CN115442818A

CN115442818A - Beam switching method and device

Info

Publication number: CN115442818A
Application number: CN202110624534.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张鹏; 乔梁; 张佳胤
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-06-04
Filing date: 2021-06-04
Publication date: 2022-12-06
Also published as: WO2022253308A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the application provides a beam switching method and device, and relates to the technical field of communication. The terminal equipment determines S signals to be processed in a first time unit, wherein at least two signals in the S signals have different priorities, and the signal categories of the S signals comprise one or more of the following: a synchronization signal block SSB, a control resource set CORESET, a channel sounding reference signal SRS or a physical downlink shared channel PDSCH, wherein S is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2; and in the first time unit, performing beam switching according to a beam switching rule and transmitting or receiving signals, wherein the beam switching rule is determined according to the priorities of the S signals. In the method and the device, when the terminal equipment carries out beam switching in a certain first time unit, the priority condition of the signal is referred to, so that the specific signal type can be ensured to be received or sent in time, the communication quality of the terminal equipment can be ensured, and the communication efficiency is improved.

Description

Beam switching method and device

Technical Field

The embodiment of the application relates to the technical field of communication, in particular to a beam switching method and device.

Background

High frequencies typically employ different analog beams to receive or transmit different types of signals. For example, a base station typically configures a wide analog beam to transmit a broadcast signal (e.g., the broadcast signal is a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB)). A base station generally needs to configure a narrower analog beam to transmit a data signal (e.g., a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS)), and a terminal device as a receiving end needs to perform beam switching to perform corresponding reception on the analog beam when performing reception. Considering the complexity of terminal implementation, the device processing capability of the terminal usually has certain limitations, and how to perform beam switching when the switching capability of the terminal is limited can ensure the communication quality of the terminal becomes a problem to be solved urgently.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method and a communication device, which are used for ensuring the communication service quality when terminal equipment carries out beam switching.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a beam switching method, which may be performed by a terminal device, where the terminal device may be understood as an in-vehicle device, a mobile phone, an internet of things device, and the like, and may also be understood as a module (e.g., a chip) in the terminal device, and the present application is not limited in particular herein. The terminal device may determine S signals to be processed in the first time unit, at least two of the S signals have different priorities, and signal categories of the S signals include one or more of the following: SSB, a control-resource set (core set), SRS, or a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), S being a positive integer greater than or equal to 2; in the first time unit, the beam switching is performed according to a beam switching rule determined according to the priority of the S signals, and the signals are transmitted or received.

In this application, the first time unit may be one of a timeslot, a symbol group, a subframe, and a radio frame, and may also be other time domain resource units, which is not specifically limited herein. Generally, the number of beam switching that the terminal device can support in a time unit is limited, for example, 2 times or 4 times, but the terminal device may transmit or receive multiple signals in a time unit, and different signals may be transmitted or received through different beams, so that the beam switching may occur in a time unit. If signals are not distinguished or beams are not switched to send or receive different signals, the signal-to-noise ratio of the received signals may be reduced, the performance of the system is reduced, the communication requirements of the terminal equipment cannot be met, and the user experience is reduced. According to the method and the device, the beam switching times supported by the terminal equipment in the first time unit and the priorities of the signals in the first time unit are fully considered, and the beam switching rules are flexibly adjusted according to the priorities of the signals, so that the communication service quality of the terminal equipment can be ensured, and the service experience of a user can be improved.

In an optional manner, the first time unit includes a plurality of preset switching times, the terminal device may select N target switching times from the plurality of preset switching times according to priorities of the S signals, and the terminal device performs beam switching at the target switching times, where N is less than or equal to a number of beam switching times supported by the terminal device in the first time unit, N is less than or equal to S, and N is a positive integer.

In this application, since the priority levels of S signals in the first time unit are different, and different signals may be transmitted or received through different beams, the terminal device may determine how many preset switching moments (i.e., beam switching moments) may exist in the first time unit based on the priority levels, for example, there are 5 signals, and the corresponding preset switching moments may be 5, or may be less than 5. Under the condition that the beam priority is determined and the beam switching times possibly supported in the first time unit are determined, the terminal device selects the preset switching time corresponding to the signal with the higher priority as the target switching time and performs beam switching, and the communication service quality of the terminal device can be ensured through the method.

In an optional manner, different preset switching times are indicated by different time sequence numbers; the value of the time sequence number is associated with the switching sequence of the beam switching information.

In an optional mode, a time sequence number corresponding to a preset switching time T is T, the number of times of beam switching supported by a first time unit is C, and both T and C are positive integers; if T is less than or equal to C, determining the preset switching time T as the target switching time; or if T is larger than C, determining that the preset switching time N is not the target switching time.

In an optional manner, if T is greater than C, a signal corresponding to the preset switching time T is sent or received at the preset switching time T according to the first beam; the first beam is a beam corresponding to a target switching time adjacent to the preset switching time T.

In the embodiment of the present application, it is assumed that the first time unit determines 3 signals, which are signal 1, signal 2, and signal 3, respectively, the priority of signal 3 is greater than that of signal 2, the priority of signal 2 is greater than that of signal 1, and there are 3 preset switching times in the first time unit, which occur before signal 1, signal 2, and signal 3 are transmitted or received, respectively. The preset switching time before the signal 3 is transmitted or received can be set as the preset switching time 1, the preset switching time before the signal 2 is transmitted or received can be set as the preset switching time 2, and the preset switching time before the signal 1 is transmitted or received can be set as the preset switching time 3 according to the priority of the signal in the first time unit. In addition, assuming that the number of beam switching times supported by the first time unit is 2, where 1 is less than 2, then the signal 3 may be transmitted or received according to the preset beam 3 at the preset switching time 1; if 2 is equal to 2, then signal 2 may be transmitted or received according to preset beam 2 at preset switching time 2; if 3 is greater than 2, then no beam switching is performed at the preset switching time 3, and the signal 1 may be transmitted or received according to the preset beam 3 or the preset beam 2.

In an alternative manner, the terminal device may select M beams according to priorities of S signals, and perform beam switching between the M beams, where the M beams are used for transmitting and/or receiving the S signals, where M is an integer and M is smaller than S.

In this embodiment of the present application, the terminal device selects M beams in a first time unit, where M is less than or equal to the number of times of beam switching supported by the terminal device in the first time unit.

In an alternative approach, the target handover time instant is located in the time domain resource of the low priority signal.

In the embodiment of the application, the time domain resource of the target switching moment in the low-priority signal can ensure the accurate receiving or sending of the high-priority signal, and can ensure the communication quality of the terminal equipment.

In an alternative, the signal classes of the S signals include: SSB, CORESET, SRS, and PDSCH; SSB has higher priority than CORESET; CORESET has higher priority than SRS; SRS has higher priority than PDSCH. The priorities of the different types of signals may be determined by configuration information of the network device, or may be determined autonomously by the terminal device, which is not specifically limited herein.

In an alternative, the priority of the S signals may be configured by configuration information.

In an optional manner, the configuration information may be further used to configure a transmission beam or a reception beam of L signals, where the L signals are one or more of the S signals, and L is less than or equal to S. The receiving and sending beams of the signals are configured through the configuration information, the terminal equipment does not need to determine how to switch the beams in the first time unit according to the priority of the signals, the data processing pressure of the terminal equipment can be reduced through the mode, and the data processing efficiency is improved.

In an alternative approach, the configuration information is carried in the following signaling: radio Resource Control (RRC), or medium access control (MAC CE), or Downlink Control Information (DCI).

In an optional manner, the configuration information is activated or deactivated by a value of a preset indication field in the DCI.

In an alternative, the preset indication field is 1 bit or more.

In an alternative approach, the types of S signals may include one or more of the following: SSB, CORESET, channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), SRS, physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), and PDSCH. The present application is only schematically illustrated here, and in practical applications, more types of signals may be included, which is not illustrated here. Generally, the SSB has the highest priority level, the core set or CSI-RS, the PUCCH, SRS, PUSCH, and the PDSCH, but in practical applications, the priority level of the signal may be flexibly adjusted in consideration of specific situations of the signal, for example, whether the CSI-RS is periodic or aperiodic, whether the CSI-RS is semi-persistent, and if the CSI-RS is semi-persistent, the priority level of the signal may be adjusted, and the priority levels of the signals corresponding to different information carried by the PUSCH are not equal, and the application does not specifically limit how the priority level of the signal is defined herein.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication device comprising: a processing unit and an input-output unit.

The processing unit is used for determining S signals to be processed in a first time unit, at least two of the S signals have different priorities, and the signal types of the S signals comprise one or more of the following types: a synchronization signal block SSB, a control resource set CORESET, a channel sounding reference signal SRS or a physical downlink shared channel PDSCH, wherein S is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2; and an input/output unit for performing beam switching and transmitting or receiving of signals according to a beam switching rule determined according to the priorities of the S signals in the first time unit.

In an optional manner, the first time unit includes a plurality of preset switching moments, and the beam switching rule includes: selecting N target switching moments from a plurality of preset switching moments according to the priorities of the S signals, and performing beam switching at the target switching moments, wherein N is less than or equal to the beam switching times supported by the terminal equipment in a first time unit, N is less than or equal to S, and N is a positive integer.

In an alternative mode, the first time unit includes a plurality of preset switching moments, the communication apparatus may select N target switching moments from the plurality of preset switching moments according to the priorities of the S signals, and the terminal device performs beam switching at the target switching moments, where N is less than or equal to the number of beam switching times supported by the terminal device in the first time unit.

In an optional manner, if T is greater than C, a signal corresponding to the preset switching time T is transmitted or received at the preset switching time T according to the first beam; the first beam is a beam corresponding to a target switching time adjacent to the preset switching time T.

In an alternative, the input-output unit is specifically configured to: and selecting M beams according to the priorities of the S signals, and carrying out beam switching among the M beams, wherein the M beams are used for transmitting and/or receiving the S signals, M is an integer and is smaller than S.

In an alternative, the priorities of the S signals are configured by the configuration information.

In an alternative, the signal classes of the S signals include: SSB, CORESET, SRS, and PDSCH; SSB has higher priority than CORESET; CORESET has higher priority than SRS; SRS has higher priority than PDSCH.

In an optional manner, the configuration information is further used to configure a transmit beam or a receive beam of L signals, where the L signals are one or more of the S signals, and L is less than or equal to S.

In an alternative approach, the configuration information is carried in the following signaling: RRC, or MAC CE, or DCI.

In an alternative, the preset indication field is 1 bit or more.

In an alternative form, the input-output unit is configured to: and selecting M beams according to the priorities of the S signals, and carrying out beam switching among the M beams, wherein the M beams are used for transmitting and/or receiving the S signals, M is a positive integer and is smaller than S.

It should be understood that the input-output unit may be referred to as a transceiver unit, a communication unit, etc., and when the communication apparatus is a terminal device, the input-output unit may be a transceiver; the processing unit may be a processor. When the communication device is a module (e.g., a chip) in a terminal device, the input/output unit may be an input/output interface, an input/output circuit, an input/output pin, or the like, and may also be referred to as an interface, a communication interface, an interface circuit, or the like; the processing unit may be a processor, a processing circuit, a logic circuit, or the like.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication device comprising at least one processor, which executes a computer program (which may also be code or instructions) when the device is run, so as to cause the communication device to perform the method according to the first aspect or the embodiments of the first aspect.

In an alternative, the communication device further comprises a memory; the memory is for storing a computer program.

In an alternative, the memory and the processor may be integrated in the same chip or device, or may be separate chips, which is not limited in this application.

In a fourth aspect, the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-readable instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method as set forth in the first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the first aspect.

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

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a chip system, which includes a processor and may further include a memory, and is configured to implement the method described in the first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the first aspect. The chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a communication system, where the system includes a terminal device and a network device, and the communication system is configured to perform the method in the first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the first aspect.

For technical effects that can be achieved by the second aspect to the seventh aspect, please refer to the description of the technical effects that can be achieved by the corresponding possible design scheme in the first aspect, and the detailed description is not repeated herein.

Drawings

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

fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a beam switching method;

fig. 3 is a schematic flowchart illustrating a beam switching method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a method for determining the number of times of beam switching according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating preset switching moments for use with embodiments of the present application;

fig. 6 shows a schematic diagram of target handover time provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating beam switching provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating beam switching provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating beam switching provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating beam switching provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram illustrating a beam switching apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 13 shows a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more clear, the present application will be further described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The particular methods of operation in the method embodiments may also be applied in device embodiments or system embodiments. In the description of the present application, the term "plurality" means two or more unless otherwise specified. Therefore, the implementation of the apparatus and the method can be referred to each other, and repeated descriptions are omitted.

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the application can be applied to 5th generation (5G) communication systems or various future communication systems. Specifically, for example, three communication scenarios, which are most typical of the 5G communication system, are enhanced mobile internet (eMBB), massive machine type communication (mtc), and Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC). The method and the device can also be applied to wireless systems such as Long Term Evolution (LTE), new wireless Unlicensed technology (NR-Unlicensed), wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi), sidelink communication (SL), next generation communication systems and the like.

Fig. 1 illustrates a communication system 100 suitable for use in the present application. The communication system 100 includes a network device 110, a terminal device 120, and a terminal device 130. Network device 110 may transmit signals to terminal device 110 or terminal device 120 through a beam, and terminal device 110 or terminal device 120 may also receive signals from network device 110 through a corresponding beam, which may be understood as transmission of downlink signals. Accordingly, terminal device 120 or terminal device 130 may transmit signals to network device 110 through beams, and network device 110 may receive signals from terminal device 120 or terminal device 130 through corresponding beams, which may be understood as transmission of uplink signals.

The network device is a device deployed in a radio access network to provide a wireless communication function for the terminal device. The network device has a device with wireless transceiving function or a chip that can be set in the device, and the device includes but is not limited to: evolved Node B (eNB), radio Network Controller (RNC), node B (NB), base Station Controller (BSC), base Transceiver Station (BTS), home base station (e.g., home evolved Node B, or home Node B, HNB), base Band Unit (BBU), access point (access point in wireless fidelity, WIFI) system, AP), a wireless relay Node, a wireless backhaul Node, a transmission point (TRP or transmission point, TP), etc., and may also be a gNB in a 5G (such as NR) system, or a transmission point (TRP or TP), one or a group (including multiple antenna panels) of base stations in the 5G system, or may also be a network Node that constitutes the gNB or the transmission point, such as a baseband unit (BBU), or a Distributed Unit (DU), or a satellite, etc.

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

The terminal device, which may also be referred to as a terminal, in this embodiment of the present application is an entity for receiving or transmitting a signal at a user side, and is configured to send an uplink signal to a network device or receive a downlink signal from the network device. Including devices that provide voice and/or data connectivity to a user and may include, for example, handheld devices having wireless connection capabilities or processing devices connected to wireless modems. The terminal device may communicate with a core network via a Radio Access Network (RAN), exchanging voice and/or data with the RAN. The terminal device may include a User Equipment (UE), a V2X terminal device, a wireless terminal device, a mobile terminal device, a device-to-device communication (D2D) terminal device, a machine-to-machine-type communication (M2M/MTC) terminal device, an internet of things (IoT) terminal device, a subscriber unit (subscriber unit), a subscriber station (subscriber state), a mobile station (mobile state), a remote station (remote state), an Access Point (AP), a remote terminal (remote terminal), an access terminal (access terminal), a user terminal (user terminal), a user agent (user agent), or a user equipment (user device), a wearable device, a vehicle-mounted device, and the like.

By way of example and not limitation, in the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. Wearable equipment can also be called wearable smart device or intelligent wearable equipment etc. is the general term of using wearable technique to carry out intelligent design, develop the equipment that can dress to daily wearing, like glasses, gloves, wrist-watch, dress and shoes etc.. A wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the clothing or accessories of the user. 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 includes full functionality, large size, and can implement full or partial functionality without relying on a smart phone, such as: 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, smart helmets, smart jewelry and the like for monitoring physical signs.

While the various terminal devices described above, if located on (e.g. placed in or installed in) a vehicle, may be considered to be vehicle-mounted terminal devices, also referred to as on-board units (OBUs), for example.

In the description of the embodiment of the present application, "and/or" describes an association relationship of associated objects, which means that three relationships may exist, for example, a and/or B may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship. At least one referred to in this application means one or more; plural means two or more. It is to be understood that the terms "first," "second," and the like, in the description of the present application, are used for distinguishing between descriptions and not necessarily for describing a sequential or chronological order, or for indicating or implying a relative importance.

The communication system of fig. 1 described above may be adapted for high frequency communication. In general, rich spectrum resources exist in high frequency, the maximum available bandwidth of a single frequency band can reach 2000MHz, and the method is suitable for transmitting large-flow services. New Radio (NR) introduces subcarrier spacing (SCS) with larger frequency, such as 960kHz, and performs frequency domain dimension scheduling in a frequency band with large bandwidth. Taking the bandwidth of 2000MHz as an example, the frequency domain dimension scheduling can be performed through 170 Resource Blocks (RBs) of 960kHz (in the frequency domain, the bandwidth of 1 RB = the bandwidth of 12 REs, and the bandwidth of 1 RE = the bandwidth of 1 SCS of 960kHz, so for 960kHz (i.e. 0.96 MHz), the bandwidth occupied by 170 RBs =0.96mhz 170 × 12=1958.4 MHz).

High frequencies typically employ differently configured analog beams to receive or transmit different types of signals. For example, a base station transmits a broadcast signal, and generally configures a wider analog beam for transmission. The base station is usually configured to transmit a narrow analog beam for data signal transmission. In addition, the change of the transmitting and receiving directions of the analog beams can be realized by changing the configuration of the analog beams.

The capabilities of the terminal are set in consideration of the implementation complexity of the terminal, for example, the number of times that beam switching can be performed per slot. The number of times of beam switching can be understood as the number of times of changing the configuration of the analog beam. For example, if there are 14 symbols in a slot, and in an extreme case, each symbol can use a different beam for communication, the terminal supports 14 beam switches per slot. For a UE with poor capability, beam switching can be performed at least 4 times per slot. The beam switching mentioned above does not affect the communication of normal symbols.

In the case of large SCS, beam switching becomes more frequent, since the duration per slot becomes shorter, still switching beams per slot in the manner described above. This increases the power consumption of the terminal and increases the implementation complexity. For example, originally under 120kHz SCS, switch 4 times per slot, where the slot length is 0.125 ms, and switch every 0.03125 ms on average. At 960kHz SCS, the slot length becomes 0.03125 ms, switching on average every 0.0078125 ms if the ability to switch 4 times per slot is also maintained. Frequent beam switching is obviously unnecessary. Therefore, when the SCS is large, the number of switching times per slot is reduced, such as only 2 switching times per slot.

The terminal informs the base station of the maximum beam switching times supported in each time slot, and the base station can limit the scheduling based on the terminal capability, so that the beam switching times exceeding the terminal capability in one time slot are avoided. For example, the terminal informs the base station that it can only switch 4 times per timeslot at most, and then the base station can configure 4 different beams for communication in one timeslot at most. The above-mentioned communication includes not only uplink communication but also downlink communication. When the beams used for the uplink and downlink communication are the same, it may be considered that one beam switching is performed, or it may be considered that no beam switching is performed, i.e., the original beams are retained. If the beams used for the uplink and downlink communication are different, it is necessary to consider that one beam switching is performed.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a beam switching scenario, where there are 4 signals CORESET1, SSB2, UL1 in slot 1. Where SSB is a synchronization signal block, and different synchronization signal blocks use different beams. The SSB is generally used for initial access, cell search, synchronization, handover, and the like of the UE, and the UE completes the relevant operations (initial access, cell search, synchronization, handover, and the like) according to the acquired different SSB signal energies. Wherein SSB1 is used for signal synchronization and SSB2 is used for signal measurement. The CORESET is a control channel resource set, and is used for carrying control signaling, for example, control signaling for indicating data transmission, that is, the control signaling is carried on the CORESET resource and is sent through a PDCCH channel. The beams corresponding to CORESET1, SSB1 and SSB2 may not be the same. The UL indicates an uplink signal, and may carry uplink data, uplink control messages, SRS, and the like. Among the 4 signals, the SSB has the highest receiving priority, because the UE needs to select the most suitable cell for access and determine the communication quality of the cell in which the UE is located. If the UE has no way to switch to the beam of the current pre-camping cell SSB for measurement, the measurement accuracy of the UE on the current pre-camping cell SSB may be affected, which may cause the UE to mistakenly think that the UE cannot camp on the current cell.

Assuming that the maximum number of times of beam switching supported by the UE in one timeslot is 2, the number of signals to be received is 4, and the beams corresponding to each signal are different, 4 times of switching is required to receive the 4 signals. If the switching operation is selected according to the time sequence of the switching time, the UE can be switched between the first switching time and the second switching time, and the third switching time and the fourth switching time cannot be executed. Obviously, this will result in that the beam of the UE will not switch to the beam corresponding to SSB2 for correct measurement. The UE cannot synchronize with the best beam corresponding to the SSB2 to receive the SSB2, which affects the reception of other subsequent signals. Under the condition of meeting the beam switching capability of the UE, in order to ensure good communication quality, the application provides a new beam switching method so as to improve the communication quality of the terminal equipment.

Fig. 3 is a beam switching method provided in this embodiment of the present application, which can be executed by a terminal device, and only the terminal device is taken as an example to describe here, but it is not limited to which terminal device is specifically used in practical application. The UE may perform the following:

step 301, determining S signals to be processed in a first time unit, where at least two of the S signals have different priorities, and signal categories of the S signals include one or more of the following: SSB, CORESET, SRS or PDSCH, S being a positive integer greater than or equal to 2.

In this application, the first time unit may be understood as one of a slot, a symbol group, a subframe and a radio frame, and may also be understood as a time span (time span), where the time span may represent an absolute time length, such as 0.5ms or 1ms. When time span =0.5ms, and when SCS is 960kHz, the length of one tme span is equal to 64 slots; when the SCS is 480k, the length of one time span is equal to 32 slots. Then one tme span is one time unit in case of different SCS. The application does not specifically limit in which form the first time unit is specified. Illustratively, the S signals in the first time unit may be indicated by the network device, such as S signals received or transmitted by the terminal device in the first time unit indicated by the first configuration information; the communication method can also be determined by the terminal equipment according to historical communication conditions; it may also be indicated by the communication device that performs SL communication with the UE, and the application does not specifically limit how the S signals are determined here.

In addition, the S signals may be uplink signals or downlink signals, and the application is not limited to the S signal types specifically. The types of S signals mentioned in the present application may include one or more of the following: SSB, CORESET, SRS, or PDSCH. Wherein, the types of all or part of the models of the S signals can be the same. The present application is only schematically illustrated, and in practical applications, the S signals may also include more types of signals, which are not illustrated herein. In addition, the S signals are of different priorities, even if the same type of signal has different priorities, such as SSB1 has higher priority than SSB2, and the priority of the signal is related to the role of the signal in the communication process. Usually, the priority level of the signals is indicated by the network device through the configuration information, for example, the priority level of S signals is indicated by the configuration information, but the UE may also flexibly adjust the priority level of the signals according to its own communication requirements, for example, the network device indicates that the priority level of SSB1 is higher than SSB2, but the UE determines that the communication effect of the UE is better under SSB2, for example, by performing data analysis on historical communication conditions, the UE may adjust the priority level of SSB2 to be higher than SSB1. In addition, the priority of the signal may be specified by the communication protocol, and the determination manner of the priority of the signal is not limited in the present application.

The priority of the signal may be determined with reference to the following table 1, and the types of the signal to be processed included in the first time unit include: SSB, CORESET, SRS, and PDSCH, with SSB having a higher priority than CORESET; CORESET has higher priority than SRS; SRS has higher priority than PDSCH.

TABLE 1

Type of signal	Priority level
		SSB	1
CORESET	2
		SRS	3
PDSCH	4
		…	…

In one example, the priority of the signal may be determined by referring to the following table 2, where the SSB used by the UE currently camped cell for synchronization (signal synchronization with the base station) has higher priority than the SSB used by the UE currently camped cell for measurement (channel measurement beam recovery), the SSB used by the UE currently camped cell for measurement (i.e., the CSI-RS of the Radio Link Monitoring (RLM)/Beam Failure Recovery (BFR) of the candidate cell) is higher than the CORESET/PUCCH, the CORESET is higher than the PDSCH/PUSCH, and the PDSCH/PUSCH is higher than the CSI-RS for CQI.

TABLE 2

Signal	Priority level
		SSB for UE to stay in cell currently for synchronization	1
SSB for UE to stay in cell currently for measurement	2
		CORESET/PUCCH	3
PDSCH/PUSCH	4
		CSI-RS for CQI	5
…	…

The configuration information may be indicated by one signaling, may be indicated by multiple signaling, and may specifically be indicated by RRC, MAC CE, and DCI, which is not specifically limited herein.

Step 302, in the first time unit, performing beam switching according to a beam switching rule and transmitting or receiving signals, wherein the beam switching rule is determined according to the priorities of the S signals. Generally, the number of beam switching in the first time unit is less than or equal to the number of beam switching supported by the terminal device in the first time unit.

A terminal device may be transmitting or receiving multiple signals in one time unit, different signals may be transmitted through different beams, and beam switching may occur in one time unit. The UE transmits or receives different signals using different beams, and if the signals are directly switched to transmit or receive the signals without distinguishing the signals, the signals cannot be correctly received. In addition, the number of beam switching that can be supported by the terminal device within a time unit is limited. According to the method and the device, the beam switching times supported by the terminal equipment in the first time unit and the priority of each signal in the first time unit are fully considered, and the beam switching rules are flexibly adjusted according to the types of different signals, so that when the terminal equipment performs beam switching in the first time unit, the beam switching efficiency is improved in the capacity range of the terminal equipment, and the communication quality is improved.

In an optional implementation manner, the first time unit may include a plurality of preset switching moments, the terminal device may select N target switching moments from the plurality of preset switching moments according to the priorities of the S signals, and perform beam switching at the target switching moments, where N is less than or equal to the number of beam switching times supported by the terminal device in the first time unit.

In this embodiment of the present application, when the terminal device performs beam switching, after determining priority levels of S signals in the first time unit and which beams can be used to transmit or receive the S signals when beam switching does not occur, it may be determined how many preset switching moments (i.e., beam switching moments) may exist in the first time unit, and if there are 5 signals in the first time unit, the corresponding preset switching moments may be 5, or may be less than 5, and specifically how many may be flexibly determined. As shown in fig. 4, it is assumed that a handover occurring at the starting boundary of slot1 is agreed to be a handover in slot1, and a handover occurring at the ending boundary of slot1 is agreed to be a handover in the next slot2 (case 1). If the switch occurring at the ending boundary of timeslot 1 is taken as the switch in timeslot 1, then the switch at the starting timeslot boundary of timeslot 1 is agreed to be the switch in the previous timeslot 0 (case 2). It is also possible to agree that the handover occurring at the starting boundary of slot1, and the handover occurring at the ending boundary of slot1, are both the handover within slot1 (case 3). In the following embodiment, the case 1 is taken as an example, and the switching time preset in each first time unit is agreed. It is understood that, in other embodiments, the preset switching time in each first time unit may be agreed with reference to case 2.

The terminal equipment selects the preset switching time corresponding to the signal with higher priority as the target switching time to perform the beam switching under the condition of determining the beam priority and the condition of possibly supporting the beam switching times in the first time unit, and the communication service quality of the terminal equipment can be ensured through the method.

In addition, when determining the preset switching time, the terminal device may also consider whether beams corresponding to different signals are the same or have a quasi co-location (QCL) relationship; or, with a spatial relationship. If the same or the above relationship indicates that different signals are received or transmitted using the same beam, the predetermined switching time may be less than the number of signals in the first time unit. For example, the signals to be received in the first time unit include CORESET1, SSB2, and SRS1, and if SSB1 and SSB2 can be received through the same beam, the switching time preset in the first time unit is 3 (before CORESET1, before SSB1, and before SRS 1); if the receiving beam of SSB2 and the receiving beam of SSB1 have a QCL relationship, the switching time preset in the first time unit is also 3 (before CORESET1, before SSB1, and before SRS 1); if CORESET1 and SSB1 can receive through the same beam and SSB2 and SRS1 have a spatial relationship, the switching time preset in the first time unit is 2 (before CORESET1, before SSB2, and before SRS1, since SRS1 is an uplink signal and SSB2 is a downlink signal, even if the beam of SSB2 and SRS has a spatial relationship, there is a case of uplink and downlink switching, and uplink and downlink switching may take a certain time delay although there is no beam switching).

In order to select the target switching time from the preset switching times, different time sequence numbers can be adopted for different preset switching times to indicate; the values of the different time sequence numbers are associated with the switching sequence of the beam switching information. For example, there are 4 signals, CORESET1, SSB2, SRS1, in slot 1. As shown in FIG. 5, SSB1 has a higher priority than SSB2, SSB2 has a higher priority than CORESET1, and CORESET1 has a higher priority than SRS1. Considering the priority of each signal, the preset switching time before SSB1 is labeled as switching time 1, the preset switching time before SSB2 is labeled as switching time 2, the time before CORESET1 is labeled as switching time 3, and the time before SRS1 is labeled as switching time 4. Where SSB1 is received via beam 2, SSB2 is received via beam 3, CORESET1 is received via beam 1, and SRS is received via beam 4. In the timeslot 1, if the 4 preset switching times are all the target switching times, the SSB1 may be received through the beam 2 first, then the SSB2 may be received through the beam 3, the CORESET1 may be received through the beam 1, and finally the SRS1 may be transmitted through the beam 4.

Assuming that a time sequence number corresponding to a preset switching time T is T, the number of times of beam switching supported by the first time unit is C, and both T and C are positive integers; if T is less than or equal to C, determining the preset switching time T as the target switching time; or if T is larger than C, determining that the preset switching time N is not the target switching time. If T is larger than C, a signal corresponding to the preset switching time T is sent or received at the preset switching time T according to the first wave beam; the first beam is a beam corresponding to a target switching time adjacent to the preset switching time T. Continuing with the example in fig. 5, if the number of times of beam switching supported by the terminal device in the first time unit is 2, then both the switching time 1 and the switching time 2 are target switching times, the SSB1 may be received through the beam 2, the SSB2 may be received through the beam 3, both the switching time 3 and the switching time 4 are greater than 2, and the target switching time is not shown in fig. 6.

Continuing with the example in fig. 6, the handover time corresponding to CORESET1 is not the target handover time and can be received through beam 0 in slot 0, and SRS1 can be transmitted through beam 3 as shown in (a) in fig. 7; CORESET1 may also be received through beam 2, and may also be received through a beam having a QCL relationship with beam 0 or beam 2, and a specific selection of which beam may be determined according to the service requirement of the UE, and SRS may be transmitted through beam 3 as shown in fig. 7 (b), which is not specifically limited herein.

In addition, in practical application, considering the communication condition of the terminal device in the first time unit, some signals with low priority are not received or transmitted, as shown in fig. 8, there are CORESET1, CSI-RS1 and SRS1 in slot1, and according to the priority level of the signals, the priority level of CORESET1 and CSI-RS1 is higher than that of SRS1, where CORESET1 can be received through beam 1, CSI-RS1 can be received through beam 2, and SRS1 can be transmitted through beam 3. However, the number of times of beam switching supported by the terminal device in timeslot 1 is 2, the terminal device may select to receive CORESET1 through beam 1, and the terminal device may transmit SRS1 through beam 1 as shown in fig. 8 (a); or SRS1 is transmitted through beam 3 as shown in fig. 8 (b). Since the CSI-RS1 is used for cell measurement, its corresponding beam cannot be used for transmitting the SRS1, and the CSI-RS1 used for cell measurement has little influence on the communication quality and may not be received through the beam. For different service requirements of the terminal device, other situations may also be involved, and specifically selecting the beams to receive or transmit the signals may be flexibly adjusted according to the service situation of the terminal device, which is not specifically limited herein.

In this application, the terminal device may select M beams according to priorities of S signals, and perform beam switching between the M beams, where the M beams are used for transmitting and/or receiving the S signals, where M is an integer and is smaller than S. As shown in fig. 7 (b), 4 signals are included in slot1, but the beam receiving or transmitting the signal is switched between beam 2 and beam 3. The terminal device selects M wave beams in the first time unit, wherein M is less than or equal to the wave beam switching times supported by the terminal device in the first time unit, the communication quality of the terminal device can be ensured by the mode, and the service experience of a user is improved.

In addition, the beam switching may occupy a certain time domain resource, as shown in fig. 9, the slot1 includes 14 symbols, where CORESET1 occupies symbols 0 to 3, SSB1 occupies symbols 5 to 8, and SSB2 occupies symbols 8 to 11, where SSB1 has a higher priority than SSB2, SSB2 has a higher priority than CORESET1, and the target switching time may be located in the time domain resource of the low-priority signal. Assuming that the beam switch needs to occupy 1 symbol resource, symbol 4 may be occupied for switch time 1 and symbol 9 may be occupied for switch time 2. The time domain resource or the blank time domain resource of the low priority signal at the target switching time can ensure the accurate receiving or sending of the high priority signal, and ensure the communication quality of the terminal equipment.

Fig. 10 shows another schematic diagram of the beam switching situation, and the slot1 includes 14 symbol numbers, where CORESET1 occupies symbols 0 to 3, CSI-RS1 occupies symbols 5 to 8, and SRS1 occupies symbols 8 to 11, where CORESET1 and CSI-RS1 have a higher priority level than SRS1. Assuming that SRS1 transmits by using beam 1 corresponding to CORESET1, since SRS1 is an uplink signal and CORESET1 is a downlink signal, although beam 1 is not switched, terminal equipment may occupy the number of symbols to perform uplink and downlink switching, the occupied symbol resource may be occupied by any one of symbol resources 5 to 8 occupied by CSI-RS1 to transmit, such as occupied symbol 7 shown in (a) in fig. 10, or occupied symbol 9 shown in (b) in fig. 10, and this application is not specifically limited herein, and the number of symbol resources occupied by uplink and downlink switching may be the same as or different from that occupied by beam switching, and this application is not specifically limited herein.

In an optional embodiment, the configuration information may further indicate a transmission beam or a reception beam of L signals, where L is one or more of S signals, and L is less than or equal to S. By the method, the terminal equipment can directly switch the wave beams according to the configuration information of the network equipment, and the data pressure of the terminal equipment is reduced. For example, the first time unit includes 4 signals, i.e., signal 1, signal 2, signal 3, and signal 4, respectively, where signal 1 has a higher priority than signal 2, signal 2 has a higher priority than signal 3, and signal 3 has a higher priority than signal 4. The network device may indicate the beams corresponding to all the signals in the first time unit of the terminal device, or may only indicate the beams corresponding to a part of the signals, and the beams corresponding to different signals may be the same or different, which is not specifically limited herein.

In addition, if the configuration information is configured by RRC or MAC CE, the configuration information may also be activated or deactivated according to a value of a preset indication field in DCI, because the configuration information only includes a priority of a signal, or which signals are transmitted or received by which beams, but a specific time for the terminal device to execute is needed to activate the indication of the signaling. For example, the MAC CE configures a transmission beam of a signal in the time slot1, the terminal device may be activated by a value of the DCI preset indication field to transmit the signal according to the transmission beam in the configuration information of the MAC CE, and the terminal device may be deactivated by a value of the DCI preset indication field after the time slot1 to transmit the signal according to the transmission beam in the configuration information of the MAC CE.

The preset indication field in the DCI may be indicated by 1 or more bits, for example, there are 4 different types of signals in slot1, and the sequence of positions of the different types of signals in the time domain is: SSB1, SSB2, CORESET1, and PDSCH1. A terminal device may be instructed to receive a signal in slot1 by 2 bits in the DCI domain, for example, when 2 bits in the DCI domain are "01", it indicates that the terminal device receives SSB2 through a beam. The terminal device may be instructed to receive the signal in slot1 by 4 bits in the DCI domain, for example, when the bits in the DCI domain occupy 4 bits and are "0101", the terminal device receives the SSB2 and the PDSCH1 by a beam.

In addition, if signals such as PDSCH, SS, PUSCH, CSI-RS, etc. exist in the first time unit, the network device may indicate the time-frequency location information of the signals again through the indication information, and the first time unit may ignore the signals when performing the beam switching. The above-mentioned signals may be switched beams in time units adjacent to the first time unit. For example, there are 4 non-signals within slot 1: SSB1, SSB2, CORESET1 and PUSCH1. The number of times of switching beams supported by the terminal device in slot1 is only 2, when switching beams, only SSB1, SSB2, and CORESET1 may be considered to perform switching according to the beam switching method, and then receive according to the corresponding beam, and PUSCH1 may transmit through another beam in slot 2.

Fig. 11 illustrates a communication apparatus provided by the present application, including: a processing unit 111 and an input-output unit 112. The communication device may be understood as an on-board device, a mobile phone, an internet of things device, or a module (e.g., a chip) in a terminal device, and the present application is not limited in particular. It should be understood that the input-output unit may be referred to as a transceiver unit, a communication unit, etc., and when the communication apparatus is a terminal device, the input-output unit may be a transceiver; the processing unit may be a processor. When the communication device is a module (e.g., a chip) in a terminal device, the input/output unit may be an input/output interface, an input/output circuit, an input/output pin, or the like, and may also be referred to as an interface, a communication interface, an interface circuit, or the like; the processing unit may be a processor, a processing circuit, a logic circuit, or the like.

The processing unit 111 is configured to determine S signals to be processed in a first time unit, where at least two of the S signals have different priorities, and signal categories of the S signals include one or more of the following: a synchronization signal block SSB, a control resource set CORESET, a channel sounding reference signal SRS or a physical downlink shared channel PDSCH, wherein S is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2; an input/output unit 112, configured to perform beam switching and transmit or receive signals according to a beam switching rule determined according to the priorities of the S signals in the first time unit.

In this embodiment, the first time unit may be one of a slot, a symbol group, a subframe, and a radio frame, and may also be understood as a time span (time span), where the time span may represent an absolute time length, such as 0.5ms or 1ms. When time span =0.5ms, and when SCS is 960kHz, the length of one tme span is equal to 64 slots; when the SCS is 480k, the length of one time span is equal to 32 slots. Then one tme span is one time unit in case of different SCS. The present application is not specifically limited herein. Generally, the number of beam switching that the terminal device can support in a time unit is limited, for example, 2 times or 4 times, but the terminal device may transmit or receive multiple signals in a time unit, and different signals may be transmitted or received through different beams, so that the beam switching may occur in a time unit. If signals are not distinguished or beams are not switched to send or receive different signals, the signal-to-noise ratio of the received signals may be reduced, the performance of the system is reduced, the communication requirements of the terminal equipment cannot be met, and the user experience is reduced. The method and the device fully consider the beam switching times supported by the terminal equipment in the first time unit and the priority of each signal in the first time unit, flexibly adjust the beam switching rule according to the priority of each signal, and can improve the service experience of a user while ensuring the communication service quality of the terminal equipment.

In the embodiment of the present application, since the priority levels of S signals in the first time unit are different, and different signals may be sent or received through different beams, the terminal device may determine how many preset switching moments (i.e., beam switching moments) may exist in the first time unit based on the priority levels, for example, there are 5 signals, and the corresponding preset switching moments may be 5 or less than 5, where the number of the preset switching moments existing in the first time unit is not specifically limited herein. The terminal equipment selects the preset switching time corresponding to the signal with higher priority as the target switching time under the condition of determining the beam priority and the condition of possibly supporting the beam switching times in the first time unit, and performs beam switching, and the communication service quality of the terminal equipment can be ensured through the method.

In the embodiment of the present application, it is assumed that the first time unit determines 3 signals, which are signal 1, signal 2, and signal 3, respectively, the priority of signal 3 is greater than that of signal 2, the priority of signal 2 is greater than that of signal 1, and there are 3 preset switching times in the first time unit, which occur before signal 1, signal 2, and signal 3 are transmitted or received, respectively. The preset switching time before the signal 3 is transmitted or received can be set as the preset switching time 1, the preset switching time before the signal 2 is transmitted or received can be set as the preset switching time 2, and the preset switching time before the signal 1 is transmitted or received can be set as the preset switching time 3 according to the priority of the signal in the first time unit. In addition, assuming that the number of beam switching times supported by the first time unit is 2, where 1 is less than 2, then the signal 3 may be transmitted or received according to the preset beam 3 at the preset switching time 1; if 2 is equal to 2, the signal 2 can be transmitted or received according to the preset beam 2 at the preset switching moment 2; if 3 is greater than 2, then no beam switching is performed at the preset switching time 3, and the signal 1 may be transmitted or received according to the preset beam 3 or the preset beam 2.

In an alternative manner, the input-output unit is specifically configured to: and selecting M beams according to the priorities of the S signals, and carrying out beam switching among the M beams, wherein the M beams are used for transmitting and/or receiving the S signals, M is an integer and is smaller than S.

In an alternative, the priority of the S signals is configured by the configuration information.

In an optional manner, the configuration information is further used to configure a transmit beam or a receive beam of L signals, where the L signals are one or more of the S signals, and L is less than or equal to S. The receiving and sending beams of the signals are configured through the configuration information, the terminal equipment does not need to determine how to switch the beams in the first time unit according to the priority of the signals, the data processing pressure of the terminal equipment can be reduced through the mode, and the data processing efficiency is improved.

In an alternative, the preset indication field is 1 bit or more.

In an alternative approach, the types of S signals may include one or more of the following: SSB, CORESET, CSI-RS, SRS, PUCCH, PUSCH, and PDSCH. The present application is only schematically illustrated here, and in practical applications, more types of signals may be included, which is not illustrated here. Generally, the SSB has the highest priority level, the core set or CSI-RS, the PUCCH, SRS, PUSCH, and the PDSCH, but in practical applications, the priority level of the signal may be flexibly adjusted in consideration of specific situations of the signal, for example, whether the CSI-RS is periodic or aperiodic, whether the CSI-RS is semi-persistent, and if the CSI-RS is semi-persistent, the priority level of the signal may be adjusted, and the priority levels of the signals corresponding to different information carried by the PUSCH are not equal, and the application does not specifically limit how the priority level of the signal is defined herein.

In addition, as shown in fig. 12, a communication apparatus 1200 is provided for the present application. Exemplarily, the communication apparatus 1200 may be a chip or a chip system. Optionally, the chip system in the embodiment of the present application may be composed of a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

The communications apparatus 1200 may include at least one processor 1212, and the communications apparatus 1200 may also include at least one memory 1220 for storing computer programs, program instructions, and/or data. A memory 1220 is coupled to the processor 1212. The coupling in the embodiments of the present application is an indirect coupling or a communication connection between devices, units or modules, and may be an electrical, mechanical or other form for information interaction between the devices, units or modules. The processor 1212 may operate in conjunction with the memory 1220. The processor 1212 may execute computer programs stored in the memory 1220. Optionally, the at least one memory 1220 may also be integrated with the processor 1212.

Optionally, in practical applications, the communication apparatus 1200 may include the transceiver 1230 or not include the transceiver 1230, which is illustrated by a dashed box, and the communication apparatus 1200 may perform information interaction with other devices through the transceiver 1230. The transceiver 1230 may be a circuit, bus, transceiver, or any other device that may be used to communicate with one another.

In a possible embodiment, the communication apparatus 1200 may be applied to the terminal device, the first communication apparatus, or the second communication apparatus. The memory 1220 holds the necessary computer programs, program instructions and/or data to implement the functionality of the relay device in any of the embodiments described above. The processor 1212 may execute the computer program stored in the memory 1220 to perform the method of any of the above embodiments.

The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific connection medium among the transceiver 1230, the processor 1212 and the memory 1220. In the embodiment of the present application, the memory 1220, the processor 1212, and the transceiver 1230 are connected through a bus in fig. 12, the bus is represented by a thick line in fig. 12, and the connection manner between the other components is merely illustrative and is not limited. The bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 12, but this is not intended to represent only one bus or type of bus. In the embodiments of the present application, the processor may be a general processor, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, or a discrete hardware component, and may implement or execute the methods, steps, and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present application. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor or the like. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in a processor.

In the embodiment of the present application, the memory may be a nonvolatile memory, such as a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD), and may also be a volatile memory, for example, a random-access memory (RAM). The memory can also be, but is not limited to, any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. The memory in the embodiments of the present application may also be circuitry or any other device capable of performing a storage function for storing computer programs, program instructions and/or data.

Based on the above embodiments, referring to fig. 13, the embodiment of the present application further provides another communication apparatus 1300, including: interface circuitry 1310 and logic circuitry 1320; the interface circuit 1310, which may be understood as an input/output interface, may be configured to perform the same operation steps as the input/output unit illustrated in fig. 11 or the transceiver illustrated in fig. 12, and will not be described herein again. The logic 1320 may be configured to execute the code instructions to perform the method in any embodiment described above, and it is understood that the processing unit in fig. 11 or the processor in fig. 12 may implement the same function as the processing unit or the processor, which is not described herein again.

Based on the foregoing embodiments, the present application further provides a readable storage medium, which stores instructions that, when executed, cause the method performed by the security detection method in any of the foregoing embodiments to be implemented. The readable storage medium may include: u disk, removable hard disk, read only memory, random access memory, magnetic disk or optical disk, etc. for storing program codes.

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

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

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

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

Claims

1. A beam switching method is applied to a terminal device, and is characterized by comprising the following steps:

determining S signals to be processed in a first time unit, wherein at least two of the S signals have different signal priorities, and the signal categories of the S signals comprise one or more of the following: a synchronization signal block SSB, a control resource set CORESET, a channel sounding reference signal SRS or a physical downlink shared channel PDSCH, wherein S is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2;

and in the first time unit, performing beam switching according to a beam switching rule and transmitting or receiving signals, wherein the beam switching rule is determined according to the priorities of the S signals.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first time unit comprises a plurality of preset switching moments, and wherein the beam switching rule comprises:

selecting N target switching moments from the preset switching moments according to the priorities of the S signals, and performing beam switching at the target switching moments, wherein N is less than or equal to the number of beam switching times supported by the terminal equipment in the first time unit, N is less than or equal to S, and N is a positive integer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the priorities of the S signals are configured via configuration information.

4. The method of any of claims 1-3, wherein the signal classes of the S signals comprise: the SSB, the CORESET, the SRS, and the PDSCH;

the SSB has higher priority than the CORESET; the CORESET has a higher priority than the SRS; the SRS has a higher priority than the PDSCH.

5. The method of claim 3 or 4, wherein the configuration information is further used to configure a transmit beam or a receive beam of L signals, the L signals being one or more of the S signals, and the L being less than or equal to the S.

6. The method according to claim 3 or 5, wherein the configuration information is carried in the following signaling: radio resource control RRC, or medium access control MAC CE, or downlink control information DCI.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the configuration information is activated or deactivated according to a value of a preset indication field in the DCI.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the predetermined indication field is 1 bit or more.

9. The method according to any of claims 1-8, wherein said beam switching according to a beam switching rule comprises:

selecting M beams according to the priorities of the S signals, and performing the beam switching among the M beams, wherein the M beams are used for sending and/or receiving the S signals, M is a positive integer, and M is smaller than S.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein the target handover instant is located in time domain resources of a low priority signal.

11. A communications apparatus, comprising:

a processing unit, configured to determine S signals to be processed in a first time unit, where at least two of the S signals have different priorities, and signal categories of the S signals include one or more of the following: a synchronization signal block SSB, a control resource set CORESET, a channel sounding reference signal SRS or a physical downlink shared channel PDSCH, wherein S is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2;

and an input/output unit, configured to perform beam switching and perform transmission or reception of signals according to a beam switching rule in the first time unit, where the beam switching rule is determined according to priorities of the S signals.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the first time unit comprises a plurality of preset switching moments, and wherein the beam switching rule comprises:

13. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the priority of the S signals is configured by configuration information.

14. The apparatus according to any of claims 11-13, wherein the signal classes of the S signals comprise: the SSB, the CORESET, the SRS, and the PDSCH;

the SSB has higher priority than the CORESET; the CORESET has higher priority than the SRS; the SRS has a higher priority than the PDSCH.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 or 14, wherein the configuration information is further used to configure a transmit beam or a receive beam of L signals, wherein the L signals are one or more of the S signals, and wherein L is less than or equal to S.

16. The apparatus according to claim 13 or 15, wherein the configuration information is carried in the following signaling: radio resource control RRC, or medium access control MAC CE, or downlink control information DCI.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the configuration information is activated or deactivated by a value of a preset indication field in the DCI.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the preset indication field is 1 bit or more.

19. The apparatus according to any one of claims 11-18, wherein the input-output unit is configured to:

selecting M beams according to the priorities of the S signals, and performing beam switching among the M beams, wherein the M beams are used for transmitting and/or receiving the S signals, M is a positive integer, and M is smaller than S.

20. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the target handover time instant is located in a time domain resource of a low priority signal.

21. A communications apparatus, comprising: at least one processor;

the processor configured to execute a computer program to cause the communication device to perform the method of any of claims 1-10.

22. A computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon which, when executed, cause a computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1-10.

23. A computer program product comprising a computer program or instructions for causing a computer to perform the method of any of the preceding claims 1-10 when run on a computer.