CN115175328A

CN115175328A - Method and device for switching carrier waves

Info

Publication number: CN115175328A
Application number: CN202110363533.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 毛颖超; 常俊仁; 酉春华; 谢曦; 范强
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-04-02
Filing date: 2021-04-02
Publication date: 2022-10-11
Also published as: WO2022206367A1

Abstract

The application provides a method and a device for switching carriers, wherein the method comprises the following steps: a terminal device sends first information to a network device, wherein the first information comprises information of a reference signal of the terminal device, the first information is used for the network device to switch a first uplink carrier into a second uplink carrier, and the terminal device is in a non-connection state; and the terminal equipment receives downlink control information, wherein the downlink control information carries information of uplink transmission resources, and the uplink transmission resources are on the second uplink carrier. The method provided by the application enables the terminal equipment to realize carrier switching in a non-connection state, thereby ensuring the reliability and accuracy of uplink data transmission.

Description

Method and device for switching carrier waves

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for switching carriers.

Background

Currently, when a User Equipment (UE) performs Small Data Transmission (SDT) in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) non-connected state, after the UE triggers the SDT, all uplink transmissions are retained on a selected carrier, and switching between a Supplemental Uplink (SUL) carrier and a Normal Uplink (NUL) carrier is not allowed during transmission. However, because subsequent data transmission exists in the SDT process, when factors such as a channel environment of subsequent transmission change, if the UE that should transmit on the NUL carrier is still transmitting on the SUL carrier, the load on the SUL carrier may be too heavy, or if the transmission condition of the UE that transmits on the NUL carrier changes and the transmission condition of the NUL carrier is not satisfied, the UE may be unable to continue to transmit subsequent data on the NUL carrier. Therefore, how to implement carrier switching in the unconnected state is an urgent problem to be solved.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a method and a device for switching carriers, so that terminal equipment can realize carrier switching in a non-connection state, and reliability and accuracy of uplink data transmission are guaranteed.

In a first aspect, a method for switching carriers is provided. The method may be executed by the terminal device, or may also be executed by a chip or a circuit configured in the terminal device, which is not limited in this application. The method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that terminal equipment sends first information to network equipment, the first information is used for the network equipment to switch a first carrier wave into a second carrier wave, the first information comprises information of a reference signal of the terminal equipment, and the terminal equipment is in a non-connection state; the terminal device receives downlink control information, where the downlink control information carries information of uplink transmission resources, and the uplink transmission resources are on the second carrier.

Based on the above scheme, when the terminal device has a requirement for uplink carrier switching in a non-connected state, the terminal device reports information of the reference signal to the network device, so that the network device can switch the uplink carrier to the second carrier for the terminal device based on the first information, thereby ensuring reliability of subsequent data transmission.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the first information includes reference signal received power or reference signal received quality.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, when the first information is greater than or equal to a first threshold and less than or equal to a second threshold, the terminal device sends the first information to the network device, where the first information is used for the network device to switch a normal uplink NUL carrier to a secondary uplink SUL carrier. Or, when the first information is greater than or equal to a third threshold and less than or equal to a fourth threshold, the terminal device sends first information to the network device, where the first information is used for the network device to switch the supplementary uplink SUL carrier to the normal uplink NUL carrier.

It should be understood that the first threshold, the second threshold, the third threshold, and the fourth threshold may be configured to the terminal device by the network device through the system information, or preset in the terminal device.

It should be understood that the "preset" may include a predefined definition, e.g., a protocol definition. The "predefined" may be implemented by saving a corresponding code, table, or other means that can be used to indicate related information in advance in the device, and the present application is not limited to a specific implementation manner thereof.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the first information is carried in a medium access control element, MAC CE, or a radio resource control, RRC, message.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the terminal device sends the first information to the network device when the quality of the serving cell is lower than a fifth threshold.

Similarly, the fifth threshold may be configured by the network device to the terminal device through the system information, or preset in the terminal device.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the terminal device receives measurement reporting configuration information from the network device, where the measurement reporting configuration information includes the fifth threshold; the terminal device measures the quality of the serving cell in the unconnected state.

Based on the above scheme, the threshold of the measurement report triggering event, that is, the fifth threshold, is configured for the terminal device through the measurement configuration information, so that when the cell service quality measured by the terminal device is smaller than the fifth threshold, the event triggers the report of the measurement result, the process of reporting the measurement result can be more flexible, and meanwhile, the network device can effectively judge whether the terminal device is far away from the coverage of the cell, so that the carrier is switched for the terminal device according to the reported measurement result.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the terminal device receives an RRC release message from the network device, where the RRC release message includes the measurement report configuration information.

The configuration information reported by measurement is configured for the terminal equipment through the RRC release message, so that resources can be effectively saved.

In a second aspect, a method of switching carriers is provided. The method may be executed by the terminal device, or may also be executed by a chip or a circuit configured in the terminal device, which is not limited in this application. The method comprises the following steps: the terminal equipment sends a reference signal to the network equipment so that the network equipment switches the first carrier wave into the second carrier wave, and the terminal equipment is in a non-connection state; the terminal device receives downlink control information, where the downlink control information carries information of uplink transmission resources, and the uplink transmission resources are on the second carrier.

Based on the above scheme, when the terminal device has a requirement for uplink carrier switching in a non-connected state, the terminal device reports a reference signal of a cell where the terminal device is located to the network device, and the network device switches the uplink carrier to the second carrier for the terminal device based on the reference signal, so that the terminal device can successfully transmit subsequent data.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, when a first condition is established, the terminal device sends a reference signal to the network device to cause the network device to switch the first carrier to the second carrier, where the first condition includes at least one of: the reference signal received power of the reference signal is greater than or equal to the second threshold and less than or equal to the first threshold, or the terminal device sends data on the uplink transmission resource based on random access, and the first condition is after contention resolution is successful.

Based on the scheme, the condition for sending the reference signal by the terminal equipment can be more flexible and richer.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the terminal device receives configuration information from the network device, where the configuration information includes configuration information of the reference signal; the terminal device sends the reference signal to the network device according to the configuration information, so that the network device switches the first carrier wave to the second carrier wave.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the terminal device sends a request message to the network device, where the request message is used to request the configuration information.

In a third aspect, a method for switching carriers is provided. The method may be executed by the terminal device, or may also be executed by a chip or a circuit configured in the terminal device, which is not limited in this application. The method comprises the following steps: the terminal equipment measures and obtains the reference signal receiving power; and the terminal equipment compares the reference signal receiving power with a preset threshold value to switch the first uplink carrier to the second uplink carrier.

According to the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment in the non-connection state autonomously switches the carrier wave based on the measurement result, so that the data in the small data transmission process can be successfully transmitted, and the accuracy of the transmission of the uplink data is ensured.

With reference to the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the secondary uplink SUL carrier is switched to the normal uplink SUL carrier when the reference signal received power is greater than or equal to the threshold, or the normal uplink SUL carrier is switched to the secondary uplink SUL carrier when the reference signal received power is less than the threshold.

With reference to the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the terminal device initiates uplink transmission on the second carrier, where the uplink transmission includes uplink transmission based on random access or uplink data transmission based on a configuration grant.

With reference to the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, when the uplink transmission is based on random access, the terminal device sends a first message to the network device, where the first message includes a media access control information element of a cell radio network temporary identity C-RNTI and uplink data.

Based on the above scheme, the message carrying the uplink data may not include the RRC recovery request message, but only include the C-RNTI MAC CE, so as to avoid the security risk of reusing the recovery integrity message authentication code (message authentication code for integrity, resume MAC-I) in the RRC recovery request message.

In a fourth aspect, a method of switching carriers is provided. The method may be performed by a network device, or may be performed by a chip or a circuit configured in the network device, which is not limited in this application. The method comprises the following steps: the network equipment receives first information from terminal equipment, wherein the first information comprises information of a reference signal of the terminal equipment, the first information is transmitted on a first carrier, and the terminal equipment is in a non-connection state; the network device sends downlink control information to the terminal device, the downlink control information carries information of uplink transmission resources, and the uplink transmission resources are on a second carrier.

Based on the above scheme, when the terminal device has a requirement for uplink carrier switching in the non-connected state, the terminal device reports the information of the reference signal to the network device, so that the network device can switch the uplink carrier to the second carrier for the terminal device based on the first information, thereby ensuring the reliability of subsequent data transmission.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the information of the reference signal includes reference signal received power or reference signal received quality.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the receiving, by the network device, the first information from the terminal device includes: when the first information is greater than or equal to a first threshold and less than or equal to a second threshold, the network device receives the first information from the terminal device, wherein the first carrier is a normal uplink NUL carrier, and the second carrier is an auxiliary uplink SUL carrier, or when the first information is greater than or equal to a third threshold and less than or equal to a fourth threshold, the network device receives the first information from the terminal device, wherein the first carrier is an auxiliary uplink SUL carrier, and the second carrier is a normal uplink NUL carrier.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the first information is carried in a medium access control information element, MAC CE, or a radio resource control, RRC, message.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the network device receives the first information from the terminal device when the quality of the serving cell is lower than a fifth threshold.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the method further includes: and the network device sends measurement reporting configuration information to the terminal device, where the measurement reporting configuration information includes the fifth threshold.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementation manners of the fourth aspect, the network device sends an RRC release message to the terminal device, where the RRC release message includes the measurement report configuration information.

In a fifth aspect, a method for switching carriers is provided. The method may be performed by a network device, or may be performed by a chip or a circuit configured in the network device, which is not limited in this application. The method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that network equipment receives a reference signal from terminal equipment, wherein the reference signal comprises a reference signal of a first carrier wave of the terminal equipment, and the terminal equipment is in a non-connection state; the network device measuring the reference signal; the network equipment switches the first carrier wave into a second carrier wave according to the measurement result; the network device sends downlink control information to the terminal device, the downlink control information carries information of uplink transmission resources, and the uplink transmission resources are on a second carrier.

Based on the scheme, when the terminal equipment has the requirement of uplink carrier switching in the non-connection state, the terminal equipment reports the reference signal of the cell where the terminal equipment is located to the network equipment, the network equipment performs measurement, and switches the uplink carrier to the second carrier for the terminal equipment based on the measurement result, so that the terminal equipment can successfully transmit subsequent data.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in certain implementations of the fifth aspect, the method further comprises: the network device receives a reference signal from a terminal device when a first condition is established, wherein the first condition includes at least one of: the reference signal received power of the reference signal is greater than or equal to a second threshold and less than or equal to a first threshold, or the terminal device sends data on the uplink transmission resource based on random access, and the first condition is after contention resolution is successful.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in certain implementations of the fifth aspect, the method further includes: the network device sends configuration information to the terminal device, wherein the configuration information comprises configuration information of the reference signal.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in certain implementations of the fifth aspect, the method further comprises: the network device receives a request message from a terminal device, the request message requesting the configuration information.

In a sixth aspect, a method of switching carriers is provided. The method may be performed by a network device, or may be performed by a chip or a circuit configured in the network device, which is not limited in this application. The method comprises the following steps: the network equipment receives first information from the terminal equipment; the network device determines that the terminal device switches the first carrier to the second carrier based on the first information, and the terminal device is in a non-connected state.

According to the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment in the non-connection state autonomously switches the carrier wave based on the measurement result and informs the network of switching the uplink carrier wave, so that the data can be successfully transmitted in the small data transmission process, and the accuracy of the uplink data transmission is ensured.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in certain implementations of the sixth aspect, the method further includes: the network device sends downlink control information to the terminal device, the downlink control information carries information of uplink transmission resources, and the uplink transmission resources are on a second carrier.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in some implementations of the sixth aspect, the uplink transmission resource includes an uplink transmission resource based on random access or an uplink transmission resource based on a configuration grant.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in some implementations of the sixth aspect, when based on random access, the network device receives a second message from the terminal device, where the second message includes a mac cell and an uplink data of a cell radio network temporary identifier C-RNTI.

Based on the above scheme, the message carrying the uplink data may not include the RRC recovery request message, but only include the C-RNTI MAC CE, which may avoid the security risk of recovering the reuse of the integrity resummemac-I in the RRC recovery request message.

In a seventh aspect, an apparatus for switching carriers is provided, where the apparatus is configured to perform the methods provided in the first to third aspects. In particular, the apparatus may comprise means and/or modules, such as processing means and/or transceiver means, for performing the methods provided by the first to third aspects.

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

In another implementation, the apparatus is a chip, a system of chips, or a circuit for use in a terminal device. When the device is a chip, a system of chips or a circuit in a device for switching a carrier, the transceiver module unit may be an input/output interface, an interface circuit, an output circuit, an input circuit, a pin or a related circuit on the chip, the system of chips or the circuit; the processing module may be a processor, processing circuitry, logic circuitry, or the like.

Based on the beneficial effects of the above scheme, reference may be made to the corresponding descriptions of the first to third aspects, and for brevity, the description of the present application is omitted here.

Alternatively, the transceiver may be a transceiver circuit. Alternatively, the input/output interface may be an input/output circuit.

In an eighth aspect, an apparatus for switching carriers is provided, which is configured to perform the methods provided in the fourth to sixth aspects. In particular, the apparatus may comprise means and/or modules, such as processing modules and/or transceiver modules, for performing the methods provided by the fourth to sixth aspects.

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

In another implementation, the apparatus is a chip, a system-on-chip, or a circuit for use in a network device. When the device is a chip, a system of chips or a circuit in a device for switching a carrier, the transceiver module unit may be an input/output interface, an interface circuit, an output circuit, an input circuit, a pin or a related circuit on the chip, the system of chips or the circuit; the processing module may be a processor, a processing circuit, a logic circuit, or the like.

Based on the beneficial effects of the above scheme, reference may be made to the corresponding descriptions of the fourth to sixth aspects, and for brevity, the description of the present application is omitted here.

In a ninth aspect, there is provided a communication apparatus, the apparatus comprising: a memory for storing a program; a processor for executing the memory-stored program, the processor being configured to perform the methods provided in the first to sixth aspects described above when the memory-stored program is executed.

In one implementation, the apparatus is a terminal device or a network device.

In another implementation, the apparatus is a chip, a system of chips, or a circuit for use in a terminal device or a network device.

In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a processor configured to perform the method provided by the above aspects. In the course of performing these methods, the processes of the above-mentioned methods regarding the transmission of the above-mentioned information and the acquisition/reception of the above-mentioned information may be understood as a process of outputting the above-mentioned information by a processor, and a process of receiving the above-mentioned information inputted by a processor. Upon outputting the information, the processor outputs the information to the transceiver for transmission by the transceiver. The information may also need to be processed after being output by the processor before reaching the transceiver. Similarly, when the processor receives the input information, the transceiver acquires/receives the information and inputs the information to the processor. Further, after the transceiver receives the information, the information may need to be processed further before being input to the processor.

The operations relating to the processor, i.e., transmitting, and acquiring/receiving, may be understood more generally as operations of the processor, i.e., processor output and receiving, input, etc., rather than operations of transmitting, and receiving directly by radio frequency circuitry and antennas, unless specifically stated otherwise, or if not contradicted by their actual role or inherent logic in the associated description.

In implementation, the processor may be a processor dedicated to performing the methods, or may be a processor executing computer instructions in a memory to perform the methods, such as a general-purpose processor. The Memory may be a non-transitory Memory, such as a Read Only Memory (ROM), which may be integrated on the same chip as the processor or disposed on different chips, and the embodiment of the present invention is not limited to the type of the Memory and the arrangement manner of the Memory and the processor.

In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a computer readable storage medium storing program code for execution by a device, the program code comprising instructions for performing the methods provided in the first through sixth aspects above.

In a twelfth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method provided in the first to sixth aspects above.

In a thirteenth aspect, a chip is provided, where the chip includes a processor and a communication interface, and the processor reads instructions stored in a memory through the communication interface to execute the methods provided in the first to sixth aspects.

Optionally, as an implementation manner, the chip may further include a memory, where the memory stores instructions, and the processor is configured to execute the instructions stored on the memory, and when the instructions are executed, the processor is configured to execute the method provided in the first aspect to the sixth aspect.

Drawings

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a communication system 100 suitable for use in embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 2 shows a flow diagram of small data transmission based on random access.

Fig. 3 shows a flow diagram of small data transmission based on a preconfigured grant.

Fig. 4 shows a flowchart of a method for switching carriers according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 5 shows a flowchart of another method for switching carriers according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 6 shows a flowchart of another method for switching carriers according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 7 shows a flowchart of another method for switching carriers according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 8 shows a flowchart of another method for switching carriers according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 9 shows a flowchart of another method for switching carriers according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 10 shows a flowchart of another method for switching carriers according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 11 shows a flowchart of another method for switching carriers according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 12 is a schematic block diagram of an example of the terminal device of the present application.

Fig. 13 is a schematic block diagram of an example of a network device of the present application.

Fig. 14 is a schematic diagram of an apparatus for switching carriers according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 15 is a schematic diagram of another example of a device for switching carriers according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 16 is a schematic configuration diagram of a terminal device of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solution in the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The technical scheme of the embodiment of the application can be applied to various communication systems, for example: a global system for mobile communication (GSM) system, a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system, a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) system, a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, a LTE Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system, a LTE Time Division Duplex (TDD) system, a universal mobile telecommunication system (universal mobile telecommunication system, UMTS), a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) communication system, a future fifth generation (5, g) system, or a new radio Network (NR), etc.

A terminal device in this embodiment may refer to a User Equipment (UE), an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user equipment. The terminal device may also be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication function, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a terminal device in a future 5G network or a terminal device in a future evolved Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN), and the like, which are not limited in this embodiment.

Wherein, wearable equipment also can be called as wearing formula smart machine, is the general term of using wearing formula technique to carry out intelligent design, developing the equipment that can dress to daily wearing, like glasses, gloves, wrist-watch, dress and shoes etc.. The wearable device may be worn directly on the body or may be a portable device integrated into the user's clothing or accessory. The wearable device is not only a hardware device, but also realizes powerful functions through software support, data interaction and cloud interaction. The generalized wearable smart device has full functions and large size, and can realize complete or partial functions without depending on a smart phone, for example: smart watches or smart glasses and the like, and only focus on a certain type of application functions, and need to be used in cooperation with other devices such as smart phones, such as various smart bracelets for physical sign monitoring, smart jewelry and the like.

In addition, the terminal device may also be a terminal device in an internet of things (IoT) system. The IoT is an important component of future information technology development, and is mainly technically characterized in that articles are connected with a network through a communication technology, so that an intelligent network with man-machine interconnection and object interconnection is realized. The specific form of the terminal device is not limited in the present application.

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may be an apparatus for implementing a function of the terminal device, and may also be an apparatus capable of supporting the terminal device to implement the function, for example, a system on a chip, and the apparatus may be installed in the terminal. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be composed of a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

The network device in this embodiment may be a device for communicating with a terminal device, where the network device may be a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) in a global system for mobile communications (GSM) system or a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system, may also be a base station (NodeB, NB) in a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) system, may also be an evolved node b (eNB, or eNodeB) in an LTE system, may also be a wireless controller in a Cloud Radio Access Network (CRAN) scenario, or may be a relay station, an access point, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a network device in a future 5G network, or a network device in a future evolved PLMN network, and the like, and the embodiment of the present invention is not limited.

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

It should be understood that in the embodiment of the present application, the network device may be an apparatus for implementing a function of the network device, and may also be an apparatus capable of supporting the network device to implement the function, for example, a system on chip, and the apparatus may be installed in the network device.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system 100 suitable for use with embodiments of the present application.

As shown in fig. 1, the communication system 100 may include a network device 120, such as the network device shown in fig. 1. The communication system 100 may also include at least one terminal device 110, such as the terminal device shown in fig. 1. The terminal device and the network device can establish connection for communication.

The present application relates to Small Data Transmission (SDT), which refers to a transmission mode for transmitting small data packets, and the SDT technology is a data transmission technology of a terminal device in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) INACTIVE state (INACTIVE).

Small packets may also be for a certain service. The service may be an application scenario as described below, for example, all data for a smart meter may be interpreted as small data. For the quality of service (QoS) requirement of a certain service, the service corresponds to a certain Data Radio Bearer (DRB), and data on the DRB can be understood as a small packet.

Application scenarios for small data transmissions, i.e. usage scenarios involving small and infrequent data traffic. For example, it may be: the smart phone applications, including traffic of the instant messaging service, may be, for example, whatsapp, QQ, wechat, etc., heartbeat packet traffic (e.g., heart-beat/keep-alive traffic) from IM/e-mail clients and other Applications (APPs), and push notifications for various applications. Non-smart phone applications including wearable device traffic (periodic location information, etc.), sensors (industrial wireless sensor networks transmit temperature, pressure readings, etc. periodically or over time), smart meters and smart meter networks send periodic meter readings, heart-beat/keep-alive traffic from IM/email clients and other APPs, and push notifications for various applications.

Currently, the SDT technology may support a Random Access (RA) based transmission procedure and a Configured Grant (CG) based transmission procedure, corresponding to the flows shown in fig. 2 and 3.

Fig. 2 is an RA-based SDT (RA-based SDT) procedure, the main flow includes:

s201, the terminal device initiates an SDT process on the selected NUL carrier or SUL carrier when meeting the standard of initiating the SDT based on the random access.

Specifically, the terminal device in the inactive state may determine to execute the SDT procedure according to a relationship between the data amount to be transmitted and a corresponding threshold, and a relationship between Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP) and a corresponding threshold. For example, when the terminal device determines that the current data volume to be transmitted is smaller than a preset threshold value and the terminal device determines that the RSRP is greater than the preset RSRP threshold value, the terminal device initiates an SDT procedure. Of course, the terminal device may also initiate the SDT procedure according to a relationship between other information and the threshold and a criterion of SDT selection, for example, the other information may be Reference Signal Receiving Quality (RSRQ), beam quality, and the like, which is not limited in this application.

S202, the terminal equipment selects the carrier.

Specifically, the terminal device selects the NUL carrier or the SUL carrier based on an RSRP threshold configured in the system information, where the RSRP threshold may be referred to as a carrier selection RSRP threshold, that is, the RSRP threshold is used for carrier selection. For example, if the RSRP currently measured by the terminal device is less than the threshold, the terminal device selects the SUL carrier, otherwise, the terminal device selects the NUL carrier. In addition, the carrier selection signal may also be RSRQ or beam quality, and the carrier selection threshold corresponding to the carrier selection signal may be referred to as a carrier selection RSRQ threshold, a carrier selection beam quality threshold, and the like, which is not limited in this application.

It can be understood that, before initiating the SDT, the terminal device may also select the carrier first, and then select the small data transmission mode based on the random access or the authorized small data transmission mode based on the configuration according to the SDT standard. Or both steps may be performed simultaneously. There is no necessary sequence between the selection of the small data transmission mode and the selection of the uplink carrier.

S203, the terminal device sends a first message to the network device.

Specifically, the terminal device transmits a random access preamble on the selected carrier. Wherein the terminal device may select to transmit the random access preamble on the SDT specific random access occasion, or the terminal device may transmit the SDT specific preamble on the selected carrier.

S204, the network device sends a random access response message, also called a second message, to the terminal device.

Specifically, after receiving a first message sent by the terminal device, the network device determines that small data transmission based on random access is initiated by the terminal device, and sends a random access response message to the terminal device, where the message may carry a temporary cell radio network temporary identifier (TC-RNTI), a timing advance, and an uplink grant allocated to the terminal device. The TC-RNTI is used for identifying terminal equipment under the air interface of one cell.

And S205, the terminal device sends a third message to the network device.

Specifically, the terminal device sends a third message on the uplink grant allocated to it in the second message, where the third message includes uplink data and an RRC recovery request. In addition, a Buffer Status Report (BSR) may also be included, such as a BSR MAC CE, which is used to indicate current buffer information to the network device. A Release Assistance Indication (RAI) may also be included, where the RAI is used to indicate subsequent data information of the terminal device to the network device.

S206, the network device sends a competition resolving message to the terminal device.

Specifically, after receiving the RRC message and the data sent by the terminal device, the network device sends a contention resolution message, where the contention resolution message does not include an RRC signaling, and after receiving the contention resolution message sent by the network device, the terminal device considers that the random access process is successfully completed, and at this time, the TC-RNTI is upgraded to the C-RNTI. At this time, the terminal device is still in the inactive state.

And S207, the terminal equipment sends subsequent uplink data to the network equipment.

Specifically, if there is further subsequent data to be transmitted, the network device may schedule an uplink grant for the subsequent data transmission by using a C-RNTI dynamic scheduling manner, and the subsequent data is transmitted on the uplink grant scheduled by the network device. For example, the network device may send downlink control information, where the downlink control information carries information of the uplink transmission resource.

S208, the network device sends RRC release information to the terminal device.

Specifically, if no further subsequent data needs to be transmitted, the network device sends an RRC release message, terminating the SDT procedure.

Fig. 3 is a CG-based SDT (CG-based SDT) process, the main flow includes:

s301, the terminal device initiates the SDT process on the selected NUL carrier or SUL carrier when meeting the standard of initiating the CG-based SDT.

Specifically, the terminal device in the inactive state may determine to execute the SDT procedure according to a relationship between the data volume to be transmitted and the corresponding threshold and a relationship between RSRP and the corresponding threshold. For example, when the terminal device determines that the current data volume to be transmitted is smaller than a preset threshold, and when the terminal device determines that the RSRP is greater than the preset RSRP threshold, the SDT process is initiated. Of course, the terminal device may also initiate the small data transmission process according to a criterion selected by the relation SDT between other information and the threshold, for example, the other information may be RSRQ, beam quality, and the like, which is not limited in this application.

S302, the terminal equipment selects the carrier wave.

Similarly, before initiating the SDT, the terminal device may also select the carrier first, and then select the transmission mode according to the SDT standard to be the small data transmission based on the random access or the small data transmission based on the configured authorization. Or both steps may be performed simultaneously. There is no necessary sequence between the small data transmission mode selection and the uplink carrier selection.

S303, the terminal device sends an RRC recovery request message and uplink data to the network device.

Optionally, the uplink message may further include auxiliary information of the terminal device, for example, a Buffer Status Report (BSR) may also be included, and the BSR is configured to indicate current buffer information to the network device. RAI may also be used to indicate subsequent data information of the terminal device to the network device.

S304, the network equipment replies a response message.

Alternatively, the response message may be an Acknowledgement (ACK) of layer 1 or an ACK of Radio Link Control (RLC).

S305, the terminal equipment sends the subsequent uplink data to the network equipment.

Specifically, if there is further subsequent data to be transmitted, the network device may schedule the grant for the subsequent data transmission by using the C-RNTI to perform dynamic scheduling, and the subsequent data is transmitted on the uplink grant scheduled by the network device. For example, the network device may send downlink control information, where the downlink control information carries information of the uplink transmission resource.

S306, the network device sends RRC release message to the terminal device.

Specifically, if no further subsequent data needs to be transmitted, the network device sends an RRC release message, terminating the SDT procedure. Next, a carrier switching method proposed in the present application will be described in detail.

Before the specific description, firstly, it needs to be emphasized that when the carrier selected by the terminal device is configured with resources of small data transmission (CG-SDT) based on the configured grant, and the configured CG-SDT resources are valid, the terminal device selects to execute CG-SDT, otherwise, the terminal device selects to execute RA-SDT.

It should be understood that the SDT process may change as the technical solution evolves, and the technical solution provided in the present application is not limited to the process described below.

The present application provides various methods for switching carriers, which will be described below with reference to fig. 4 to 10, respectively. It should be understood that these methods of carrier switching may be used in conjunction with each other. For example, one method may be used for a certain flow in the process of accessing the network device by the terminal device, and another method may be used for another flow, or one method and another method may be used for a certain flow in the process of accessing the network device by the terminal device.

The present application provides a method for switching multiple carriers, and it should be understood that some steps in the embodiments of the present application may not be executed, and the steps in the embodiments of the present application may not strictly follow the order of the examples, and the present application is not limited.

Fig. 4 shows a schematic diagram of a method 400 for switching carriers according to an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 4, the method for switching carriers includes:

s401, the terminal device sends first information to the network device.

Specifically, the terminal device determines information of a reference signal measured by a current cell, and when the terminal device considers that a carrier of current uplink transmission may need to be switched when a certain condition is satisfied, the terminal device needs to report the information of the reference signal to the network device, and the terminal device sends first information to the network device, where the first information is used for the network device to switch the current carrier of the terminal device to another carrier.

For example, the information of the reference signal may be Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP) or Reference Signal Receiving Quality (RSRQ) or other information of the reference signal.

For example, the first information may be carried in a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE), for example, an RSRP MAC CE for RSRP reporting is defined, or the first information is reported to the network device through an RRC message, which is not limited in this application.

The terminal device may determine that the carrier of the current uplink transmission needs to be switched according to a value of the current first information.

In a possible implementation manner, when a standard for initiating the SDT is satisfied, the terminal device initiates an SDT procedure to the network device, and the terminal device selects a normal/Normal Uplink (NUL) carrier or a supplementary/Supplemental Uplink (SUL) carrier according to the path loss reference RSRP of the downlink. Specifically, the terminal device selects the NUL carrier or the SUL carrier based on an RSRP threshold configured in the system information, and the RSRP threshold may be referred to as a carrier selection RSRP threshold, that is, the threshold is used for carrier selection. For example, the terminal device measures RSRP of the current cell, and if the RSRP is smaller than the threshold, the terminal device selects the SUL carrier, otherwise, the terminal device selects the NUL carrier.

In the non-connection state, the terminal device may always perform measurement, the terminal device may determine to send first information to the network device according to a range of a current measurement value, and the network device determines switching of the uplink carrier based on the first information. For example, when the current terminal device transmits on the NUL carrier, if the RSRP measured by the terminal device is greater than or equal to the first threshold and less than or equal to the second threshold, the terminal device sends the RSRP measurement value to the network device, where the RSRP measurement value may be referred to by the network device, and the network device determines to configure the time-frequency resource for transmission on the SUL carrier for the terminal device, which may be understood as that the network device determines to switch the uplink carrier from the NUL carrier to the SUL carrier. Or, when the current terminal device is in the SUL carrier, if the RSRP measured by the terminal device is greater than or equal to the third threshold and less than or equal to the fourth threshold, the terminal device sends the RSRP measurement value to the network device, where the RSRP measurement value can be referred to by the network device, and the network device determines to configure the time-frequency resource transmitted on the NUL carrier for the terminal device, which can be understood as that the network device determines to switch the uplink carrier from the current SUL carrier to the NUL carrier.

As a possible implementation manner, the first threshold may be a current carrier selection RSRP threshold, and a value of the second threshold may be related to the first threshold, that is, a value of a compensation amount is added on the basis of the first threshold, where the value of the compensation amount is configured by the network device in the system information or configured by the network device in the last RRC release message. The second threshold value can also be a new threshold value defined, i.e. understood as a predetermined threshold value. At this time, when the first information is greater than or equal to the first threshold and less than or equal to the second threshold, the terminal device sends the first information to the network device, where the first information is used by the network device to switch the common uplink NUL carrier to the auxiliary uplink SUL carrier, and it may be understood that, when the RSRP value is smaller until the RSRP value is within a range from the carrier selection threshold to the carrier selection threshold plus a compensation amount or until the RSRP value is within the carrier selection threshold to the preset threshold, the terminal device predicts in advance a case that the RSRP may be smaller than the carrier selection threshold (the NUL selection condition is not satisfied and the SUL selection condition is satisfied) according to a change (gradual decrease) of the RSRP, so that the network device may predict the change trend in advance by sending the RSRP measurement value to the network device, thereby allocating a time-frequency resource for uplink transmission to the terminal device, where the time-frequency resource is a time-frequency resource on the SUL carrier.

Similarly, the third threshold and the fourth threshold may also be related to the current carrier selection RSRP threshold, and optionally, the third threshold may be the carrier selection RSRP threshold minus a compensation amount, or may be the first threshold, and the fourth threshold may be the carrier selection RSRP threshold, or may be the second threshold. In addition, the third threshold value and the fourth threshold value may also be a new threshold value defined, i.e. understood as a preset threshold value. At this time, when the first information is greater than or equal to the third threshold and less than or equal to the fourth threshold, the terminal device sends the first information to the network device, where the first information is used by the network device to switch the auxiliary uplink SUL carrier to the normal uplink NUL carrier, and it may be understood that, for example, when the RSRP value is larger, until the RSRP value is within a range from the carrier selection threshold minus a compensation amount to the carrier selection threshold, or until the RSRP value is within a preset threshold until the carrier selection threshold, the terminal device predicts in advance a situation (the SUL selection condition is not satisfied, the NUL selection condition is satisfied) that the RSRP may be greater than or equal to the carrier selection threshold according to a change (gradually becoming larger) of the RSRP, and therefore, the network device may be caused to predict a trend of the RSRP measurement value in advance, so as to allocate time-frequency resources for uplink transmission on the time-frequency resources NUL carrier for data transmission to the terminal device.

It should be noted that "preset" may include predefined definitions, such as protocol definitions. The "predefined" may be implemented by saving a corresponding code, table, or other means that can be used to indicate related information in advance in the device, and the present application is not limited to a specific implementation manner thereof.

It is to be understood that the threshold may be pre-configured to the terminal device by the network device, for example, may be sent to the terminal device through system information or provided to the terminal device in a previous RRC release message.

S402, the network device sends Downlink Control Information (DCI) to the terminal device.

Specifically, after the network device receives the first information sent by the terminal device, the network device switches the uplink carrier of the terminal device according to the first information, that is, the network device configures uplink transmission resources of other carriers for the terminal device through DCI.

According to the carrier switching method, the terminal equipment reports the first information, the network equipment configures the time-frequency resource for uplink transmission for the terminal equipment based on the first information, and the carrier where the time-frequency resource for uplink transmission is located is different from the carrier where the first information is sent, so that the terminal equipment in a non-connection state can realize carrier switching, and the reliability and accuracy of uplink data transmission are ensured.

In the embodiment of the present application, the unconnected state is mentioned many times, and it should be noted that the unconnected state may represent a state of the terminal other than the connected state, for example, the unconnected state may be an inactive state or an idle state or another state that is not in the connected state. Or the unconnected state may indicate that the unconnected state is composed of an inactive state and an idle state, which is not limited in this application.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic diagram of a method 500 for switching carriers according to an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 5, in this embodiment, a CG resource is not configured on a carrier selected by a terminal device, or the CG resource is invalid or a condition for initiating CG transmission is not satisfied, and a CG-based small data transmission cannot be selected, so that the terminal device initiates a random access small data transmission on the selected carrier. Specifically, the method for switching carriers includes:

s501, the terminal device initiates the SDT process on the selected NUL carrier or SUL carrier when meeting the standard of initiating the SDT based on the random access.

Specifically, the terminal device in the inactive state may determine to execute the SDT procedure according to a relationship between the amount of data to be transmitted and the corresponding threshold, and a relationship between RSRP and the corresponding threshold. For example, when the terminal device determines that the current data volume to be transmitted is smaller than a preset threshold value, and when the terminal device determines that the RSRP is greater than the preset RSRP threshold value, a small data transmission process is initiated. Of course, the terminal device may further determine to initiate the SDT procedure according to a relationship between other information and a threshold, for example, the other information may be RSRQ, beam quality, and the like, which is not limited in this application.

And S502, the terminal equipment selects the carrier.

Specifically, the terminal device selects the NUL carrier or the SUL carrier based on an RSRP threshold configured in the system information, and the RSRP threshold may be referred to as a carrier selection RSRP threshold, that is, the threshold is used for carrier selection. For example, if the RSRP currently measured by the terminal device is less than the threshold, the terminal device selects the SUL carrier, otherwise, the terminal device selects the NUL carrier. In addition, the carrier selection signal may also be RSRQ or beam quality, and the carrier selection threshold corresponding to the carrier selection signal may be referred to as a carrier selection RSRQ threshold, a carrier selection beam quality threshold, and the like, which is not limited in this application.

In other realizable manners, before initiating the SDT, the terminal device may also select the carrier first, and then select the transmission manner according to the SDT standard to be small data transmission based on random access or small data transmission based on authorization configured. Or both steps may be performed simultaneously. There is no necessary sequence between the small data transmission mode selection and the uplink carrier selection.

S503, the terminal device sends a first message to the network device.

In particular, the terminal device transmits a random access preamble on the selected carrier, where the terminal device may choose to transmit the random access preamble on a random access occasion dedicated to SDT, or the terminal device may transmit the SDT dedicated preamble on the selected carrier.

S504, the network device sends a random access response message, also referred to as a second message, to the terminal device.

Specifically, after receiving a first message sent by the terminal device, the network device determines that small data transmission based on random access is initiated by the terminal device, and sends a random access response message to the terminal device, where the random access response message may carry the TC-RNTI, the timing advance, and the uplink grant allocated to the terminal device. And the TC-RNTI is used for identifying terminal equipment under the air interface of one cell.

And S505, the terminal device sends a third message to the network device.

Specifically, the terminal device sends a third message on the uplink grant allocated to it in the second message, where the third message includes uplink data and an RRC recovery request. In addition, a Buffer Status Report (BSR) may be included, which may be a BSR MAC CE used to indicate current buffer information to the network device. A Release Assist Indication (RAI) may also be included, where the RAI is used to indicate subsequent data information of the terminal device to the network device.

S506, the network device sends a contention resolution message to the terminal device.

Specifically, after receiving the RRC message and the data sent by the terminal device, the network device sends a contention resolution message, where the contention resolution message does not include an RRC signaling, and considers that the random access process is successfully completed, and at this time, the TC-RNTI is updated to the C-RNTI. The terminal device is still in the inactive state at this time.

And S507, the terminal equipment sends the auxiliary information to the network equipment.

Specifically, the auxiliary information may be, for example, information of a measured reference signal of a cell in which the terminal device is located, including RSRP information, RSRQ information, beam quality information, or the like. When subsequent data needs to be transmitted, the terminal device always performs measurement in the inactive state, and the terminal device judges that the current RSRP measurement value needs to be reported to the network device according to the range of the RSRP value obtained by measurement.

It should be noted that step 507 may be executed simultaneously with step 505, or the third message may also carry the auxiliary information. Alternatively, the auxiliary information may be sent in the same message with the uplink data bearer of step 509, or executed simultaneously with step 509. Alternatively, the step 507 may be preceded or followed by any other steps, in other words, the step 507 is not necessarily in order of sequence with other steps.

Optionally, the step may also be that the terminal device reports the measurement report to the network device.

Specifically, in a non-connected state, the terminal device always measures information of a reference signal of a cell, and when a measurement result of the terminal device meets a trigger condition of a measurement event, the terminal device reports the measurement result to the network device. The reference signal may be RSRP or RSRQ or beam quality, the information of the reference signal may include RSRP information or RSRQ information or beam quality information, and meanwhile, the measurement result may be RSRP information or RSRQ information or beam quality of the cell where the measurement result is located, or the like.

Illustratively, the measurement event may be an A2 event. The description of the A2 event is that when the sum of the serving cell measurement result and the hysteresis parameter of the event is lower than a certain threshold, the terminal device triggers the A2 event and reports the measurement result, and if the condition is not met, the measurement result is not reported, wherein the threshold can be flexibly set according to different scenes. If the network device receives the report of the measurement result, it is indicated that the quality of the carrier signal of the cell accessed by the terminal device is poor, the probability that the terminal device approaches the site of the network device is low, that is, the terminal device is likely to be located at the edge of the site of the network device, and the probability that the terminal device is covered by the high-frequency energy-saving carrier is low.

By way of example and not limitation, in one possible implementation, when the reference signal is RSRP and the measurement result is RSRP, the following two scenarios may be included:

scene one:

when the SDT is initiated, the terminal device selects the NUL carrier to transmit uplink data according to the fact that the RSRP is larger than or equal to the carrier selection threshold, when subsequent data are transmitted, the terminal device measures the RSRP value, if the RSRP measured by the terminal device is larger than or equal to the first threshold and smaller than or equal to the second threshold, the terminal device sends the RSRP measurement value to the network device, the measurement value can be used for the network device to refer to, and the network device can determine whether to configure transmission time-frequency resources on the SUL carrier for the terminal device according to the measurement value.

Scene two:

when the SDT is initiated, the terminal equipment selects the NUL carrier to transmit uplink data according to the condition that the RSRP is less than or equal to the carrier selection threshold, and when the terminal equipment measures that the RSRP is greater than or equal to the third threshold and less than or equal to the fourth threshold during subsequent data transmission, the terminal equipment sends the RSRP measurement value to the network equipment, wherein the measurement value can be referred by the network equipment, and whether time-frequency resources transmitted on the NUL carrier are configured for the terminal equipment or not is judged.

It should be understood that the first threshold value to the fourth threshold value in the present embodiment correspond to the first threshold value to the fourth threshold value in fig. 4, respectively.

S508, the network device sends the DCI to the terminal device.

Specifically, the network device switches carriers according to the information of the reference signal reported by the terminal device, and dynamically schedules uplink grant on the switched carriers in a DCI manner for subsequent data transmission.

It should be noted that, the network device may switch carriers without directly performing the action, that is, the network device may characterize that carrier switching is performed by using the uplink grant of another carrier carried in the DCI.

S509, the terminal device sends uplink data to the network device.

Specifically, after receiving the DCI sent by the network device, the terminal device performs subsequent data transmission on the uplink grant of the carrier after the switching of the DCI scheduling.

S510, the network device sends an RRC release message.

Specifically, when the uplink data transmission of the terminal device is finished, that is, when there is no further subsequent data transmission, the network device sends an RRC release message to the terminal device, and terminates the SDT procedure. The terminal device may remain in the unconnected state at this time, or may be released directly to the idle state.

It should be noted that, according to the auxiliary information reported by the terminal device, the network device may switch the carrier for uplink transmission for the terminal device, that is, the uplink transmission resource scheduled by the DCI sent by the network device to the terminal device may be located on the switched carrier. Of course, the network device may not perform carrier switching after receiving the auxiliary information.

According to the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment reports the information of the measured reference signal, such as the RSRP information, to the network equipment, so that the network equipment configures the authorized time-frequency resource for uplink data transmission according to the measured RSRP information, and the terminal equipment in a non-connection state can realize carrier switching by scheduling the authorized resource for uplink data transmission on a carrier different from the current uplink carrier, thereby ensuring the accuracy and reliability of uplink data transmission. In addition, the threshold selection range of the reported and measured RSRP information is within the critical range of the carrier selection threshold, that is, the network device can determine whether to switch carriers for the terminal device according to the variation trend of the RSRP reported by the terminal device, and the network device schedules time-frequency resources on other carriers for subsequent uplink transmission, thereby further improving the reliability of uplink transmission.

Fig. 6 shows a schematic diagram of a method 600 for switching carriers according to an embodiment of the present invention, which is mainly directed to that when a terminal device reports a measurement result to a network device, the method may further include two steps of a measurement event configuration request and a measurement event configuration compared with the method shown in fig. 5. As shown in fig. 6, in this embodiment, the CG resource is not configured on the carrier selected by the terminal device, or the CG resource is invalid or does not satisfy the condition for initiating CG transmission, and thus, the terminal device initiates random access small data transmission on the selected carrier. Specifically, the method for switching carriers includes:

it should be noted that, in this embodiment, for simplicity and convenience of description, steps that are the same as those in the above embodiment are not described again in this embodiment.

S601, the terminal device sends a measurement report configuration request message to the network device.

Specifically, in the connected state, the terminal device sends a request message to the network device, where the request message is used to request the network device for configuration of measurement report, and the configuration of measurement report may be configuration of a measurement report trigger event, for example, a threshold of the measurement report trigger event.

The measurement event is described as a measurement result or a measurement report of the measurement event, which is reported by the terminal device when the quality of the serving cell is lower than a certain threshold.

As an example and not by way of limitation, the measurement event may be an A2 event. The description of the A2 event is that when the quality of the serving cell is lower than a certain threshold, the terminal device will report the A2 event, and will not report if the quality of the serving cell is not higher than the certain threshold, where the threshold can be flexibly set according to different scenarios.

In a possible implementation manner, the measurement report event may be a new event for measurement report in the non-connected state.

It should be noted that the request message is not necessary, and when the method of switching carriers as shown in fig. 6 is adopted, the terminal device may not need to send the request message to the network device.

S602, the network device sends the measurement report configuration information to the terminal device.

Specifically, the measurement report configuration information may include configuration information of a measurement report trigger event, where the measurement report configuration information is used for determining, in an RRC inactive state, that the terminal device triggers measurement report.

For example, the measurement reporting trigger event may be an A2 event. Alternatively, the measurement report trigger event may be a new event for performing measurement report in the non-connected state. When the measurement reporting trigger event is an A2 event, it should be understood that all messages capable of carrying measurement configuration information may add configuration information of the A2 event, and specifically, when the network device releases the terminal device to enter an RRC unconnected state, new Information Elements (IEs) may be added to some information elements of the RRC release message to configure the A2 event.

When the measurement report trigger event is a new event for measurement report by the terminal device in the non-connected state, the information capable of carrying the measurement configuration information may all add the configuration information of the event, and specifically, when the network device releases the terminal device to enter the RRC non-connected state, new Information Elements (IEs) may be added to some information elements of the RRC release information to configure the event.

As a possible implementation manner, a trigger event for triggering the measurement report of the terminal device may be reconfigured or added in the RRC release message. Specifically, the RRC release message carries a report configuration, where the report configuration includes a trigger event for reporting measurement, and further, the trigger event includes a threshold for triggering measurement reporting. One possible implementation way is, for example, to add A2-Threshold to eventA2 in the "eventTriggerConfig" cell for triggering an A2 event in the inactive state of the terminal device, which may be, for example, A2-Threshold-I.

The configuration may be performed by:

for example, the threshold for event A2 may be reconfigured.

Alternatively, an offset field may be added to the "ReportConfigNR" cell for measurement in the inactive state of the terminal device.

Alternatively, a new event for triggering measurement reporting of the terminal device may be added to the "EventTriggerConfig" cell in the RRC release message, for example, eventA2-I, where the event eventA2-I is used for reporting the measurement result of the A2 event by the terminal device in the inactive state.

And after the terminal equipment receives the configuration information, if the triggering condition of the measurement reporting event is met, triggering the reporting of the measurement result.

Specifically, the terminal device measures the reference signal information of the serving cell in which the terminal device is located, and the specific content of the measured reference signal information may be RSRP and/or RSRQ, or may be beam quality. The terminal device compares the measurement result with a preset threshold, where the threshold is configured by the network device according to actual needs, and the application is not limited.

It should be noted that the measurement event configuration request message may be sent to the network device when the terminal device is in a connected state, or may be sent to the network device after the terminal device enters a non-connected state, which is not limited in this application.

Step 603 corresponds to step 501 shown in fig. 5, step 604 corresponds to step 502 shown in fig. 5, step 605 corresponds to step 503 shown in fig. 5, step 606 corresponds to step 504 shown in fig. 5, step 607 corresponds to step 505 shown in fig. 5, and step 608 corresponds to step 506 shown in fig. 5, which is not repeated here.

And S609, the terminal equipment triggers measurement reporting and reports the measurement result to the network equipment.

In one possible implementation, the measurement report triggering event may be an A2 event, and when the measurement result + hysteresis parameter (i.e., hysteris defined for the event in ReportConfigNR) is less than or equal to a threshold, the measurement result report is triggered, i.e., the measurement report is triggered to enter A2 or event. The selection of the threshold is different according to the different A2 event configurations, and may correspondingly include: a2-Threshold-I or a2-Threshold + offset.

In another possible implementation manner, the measurement report triggering event may be a new event, such as A2-I, for performing measurement reporting in the unconnected state, and at this time, the measurement report is triggered when the measurement result + hysteresis parameter (i.e., hysteris defined for the event in ReportConfigNR) is less than or equal to the threshold. Wherein the threshold is configured in the corresponding event.

Step 610 corresponds to step 508 shown in fig. 5, step 611 corresponds to step 509 shown in fig. 5, and step 612 corresponds to step 510 shown in fig. 5, and for simplicity of description, details are not repeated here.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, a non-connection state is mentioned multiple times, and it should be noted that the non-connection state may represent a state of a terminal other than a connection state, for example, the non-connection state may be an inactive state or an idle state or another state that is not in a connection state. Or the unconnected state may indicate that the unconnected state is composed of an inactive state and an idle state, which is not limited in this application.

According to the embodiment of the application, for the terminal equipment with subsequent transmission of SDT in the non-activated state, when the current carrier of the terminal equipment cannot be used due to RSRP change or the carrier needs to be switched by the terminal equipment, a non-activated state carrier switching mechanism is introduced, and the terminal equipment can carry out carrier switching through DCI scheduling according to reported information by reporting auxiliary information or reporting a measurement result, so that the successful transmission of subsequent SDT data can be ensured.

Fig. 7 shows a schematic diagram of a method 700 for switching carriers according to an embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 7, in this embodiment, a CG resource is not configured on a carrier selected by a terminal device, or the CG resource is invalid or a condition for initiating CG transmission is not satisfied, and a CG-based small data transmission cannot be selected, so that the terminal device initiates a random access small data transmission on the selected carrier. And the terminal equipment initiates random access small data transmission on the selected carrier. Specifically, the method for switching carriers includes:

s701, the network equipment sends an RRC release message to the terminal equipment.

Specifically, the network device sends an RRC release message to the terminal device, where the RRC release message is used to instruct the terminal device to enter a non-connected state, and the RRC release message may carry the SRS configuration, which may include, for example, a transmission cycle or a transmission frequency.

S702, the terminal device initiates the SDT process on the selected NUL carrier or SUL carrier when meeting the standard of initiating the SDT.

Specifically, the terminal device in the inactive state may determine to execute the SDT procedure according to a relationship between the data volume to be transmitted and the corresponding threshold and a relationship between the RSRP and the corresponding threshold. For example, when the terminal device determines that the current data volume to be transmitted is smaller than a preset threshold, and when the terminal device determines that the RSRP is greater than the preset RSRP threshold, a small data transmission process is initiated. Of course, the terminal device may further determine to initiate the SDT procedure according to a relationship between other information and a threshold, for example, the other information may be RSRQ, beam quality, and the like, which is not limited in this application.

And S703, the terminal equipment selects the carrier.

It can be understood that there is no necessary sequence between the above step 702 and step 703, and the network device may first select the carrier, and then select the transmission mode according to the SDT standard to be the small data transmission based on the random access or the small data transmission based on the configured authorization. Or both steps may be performed simultaneously. There is no necessary sequence between the selection of the small data transmission mode and the selection of the uplink carrier.

S704, the terminal equipment sends a first message.

And when the terminal equipment in the inactive state meets the criteria of SDT selection, the terminal equipment selects the NUL or SUL carrier according to the RSRP threshold value configured in the system information, and initiates the SDT on the selected carrier. At this time, if the carrier selected by the terminal device is not configured with CG resources or does not satisfy the conditions for initiating CG transmission and cannot select CG-based small data transmission, the terminal device initiates an SDT procedure based on random access.

Specifically, the terminal device sends a first message, which may be a random access preamble, to the network device on the selected carrier.

It should be understood that the random access preamble may be a preamble transmitted by the terminal device at the random access occasion for SDT, or may be a dedicated preamble for SDT, which is not limited in this application.

S705, the network device sends a second message.

Specifically, the network device determines that the terminal device initiates an SDT based on random access based on a first message sent by the terminal device, and sends a second message to the terminal device in response to the first message, where the second message may be a random access response, and the response message may include a TC-RNTI, a timing advance, and an uplink grant.

S706, the terminal device sends a third message.

Specifically, after receiving the second message, the terminal device sends a third message on the uplink grant in the second message, where the third message multiplexes uplink data and the RRC recovery request.

Optionally, the uplink message may further include BSR MAC CE or RAI, which is used to indicate information of subsequent data transmission of the terminal device to the network device.

S707, the network device sends a fourth message.

Specifically, after receiving the RRC message and the data sent by the terminal device, the network device sends a contention resolution message, where the contention resolution message does not include an RRC signaling, and when the random access process is considered to be successfully completed, the TC-RNTI is upgraded to the C-RNTI. The terminal device is still in the inactive state at this time.

And S708, the terminal equipment transmits the SRS.

Specifically, after contention resolution, the terminal device transmits the SRS to the network device when the SRS transmission condition is satisfied due to the presence of subsequent data transmission.

It should be noted that, the premise that the terminal device sends the SRS is that the network device sends SRS configuration information to the terminal device, and the configuration information may be configured in a process shown in fig. 7, that is, sent to the terminal device by the network device, so that the terminal device enters an RRC release message in an inactive state, that is, step 701.

Optionally, the SRS configuration information may also be configured in the fourth message, where the fourth message may also multiplex an RRC release message in addition to the contention, where the RRC release message is used to configure the SRS to the terminal device, but the release message includes indication information used to indicate that the message is used to send the SRS configuration, and does not terminate the SDT procedure.

It should be understood that the terminal device may also request the network device for the SRS configuration first, and the terminal device may send request information to the network device, optionally, the request information may be carried in the third message, that is, the third message is a third message for the terminal device to initiate the SDT process.

As a possible implementation manner, the request configuration information may also be sent to the network device through the terminal device in the non-SDT random access.

Next, SRS transmission conditions will be described. And when any one or any combination of the conditions is met, the terminal equipment transmits the SRS to the network equipment.

(1) The terminal equipment starts to judge and send the SRS only after receiving the fourth message sent by the network equipment, namely after the competition resolving is successful. It should be noted that, the SRS transmission time period needs to be before the end of the SDT procedure, that is, after the contention resolution procedure is completed and until the end of the SDT procedure, the terminal device may transmit the SRS to the network device in the configured SRS transmission period.

(2) The SRS is transmitted only when the terminal device determines that there is a subsequent data transmission.

(3) The SRS may be sent throughout the process after the terminal device initiates the SDT.

(4) And when the signal quality measured by the terminal equipment is greater than or equal to the fifth threshold and less than or equal to the sixth threshold, the terminal equipment sends the SRS. It should be noted that the fifth threshold may be the carrier selection RSRP threshold, and the sixth threshold may correspond to a value of the fifth threshold, for example, a value of a compensation amount is added on the basis of the fifth threshold. At this time, the scenario corresponds to that the terminal device estimates that the signal quality may be smaller than the carrier selection threshold, and if the terminal device transmits uplink data on the NUL carrier at this time, the SRS sent by the terminal device expects the network device to configure, for the terminal device, the time-frequency resource transmitted on the SUL carrier.

Or, when the signal quality measured by the terminal device is greater than or equal to the seventh threshold and less than or equal to the eighth threshold, the terminal device transmits the SRS. It should be noted that the sixth threshold may be a value obtained by subtracting one offset from the carrier selection RSRP threshold, or may also be the fifth threshold, and the eighth threshold may be a carrier selection RSRP threshold, or may also be a value of the sixth threshold. In addition, the seventh threshold and the eighth threshold may be a new threshold defined. At this time, the scenario corresponds to that the terminal device estimates that the signal quality may be greater than the carrier selection threshold, and if the terminal device transmits uplink data on the SUL carrier at this time, the SRS sent by the terminal device expects the network device to configure time-frequency resources transmitted on the NUL carrier for the terminal device.

It should be understood that the above threshold and the compensation amount are pre-configured to the terminal device by the network device, and may be sent to the terminal device through system information or provided to the terminal device in a previous RRC release message, for example.

(5) When the terminal device transmits data on the uplink transmission authorized resource based on the configured authorization, the condition may be that the terminal device sends the first data packet to the network device.

S709, the network device performs measurement.

Specifically, after receiving the SRS sent by the terminal device, the network device performs RSRP or RSRQ measurement of the SRS.

S710, the network device sends the DCI to the terminal device.

Specifically, the network device determines whether the current carrier of the terminal device needs to be switched according to the measurement result. For example, the network device measures RSRP of the SRS, and when the measured RSRP value of the network device is greater than the carrier selection RSRP threshold, at this time, if the current carrier of the terminal device is SUL, the network device may switch the carrier to NUL for the terminal device, that is, the network device schedules grant resources of the NUL carrier for the terminal device through DCI, and the grant resources are used for transmission of subsequent data of the terminal device.

It should be noted that, in the above situation, that is, when the measurement value of the network device is greater than the carrier selection RSRP threshold, if the current carrier of the terminal device is NUL, the network device determines that carrier switching is not required, and at this time, the network device still dynamically schedules the grant on the current carrier for subsequent data transmission.

Similarly, when the measurement value of the network device is smaller than the carrier selection RSRP threshold, if the carrier of the current terminal device is NUL, the network device may switch the carrier to the SUL for the terminal device, and if the carrier of the current terminal device is SUL, the network device may not switch the carrier for the terminal device.

Optionally, for the case that the carrier needs to be switched, the network device may further use 1 bit in the DCI to indicate that the carrier of the terminal device has been switched, for example, when the bit is 0, it may indicate that the resource dynamically scheduled by the network device is a grant on a NUL carrier, and when the bit is 1, it may indicate that the resource dynamically scheduled by the network device is a grant on an SUL carrier. Of course, it may also be indicated by 0 that the network device has not switched the current carrier of the terminal device, and indicated by 1 that the network device has switched the current carrier of the terminal device. In addition, the bits in the DCI may be redundant bits, which is not limited in this application.

And S711, the terminal equipment performs subsequent data transmission.

Specifically, the terminal device performs subsequent data transmission on the corresponding authorized resource based on the scheduling or indication of the network device.

S712, the network device sends an RRC release message.

Specifically, when the uplink data transmission of the terminal device is finished, that is, when there is no further subsequent data transmission, the network device sends an RRC release message to the terminal device, and terminates the SDT procedure. It should be appreciated that the terminal device remains in the unconnected state at this time.

According to the embodiment of the application, the network equipment measures the SRS sent by the terminal equipment, and when the receiving power or the receiving quality of the current SRS is poor, the network equipment can switch the carrier wave of the subsequent data transmission of the terminal equipment, so that the uplink data of the terminal equipment can be reliably and accurately transmitted.

Fig. 8 shows a schematic diagram of a method 800 for switching carriers according to an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 8, in this embodiment, a CG resource is not configured on a carrier selected by a terminal device, or the CG resource is invalid or a condition for initiating CG transmission is not satisfied, and a CG-based small data transmission cannot be selected, so that the terminal device initiates a random access small data transmission on the selected carrier. Specifically, the method for switching carriers includes:

at present, when a terminal device is in a non-connected state, RSRP measurement is performed, but carriers cannot be switched autonomously.

As shown in fig. 8, when the terminal device selects small data transmission based on random access, after contention resolution is completed, due to the presence of subsequent data, for example, there is still data to be transmitted in the buffer of the terminal device or data of a next new SDT arrives, at this time, the terminal device will continue to transmit the subsequent data on the current carrier.

It should be noted that, for the sake of simplicity and convenience, the same steps as those in the above description are not described in detail in this embodiment, and therefore, the scope of the present application is not unduly affected.

S801 to S806 correspond to steps 501 to 506 shown in fig. 5, respectively, and are not described herein again.

And S807, the terminal equipment performs carrier switching according to the measurement result.

Specifically, when the current carrier of the terminal device is NUL, if the terminal device determines that the current RSRP is smaller than the first threshold according to the measurement result, for example, the first threshold may be a carrier selection RSRP threshold, the terminal device autonomously switches the NUL carrier to the SUL carrier. Or, when the current carrier of the terminal device is SUL, if the terminal device determines that the current RSRP is greater than or equal to the first threshold according to the measurement result, for example, the first threshold may be a carrier selection RSRP threshold, the terminal device autonomously switches the SUL carrier to a NUL carrier.

As a possible implementation manner, after the terminal device performs carrier switching, the terminal device may start a timer at the same time, where the timer may be a dedicated carrier switching timer, and during the running of the timer, the terminal device cannot perform carrier switching autonomously again, and when the timer is out of time, the RSRP of the terminal device still does not meet the RSRP threshold of the current carrier, the terminal device may perform autonomous carrier switching. Alternatively, the timer may be configured in the system information by the network device.

At this time, since the terminal device switches the carrier based on the measurement result, the SDT procedure based on random access or the conventional random access procedure or the configured authorized SDT procedure will be triggered, which respectively correspond to fig. 8, fig. 9, and fig. 10.

The random access based SDT as shown in fig. 8 will be explained in detail first.

And S808, the terminal equipment sends the random access preamble.

Specifically, the random access preamble may be a preamble transmitted by the terminal device at the random access occasion for SDT, or may be a dedicated preamble for SDT, which is not limited in this application.

S809, the network device sends a response message.

Specifically, after receiving the preamble sent by the terminal device, the network device determines that the terminal device triggers the random access procedure of the SDT on the switched carrier. In response to the random access procedure, the network device sends a response message to the terminal device, where the response message may carry a temporary C-RNTI, such as a TC-RNTI, a timing advance TA, and an uplink grant resource for subsequent data transmission, and it should be understood that the uplink grant resource is on the carrier after the handover.

And S810, the terminal equipment sends uplink data.

Specifically, after receiving the uplink grant resource sent by the network device, the terminal device sends an uplink message on the resource, where the uplink message includes uplink small data. The uplink message may also include identity information of the UE, such as C-RNTI or TC-RNTI.

In a possible implementation manner, the message carrying the uplink data may not include the RRC recovery request message, but only include the C-RNTI MAC CE, which may avoid a security risk of reusing a recovery integrity message authentication code (resume MAC-I) in the RRC recovery request message.

S811, the network device transmits a contention resolution message.

Specifically, the network device sends a contention resolution message to the terminal device, where the contention resolution message indicates that contention resolution is successful, and at this time, the TC-RNTI of the terminal device is upgraded to the C-RNTI and is still in a non-connected state.

It should be noted that, after the contention resolution is successful, the TC-RNTI of the terminal device is upgraded to the C-RNTI, and the C-RNTI replaces the value of the C-RNTI in S805.

When subsequent data transmission continues, the network device will continue to configure, through the DCI, a time-frequency resource grant for transmitting uplink data for the terminal device, where the grant is an uplink grant resource on a carrier after switching, and may also be understood as an uplink carrier on which the message S810 is sent, and then the terminal device sends the subsequent data on the uplink grant scheduled by the network device. If the terminal device continues to measure and finds that the handover condition is satisfied, i.e. the process described in step 807, the terminal device switches the carrier again, and steps 807 to 811 are repeated again.

S812, the network device sends an RRC release message.

If no further data transmission is carried out, the network equipment sends RRC release information to the terminal equipment to terminate the SDT process, and at the moment, the terminal equipment is still in a non-connection state.

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, the unconnected state is mentioned multiple times, and it should be noted that the unconnected state may represent a state of the terminal other than the connected state, for example, the unconnected state may be an inactive state or an idle state or another state which is not in the connected state. Or the unconnected state may indicate that the unconnected state is composed of an inactive state and an idle state, which is not limited in this application.

According to the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment in the non-connection state autonomously switches the carrier wave based on the measurement result and informs the network of switching the uplink carrier wave, so that the data in the small data transmission process can be successfully transmitted, and the accuracy of uplink data transmission is ensured. In addition, if the terminal equipment starts the carrier switching timer after the carrier is switched autonomously, the ping-pong effect caused by frequent carrier switching can be avoided, the data transmission efficiency is improved, and the power consumption is saved.

Fig. 9 shows a schematic diagram of a method 900 for switching carriers according to an embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 9, when a terminal device autonomously switches carriers, a conventional random access procedure is triggered, that is, a subsequent data transmission will be transmitted in a connected state of the terminal device.

Specifically, in the embodiment shown in fig. 9, the method mainly includes the following specific steps:

s901 to S907 correspond to steps 801 to 807 in the flow shown in fig. 8, respectively, and are not described again here.

S908, the terminal device sends a random access preamble to the network device.

Specifically, the preamble is a preamble of a conventional random access and is distinguished from an SDT-specific preamble. Or optionally, the random access occasion of the preamble transmission is different from the occasion of the SDT procedure.

S909, the network device sends a random access response to the terminal device.

Specifically, the network device determines that the terminal device initiates a conventional random access procedure according to the preamble sent by the terminal device, and in response to the conventional random access, the network device sends the response message to the terminal device.

S910, the terminal device sends an RRC recovery request message to the network device.

Specifically, the terminal device sends an RRC connection recovery request through an uplink common control channel, where the request message may carry information such as identification information of the UE (e.g., UE id such as C-RNTI or TC-RNTI), a connection recovery reason (terminal-originated signaling, terminal-originated data, terminal-originated abnormal data, or terminal call), and a recovery integrity message authentication code resummemac-I.

And S911, the network equipment sends a competition resolving message to the terminal equipment.

Specifically, the network device sends a contention resolution message to the terminal device, where the contention resolution message is used to indicate that the terminal device enters a connected state, and then the small data that is not transmitted is transmitted after the terminal device enters the connected state.

Alternatively, the contention resolution message may be an RRC recovery message, or the contention resolution message may be transmitted to the terminal device together with the RRC recovery message.

S912, the terminal device sends uplink data to the network device.

Specifically, after the terminal device enters the connected state, the terminal device transmits uplink data on the switched uplink carrier.

S913, the network device sends the DCI to the terminal device.

Specifically, if further subsequent data exists in the terminal device, the network device schedules, through the DCI, an authorized resource of an uplink carrier different from a current uplink carrier for the terminal device, and the resource is used for transmitting the subsequent data of the terminal device.

And S914, the terminal equipment performs subsequent data transmission.

S915, the network device sends an RRC release message.

According to the embodiment of the application, after the carrier is autonomously switched, the terminal equipment triggers the traditional random access process on the switched carrier, requests to enter the connection state, and transmits the subsequent small data in the connection state. Based on the scheme, the terminal equipment can autonomously switch the carrier without scheduling through the network equipment, so that resources are saved, the efficiency of uplink data transmission is improved, and the successful transmission of subsequent small data is ensured.

If the terminal device configures CG-SDT resources for the selected carrier after autonomously switching carriers, the terminal device initiates CG-SDT on the selected carrier, for example, the procedure shown in fig. 10, which is the same as the procedure shown in the foregoing embodiment, and is not described again here.

In the flow shown in fig. 10, for the first transmission, the CG resource is not configured for the carrier selected by the terminal device, or the CG resource is invalid or does not satisfy the condition for initiating the CG transmission and the CG-based small data transmission cannot be selected, so the terminal device initiates the random access small data transmission on the selected carrier. Specifically, the method for switching carriers includes:

s1001 to S1006 are the same as steps 501 to 506 shown in fig. 5, and are not described again here.

And S1007, the terminal equipment switches the carrier.

Specifically, as described in the embodiments of the method 800 and the method 900, after the terminal device switches the current uplink carrier according to the measurement result, if the terminal device determines that the configured uplink grant is configured for the currently switched carrier and the CG resource is valid and the condition for initiating CG-based transmission is satisfied, the subsequent small data of the terminal device will be transmitted based on the configured grant.

S1008, the terminal device sends uplink data to the network device.

Specifically, the terminal device performs the SDT procedure of the CG on the currently switched carrier.

S1009, the network device transmits the DCI to the terminal device.

Specifically, if further subsequent data exists in the terminal device, the network device schedules an authorized resource of an uplink carrier different from the current uplink carrier for the terminal device through the DCI, and uses the scheduled resource for transmission of the subsequent data of the terminal device.

And S1010, the terminal equipment performs subsequent data transmission.

S1011, the network device sends an RRC release message.

In the embodiment of the application, when the RSRP changes that the current uplink carrier of the terminal device is generally unavailable, the terminal device autonomously performs carrier switching, so that the network device dynamically schedules further subsequent data, and successful transmission of subsequent small data of the terminal device in a non-connected state is ensured.

Fig. 11 shows a schematic diagram of a method 1100 for switching carriers according to an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 11, in this embodiment, a terminal device initially initiates small data transmission based on a configured grant on a selected carrier based on a criterion of small data transmission. Specifically, the method for switching carriers includes:

and S1101, when the terminal equipment meets the standard of initiating the SDT, initiating an SDT process on the selected NUL carrier or SUL carrier.

S1102, the terminal device performs carrier selection.

It can be understood that the foregoing step 1101 and step 1102 have no necessary sequence, and the network device may first select the carrier, and then select the transmission mode according to the SDT standard to be the small data transmission based on the random access or the small data transmission based on the configured authorization. Or both steps may be performed simultaneously. There is no necessary sequence between the small data transmission mode selection and the uplink carrier selection.

S1103, the terminal device sends the uplink data on the CG resource of the selected uplink carrier.

Specifically, after the CG-SDT is initiated, the terminal device sends an uplink message on the resource, where the uplink message includes uplink small data. Optionally, an RRC recovery request message is also included.

S1104, the network device replies to the response message.

And S1105, the terminal equipment carries out carrier switching according to the measurement result.

Specifically, S1103 and S807 perform the same process. And will not be described in detail herein.

Optionally, the S1103 may also be a combination of S401 and S402.

And S1106, the terminal equipment transmits uplink data on the switched carrier.

Specifically, the terminal device sends subsequent uplink data on the uplink grant resource on the switched carrier.

In a possible implementation manner, the terminal device S110 and S807 perform the same process, and if there is the configured authorized resource on the switched carrier, the terminal device transmits uplink data on the switched carrier based on the configured authorized resource.

In another possible implementation manner, the terminal device S1103 is a combination of S401 and S402, and the terminal device sends uplink data on the uplink transmission resource configured in S402.

S1107, the network device sends an RRC release message.

According to the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment in the non-connection state autonomously switches the carrier based on the measurement result and informs the network of switching the uplink carrier, or the terminal equipment reports auxiliary information or the measurement result and the like, the network equipment configures uplink transmission time-frequency resources for the terminal equipment based on the information reported by the terminal equipment, and the uplink transmission time-frequency resources are on the carrier different from the carrier of the first information, so that the terminal equipment in the non-connection state can realize carrier switching, the successful transmission of data in the small data transmission process is ensured, and the reliability and the accuracy of uplink data transmission are ensured.

It should be noted that, when the carrier switching method is described in the present application, for example, fig. 4 to fig. 7, the RA-based SDT is taken as an example for the initial data transmission process. It should be clear to those skilled in the art that, when the initial data transmission is performed, if a CG is configured on a carrier selected by the terminal device and an SDT condition based on the CG is satisfied, the terminal device will perform data transmission based on a configured authorization. Specifically, for the method 400, the first information is to be sent by the terminal device to the network device on a carrier on which the grant is configured. For the method 500 shown in fig. 5 or the method 600 shown in fig. 6, the assistance information or the measurement report is transmitted on the grant configured carrier, and for the method 700 shown in fig. 7, the SRS is transmitted on the grant configured carrier.

It should be understood that the initial data transmission of the method 800 to the method 1000 may still be based on the authorization of the configuration, and the description thereof is omitted here.

The method provided by the embodiment of the present application is described in detail above with reference to fig. 4 to 11. Hereinafter, the carrier switching apparatus according to the embodiment of the present application will be described in detail with reference to fig. 12 to 16.

Fig. 12 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus for switching carriers according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown, the apparatus 10 for switching carriers may include a processing module 11 and a transceiver module 12.

In one possible design, the apparatus 10 for switching carriers may correspond to the network device in the above method embodiment.

Specifically, the apparatus 10 for switching carriers may correspond to the network device in the method 400, the method 500, the method 600, the method 700, the method 800, the method 900 and the method 1000 according to the embodiments of the present application, and the apparatus 10 for switching carriers may include modules for performing the method 400 in fig. 4, or the method 500 in fig. 5, or the method 600 in fig. 6, or the method 700 in fig. 7, or the method 800 in fig. 8, or the method 900 in fig. 9, or the method 1000 in fig. 10. Also, the units and other operations and/or functions in the apparatus 10 for switching carriers are to implement the corresponding flows of the method 400 in fig. 4 or the method 500 in fig. 5 or the method 600 in fig. 6 or the method 700 in fig. 7 or the method 800 in fig. 8 or the method 900 in fig. 9 or the method 1000 in fig. 10 or the method 1100 in fig. 11, respectively.

Wherein, when the apparatus 10 for switching carriers is used to execute the method 400 in fig. 4, the transceiver module 12 may be used to execute steps 401 and 402 in the method 400.

When the apparatus 10 for switching carriers is used to execute the method 500 in fig. 5, the transceiver module 12 can be used to execute steps 503 to 510 in the method 500.

When the apparatus 10 for switching carriers is configured to execute the method 600 in fig. 6, the transceiver module 12 may be configured to execute steps 601, 602, 605 to 612 in the method 600.

When the apparatus for switching carriers 10 is configured to execute the method 700 in fig. 7, the processing module 11 is configured to execute step 709 in the method 700. The transceiver module 12 may be configured to perform steps 701, 704 to 708, and 710 to 712 of the method 700.

When the apparatus 10 for switching carriers is used to execute the method 800 in fig. 8, the transceiver module 12 may be used to execute steps 803 to 806, and steps 808 to 812 in the method 800.

When the apparatus for switching carriers 10 is configured to perform the method 900 in fig. 9, the transceiver module 12 may be configured to perform steps 903 to 906 and 908 to 915 in the method 900.

When the apparatus 10 for switching carriers is used to execute the method 1000 in fig. 10, the transceiver module 12 can be used to execute steps 1003 to 1006 and steps 1008 to 1011 in the method 1000.

When the apparatus 10 for switching carriers is configured to execute the method 1100 in fig. 11, the transceiver module 12 may be configured to execute steps 1103 to 1104 and steps 1106 to 1107 in the method 1100.

Fig. 13 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus for switching carriers according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown, the apparatus 20 for switching carriers may include a transceiver module 21 and a processing module 22.

In a possible design, the apparatus 20 for switching carriers may correspond to the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiment, or a chip configured in the terminal device.

Specifically, the apparatus 20 for switching carriers may correspond to a terminal device in the method 400, the method 500, the method 600, the method 700, the method 800, the method 900 and the method 1000 according to the embodiments of the present application, and the apparatus 20 for switching carriers may include modules for executing the method 400 in fig. 4, or the method 500 in fig. 5, or the method 600 in fig. 6, or the method 700 in fig. 7, or the method 800 in fig. 8, or the method 900 in fig. 9, or the method 1000 in fig. 10. Also, the units and other operations and/or functions in the apparatus for switching carriers 20 are respectively for implementing the corresponding flows of the method 400 in fig. 4, the method 500 in fig. 5, the method 600 in fig. 6, the method 700 in fig. 7, the method 800 in fig. 8, the method 900 in fig. 9, the method 1000 in fig. 10, and the method 1100 in fig. 11.

When the apparatus for switching carriers 20 is used to perform the method 400 in fig. 4, the transceiver module 21 may be used to perform steps 401 and 402 in the method 400.

When the apparatus 20 for switching carriers is used to execute the method 500 in fig. 5, the transceiver module 21 can be used to execute steps 503 to 510 in the method 500. The processing module 22 may be used to perform steps 501 and 502 in the method 500.

When the apparatus for switching carriers 20 is used to execute the method 600 in fig. 6, the transceiver module 21 may be used to execute steps 601 and 602, and steps 605 to 612 in the method 600. The processing module 22 may be configured to perform steps 603 and 604 of the method 600.

When the apparatus for switching carriers 20 is used to execute the method 700 in fig. 7, the transceiver module 21 may be used to execute steps 701, 704 to 708, and 710 to 712 in the method 700. The processing module 22 may be configured to perform steps 702, 703 of the method 700.

When the apparatus 20 for switching carriers is used to execute the method 800 in fig. 8, the transceiver module 21 is configured to execute steps 803 to 806, and steps 808 to 812 in the method 800. The processing module 22 may be configured to perform steps 801, 802, 807 of the method 800.

When the apparatus for switching carriers 20 is configured to execute the method 900 in fig. 9, the transceiver module 21 is configured to execute steps 903 to 906 and 908 to 915 in the method 900. The processing module 22 may be configured to perform steps 901, 902, 907 of the method 900.

When the apparatus 20 for switching carriers is used to execute the method 1000 in fig. 10, the transceiver module 21 is configured to execute steps 1003 to 1006, and 1008 to 1011 of the method 1000. Processing module 22 may be configured to perform steps 1001, 1002, and 1007 of method 1000.

When the apparatus for switching carriers 20 is configured to execute the method 1100 in fig. 11, the transceiver module 21 may be configured to execute steps 1103 to 1104 and steps 1106 to 1107 in the method 1100. The processing module 22 may be configured to perform steps 1101, 1102, 1105 of the method 1100.

Fig. 14 is a schematic diagram of an apparatus 30 for switching carriers according to the foregoing method, as shown in fig. 14, where the apparatus 30 may be a network device including a network element with an access management function, such as an AMF.

The apparatus 30 may include a processor 31 (i.e., an example of a processing module) and a memory 32. The memory 32 is configured to store instructions, and the processor 31 is configured to execute the instructions stored by the memory 32, so as to enable the apparatus 30 to implement the steps performed by the network device in the method corresponding to fig. 4, fig. 5, or fig. 6, or fig. 7, or fig. 8, or fig. 9, or fig. 10, or fig. 11.

Further, the apparatus 30 may further include an input port 33 (i.e., one side of the transceiver module) and an output port 34 (i.e., another side of the transceiver module). Further, the processor 31, the memory 32, the input port 33 and the output port 34 may communicate with each other via internal connection paths, passing control and/or data signals. The memory 32 is used for storing a computer program, and the processor 31 can be used for calling and running the computer program from the memory 32 to control the input port 33 to receive signals and control the output port 34 to send signals, so as to complete the steps of the network device in the above method. The memory 32 may be integrated in the processor 31 or may be provided separately from the processor 31.

Alternatively, the input port 33 may be a receiver and the output port 34 may be a transmitter. Wherein the receiver and the transmitter may be the same or different physical entities. When the same physical entity, may be collectively referred to as a transceiver.

Alternatively, if the device 30 for switching carriers is a chip or a circuit, the input port 33 is an input interface, and the output port 34 is an output interface.

As an implementation manner, the functions of the input port 33 and the output port 34 may be realized by a transceiver circuit or a dedicated chip for transceiving. The processor 31 may be considered to be implemented by a dedicated processing chip, processing circuitry, a processor, or a general purpose chip.

As another implementation manner, the communication device provided in the embodiment of the present application may be implemented by using a general-purpose computer. Program codes that implement the functions of the processor 31, the input port 33, and the output port 34 are stored in the memory 32, and a general-purpose processor implements the functions of the processor 31, the input port 33, and the output port 34 by executing the codes in the memory 32.

Each unit or unit in the apparatus for switching carriers 30 may be configured to perform each action or processing procedure performed by the network device in the foregoing method, and here, detailed descriptions thereof are omitted to avoid redundancy.

For the concepts, explanations, details and other steps related to the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application related to the apparatus 30, reference is made to the descriptions of the foregoing methods or other embodiments, which are not repeated herein.

Fig. 15 is a schematic diagram of an apparatus 40 for switching carriers according to the foregoing method, and as shown in fig. 15, the apparatus 40 may be a terminal device.

The apparatus 40 may include a processor 41 (i.e., an example of a processing module) and a memory 42. The memory 42 is configured to store instructions, and the processor 41 is configured to execute the instructions stored in the memory 42, so as to enable the apparatus 40 to implement the steps performed by the terminal device in fig. 4, fig. 5, or fig. 6, or fig. 7, or fig. 8, or fig. 9, or fig. 10, or fig. 11.

Further, the apparatus 40 may further include an input port 43 (i.e., one side of the transceiver module) and an output port 44 (i.e., another side of the transceiver module). Further, the processor 41, the memory 42, the input port 43 and the output port 44 may communicate with each other via internal connection paths, passing control and/or data signals. The memory 42 is used for storing a computer program, and the processor 41 can be used for calling and running the computer program from the memory 42 to control the input port 43 to receive signals and the output port 44 to send signals, so as to complete the steps of the terminal device in the above method. The memory 42 may be integrated in the processor 41 or may be provided separately from the processor 41.

Alternatively, the input port 43 may be a receiver and the output port 44 may be a transmitter. Wherein the receiver and the transmitter may be the same or different physical entities. When the same physical entity, may be collectively referred to as a transceiver.

Alternatively, if the device 40 for switching the carrier is a chip or a circuit, the input port 43 is an input interface, and the output port 44 is an output interface.

As an implementation manner, the functions of the input port 43 and the output port 44 may be realized by a transceiver circuit or a dedicated chip for transceiving. The processor 41 may be considered to be implemented by a dedicated processing chip, processing circuit, processor, or a general purpose chip.

As another implementation manner, a manner of using a general-purpose computer to implement the communication device provided in the embodiment of the present application may be considered. Program codes that will realize the functions of the processor 41, the input port 43, and the output port 44 are stored in the memory 42, and the general-purpose processor realizes the functions of the processor 41, the input port 43, and the output port 44 by executing the codes in the memory 42.

Each module or unit in the apparatus for switching carriers 40 may be configured to execute each action or processing procedure executed by the terminal device in the foregoing method, and here, detailed descriptions thereof are omitted to avoid redundancy.

For the concepts, explanations, and details of the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application and other steps related to the apparatus 40, reference is made to the foregoing methods or descriptions related to these contents in other embodiments, which are not repeated herein.

Fig. 16 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device 50 provided in the present application. For convenience of explanation, fig. 16 shows only main components of the terminal device. As shown in fig. 16, the terminal device 50 includes a processor, a memory, a control circuit, an antenna, and an input-output means.

The processor is mainly configured to process a communication protocol and communication data, control the entire terminal device, execute a software program, and process data of the software program, for example, to support the terminal device to perform the actions described in the above embodiment of the method for indicating a transmission precoding matrix. The memory is mainly used for storing software programs and data, for example, the codebook described in the above embodiments. The control circuit is mainly used for converting baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing the radio frequency signals. The control circuit and the antenna together, which may also be called a transceiver, are primarily intended for transceiving radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are mainly used for receiving data input by users and outputting data to the users.

When the terminal device is started, the processor can read the software program in the storage unit, interpret and execute the instruction of the software program, and process the data of the software program. When data needs to be sent wirelessly, the processor outputs a baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit after performing baseband processing on the data to be sent, and the radio frequency circuit performs radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and sends the radio frequency signal outwards in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is transmitted to the terminal equipment, the radio frequency circuit receives radio frequency signals through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signals into baseband signals and outputs the baseband signals to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signals into the data and processes the data.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that fig. 16 shows only one memory and processor for ease of illustration. In an actual terminal device, there may be multiple processors and memories. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or a storage device, and the like, which is not limited in this application.

As an alternative implementation manner, the processor may include a baseband processor and a central processing unit, where the baseband processor is mainly used to process a communication protocol and communication data, and the central processing unit is mainly used to control the whole terminal device, execute a software program, and process data of the software program. The processor in fig. 14 integrates the functions of the baseband processor and the central processing unit, and those skilled in the art will understand that the baseband processor and the central processing unit may also be independent processors, and are interconnected through a bus or the like. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the terminal device may include a plurality of baseband processors to accommodate different network formats, the terminal device may include a plurality of central processors to enhance its processing capability, and various components of the terminal device may be connected by various buses. The baseband processor can also be expressed as a baseband processing circuit or a baseband processing chip. The central processing unit can also be expressed as a central processing circuit or a central processing chip. The function of processing the communication protocol and the communication data may be built in the processor, or may be stored in the storage unit in the form of a software program, and the processor executes the software program to realize the baseband processing function.

As shown in fig. 16, the terminal device 50 includes a transceiving unit 51 and a processing unit 52. A transceiver unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiving device, etc. Alternatively, a device for implementing a receiving function in the transceiver unit 51 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device for implementing a transmitting function in the transceiver unit 51 may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, the transceiver unit 51 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. For example, the receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, etc., and the sending unit may be referred to as a transmitter, a transmitting circuit, etc.

The terminal device shown in fig. 16 may perform each action performed by the terminal device in the

above methods

400, 500, 600, or 700, or 800, or 900, or 1000, or 1100, and a detailed description thereof is omitted here for avoiding redundancy.

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, the processor may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), and the processor may also be other general-purpose processors, digital Signal Processors (DSPs), application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, and the like. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

It will also be appreciated that the memory in the embodiments of the subject application may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The non-volatile memory may be a Read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an Electrically Erasable PROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. Volatile memory can be Random Access Memory (RAM), which acts as external cache memory. By way of example, but not limitation, many forms of Random Access Memory (RAM) are available, such as Static RAM (Static RAM), dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (Synchronous DRAM, SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (double data rate SDRAM, DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (Enhanced SDRAM, ESDRAM), synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM), and Direct memory bus RAM (DR RAM).

The above embodiments may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, the above-described embodiments may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product comprises one or more computer instructions or computer programs. The procedures or functions according to the embodiments of the present application are wholly or partially generated when the computer instructions or the computer program are loaded or executed on a computer. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored on a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another computer readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center by wire (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that contains one or more collections of available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., DVD), or a semiconductor medium. The semiconductor medium may be a solid state disk.

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

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

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the technical solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

It is clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again. In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one type of logical functional division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment. In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit. The functions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium if they are implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as separate products. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application or portions thereof that substantially contribute to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium and including instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) 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.

The above description is only for the specific embodiments of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily think of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application, and shall be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for switching carriers, comprising:

a terminal device sends first information to a network device, wherein the first information is used for the network device to switch a first carrier into a second carrier, the first information comprises information of a reference signal of the terminal device, and the terminal device is in a non-connection state;

and the terminal equipment receives downlink control information, wherein the downlink control information carries information of uplink transmission resources, and the uplink transmission resources are on the second carrier.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the information of the reference signal comprises reference signal received power or reference signal received quality.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the terminal device sends first information to a network device, the first information being used for the network device to switch a first carrier to a second carrier, and the method comprises:

when the first information is greater than or equal to a first threshold and less than or equal to a second threshold, the terminal device sends the first information to the network device, the first information is used for the network device to switch a common uplink NUL carrier into an auxiliary uplink SUL carrier,

or the like, or, alternatively,

and when the first information is greater than or equal to a third threshold and less than or equal to a fourth threshold, the terminal device sends the first information to the network device, wherein the first information is used for the network device to switch the auxiliary uplink SUL carrier to the common uplink NUL carrier.

4. The method according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the first information is carried in a media Access control element, MAC CE, or a radio resource control, RRC, message.

5. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the terminal device sends first information to the network device, the first information comprising:

and when the quality of the serving cell is lower than a fifth threshold, the terminal equipment sends first information to the network equipment.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

the terminal device receives measurement reporting configuration information from the network device, wherein the measurement reporting configuration information comprises the fifth threshold;

and the terminal equipment measures the quality of the serving cell in the non-connection state.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the receiving, by the terminal device, measurement reporting configuration information from the network device comprises:

and the terminal equipment receives an RRC release message from the network equipment, wherein the RRC release message comprises the measurement reporting configuration information.

8. A method for switching carriers, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that network equipment receives first information from terminal equipment, wherein the first information comprises information of a reference signal of the terminal equipment, the first information is transmitted on a first carrier, and the terminal equipment is in a non-connection state;

and the network equipment sends downlink control information to the terminal equipment, wherein the downlink control information carries information of uplink transmission resources, and the uplink transmission resources are on a second carrier.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the information of the reference signal comprises a reference signal received power or a reference signal received quality.

10. The method according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the network device receives the first information from the terminal device, and comprises:

when the first information is greater than or equal to a first threshold value and less than or equal to a second threshold value, the network equipment receives the first information from the terminal equipment,

or the like, or a combination thereof,

and when the first information is greater than or equal to a third threshold and less than or equal to a fourth threshold, the network equipment receives the first information from the terminal equipment.

11. The method according to any of claims 8 to 10, wherein the first information is carried in a medium access control element, MAC CE, or a radio resource control, RRC, message.

12. The method according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the network device receives the first information from the terminal device, and comprises:

and when the quality of the serving cell is lower than a fifth threshold value, the network equipment receives first information from the terminal equipment.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

and the network equipment sends measurement reporting configuration information to the terminal equipment, wherein the measurement reporting configuration information comprises the fifth threshold value.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the network device sending measurement reporting configuration information to the terminal device comprises:

and the network equipment sends RRC release information to the terminal equipment, wherein the RRC release information comprises the measurement reporting configuration information.

15. An apparatus for switching carriers, comprising:

a transceiver module, configured to send first information to a network device, where the first information is used for the network device to switch a first carrier to a second carrier, and the first information includes information of a reference signal of the apparatus, where the apparatus is in a non-connected state;

and the transceiver module is further configured to receive downlink control information, where the downlink control information carries information of uplink transmission resources, and the uplink transmission resources are on the second carrier.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the first information comprises a reference signal received power or a reference signal received quality.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 or 16,

when the first information is greater than or equal to a first threshold and less than or equal to a second threshold, the transceiver module sends the first information to the network device, the first information is used for the network device to switch a common uplink NUL carrier to a secondary uplink SUL carrier,

or the like, or, alternatively,

and when the first information is greater than or equal to a third threshold and less than or equal to a fourth threshold, the transceiver module sends first information to the network device, where the first information is used for the network device to switch an auxiliary uplink SUL carrier to a common uplink NUL carrier.

18. The apparatus according to any of claims 15-17, wherein the first information is carried in a medium access control element, MAC CE, or a radio resource control, RRC, message.

19. Device according to claim 15 or 16, characterized in that

And when the quality of the serving cell is lower than a fifth threshold value, the transceiver module sends first information to the network equipment.

20. The apparatus of claim 19,

the transceiver module is further configured to receive measurement reporting configuration information from the network device, where the measurement reporting configuration information includes the fifth threshold;

a processing module, configured to measure quality of the serving cell in the unconnected state.

21. The apparatus of claim 20,

the transceiver module is further configured to receive an RRC release message from the network device, where the RRC release message includes the measurement report configuration information.

22. An apparatus for switching carriers, comprising:

a transceiver module, configured to receive first information from a terminal device, where the first information includes information of a reference signal of the terminal device, the first information is transmitted on a first carrier, and the terminal device is in a non-connected state;

the transceiver module is further configured to send downlink control information to the terminal device, where the downlink control information carries information of uplink transmission resources, and the uplink transmission resources are on a second carrier.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the information of the reference signal comprises a reference signal received power or a reference signal received quality.

24. The apparatus according to claim 22 or 23, wherein the transceiver module is specifically configured to:

when the first information is larger than or equal to a first threshold value and smaller than or equal to a second threshold value, the transceiver module receives the first information from the terminal equipment,

or the like, or a combination thereof,

and when the first information is greater than or equal to a third threshold and less than or equal to a fourth threshold, the transceiver module receives the first information from the terminal equipment.

25. The apparatus according to any of claims 22-24, wherein the first information is carried in a medium access control element, MAC CE, or a radio resource control, RRC, message.

26. The apparatus according to claim 22 or 23, wherein the transceiver module is specifically configured to:

and when the quality of the serving cell is lower than a fifth threshold, the transceiver module receives the first information from the terminal equipment.

27. The apparatus of claim 26,

the transceiver module is further configured to send measurement reporting configuration information to the terminal device, where the measurement reporting configuration includes the fifth threshold.

28. The apparatus according to claim 27, wherein the transceiver module is specifically configured to:

and sending an RRC release message to the terminal equipment, wherein the RRC release message comprises the measurement reporting configuration information.

29. An apparatus for switching a carrier, the apparatus comprising a processor and a storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by the processor,

cause the processor to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 7, or

Causing the processor to perform the method of any one of claims 8 to 14.

30. A computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon a computer program which, when run on a computer,

cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 7, or

Causing the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 8 to 14.