CN114339996A

CN114339996A - Beam searching method and device

Info

Publication number: CN114339996A
Application number: CN202011033196.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李铁; 类春阳; 李伟华; 郑旭; 张永平
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-09-27
Filing date: 2020-09-27
Publication date: 2022-04-12
Also published as: WO2022063277A1

Abstract

In the method, after a terminal determines beam or antenna panel indication information, the terminal can search the beam indicated by the beam indication information by taking time M as the starting time, but not by taking the transmission time N of a signal or a channel as the starting time of the beam. The time M is a time after the determination time of the beam or antenna panel indication information and before the transmission time N. Therefore, in the application, the terminal can search the beam in advance, so that the problems that the N beam is not processed at the transmission moment of a signal or a channel, the receiving is incomplete or cannot be received and the like are avoided.

Description

Beam searching method and device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for searching for a beam.

Background

In future communication systems, such as a fifth generation (5G) system, in order to meet the requirements of three scenes, compared with a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system that adopts a low frequency band, a new high frequency band is added, which is generally considered to be more than 6 GHz. And high frequency is introduced, so that larger bandwidth and higher transmission rate can be realized. Because the frequency is high, the signal can be seriously faded in the process of space propagation, therefore, a future communication system adopts a beam forming technology to obtain good directional gain so as to improve the directional power of a transmitting direction, improve the signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio of a receiving end and further improve the system performance.

Currently, the beam management framework includes beam training, beam measurement and reporting, beam indication of each signal or channel, and the like.

The terminal equipment searches for the beam according to the signal or channel beam indication at the signal or channel sending moment, so that for terminals with different capabilities, as the beam searching, the beam preparation and the switching all need time, the processing time can cause that partial signals or channels are incompletely received or cannot be received, and the performance is reduced.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a beam searching method and device, which are beneficial to avoiding the problems that the receiving is incomplete or can not be received and the like caused by the fact that N beams are not processed at the transmission moment of a signal or a channel.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a beam finding method. The beam searching method can be applied to a communication device, wherein the communication device can be a terminal or a network device, or a chip system on the terminal or the network device, and the method comprises the following steps: the communication device determines beam or antenna panel indication information, the beam or antenna panel indication information is used for indicating the beam of the signal or channel transmitted at the transmission moment N, and the initial searching moment of the beam is the transmission moment N of the signal or channel; the communication apparatus searches for the beam or the beam indicated by the antenna panel indication information starting at time M, but it is understood that the communication apparatus does not search for the beam starting at transmission time N. The time M is a time after the determination time of the beam or antenna panel indication information and before the transmission time N.

The communication device can determine the beam indication information and obtain the beam of the signal or channel transmitted at the transmission moment N; alternatively, the communication device determines the antenna panel indication information and obtains the beam of the signal or channel transmitted at the transmission time N, and the beam indication information is taken as an example to describe an alternative embodiment of the present application.

In one embodiment, the terminal determines beam indication information, and includes: beam indication information. The determination time of the beam indication information is the receiving time of the beam indication information or the time of an interval duration L after the receiving time, wherein L is greater than zero and less than the time interval between the receiving time and the transmission time N.

In another embodiment, the determining, by the terminal, the beam indication information includes: the communication device determines the beam indication information of the signal or channel transmitted at the transmission time N according to other signals or channels having a Quasi-Co-Location (QCL) relationship with the signal or channel transmitted at the transmission time N. Correspondingly, the determined time of the beam indication information is the receiving time of the beam indication information of other signals or channels or the time of an interval duration L after the receiving time, where L is greater than zero and less than the time interval between the receiving time and the transmission time N.

In yet another embodiment, the communication device determining beam indication information includes: the communication device determines the beam indication information of the signal or channel transmitted at the transmission time instant N from the predefined or preconfigured beam indication information. Accordingly, the determined time instant of the beam indication information may be a time instant before the transmission time instant N.

Therefore, in the application, the communication device can realize beam search in advance according to the self capacity, thereby being beneficial to avoiding the problems that the N beam is not processed well at the transmission moment of a signal or a channel, the caused receiving is incomplete or can not be received, or the caused sending is incomplete or can not be sent and the like.

In addition, in the application, the communication device can search the beam in advance in the implementation process, and compared with the cost, complexity and other prices required by the protocol-specified communication device to search the beam at the transmission time N, the cost required by the communication device can be reduced, and the complexity of the communication device can be reduced.

In another embodiment, the time M is a time after the beam pool update time and before the time N; the beam indicated by the beam indication information is included in the beam pool activated after the beam pool update time. The beam pool update time is related to a signal and a channel, and may be a receiving time of a Media Access Control-Control Element (MAC-CE), or a time of an interval duration L after the receiving time of the MAC-CE, or a receiving time of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, or a time of an interval duration L after the receiving time of the RRC signaling. Wherein, the MAC-CE signaling is used for activating one beam subset in the configured beam resource pool; RRC signaling is used to activate the configured beam resource pool. Wherein L is greater than zero and less than the time interval between the corresponding reception time and the transmission time N.

It can be seen that this embodiment is advantageous to ensure that the beam is prepared at the transmission time N, and also to avoid the problem of beam misalignment caused by the beam being searched too early, for example, the beam #0 searched before the beam pool update time is not the same as the beam #0 searched after the beam pool update time.

In one embodiment, the beam indication Information is included in Downlink Control Information (DCI), and the DCI is used to schedule a signal or a channel transmitted at a transmission time N.

In another embodiment, the beam indication information is included in media access control-control element (MAC-CE) signaling.

In yet another embodiment, the beam indication information is included in the RRC signaling.

In yet another embodiment, the beam indication information may be obtained from beams of other signals or channels having a quasi-co-located QCL relationship with the signal or channel transmitted at transmission time instant N.

In one embodiment, the time M is predefined or derived based on predetermined rules.

In a second aspect, the present application further provides a communication device. The communication means may be a terminal or a network device, or a component in a terminal or a network device. The communication device may comprise various means or units for performing the method of the first aspect as well as any of the possible implementations of the first aspect. The functions of the modules or units can be realized by hardware, and can also be realized by hardware executing corresponding software.

In one possible design, the communication device may include a processing unit in its structure, the processing unit being configured to support the communication device to perform the corresponding functions in the above method. The communication device may further include a communication unit configured to support communication between the communication device and another device. The communication device may further comprise a memory unit for coupling with the processing unit and the communication unit, which stores program instructions and data necessary for the communication device.

In one embodiment, the communication device comprises:

a processing unit, configured to determine beam or antenna panel indication information, where the beam or antenna panel indication information is used to indicate a beam of a signal or a channel transmitted at a transmission time N, and a search starting time of the beam is the transmission time N of the signal or the channel;

the processing unit is further configured to search for a beam or a beam indicated by the antenna panel indication information with time M as a start; the time M is a time after the determination time of the beam indication information and before the transmission time N.

Therefore, the communication device can realize beam search in advance, thereby being beneficial to avoiding the problems that the receiving is incomplete or can not be received, or the sending is incomplete or can not be sent and the like caused by that the N beam is not processed at the transmission moment of the signal or the channel.

Optionally, the communication device further includes a communication unit, where the communication unit is configured to receive a first channel or signal, where the first channel or signal may be used to determine beam or antenna panel indication information, and the processing unit determines the beam or antenna panel indication information, and may specifically be: the processing unit determines beam or antenna panel indication information from the first channel or signal.

Optionally, the first channel or signal has a QCL relationship with the channel or signal transmitted at the transmission time N, or the first channel or signal includes the beam or antenna panel indication information to indicate the beam of the signal or channel transmitted at the transmission time N.

In addition, in this aspect, reference may be made to the related matters of the first aspect for further alternative embodiments of the communication device, and details are not described here.

As an example, the communication unit may be a transceiver or a communication interface, the storage unit may be a memory, and the processing unit may be a processor.

In one implementation, the communication device is a terminal or a network device. When the communication device is a terminal or a network device, the processing unit may be a processor; the communication unit may be a transceiver, or an input/output interface.

In another implementation, the communication device is a chip or a system of chips. The processing unit may also be embodied as a processing circuit or a logic circuit; the communication unit may be an input/output interface, an interface circuit, an output circuit, an input circuit, a pin or related circuit, etc. on the chip or system of chips.

In one embodiment, the communication device comprises:

a processor for determining beam or antenna panel indication information for indicating a beam of a signal or channel transmitted at a transmission time N, a search start time of a beam being the transmission time N of the signal or the channel;

the processor is further configured to search for a beam or a beam indicated by the antenna panel indication information with time M as a start; the time M is a time after the determination time of the beam or antenna panel indication information and before the transmission time N.

Optionally, the communication device further includes a transceiver, where the transceiver is configured to receive a first channel or signal, where the first channel or signal may be used to determine beam or antenna panel indication information, and the processor determines the beam or antenna panel indication information, which may specifically be: the processor determines beam or antenna panel indication information from the first channel or signal.

Other alternative embodiments of the communication device can be found in the above first aspect, and are not described in detail here.

In an implementation, the processor may be configured to perform, for example and without limitation, baseband related processing, and the transceiver may be configured to perform, for example and without limitation, radio frequency transceiving. The above devices may be respectively disposed on separate chips, or at least a part or all of the devices may be disposed on the same chip. For example, the processor may be further divided into an analog baseband processor and a digital baseband processor. The analog baseband processor and the transceiver can be integrated on the same chip, and the digital baseband processor can be arranged on a separate chip. With the continuous development of integrated circuit technology, more and more devices can be integrated on the same chip. For example, a digital baseband processor may be integrated on the same chip with a variety of application processors (e.g., without limitation, graphics processors, multimedia processors, etc.). Such a Chip may be referred to as a System on Chip. Whether each device is separately located on a different chip or integrated on one or more chips is often dependent on the needs of the product design. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the implementation form of the above device.

In a third aspect, the present application further provides a processor configured to perform the method of the first aspect. In the process of executing the method according to the first aspect, the processes of the method relating to the transmission of the information and the reception of the information may be understood as a process of outputting the information by a processor and a process of receiving the information by a processor. Upon outputting the information, the processor outputs the information to the transceiver for transmission by the transceiver. The information may also need to be processed after being output by the processor before reaching the transceiver. Similarly, when the processor receives the input information, the transceiver receives the information and inputs the information into the processor. Further, after the transceiver receives the information, the information may need to be processed before being input to the processor.

The operations relating to the processor, such as transmitting, sending and receiving, may be understood more generally as operations relating to the processor, such as outputting and receiving, inputting, etc., than those performed directly by the rf circuitry and antenna, unless specifically stated otherwise, or if not contradicted by their actual role or inherent logic in the associated description.

In implementation, the processor may be a processor dedicated to performing the methods, or may be a processor executing computer instructions in a memory to perform the methods, such as a general-purpose processor. The Memory may be a non-transitory (non-transitory) Memory, such as a Read Only Memory (ROM), which may be integrated on the same chip as the processor or may be separately disposed on different chips.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a computer readable storage medium for storing computer software instructions which, when executed by a communication device, implement the method of the first aspect described above.

In a fifth aspect, the present application also provides a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a communication apparatus, cause the communication apparatus to perform the method of the first aspect described above.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a chip system, which includes a processor and a communication interface, where the communication interface is configured to input and/or output information, where the information includes data, programs, and/or instructions, and the processor is configured to call the programs or instructions to implement or support a network device to implement the functions related to the first aspect, for example, to determine or process at least one of the data and the information related to the method. In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory for storing program instructions and data necessary for the network device. The chip system may be composed of one or more chips, and may also include chips and other discrete devices.

Drawings

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

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a downlink beam training process according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of an uplink beam training process according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic flowchart of a beam search method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a current beam searching method;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a beam search method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of another beam search method provided in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a chip according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to better understand the beam search method provided in the embodiment of the present application, a communication system to which the embodiment of the present application is applicable is first described.

The technical scheme of the application can be applied to various communication systems. For example, a global system for mobile communications, an LTE frequency division duplex system, an LTE time division duplex system, a universal mobile telecommunications system, a 4G system, and with the continuous development of communication technologies, the technical solution of the present application can also be used in communication systems of subsequent evolution, such as a 5G system, a future communication system, and so on.

The embodiment of the application can be applied to independent networking, namely, communication systems such as a new base station, a backhaul link and a core network deployed in a future network, and can also be applied to various communication systems such as non-independent networking.

For example, the embodiments of the present application may be applied to a fifth generation (5th generation, 5G) system, which may also be referred to as a New Radio (NR) system, or a sixth generation (6th generation, 6G) system or other future communication systems; or may also be used for device to device (D2D) systems, machine to machine (M2M) systems, Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, and so on.

In this embodiment, the network device may be a device with a wireless transceiving function or a chip disposed on the device, and the network device includes but is not limited to: an evolved Node B (eNB), a Radio Network Controller (RNC), a Node B (NB), a network equipment controller (BSC), a network equipment transceiver station (BTS), a home network equipment (e.g., home evolved Node B or home Node B, HNB), a baseband unit (BBU), an Access Point (AP) in a wireless fidelity (WIFI) system, a wireless relay Node, a wireless backhaul Node, a transmission point (TRP or transmission point, TP), and the like; it may also be a device used in a 5G, 6G or even 7G system, such as a gNB or a transmission point (TRP or TP) in an NR system, an antenna panel or a group (including multiple antenna panels) of network devices in a 5G system, or may also be a network node constituting a gNB or a transmission point, such as a baseband unit (BBU), or a distributed unit (DU, distributed unit), or a piconet network device (pico cell), or a femto network device (femto cell), or a vehicle networking (vehicle to evolution, V2X), or a Road Side Unit (RSU) in an intelligent driving scenario.

In the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may include but is not limited to: user Equipment (UE), access terminal equipment, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, remote terminal equipment, mobile device, user terminal equipment, user agent, or user device, etc. As another example, the terminal device may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet (Pad), a computer with a wireless transceiving function, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an Augmented Reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in self driving (self driving), a wireless terminal in remote medical (remote medical), a wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in transportation safety (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in smart city (smart city), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), a wireless terminal in the V2X car networking or an RSU of a wireless terminal type, and so on.

In some deployments, the gNB may include a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU). The gNB may also include an Active Antenna Unit (AAU). The CU implements part of the function of the gNB and the DU implements part of the function of the gNB. For example, the CU is responsible for processing non-real-time protocols and services, and implementing functions of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer and a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer. The DU is responsible for processing a physical layer protocol and a real-time service, and implements functions of a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, and a Physical (PHY) layer. The AAU implements part of the physical layer processing functions, radio frequency processing and active antenna related functions. Since the information of the RRC layer eventually becomes or is converted from the information of the PHY layer, the higher layer signaling, such as the RRC layer signaling, may also be considered to be transmitted by the DU or transmitted by the DU and the AAU under this architecture. It is to be understood that the network device may be a device comprising one or more of a CU node, a DU node, an AAU node. In addition, the CU may be divided into network devices in an access network (RAN), or may be divided into network devices in a Core Network (CN), which is not limited in this application.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. For convenience of description, the embodiment of the present application is described by taking fig. 1 as an example, and the communication system shown in fig. 1 includes, but is not limited to, a base station and a terminal device, and may also include other communication devices, which are not described in detail herein.

To facilitate understanding of the embodiments disclosed herein, the following two descriptions are made.

(1) In the embodiments disclosed in the present application, a scenario of an NR network in a wireless communication network is taken as an example for explanation, it should be noted that the solution in the embodiments disclosed in the present application may also be applied to other wireless communication networks, and corresponding names may also be replaced by names of corresponding functions in other wireless communication networks.

(2) Embodiments disclosed herein will present various aspects, embodiments, or features of the application in the context of a system comprising a plurality of devices, components, modules, etc. It is to be understood and appreciated that the various systems may include additional devices, components, modules, etc. and/or may not include all of the devices, components, modules etc. discussed in connection with the figures. Furthermore, a combination of these schemes may also be used.

Next, a brief description will be given of related concepts related to the embodiments of the present application.

1. Beam management

5G and future communication systems introduce high frequency bands (generally considered to be above 6G), such as 28GHz, 39GHz or 60GHz bands, to meet the requirements of larger bandwidths and higher transmission rates. Due to the high frequency, the signal can be severely faded during spatial propagation. Therefore, in 5G and future communication systems, a Beamforming (BF) technique is used to obtain a good directional gain, so as to increase directional power in a transmitting direction, improve a Signal to Interference plus Noise ratio (SINR) at a receiving end, and further improve system performance.

The beam management content includes beam training, beam measurement and reporting, beam indication of each signal or channel, and the like.

The beam training includes the process of scanning the transmitting and receiving beams at both sides of the base station and the terminal, in order to find the beam pair, including a transmitting beam and a receiving beam. Thus, the transmission beam direction and the reception beam direction are aligned, improving the gain of the reception signal. For downlink transmission, the beam training process includes a P-1 process, a P-2 process, and a P-3 process. Wherein, as shown in fig. 2, the P-1 process is coarse alignment, and the base station and the terminal obtain one or more suitable beam pairs through coarse beam scanning. The P-2 process is to finely adjust the transmitting beam of the base station, and the terminal trains the fine transmitting beam of the base station through the initial receiving beam obtained by the P-1 process. The P-3 process is to finely adjust the receiving beam of the terminal, the base station fixedly transmits the fine transmitting beam based on the fine transmitting beam obtained by the P-2, and the fine receiving beam of the terminal is trained. For uplink transmission, the beam training process includes a U-1 process, a U-2 process, and a U-3 process. Wherein, as shown in fig. 3, the U-1 process is coarse alignment, and the base station and the terminal obtain one or more suitable beam pairs through coarse beam scanning. The U-2 process is to finely adjust the receiving beam of the base station, and the terminal trains the fine receiving beam of the base station through the initial transmitting beam obtained by the U-1 process. The U-3 process is to finely adjust the transmitting beam of the terminal, and the base station fixedly transmits the fine receiving beam obtained based on the U-2 and trains the fine transmitting beam of the terminal.

For the beam training process, the terminal is required to measure or report the measurement reference signal configured by the base station. For example, Rel-15 version 5G introduces a measurement of layer 1reference signal received power (L1-RSRP) to measure beam quality. The Rel-16 version of 5G introduces a measure of layer 1signal interference noise ratio (L1-SINR) to measure beam quality. The L1-SINR may further consider the impact of interference on beam quality compared to L1-RSRP.

The uplink transmission beam pair or the downlink transmission beam pair obtained in the beam training process can be implicitly represented by a Quasi Co-Location (QCL) relationship. The two antenna ports have a QCL relationship, which means that the channel large-scale parameter of one antenna port can be derived through the channel large-scale parameter obtained by the other antenna port. Alternatively, if two antenna ports have a QCL relationship, the large scale characteristics of the channel carrying a signal at one port can be inferred from the large scale characteristics of the channel carrying a signal at the other port, or simply, the QCL relationship between the two signals. The signals corresponding to the antenna ports having the QCL relationship have the same parameters, or the parameters of one antenna port may be used to determine the parameters of another antenna port having the QCL relationship with the antenna port, or two antenna ports have the same parameters, or the parameter difference between the two antenna ports is smaller than a certain threshold.

The beam training process may correlate the reference signals to form a TCI information table (contents Transmission Configuration Indicator). When the base station schedules the terminal to transmit data information (including a reference signal, a control channel, a data channel, etc.), the base station notifies the terminal of an activated TCI state (TCI state) through downlink signaling, so that the terminal can deduce which receiving beam is used for receiving. In the whole communication process, if the terminal moves or a beam measurement event is reported, the relevant TCI-state information table is updated.

2. Beam indication information

The beam indication information is used to indicate a beam of a signal or a channel, and optionally, the beam of the signal or the channel may also be indicated by the antenna panel indication information. The following embodiments and related implementations are described by taking the beam indication information as an example to indicate the beam of the signal or channel.

The uplink and downlink signals or channels can adopt an explicit mode or an implicit mode to carry out beam indication through the QCL relation. The explicit method means that a signaling indicates a beam used for a certain channel or signal configuration, and the implicit method is that a certain rule is predefined through a constraint or a protocol to specify a beam of a certain signal or channel.

2.1, the beams of the signal or channel are indicated in an explicit way, for example as shown in table 1.

Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH): as shown in table 1, the PDSCH determines the beam indication information by using three-level signaling, i.e., Radio Resource Control (RRC), medium access control-control element (MAC-CE), and Downlink Control Information (DCI). The higher layer RRC signaling configures a beam resource pool, activates a beam subset containing a plurality of beams through MAC-CE signaling, and finally triggers one beam of the beam subset through DCI to indicate a PDSCH beam. For example, the terminal is notified of the beam of the PDSCH through the activated TCI state in the DCI.

Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH): as shown in table 1, the PDCCH determines the beam indication information using RRC + MAC-CE secondary signaling. The higher layer RRC signaling configures one beam resource pool and activates one of the beams to indicate the beam of the PDCCH through MAC-CE signaling.

Channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS): as shown in table 1, for periodic CSI-RS, beams are configured by RRC; for the semi-continuous CSI-RS, configuring a beam resource pool through RRC, and activating one beam through MAC-CE signaling; for the aperiodic CSI-RS, a beam resource pool is configured by RRC, and the MAC-CE may update the beam resource pool or activate one of the beam subsets, and trigger one of the beams through DCI to indicate the beam of the aperiodic CSI-RS.

Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH): as shown in table 1, a beam resource pool is configured by using higher layer RRC signaling, and one of the beams is activated by MAC-CE signaling to indicate a beam of the PUCCH.

Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH): as shown in table 1, a beam of a PUSCH is indicated by a beam of an SRS indicated by an SRI associated with the PUSCH;

sounding Reference Signal (SRS): as shown in table 1, for a periodic SRS, a beam of the SRS is configured by RRC; for semi-continuous SRS, configuring a beam resource pool through RRC, wherein the MAC-CE indicates one beam as the beam of the SRS; for the aperiodic SRS, a beam resource pool is configured by RRC, and the MAC-CE may update the beam resource pool or activate one of the beam subsets, and indicate one beam as the beam of the aperiodic SRS through DCI triggering.

Table 1 beam indication information is determined in an explicit manner

2.2, implicitly indicates the beam of the signal or channel, for example:

PDSCH: in one case, the PDSCH has a QCL relationship with a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) carrying system information. In another case, the terminal assumes a QCL relationship between the PDSCH and the SSB used for initial access before the terminal receives the pool of beam resources initially configured by RRC and the MAC-CE activates one of the beam subsets. Wherein, the Type of QCL relationship includes Type A (Type-A) and Type D (Type-D). In yet another case, if the TCI field of the PDSCH in the DCI is not enabled, the PDSCH has a QCL relationship with the scheduled PDCCH, where the Type of the QCL relationship includes Type a (Type-a), Type B (Type-B), Type C (Type-C), or Type D (Type-D). In another case, if the TCI field of the PDSCH in the DCI is not enabled, when the scheduling offset of the PDSCH is less than the scheduling threshold, the PDSCH has a QCL relationship with a PDCCH that is the PDCCH with the smallest control resource set identity (CORESET ID) in the slot monitored by the PDCCH closest to the serving cell active partial Band (BWP). The Type of the QCL relationship is Type-A, Type-B, Type-C or Type-D; in the case of a multi-site scenario, the associated CORESET needs to be restricted to the same site. In yet another case, a multi-site scenario, if the RRC configuration of the PDSCH includes at least one configuration with two TCI indications, the PDSCH uses the configuration with two TCI indications with the smallest ID when the scheduling offset of the current PDSCH is less than the scheduling threshold. In another case, in the cross-carrier scheduling scenario, when the TCI field of the PDSCH in the DCI is enabled and the scheduling offset of the PDSCH is smaller than the scheduling threshold, the QCL of the PDSCH assumes that the TCI state with the smallest ID of the activated TCI of the PDSCH on the scheduled carrier is referred to.

The scheduling threshold refers to a scheduling duration, and the scheduling duration includes DCI decoding and parsing duration and processing durations of beam searching, preparation, switching and the like.

PDCCH: in one case, for a normal PDCCH, there is a QCL relationship with the SSB carrying system information. In another case, for CORESET other than ID #0, if TCI-state is not configured, or the initial RRC is configured with multiple TCI-states and the MAC-CE is not activated, it has a QCL relationship with the SSB of the initial access. In yet another case, for core set of non-ID #0, if multiple TCI-states are configured by RRC (during cell Handover (HO) or secondary cell (Scell) addition procedure) and MAC-CE is not activated, there is a QCL relationship with the SSB of random access initiated by the procedure. In yet another case, for CORESET of ID #0, if TCI-state is not configured, or the initial RRC is configured with multiple TCI-states and the MAC-CE is not activated, then it has a QCL relationship with the SSB of the initial access.

CSI-RS: a default beam is not defined for the periodic, semi-persistent CSI-RS. For the aperiodic CSI-RS beam, if the scheduling offset is smaller than the scheduling threshold, if other channels or signals indicating the beam exist on the same symbol, the beam of other channels or signals is used, and if the other channels or signals do not exist, the QCL relationship is provided with a PDCCH which has the smallest CORESET ID on the slot monitored by the PDCCH and is closest to the BWP activated by the serving cell.

Wherein, not defining the default beam means that if the beam is not explicitly indicated and the protocol does not specify the beam receiving behavior of the terminal, the terminal can implement determining the beam by itself.

PUCCH: in one case, if a primary cell (PL-RS) is not configured, an uplink beam is not configured, and a default beam is configured, a primary cell (PCell) activates a beam of core set with BWP and a minimum ID.

PUSCH: in one case, when the PUSCH is scheduled by DCI0_0, a beam refers to the Carrier Component (CC) to activate a beam of the BWP-dedicated PUCCH having the smallest CORESET ID. In another case, when the PUSCH is scheduled by DCI0_0 and the default beam function is enabled, if the PUCCH is not configured in the connected active uplink BWP, the beam activates a beam of the CORESET with the smallest ID in the BWP with reference to the CC. In still another case, when the PUSCH is scheduled by DCI0_0 and the default beam function is enabled, if no PUCCH is configured in the connected active uplink BWP or the configured PUCCH has no beam reference, the beam reference CC activates a beam of CORESET with the smallest ID in the BWP.

In the embodiment of the present application, the beam indication information is used to indicate a beam of a signal or a channel transmitted at a transmission time N, and the beam indication information may be indicated by one-level, two-level, or three-level signaling, as described above, or may be determined in an implicit manner.

3. Time of day

The transmission time N and the time M described herein may be absolute times, or may be corresponding time units, for example, the transmission time N corresponds to a starting time of one time unit N, and the time M corresponds to a starting time of the time unit M.

A time unit is, for example but not limited to, one or more radio frames, or one or more subframes, or one or more slots, or one or more minislots (mini slots), or one or more sub slots, or one or more symbols, or a time window consisting of multiple frames or subframes, such as a System Information (SI) window. The time length of one symbol is not limited. The length of one symbol may be different for different subcarrier spacings. The symbols include an uplink symbol and a downlink symbol, wherein the uplink symbol may be referred to as a single carrier-frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) symbol or an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDM) symbol; the downlink symbols may be OFDM symbols.

The communication system divides each time unit in the time domain into at least one of an uplink time unit, a downlink time unit or a special time unit based on the ratio of the uplink time unit to the downlink time unit.

The uplink time unit is a time unit including time domain resources for uplink transmission. The downlink time unit is a time unit including time domain resources for downlink transmission.

The special time unit is a time unit comprising uplink and downlink conversion time domain resources. The special time unit includes, for example and without limitation, an uplink/downlink switching time domain resource and a time domain resource for downlink transmission, or includes an uplink/downlink switching time domain resource and a time domain resource for uplink transmission, or includes an uplink/downlink switching time domain resource, a time domain resource for downlink transmission and a time domain resource for uplink transmission, and so on.

4. Beam/antenna panel processing

Beam/antenna panel processing includes look-up, preparation, and handover. The beam searching means that the terminal searches a corresponding beam from a beam resource pool configured by RRC or a beam subset activated by MAC-CE according to the beam indication information. The beam preparation refers to operations of the terminal, such as software configuration, hardware configuration, and possibly antenna panel switching, according to the searched beam, which may also be referred to as beam/panel activation, for powering on the radio frequency. The beam switching is an operation of configuring a Phase Locked Loop (PLL) or the like to simulate a phase shift or the like after the beam preparation.

Currently, in the protocol or standard discussion, the beam processing time of the signal or the channel is a transmission time of the signal or the channel, for example, the scheduled PDSCH of the terminal is transmitted at time N, and then the terminal searches for the beam indicated by the beam indication information at time N according to the explicit method or the implicit method, and further performs beam preparation and beam switching to receive the PDSCH at time N. However, since the PDSCH is already transmitted at time N, once the terminal has prepared the reception beam, the PDSCH reception may be incomplete or may not be received, resulting in performance degradation.

In order to solve the problem, the present application provides a beam search method, which can specify the starting time of beam search, thereby avoiding the problem of incomplete reception or incapability of reception caused by unprocessed beams, and being beneficial to ensuring performance.

The following describes a beam search method according to an embodiment of the present application with reference to the communication system shown in fig. 1. In addition, the beam searching method may be applied to a terminal device or a chip system on the terminal device, or may be applied to a network device or a chip system on the network device, and the following description will be given by taking the terminal as an execution subject, and similar to other execution subjects, and will not be described herein again.

Referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is a schematic flow chart of a beam searching method according to an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 4, the beam searching method includes, but is not limited to, the following steps:

s101, the terminal determines beam indication information;

the beam indication information is used to indicate the beam of the signal or channel transmitted at the transmission time instant N. The signal or channel transmitted at the transmission time N may be the PDSCH, PDCCH, PUCCH, PUSCH, CSI-RS, SRS, or the like described above. The beam may be a receive beam or a transmit beam.

In one embodiment, the beam indication information may be divided into an explicit indication. In this embodiment, the beam indication information is included in DCI used to schedule a signal or channel transmitted at transmission time N. That is, the terminal receives a first signal or channel, which may carry beam indication information, and the terminal may determine the beam indication information from the information carried by the first signal or channel.

For example, assuming that the channel transmitted at transmission time N is a PDSCH, the terminal may receive a PDCCH scheduling the PDSCH; further, the terminal may determine beam indication information indicating a beam of the PDSCH transmitted at the transmission time N from information carried by the PDCCH.

In another embodiment, the beam indication information is included in the medium access control-control element, MAC-CE, signaling. For example, for PDCCH, PUCCH, the terminal may receive MAC-CE signaling, and the terminal may determine beam indication information from the MAC-CE signaling. For CSI-RS, SRS, the terminal may determine the beam indication information from the RRC configuration or from the DCI. The beam indication information may be a TCI state of a TCI field in DCI, or may be a spatial relationship (spatial relationship) in an uplink.

In another embodiment, the implicit indication may be provided as described above. In this embodiment, the beam indication information is determined based on beams of other signals or channels. That is, the terminal may receive a first signal or channel; further, the terminal determines the beam indication information according to the beam of the first signal or channel. Wherein the first signal or channel has a QCL relationship with the signal or channel transmitted at transmission time N.

S102, the terminal searches for the beam indicated by the beam indication information by taking the moment M as an initial point; the time M is a time after the determination time of the beam indication information and before the transmission time N.

The following explains the beam indication information of various signals or channels transmitted at the transmission time N and the determination timing of the beam indication information from both the embodiment 1 and the embodiment 2.

Embodiment 1 explicitly indicates the beam case.

For PDSCH, aperiodic CSI-RS, and aperiodic SRS, the beam indication information is included in DCI, and the DCI is used to schedule a signal or channel transmitted at transmission time N; the determined time of the beam indication information is the time when the DCI is successfully decoded to obtain the beam indication information, or the receiving time of the DCI, or the time after the receiving time of the DCI by the interval duration L.

For PDCCH, semi-persistent CSI-RS and semi-persistent SRS, the beam indication information is included in the MAC-CE; the determined time of the beam indication information is the time of successfully decoding and obtaining the beam indication information from the MAC-CE, or the receiving time of the MAC-CE or the time of an interval duration L after the receiving time, wherein L is greater than zero and less than the time interval between the receiving time and the transmission time N of the MAC-CE.

For the periodic CSI-RS and the periodic SRS, the beam indication information is included in the RRC configuration, the determined time of the beam indication information is a time when the beam indication information is successfully decoded and obtained from the RRC, or a time when the RRC receives the beam indication information or an interval duration L after the receiving time, where L is greater than zero and less than a time interval between the receiving time and the transmission time N of the RRC.

For the PUSCH, the beam indication information is the beam of the SRS indicated by the SRI associated with the PUSCH, so the determination time of the beam indication information is the reception time of the SRI corresponding to the SRS associated with the PUSCH or the time of the interval duration L after the reception time, and L is greater than zero and smaller than the time interval between the reception time of the SRI and the transmission time N.

Embodiment 2, the implicit way indicates the case of a beam.

For PDSCH, the beam indication information is determined by the terminal based on the signal or channel having the aforementioned QCL relationship with PDSCH; optionally, the determined time of the beam indication information may be a time when the terminal actually determines the beam indication information. Alternatively, the determined time of the beam indication information is the reception time of a signal or channel having the aforementioned QCL relationship with the PDSCH.

For the PDCCH, the beam indication information is determined by the terminal based on the signal or channel having the QCL relationship with the PDCCH; optionally, the determined time of the beam indication information may be a time when the terminal actually determines the beam indication information. Alternatively, the determination time of the beam indication information is the reception time of a signal or channel having the aforementioned QCL relationship with the PDCCH.

For the aperiodic CSI-RS and the aperiodic SRS, the beam indication information is determined by the terminal based on the PDCCH having the QCL relationship with the CSI-RS or the SRS; optionally, the determined time of the beam indication information may be a time when the terminal actually determines the beam indication information. Alternatively, the determination time of the beam indication information is the reception time of the PDCCH.

For periodic CSI-RS, semi-persistent CSI-RS, periodic SRS, semi-persistent SRS, default beams are not defined.

For the PUSCH, the beam indication information is determined by the terminal based on the PUCCH having the QCL relationship with the PUSCH, and optionally, the determined time of the beam indication information may be the time when the terminal actually determines the beam indication information. Alternatively, the determination time of the beam indication information is the reception time of the scheduling information of the PUCCH.

For PUCCH, the beam indicated by the beam indication information is a beam of the control resource set with BWP activated by the primary cell and the smallest ID, and the determined time of the beam indication information is the determined time of the beam.

As can be seen, for PDSCH, PDCCH, CSI-RS, etc., the terminal searches for the beam at the time before the transmission time N, which is beneficial to avoiding the problem that the reception of these channels or signals is incomplete or impossible. For PUCCH, PUSCH, SRS, and the like, the terminal searches for a beam at a time before the transmission time N, which is beneficial to avoiding the problem of incomplete or unavailable transmission of these signals or channels.

Referring to fig. 5, fig. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a beam searching method according to the prior art. As shown in fig. 5, taking the PDSCH received by the terminal as an example, the terminal receives DCI for scheduling the terminal to receive the PDSCH at the transmission time N, and the beam indication information in the DCI indicates the terminal to receive the PDSCH using the beam #2, the PDSCH occupies 7 symbols, and the starting time of the beam search is specified by the protocol or standard to be the transmission time N. Therefore, the terminal searches for a beam, prepares a beam, and switches beams for the start at the transmission time N, as shown in fig. 5, the beam processing duration is 3 symbols, so that data on the three symbols cannot be received, and then PDSCH reception is incomplete; in addition, if the demodulation reference signal in the PDSCH is in the three symbols, the channel estimation may not be performed, and the PDSCH may not be received.

Referring to fig. 6, fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a beam searching method according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 6, taking the terminal receiving PDSCH as an example, the terminal receives DCI for scheduling the terminal to receive PDSCH at transmission time N, and the beam indication information indicates that the terminal receives PDSCH using beam #2, the PDSCH occupies 7 symbols, the start time M of beam search may be a time between the reception time of the DCI and the transmission time N, and it is assumed that the start time M of beam search is a time that the transmission time N is advanced by a duration K as shown in fig. 6. Therefore, the terminal can search the beam in advance at the time M, which is beneficial to preparing the receiving beam of the PDSCH at the transmission time N, thereby avoiding the problem that the PDSCH is not completely received or can not be received.

Note that, the time M is a time after the determination time of the beam indication information and before the transmission time N, and may be expressed as: the time M is the time at which the transmission time N advances by the time length K. The duration K is greater than zero and not greater than the time interval between the determined time of the beam indication information and the transmission time N. The time, time interval, duration units described herein are units of time units, seconds, microseconds, or the like. For example, time M or transmission time N may correspond to the start time of symbol 0 in slot 0 in frame N; the duration K may correspond to 1 or more symbols, slots, minislots, or the like.

In another embodiment, time M is a time after the beam pool update time and before time N. Wherein the beam indicated by the beam indication information is included in the beam pool activated (or validated or updated) after the beam pool update time. The beam pool may be a RRC configured beam resource pool or a MAC-CE activated beam subset. In particular, with respect to the signal or channel transmitted at transmission time N.

For example, for PDSCH, the beam pool update time is the time when the terminal receives the MAC-CE or the time after the time interval of duration L, where L is greater than zero and less than the time interval between the reception time of the MAC-CE and the transmission time N, and the MAC-CE is used to activate a beam subset in the RRC-configured beam resource pool.

For the PDCCH, the update time of the beam pool is the time when the terminal receives an RRC signaling or the time of an interval duration L after the RRC signaling, where L is greater than zero and smaller than a time interval between the receiving time and the transmitting time N of the RRC, and the RRC signaling is used to activate the configured beam resource pool.

For the aperiodic CSI-RS, the update time of the beam pool is the time when the terminal receives the MAC-CE signaling or the time after the MAC-CE signaling with an interval duration L, where L is greater than zero and smaller than the time interval between the reception time and the transmission time N of the MAC-CE, and the MAC-CE signaling is used to activate a beam subset in the RRC-configured beam resource pool.

For the PUCCH, the update time of the beam pool is the time when the terminal receives an RRC signaling or the time of an interval duration L after the RRC signaling, where L is greater than zero and smaller than a time interval between the receiving time and the transmitting time N of the RRC signaling, and the RRC signaling is used to activate the configured beam resource pool.

For the PUSCH, the beam indication information of the PUSCH is obtained based on the SRS beam indicated by the SRI associated with the PUSCH, so the beam pool update time of the PUSCH is the reception time of the RRC signaling corresponding to the SRS or the time of the interval duration L after the reception time, and L is greater than zero and smaller than the time interval between the reception time of the RRC and the transmission time N. The RRC signaling is used to configure a beam resource pool.

For the aperiodic SRS, the update time of the beam pool is the time when the terminal receives the MAC-CE signaling or the time after the MAC-CE signaling, where L is greater than zero and smaller than the time interval between the reception time and the transmission time N of the MAC-CE, and the MAC-CE signaling is used to activate a beam subset in the RRC-configured beam resource pool.

In addition, in the case of implicitly indicating the beams of the above signals or channels, the beam pool update time of the other signals or channels having QCL relationship with the signals or channels may be determined according to the beam pool update time of the signals or channels. For example, when a beam of the PDSCH is implicitly indicated, the beam pool update time of the PDSCH is the beam pool update time of the PDCCH having a QCL relationship with the PDSCH. The updating time of the beam pool of the PDCCH is the receiving time of the RRC signaling configuring the beam resource pool or the time of an interval duration L thereafter, where L is greater than zero and less than the time interval between the receiving time and the transmission time N of the RRC.

It will be appreciated that the above-mentioned subset of beams may comprise one or more beams.

Referring to fig. 7, fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a beam searching method according to an embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 7, a beam direction of a beam subset { beam #0, beam #1, beam #2} activated before a beam pool update time is not the same as a beam direction of a beam subset { beam #0, beam #1, beam #2} activated after the beam pool update time, that is, beams activated before and after the beam pool update time are not the same, where differences include partial differences or total differences, so that a start time M of a searched beam is after the beam pool update time and before a transmission time N, which is beneficial to ensure that a beam is prepared at the transmission time N, and to avoid a beam search from being too early, for example, a beam #2 searched before the beam pool update time is not the same as a beam #2 searched after the beam pool update time, resulting in beam misalignment problems.

In addition, the time M or the duration K described herein may be predefined or derived based on predetermined rules.

It can be seen that, in the beam searching method of the present application, no matter the beam explicitly indicates a signal or a channel, or implicitly indicates a signal or a channel through a QCL relationship, or indicates a signal or a channel through a predefined or preconfigured beam, the terminal may process the beam at time M or time K in advance, such as searching, preparing, and/or switching, so as to facilitate to receive the signal or the channel by using the processed beam at transmission time N in time, and ensure transmission performance. In addition, the application can also provide a scenario that partial band-to-Band (BWP) switching or CC switching, etc., and the delay defined by the protocol or standard is not enough to process, so that the terminal can prepare partial band or CC in advance, thereby avoiding the problem of transmission performance impairment caused by untimely switching.

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

Referring to fig. 8, fig. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 800 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The communication apparatus 800 corresponds to a network device or a terminal in the beam search method. Optionally, the communication device 800 may include but is not limited to:

a processing unit 802, configured to determine beam indication information, where the beam indication information is used to indicate a beam of a signal or a channel transmitted at a transmission time N, and a search starting time of the beam is the transmission time N of the signal or the channel;

the processing unit 802 is further configured to search for a beam indicated by the beam indication information by using a time M as a start; the time M is a time after the determination time of the beam indication information and before the transmission time N.

Optionally, the communication device further includes a communication unit 801, where the communication unit 801 is configured to receive a first channel or signal, where the first channel or signal may be used to determine beam or antenna panel indication information, and then the processing unit 802 determines the beam or antenna panel indication information, which may specifically be: the processing unit 802 determines beam or antenna panel indication information from the first channel or signal.

For example, the processing unit 802 may determine the beam or antenna panel indication information according to a QCL relationship between the first signal or channel and the channel or signal transmitted at the transmission time N; alternatively, the processing unit 802 may determine beam or antenna panel indication information from information carried by the first signal or channel.

In this embodiment, the communication device 800 may start to search for the beam before the transmission time N, so as to be beneficial to ensure that the beam processing at the transmission time N is completed, and to receive or transmit the signal or the channel in time, thereby avoiding the problems of incomplete reception or transmission, incapability of reception and incapability of transmission, and the like.

In one embodiment, time M is a time after the beam pool update time and before the transmission time N; the beam indicated by the beam indication information is included in the beam pool activated after the beam pool update time. This is advantageous for timely processing of the beams while ensuring that the beams being looked for are aligned with the beams in the subset of beams most recently activated by the network device.

Other alternative embodiments of the communication device can be found in the related description of the above method embodiments, and are not described in detail here.

Fig. 9 shows a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus. The communication apparatus 900 may be a network device, a terminal device, a chip system, a processor, or the like supporting the network device to implement the method described above, or a chip, a chip system, a processor, or the like supporting the terminal device to implement the method described above. The apparatus may be configured to implement the method described in the method embodiment, and refer to the description in the method embodiment.

The communication device 900 may include one or more processors 901. The processor 901 may be a general-purpose processor or a special-purpose processor, etc. For example, a baseband processor or a central processor. The baseband processor may be configured to process communication protocols and communication data, and the central processor may be configured to control a communication device (e.g., a base station, a baseband chip, a terminal chip, a DU or CU, etc.), execute a software program, and process data of the software program.

Optionally, the communication device 900 may include one or more memories 902, on which instructions 904 may be stored, and the instructions may be executed on the processor 901, so that the communication device 900 performs the methods described in the above method embodiments. Optionally, the memory 902 may further store data therein. The processor 901 and the memory 902 may be provided separately or integrated together.

Optionally, the communication device 900 may further include a transceiver 905 and an antenna 906. The transceiver 905 may be referred to as a transceiver unit, a transceiver, or a transceiver circuit, etc. for implementing a transceiving function. The transceiver 905 may include a receiver and a transmitter, and the receiver may be referred to as a receiver or a receiving circuit, etc. for implementing a receiving function; the transmitter may be referred to as a transmitter or a transmission circuit, etc. for implementing the transmission function.

In the communication apparatus 900, the processor 901 is configured to execute S101S102 in the beam searching method 100.

Optionally, the transceiver 905 is configured to receive a first channel or signal, where the first channel or signal may be used to determine beam or antenna panel indication information, and the determining, by the processor 901, of the beam or antenna panel indication information may specifically be: the processor 901 determines beam or antenna panel indication information from the first channel or signal.

For example, the processor 901 may determine beam or antenna panel indication information according to a QCL relationship between the first signal or channel and the channel or signal transmitted at the transmission time N; alternatively, processor 901 may determine beam or antenna panel indication information from information carried by the first signal or channel.

In another possible design, the processor 901 may include a transceiver for performing receive and transmit functions. The transceiver may be, for example, a transceiver circuit, or an interface circuit. The transmit and receive circuitry, interfaces or interface circuitry used to implement the receive and transmit functions may be separate or integrated. The transceiver circuit, the interface circuit or the interface circuit may be used for reading and writing code/data, or the transceiver circuit, the interface circuit or the interface circuit may be used for transmitting or transferring signals.

In yet another possible design, the processor 901 may optionally store instructions 903, and the instructions 903 run on the processor 901 may cause the communication apparatus 900 to perform the method described in the above method embodiment. The instructions 903 may be solidified in the processor 901, in which case the processor 901 may be implemented in hardware.

In yet another possible design, the communication device 900 may include circuitry that may implement the functionality of transmitting or receiving or communicating in the foregoing method embodiments. The processor and transceiver described in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented on an Integrated Circuit (IC), an analog IC, a Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC), a mixed signal IC, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Printed Circuit Board (PCB), an electronic device, and the like. The processor and transceiver may also be fabricated using various IC process technologies, such as Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS), N-type metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS), P-type metal oxide semiconductor (PMOS), Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT), Bipolar CMOS (bicmos), silicon germanium (SiGe), gallium arsenide (GaAs), and the like.

The communication apparatus described in the above embodiment may be a network device or a terminal device, but the scope of the communication apparatus described in the embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto, and the structure of the communication apparatus may not be limited by fig. 9. The communication means may be a stand-alone device or may be part of a larger device. For example, the communication means may be:

(1) a stand-alone integrated circuit IC, or chip, or system-on-chip or subsystem;

(2) a set of one or more ICs, which optionally may also include storage components for storing data, instructions;

(3) an ASIC, such as a modem (MSM);

(4) a module that may be embedded within other devices;

(5) receivers, terminals, smart terminals, cellular phones, wireless devices, handsets, mobile units, in-vehicle devices, network devices, cloud devices, artificial intelligence devices, and the like;

(6) others, and so forth.

For the case that the communication device may be a chip or a system of chips, see the schematic structural diagram of the chip shown in fig. 10. The chip 1000 shown in fig. 10 includes a processor 1001 and an interface 1002. The number of the processors 1001 may be one or more, and the number of the interfaces 1002 may be more.

In one design, for a case where a chip is used to implement functions of a terminal device or a network device in an embodiment of the present application:

the interface 1002 is configured to determine beam indication information, where the beam indication information is used to indicate a beam of a signal or a channel transmitted at a transmission time N, and a search starting time of the beam is the transmission time N of the signal or the channel;

the processor 1001 is configured to search for a beam indicated by the beam indication information starting at time M; the time M is a time after the determination time of the beam indication information and before the transmission time N.

The interface 1002 determines the beam indication information, which may include: the interface 1002 receives beam indication information. Alternatively, the interface 1002 may determine the beam indication information, which may include: the interface 1002 receives other signals or channels having QCL relationship with the signal or channel, and the processor 1001 determines the beam indication information of the signal or channel transmitted at the transmission time N according to the beams of the other signals or channels.

Optionally, the chip further comprises a memory 1003, and the memory 1003 is used for storing program instructions and data necessary for the terminal device or the network device.

Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks and steps (step) set forth in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented in electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design requirements of the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

The present application also provides a computer-readable medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a computer, performs the functions of any of the method embodiments described above.

The present application also provides a computer program product which, when executed by a computer, implements the functionality of any of the above-described method embodiments.

In the above embodiments, the implementation may be wholly or partially realized by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When loaded and executed on a computer, cause the processes or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the application to occur, in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored on a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another, for example, from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via wire (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device, such as a server, a data center, etc., that incorporates one or more of the available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), among others.

The above description is a specific embodiment of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application, and all such changes or substitutions are intended to be included within the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for beam searching, the method comprising:

determining beam or antenna panel indication information, wherein the beam or antenna panel indication information is used for indicating a beam of a signal or a channel transmitted at a transmission time N, and a search starting time of the beam is the transmission time N of the signal or the channel;

searching the beam or the beam indicated by the antenna panel indication information by taking the moment M as the starting point;

the time M is a time after the determination time of the beam or antenna panel indication information and before the transmission time N.

2. The method of claim 1,

the time M is a time after the updating time of the beam pool and before the transmission time N;

the beam indicated by the beam indication information is included in the beam pool activated after the beam pool update time.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2,

the beam or antenna panel indication information is included in downlink control information DCI, where the DCI is used to schedule the signal or the channel transmitted at the transmission time N.

4. The method according to claim 1 or 2,

the beam or antenna panel indication information is included in the medium access control-control element, MAC-CE, signaling.

5. The method according to claim 1 or 2,

the beam or antenna panel indication information is included in radio resource control, RRC, signaling.

6. The method according to claim 1 or 2,

the beam or antenna panel indication information is predefined or preconfigured.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6,

the time M is predefined or derived based on predetermined rules.

8. An apparatus for beam searching, the apparatus comprising:

the processing unit is further configured to search for a beam indicated by the beam or the antenna panel indication information starting at time M;

9. The apparatus of claim 8,

10. The apparatus according to claim 8 or 9,

11. The apparatus according to claim 8 or 9,

12. The apparatus according to claim 8 or 9,

13. The apparatus according to claim 8 or 9,

14. The apparatus according to any one of claims 8 to 13,

the time M is predefined or derived based on predetermined rules.

15. The apparatus according to any of claims 8-14, wherein the processing unit is a processor.

16. A computer-readable storage medium for storing a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 7.

17. A communication device comprising a processor and a communication interface for inputting and/or outputting information; the processor is configured to execute a program to cause the communication device to implement the method of any one of claims 1 to 7.

18. The communication device of claim 17, wherein the communication device is a chip or a system-on-a-chip.