CN114071669A

CN114071669A - Paging method and device

Info

Publication number: CN114071669A
Application number: CN202010791001.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 薛祎凡; 薛丽霞
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-07-31
Filing date: 2020-08-07
Publication date: 2022-02-18

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a paging method and apparatus, which solve the problem of large energy consumption of a terminal when paging the terminal. The method may include: the method comprises the steps that a terminal receives a first paging indication sent by network equipment before a paging occasion of the terminal, wherein the first paging indication comprises a first field, the first field is used for indicating whether paging is sent in R paging occasions, the R paging occasions comprise the paging occasion of the terminal, and R is an integer larger than or equal to 1; and the terminal determines whether to monitor the DCI at the paging occasion of the terminal according to the first paging occasion. The scheme can be widely applied to the fields of communication technology field, artificial intelligence, Internet of vehicles, intelligent home networking and the like.

Description

Paging method and device

The present application claims priority from a chinese patent application filed by the national intellectual property office on 31/7/2020 under the application number CN 202010761727.7 entitled "a paging indicator DCI design method", the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Technical Field

The embodiment of the application relates to the technical field of communication, in particular to a paging method and a paging device.

Background

When the terminal is in an idle (idle) state or an inactive (inactive) state, it will periodically receive a paging (paging) initiated by the network side, such as: the terminal calculates a paging frame (paging frame) and a paging occasion (paging occasion) in the PF, monitors Downlink Control Information (DCI) for scheduling a paging message in the PO, receives a PDSCH carrying the paging message at a position indicated by the DCI if the DCI is monitored and the monitored DCI schedules a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) carrying the paging message, and determines whether the terminal is paged according to the paging message carried by the PDSCH.

Before the terminal monitors DCI in the PO, the terminal needs to receive one or more Synchronization Signal Blocks (SSBs) transmitted by the network side, and perform time/frequency synchronization, Automatic Gain Control (AGC) adjustment, and the like using the SSBs so as to correctly receive the DCI, that is, the terminal needs to consume energy to receive one or more SSBs before monitoring the DCI. After receiving the SSBs, the terminal does not need to receive signals until the PO, or between two SSBs, but needs to maintain an operating state to prepare for communication, which consumes a certain amount of energy.

In the research stage of terminal energy saving, how to reduce the energy consumption of the terminal in the process of paging the terminal is called as a problem to be solved urgently.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a paging method and a paging device, which solve the problem of large energy consumption of a terminal when the terminal is paged.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the embodiment of the present application adopts the following technical solutions:

in a first aspect, the present application provides a paging method, including: the terminal receives a first paging indication which is sent by the network equipment and comprises a first field before the paging occasion of the terminal, wherein the first field is used for indicating whether paging is sent in R paging occasions comprising the paging occasion of the terminal, and the terminal determines whether to monitor DCI (downlink control information) used for scheduling paging messages on the paging occasion of the terminal according to the first paging occasion.

Based on the method of the first aspect, a paging indicator may be preset before a paging occasion, and whether paging is available in the paging occasion is indicated to the terminal in advance through the paging indicator, so that the terminal is triggered to stop working in advance when no paging is available in the paging occasion, and enter a sleep state, thereby reducing energy consumption of the terminal.

In one possible design, the first field includes R pieces of indication information, the ith piece of indication information in the R pieces of indication information indicates whether or not paging is sent in the ith paging time in the R paging occasions, i is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to R, based on the possible design, indication information corresponding to the paging occasions one to one can be designed in the paging indication, so that the terminal can well distinguish the indication information corresponding to its paging occasion from the multiple pieces of indication information, and system design is simplified.

In one possible design, the determining, by the terminal, whether to monitor the DCI at the paging occasion of the terminal according to the first paging occasion includes: and the terminal determines the indication information corresponding to the paging occasion of the terminal according to the time domain position of the paging occasion of the terminal in the R paging occasions, and determines whether to monitor the DCI at the paging occasion of the terminal according to the indication information corresponding to the paging occasion of the terminal. Based on the possible design, the terminal can find the indication information corresponding to the paging occasion of the terminal based on the time domain positions of the paging occasions corresponding to the paging indications, and determine whether the DCI needs to be continuously monitored or not according to the paging indications corresponding to the paging occasions of the terminal, so that the accuracy of the terminal for acquiring whether the paging information exists in the paging occasion of the terminal in advance is improved, and meanwhile, the system design is simplified.

In one possible design, a terminal receives a first paging indicator sent by a network device before a paging occasion of the terminal, where the first paging indicator includes: the terminal determines K paging indications corresponding to the paging occasion of the terminal according to the time domain position of the paging occasion of the terminal, wherein K is an integer greater than or equal to 1, the terminal receives the K paging indications before the paging occasion, and determines a first paging indication from the K paging indications. Based on the possible design, one paging occasion can be set to correspond to a plurality of paging indications, and by designing the plurality of paging indications, the terminal can be guaranteed to receive the paging indications belonging to the paging occasion to the maximum extent, so that whether paging exists in the paging occasion or not is known in advance, and energy consumption is further saved.

In one possible design, K is configured to the terminal by the network device, that is, there is a network device that manages the number of paging indicators corresponding to the paging occasions uniformly, so that the configuration of each terminal is uniform, the management is facilitated, and the configuration flexibility of the network device is improved.

In one possible design, the receiving, by the terminal, the first paging indication sent by the network device before the paging occasion of the terminal includes: the terminal receives a first paging indication sent by the network equipment in a monitoring time interval, and the paging indication is received by designing the monitoring time interval, so that the system design is simplified.

In one possible design, the terminal receives monitoring time window configuration information which is sent by the network device and used for determining the monitoring time interval, and the monitoring time interval is determined according to the monitoring time window configuration information, namely the monitoring time interval is configured by the network device, so that the configuration of each terminal is uniform, the management is convenient, and the configuration flexibility of the network device is improved.

In a possible design, R paging occasions are R paging occasions closest to the first paging indication after the first paging indication, so that the time domain positions of the paging indication and the paging occasions are close to each other, and the time interval between the paging occasion and the paging indication is shortened, so as to avoid the problem of excessive energy consumption caused by that the terminal monitors DCI on the paging occasion within a long period of time after receiving the paging indication when paging is present in the paging indication paging occasion.

In one possible design, R is configured to the terminal by the network device, that is, the value of R is configured by the network device, so that the configuration of each terminal is uniform, the management is facilitated, and the configuration flexibility of the network device is improved.

In one possible design, the first field includes indication information corresponding to each of R paging occasions, the indication information corresponding to each of the R paging occasions includes M bits, the M bits are used to indicate whether paging is available in the paging occasion corresponding to the indication information, and M is an integer greater than or equal to 1. Based on the possible design, the indication information indicating the paging occasions can include a plurality of bits, that is, the paging occasions are grouped, so that the false alarm probability of the terminal is reduced, and the probability that the terminal is successfully paged is improved.

In one possible design, M is configured by the network device to the terminal; alternatively, M satisfies the formula:

a is the length of one paging indicator, and B is the length of a field indicating valid information except for the first field in the paging indicator. Based on the possible design, the bit number of blank filling (padding) in the paging indication can be made as small as possible, the bit number of effective information is made as large as possible, and the number M of further grouping of the paging occasions is made as large as possible, so that the paging false alarm probability of the terminal is reduced, and the probability that the terminal is successfully paged is improved.

In one possible design, the first field includes indication information corresponding to each of the R paging occasions; in R paging occasions

The indication information corresponding to each paging occasion comprises

A bit; the indication information corresponding to each paging occasion in the rest paging occasions in the R paging occasions comprises

A bit; a is the length of the paging indication, and B is the length of the field of the paging indication indicating valid information except the first field. Based on the possible design, the existence of padding bits can be completely avoided, the bit number of effective information is as maximum as possible, the number M of further groups at the paging occasion is as large as possible, the paging false alarm probability of the terminal is reduced, and the probability that the terminal is paged successfully is improved.

In one possible design, the paging indicator further includes one or more of the following fields: a second field, a third field, a fourth field; a second field for indicating whether the paging indication includes an SM; a third field for indicating SM; the fourth field is used to indicate availability of an auxiliary reference signal, which is a network equipment configured auxiliary reference signal or an auxiliary reference signal associated with R paging occasions. Based on the possible design, some fields for indicating useful information may be set in advance in the paging indication, so as to enable the terminal to know the useful information in advance, and avoid energy consumption caused by the terminal having to acquire the useful information from DCI or other information after presynchronization.

In one possible design, the second field is information common to R paging occasions, and based on the possible design, the second field may be set to information common to multiple paging occasions, thereby reducing overhead.

In one possible design, SM indicates one or more of the following: the system information change indication information, the earthquake and tsunami early warning information, the business movement alarm information and the indication information for stopping monitoring the paging information can carry more useful information in the SM as much as possible on the basis, and the use range of the information indicated by the SM is widened.

In one possible design, the length of the third field is configured by the network device. Based on the possible design, the length of the third field can be configured by the network device, so that the configuration flexibility and the control right of the network device are improved.

In one possible design, the third field is information common to R paging occasions. Based on this possible design, the third field may be set to information common to multiple paging occasions, reducing overhead.

In one possible design, the fourth field is to indicate availability of an auxiliary reference signal, and the fourth field includes: the length of the fourth field is equal to the number of auxiliary reference signals or auxiliary reference signal groups configured by the network equipment, wherein the auxiliary reference signal group comprises one or more auxiliary reference signals; alternatively, the length of the fourth field is equal to the number of auxiliary reference signals or groups of auxiliary reference signals associated with R paging occasions, or the fourth field comprises R subfields corresponding to R paging occasions, one subfield for indicating the availability of auxiliary reference signals associated with paging occasions corresponding to the subfields. Based on the possible design, the availability of the auxiliary reference signal or the auxiliary reference signal group can be indicated through the fourth field, the indication mode is flexible and various, and the applicability is wide.

In one possible design, the first paging indication further includes a fifth field; a fifth field for indicating the number of paging occasions indicated by the first field; alternatively, the fifth field is used to indicate the length of the first field, and thus, more flexible adjustment of the number of paging indications indicated by the first field or the length of the first field may be facilitated.

In a possible design, the indication contents of the first fields in different paging indications for the same paging occasion are the same, so that the terminal is prevented from being unable to achieve the purpose of saving energy through the paging indication due to possible inconsistency of the indication information received by the terminal and corresponding to the paging occasion.

In one possible design, the first paging indicator has a QCL relationship with the closest synchronization signal block SSB to the first paging indicator; or, the first paging indication and the SSB associated with the first paging indication are in a QCL relationship, so that the terminal receives the paging indication according to the receiving beam of the SSB, and the accuracy of receiving the paging indication by the terminal is improved.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which may be a terminal or a chip or a system on a chip in a terminal, and may also be a functional module in a terminal for implementing the method according to the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect. The communication device may implement the functions performed by the terminal in the aspects or possible designs described above, which may be implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software comprises one or more modules corresponding to the functions. Such as: the communication apparatus may include: a receiving unit, a processing unit;

the receiving unit is used for receiving a first paging indication which is sent by the network equipment and comprises a first field before the paging occasion of the terminal, wherein the first field is used for indicating whether paging is sent in R paging occasions comprising the paging occasion of the terminal.

And the processing unit is used for determining whether to monitor DCI used for scheduling the paging message on the paging occasion of the terminal according to the first paging occasion.

Specifically, the relevant actions performed by the receiving unit and the processing unit may refer to the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect, which is not repeated herein.

In a third aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, which may be a terminal or a chip in a terminal or a system on a chip. The communication device may implement the functions performed by the terminal in the aspects described above or in each of the possible designs, which functions may be implemented by hardware. In one possible design, the communication device may include: a processor and a communications interface, the processor being operable to support a communications device to implement the functionality referred to in the first aspect above or in any one of the possible designs of the first aspect, for example: the processor is configured to receive, through the communication interface, a first paging indication including a first field sent by the network device before a paging occasion of the terminal, where the first field is used to indicate whether to send a page within R paging occasions including the paging occasion of the terminal, and determine whether to monitor DCI for scheduling a paging message at the paging occasion of the terminal according to the first paging occasion. In yet another possible design, the communication device may further include a memory, the memory for storing computer-executable instructions and data necessary for the communication device. The processor executes the computer executable instructions stored by the memory when the communication device is operating to cause the communication device to perform a paging method as set forth in the first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, which may be a readable non-volatile storage medium, having stored therein instructions, which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the paging method of the first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the above aspect.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the paging method of the first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the above aspects.

In a sixth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, which may be a terminal or a chip in a terminal or a system on a chip, and includes one or more processors, one or more memories. The one or more memories are coupled to the one or more processors for storing computer program code comprising computer instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the terminal to perform the paging method as set forth in the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect.

For technical effects brought by any design manner in the third aspect to the sixth aspect, reference may be made to the technical effects brought by the first aspect or any possible design manner in the first aspect, and details are not repeated.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, where the communication system may include: the communication apparatus or the system-on-chip, the network device according to any of the second or sixth aspects.

Drawings

FIG. 1a is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between PF and PO;

FIG. 1b is a schematic diagram of the time domain position relationship between a PO and an SSB;

FIG. 1c is a schematic diagram of the time domain position relationship between a plurality of POs and SSBs;

FIG. 1d is a diagram illustrating SSB and PO monitoring at different terminals;

FIG. 1e is a diagram illustrating the relationship between pre-indicated whether to be paged and energy consumption;

FIG. 1f is a diagram illustrating the relationship between paging indication location and energy consumption;

FIG. 1g is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between SSB and MO in PO during an SSB period;

FIG. 2 is a diagram of fields included in a paging indicator;

fig. 3a is a schematic diagram of a mapping relationship between a paging occasion and a paging indicator according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3b is a schematic diagram of a mapping relationship between a paging occasion and a paging indicator according to another embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3c is a schematic diagram of a mapping relationship between a paging occasion and a paging indicator according to another embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a diagram of a communication system architecture provided herein;

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

fig. 6 is a flowchart of a paging method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating a communication device 70 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 8 is a schematic composition diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

Before the embodiments of the present application are introduced, some terms (such as paging, PO, DCI, etc.) related to the embodiments of the present application are explained, and it should be noted that the following explanation is for making the embodiments of the present application easier to understand and should not be construed as limiting the scope of protection claimed by the embodiments of the present application.

Paging (paging): the method is a process that a network side device periodically sends a paging message to a terminal in an idle (idle) state or an inactive (inactive) state, so as to wake up the terminal in the idle state or the inactive state to return to a connected (connected) state. The one-time paging procedure may include: on a network side, a network side device (e.g., an access network device) calculates a Paging Occasion (PO) corresponding to a terminal, and sends a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) carrying DCI to the terminal on the PO of the terminal, where the DCI may be used to indicate whether the DCI schedules a PDSCH carrying a paging message (paging message), and if the DCI indicates that the DCI schedules the PDSCH carrying the paging message, the network side device sends the PDSCH carrying the paging message on a resource position indicated by the DCI. At a terminal side, the terminal calculates a PO corresponding to the terminal, monitors DCI by using a paging-radio network temporary identifier (P-RNTI) of the terminal in the calculated PO, and if the DCI is monitored and the DCI indicates that the PDSCH carrying the paging message is scheduled, the terminal receives the PDSCH carrying the paging message according to a resource position indicated by the DCI, determines whether the terminal is paged according to the paging message carried by the PDSCH, if the paging message can carry identification information of the paged terminal (e.g., a user equipment identifier (UE _ ID) of the terminal), if the paging message received by the terminal carries the identification information of the terminal, determines that the terminal is paged, and otherwise, determines that the terminal is not paged. If the terminal is paged, the terminal initiates a random access process and switches to a connected (connected) state.

PO: the terminal monitors and schedules the time domain position/time interval of the DCI of the PDSCH carrying the paging message. When determining the position of the PO, the position of a Paging Frame (PF) is first determined, and then the final position of the PO is determined according to the relative position of the PO in the PF. One PF may be associated with one or more POs, and the POs in one PF are arranged consecutively from the start position of the PF, such as the start position of the first PO in the PF is the same as the start position of the PF, and then the start position of the second PO overlaps the end position of the first PO, and so on, to set up a plurality of POs. A PO may be several slots (slots) in length. Specifically, according to a user equipment identifier (UE _ ID) of the terminal, a System Frame Number (SFN) of the PF is calculated by using the following formula (1), and a serial number i _ s of the PO to be monitored by the terminal is calculated by using the following formula (2):

(SFN + PF _ offset) mod T ═ T div N (UE _ ID mod N) formula (1)

Equation (2) for (i _ s) ═ floor (UE _ ID/N) mod Ns equation

The PF _ offset in the above formula is an offset value for determining the PF, and the PF _ offset may be previously defined by a protocol or may be determined by the access network device and allocated to the terminal. T is a Discontinuous Reception (DRX) cycle, N is the number of PFs within the DRX cycle T, and Ns is the number of POs in one PF. "mod" represents the remainder obtained by dividing two numbers before and after mod. floor () is rounded down. "" is a multiplication calculation. "div" is a division calculation. The (SFN + PF _ offset) mod T ═ T div N (UE _ ID mod N) indicates that all terminals are divided into N groups according to the UE _ ID, and the value of the UE _ ID mod N can determine that the terminal is in the group number and corresponds to the several PF. For example, taking N as 4 as an example, if the UE _ ID is a string of binary digits, it is determined that the terminal finally takes the value of the last two bits of the UE _ ID at the PF-th number. floor (UE _ ID/N) mod Ns is equivalent to further dividing the PF of the terminal into Ns groups, and the value of floor (UE _ ID/N) mod Ns can determine the number of groups, i.e. the number of POs, to which the terminal specifically corresponds. The value of the UE _ ID is 5G-S temporary mobile subscriber identity (5G S-temporal mobile subscriber identity, 5G-S-TMSI) mod 1024 of the terminal.

In general, there are Ns POs in a DRX cycle, and the terminals are divided into Ns groups according to the UE _ ID, each group corresponding to a PO. For example, fig. 1a is a schematic diagram of N being 4 and Ns being 5, as shown in fig. 1a, there are four PFs, and there are five POs in one PF, and the terminal may calculate, according to the above formula (1) and formula (2), which PO of which PF it is on to monitor the DCI.

Further, in order to match beam (beam) -based transmission in NR system design, the PO may be further divided into multiple Monitoring Occasions (MOs), and different MOs are associated to different SSBs, i.e. to different beam directions. The number of MOs included in one PO is determined according to the number of SSBs actually sent in one SSB period, and the number of SSBs actually sent in one SSB period is configured by the network device through a system message.

In the present application, the number N of PFs and the number Ns of POs in one PF in the DRX cycle T, DRX may be dynamically set as needed or predefined by a protocol, which is not limited.

DCI: may be used to indicate whether to transmit a paging message and to schedule a PDSCH carrying the paging message. In this application, the DCI may also be named a paging DCI, scheduling information, or other names, which is not limited. The DCI may include a plurality of fields, and a position of each field in the DCI, a number of bits occupied by each field, and a meaning indicated by a value of each field may be predefined by a protocol or determined according to a network device configuration. The fields included in the DCI are described below:

(1) a Short Message Indicator (SMI) field.

The SMI field occupies 2bits (bits), the first bit is used to indicate whether the current DCI carries a Short Message (SM), and the second bit is used to indicate whether the current DCI schedules a PDSCH carrying a paging message.

(2) A Short Messages (SMI) field.

The SMI field occupies 8bits, the first bit indicates a system information change (SI change), the second bit indicates an Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System (ETWS) and/or a Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS), the third bit indicates whether to stop reading paging messages inside an unlicensed spectrum (NR unlicensed, NRU), and the last 5bits remaining are reserved (reserved). The reserved bits may be used to indicate other information, such as information that may be used to indicate subsequent expansion with the development of communication technology.

It should be noted that, if the first bit in the SMI field indicates that the current DCI carries the SM, the SMI field corresponds to 8bits, where the first three bits are respectively filled with the SI change information, the ETWS information, and the indication information for indicating whether to stop reading the paging message in the NRU, and if the first bit in the SIM field indicates that the current DCI does not carry the SM, the 8bits corresponding to the SM field are all meaningless bits, and do not indicate any content.

(3) A Frequency Domain Resource Allocation (FDRA) field.

The FDRA field may be used to indicate frequency domain resources used for PDSCH transmission, including which Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) are used for data transmission. The number of bits occupied by the FDRA field is determined according to the bandwidth size of a control resource set (CORESET) 0.

(4) A Time Domain Resource Allocation (TDRA) field.

The TDRA field occupies 4 bits, and may be used to indicate time domain resources for PDSCH transmission, including time slots used for data transmission, symbols used in the time slots, and the like.

(5) A Virtual Resource Block (VRB) to Physical Resource Block (PRB) mapping field.

The VRB-to-PRB mapping field occupies 1bit, and the VRB-to-PRB mapping field may be used to indicate a mapping manner adopted when the VRB is mapped to the PRB, and specifically may be interleaving mapping or non-interleaving mapping, and the like.

(6) A Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) field.

The MCS field may occupy 5bits, and may be used to specify a modulation and coding scheme used for PDSCH transmission.

(7) A transport block scaling (TB scaling) field.

The TB scaling field may occupy 2bits and is used to indicate whether the size of a Transport Block (TB) carried in the PDSCH carrying the paging message is scaled and how large the scaling is.

(8) Fields are reserved.

The reserved field may occupy 6 bits.

In the case where N PFs exist for one DRX cycle and one PF is divided into Ns POs, there are only N × Ns groups of POs for one DRX cycle, and thus, there may be a case where a plurality of terminals in one DRX cycle are to monitor DCI in the same PO. When a plurality of terminals monitor DCI in the same PO, when one terminal receives the DCI in the PO corresponding to the terminal, the terminal only knows that the terminal in the current PO is paged, but does not know whether the terminal is paged or not, and further receives a PDSCH bearing a paging message according to the indication of the DCI only after the terminal receives the DCI, and the terminal which is paged whether contains the terminal or not is seen by looking up the paging message carried by the PDSCH, if the terminal contains the terminal, the terminal is paged, and if the terminal does not contain the terminal, the terminal is not paged. However, the probability that one terminal is paged is smaller, but because the number of terminals monitoring DCI in the same PO is larger, the probability that the network side device sends paging DCI is higher, and the terminal is also in the paging false alarm state with higher probability. The paging false alarm state indicates that the terminal has not been paged although receiving the paging DCI and the PDSCH carrying the paging message.

In order for the terminal to correctly receive DCI and the PDSCH carrying the paging message scheduled by the DCI, whether the terminal is in a "paging false alarm" or is paged is determined according to the received DCI and the PDSCH, the following process needs to be performed: the access network equipment periodically sends one or more synchronization signals and a Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) block (SSB) to the access network equipment before PO, after the PO is calculated by the terminal, the terminal selects one or more SSBs close to the PO from the SSBs before the PO before monitoring DCI, receives the SSBs at the resource positions of the selected SSBs, and executes the steps of time/frequency synchronization and Automatic Gain Control (AGC) adjustment between the access network equipment and the received SSBs.

In this application, the steps of the terminal performing time/frequency synchronization and AGC adjustment using the SSB may be collectively referred to as presynchronization. In addition, in one SSB period, although the access network device may transmit a plurality of SSBs, each SSB in one SSB period generally corresponds to a different beam transmission direction. For the same terminal, the SSBs used for pre-synchronization should correspond to the same beam transmission direction, and therefore, one or more SSBs used for pre-synchronization by the terminal are usually located in different SSB periods.

It should be noted that, in the present application, the period for sending the SSBs, the time interval between adjacent SSBs, and the resource location of the SSBs may be specified in advance by a protocol or configured to the terminal by the network side device through a system message. The SSB before PO may refer to an SSB whose time domain position is before PO and the time domain position does not overlap with the time domain position of PO, and the SSBs before PO of the terminal are SSBs that can be used/enabled for terminal pre-synchronization, and these SSBs may be referred to as available SSBs, which is described herein in a unified manner and will not be described repeatedly below.

For example, as shown in fig. 1b, which is a schematic diagram of a relationship between a PO and SSBs, before a time domain position of the PO, there are two SSBs, which may be referred to as available SSBs, and the terminal may select to receive one SSB closest to the PO from the two SSBs for pre-synchronization, or may select to receive the two SSBs for pre-synchronization. In fig. 1b, the two SSBs may be located in different SSB periods.

For another example, as shown in fig. 1c, a schematic diagram of the time-domain positional relationship between a plurality of POs and SSBs is shown, as shown in fig. 1c, SSBs 1 to SSBs 5 exist before PO5, SSBs 1 to SSBs 4 exist before PO4, SSBs 1 to SSBs 3 exist before PO3, SSBs 1 to SSBs 3 exist before PO2, and SSBs 1 to SSBs 2 exist before PO1, and if the PO of the terminal is PO5 in fig. 1c, the terminal may select one, two, three, or four SSBs closest to PO5 among SSBs 1 to SSBs 5 before PO5 is received for pre-synchronization, or may select the 5 SSBs for pre-synchronization. Similarly, if the PO of the terminal is PO4 in fig. 1c, the terminal may select to receive one, two, or three SSBs closest to the PO4 among the SSBs 1 to SSBs 4 for pre-synchronization, or may select to receive the 4 SSBs for pre-synchronization. It should be noted that the upper and lower relationships between the SSB and the PO in fig. 1c are mainly to prevent the two from overlapping to distinguish the time domain position relationship, and do not represent the specific frequency domain position relationship between the PO and the SSB, that is, fig. 1c mainly represents the position situation of the two in the time domain. Similarly, in FIG. 1c, SSBs 1-5 may be located within different SSB periods.

Specifically, the terminal may start receiving the SSBs sent by the access network device from which of the available SSBs according to channel quality (e.g., Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Receiving Quality (RSRQ), signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), etc.) between itself and the access network device, i.e., determine which of the available SSBs may be used for pre-synchronization. Taking the example that the terminal determines which SSBs are used for pre-synchronization according to the channel quality between the terminal and the access network device, the terminal is closer to the access network device, the SINR is higher, the coverage condition of the terminal is better, the SSBs have stronger signals, and the number of SSBs used for pre-synchronization by the terminal is smaller. When the terminal is far from the access network device, the SINR is low, the coverage condition of the terminal is poor, the SSB signal is weak, and the number of SSBs used by the terminal for pre-synchronization is large.

For example, as shown in fig. 1d, PO of the UE1 and the UE2 is PO1, and two SSBs located before the PO1 can be used as available SSBs for pre-synchronization, specifically, if coverage of the UE1 is poor, 2 SSBs of the SSBs 1 and the SSBs 2 are used for pre-synchronization, and coverage of the UE2 is good, the UE2 can use 1 SSB (for example, the SSB2 closest to the PO 1) for pre-synchronization.

The terminal needs to consume energy when receiving the SSBs, and in the time from receiving the SSBs to PO, or in the case of receiving multiple SSBs, in the time between two adjacent SSBs, although the terminal does not need to receive signals, in order to prepare for "preparing for communication (for example, preparing to monitor DCI on PO or accurately receiving the next SSB)", the terminal needs to constantly maintain an operating state, and the operating state causes the terminal to have a certain energy consumption.

For example, taking fig. 1d as an example, after the UE1 receives the SSB1, and after receiving the SSB1, the UE1 continues to maintain the operating state, receives the SSB2, performs pre-synchronization jointly according to the SSB1 and the SSB2, and after the pre-synchronization is successful, the UE1 continues to maintain the operating state, and monitors DCI on the PO1 of the UE1, that is, the UE1 needs to maintain the operating state all the time from the start of receiving the SSB1 to the monitoring of DCI on the PO1, and consumes its own energy. Similarly, the UE2 also needs to start an operating state to prepare for receiving the SSB2, perform pre-synchronization according to the SSB2 after receiving the SSB2, continue to maintain the operating state after the pre-synchronization is successful, monitor DCI on the PO1 of the UE2, and the UE2 needs to maintain the operating state during a period from the start of receiving the SSB2 to the monitoring of DCI on the PO1, thereby consuming its own energy.

As can be seen from the above, in the process of receiving the paging message by the terminal, a large part of energy consumption of the terminal is in the process of receiving the SSB for pre-synchronization, and especially, a certain amount of energy is additionally consumed in the time period of "not receiving the signal but still maintaining the operating state". Moreover, since multiple terminals in one DRX cycle monitor DCI in the same PO, each terminal must perform procedures such as presynchronization, receiving DCI and PDSCH to determine whether it is paged, i.e., the above-mentioned extra energy consumption is inevitable.

However, most terminals have high requirements for energy saving, and if the terminals excessively consume energy, the service performance of the terminals is affected, and the user experience is reduced. In view of this, the embodiments of the present application propose the following: whether paging is sent in the PO is indicated to the terminal before the PO (such as when the terminal is presynchronized) so that the terminal can know whether the terminal can be paged earlier and stop working as early as possible under the condition that the terminal is not paged, the working state is not kept all the time, and unnecessary energy consumption is avoided. For example, as shown in fig. 1e, if the UE1 knows that it is not paged by itself in the vicinity of the SSB1, then the UE1 will not subsequently remain in operation, and if the UE2 knows that it is not paged by itself in the vicinity of the SSB2, then the UE2 will not remain in operation, and the energy consumption of the UE11 and UE12 will be significantly reduced compared to fig. 1 d.

In this application, the information indicating whether or not paging is transmitted in PO may be named paging indication. The present application does not limit the naming of the paging indicator, and the paging indicator may also be named as a wake-up signal (WUS), an early paging indicator (early paging indication or early transmitted paging indication), a pre-paging indicator (pre-paging indication), or other names, without limitation.

However, if the position of the paging indicator corresponding to the PO is not properly designed, a large amount of energy still needs to be consumed by some terminals. For example, as shown in fig. 1f, UE1 is a UE with poor coverage, UE2 is a UE with better coverage, and the paging indicator may be sent near SSB1 or near SSB 2. If the paging indication is only sent near the SSB1, the power consumption situation for UE1 and UE2 in case of being paged indication to indicate presence/absence of paging within PO1 is shown in FIG. 1 f; likewise, the paging indication is only sent near the SSB2, and the power consumption of UE1 and UE2 in case of being paged indication to indicate presence/absence of paging within PO1 is shown in fig. 1 f. It can be seen that, originally, the UE2 does not need to use the SSB1 for pre-synchronization, but when the paging indicator is only sent near the SSB1, the UE2 needs to receive the SSB1 in order to receive the paging indicator, and after the paging indicator is indicated, the UE needs to maintain a certain operating state until the PO 1. This can be compared to the circled portion on line 3 in FIG. 1f and line 7 in FIG. 1 f. In addition, if the paging indication is only sent near the SSB2, the UE1 cannot know in advance whether there is a page, so to ensure that the page can be correctly received in case of a page, the SSB1 needs to be received and the operation state is maintained until the page indication is received after the SSB 2. If no paging is indicated, some energy is wasted, as can be seen by comparing the circled portion on line 6 in FIG. 1f with line 2 in FIG. 1 f.

As can be seen from fig. 1f, even if the paging indicator for indicating whether there is a page in the PO is designed, some energy may be wasted in receiving the paging message for some terminals. The optimal solution for the terminal is to receive the paging indicator "near the first SSB that the terminal needs to receive. However, multiple terminals in one DRX cycle need to monitor DCI in the same PO, coverage conditions and/or hardware processing conditions of the terminals may be different, the number of SSBs received by each terminal may be different, and starting points of pre-synchronization performed by different terminals are different, that is, first SSBs corresponding to different terminals may be different, and the access network device cannot know which SSB is the first SSB received by most terminals, so that it cannot be realized that the first SSB used by most terminals sends a paging indication, thereby reducing energy consumption of most terminals.

In order to maximally ensure that each terminal can receive the paging indicator near the first SSB corresponding to the terminal, the best solution is that the paging indicator corresponding to the same PO is sent near multiple SSBs before the PO, i.e. the paging indicator corresponding to one PO is sent near multiple SSBs, which has the following two benefits: on one hand, the terminal corresponding to the PO can receive the paging indication near the first SSB with higher probability, stop working according to the indication of the paging indication as soon as possible, and be in a dormant state, thereby reducing energy consumption. On the other hand, under the condition that the PO is divided into a plurality of MOs, and different MOs correspond to different SSBs in an SSB period, if one PO corresponds to paging indications near the plurality of SSBs, and the plurality of SSBs preferably correspond to the plurality of MOs obtained by dividing one PO one by one, the terminal corresponding to each MO can receive the paging indications near the SSBs, and the purpose of reducing energy consumption is achieved according to the indications of the paging indications. For example, as shown in fig. 1f, paging indicators are sent near both SSB1 and SSB2, i.e. there may be multiple paging indicators for the same PO to indicate whether there is a page in the PO, so as to ensure that most terminals monitoring DCI on the PO can receive a paging indicator near the first SSB they need to receive.

It should be noted that, in the case that one PO corresponds to paging indications near multiple SSBs, the multiple SSBs may be located in the same or different SSB periods, for example, in the case that multiple SSBs correspond to multiple MOs, the multiple SSBs are located in the same SSB period, and in the case that multiple SSBs correspond to the same MO, the multiple SSBs are located in different SSB periods. For example, as shown in fig. 1g, there are 5 SSB periods, each SSB period sends 4 SSBs, and the indices (indexes) of the SSBs are SSBs 0-SSBs 3. In this case, there are 4 MOs in a PO, and the index is 0-3. Each SSB will correspond to each MO in the PO one-to-one, i.e. SSB0 corresponds to MO0, SSB1 corresponds to MO1, SSB2 corresponds to MO2, and SSB3 corresponds to MO3, and the relationship is shown in fig. 1g, where the parts of the same filling pattern represent the corresponding SSB and MO.

Furthermore, since SSBs before different POs may overlap, there are different POs that may be associated with the same SSB, and therefore, for a paging indicator near the same SSB, it may be associated with multiple POs, requiring an indication of whether there is a page within multiple POs. For example, as shown in FIG. 1c, SSB before PO2 has SSB1 SSB3, SSB before PO1 has SSB1 SSB2, and two SSBs overlapping before two different POs: SSB1 and SSB2, in which case SSB1 and/or SSB2 may be associated with PO1 and PO2 for pre-synchronization of corresponding terminals PO1 and PO 2. Taking the example of SSB2 associated with PO1, PO2, paging indicators near SSB2 may be associated with PO1, PO2, indicating whether there is a page within PO1, PO 2.

It should be noted that the SSBs described in this application may refer to one or more SSBs closest to the PO before the paging occasion, and the paging indication near the SSBs may refer to a paging indication that starts from the end time of the SSB, may refer to a paging indication that a time difference between the end time of the SSB and the end time of the SSB is smaller than a preset time threshold after the end time of the SSB, and may refer to a paging indication that is closer to the SSB after the end time of the SSB. The preset time threshold can be set according to needs and is not limited. In addition, the application does not limit the SSB to be the SSB closest to the PO before the paging occasion, and alternatively, the corresponding SSB may be configured for the paging occasion in advance, that is, the paging occasion is associated with the SSB, and in this case, the paging indication corresponding to the paging occasion may be located near the SSB.

The following describes a design manner of the paging indicator by taking the paging indicator associated with R paging occasions for indicating whether there is a paging in the R paging occasions, where R is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

First, in order to provide the paging indicator with a function of indicating whether there is a page in a plurality of POs, the paging indicator may include at least a first field, and the first field may be used to indicate whether there is a page in R POs.

It should be noted that, in the present application, the R POs indicated by the first field may be different POs in the same DRX cycle or POs in different DRX cycles or POs occurring in different DRX cycles, which is not limited. Specifically, the R POs may be POs occurring in the same DRX cycle, and in this case, the R POs are different POs, for example, assuming that the first field indicates whether there is a page within the POs 1, PO2, and PO3, the POs 1, PO2, and PO3 may be different POs occurring in the same DRX cycle 1. Alternatively, the R POs may be POs occurring in different DRX cycles, e.g., assuming the first field indicates whether there is a page within PO1, PO2, and PO3, PO1 may be a PO in DRX cycle 1, PO2, PO3 may be a PO in DRX cycle 2, and three are different POs. Or, the R POs may be multiple periodic occurrences of the R POs in multiple DRX cycles, that is, the first field is used to indicate whether one or several POs have paging in R consecutive DRX cycles, so that when the PO has no paging in R consecutive DRX cycles, the PO indicates in advance that the terminal is in the sleep state for the several DRX cycles, thereby achieving the purpose of long-time power saving. For example, the first field may be used for whether there is a page within PO1 located in DRX cycle 1, PO located in DRX cycle 2, and PO3 located in DRX cycle 3, i.e., the first field is used to indicate whether there is a page within the same PO that is periodically transmitted, or the first field may indicate whether there is a page within PO1 located in DRX cycle 1, PO located in DRX cycle 2, and PO1 located in DRX cycle 1, PO2 located in DRX cycle 2.

For example, the first field may include R pieces of indication information, where the R pieces of indication information correspond to R paging occasions one to one, an ith piece of indication information in the R pieces of indication information indicates whether to send a page in an ith paging occasion in the R paging occasions, and i is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to R.

The sequencing of the R pieces of indication information in the first field is not limited in the present application, and the R pieces of indication information may be arranged in the first field according to the time domain positions of the R paging occasions, for example, according to the sequence of the time domain positions, the indication information corresponding to the paging occasion whose time domain position is earlier is arranged in the front, and the indication information corresponding to the paging occasion whose time domain position is later is arranged in the back; alternatively, the indication information corresponding to the paging occasion with the earlier time domain position is arranged later, and the indication information corresponding to the paging occasion with the later time domain position is arranged earlier, or may be arranged in the first field according to a preset sequence without limitation. For example, the paging indication near the SSB2 needs to indicate information of PO1, PO2, and PO3, and since the order of 3 POs is PO1 to PO3, the order of the three pieces of indication information in the DCI is indication information of PO1, indication information of PO2, and indication information of PO 3.

In one example, if terminals within the same paging occasion are not grouped, each indication message may include a bit indicating whether there is a page within a paging occasion, e.g., a binary bit "1" indicates there is a page within a paging occasion, and a binary bit "0" indicates there is no page within a paging occasion.

In another example, if terminals in the same paging occasion are divided into a plurality of groups, for example, into M groups, the indication information corresponding to the paging occasion may include M bits, and one bit is used to indicate whether there is paging in one group, where the M bits in the indication information may be arranged in the indication information according to the group number sequence of the M groups. Specifically, which group a terminal belongs to can be calculated according to the UE _ ID, for example, floor (UE _ ID/N)/Ns) mod M or floor (UE _ ID/N/Ns) mod M. In this way, the number of terminals in a group can be further reduced, for example, the number of terminals in each group in the N × Ns group is changed into N × Ns × M group, and the false alarm probability of the terminals in each group in the N × Ns × M group can be reduced, so that the probability that the terminals are successfully paged is increased.

In another example, if the R POs indicated by the first field are POs located in consecutive DRX cycles, that is, the first field is used to indicate whether one or several POs has paging in consecutive Q DRX cycles, at this time, the specific indication method of the first field may include the following cases: in case one, if the terminal in the paging timer is not grouped and the first field is used to indicate whether the same PO has pages in R consecutive DRX cycles, that is, Q is R, the first field includes an indication information, where the indication information may include a bit number used to indicate whether the PO has pages in R consecutive DRX cycles, or the indication information may include R bit numbers, where the jth bit number is used to indicate whether the PO has pages in the jth DRX cycle; or, the first field includes R pieces of indication information, one piece of indication information may include a bit number, the ith piece of indication information is used to indicate whether the PO has a page in the jth DRX cycle, and j is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to R.

In case two, if the terminal in the paging timer is not grouped, and the first field is used to indicate whether a plurality of different POs (e.g. P POs) have pages in Q consecutive DRX cycles, P, Q is a positive integer, and P × Q ═ R, the first field includes P pieces of indication information, one piece of indication information may include one bit number, the ith piece of indication information is used to indicate whether the ith PO has pages in Q consecutive DRX cycles, or the first field includes P pieces of indication information, one piece of indication information may include Q bit numbers, the jth bit number in the ith piece of indication information is used to indicate whether the ith PO has pages in the jth DRX cycle; or, the first field includes R pieces of indication information, one piece of indication information may include a bit number, the ith piece of indication information is used to indicate whether the ith PO has a page in the jth DRX cycle, and j is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to R.

And in case three, if terminals in the paging timer are divided into M groups, and the first field is used to indicate whether a plurality of different POs (e.g., P POs) have pages in Q consecutive DRX cycles, P, Q is a positive integer, and P × Q ═ R, the first field includes P pieces of indication information, one piece of indication information may include M bits, the s-th bit in the i-th indication information may be used to indicate whether the s-th packet in the i-th PO has pages in Q consecutive DRX cycles, and s is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and smaller than M. Or, the first field includes P pieces of indication information, one piece of indication information may include Q × M bits, and the s-th bit in the i-th indication information is used to indicate whether the s-th packet in the i-th PO has paging in the j-th DRX cycle.

In this application, the number of paging occasions corresponding to different paging indicators may be the same or different, that is, the number of paging occasions corresponding to the paging indicator may be fixed or may be dynamically adjusted. The number of the indication information included in the first field in different paging indications may be the same or different, that is, the number of the indication information included in the first field changes with the change of the paging occasion corresponding to the paging indication, and may be a fixed number or may be dynamically adjusted. The number of bits included in the different indication information may be the same or different, and may be a fixed number or may be dynamically adjusted.

Further, the information included in the SM is also important for the terminal, and if the SMI and the SM in the DCI are not included in the paging indication, the terminal confirms whether there is an SM and further confirms whether there is one or more of the following information in the SM: even if the terminal knows that no paging message is sent, the terminal still needs to go to the PO to receive DCI and acquire SM from the DCI, so that the terminal needs to maintain the working state to the position of the PO anyway, and a large amount of energy is consumed.

In order to avoid the energy consumption caused by the terminal monitoring the SMI carried by the DCI and acquiring the SM, the paging indication may further carry a second field and a third field, and the second field and the third field may be used for the terminal to acquire some information included in the SM before the PO of the terminal. Since information included in the SM, such as SI change information, ETWS information, etc., does not change very frequently, the SMs transmitted in the plurality of adjacent POs should generally be the same. Therefore, when a paging indicator indicates whether there is a page in R adjacent POs, if the paging indicator includes a second field and a third field, the information included in the second field and the third field may be information common to the R POs, which is referred to as PO common information, and the second field and the third field may face all terminals corresponding to the R POs, and the contents indicated by the second field and the third field are the same for all terminals corresponding to the R POs.

The second field may be used to indicate whether the paging indicator includes an SM, the second field may occupy 1bit, and the 1bit may be used to indicate whether the paging indicator includes an SM. The second field may be named SMI, except that SMI in the paging indication takes a different number of bits (alternatively called length) than SMI in the DCI, indicating a different content.

Wherein, the third field may be used to indicate SM, and the SM may include one or more of system message change indication information, earthquake and tsunami warning and business mobile warning information, and indication information of stopping monitoring the paging message. The length (or the number of occupied bits) of the third field may be specified in a protocol or configured by a network device (e.g., an access network device), e.g., the access network device may configure the length of the third field according to information that is required to be indicated to the terminal.

For example, the third field may be specified or configured to occupy 2bits, 3bits, 8bits, etc., without limitation. If the third field occupies 2bits, the third field may carry SI change information and ETWS information under the condition that the second field indicates SM exists. If the third field occupies 3bits, the third field may carry SI change information, ETWS information, and information whether to stop paging (stop-paging) in the NRU, under the condition that the second field indicates the presence of SM. If the third field occupies 8bits, the third field may carry SI change information, ETWS information, and information whether to stop paging (stop-paging) in the NRU, if the second field indicates SM exists, and the remaining 5bits are reserved.

Further, an auxiliary reference signal (assist RS) is a reference signal that is configured by the access network device to one or more terminals in idle state or inactive state, and is used for assisting the terminals in performing time-frequency synchronization and AGC adjustment. In order to ensure that the terminal normally uses the RSs, the access network device may indicate in advance for the terminal whether the RSs are still in an available state, i.e., the availability of the RSs. Therefore, the paging indication may carry a fourth field in addition to the first field, the second field, and the third field, and the fourth field may be used to indicate availability of an association RS.

In one example, the length of the fourth field may be equal to the number of auxiliary reference signals or auxiliary reference signal groups configured by the network device, where the auxiliary reference signal group may include one or more auxiliary reference signals, and the auxiliary reference signals configured by the network device are divided according to a preset division granularity to obtain the auxiliary reference signal groups. The preset granularity may be set as needed, for example, an auxiliary reference signal group may include 4 auxiliary reference signals, or an auxiliary reference signal group may include 3 auxiliary reference signals, and the like, which is not limited.

It should be noted that, in this example, the fourth field is information common to the R POs, which is referred to as PO common information, the fourth field faces all terminals corresponding to the R POs, and each terminal corresponding to the R POs may parse the fourth field, and determine whether an auxiliary reference signal or an auxiliary reference signal group configured by the network device is available according to information carried in the fourth field.

For example, if the access network device configures 9 RSs in total, the length of the fourth field may be 9 bits, where the 9 bits correspond to the 9 RSs one to one, and indicate whether the 9 RSs are available respectively; or, in a case that one auxiliary reference signal group includes 3 auxiliary reference signals and there are 3 auxiliary reference signal groups, the length of the fourth field is 3bits, and the 3bits and the 3 auxiliary reference signal groups are in one-to-one correspondence, and respectively indicate whether the three auxiliary reference signal groups are available.

In yet another example, the length of the fourth field may be equal to the number of auxiliary reference signals or groups of auxiliary reference signals associated with R paging occasions. The related description of the auxiliary reference signal group can refer to the above description, and is not repeated.

In this example, the fourth field is information common to the R POs, referred to as PO common information, the fourth field may face all terminals corresponding to the R POs, each terminal of all terminals corresponding to the R POs may parse the fourth field, and determine, according to information carried by the fourth field, an auxiliary reference signal or an auxiliary reference signal group associated with the R paging occasions.

For example, assume that the access network device configures 10 RSs in total: RS1 to RS10, where R is 3, and the R paging occasions are: PO 1-PO 3, wherein RS 1-RS 6 are associated with PO 1-PO 3, the length of the fourth field can be equal to 6bits, and the 6bits correspond to 6 RSs associated with PO 1-PO 3 one by one, and indicate whether 6 RSs associated with 3 POs of PO 1-PO 3 are available; or, in a case that one auxiliary reference signal group includes 2 auxiliary reference signals and there are 3 auxiliary reference signal groups, the length of the fourth field is 3bits, and the 3bits are in one-to-one correspondence with the 3 auxiliary reference signal groups to respectively indicate whether three auxiliary reference signal groups associated with 3 POs, namely PO1 to PO3, are available.

In yet another example, the fourth field includes R subfields corresponding to R paging occasions, one subfield may be used to indicate availability of auxiliary reference signals associated with the paging occasion corresponding to the subfield, and the length of one subfield may be equal to the number of auxiliary reference signals or groups of auxiliary reference signals associated with the paging occasion corresponding to the subfield, i.e., the fourth field is divided into subfields corresponding to a single particular paging occasion, one subfield indicating availability of auxiliary reference signals associated with one paging occasion. Thus, in this example, one subfield carries information for one particular PO, is single PO-oriented, and is PO specific information.

For example, assume that the access network device configures 10 RSs in total: RS1 to RS10, where R is 3, and the R paging occasions are: PO 1-PO 3, where RS 1-RS 2 are associated with PO1, RS 3-RS 4 are associated with PO2, and RS 5-RS 6 are associated with PO3, the fourth field may be divided into 3 subfields, each subfield being equal to 2bits in length, each bit indicating one RS, or, in case one RS group includes 2 RSs, each subfield being equal to 1bit in length, each bit indicating one RS group. The 3 subfields are in one-to-one correspondence with PO1 to PO3, for example, the first subfield indicates whether 2 RSs associated with PO1 are available, the second subfield indicates whether 2 RSs associated with PO2 are available, and the third subfield indicates whether 2 RSs associated with PO3 are available.

It should be noted that in this example, the subfields may be arranged according to the time domain positions of the POs associated with the subfields, for example, the subfield corresponding to the PO with the time domain position before is arranged before or the subfield corresponding to the PO with the time domain position after is arranged before, or the like, or the subfields may be arranged according to a preset order, which is not limited.

Further, to facilitate more flexible adjustment of the number of POs indicated by the first field or the length of the first field, the paging indication may further include a fifth field. In an example, the fifth field may be used to directly or indirectly indicate the number of paging occasions indicated by the first field, for example, a value of the fifth field may be the number R of paging occasions indicated by the first field, and the number R may be directly determined according to the value of the fifth field, or a mapping relationship exists between the value of the fifth field and the number R, and the number R of paging occasions indicated by the first field may be determined according to the mapping relationship.

For example, the following table one shows a mapping relationship between bits carried in the first field and the number R, as shown in table one, bit 00 corresponds to number 2, bit 01 corresponds to number 3, bit 10 corresponds to number 4, and bit 11 corresponds to number 5, and assuming that the fifth field carries bit 10, it can be known from table one that the number R of paging occasions indicated by the fifth field is 4.

Watch 1

Bits	Value of R
		00	2
01	3
		10	4
11	5

In another example, the fifth field may be used to indicate the length of the first field, if, as described above, the first field includes R pieces of indication information, and one piece of indication information includes one bit, the length of the first field may be 5bits, and a value of the fifth field may indicate 5, for example, the fifth field may directly carry a value R or carry a binary bit number having a mapping relationship with R, and the like. If the first field includes R pieces of indication information, one piece of indication information includes M bits, and the length of the first field is R × M, the value of the fifth field may indicate R × M, for example, the fifth field may directly carry a value R × M or several binary bits having a mapping relationship with R × M, and the like.

It should be noted that the fifth field is information common to POs and referred to as PO common information, the fifth field may be oriented to all terminals corresponding to R POs, and all terminals corresponding to R POs may analyze the fifth field, and determine the number R of paging occasions or the length of the indication information corresponding to R paging occasions according to information carried by the fifth field.

For the remaining fields in the DCI, such as the FDRA field, the TDRA field, the VRB-to-PRB mapping field, the MCS field, and the TB scaling field, the fields are mainly used to indicate time-frequency resources, transmission parameters, etc. for scheduling the PDSCH carrying the paging message. Since the paging indication is sent in advance of the PO and the time interval between the paging indication and the PDSCH may be long, the access network device may not predict/decide in advance what time-frequency resources and transmission parameters are used when the PDSCH is actually sent, and therefore the FDRA field, the TDRA field, the VRB-to-PRB mapping field, the MCS field, and the TB scaling field are not suitable for inclusion in the paging indication.

As can be seen from the above, the paging indicator may include at least the first field, and further may include the second field, the third field, the fourth field, and the fifth field, where if the length of the paging indicator is long enough and there are remaining bits, these remaining bits may be used as blank padding (padding) in the paging indicator. As shown in fig. 2, the first field is a PO specific field, the indication information in the first field is for a specific PO, the second field, the third field, and the fifth field are PO common fields, which can be oriented to all terminals corresponding to R POs, and these fields are common to the R POs. The fourth field may be a PO common field or a PO specific field.

It should be noted that fig. 2 is only an exemplary diagram, and in addition to the fields shown in fig. 2, as the communication technology develops, fig. 2 may also include other fields that can be included in the paging indicator, which is not limited.

Based on the design shown in fig. 2, not only can the energy consumption of the terminal be reduced by indicating whether there is a page in the PO to the terminal in advance, but also multiple POs can be indicated by one paging indication to achieve the purpose of indicating whether there is a page in multiple POs at a time, and by distinguishing the PO common field from the PO specific field, the PO common field is used as much as possible under the condition of sufficient indication information, so that the signaling overhead is saved.

Next, how the terminal determines which POs the first indicated R POs is in, in the case where the first field indicates whether there is a page in the R POs, is described.

The first method is as follows: one paging occasion corresponds to K paging indicators, i.e., one paging occasion may be indicated by K paging indicators.

K is an integer greater than or equal to 1, and K may be preconfigured by the access network device to the terminal or predefined by a protocol, without limitation. The K paging indications corresponding to the paging occasion may be K consecutive paging indications before the paging occasion and closest to the paging occasion, the K paging indications correspond to K consecutive SSBs before the paging occasion and closest to the paging occasion, and the paging indication is located near the SSB corresponding to the paging indication. Optionally, the consecutive K SSBs are K SSBs in the consecutive K SSB periods, or SSBs with the same index (index) in the consecutive K SSB periods.

In this way, after the terminal calculates its own PO, it may determine, according to the time domain position of the PO and the time domain positions of the SSBs, the consecutive K SSBs located before the PO and closest to the PO, and determine K paging indicators near the K SSBs corresponding to the PO of the terminal. The K paging indicators corresponding to each PO in the POs may be the same paging indicator as the K paging indicators corresponding to the PO of the terminal, so that the terminal can determine which POs each paging indicator in the K paging indicators corresponding to its PO is associated with.

Further, after the terminal determines which POs the paging indication corresponding to the PO is associated with, it may determine which indication information the indication information corresponding to the PO is according to the time domain position of the POs and the ordering rule of the indication information in the first field, and further determine whether there is a paging in the PO according to the indication information corresponding to the PO, and stop working as early as possible under the condition of no paging, thereby saving energy consumption.

In view of the above process, in the first mode, the numbers of POs corresponding to different paging indicators may be the same or different.

For example, as shown in fig. 3a, it is assumed that one PO corresponds to 2 paging indicators, SSBs 1 to SSB5 exist before PO5, SSBs 1 to SSB4 exist before PO4, SSBs 1 to SSB3 exist before PO3, SSBs 1 to SSB3 exist before PO2, SSBs 1 to SSB2 exist before PO1, the paging indicator corresponding to PO5 may be two paging indicators corresponding to the vicinities of SSBs 4 and SSB5, the paging indicator corresponding to PO4 may be two paging indicators corresponding to the vicinities of SSBs 4 and SSB3, the paging indicator corresponding to PO3 may be two paging indicators corresponding to the vicinities of SSBs 3 and SSB2, the paging indicator corresponding to PO2 may be two paging indicators corresponding to the vicinities of SSBs 3 and SSB2, and the paging indicator corresponding to PO1 may be two paging indicators corresponding to the vicinities of SSBs 2 and SSB 1. Therefore, the paging indicator near SSB4 may correspond to PO4 and PO5, the paging indicator near SSB3 may correspond to PO3 and PO2, the paging indicator near SSB2 may correspond to PO3, PO2 and PO1, and the paging indicator near SSB1 may correspond to only PO 1. Assuming that the PO of the terminal is PO2 and the PO2 corresponds to the paging indicator near the SSB2, according to the above method, the terminal can determine that the corresponding paging indicator also corresponds to PO1 and PO3, and determine that the indication information corresponding to PO2 is the second indication information in the first field according to the time domain location relationship of PO3, PO2 and PO1 and the ordering rule corresponding to the indication information.

And secondly, configuring a monitoring time interval before the paging occasion so that the terminal receives the paging indication corresponding to the paging occasion in the monitoring time interval corresponding to the paging occasion after calculating the paging occasion, acquiring indication information corresponding to the paging occasion from the received paging occasion, and determining whether paging exists in the paging occasion according to the indication information.

The monitoring time interval may be configured to the terminal by the access network device, for example, the access network device sends monitoring time window (monitoring window) configuration information to the terminal, the terminal receives the monitoring time window configuration information, and determines the monitoring time interval corresponding to the paging occasion according to the received monitoring time window configuration information.

Specifically, the monitoring time window configuration information may directly include the monitoring time interval, or the monitoring time window configuration information includes a start point of the monitoring time interval, and at this time, an end point of the monitoring time interval may be set as a start time of the paging occasion or a certain time point before the start time of the paging occasion; alternatively, the monitoring time configuration information may include a start point and an end point of the monitoring time interval, without limitation.

In the second method, after the terminal calculates its own PO, it may calculate other POs near the PO and determine the paging indicator corresponding to each PO in the POs, and at this time, it is assumed that the paging indicator corresponding to the PO is located near the SSB before the PO. Further, it may be determined which paging indicators corresponding to other POs near the PO of the terminal are also included in the monitoring time interval corresponding to the PO of the terminal, so as to determine which POs the paging indicators in the monitoring time interval are associated with. Further, after determining which POs the paging indicator in the monitoring time interval is associated with, which indicator is the indicator corresponding to the PO can be determined according to the time domain position of the POs and the ordering rule of the indicators in the first field, and then whether the PO is paged or not is determined according to the indicator corresponding to the PO, and under the condition that no page is available, the operation is stopped as soon as possible, thereby saving energy consumption.

In view of the above process, in the second mode, the number of paging occasions corresponding to different paging indications may be the same or different.

For example, taking fig. 3b as an example, SSB1 to SSB5 exist before PO5, SSB1 to SSB4 exist before PO4, SSB1 to SSB3 exist before PO3, SSB1 to SSB3 exist before PO2, SSB1 to SSB2 exist before PO1, PO of the terminal is PO2, a monitoring time interval corresponding to PO2 of the terminal is a time interval from the start point of SSB1 to the end point of the paging indicator in the vicinity of SSB2, and the paging indicators in the vicinity of SSB2 and SSB1 are in the monitoring time interval. Further, according to the setting principle that the paging indicator corresponding to the PO is located near the SSB before the PO, it can be known that the paging indicator corresponding to the PO3 may be the paging indicator near the SSB3, SSB2, and SSB1, the paging indicator corresponding to the PO2 may be the paging indicator near the SSB3, SSB2, and SSB1, and the paging indicator corresponding to the PO1 may be the paging indicator near the SSB2 and SSB 1. The paging indicator near SSB2 may correspond to PO1, PO2, and PO3 in the monitoring time interval, the paging indicator near SSB1 corresponds to PO1, PO2, and PO3, and further, the indication information corresponding to PO2 is determined to be the second indication information in the first field according to the time domain location relationship of PO3, PO2, and PO1 and the sorting rule corresponding to the indication information.

In the third mode, the number of the paging occasions correspondingly indicated by one paging indication is configured to be R, and the number of the paging occasions indicated by different paging indications is the same and is R.

For example, R paging occasions indicated by the paging indication may be consecutive R paging occasions after the paging occasion, and a first paging occasion of the R paging occasions may be a paging occasion closest to the paging indication after the paging indication. The value of R may be configured to the terminal by the access network device, or may be predefined by a protocol, without limitation.

In a third mode, after the paging indication is set near the SSB, the terminal can know which R POs corresponds to the paging indication, and the R POs corresponding to the paging indication includes the PO of the terminal, and then determine which indication information the indication information corresponding to the PO of the terminal is according to the R POs corresponding to the paging indication and the ordering rule of the indication information in the first field, and then determine whether there is a page in the PO of the terminal according to the indication information corresponding to the PO of the terminal, and stop working as early as possible without a page, thereby saving energy consumption.

For example, also taking fig. 3c as an example, assuming that R is 3, paging indicators are set in the vicinity of SSB1 to SSB5, 3 POs corresponding to the paging indicator in the vicinity of SSB1 are PO1 to PO3, 3 POs corresponding to the paging indicator in the vicinity of SSB2 are PO2 to PO4, and 3 POs corresponding to the paging indicator in the vicinity of SSB3 are PO3 to PO 5. If the PO of the terminal is PO2, the terminal may determine that the paging indicator located in SSB1 corresponding to PO2 further indicates PO1 and PO3, and further determine that the indication information corresponding to PO2 is the second indication information in the first field according to the time domain position relationship of PO3, PO2, and PO1 and the ordering rule corresponding to the indication information.

As can be seen from the above, if the paging occasions are grouped, for example, divided into M MOs, at this time, the M bits included in the indication information corresponding to the paging occasions may be fixed or dynamically adjusted. Under the condition of ensuring that the false alarm probability of the terminal is lower, in order to not waste signaling overhead, all bits in the paging indication with the fixed length are occupied as far as possible, namely, all bits are filled with available information. Specifically, the method is as shown in example one or example two below:

example one, if there are other fields indicating valid information than the first field in the paging indication, then

If the field indicating the effective information in the paging indication is only the first field, the value of M is

Where a is the length of the paging indicator, and B is the length of the field indicating valid information except the first field in the paging indicator, such as the total length of the second field, the third field, the fourth field, and the fifth field.

By taking the first example as an illustration, the number of bits of paging in the paging indication can be made as small as possible, the number of bits of the effective information can be made as large as possible, and the number M of further packets at the paging occasion can be made as large as possible, so that the paging false alarm probability of the terminal is reduced, and the probability that the terminal is successfully paged is improved.

Example two, R paging occasions

The indication information corresponding to each paging occasion comprises

And (4) a bit.

Where a is the length of the paging indicator, and B is the length of the field indicating valid information except the first field in the paging indicator, such as the total length of the second field, the third field, the fourth field, and the fifth field. It should be noted that, if the field indicating valid information in the paging indicator is only the first field, the value of B in the formula shown in example two is 0.

Wherein, in the second example,

the indication information corresponding to each paging occasion may be some indication information at a front position, may also be some indication information at a rear position, and may also be some indication information at a preset position in the first field, without limitation. For example, using 10 bits to indicate 4 POs, according to the method shown in example two, it can be obtained that the bits included in the 4 pieces of indication information corresponding to the 4 POs are {3, 3, 2, 2}, or {2, 2, 3, 3}, respectively.

By the mode shown in example two, the existence of padding bits can be completely avoided, the bit number of effective information is as maximum as possible, and the number M of further packets at the paging occasion is as large as possible, so that the paging false alarm probability of the terminal is reduced, and the probability that the terminal is successfully paged is improved.

Further, in order to facilitate the terminal to accurately receive the paging indicator near the SSB, a quasi-co-located (QCL) relationship is established between the paging indicator and the synchronization signal block SSB closest to the paging indicator; or, the paging indication and the SSB associated with the paging indication have a QCL relationship. In other words, the terminal device may assume that the paging indicator has a quasi-co-location relationship with the synchronization signal block SSB closest to the paging indicator. When the paging indicator is DCI, the QCL relationship between the paging indicator and the SSB may be equivalently described as a QCL relationship between the CORESET associated with the search space in which the paging indicator is located and the associated (or closest) SSB.

The QCL relationship actually characterizes what beam reception parameters the terminal uses to receive signals, and when two downlink signals are QCL, the terminal can receive the two signals using the same reception beam. For example, if the paging indicator and the synchronization signal block SSB closest to the paging indicator have a QCL relationship, the terminal may receive the paging indicator using the same reception beam as the reception SSB. If the paging indication and the SSB associated with the paging indication have a QCL relationship, the terminal may receive the paging indication using the same reception beam as the SSB associated with the paging indication.

Further, in a situation that one paging occasion may be indicated by a plurality of paging indications, indication information received by the terminal corresponding to the paging occasion may be inconsistent, so that the terminal cannot achieve the purpose of saving energy through the paging indications. For example, if the terminals are poor coverage terminals and need to receive SSBs 1 and SSBs 2 for pre-synchronization, if the content indicated by the paging indicators in the vicinity of SSBs 1 and SSBs 2 is consistent, the terminals can enter a sleep state to save energy after receiving the paging indicator in the vicinity of SSBs 1 and obtaining an indication that the paging indicator is not paged. If the contents indicated by the paging indicators in the vicinity of SSB1 and SSB2 are not consistent, the terminal must receive the paging indicator in the vicinity of SSB2 again for insurance, and thus no power saving gain can be obtained.

In order to avoid the above problem, in the embodiment of the present application, it is further required to specify that the indication contents of the first fields in different paging indications for the same paging occasion are the same, so that the contents of the indication information for the same paging occasion in each paging indication are the same.

The following describes a procedure of paging a terminal by a network device, taking the paging indicator as an example of the above design.

The paging method provided in the embodiment of the present application may be used in any system of a fourth generation (4G) system, a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, a fifth generation (5G) system, a New Radio (NR) system, a vehicle-to-any-things communication (V2X) system, and an internet of things system, and may also be applied to other next-generation communication systems, without limitation. The following describes a paging method provided in an embodiment of the present application, by taking the communication system shown in fig. 4 as an example.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 4, the communication system may include a network device and a plurality of terminals, such as: terminal 1, terminal 2, and terminal 3. In the system shown in fig. 4, data transmission may be performed between the terminal and the network device through the Uu port, for example, the network device may send downlink data to the terminal through the Uu port, and the terminal may send uplink data to the network device through the Uu port. Data transmission can be performed between terminals through SL, and as described above, both the network device and the terminal in fig. 4 can be referred to as a communication device. It should be noted that fig. 4 is an exemplary framework diagram, the number of nodes included in fig. 4 is not limited, and other nodes may be included in addition to the functional nodes shown in fig. 4, such as: core network devices, gateway devices, application servers, etc., without limitation.

The network device is mainly used for realizing the functions of resource scheduling, wireless resource management, wireless access control and the like of the terminal. Specifically, the network device may be any one of a small cell, a wireless access point, a transmission point (TRP), a Transmission Point (TP), and some other access node. In the embodiment of the present application, the apparatus for implementing the function of the network device may be a network device, or may be an apparatus capable of supporting the network device to implement the function, such as a chip system (e.g., a processing system composed of one or more chips) or a modem (modem). The following describes a paging method provided in an embodiment of the present application, by taking an example in which a device for implementing a function of a network device is a network device.

The terminal may be a terminal equipment (terminal equipment) or a User Equipment (UE), or a Mobile Station (MS), or a Mobile Terminal (MT), etc. Specifically, the terminal may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer or a computer with a wireless transceiving function, and may also be a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal, an Augmented Reality (AR) terminal, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless terminal in unmanned driving, a wireless terminal in telemedicine, a wireless terminal in a smart grid, a wireless terminal in a smart city (smart city), a smart home, a vehicle-mounted terminal, and the like. In the embodiment of the present application, the apparatus for implementing the function of the terminal may be the terminal, or may be an apparatus capable of supporting the terminal to implement the function, such as a system-on-chip (e.g., a processing system composed of one chip or multiple chips) or a modem. The following describes a paging method provided in an embodiment of the present application, by taking an apparatus for implementing a function of a terminal as an example.

In a specific implementation, each network element shown in fig. 4 is as follows: the terminal and the network device may adopt the composition structure shown in fig. 5 or include the components shown in fig. 5. Fig. 5 is a schematic composition diagram of a communication device 500 according to an embodiment of the present application, where when the communication device 500 has the function of the terminal according to the embodiment of the present application, the communication device 500 may be a terminal or a chip in the terminal or a system on a chip.

As shown in fig. 5, the communication device 500 may include a processor 501, a communication link 502, and a communication interface 503. Further, the communication device 500 may also include a memory 504. The processor 501, the memory 504 and the communication interface 503 may be connected via a communication line 502.

The processor 501 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a general purpose processor Network (NP), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a Programmable Logic Device (PLD), or any combination thereof. The processor 501 may also be other devices with processing functions, such as a circuit, a device, or a software module.

A communication line 502 for communicating information between the various components included in the communication device 500.

A communication interface 503 for communicating with other devices or other communication networks. The other communication network may be an ethernet, a Radio Access Network (RAN), a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), or the like. The communication interface 503 may be a radio frequency module, a transceiver, or any device capable of enabling communication. In the embodiment of the present application, the communication interface 503 is taken as an example of a radio frequency module, where the radio frequency module may include an antenna, a radio frequency circuit, and the like, and the radio frequency circuit may include a radio frequency integrated chip, a power amplifier, and the like.

A memory 504 for storing instructions. Wherein the instructions may be a computer program.

The memory 504 may be a read-only memory (ROM) or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and/or instructions, a Random Access Memory (RAM) or other types of dynamic storage devices that can store information and/or instructions, an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disc storage, magnetic disc storage media, or other magnetic storage devices, and the optical disc storage includes a compact disc, a laser disc, an optical disc, a digital versatile disc, a blu-ray disc, and the like.

It is to be noted that the memory 504 may exist independently from the processor 501, or may be integrated with the processor 501. The memory 504 may be used for storing instructions or program code or some data etc. The memory 504 may be located inside the communication device 500 or outside the communication device 500, which is not limited. The processor 501 is configured to execute the instructions stored in the memory 504 to implement the paging method provided in the following embodiments of the present application.

In one example, processor 501 may include one or more CPUs, such as CPU0 and CPU1 in FIG. 5.

As an alternative implementation, the communication device 500 may include multiple processors, for example, the processor 507 may be included in addition to the processor 501 in fig. 5.

As an alternative implementation, the communication apparatus 500 further comprises an output device 505 and an input device 506. The input device 506 is a keyboard, a mouse, a microphone, a joystick, or the like, and the output device 505 is a display screen, a speaker (spaker), or the like.

It should be noted that the communication apparatus 500 may be a desktop computer, a portable computer, a network server, a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a wireless terminal, an embedded device, a chip system, or a device with a similar structure as that in fig. 5. Further, the constituent structure shown in fig. 5 does not constitute a limitation of the communication apparatus, and the communication apparatus may include more or less components than those shown in fig. 5, or combine some components, or a different arrangement of components, in addition to the components shown in fig. 5.

In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be composed of a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

The following describes a procedure of paging the first terminal by the network device, taking the paging indicator as PO as an example, with reference to the communication system shown in fig. 4. In the following embodiments, each device may have a component shown in fig. 5, and actions, terms, and the like related to each embodiment may be mutually referred to, a name of a message exchanged between devices or a name of a parameter in the message, and the like in each embodiment are only an example, and other names may also be used in specific implementations, without limitation. For example, "comprising" as used herein may be alternatively described as "including" or "carrying" and the like. The paging indicator described herein may alternatively be described as a WUS or advance paging indicator, etc.

Fig. 6 is a paging method provided in an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 6, the method may include:

step 601: the network device determines a paging terminal.

The network device may be the network device in fig. 4, and the terminal may include one or more terminals in an idle state or an inactive state in fig. 4, for example, the terminal may include a first terminal, a second terminal, a third terminal, and the like, and these terminals may correspond to the same PO or different POs, without limitation. The present embodiment is described by taking the case where the terminals correspond to the same PO.

Illustratively, when the terminal has a downlink service requirement, the network device determines to page the terminal, triggers the terminal to switch from an idle state or an inactive state to a connected state, and receives the downlink service in the connected state.

Step 602: the network device periodically sends one or more SSBs before the PO of the terminal and sends one or more paging indicators in the vicinity of the one or more SSBs.

For example, the network device may determine the PF of the terminal and the PO of the terminal according to the formula (1) and the formula (2), which is not described herein again.

The SSB may be used for the terminal to perform pre-synchronization, and the description of the SSB is as described above and is not repeated.

The paging indicator may be used to indicate whether there is a page in one or more POs including POs of the terminal, for example, the paging indicator may indicate whether there is a page in R POs, where R is an integer greater than or equal to 1. The number of the indication information included in the paging indication and the number of bits included in each indication information may refer to the above description, for example, one indication information may include one bit or M bits, and the number of bits included in each indication information is the same or different, which is not described in detail.

The SSBs that send the paging indicator nearby may be located in the same SSB period, or may be located in different SSB periods, which is not limited. In addition, in the present application, for convenience of description, an SSB to which a paging instruction is transmitted in the vicinity may be referred to as an SSB associated with or corresponding to the paging instruction, an SSB closest to the paging instruction, or the like, and is not limited thereto. Taking the case that the paging indication corresponds to the SSB, one SSB may correspond to one paging indication, that is, one paging indication may be sent near one SSB, and the location relationship between the SSB and the paging indication near the SSB may refer to the above description, which is not described in detail.

Specifically, the design form of each paging indicator may be described with reference to fig. 2, and the determination manner of the mapping relationship between the paging indicator and the POs, such as how many POs are specifically indicated by one paging indicator, how many POs are specifically corresponding to one PO, and the like, may refer to the above-mentioned manner one or manner two or manner three, such as R POs are indicated by one paging indicator, K paging indicators are corresponding to one PO, or a paging indicator in a monitoring time interval is corresponding to one PO, and the like, which is not described in detail.

Further, in order to avoid the inconsistency of the indication information corresponding to the same PO, which may cause the terminal to fail to achieve the purpose of saving energy, if the PO of the terminal corresponds to multiple paging indications, the indication information for indicating the PO of the terminal in the multiple paging indications is the same, so as to solve the inconsistency of the indication information corresponding to the same PO, ensure that the terminal obtains the indication information in a prepared manner, and enter the sleep state in advance when the indication is not paged, thereby achieving energy saving.

Further, in order to improve the accuracy of the network device for sending the paging indicator and facilitate the terminal to accurately receive the paging indicator, a QCL relationship exists between SSBs corresponding to POs or between SSBs associated with POs, the network device may send the paging indicator to the terminal according to a sending beam of the SSBs, and correspondingly, the terminal receives the paging indicator according to a receiving beam of the SSBs, thereby improving the accuracy of the terminal for receiving the paging indicator.

Step 603: and the network equipment sends DCI in the PO of the terminal, wherein the DCI is used for scheduling the PDSCH carrying the paging message.

The description of the DCI and the PDSCH may refer to the above description, and is not repeated.

The paging message may include identification information of a plurality of terminals (such as a first terminal, a second terminal, etc.) that need to be paged, and POs of the terminals that need to be paged are the same, so that the purpose of paging the plurality of terminals through one paging process is achieved, and signaling overhead and energy consumption brought by interaction between the network device and the terminals are reduced.

Step 604: the terminal receives one or more SSBs and receives one or more paging indicators.

For example, the terminal may determine which SSBs need to be received according to the relevant configurations of the SSBs, the coverage of the terminal and/or the hardware processing capability of the terminal, further determine which SSBs of the SSBs need to be received according to the above-mentioned manner one, the manner two, or the manner three, and receive one or more SSBs and one or more paging indications according to the determination result, where the paging indication corresponding to the PO of the terminal is located near the SSBs that need to be received.

It should be noted that the present application does not limit the execution sequence of step 603 and step 604, and may execute step 603 and then step 604, or execute step 604 and then step 603, as shown in fig. 6, without limitation. It should be noted that, in the present application, for the network device and the terminal, the "design form of the paging indicator (for example, which fields the paging indicator includes, how many bits the paging indicator includes in each indication information)" and the "determination manner that one paging indicator specifically indicates how many POs and how many POs a PO corresponds to" are consistent, and it is not limited that which design form and which determination manner are adopted in advance, or that the network device determines which design form and which determination manner are selected and indicates the selection result to the terminal.

Step 605: the terminal determines whether to monitor (or continue to monitor) the DCI in the PO of the terminal according to the first paging indicator.

The first paging indicator may be the first paging indicator in the one or more paging indicators corresponding to the PO of the terminal, or may be any paging indicator in the one or more paging indicators corresponding to the PO of the terminal, and the like, which is not limited.

For example, the terminal determining whether to monitor (or continue to monitor) the DCI within the PO of the terminal according to the first paging indication may include: the terminal determines the indication information corresponding to the PO of the terminal according to the time domain position of the PO of the terminal in the R POs, and determines whether DCI is monitored on the PO of the terminal according to the indication information corresponding to the PO of the terminal, for example, if the indication information corresponding to the PO of the terminal is used for indicating that paging exists in the PO of the terminal, DCI is monitored on the PO of the terminal; and if the indication information corresponding to the PO in the network is used for indicating that paging does not exist in the PO of the terminal, determining that DCI is not monitored on the PO of the terminal, stopping the terminal, and entering a dormant state to save energy consumption.

As described above, the R indication information corresponding to the R POs may be arranged in the paging indication according to the time domain positions of the R POs, for example, the indication information corresponding to the PO with the previous time domain position is arranged before the paging indication, and the indication information corresponding to the PO with the subsequent time domain position is arranged after the paging indication, or the indication information corresponding to the PO with the previous time domain position is arranged after the paging indication, and the indication information corresponding to the PO with the subsequent time domain position is arranged before the paging indication. The determining, by the terminal, the indication information corresponding to the PO of the terminal according to the time domain position of the PO of the terminal in the R POs may include: and the terminal determines the indication information corresponding to the PO of the terminal according to the sorting rules of the R indication information.

Further, if the terminal determines to monitor the DCI in the PO of the terminal according to the first paging instruction, the terminal continues to be in a working state after receiving the first paging instruction and completes pre-synchronization, monitors the DCI in the PO of the terminal after the pre-synchronization, receives the PDSCH carrying the paging message at the resource location indicated by the DCI, determines whether the terminal is paged according to the identification information of the terminal carried by the paging message, if the terminal is paged, initiates a random access process, and after the random access is successful, transmits service data with the network device.

Based on the method shown in fig. 6, the network device may preset a paging indicator before the PO, and indicate to the terminal whether there is a paging in the PO in advance through the paging indicator, so as to trigger the terminal to stop working in advance when there is no paging in the PO, and enter a sleep state, so as to reduce energy consumption of the terminal, and at the same time, the method shown in fig. 6 may also indicate whether there is a paging in multiple POs by setting one paging indicator, so as to achieve the purpose of indicating whether there is a paging in multiple POs at a time, and save signaling overhead.

The above-mentioned scheme provided by the embodiments of the present application is mainly introduced from the perspective of interaction between the nodes. It is to be understood that each node, such as a terminal, etc., for implementing the above functions, includes a corresponding hardware structure and/or software module for performing each function. Those of skill in the art will readily appreciate that the present application is capable of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software implementing the various illustrative algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein. Whether a function is performed as hardware or computer software drives hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

In the embodiment of the present application, the terminal and the like may be divided into the functional modules according to the method example, for example, each functional module may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The integrated module can be realized in a hardware mode, and can also be realized in a software functional module mode. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the division of the module is schematic, and is only one logic function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation.

Fig. 7 shows a block diagram of a communication device 70, where the communication device 70 may be a first communication device, or a chip in the first communication device, or a system on a chip, and the communication device 70 may be used to perform the functions of the first communication device involved in the above embodiments. As one implementation, the communication device 70 shown in fig. 7 includes: a receiving unit 701, a processing unit 702;

a receiving unit 701, configured to receive, before a paging occasion of a terminal, a first paging indication that is sent by a network device and includes a first field, where the first field is used to indicate whether to send a page in R paging occasions that include the paging occasion of the terminal. For example, the receiving unit 701 may support the communication device 70 to perform step 604.

A processing unit 702, configured to determine whether to monitor DCI for scheduling a paging message at a paging occasion of a terminal according to a first paging occasion. For example, processing unit 702 may enable communication apparatus 70 to perform step 605.

Specifically, all relevant contents of each step related to the method embodiment shown in fig. 6 may be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional module, and are not described herein again. The communication device 70 is used to perform the functions of the terminal in the paging method shown in the method shown in fig. 6, and thus the same effects as those of the above-described paging method can be achieved.

As yet another implementation, the communication device 70 shown in fig. 7 includes: a processing module and a communication module. The processing module is used for controlling and managing the actions of the communication device 70, for example, the processing module may integrate the functions of the processing unit 702, and may be used for supporting the communication device 70 to execute the step 605 and other processes of the technology described herein. The communication module may integrate the functionality of the receiving unit 701 and may be used to support the communication device 70 to perform step 604 and to communicate with other network entities, such as the functional module or the network entity shown in fig. 4. The communication device 70 may also include a memory module for storing program codes and data for the communication device 70.

The processing module may be a processor or a controller. Which may implement or perform the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure. A processor may also be a combination of computing functions, e.g., comprising one or more microprocessors, a DSP and a microprocessor, or the like. The communication module may be a transceiver circuit or a communication interface, etc. The storage module may be a memory. When the processing module is a processor, the communication module is a communication interface, and the storage module is a memory, the communication device 70 according to the embodiment of the present application may be the communication device 500 shown in fig. 5.

Fig. 8 is a block diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 8, the communication system may include: terminal 80, network device. The function of the terminal 80 is the same as that of the communication device 70 described above.

For example, the terminal 80 is configured to receive, before a paging occasion of the terminal 80, a first paging indication that is sent by the network device and includes a first field, where the first field is used to indicate whether to send a page within R paging occasions including the paging occasion of the terminal 80, and determine whether to monitor DCI used for scheduling a paging message on the paging occasion of the terminal 80 according to the first paging occasion.

The design manner of the paging occasion, the mapping relationship between the paging indication and the paging occasion, and the specific execution action of the terminal may refer to the related description and design manner in the method shown in fig. 6, which is not repeated herein.

The embodiment of the application also provides a computer readable storage medium. All or part of the processes in the above method embodiments may be performed by relevant hardware instructed by a computer program, which may be stored in the above computer-readable storage medium, and when executed, may include the processes in the above method embodiments. The computer readable storage medium may be a terminal of any of the foregoing embodiments, such as: including internal storage units of the data sending end and/or the data receiving end, such as a hard disk or a memory of the terminal. The computer readable storage medium may also be an external storage device of the terminal, such as a plug-in hard disk, a Smart Memory Card (SMC), a Secure Digital (SD) card, a flash memory card (flash card), and the like, which are provided on the terminal. Further, the computer-readable storage medium may include both an internal storage unit and an external storage device of the terminal. The computer-readable storage medium stores the computer program and other programs and data required by the terminal. The above-described computer-readable storage medium may also be used to temporarily store data that has been output or is to be output.

In combination with the above, the present application also provides the following embodiments:

embodiment 1, a paging method, wherein the method comprises:

a terminal receives a first paging indication sent by network equipment before a paging occasion of the terminal, wherein the first paging indication comprises a first field, the first field is used for indicating whether paging is sent in R paging occasions, the R paging occasions comprise the paging occasion of the terminal, and R is an integer greater than or equal to 1;

and the terminal determines whether to monitor Downlink Control Information (DCI) at the paging occasion of the terminal according to the first paging occasion, wherein the DCI is used for scheduling paging messages.

Embodiment 2 the method of embodiment 1, wherein,

the first field comprises R pieces of indication information, the ith piece of indication information in the R pieces of indication information indicates whether paging is sent in the ith paging time in the R paging occasions, and i is an integer which is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to R.

Embodiment 3 and the method according to embodiment 2, wherein the determining, by the terminal, whether to monitor the DCI at the paging occasion of the terminal according to the first paging occasion includes:

the terminal determines indication information corresponding to the paging occasion of the terminal according to the time domain position of the paging occasion of the terminal in the R paging occasions;

and the terminal determines whether to monitor the DCI at the paging occasion of the terminal according to the indication information corresponding to the paging occasion of the terminal.

Embodiment 4 is the method according to any one of embodiments 1 to 3, wherein the receiving, by the terminal, the first paging indicator sent by the network device before the paging occasion of the terminal includes:

the terminal determines K paging indications corresponding to the paging occasion of the terminal according to the time domain position of the paging occasion of the terminal, wherein K is an integer greater than or equal to 1;

and the terminal receives the K paging indications before the paging occasion and determines the first paging indication from the K paging indications.

Embodiment 5 the method of embodiment 4, wherein,

and the K is configured to the terminal by the network equipment.

Embodiment 6 is the method according to any one of embodiments 1 to 3, wherein the receiving, by the terminal before the paging occasion of the terminal, the first paging indication sent by the network device includes:

and the terminal receives a first paging indication sent by the network equipment in a monitoring time interval.

Embodiment 7 the method of embodiment 6, wherein,

the terminal receives monitoring time window configuration information sent by the network equipment, wherein the monitoring time window configuration information is used for determining the monitoring time interval;

and the terminal determines the monitoring time interval according to the monitoring time window configuration information.

Embodiment 8 is the method of any one of embodiments 1 to 3, wherein the R paging occasions are R paging occasions that are closest to the first paging indication after the first paging indication.

Embodiment 9 the method of embodiment 8, wherein,

and the R is configured to the terminal by the network equipment.

Embodiment 10 is the method according to any one of embodiments 1 to 9, wherein the first field includes indication information corresponding to each of the R paging occasions, the indication information corresponding to each of the R paging occasions includes M bits for indicating whether paging is available in the paging occasion corresponding to the indication information, and M is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

Embodiment 11 the method of embodiment 10, wherein,

the M is configured to the terminal by the network equipment; or,

the M satisfies the formula: and M is the length of one paging indication, and B is the length of a field except the first field in the paging indication, wherein the field indicates valid information.

Embodiment 12 is the method of any one of embodiments 1 to 9, wherein the first field includes indication information corresponding to each of the R paging occasions;

the indication information corresponding to each paging occasion in the R paging occasions comprises a bit; the indication information corresponding to each paging occasion in the rest paging occasions in the R paging occasions comprises a bit; the A is the length of the paging indication, and the B is the length of a field which indicates valid information except for a first field in the paging indication.

Embodiment 13 the method according to any of embodiments 1-12, wherein the paging indication further comprises one or more of the following fields: a second field embodiment, a third field embodiment, a fourth field;

the second field is used for indicating whether the paging indication comprises a short message SM;

the third field is used for indicating SM;

the fourth field is used for indicating availability of an auxiliary reference signal, which is an auxiliary reference signal configured by the network equipment or an auxiliary reference signal associated with the R paging occasions;

embodiment 14 the method of embodiment 13, wherein the second field is information common to the R paging occasions.

Embodiment 15 the method of embodiment 13, wherein the SM indicates one or more of the following: the system comprises a system message change indication information embodiment, an earthquake and tsunami early warning information embodiment, a commercial mobile alarm information embodiment and an indication information for stopping monitoring the paging message.

Embodiment 16 the method of any of embodiments 13-15, wherein a length of the third field is configured by the network device.

Embodiment 17 the method of any one of embodiments 13-16, wherein the third field is information common to the R paging occasions.

Embodiment 18, the method of any one of embodiments 13 to 17, wherein the fourth field is used to indicate availability of an auxiliary reference signal, and the method includes:

a length of the fourth field is equal to a number of auxiliary reference signals or auxiliary reference signal groups configured by the network device, wherein the auxiliary reference signal groups include one or more auxiliary reference signals; or,

a length of the fourth field is equal to a number of auxiliary reference signals or groups of auxiliary reference signals associated with the R paging occasions, or,

the fourth field includes R subfields corresponding to the R paging occasions, one subfield to indicate availability of an auxiliary reference signal associated with a paging occasion corresponding to the subfield.

Embodiment 19 the method of any one of embodiments 1-7, wherein the first paging indication further comprises a fifth field; the fifth field is used for indicating the number of the paging occasions indicated by the first field; or,

the fifth field is used to indicate the length of the first field.

Embodiment 20 the method of any one of embodiments 1-19, wherein,

the indication content of the first field in different paging indications for the same paging occasion is the same.

Embodiment 21 the method of any one of embodiments 1-20, wherein,

the first paging indicator and a synchronous signal block SSB closest to the first paging indicator are in quasi co-located QCL relation; or,

the first paging indicator and the SSB associated with the first paging indicator have QCL relationship.

Embodiment 22, a communication device, wherein the communication device comprises:

Embodiment 23 the communication device of embodiment 22, wherein,

Embodiment 24 and the communication apparatus according to embodiment 24, wherein the determining, by the terminal according to the first paging occasion, whether to monitor downlink control information DCI at the paging occasion of the terminal includes:

Embodiment 25, the communication apparatus according to any of embodiments 22 to 24, wherein the receiving, by the terminal and before the paging occasion of the terminal, a first paging indication sent by a network device includes:

Embodiment 26 the communication device of embodiment 25, wherein,

and the K is configured to the terminal by the network equipment.

Embodiment 27, the communication apparatus according to any of embodiments 22 to 24, wherein the receiving, by the terminal before the paging occasion of the terminal, the first paging indication sent by the network device includes:

Embodiment 28 the communication device of embodiment 27, wherein,

Embodiment 29, the communications apparatus according to any of embodiments 22-24, wherein the R paging occasions are the R paging occasions that are closest to the first paging indication after the first paging indication.

Embodiment 30 the communication device of embodiment 29, wherein,

and the R is configured to the terminal by the network equipment.

Embodiment 31, the communication apparatus according to any one of embodiment 22 to embodiment 30, wherein the first field includes indication information corresponding to each of the R paging occasions, the indication information corresponding to each of the R paging occasions includes M bits for indicating whether there is a page in the paging occasion corresponding to the indication information, and M is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

Embodiment 32 the communication device of embodiment 31, wherein,

the M is configured to the terminal by the network equipment; or,

the M satisfies the formula:

the A is the length of one paging indication, and the B is the length of a field which indicates valid information except for a first field in the paging indication.

Embodiment 33 the communications apparatus according to any of embodiment 22-embodiment 30, wherein the first field includes indication information corresponding to each of the R paging occasions;

in the R paging occasions

Indication information packet corresponding to paging timeComprises

A bit; the A is the length of the paging indication, and the B is the length of a field which indicates valid information except for a first field in the paging indication.

Embodiment 34 the communications apparatus of any of embodiment 22-embodiment 33, wherein the paging indication further comprises one or more of the following fields: a second field embodiment, a third field embodiment, a fourth field;

the third field is used for indicating SM;

embodiment 35 the communications apparatus of embodiment 34, wherein the second field is information common to the R paging occasions.

Embodiment 36 the communication device of embodiment 34, wherein the SM indicates one or more of the following: the system comprises a system message change indication information embodiment, an earthquake and tsunami early warning information embodiment, a commercial mobile alarm information embodiment and an indication information for stopping monitoring the paging message.

Embodiment 37 the communications apparatus of any of embodiments 24-36, wherein the length of the third field is configured by the network device.

Embodiment 38 the communications apparatus of any of embodiment 34-embodiment 37, wherein the third field is information common to the R paging occasions.

Embodiment 39 the communication apparatus of any one of embodiments 24 to 38, wherein the fourth field is configured to indicate availability of an auxiliary reference signal, and the fourth field comprises:

Embodiment 40 the communications apparatus according to any of embodiment 22-embodiment 28, wherein the first paging indication further comprises a fifth field; the fifth field is used for indicating the number of the paging occasions indicated by the first field; or,

the fifth field is used to indicate the length of the first field.

Embodiment 41 the communication device of any one of embodiments 22-40, wherein,

Embodiment 42 the communication device of any one of embodiments 22-41, wherein,

Embodiment 43, a communication system, wherein the communication system comprises:

a terminal, configured to receive a first paging indication sent by a network device before a paging occasion of the terminal, where the first paging indication includes a first field, the first field is used to indicate whether to send a page in R paging occasions, where the R paging occasions include the paging occasion of the terminal, and R is an integer greater than or equal to 1;

Embodiment 44, a communication device, the communication device comprising one or more processors, a communication interface, the one or more processors and the communication interface to support the communication device to perform the paging method of any of embodiments 1-21.

Embodiment 45 is a computer-readable storage medium comprising computer instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the paging method according to any one of embodiments 1-21.

It should be noted that the terms "first" and "second" and the like in the description, claims and drawings of the present application are used for distinguishing different objects and not for describing a particular order. Furthermore, the terms "include" and "have," as well as any variations thereof, are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions. For example, a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not limited to only those steps or elements listed, but may alternatively include other steps or elements not listed, or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

It should be understood that in the present application, "at least one" means one or more, "a plurality" means two or more, "at least two" means two or three and three or more, "and/or" for describing an association relationship of associated objects, meaning that three relationships may exist, for example, "a and/or B" may mean: only A, only B and both A and B are present, wherein A and B may be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship. "at least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of single item(s) or plural items. For example, at least one (one) of a, b, or c, may represent: a, b, c, "a and b", "a and c", "b and c", or "a and b and c", wherein a, b, c may be single or plural.

It should be understood that in the embodiment of the present application, "B corresponding to a" means that B is associated with a. For example, B may be determined from A. It should also be understood that determining B from a does not mean determining B from a alone, but may also be determined from a and/or other information. In addition, the term "connect" in the embodiment of the present application refers to various connection manners, such as direct connection or indirect connection, to implement communication between devices, and this is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

The "transmission" appearing in the embodiments of the present application refers to a bidirectional transmission, including actions of transmission and/or reception, unless otherwise specified. Specifically, "transmission" in the embodiment of the present application includes transmission of data, reception of data, or both transmission of data and reception of data. Alternatively, the data transmission herein includes uplink and/or downlink data transmission. The data may include channels and/or signals, uplink data transmission, i.e., uplink channel and/or uplink signal transmission, and downlink data transmission, i.e., downlink channel and/or downlink signal transmission. In the embodiments of the present application, "network" and "system" represent the same concept, and a communication system is a communication network.

Through the above description of the embodiments, it is clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and simplicity of description, the foregoing division of the functional modules is merely used as an example, and in practical applications, the above function distribution may be completed by different functional modules according to needs, that is, the internal structure of the device may be divided into different functional modules to complete all or part of the above described functions.

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

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

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, and can also be realized in a form of a software functional unit.

The integrated unit, if implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application may be substantially or partially implemented in the form of software products, which are stored in a storage medium and include instructions for causing a device, such as: the method can be a single chip, a chip, or a processor (processor) for executing all or part of the steps of the method described in the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a U disk, a removable hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

Claims

1. A method of paging, the method comprising:

2. The method of claim 1,

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the determining, by the terminal, whether to monitor Downlink Control Information (DCI) at the paging occasion of the terminal according to the first paging occasion comprises:

4. The method according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the terminal receives a first paging indication sent by a network device before the paging occasion of the terminal, comprising:

5. The method of claim 4,

and the K is configured to the terminal by the network equipment.

6. The method according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the receiving, by the terminal, the first paging indication sent by the network device before the paging occasion of the terminal comprises:

7. The method of claim 6,

8. The method of any of claims 1-3, wherein the R paging occasions are R paging occasions that are closest to the first paging indicator after the first paging indicator.

9. The method of claim 8,

and the R is configured to the terminal by the network equipment.

10. The method according to any of claims 1-9, wherein the first field comprises indication information corresponding to each of the R paging occasions, the indication information corresponding to each of the R paging occasions comprises M bits for indicating whether there is a page in the paging occasion corresponding to the indication information, and M is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

11. The method of claim 10,

the M is configured to the terminal by the network equipment; or,

the M satisfies the formula:

12. The method according to any of claims 1-9, wherein the first field comprises indication information corresponding to each of the R paging occasions;

in the R paging occasions

The indication information corresponding to each paging occasion comprises

13. The method according to any of claims 1-12, wherein the paging indication further comprises one or more of the following fields: a second field, a third field, a fourth field;

the third field is used for indicating SM;

the fourth field is used to indicate availability of an auxiliary reference signal, which is an auxiliary reference signal configured by the network device or an auxiliary reference signal associated with the R paging occasions.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the second field is information common to the R paging occasions.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the SM indicates one or more of the following: system message change indication information, earthquake and tsunami early warning information, business mobile alarm information and indication information for stopping monitoring paging messages.

16. The method of any of claims 13-15, wherein a length of the third field is configured by the network device.

17. The method of any of claims 13-16, wherein the third field is information common to the R paging occasions.

18. The method according to any of claims 13-17, wherein the fourth field is used to indicate availability of auxiliary reference signals, and comprises:

19. The method of any of claims 1-7, wherein the first paging indication further comprises a fifth field; the fifth field is used for indicating the number of the paging occasions indicated by the first field; or,

the fifth field is used to indicate the length of the first field.

20. The method of any one of claims 1 to 19,

21. The method of any one of claims 1 to 20,

22. A communication system, wherein the communication system comprises:

23. A communications apparatus, comprising one or more processors, a communications interface, the one or more processors and the communications interface to enable the communications apparatus to perform the paging method of any of claims 1-21.

24. A computer-readable storage medium comprising computer instructions which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the paging method of any one of claims 1-21.