CN115175225A

CN115175225A - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN115175225A
Application number: CN202110356530.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张力; 韩静; 李红; 沈众宜
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-04-01
Filing date: 2021-04-01
Publication date: 2022-10-11

Abstract

A communication method and device are used for optimizing configuration of an MG. The network equipment determines first information and sends the first information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to enable a first function; the first function is a function relating to activation or deactivation of the measurement interval MG; and the terminal equipment starts the first function according to the first information. Therefore, the terminal equipment and the network equipment configure the MG according to the actual requirement of the terminal equipment on the MG, so as to avoid the loss of throughput.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a communication method and apparatus.

Background

When the terminal device performs signal measurement, the network device configures measurement configuration information for the terminal device, where the measurement configuration information may include a Measurement Object (MO) and a measurement interval (MG). The MG configured in the above manner is effective all the time, so that when the measurement of a certain MO does not require the MG, due to the existence of the effective MG, the network device cannot schedule data transmission of the terminal device within a time duration corresponding to the MG, and throughput loss is caused.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method and device for optimizing configuration of an MG.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which may be applied to a terminal device, or a chip, a circuit, or a functional module in the terminal device. The method can comprise the following steps: receiving first information from network equipment, wherein the first information is used for indicating terminal equipment to enable a first function; opening the first function according to the first information; the first function is a function related to activation or deactivation of the MG. This enables the terminal device to use the MG as needed when measuring the MO by enabling the first function to avoid throughput loss.

In one possible design, when a first event is triggered, it may be determined to activate or deactivate the MG; wherein the first event may be one of: receiving the first information from a network device, wherein the first information is used for indicating the terminal device to enable the first function; receiving second information from the network equipment, wherein the second information is used for indicating the frequency domain resource switching of any serving cell of the terminal equipment; receiving third information from the network device, wherein the third information is used for adding or deleting a measurement object MO; receiving fourth information from the network equipment, wherein the fourth information is used for adding or deleting a primary cell or a secondary cell; receiving fifth information from the network device, wherein the fifth information is used for activating or deactivating a secondary cell; receiving sixth information from the network device, where the sixth information is used to reconfigure frequency domain resources of a primary cell, a primary and secondary cell, or a secondary cell; or sending seventh information to the network device, where the seventh information is used to instruct the terminal device to start or stop performing positioning reference signal measurement. In this way, when a first event may affect the requirement of signal measurement on the MG, the terminal device may determine whether the MG needs to be activated or deactivated when these events are triggered, and then activate or deactivate the MG, so as to meet the requirement of the terminal device on the MG.

In one possible design, eighth information is received from a network device, the eighth information indicating activation or deactivation of the MG; activating or deactivating the MG according to the eighth information. Thus, the terminal equipment can activate or deactivate the MG according to the indication of the network equipment.

In one possible design, when the terminal device configures the positioning reference signal measurement when the first function is turned on, information for instructing the terminal device to start performing the positioning reference signal measurement is sent to the network device. Therefore, the network equipment can acquire the requirement of terminal equipment positioning reference signal measurement, and the terminal equipment or the network equipment can consider the requirement of terminal equipment positioning reference signal measurement when determining the activation or deactivation of the MG, so that the terminal equipment can accurately measure the positioning reference signal.

In one possible design, the information instructing the terminal device to start positioning reference signal measurement includes bandwidth information of a positioning reference signal. Thus, the terminal device can determine whether the positioning reference signal is in the frequency domain resource of the terminal device serving cell based on the bandwidth information of the reference signal.

In one possible design, the determining to activate the MG may specifically be: and when the seventh information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to start positioning reference signal measurement and the terminal equipment does not support the positioning reference signal measurement without the MG, determining to activate the MG. Therefore, the terminal equipment can ensure that the terminal equipment can accurately measure the positioning reference signal.

In one possible design, the determining to activate or deactivate the MG may specifically be: when the terminal equipment supports measurement of a positioning reference signal without MG, judging whether the positioning reference signal and a synchronization information number block SSB corresponding to the MO are in frequency domain resources of a service cell of the terminal equipment; if the terminal equipment is in the frequency domain resource of the serving cell of the terminal equipment, determining to deactivate the MG; and if the terminal equipment is not in the frequency domain resource of the serving cell of the terminal equipment, determining to activate the MG. Therefore, the terminal equipment can be ensured to accurately measure the positioning reference signal.

In a possible design, when the first event is receiving the third information from the network device, a completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to a completion time of the MO addition or deletion; when the first event is that the fourth information from the network device is received, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of adding or deleting the primary cell or the secondary cell; when the first event is that the fifth information from the network equipment is received, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the time of activating or deactivating the secondary cell; when the first event is that the sixth information from the network device is received, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of the frequency domain resource reconfiguration of the primary cell, the primary and secondary cells, or the secondary cell; when the first event is that the seventh information is sent to the network device, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of sending a physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH, corresponding to the seventh information plus X, where X is a predefined time delay. Therefore, the completion time of the activation or deactivation and the configuration of the MG of the terminal equipment can be determined.

In one possible design, when any MG instance overlaps with an activation or deactivation delay in a time domain position, no signal measurement is performed in any MG instance, and the duration of the signal measurement is increased by one MG period; or, when the MG is in an activated state before activating or deactivating the MG, performing MG-based signal measurement in the any one MG instance; when the MG is in a deactivated state before the MG is activated or deactivated, not performing MG-based signal measurement in any MG instance, and increasing the signal measurement duration by one MG period; wherein the activation or deactivation latency is a time between a time triggered by the first event and a completion time of activating or deactivating the MG; or the activation or deactivation delay is a time between a time when the eighth information is received and a time when the MG is activated or deactivated. Therefore, whether the terminal equipment needs to perform signal measurement or not can be determined under the condition that any MG instance is overlapped with the activation or deactivation time delay in the time domain position.

In one possible design, when any MG instance overlaps with an activation or deactivation delay time in a time domain position, no data transmission is performed in the any MG instance from a start time of activating or deactivating the MG; or, starting from the starting time of activating or deactivating the MG and the finishing time of activating or deactivating the MG, no data transmission is carried out in any MG instance; and performing data transmission in any one of the MG instances after the MG deactivation is completed; or when the MG is in an activated state before the MG is activated or deactivated, no data transmission is carried out in any MG instance; when the MG is in a deactivated state before the MG is activated or deactivated, performing data transmission in any MG instance; wherein the activation or deactivation delay is a time between a time triggered by the first event and a completion time of activating or deactivating the MG; or the activation or deactivation delay is a time between a time when the eighth information is received and a time when the MG is activated or deactivated. Therefore, whether the terminal equipment needs to carry out data transmission or not can be determined under the condition that any MG instance and the activation or deactivation time delay are overlapped at the time domain position.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which may be applied to a network device, or a chip, a circuit, or a functional module in the network device. The method can comprise the following steps: determining first information, and sending the first information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to enable a first function; the first function is a function related to activation or deactivation of the MG. This can enable the terminal device to use the MG as needed when measuring the MO by enabling the first function to avoid throughput loss.

In one possible design, the MG is determined to be activated or deactivated when a first event is triggered; wherein the first event may be one of: sending first information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to enable the first function; sending second information to the terminal device, where the second information is used to indicate frequency domain resource switching of any serving cell of the terminal device; sending third information to the terminal equipment, wherein the third information is used for adding or deleting a measurement object MO; sending fourth information to the terminal equipment, wherein the fourth information is used for adding or deleting a main cell or an auxiliary cell; sending fifth information to the terminal equipment, wherein the fifth information is used for activating or deactivating a secondary cell; sending sixth information to the terminal device, where the sixth information is used to reconfigure frequency domain resources of a primary cell, a primary and secondary cell, or a secondary cell; or receiving seventh information from the terminal device, where the seventh information is used to instruct the terminal device to start or stop performing positioning reference signal measurement. In this way, when a first event may affect the requirement of the signal measurement on the MG, the network device may determine whether the MG needs to be activated or deactivated when the events are triggered, and then activate or deactivate the MG, so as to meet the requirement of the terminal device on the MG.

In one possible design, eighth information is sent to the terminal device, where the eighth information is used to indicate activation or deactivation of the MG. This enables the terminal device to activate or deactivate the MG according to the indication of the network device.

In one possible design, the first function is turned off when information instructing the terminal device to start positioning reference signal measurement is received from the terminal device, and the terminal device does not support positioning reference signal measurement without MG. This allows the MGs to be present in the way that the current configuration is in effect, so that the terminal device has the MG in effect to perform signal measurement all the time.

In one possible design, the information for instructing the terminal device to start positioning reference signal measurement is received from the terminal device, and the information for instructing the terminal device to start positioning reference signal measurement includes bandwidth information of a positioning reference signal. Therefore, the network equipment can acquire the requirement of terminal equipment positioning reference signal measurement, and then the terminal equipment or the network equipment can determine the MG activation or deactivation so as to consider the requirement of the terminal equipment positioning reference signal measurement, thereby enabling the terminal equipment to accurately measure the positioning reference signal.

In one possible design, the determining to activate the MG may specifically be: and when the seventh information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to start to measure the positioning reference signals and the terminal equipment does not support the measurement of the positioning reference signals without the MG, determining to activate the MG. Therefore, the terminal equipment can be ensured to accurately measure the positioning reference signal.

In one possible design, the determining to activate or deactivate the MG may specifically be: when the terminal equipment supports the measurement of the positioning reference signal without MG, judging whether the positioning reference signal and a synchronization information number block SSB corresponding to the MO are in the frequency domain resource of the terminal equipment or not; if the terminal equipment is in the frequency domain resource of the serving cell of the terminal equipment, determining to deactivate the MG; and if the terminal equipment is not in the frequency domain resource of the serving cell of the terminal equipment, determining to activate the MG. Therefore, the terminal equipment can be ensured to accurately measure the positioning reference signal.

In one possible design, when the first event is sending the third information to the terminal device, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of adding or deleting the MO; when the first event is that the fourth information is sent to the terminal device, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of adding or deleting the primary cell or the secondary cell; when the first event is that the fifth information is sent to the terminal device, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the time of activating or deactivating the secondary cell; when the first event is that the sixth information is sent to the terminal device, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of the frequency domain resource reconfiguration of the primary cell, the primary and secondary cells, or the secondary cell; when the first event is that the seventh information from the terminal device is received, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of sending a physical uplink shared channel PUSCH corresponding to the seventh information plus X, where X is a predefined time delay. Thus, the completion time of the activation or deactivation and configuration of the MG of the network equipment can be determined.

In one possible design, when any MG instance overlaps with an activation or deactivation delay in a time domain location, no data transmission is scheduled within the any MG instance, starting from a start time of activating or deactivating the MG; or, from a start time of activating or deactivating the MG to a completion time of activating or deactivating the MG, no data transmission is scheduled in any MG instance, and data transmission is scheduled in any MG instance after the MG is deactivated; or when the MG is in an activated state before the MG is activated or deactivated, no data transmission is scheduled in any MG instance; scheduling data transmission within the any one MG instance when the MG is in a deactivated state prior to activation or deactivation of the MG; wherein the activation or deactivation delay is a time between a time triggered by the first event and a completion time of activating or deactivating the MG. Therefore, whether the network equipment needs to carry out scheduling data transmission or not can be determined under the condition that any MG instance is overlapped with the activation or deactivation time delay in the time domain position.

In a third aspect, the present application further provides a communication apparatus, which may be a terminal device, and the communication apparatus has a function of implementing the terminal device in the first aspect or each possible design example of the first aspect. The functions can be realized by hardware, and the functions can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above-described functions.

In a possible design, the structure of the communication apparatus includes a communication unit and a processing unit, and these units may execute corresponding functions of the terminal device in the first aspect or each possible design example of the first aspect, specifically refer to the detailed description in the method example, and are not described herein again.

In one possible design, the communication apparatus includes a transceiver and a processor, and optionally a memory, in its structure, the transceiver is configured to transmit and receive data and is configured to perform communication interaction with other devices in the communication system, and the processor is configured to support the communication apparatus to perform corresponding functions of the terminal device in the first aspect or each possible design example of the first aspect. The memory is coupled to the processor and retains program instructions and data necessary for the communication device.

In a fourth aspect, the present application further provides a communication apparatus, which may be a network device, and the communication apparatus has a function of implementing the network device in the second aspect or each possible design example of the second aspect. The functions can be realized by hardware, and the functions can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above.

In a possible design, the structure of the communication apparatus includes a communication unit and a processing unit, and these units may execute the corresponding functions of the network device in the second aspect or each possible design example of the second aspect, specifically refer to the detailed description in the method example, and are not described herein again.

In one possible design, the communication apparatus includes a transceiver and a processor, and optionally a memory, in a structure, where the transceiver is configured to transmit and receive data and is configured to perform communication interaction with other devices in the communication system, and the processor is configured to support the communication apparatus to perform corresponding functions of the network device in the second aspect or each possible design example of the second aspect. The memory is coupled to the processor and retains program instructions and data necessary for the communication device.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, which may include the above-mentioned terminal device and network device.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores program instructions, and when the program instructions are executed on a computer, the computer executes a method described in the first aspect and any possible design thereof, or the second aspect and any possible design thereof. By way of example, computer readable storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. Take this as an example but not limiting: the computer-readable medium may include a non-transitory computer-readable medium, a random-access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer.

In a seventh aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product including computer program code or instructions, which when run on a computer, causes the computer to implement the method described in the first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the first aspect, or any one of the possible designs of the second aspect or the second aspect.

In an eighth aspect, the present application further provides a chip, including a processor, coupled with a memory, for reading and executing program instructions stored in the memory, so as to enable the chip to implement the method described in the above first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the first aspect, or in the above second aspect or any one of the possible designs of the second aspect.

In a ninth aspect, the present application further provides a circuit system, including a processor and an interface, where the processor is configured to call and execute instructions from the interface, and when the processor executes the instructions, implement the method in the first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the first aspect, or the second aspect or any one of the possible designs of the second aspect.

For each of the third to ninth aspects and possible technical effects of each aspect, please refer to the description of the possible technical effects for each possible solution in the first or second aspect, and no repeated description is given here.

Drawings

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

fig. 2 is a flow chart of a communication method provided herein;

fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in the present application;

fig. 4 is a structural diagram of a communication device provided in the present application.

Detailed Description

The present application will be described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and device, which are used for optimizing the configuration of an MG. The method and the device are based on the same technical concept, and because the principles of solving the problems of the method and the device are similar, the implementation of the device and the method can be mutually referred, and repeated parts are not repeated.

In the description of the present application, the terms "first," "second," and the like, are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance, nor order.

In the description of the present application, "at least one" means one or more, and a plurality means two or more.

Measurement intervals (MG) referred to in the present application: in order to measure the reference signal on a certain MO, the terminal device needs to tune the radio frequency from the serving cell to a target frequency point, thereby generating data interruption on the serving cell. The measurement interval is configured by the network, and its configuration parameters include measurement interval length (MGL) (i.e. interruption time on the serving cell), measurement interval repetition period (MGRP) (i.e. time interval in which interruption on the serving cell occurs) and time domain location (i.e. which slots (slots) on the serving cell are interrupted).

In order to more clearly describe the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the following describes in detail a communication method and apparatus provided by the embodiments of the present application with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 illustrates an architecture of a communication system to which the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application is applicable, where the architecture of the communication system may include a network device and a terminal device.

The network device may be a device with wireless transceiving function or a chip provided to the network device, and the network device may include but is not limited to: a base station (gbb), a Radio Network Controller (RNC), a Node B (NB), a Base Station Controller (BSC), a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), a home base station (e.g., home evolved NodeB or home Node B, HNB), a Base Band Unit (BBU), an Access Point (AP) in a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) system, a wireless relay Node, a wireless backhaul Node, a transmission point (TRP or transmission point, TP), and the like, and may also be a network Node that constitutes the gbb or the transmission point, such as a baseband unit (BBU), or a Distributed Unit (DU), and the like.

In some deployments, the gNB may include a Centralized Unit (CU) and a DU. The gNB may further include a Radio Unit (RU). The CU implements part of functions of the gNB, the DU implements part of functions of the gNB, for example, the CU implements Radio Resource Control (RRC) and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layers, and the DU implements Radio Link Control (RLC), media Access Control (MAC) and Physical (PHY) layers. Since the information of the RRC layer finally becomes or is converted from the information of the PHY layer, under this architecture, higher layer signaling, such as RRC layer signaling or PHCP layer signaling, can also be considered to be transmitted by the DU or by the DU + RU. It will be understood that the network device may be a CU node, or a DU node, or a device comprising a CU node and a DU node. In addition, the CU may be divided into network devices in the access network RAN, or may be divided into network devices in the core network CN, which is not limited herein.

The terminal equipment may also be referred to as User Equipment (UE), an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user device. The terminal device in the embodiment of the present application may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer (Pad), a computer with a wireless transceiving function, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an Augmented Reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in self driving (self driving), a wireless terminal in remote medical (remote medical), a wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in transportation safety (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in smart city (smart city), a wireless terminal in smart wearing device (smart glasses, smart watch, smart headset, etc.), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), etc., and may also be a chip or a chip module (or a chip system) that can be installed in the above devices, etc. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the application scenarios. In the present application, a terminal device having a wireless transceiving function and a chip that can be installed in the terminal device are collectively referred to as a terminal device.

It should be noted that the communication system shown in fig. 1 may be, but is not limited to, a fourth generation (4 th generation,4 g) system, a fifth generation (5 th generation,5 g) system, such as new radio access technology (NR), stand-alone networking (SA), and the like. Optionally, the method of the embodiment of the present application is also applicable to various future communication systems, such as a sixth generation (6 g) system or other communication networks.

It should be noted that the devices shown in fig. 1 are merely examples, and the communication system may also include other devices besides a network device and a terminal device, which is not limited in this application. The number of the network devices and the number of the terminal devices are also merely examples, and the number of the network devices and the number of the terminal devices in the communication system may be multiple, which is not limited in the present application.

Currently, when a terminal device performs signal measurement, a network device configures measurement configuration information for the terminal device. The measurement configuration information configured by the network device to the terminal device may include: MO, report configuration, measurement identification, measurement quantity configuration and MG. Information such as frequency points to be measured by the terminal device is configured in the MOs, and each MO has a measurement object identifier (MeasObjectId). When the measurement and the data transmission cannot be performed simultaneously, the network device needs to configure the MG for the terminal device, that is, when the terminal device needs to perform measurement at a measurement interval, the network device needs to configure the MG for the terminal device.

In NR, whether the terminal device needs the MG when measuring a certain MO may include the following cases:

if the SSB corresponding to a certain co-frequency MO is contained in a bandwidth Part (BWP) of active (active) of the terminal device, MG is not needed for the measurement of the MO;

if the SSB corresponding to a certain pilot frequency MO is contained in the activated BWP of the UE and the terminal equipment supports the capability of pilot frequency MG-free measurement, the measurement of the MO does not need MG;

if a certain MO, the terminal device indicates, through information (e.g. needfrogapsinnr-r 16), that the bandwidth (band) where the MO is located or the required interval of the serving cell is "no-interval" (i.e. needfrogap is "no-gap"), the measurement of the MO does not require an MG;

in other cases than the above, a measurement of an MO requires an MG.

In addition, if the terminal device is configured to perform positioning measurement, the network device configures the MG for the terminal device according to the request of the terminal device.

In the above case, in some implementations, for example, in a scenario of BWP handover of a serving cell, a terminal device may cause measurement of a certain MO from MG needed to MG not needed, or from MG not needed to MG needed, and so on. On the other hand, BWP handover is usually triggered by Downlink Control Information (DCI) dynamic or timer (timer) and belongs to dynamic operation, but configuration, reconfiguration and de-configuration of MG are configured by Radio Resource Control (RRC) messages and belong to semi-static operation. Therefore, for a certain MO, unless its SSB falls in all BWPs of the serving cell, the network device needs to configure the MG for the measurement of this MO. Even if the currently active BWP of the serving cell contains the SSB of the MO, i.e. the measurement of the MO does not require an MG, the MG is effective as a semi-static configuration, i.e. the network device cannot schedule the data transmission of the terminal device within the time of the MGL, thereby causing unnecessary throughput loss. That is to say, the MG configured by the current method is always in effect, so that when the terminal device does not need to measure the MG, due to the existence of the effective MG, the network device cannot schedule data transmission of the terminal device within a time duration corresponding to the MG, which may cause throughput loss.

Based on this, the embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, which can enable a terminal device to use an MG as needed when measuring an MO by pre-configuring the MG, so as to avoid throughput loss.

The first function referred to herein (which may also be referred to as a pre-configured MG function) is a function relating to activation or deactivation of an MG. Generally, when this function is not enabled (disabled), the network device sends the configuration information of the MG, and the corresponding terminal device executes the instruction carried by the configuration information of the MG, for example, executes measurement in the instance of the MG but does not transmit and receive data.

When both the terminal device and the network device have the capability to turn on this function, the network device typically schedules the terminal device to enable the function. For example by sending the first information in the following. As an example, the terminal device has a capability of turning on the function, and receives configuration information of the MG first, but the function is in an disabled state, and the terminal device does not perform an action related to the MG (such as activating or deactivating the MG); when the terminal device receives the enabling information later, the terminal device executes an action (such as activating or deactivating the MG) related to the MG according to the configuration information of the MG. As another example, the terminal device has a capability of turning on the function, and when the terminal device receives the enabled information, the terminal device does not perform an action related to the MG (such as activating or deactivating the MG), including but not limited to, the terminal device may also change the state, such as changing the field for marking the function from 0 to 1. Further, when the terminal device receives configuration information of the MG later, the terminal device performs an action related to the MG (for example, activates or deactivates the MG according to a condition restriction).

When the terminal device and the network device both have the capability of starting the function, the terminal device executes the action related to the MG, executes the instruction carried by the configuration information of the MG when the MG is activated, and the network device carries out corresponding scheduling.

That is, when the first function is not enabled, the network device sends configuration information of the MG, and the MG becomes effective. When the network device sends the configuration information of the MG but the MG is not effective, the network device and the terminal device activate or deactivate the configured MG only when the first function is enabled. Or when the first function is enabled, after the network device sends the configuration information of the MG, the network device and the terminal device trigger activation or deactivation of the MG according to specific conditions.

It should be noted that, in the communication method according to the embodiment of the present application, the operation that takes the terminal device as the main execution body may be specifically implemented by the terminal device, or a processor in the terminal device, or a chip system, or a functional module; the operation using the network device as the execution main body may be specifically implemented by the network device, or a processor in the network device, or a chip system, or a functional module. In the following embodiments, the communication method provided in the present application is described in detail by taking only a terminal device and a network device as examples, but the present application is not limited thereto.

Based on the above description, a communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application may be applied to the communication system shown in fig. 1.

Referring to fig. 2, a specific process of the method may include:

step 201: the network equipment determines first information, wherein the first information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to enable a first function; the first function is a function concerning activation or deactivation of the MG.

The specific introduction of the first function can refer to the description of the first function, and the description is not repeated here.

Step 202: the network device sends the first information to the terminal device.

Illustratively, the network device may send the first information to the terminal device via an RRC message.

Step 203: and the terminal equipment starts the first function according to the first information.

Specifically, the network device also starts the first function when sending the first information to the terminal device. The network device may start the first function before sending the first information, or start the first function simultaneously with sending the first information, or start the first function after sending the first information, which is not limited in this application.

Based on this, the network device and the terminal device may start the first function, so that the MG may be activated or deactivated subsequently according to the actual requirement of the terminal device on the MG under the first openable condition.

In an optional implementation manner, the terminal device activating or deactivating the MG may include the following two manners:

mode a1: when the first event is triggered, the terminal device determines to activate or deactivate the MG, and then the terminal device activates or deactivates the MG.

Illustratively, the first event may be one or more of the following seven events:

and 1, receiving first information from the network equipment by the terminal equipment, wherein the first information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to enable the first function.

And 2, receiving second information from the network equipment by the terminal equipment, wherein the second information is used for indicating the frequency domain resource switching of any serving cell of the terminal equipment. For example, the frequency domain resource switching may be BWP switching or the like.

And event 3, the terminal equipment receives third information from the network equipment, wherein the third information is used for adding or deleting or modifying the MO.

And 4, receiving fourth information from the network equipment by the terminal equipment, wherein the fourth information is used for adding, deleting or modifying the primary cell or the secondary cell.

And 5, receiving fifth information from the network equipment by the terminal equipment, wherein the fifth information is used for activating or deactivating the secondary cell.

And event 6, the terminal device receives sixth information from the network device, wherein the sixth information is used for reconfiguring the frequency domain resources of the primary cell, the primary and secondary cells or the secondary cell. For example, the frequency domain resource of the primary cell, the primary and secondary cells, or the secondary cell may be a BWP or a Channel Bandwidth (CBW) of the primary cell, the primary and secondary cells, or the secondary cell.

Event 7, the terminal equipment sends seventh information to the network equipment, the seventh information is used for instructing the terminal equipment to start or stop making Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) measurements.

The third to sixth information may be sent by the network device through an RRC message or a Media Access Control (MAC) message, and the seventh information may be sent by the terminal device through an RRC message or a MAC message.

In the mode a1, the first event involved may affect the requirement of the signal measurement on the MG, and the terminal device may determine whether the MG needs to be activated or deactivated when the events are triggered, so as to activate or deactivate the MG. It should be noted that the above listed examples of the first event are only examples, and other events may also be used as the first event, which is not limited in the present application.

Mode a2: the terminal equipment receives eighth information from the network equipment, wherein the eighth information is used for indicating the activation or deactivation of the MG; and the terminal equipment activates or deactivates the MG according to the eighth information.

The eighth information may be carried in an RRC message, a Media Access Control (MAC) message, or a DCI message sent by the network device.

Similarly, the network device activates or deactivates the MG, which may specifically be: when the first event is triggered, the network device determines to activate or deactivate the MG, and then the network device activates or deactivates the MG. The first event may also be one or more of the above-mentioned events 1 to 7, or the first event may also be another event, which is not described in detail herein.

In an optional implementation manner, when the first event is triggered and the network device determines to activate or deactivate the MG, eighth information may be further sent to the terminal device to instruct the terminal device to activate or deactivate the MG.

It should be noted that, when the terminal device activates or deactivates the MG through the manner a2, the first event also exists, and only the network device determines to activate or deactivate the MG when the first event is triggered, and sends the eighth information to the terminal device, where the eighth information and any one of the first information to the sixth information may be carried in the same message sent by the network device, for example, an RRC message, an MAC message, and the like. And the terminal equipment activates or deactivates the MG after receiving the eighth information.

Specifically, when the terminal device or the network device determines to activate or deactivate the MG when a first event is triggered, it determines to activate or activate the MG differently according to the different events. The following are exemplary:

when one or more of the event 1 to the event 6 is triggered, the terminal device or the network device determines whether the measurement of each MO requires an MG. If the MG is not needed in all the MO measurements, the terminal equipment or the network equipment determines to deactivate the MG; if there are one or more MOs whose measurements require MG, the end device or network device determines to activate MG. For the description about whether MG is needed for the measurement of each MO, it can be referred to the description about whether MG is needed when the terminal device measures a certain MO in the NR.

When the event 7 is triggered, if the terminal device indicates to start positioning measurement (that is, the seventh information is used to indicate the terminal device to start positioning reference signal measurement), when the terminal device does not support the positioning reference signal measurement without the MG, the terminal device or the network device determines to activate the MG; when the terminal equipment supports the measurement of the positioning reference signal without MG, the terminal equipment or the network equipment judges whether the positioning reference signal and the SSB corresponding to the MO are in the frequency domain resource of the terminal equipment service cell; if the terminal equipment is in the frequency domain resource of the serving cell of the terminal equipment, determining to deactivate the MG; and if the terminal equipment is not in the frequency domain resource of the serving cell, determining to activate the MG. If the terminal device indicates to stop the positioning measurement (that is, the seventh information is used to indicate the terminal device to stop performing the positioning reference signal measurement), the terminal device or the network device does not consider the positioning reference signal measurement when determining to activate and deactivate the MG. The frequency domain resource of the serving cell of the terminal device may be a downlink activated BWP of the serving cell of the terminal device.

Optionally, the seventh information may further include bandwidth information of the positioning reference signal (also may be referred to as bandwidth information of a frequency point of the positioning reference signal), and when the terminal device supports measurement of the positioning reference signal without the MG, so that when the event 7 is triggered, the terminal device or the network device determines, based on the bandwidth information of the reference signal, whether the positioning reference signal is in a frequency domain resource of a serving cell of the terminal device.

In an optional implementation manner, when the first event is the event 3, the completion time of the terminal device or the network device activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of the MO addition, deletion, or modification; when the first event is the event 4, the completion time of the terminal device or the network device activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of the addition, deletion or modification of the primary and secondary cells or the secondary cell; when the first event is the event 5, the completion time of the terminal device or the network device activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the time of the secondary cell activation or deactivation; when the first event is the event 6, the completion time of the terminal device or the network device activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of the frequency domain resource reconfiguration of the primary cell, the primary and secondary cells, or the secondary cell; when the first event is the event 7, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG by the terminal device or the network device is earlier than or equal to the completion time of sending a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) corresponding to the seventh information plus X, where X is a predefined time delay, and X > =0. That is to say, when the first event is any one of event 3 to event 7, the terminal device or the network device activates or deactivates the MG before the flow triggered by the event, or simultaneously with the flow triggered by the event.

In an optional implementation manner, when the terminal device determines to activate or deactivate the MG according to the eighth information sent by the network device, and further activates or deactivates the MG, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG by the terminal device is earlier than or equal to the completion time of RRC reconfiguration plus Y, or the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG by the terminal device is earlier than or equal to the effective time of the MAC command plus Z. Y and Z are predefined time delays, Y > =0, Z > =0.

Specifically, the MG may include a plurality of periodically occurring MG instances (instances). The example may be one subframe (frame or other time unit), or the example may be a time interval formed by a plurality of subframes (frames or other time units), which is not limited in this application. For example, an instance may be the first subframe, or may be a time interval of the first subframe to the sixth subframe. There is an activation or deactivation delay in activating or deactivating the MG. Some MG instances may overlap in time domain location with the activation or deactivation latency. Wherein the activation or deactivation time delay may be a time between a time triggered by the first event and a completion time of activating or deactivating the MG; or the activation or deactivation time delay is the time between the time when the terminal device receives the eighth information and the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG.

In one embodiment, when any MG instance overlaps with the activation or deactivation time delay in the time domain, the terminal device may have the following two operation methods for signal measurement:

method b1: the terminal device does not perform signal measurement in any of the MG instances, and increases the duration of the signal measurement by one MG period.

Method b2: when the MG is in an activated state before the MG is activated or deactivated, the terminal device performs MG-based signal measurement in any MG instance; when the MG is in a deactivated state before the MG is activated or deactivated, the terminal device does not perform signal measurement based on the MG in any MG instance, and the duration of the signal measurement is increased by one MG cycle.

In the above method b2, it can be understood that the time at which activation or deactivation of the MG takes effect is the first MG instance that starts after the activation or deactivation delay.

In one embodiment, when any MG instance overlaps with the activation or deactivation delay in a time domain location, whether the network device schedules data transmission may include the following three cases:

case c1: from the start time of activating or deactivating an MG, the network device does not schedule data transmission within either MG instance.

Case c2: the network device does not schedule data transmission in any MG instance from the starting time of activating or deactivating the MG to the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG, and schedules data transmission in any MG instance after the completion of the MG deactivation.

Case c3: when the MG is in the activated state before the MG is activated or deactivated, the network device does not schedule data transmission in any MG instance; when the MG is in a deactivated state before activating or deactivating the MG, the network device schedules data transmission within the any one MG instance.

It should be noted that, the network device does not schedule data transmission in any MG instance, and it may be understood that any MG instance is not available for the network device to schedule data transmission. The network device schedules data transmission in any MG instance, which may be understood as being available for the network device to schedule data transmission.

In one embodiment, when any MG instance overlaps with the activation or deactivation delay in the time domain, whether the terminal device performs data transmission may include the following three cases:

case d1: starting from the starting time of activating or deactivating the MG, the terminal device does not perform data transmission in any MG instance.

Case d2: starting from the starting time of activating or deactivating the MG and the finishing time of activating or deactivating the MG, the terminal equipment does not carry out data transmission in any MG instance; and data transmission is performed in either MG instance after MG deactivation is complete.

Case d3: when the MG is in an activated state before the MG is activated or deactivated, the terminal device does not perform data transmission in any MG instance; when the MG is in the deactivated state before the MG is activated or deactivated, the terminal device performs data transmission in any MG instance.

In the above method d3, it can be understood that the time at which activation or deactivation of the MG takes effect is the first MG instance that starts after the activation or deactivation delay.

By the method, when any MG instance and the activation or deactivation time delay are overlapped in the time domain position, the behaviors of the network device and the terminal device can be kept consistent, that is, the network device can be prevented from scheduling the terminal device to transmit data when the terminal device cannot transmit the data, or scheduling resources are prevented from being wasted when the terminal device can transmit the data.

In one embodiment, when the terminal device configures positioning reference signal measurement when the first function is turned on, the terminal device sends information for instructing the terminal device to start performing positioning reference signal measurement to the network device. Whether the PRS measurements are sufficient when the MGs are activated (e.g., whether the MGs have positioning reference signals that overlap), the terminal device always considers the MGs to be insufficient for PRS measurements (insufficient), or the terminal device always sends information to the network device instructing the terminal device to start positioning reference signal measurements when the first function is on. Therefore, the network equipment can acquire the requirement of terminal equipment positioning reference signal measurement, and then the terminal equipment or the network equipment can determine the MG activation or deactivation so as to consider the requirement of the terminal equipment positioning reference signal measurement, thereby enabling the terminal equipment to accurately measure the positioning reference signal.

Illustratively, the information for instructing the terminal device to start measurement of the positioning reference signal is sent by the terminal device to the network device, and may include a suggestion of MG configuration, a center frequency of the positioning reference signal, and the like.

In an optional implementation manner, the information sent by the terminal device to the network device and used for instructing the terminal device to start measurement of the positioning reference signal further includes bandwidth information of each positioning reference signal (that is, bandwidth information of each positioning reference signal frequency point).

In an optional implementation manner, when receiving information from the terminal device for instructing the terminal device to start performing positioning reference signal measurement, and the terminal device does not support positioning reference signal measurement without MG, the network device turns off the first function.

The communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application is described above in detail. The communication device provided by the embodiment of the present application is described in detail below with reference to fig. 3 and 4. It is to be understood that the description of the apparatus embodiments corresponds to the description of the method embodiments. Therefore, reference may be made to the description in the above method examples for what is not described in detail.

Based on the above embodiments, the communication device provided in the embodiments of the present application may be a software unit or a circuit system. The circuitry may be formed of a chip or may include a chip or other discrete device. Illustratively, referring to fig. 3, the communication device 300 may include a communication unit 301 and a processing unit 302. The communication unit 301 may be used for communication of the communication apparatus 300, for example, the communication unit 301 may be a transceiver unit for receiving information (message or data) or transmitting information (message or data) by the communication apparatus 300; for another example, the communication unit 301 may be a receiving unit for the communication device 300 to receive information (message or data) and a transmitting unit for the communication device 300 to transmit information (message or data). The processing unit 302 is configured to control and manage the operation of the communication device 300. The processing unit 302 may also control the steps performed by the communication unit 301.

The communication apparatus 300 may specifically be the terminal device in the above embodiments, a processor in the terminal device, or a chip, or a system of chips, a circuit, or a functional module; alternatively, the communication apparatus 300 may specifically be the network device in the above embodiments, a processor or a chip of the network device, or a system-on-chip, a circuit, or a functional module.

In an embodiment, when the communication apparatus 300 is configured to implement the functions of the terminal device in the embodiment described in fig. 2, the communication unit 301 is configured to perform the transceiving related operations of the terminal device in the above-described method embodiment, and the processing unit 302 is configured to perform the processing related operations of the terminal device in the above-described method embodiment.

For example, the communication unit 301 may be configured to receive first information from a network device, where the first information is used to instruct a terminal device to enable a first function; the first function is a function regarding activation or deactivation of the MG; the processing unit 302 may be configured to start the first function according to the first information.

In one example, the processing unit 302 can be further configured to: determining to activate or deactivate the MG when a first event is triggered; wherein the first event is one of the following: receiving the first information from a network device, wherein the first information is used for indicating the terminal device to enable the first function; receiving second information from the network device, where the second information is used to indicate frequency domain resource switching of any serving cell of the terminal device; receiving third information from the network equipment, wherein the third information is used for adding or deleting a measurement object MO; receiving fourth information from the network equipment, wherein the fourth information is used for adding or deleting a primary cell or a secondary cell; receiving fifth information from the network equipment, wherein the fifth information is used for activating or deactivating a secondary cell; receiving sixth information from the network device, where the sixth information is used to reconfigure frequency domain resources of a primary cell, a primary and secondary cell, or a secondary cell; or sending seventh information to the network device, where the seventh information is used to instruct the terminal device to start or stop performing the positioning reference signal measurement.

In another example, the communication unit 301 may be further configured to receive eighth information from a network device, where the eighth information is used to instruct activation or deactivation of the MG; the processing unit 302 may be further configured to activate or deactivate the MG according to the eighth information.

In an optional implementation, the communication unit 301 may further be configured to: when the first function is started and the terminal device is configured with positioning reference signal measurement, sending information for instructing the terminal device to start positioning reference signal measurement to the network device.

Optionally, the information for instructing the terminal device to start performing the positioning reference signal measurement includes bandwidth information of the positioning reference signal.

In a specific implementation manner, when determining to activate the MG, the processing unit 302 may specifically be configured to: and when the seventh information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to start positioning reference signal measurement and the terminal equipment does not support the positioning reference signal measurement without the MG, determining to activate the MG.

In another specific implementation, when determining to activate or deactivate the MG, the processing unit 302 may specifically be configured to: when the terminal equipment supports the measurement of the positioning reference signal without MG, judging whether the positioning reference signal and a synchronization information number block SSB corresponding to the MO are in the frequency domain resource of the terminal equipment service cell; if the terminal equipment is in the frequency domain resource of the serving cell of the terminal equipment, determining to deactivate the MG; and if the terminal equipment is not in the frequency domain resource of the serving cell of the terminal equipment, determining to activate the MG.

In an optional implementation manner, when the first event is receiving the third information from the network device, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of adding or deleting the MO; when the first event is the reception of the fourth information from the network device, the completion time of the activation or deactivation of the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of the addition or deletion of the primary and secondary cells or the secondary cell; when the first event is the reception of the fifth information from the network device, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the time of activating or deactivating the secondary cell. When the first event is the reception of the sixth information from the network device, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of the frequency domain resource reconfiguration of the primary cell, the primary and secondary cells, or the secondary cell; when the first event is that the seventh information is sent to the network device, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of sending a physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH, corresponding to the seventh information plus X, where X is a predefined time delay.

In an exemplary embodiment, when any MG instance overlaps with the activation or deactivation delay in a time domain position, the processing unit 302 may further be configured to: in any MG instance, signal measurement is not carried out, and the duration of the signal measurement is increased by one MG period; or, when the MG is in an activated state before the MG is activated or deactivated, performing MG-based signal measurement in any one of the MG instances; when the MG is in a deactivated state before the MG is activated or deactivated, not performing MG-based signal measurement in any MG instance, and increasing the signal measurement duration by one MG period; wherein the activation or deactivation delay is a time between a time triggered by the first event and a completion time of activating or deactivating the MG; or, the activation or deactivation delay is a time between a time when the eighth information is received and a completion time when the MG is activated or deactivated.

In an exemplary embodiment, when any MG instance overlaps with the activation or deactivation delay in a time domain position, the communication unit 301 may further be configured to: starting from a start time of activating or deactivating the MG, no data transmission is performed within the any one MG instance; or, starting from the starting time of activating or deactivating the MG and the finishing time of activating or deactivating the MG, no data transmission is carried out in any MG instance; and performing data transmission in any one of the MG instances after the MG deactivation is completed; or when the MG is in an activated state before the MG is activated or deactivated, no data transmission is carried out in any MG instance; when the MG is in a deactivated state before the MG is activated or deactivated, performing data transmission in any MG instance; wherein the activation or deactivation delay is a time between a time triggered by the first event and a completion time of activating or deactivating the MG; or, the activation or deactivation delay is a time between a time when the eighth information is received and a completion time when the MG is activated or deactivated.

In another embodiment, when the communication apparatus 300 is configured to implement the functions of the network device in the embodiment described above with reference to fig. 2, the communication unit 301 is configured to perform operations related to transceiving of the network device in the above method embodiment, and the processing unit 302 is configured to perform operations related to processing of the network device in the above method embodiment.

For example, the processing unit 302 may be configured to determine first information, where the first information is used to instruct a terminal device to enable a first function; the first function is a function regarding activation or deactivation of the MG; the communication unit 301 may be configured to send the first information to the terminal device.

In one example, the processing unit 302 can be further configured to: determining to activate or deactivate the MG when a first event is triggered; wherein the first event is one of the following: sending first information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to enable the first function; sending second information to the terminal device, where the second information is used to indicate frequency domain resource switching of any serving cell of the terminal device; sending third information to the terminal equipment, wherein the third information is used for adding or deleting a measurement object MO; sending fourth information to the terminal equipment, wherein the fourth information is used for adding or deleting a main cell or an auxiliary cell; sending fifth information to the terminal equipment, wherein the fifth information is used for activating or deactivating a secondary cell; sending sixth information to the terminal device, where the sixth information is used to reconfigure frequency domain resources of a primary cell, a primary and secondary cell, or a secondary cell; or receiving seventh information from the terminal device, where the seventh information is used to instruct the terminal device to start or stop performing positioning reference signal measurement.

In another example, the communication unit 301 may be further configured to send eighth information to the terminal device, where the eighth information is used to instruct to activate or deactivate the MG.

In an optional embodiment, the communication unit 301 may be further configured to receive information from the terminal device, where the information is used to instruct the terminal device to start performing positioning reference signal measurement; the processing unit 302 may be further configured to: when the communication unit 301 receives information from the terminal device, which indicates that the terminal device starts to perform positioning reference signal measurement, and the terminal device does not support positioning reference signal measurement without MG, the first function is turned off.

In an optional implementation manner, the communication unit 301 may be further configured to receive information from the terminal device, where the information is used to instruct the terminal device to start performing positioning reference signal measurement, and the information used to instruct the terminal device to start performing positioning reference signal measurement includes bandwidth information of a positioning reference signal.

In another specific implementation, when the MG is definitely activated or deactivated, the processing unit 302 may specifically be configured to: when the terminal equipment supports the measurement of the positioning reference signal without MG, judging whether the positioning reference signal and a synchronization information number block SSB corresponding to the MO are in the frequency domain resource of the terminal equipment or not; if the terminal equipment is in the frequency domain resource of the serving cell of the terminal equipment, determining to deactivate the MG; and if the terminal equipment is not in the frequency domain resource of the serving cell of the terminal equipment, determining to activate the MG.

In an optional implementation manner, when the first event is sending the third information to the terminal device, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of adding or deleting the MO; when the first event is that the fourth information is sent to the terminal device, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of adding or deleting the primary and secondary cells or the secondary cell; when the first event is that the fifth information is sent to the terminal device, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the time of activating or deactivating the secondary cell; when the first event is that the sixth information is sent to the terminal device, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of frequency domain resource reconfiguration of the primary cell, the primary and secondary cells, or the secondary cell; when the first event is the reception of the seventh information from the terminal device, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of sending a physical uplink shared channel PUSCH corresponding to the seventh information plus X, where X is a predefined time delay.

In an exemplary embodiment, when any MG instance overlaps with the activation or deactivation delay in a time domain position, the processing unit 302 may further be configured to: not scheduling data transmission within the any one MG instance, starting from a start time for activating or deactivating the MG; or, from the starting time of activating or deactivating the MG to the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG, no data transmission is scheduled in any MG instance, and data transmission is scheduled in any MG instance after the MG is deactivated; or when the MG is in an activated state before the MG is activated or deactivated, no data transmission is scheduled in any MG instance; scheduling data transmission within the any one MG instance when the MG is in a deactivated state prior to activation or deactivation of the MG; wherein the activation or deactivation delay is a time between a time triggered by the first event and a completion time of activating or deactivating the MG.

It should be noted that the division of the unit in the embodiment of the present application is schematic, and is only a logic function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation. The functional units in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, and can also be realized in a form of a software functional unit.

The integrated unit, if implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be substantially implemented or contributed by the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution may be embodied in a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a network device, or the like) or a processor (processor) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

It will be appreciated that the functionality of the communication unit in the above embodiments may be implemented by a transceiver and the functionality of the processing unit may be implemented by a processor. The transceiver may comprise a transmitter and/or a receiver, etc. for performing the functions of a communication unit, e.g. a sending unit and/or a receiving unit, respectively. The following is described in detail by way of example in connection with fig. 4.

Illustratively, referring to fig. 4, a communications apparatus 400 can include a transceiver 401 and a processor 402. Optionally, the communication device 400 may further include a memory 403. The memory 403 may be disposed inside the communication device 400, or may be disposed outside the communication device 400. The processor 402 may control the transceiver 401 to receive and transmit information or data, etc.

Specifically, the processor 402 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Network Processor (NP), or a combination of a CPU and an NP. The processor 402 may further include a hardware chip. The hardware chip may be an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a Programmable Logic Device (PLD), or a combination thereof. The PLD may be a Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a General Array Logic (GAL), or any combination thereof.

Wherein, the transceiver 401, the processor 402 and the memory 403 are connected to each other. Optionally, the transceiver 401, the processor 402 and the memory 403 are connected to each other through a bus 404; the bus 404 may be a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus, or the like. The bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 4, but this does not indicate only one bus or one type of bus.

In an alternative embodiment, the memory 403 is used for storing programs and the like. In particular, the program may include program code comprising computer operating instructions. The memory 403 may include RAM, and may also include non-volatile memory (non-volatile memory), such as one or more disk memories. The processor 402 executes the application program stored in the memory 403 to implement the above functions, thereby implementing the functions of the communication apparatus 400.

Exemplarily, the communication apparatus 400 may be a terminal device in the above-described embodiment; but also the network device in the above embodiment.

In one embodiment, when the communication apparatus 400 implements the functions of the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, the transceiver 401 may implement the transceiving operation performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 3; processor 402 may perform operations other than transceiving operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 2. The detailed description of the embodiment shown in fig. 2 can be referred to the above description, and will not be described in detail here.

In another embodiment, when the communication apparatus 400 implements the functions of the network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, the transceiver 401 may implement the transceiving operations performed by the network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 2; processor 402 may perform operations in addition to transceiving operations performed by a network device in the embodiment illustrated in fig. 2. The detailed description of the embodiment shown in fig. 2 can be referred to the above description, and will not be described in detail here.

Based on the above embodiments, the present application provides a communication system, which may include the terminal device and the network device related to the above embodiments.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, where the computer-readable storage medium is used for storing a computer program, and when the computer program is executed by a computer, the computer may implement the communication method provided by the above method embodiment.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a computer program product, where the computer program product is used to store a computer program, and when the computer program is executed by a computer, the computer may implement the communication method provided by the above method embodiment.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a chip, which includes a processor, where the processor is coupled with a memory, and is configured to call a program in the memory, so that the chip implements the communication method provided in the foregoing method embodiment.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a chip, where the chip is coupled with a memory, and the chip is used to implement the communication method provided in the above method embodiment.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, embodiments of the present application may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present application may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present application may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, and so forth) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present application is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to the application. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the present application without departing from the scope of the application. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is intended to include such modifications and variations as well.

Claims

1. A method of communication, comprising:

receiving first information from network equipment, wherein the first information is used for indicating terminal equipment to enable a first function; the first function is a function relating to activation or deactivation of a measurement interval MG;

and starting the first function according to the first information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

determining to activate or deactivate the MG when a first event is triggered;

wherein the first event is one of the following: receiving the first information from a network device, wherein the first information is used for indicating the terminal device to enable the first function; receiving second information from the network device, where the second information is used to indicate frequency domain resource switching of any serving cell of the terminal device; receiving third information from the network equipment, wherein the third information is used for adding or deleting a measurement object MO; receiving fourth information from the network equipment, wherein the fourth information is used for adding or deleting a primary cell or a secondary cell; receiving fifth information from the network device, wherein the fifth information is used for activating or deactivating a secondary cell; receiving sixth information from the network device, where the sixth information is used to reconfigure frequency domain resources of a primary cell, a primary and secondary cell, or a secondary cell; or sending seventh information to the network device, where the seventh information is used to instruct the terminal device to start or stop performing positioning reference signal measurement.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving eighth information from a network device, where the eighth information is used to instruct to activate or deactivate the MG;

activating or deactivating the MG according to the eighth information.

4. The method of any one of claims 1-3, further comprising:

and when the terminal equipment is configured with the positioning reference signal measurement, sending information for indicating the terminal equipment to start the positioning reference signal measurement to the network equipment.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the information for instructing the terminal device to start positioning reference signal measurements comprises bandwidth information of positioning reference signals.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein determining to activate the MG comprises:

and when the seventh information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to start positioning reference signal measurement and the terminal equipment does not support the positioning reference signal measurement without the MG, determining to activate the MG.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein determining to activate or deactivate the MG comprises:

when the terminal equipment supports the measurement of the positioning reference signal without MG, judging whether the positioning reference signal and a synchronization information number block SSB corresponding to the MO are in the frequency domain resource of the terminal equipment service cell;

if the terminal equipment is in the frequency domain resource of the serving cell of the terminal equipment, determining to deactivate the MG; and if the terminal equipment is not in the frequency domain resource of the serving cell of the terminal equipment, determining to activate the MG.

8. The method of any one of claims 2, 6-7,

when the first event is that the third information from the network device is received, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of the MO addition or deletion;

when the first event is the reception of the fourth information from the network device, the completion time of the activation or deactivation of the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of the addition or deletion of the primary and secondary cells or the secondary cell;

when the first event is the reception of the fifth information from the network device, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the time of activating or deactivating the secondary cell;

when the first event is the reception of the sixth information from the network device, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of the frequency domain resource reconfiguration of the primary cell, the primary and secondary cells, or the secondary cell;

when the first event is that the seventh information is sent to the network device, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of sending a physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH, corresponding to the seventh information plus X, where X is a predefined time delay.

9. The method of any of claims 2, 3, 6-8, wherein when any MG instance overlaps in a temporal location with an activation or deactivation latency, the method further comprises:

signal measurement is not carried out in any MG instance, and the duration of the signal measurement is increased by one MG cycle; or

Performing MG-based signal measurements within the any one MG instance when the MG is in an active state prior to activating or deactivating the MG; when the MG is in a deactivated state before the MG is activated or deactivated, not performing MG-based signal measurement in any MG instance, and increasing the signal measurement duration by one MG period;

wherein the activation or deactivation delay is a time between a time triggered by the first event and a completion time of activating or deactivating the MG; or, the activation or deactivation delay is a time between a time when the eighth information is received and a completion time when the MG is activated or deactivated.

10. The method of any of claims 2, 3, 6-8, wherein when any MG instance overlaps in a temporal location with an activation or deactivation latency, the method further comprises:

starting from a start time of activating or deactivating the MG, no data transmission is performed within the any one MG instance; or

No data transmission is performed in any MG instance from a start time of activating or deactivating the MG to a completion time of activating or deactivating the MG; and performing data transmission in any one of the MG instances after the MG deactivation is completed; or

When the MG is in an activated state before the MG is activated or deactivated, no data transmission is performed in any MG instance; when the MG is in a deactivated state before the MG is activated or deactivated, performing data transmission in any MG instance;

wherein the activation or deactivation latency is a time between a time triggered by the first event and a completion time of activating or deactivating the MG; or, the activation or deactivation delay is a time between a time when the eighth information is received and a completion time when the MG is activated or deactivated.

11. A method of communication, comprising:

determining first information, wherein the first information is used for indicating that terminal equipment enables a first function; the first function is a function relating to activation or deactivation of a measurement interval MG;

and sending the first information to the terminal equipment.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

determining to activate or deactivate the MG when a first event is triggered;

wherein the first event is one of the following: sending first information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to enable the first function; sending second information to the terminal device, where the second information is used to indicate frequency domain resource switching of any serving cell of the terminal device; sending third information to the terminal equipment, wherein the third information is used for adding or deleting a measurement object MO; sending fourth information to the terminal equipment, wherein the fourth information is used for adding or deleting a main cell or an auxiliary cell; sending fifth information to the terminal equipment, wherein the fifth information is used for activating or deactivating a secondary cell; sending sixth information to the terminal device, where the sixth information is used to reconfigure frequency domain resources of a primary cell, a primary and secondary cell, or a secondary cell; or receiving seventh information from the terminal device, where the seventh information is used to instruct the terminal device to start or stop performing positioning reference signal measurement.

13. The method of claim 11 or 12, wherein the method further comprises:

and sending eighth information to the terminal device, wherein the eighth information is used for indicating activation or deactivation of the MG.

14. The method of any one of claims 11-13, further comprising:

and when receiving information which is used for indicating the terminal equipment to start positioning reference signal measurement and is from the terminal equipment, and the terminal equipment does not support the positioning reference signal measurement without the MG, closing the first function.

15. The method of any one of claims 11-13, further comprising:

receiving information from the terminal device, wherein the information is used for instructing the terminal device to start positioning reference signal measurement, and the information used for instructing the terminal device to start positioning reference signal measurement includes bandwidth information of a positioning reference signal.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein determining to activate the MG comprises:

17. The method of claim 12, wherein determining to activate or deactivate the MG comprises:

when the terminal equipment supports measurement of a positioning reference signal without MG, judging whether the positioning reference signal and a synchronization information number block SSB corresponding to the MO are in frequency domain resources of the terminal equipment;

18. The method of any one of claims 12, 16-17,

when the first event is that the third information is sent to the terminal device, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of the MO addition or deletion;

when the first event is that the fourth information is sent to the terminal device, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of adding or deleting the primary and secondary cells or the secondary cell;

when the first event is that the fifth information is sent to the terminal device, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the time of activating or deactivating the secondary cell;

when the first event is that the sixth information is sent to the terminal device, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of the frequency domain resource reconfiguration of the primary cell, the primary and secondary cells, or the secondary cell;

when the first event is that the seventh information from the terminal device is received, the completion time of activating or deactivating the MG is earlier than or equal to the completion time of sending a physical uplink shared channel PUSCH corresponding to the seventh information plus X, where X is a predefined time delay.

19. The method of any of claims 12, 13, 16-18, wherein when any MG instance overlaps in a temporal location with an activation or deactivation latency, the method further comprises:

not scheduling data transmission within the any one MG instance, starting from a start time for activating or deactivating the MG; or

Scheduling no data transmission in any one MG instance from a starting time of activating or deactivating the MG to a finishing time of activating or deactivating the MG, and scheduling data transmission in any one MG instance after the MG is deactivated; or alternatively

When the MG is in an active state before activating or deactivating the MG, not scheduling data transmission within the any one MG instance; scheduling data transmission within the any one MG instance when the MG is in a deactivated state prior to activation or deactivation of the MG;

wherein the activation or deactivation latency is a time between a time triggered by the first event and a completion time of activating or deactivating the MG.

20. A communication apparatus, comprising a communication unit and a processing unit, wherein:

the communication unit is used for communication of the communication device;

the processing unit is configured to perform the method of any of claims 1-10 based on the communication unit.

21. A communication apparatus, comprising a communication unit and a processing unit, wherein:

the communication unit is used for communication of the communication device;

the processing unit is configured to perform the method of any of claims 11-19 based on the communication unit.

22. A communication device comprising a memory, a processor, and a transceiver, wherein:

the memory is to store computer instructions;

the transceiver is used for receiving and transmitting information;

the processor is coupled to the memory for invoking computer instructions in the memory to cause the communication device to perform the method of any of claims 1-10.

23. A communication device comprising a memory, a processor, and a transceiver, wherein:

the memory is to store computer instructions;

the transceiver is used for receiving and transmitting information;

the processor, coupled with the memory, to invoke the computer instructions in the memory to cause the communication device to perform the method of any of claims 11-19.

24. A computer-readable storage medium having stored therein computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1-10 when invoked by the computer.

25. A computer-readable storage medium having stored therein computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform the method of any one of claims 11-19 when invoked by the computer.

26. A computer program product comprising instructions for causing a computer to perform the method according to any one of claims 1-10 when the computer program product is run on the computer.

27. A computer program product comprising instructions for causing a computer to perform the method according to any one of claims 11-19 when the computer program product is run on the computer.

28. A chip coupled to a memory for reading and executing program instructions stored in the memory to implement the method of any one of claims 1 to 10 or to implement the method of any one of claims 11 to 19.

29. Circuitry, wherein the circuitry comprises:

a processor and an interface, the processor to invoke and execute instructions from the interface, the instructions when executed by the processor to implement the method of any of claims 1-10 or to implement the method of any of claims 11-19.