CN114679245A

CN114679245A - Carrier switching method and device, terminal and network equipment

Info

Publication number: CN114679245A
Application number: CN202011573922.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 雷珍珠; 赵思聪; 周化雨
Original assignee: Spreadtrum Semiconductor Nanjing Co Ltd
Current assignee: Spreadtrum Semiconductor Nanjing Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-12-25
Filing date: 2020-12-25
Publication date: 2022-06-28
Also published as: WO2022135053A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the application discloses a carrier switching method and device, a terminal and network equipment, which are applied to a non-ground network communication system. The method comprises the following steps: the network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal; the terminal acquires first indication information from the network equipment, and determines whether to switch a current carrier according to the first indication information, wherein the current carrier is used for transmitting the first indication information, and the current carrier corresponds to a beam. Therefore, in the embodiment of the application, because the first indication information is configured by the network device and the current carrier corresponds to one beam, the carrier switching management is realized through the network configuration, and then the beam switching management is realized through the carrier switching management, so that the interruption of non-ground network communication caused by the movement of a satellite is avoided, and the reliability of the non-ground network communication is improved.

Description

Carrier switching method and device, terminal and network equipment

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a carrier switching method and apparatus, a terminal, and a network device.

Background

Currently, the third generation partnership project (3 GPP) is developing a protocol standard for non-terrestrial network (NTN) communication, which mainly relates to space equipment (space-borne vehicle) or air-borne equipment (airborne vehicle), such as geostationary orbiting satellites, low earth orbiting satellites, high elliptic orbit satellites, High Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS), and the like.

A satellite in an NTN communication system typically generates one or more beams (beam, otherwise known as beam probes) on the ground, and the one or more beams form cells on the ground. Wherein, the terminal located in the cell can be in the coverage of any beam in all beams of the cell.

As a satellite moves along a fixed orbit, the beams generated by the satellite on the ground also move on the ground as the satellite moves. Therefore, in order to ensure that the communication connection between the terminal and the satellite is not interrupted, the terminal needs to perform beam switching frequently. However, how to implement beam switching in the NTN communication system needs further research.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a carrier switching method and device, a terminal and network equipment, which are used for realizing carrier switching management through network configuration and realizing beam switching management through carrier switching management, so that interruption of non-ground network communication caused by movement of a satellite is avoided, and reliability of the non-ground network communication is improved.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a carrier switching method, which is applied to a terminal in a non-terrestrial network communication system, where the non-terrestrial network communication system includes the terminal and a network device; the method comprises the following steps:

acquiring first indication information from network equipment;

and determining whether to switch a current carrier according to the first indication information, wherein the current carrier is used for transmitting the first indication information, and the current carrier corresponds to a beam.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a carrier switching method, which is applied to a network device in a non-terrestrial network communication system, where the non-terrestrial network communication system includes the network device and a terminal; the method comprises the following steps:

and sending first indication information to the terminal, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating whether to switch a current carrier, the current carrier is used for transmitting the first indication information, and the current carrier corresponds to a beam.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a carrier switching apparatus, which is applied to a terminal in a non-terrestrial network communication system, where the non-terrestrial network system includes the terminal and a network device; the apparatus comprises a processing unit and a communication unit, the processing unit being configured to:

acquiring first indication information from network equipment through the communication unit;

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a carrier switching apparatus, which is applied to a network device in a non-terrestrial network communication system, where the non-terrestrial network communication system includes the network device and a terminal; the apparatus comprises a processing unit and a communication unit, the processing unit being configured to:

sending first indication information to the terminal through the communication unit, where the first indication information is used to indicate whether to switch a current carrier, the current carrier is a carrier used to transmit the first indication information, and the current carrier corresponds to a beam.

In a fifth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a terminal, including a processor, a memory, a communication interface, and one or more programs, where the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the processor, and the one or more programs include instructions for performing the steps of any of the methods of the first aspect of the embodiments of the present application.

In a sixth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a network device, including a processor, a memory, a communication interface, and one or more programs, where the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the processor, and the one or more programs include instructions for performing the steps of any of the methods of the second aspects of the embodiments of the present application.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip, including a processor, configured to call and run a computer program from a memory, so that a device in which the chip is installed performs some or all of the steps described in any one of the methods of the first aspect or the second aspect of the embodiments of the present application.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, where the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program for electronic data exchange, where the computer program makes a computer perform part or all of the steps described in any one of the methods of the first aspect or the second aspect of the present application.

In a ninth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program, where the computer program is operable to cause a computer to perform some or all of the steps as described in any of the methods of the first or second aspects of the embodiments of the present application. The computer program may be a software installation package.

It can be seen that, in the embodiment of the present application, a network device in a non-terrestrial network communication system sends first indication information to a terminal in the non-terrestrial network communication system; then, the terminal acquires the first indication information, and determines whether to switch the current carrier according to the first indication information, wherein the current carrier is used for transmitting the first indication information. Because the first indication information is configured by the network equipment and the current carrier corresponds to one wave beam, the carrier switching management (whether the current carrier is switched or not) is realized through the network configuration, and the wave beam switching management (whether the wave beam corresponding to the current carrier is switched or not) is realized through the carrier switching management, so that the interruption of non-ground network communication caused by the movement of a satellite is avoided, and the reliability of the non-ground network communication is improved.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, the drawings needed to be used in the embodiments or the prior art descriptions will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a schematic architecture diagram of a non-terrestrial network communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a system with transparent satellite communication according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of comparing signal reception quality between a land network communication system and a non-land network communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 4 is a schematic architecture diagram illustrating an architecture comparison of a non-terrestrial network communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a beam ground distribution diagram provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a beam number of each beam in a ground area formed by 19 beams according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a carrier switching method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a flowchart illustrating another carrier switching method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic architecture diagram of a non-terrestrial network communication scenario provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a block diagram illustrating functional units of a carrier switching apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 11 is a block diagram illustrating functional units of another carrier switching apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

Fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to make the technical solutions of the present application better understood, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

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

Reference herein to "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of the application. The appearances of the phrase in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. It is explicitly and implicitly understood by one skilled in the art that the embodiments described herein can be combined with other embodiments. The embodiments of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The technical scheme of the embodiment of the application can be applied to a non-terrestrial network (NTN) communication system, and the NTN communication system generally provides communication service for a ground terminal in a satellite communication mode.

For example, the embodiment of the present application is applied to a non-terrestrial network communication system, as shown in fig. 1. The non-terrestrial network communication system 10 may include a terminal 110, an intra-cell reference point (reference point)120, a satellite 130, a non-terrestrial network gateway (NTN gateway)140, and a network device 150. Wherein the terminal 110, non-terrestrial network gateway 140, and network device 150 may be located on the surface of the earth while the satellite 130 is located in earth orbit. The satellite 130 may provide communication services to a geographic area of signal coverage and may communicate with terminals 110 located within the signal coverage area. Meanwhile, the terminal 110 is located in a cell, and the cell includes an intra-cell reference point 120. Further, the wireless communication link between the terminal 110 and the satellite 130 is referred to as a service link (service link), and the wireless communication link between the satellite 130 and the non-terrestrial network gateway (NTN gateway)140 is referred to as a feeder link (feeder link). It should be noted that the non-terrestrial network gateway (NTN gateway)140 and the network device 150 may be integrated into the same device, or may be separate devices, which is not limited in particular.

Embodiments of the present application have been described with reference to terminals, satellites, and network devices. This will be described in detail below.

Specifically, the terminal in this embodiment may be a User Equipment (UE), an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, an intelligent terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user equipment. The terminal may also be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication function, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a relay device, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, an internet of things device, a terminal in a next generation communication system such as an NR network, a terminal in a future evolved Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN), or the like, which is not particularly limited.

Further, the terminal can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, hand-held, worn, or vehicle-mounted; can 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.).

Further, the terminal may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer, a computer with a wireless transceiving function, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an Augmented Reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal device in industrial control (industrial control), a vehicle-mounted device in self driving (self driving), a wireless terminal device in remote medical (remote medical), a wireless terminal device in smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal device in transportation safety (transportation safety), a wireless terminal device in smart city (smart city), a wireless terminal device in smart home (smart home), or the like.

Specifically, the satellite in the embodiment of the present application may be a spacecraft loaded with a bent pipe payload (bent pipe payload) or a regenerative payload (regenerative payload) signal transmitter, which generally operates at a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) height between 300 and 1500km, a Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) height between 7000 and 25000km, a Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) height between 35786km, or a High Elliptic Orbit (HEO) height between 400 and 50000 km. That is, the satellite may be a LEO satellite, MEO satellite, GEO satellite, HEO satellite, or the like according to the orbital altitude.

Further, the signals transmitted by the satellites in the embodiments of the present application will generally produce one or more beams (alternatively referred to as beam probes) over a given service area (given service area) bounded by its field of view. Also, a beam may be elliptical in shape on the ground, while the field of view of the satellite depends on the antenna and minimum elevation angle, etc.

In particular, the non-terrestrial network gateway in the embodiment of the present application may be an earth station or gateway located on the earth surface and capable of providing sufficient Radio Frequency (RF) power and RF sensitivity to connect to a satellite. Meanwhile, the non-terrestrial network gateway may be a Transport Network Layer (TNL) node.

Specifically, the network device in this embodiment may be a base station (BTS) in a global system for mobile communication (GSM) communication system or a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) communication system, a base station (NB) in a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) communication system, an evolved base station (eNB or eNodeB) in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) communication system, or a base station (gNB) in a New Radio (NR) communication system. The network device may also be an Access Point (AP) in a wireless local area network WLAN, a relay station, a network device in a PLMN network for future evolution, or a network device in an NTN communication system, etc.

It should be noted that in some network deployments, the gNB may include a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU), and the gNB may further include an Active Antenna Unit (AAU). The CU may implement part of the function of the gNB, and the DU may also implement 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. In addition, 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 (e.g., RRC layer signaling) may be considered to be transmitted by the DU or transmitted by the DU and the AAU. It is to be understood that the network devices may comprise devices of one or more of CU nodes, DU nodes, AAU nodes. In addition, the CU may be divided into network devices in a Radio Access Network (RAN), or may be divided into network devices in a Core Network (CN), which is not limited specifically.

For example, an architectural diagram of a communication system with transparent satellite (transparent satellite) is provided in the embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 2. Wherein the terminal, the non-terrestrial network gateway and the gNB are located on the surface of the earth, and the satellite is located in an earth orbit. Meanwhile, the satellite, the non-terrestrial network gateway and the gNB can serve as a 5G radio access network (NG-RAN), and the NG-RAN is connected with a 5G core network through an NG interface. It should be noted that the satellite payload implements frequency conversion and radio frequency amplifiers in both uplink and downlink directions, and the satellite corresponds to an analog RF repeater. In addition, different transparent satellites may be connected to the same gNB on the ground.

Before describing the carrier switching method provided by the embodiment of the present application in detail, the related communication technology related to the present application is described again.

1. Multi-carrier in narrowband physical network communication (NB-IoT)

Since an NB-IoT single frequency point cell has a bandwidth of only 180kHz, and the bandwidth has a small residual traffic channel capacity except for the overhead of a narrowband-base primary synchronization signal (NPSS), a narrowband-base secondary synchronization signal (NSSS) NSSS and a narrowband system information block (SIB-NB), in order to support a large number of terminals, a plurality of frequency points are required to increase the network capacity.

NB-IoT supports multi-carrier configuration, whose carriers can be divided into two categories: anchor carrier (anchor carrier) and non-anchor carrier (non-anchor carrier). Meanwhile, the same cell may include one anchor carrier and several non-anchor carriers, and the spectrum bandwidth of each carrier is 180kHz, and the maximum spectrum span of all carriers in the cell does not exceed 20 MHz.

Anchoring carrier waves: there is one and only one carrier in the multi-carrier cell, which supports simultaneous carrying of NPSS, NSSS, Narrowband Physical Broadcast Channel (NPBCH), Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel (NPDCCH), and Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared Channel (NPDSCH), and the carrier is called an anchor carrier. Thus, the terminal may listen to NPSS, NSSS, NPBCH, NPDCCH, and NPDSCH information on the anchor carrier.

Non-anchor carrier: there may be several carriers in the multi-carrier cell that carry only NPDCCH, NPDSCH, but not NPSS, NSSS, and NPBCH, which are called non-anchor carriers. Accordingly, the terminal may transmit or receive data on the non-anchor carrier. In addition, before the terminal enters the connected state, the network designates a carrier for subsequent downlink data transmission through a message (Msg4) in the random access process. When the terminal is in an idle state, the terminal may monitor paging (paging) on a non-anchor carrier.

2. NTN communication system

In an NTN communication system, a satellite typically generates one or more beams (beam, otherwise known as a beam spot) on the ground, and a beam may be elliptical in shape on the ground. Wherein a portion of the terrestrially generated beams of a satellite (e.g., a LEO satellite) also move terrestrially as the satellite moves in its orbit; alternatively, a portion of the satellites (e.g., LEO or GEO satellites) produce beams or cells that do not move terrestrially as the satellites move in their orbits.

Since the distance between the satellite and the ground is very far (for example, the GEO satellite is 35786km), within the coverage area of the same beam or cell, the propagation distance difference between the terminal (e.g., UE) in different geographic positions and the satellite is small (i.e., the path loss difference of the signals corresponding to the terminals in different geographic positions within the coverage area of the same cell is small), which in turn results in very small difference in the signal reception quality (including the downlink reception quality of the terminal or the uplink reception quality of the base station) corresponding to the terminals in different geographic positions within the coverage area of the same beam/cell, as shown in fig. 3.

In the land network communication system shown in fig. 3 (a), a terminal 3201 and a terminal 3202 having different geographical positions are within the coverage area of the same cell. Since there is a large difference between the propagation distance from the network device 310 to the terminal 3201 and the propagation distance to the terminal 3202, there is a large difference between the signal reception quality corresponding to the terminal 3201 and the signal reception quality corresponding to the terminal 3202. In the NTN communication system shown in fig. 3 (b), the

terminals

3401 and 3402 having different geographical locations within the coverage area of the same beam/cell are located. Since the distance from the satellite 330 to the ground is very long, there is a small difference between the propagation distance from the satellite 330 to the terminal 3401 and the propagation distance to the terminal 3402, resulting in a small difference between the signal reception quality corresponding to the terminal 3401 and the signal reception quality corresponding to the terminal 3402.

3. Architecture of NTN communication system

In the embodiment of the present application, the architecture of the NTN communication system mainly includes an NTN communication architecture (i.e., a transparent forwarding mode) with a transparent satellite (or called a bent pipe payload) and an NTN communication architecture (i.e., a regenerated signal mode) with a regenerated satellite (refer to fig. 4). Among them, fig. 4 (a) illustrates an NTN communication architecture with a transparent satellite, and fig. 4 (b) illustrates an NTN communication architecture with a regenerative satellite. In fig. 4 (a), a transparent repeating mode satellite 410 generates at least one beam 420 on the ground, and the at least one beam 420 may form a cell on the ground. At this time, the terminal 430 located in the cell may be in the coverage of any one of all beams in the cell. Similarly, in fig. 4 (b), the satellite 440 regenerating the signal pattern generates at least one beam 450 on the ground, and the at least one beam 450 may form a cell on the ground. At this time, the terminal 460 located in the cell may be in the coverage of any one of all beams in the cell.

4. Repeated transmission of data

In order to ensure coverage, the existing narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) or enhanced machine-type communication (eMTC) adopts a technology of repeated transmission. The maximum number of repeated transmissions for downlink transmission is 2048, and the maximum number of repeated transmissions for uplink transmission is 128. In addition, the number of times of retransmission of a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) or a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) may be dynamically indicated by Downlink Control Information (DCI) scheduled by the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), that is, DCI has a specific bit field for indicating the number of times of retransmission of the PDSCH or the PUSCH. Meanwhile, the maximum number of repetitions (i.e., Rmax) of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) may be semi-statically configured by RRC signaling or a System Information Block (SIB).

In a land network communication system (as shown in fig. 3), since there is a large difference in propagation distance between a terminal and a base station at different geographic locations within the coverage area of the same cell, when the terminal receives or transmits data, the terminal at different geographic locations (such as the cell center or the cell edge) needs different data retransmission times (i.e., the PDSCH/PUSCH/PRACH/PDCCH retransmission times). Currently, for the problem of the number of repeated transmissions in terrestrial network communication, the network can dynamically indicate the number of repeated transmissions of PDSCH/PUSCH by a specific bit field in DCI scheduling PDSCH/PUSCH.

5. Beam profile

A satellite in an NTN communication system typically generates one or more beams above ground, and the one or more beams form cells above ground. Meanwhile, the beam distribution between the one or more beams is referred to as a beam ground distribution map (beam pattern, or beam layout).

For example, please refer to fig. 5 and 6. Fig. 5 illustrates a schematic structure diagram of a beam ground distribution diagram, wherein a hexagonal block diagram is used to represent a ground area formed by 19 beams. Fig. 6 illustrates the beam number of each beam in the ground area formed by 19 beams, and the beams between different hexagonal boxes have different beam numbers.

In conjunction with the above description, an embodiment of the present application provides a flowchart of a carrier switching method, which is applied to a non-terrestrial network communication system, please refer to fig. 7. The method comprises the following steps:

S710, the network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal.

The first indication information may be used to indicate whether to switch a current carrier, where the current carrier is a carrier used to transmit the first indication information, and the current carrier corresponds to one beam. Meanwhile, the beam is one of all beams in the serving cell where the terminal is located.

It should be noted that a satellite in the NTN communication system generates one or more beams on the ground to form a cell, and a terminal located in the cell may be within the coverage of any beam of all beams in the cell. At this time, the cell is referred to as a serving cell in which the terminal is located. As the satellite moves along a fixed orbit, the beams generated by the satellite on the ground also move on the ground as the satellite moves. Therefore, in order to ensure that the communication connection between the terminal and the satellite is not interrupted, the terminal needs to frequently perform beam switching.

In addition, since the distance between the satellite and the ground is very long, the propagation distance between the terminal and the satellite changes little even if the terminal moves (i.e., the position of the terminal changes) for a while. That is, the motion of the terminal changes less with respect to the motion of the satellite. Based on this, the embodiment of the present application considers that the current position of the terminal is approximately fixed for a period of time, and mainly analyzes the situation of beam switching caused by the continuous movement of the satellite.

In order to solve the problem of beam switching in the NTN communication system, in the embodiment of the present application, beam management is performed by performing beam switching in a carrier switching manner, that is, each beam in all beams in a cell corresponds to one or more carriers (that is, one carrier corresponds to one beam), and beam switching is implemented by performing carrier switching. Therefore, in the embodiment of the application, the network device sends the first indication information to the terminal, and the terminal determines whether to switch the current carrier according to the first indication information, so that beam switching management (i.e., whether to switch the current carrier) is realized through carrier switching management (i.e., whether to switch the beam corresponding to the current carrier), which is beneficial to avoiding interruption of NTN network communication caused by movement of a satellite and improving reliability of the NTN network communication.

In addition, the technical scheme in the embodiment of the application is suitable for a transparent forwarding mode and a regenerated signal mode. In the transparent forwarding mode, the first indication information is transmitted by a network device located on the ground. In the regenerated signal mode, the first indication information is transmitted by the network device located at the satellite, since the network device is located at the satellite.

It should be further noted that, based on the above description, since the embodiment of the present application considers that one beam corresponds to one or more carriers, the network device may transmit traffic data, RRC dedicated signaling, system broadcast information, Downlink Control Information (DCI), and the like to the terminal through the carriers, and the terminal may acquire the data, signaling, or information through the carriers at a certain time. For this reason, the embodiment of the present application considers that the carrier used for transmitting the first indication information is referred to as a current carrier.

Specifically, the first indication information may be 1-bit information or X-bit information, and a value of X is an integer greater than 1; the 1-bit information may be used to determine whether to switch the current carrier by using a bit value mode, or the 1-bit information may be used to determine whether to switch the current carrier by using a bit flipping mode; the X-bit information can be used to determine whether to switch the current carrier by bit encoding.

Wherein, the value of X can be configured by the network device through RRC dedicated signaling.

It should be noted that the length of the first indication information sent by the network device to the terminal may be 1 bit (bit) or X bits (bits). When the length of the first indication information is 1 bit, the first indication information may be referred to as 1-bit information, and the bit value mode of the 1-bit information includes 1 and 0, or the bit flipping mode of the 1-bit information includes bit flipping (for example, 1 is converted into 0, 0 is converted into 1) and bit not flipped.

When the length of the first indication information is X bits, the first indication information may be referred to as X-bit information, and the bit encoding mode of the X-bit information includes any encoding combination of X bits. For example, when X is 2, the bit encoding scheme of 2-bit information includes 00, 01, 10, and 11.

Therefore, after the terminal acquires the first indication information from the network equipment, the terminal can determine whether to switch the current carrier wave through a bit value mode in the first indication information; or, the terminal may determine whether to switch the current carrier by a bit flipping manner in the first indication information; or, the terminal may determine whether to switch the current carrier by a bit encoding mode in the X-bit information. This is exemplified below.

Illustratively, the network device sends 1-bit information to the terminal. If the value of the bit in the 1-bit information is 1, the 1-bit information is used for indicating the terminal to switch the current carrier; and if the value of the bit in the 1-bit information is 0, the 1-bit information is used for indicating the terminal not to switch the current carrier. Or, if the value of the bit in the 1-bit information is 0, the 1-bit information is used to instruct the terminal to switch the current carrier; and if the value of the bit in the 1-bit information is 1, the 1-bit information is used for indicating the terminal not to switch the current carrier.

Illustratively, the network device sends 1-bit information to the terminal. If the bit in the 1-bit information is inverted (for example, 1 is converted into 0, and 0 is converted into 1), the 1-bit information is used for indicating the terminal to switch the current carrier; and if the bit in the 1-bit information is not inverted, the 1-bit information is used for indicating the terminal not to switch the current carrier. Or, if the bit in the 1-bit information is flipped, the 1-bit information is used to instruct the terminal not to switch the current carrier; and if the bit in the 1-bit information is not inverted, the 1-bit information is used for indicating the terminal to switch the current carrier.

Illustratively, the network device sends 2 bits of information to the terminal. If the bit encoding mode in the 2-bit information is 00, the 2-bit information is used for indicating the terminal not to switch the current carrier; if the bit encoding scheme in the 2-bit information is not 00 (e.g. 01, 10 or 11), the 2-bit information is used to instruct the terminal to switch the current carrier.

Specifically, the first indication information is carried in the first DCI.

It can be understood that, the embodiment of the present application considers that the network device sends the first indication information to the terminal through the first DCI. That is, the network device indicates, to the terminal, whether to switch the current carrier through the first indication information carried by the DCI. In addition, the "first DCI" and the "second DCI" in this embodiment are used to distinguish DCIs issued by the network device at different times, and the indication fields, the indication information, and the like carried by the DCIs issued at different times have different control purposes, which is not limited specifically.

It should be noted that the first indication information may be an indication field carried by the first DCI, and the indication field may be used to indicate whether the terminal switches the current carrier. In addition, the indication field may be a new or specific field in DCI defined by an existing standard.

Further, the first DCI may be a scheduled DCI or a non-scheduled DCI.

It should be noted that the scheduling DCI refers to DCI carrying data scheduling information, such as DCI for scheduling PDSCH or PUSCH. At this time, the first indication information in the scheduling DCI is used to indicate whether the terminal switches the current carrier to transmit the data scheduled by the scheduling DCI. That is, whether data scheduled by the scheduling DCI is transmitted on the current carrier.

In addition, the non-scheduling DCI means DCI not carrying data scheduling information. At this time, the first indication information in the non-scheduling DCI is used to indicate whether the terminal switches the current carrier to transmit data.

S720, the terminal acquires the first indication information from the network equipment.

And S730, the terminal determines whether to switch the current carrier according to the first indication information.

It can be seen that, in the embodiment of the present application, a network device in a non-terrestrial network communication system sends first indication information to a terminal in the non-terrestrial network communication system; then, the terminal acquires the first indication information, and determines whether to switch the current carrier according to the first indication information, wherein the current carrier is used for transmitting the first indication information. Because the first indication information is configured by the network equipment and the current carrier corresponds to one wave beam, the carrier switching management (whether the current carrier is switched or not) is realized through the network configuration, and then the wave beam switching management (whether the wave beam corresponding to the current carrier is switched or not) is realized through the carrier switching management, so that the interruption of non-ground network communication caused by the movement of a satellite is avoided, and the reliability of the non-ground network communication is improved.

In combination with the above description, the embodiment of the present application considers that the terminal determines whether to switch the current carrier according to the first indication information configured by the network device, that is, the terminal needs to switch or not switch the current carrier. However, in the case that the terminal needs to switch the current carrier, the embodiment of the present application further considers the problem of which carrier the terminal is to be specifically switched to from the current carrier. To this end, how the network device configures the candidate carriers will be specifically described below by the embodiment illustrated in fig. 8.

Consistent with the above embodiments, a schematic flow chart of another carrier switching method applied to a non-terrestrial network communication system is provided in the embodiments of the present application, please refer to fig. 8. The method comprises the following steps:

s810, the network equipment sends first configuration information to the terminal.

The first configuration information may be used to configure an index (index) of the candidate carrier to be switched.

It should be noted that the terminal may directly determine the candidate carrier through the index of the candidate carrier.

It should be further noted that, on the basis of the embodiment described in fig. 7, in order to further solve the problem of which carrier the terminal is specifically switched to from the current carrier, in the embodiment of the present application, it is considered that first configuration information is configured to the terminal by the network device, then the network device sends first indication information to the terminal, and finally the terminal determines whether to switch the current carrier according to the first configuration information and the first indication information, and switches the current carrier to a candidate carrier in the first configuration information.

Specifically, the first configuration information is configured by the network device through RRC dedicated signaling.

It is to be understood that the embodiment of the present application considers that the network device sends the first configuration information to the terminal through RRC dedicated signaling.

Specifically, the first configuration information may include carrier list information or carrier set information.

The carrier list information is formed by sequentially arranging indexes of M carriers, the indexes of the M carriers comprise the index of the current carrier, the index of each carrier in the carrier list information corresponds to one beam, and the value of M is an integer larger than 1.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, it is considered that the network device first configures, to the terminal, carrier list information formed by sequentially arranging indexes of M carriers, and then transmits the first indication information to the terminal through a certain carrier (i.e., a current carrier) of the M carriers. In addition, since the carriers in the carrier list information are sequentially arranged in sequence, when analyzing which carrier the current carrier is to be switched to, the position of the current carrier in the carrier list information needs to be considered.

The carrier set information may include indexes of N carriers and a candidate carrier index set associated with an index of each carrier in the indexes of the N carriers, the indexes of the N carriers include an index of a current carrier, and a value of a beam N corresponding to the index of each carrier in the carrier set information is an integer greater than 1; the candidate carrier index set is composed of indexes of P carriers in the indexes of the N carriers, and the value of P is less than or equal to that of N.

It should be noted that, different from the carrier list information, in the embodiment of the present application, the network device first configures, to the terminal, an index of N carriers and a candidate carrier index set associated with an index of each carrier in the indexes of the N carriers. Wherein, there is no permutation order between the indexes of the carriers in the indexes of the N carriers and between the indexes of the carriers in the candidate carrier index set. Then, the network device transmits the first indication information to the terminal through a certain carrier (i.e., the current carrier) of the N carriers. In addition, since the index of each carrier in the carrier set information is associated with one candidate carrier index set, when analyzing which carrier the current carrier is to be switched to, the index of the carrier in the candidate carrier index set associated with the index of the current carrier needs to be considered.

In the following, how the indexes of M carriers, the indexes of N carriers, and the indexes of P carriers in the candidate carrier index set configured by the network device are determined will be specifically described in this embodiment of the application.

In one possible example, the carrier list information may satisfy at least one of the following: indexes of M carriers in the carrier list information are determined by current position information of the terminal and preset satellite ephemeris, and an arrangement sequence of the M indexed carriers in the carrier list information is determined by the current position information of the terminal and the preset satellite ephemeris.

Since the distance between the satellite and the ground is very long, the propagation distance between the terminal and the satellite changes little even if the terminal moves (i.e., the position of the terminal changes) for a while. That is, the motion of the terminal is less varied with respect to the motion of the satellite. Based on this, the embodiment of the present application considers that the current position of the terminal is approximately fixed for a period of time, and mainly analyzes the situation of beam switching caused by the continuous movement of the satellite.

It should be further noted that the terminal may calculate current position information through a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), and then send the current position information to the network device. In addition, since the satellite has a fixed operation track (the operation track of the satellite can be determined by preset satellite ephemeris), the embodiment of the present application considers that the network device determines the indexes of M carriers in the carrier list information according to the current position information of the terminal and the preset satellite ephemeris, so as to establish the mapping relationship between the current position of the terminal and the operation track of the satellite and the indexes of the carriers in the carrier list information. Similarly, the network device determines the arrangement order of the indexes of the M carriers in the carrier list information according to the current position information of the terminal and a preset satellite ephemeris, so as to establish a mapping relationship between the current position of the terminal and the arrangement order of the running track of the satellite and the indexes of the carriers in the carrier list information. Specific examples are described below.

Illustratively, in fig. 9, the satellite 910 sequentially generates 10 beams on the ground along a fixed trajectory, and each of the 10 beams corresponds to one carrier, i.e., 10 carriers. Meanwhile, the indexes corresponding to the 10 carriers are C0 to C9 in sequence. At this time, the current position of the terminal 920 is in an area corresponding to the carrier index C3, so that the satellite 910 communicates with the terminal 920 through the carrier index C3 (i.e., the index of the current carrier). Since the satellite 910 will move along the "satellite movement direction" shown in the figure, and the movement track of the satellite 910 can be determined by the preset satellite ephemeris, the beams generated by the satellite 910 on the ground will also move on the ground along with the movement, for example, the beam corresponding to the carrier index C5 moves to the beam corresponding to the carrier index C8, so that the network device can determine that the carrier list information is { C1, C3, C5, C8} according to the current location information of the terminal 920 (i.e., in the area corresponding to the carrier index C3) and the preset satellite ephemeris (i.e., the movement track of the satellite 910), and issue the carrier list information to the terminal 920 through RRC dedicated signaling.

In one possible example, the carrier set information may satisfy at least one of the following: the indexes of N carriers in the carrier set information are determined by the current position information of the terminal and a preset satellite ephemeris, and the indexes of P carriers in a candidate carrier index set in the carrier set information are determined by the distribution of beams corresponding to the indexes of the N carriers.

It should be noted that, consistent with the above description, the terminal may obtain the current location information through its own GNSS calculation, and then send the current location information to the network device. Then, the network device may determine indexes of N carriers in the carrier set information according to the current position information of the terminal and a preset satellite ephemeris, thereby establishing a mapping relationship between the current position of the terminal and the running trajectory of the satellite and the indexes of the carriers in the carrier set information. Meanwhile, the indexes of the carriers in the carrier set information do not consider the permutation order, compared to the indexes of the carriers in the above-described carrier list information.

In addition, a satellite in the NTN communication system may have a beam distribution between one or more beams generated on the ground, and the beam distribution is referred to as a beam ground profile. Therefore, the network device determines the indexes of the carriers in the candidate carrier index set associated with the indexes of the N carriers according to the distribution of the beams corresponding to the indexes of the N carriers.

Specifically, the determining of the index of the P carriers by the distribution of the beam corresponding to the index of the N carriers may specifically include the following steps: and determining respective adjacent beams of the beams corresponding to the indexes of the N carriers, and forming the indexes of the P carriers by the carriers corresponding to the respective adjacent beams. Specific examples are described below.

Illustratively, in fig. 9, the satellite 910 sequentially generates 10 beams on the ground along a fixed trajectory, and each of the 10 beams corresponds to one carrier, i.e., 10 carriers. At this time, the current position of the terminal 920 is in an area corresponding to the carrier index C3, so that the satellite 910 communicates with the terminal 920 through the carrier index C3 (i.e., the index of the current carrier). Then, the network device determines, according to the current location information of the terminal 920 and a preset satellite ephemeris, a carrier index set { C3, C4, C5, C6, C7, C8, C9} and a candidate carrier index set (i.e., carrier set information) associated with each carrier index in the carrier index set. Since the adjacent carrier indexes of the beam corresponding to the carrier index C3 include carrier index C0, carrier index C1, carrier index C2, carrier index C4, carrier index C5 and carrier index C6, and the satellite 910 will operate along the "satellite movement direction" shown in the figure, the candidate carrier index set associated with the carrier index C3 is { C4, C5, C6 }. Similarly, the candidate carrier index set associated with carrier index C4 is { C5, C9}, the candidate carrier index set associated with carrier index C5 is { C7, C8, C9}, and so on. And finally, the network equipment issues the carrier index set and the candidate carrier index set associated with each carrier index in the carrier index set to the terminal through RRC dedicated signaling.

S820, the terminal acquires first configuration information from the network equipment.

S830, the network equipment sends the first indication information to the terminal.

It should be noted that the embodiment illustrated in fig. 8 is the same as the embodiment illustrated in fig. 7, and therefore, the description of the first indication information is described in detail in fig. 7 and is not repeated herein.

S840, the terminal acquires first indication information from the network equipment.

Specifically, the first indication information is carried in the first DCI.

Further, the first DCI may be a scheduling DCI or a scheduling DCI.

And S850, the terminal determines whether to switch from the current carrier to the candidate carrier according to the first configuration information and the first indication information.

The following embodiments of the present application will specifically describe how to determine whether to switch from the current carrier to the candidate carrier according to the first configuration information and the first indication information. That is, how the terminal determines whether to switch the current carrier according to the first configuration information configured by the network device and the first indication information issued, and to switch the current carrier to the candidate carrier.

In one possible example, if the first indication information is 1-bit information and the candidate carrier is a first carrier, determining whether to switch from the current carrier to the candidate carrier according to the first configuration information and the first indication information may include: determining whether to switch from the current carrier to a first carrier according to the carrier list information and a bit value mode in the 1-bit information, wherein the index of the first carrier is the index of the next carrier at the position of the carrier list information where the index of the current carrier is located; or, determining whether to switch from the current carrier to the first carrier according to the carrier list information and a bit flipping mode in the 1-bit information.

It should be noted that, since the indexes of the carriers in the carrier list information are sequentially arranged according to a sequence, and the arrangement sequence is determined by the current position information of the terminal and a preset satellite ephemeris, when analyzing which carrier the current carrier is to be switched to, not only the current position of the terminal and the mapping relationship between the running track of the satellite and the arrangement sequence between the indexes of the carriers in the carrier list information need to be considered, but also the position of the current carrier where the indexes of the carriers are located in the carrier list information needs to be considered. Based on this, the embodiment of the present application considers that the current carrier is to be switched to the next carrier indexed to the position of the carrier list information, so as to implement carrier switching management through network configuration, and implement beam switching management through carrier switching management, which is beneficial to avoiding interruption of non-ground network communication caused by movement of a satellite, and improving reliability of non-ground network communication.

In a possible example, if the first indication information is 1-bit information and the candidate carrier is a first carrier, the 1-bit information is specifically used to indicate whether to switch from the current carrier to the first carrier by using a bit value mode, where an index of the first carrier is an index of a next carrier at a position where the index of the current carrier is located in the carrier list information; or, the 1-bit information is specifically used to indicate whether to switch from the current carrier to the first carrier by bit flipping. The following example is described with reference to fig. 9 and 1-bit information in the embodiment described with reference to fig. 7.

Illustratively, the network device first issues carrier list information { C1, C3, C5, C8} to the terminal through RRC dedicated signaling. Then, the network device configures 1-bit information to the terminal in DCI through the RRC dedicated information. Wherein the carrier index C3 is used to transmit the 1-bit information. If the value of the bit in the 1-bit information is 1, the 1-bit information is used to instruct the terminal to switch the carrier corresponding to the carrier index C3 to the carrier corresponding to the carrier index C5 for data transmission; if the value of the bit in the 1-bit information is 0, the 1-bit information is used to instruct the terminal not to switch the carrier corresponding to the carrier index C3. Or, if the value of the bit in the 1-bit information is 0, the 1-bit information is used to instruct the terminal to switch the carrier corresponding to the carrier index C3 to the carrier corresponding to the carrier index C5 for data transmission; if the value of the bit in the 1-bit information is 1, the 1-bit information is used to instruct the terminal not to switch the carrier corresponding to the carrier index C3.

Illustratively, the network device first issues the carrier list information { C1, C3, C5, C8} to the terminal through RRC dedicated signaling. Then, the network device configures 1-bit information to the terminal in DCI through the RRC dedicated information. Wherein the carrier index C3 is used to transmit the 1-bit information. If the bits in the 1-bit information are inverted (e.g., 1 is converted into 0, 0 is converted into 1), the 1-bit information is used to instruct the terminal to switch the carrier corresponding to the carrier index C3 to the carrier corresponding to the carrier index C5 for data transmission; if the bit in the 1-bit information is not inverted, the 1-bit information is used to instruct the terminal not to switch the carrier corresponding to the carrier index C3. Or, if the bit in the 1-bit information is inverted, the 1-bit information is used to instruct the terminal not to switch the carrier corresponding to the carrier index C3; if the bit in the 1-bit information is not flipped, the 1-bit information is used to instruct the terminal to switch the carrier corresponding to the carrier index C3 to the carrier corresponding to the carrier index C5 for data transmission.

In one possible example, if the first indication information is X-bit information and the candidate carrier is a second carrier, determining whether to switch from the current carrier to the candidate carrier according to the first configuration information and the first indication information may include: and determining whether to switch from the current carrier to a second carrier according to the carrier set information and a bit coding mode in the X bit information, wherein the index of the second carrier is one carrier index in a candidate carrier index set associated with the index of the current carrier in the carrier set information, and the X bit information is also used for indicating the index of the second carrier through the bit coding mode.

It should be noted that, because each carrier in the carrier set information is associated with one candidate carrier index set, and the indexes of the carriers in the candidate carrier index set in the carrier set information are determined by the distribution of beams corresponding to the indexes of the N carriers, when analyzing which carrier the current carrier is to be switched to, not only the beam distribution condition but also the index of the carrier in the candidate carrier index set associated with the index of the current carrier need to be considered. Based on this, the embodiment of the present application considers that a carrier corresponding to an index of one carrier in a candidate carrier index set associated with an index of a current carrier to be switched to, and the index of which carrier in the candidate carrier index set is indicated by X-bit information, so that carrier switching management is implemented through network configuration, and beam switching management is implemented through carrier switching management, which is beneficial to avoiding interruption of non-ground network communication caused by movement of a satellite, and improving reliability of non-ground network communication.

Specifically, the X-bit information is configured by the network device through RRC dedicated signaling.

It can be understood that the embodiment of the present application considers that the network device configures X-bit information to the terminal in DCI through RRC dedicated signaling.

Specifically, the value of X satisfies at least one of the following modes: the value of X is determined by the number of carrier indexes in a candidate carrier index set associated with the index of the current carrier, and the value of X and the value of P have a mapping relation.

It can be understood that the network device may configure the value of X by the number of carrier indexes in the candidate carrier index set in the carrier set information, so that the network configures X bit information to indicate whether the terminal switches the current carrier, and specifically which carrier index in the candidate carrier index set associated with the index of the current carrier, thereby avoiding an excessive signaling overhead. Meanwhile, there may be a reserved bit case in the X bit information. For example, if the number of carrier indexes in the candidate carrier index set associated with the index of the current carrier is 3, the value of X may be 2; if the number of carrier indexes in the candidate carrier index set associated with the index of the current carrier is 5, the value of X may be 3. At this time, there may be a case where a reserved bit exists in the 3-bit information.

In a possible example, if the first indication information is X-bit information and the candidate carrier is a second carrier, the X-bit information is specifically used to indicate whether to switch from the current carrier to the second carrier by using a bit encoding manner, and an index of the second carrier is one carrier index in a candidate carrier index set associated with an index of the current carrier in the carrier set information; the X-bit information is also used to indicate the index of the second carrier by bit coding.

The following example is described with reference to the X-bit information in the embodiment described with reference to fig. 7 and fig. 9.

Illustratively, the network device first issues, to the terminal, a carrier index set { C3, C4, C5, C6, C7, C8, C9} and a candidate carrier index set associated with each carrier index in the carrier index set through RRC dedicated signaling. The candidate carrier index set associated with the carrier index C3 is { C4, C5, C6 }. Then, the network device configures 2-bit information to the terminal in DCI through RRC dedicated signaling. Wherein a carrier index C3 is used to transmit the 2-bit information. If the bit encoding mode in the 2-bit information is 00, the 2-bit information is used for indicating the terminal not to switch the carrier corresponding to the carrier index C3; if the bit encoding mode in the 2-bit information is 01, the 2-bit information is used for instructing the terminal to switch to the carrier corresponding to the carrier index C4 for data transmission; if the bit encoding mode in the 2-bit information is 10, the 2-bit information is used to instruct the terminal to switch to the carrier corresponding to the carrier index C5 for data transmission; if the bit encoding scheme in the 2-bit information is 11, the 2-bit information is used to instruct the terminal to switch to the carrier corresponding to the carrier index C6 for data transmission.

It can be seen that, in the embodiment of the present application, a network device in a non-terrestrial network communication system sends first configuration information to a terminal in the non-terrestrial network communication system; secondly, the terminal acquires the first configuration information; thirdly, the network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal; and finally, the terminal acquires the first indication information and determines whether to switch the current carrier according to the first configuration information and the first indication information, wherein the current carrier is used for transmitting the first indication information. In order to further solve the problem that the terminal is specifically switched to which carrier (i.e., the target carrier) from the current carrier, in the embodiment of the present application, first configuration information is configured to the terminal by the network device, then the network device sends first indication information to the terminal, and finally the terminal determines whether to switch the current carrier according to the first configuration information and the first indication information, and switches the current carrier to the target carrier in the first configuration information. The first configuration information is used for configuring the index of the candidate carrier to be switched, so that the network configures the candidate carrier to be switched to the terminal. In addition, since the first configuration information and the first indication information are configured by the network device, and the current carrier corresponds to one beam, so that carrier switching management (i.e., whether to switch the current carrier and whether to switch from the current carrier to the candidate carrier configured by the first configuration information) is realized through network configuration, and beam switching management (i.e., whether to switch the beam corresponding to the current carrier and whether to switch from the beam corresponding to the current carrier to the beam corresponding to the candidate carrier configured by the first configuration information) is realized through carrier switching management, which is beneficial to avoiding interruption of non-terrestrial network communication caused by movement of a satellite and improving reliability of non-terrestrial network communication.

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

In the embodiment of the present application, the terminal or the network device may be divided into the functional units according to the above method examples, for example, each functional unit may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing unit. The integrated unit may be implemented in the form of hardware, or may be implemented in the form of a software program module. It should be noted that the division of the units in the embodiment of the present application is illustrative, and is only one division of the logic functions, and there may be another division in actual implementation.

In the case of an integrated unit, fig. 10 provides a block diagram of functional units of a carrier switching apparatus. The carrier switching apparatus 1000 is applied to a terminal in a non-terrestrial network communication system, and specifically includes: a processing unit 1002 and a communication unit 1003. The processing unit 1002 is configured to control and manage actions of the terminal, for example, the processing unit 1002 is configured to support the terminal to execute the steps in fig. 7 or fig. 8 and other processes for the technical solutions described in this application. The communication unit 1003 is used to support communication between the terminal and other devices in the non-terrestrial network communication system. The carrier switching apparatus 1000 may further include a storage unit 1001 for storing program codes and data of the terminal.

The processing unit 1002 may be a processor or a controller, and may be, for example, a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), or other programmable logic device, a transistor logic device, a hardware component, or any combination thereof. Which may implement or perform the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure. The processing unit 1002 may also be a combination of computing functions, e.g., comprising one or more microprocessors, a combination of DSPs and microprocessors, or the like. The communication unit 1003 may be a communication interface, a transceiver, a transmitting and receiving circuit, or the like, and the storage unit 1001 may be a memory. When processing section 1002 is a processor, communication section 1003 is a communication interface, and storage section 1001 is a memory, carrier switching apparatus 1000 according to the embodiment of the present application may be a terminal as shown in fig. 12.

In a specific implementation, the processing unit 1002 is configured to execute any step executed by the terminal in the above method embodiment, and when performing data transmission such as sending, optionally invokes the communication unit 1003 to complete the corresponding operation. The following is a detailed description.

The processing unit 1002 is configured to: acquiring first indication information from network equipment; and determining whether to switch the current carrier according to the first indication information, wherein the current carrier is used for transmitting the first indication information and corresponds to one beam.

It should be noted that specific implementation of each operation in the embodiment shown in fig. 10 may be detailed in the description of the method embodiment shown in fig. 7 or fig. 8, and is not described in detail here.

It can be seen that, in the embodiment of the present application, by acquiring the first indication information from the network device, and determining whether to switch the current carrier according to the first indication information, the current carrier is a carrier used for transmitting the first indication information. Because the first indication information is configured by the network equipment and the current carrier corresponds to one wave beam, the carrier switching management (whether the current carrier is switched or not) is realized through the network configuration, and the wave beam switching management (whether the wave beam corresponding to the current carrier is switched or not) is realized through the carrier switching management, so that the interruption of non-ground network communication caused by the movement of a satellite is avoided, and the reliability of the non-ground network communication is improved.

In one possible example, the first indication information is 1-bit information or X-bit information, and a value of X is an integer greater than 1; the 1 bit information is used for indicating whether to switch the current carrier wave or not through a bit value mode; or, the 1-bit information is used for indicating whether to switch the current carrier wave or not in a bit flipping manner; and the X bit information is used for indicating whether to switch the current carrier wave or not through a bit coding mode.

In one possible example, before obtaining the first indication information from the network device, the processing unit 1002 is further configured to: acquiring first configuration information from network equipment, wherein the first configuration information is used for configuring indexes of candidate carriers to be switched; in terms of determining whether to switch the current carrier according to the first indication information, the processing unit 1002 is specifically configured to: and determining whether to switch from the current carrier to the candidate carrier according to the first configuration information and the first indication information.

In one possible example, the first configuration information is configured by the network device through radio resource control, RRC, dedicated signaling.

In one possible example, the first configuration information includes carrier list information or carrier set information; the carrier list information is formed by sequentially arranging indexes of M carriers, the indexes of the M carriers comprise the index of the current carrier, the index of each carrier in the carrier list information corresponds to one beam, and the value of M is an integer greater than 1; the carrier set information comprises indexes of N carriers and a candidate carrier index set associated with the index of each carrier in the indexes of the N carriers, the indexes of the N carriers comprise the index of a current carrier, the index of each carrier in the carrier set information corresponds to a beam, and the value of N is an integer greater than 1; the candidate carrier index set is composed of indexes of P carriers in the indexes of the N carriers, and the value of P is less than or equal to that of N.

In one possible example, the carrier list information satisfies at least one of the following: indexes of M carriers in the carrier list information are determined by current position information of the terminal and a preset satellite ephemeris, and an arrangement sequence between the indexes of the M carriers in the carrier list information is determined by the current position information of the terminal and the preset satellite ephemeris; or, the carrier set information satisfies at least one of the following modes: the indexes of N carriers in the carrier set information are determined by the current position information of the terminal and a preset satellite ephemeris, and the indexes of P carriers in a candidate carrier index set in the carrier set information are determined by the distribution of beams corresponding to the N carriers.

In one possible example, if the first indication information is 1-bit information, and the candidate carrier is a first carrier, in terms of determining whether to switch from the current carrier to the target carrier according to the first configuration information and the first indication information, the processing unit 1002 is specifically configured to: determining whether the current carrier is switched to a first carrier according to the carrier list information and a bit value mode in the 1-bit information, wherein the index of the first carrier is the index of the next carrier of the current carrier at the position of the carrier list information; or, determining whether to switch from the current carrier to the first carrier according to the carrier list information and a bit flipping mode in the 1-bit information.

In one possible example, if the first indication information is X-bit information and the candidate carrier is a second carrier, in terms of determining whether to switch from the current carrier to the candidate carrier according to the first configuration information and the first indication information, the processing unit 1002 is specifically configured to: and determining whether to switch from the current carrier to a second carrier according to the carrier set information and a bit coding mode in the X bit information, wherein the index of the second carrier is one carrier index in a candidate carrier index set associated with the index of the current carrier in the carrier set information, and the X bit information is also used for indicating the index of the second carrier through the bit coding mode.

In one possible example, the X-bit information is configured by the network device through RRC dedicated signaling.

In one possible example, the value of X satisfies at least one of the following: the value of X is determined by the number of carrier indexes in a candidate carrier index set associated with the index of the current carrier, and the value of X and the value of P have a mapping relation.

In one possible example, the first indication information is carried in first downlink control information, DCI.

In one possible example, the first DCI is a scheduled DCI or a non-scheduled DCI.

In the case of an integrated unit, fig. 11 provides a block diagram of the functional units of yet another carrier switching apparatus. The carrier switching apparatus 1100 is applied to a network device in a non-terrestrial network communication system, and specifically includes: a processing unit 1102 and a communication unit 1103. The processing unit 1102 is configured to control and manage actions of the network device, for example, the processing unit 1102 is configured to support the network device to execute the steps in fig. 7 or fig. 8 and other processes for the technical solutions described in this application. The communication unit 1103 is used to support communication between the network device and other devices in the non-terrestrial network communication system. The carrier switching apparatus 1100 may further include a storage unit 1101 for storing program codes and data of the network device.

The processing unit 1102 may be a processor or a controller, such as a CPU, DSP, ASIC, FPGA or other programmable logic device, transistor logic device, hardware component, or any combination thereof. Which may implement or perform the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure. The processing unit 1102 may also be a combination of components performing computing functions, e.g., a combination comprising one or more microprocessors, a DSP, a microprocessor, or the like. The communication unit 1103 may be a communication interface, a transceiver circuit, etc., and the storage unit 1101 may be a memory. When the processing unit 1102 is a processor, the communication unit 1103 is a communication interface, and the storage unit 1101 is a memory, the carrier switching apparatus 1100 according to the embodiment of the present application may be a network device shown in fig. 13.

In a specific implementation, the processing unit 1102 is configured to perform any step performed by the network device in the above method embodiment, and when performing data transmission such as sending, the communication unit 1103 may be optionally invoked to complete the corresponding operation. The details will be described below.

The processing unit 1102 is configured to: and sending first indication information to the terminal, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating whether to switch the current carrier, the current carrier is used for transmitting the first indication information, and the current carrier corresponds to one beam.

It should be noted that specific implementation of each operation in the embodiment illustrated in fig. 11 may be detailed in the description of the method embodiment illustrated in fig. 7 or fig. 8, and is not described in detail here.

It can be seen that, in the embodiment of the present application, first indication information is sent to a terminal in a non-terrestrial network communication system, where the first indication information is used to indicate whether to switch a current carrier, and the current carrier is a carrier used to transmit the first indication information. Because the first indication information is configured by the network equipment and the current carrier corresponds to one wave beam, the carrier switching management (whether the current carrier is switched or not) is realized through the network configuration, and then the wave beam switching management (whether the wave beam corresponding to the current carrier is switched or not) is realized through the carrier switching management, so that the interruption of non-ground network communication caused by the movement of a satellite is avoided, and the reliability of the non-ground network communication is improved.

In one possible example, the first indication information is 1-bit information or X-bit information, and a value of X is an integer greater than 1; the 1 bit information is used for indicating whether to switch the current carrier wave or not through a bit value mode; or, the 1-bit information is used for indicating whether to switch the current carrier wave or not in a bit flipping mode; the X bit information is used for indicating whether to switch the current carrier or not through a bit coding mode.

In one possible example, prior to the first indication information sent to the terminal, the processing unit 1402 is further configured to: and sending first configuration information to the terminal, wherein the first configuration information is used for configuring the index of the candidate carrier to be switched.

In one possible example, the carrier list information satisfies at least one of the following: indexes of M carriers in the carrier list information are determined by current position information of the terminal and a preset satellite ephemeris, and an arrangement sequence between the indexes of the M carriers in the carrier list information is determined by the current position information of the terminal and the preset satellite ephemeris; or, the carrier set information satisfies at least one of the following modes: indexes of N carriers in the carrier set information are determined by current position information of the terminal and a preset satellite ephemeris, and indexes of P carriers in a candidate carrier index set in the carrier set information are determined by distribution of beams corresponding to the indexes of the N carriers.

In a possible example, if the first indication information is 1-bit information and the candidate carrier is a first carrier, the 1-bit information is specifically used to indicate whether to switch from the current carrier to the first carrier by using a bit value mode, and an index of the first carrier is a next carrier index of a position where the index of the current carrier is located in the carrier list information; or, the 1-bit information is specifically used to indicate whether to switch from the current carrier to the first carrier by bit flipping.

Referring to fig. 12, fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Among other things, the terminal 1200 includes a processor 1210, a memory 1220, a communication interface 1230, and at least one communication bus connecting the processor 1210, the memory 1220, and the communication interface 1230.

The memory 1220 includes, but is not limited to, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), or a portable read-only memory (CD-ROM), and the memory 1220 is used for related instructions and data.

The communication interface 1230 is used for receiving and transmitting data.

The processor 1210 may be one or more CPUs, and in the case where the processor 1210 is one CPU, the CPU may be a single-core CPU or a multi-core CPU.

The processor 1210 in the terminal 1200 is configured to read one or more programs 1221 stored in the memory 1220 to perform the following steps: acquiring first indication information from network equipment; and determining whether to switch the current carrier according to the first indication information, wherein the current carrier is used for transmitting the first indication information and corresponds to one beam.

It should be noted that specific implementation of each operation in the embodiment shown in fig. 12 may be detailed in the description of the method embodiment shown in fig. 7 or fig. 8, and is not described in detail here.

In one possible example, before obtaining the first indication information from the network device, the processing unit 1002 is further configured to: acquiring first configuration information from network equipment, wherein the first configuration information is used for configuring indexes of candidate carriers to be switched; in terms of determining whether to switch the current carrier according to the first indication information, the processor 1210 is specifically configured to: and determining whether to switch from the current carrier to the candidate carrier according to the first configuration information and the first indication information.

In one possible example, if the first indication information is 1-bit information and the candidate carrier is a first carrier, in terms of determining whether to switch from the current carrier to the target carrier according to the first configuration information and the first indication information, the processor 1210 is specifically configured to: determining whether the current carrier is switched to a first carrier according to the carrier list information and a bit value mode in the 1-bit information, wherein the index of the first carrier is the index of the next carrier of the current carrier at the position of the carrier list information; or, determining whether to switch from the current carrier to the first carrier according to the carrier list information and a bit flipping mode in the 1-bit information.

In one possible example, if the first indication information is X-bit information and the candidate carrier is a second carrier, the processor 1210 is specifically configured to: and determining whether to switch from the current carrier to a second carrier according to the carrier set information and a bit coding mode in the X bit information, wherein the index of the second carrier is one carrier index in a candidate carrier index set associated with the index of the current carrier in the carrier set information, and the X bit information is also used for indicating the index of the second carrier through the bit coding mode.

Referring to fig. 13, fig. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application. Network device 1300 includes, among other things, a processor 1310, a memory 1320, a communication interface 1330, and at least one communication bus connecting processor 1310, memory 1320, and communication interface 1330.

The memory 1320 includes, but is not limited to, a RAM, ROM, EPROM, or CD-ROM, and the memory 1320 is used to store the relevant instructions and data.

Communication interface 1330 is used to receive and transmit data.

The processor 1310 may be one or more CPUs, and in the case where the processor 1310 is one CPU, the CPU may be a single-core CPU or a multi-core CPU.

The processor 1310 in the network device 1300 is configured to read one or more programs 1321 stored in the memory 1320 to perform the following steps: and sending first indication information to the terminal, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating whether to switch the current carrier, the current carrier is used for transmitting the first indication information, and the current carrier corresponds to one beam.

It should be noted that specific implementation of each operation in the embodiment shown in fig. 13 may be detailed in the description of the method embodiment shown in fig. 7 or fig. 8, and is not described in detail here.

It can be seen that, in the embodiment of the present application, first indication information is sent to a terminal in a non-terrestrial network communication system, where the first indication information is used to indicate whether to switch a current carrier, and the current carrier is a carrier used to transmit the first indication information. Because the first indication information is configured by the network equipment and the current carrier corresponds to one wave beam, the carrier switching management (whether the current carrier is switched or not) is realized through the network configuration, and the wave beam switching management (whether the wave beam corresponding to the current carrier is switched or not) is realized through the carrier switching management, so that the interruption of non-ground network communication caused by the movement of a satellite is avoided, and the reliability of the non-ground network communication is improved.

The present application further provides a chip, where the chip includes a processor, and is configured to call and run a computer program from a memory, so that a device in which the chip is installed performs some or all of the steps described in the terminal or the network device in the foregoing method embodiments.

The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, where the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program for electronic data exchange, where the computer program makes a computer perform some or all of the steps described in the above method embodiments for a terminal or a network device.

Embodiments of the present application further provide a computer program product, where the computer program product includes a computer program, and the computer program is operable to cause a computer to perform some or all of the steps described in the terminal or the network device in the foregoing method embodiments. The computer program product may be a software installation package.

The steps of a method or algorithm described in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented in hardware, or may be implemented by a processor executing software instructions. The software instructions may consist of corresponding software modules that may be stored in RAM, flash memory, ROM, Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM), registers, a hard disk, a removable hard disk, a compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM), or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. Of course, the storage medium may also be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. Additionally, the ASIC may reside in a terminal or a network device. Of course, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a terminal or network device.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that in one or more of the examples described above, the functionality described in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented, in whole or in part, by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product 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 in a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another computer readable storage medium. For example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) means. 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 includes 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-mentioned embodiments are intended to illustrate the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application in further detail, and it should be understood that the above-mentioned embodiments are only specific embodiments of the present application, and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application, and any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements and the like made on the basis of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application should be included in the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

Claims

1. A carrier switching method is applied to a terminal in a non-terrestrial network communication system, wherein the non-terrestrial network communication system comprises the terminal and network equipment; the method comprises the following steps:

acquiring first indication information from network equipment;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first indication information is 1-bit information or X-bit information, and a value of X is an integer greater than 1;

the 1-bit information is used for indicating whether to switch the current carrier wave or not through a bit value mode; or, the 1-bit information is used for indicating whether to switch the current carrier wave or not in a bit flipping manner;

The X bit information is used for indicating whether to switch the current carrier wave or not through a bit coding mode.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein prior to said obtaining the first indication information from the network device, the method further comprises:

acquiring first configuration information from the network equipment, wherein the first configuration information is used for configuring indexes of candidate carriers to be switched;

the determining whether to switch the current carrier according to the first indication information includes:

and determining whether to switch from the current carrier to the candidate carrier according to the first configuration information and the first indication information.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first configuration information is configured by the network device via Radio Resource Control (RRC) dedicated signaling.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the first configuration information comprises carrier list information or carrier set information;

the carrier list information is formed by sequentially arranging indexes of M carriers, the indexes of the M carriers comprise the index of the current carrier, the index of each carrier in the carrier list information corresponds to a beam, and the value of M is an integer greater than 1;

The carrier set information includes indexes of N carriers and a candidate carrier index set associated with the index of each carrier in the indexes of the N carriers, the indexes of the N carriers include the index of the current carrier, the index of each carrier in the carrier set information corresponds to a beam, and the value of N is an integer greater than 1;

the candidate carrier index set is composed of indexes of P carriers in the indexes of the N carriers, and the value of P is less than or equal to the value of N.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the carrier list information at least one of: the indexes of the M carriers in the carrier list information are determined by the current position information of the terminal and a preset satellite ephemeris, and the arrangement sequence between the indexes of the M carriers in the carrier list information is determined by the current position information of the terminal and the preset satellite ephemeris; or,

the carrier set information satisfies at least one of the following modes: the indexes of the N carriers in the carrier set information are determined by current position information of the terminal and the preset satellite ephemeris, and the indexes of the P carriers in the candidate carrier index set in the carrier set information are determined by the distribution of beams corresponding to the indexes of the N carriers.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein if the first indication information is the 1-bit information and the candidate carrier is a first carrier, the determining whether to switch from the current carrier to the target carrier according to the first configuration information and the first indication information comprises:

determining whether the current carrier is switched to the first carrier according to the carrier list information and a bit value mode in the 1-bit information, wherein the index of the first carrier is the next carrier index of the current carrier at the position of the carrier list information; or,

and determining whether to switch the current carrier to the first carrier according to the carrier list information and a bit flipping mode in the 1-bit information.

8. The method according to claim 5, wherein if the first indication information is the X-bit information and the candidate carrier is a second carrier, the determining whether to switch from the current carrier to the candidate carrier according to the first configuration information and the first indication information comprises:

and determining whether to switch the current carrier to the second carrier according to the bit coding modes in the carrier set information and the X bit information, wherein the index of the second carrier is one carrier index in the candidate carrier index set associated with the index of the current carrier in the carrier set information, and the X bit information is further used for indicating the index of the second carrier through the bit coding mode.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the X bits of information are configured by the network device via RRC dedicated signaling.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the value of X satisfies at least one of the following conditions: the value of X is determined by the number of carrier indexes in the candidate carrier index set associated with the index of the current carrier, and the value of X and the value of P have a mapping relation.

11. The method according to any of claims 1-10, wherein said first indication information is carried in first downlink control information, DCI.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first DCI is a scheduled DCI or a non-scheduled DCI.

13. A carrier switching method is applied to network equipment in a non-terrestrial network communication system, wherein the non-terrestrial network communication system comprises the network equipment and a terminal; the method comprises the following steps:

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first indication information is 1-bit information or X-bit information, and a value of X is an integer greater than 1;

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein before the first indication information sent to the terminal, the method further comprises:

and sending first configuration information to the terminal, wherein the first configuration information is used for configuring the index of the candidate carrier to be switched.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the first configuration information is configured by the network device via Radio Resource Control (RRC) dedicated signaling.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the first configuration information comprises carrier list information or carrier set information;

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the carrier list information at least one of: the indexes of the M carriers in the carrier list information are determined by the current position information of the terminal and a preset satellite ephemeris, and the arrangement sequence between the indexes of the M carriers in the carrier list information is determined by the current position information of the terminal and the preset satellite ephemeris; or,

19. The method according to claim 17, wherein if the first indication information is 1-bit information and the candidate carrier is a first carrier, the 1-bit information is specifically configured to indicate whether to switch from the current carrier to the first carrier by using a bit dereferencing manner, and an index of the first carrier is a next carrier index of a position where the index of the current carrier is located in the carrier list information; or,

the 1-bit information is specifically used to indicate whether to switch from the current carrier to the first carrier by a bit flipping manner.

20. The method according to claim 17, wherein if the first indication information is X-bit information and the candidate carrier is a second carrier, the X-bit information is specifically used to indicate whether to switch from the current carrier to the second carrier by means of bit encoding, and an index of the second carrier is one carrier index in the candidate carrier index set associated with the index of the current carrier in the carrier set information;

the X-bit information is further specifically used to indicate an index of the second carrier by a bit encoding manner.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the X-bit information is configured by the network device via RRC dedicated signaling.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the value of X satisfies at least one of the following: the value of X is determined by the number of carrier indexes in the candidate carrier index set associated with the index of the current carrier, and the value of X and the value of P have a mapping relation.

23. The method according to any of claims 13-22, wherein said first indication information is carried in first downlink control information, DCI.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the first DCI is a scheduled DCI or a non-scheduled DCI.

25. The carrier switching device is applied to a terminal in a non-terrestrial network communication system, wherein the non-terrestrial network communication system comprises the terminal and network equipment; the apparatus comprises a processing unit and a communication unit, the processing unit being configured to:

26. The carrier switching device is applied to network equipment in a non-terrestrial network communication system, wherein the non-terrestrial network communication system comprises the network equipment and a terminal; the apparatus comprises a processing unit and a communication unit, the processing unit being configured to:

27. A terminal comprising a processor, memory, a communication interface, and one or more programs stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the processor, the one or more programs including instructions for performing the steps in the method of any of claims 1-12.

28. A network device comprising a processor, a memory, a communication interface, and one or more programs stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the processor, the one or more programs including instructions for performing the steps in the method of any of claims 13-24.

29. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that it stores a computer program for electronic data exchange, wherein the computer program causes a computer to perform the method according to any one of claims 1-12 or 13-24.