CN114513836A

CN114513836A - PDCCH blind detection method and terminal equipment

Info

Publication number: CN114513836A
Application number: CN202210134235.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 岁灿; 柳敦
Original assignee: Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp Ltd
Current assignee: Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp Ltd
Priority date: 2022-02-14
Filing date: 2022-02-14
Publication date: 2022-05-17
Anticipated expiration: 2042-02-14
Also published as: CN114513836B

Abstract

A blind detection method of a PDCCH and a terminal device are provided. The method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that terminal equipment acquires a first reference signal, wherein the signal quality of the first reference signal is matched with the channel quality of the PDCCH; the terminal equipment determines whether the signal quality of the first reference signal and the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate meet a preset condition; and if the preset condition is not met, the terminal equipment does not perform blind detection on the first PDCCH candidate. The terminal equipment identifies the PDCCH candidates which do not need blind detection in advance, so that the calculation amount of PDCCH blind detection is reduced, and the power consumption is reduced.

Description

PDCCH blind detection method and terminal equipment

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a blind detection method for a PDCCH and a terminal device.

Background

When receiving a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), a terminal device needs to perform blind detection on each PDCCH candidate in a PDCCH candidate set to obtain Downlink Control Information (DCI).

However, most PDCCH candidates in the PDCCH candidate set do not contain valid DCI, resulting in a large number of useless blind detection operations by the terminal device, which wastes power.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a blind detection method of a PDCCH (physical downlink control channel) and terminal equipment, so as to reduce the power consumption of the terminal equipment in the blind detection processing.

In a first aspect, a method for blind detection of a PDCCH is provided, including: the method comprises the steps that terminal equipment acquires a first reference signal, wherein the signal quality of the first reference signal is matched with the channel quality of the PDCCH; the terminal equipment determines whether the signal quality of the first reference signal and the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate meet a preset condition; and if the preset condition is not met, the terminal equipment does not perform blind detection on the first PDCCH candidate.

In a second aspect, a terminal device is provided, which includes: an obtaining unit, configured to obtain a first reference signal, where a signal quality of the first reference signal matches a channel quality of the PDCCH; a determining unit, configured to determine whether a signal quality of the first reference signal and a signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate satisfy a preset condition; a first processing unit, configured to not perform blind detection on the first PDCCH candidate if the first PDCCH candidate does not satisfy the preset condition.

In a third aspect, a terminal device is provided, which includes a memory for storing a program and a processor for calling the program in the memory to execute the method of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, an apparatus is provided that includes a processor configured to invoke a program from a memory to perform the method of the first aspect.

In a fifth aspect, a chip is provided, which includes a processor for calling a program from a memory so that a device in which the chip is installed performs the method of the first aspect.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium having a program stored thereon, the program causing a computer to perform the method of the first aspect.

In the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment identifies the PDCCH candidates which do not contain the DCI in advance by comparing the signal quality of the first reference signal with the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidates, so that the calculation amount of the terminal equipment for PDCCH blind detection is reduced, and the power consumption in the PDCCH blind detection process is reduced.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is an exemplary diagram of a wireless communication system to which embodiments of the present application may be applied.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a PDCCH blind detection procedure provided in the related art.

Fig. 3 is an exemplary diagram of a search space of PDCCH candidates carrying DCI.

Fig. 4 is an exemplary diagram of an acquisition manner of a first reference signal according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a PDCCH blind detection method according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 6 is a flowchart illustrating one possible implementation manner of step S520 and step S530 in fig. 5.

Fig. 7 is a flowchart illustrating another possible implementation manner of step S520 and step S530 in fig. 5.

Fig. 8 is a more detailed flow chart of the method shown in fig. 5.

Fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device according to another embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

Communication system architecture

Fig. 1 is a wireless communication system 100 to which an embodiment of the present application is applied. The wireless communication system 100 may include a network device 110 and a terminal device 120. Network device 110 may be a device that communicates with terminal device 120. Network device 110 may provide communication coverage for a particular geographic area and may communicate with terminal devices 120 located within that coverage area.

Fig. 1 exemplarily shows one network device and two terminals, and optionally, the wireless communication system 100 may include a plurality of network devices and may include other numbers of terminal devices within the coverage of each network device, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, the wireless communication system 100 may further include other network entities such as a network controller, a mobility management entity, and the like, which is not limited in this embodiment.

It should be understood that the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application may be applied to various communication systems, for example: a fifth generation (5G) system or a New Radio (NR), a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, a Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system, a Time Division Duplex (TDD) system, and the like. The technical scheme provided by the application can also be applied to future communication systems, such as a sixth generation mobile communication system, a satellite communication system and the like.

The Terminal device in the embodiment of the present application may also be referred to as a User Equipment (UE), an access Terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a Mobile Station (MS), a Mobile Terminal (MT), a remote station, a remote Terminal, a mobile device, a user Terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user equipment.

In the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may be a device providing voice and/or data connectivity to a user, and may be used to connect people, things, and machines, such as a handheld device with a wireless connection function, a vehicle-mounted device, and the like. The terminal device in the embodiment of the present application may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer (Pad), a computer with a wireless transceiving function, a Mobile Internet Device (MID), a wearable device, 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 surgery (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), or a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), etc. Alternatively, the UE may be configured to act as a base station. For example, the UEs may act as scheduling entities that provide sidelink signals between UEs in V2X or D2D, etc. For example, cellular telephones and automobiles communicate with each other using sidelink signals. The communication between the cellular phone and the smart home device is performed without relaying communication signals through a base station.

In the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment can be deployed on land, including indoor or outdoor, handheld, wearable or vehicle-mounted; can also be deployed on the water surface (such as a ship and the like); and may also be deployed in the air (e.g., airplanes, balloons, satellites, etc.).

PDCCH blind detection

For ease of understanding, the flow of the PDCCH blind detection process provided in the related art is illustrated in more detail below with reference to fig. 2.

Referring to fig. 2, in step S202, a non-overlapping Control Channel Element (CCE) and a candidate set of all PDCCHs are calculated. For example, the terminal device may obtain the non-overlapping CCEs of the PDCCH and the candidate set according to the search space parameters and the configuration of a related control resource set (CORESET).

In step S204, the PDCCH is subjected to channel estimation based on a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) in the CCE.

In step S206, the PDCCH is demodulated. For example, the PDCCH may be demodulated using Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK).

In step S208, it is determined whether all non-overlapping CCEs have been processed. If all the non-overlapping CCEs are not processed, repeatedly executing the step S204 to the step S208; if all the non-overlapping CCEs have been processed, execution continues with step S210.

In step S210, the demodulation data of the time-frequency domain position corresponding to the CCEs of the current PDCCH candidate is extracted.

In step S212, operations of descrambling, rate de-matching, and sub-block de-interleaving are performed on the extracted data.

In step S214, Polar (Polar) decoding and Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC).

In step S216, it is determined whether all PDCCH candidates in the PDCCH candidate set have been processed. If all PDCCH candidates in the PDCCH candidate set are not processed, repeatedly executing the steps S210 to S216; and if all PDCCH candidates in the PDCCH candidate set are processed, ending the blind detection process of the PDCCH.

In order to limit the complexity of the PDCCH blind detection process of the terminal device, the related protocol defines the maximum blind detection times (or the maximum PDCCH candidate number) and the maximum number of non-overlapping CCEs in one time slot under different cell subcarrier spacing conditions. The maximum number of blind detections defines the number of times the terminal device performs PDCCH decoding. The maximum number of non-overlapping CCEs defines the complexity of the terminal device to perform PDCCH channel estimation and demodulation. For example, in the NR 15 protocol, the maximum number of PDCCH candidates in one slot is 44, and the maximum number of non-overlapping CCEs is 56; in the R16 protocol, the number of the largest PDCCH candidates and the largest non-overlapping CCEs in one time slot is 2-7 times that under R15 according to different span patterns (span patterns).

According to the maximum blind detection times defined in the relevant protocol, the terminal device needs to perform blind detection on all possible PDCCH candidates in the candidate set. For a terminal device supporting R15, in a time slot, in the worst case, the terminal needs to complete PDCCH channel estimation and demodulation corresponding to 56 non-overlapping CCEs, and needs to perform PDCCH decoding processing 44 times. However, in actual operation, the number of DCIs scheduled by the network device to a certain terminal device is limited, that is, most PDCCH candidates in a time slot do not include valid DCI, so that the terminal device has a lot of useless operations such as channel estimation, demodulation, decoding and the like in blind detection of the PDCCH, thereby wasting a lot of power consumption.

Exemplarily, fig. 3 shows a search space where a PDCCH candidate carrying DCI is located. The left diagram in fig. 3 shows that the PDCCH search space occupies 2 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols (symbols). As shown in fig. 3, the search space has a total of 48 Resource Element Groups (REGs). The 48 REGs include 8 REG bundles (bundles), where each REG Bundle includes 6 REGs. The 8 REG bundles correspond to 8 CCEs one-to-one. Assuming that the aggregation level of the PDCCH candidates to be detected in the search space shown in fig. 3 is 2 (i.e. one PDCCH candidate includes 2 CCEs), the search space contains 4 PDCCH candidates in total. The 4 PDCCH candidates correspond to CCE0/1, CCE2/3, CCE4/5 and CCE6/7 in FIG. 3, respectively.

In the scenario shown in fig. 3, the terminal device needs to perform channel estimation, demodulation, and decoding on the PDCCH based on all 8 CCEs as specified by the relevant protocol. However, DCI scheduled by the network device may exist only for CCE0/1 associated PDCCH candidate and CCE4/5 associated PDCCH candidate in the right drawing of FIG. 3. In this case, blind detection by the terminal device for the PDCCH candidate associated with CCE2/3 and the PDCCH candidate associated with CCE6/7 only results in meaningless power consumption.

If the terminal device can recognize in advance that only the PDCCH candidate associated with CCE0/1 and the PDCCH candidate associated with CCE4/5 are signaled, the terminal device can perform blind detection operation on the two PDCCH candidates, so that the operation amount of the set of PDCCH candidates is reduced by 50%, and the power consumption is reduced accordingly.

The PDCCH detection method provided by the embodiment of the application can identify the PDCCH candidates containing the DCI in advance, so that the blind detection times and the power consumption of the terminal equipment in the blind detection process can be reduced. The following describes embodiments of the present application in detail.

The embodiment of the application is made on the basis of the following facts: in the search space of one PDCCH, if one PDCCH candidate carries DCI, the signal quality corresponding to the CCE region associated with the PDCCH candidate is usually comparable to the channel quality of the PDCCH (especially if the PDCCH channel quality is relatively good and stable). Conversely, if a PDCCH candidate carries no DCI, the CCE region corresponding to the PDCCH candidate typically has poor signal quality, almost equivalent to no signal.

Therefore, in order to be able to identify in advance whether a certain PDCCH candidate or certain PDCCH candidates contain valid DCI, the terminal device may first acquire a first reference signal that matches the PDCCH channel quality (that is, the signal quality of the first reference signal can reflect the channel quality of the PDCCH). The terminal device may then determine whether the PDCCH candidate contains valid DCI by comparing the first reference signal to the signal quality of the PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, the first reference signal may be a reference signal quasi co-located with a DMRS of the PDCCH.

In some embodiments, the first reference signal may comprise one or more of the following signals: channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) and Synchronization Signal Block (SSB). As an example, if the terminal device is in a connected state, the first reference signal may be a CSI-RS or an SSB of a Transmission Control Indicator (TCI) status indication of a PDCCH. As another example, if the terminal device is in an idle state, the first reference signal may be an SSB that the terminal device has received last time.

In some embodiments, the first reference signal may be a reference signal used in a beam failure detection process. For the sake of understanding, the following description will first use the NR system as an example to briefly describe the beam failure detection process.

In the NR system, the terminal device may measure a set of periodic reference signals q0 to determine the link quality corresponding to the downlink beam. If the link quality corresponding to the downlink beam is poor, the downlink beam may be considered to have failed. The above process is beam failure detection in the NR system. If the beam failure detection result meets a certain condition, the terminal equipment initiates a beam recovery process. In the beam recovery process, the terminal device performs measurements on a set of alternative periodic reference signals q1 to select a reference signal from the set of alternative reference signals q1 whose measurement result (e.g., layer 1 reference signal received power (L1-reference signal received power, L1-RSRP)) exceeds a certain threshold. The terminal device then initiates random access using the new beam. On the PDCCH search space corresponding to the new beam, if the terminal device receives the correct DCI, the beam recovery process is successful, and the terminal device may start receiving the PDCCH on the new downlink beam.

The reference signal for the beam failure detection measurement is typically a periodic single-port CSI-RS. A set of periodic reference signals measured in the beam failure detection process usually includes at most two CSI-RSs, where the two CSI-RSs correspond to two downlink beams respectively, and PDCCHs of the two downlink beams are different. The terminal device may measure CSI-RSs of the two downlink beams to obtain two signal to interference plus noise ratios (SINRs). If the block error rate (BLER) of the PDCCH corresponding to the SINR of the two beams is lower than the threshold, it may be recorded as a PDCCH downlink beam failure, and the detection result of the beam failure is reported to the MAC layer. The physical layer may periodically measure and report the results of the beam failure detection to the MAC layer. For example, the MAC layer may maintain a beam failure detection timer and a beam failure counter. When a physical layer wave beam failure report is received once, a wave beam failure detection timer is started or restarted, and meanwhile, a wave beam failure counter is increased by one. If the beam failure detection timer times out, the beam failure counter is reset to 0. And if the beam failure detection timer does not time out and the beam failure counter reaches the maximum beam failure value, the beam failure is considered to occur, and a beam recovery process is initiated on the corresponding cell. The processing mechanism ensures that the ping-pong effect cannot occur in the beam failure detection, and the MAC layer judges the final beam failure and initiates a corresponding beam recovery process only if the physical layer beam failure continuously occurs within a period of time.

The periodic CSI-RS for beam failure detection has two configuration modes: explicit configuration and implicit configuration. The display configuration is that the network equipment directly configures a group of periodic CSI-RSs for beam failure detection through signaling. Implicit configuration is that if the network device does not display a reference signal for configuring beam failure detection, the terminal device activates a periodic CSI-RS corresponding to a TCI state by using a CORESET corresponding to a PDCCH channel to perform beam failure detection. The first reference signal mentioned in the embodiment of the present application may be a CSI-RS configured in a display manner, or may be a CSI-RS configured in an implicit manner. The manner in which the first reference signal is acquired based on the beam failure detection configuration is illustrated in greater detail below in conjunction with fig. 4.

Referring to fig. 4, in step S402, it is determined whether the terminal device is in a connected state. If it is in the connected state, step S406 is executed. If not, step S404 is executed.

In step S404, the SINR of the nearest SSB beam is calculated. The terminal device is in an idle state, is not activated, and the reference signal quasi co-located with PDCCH DMRS is by default the last SSB beam, and the SINR of this SSB beam is calculated as the signal quality of the first reference signal.

In step S406, it is determined whether the CSI-RS is a display configuration in the beam failure detection. And the terminal equipment is in a connected state, and CSI-RS configured in the beam failure detection is adopted as a first reference signal. There are two configuration modes for the CSI-RS, and if it is the display configuration, step S408 is performed. If not, step S410 is performed.

In step S408, SINR is calculated using the CSI-RS of the display configuration. The CSI-RS is a display configuration, uses the CSI-RS of the network configuration as a first reference signal, and calculates a corresponding SINR as a signal quality of the first reference signal, and then performs step S412.

In step S410, SINR is calculated using CSI-RS of the TCI state corresponding to the implicit PDCCH channel. The CSI-RS is implicitly configured, the implicitly configured CSI-RS is adopted as a first reference signal, and the corresponding SINR is calculated as the signal quality of the first reference signal, and then step S412 is performed.

In step S412, it is determined whether all beams of the physical layer have failed. Although the first reference signal and its signal quality are obtained in steps S408 and S410, the quality of the downlink beam needs to be considered. As described above, there are at most two downlink beams for a group of failed beam detections. If all beams fail, step S416 is executed. If not all beams fail, one beam is normal or all beams are normal, step S414 is performed for the normal beam and step S416 is performed for the failed beam.

In step S414, PDCCH beam reference signals SINR without beam failure are output for PDCCH blind detection simplification. The downlink beam is normal, the SINR calculated in step S408 or step S410 is output for the subsequent process, and the first reference signal acquisition process is ended.

In step S416, PDCCH blind detection simplification is not performed. The beam failure enters step S416, and because the downlink beam failure means that the channel quality is not stable and reliable enough, the PDCCH channel corresponding to the beam is not pre-determined, that is, the blind detection simplification processing in the embodiment of the present application is not performed. For the PDCCH of the failed beam, the terminal device still processes decoding of 56 non-overlapping CCEs and 44 PDCCH candidates at the maximum according to the subcarrier spacing of the current cell. The first reference signal acquisition flow ends.

Based on the foregoing description, the PDCCH blind detection method provided in the embodiment of the present application is described in detail below with reference to fig. 5 to 7.

Fig. 5 illustrates a PDCCH blind detection method according to an embodiment of the present application, which may be applied in the communication system illustrated in fig. 1.

Referring to fig. 5, in step S510, the terminal device acquires a first reference signal. The type and the obtaining manner of the first reference signal can be referred to in the foregoing, and are not described in detail herein.

In step S520, the terminal device determines whether the signal quality of the first reference signal and the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate satisfy a preset condition.

The signal quality of the first reference signal may be measured by various metrics. In some embodiments, the signal quality of the first reference signal may refer to the SINR of the first reference signal. In other embodiments, the signal quality of the first reference signal may refer to the L1-RSRP of the first reference signal. Compared with L1-RSRP, the SINR calculation process includes the interference information measurement, and the current link quality can be reflected better.

The determination of the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate may be performed in various ways. In some embodiments, the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate may be determined based on one or more CCEs associated with the PDCCH candidate. For example, the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate may be determined based on the DMRS in the one or more CCEs. In other embodiments, the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate may be determined based on demodulated data of the PDCCH. For example, the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate may be determined based on a Log Likelihood Ratio (LLR) demodulated by the PDCCH.

The preset condition in step S520 may be used to determine whether the signal quality of the first reference signal matches (or is equivalent to) the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate. If the signal quality of the first reference signal matches the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate, it may be determined that the signal quality of the first reference signal and the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate satisfy a preset condition; if the signal quality of the first reference signal does not match the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate, it may be determined that the signal quality of the first reference signal and the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate do not satisfy a preset condition. By "match" it is meant that the two are equal, or that the difference between the two is less than a predetermined range.

In step S530, if the signal quality of the first reference signal and the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate do not satisfy the preset condition, it represents that the first PDCCH candidate does not include valid DCI with a high probability, and therefore, the terminal device may not perform blind detection on the first PDCCH candidate. Accordingly, if the signal quality of the first reference signal and the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate satisfy the preset condition, it indicates that the first PDCCH candidate may include valid DCI, and therefore, the terminal device may continue to perform blind detection on the first PDCCH candidate.

There are various ways in which the terminal device does not perform blind detection on the first PDCCH. In some embodiments, the terminal device may remove PDCCH candidates that do not satisfy the preset condition from a blind detection list, where the blind detection list may be a list of one PDCCH candidate obtained and maintained after the parameter calculation.

For convenience of description, S510 of fig. 5 will be referred to as a first reference signal acquisition procedure, and S520 and S530 will be collectively referred to as a PDCCH blind detection simplified procedure.

Exemplarily, fig. 6 and 7 are two possible implementations of steps S520 and S530 in fig. 5, i.e. two examples of simplified procedures for PDCCH blind detection. The signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate in fig. 6 is determined primarily based on PDCCH DMRS (referred to as first blind detection reduction for short), and the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate in fig. 7 is determined primarily based on the LLR results of PDCCH candidate demodulation (referred to as second blind detection reduction for short). For different implementation manners, the method may be adopted simultaneously, or only one or more of them may be adopted, which is not limited herein.

Referring to fig. 6, in step S602, it is determined whether the precoding scheme is REG Bundle Size.

Whether the DMRS of the PDCCH can represent the signal quality of the PDCCH candidate associated therewith is related to the PDCCH precoding scheme. In some embodiments, the PDCCH is precoded in REG Bundle Size, and corresponding PDCCH DMRS is sent only if one PDCCH candidate is signaled. Therefore, in such a precoding manner, whether a signal exists in a current PDCCH candidate can be determined according to whether a DMRS corresponding to one PDCCH candidate has a signal.

In other embodiments, the PDCCH is precoded in All contigous RBs, and All DMRSs on the resource block of the current CORESET are integrated and used for precoding channel estimation as a whole. At this time, even if the DMRS has a signal, it cannot be determined that the associated PDCCH candidate has a signal.

Based on this, the setting step S602 is to first determine the precoding mode of the current PDCCH candidate to determine whether the DMRS can represent the signal carrying condition of the PDCCH candidate. If the precoding scheme is REG Bundle, step S604 is performed. If the precoding scheme is not REG Bundle, the procedure ends.

Step S604 and step S606 correspond to step S520 in fig. 5.

In step S604, the SINR of DMRS REs on the CCEs corresponding to one PDCCH candidate is calculated. Firstly, a first PDCCH candidate is determined, DMRS on a CCE region corresponding to the PDCCH candidate is calculated, and the signal quality based on the PDCCHDMRS is obtained. For example, SINR is calculated as the signal quality of the PDCCH candidate.

In step S606, the reference signal channel quality of the beam corresponding to the current PDCCH is compared. The channel quality of the reference signal is represented by the signal quality of the first reference signal, which may be CSI-RS or SSB, and is analyzed in fig. 4, and is not described herein again. The signal quality calculated in step S604 is compared with the signal quality of the first reference signal, and the comparison result is compared with a preset condition.

In step S608, it is determined whether the comparison result of step S606 is greater than the no-signal decision threshold 1. If yes, the two compared signal qualities have large difference, then step S612 is executed; if no, step S610 is performed.

Illustratively, step S608 provides a preset condition, i.e., no-signal decision threshold 1. If the comparison result of step S606 is less than or equal to the threshold 1, it is considered that the signal quality of the first reference signal matches the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate, and the preset condition is satisfied; if the comparison result of step S606 is greater than the threshold 1, it is determined that the signal quality of the first reference signal does not match the signal quality of the first PDCCH, and the preset condition is not satisfied.

It should be understood that in the embodiments of the present application, "no signal" describing a PDCCH candidate is not really no signal, but rather it cannot be understood in a narrow sense literally with respect to a PDCCH candidate containing a valid DCI.

In step S610, it is determined whether all PDCCH candidates have been processed. If all PDCCH candidates are not processed, repeatedly executing the steps S604 to S610; and if all PDCCH candidates are processed, ending the blind detection simplified process of the PDCCH.

In step S612, the PDCCH candidate is considered to contain no valid DCI, and the corresponding PDCCH candidate and non-overlapping CCEs are removed. In some embodiments, for a PDCCH candidate that does not satisfy the predetermined condition, the PDCCH candidate and its corresponding non-overlapping CCEs may be removed from the blind detection list, i.e., the blind detection list of the PDCCH candidate is updated. The first blind detection simplified procedure of the PDCCH is ended.

Fig. 7 is a second blind detection simplification of determining the signal quality of a first PDCCH candidate based on the LLRs for PDCCH candidate demodulation. Compared with the requirement of the first blind detection simplified flow on the precoding mode, the second blind detection simplified flow has no relevant limitation, but needs to perform channel estimation and demodulation on the PDCCH candidates to obtain the demodulated LLR.

Referring to fig. 7, steps S702 and S704 correspond to step S520 in fig. 5.

In step S702, signal quality is calculated based on LLRs corresponding to one PDCCH candidate. After the demodulation stage obtains the demodulated soft bits for the PDCCH candidates, a more accurate signal quality, e.g., SINR, may be calculated based on the LLRs of the PDCCH demodulation.

Step S704 is the same as the process of step S606 in fig. 6, and is not described herein again.

In step S706, it is determined whether the comparison result of step S704 is greater than the no-signal decision threshold 2. If yes, the signal quality of the first reference signal is not matched with the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate, and does not satisfy the preset condition, perform step S710; if no, the preset condition is satisfied and step S708 is executed.

Illustratively, step S706 provides another preset condition, i.e., no-signal decision threshold 2. The threshold 2 may be set with reference to the range of the threshold 1, or may be newly set. In some embodiments, the threshold 1 and the threshold 2 are set identically, and when two PDCCH blind detections are simplified simultaneously, the determination method is unified, and the operation of the terminal device is simpler. In other embodiments, threshold 2 may be different from threshold 1.

In step S708, it is determined whether all PDCCH candidates have been processed. If all PDCCH candidates are not processed, repeating the steps S702 to S708; and if all PDCCH candidates are processed, ending the blind detection simplified process of the PDCCH.

In step S710, the PDCCH candidate is considered to contain no valid DCI, and the corresponding PDCCH candidate is discarded. In some embodiments, for a PDCCH candidate that does not satisfy a predetermined condition, the PDCCH candidate may be removed from the blind detection list, i.e., the blind detection list of the PDCCH candidate is updated. The second blind detection simplified procedure of the PDCCH ends.

The embodiments of the present application will be described in more detail with reference to specific example fig. 8. It should be noted that the examples of fig. 4 to 7 are only for assisting the skilled person in understanding the embodiments of the present application, and are not intended to limit the embodiments of the present application to the specific values or specific scenarios illustrated. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various equivalent modifications or variations are possible in light of the examples given in figures 4 through 7, and such modifications or variations are intended to be included within the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 8 is a schematic flowchart of a PDCCH blind detection process provided in the embodiment of the present application, and completely describes a simplified specific implementation process of simultaneously using two PDCCH blind detections in the embodiment of the present application.

As can be seen from comparing fig. 8 and fig. 2, S802 in fig. 8 is equivalent to S202 in fig. 2, S810, S812 and S814 are equivalent to S204, S206 and S208 in fig. 2, and S820, S822, S824 and S826 are equivalent to S210, S212, S214 and S216 in fig. 2, and details are not repeated.

S804 in fig. 8 corresponds to S510 in fig. 5, i.e., the first reference signal acquisition procedure, and in order to identify PDCCH candidates containing no valid DCI in advance, the acquisition of the first reference signal is performed after the parameter calculation in step S802.

As an example, in step S804, the first reference signal obtained by the terminal device is a reference signal SINR of a PDCCH downlink beam, and the result of beam failure detection is directly used as a reference, so that the condition of a signal carried by a PDCCH candidate can be roughly predicted on the premise of not introducing excessive operations, the PDCCH candidate predicted to carry no signal is removed from the list to be detected, and the terminal device does not perform blind detection on the PDCCH candidate, thereby reducing the amount of operations.

In step S806, it is determined whether PDCCH blind detection simplification is performed. After the first reference signal is acquired, the method and the device set the process of selecting whether to carry out PDCCH blind detection simplification. If yes, the blind detection simplification of step S808 is performed; if "no" is selected, step S810 is performed.

The determination in step S806 is mainly based on whether to perform blind detection simplification of the PDCCH, and the blind detection simplification in the embodiment of the present application requires acquiring a related signal or signal quality thereof, such as a first reference signal and a first PDCCH candidate, and if a reliable signal or signal quality is not acquired, the blind detection simplification process of the PDCCH cannot be performed. Specifically, if the PDCCH channel quality is not ideal or stable, such as the beam detection fails, step S804 cannot obtain an effective first reference signal; or, since PDCCH DMRS cannot determine whether the corresponding PDCCH candidate includes valid DCI due to the PDCCH precoding scheme, and cannot determine the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate, in both cases, step S808 cannot be performed, so no is selected in step S806. Conversely, yes is selected, and step S808 is performed.

Step S808 is equivalent to the first simplified blind detection process shown in fig. 6, and the process shown in fig. 6 is summarized into two operation steps based on the determination performed by PDCCH DMRS, and the specific contents are not described one by one. Through step S808, a first updated blind detection list can be obtained, and compared with the list of step S802, a part of non-overlapping CCEs and candidates of PDCCHs that do not satisfy the preset condition of step S808 are removed.

Step S810 to step S814, perform channel estimation and demodulation operations on all non-overlapping CCEs and candidates after the blind detection list is updated for the first time, and execute step S816 after the operations are completed.

In step S816, a procedure for selecting whether to perform PDCCH blind detection simplification is also provided. If a reliable first reference signal is obtained at step S804, selecting "yes" will perform the blind detection simplification of step S818; if the first reference signal is not obtained, "no" is selected to perform step S820.

Step S818 is equivalent to the second simplified blind detection procedure in fig. 7, and performs a decision based on the PDCCH LLR, and the procedure shown in fig. 7 is summarized as two operation steps, and the specific contents are not described one by one. Through step S818, a second updated blind detection list may be obtained, and compared with the first updated list, a part of PDCCH candidates that do not satisfy the preset condition of step S818 may be removed.

In steps S820 to S826, decoding operations are performed on all PDCCH candidates after the blind detection list is updated for the second time, and the blind detection process of the PDCCH is completed after the operations are completed.

To sum up, in the PDCCH blind detection method according to the embodiment of the present application, based on the comparison between the signal quality obtained at PDCCH DMRS and the signal quality of the first reference signal, the terminal device does not perform channel estimation, channel demodulation, and channel decoding on PDCCH candidates that do not satisfy the preset condition; the terminal device does not perform channel decoding on the PDCCH candidates that do not satisfy the preset condition, based on the comparison of the signal quality obtained by the LLR of the PDCCH candidates with the signal quality of the first reference signal. In the whole blind detection process, blind detection calculation amount of the terminal equipment on the PDCCH is greatly reduced, and power consumption is reduced.

Method embodiments of the present application are described in detail above in conjunction with fig. 1-8, and apparatus embodiments of the present application are described in detail below in conjunction with fig. 9 and 10. It is to be understood that the description of the method embodiments corresponds to the description of the apparatus embodiments, and therefore reference may be made to the preceding method embodiments for parts not described in detail.

Fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device provided in an embodiment of the present application. The terminal apparatus 900 of fig. 9 includes an acquisition unit 910, a determination unit 920, a first processing unit 930, and a second processing unit 940.

The acquisition unit 910 may acquire a first reference signal whose signal quality matches the channel quality of the PDCCH.

The determination unit 920 may determine whether the signal quality of the first reference signal and the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate satisfy a preset condition.

The first processing unit 930 does not perform blind detection on the first PDCCH candidate if the first PDCCH candidate does not satisfy the preset condition.

A second processing unit 940, if the first PDCCH candidate does not satisfy the preset condition, not performing channel estimation and/or demodulation on the PDCCH based on the DMRS, wherein the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate is determined based on the DMRS in the CCE associated with the first PDCCH candidate.

Optionally, as a possible implementation manner, the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate is determined based on the LLR demodulated by the first PDCCH candidate.

Optionally, as a possible implementation manner, the first reference signal is a reference signal quasi co-located with the DMRS of the PDCCH.

Optionally, as a possible implementation manner, the reference signal includes one or more of the following signals: CSI-RS and SSB.

Optionally, as a possible implementation manner, the first reference signal is a CSI-RS measured by the terminal device in a beam failure detection process.

Optionally, as a possible implementation, the signal quality is SINR or L1-RSRP.

Fig. 10 is a schematic configuration diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application. The dashed lines in fig. 10 indicate that the unit or module is optional. The terminal device 1000 can be used to implement the methods described in the above method embodiments.

Terminal device 1000 can include one or more processors 1010. The processor 1010 may support the terminal device 1000 to implement the methods described in the previous method embodiments. The processor 1010 may be a general purpose processor or a special purpose processor. For example, the processor may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU). Alternatively, the processor may be other general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an off the shelf programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, etc. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

Terminal device 1000 can also include one or more memories 1020. The memory 1020 has stored thereon a program that can be executed by the processor 1010 to cause the processor 1010 to perform the methods described in the previous method embodiments. The memory 1020 may be separate from the processor 1010 or may be integrated into the processor 1010.

The terminal device 1000 can also include a transceiver 1030. Processor 1010 may communicate with other devices or chips through transceiver 1030. For example, processor 1010 may transceive data with other devices or chips via transceiver 1030.

The embodiment of the application also provides a device which comprises a processor and can call the program from the memory. The processor may support an apparatus implementing the method described in the method embodiments above.

The embodiment of the application also provides a chip which comprises a processor and can call a program from a memory. The processor may support the device on which the chip is installed to implement the method described in the previous method embodiment.

An embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium for storing a program. The computer-readable storage medium is applicable to the terminal device provided in the embodiments of the present application, and the program causes the computer to execute the method performed by the terminal device in the embodiments of the present application.

It should be understood that the term "and/or" herein is merely one type of association relationship that describes an associated object, meaning that three relationships may exist, e.g., a and/or B may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. In addition, the character "/" herein generally indicates that the former and latter related objects are in an "or" relationship.

It should be understood that, in the various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes do not mean the execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation to the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

The "configuration" in the embodiment of the present application may include configuration by at least one of a system message, Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, and a media access control element (MAC CE).

In some embodiments of the present application, the term "associated" may indicate that there is an association relationship between the two, may also indicate a relationship that there is a direct correspondence or an indirect correspondence between the two, and may also indicate a relationship to being indicated, configured, and the like.

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

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

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

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 may be any available medium that can be read by a computer or a data storage device including one or more available media integrated servers, data centers, and the like. 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 Versatile Disk (DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), among others.

The above description is only for the specific embodiments 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 the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application, and shall be covered by 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 blind detection of a PDCCH, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that terminal equipment acquires a first reference signal, wherein the signal quality of the first reference signal is matched with the channel quality of the PDCCH;

the terminal equipment determines whether the signal quality of the first reference signal and the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate meet a preset condition;

and if the preset condition is not met, the terminal equipment does not perform blind detection on the first PDCCH candidate.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate is determined based on the DMRS in the CCE associated with the first PDCCH candidate.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

and if the signal quality of the first reference signal and the signal quality of the DMRS in the CCE do not meet the preset condition, the terminal equipment does not perform channel estimation and/or demodulation on the PDCCH based on the DMRS.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate is determined based on the LLR demodulated by the first PDCCH candidate.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first reference signal is a reference signal quasi co-located with a DMRS of the PDCCH.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the reference signal comprises one or more of: CSI-RS and SSB.

7. The method according to claim 1 or 5, wherein the first reference signal is a CSI-RS measured by the terminal device in a beam failure detection process.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the signal quality is SINR or L1-RSRP.

9. A terminal device, comprising:

an obtaining unit, configured to obtain a first reference signal, where a signal quality of the first reference signal matches a channel quality of the PDCCH;

a determining unit, configured to determine whether a signal quality of the first reference signal and a signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate satisfy a preset condition;

a first processing unit, configured to not perform blind detection on the first PDCCH candidate if the first PDCCH candidate does not satisfy the preset condition.

10. The terminal device of claim 9, wherein the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate is determined based on the DMRS in the CCE associated with the first PDCCH candidate.

11. The terminal device according to claim 10, wherein the terminal device further comprises:

a second processing unit, configured to not perform channel estimation and/or demodulation on the PDCCH based on the DMRS if the signal quality of the first reference signal and the signal quality of the DMRS in the CCE do not satisfy the preset condition.

12. The terminal device of claim 9, wherein the signal quality of the first PDCCH candidate is determined based on the LLR for demodulation of the first PDCCH candidate.

13. The terminal device of claim 9, wherein the first reference signal is a reference signal quasi co-located with the DMRS of the PDCCH.

14. The terminal device of claim 13, wherein the reference signal comprises one or more of: CSI-RS and SSB.

15. The terminal device according to claim 9 or 13, wherein the first reference signal is a CSI-RS measured by the terminal device during a beam failure detection process.

16. The terminal device of claim 9, wherein the signal quality is SINR or L1-RSRP.

17. A terminal device comprising a memory for storing a program and a processor for invoking the program in the memory for performing the method of any one of claims 1-8.

18. An apparatus comprising a processor configured to invoke a program from memory to perform the method of any one of claims 1-8.

19. A chip comprising a processor for calling a program from a memory to cause a device on which the chip is installed to perform the method of any one of claims 1-8.

20. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that a program is stored thereon, which causes a computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 1-8.