein.

Mode 2: in order to improve measurement efficiency, the base station may determine a maximum period according to the SMTC period of the first target cell and the SMTC period of the second target cell, so that the maximum period is used as a measurement gap period of the first target cell, and the base station may use a sum of the SMTC period of the first target cell and the SMTC period of the second target cell as a measurement gap period of the second target cell.

As shown in fig. 4B, the SMTC period of the first target cell is 40ms, and the SMTC period of the second target cell is 40ms; the measurement gap period of the first target cell may be set to 80ms and the measurement gap period of the second target cell may be set to 80ms. The measurement gap offset of the first target cell (frequency point 1) may be set to 0 and the measurement gap offset of the second target cell (frequency point 2) may be set to 45ms. Thus, the measurement gap for measuring occupancy on the same frequency band can be 1 measurement gap configured every 40ms, and the time for measuring occupancy of the gap is unchanged. At this time, the terminal device may measure the reference signal of the first target cell when the measurement gap period of the first target cell arrives, and the terminal device may measure the reference signal of the second target cell when the measurement gap period of the second target cell arrives. In order to reduce the complexity of the configuration information, the measurement gap period of the first target cell may be the same as or different from the measurement gap period of the second target cell, which is not described herein.

For another example, the first target Cell (with the frequency point f 1) is Cell1, the second target Cell (with the frequency point f 2) is Cell2, and the measurement gap configuration information of the first target Cell and the measurement gap configuration information of the second target Cell can be determined according to the SFTD1 of the first target Cell relative to the serving Cell and the SFTD2 of the first target Cell relative to the serving Cell measured by the terminal, in combination with the configuration position (SSB is located in the first half frame or the second half frame) of the first target Cell SSB, and the configuration position (SSB is located in the first half frame or the second half frame) of the second target Cell SSB. For example, the measurement gap configuration period of the first target cell is 80ms, and the measurement gap offset of the first target cell measures gap offset=5 ms. The measurement gap configuration period of the first target cell is 80ms, and the measurement gap offset of the second target cell is measured with gap offset=52 ms. Thus, the measurement gap of the first target cell may cover SMTC1 of the frequency point first target cell, and the measurement gap of the second target cell may cover SMTC1 of the second target cell. And the time taken to measure gap is still 40ms, which is the same as SMTC period. Therefore, the terminal can respectively measure the target cells on each frequency point according to the measurement gap configured on each frequency point.

By increasing the measurement gap period corresponding to each frequency point, the positions of each measurement gap in the time domain are not overlapped, and the occupied time of the measurement gap is basically unchanged in the same time period in a mode of setting one measurement gap for the same frequency band, so that the transmission efficiency of the terminal equipment is not affected.

Further, considering that the terminal device may measure M target cells of n frequency points at the same time, the base station may determine a measurement gap period of each target cell according to n SMTC periods of n target cells determined by n frequency points. For example, if n different frequency point cells exist, the measurement gap period may be configured as an nxsmtc period, and the offset may be configured according to SMTC configuration information of each frequency point cell.

Step 303: and the base station sends the first measurement configuration information to the terminal equipment.

Wherein the first measurement configuration information includes: measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell and measurement gap configuration information of the second target cell.

For example, the first measurement configuration information may include measurement gap configuration parameters (measurement gap period, measurement gap length, and measurement gap offset), and may further include information such as a neighbor cell list to be measured, a reporting policy of a measurement report, and the like. For example, the first measurement configuration information may be measurement gap configuration (meas measurement gapConfig) signaling or measurement configuration (measConfig) signaling.

The length of the measurement gap configured by the base station for the terminal device through the first measurement configuration information may be, but is not limited to, 6ms, which is the maximum measurement gap length specified for the LTE communication technology, NR R15 and R16. In the following description and examples of embodiments of the present application, only l=6ms is illustrated as an example.

Step 304: and the terminal equipment measures the first target cell and the second target cell according to the first measurement configuration information.

Specifically, the terminal device measures the reference signal of the first target cell on a time window corresponding to the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell according to the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell.

In a possible implementation manner, the terminal device measures the reference signal of the first target cell in a measurement gap time window corresponding to the measurement gap offset of the first target cell.

Further, in combination with the scenario of measuring the third target cell, the terminal device may further receive second measurement configuration information; and the terminal equipment measures the reference signal of the third target cell according to the second measurement configuration information.

In another possible implementation manner, the terminal device measures the reference signal of the first target cell when the measurement gap period of the first target cell arrives. And the terminal equipment measures the reference signal of the second target cell on a time window corresponding to the measurement gap configuration information of the second target cell according to the measurement gap configuration information of the second target cell.

Further, considering that if the terminal can support the No gap measurement capability under a certain frequency point, the terminal device can report the capability to the base station, and indicate that the measurement of the frequency point does not need to measure the gap in the reporting capability. According to the reporting capability of the terminal, the base station can determine that the frequency point can be measured without configuring measurement gap and only configuring SMTC, the scheduling can not be interrupted when the frequency point is measured, and the terminal continues to transmit and receive data, so that the transmission efficiency is improved. The method specifically comprises the following steps:

step 401: and the terminal equipment reports the capability to the base station.

The capability is used for indicating that the terminal equipment does not configure measurement gap configuration information under the measurement of the first frequency point.

Correspondingly, the base station receives the reporting capability of the terminal equipment.

Step 402: the base station determines a fourth target cell to be measured by the terminal equipment; the cell frequency point of the fourth target cell is the first frequency point; the first frequency point is different from the cell frequency point of the first target cell; the first frequency point is different from the cell frequency point of the second target cell.

Step 403: and the base station sends third measurement configuration information to the terminal equipment.

The third measurement configuration information is used for indicating that the terminal equipment does not configure measurement gap when measuring the fourth target cell. Correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives third measurement configuration information sent by the base station.

In the embodiment of the present application, the sending of each measurement configuration information by the base station to the terminal device and the sending of the measurement report or notification message by the terminal device to the base station may be implemented through RRC signaling, which is not limited in the present application.

Through the cell measurement method, the base station can measure all cells to be measured, so that cell measurement is completed, and performance loss caused by continuous measurement failure is avoided. Therefore, the method can improve the success rate and the efficiency of the cell measurement of the terminal equipment.

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

Fig. 5 is a schematic block diagram of a cell measurement apparatus 500 according to an embodiment of the present application.

The cell measurement apparatus 500 includes a processing module 510 and a transceiver module 520. The cell measurement apparatus 500 may be a network device, for example, a base station, or may be a chip disposed in the network device or other combination device, component, or the like having the functions of the network device. When the cell measurement apparatus 500 is a network device, the transceiver module 520 may be a transceiver, which may include an antenna, a radio frequency circuit, and the like, and the processing module 510 may be a processor, for example, a baseband processor, which may include one or more central processing units (central processing unit, CPU) therein. When the cell measurement apparatus 500 is a component having the above network device function, the transceiver module 520 may be a radio frequency unit, and the processing module 510 may be a processor, for example, a baseband processor. When the cell measurement apparatus 500 is a chip system, the transceiver module 520 may be an input/output interface of a chip (e.g., a baseband chip), and the processing module 510 may be a processor of the chip system, and may include one or more central processing units. It should be appreciated that the processing module 510 in embodiments of the present application may be implemented by a processor or processor-related circuit component, and the transceiver module 520 may be implemented by a transceiver or transceiver-related circuit component.

For example, the processing module 510 may be configured to perform all but the transceiving operations by the base station in the embodiment illustrated in fig. 3, e.g., steps 301-303, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. The transceiver module 520 may be used to perform the overall transceiving operations by the base station in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

In addition, the transceiver module 520 may be a functional module that can perform both transmission and reception operations, for example, the transceiver module 520 may be used to perform all transmission and reception operations performed by the base station in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, for example, the transceiver module 520 may be considered to be a transmission module when performing transmission operations and the transceiver module 520 may be considered to be a reception module when performing reception operations; alternatively, the transceiver module 520 may be two functional modules, where the transceiver module 520 may be regarded as a generic term of the two functional modules, and the two functional modules are a transmitting module and a receiving module, respectively, where the transmitting module is used to perform a transmitting operation, for example, the transmitting module may be used to perform a transmitting operation performed by a base station in any of the embodiments shown in fig. 3, and the receiving module is used to perform a receiving operation, for example, the receiving module may be used to perform a receiving operation performed by a base station in all of the embodiments shown in fig. 3.

The processing module 510 is configured to send first measurement configuration information to the terminal device through the transceiver module; the first measurement configuration information comprises measurement gap configuration information of a first target cell and measurement gap configuration information of a second target cell; the first target cell and the second target cell are cells to be measured by the terminal equipment, and the cell frequency point of the first target cell is different from the cell frequency point of the second target cell.

One possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 520 is further configured to receive first measurement information from the terminal device; the first measurement information includes: first timing deviation information of a serving cell of the terminal device and the first target cell; the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell is determined according to the synchronization Signal Measurement Timing Configuration (SMTC) information of the first target cell relative to the service cell; and the SMTC information of the first target cell relative to the serving cell is determined according to the first timing deviation information and the SMTC information of the first target cell.

A possible implementation manner, the processing module 510 is further configured to send, through the transceiver module 520, second measurement configuration information to the terminal device; the second measurement configuration information is used for indicating measurement gap configuration information of a third target cell; the cell frequency point of the third target cell is the same as the cell frequency point of the first target cell; the measurement gap configuration information of the third target cell is the same as the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell.

In a possible implementation manner, the processing module 510 is further configured to receive, by using the transceiver module 520, a capability reported by the terminal device, and send, by using the transceiver module 520, third measurement configuration information to the terminal device; the capability is used for indicating that the terminal equipment does not configure measurement gap configuration information under the measurement of a first frequency point; the third measurement configuration information is used for indicating the terminal equipment not to configure measurement gap when measuring a fourth target cell; the cell frequency point of the fourth target cell is the first frequency point; the first frequency point is different from the cell frequency point of the first target cell and the cell frequency point of the second target cell.

Fig. 6 is a schematic block diagram of a cell measurement apparatus 600 according to an embodiment of the present application.

The cell measurement apparatus 600 includes a processing module 610 and a transceiving module 620. The cell measurement apparatus 600 may be a terminal device, or may be a chip applied to the terminal device or other combined device, component, etc. having the functions of the terminal device. When the cell measurement apparatus 600 is an in-vehicle device, the transceiver module 620 may be a transceiver, which may include an antenna, a radio frequency circuit, and the like, and the processing module 610 may be a processor, such as a baseband processor, which may include one or more CPUs therein. When the cell measurement apparatus 600 is a component having the above-mentioned terminal device function, the transceiver module 620 may be a radio frequency unit, and the processing module 610 may be a processor, for example, a baseband processor. When the cell measurement apparatus 600 is a chip system, the transceiver module 620 may be an input/output interface of a chip (e.g., a baseband chip), and the processing module 610 may be a processor of the chip system, and may include one or more central processing units. It should be appreciated that the processing module 610 in embodiments of the present application may be implemented by a processor or processor-related circuit component and the transceiver module 620 may be implemented by a transceiver or transceiver-related circuit component.

For example, the processing module 610 may be configured to perform all operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment illustrated in fig. 3, except for the transceiving operations, e.g., step 304, and/or other procedures for supporting the techniques described herein. The transceiver module 620 may be used to perform all of the transceiving operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment illustrated in fig. 3, and/or to support other processes of the techniques described herein.

In addition, the transceiver module 620 may be a functional module that can perform both a transmitting operation and a receiving operation, for example, the transceiver module 620 may be used to perform all the transmitting operation and the receiving operation performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, for example, the transceiver module 620 may be considered to be a transmitting module when performing the transmitting operation and the transceiver module 620 may be considered to be a receiving module when performing the receiving operation; alternatively, the transceiver module 620 may be two functional modules, where the transceiver module 620 may be regarded as a generic term of the two functional modules, and the two functional modules are respectively a transmitting module and a receiving module, where the transmitting module is used to perform a transmitting operation, for example, the transmitting module may be used to perform a transmitting operation performed by a terminal device in any of the embodiments shown in fig. 3, and the receiving module is used to perform a receiving operation, for example, the receiving module may be used to perform a receiving operation performed by a terminal device in all of the embodiments shown in fig. 3.

The processing module 610 is configured to receive, through the transceiver module 620, first measurement configuration information from a base station, where the first measurement configuration information includes measurement gap configuration information of a first target cell and measurement gap configuration information of a second target cell; measuring the reference signal of the first target cell on a time window corresponding to the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell; and measuring the reference signal of the second target cell on a time window corresponding to the measurement gap configuration information of the second target cell.

In a possible implementation manner, the processing module is further configured to send, before receiving, by the transceiver module 620, the first measurement configuration information from the base station, the first measurement information to the base station by the transceiver module 620; the first measurement information includes: first timing deviation information of a serving cell of the terminal device and the first target cell; the first timing deviation information is used for determining the synchronization signal measurement timing configuration SMTC information of the first target cell relative to the serving cell of the terminal equipment; the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell is determined according to SMTC information of the first target cell relative to a serving cell of the terminal device.

A possible implementation manner, the measurement gap configuration information includes: measuring the gap offset; the SMTC information of said first target cell relative to said serving cell comprises: an SMTC offset of said first target cell relative to said serving cell; the measurement gap offset of the first target cell is determined according to the SMTC offset included in the SMTC information of the first target cell relative to the serving cell; the processing module 610 is configured to measure a reference signal of the first target cell within a measurement gap time window corresponding to a measurement gap offset of the first target cell; the time domain position of the reference signal of the first target cell corresponds to a time window corresponding to SMTC information of the first target cell.

A possible implementation manner, the measurement gap configuration information further includes: measuring the gap period; the SMTC information of said first target cell relative to said serving cell comprises: an SMTC period of said first target cell relative to said serving cell; the measurement gap period of the first target cell is determined according to the SMTC period of the first target cell and the SMTC period of the second target cell; the measured gap period of the first target cell is greater than the SMTC period of the first target cell and the SMTC period of the second target cell; the processing module 610 is configured to measure a reference signal of the first target cell when a measurement gap period of the first target cell arrives.

In a possible implementation manner, the processing module 610 is configured to receive, through the transceiver module 620, second measurement configuration information; measuring the reference signal of the third target cell according to the second measurement configuration information; the second measurement configuration information is used for indicating measurement gap configuration information of the third target cell; the measurement gap configuration information of the third target cell is the same as the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell; and the cell frequency point of the third target cell is the same as the cell frequency point of the first target cell.

In a possible implementation manner, the processing module 610 is configured to report, through the transceiver module 620, a capability to the base station; the capability is used for indicating that the terminal equipment does not configure measurement gap configuration information under the measurement of a first frequency point; receiving, by the transceiver module 620, third measurement configuration information transmitted by the base station; the third measurement configuration information is used for indicating the terminal equipment not to configure measurement gap when measuring a fourth target cell; the cell frequency point of the fourth target cell is the first frequency point; the first frequency point is different from the cell frequency point of the first target cell and the cell frequency point of the second target cell.

For other functions that can be implemented by the cell measurement apparatus 600, reference may be made to the related description of the embodiment shown in fig. 3, which is not repeated.

The embodiment of the application also provides a cell measurement device which can be network equipment, terminal equipment, a circuit or vehicle-mounted equipment. The cell measurement apparatus may be configured to perform the actions performed by the base station or the terminal device in the above-described method embodiments.

Based on the same concept as the cell measurement method described above, as shown in fig. 7, an embodiment of the present application further provides a cell measurement apparatus 700. The cell measurement apparatus 700 may be used to implement the method performed by the base station or the terminal device in the above method embodiment, and may be referred to as description in the above method embodiment, where the cell measurement apparatus 700 may be a network device, a terminal device, a vehicle-mounted device, or may be located in the network device, the terminal device, or the vehicle-mounted device, and may be an originating device or a receiving device.

The cell measurement apparatus 700 includes one or more processors 701. The processor 701 may be a general purpose processor or a special purpose processor, etc. For example, a baseband processor, or a central processing unit. The baseband processor may be configured to process communication protocols and communication data, and the central processor may be configured to control cell measurement devices (e.g., network devices, terminal devices, vehicle devices or chips, etc.), execute software programs, and process data of the software programs. The cell measurement apparatus 700 may include a transceiving unit to implement input (reception) and output (transmission) of signals. For example, the transceiver unit may be a transceiver, a radio frequency chip, or the like.

The cell measurement apparatus 700 includes one or more processors 701, and the one or more processors 701 may implement the methods performed by the base station or the terminal device in the embodiments shown above.

Alternatively, the processor 701 may implement other functions in addition to the methods in the embodiments shown above. Alternatively, in an implementation manner, the processor 701 may execute a computer program, so that the cell measurement apparatus 700 performs a method performed by the base station or the terminal device in the above-described method embodiment. The computer program may be stored in whole or in part in the processor 701, such as the computer program 703, or in whole or in part in the memory 702 coupled to the processor 701, such as the computer program 704, or the computer programs 703 and 704 together may cause the cell measurement apparatus 700 to perform the methods performed by the base station or the terminal device in the above method embodiments.

In yet another possible implementation manner, the cell measurement apparatus 700 may also include a circuit, where the circuit may implement the functions performed by the base station or the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiment.

In yet another possible implementation, the cell measurement apparatus 700 may include one or more memories 702 having stored thereon a computer program 704 executable on a processor to cause the cell measurement apparatus 700 to perform the cell measurement methods described in the method embodiments above. Optionally, the memory may also have data stored therein. In the alternative, the processor may store a computer program and/or data. For example, the one or more memories 702 may store associations or correspondence relationships described in the above embodiments, or related parameters or tables, etc. involved in the above embodiments. The processor and the memory may be provided separately, or may be integrated or coupled together.

In yet another possible implementation, the cell measurement apparatus 700 may further comprise a transceiving unit 705. The processor 701 may be referred to as a processing unit, controlling the cell measurement apparatus (e.g. a base station or a terminal device). The transceiver unit 705 may be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, a transceiver, or the like, for implementing the transmission and reception of data or control signaling.

For example, if the cell measurement apparatus 700 is a chip applied to a communication device or other combined device, component, or the like having the functions of the communication device, the cell measurement apparatus 700 may include the transceiver unit 705 therein.

In yet another possible implementation, the cell measurement apparatus 700 may further include a transceiving unit 705 and an antenna 706. The processor 701 may be referred to as a processing unit, controlling the cell measurement apparatus (e.g. a base station or a terminal device). The transceiver unit 705 may be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, a transceiver, or the like, for implementing the transceiver function of the apparatus through the antenna 706.

It should be noted that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be an integrated circuit chip with signal processing capability. In implementation, the steps of the above-described method embodiments may be implemented by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or by a computer program in software form. The processor may be a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (digital signal processor, DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), an off-the-shelf programmable gate array (field programmable gate array, FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware components. The methods, steps and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented or performed. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. The steps of the method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be directly embodied as being performed by a hardware decoding processor, or may be performed by a combination of hardware and software modules in the decoding processor. The software modules may be located in a random access memory, flash memory, read only memory, programmable read only memory, or electrically erasable programmable memory, registers, etc. as well known in the art. The storage medium is located in a memory, and the processor reads the information in the memory and, in combination with its hardware, performs the steps of the above method.

It will be appreciated that the memory in embodiments of the application may be volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an electrically Erasable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be random access memory (random access memory, RAM) which acts as an external cache. By way of example, and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct memory bus RAM (DR RAM). It should be noted that the memory of the systems and methods described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

The embodiment of the application also provides a computer readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, which when executed by a computer implements the method of any of the above-mentioned method embodiments applied to a base station or a terminal device.

The embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product which, when executed by a computer, implements the method described in any of the method embodiments applied to a base station or a terminal device.

In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product comprises one or more computer programs. When the computer program is loaded and executed on a computer, the flow or functions according to the embodiments of the present application are produced in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable apparatus. The computer program may be stored in or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another, for example, a website, computer, server, or data center via a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, digital subscriber line (digital subscriber line, DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) means. Computer readable storage media can be any available media that can be accessed by a computer or data storage devices, such as servers, data centers, etc., that contain an integration of one or more available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a high-density digital video disc (digital video disc, DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), or the like.

The embodiment of the application also provides a cell measurement device, which comprises a processor and an interface; a processor, configured to perform a method according to any of the method embodiments applied to the base station or the terminal device.

It should be understood that the processing device may be a chip, and the processor may be implemented by hardware or software, and when implemented by hardware, the processor may be a logic circuit, an integrated circuit, or the like; when implemented in software, the processor may be a general-purpose processor, implemented by reading software code stored in a memory, which may be integrated in the processor or located outside the processor, and which may exist separately.

The embodiment of the application provides a communication system. The communication system may comprise a base station and a terminal device according to the embodiments shown in fig. 3 described above. The base station is, for example, the cell measurement apparatus 500 in fig. 5, and the terminal device is, for example, the cell measurement apparatus 600 in fig. 6.

The embodiment of the application also provides a computer readable storage medium, and the computer readable storage medium stores a computer program, and when the computer program is executed by a computer, the computer can implement the flow related to the base station or the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 3 provided by the embodiment of the method.

The embodiment of the application also provides a computer program product, which is used for storing a computer program, and when the computer program is executed by a computer, the computer can implement the flow related to the base station or the terminal device in the embodiment provided by the method embodiment or the embodiment shown in fig. 5.

It should be appreciated that the processor referred to in embodiments of the present application may be a CPU, but may also be other general purpose processors, digital signal processors (digital signal processor, DSP), application specific integrated circuits (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), off-the-shelf programmable gate arrays (field programmable gate array, FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, or the like. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

It should also be understood that the memory referred to in embodiments of the present application may be volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an electrically Erasable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be random access memory (random access memory, RAM) which acts as an external cache. By way of example, and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct memory bus RAM (DR RAM).

Note that when the processor is a general-purpose processor, DSP, ASIC, FPGA or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware components, the memory (storage module) is integrated into the processor.

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

It should be understood that, in various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the foregoing processes do not mean the order of execution, and the order of execution of the processes should be determined by the functions and internal logic thereof, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

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

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

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

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

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

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied essentially or in a part contributing to the prior art or in a part of the technical solution, in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, comprising several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. The foregoing computer-readable storage media can be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. Taking this as an example but not limited to: the computer readable medium may include random access memory (random access memory, RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (electrically erasable programmable read only memory, EEPROM), compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), universal serial bus flash disk (universal serial bus flash disk), removable hard disk, or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or 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.

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

Claims

1. A method for cell measurement, comprising:

the base station sends first measurement configuration information to the terminal equipment; the first measurement configuration information comprises measurement gap configuration information of a first target cell and measurement gap configuration information of a second target cell;

the first target cell and the second target cell are cells to be measured by the terminal equipment, and the cell frequency point of the first target cell is different from the cell frequency point of the second target cell;

the method further comprises the steps of:

the base station receives first measurement information from the terminal equipment; the first measurement information includes: first timing deviation information of a serving cell of the terminal device and the first target cell;

The measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell is determined according to the synchronization Signal Measurement Timing Configuration (SMTC) information of the first target cell relative to the service cell; the SMTC information of the first target cell relative to the serving cell is determined according to the first timing deviation information and the SMTC information of the first target cell;

the measurement gap configuration information includes: measuring the gap offset; the measured gap offset of the first target cell is determined according to an SMTC offset included in SMTC information of the first target cell relative to the serving cell.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the measuring gap configuration information further comprises: measuring the gap period; the SMTC information of said first target cell comprises: an SMTC period of said first target cell; the SMTC information of said second target cell comprises: an SMTC period of said second target cell;

the measurement gap period of the first target cell is determined according to the SMTC period of the first target cell and the SMTC period of the second target cell; the measured gap period of the first target cell is greater than the SMTC period of the first target cell; and/or the measured gap period of the first target cell is greater than the SMTC period of the second target cell.

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

the base station sends second measurement configuration information to the terminal equipment; the second measurement configuration information is used for indicating measurement gap configuration information of a third target cell; the cell frequency point of the third target cell is the same as the cell frequency point of the first target cell; the measurement gap configuration information of the third target cell is the same as the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell.

4. A method according to any one of claims 1-3, wherein the method further comprises:

the base station receives the report capability of the terminal equipment; the capability is used for indicating that the terminal equipment does not configure measurement gap configuration information under the measurement of a first frequency point;

the base station sends third measurement configuration information to the terminal equipment; the third measurement configuration information is used for indicating the terminal equipment not to configure measurement gap when measuring a fourth target cell; the cell frequency point of the fourth target cell is the first frequency point; the first frequency point is different from the cell frequency point of the first target cell and the cell frequency point of the second target cell.

5. A method for cell measurement, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that terminal equipment receives first measurement configuration information from a base station, wherein the first measurement configuration information comprises measurement gap configuration information of a first target cell and measurement gap configuration information of a second target cell;

the terminal equipment measures the reference signal of the first target cell on a time window corresponding to the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell; measuring the reference signal of the second target cell on a time window corresponding to the measurement gap configuration information of the second target cell;

before the terminal device receives the first measurement configuration information from the base station, the method further comprises:

the terminal equipment sends first measurement information to the base station; the first measurement information includes: first timing deviation information of a serving cell of the terminal device and the first target cell;

the first timing deviation information is used for determining the synchronization signal measurement timing configuration SMTC information of the first target cell relative to the serving cell of the terminal equipment; the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell is determined according to the SMTC information of the first target cell relative to the serving cell of the terminal equipment;

The measurement gap configuration information includes: measuring the gap offset; the SMTC information of said first target cell relative to said serving cell comprises: an SMTC offset of said first target cell relative to said serving cell; the measurement gap offset of the first target cell is determined according to the SMTC offset included in the SMTC information of the first target cell relative to the serving cell;

the terminal device measures a reference signal of the first target cell, including:

the terminal equipment measures the reference signal of the first target cell in a measurement gap time window corresponding to the measurement gap offset of the first target cell; the time domain position of the reference signal of the first target cell corresponds to a time window corresponding to SMTC information of the first target cell.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the measuring gap configuration information further comprises: measuring the gap period; the SMTC information of said first target cell relative to said serving cell comprises: an SMTC period of said first target cell relative to said serving cell; the measurement gap period of the first target cell is determined according to the SMTC period of the first target cell and the SMTC period of the second target cell; the measured gap period of the first target cell is greater than the SMTC period of the first target cell; and/or the measured gap period of the first target cell is greater than the SMTC period of the second target cell;

and the terminal equipment measures the reference signal of the first target cell when the measurement gap period of the first target cell arrives.

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

the terminal equipment receives second measurement configuration information; the second measurement configuration information is used for indicating measurement gap configuration information of a third target cell; the measurement gap configuration information of the third target cell is the same as the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell; the cell frequency point of the third target cell is the same as the cell frequency point of the first target cell;

and the terminal equipment measures the reference signal of the third target cell according to the second measurement configuration information.

8. The method of any one of claims 5-7, wherein the method further comprises:

the terminal equipment reports the capability to the base station; the capability is used for indicating that the terminal equipment does not configure measurement gap configuration information under the measurement of a first frequency point;

the terminal equipment receives third measurement configuration information sent by the base station; the third measurement configuration information is used for indicating the terminal equipment not to configure measurement gap when measuring a fourth target cell; the cell frequency point of the fourth target cell is the first frequency point; the first frequency point is different from the cell frequency point of the first target cell and the cell frequency point of the second target cell.

9. A cell measurement apparatus, the apparatus comprising: a processing module and a receiving-transmitting module;

the processing module is used for sending first measurement configuration information to the terminal equipment through the receiving and transmitting module; the first measurement configuration information comprises measurement gap configuration information of a first target cell and measurement gap configuration information of a second target cell;

the transceiver module is further configured to receive first measurement information from the terminal device; the first measurement information includes: first timing deviation information of a serving cell of the terminal device and the first target cell; the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell is determined according to the synchronization Signal Measurement Timing Configuration (SMTC) information of the first target cell relative to the service cell; the SMTC information of the first target cell relative to the serving cell is determined according to the first timing deviation information and the SMTC information of the first target cell;

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the measurement gap configuration information further comprises: measuring the gap period; the SMTC information of said first target cell comprises: an SMTC period of said first target cell; the SMTC information of said second target cell comprises: an SMTC period of said second target cell;

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processing module is further configured to send second measurement configuration information to the terminal device through the transceiver module; the second measurement configuration information is used for indicating measurement gap configuration information of a third target cell; the cell frequency point of the third target cell is the same as the cell frequency point of the first target cell; the measurement gap configuration information of the third target cell is the same as the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell.

12. The apparatus according to any one of claims 9-11, wherein the processing module is further configured to receive, through the transceiver module, a capability reported by the terminal device, and send, through the transceiver module, third measurement configuration information to the terminal device; the capability is used for indicating that the terminal equipment does not configure measurement gap configuration information under the measurement of a first frequency point; the third measurement configuration information is used for indicating the terminal equipment not to configure measurement gap when measuring a fourth target cell; the cell frequency point of the fourth target cell is the first frequency point; the first frequency point is different from the cell frequency point of the first target cell and the cell frequency point of the second target cell.

13. A cell measurement apparatus, the apparatus comprising: a processing module and a receiving-transmitting module;

the processing module is configured to receive, through the transceiver module, first measurement configuration information from a base station, where the first measurement configuration information includes measurement gap configuration information of a first target cell and measurement gap configuration information of a second target cell; measuring the reference signal of the first target cell on a time window corresponding to the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell; measuring the reference signal of the second target cell on a time window corresponding to the measurement gap configuration information of the second target cell;

The processing module is further configured to send first measurement information to the base station through the transceiver module before receiving the first measurement configuration information from the base station through the transceiver module; the first measurement information includes: first timing deviation information of a serving cell of the terminal device and the first target cell;

the measurement gap configuration information includes: measuring the gap offset; the SMTC information of said first target cell relative to said serving cell comprises: an SMTC offset of said first target cell relative to said serving cell; the measurement gap offset of the first target cell is determined according to the SMTC offset included in the SMTC information of the first target cell relative to the serving cell; the processing module is configured to measure a reference signal of the first target cell in a measurement gap time window corresponding to a measurement gap offset of the first target cell; the time domain position of the reference signal of the first target cell corresponds to a time window corresponding to SMTC information of the first target cell.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the measurement gap configuration information further comprises: measuring the gap period; the SMTC information of said first target cell relative to said serving cell comprises: an SMTC period of said first target cell relative to said serving cell; the measurement gap period of the first target cell is determined according to the SMTC period of the first target cell and the SMTC period of the second target cell; the measured gap period of the first target cell is greater than the SMTC period of the first target cell; and/or the measured gap period of the first target cell is greater than the SMTC period of the second target cell;

the processing module is configured to measure a reference signal of the first target cell when a measurement gap period of the first target cell arrives.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the processing module is to receive second measurement configuration information through the transceiver module; measuring a reference signal of a third target cell according to the second measurement configuration information; the second measurement configuration information is used for indicating measurement gap configuration information of the third target cell; the measurement gap configuration information of the third target cell is the same as the measurement gap configuration information of the first target cell; and the cell frequency point of the third target cell is the same as the cell frequency point of the first target cell.

16. The apparatus according to any of claims 13-15, wherein the processing module is configured to report capabilities to the base station through the transceiver module; the capability is used for indicating that the terminal equipment does not configure measurement gap configuration information under the measurement of a first frequency point; receiving third measurement configuration information sent by the base station through the transceiver module; the third measurement configuration information is used for indicating the terminal equipment not to configure measurement gap when measuring a fourth target cell; the cell frequency point of the fourth target cell is the first frequency point; the first frequency point is different from the cell frequency point of the first target cell and the cell frequency point of the second target cell.

17. A cell measurement apparatus comprising a processor coupled to at least one memory, the processor configured to read a computer program stored in the at least one memory to perform the method of any one of claims 1-4 or to perform the method of any one of claims 5-8.

18. A computer readable storage medium comprising a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 8.

19. A chip comprising a processor and a communication interface, the processor configured to read instructions to perform the method of any one of claims 1-4 or to perform the method of any one of claims 5-8.

20. A communication system comprising a cell measurement device according to any one of claims 9 to 12 and a cell measurement device according to any one of claims 13 to 16.