CN114080030A

CN114080030A - Electronic device, wireless communication method, and computer-readable storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN114080030A
Application number: CN202010811881.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 曹建飞
Original assignee: Sony Corp
Current assignee: Sony Corp
Priority date: 2020-08-13
Filing date: 2020-08-13
Publication date: 2022-02-22
Also published as: CN116134926A; WO2022033402A1

Abstract

An electronic device, a wireless communication method, and a computer-readable storage medium are provided. The electronic device may include processing circuitry configured to: receiving capability information reported by user equipment and about beam indication of the aperiodic uplink reference signal; determining a beam indication to actually take effect, from among a first beam indication determined according to the configuration information of the reference signal and a second beam indication determined according to an update message for updating the beam indication of the reference signal, based on the capability information. Here, the transmission time of the trigger message triggering the reference signal is before an expected effective time indicated by the second beam, and the transmission time of the reference signal is after the expected effective time. According to an aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, for a case where indication information of beams or transmission resources of aperiodic reference signals conflicts, the indication information to be actually validated may be determined based on capability information of the user equipment, so that corresponding processing can be performed according to the indication information when a conflict scenario occurs subsequently.

Description

Electronic device, wireless communication method, and computer-readable storage medium

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of wireless communication technologies, and in particular, to an electronic device, a wireless communication method, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium capable of determining indication information to be actually effective for a case where indication information of beams or transmission resources of an aperiodic reference signal is in conflict.

Background

Configuration, updating or selection, and triggering of Aperiodic Reference signals in New Radio (NR) systems, including Aperiodic uplink Reference signals such as Aperiodic Sounding Reference signals (Ap-SRS) and Aperiodic downlink Reference signals such as Aperiodic Channel State Information-Reference signals (Ap-CSI-RS), may use three levels of signaling. For example, the network side may configure an aperiodic reference signal (configuration of various transmission resources including a beam, etc.) for the ue through signaling of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer, update or select a configuration (for example, indication Information about the beam or the transmission Resource, etc.) of the aperiodic reference signal through a Control Element (CE) (MAC CE) of a Media Access Control (MAC) layer, and trigger transmission or reception of the aperiodic reference signal through Downlink Control Information (DCI) of a physical layer.

In such a three-layer signaling structure, the timing relationship between the MAC CE for updating or selecting the configuration of the aperiodic reference signal and the DCI for triggering the aperiodic reference signal is not limited, and therefore, a timing conflict between the MAC CE and the DCI may occur, so that it is not possible to determine that the configuration updated or selected by the MAC CE actually takes effect on the aperiodic reference signal triggered by the DCI.

Disclosure of Invention

The following presents a simplified summary of the disclosure in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the disclosure. However, it should be understood that this summary is not an exhaustive overview of the disclosure. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the disclosure or to delineate the scope of the disclosure. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of the disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

In view of the above-described problems, an object of at least one aspect of the present disclosure is to provide an electronic device, a wireless communication method, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium capable of determining indication information to be actually effective for a case where there is a collision of the indication information of beams or transmission resources of non-periodic reference signals.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, there is provided an electronic device comprising processing circuitry configured to: receiving capability information reported by user equipment and about beam indication of the aperiodic uplink reference signal; and determining a beam indication to be actually effective from among a first beam indication determined according to the configuration information of the reference signal and a second beam indication determined according to an update message for updating the beam indication of the reference signal, based on the capability information, wherein a transmission time of a trigger message for triggering the reference signal is before an expected effective time of the second beam indication, and a transmission time of the reference signal is after the expected effective time of the second beam indication.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an electronic device comprising processing circuitry configured to: generating capability information on a beam indication of the aperiodic uplink reference signal; and reporting the capability information to a network side device, wherein the capability information is used for determining a beam indication to be actually effective in a first beam indication determined according to the configuration information of the reference signal and a second beam indication determined according to an update message for updating the beam indication of the reference signal, wherein the sending time of a trigger message for triggering the reference signal is before the expected effective time of the second beam indication, and the sending time of the reference signal is after the expected effective time of the second beam indication.

According to yet another aspect of the disclosure, there is provided an electronic device comprising processing circuitry configured to: receiving capability information which is reported by user equipment and is about transmission resource indication of the aperiodic downlink reference signal; and determining, according to the capability information, a set of transmission resource indications to be actually validated among a first set of transmission resource indications and a second set of transmission resource indications of the plurality of transmission resource indications of the reference signal determined according to a first selection message and a second selection message, respectively, wherein a transmission time of a trigger message for triggering the reference signal is after an expected validation time of the first set of transmission resource indications and before an expected validation time of the second set of transmission resource indications, and the transmission time of the reference signal is after an expected validation time of the second set of transmission resource indications.

According to yet another aspect of the disclosure, there is provided an electronic device comprising processing circuitry configured to: generating capability information on a transmission resource indication of an aperiodic downlink reference signal; and reporting the capability information to a network side device, where the capability information is used to determine a set of transmission resource indications to be actually validated from among a first set of transmission resource indications and a second set of transmission resource indications in the plurality of transmission resource indications of the reference signal, where the set of transmission resource indications is determined according to a first selection message and a second selection message, a sending time of a trigger message for triggering the reference signal is after an expected validation time of the first set of transmission resource indications and before an expected validation time of the second set of transmission resource indications, and the sending time of the reference signal is after an expected validation time of the second set of transmission resource indications.

According to still another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a wireless communication method including: receiving capability information reported by user equipment and about beam indication of the aperiodic uplink reference signal; and determining a beam indication to be actually effective from among a first beam indication determined according to the configuration information of the reference signal and a second beam indication determined according to an update message for updating the beam indication of the reference signal, based on the capability information, wherein a transmission time of a trigger message for triggering the reference signal is before an expected effective time of the second beam indication, and a transmission time of the reference signal is after the expected effective time of the second beam indication.

According to still another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a wireless communication method including: receiving capability information which is reported by user equipment and is about transmission resource indication of the aperiodic downlink reference signal; and determining, according to the capability information, a set of transmission resource indications to be actually validated among a first set of transmission resource indications and a second set of transmission resource indications of the plurality of transmission resource indications of the reference signal determined according to a first selection message and a second selection message, respectively, wherein a transmission time of a trigger message for triggering the reference signal is after an expected validation time of the first set of transmission resource indications and before an expected validation time of the second set of transmission resource indications, and the transmission time of the reference signal is after an expected validation time of the second set of transmission resource indications.

According to still another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a wireless communication method including: generating capability information on a transmission resource indication of an aperiodic downlink reference signal; and reporting the capability information to a network side device, where the capability information is used to determine a set of transmission resource indications to be actually validated from among a first set of transmission resource indications and a second set of transmission resource indications in the plurality of transmission resource indications of the reference signal, where the set of transmission resource indications is determined according to a first selection message and a second selection message, a sending time of a trigger message for triggering the reference signal is after an expected validation time of the first set of transmission resource indications and before an expected validation time of the second set of transmission resource indications, and the sending time of the reference signal is after an expected validation time of the second set of transmission resource indications.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, there is also provided a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the respective functions of the above-described wireless communication method or electronic device.

According to other aspects of the present disclosure, there is also provided computer program code and a computer program product for implementing the above-described wireless communication method according to the present disclosure.

According to at least one aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, in case that there is a conflict in the indication information about the beam or the transmission resource of the aperiodic reference signal, reporting the capability information about the aperiodic reference signal to the network side through the user equipment side, and determining the beam indication or the transmission resource indication to be actually effective based on the capability information, so that corresponding processing can be performed according to the predetermined indication information to be actually effective when a subsequent conflict scenario occurs.

Additional aspects of the disclosed embodiments are set forth in the description section that follows, wherein the detailed description is presented to fully disclose the preferred embodiments of the disclosed embodiments without imposing limitations thereon.

Drawings

The drawings described herein are for illustrative purposes only of selected embodiments and not all possible implementations, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. In the drawings:

fig. 1 is a schematic diagram schematically showing a protocol stack in NR;

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically illustrating one example of a scenario in which beams indicate collisions;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram schematically illustrating another example of a scenario in which beams indicate collisions;

fig. 4 is a block diagram showing one configuration example of an electronic device on the network side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 5 is a diagram illustrating one example of a MAC CE update message that may be used in the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 6 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an SRS request field of DCI trigger information that can be used in the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 7 is a diagram schematically illustrating an example of a scenario in which a beam indicates collision in a case where a set of aperiodic SRS resources triggered by DCI trigger information includes multiple reference signals;

fig. 8 is a block diagram showing one configuration example of an electronic device on the user device side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 9 is a diagram schematically illustrating one example of a scenario in which transmission resources indicate collisions;

fig. 10 is a diagram schematically illustrating another example of a scenario in which transmission resources indicate collisions;

fig. 11 is a block diagram showing one configuration example of an electronic device on the network side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 12 is a diagram illustrating one example of a MAC CE selection message that may be used in the second embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 13 is a block diagram showing one configuration example of an electronic device on the user device side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 14 is a flowchart showing a process example of a wireless communication method on the network side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 15 is a flowchart showing a process example of a wireless communication method on the user equipment side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 16 is a flowchart showing a process example of a wireless communication method on the network side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 17 is a flowchart showing a process example of a wireless communication method on the user equipment side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 18 is a block diagram illustrating a first example of a schematic configuration of an eNB to which the techniques of this disclosure may be applied;

fig. 19 is a block diagram illustrating a second example of a schematic configuration of an eNB to which the techniques of this disclosure may be applied;

fig. 20 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a smartphone to which the technique of the present disclosure may be applied;

fig. 21 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a car navigation device to which the technique of the present disclosure can be applied.

While the disclosure is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the description herein of specific embodiments is not intended to limit the disclosure to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the disclosure. It is noted that throughout the several views, corresponding reference numerals indicate corresponding parts.

Detailed Description

Examples of the present disclosure will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following description is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the present disclosure, application, or uses.

Example embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough, and will fully convey the scope to those skilled in the art. Numerous specific details are set forth such as examples of specific components, devices, and methods to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the present disclosure. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that specific details need not be employed, that example embodiments may be embodied in many different forms, and that neither should be construed to limit the scope of the disclosure. In certain example embodiments, well-known processes, well-known structures, and well-known technologies are not described in detail.

The description will be made in the following order:

1. summary of the problems

2. Configuration example of the first embodiment

2.1 configuration example of electronic device on network side

2.2 examples on Beam indication

2.3 configuration example of electronic device on user Equipment side

3. Configuration example of the second embodiment

3.1 configuration example of electronic device on network side

3.2 examples on Transmission resource indications

3.3 configuration example of electronic device on user Equipment side

4. Method embodiment

4.1 method embodiment of the first embodiment

4.2 method embodiment of the second embodiment

5. Application example

<1. description of the problems >

As a background to the problem, first, a protocol stack in NR is briefly described with reference to fig. 1. Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram schematically showing a protocol stack in NR. As shown in fig. 1, for the user equipment UE, the network side device gNB, and the functional entity AMF that implements Access and Mobility Management functions (Access and Mobility Management Function), the Protocol stacks in the NR are, from top to bottom, an NAS (Non Access Stratum Protocol) Layer, an RRC (Radio Resource Control) Layer, a PDCP (Packet Data Convergence Protocol) Layer, an RLC (Radio-Link Control) Layer, an MAC (Medium-Access Control) Layer, and a PHY (Physical Layer, i.e., the Layer where the DCI is located), respectively.

Of the layers shown in fig. 1, closely related to the disclosure, are the RRC layer, the MAC layer, and the PHY layer. These three layers of signaling are used for configuration, update or selection, and triggering of aperiodic reference signals such as Ap-SRS and Ap-CSI-RS, respectively. More specifically, the network side device NW may configure the aperiodic reference signal for the user equipment UE through signaling of the RRC layer (i.e., transmit RRC configuration information of the aperiodic reference signal to the UE), update or select the configuration of the aperiodic reference signal through the MAC CE as an update or selection message, and trigger transmission or reception of the aperiodic reference signal by the UE through a trigger message of DCI transmission of the physical layer.

In such a three-layer signaling structure, the timing relationship between the MAC CE update or selection message for updating or selecting the configuration of the aperiodic reference signal and the DCI trigger message for triggering the aperiodic reference signal is not limited, and therefore, a situation may occur in which the time lines of the MAC CE update or selection message and the DCI trigger message overlap, thereby causing an actual effective situation of the configuration updated or selected by the MAC CE on the DCI-triggered reference signal.

Here, an example in which a MAC CE update message overlaps with a time line of a DCI trigger message to cause a beam indication collision is described with reference to fig. 2 and 3, taking the upper aperiodic reference signal Ap-SRS as an example. Fig. 2 and 3 are diagrams schematically illustrating examples of scenarios of beam indication collision, each schematically illustrating an example timeline in which a MAC CE update message updates a beam indication of an Ap-SRS and a DCI trigger message triggers the Ap-SRS. Note that although not shown in the figure, the network-side device NW has initially configured the Ap-SRS, for example, by RRC signaling, i.e., has transmitted to the UE RRC configuration information of the Ap-SRS including an initial beam indication, prior to the timelines shown in fig. 2 and 3.

After initial configuration by RRC signaling, on the one hand, assuming that the MAC CE update message of fig. 2 or fig. 3 is not considered first, when the user equipment UE receives a DCI trigger message for triggering the Ap-SRS from the NW as shown in fig. 2 or fig. 3, it may determine its initial beam indication from the RRC configuration information of the Ap-SRS according to the DCI trigger message, and prepare a transmission beam based on the initial beam indication to transmit the Ap-SRS at a transmission time determined according to the DCI trigger message, for example.

On the other hand, assuming that the DCI trigger message of fig. 2 or fig. 3 is not considered, when the UE receives a MAC CE update message for updating a beam indication of the Ap-SRS as shown in fig. 2 or fig. 3 (the MAC CE belongs to a higher layer signaling with respect to a Physical layer and is usually carried by a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)), the UE first needs to send an acknowledgement message, i.e., HARQ-ACK, to the NW through the PDSCH carrying the MAC CE. The UE then needs to give the content of the MAC CE update message to the MAC layer entity for interpretation by the MAC layer entity, which takes a time of, for example, 3 ms. After this 3ms time, the UE and NW may consider the updated beam indication to take effect according to the content of the MAC CE update message, i.e. for example, the initial beam indication in the RRC configuration information is replaced by the updated beam indication carried by the MAC CE update message as the updated beam indication for the Ap-SRS (therefore, this 3ms time may be considered as the expected effective time of the beam indication updated by the MAC CE update message). Thereafter, if the UE receives a DCI trigger message for the Ap-SRS after the update beam indication has been validated, the UE may acquire the update beam indication according to the DCI trigger message to transmit the Ap-SRS.

For the above assumed case, the time lines of the DCI trigger message and the MAC CE update message do not overlap, the beam indication (actually effective beam indication) actually used or followed by the UE for the triggered reference signal is explicit, and no beam indication collision or confusion occurs.

However, if the timelines of both overlap, for example, as shown in fig. 2 or fig. 3, a DCI trigger message occurs before an update beam indication determined from a MAC CE update message takes effect and the transmission of the triggered Ap-SRS occurs after the effective time of the update beam indication, a beam indication collision occurs, and the NW on the network side cannot determine whether the UE actually transmits the Ap-SRS based on the initial beam indication determined from the RRC configuration information or the update beam indication determined from the MAC CE update message.

In addition, for an aperiodic downlink reference signal such as Ap-CSI-RS, the transmission resource configuration indicates that there may be a collision due to the overlapping timelines of the DCI trigger message and the MAC CE selection message as well, which will be described in detail later in the second embodiment for the aperiodic downlink reference signal.

In view of the above, it is desirable to be able to identify a scenario in which there may be collisions of beam indications or transmission resource indications (also referred to as "indication information" as appropriate herein) of aperiodic reference signals, and to appropriately determine indication information that will actually take effect in the scenario.

The present disclosure proposes a network-side electronic device, a user equipment-side electronic device, a wireless communication method, and a computer-readable storage medium for such a scenario, which enable to determine in advance indication information to be actually validated for a case where there is a conflict in indication information of beams or transmission resources of aperiodic reference signals, so that corresponding processing can be performed according to the predetermined indication information to be actually validated when a subsequent conflict scenario occurs.

The electronic device on the network side according to the present disclosure may be a base station device itself, for example, an eNB (evolved node B) or a gNB. In addition, the electronic device on the network side according to the present disclosure may also include an electronic device on the network side other than the base station device, which may be theoretically any type of TRP (Transmit and Receive Port). The TRP may have a transmitting and receiving function, and may receive information from or transmit information to, for example, a user equipment and a base station apparatus. In one example, the TRP may provide a service to the user equipment and be controlled by the base station equipment. That is, the base station apparatus provides a service to the user equipment through the TRP. In some specific embodiments or examples below, a description is sometimes made directly with a base station apparatus as an example of an electronic apparatus on a network side, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and may be suitably applied to the case of the above-described electronic apparatus on the network side.

The electronic device on the user device side according to the present disclosure may include various user devices, for example, a mobile terminal such as a smart phone, a tablet Personal Computer (PC), a notebook PC, a portable game terminal, a portable/cryptographic dog-type mobile router, and a digital camera, or a vehicle-mounted terminal such as a car navigation device. The user equipment described above may also be implemented as a terminal (also referred to as a Machine Type Communication (MTC) terminal) that performs machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. Further, the user equipment may be a wireless communication module (such as an integrated circuit module including a single chip) mounted on each of the above-described terminals.

<2. configuration example of electronic device on network side of first embodiment >

[2.1 configuration example of electronic device on network side ]

Fig. 4 is a block diagram showing a first configuration example of an electronic device on the network side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 4, the electronic device 400 may include a transceiver 410 and a determination unit 420, and optionally a control unit 430 for controlling the overall operation of the electronic device 400 and a storage unit 440 for storing various data and programs, etc. required by the electronic device 400.

Here, the respective units of the electronic device 400 may be included in the processing circuit. It should be noted that the electronic device 400 may include one processing circuit or may include a plurality of processing circuits. Further, the processing circuitry may include various discrete functional units to perform various different functions and/or operations. It should be noted that these functional units may be physical entities or logical entities, and that units called differently may be implemented by the same physical entity.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the transceiver 410 may receive capability information reported by the user equipment regarding a beam indication of an aperiodic uplink reference signal, such as an Ap-SRS, and optionally store it in the storage unit 440.

The determining unit 420 may determine the beam indication to be actually effective in the scenario of beam indication collision according to the capability information about the beam indication of the aperiodic uplink reference signal. More specifically, the determining unit 420 may determine, according to the capability information, a beam indication to be actually effective, from among a first beam indication determined according to the configuration information of the aperiodic uplink reference signal and a second beam indication determined according to an update message for updating the beam indication of the reference signal, wherein a transmission time of a trigger message for triggering the aperiodic uplink reference signal is before an expected effective time of the second beam indication determined according to the update message, and a transmission time of the reference signal is after the expected effective time of the second beam indication. Alternatively, the determination unit 420 may generate information on the determined beam indication to actually take effect (also referred to as beam indication effective information herein as appropriate), and store the information in the storage unit 440.

Examples of the above-described trigger message and update message may include the DCI trigger message and MAC CE update message described above with reference to fig. 2 and 3. In addition, the aperiodic uplink reference signal can be configured by the electronic device for the ue through RRC signaling in advance, such as an Ap-SRS configured through RRC signaling in advance.

For example, the transceiver 410 may be configured to transmit configuration information (RRC configuration information) for the aperiodic uplink reference signal to the user equipment in advance through RRC signaling, where the configuration information may include various configurations regarding transmission resources of the aperiodic uplink reference signal and the like, such as a first beam indication for the aperiodic uplink reference signal and the like. As an example, such configuration information that the transceiver 410 previously transmitted to the user equipment may include configuration information of one or more resource sets. Each resource set may include one or more aperiodic uplink reference signals. In the configuration information of each resource set, an RRC parameter, for example, a spatial relationship parameter SpatialRelationInfo, for each aperiodic uplink reference signal of the resource set may be included as a beam indication of the aperiodic uplink reference signal, which may be an example of the first beam indication in this embodiment.

In addition, for example, the transceiver 410 may be further configured to transmit a trigger message (DCI trigger message) to the user equipment through DCI of the physical layer, the DCI trigger message including information for specifying the triggered aperiodic uplink reference signal, when the aperiodic uplink reference signal needs to be transmitted. As an example, the DCI trigger message may include information specifying a set of resources for the triggered aperiodic uplink reference signal. In other words, the DCI trigger message may implement triggering of the aperiodic uplink reference signal in units of resource sets (instead of a single aperiodic uplink reference signal), for example. The information for specifying the resource set included in the DCI trigger message enables the user equipment at the receiving end to trigger all aperiodic uplink reference signals of the resource set specified by the message among the resource sets pre-configured by the RRC configuration information. The user equipment may accordingly acquire the first beam indication for each aperiodic uplink reference signal in the configuration information of the triggered resource set as a beam indication for the reference signal, and accordingly prepare a transmission beam to transmit the reference signal.

In addition, for example, the transceiver 410 may be further configured to transmit, to the user equipment, an update message (MAC CE update message) through the MAC CE when the beam indication of the aperiodic uplink reference signal needs to be updated, where the MAC CE update message includes a second beam indication for the reference signal to replace the first beam indication for the reference signal included in the RRC configuration information. The MAC CE update message may include, for example, a second beam indication for each reference signal of the set of resources of aperiodic uplink reference signals to be updated. In other words, the MAC CE update message may, for example, implement the update of the beam indication in units of each aperiodic uplink reference signal in the resource set specified by the message. For example, such a MAC CE update message may cause the user equipment at the receiving end to replace, for each aperiodic uplink reference signal in the resource set specified by the message, the first beam indication of the configuration information of the corresponding resource set in the RRC configuration information with the second beam indication included in the message. After the second beam indication is effective, when the ue receives the DCI trigger message for the reference signal (e.g., for the resource set in which the reference signal is located), the ue uses the updated second beam indication as the beam indication for the reference signal and accordingly prepares a transmission beam to transmit the reference signal.

The RRC configuration information, the DCI trigger message, and the MAC CE update message may be generated and controlled to be transmitted by the transceiver 410, for example, through processing of the control unit 430 of the electronic device 400, and further description will be given on specific examples of the information or the message and the beam indication.

In this embodiment, a scenario in which the transmission time of the trigger message (e.g., the above-mentioned DCI trigger message) for triggering the aperiodic reference signal is before the expected effective time of the second beam indication determined according to the update message (e.g., the above-mentioned MAC CE update message) for updating the beam indication of the reference signal and the transmission time of the reference signal is after the expected effective time of the second beam indication is identified as a scenario in which the beam indications collide.

In this scenario, since the transmission time of the DCI trigger message is before the expected effective time of the second beam indication determined according to the MAC CE update message, the user equipment may already acquire the first beam indication in the RRC configuration information (e.g., the configuration information of the corresponding resource set) based on the DCI trigger message and prepare the transmission beam to transmit the reference signal accordingly; meanwhile, since the transmission time of the reference signal is after the expected effective time of the second beam indication, it is also possible that the user equipment prepares a transmission beam for transmitting the reference signal based on the second beam indication immediately after the second beam indication for updating the beam indication of the reference signal is effective. This results in that the network side device in the prior art (even the user equipment itself) may not be able to determine whether the first beam indication or the second beam indication actually takes effect. Examples of such scenarios may include, but are not limited to, the example scenarios shown in fig. 2 and 3.

With the configuration of the electronic device 400 on the network side of the present embodiment, the determining unit 420 may determine, in advance, a beam indication to actually take effect in the scenario of a beam indication collision based on the capability information received by the transceiver 410 (i.e., determine which of the first beam indication and the second beam indication will actually take effect at that time), and may generate and store information on the determined beam indication to actually take effect (beam indication taking effect information) in the storage unit 440, so as to be used by the electronic device 400 itself and/or transmitted to the user equipment. In this way, when a scenario such as the beam indication collision shown in fig. 2 and 3 occurs subsequently, the electronic device 400 and/or the user equipment on the network side may know the actually effective beam indication and perform corresponding processing according to the beam indication.

As an example, the capability information of the beam indication of the aperiodic uplink reference signal, received by the transceiver 410, may be reported to the electronic device 400 by the user equipment after the initial access procedure. The capability information may indicate beam indications supported by the user equipment, and may have a length of 2 bits, for example, where 01 indicates that the user equipment supports only a first beam indication determined according to the configuration information, 10 indicates that the user equipment supports only a second beam indication determined according to the update message, 11 indicates that the user equipment supports both beam indications, and 00 is used as a reserved bit. Such capability information is appropriately generated by the user equipment according to the situation of the user equipment itself (e.g., storage capability regarding beam indication, time required to prepare to transmit a beam, etc.), and further description will be given later on the generation of the capability information in a section regarding the configuration of the electronic equipment on the user side.

In a preferred embodiment, the determining unit 420 may be configured to determine one beam indication of the first beam indication and the second beam indication as the beam indication to be actually effected, in case the capability information indicates that only one beam indication of the first beam indication and the second beam indication is supported. For example, the determining unit 420 may determine that the first beam indication is to be actually effected when the capability information is 01, and determine that the second beam indication is to be actually effected when the capability information is 10.

Furthermore, the determining unit 420 may be further configured to determine one of the beam indications as an actually effective beam indication in case the capability information indication simultaneously supports the first beam indication determined according to the configuration information and the second beam indication determined according to the update message. For example, the determining unit 420 may determine one of the two beam indications as a beam indication to be actually effective when the capability information is 11. At this time, the determination unit 420 may determine one of the two at random, for example, or may determine a preferable one of the two according to a preset setting.

Optionally, the determining unit 420 may be further configured to generate information on the determined beam indication to actually take effect and store the information in the storage unit 440 as a beam indication taking effect message. The beam indication validation information may be represented by 1 bit, for example, where 0 represents that the first beam indication determined according to the configuration information is to be actually validated, and 1 represents that the second beam indication determined according to the update message is to be actually validated.

With respect to the beam indication validation message generated by the determination unit 420 and stored in the storage unit 440 in the above manner, when the electronic device 400 is to receive the aperiodic uplink reference signal from the user equipment, the transceiver 410 may refer to the information as needed to perform corresponding processing based on the beam indication to be actually validated.

For example, optionally, the transceiver 410 may be configured to read the beam indication validation information from the storage unit 440 when needed (for example, when the control unit 430 determines that a scenario of beam indication collision occurs with respect to the current aperiodic uplink reference signal), and receive the aperiodic uplink reference signal from the user equipment according to the beam indication to be actually validated, which is specified by the information. For example, the transceiver 410 receives the aperiodic uplink reference signal based on the first beam indication determined according to the configuration information when the read beam indication validation information is 0, and receives the aperiodic uplink reference signal based on the second beam indication determined according to the update message when the information is 1. In the case of communication using beamforming, a transmission beam at a transmitting end is equivalent to a reception beam at a receiving end, i.e., has beam symmetry (beam symmetry). Thus, according to the actually validated beam indication specified by the beam indication validation information, the transceiver 410 may receive the reference signal using the receive beam corresponding to the transmit beam indicated by the beam indication, for example.

As an example, the control unit 430 may be configured to determine whether a scenario in which beams of the reference signal indicate collision occurs when the electronic device 400 needs to receive an aperiodic uplink reference signal from the user equipment. The control unit 430 may control the transceiver 410 to read the beam indication validation information stored in the storage unit 440 in advance, for example, only when it is determined that a scenario in which a beam indication collision occurs, so that the transceiver 410 may prepare a reception beam and receive an aperiodic uplink reference signal from the user equipment according to the beam indication to be actually validated, which is specified by the information.

The determination of the scenario where the beam indication conflicts by the control unit 430 may be based on a relationship between a transmission time of a trigger message triggering the aperiodic uplink reference signal, a transmission time of the reference signal, and an expected effective time of the second beam indication determined according to the update message. The control unit 430 may determine the above-described times in various ways and accordingly determine the relationship between the respective times. For example, the transmission time of the aperiodic reference signal may be determined by the transmission time of the trigger message and the configuration information of the reference signal (e.g., a time offset between the transmission time of the trigger message and the reference signal specified by the configuration information of the reference signal), and the like. Further, the expected validation time of the second beam indication may be determined, for example, according to the transmission time of the update message and the length of the time period required for the second beam indication to be validated, which is determined according to the update message (the length of the time period, such as 3ms, may be known in advance by the electronic device on the network side, for example).

For example, the control unit 430 may be configured to determine a scenario in which a beam indication collision occurs only when a transmission time of a trigger message triggering the aperiodic uplink reference signal is before an expected effective time of a second beam indication determined according to an update message for updating a beam indication of the reference signal and a transmission time of the reference signal is after the expected effective time of the second beam indication, and determine all scenarios except for this as scenarios in which no beam indication collision occurs.

Here, the granularity of the scenario in which the control unit 430 determines that the beam indicates collision may be detailed to, for example, each reference signal in a resource set triggered by the DCI trigger message. As previously described, the configuration information of the aperiodic uplink reference signal may be configuration information of a resource set of reference signals, which includes a first beam indication for each reference signal of the resource set. When the DCI trigger message triggers an aperiodic uplink reference signal by specifying a resource set of reference signals, the reference signals are triggered in units of such resource set instead of a single reference signal, and thus, the transmission time of its trigger message is the same for a plurality of reference signals in the triggered resource set. When the beam indication of the aperiodic uplink reference signal is updated, for example, by a MAC update message associated with a specified resource set (e.g., the MAC CE update message described above that includes a second beam indication for each reference signal of the resource set), the expected effective time of the second beam indication determined from such a MAC update message is also the same for multiple reference signals in the specified resource set. However, different reference signals in the set of resources may be transmitted in different slots (slots), i.e. with different transmission times. Therefore, the determination result of the control unit 430 for the scenario where the beam indicates collision may be different for each reference signal in the triggered resource set.

More specifically, for a case where the resource set triggered by the DCI trigger message includes a plurality of reference signals, as long as the relationship between the transmission time of the current reference signal and the transmission time of the trigger message and the expected effective time indicated by the second beam satisfies the condition of the scenario of beam indication collision (the transmission time of the trigger message is before the expected effective time indicated by the second beam, and the transmission time of the current reference signal is after the expected effective time indicated by the second beam), the control unit may determine that the beam indication collision occurs for the current reference signal, regardless of the transmission times of other reference signals in the resource set of the reference signal. For example, the transmission time of the other reference signal in the resource set may be before the expected effective time indicated by the second beam (the transmission time of the trigger message and the transmission time of the other reference signal are both before the expected effective time indicated by the second beam), the control unit may determine that the other reference signal has no beam indication collision (actually effective is the first beam indication determined according to the configuration information, that is, the first beam indication of the reference signal in the configuration information of the resource set), and only determine that the current reference signal has a beam indication collision, and may perform different processing for the current reference signal and the other reference signal.

As a non-exhaustive example of a scenario in which no beam indication collision occurs, the control unit 430 may determine the following several scenarios as no beam indication collision occurs: at the transmission time of the reference signal, no update message of the beam indication for the reference signal occurs (actually effective at this time is the first beam indication determined according to the configuration information); at the sending time of the reference signal, an update message of the beam indication for the reference signal occurs once, but a second beam indication determined according to the update message is not effective (at the moment, the first beam indication determined according to the configuration information is actually effective); at the transmission time of the trigger message of the reference signal, an update message of the beam indication for the reference signal occurs once, and the second beam indication determined from the update message has taken effect (it is the second beam indication that actually takes effect at this time).

When the control unit 430 determines that no beam indication collision occurs, for example, the transceiver 410 may be controlled to receive the aperiodic uplink reference signal in a manner similar to that in the prior art, that is, prepare to receive a beam according to the actually effective beam indication and receive the aperiodic uplink reference signal, which is not described herein again.

Alternatively, when the transceiver 410 has a corresponding processing capability, the transceiver 410 itself may also perform a determination regarding a scenario where the beam indication conflicts when needed, and appropriately perform a process of receiving the aperiodic uplink reference signal according to a determination result, which is not described herein again.

Preferably, the transceiver 410 may be further configured to transmit information on a beam indication to be actually effected (beam indication effecting information) to the user equipment through RRC signaling.

Note that when the capability information from the user equipment indicates, for example, through 2-

bit information

01 or 10, that the user equipment supports only one of the first beam indication determined according to the configuration information or the second beam indication determined according to the update message, the user equipment knows the beam indication that is actually effective even if the electronic equipment 400 on the network side does not transmit the beam indication effective information to the user equipment. Therefore, in this case, the electronic device 400 may optionally not transmit the beam indication validation information to the user equipment. However, preferably, for the sake of uniformity of the signaling flow, the transceiver 410 of the electronic device 400 may transmit beam indication validation information to the user equipment regardless of the content of the received capability information, so that the user equipment can prepare a transmission beam accordingly and transmit an aperiodic uplink reference signal when needed.

The configuration example of the electronic device on the network side of the first embodiment of the present disclosure is described above. According to the first embodiment of the disclosure, the electronic device on the network side can determine, in advance, a beam indication to be actually validated based on the capability information reported by the user equipment, for a scenario where a beam indication of an aperiodic uplink reference signal collides, so that corresponding processing can be performed according to the predetermined beam indication to be actually validated when a subsequent collision scenario occurs.

[2.2 Beam indication correlation example ]

Next, specific examples of the first beam indication, the second beam indication, and configuration information, the update message, and the trigger message associated therewith for the aperiodic uplink reference signal, which can be adopted in the first embodiment of the present disclosure, will be described with Ap-SRS as an example of the aperiodic uplink reference signal, and example processing that can be performed by the electronic device of the present embodiment is described in conjunction with these examples.

(example of first Beam indication in RRC configuration information)

The first beam indication may be included in configuration information (RRC configuration information) for the aperiodic uplink reference signal, which is previously transmitted by the electronic device 400 as a network-side device to the user equipment through RRC signaling. The RRC configuration information may include various configurations regarding transmission resources of the aperiodic uplink reference signal, and the like. As an example, the RRC configuration information may include configuration information for one or more resource sets.

As an example of RRC configuration information for Ap-SRS that may be employed in the present embodiment, here is considered configuration information of an SRS resource set (SRS-resource set) with one or more resource types (resource types) being aperiodic (aperiodic), which is pre-configured for the user equipment by the electronic device 400. Each SRS Resource set is identified by a Resource set ID (SRS-ResourceSetId) and comprises a set of multiple (e.g., 4) SRS resources (SRS-resources). Each SRS resource is identified by an SRS resource ID (SRS-resource ID) and can be used for transmitting one Ap-SRS signal, and therefore, such resources included in a set of resources, such as a set of SRS resources, are also referred to herein directly as reference signals included in the set of resources, as appropriate.

In the configuration information of the aperiodic SRS resource set, a beam indication expressed in an RRC parameter SRS-spatialrelalationinfo for each SRS resource (each Ap-SRS reference signal) may be included, which may be used as an example of the first beam indication included in the RRC configuration information in the first embodiment of the present disclosure. The value of the RRC parameter SRS-spatialRelationInfo is the index of the previously transmitted reference signal. The index of the Reference Signal specified by SRS-SpatialRelationInfo may be an index of a previously transmitted uplink or downlink Reference Signal, such as an index of a previously transmitted SRS Signal, a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB), or a Channel state Information-Reference Signal (CSI-RS), to indicate that the user equipment is suggested to use a transmission beam for transmitting the uplink Reference Signal/a corresponding beam for receiving the downlink Reference Signal for uplink transmission of the Ap-SRS.

As described above, a set of SRS resources (a set of Ap-SRS) included in one aperiodic SRS resource set can be uniformly triggered by one DCI trigger message, that is, one DCI trigger message triggers the ue to transmit a set of Ap-SRS signals corresponding to the SRS resource set.

Accordingly, in the configuration information of the aperiodic SRS resource set of the Ap-SRS, parameters related to triggering of the resource set may be further included. For example, the configuration information of the SRS resource set may include a parameter aperipodicSRS-resource trigger, where the parameter is used to specify a DCI code point (code point) when the Ap-SRS of the resource set is transmitted by the user equipment, and a value may be an integer within a range from 1 to the number of SRS trigger states (SRS-trigger states) minus 1. Different DCI trigger messages may be associated with different values of the parameter aperipodicSRS-resource trigger, thereby specifying the set of triggered SRS resources via the DCI trigger message.

Here, in addition to the aforementioned parameter aperiodicsrs-ResourcetTrigger, other parameters related to triggering of resource sets, such as aperiodicsrs-ResourcetTrigger list, etc., may be included in the configuration information of the aperiodic SRS resource set, and the DCI trigger message may be associated with such parameters to specify the triggered SRS resource sets. In addition, the configuration information of the aperiodic SRS resource set may further include a parameter use related to the usage of the resource set, and the value thereof may be, for example, beamManagement, codebook, denodebook, antenna switching, and the like. In some scenarios, the DCI trigger message may also be associated with a specific value of the parameter usage (addressing) to specify the triggered SRS resource set, further details of which will be given later in the description of examples of DCI trigger messages.

The electronic device 400 of the present embodiment may generate RRC configuration information such as the SRS resource set described above through appropriate processing, for example, by its control unit 430, and transmit it to the user equipment through the transceiver 410 in advance.

(example of second Beam indication in MAC CE update message)

The MAC CE update message used by the electronic device 400 to update the beam indication of the aperiodic uplink reference signal preferably directly includes the second beam indication to be updated. For example, the MAC CE update message may include a second beam indication for each reference signal of the set of resources of aperiodic uplink reference signals to be updated.

One example of a MAC CE update message that directly includes a second beam indication for the Ap-SRS that may be employed in the present embodiment is shown in fig. 5. As shown in fig. 5, the MAC CE update message includes N octets Oct1 to Oct, where the R field is a reserved bit, an aperiodic SRS resource set ID in Oct2 is used to specify the aperiodic SRS resource set to be updated, and Oct3 to Oct-M +1 include update (second) beam indications of the respective SRS resources of the SRS resource set.

The aperiodic SRS resource set ID field in Oct2 specifies, for example, in a plurality of aperiodic SRS resource sets (e.g., the SRS resource sets described above in the section of "example of first beam indication in RRC configuration information") configured in advance for the user equipment by RRC signaling by the electronic device on the network side, the concerned aperiodic SRS resource set. Further, the 1-bit C field indicates whether or not a cell ID of an SRS resource set and a BWP (Bandwidth Part) ID of the SRS resource set exist in the MAC CE update message, and indicates the existence only when a value is 1 (in the present example, exists in Oct1, for example). The 1-bit SUL field is used to identify a carrier configuration type applied by the MAC CE update message, and a value of 1 indicates SUL (supplemental uplink) carrier configuration, and a value of 0 indicates NUL (normal uplink) carrier configuration.

In Oct3 to Octn-M +1, 1 bit of F_iThe field indicates the type of beam indication used by the i-th SRS resource (i-th Ap-SRS reference signal) in the set of aperiodic SRS resources involved, F_iA value of 1 denotes using the index of the previously transmitted non-zero power (non-zero power) CSI-RS (nzp CSI-RS), F_iA value of 0 indicates that the index of the previously transmitted SSB or SRS is used. Resource ID_iIs a beam indication for the ith SRS resource (the ith Ap-SRS reference signal), and is in accordance with F_iBut indicates the index of the previously transmitted nzp CSI-RS or the index of the SRS. Resource ID_i(optionally together with F)_iA field) may be used as the second beam indication in the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

The electronic device 400 of the present embodiment may generate the above-mentioned MAC CE update message via appropriate processing, for example, by its control unit 430, and transmit it to the user equipment through the transceiver 410 when the beam indication of the Ap-SRS needs to be updated.

When the ue receives such a MAC CE update message, the following processing may be performed for an aperiodic SRS resource set specified by the aperiodic SRS resource set ID field of the MAC CE update message: for each SRS resource in the SRS resource set, replacing a first beam indication indicated by a spatial relationship info parameter of the corresponding SRS resource in the SRS resource set in the RRC configuration information with a second beam indication indicated by a corresponding resource ID in the MAC CE update message as a beam indication of the SRS resource (Ap-SRS reference signal).

(example of information specifying resource set in DCI trigger message)

The DCI trigger message used by the electronic device 400 to trigger the aperiodic uplink reference signal may preferably include information for specifying a set of resources for the aperiodic uplink reference signal to trigger all reference signals included in the set of resources.

As an example of information for specifying an aperiodic SRS resource set of Ap-SRS, which is included in the DCI trigger message that can be employed in the present embodiment, an SRS Request (SRS-Request) field of the DCI trigger message is considered here. The SRS Request (SRS-Request) field may be, for example, 2 bits, and is used to specify the triggered aperiodic SRS resource set, for example, in an electronic device on the network side that transmits a plurality of aperiodic SRS resource sets (pre-configured) in advance through RRC signaling (e.g., the SRS resource sets described above in the section of "example of first beam indication in RRC configuration information"). As an example, an SRS request field of 00 indicates no trigger, 01 indicates triggering a first one of the configured aperiodic SRS resource sets, 10 indicates triggering a second one of the configured aperiodic SRS resource sets, and 11 indicates triggering a third one of the configured aperiodic SRS resource sets.

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram for explaining one example of an SRS request field that may be employed in the present embodiment, which shows an example association between the SRS request field and the set of aperiodic SRS resources triggered by the SRS request field. In this example, an SRS request field of the DCI trigger message is associated with a value of a parameter aperipodicSRS-ResourcetTrigger in configuration information of the SRS resource set, so as to specify, through different values of the SRS request field, an aperiodic SRS resource set having a corresponding value of the parameter aperipodicSRS-ResourcetTrigger as the triggered SRS resource set. When the values of the SRS request field in the DCI trigger message are 01, 10, and 11, the parameter aperipodicSRS-ResourcetTrigger is triggered to be configured as the SRS resource sets of 1, 2, and 3, respectively.

Alternatively, when other parameters related to the triggering of the resource set, such as aperipodicSRS-ResourcetTriggerList, etc., are also included in the configuration information of the SRS resource set, the SRS request field of the DCI trigger message may be associated with such parameters to specify the triggered SRS resource set. For example, when the values of the SRS request field in the DCI trigger message are 01, 10, and 11, the entry in the parameter aperipodicSRS-ResourcetTriggerList may be triggered to be configured as SRS resource sets of 1, 2, and 3, respectively.

Alternatively, the triggered resource set may also be specified by a parameter usage related to the usage of the resource set in the configuration information of the SRS resource set. In some scenarios, when values of SRS request fields in the DCI trigger message are 01, 10, and 11, an aperiodic SRS resource set whose parameter usage value for the first group of serving cells, the second group of serving cells, and the third group of serving cells is attenasswitching may be triggered respectively.

The electronic device 400 of the present embodiment may generate a DCI trigger message with the above SRS request field via appropriate processing, for example, by its control unit 430, and transmit it to the user equipment through the transceiver 410 when Ap-SRS needs to be triggered.

When the user equipment receives the DCI trigger message with the above SRS request field transmitted by the electronic device 400, the triggered SRS resource set may be determined according to the field. If the ue has not received the MAC CE update message related to the SRS resource set before, the ue uses the spatialrelalationinfo parameter (first beam indication) of each resource in the SRS resource set in the RRC configuration information received in advance as the beam indication of the reference signal of the SRS resource set. In addition, if the user equipment has received a MAC CE update message on a set of SRS resources before the DCI trigger message and the beam indication (second beam indication) updated by the MAC CE update message has taken effect, the user equipment will use the corresponding resource ID (second beam indication) in the MAC CE update message such as shown in fig. 5 as the beam indication of the reference signal for the set of SRS resources.

Specific examples of the beam indication and the configuration information, the update message, and the trigger message associated therewith that can be employed in the present embodiment are described above by taking an Ap-SRS as an example.

Next, continuing with the above specific example, consider the following scenario: the set of resources (e.g., SRS resource set) triggered by the DCI trigger message transmitted by the electronic device 400 includes a plurality of aperiodic uplink reference signals, such as Ap-SRS, and the transmission time of the DCI trigger message is before the expected effective time indicated by the second beam updated by, for example, the MAC CE update message, and among the plurality of reference signals corresponding to the set of resources triggered by the DCI trigger message, the transmission time of a part of the reference signals is before the expected effective time indicated by the second beam, and the transmission time of another part of the reference signals is after the expected effective time indicated by the second beam.

Fig. 7 shows an example of this scenario, that is, an example scenario in which beam indication collision occurs in a case where the aperiodic SRS resource set triggered by the DCI trigger information includes multiple reference signals. In this example scenario, the triggered aperiodic SRS resource set corresponds to 4 Ap-SRS, where the first two signals Ap-SRS Tx1 and Ap-SRS Tx2, for example, jointly occupy one Slot (Slot) and the transmission time is before the expected validation time of the second beam indication (e.g., the corresponding resource ID in the MAC CE update information shown in fig. 5) updated by the MAC CE update message shown in fig. 5, and the last two signals Ap-SRS Tx3 and Ap-SRS Tx4, for example, jointly occupy the next one Slot and the transmission time is after the expected validation time of the second beam indication (e.g., the corresponding resource ID in the MAC CE update information shown in fig. 5).

For the above-described scenario, for example, as described above, the electronic device 400 on the network side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure has determined, by using the determination unit 420, the beam indication to be actually validated in the beam indication collision scenario in advance according to the capability information, and may store the beam indication validation message in the storage unit 440. When the electronic device 400 needs to receive an Ap-SRS from a user equipment, its transceiver 410 can read this information and receive the Ap-SRS appropriately, if necessary.

More specifically, when the situation shown in fig. 7 occurs and the electronic device 400 needs to receive the Ap-SRS Tx1 through Ap-SRS Tx4, the electronic device 400 may first determine whether a scenario of beam indication collision occurs through the control unit 430 (or the transceiver 410 itself). Here, for the first two reference signals Ap-SRS Tx1 and Ap-SRS Tx2, the electronic device 400 may determine that no beam indication collision has occurred because its transmission time is before the expected effective time of the second beam indication. At this time, the transceiver 410 may receive the reference signal based on an initial first beam indication (e.g., a parameter spatialrelalationinfo of a corresponding SRS resource in that SRS resource set specified by an SRS request field in the DCI trigger message, such as having a format shown in fig. 6) determined from the RRC configuration information according to the DCI trigger message in a manner similar to the related art.

For the last two reference signals Ap-SRS Tx3 and Ap-SRS Tx4, the transmission time of their DCI trigger message is before the expected effective time of the second beam indication and the transmission time of the two reference signals themselves is after the expected effective time of the second beam indication, so the electronic device 400 may determine that a scenario of beam indication collision has occurred. At this time, the updated second beam indication (e.g., the corresponding resource ID in the MAC CE update information shown in fig. 5) has been validated, resulting in that it is not possible to determine whether the beam indication actually used by the user equipment is the updated second beam indication or the initial first beam indication included in the RRC configuration information in the related art.

In this case, the transceiver 410 of the electronic device 400 of the present embodiment may read the beam indication validation information stored in the storage unit 440, for example, under the control of the control unit 430, and receive the reference signal based on the beam indication that is actually validated according to the read information. For example, if the read beam indication validation information is 0, the transceiver 410 may receive the Ap-SRS Tx3 and the Ap-SRS Tx4 based on the first beam indication (e.g., the parameter spatialrelalationinfo of the corresponding SRS resource in the SRS resource set specified by the SRS request field in the DCI trigger message shown in fig. 6) determined from the RRC configuration information; if the read beam indication validation information is 1, the transceiver 410 may receive the Ap-SRS Tx3 and Ap-SRS Tx4 based on a second beam indication (e.g., the corresponding resource ID in the MAC CE update information shown in fig. 5) determined from the MAC CE update message.

With the above processing of the electronic device according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, for a scenario where the DCI trigger message includes information specifying a resource set of aperiodic uplink reference signals, and the resource set includes a plurality of aperiodic uplink reference signals, as long as the transmission time of the trigger message is before the expected effective time of the second beam indication and the transmission time of the current aperiodic uplink reference signal is after the expected effective time of the second beam indication, it can be recognized that the beam indication of the current reference signal collides, so that the correlation processing is appropriately performed according to the predetermined beam indication to be actually effective, regardless of the transmission times of other reference signals in the resource set.

In the case of the three-layer signaling structure described with reference to fig. 1, specific examples of the first beam indication, the second beam indication and the configuration information, the update message and the trigger message associated therewith for the aperiodic uplink reference signal in the first embodiment of the present disclosure and example processing that can be performed by the electronic device 400 are described above. It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the above examples and details thereof are not to be construed as limiting the embodiments of the present disclosure. Based on the present disclosure, those skilled in the art can apply the electronic device 400 of the present embodiment to any suitable scenario, as long as the beam indications of the aperiodic uplink reference signal collide (thereby causing that it may not be determined whether the initial beam indication or the updated beam indication actually takes effect).

[2.3. configuration example of electronic device on user device side ]

Corresponding to the configuration example of the electronic device on the network side described above, the configuration example of the electronic device on the user equipment side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail below.

Fig. 8 is a block diagram showing one configuration example of an electronic device on the user device side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 8, the electronic device 800 may include a generation unit 810 and a transceiver 820, and optionally a control unit 830 for controlling the overall operation of the electronic device 800 and a storage unit 840 for storing various data and programs, etc. required by the electronic device 800.

Here, various units of the electronic device 800 may be included in the processing circuit. The electronic device 800 may include one processing circuit or may include a plurality of processing circuits. Further, the processing circuitry may include various discrete functional units to perform various different functions and/or operations. It should be noted that these functional units may be physical entities or logical entities, and that units called differently may be implemented by the same physical entity. Further, the electronic device 800 may comprise, for example, the user device itself, or may be implemented as a further electronic device attached to the user device.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the generating unit 810 may generate capability information regarding a beam indication of an aperiodic uplink reference signal such as an Ap-SRS. The transceiver 820 may report the capability information generated by the generating unit 810 to a network side device.

The capability information may be used by at least the network side device to determine beam indications that are to actually take effect in the scenario of beam indication collisions. More specifically, the capability information may be used to determine a beam indication to be actually effective, from among a first beam indication determined according to the configuration information of the reference signal and a second beam indication determined according to an update message that updates the beam indication of the reference signal, wherein a transmission time of a trigger message for triggering the aperiodic uplink reference signal is before an expected effective time of the second beam indication determined according to the update message, and a transmission time of the reference signal is after the expected effective time of the second beam indication.

Examples of the above-described trigger message and update message may include the DCI trigger message and MAC CE update message described above with reference to fig. 2 and 3. In addition, the aperiodic reference uplink signal may be an Ap-SRS that is pre-configured by the network side device for the electronic device 800 through RRC signaling, for example, through RRC signaling.

As an example, the transceiver 810 may be configured to receive configuration information (RRC configuration information) for the aperiodic uplink reference signal from the network side user equipment in advance through RRC signaling and may store it in the storage unit 840. The configuration information may include various configurations regarding transmission resources of the aperiodic uplink reference signal, etc., such as a first beam indication for the aperiodic uplink reference signal, etc. As an example, such configuration information received by transceiver 810 may include configuration information for one or more resource sets. Each resource set may include one or more aperiodic uplink reference signals. In the configuration information of each resource set, an RRC parameter, for example, a spatial relationship parameter SpatialRelationInfo, for each aperiodic uplink reference signal of the resource set may be included as a beam indication of the aperiodic uplink reference signal, which may be an example of the first beam indication in this embodiment.

Furthermore, for example, the transceiver 810 may be further configured to receive, from the network side device, a trigger message (DCI trigger message) for triggering the aperiodic uplink reference signal, which is transmitted through DCI of the physical layer, and the DCI trigger message includes information for specifying the triggered aperiodic uplink reference signal. As an example, the DCI trigger message may include information specifying a set of resources for the triggered aperiodic uplink reference signal. In other words, the DCI trigger message received by the transceiver 810 may implement triggering of the aperiodic uplink reference signal in units of resource sets (instead of a single aperiodic uplink reference signal), for example. For example, the information for specifying the resource set included in the DCI trigger message enables the transceiver 810 to prepare to transmit all aperiodic uplink reference signals of the resource set specified by the message among resource sets pre-configured by the RRC configuration information. The transceiver 810 can accordingly read a first beam indication for each aperiodic uplink reference signal from the configuration information of the triggered resource set received in advance and stored in the storage unit 840 as a beam indication for the reference signal, and accordingly prepare a transmission beam to transmit the reference signal.

In addition, for example, the transceiver 810 may be further configured to receive, from the network side device, an update message (MAC CE update message) for updating a beam indication of the aperiodic uplink reference signal, which is transmitted through a MAC CE that includes a second beam indication for the reference signal, so as to replace the first beam indication for the reference signal included in the RRC configuration information. The MAC CE update message received by the transceiver 810 may include, for example, a second beam indication for each reference signal of a set of resources of aperiodic uplink reference signals to be updated. In other words, the MAC CE update message may, for example, implement the update of the beam indication in units of each aperiodic uplink reference signal in the resource set specified by the message. For example, when the transceiver 810 receives the MAC CE update message, the second beam indication of each aperiodic uplink reference signal in the specified resource set may be read from the message and stored in the storage unit 840 under the control of the control unit 830, instead of the previously obtained first beam indication of the configuration information of the corresponding resource set, as the updated beam indication of each reference signal in the resource set. Thereafter, when the electronic device 800 receives the DCI trigger message for the reference signal (e.g., for the resource set of the reference signal), the transceiver of the electronic device 800 uses the updated second beam indication as the beam indication of the reference signal, and accordingly prepares the transmission beam to transmit the reference signal.

Further description will be given later on specific examples of such information or messages and beam indications.

In this scenario, since the transmission time of the DCI trigger message is before the expected effective time of the second beam indication determined according to the MAC CE update message, it is possible that the electronic device on the user equipment side has already acquired the first beam indication in the RRC configuration information (e.g., configuration information of the corresponding resource set) based on the DCI trigger message and prepared the transmission beam to transmit the reference signal accordingly; meanwhile, since the transmission time of the reference signal is after the expected effective time of the second beam indication, it is also possible that the electronic device on the user equipment side prepares to transmit the reference signal based on the second beam indication immediately after the second beam indication for updating the beam indication of the reference signal is effective. This makes it impossible for the network side device in the prior art (even the user equipment itself) to determine whether the first beam indication or the second beam indication actually takes effect. Examples of such scenarios may include, but are not limited to, the example scenarios shown in fig. 2 and 3.

With the configuration of the electronic device 800 on the ue side in this embodiment, the capability information about the beam indication of the aperiodic uplink reference signal may be generated and reported to the network side device after the initial access procedure of the electronic device 800, for example. Accordingly, the network side device may determine, in advance, a beam indication to actually take effect in the scenario of beam indication collision based on the capability information (i.e., determine which of the first beam indication and the second beam indication will actually take effect at that time), and may generate and optionally transmit information about the determined beam indication to actually take effect to the user equipment, for example. In this way, when a scenario, such as the beam indication collision shown in fig. 2 and fig. 3, occurs subsequently, the network side device may know the actually effective beam indication and receive the aperiodic uplink reference signal according to the beam indication, and the electronic device 800 on the user equipment side may also prepare a transmission beam to transmit the aperiodic uplink reference signal accordingly.

As an example, the capability information of the beam indication related to the aperiodic uplink reference signal generated by the generating unit 810 may represent the beam indication supported by the electronic device 800, and may have a length of 2 bits, for example, where 01 represents that only the first beam indication (initial beam indication) determined according to the configuration information is supported, 10 represents that only the second beam indication (updated beam indication) determined according to the update message is supported, 11 represents that the above two beam indications are simultaneously supported, and 00 is used as a reserved bit.

The generation unit 810 can appropriately generate the above capability information according to the situation of the electronic device 800 itself (e.g., storage capability regarding beam indication, time required to prepare to transmit a beam, etc.).

For example, when the electronic device 800 has a poor storage capability with respect to the beam indication and can only store one beam indication for one aperiodic reference signal, as long as the transceiver 810 receives a MAC CE update message for updating the beam indication of the aperiodic reference signal, the second beam indication determined according to the update message is stored in the storage unit 840 to replace the first beam indication that has been previously stored, for example, included in the RRC configuration information (i.e., the first beam indication of the RRC configuration information is deleted by storing the second beam indication). In this case, the transceiver 810 can only prepare a transmission beam and transmit an uplink aperiodic reference signal based on the updated second beam indication. Accordingly, the generating unit 810 may generate capability information in the form of 10 to indicate that the user equipment supports only the second beam indication determined according to the update message.

In addition, when the electronic device 800 has a strong storage capability with respect to beam indications and can store a plurality of beam indications for one aperiodic reference signal, when the transceiver 820 receives a MAC CE update message for updating a beam indication of the aperiodic reference signal, it can store a second beam indication determined according to the update message in the storage unit 840 without deleting, for example, a first beam indication included in RRC configuration information that has been previously stored. In this case, the generating unit 810 of the electronic device 800 may generate the capability information according to, for example, a time required to prepare to transmit the beam or the like.

As an example, if the transceiver 820 requires a long time to prepare a transmission beam, it may not be able to prepare a transmission beam for a reference signal according to the second beam indication immediately after the second beam indication determined according to the update message is validated. In this case, the generating unit 810 may generate capability information, such as in the form of 01, to indicate that the user equipment supports only the first beam indication determined according to the configuration information. In contrast, if the transceiver 820 can complete the preparation of the transmission beam in a short time, it has the capability of preparing the transmission beam according to the second beam indication and transmitting the reference signal using the transmission beam immediately after the second beam indication determined by the update message is effective. In this case, the generating unit 810 may prepare a transmission beam based on the second beam indication determined according to the update message or may prepare a transmission beam based on the first beam indication determined according to the RRC configuration information. Accordingly, the generating unit 810 may generate capability information, such as in the form of 11, to indicate that the user equipment supports the two beam indications simultaneously.

As an example, the transceiver 820 may report the capability information generated by the generating unit 810 to the network-side device after the initial access procedure of the electronic device 800, so that the network-side device may determine, in advance, the beam indication to be actually effective in a scenario of beam indication collision based on the capability information.

In a preferred embodiment, in case the capability information indication supports only one of the first beam indication determined from the configuration information and the second beam indication determined from the update message, the one beam indication is naturally the beam indication that is to actually take effect. For example, when the capability information is 01, a first beam indication determined according to the configuration information is to be actually effected, and when the capability information is 10, a second beam indication determined according to the update message is to be actually effected. The electronic device 800 that generates the capability information may make such a determination by its own generation unit 810, for example, and the network-side device that receives the capability information may make the same determination.

Furthermore, in a case where the capability information indicates that the first beam indication determined according to the configuration information and the second beam indication determined according to the update message are simultaneously supported, the network side device may determine one of the beam indications as an actually effective beam indication. For example, when the capability information is 11, the network side device may determine that one of the two beam indicators is the beam indicator to be actually effective.

Optionally, the transceiver 820 may be further configured to receive information about the beam indication to be actually validated from the network-side device through RRC signaling, and store the information in the storage unit 840 as a beam indication validation message. The beam indication validation information may be represented by 1 bit, for example, where 0 represents that the first beam indication determined according to the configuration information is to be actually validated, and 1 represents that the second beam indication determined according to the update message is to be actually validated.

Note that when the capability information generated by the generation unit 810 of the electronic device 800 indicates, for example, by 2-

bit information

01 or 10, that only one of the first beam indication determined from the configuration information or the second beam indication determined from the update message is supported, even if the transceiver 820 does not receive the beam indication validation information from the network-side device, the transceiver 820 knows the beam indication that is actually validated (and the electronic device 800 may actually store only the beam indication). Therefore, in this case, the transceiver 820 may not receive the beam indication validation information from the network-side device. However, preferably, for the sake of uniformity of the signaling flow, the transceiver 820 of the electronic device 800 may receive the beam indication validation information from the network-side device and optionally store it in the storage unit 840 regardless of the content of the capability information generated by the generation unit 810. Subsequently when the electronic device 800 is to transmit aperiodic uplink reference signals, the transceiver 820 can reference this information as needed and appropriately prepare transmit beams and transmit aperiodic uplink reference signals.

For example, alternatively, for a given electronic device 800, if its storage capacity for beam indications is strong (multiple beam indications may be stored) and preparation of a transmission beam can be completed in a short time, and its generating unit 810 generates capability information such as 11 form to indicate that two beam indications are simultaneously supported, the transceiver 810 of such electronic device 800 may be configured to read the above beam indication validation information from the storage unit 440 when needed (for example, when the control unit 830 determines a scene where beam indication collision occurs with respect to the current aperiodic uplink reference signal), and prepare a transmission beam and transmit an aperiodic uplink reference signal to the network-side device according to the beam indication to be actually validated specified by the information. For example, the transceiver 810 may prepare a transmission beam based on a first beam indication determined according to the configuration information when the read beam indication validation information is 0, and prepare a transmission beam based on a second beam indication determined according to the update message when the information is 1.

As an example, the control unit 830 may be configured to determine whether a scenario in which a beam indication collision of the reference signal occurs when the electronic device 800 needs to transmit an aperiodic uplink reference signal to the network-side device. The control unit 830 may control the transceiver 810 to read beam indication validation information, for example, received in advance from the network side, from the storage unit 440 only when it is determined that a scenario in which a beam indication collision occurs, so that the transceiver 810 may prepare to transmit a beam and transmit an aperiodic uplink reference signal according to a beam indication to be actually validated, which is specified by the information. When the control unit 830 determines that the scenario where the beam indication collision does not occur, the transceiver 810 may be controlled to transmit the aperiodic uplink reference signal in a manner similar to that in the prior art, which is not described herein again.

In a similar manner to the control unit 430 of the electronic device 400 on the network side, when the sending time of the trigger message is before the expected effective time of the second beam indication and the sending time of the reference signal is after the expected effective time of the second beam indication, the control unit 830 may determine a scenario where the beam indication collision occurs, and determine all other scenarios as scenarios where the beam indication collision does not occur, which is not described herein again.

Further, similarly to the control unit 430 of the electronic device 400 on the network side, when the configuration information for the reference signal, the trigger message, and the update message for updating the beam indication of the reference signal are all associated with a resource set including a plurality of reference signals, the control unit 830 determines that the granularity of the scenario in which the beam indication collides can be also detailed to each reference signal in the triggered resource set, for example. That is, as long as the relationship between the transmission time of the current reference signal and the transmission time of the trigger message and the expected effective time of the second beam indication satisfies the condition of the scenario of beam indication collision (the transmission time of the trigger message is before the expected effective time of the second beam indication, and the transmission time of the current reference signal is after the expected effective time of the second beam indication), the control unit 830 may judge that beam indication collision occurs with respect to the current reference signal, regardless of the transmission times of other reference signals in the resource set of the reference signal. For example, the transmission time of another reference signal in the resource set may be before the expected effective time indicated by the second beam (the transmission time of the trigger message and the transmission time of the another reference signal are both before the expected effective time indicated by the second beam), the control unit 830 may determine that the another reference signal has no beam indication collision, and may perform different processing for the current reference signal and the another reference signal.

As a non-exhaustive example of a scenario in which no beam indication collision occurs, the control unit 830 may determine the following several scenarios as a scenario in which no beam indication collision occurs: at the transmission time of the reference signal, no update message of the beam indication for the reference signal occurs (actually effective at this time is the first beam indication determined according to the configuration information); at the sending time of the reference signal, an update message of the beam indication for the reference signal occurs once, but a second beam indication determined according to the update message is not effective (at the moment, the first beam indication determined according to the configuration information is actually effective); at the transmission time of the trigger message of the reference signal, an update message of the beam indication for the reference signal has occurred once, and the second beam indication determined from the update message has come into effect (the second beam indication that actually comes into effect at this time).

When the control unit 830 determines that the scenario where the beam indication collision does not occur, for example, the transceiver 810 may be controlled to transmit the aperiodic uplink reference signal in a manner similar to that in the prior art, that is, prepare to transmit a beam according to the actually effective beam indication and transmit the aperiodic uplink reference signal, which is not described herein again.

Furthermore, alternatively, when the transceiver 810 has a corresponding processing capability, the transceiver 810 itself may also perform a determination regarding a scenario where the beam indication conflicts when needed, and appropriately perform a process of transmitting the aperiodic uplink reference signal according to a determination result, which is not described herein again.

Note that when the capability information generated by the generation unit 810 of the electronic device 800 indicates that only one of the first beam indication determined from the configuration information or the second beam indication determined from the update message is supported, for example, by 2-

bit information

01 or 10, the transceiver 820 knows the beam indication that is actually effective (and the electronic device 800 may actually store only the beam indication) even though it does not read the beam indication effective information. Therefore, with such an electronic device 800, the transceiver 820 may not perform the process of reading the beam indication validation information from the storage unit 840.

More specifically, for example, when the electronic device 800 has a poor storage capability for the beam indication (only one beam indication can be stored), and the capability information generated by the generating unit 810 is 10 and indicates that only the second beam indication determined according to the update message is supported, when the transceiver 820 of the electronic device 800 needs to transmit the aperiodic uplink reference signal to the network side device, it may directly read the stored beam indication from the storage unit 840 and prepare to transmit a beam for reference signal transmission regardless of whether a collision of beam indications occurs.

For example, when the electronic device 800 has a strong storage capacity for beam indications (a plurality of beam indications may be stored), but the time for preparing a beam is long, and the capability information generated by the generating unit 810 is 10, indicating that only the first beam indication determined according to the configuration information is supported, when the electronic device 800 needs to transmit the aperiodic uplink reference signal to the network side device, the control unit 830 may determine whether a scenario in which the beam indication of the reference signal collides occurs. When the control unit 830 determines a scenario in which a beam indication collision occurs, the transceiver 820 may be controlled to prepare a transmission beam and perform transmission of a reference signal based on the first beam indication determined according to the configuration information.

The configuration example of the electronic device on the user device side of the first embodiment of the present disclosure is described above. According to the first embodiment of the present disclosure, the electronic device on the user equipment side can generate and report capability information on beam indications supported by the electronic device, and the capability information can be used, for example, by the network side device, to determine a beam indication to be actually validated for a scenario where beam indications of aperiodic reference signals collide, so that corresponding processing can be performed according to a predetermined beam indication to be actually validated when a subsequent collision scenario occurs.

Next, example processing that can be performed by the electronic device 800 and its respective units on the user equipment side of the present embodiment will be briefly described in conjunction with a specific example in the above [2.2 beam indication related example ].

For example, examples of the RRC configuration information for the Ap-SRS received by the transceiver 820 of the electronic device 800 may include configuration information of SRS resource sets (SRS-resource sets) with one or more resource types (resource types) being aperiodic (aperiodic) that are pre-configured for the electronic device by the network side device. In the configuration information of each of the aperiodic SRS resource sets, a beam indication expressed in RRC parameter spatialrelalationinfo may be included for each SRS resource (each Ap-SRS reference signal), which may be used as an example of the first beam indication included in the RRC configuration information in the first embodiment of the present disclosure. The electronic device 800 may be configured to receive configuration information of such SRS resource sets in advance through the transceiver 820 and store it in the storage unit 840 of the electronic device 800.

Further, for example, examples of the MAC CE update message received by the transceiver 820 of the electronic device may include the MAC CE update message shown in fig. 5 whose resource IDs in Oct3 through Oct n-M +1 are the MAC CE update messages_i(optionally together with 1 bit of F)_iA field) may be used as an example of a second beam indication for a corresponding Ap-SRS included in the MAC CE update message.

The electronic device 800 may be configured to receive the MAC CE update message via the transceiver 820 and may perform a corresponding update process for the aperiodic SRS resource set specified by the aperiodic SRS resource set ID field of the MAC CE update message.

For example, when the storage capability of the electronic device 800 for the beam indication is poor, that is, the storage unit 840 can only store one beam indication for each Ap-SRS (each SRS resource), then as the beam indication for each Ap-SRS, the storage unit 840 will only store the corresponding resource ID (second beam indication) in the MAC CE update message to replace the SpatialRelationInfo parameter (first beam indication) of the corresponding SRS resource in the previously stored configuration information of the SRS resource set (that is, the storage unit 840 deletes the first beam indication represented by the SpatialRelationInfo parameter of the corresponding SRS resource).

Furthermore, when the storage capability of the electronic device 800 for the beam indication is strong, that is, the storage unit 840 may store a plurality of beam indications for each Ap-SRS (each SRS resource), then as each Ap-SRS beam indication after updating, the storage unit 840 stores the corresponding resource ID (second beam indication) in the MAC CE update message, but at the same time retains the SpatialRelationInfo parameter (first beam indication) of the corresponding SRS resource in the configuration information of the SRS resource set stored previously. After the second beam indication determined according to the MAC CE update message is valid, in a general case (a scenario where no beam indication collision occurs), the electronic device 800 prepares a transmission beam based on the beam indication and transmits the transmission beam when the aperiodic uplink reference signal needs to be transmitted. However, if a scenario in which the beam indication conflicts occurs, the electronic device 800 will prepare to transmit a beam and perform transmission of a reference signal according to the beam indication actually in effect in the manner described hereinbefore.

In addition, for example, the DCI trigger message received by the transceiver 820 of the electronic device may include an SRS Request (SRS-Request) field as information specifying the aperiodic SRS resource set. The transceiver 820, upon receiving the DCI trigger message with the above SRS request field, may determine the triggered SRS resource set according to the SRS request field.

Furthermore, if the electronic device 800 has not received a MAC CE update message regarding the set of SRS resources before, the transceiver 820 may read the spatialrelalationinfo parameter (first beam indication) of each SRS resource in the configuration information of the set of SRS resources stored in the storage unit 840, for example, and prepare to transmit a beam according to the beam indication and transmit a reference signal. In addition, if the electronic device 800 has received a MAC CE update message regarding the set of SRS resources before the DCI trigger message and the beam indication (second beam indication) updated by the MAC CE update message has taken effect, the transceiver 820 may read, for example, a corresponding resource ID in the MAC CE update message such as shown in fig. 5 as the updated beam indication from the storage unit 840. In addition, if a scenario in which beams indicate collision occurs, the electronic device 800 will prepare to transmit beams and perform transmission of reference signals according to the beam indications that actually take effect in the manner described hereinbefore.

Next, continuing with the above specific example, consider the following scenario: a set of resources (e.g., a set of SRS resources) triggered by the DCI trigger message received by the electronic device 800 includes a plurality of aperiodic uplink reference signals, such as Ap-SRS, where a transmission time of the DCI trigger message is before an expected effective time indicated by the second beam updated by, for example, the MAC CE update message, and among a plurality of reference signals corresponding to the set of resources triggered by the DCI trigger message, a transmission time of a part of the reference signals is before the expected effective time indicated by the second beam, and a transmission time of another part of the reference signals is after the expected effective time indicated by the second beam, for example, the scenario shown in fig. 7.

For the above scenario illustrated in fig. 7, consider the following electronic device 800 on the user device side: the electronic equipment generates and reports 11 forms of capability information to the network side equipment in advance, and the capability information shows that the electronic equipment supports two beam indications; and also has received in advance from the network-side device information (beam indication validation message) about the beam indication to be actually validated in the beam indication collision scenario, and has stored it in the storage unit 840.

In this case, when the case shown in fig. 7 occurs and the electronic device 800 needs to receive the Ap-SRS Tx1 through Ap-SRS Tx4, the electronic device 800 may first determine whether a scenario of beam indication collision occurs through the control unit 830 (or the transceiver 820 itself). Here, for the first two reference signals Ap-SRS Tx1 and Ap-SRS Tx2, the electronic device 800 may determine that no beam indication collision has occurred because their transmission times are before the expected effective time of the second beam indication. At this time, the transceiver 810 may receive the reference signal based on an initial first beam indication (e.g., a parameter spatialrelalationinfo of a corresponding SRS resource in that SRS resource set specified by an SRS request field in a DCI trigger message, such as having the format shown in fig. 6) determined according to the configuration information, in a manner similar to the related art.

For the last two reference signals Ap-SRS Tx3 and Ap-SRS Tx4, the transmission time of their DCI trigger message is before the expected effective time indicated by the second beam and the transmission time of the two reference signals themselves is after the expected effective time indicated by the second beam, so the electronic device 800 may determine that a scenario of beam indication collision has occurred. At this time, the updated second beam indication (e.g., the corresponding resource ID in the MAC CE update information shown in fig. 5) has been validated, resulting in that the user equipment cannot determine which beam indication it should use to prepare for transmitting a beam in the prior art.

In this case, the transceiver 810 of the electronic device 800 of the present embodiment may read the beam indication validation information stored in the storage unit 440, for example, under the control of the control unit 430, and receive the reference signal based on the beam indication that is actually validated according to the read information. For example, if the read beam indication validation information is 0, the transceiver 810 may prepare and transmit transmission beams of Ap-SRS Tx3 and Ap-SRS Tx4 based on a first beam indication (e.g., parameter spatialrelalationinfo of a corresponding SRS resource in that SRS resource set specified by an SRS request field in a DCI trigger message) determined according to the configuration information; if the read beam indication validation information is 1, the transceiver 810 may prepare and transmit transmission beams of the Ap-SRS Tx3 and Ap-SRS Tx4 based on a second beam indication (e.g., a corresponding resource ID in the MAC CE update information shown in fig. 5) determined according to the MAC CE update message.

In the case of the three-layer signaling structure described with reference to fig. 1, specific examples of the first beam indication, the second beam indication, and the configuration information, the update message, and the trigger message associated therewith for the aperiodic uplink reference signal in the first embodiment of the present disclosure and example processing that can be performed by the electronic device 800 at the user equipment side are described above. It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the above examples and details thereof are not to be construed as limiting the embodiments of the present disclosure. Based on the present disclosure, those skilled in the art may apply the electronic device 800 of the present embodiment to any suitable scenario, as long as the beam indications of the aperiodic uplink reference signal collide (so as to result in that it may not be determined whether the initial beam indication or the updated beam indication actually takes effect).

<3. example of configuration of electronic device on network side of second embodiment >

In order to describe the problem solved by the second embodiment of the present disclosure, here, first, an example of a collision in which the second MAC CE selection message overlaps with the DCI trigger message, thereby causing a transmission resource indication collision is described with reference to fig. 9 and 10, with an Ap-CSI-RS as an example of a downlink aperiodic reference signal.

Fig. 9 and 10 are schematic diagrams illustrating examples of scenarios in which a transmission resource indication conflicts, each schematically illustrating a set of transmission resource indications (such as a set of Aperiodic trigger states) of the Ap-CSI-RS selected by the second MAC CE selection message update, each Aperiodic trigger state being associated with a respective set of Ap-CSI-RS resources, and therefore such Aperiodic trigger states are also referred to herein as transmission resource indications, which will be described in detail later in connection with specific examples), and an example timeline in which the DCI trigger message triggers the Ap-CSI-RS. Note that, although not shown in the figure, prior to the timelines shown in fig. 9 and 10, the network-side device NW has initially configured the Ap-CSI-RS by, for example, RRC signaling, that is, has transmitted configuration information of a plurality of transmission resource indications to the UE, and has transmitted a selection message (first MAC CE selection message) for selecting a first group of transmission resource indications among the configured plurality of transmission resource indications to the UE through the MAC CE and has validated the message.

Thereafter, in an aspect, assuming that the second MAC CE selection message shown in fig. 9 and 10 is not considered first, when the UE receives the DCI trigger message for triggering the Ap-CSI-RS sent by the NW as shown in fig. 9 and 10, the UE may determine a corresponding, e.g., one, transmission resource indication among the first set of transmission resource indications selected by the first MAC CE selection message according to the DCI trigger message, and receive the Ap-CSI-RS from the NW at a transmission time determined according to the DCI trigger message, for example, based on the transmission resource indication.

On the other hand, assuming that the DCI trigger message is not considered first, when the UE receives a second MAC CE selection message for selecting a second set of transmission resource indications among the plurality of transmission resource indications configured in advance as shown in fig. 9 and 10, the UE replaces the first set of transmission resource indications with the second set of transmission resource indications, for example, after a series of processes of, for example, 3m time length such as those described hereinbefore with reference to fig. 2 and 3 (thus, the 3ms time may be regarded as an expected effective time of the second set of transmission resource indications updated by the second MAC CE selection message). Thereafter, if the UE receives a new DCI trigger message after the second set of transmission resource indications has taken effect, a corresponding, e.g., one, transmission resource indication may be determined among the second set of transmission resource indications from the DCI trigger message, and the Ap-CSI-RS from the NW may be received at a transmission time, e.g., determined from the DCI trigger message, based on the transmission resource indication.

For the above hypothetical case, the time lines of the DCI trigger message and the second MAC CE selection message do not overlap, so the transmission resource indication (actually effective transmission resource indication) actually followed by the UE is clear, and no transmission resource indication collision or confusion occurs.

However, if the time lines of the two overlap, for example, as shown in fig. 9 and fig. 10, the DCI trigger message occurs before the effective time of the second set of transmission resource indication selected by the second MAC CE selection message and the triggered transmission of the Ap-CSI-RS occurs after the effective time of the second set of transmission resource indication, a transmission resource indication collision occurs, so that the network side cannot determine which set of transmission resource indication actually takes effect for the UE, i.e., cannot know which transmission resource indication the Ap-CSI-RS should be transmitted to the UE based on.

In view of the above, a second embodiment of the present disclosure is proposed.

[3.1 configuration example of electronic device on network side ]

Fig. 11 is a block diagram showing one configuration example of an electronic device on the network side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 11, the electronic device 1100 may include a transceiver 1110 and a determination unit 1120, and optionally a control unit 1130 for controlling the overall operation of the electronic device 800 and a storage unit 1140 for storing various data and programs, etc. required by the electronic device 1100.

Here, the units of the electronic device 1100 may be included in a processing circuit. It is noted that the electronic device 1100 may include one processing circuit or may include a plurality of processing circuits. Further, the processing circuitry may include various discrete functional units to perform various different functions and/or operations. It should be noted that these functional units may be physical entities or logical entities, and that units called differently may be implemented by the same physical entity.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the transceiver 1110 may receive capability information reported by the user equipment regarding transmission resource indication of an aperiodic downlink reference signal such as Ap-CSI-RS, and optionally store it in the storage unit 1140.

The determining unit 1120 may determine, according to the capability information about the transmission resource indication of the aperiodic downlink reference signal, a transmission resource indication to be actually effective in a scenario of transmission resource indication collision.

More specifically, the determining unit 1120 may determine, according to the capability information, a set of transmission resource indications to be actually validated, from among a first set of transmission resource indications and a second set of transmission resource indications of the plurality of transmission resource indications of the reference signal determined according to the first selection message and the second selection message, respectively, wherein a transmission time of a trigger message for triggering the reference signal is after an expected validation time of the first set of transmission resource indications and before an expected validation time of the second set of transmission resource indications, and the transmission time of the reference signal is after an expected validation time of the second set of transmission resource indications. Alternatively, the determining unit 1120 may generate information on the determined set of transmission resource indications to actually take effect (also referred to herein as transmission resource indication taking effect information as appropriate), and store the information in the storage unit 1140.

Examples of the above trigger message and the first and second selection messages may include the DCI trigger message and the MAC CE selection message described above with reference to fig. 9 and 10. Further, optionally, the aperiodic reference downlink signal may be preconfigured by the electronic device for the user equipment through RRC signaling, such as Ap-CSI-RS preconfigured through RRC signaling.

As an example, the transceiver 1110 may be configured to transmit configuration information (RRC configuration information) of a plurality of transmission resource indications for the aperiodic downlink reference signal to the user equipment in advance through RRC signaling. Each transmission resource indication may be associated with one or more resource sets for aperiodic downlink reference signals, each resource set may include one or more aperiodic downlink reference signals. An example of the transmission resource indication employed in the present embodiment may include an Aperiodic Trigger State (Aperiodic Trigger State). An example of configuration information for multiple transmission resource indications may include an Aperiodic Trigger State List (Aperiodic Trigger State List) for, for example, 128 Aperiodic Trigger states. For example, with a non-zero power CSI-RS (nzp-CSI-RS) as an aperiodic downlink reference signal, the configuration information in the aperiodic trigger state list may include, for each aperiodic trigger state, a parameter ResourceSet to specify a set of nzp-CSI-RS resources associated with the aperiodic trigger state, and may further include, for example, an optional parameter qcl-info representing spatial quasi co-location as a beam indication to indicate a transmission beam of each resource in the set of nzp-CSI-RS resources.

Further, for example, the transceiver 1110 may be further configured to transmit, to the user equipment through the MAC CE, a selection message (MAC CE selection message) for specifying a set of transmission resource indications selected by the user equipment among the plurality of transmission resource indications configured in advance by the RRC configuration information, when the set of transmission resource indications needs to be selected as a backup. For example, the MAC CE selection message may include information indicating whether each transmission resource indication (aperiodic trigger state) is selected to specify a selected group (e.g., up to 63) of aperiodic trigger states among 128 aperiodic trigger states configured, for example, by the aperiodic trigger state list; the user equipment receiving the MAC CE selection message will know that the set of aperiodic trigger states is currently in standby.

For example, the transceiver 1110 may be further configured to transmit a trigger message (DCI trigger message) to the user equipment through the DCI of the physical layer when the aperiodic downlink reference signal needs to be transmitted, the DCI trigger message preferably including information for specifying a transmission resource indication to be used among a currently reserved set of transmission resource indications (also referred to herein as an actually effective set of transmission resource indications). As an example, the DCI trigger message may include a sequence number for the specified one of the transmission resource indications in the currently reserved set of transmission resource indications. For example, after the MAC CE selection message specifies the spare 63 aperiodic trigger states among the preconfigured 128 aperiodic trigger states, the DCI trigger message may specify a corresponding one of the 63 aperiodic trigger states by, for example, one of sequence numbers 1 to 63. Such a DCI trigger message allows the user equipment to prepare to receive the aperiodic downlink reference signal associated with the transmission resource indication specified by the message. For example, when the aperiodic trigger state is taken as an example of a transmission resource indication, the user equipment may prepare to receive a resource set associated with the aperiodic trigger state specified by the DCI trigger message (e.g., nzp-CSI-RS resource set specified by parameter ResourceSet in the configuration information of the aperiodic trigger state), and may prepare to receive beams according to a beam indication specified by the aperiodic trigger state (e.g., a beam indication specified by parameter qcl-info in the configuration information of the aperiodic trigger state) to receive the aperiodic downlink reference signals.

The RRC configuration information, the DCI trigger message, and the MAC CE selection message described above may be generated and transmitted by the transceiver 1110, for example, through processing by the control unit 1130 of the electronic device 1100, and further description will be given on specific examples of these information or messages and the transmission resource indication.

In this embodiment, a scenario in which a transmission time of a trigger message (e.g., a DCI trigger message) for triggering an aperiodic downlink reference signal is after an expected effective time indicated by a first group of transmission resources determined according to a first selection message (e.g., a first MAC CE selection message) and before an expected effective time indicated by a second group of transmission resources determined according to a second selection message (e.g., a second MAC CE selection message), and the transmission time of the reference signal is after the expected effective time indicated by the second group of transmission resources is identified as a scenario in which transmission resources indicate collisions.

In this scenario, since the transmission time of the DCI trigger message is before the expected effective time of the second transmission resource indication determined according to the second selection message, it is possible that the user equipment has determined and correspondingly prepared (for example, including but not limited to, preparing a receive beam according to the beam indication specified by the first transmission resource indication) a first transmission resource indication from the first set of transmission resources determined according to the first selection message based on the DCI trigger message in order to receive the reference signal; meanwhile, since the transmission time of the reference signal is after the expected validation time of the second set of transmission resource indications, it is also possible for the UE to determine and prepare accordingly a second transmission resource indication from the second set of transmission resources based on the DCI trigger message immediately after the second set of transmission resource indications are validated in order to receive the reference signal. This results in that the network side device (even the user equipment itself) in the prior art may not be able to determine whether the first set of transmission resource indications or the second set of transmission resource indications actually take effect (accordingly, whether the first transmission resource indications determined from the first set of transmission resource indications or the second transmission resource indications determined from the second set of transmission resource indications actually take effect). Examples of such scenarios may include, but are not limited to, the example scenarios shown in fig. 9 and 10.

With the configuration of the electronic device 800 on the network side of the present embodiment, the determining unit 1120 may determine, in advance, a set of transmission resource indications that will actually take effect in the scenario of transmission resource indication collision based on the capability information received by the transceiver 1110 (i.e., determine which of the first set of transmission resource indications and the second set of transmission resource indications will actually take effect at that time), and may generate and store information about the determined set of transmission resource indications that will actually take effect (also referred to herein as transmission resource indication taking effect information as appropriate) in the storage unit 1140 for use by the electronic device 800 itself and/or transmission to the user equipment. In this way, when a scenario in which transmission resource indications collide such as those shown in fig. 9 and 10 occurs subsequently, the electronic device 800 and/or the user equipment on the network side may know a set of transmission resource indications that actually take effect and perform corresponding processing according to the set of transmission resource indications.

As an example, the capability information received by the transceiver 1110 about the transmission resource indication of the aperiodic downlink reference signal may be reported to the electronic device 800 by the user equipment after the initial access procedure. The capability information may indicate transmission resource indications supported by the user equipment, and may have a length of 2 bits, for example, where 01 indicates that the user equipment supports only a first set of transmission resource indications determined according to the first selection message, 10 indicates that the user equipment supports only a second set of transmission resource indications determined according to the second selection message, 11 indicates that the user equipment supports both sets of transmission resource indications, and 00 is used as a reserved bit. Such capability information is appropriately generated by the user equipment according to the situation of the user equipment itself (e.g., storage capability indicated with respect to transmission resources, time required for preparation for receiving reference signals, etc.), and further description will be given later on the generation of the capability information in a section on the configuration of the user equipment.

In a preferred embodiment, the determining unit 1120 may be configured to determine a set of transmission resource indications as the set of transmission resource indications to be actually effected in case the capability information indicates that only one of the first set of transmission resource indications determined from the first selection message and the second set of transmission resource indications determined from the second selection message is supported. For example, the determining unit 1120 may determine that the first set of transmission resource indication is to be actually validated when the capability information is 01, and determine that the second set of transmission resource indication is to be actually validated when the capability information is 10.

Furthermore, the determining unit 1120 may be further configured to determine one of the sets of transmission resource indications as a set of transmission resource indications to be actually validated in case the capability information indicates that both a first set of transmission resource indications determined from the first selection message and a second set of transmission resource indications determined from the second selection message are supported. For example, the determining unit 1120 may determine that one of the two sets of transmission resource indications is a set of transmission resource indications to be actually validated when the capability information is 11. At this time, the determination unit 1120 may determine one of the two at random, for example, or may determine a preferable one of the two according to a preset setting.

Optionally, the determining unit 1120 may be further configured to generate information on the determined set of transmission resource indications to actually take effect and store the information in the storage unit 1140 as a transmission resource indication take-effect message. The transmission resource indication validation information may be represented by, for example, 1 bit, where 0 represents that the first set of transmission resource indications determined from the first selection message is to be actually validated and 1 represents that the second set of transmission resource indications determined from the second selection message is to be actually validated.

Alternatively, the transceiver 1110 may be configured to read the transmission resource indication validation information from the storage unit 1140, for example, when needed, and transmit the aperiodic downlink reference signal to the user equipment based on the corresponding transmission resource indication specified according to the DCI trigger message in the group of transmission resource indications specified by the information. For example, when the read transmission resource indication validation information is 0, the transceiver 1110 transmits the aperiodic downlink reference signal based on the corresponding transmission resource indication specified according to the DCI trigger message in the first set of transmission resource indications, and when the information is 1, transmits the aperiodic downlink reference signal based on the corresponding transmission resource indication specified according to the DCI trigger message in the second set of transmission resource indications. Alternatively, when the configuration information of the transmission resource indication includes a beam indication for a resource set associated with the transmission resource indication, according to the transmission resource indication actually effective, the transceiver 1110 may transmit the aperiodic downlink reference signal using a transmission beam specified by the beam indication of the resource set associated with the transmission resource indication, for example.

Alternatively, the control unit 1130 may be configured to determine whether a scenario in which a transmission resource of an aperiodic downlink reference signal indicates collision occurs when the aperiodic downlink reference signal needs to be transmitted to the user equipment. The control unit 1130 may control the transceiver 1110 to read validation information stored in the storage unit 1140 in advance, for example, only when it is determined that a scenario in which a transmission resource indication collision occurs, so that the transceiver 1110 may transmit an aperiodic downlink reference signal based on a corresponding transmission resource indication specified in the DCI trigger message among a set of transmission resource indications to be actually validated according to the set of transmission resource indications specified by the information.

When the control unit 1130 determines that a scenario where a transmission resource indication collision does not occur, the transceiver 1110 may be controlled to transmit the aperiodic downlink reference signal in a manner similar to that in the prior art (for example, determine a corresponding transmission resource indication based on the DCI trigger message and correspondingly transmit the aperiodic downlink reference signal from a currently standby group of transmission resources that are previously selected according to the MAC CE selection message), which is not described herein again.

The control unit 1130 may determine the scenario where the transmission resource indicates collision based on a relationship between a transmission time of a trigger message triggering the aperiodic downlink reference signal, a transmission time of the reference signal, and an expected effective time of the first and second sets of transmission resource indications determined according to the first and second selection messages. The control unit 1130 may determine the above-described times and the relationship between the respective times in various ways. For example, the transmission time of the reference signal may be determined by the transmission time of the trigger message of the aperiodic reference signal, the configuration information of the aperiodic reference signal (e.g., a time offset between the transmission time of the trigger message and the reference signal specified by the configuration information of the reference signal), and the like. Furthermore, the expected validation time of the first and second sets of transmission resource indications may be determined according to the sending time of the first and second selection messages and the length of the time period required for the validation of the first and second sets of transmission resource indications determined according to the first and second selection messages (the length of the time period, such as 3ms, may be known in advance by the electronic device on the network side, for example).

As an example, the control unit 1130 may be configured to determine a scenario where a transmission resource indication collision occurs only when a transmission time of a trigger message triggering an aperiodic uplink reference signal is after an expected validation time indicated by a first set of transmission resources determined according to the first selection message and before an expected validation time indicated by a second set of transmission resources determined according to the second selection message, and a transmission time of the reference signal is after an expected validation time indicated by the second set of transmission resources. The control unit 1130 may determine all other scenes as a scene in which no beam indication collision occurs.

Here, the granularity at which the control unit 1130 determines a scenario in which beam indication conflicts may be, for example, a transmission resource indication. As mentioned before, the DCI trigger message specifies, for example, one transmission resource indication among the alternative set of transmission resource indications selected by the MAC CE selection message to trigger all reference signals of the resource set associated with the transmission resource indication (e.g. each nzp-CSI-RS in the nzp-CSI-RS resource set associated with the transmission resource indication), i.e. the alternative set of transmission resource indications determined by the MAC CE selection message is the basis of the DCI trigger message (in contrast to which the MAC CE update message in the first embodiment is used to update the beam indication of the reference signal, but does not modify the triggered reference signal itself). Thus, once the DCI trigger message has specified an alternative first set of transmission resources selected according to the first MAC CE selection message in which, for example, the first transmission resource indication and has started to transmit reference signals of the resource set associated with the first transmission resource indication (e.g., the first nzp-CSI-RS of the respective nzp-CSI-RS in the nzp-CSI-RS resource set associated with the first transmission resource indication), then the other reference signals of the resource set associated with the first transmission resource indication (e.g., the other nzp-CSI-RS of the respective nzp-CSI-RS in the nzp-CSI-RS resource set associated with the first transmission resource indication) that have been triggered to be transmitted are not changed even though the alternative second set of transmission resource indications selected according to the second MAC CE selection message in this process take effect.

Therefore, in this example, it is preferable that the control unit 1130 judges a scenario where the transmission resource indications collide in accordance with the transmission resource indications, not in accordance with each reference signal associated with the transmission resource indications. Preferably, the control unit 1130 may be configured to: determining a scenario in which a transmission resource indication collision occurs only when a sending time of a trigger message triggering an aperiodic uplink reference signal is after an expected effective time of a first group of transmission resource indications determined according to a first selection message and before an expected effective time of a second group of transmission resource indications determined according to a second selection message, and sending times of a plurality of aperiodic downlink reference signals included in a resource set associated with the transmission resource indications specified by the trigger message are all after the expected effective time of the second group of transmission resource indications; the control unit 1130 may determine all other scenes as a scene in which no beam indication collision occurs. In this way, although the transmission times of the respective aperiodic downlink reference signals of the resource set associated with the transmission resource indication specified by the DCI trigger message may be different, the control unit 1130 collectively determines whether or not a transmission resource indication collision occurs, with reference to the transmission time of the first reference signal among the reference signals.

As a non-exhaustive example of a scenario in which the control unit 1130 determines that no transmission resource indication collision has occurred, the following several scenarios may be considered: at the transmission time of the first reference signal (i.e. the transmission time of the first reference signal of the resource set associated with the transmission resource indication specified by the trigger message, the same applies below), no second selection message for the transmission resource indication of the reference signal has occurred (now actually valid is the first set of transmission resource indications determined from the first selection message); at the time of transmission of the first reference signal, a second selection message of the transmission resource indication for the reference signal occurs once, but a second set of transmission resource indications determined according to the second selection message has not yet come into effect (actually coming into effect at this time is the first set of transmission resource indications determined according to the first selection message); at the time of transmission of the trigger message of the reference signal, a second selection message of the transmission resource indication for the reference signal occurs once, and a second set of transmission resource indications determined from the second selection message has taken effect (at this time, it is the second set of transmission resource indications that actually take effect).

Alternatively, when the transceiver 1110 has corresponding processing capability, the transceiver 1110 itself may also perform a determination regarding a scenario where the transmission resource indication conflicts when needed, and appropriately perform a process of receiving the aperiodic downlink reference signal according to a determination result, which is not described herein again.

Preferably, the transceiver 1110 may be further configured to transmit information on a set of transmission resource indications to be actually validated (transmission resource indication validation information) to the user equipment through RRC signaling.

Note that, when the capability information from the user equipment indicates, for example, by 2-

bit information

01 or 10, that the user equipment supports only one of the first set of transmission resource indications determined from the first selection message or the second set of transmission resource indications determined from the second selection message, even if the electronic equipment 800 on the network side does not transmit the transmission resource indication validation information to the user equipment, the user equipment knows which set of transmission resource indications is actually validated. Therefore, in this case, the electronic device 1100 may not transmit the transmission resource indication validation information to the user equipment. However, preferably, for the sake of signaling flow uniformity, the transceiver 1110 of the electronic device 1100 may transmit transmission resource indication validation information to the user equipment regardless of the content of the received capability information, so that the user equipment may prepare to receive the aperiodic downlink reference signal accordingly when needed.

The configuration example of the electronic device on the network side of the second embodiment of the present disclosure is described above. According to the second embodiment of the disclosure, the electronic device on the network side can determine, in advance, a transmission resource indication to be actually validated based on the capability information reported by the user equipment, for a scenario where a transmission resource indication of an aperiodic downlink reference signal conflicts, so that corresponding processing can be performed according to the predetermined transmission resource indication to be actually validated when a subsequent conflict scenario occurs.

[3.2 Transmission resource indicator-related example ]

Next, specific examples of the transmission resource indication for the aperiodic downlink reference signal and the configuration information, the selection message, and the trigger message associated therewith that can be employed in the first embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with nzp-CSI-RS as an example of the aperiodic downlink reference signal, and example processing that can be performed by the electronic device of the present embodiment will be described in conjunction with these examples.

(example of configuration information of Transmission resources)

As previously described, examples of transmission resource indications employed in the present embodiments may include CSI aperiodic trigger states, where each CSI aperiodic trigger state may be associated with a set of resources for an aperiodic downlink reference signal, such as a non-zero power CSI-RS (nzp-CSI-RS), and each set of nzp-CSI-RS resources may include one or more nzp-CSI-RSs.

An example of configuration information for such a transmission resource indication may include a CSI aperiodic trigger state list (CSI-AperiodicTriggerStateList). In the CSI aperiodic trigger state list, for each of a plurality of (e.g., 128) CSI aperiodic trigger states (CSI-aperiodictriggerstates), for example, nzp-CSI-RS reference signals for measurement may be configured in association with CSI reports that are reported after measurement with the reference signals. More specifically, in the CSI aperiodic trigger state list (CSI-AperiodicTriggerStateList), for each aperiodic trigger state (CSI-AperiodicTriggerState), associated configuration information (CSI-AssociatedReportConfigInfo) for associating, for example, nzp-CSI-RS with a CSI report may be included. The association configuration information (CSI-AssociatedReportConfigInfo) may include a parameter ResourceSet for specifying a set of resources to specify a set of nzp-CSI-RS resources associated with the CSI aperiodic trigger state, and may also include, for example, an optional parameter qcl-info as a beam indication to indicate a transmit beam for each resource in the set of nzp-CSI-RS resources.

As previously described, all nzp-CSI-RSs of the nzp-CSI-RS resource set associated with one transmission resource indication, e.g., one CSI-aperiodic trigger state (CSI-AperiodicTriggerState), may be uniformly triggered by one DCI trigger message specifying the CSI-aperiodic trigger state. That is, the user equipment is triggered to transmit a set nzp-CSI-RS signal associated with the CSI aperiodic trigger state through one DCI trigger message.

The electronic device 1100 of the present embodiment may generate RRC configuration information such as the above-described CSI-aperiodic triggerstatelist (CSI-AperiodicTriggerStateList) by appropriate processing, for example, through its control unit 1130, and transmit it to the user equipment in advance through the transceiver 1110.

(example of MAC CE selection message for selecting alternate Transmission resource indication)

The MAC CE selection message for selecting a set of standby transmission resource indications among the plurality of transmission resource indications configured in advance in this embodiment may include, for example, information indicating whether each transmission resource indication is selected to specify the selected set of transmission resource indications.

An example of a MAC CE selection message that may be employed in the present embodiment is shown in fig. 12. As shown, the Oct1 of the MAC CE select message may include a 1-bit D field to indicate in which configuration information the CSI aperiodic trigger state list (CSI-aperiodictriggerstatlist) involved is configured (e.g., in the CSI-aperiodictriggerstatlist as described above, or in the aperiodictriggerstatlist dci-Format0-2 configured in a similar manner).

In Oct2 to OctN of the MAC CE selection message, 1-bit information T for indicating whether the ith Aperiodic Trigger State (Aperiodic Trigger State) in a preconfigured CSI Aperiodic Trigger State list (e.g., CSI-Aperiodic Trigger State list) is selected or not is included_iWhen T is_iA value of 1 indicates that the ith aperiodic trigger state is selected, T_iA value of 0 indicates that the ith aperiodic trigger state is not selected. By field T₀To T_(N-2) 8+7 may be derived from, for example, a total of T_(N-1)*8Among the (for example, 128 total) aperiodic trigger states, for example, a maximum of 63 aperiodic trigger states are specified as the selected set of aperiodic trigger states.

The electronic device 1100 of the present embodiment can generate the above-described MAC CE selection message via appropriate processing, for example, by its control unit 1130, and transmit it to the user equipment through the transceiver 1110 as needed. A scenario in which the electronic device 1100 needs to transmit the MAC CE selection message may be, for example, that the number of the pre-configured aperiodic trigger states (e.g., 128) is greater than the candidate range (e.g., 63) of the DCI trigger. When the user equipment receives such a MAC CE selection message, the aperiodic trigger states selected by the MAC CE selection message may be saved as standby aperiodic trigger states, for example, to be specified from the standby aperiodic trigger states when a DCI trigger message is subsequently received.

(example of DCI trigger message for specifying Transmission resource indication)

In this embodiment, the DCI trigger message for triggering the aperiodic dl rs preferably includes information for specifying a transmission resource indication to be used in the current standby set of transmission resource indications, and the DCI trigger message may include, as an example, a sequence number of the specified transmission resource indication in the current standby set of transmission resource indications.

As an example of information included in the DCI trigger message for specifying an indication of a transmission resource to be used among a set of transmission resources currently reserved, which may be employed in the present embodiment, a CSI Request (CSI-Request) field of the DCI trigger message is considered here. The CSI Request (SRS-Request) field may be, for example, up to 6 bits, which is used to specify one of the 63 Aperiodic Trigger states with a corresponding one of sequence numbers 1 to 63, for example, among a currently standby set of, for example, up to 63 Aperiodic Trigger states (Aperiodic Trigger states) selected by the MAC CE selection message. The sequence number 0 may for example indicate no triggering.

The electronic device 1100 of the present embodiment may generate a DCI trigger message with the above CSI request fields via appropriate processing, for example, by its control unit 1130 and send it to the user equipment through the transceiver 1110 when a trigger nzp-CSI-RS is required.

When the user equipment receives the DCI trigger message with the above CSI request field transmitted by the electronic device 1100, the triggered CSI aperiodic trigger state may be determined among the currently standby set of CSI aperiodic trigger states according to the field, and a set of resources associated with the aperiodic trigger state specified by the DCI trigger message (e.g., the nzp-CSI-RS resource set specified by parameter ResourceSet in the configuration information of the aperiodic trigger state) may be prepared to be received, and optionally a reception beam may be prepared to be received according to a beam indication specified by the aperiodic trigger state (e.g., a beam indication specified by parameter qcl-info in the configuration information of the aperiodic trigger state).

In the case of the three-layer signaling structure described with reference to fig. 1, a specific example of the transmission resource indication for the aperiodic downlink reference signal and the configuration information, the selection message, and the trigger message associated therewith in the second embodiment of the present disclosure and an example process that may be performed by the electronic device 1100 are described above with a specific example of nz-CSI-RS. It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the above examples and details thereof are not to be construed as limiting the embodiments of the present disclosure. Based on the present disclosure, those skilled in the art can apply the electronic device 1100 of the present embodiment to any suitable scenario, as long as the transmission resource indications of the aperiodic downlink reference signal collide (thereby causing that it may not be determined whether the first set of transmission resource indications or the second set of transmission resource indications actually take effect).

[3.3. configuration example of electronic device on user device side ]

Corresponding to the configuration example of the electronic device on the network side described above, the configuration example of the electronic device on the user equipment side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail below.

Fig. 13 is a block diagram showing one configuration example of an electronic device on the user device side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 13, the electronic device 1300 may include a generation unit 1310 and a transceiver 1320, and optionally a control unit 1330 for controlling the overall operation of the electronic device 1300 and a storage unit 1340 for storing various data and programs, etc., required by the electronic device 1300.

Here, the various units of the electronic device 1300 may be included in a processing circuit. It is noted that the electronic device 1300 may include one processing circuit or may include a plurality of processing circuits. Further, the processing circuitry may include various discrete functional units to perform various different functions and/or operations. It should be noted that these functional units may be physical entities or logical entities, and that units called differently may be implemented by the same physical entity. Further, the electronic device 1300 may, for example, comprise the user device itself, or may be implemented as a further electronic device attached to the user device.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the generating unit 1310 may generate capability information regarding a transmission resource indication of an aperiodic downlink reference signal such as Ap-CSI-RS. The transceiver 1320 may report the capability information generated by the generating unit 1310 to a network side device.

The capability information may be used by the network side device to determine a transmission resource indication to actually take effect in a scenario where the transmission resource indication conflicts. More specifically, the capability information may be used to determine a set of transmission resource indications to actually take effect among a first set and a second set of transmission resource indications of the plurality of transmission resource indications of the reference signal determined according to a first selection message and a second selection message, respectively, wherein a transmission time of a trigger message for triggering the reference signal is after an expected taking effect time of the first set of transmission resource indications and before an expected taking effect time of the second set of transmission resource indications, and the transmission time of the reference signal is after an expected taking effect time of the second set of transmission resource indications.

Examples of the above trigger message and the first and second selection messages may include the DCI trigger message and the MAC CE selection message described above with reference to fig. 9 and 10. In addition, optionally, the aperiodic reference downlink signal may be preconfigured by the network side device for the electronic device 1300 through RRC signaling.

As an example, the transceiver 1310 may be configured to receive configuration information (RRC configuration information) of a plurality of transmission resource indications for the aperiodic downlink reference signal from the network side user equipment in advance through RRC signaling and may store the configuration information in the storage unit 1340. Each transmission resource indication may be associated with one or more resource sets for aperiodic downlink reference signals, each resource set may include one or more aperiodic downlink reference signals. An example of the transmission resource indication employed in the present embodiment may include an Aperiodic Trigger State (Aperiodic Trigger State). An example of configuration information for multiple transmission resource indications may include an Aperiodic Trigger State List (Aperiodic Trigger State List) for, for example, 128 Aperiodic Trigger states. With non-zero power CSI-RS (nzp-CSI-RS) as an example of aperiodic downlink reference signal, in the aperiodic trigger state list, a parameter ResourceSet may be included for each aperiodic trigger state to specify a set of nzp-CSI-RS resources associated with the aperiodic trigger state, and, for example, an optional parameter qcl-info representing spatial quasi co-location may also be included as a beam indication to indicate a transmission beam for each resource in the set of nzp-CSI-RS resources.

In addition, for example, the transceiver 1310 may be further configured to receive a selection message (MAC CE selection message) transmitted by the MAC CE from the network-side user equipment, the selection message being used for selecting a set of standby transmission resource indications from the plurality of pre-configured transmission resource indications, the MAC CE selection message being used for specifying the set of transmission resource indications selected by the MAC CE among the plurality of pre-configured transmission resource indications. For example, the MAC CE selection message may include information indicating whether each transmission resource indication (aperiodic trigger state) is selected to specify a selected group (e.g., up to 63) of aperiodic trigger states among 128 aperiodic trigger states configured by, for example, an aperiodic trigger state list. When the transceiver 1310 receives the MAC CE selection message, a set of transmission resource indications (aperiodic trigger state) specified by the message may be read from the RRC configuration information and stored in the storage unit 1340 under the control of the control unit 1330, as alternative transmission resource indications of the aperiodic downlink reference signal, i.e. a set of transmission resource indications that is reserved.

Furthermore, for example, the transceiver 1310 may be further configured to receive, from the network side user equipment, a trigger message (DCI trigger message) for triggering an aperiodic downlink reference signal, which is sent through DCI of the physical layer, where the DCI trigger message preferably includes information for specifying one transmission resource indication to be used in a currently reserved set of transmission resource indications. As an example, the DCI trigger message may include a sequence number for the specified one of the transmission resource indications in the currently reserved set of transmission resource indications. For example, after the MAC CE selection message specifies the spare 63 aperiodic trigger states among the preconfigured 128 aperiodic trigger states, the DCI trigger message may specify a corresponding one of the 63 aperiodic trigger states by, for example, one of sequence numbers 1 to 63. For example, the above information included in the DCI trigger message enables the transceiver 1310 to determine a corresponding transmission resource indication from a currently reserved set of transmission resource indications (i.e., the set of transmission resources selected by the MAC CE selection message that has been validated before) stored in the storage unit 1340 according to the DCI trigger message, and to prepare to receive an aperiodic downlink reference signal associated with the transmission resource indication. For example, when the aperiodic trigger state is taken as an example of a transmission resource indication, the transceiver 1310 may prepare to receive a set of resources associated with the aperiodic trigger state specified by the DCI trigger message (e.g., a set of nzp-CSI-RS resources specified by a parameter ResourceSet in configuration information of the aperiodic trigger state), and may prepare to receive beams according to a beam indication specified by the aperiodic trigger state (e.g., a beam indication specified by a parameter qcl-info () in configuration information of the aperiodic trigger state) to receive the aperiodic downlink reference signals.

Further description will be given later on specific examples of such information or messages and transmission resource indications.

In this scenario, since the transmission time of the DCI trigger message is before the expected effective time of the second group of transmission resource indications determined according to the second selection message, it is possible for the electronic device on the user equipment side to determine the first transmission resource indication earlier based on the DCI trigger message from among the first group of transmission resource indications (the alternative transmission resource indications that have not been updated) stored in the storage unit and to perform corresponding preparation (for example, including but not limited to preparation of a reception beam according to the beam indication specified by the first transmission resource indication) in order to receive the reference signal; meanwhile, since the transmission time of the reference signal is after the expected validation time of the second group transmission resource indication, it is also possible that the electronic device on the user equipment side determines the second transmission resource indication based on the DCI trigger message from among the second group transmission resource indications (updated alternative transmission resource indications) stored in the storage unit at this time and prepares accordingly to receive the reference signal immediately after the second group transmission resource indication is validated. This results in that the network side device (even the user equipment itself) in the prior art may not be able to determine whether the first set of transmission resource indications or the second set of transmission resource indications actually take effect (accordingly, whether the first transmission resource indications determined from the first set of transmission resource indications or the first transmission resource indications determined from the second set of transmission resource indications actually take effect). Examples of such scenarios may include, but are not limited to, the example scenarios shown in fig. 9 and 10.

With the configuration of the electronic device 1300 on the ue side in this embodiment, for example, the capability information about the transmission resource indication of the aperiodic downlink reference signal may be generated and reported to the network side device after the initial access procedure of the electronic device 1300. Accordingly, the network side device may determine, in advance, a set of transmission resource indications to be actually effective in the scenario of transmission resource indication collision based on the capability information (i.e., determine which of the first set of transmission resource indications and the second set of transmission resource indications will actually take effect at that time), and may generate and optionally transmit information about the determined set of transmission resource indications to be actually taken effect (transmission resource indication taking effect information) to the electronic device 1300 on the user equipment side, for example. In this way, when a scenario, such as the transmission resource indication collision shown in fig. 9 and 10, occurs subsequently, the network side device may know the actually valid transmission resource indication and transmit the aperiodic downlink reference signal to the user equipment according to the transmission resource indication, and the electronic device 1300 on the user equipment side may also prepare accordingly to receive the aperiodic downlink reference signal.

As an example, the capability information generated by the generation unit 1310 regarding the transmission resource indication of the aperiodic downlink reference signal may indicate a transmission resource indication supported by the electronic device 1300, and may have a length of 2 bits, for example, where 01 indicates that only the first group of transmission resource indications determined according to the first selection message is supported, 10 indicates that only the second group of transmission resource indications determined according to the first selection message is supported, 11 indicates that the above two groups of transmission resource indications are supported simultaneously, and 00 is used as a reserved bit.

The generating unit 1310 may appropriately generate the above capability information according to the situation of the electronic device 1300 itself (e.g., storage capability indicated on transmission resources, time required for preparation for receiving a reference signal, etc.).

For example, when the electronic device 1300 has a poor storage capability with respect to transmission resource indications and can only store one set of transmission resource indications, as long as the transceiver 1310 receives a second MAC CE selection message for updating an alternative transmission resource indication of the aperiodic reference signal, a second set of transmission resource indications determined according to the MAC CE selection message is stored in the storage unit 1340 in place of a first set of transmission resource indications that have been previously stored, e.g. determined according to the first MAC CE selection message (i.e. the second set is stored and the first set of transmission resource indications is deleted). In this case, the transceiver 1310 can only prepare for receiving the downlink aperiodic reference signal (e.g., prepare for receiving a beam, etc.) based on the corresponding transmission resource indication specified according to the DCI trigger message from the updated second set of transmission resource indications. Accordingly, the generating unit 1310 may generate capability information in the form of 10 to indicate that the user equipment supports only the second set of transmission resource indications determined according to the second selection message.

In addition, when the electronic device 1300 has a strong storage capability with respect to transmission resource indications and can store multiple sets of transmission resource indications, when the transceiver 1320 receives a second MAC CE selection message for updating alternative transmission resource indications of the aperiodic reference signal, it can store a second set of transmission resource indications determined according to the second MAC CE selection message in the storage unit 1340, while also not deleting, for example, a previously stored first set of transmission resource indications determined according to the first MAC CE selection message. In this case, the generation unit 1310 of the electronic device 1300 may generate the capability information according to, for example, a time required to indicate preparation for receiving the downlink aperiodic reference signal based on the transmission resource, or the like.

As an example, if the transceiver 1320 takes a longer time to prepare for receiving the downlink aperiodic reference signal, it may not be able to prepare immediately from a corresponding transmission resource indication in the second set of transmission resource indications after the second set of transmission resource indications determined from the second selection message are in effect. In this case, the generating unit 1310 may generate capability information, such as in the form of 01, to indicate that the user equipment supports only the first set of transmission resource indications determined from the first selection message. In contrast, if the transceiver 1320 is ready to complete the preparation within a short time, it is capable of preparing and receiving the reference signal according to the corresponding transmission resource indication in the second set of transmission resource indications immediately after the second set of transmission resource indications are in effect. In other words, in this case, the transceiver 1320 may prepare to receive the reference signal transmission beam based on the respective transmission resource indication of the first or second set of transmission resource indications determined from the first or second selection message. Accordingly, the generating unit 1310 may generate capability information, such as in the form of 11, to indicate that the user equipment supports both sets of transmission resource indications.

As an example, the transceiver 1320 may report the capability information generated by the generating unit 1310 to the network-side device after the initial access procedure of the electronic device 1300, so that the network-side device may determine a set of transmission resource indications to be actually effective in a scenario where the transmission resource indications collide based on the capability information in advance.

In a preferred embodiment, in case the capability information indication supports only one set of transmission resource indications out of a first set of transmission resource indications determined from the first selection message and a second set of transmission resource indications determined from the second selection message, the one set of transmission resource indications is naturally the set of transmission resource indications that is to actually take effect. For example, when the capability information is 01, the first set of transmission resource indications is to be actually validated, and when the capability information is 10, the second set of transmission resource indications is to be actually validated. The electronic device 1300 that generates the capability information may make such a determination by its generation unit 1310 itself, for example, and the network-side device that receives the capability information may make the same determination.

Furthermore, in a case that the capability information indicates that the first set of transmission resource indication and the second set of transmission resource indication are simultaneously supported, the network side device may determine one set of transmission resource indication as an actually valid transmission resource indication. For example, when the capability information is 11, the network side device may determine that one of the two sets of transmission resource indications is a set of transmission resource indications to be actually validated.

Optionally, the transceiver 1320 may be further configured to receive information about a set of transmission resource indications to be actually validated from the network-side device through RRC signaling, and store the information in the storage unit 1340 as a transmission resource indication validation message. The transmission resource indication validation information may be represented by, for example, 1 bit, where 0 represents that a first set of transmission resource indications is to be actually validated and 1 represents a second set of transmission resource indications is to be actually validated.

Note that when the capability information generated by the generation unit 1310 of the electronic device 1300 indicates that only one of the first set of transmission resource indication or the second set of transmission resource indication is supported, for example, by 2-

bit information

01 or 10, even if the transceiver 1320 does not receive transmission resource indication validation information from the network-side device, the transceiver 1320 knows the set of transmission resource indication that is actually validated (and the electronic device 1300 may actually store only the set of transmission resource indication). Therefore, in this case, the transceiver 1320 may not receive the transmission resource indication validation information from the network-side device. However, preferably, for the sake of the unification of the signaling flow, the transceiver 1320 of the electronic device 1300 may receive the transmission resource indication validation information from the network-side device and optionally store it in the storage unit 1340, regardless of the content of the capability information generated by the generation unit 1310, and appropriately prepare to receive the aperiodic downlink reference signal.

Alternatively, for a given electronic device 1300, if its storage capacity with respect to transmission resource indications is strong (multiple sets of transmission resource indications can be stored) and the preparation for receiving reference signals can be completed in a short time, and its generating unit 1310 generates capability information such as 11 form to indicate that two sets of transmission resource indications are simultaneously supported, the transceiver 1310 of such an electronic device 1300 may be configured to read the above transmission resource indication validation information from the storage unit 1340, for example, when necessary, and prepare and receive aperiodic downlink reference signals according to the set of transmission resource indications to be actually validated specified by the information. For example, the transceiver 1310 may prepare to receive the aperiodic downlink reference signal based on a corresponding transmission resource indication specified according to the DCI trigger message from among the first set of transmission resource indications when the read transmission resource indication validation information is 0, and prepare to receive the aperiodic downlink reference signal based on a corresponding transmission resource indication specified according to the DCI trigger message from among the second set of transmission resource indications when the information is 1. Alternatively, when the configuration information of the transmission resource indication includes a beam indication for a resource set associated with the transmission resource indication, according to the actually effective transmission resource indication, the transceiver 1310 may receive the aperiodic downlink reference signal from the network side using a corresponding receive beam, for example, based on a transmit beam specified by the beam indication of the resource set associated with the transmission resource indication.

Alternatively, the control unit 1330 may be configured to determine whether a scenario in which a transmission resource of the reference signal indicates collision occurs when the aperiodic downlink reference signal needs to be received from the network-side device. The control unit 1330 may control the transceiver 1310 to read, for example, transmission resource indication validation information received in advance from the network side from the storage unit 1340 only when it is determined that a scenario in which a transmission resource indication collision occurs, so that the transceiver 1310 may prepare to receive the aperiodic downlink reference signal based on a corresponding transmission resource indication specified in the DCI trigger message among a set of transmission resource indications according to the set of transmission resource indications specified by the information to be actually validated. When the control unit 1330 determines that a scenario of transmission resource indication collision does not occur, the transceiver 1310 may be controlled to receive an aperiodic downlink reference signal in a manner similar to that in the prior art (for example, determine a corresponding transmission resource indication based on the DCI trigger message from a set of currently standby transmission resources previously selected according to the MAC CE selection message), which is not described herein again.

In a similar manner to the control unit 1130 of the electronic device 1100 on the network side, the control unit 1330 may determine, only when the sending time of the trigger message for triggering the aperiodic downlink reference signal is after the expected effective time indicated by the first group of transmission resources and before the expected effective time indicated by the second group of transmission resources, and the sending time of the reference signal is after the expected effective time indicated by the second group of transmission resources, a scenario where the transmission resource indications collide occurs, and determine all other scenarios as non-colliding scenarios, which is not described herein again.

Note that, similarly to the control unit 1130 of the electronic apparatus 1100 on the network side, the granularity at which the control unit 1330 judges the scenario in which the beam indication collides may be, for example, a transmission resource indication as well. For example, when a transmission resource indication associated with a set of resources for an aperiodic downlink reference signal is specified by the DCI trigger message and the set of resources includes a plurality of aperiodic downlink reference signals, the control unit 1330 may be configured to: determining a scenario in which a transmission resource indication collision occurs only when a sending time of a trigger message triggering an aperiodic uplink reference signal is after an expected effective time of a first group of transmission resource indications determined according to a first selection message and before an expected effective time of a second group of transmission resource indications determined according to a second selection message, and sending times of a plurality of aperiodic downlink reference signals included in a resource set associated with the transmission resource indications specified by the trigger message are all after the expected effective time of the second group of transmission resource indications; and all other scenes may be determined as scenes in which no beam indication collision occurs.

As a non-exhaustive example of a scenario in which the control unit 1330 judges that the transmission resource indication collision does not occur, the following several scenarios may be considered: at the time of transmission of the first reference signal (e.g., the time of transmission of the first reference signal of the set of resources associated with the transmission resource indication specified by the trigger message, the same applies below), no second selection message for the transmission resource indication of the reference signal has occurred (actually effective at this time is the first set of transmission resource indications determined from the first selection message); at the time of transmission of the first reference signal, a second selection message of the transmission resource indication for the reference signal occurs once, but a second set of transmission resource indications determined according to the second selection message has not yet come into effect (actually coming into effect at this time is the first set of transmission resource indications determined according to the first selection message); at the time of transmission of the trigger message of the reference signal, a second selection message of the transmission resource indication for the reference signal occurs once, and a second set of transmission resource indications determined from the second selection message has taken effect (at this time, it is the second set of transmission resource indications that actually take effect).

Alternatively, when the transceiver 1310 has corresponding processing capability, the transceiver 1310 itself may also perform a determination regarding a scenario where the transmission resource indication conflicts when needed, and appropriately perform a process of receiving the aperiodic downlink reference signal according to a determination result, which is not described herein again.

Note that, when the capability information generated by the generation unit 1310 of the electronic device 1300 indicates that only one of the first set of transmission resource indication or the second set of transmission resource indication is supported, for example, by 2-

bit information

01 or 10, even if the transceiver 1320 does not read, for example, transmission resource indication validation information received in advance from the network-side device from the storage unit 1340, it knows the set of transmission resource indication that is actually validated (and in fact the electronic device 1300 may have stored only the set of transmission resource indication). Therefore, for such an electronic device 1300, the transceiver 1320 may not perform the process of reading the transmission resource indication validation information from the storage unit 1340.

More specifically, for example, when the electronic device 1300 has a poor storage capability for the transmission resource indication (only one set of transmission resource indications can be stored), and the capability information generated by the generating unit 1310 is 10 and indicates that only the second set of transmission resource indications determined according to the second selection message is supported, when the transceiver 1320 of the electronic device 1300 needs to receive the aperiodic downlink reference signal from the network-side device, it may directly read the stored set of transmission resource indications from the storage unit 1340 and prepare for the reception processing of the reference signal based on the corresponding transmission resource indication specified by the DCI trigger message among the set of transmission resource indications, regardless of whether a scenario of transmission resource indication collision occurs.

For example, when the electronic device 1300 has a strong storage capacity for the transmission resource indication (may store multiple sets of transmission resource indications) but has a long time to prepare a beam and the capability information generated by the generation unit 1310 is 01, indicating that only the first set of transmission resource indications determined according to the first selection message is supported, when the electronic device 1300 needs to receive the aperiodic downlink reference signal from the network-side device, the control unit 1330 may determine whether a scenario in which a collision of the transmission resource indications of the reference signal occurs. When the control unit 1330 determines that a scenario in which a transmission resource indication collision occurs, the transceiver 1320 may be controlled to read a first set of transmission resource indications stored and determined according to the first selection message from the storage unit 1340, and prepare for a reception process of the reference signal based on a corresponding transmission resource indication specified by the DCI trigger message among the set of transmission resource indications.

The configuration example of the electronic device on the user device side of the second embodiment of the present disclosure is described above. According to the second embodiment of the present disclosure, the electronic device on the user equipment side can generate and report capability information about transmission resource indications supported by the electronic device, and the capability information can be used, for example, by the network side device, to determine a transmission resource indication to be actually validated for a scenario where transmission resource indications of aperiodic reference signals collide, so that corresponding processing can be performed according to the predetermined transmission resource indication to be actually validated when a subsequent collision scenario occurs.

Next, an example process that can be performed by the electronic device 1300 and its respective units on the user equipment side of the present embodiment will be briefly described in conjunction with a specific example in the above [3.2 transmission resource indication related example ].

For example, with nzp-CSI-RS as an example of the aperiodic downlink reference signal, an example of the transmission resource indication may include a CSI aperiodic trigger state, and an example of the configuration information of the plurality of transmission resources may include a CSI aperiodic trigger state list (CSI-AperiodicTriggerStateList). Association configuration information (CSI-AssociatedReportConfigInfo) for associating, for example, nzp-CSI-RS with CSI reports may be included in the list for each aperiodic trigger state (CSI-aperiodidcriggerstate), which may include a parameter ResourceSet for specifying a set of resources to specify a set of nzp-CSI-RS resources associated with the CSI aperiodic trigger state, and may also include, for example, an optional parameter qcl-info as a beam indication to indicate transmit beams for individual resources in the set of nzp-CSI-RS resources. The electronic device 1300 may be configured to receive such a CSI aperiodic trigger state list (CSI-AperiodicTriggerStateList) in advance through the transceiver 1320 and store it in the storage unit 1340 of the electronic device 1300.

Further, for example, an example of the MAC CE selection message may include the MAC CE selection message shown in fig. 12, which specifies, for example, up to 63 aperiodic trigger states as the selected set of aperiodic trigger states, among, for example, 128 aperiodic trigger states configured from a CSI aperiodic trigger state list (CSI-AperiodicTriggerStateList), through respective fields in Oct2 through OctN. The electronic device 1300 may be configured to receive the MAC CE selection message through the transceiver 1320, and may appropriately store a set of aperiodic trigger states selected by the MAC CE selection message in the storage unit 1340 as standby aperiodic trigger states.

For example, when the electronic device 1300 has poor storage capability with respect to transmission resource indications and can only store one set of transmission resource indications, then when a second MAC CE selection message is received after the first MAC CE selection message, the storage unit 1340 will store only the second set of aperiodic trigger states determined according to the second MAC CE selection message, instead of the previously stored first set of aperiodic trigger states determined according to the first MAC CE selection message (i.e., delete the first set of aperiodic trigger states). Furthermore, when the electronic device 1300 has a strong storage capability with respect to the transmission resource indicator and can store multiple sets of transmission resource indicators, the storage unit 1340 stores the second set while preserving the first set of aperiodic trigger states.

In addition, for example, the DCI trigger message may include a CSI Request (CSI-Request) field as an example of information for specifying a transmission resource indication to be used among a set of transmission resources that are actually in effect (a set of transmission resources that are currently reserved). The CSI Request (SRS-Request) field may be, for example, up to 6 bits for specifying one of a set of, for example, up to 63 Aperiodic Trigger states (Aperiodic Trigger states) that actually take effect, by a respective sequence number 1 to 63.

When the transceiver 1320 of the electronic device 1300 receives the DCI trigger message having the above CSI request field, the triggered CSI aperiodic trigger state may be determined from the field among a set of CSI aperiodic trigger states actually validated stored in the storage unit 1340. The transceiver 1320 may prepare to receive a set of resources associated with the aperiodic trigger state (e.g., nzp-CSI-RS resource set specified by parameter resoueset for the aperiodic trigger state in CSI-AperiodicTriggerStateList), for example, according to configuration information for the CSI aperiodic trigger state in CSI-AperiodicTriggerStateList stored in the storage unit 1340, and may optionally prepare to receive beams to receive the aperiodic downlink reference signals according to beam indications specified by the configuration information for the aperiodic trigger state (e.g., beam indications specified by parameter qcl-info for the aperiodic trigger state in CSI-AperiodicTriggerStateList).

In the case of the three-layer signaling structure described with reference to fig. 1, a specific example of the transmission resource indication for the aperiodic downlink reference signal and the configuration information, the selection message and the trigger message associated therewith in the second embodiment of the present disclosure and an example process that the electronic device 1300 on the user equipment side may perform are described above with nz-CSI-RS as a specific example. It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the above examples and details thereof are not to be construed as limiting the embodiments of the present disclosure. Based on the present disclosure, those skilled in the art may apply the electronic device 1300 of the present embodiment to any appropriate scenario, as long as the transmission resource indications of the aperiodic downlink reference signal collide (thereby causing that it may not be determined whether the first set of transmission resource indications or the second set of transmission resource indications actually take effect).

<4. method example >

[4.1 method example of the first example ]

(embodiment of Wireless communication method on network side)

A method for wireless communication performed by an electronic device on the network side (i.e., the electronic device 400) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail next.

Fig. 14 is a flowchart showing a process example of a wireless communication method on the network side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 14, in step S1401, capability information reported by the ue about beam indication of an aperiodic uplink reference signal is received. Next, in step S1402, a beam indication to be actually effective in a scenario where beam indications collide is determined, among the first beam indication determined according to the configuration information of the reference signal and the second beam indication determined according to the update message for updating the beam indication of the reference signal, based on the capability information. The scenario in which the beam indicates collision is the following scenario: the transmission time of the trigger message for triggering the reference signal is before the expected effective time of the second beam indication, and the transmission time of the reference signal is after the expected effective time of the second beam indication. As an example, the reference signal may include an aperiodic sounding reference signal.

Optionally, in step S1402, in a case that the capability information indicates that only one of the first beam indication and the second beam indication is supported, the one beam indication is determined as a beam indication to be actually effective.

Optionally, in step S1402, in a case that the capability information indicates that the first beam indication and the second beam indication are simultaneously supported, the first beam indication or the second beam indication is determined as a beam indication to be actually effective.

Further, optionally, the wireless communication method may further include the steps of: transmitting information on a beam indication to be actually effected to the user equipment through RRC signaling. Further, optionally, the wireless communication method may further include the steps of: receiving the reference signal from the user equipment according to the actually effective beam indication.

In addition, optionally, one or more of the following steps may be further included in the wireless communication method: transmitting configuration information including the first beam indication to the user equipment in advance through RRC signaling; sending the trigger message to the user equipment through downlink control information of a physical layer; transmitting the update message including the second beam indication to the user equipment through a control element of a media access control layer.

As an example, the trigger message may include information for specifying a set of resources for the reference signal. Further, as an example, the configuration information may include a first beam indication for aperiodic uplink reference signals in the set of resources, and the update message includes a second beam indication for aperiodic uplink reference signals in the set of resources. In a preferred embodiment, the resource set includes a plurality of aperiodic uplink reference signals, and the transmission time of at least one of the plurality of aperiodic uplink reference signals is before the expected effective time of the second beam indication for that reference signal.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the main body performing the above method may be the electronic device 400 on the network side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure, and thus various aspects of the embodiments related to the electronic device 400 in the foregoing are applicable thereto.

(embodiment of Wireless communication method on user Equipment side)

Next, a wireless communication method performed by an electronic device on the user equipment side (i.e., the electronic device 800) according to a first embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail.

Fig. 15 is a flowchart showing a process example of a wireless communication method on the user equipment side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 15, in step S1501, capability information about beam indication of the aperiodic uplink reference signal is generated. Next, in step S1502, the capability information is reported to the network side device. The capability information is used for determining a beam indication to be actually effective in a scenario of beam indication collision, among a first beam indication determined according to the configuration information of the reference signal and a second beam indication determined according to an update message updating the beam indication of the reference signal, wherein the scenario of beam indication collision is as follows: the transmission time of the trigger message for triggering the reference signal is before the expected effective time of the second beam indication, and the transmission time of the reference signal is after the expected effective time of the second beam indication. As an example, the reference signal may include an aperiodic sounding reference signal.

Alternatively, the capability information indication may indicate that only one of the first beam indication and the second beam indication is supported, and the beam indication to be actually effected is the one beam indication. Alternatively, the capability information may indicate that the first beam indication and the second beam indication are simultaneously supported, and the beam indication to be actually effected is the first beam indication or the second beam indication.

Further, optionally, the wireless communication method further comprises the steps of: and receiving information which is sent by the network side equipment through RRC signaling and is about to actually take effect. Further, optionally, the wireless communication method further comprises the steps of: and sending the reference signal to the network side equipment according to the actually effective beam indication.

In addition, optionally, one or more of the following steps may be further included in the wireless communication method: receiving configuration information including the first beam indication sent through RRC signaling in advance from the network side equipment; receiving the trigger message sent by the downlink control information of the physical layer from the network side equipment; receiving, from the network-side device, the update message including the second beam indication sent through a control element of a media access control layer.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the subject performing the above method may be the electronic device 800 according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure, and thus various aspects of the foregoing regarding the embodiment of the electronic device 800 are applicable thereto.

[4.2 method example of the second example ]

(embodiment of Wireless communication method on network side)

A method for wireless communication performed by an electronic device on the network side (i.e., the electronic device 1100) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail next.

Fig. 16 is a flowchart showing a process example of a wireless communication method on the network side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 16, in step S1601, capability information reported by the ue about transmission resource indication of an aperiodic downlink reference signal is received. Next, in step S1602, according to the capability information, a set of transmission resource indications to be actually effective in a scenario of transmission resource indication collision is determined from a first set of transmission resource indications and a second set of transmission resource indications in the plurality of transmission resource indications of the reference signal respectively determined according to the first selection message and the second selection message, where the scenario of transmission resource indication collision is the following scenario: the transmission time of the trigger message for triggering the reference signal is after an expected time of effectiveness indicated by the first set of transmission resources and before an expected time of effectiveness indicated by the second set of transmission resources, and the transmission time of the reference signal is after the expected time of effectiveness indicated by the second set of transmission resources. As an example, the reference signal may include an aperiodic channel state information reference signal.

Optionally, in step S1602, in case that the capability information indicates that only one set of transmission resource indications of the first set of transmission resource indications and the second set of transmission resource indications is supported, the set of transmission resource indications is determined as a set of transmission resource indications to be actually validated.

Optionally, in step S1602, in a case that the capability information indicates that the first group of transmission resource indications and the second group of transmission resource indications are simultaneously supported, the first transmission resource indication group or the second transmission resource group indication is determined as a group of transmission resource indications to be actually effective.

Further, optionally, the wireless communication method may further include the steps of: transmitting information on a set of transmission resource indications to be actually effected to the user equipment through RRC signaling. Further, optionally, the wireless communication method may further include the steps of: and sending the reference signal to the user equipment according to the actually effective transmission resource indication.

In addition, optionally, one or more of the following steps may be further included in the wireless communication method: transmitting configuration information of the transmission resource indications to the user equipment in advance through RRC signaling; sending the trigger message to the user equipment through downlink control information of a physical layer; and sending the first selection message and the second selection message to the user equipment through a control element of a media access control layer.

As an example, the trigger message may comprise information for specifying a transmission resource indication to be used in the set of transmission resource indications that actually take effect. Further, as an example, the transmission resource indication to use may be associated with a set of resources for the reference signal. In a preferred embodiment, the resource set includes a plurality of aperiodic downlink reference signals, and the transmission times of the plurality of aperiodic downlink reference signals are all after the expected effective time indicated by the second group of transmission resources.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the main body performing the above method may be the electronic device 1100 on the network side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure, and thus various aspects of the embodiments described above with respect to the electronic device 1100 are applicable thereto.

(embodiment of Wireless communication method on user Equipment side)

Next, a wireless communication method performed by an electronic apparatus on the user equipment side (i.e., the electronic apparatus 1300) according to a second embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail.

Fig. 17 is a flowchart showing a process example of a wireless communication method on the user equipment side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 17, in step S1701, capability information on a transmission resource indication of an aperiodic downlink reference signal is generated. Next, in step S1502, reporting the capability information to a network side device, where the capability information is used to determine a set of transmission resource indications to be actually effective in a scenario of transmission resource indication collision, among a first set of transmission resource indications and a second set of transmission resource indications in multiple transmission resource indications of the reference signal, which are determined according to a first selection message and a second selection message, respectively, where the scenario of transmission resource indication collision is as follows: the transmission time of the trigger message for triggering the reference signal is after an expected time of effectiveness indicated by the first set of transmission resources and before an expected time of effectiveness indicated by the second set of transmission resources, and the transmission time of the reference signal is after the expected time of effectiveness indicated by the second set of transmission resources. As an example, the reference signal may include an aperiodic channel state information reference signal.

Alternatively, the capability information indication may indicate that only one of the first set of transmission resource indications and the second set of transmission resource indications is supported, and the set of transmission resource indications that is to actually take effect is the set of transmission resource indications. Alternatively, the capability information may indicate that the first set of transmission resource indications and the second set of transmission resource indications are supported simultaneously, and the set of transmission resource indications to actually take effect is the first set of transmission resource indications or the second set of transmission resource indications.

Further, optionally, the wireless communication method further comprises the steps of: and receiving information which is sent by the network side equipment through RRC signaling and is about a group of transmission resource indications to be actually effective. Further, optionally, the wireless communication method further comprises the steps of: and receiving the reference signal from the network side equipment according to the actually effective transmission resource indication.

In addition, optionally, one or more of the following steps may be further included in the wireless communication method: receiving configuration information of the plurality of transmission resource indications sent by RRC signaling from the network side equipment in advance; receiving the trigger message sent by the downlink control information of the physical layer from the network side equipment; and receiving the first selection message and the second selection message sent by a control element of a media access control layer from the network side equipment.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the subject performing the above method may be the electronic device 1300 according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure, and thus various aspects of the embodiments described above with respect to the electronic device 800 are applicable here.

<5. application example >

The techniques of this disclosure can be applied to a variety of products.

For example, the

electronic devices

400 and 1100 on the network side may be implemented as any type of base station device, such as a macro eNB and a small eNB, and may also be implemented as any type of gNB (base station in a 5G system). The small eNB may be an eNB that covers a cell smaller than a macro cell, such as a pico eNB, a micro eNB, and a home (femto) eNB. Alternatively, the base station may be implemented as any other type of base station, such as a NodeB and a Base Transceiver Station (BTS). The base station may include: a main body (also referred to as a base station apparatus) configured to control wireless communication; and one or more Remote Radio Heads (RRHs) disposed at a different place from the main body.

In addition, the

electronic devices

400 and 1100 on the network side may also be implemented as any type of TRP. The TRP may have a transmitting and receiving function, and may receive information from or transmit information to, for example, a user equipment and a base station apparatus. In a typical example, the TRP may provide a service to the user equipment and be controlled by the base station apparatus. Further, the TRP may have a structure similar to that of the base station apparatus, or may have only a structure related to transmission and reception of information in the base station apparatus.

The

electronic devices

800 and 1300 of the user device side may be various user devices, which may be implemented as a mobile terminal such as a smart phone, a tablet Personal Computer (PC), a notebook PC, a portable game terminal, a portable/cryptographic dog-type mobile router, and a digital camera, or a vehicle-mounted terminal such as a car navigation device. The user equipment may also be implemented as a terminal (also referred to as a Machine Type Communication (MTC) terminal) that performs machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. Further, the user equipment may be a wireless communication module (such as an integrated circuit module including a single die) mounted on each of the user equipments described above.

[ application example with respect to base station ]

(first application example)

Fig. 18 is a block diagram illustrating a first example of a schematic configuration of an eNB to which the technology of the present disclosure may be applied. The eNB 1800 includes one or more antennas 1810 and base station equipment 1820. The base station device 1820 and each antenna 1810 may be connected to each other via an RF cable.

Each of the antennas 1810 includes a single or multiple antenna elements, such as multiple antenna elements included in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna, and is used for the base station apparatus 1820 to transmit and receive wireless signals. As shown in fig. 18, the eNB 1800 may include multiple antennas 1810. For example, the multiple antennas 1810 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by the eNB 1800. Although fig. 18 shows an example in which the eNB 1800 includes multiple antennas 1810, the eNB 1800 may also include a single antenna 1810.

The base station device 1820 includes a controller 1821, memory 1822, a network interface 1823, and a wireless communication interface 1825.

The controller 1821 may be, for example, a CPU or a DSP, and operates various functions of higher layers of the base station apparatus 1820. For example, the controller 1821 generates data packets from data in signals processed by the wireless communication interface 1825 and communicates the generated packets via the network interface 1823. The controller 1821 may bundle data from the plurality of baseband processors to generate a bundle packet, and communicate the generated bundle packet. The controller 1821 may have logic functions to perform the following controls: such as radio resource control, radio bearer control, mobility management, admission control and scheduling. The control may be performed in connection with a nearby eNB or core network node. The memory 1822 includes a RAM and a ROM, and stores programs executed by the controller 1821 and various types of control data (such as a terminal list, transmission power data, and scheduling data).

The network interface 1823 is a communication interface for connecting the base station apparatus 1820 to the core network 1824. The controller 1821 may communicate with a core network node or another eNB via a network interface 1823. In this case, the eNB 1800 and a core network node or other enbs may be connected to each other through a logical interface, such as an S1 interface and an X2 interface. The network interface 1823 may also be a wired communication interface or a wireless communication interface for a wireless backhaul. If network interface 1823 is a wireless communication interface, network interface 1823 may use a higher frequency band for wireless communications than the frequency band used by wireless communication interface 1825.

The wireless communication interface 1825 supports any cellular communication scheme, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-advanced, and provides wireless connectivity via an antenna 1810 to terminals located in the cell of the eNB 1800. The wireless communication interface 1825 may generally include, for example, a baseband (BB) processor 1826 and RF circuitry 1827. The BB processor 1826 may perform various types of signal processing of layers such as L1, Medium Access Control (MAC), Radio Link Control (RLC), and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), for example, encoding/decoding, modulation/demodulation, and multiplexing/demultiplexing. The BB processor 1826 may have a part or all of the above-described logic functions in place of the controller 1821. The BB processor 1826 may be a memory storing a communication control program, or a module comprising a processor and associated circuitry configured to execute a program. The update program may cause the function of the BB processor 1826 to change. The module may be a card or blade that is inserted into a slot of the base station device 1820. Alternatively, the module may be a chip mounted on a card or blade. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 1827 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmit and receive a wireless signal via the antenna 1810.

As shown in fig. 18, wireless communication interface 1825 may include a plurality of BB processors 1826. For example, the plurality of BB processors 1826 may be compatible with a plurality of frequency bands used by the eNB 1800. As shown in fig. 18, wireless communication interface 1825 may include a plurality of RF circuits 1827. For example, the plurality of RF circuits 1827 may be compatible with a plurality of antenna elements. Although fig. 18 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 1825 includes a plurality of BB processors 1826 and a plurality of RF circuits 1827, the wireless communication interface 1825 may also include a single BB processor 1826 or a single RF circuit 1827.

In the eNB 1800 shown in fig. 18, the transceivers 410, 1110 in the

electronic devices

400, 1100 described hereinbefore with reference to fig. 4, 11 may be implemented by a wireless communication interface 1825 (optionally together with the antenna 1810) or the like. The storage unit 440, 1140 in the

electronic device

400, 1100 may be implemented by, for example, the memory 1822. The determining unit 420, 1120 and the control unit 430, 1130 in the

electronic device

400, 1100 may be implemented by the controller 1821. For example, the controller 1821 may perform the functions of the determination units 420 and 1120 and the control units 430 and 1130 by executing instructions stored in the memory 1822, which will not be described in detail herein.

(second application example)

Fig. 19 is a block diagram illustrating a second example of a schematic configuration of an eNB to which the technology of the present disclosure may be applied. eNB 1930 includes one or more antennas 1940, base station apparatus 1950, and RRHs 1960. The RRH1960 and each antenna 1940 may be connected to each other via an RF cable. The base station apparatus 1950 and RRH1960 may be connected to each other via a high-speed line such as a fiber optic cable.

Each of the antennas 1940 includes a single or multiple antenna elements (such as multiple antenna elements included in a MIMO antenna) and is used for the RRH1960 to transmit and receive wireless signals. As shown in fig. 19, eNB 1930 may include multiple antennas 1940. For example, the plurality of antennas 1940 may be compatible with a plurality of frequency bands used by eNB 1930. Although fig. 19 shows an example in which eNB 1930 includes multiple antennas 1940, eNB 1930 may also include a single antenna 1940.

The base station device 1950 includes a controller 1951, a memory 1952, a network interface 1953, a wireless communication interface 1955, and a connection interface 1957. The controller 1951, memory 1952, and network interface 1953 are the same as the controller 1821, memory 1822, and network interface 1823 described with reference to fig. 18. The network interface 1953 is a communication interface for connecting the base station device 1950 to a core network 1954.

Wireless communication interface 1955 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as LTE and LTE-advanced) and provides wireless communication via RRH1960 and antenna 1940 to terminals located in a sector corresponding to RRH 1960. Wireless communication interface 1955 may generally include a BB processor 1956, for example. The BB processor 1956 is the same as the BB processor 1826 described with reference to fig. 18, except that the BB processor 1956 is connected to the RF circuitry 1964 of the RRH1960 via a connection interface 1957. As shown in fig. 19, wireless communication interface 1955 may include a plurality of BB processors 1956. For example, the plurality of BB processors 1956 may be compatible with the plurality of frequency bands used by eNB 1930. Although fig. 19 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 1955 includes a plurality of BB processors 1956, the wireless communication interface 1955 may include a single BB processor 1956.

Connection interface 1957 is an interface used to connect base station device 1950 (wireless communication interface 1955) to RRHs 1960. The connection interface 1957 may also be a communication module for communication in the above-described high speed lines connecting the base station device 1950 (wireless communication interface 1955) to the RRH 1960.

RRH1960 includes connection interface 1961 and wireless communication interface 1963.

Connection interface 1961 is an interface for connecting RRH1960 (wireless communication interface 1963) to base station apparatus 1950. The connection interface 1961 may also be a communication module for communication in the above-described high-speed line.

Wireless communication interface 1963 transmits and receives wireless signals via antenna 1940. Wireless communication interface 1963 may generally include, for example, RF circuitry 1964. The RF circuit 1964 may include, for example, mixers, filters, and amplifiers, and transmits and receives wireless signals via the antenna 1940. As shown in fig. 19, wireless communication interface 1963 may include a plurality of RF circuits 1964. For example, multiple RF circuits 1964 may support multiple antenna elements. Although fig. 19 shows an example in which wireless communication interface 1963 includes multiple RF circuits 1964, wireless communication interface 1963 may also include a single RF circuit 1964.

In the eNB 1930 shown in fig. 19, the transceivers 410, 1110 in the

electronic devices

400, 1100 described hereinbefore with reference to fig. 4, 11 may be implemented by a wireless communication interface 1963. The storage unit 440, 1140 in the

electronic device

400, 1100 may be implemented by, for example, the memory 1952. The determination unit 420, 1120 and the control unit 430, 1130 in the

electronic device

400, 1100 may be implemented by a controller 1951. For example, the controller 1951 may perform at least a portion of the functions of the determination units 420, 1120 and control units 430, 1130 by executing instructions stored in the memory 1952, which are not described in detail herein.

[ application example with respect to user Equipment ]

(first application example)

Fig. 20 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a smartphone 2000 to which the technique of the present disclosure can be applied. The smartphone 2000 includes a processor 2001, a memory 2002, a storage device 2003, an external connection interface 2004, a camera device 2006, sensors 2007, a microphone 2008, an input device 2009, a display device 2010, a speaker 2011, a wireless communication interface 2012, one or more antenna switches 2015, one or more antennas 2016, a bus 2017, a battery 2018, and an auxiliary controller 2019.

The processor 2001 may be, for example, a CPU or a system on a chip (SoC), and controls functions of an application layer and another layer of the smartphone 2000. The memory 2002 includes a RAM and a ROM, and stores data and programs executed by the processor 2001. The storage device 2003 may include a storage medium such as a semiconductor memory and a hard disk. The external connection interface 2004 is an interface for connecting an external device such as a memory card and a Universal Serial Bus (USB) device to the smartphone 2000.

The image pickup device 2006 includes an image sensor such as a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) and a Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS), and generates a captured image. The sensors 2007 may include a set of sensors such as a measurement sensor, a gyro sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and an acceleration sensor. The microphone 2008 converts sound input to the smartphone 2000 into an audio signal. The input device 2009 includes, for example, a touch sensor, a keypad, a keyboard, a button, or a switch configured to detect a touch on the screen of the display device 2010, and receives an operation or information input from a user. The display device 2010 includes a screen, such as a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and an Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) display, and displays an output image of the smartphone 2000. The speaker 2011 converts an audio signal output from the smartphone 2000 into sound.

The wireless communication interface 2012 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as LTE and LTE-advanced) and performs wireless communication. The wireless communication interface 2012 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 2013 and RF circuitry 2014. The BB processor 2013 can perform, for example, encoding/decoding, modulation/demodulation, and multiplexing/demultiplexing, and perform various types of signal processing for wireless communication. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 2014 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmit and receive a wireless signal via the antenna 2016. The wireless communication interface 2012 may be a chip module on which the BB processor 2013 and the RF circuit 2014 are integrated. As shown in fig. 20, the wireless communication interface 2012 may include a plurality of BB processors 2013 and a plurality of RF circuits 2014. Although fig. 20 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 2012 includes multiple BB processors 2013 and multiple RF circuits 2014, the wireless communication interface 2012 may also include a single BB processor 2013 or a single RF circuit 2014.

Further, the wireless communication interface 2012 may support another type of wireless communication scheme, such as a short-range wireless communication scheme, a near field communication scheme, and a wireless Local Area Network (LAN) scheme, in addition to the cellular communication scheme. In this case, the wireless communication interface 2012 may include the BB processor 2013 and the RF circuit 2014 for each wireless communication scheme.

Each of the antenna switches 2015 switches the connection destination of the antenna 916 among a plurality of circuits (e.g., circuits for different wireless communication schemes) included in the wireless communication interface 2012.

Each of the antennas 2016 includes a single or multiple antenna elements (such as multiple antenna elements included in a MIMO antenna) and is used for transmitting and receiving wireless signals by the wireless communication interface 2012. As shown in fig. 20, the smartphone 2000 may include multiple antennas 2016. Although fig. 20 shows an example in which the smartphone 2000 includes multiple antennas 2016, the smartphone 2000 may also include a single antenna 2016.

Further, the smartphone 2000 may include an antenna 2016 for each wireless communication scheme. In this case, the antenna switch 2015 may be omitted from the configuration of the smartphone 2000.

The bus 2017 connects the processor 2001, the memory 2002, the storage device 2003, the external connection interface 2004, the image pickup device 2006, the sensor 2007, the microphone 2008, the input device 2009, the display device 2010, the speaker 2011, the wireless communication interface 2012, and the auxiliary controller 2019 to each other. The battery 2018 provides power to the various blocks of the smartphone 2000 shown in fig. 20 via a feed line, which is partially shown in the figure as a dashed line. The supplementary controller 2019 operates the minimum necessary functions of the smartphone 2000 in, for example, a sleep mode.

In the smartphone 2000 shown in fig. 20, the transceivers 820, 1320 in the

electronic devices

800, 1300 described hereinbefore with reference to fig. 8, 13 may be implemented by a wireless communication interface 2012. The storage unit 840, 1340 in the

electronic device

800, 1300 may be implemented by the memory 2002 or the storage device 2003, for example. The generating unit 810, 1310 and the controlling unit 830, 1330 in the

electronic device

800, 1300 may be implemented by the processor 2001 or the auxiliary controller 2019. For example, the processor 2001 or the auxiliary controller 2019 may execute at least a part of functions of the generation units 810 and 1310 and the control units 830 and 1330 by executing instructions stored in the memory 2002 or the storage device 2003, which will not be described herein.

(second application example)

Fig. 21 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a car navigation device 2120 to which the technique of the present disclosure can be applied. Car navigation device 2120 includes a processor 2121, memory 2122, a Global Positioning System (GPS) module 2124, sensors 2125, a data interface 2126, a content player 2127, a storage medium interface 2128, an input device 2129, a display device 2130, speakers 2131, a wireless communication interface 2133, one or more antenna switches 2136, one or more antennas 2137, and a battery 2138.

The processor 2121 may be, for example, a CPU or an SoC, and controls a navigation function and another function of the car navigation device 2120. The memory 2122 includes a RAM and a ROM, and stores data and programs executed by the processor 2121.

The GPS module 2124 measures the position (such as latitude, longitude, and altitude) of the car navigation device 2120 using GPS signals received from GPS satellites. The sensors 2125 may include a set of sensors, such as a gyro sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and an air pressure sensor. The data interface 2126 is connected to, for example, the in-vehicle network 2141 via a terminal not shown, and acquires data generated by the vehicle (such as vehicle speed data).

The content player 2127 reproduces content stored in a storage medium (such as a CD and a DVD) inserted into the storage medium interface 2128. The input device 2129 includes, for example, a touch sensor, a button, or a switch configured to detect a touch on the screen of the display device 2130, and receives an operation or information input from a user. The display device 2130 includes a screen such as an LCD or OLED display, and displays an image of a navigation function or reproduced content. The speaker 2131 outputs the sound of the navigation function or the reproduced content.

The wireless communication interface 2133 supports any cellular communication schemes (such as LTE and LTE-advanced) and performs wireless communication. The wireless communication interface 2133 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 2134 and RF circuitry 2135. The BB processor 2134 may perform, for example, encoding/decoding, modulation/demodulation, and multiplexing/demultiplexing, and perform various types of signal processing for wireless communication. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 2135 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmits and receives a wireless signal via the antenna 2137. The wireless communication interface 2133 may also be one chip module on which the BB processor 2134 and the RF circuit 2135 are integrated. As shown in fig. 21, the wireless communication interface 2133 may include a plurality of BB processors 2134 and a plurality of RF circuits 2135. Although fig. 21 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 2133 includes a plurality of BB processors 2134 and a plurality of RF circuits 2135, the wireless communication interface 2133 may also include a single BB processor 2134 or a single RF circuit 2135.

Further, the wireless communication interface 2133 may support another type of wireless communication scheme, such as a short-range wireless communication scheme, a near field communication scheme, and a wireless LAN scheme, in addition to the cellular communication scheme. In this case, the wireless communication interface 2133 may include a BB processor 2134 and RF circuitry 2135 for each wireless communication scheme.

Each of the antenna switches 2136 switches a connection destination of the antenna 2137 among a plurality of circuits (such as circuits for different wireless communication schemes) included in the wireless communication interface 2133.

Each of the antennas 2137 includes a single or multiple antenna elements (such as multiple antenna elements included in a MIMO antenna), and is used for the wireless communication interface 2133 to transmit and receive wireless signals. As shown in fig. 21, the car navigation device 2120 may include a plurality of antennas 2137. Although fig. 21 shows an example in which the car navigation device 2120 includes the plurality of antennas 2137, the car navigation device 2120 may include a single antenna 2137.

Further, the car navigation device 2120 may include an antenna 2137 for each wireless communication scheme. In this case, the antenna switch 2136 may be omitted from the configuration of the car navigation device 2120.

The battery 2138 supplies power to the respective blocks of the car navigation device 2120 shown in fig. 21 via a feeder line, which is partially shown as a broken line in the drawing. The battery 2138 accumulates electric power supplied from the vehicle.

In the car navigation device 2120 shown in fig. 21, the transceivers 820, 1320 in the

electronic devices

800, 1300 described hereinbefore with reference to fig. 8, 13 may be implemented by the wireless communication interface 2133. The storage unit 840, 1340 in the

electronic device

800, 1300 may be implemented by, for example, the memory 2122. The generating unit 810, 1310 and the controlling unit 830, 1330 in the

electronic device

800, 1300 may be implemented by a processor 2121. For example, the processor 2121 may execute at least a part of the functions of the generating units 810 and 1310 and the controlling units 830 and 1330 in 800 and 1300 by executing instructions stored in the memory 2122, which is not described herein again.

The techniques of this disclosure may also be implemented as an in-vehicle system (or vehicle) 2140 that includes one or more blocks of a car navigation device 2120, an in-vehicle network 2141, and a vehicle module 2142. The vehicle module 2142 generates vehicle data (such as vehicle speed, engine speed, and fault information) and outputs the generated data to the on-board network 2141.

The preferred embodiments of the present disclosure are described above with reference to the drawings, but the present disclosure is of course not limited to the above examples. Various changes and modifications within the scope of the appended claims may be made by those skilled in the art, and it should be understood that these changes and modifications naturally will fall within the technical scope of the present disclosure.

For example, the units shown in the functional block diagrams in the figures as dashed boxes each indicate that the functional unit is optional in the corresponding apparatus, and the respective optional functional units may be combined in an appropriate manner to implement the required functions.

For example, a plurality of functions included in one unit may be implemented by separate devices in the above embodiments. Alternatively, a plurality of functions implemented by a plurality of units in the above embodiments may be implemented by separate devices, respectively. In addition, one of the above functions may be implemented by a plurality of units. Needless to say, such a configuration is included in the technical scope of the present disclosure.

In this specification, the steps described in the flowcharts include not only the processing performed in time series in the described order but also the processing performed in parallel or individually without necessarily being performed in time series. Further, even in the steps processed in time series, needless to say, the order can be changed as appropriate.

Further, the present disclosure may have a configuration as described below.

(1) An electronic device, comprising:

a processing circuit configured to:

receiving capability information reported by user equipment and about beam indication of the aperiodic uplink reference signal; and

determining a beam indication to actually take effect, among a first beam indication determined according to configuration information of the reference signal and a second beam indication determined according to an update message for updating a beam indication of the reference signal, based on the capability information,

wherein a transmission time of a trigger message for triggering the reference signal is before an expected time of effectiveness of the second beam indication and a transmission time of the reference signal is after the expected time of effectiveness of the second beam indication.

(2) The electronic device of (1), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

in a case where the capability information indicates that only one of the first beam indication and the second beam indication is supported, determining the one beam indication as a beam indication to be actually effected.

(3) The electronic device of (1), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

determining the first beam indication or the second beam indication as a beam indication to actually take effect in case the capability information indication simultaneously supports the first beam indication and the second beam indication.

(4) The electronic device of (1), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

transmitting information on a beam indication to be actually effected to the user equipment through RRC signaling.

(5) The electronic device of (1), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

receiving the reference signal from the user equipment according to the actually effective beam indication.

(6) The electronic device of (1), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

and sending configuration information including the first beam indication to the user equipment in advance through RRC signaling.

(7) The electronic device of (1), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

and sending the trigger message to the user equipment through the downlink control information of the physical layer.

(8) The electronic apparatus according to (7), wherein,

the trigger message includes information for specifying a resource set of the reference signal.

(9) The electronic apparatus according to (8), wherein,

the configuration information includes a first beam indication for aperiodic uplink reference signals in the set of resources, and the update message includes a second beam indication for aperiodic uplink reference signals in the set of resources.

(10) The electronic apparatus according to (9), wherein,

the set of resources includes a plurality of aperiodic uplink reference signals, and a transmission time of at least one of the plurality of aperiodic uplink reference signals is before an expected effective time indicated by a second beam for that reference signal.

(11) The electronic device of (1), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

transmitting the update message including the second beam indication to the user equipment through a control element of a media access control layer.

(12) The electronic apparatus according to (1), wherein,

the reference signal comprises an aperiodic sounding reference signal.

(13) An electronic device, comprising:

a processing circuit configured to:

generating capability information on a beam indication of the aperiodic uplink reference signal; and

reporting the capability information to a network side device, wherein the capability information is used for determining a beam indication to be actually effective in a first beam indication determined according to the configuration information of the reference signal and a second beam indication determined according to an update message for updating the beam indication of the reference signal,

(14) The electronic device of (13), wherein the capability information indicates that only one of the first beam indication and the second beam indication is supported, and a beam indication to be actually effected is the one beam indication.

(15) The electronic device of (13), wherein the capability information indicates that the first beam indication and the second beam indication are supported simultaneously, and a beam indication to be actually effected is the first beam indication or the second beam indication.

(16) The electronic device of (13), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

and receiving information which is sent by the network side equipment through RRC signaling and is about to actually take effect.

(17) The electronic device of (13), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

and sending the reference signal to the network side equipment according to the actually effective beam indication.

(18) The electronic device of (13), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

and receiving configuration information which is sent by RRC signaling and comprises the first beam indication in advance from the network side equipment.

(19) The electronic device of (13), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

and receiving the trigger message sent by the downlink control information of the physical layer from the network side equipment.

(20) The electronic device of (19), wherein,

(21) The electronic device of (20), wherein,

(22) The electronic device of (21), wherein,

the set of resources includes a plurality of aperiodic uplink reference signals, wherein a transmission time of at least one reference signal in the plurality of aperiodic uplink reference signals is before an expected effective time indicated by a second beam for that reference signal.

(23) The electronic device of (13), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

receiving, from the network-side device, the update message including the second beam indication sent through a control element of a media access control layer.

(24) An electronic device, comprising:

a processing circuit configured to:

receiving capability information which is reported by user equipment and is about transmission resource indication of the aperiodic downlink reference signal; and

determining, from the capability information, a set of transmission resource indications to actually take effect among a first set of transmission resource indications and a second set of transmission resource indications of the plurality of transmission resource indications of the reference signal determined from the first selection message and the second selection message, respectively,

wherein a transmission time of a trigger message for triggering the reference signal is after an expected time of effectiveness indicated by the first set of transmission resources and before an expected time of effectiveness indicated by the second set of transmission resources, and a transmission time of the reference signal is after the expected time of effectiveness indicated by the second set of transmission resources.

(25) The electronic device of (24), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

in case the capability information indicates that only one set of transmission resource indications of the first set of transmission resource indications and the second set of transmission resource indications is supported, determining the set of transmission resource indications as a set of transmission resource indications to be actually validated.

(26) The electronic device of (24), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

determining the first transmission resource indication group or the second transmission resource group indication as a group of transmission resource indications to be actually validated, in case the capability information indication supports both the first group of transmission resource indications and the second group of transmission resource indications.

(27) The electronic device of (24), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

transmitting information on a set of transmission resource indications to be actually effected to the user equipment through RRC signaling.

(28) The electronic device of (24), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

and sending the reference signal to the user equipment according to the actually effective transmission resource indication.

(29) The electronic device of (24), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

and sending the configuration information of the transmission resource indications to the user equipment in advance through RRC signaling.

(30) The electronic device of (24), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

(31) The electronic device of (30), wherein,

the trigger message comprises information specifying a transmission resource indication to be used in the set of transmission resource indications that actually take effect.

(32) The electronic device of (31), wherein,

the transmission resource indication to use is associated with a set of resources for the reference signal.

(33) The electronic device of (32), wherein,

the resource set comprises a plurality of aperiodic downlink reference signals, and the sending time of the plurality of aperiodic downlink reference signals is all after the expected effective time indicated by the second group of transmission resources.

(34) The electronic device of (24), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

and sending the first selection message and the second selection message to the user equipment through a control element of a media access control layer.

(35) The electronic device of (24), wherein,

the reference signal comprises an aperiodic channel state information reference signal.

(36) An electronic device, comprising:

a processing circuit configured to:

generating capability information on a transmission resource indication of an aperiodic downlink reference signal; and

reporting the capability information to a network side device, wherein the capability information is used for determining a group of transmission resource indications to be actually effective in a first group of transmission resource indications and a second group of transmission resource indications in a plurality of transmission resource indications of the reference signal respectively determined according to a first selection message and a second selection message,

(37) The electronic device of (36), wherein the capability information indicates that only one of the first set of transmission resource indications and the second set of transmission resource indications is supported, and the set of transmission resource indications that is to actually take effect is the set of transmission resource indications.

(38) The electronic device of (36), wherein the capability information indicates that the first set of transmission resource indications and the second set of transmission resource indications are supported simultaneously, and the set of transmission resource indications that is to actually take effect is the first set of transmission resource indications or the second set of transmission resource indications.

(39) The electronic device of (36), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

and receiving information which is sent by the network side equipment through RRC signaling and is about a group of transmission resource indications to be actually effective.

(40) The electronic device of (36), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

and receiving the reference signal from the network side equipment according to the actually effective transmission resource indication.

(41) The electronic device of (36), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

and receiving the configuration information of the transmission resource indications sent by RRC signaling from the network side equipment in advance.

(42) The electronic device of (36), wherein,

(43 the electronic apparatus according to (42), wherein,

(44) The electronic device of (43), wherein,

(45) The electronic device of (44), wherein,

(46) The electronic device of (36), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

and receiving the first selection message and the second selection message sent by a control element of a media access control layer from the network side equipment.

(47) A method of wireless communication, comprising:

(48) A method of wireless communication, comprising:

(49) A method of wireless communication, comprising:

(50) A method of wireless communication, comprising:

(51) A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform the method according to any one of (47) to (50).

Although the embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, it should be understood that the above-described embodiments are merely illustrative of the present disclosure and do not constitute a limitation of the present disclosure. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the above-described embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, the scope of the disclosure is to be defined only by the claims appended hereto, and by their equivalents.

Claims

1. An electronic device, comprising:

a processing circuit configured to:

2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

3. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

4. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

5. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

6. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

7. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

8. The electronic device of claim 7,

9. The electronic device of claim 8,

10. The electronic device of claim 9,