CN115707021A

CN115707021A - Communication method and communication device

Info

Publication number: CN115707021A
Application number: CN202110892623.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 顾志方; 娄崇
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-08-04
Filing date: 2021-08-04
Publication date: 2023-02-17
Also published as: WO2023011265A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and a communication device, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the first network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating whether to switch from a source cell to a target cell and whether to use a plurality of Transmission Receiving Points (TRP) for transmission, and the target cell is one of candidate cells; and the terminal equipment performs data transmission in the source cell and/or the target cell according to the first indication information. The terminal equipment can determine whether to perform cell switching and whether to perform multiple TRP transmissions based on the received first indication information, and if the first indication information indicates that the terminal equipment performs multiple TRP transmissions, the terminal equipment can directly perform multiple TRP transmissions without further configuring multiple TRPs by the first network equipment, so that the reliability and the transmission capacity of communication are improved.

Description

Communication method and communication device

Technical Field

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

Background

With the development of multi-antenna technology, multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) has been expanded from original 8 antennas to 16/32/64/128 antennas, which is called massive MIMO. The Massive MIMO technology can improve the coverage and the capacity, and is very suitable for scenes such as high-frequency communication.

In some scenarios, such as a high frequency communication scenario, a cell may be covered by one or more Transmission Reception Points (TRPs), and a terminal device may perform data transmission with the one or more TRPs, so as to improve communication reliability and transmission capacity.

The Massive MIMO technology requires beam management and uses a beam direction with good communication quality for communication. In a cell handover technology based on a physical layer/Media Access Control (MAC) layer, a terminal device can perform beam management of a target cell before cell handover, and then can quickly complete beam alignment after handover to the target cell, but cannot directly perform data transmission with multiple TRPs, resulting in reduced communication reliability and transmission capacity.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and a communication device, so that after a terminal device is switched to a target cell, a plurality of TRPs can be directly transmitted, and thus, the reliability and the transmission capacity of communication are improved.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which may be executed by a terminal device, or may also be executed by a component (e.g., a chip, a system on a chip, etc.) configured in the terminal device, or may also be implemented by a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the terminal device, which is not limited in this application.

Illustratively, the method comprises: receiving first indication information from a first network device, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating whether to switch from a source cell to a target cell and whether to use a plurality of TRP transmission, and the target cell is one of candidate cells; and performing data transmission in the source cell and/or the target cell according to the first indication information.

Based on the technical scheme, the first indication information received by the terminal equipment is used for indicating whether the terminal equipment performs cell switching or not and indicating whether the terminal equipment performs multiple TRP transmissions or not, so that after the terminal equipment is switched to a target cell, the multiple TRP transmissions can be directly performed, the communication reliability is improved, and meanwhile, the communication capacity is improved.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the method further includes: receiving configuration information from a first network device, the configuration information being used for measuring a source cell and a candidate cell; and sending the measurement result to the first network equipment.

The terminal device measures the source cell and the candidate cell based on the configuration information, and informs the measurement result to the first network device, so that the first network device determines whether the terminal device performs cell switching based on the measurement result, further determines whether to perform multiple TRP transmissions, and improves the reliability and transmission capacity of communication within a period of time after switching.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the sending a measurement result to a first network device includes: sending a measurement result of a first reference signal through physical layer signaling, wherein the first reference signal is at least one reference signal in a source cell and a candidate cell; and sending a measurement result of a second reference signal through MAC layer signaling or Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer signaling, wherein the second reference signal is at least one reference signal in the source cell and the candidate cell, and the second reference signal is different from the first reference signal.

The terminal equipment sends a part of measurement results of the reference signals, namely the measurement results of the first reference signals, through the physical layer signaling, and then sends the measurement results of the remaining reference signals except the first reference signals, namely the measurement results of the second reference signals, in the reference signals needing to be reported through the MAC layer signaling or the RRC layer signaling.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the first reference signal is determined according to signal strength of reference signals, where the reference signals are multiple reference signals of the source cell and the candidate cell.

The selection of the first reference signal may be based on the signal strength of the reference signal, for example, a reference signal with a higher signal strength among the multiple reference signals of the source cell and the candidate cell is selected as the first reference signal, and the measurement result of the first reference signal is reported quickly through physical layer signaling, so that a relatively important measurement result may be reported quickly.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the measurement result includes a measurement result of a first TRP, where the measurement result of the first TRP is determined by a measurement result of a beam corresponding to one or more reference signals transmitted by the first TRP, and the first TRP is any one of a TRP in a source cell or a candidate cell.

The terminal device may report the measurement result of the TRP level in addition to the measurement result of the reference signal, for example, the measurement result may be reported through a certain field of the RRC layer signaling, and when the measurement result is reported through the RRC layer signaling, different measurement results of the TRP level may be distinguished, so that the measurement result provided by the terminal device for the first network device is more detailed.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which may be executed by a first network device, or may be executed by a component (e.g., a chip, a system-on-chip, etc.) configured in the first network device, or may be implemented by a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the first network device, and this application is not limited thereto.

Illustratively, the method comprises: generating first indication information according to a measurement result, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating whether to switch from a source cell to a target cell and whether to use a plurality of TRP transmission, the target cell is one of candidate cells, and the measurement result is obtained by terminal equipment based on the measurement of the source cell and the candidate cells; and sending the first indication information.

Based on the above technical scheme, the first network device sends the first indication information to the terminal device, and the first indication information is used for indicating whether the terminal device performs cell switching or not and also for indicating whether the terminal device performs multiple TRP transmissions or not, so that after the terminal device is switched to a target cell, multiple TRP transmissions can be directly performed, the communication reliability is improved, and the communication capacity is improved.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the method further includes: sending configuration information to the terminal equipment, wherein the configuration information is used for measuring a source cell and a candidate cell; the measurement results from the terminal device are received.

The first network equipment sends the configuration information to the terminal equipment so that the terminal equipment can measure the source cell and the candidate cell, then the first network equipment receives the measurement results of the source cell and the candidate cell, whether the terminal equipment carries out cell switching or not is determined based on the measurement results, whether multiple TRP transmissions are carried out or not is further determined, and the reliability and the transmission capacity of communication are improved within a period of time after switching.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the receiving a measurement result from a terminal device includes: receiving a measurement result of a first reference signal through physical layer signaling, wherein the first reference signal is at least one reference signal in a source cell and a candidate cell; and receiving a measurement result of a second reference signal through MAC layer signaling or RRC layer signaling, wherein the second reference signal is at least one reference signal in the source cell and the candidate cell, and the second reference signal is different from the first reference signal.

The method comprises the steps that a physical layer signaling carries a measurement result of a part of reference signals, namely a measurement result of a first reference signal, and an MAC layer signaling or an RRC layer signaling carries a measurement result of the rest of reference signals to be reported, namely a measurement result of a second reference signal.

With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the measurement result includes a measurement result of a first TRP, the measurement result of the first TRP is determined by a measurement result of a beam corresponding to one or more reference signals transmitted by the first TRP, and the first TRP is any one of the TRP in the source cell or the candidate cell.

With reference to the first aspect or the second aspect, in some possible implementations, the indication manner of the first indication information received by the terminal device may be designed differently.

In one possible design, the first indication information includes N bits, N being a positive integer, the N bits being used to indicate: handover to a target cell but without using multiple TRP transmissions; or switching to the target cell and transmitting by using a plurality of TRPs, wherein the plurality of TRPs are TRPs in the target cell; or handover to the target cell and transmission using a plurality of TRPs, the plurality of TRPs including TRPs of the target cell and TRPs of the source cell and/or the candidate cell; or not switching cells and transmitting using a plurality of TRPs including a TRP of the source cell and a TRP of the candidate cell.

The first indication information received by the terminal device includes N bits, where the N bits may be, for example, 1 bit, 2 bits, and so on, and the N bits may be, for example, 2 bits to indicate which operation the terminal device specifically performs, that is, by "00", "01", "10", and "11", respectively corresponding to one of the above four operations.

Optionally, the first indication information may further include at least one TCI state, wherein each TCI state of the at least one TCI state is used to indicate a beam direction of one TRP.

The first indication information indicates which operation is performed by the terminal device, and at least one TCI state may be included, where the at least one TCI state is used to indicate a beam direction required for the terminal device to perform TRP transmission, and it is not necessary for the first network device to further configure the beam direction required for the TRP transmission, and after the terminal device performs handover, multiple TRP transmissions may be performed in an accurate beam direction in a target cell, so that reliability and transmission capacity of communication are improved.

In another possible design, the first indication information includes at least one TCI status indicating: handover to a target cell but without using multiple TRP transmissions; or switching to a target cell and transmitting using a plurality of TRPs, the plurality of TRPs being TRPs in the target cell; or handover to the target cell and transmission using a plurality of TRPs, the plurality of TRPs including TRPs of the target cell and TRPs of the source cell and/or the candidate cell; or not switching cells and transmitting using a plurality of TRPs including a TRP of the source cell and a TRP of the candidate cell.

Each of the at least one TCI state corresponds to one TRP, and different operations are indicated by the TCI states, in other words, which operation corresponds is determined by the number of TCI states and a cell to which the TRP corresponding to the TCI state belongs. For example, when the first indication information includes a TCI status and the TRP corresponding to the TCI status is not the source cell, the first indication information indicates to switch to the target cell but not to use multiple TRP transmissions; for another example, if the TRPs corresponding to the TCI statuses included in the first indication information are both of the source cell and the other cells, and the TCI statuses corresponding to the other cells are in the front, the first indication information indicates handover to the target cell and transmission using a plurality of TRPs including the TRP of the target cell and the TRPs of the source cell and/or the candidate cell, which are not listed here. The method ensures that the first indication information only needs to carry the TCI state without carrying other information, thereby reducing the signaling overhead.

Yet another possible design is that multiple candidate operations are indicated by the second indication information, any one of the multiple candidate operations is used to indicate whether the terminal device switches the cell and at least one TCI state, each TCI state in the at least one TCI state corresponds to one TRP, and the first indication information is used to indicate one of the above operations.

In other words, the second indication information carries a plurality of candidate operations, and the first indication information indicates one of the plurality of candidate operations by a bit, for example, the first indication information only needs to carry 2 bits of "00", where, in the plurality of operations indicated by the second indication information, the "00" indicates switching to the candidate cell #1, and the TCI state #1 is used for data transmission in the candidate cell #1, the terminal device switches to the candidate cell #1 according to the first indication information and uses the TCI state #1 for data transmission. By the method, the physical layer signaling carries the first indication information, the MAC layer signaling carries the second indication information, and the physical layer signaling only needs to carry a small amount of bit information through the combination of the physical layer and the MAC layer, so that the signaling overhead of the physical layer is reduced, and the problem of limited signaling overhead of the physical layer is solved.

With reference to the first aspect or the second aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the first indication information is carried in physical layer signaling or MAC layer signaling.

One possible design is that the indication can be done relatively quickly by carrying the first indication information through physical layer signaling.

Another possible design is that the first indication information is carried by MAC layer signaling, which greatly reduces the overhead of physical layer signaling.

With reference to the first aspect or the second aspect, in some possible implementation manners, when the first indication information is carried through the MAC layer signaling, N bits are carried in the MAC layer signaling, and the N bits are a Logical Channel Identity (LCID).

In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which may be executed by a terminal device, or may also be executed by a component (e.g., a chip system, etc.) configured in the terminal device, or may also be implemented by a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the terminal device, which is not limited in this application.

Illustratively, the method comprises: sending a measurement result of a first reference signal through physical layer signaling, wherein the first reference signal is at least one reference signal in a source cell and a candidate cell; sending a measurement result of a second reference signal through MAC layer signaling or RRC layer signaling, wherein the second reference signal is at least one reference signal in the source cell and the candidate cell, and the second reference signal is different from the first reference signal; receiving first indication information, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating whether to switch from a source cell to a target cell and whether to use a plurality of TRP transmission, and the target cell is one of candidate cells.

Based on the technical scheme, the physical layer signaling carries the measurement result of a part of reference signals, namely the measurement result of the first reference signal, and the MAC layer signaling or the RRC layer signaling carries the measurement result of the rest of the reference signals except the first reference signal in the reference signals to be reported.

With reference to the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the method further includes: configuration information is received from a first network device, the configuration information being used for making measurements on a source cell and candidate cells.

And the terminal equipment measures the reference signal of the source cell and the reference signal of the candidate cell based on the configuration information to obtain the measurement result of the beam level. In an embodiment of the present application, the configuration information further includes a plurality of TRP-related configuration information. Wherein the plurality of TRP-related configuration information comprises one or more of: physical Cell Identity (PCI) identifiers corresponding to different TRPs, physical layer signal scrambling/descrambling sequences used by different TRPs, and control resource set pool indices (coresetpool indices) corresponding to Physical Downlink Control Channels (PDCCHs) of different TRPs.

With reference to the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the first reference signal is determined according to a signal strength of the reference signal.

The terminal device may determine the first reference signals according to the sequence of the signal strength of the reference signals from high to low, where the number P of the first reference signals is determined by transmission resources allocated to physical layer signaling, P is greater than or equal to 1, and P is an integer.

One possible design is that the first reference signal includes a reference signal with a signal strength at the top P bits in a plurality of cells including the source cell and the one or more candidate cells.

Another possible design is that the first reference signal includes a reference signal with the strongest signal strength in each of M cells, where the M cells include a source cell and one or more candidate cells, M is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to P, and M is an integer.

Yet another possible design is that the first reference signal includes a reference signal with the strength P top bits among M reference signals from M cells, each of the M reference signals corresponds to one of the M cells, each reference signal is one of the M cells with the strongest signal strength, the M cells include a source cell and one or more candidate cells, P < M is greater than or equal to 1, and M is an integer.

The method provides multiple possible implementation manners for determining the first reference signal, so that the terminal device can determine a relatively important reference signal as the first reference signal, so that the first network device can quickly receive a measurement result of the important reference signal.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which may be executed by a terminal device, or may be executed by a component (e.g., a chip system, etc.) configured in the terminal device, or may be implemented by a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the terminal device, which is not limited in this application.

Illustratively, the method comprises: sending a measurement result to a first network device, wherein the measurement result comprises a measurement result of a first TRP, the measurement result of the first TRP is determined by a beam measurement result corresponding to one or more reference signals transmitted by the first TRP, and the first TRP is any one TRP in a source cell or a candidate cell; receiving first indication information, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating whether to switch from a source cell to a target cell and whether to use a plurality of Transmission Receiving Points (TRP) for transmission, and the target cell is one of candidate cells.

Based on the above technical solution, the terminal device further calculates the measurement result of the beam level of the reference signal to obtain the measurement result of the TRP level, and reports the measurement result of the TRP level to the first network device, so that when a plurality of TRPs in a cell are associated with different PCIs, different measurement results of the TRP can be distinguished, or different measurement results of the PCIs can be distinguished, and the reported measurement result is more refined.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the method further includes: configuration information is received from a first network device, the configuration information being used for making measurements on a source cell and candidate cells.

And the terminal equipment measures the reference signal of the source cell and the reference signal of the candidate cell based on the configuration information to obtain the measurement result of the beam level. Further, a measurement result of the TRP level is obtained according to the measurement result of the beam level. In an embodiment of the present application, the configuration information further includes a plurality of TRP-related configuration information. Wherein the plurality of TRP-related configuration information comprises one or more of: PCI corresponding to different TRPs, physical layer signal scrambling/descrambling sequences used by different TRPs, and CoresetpoolIndex corresponding to PDCCHs of different TRPs.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the measurement result of the first TRP is carried in RRC layer signaling.

It should be understood that the first TRP is any one of the TRPs of the source cell or the candidate cell, and the measurement result reported by the terminal device may further include measurement results of other TRPs, that is, the measurement result includes measurement results of a plurality of TRPs. When the PCIs of multiple TRP associations are the same, the PCIs are associated with the source cell or candidate cell, and PCI-level measurements may be further calculated based on TRP-level measurements.

One possible design is to average the measurements of multiple TRPs to obtain PCI level measurements when the PCIs associated with the multiple TRPs are the same.

Another possible design is to take the measurement result of the strongest one TRP among the measurement results of a plurality of TRPs as the measurement result of the PCI level when the PCIs associated with the plurality of TRPs are the same.

When the PCIs associated with the plurality of TRPs are different, each TRP in the plurality of TRPs is associated with a PCI, and the PCI-level measurement corresponds to the TRP-level measurement.

Particularly, when a plurality of TRPs are associated with different PCIs and the measurement result is reported through the RRC layer signaling, a PCI identifier may be added in the cell to distinguish the different PCIs, so that the measurement result carried by the RRC layer signaling may distinguish the different PCIs, or the measurement result of the different TRPs may be distinguished, and the reported measurement result is finer.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication apparatus that may implement the method in any one of the possible implementation manners of the first to fourth aspects and the first to fourth aspects. The device comprises corresponding means for performing the above method. The means comprising may be implemented by software and/or hardware means. The apparatus may be, for example, a terminal device or a first network device, a chip system, a processor, or the like, which supports the terminal device or the first network device to implement the method described above, and a logic module or software which can implement all or part of functions of the terminal device or the first network device.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication device comprising a processor. The processor is coupled to the memory and is operable to execute the computer program in the memory to implement the communication method in any of the possible implementations of the first to fourth aspects and the first to fourth aspects.

Optionally, the communication device further comprises a memory.

Optionally, the communication device further comprises a communication interface, the processor being coupled to the communication interface.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a communication device, including a processor and an interface circuit, where the interface circuit is configured to receive a signal from a communication device other than the communication device and transmit the signal to the processor or send the signal from the processor to the communication device other than the communication device, and the processor is configured to implement the communication method in any one of the possible implementations of the first to fourth aspects and the first to fourth aspects by using logic circuits or executing code instructions.

Optionally, the communication device in the fifth to seventh aspects is a terminal equipment.

Optionally, the communication apparatus in the fifth to seventh aspects is a first network device.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein a computer program or instructions, which when executed, implement the communication method in any one of the possible implementations of the first to fourth aspects and the first to fourth aspects.

In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising instructions that, when executed, implement the communication method of any one of the possible implementations of the first to fourth aspects and the first to fourth aspects.

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

In an eleventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, where the communication system includes the terminal device and the first network device as described above.

It should be understood that the fifth aspect to the eleventh aspect of the present application correspond to the technical solutions of the first aspect to the fourth aspect of the present application, and the beneficial effects obtained by the aspects and the corresponding possible implementations are similar and will not be described again.

Drawings

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

fig. 2 is a schematic view of a scenario in which a terminal device performs multiple TRP transmissions according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is another schematic flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic flowchart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is another schematic block diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment 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 provided by the application can be applied to various communication systems, such as: a global system for mobile communications (GSM) system, a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system, a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) system, a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), an LTE system, an LTE Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system, an LTE Time Division Duplex (TDD), a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a worldwide interoperability for microwave Access (Technology NR) communication system, a 5G mobile telecommunications system, or a new radio Access Technology (NR). The 5G mobile communication system may include a non-independent Network (NSA) and/or an independent network (SA), among others.

The technical scheme provided by the application can also be applied to future communication systems, such as a sixth generation (6G) mobile communication system and the like. This is not a limitation of the present application.

In the embodiment of the present application, the network device may be any device having a wireless transceiving function. Such devices include, but are not limited to: an evolved Node B (eNB), a Radio Network Controller (RNC), a Node B (NB), a Base Station Controller (BSC), a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), a home base station (e.g., home evolved NodeB or home Node B, HNB), a Base Band Unit (BBU), an Access Point (AP) in a wireless fidelity (WiFi) system, a wireless relay Node, a wireless backhaul Node, etc., and may also be 5G, such as a gbb in an NR system, or an antenna panel of one or a group (including multiple antenna panels) of base stations in a 5G system, or a network Node constituting a gbb, such as a baseband unit (BBU), or a Distributed Unit (DU), a Centralized Unit (CU), or a CU 6 communication system, etc.

In some deployments, the gNB may include CUs and DUs. Illustratively, 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, implementing the functions of an RRC and a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer; the DU may include a function of a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, a function of a MAC layer, and a partial function of a Physical (PHY) layer.

Illustratively, the DU may include functionality of higher layers in the PHY layer. Among them, the functions of the higher layer in the PHY layer may include Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) function, channel coding, rate matching, scrambling, modulation, and layer mapping; alternatively, the functions of the higher layers in the PHY layer may include cyclic redundancy check, channel coding, rate matching, scrambling, modulation, layer mapping, and precoding. The function of the lower layer in the PHY layer may be implemented by another network entity independent from the DU, where the function of the lower layer in the PHY layer may include precoding, resource mapping, physical antenna mapping, and radio frequency function; alternatively, the functions of the lower layers in the PHY layer may include resource mapping, physical antenna mapping, and radio frequency functions. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the functional division between the upper layer and the bottom layer in the PHY layer. When the function of the lower layer in the PHY layer can be implemented in another network entity independent from the DU, the DU sends data or information to other communication devices (e.g., terminal equipment, core network equipment), which may be understood as: the DU performs functions of the RLC layer, the MAC layer, and, a part of the functions of the PHY layer. For example, after the DU completes the functions of the RLC layer and the MAC layer, and cyclic redundancy check, channel coding, rate matching, scrambling, modulation, and layer mapping, the remaining mapping and transmission functions on the physical resources are performed by a network entity independent of the DU that performs the functions of the lower layers in the PHY layer.

The network device provides a service for a cell, and a terminal device communicates with the cell through a transmission resource (for example, a frequency domain resource or a spectrum resource) allocated by the network device, where the cell may belong to a macro base station (for example, a macro eNB or a macro gNB), and may also belong to a base station corresponding to a small cell (small cell), where the small cell may include: urban cells (metro cells), micro cells (pico cells), femto cells (pico cells), and the like, and these small cells have the characteristics of small coverage area and low transmission power, and are suitable for providing high-rate data transmission services.

In embodiments of the present application, a terminal device may also be referred to as a 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 be a device providing voice/data connectivity to a user, e.g. a handheld device, a vehicle mounted device, etc. with wireless connection capability. Currently, some examples of the terminal devices may be: a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer (pad), a computer with wireless transceiving function (such as a notebook computer, a palm computer, etc.), a Mobile Internet Device (MID), a Virtual Reality (VR) device, an Augmented Reality (AR) device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in self driving (self driving), a wireless terminal in remote medical (remote medical), a wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in transportation safety (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in smart city (smart city), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol), SIP) phones, wireless Local Loop (WLL) stations, personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), handheld devices with wireless communication capabilities, computing devices or other processing devices connected to wireless modems, in-vehicle devices, wearable devices, terminal devices in 5G networks or terminal devices in future-evolving Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMNs), and the like.

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.. 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 function, and need to be matched with other equipment such as a smart phone for use, 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 IoT technology can achieve massive connection, deep coverage, and power saving of the terminal through, for example, narrowband (NB) technology.

In addition, the terminal equipment can also comprise sensors such as an intelligent printer, a train detector, a gas station and the like, and the main functions of the terminal equipment comprise data collection (part of the terminal equipment), control information and downlink data receiving of the network equipment, electromagnetic wave sending and uplink data transmission to the network equipment.

It should be understood that, for the convenience of clearly describing the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the words "first", "second", and the like are used in the embodiments of the present application to distinguish the same items or similar items with basically the same functions and actions. For example, the first indication information and the second indication information are for distinguishing different indication information, and the order of the indication information is not limited. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the terms "first," "second," and the like do not denote any order or importance, but rather the terms "first," "second," and the like do not denote any order or importance.

In order to better understand the communication method provided by the embodiments of the present application, first, the terms referred to in the present application will be briefly described.

1. Cell (cell): the cells are described by the higher layers from the point of view of resource management or mobility management or serving elements. The coverage area of each network device may be divided into one or more cells, and each cell may correspond to one or more frequency points, or each cell may be regarded as an area formed by the coverage areas of one or more frequency points.

It is noted that a cell may be an area within the coverage of a wireless network of network devices. In the embodiment of the present application, different cells may correspond to the same or different network devices. For example, the network device to which the source cell belongs and the network device to which the target cell belongs may be different network devices, such as base stations. That is, the source cell and the target cell may be managed by different base stations. Alternatively, for another example, the network device managing the source cell and the network device managing the target cell may also be different radio frequency processing units of the same base station, such as Radio Remote Units (RRUs), that is, the source cell and the target cell may be managed by the same base station, and have the same baseband processing unit and intermediate frequency processing unit, but have different radio frequency processing units. Alternatively, for another example, the network device to which the source cell belongs and the network device to which the target cell belongs may be the same network device, such as a base station. That is, the source cell and the target cell may be managed by the same base station, in which case they may be referred to as co-sited. This is not a particular limitation in the present application.

It should be understood that a cell is a coverage area of a network device (e.g., a base station), each cell may include one or more TRPs, and a terminal device may perform a single TRP transmission or multiple TRP transmissions in the cell, where performing multiple TRP transmissions in the cell may be understood as configuring multiple sets of communication resources for the cell, and the communication resources may be spatial resources, such as beams, for example.

2. A TRP: a network node operable to implement receiving and/or transmitting. The network node for transmitting may also be referred to as a Transmission Point (TP), and the network node for receiving may also be referred to as a Reception Point (RP). In the embodiment of the present application, a plurality of TRPs may be understood as a plurality of antennas or antenna panels separated from each other in a geographic location of a network device (e.g., a base station), and may implement the function of receiving and/or transmitting wireless signals in different beam directions from different geographic locations.

Each cell may include one or more TRPs, and in the cell, the terminal device may perform data transmission with the one or more TRPs, where the data transmission with the plurality of TRPs by the terminal device may be understood as that the terminal device communicates with a plurality of network nodes implementing a receiving and/or transmitting function, and for brevity, in the following description, the process of performing data transmission with the plurality of TRPs by the terminal device is simply referred to as that the terminal device performs a plurality of TRP transmissions (hereinafter referred to as mTRP transmissions). For example, the terminal device in the embodiment of the present application is switched to the target cell and performs mTRP transmission, and the terminal device may perform data communication with a plurality of network nodes of the target cell for implementing a receiving and/or sending function. The terminal device communicates with a plurality of TRPs in a cell, and may also be understood as communicating using a plurality of sets of communication resources in the cell, which may be, for example, spatial resources such as beams.

3. Switching: in a wireless communication system, when a terminal device moves/approaches from one cell to another cell, handover is required in order to keep the communication of the terminal device uninterrupted. In this embodiment, the source cell represents a cell that provides service for the terminal device before handover, the target cell represents a cell that provides service for the terminal device after handover, the candidate cell is a cell that can be selected to provide service for the terminal device, and the target cell is one of the candidate cells. Whether the terminal device is handed over from the source cell to the target cell, and related information of the target cell (e.g., PCI of the target cell, beam direction (e.g., transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) state) that the terminal device should use in the target cell) may be indicated by indication information, where the indication information is sent to the terminal device by a network device (e.g., a first network device) to which the source cell belongs.

The handover may be an intra-site handover or an inter-site handover. Intra-site handover may refer to a source cell and a target cell belonging to the same network device (e.g., a base station); inter-station handover refers to that a source cell and a target cell belong to different network devices (such as base stations). This is not limited in this application.

4. Reference signal: the method can be used for channel measurement, channel estimation or beam quality monitoring and the like. The reference signal according to the embodiment of the present application may include, for example, a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a synchronization signal and a physical broadcast channel block (SSB).

In order to facilitate understanding of the embodiments of the present application, a communication system applicable to the embodiments of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to fig. 1. Fig. 1 is a schematic network architecture diagram of a communication system 100 according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 1, the communication system 100 may include a TRP and terminal devices, such as TRP 110, TRP 120, and terminal device 130 shown in the figure. The terminal device 130 may be mobile or stationary, among other things. The terminal device 130 can perform data transmission with the TRP 110 and the TRP 120, which is called mTRP transmission. The TRP 110 and TRP 120 may be located in the same cell or in different cells, which is not limited in this embodiment.

Alternatively, the communication system shown in the communication system 100 may comprise more or fewer TRPs, as well as other numbers of terminal devices, each of which may be in data communication with one or more TRPs. The TRPs may be located in the same cell or in different cells. The embodiment of the present application does not limit this.

The above-described respective communication devices, such as the TRP 110, the TRP 120, and the terminal device 130 in fig. 1, may be configured with a plurality of antennas. The plurality of antennas may include at least one transmit antenna for transmitting signals and at least one receive antenna for receiving signals. Additionally, each communication device can additionally include a transmitter chain and a receiver chain, each of which can comprise a plurality of components associated with signal transmission and reception (e.g., processors, modulators, multiplexers, demodulators, demultiplexers, antennas, etc.), as will be appreciated by one skilled in the art. Therefore, the TRP and the terminal equipment can communicate through a multi-antenna technology.

With the development of multi-antenna technology, the MIMO is expanded from the original 8 antennas to 16/32/64/128 antennas, which is called as Massive MIMO technology. The Massive MIMO technology can improve the coverage and the capacity and is very suitable for scenes such as high-frequency communication. In some scenarios, for example, in a high frequency communication scenario, one cell may be covered by one or more TRPs, and a terminal device may make a single TRP transmission or a mTRP transmission.

Currently, in a cell handover technology based on a physical layer/MAC layer, a terminal device can perform beam management of a target cell before cell handover, and then can quickly complete beam alignment after handover to the target cell. However, when the terminal device performs a handover to a cell, it is not able to maintain the mTRP transmission state, and therefore, after the handover to the target cell, it is also not able to perform mTRP transmission directly, and therefore, the reliability of communication and transmission capacity between the terminal device and the target cell are reduced for a while after the handover.

Therefore, the present application provides a communication method, in which a network device indicates whether a terminal device performs cell handover or not based on measurement results of the terminal device on a source cell and a candidate cell, and further indicates whether the terminal device performs mTRP transmission or not, so that the terminal device can directly perform mTRP transmission after being handed over to a target cell, thereby improving communication reliability and transmission capacity within a period of time after the terminal device is handed over.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a scenario in which mTRP transmission is performed after the terminal device is handed over to the target cell. As shown in fig. 2, taking the terminal device to perform two TRP transmissions as an example, before the terminal device performs cell handover, data transmission is performed between the TRP 1 and TRP 2 in the source cell; and after the terminal equipment is switched to the target cell, carrying out data transmission with the TRP 3 and the TRP 4 in the target cell. It should be understood that the source cell and the target cell may include a greater or lesser number of TRPs, which is not shown, but is not limited by the embodiments of the present application. The terminal equipment carries out mTRP transmission in a source cell, and can be switched to a target cell from the source cell when the terminal equipment moves to or approaches the target cell.

It should be understood that the scenario shown in fig. 2 is only an example, and after the terminal device switches to the target cell, fig. 2 only shows that the terminal device performs mTRP transmission in the target cell, and the terminal device may also perform mTRP transmission with TRPs of the target cell and other candidate cells, or perform single TRP transmission in the target cell, or perform mTRP transmission with TRPs of the source cell and the target cell, etc. For example, the terminal device performs data transmission with TRP 1 of the source cell and TRP 3 of the target cell. The embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

It should also be understood that the figure only shows the scenario where the terminal device performs mTRP transmission in the source cell, but the terminal device may also perform single TRP transmission in the source cell, for example, the terminal device performs data transmission with TRP 1. The embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart of a communication method 300 according to an embodiment of the present application, where the method 300 shown in fig. 3 may include S310 to S360, and a detailed description will be given below with reference to fig. 3 for a process of a terminal device switching from a source cell to a target cell.

It should be understood that the cell corresponding to the first network device shown in fig. 3 includes a source cell in which the terminal device can perform a single TRP transmission or mTRP transmission. The cell corresponding to the second network device includes candidate cells, a certain cell of the candidate cells may be determined as a target cell when a handover condition is satisfied, and each candidate cell may include one or more TRPs.

S310, the first network equipment sends configuration information to the terminal equipment. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the configuration information.

The configuration information may be used to make measurements on the source cell and the candidate cell. The configuration information includes configuration information of the candidate cell. Optionally, the configuration information may further include configuration information of the source cell.

Here, the first network device may be a network device of the source cell. When the configuration information of the source cell needs to be added or modified, the first network device may send the configuration information of the source cell and the configuration information of the candidate cell to the terminal device together. When the configuration information of the source cell does not need to be added or modified, the first network device may not transmit the configuration information of the source cell.

Optionally, the configuration information comprises one or more of: reference signal configuration information, measurement configuration information, beam configuration information, quasi co-location (QCL) information, control resource set (Coreset) configuration information, search space configuration information, timing Advance (TA) information, terminal device identification, channel configuration information (such as Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)), PDCCH, physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH)), random access resource configuration information, radio link monitoring configuration information, security related configuration information, MAC configuration information, RLC configuration information, and the like.

In an embodiment of the present application, the configuration information further includes a plurality of TRP-related configuration information. Wherein the plurality of TRP-related configuration information comprises one or more of: PCI corresponding to different TRPs, physical layer signal scrambling/descrambling sequences used by different TRPs, and CoresetpoolIndex corresponding to PDCCHs of different TRPs.

It should be noted that the number of items of configuration information of different cells may be the same or different. For example, the configuration information corresponding to a certain candidate cell may include all the configuration items, and the configuration information corresponding to another candidate cell includes the first three items of the configuration information, so that the terminal device may consider that the other configuration items of the candidate cell are consistent with the source cell.

In case the source cell is not co-sited with the candidate cell, optionally before S310, the method further comprises S305, the second network device sending configuration information of the candidate cell to the first network device. Here, the second network device may be a network device of the candidate cell. It is to be understood that S305 may not be performed in case the source cell is co-sited with all candidate cells, i.e. the first network device and the second network device are the same network device.

S320, the terminal device measures the source cell and the candidate cell.

After receiving the configuration information from the first network device, the terminal device measures the reference signal of the source cell and the reference signal of the candidate cell. The reference signals may be SSBs, CSI-RSs, or other types of reference signals, with different reference signals corresponding to different beam directions. And the terminal equipment measures different reference signals of the source cell and the candidate cell to obtain a beam-level measurement result.

Exemplarily, the reference signals of the source cell are SSB 1, SSB 2, CSI-RS 1, CSI-RS 2, the reference signals of the first candidate cell are SSB 1, SSB 2, CSI-RS 1, CSI-RS 2, and the reference signals of the second candidate cell are SSB 1, SSB 2, CSI-RS 1, CSI-RS 2, wherein the first candidate cell and the second candidate cell are any cell in the candidate cells. The terminal device needs to measure the reference signals respectively to obtain 12 beam-level measurement results.

S330, the terminal equipment sends the measuring result to the first network equipment. Accordingly, the first network device receives the measurement result from the terminal device.

The measurement results include a measurement result of a beam level, a measurement result of a TRP level, and a measurement result of a cell level. The terminal device measures the reference signal, further determines a TRP level measurement result and a cell level measurement result after obtaining a beam level measurement result, and sends the measurement result to the first network device.

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, in order to facilitate distinguishing between measurement results of different granularities, the measurement result of a beam, the measurement result of a TRP, and the measurement result of a cell are respectively denoted as: beam level measurements, TRP level measurements and cell level measurements. When the measurement results are separately described, the measurement results may include at least one of a measurement result of a beam level, a measurement result of a TRP level, and a measurement result of a cell level.

The method for calculating the cell-level measurement result may refer to a method for calculating the cell-level measurement result in the prior art, and the method for calculating the TRP-level measurement result is described in detail below with the first TRP as an example.

The first TRP is any one TRP in the source cell or the candidate cell, and the measurement result corresponding to the first TRP is determined by the beam measurement result corresponding to one or more reference signals transmitted by the first TRP. The terminal device determines a measurement result of the first TRP based on the measurement result of the beam level.

One possible implementation manner is that the terminal device measures one or more reference signals transmitted by the first TRP, may obtain a measurement result of the beam level, and further, averages the measurement results of the beam level of the one or more reference signals to obtain the measurement result of the first TRP. For example, the reference signals transmitted by the first TRP are SSB 1, SSB 2, CSI-RS 1, CSI-RS 2, and the measurement results of the first TRP can be obtained by averaging the measurement results of the beam levels of the reference signals SSB 1, SSB 2, CSI-RS 1, CSI-RS 2. It can be understood that if the terminal device communicates with two TRPs, which are respectively a first TRP and a second TRP, and the reference signals transmitted by the second TRP are SSB 3, SSB 4, CSI-RS 3, and CSI-RS 4, the same method can obtain the measurement result of the second TRP, that is, the measurement results of the reference signals SSB 3, SSB 4, CSI-RS 3, and CSI-RS 4 at the beam level are averaged, so that the measurement result of the second TRP can be obtained.

Another possible implementation manner is that the terminal device measures one or more reference signals transmitted by the first TRP to obtain a measurement result of the beam level, and further averages the measurement results of the beam level of the reference signal whose signal strength exceeds a preset threshold among the one or more reference signals to obtain the measurement result of the first TRP. For example, the reference signals with the signal strength exceeding the preset threshold in the reference signals transmitted by the first TRP are SSB 1, SSB 2 and CSI-RS 1, and the measurement results of the beam levels of the three reference signals are averaged to obtain the measurement result of the first TRP.

Another possible implementation manner is that the terminal device measures one or more reference signals transmitted by the first TRP to obtain a measurement result of the beam level, further determines one of the one or more reference signals with the strongest signal strength, and uses the measurement result of the beam level of the reference signal as the measurement result of the first TRP. For example, if the reference signal with the strongest signal strength among the reference signals of the first TRP is SSB 1, the measurement result of the beam level of the reference signal SSB 1 may be used as the measurement result of the first TRP.

It should be understood that there are many ways to trigger the terminal device to send the measurement result.

In one example, the first network device may configure a reporting period and reporting resources for the terminal device, and the terminal device may report the measurement result to the first network device using the reporting resources based on the reporting period.

In another example, the terminal device is configured by the first network device with a trigger event that triggers reporting thereof, for example, when Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP) of each beam in measurement results of beams of the source cell is less than a certain preset threshold, the terminal device reports the measurement results to the first network device.

In another example, the first network device sends a reporting instruction to the terminal device, where the reporting instruction is used to instruct the terminal device to report the measurement result, and the terminal device reports the measurement result after receiving the reporting instruction.

It should be understood that when there are multiple TRPs per candidate cell, the measurement results sent by the terminal device need to embody the measurement results of the reference signals transmitted by different TRPs.

One possible design is that an Identifier (ID) of the reference signal has a corresponding relationship with the TRP, and the first network device determines the corresponding TRP according to the ID of the reference signal in the measurement result.

Another possible design is that when reporting the measurement result, the terminal device includes indication information corresponding to the TRP, and is configured to indicate the measurement result of the beam level of different TRPs.

S340, the first network device generates first indication information according to the measurement result, where the first indication information is used to indicate whether to switch from the source cell to the target cell and whether to perform mTRP transmission.

The first network equipment determines whether the terminal equipment needs to carry out cell switching and whether mTRP transmission is carried out according to the measurement result reported by the terminal equipment. Illustratively, when the cell signal quality characterized by the cell-level measurement result of a certain candidate cell is stronger than that of the source cell, the first network device may determine that the candidate cell is the target cell and the terminal device needs to perform cell handover. Further, whether mTRP transmission is required or not is determined based on the measurement result of the TRP level of the target cell, and a plurality of beam directions of the terminal device when communicating with a plurality of TRPs can be further determined based on the measurement result of the beam level of the target cell. Wherein each beam direction corresponds to one TRP.

After determining whether the terminal device needs to perform cell handover and whether mTRP transmission is performed, the first network device may generate first indication information to indicate to the terminal device whether to perform cell handover from the source cell to the target cell and whether to use mTRP transmission.

One possible design is that the first indication information includes N bits, where N is a positive integer. The N bits are used to indicate: handover to the target cell but not using mTRP transport; or handover to the target cell and transmit using mTRP, which is the TRP in the target cell; or handover to the target cell and transmit using a mTRP that includes the TRP of the target cell and the TRP of the source cell and/or the candidate cell; or no cell is handed over and mTRP is used for transmission, which includes the TRP of the source cell and the TRP of the candidate cell. In the design, the first indication information indicates whether the terminal device switches the cell and performs mTRP transmission or not through N bits, without further configuring multiple TRPs by the network device, the terminal device can also perform mTRP transmission directly, and communication reliability and transmission capacity are improved.

It should be understood that N bits may also indicate other operations, for example, N bits are used to indicate handover to a target cell, single TRP transmission with TRP 1, handover to a target cell, single TRP transmission with TRP 2, etc., which is not limited in this embodiment and is not listed here for brevity.

Optionally, the first indication information includes at least one TCI state while including N bits, and each TCI state of the at least one TCI state is used for indicating one TRP, such as a beam direction of the TRP. In other words, in a possible design, the first indication information includes N bits and at least one TCI status, so that the terminal device can perform data transmission with the TRP in an accurate beam direction. Specifically, the TCI status may indicate a downlink receive beam direction and/or an uplink transmit beam direction of the terminal device.

The first indication information comprises N bits and at least one TCI state, so that the terminal device can be switched to the target cell to directly perform multiple TRP transmissions based on the received first indication information, and after the terminal device is switched to the target cell, the terminal device does not need to further configure the beam direction by the first network device, and can perform data transmission with the TRP in the accurate beam direction according to the TCI state, thereby improving the reliability and transmission capacity of communication.

In one example, the first indication information indicates one of the above operations by 2 bits, for example, the first indication information includes "00" and a TCI status, the "00" indicates handover to the target cell but mTRP transmission is not used, that is, the terminal device is handed over to the target cell and single TRP transmission is performed, and the TCI status indicates a beam direction of the single TRP transmission performed by the terminal device. For another example, the first indication information includes "01" and a plurality of TCI states, the "01" indicating handover to the target cell and being transmitted using mTRP, which is a TRP in the target cell, and each of the plurality of TCI states corresponds to one TRP. As another example, "10" indicates handover to the target cell and using mTRP transmissions, the mTRP including the TRP of the target cell, as well as the TRP of the source cell and/or candidate cell; or "11" indicates that the cell is not handed over and is transmitted using mTRP, which includes the TRP of the source cell and the TRP of the candidate cell.

In another example, the first indication information indicates one of the above operations by 1 bit. For example, "0" indicates that mTRP transmission is not taking place; a "1" indicates mTRP transport is taking place. For example, if the first indication information includes "0" and a TCI status, it indicates to switch to the target cell but not to perform mTRP transmission; for another example, if the first indication information includes "1" and a plurality of TCI states, it is further determined which of the above operations is performed according to TRPs corresponding to the plurality of TCI states. For example, the two TCI states carried by the first indication information correspond to TRP 1 and TRP 2 in the target cell, and the first indication information indicates handover to the target cell and is transmitted using mTRP, which is the TRP in the target cell. For another example, the two TCI statuses carried by the first indication information correspond to one TRP in the target cell and one TRP in the candidate cell, and the TCI status corresponding to the TRP in the target cell is prior, then the first indication information indicates handover to the target cell and transmission is performed using mTRP, which includes the TRP in the target cell and the TRP in the source cell and/or the candidate cell. For the sake of brevity, no examples are given here.

Another possible design is that the first indication information includes at least one TCI status indicating one of the above-mentioned operations. Specifically, the TCI status may indicate a downlink receiving beam direction and/or an uplink transmitting beam direction of the terminal device.

For example, when the first indication information includes a TCI status and the TRP corresponding to the TCI status is not the source cell, the first indication information indicates handover to the target cell but mTRP transmission is not used. For another example, when the first indication information carries multiple TCI statuses, and the TRPs corresponding to the TCI statuses belong to the same cell but the cell is not the source cell, the first indication information indicates handover to the target cell and mTRP is used for transmission, where the mTRP is the TRP in the target cell. For another example, if the TRP corresponding to the TCI states carried by the first indication information is of both the source cell and the other cells, and the TCI states corresponding to the other cells are in the front, the first indication information indicates handover to the target cell and transmission is performed using mTRP including the TRP of the target cell and the TRP of the source cell and/or the candidate cell. For another example, if the TRP corresponding to the TCI status carried by the first indication information is of both the source cell and other cells, and the TCI status corresponding to the source cell is in front, the first indication information indicates not to switch the cell and to transmit using mTRP, where the mTRP includes the TRP of the source cell and the TRP of the candidate cell. For the sake of brevity, this is not further enumerated here.

Yet another possible design is to distinguish different operations indicated by the first indication information by an LCID of a MAC packet header (subheader), in other words, N bits included in the first indication information are LCIDs, and the first indication information is MAC layer signaling such as a MAC Control Element (CE).

Illustratively, at least one LCID may be predefined in the protocol, and each LCID in the at least one LCID corresponds to an operation that is instructed to be performed by the terminal device. For example, 4 LCIDs are defined in the protocol, and each LCID corresponds to the following operations: handover to the target cell but not using mTRP transport; or handover to the target cell and transmit using mTRP, which is the TRP in the target cell; or handover to the target cell and transmit using mTRP, the mTRP including the TRP of the target cell and the TRP of the source cell and/or the candidate cell; or no cell is handed over and mTRP is used for transmission, the mTRP including the TRP of the source cell and the TRP of the candidate cell.

S350, the first network equipment sends the first indication information to the terminal equipment. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the first indication information from the first network device.

After the first network equipment generates the first indication information, the first indication information is sent to the terminal equipment, so that the terminal equipment can conveniently transmit data according to the operation indicated by the first indication information.

The first indication information may be carried through physical layer signaling, may also be carried through MAC layer signaling, or may also be carried through a manner of combining physical layer signaling and MAC layer signaling. The embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

One possible design is that the first network device sends the first indication information by physical layer signaling, i.e. N bits and at least one TCI status or at least one TCI status are carried in the physical layer signaling.

Another possible design is that the first network device sends the first indication information through MAC layer signaling, i.e. N bits and at least one TCI status or at least one TCI status are carried in the MAC layer signaling.

In addition, when the first network device sends the first indication information through the finger MAC layer signaling, different operations included in the first indication information may also be distinguished through the LCID of the MAC packet subheader.

In another possible design, the first network device may further instruct the terminal device which operation to perform specifically by sending the indication information jointly through physical layer signaling and MAC layer signaling. Specifically, the first network device may generate second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate multiple candidate operations, where any one of the multiple candidate operations is used to indicate whether the terminal device switches the cell and at least one TCI state, and each TCI state in the at least one TCI state corresponds to one TRP. The first indication information is used for indicating one operation in the plurality of candidate operations. That is, the first network device indicates a plurality of possible candidate operations through the second indication information, and indicates one of the candidate operations through the first indication information, so that the overhead of physical layer signaling is saved.

As an example, the second indication information may indicate various candidate operations by 2 bits, "00" indicates handover to candidate cell #1, using TCI state #1; "01" indicates handover to candidate cell #1, using TCI state #1 and TCI state #2, TCI state #1 and TCI state #2 corresponding to candidate cell #1; "10" indicates a handover to candidate cell #1, using TCI state #1 and TCI state #2, TCI state #1 corresponding to candidate cell #1, TCI state #2 corresponding to candidate cell #2; "11" indicates that cells are not handed over, and mTRP transmission is performed using a TCI state #1 and a TCI state #2, the TCI state #1 corresponding to the source cell, and the TCI state #2 corresponding to the candidate cell #1. The first network device determines that the candidate cell #1 is the target cell based on the measurement result, and further, if the first indication information indicates "00", the terminal device receives the first indication information, and then, based on an operation corresponding to "00" in the second indication information, the terminal device switches to the candidate cell #1, that is, the target cell, and transmits the candidate cell #1 using the TCI state #1.

It should be understood that the second indication information may also indicate more candidate operations. For example, the second indication information may indicate more candidate operations by 3 bits, for example, "000" indicates handover to candidate cell #1, using TCI state #1; "001" indicates handover to candidate cell #1, using TCI state #2; "010" indicates handover to candidate cell #2, using TCI state #1; "011" indicates handover to candidate cell #1, mTRP transmission using TCI state #1 and TCI state #2; "110" indicates handover to candidate cell #2, mTRP transmission using TCI state #1 and TCI state #2; "111" indicates that the cell is not handed over, and mTRP transmission is performed using TCI state #1 and TCI state #2, which are not listed here for brevity.

And after the first network equipment generates the second indication information, the second indication information is sent to the terminal equipment through MAC layer signaling, and the first indication information is sent to the terminal equipment through physical layer signaling. The first indication information indicates "001". After receiving the first indication information and the second indication information, the terminal device performs an operation corresponding to "001", that is, switches to the candidate cell #1, and performs a single TRP transmission using the TCI state #2, in other words, the candidate cell #1 is the target cell, and the terminal device switches to the target cell. The method can reduce the resource occupied by the physical layer by jointly sending the indication information through the physical layer signaling and the MAC layer signaling, thereby reducing the signaling overhead of the physical layer.

And S360, the terminal equipment transmits data in the source cell and/or the target cell according to the first indication information.

And after receiving the first indication information, the terminal equipment performs one or more TRP transmissions in the source cell and/or the target cell.

For example, the terminal device switches to the target cell and performs mTRP transmission in the target cell, or switches to the target cell and performs mTRP transmission in the target cell and the source cell, or switches to the target cell and performs mTRP transmission in the target cell and other candidate cells, or performs mTRP transmission in the source cell and the candidate cells without switching to the target cell.

Based on the technical scheme, the first indication information indicates whether to switch to the target cell and also indicates whether the terminal device performs mTRP transmission, so that after the terminal device is switched to the target cell, mTRP transmission can be directly performed, communication reliability is improved, and transmission capacity is improved.

It can be understood that, in S330, when the terminal device sends the measurement result to the first network device, there may be a problem that resource reporting by the physical layer signaling is limited, which may result in that the measurement result cannot be reported in full.

Fig. 4 is another flowchart of a communication method 400 provided in an embodiment of the present application. The method 400 shown in fig. 4 may include steps S410 to S460, and a process of reporting a measurement result by a terminal device will be described in detail below with reference to fig. 4.

S410, the first network equipment sends configuration information of the source cell and the candidate cell to the terminal equipment.

And S420, the terminal equipment measures the source cell and the candidate cell.

It should be noted that the processes of S410-S420 are similar to the processes of S310-S320, and reference may be specifically made to the related descriptions of S310-S320, and for brevity, the description is omitted here.

And S430, the terminal equipment determines a first reference signal according to the signal strength of the reference signal.

Here, the reference signals may be used for measurement of the channel, and different reference signals correspond to different beams. The reference signal may include, but is not limited to: CSI-RS, SSB, etc. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the type of the reference signal. The first reference signal is at least one reference signal in the source cell and the candidate cell. For example, the reference signals of the source cell are SSB 1, SSB 2, CSI-RS 1, and CSI-RS 2, the candidate cells include a first candidate cell and a second candidate cell, the reference signals of the first candidate cell are SSB 1, SSB 2, CSI-RS 1, and CSI-RS 2, the reference signals of the second candidate cell are SSB 1, SSB 2, CSI-RS 1, and CSI-RS 2, and the first reference signal is one or more reference signals of the 12 reference signals.

It should be understood that the first reference signals may include reference signals of the same type, such as the first reference signals are all CSI-RS types; different types of reference signals may also be included, e.g., the type of the first reference signal is CSI-RS, SSB. The embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

It should also be understood that the first reference signal may be a reference signal from the same cell; the reference signal may also be a reference signal from a different cell, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

The number of the first reference signals is determined by transmission resources allocated to the physical layer signaling, and if the physical layer signaling can transmit the measurement result of P reference signals at most, where P is greater than or equal to 1, and P is an integer, the terminal device may determine P reference signals from all reference signals of the source cell and the candidate cell.

One possible implementation is that the first reference signal includes a reference signal with a signal strength at the top P bits in a plurality of cells, which include the source cell and the one or more candidate cells. For example, the reference signals corresponding to the beam measurement results to be reported are as follows: the reference signals of the source cell are SSB 1, SSB 2, CSI-RS 1, CSI-RS 2, the reference signals of the first candidate cell are SSB 1, SSB 2, CSI-RS 1, CSI-RS 2, the reference signals of the second candidate cell are SSB 1, SSB 2, CSI-RS 1, CSI-RS 2,P, whose value is 4, then the terminal device may select the reference signals whose signal strength is located at the first 4 bits from the 12 reference signals, such as SSB 1, SSB 2 of the source cell, SSB 2 of the first candidate cell, CSI-RS 1 of the first candidate cell, in other words, the first reference signal includes: SSB 1, SSB 2 of the source cell, SSB 2, CSI-RS 1 of the first candidate cell.

Another possible implementation manner is that the first reference signal includes a reference signal with the strongest signal strength in each of M cells, where the M cells include a source cell and one or more candidate cells, M is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to P, M is an integer, and the remaining P-M reference signals may select reference signals with signal strengths located at the first P-M bits from the remaining reference signals. For example, the M cells include a source cell, a first candidate cell, and a second candidate cell, and the value of P is 5, the terminal device may select one reference signal with the strongest signal strength from the reference signals of the source cell, and similarly, respectively select one reference signal with the strongest signal strength from the first candidate cell and the second candidate cell, where the selected reference signals are SSB 1 of the source cell, SSB 1 of the first candidate cell, and SSB 1 of the second candidate cell, and further select 5-3=2 reference signals, and the 2 reference signals select reference signals with signal strength located at the first 2 bits, such as SSB 2 of the source cell and SSB 2 of the first candidate cell, from the remaining reference signals. Namely, the first reference signal is: SSB 1, SSB 2 of the source cell, SSB 1, SSB 2 of the first candidate cell, SSB 1 of the second candidate cell.

In addition, when P < M is greater than or equal to 1, the first reference signal includes a reference signal with the strength at the top P bit among M reference signals from M cells, each reference signal in the M reference signals corresponds to one cell in the M cells, each reference signal is a reference signal with the strongest signal strength in the corresponding cell, and the M cells include a cell in which the terminal device is located and one or more candidate cells.

S440, the terminal equipment sends the measurement result of the first reference signal through physical layer signaling. In other words, the measurement result of the first reference signal may be sent in physical layer signaling.

And after the terminal equipment determines the first reference signal, sending a measurement result of the first reference signal through physical layer signaling.

Optionally, the physical layer signaling further includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate a reference signal corresponding to a measurement result that is not carried in the physical layer signaling. That is, the third indication information may indicate which reference signal measurement results are not carried in the physical layer signaling.

S450, sending the measurement result of the second reference signal through MAC layer signaling or RRC layer signaling. In other words, the measurement result of the second reference signal may be carried and transmitted in MAC layer signaling or RRC layer signaling.

The second reference signal is at least one reference signal in the source cell and the candidate cell, and the second reference signal is different from the first reference signal. Specifically, the second reference signal is a reference signal remaining after removing the first reference signal from the reference signal for which the measurement result needs to be reported, where the reference signal may include but is not limited to: CSI-RS, SSB, etc. In other words, the terminal device may report the measurement result of a part of the reference signals, i.e., the measurement result of the first reference signal, through the physical layer signaling, and report the measurement result of other reference signals to be reported, i.e., the measurement result of the second reference signal, through the MAC layer signaling or the RRC layer signaling.

It is to be understood that the second reference signal may comprise the same type of reference signal; different types of reference signals may also be included. The second reference signal may be a reference signal from the same cell; or may be reference signals from different cells.

Exemplarily, the reference signals to be reported are as follows: the reference signal of the source cell comprises SSB 1, SSB 2, CSI-RS 1 and CSI-RS 2, the reference signal of the first candidate cell comprises SSB 1, SSB 2, CSI-RS 1 and CSI-RS 2, the reference signal of the second candidate cell comprises SSB 1, SSB 2, CSI-RS 1 and CSI-RS 2, and the first reference signal reported by the terminal equipment through the physical layer signaling comprises: the SSB 1 and SSB 2 of the source cell, and the SSB 2 and CSI-RS 1 of the first candidate cell, and the second reference signal reported through the MAC layer signaling or the RRC layer signaling are: CSI-RS 1 and CSI-RS 2 of the source cell, SSB 1 and CSI-RS 2 of the first candidate cell, and SSB 1, SSB 2, CSI-RS 1 and CSI-RS 2 of the second candidate cell.

S460, the first network device sends first indication information to the terminal device, where the first indication information is used to indicate whether to switch from the source cell to the target cell and whether to perform mTRP transmission.

Specifically, the description of the first indication information may refer to the related description of the foregoing S340, and the process of the first network device sending the first indication information may refer to the related description of the foregoing S350, and for brevity, the description is omitted here.

Based on the technical scheme, the terminal device reports relatively important measurement results preferentially through the physical layer signaling, for example, the measurement result of the reference signal with relatively strong signal strength, and reports the measurement results of other reference signals needing to be reported through the MAC layer signaling or RRC layer signaling in an incremental manner, so that the problem that the physical layer signaling cannot report the measurement results in a full amount is solved, the first network device can timely receive the important measurement results and quickly determine whether to perform cell switching, and therefore the terminal device can be quickly switched to a cell with relatively good communication quality, communication quality is improved, and user experience is improved. On the other hand, the terminal device can report the measurement results of other reference signals to be reported through MAC layer signaling or RRC layer signaling increments, so that the first network device can solve the receiving situation of the reference signals of the terminal device in other cells more comprehensively, thereby facilitating the first network device to make a reasonable decision for the terminal device and being beneficial to improving the system performance.

In the above technical solution, when the terminal device communicates with a plurality of TRPs and the plurality of TRPs are associated with different PCIs, the measurement result is reported through RRC layer signaling in the prior art, and the measurement result of the different PCIs cannot be distinguished. Therefore, the embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, when a plurality of TRPs are associated with different PCIs, a terminal device determines a measurement result of the TRP level based on a measurement result of a beam level, and reports the measurement result of the TRP to a first network device through a newly added cell of an RRC layer cell, so as to distinguish the measurement results of the different PCIs and provide a more detailed measurement result for the first network device.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method 500 according to an embodiment of the present application. The method 500 shown in fig. 5 may include S510 to S550.

S510, the first network equipment sends configuration information of the source cell and the candidate cell to the terminal equipment.

S520, the terminal device measures the source cell and the candidate cell.

It should be noted that the above processes of S510-S520 are similar to the foregoing processes of S310-S320, and reference may be specifically made to the related descriptions of S310-S320, and for brevity, the description is not repeated here.

S530, the terminal equipment determines the measurement result of the first TRP based on the measurement result of the beam level.

The measurement result corresponding to the first TRP is determined by the measurement result of the beam level corresponding to one or more reference signals transmitted by the first TRP, and the first TRP is any one TRP in the source cell or the candidate cell. The terminal device determines a measurement result of the first TRP based on the measurement result of the beam level.

One possible implementation manner is that the terminal device measures one or more reference signals transmitted by the first TRP to obtain a measurement result of a beam level, and further averages the measurement results of the beam levels of the one or more reference signals to obtain the measurement result of the first TRP. For example, the reference signals transmitted by the first TRP are SSB 1, SSB 2, CSI-RS 1, and CSI-RS 2, and the measurement results of the first TRP can be obtained by averaging the measurement results of the beam levels of the reference signals SSB 1, SSB 2, CSI-RS 1, and CSI-RS 2. It can be understood that if the terminal device communicates with two TRPs, which are respectively a first TRP and a second TRP, and the reference signals transmitted by the second TRP are SSB 3, SSB 4, CSI-RS 3, and CSI-RS 4, the same method can obtain the measurement result of the second TRP, that is, the measurement results of the reference signals SSB 3, SSB 4, CSI-RS 3, and CSI-RS 4 at the beam level are averaged, so that the measurement result of the second TRP can be obtained.

It should be noted that the terminal device may also determine the PCI-level measurement result. The process of determining the PCI level measurement results is briefly described below.

When the terminal device communicates with the first TRP and the second TRP, and the PCI associated with the first TRP is the same as the PCI associated with the second TRP, the terminal device may determine the measurement result of the first TRP by using the above calculation method for calculating the first TRP, and further, the terminal device may determine the measurement result of the second TRP by using the same calculation method. And taking the average value of the measurement results of the plurality of TRPs as the measurement result of the PCI level, or taking the measurement result of the strongest one TRP in the measurement results of the plurality of TRPs as the measurement result of the PCI level.

When the terminal device communicates with the first TRP and the second TRP, and the PCI associated with the first TRP is different from the PCI associated with the second TRP, the PCI corresponding to the first TRP is denoted as the first PCI, and the PCI corresponding to the second TRP is denoted as the second PCI, the measurement result of the first TRP may be regarded as the measurement result of the first PCI, and similarly, the measurement result of the second TRP may be regarded as the measurement result of the second PCI.

S540, the terminal device sends a measurement result to the first network device, where the measurement result includes a measurement result of the first TRP.

The measurement result of the first TRP is carried in RRC layer signaling. In particular, the measurement result may be carried in a field of RRC layer signaling, where the field is used to indicate the measurement result of one or more TRPs and/or the measurement result of one or more TRP-associated PCIs.

One possible design is to add a "measresultsservingpci" cell, which may include one or more TRP or PCI measurements, to an Information Element (IE) (which may be simply referred to as a cell) "measresultsservmo" in existing RRC layer signaling, where the cell includes a content that can be expressed as "schedule (1. MaxNrofPCIs)) OF MeasResultNR", where "schedule" is a data type, "maxNrofPCIs" is a maximum value OF the number OF PCIs associated with a plurality OF TRPs OF a cell, and "measultnr" is a cell defined by the existing protocol and represents a measurement OF NR. It should be noted that "MeasResultServingPCI" is only the name code indicated by the measurement result of the PCI level, and the embodiment of the present application does not limit what name code is specifically selected.

The specific contents in the "MeasResultServingPCI" may be provided by the "MeasResultNR". In the embodiment OF the present application, "physcellld 2" may be added after "physcellld" in "MeasResultNR", or "physcellld" in "physcellld" may be changed to "schedule (1.. MaxNrofPCIs) OF physcellld", where "maxNrofPCIs" is the maximum value OF the number OF PCIs associated with multiple TRPs when multiple TRP transmissions are performed by a terminal device. For example, if the PCIs associated with the TRPs are 3, the corresponding identifiers are "physcellld", "physcellld 2", and "physcellld 3", respectively, where "physcellld" is a physical cell ID and is an existing field in "MeasResultNR", and "physcellld 2" and "physcellld 3" are newly added cells in "MeasResultNR".

S550, the first network device sends first indication information to the terminal device, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating whether to switch from the source cell to the target cell and whether to perform mTRP transmission.

Specifically, the description of the first indication information may refer to the related description of S340, and the process of the first network device sending the first indication information may refer to the related description of S350, which is not described herein again for brevity.

Based on the technical scheme, the terminal device further determines the measurement result of the TRP level based on the measurement result of the beam level, and reports the measurement result of the TRP level to the first network device, so that when a plurality of TRPs communicated with the terminal device are associated with different PCIs, the measurement results of the different TRPs can be distinguished, or the measurement results of the different PCIs can be distinguished, the reported measurement result is more precise, and the method is favorable for the first network device to perform more precise mobility management and more efficient mTRP transmission on the terminal device.

It should be understood that the embodiments shown in fig. 3, fig. 4 and fig. 5 may be combined or may be implemented separately, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto. When the embodiments shown in fig. 3, fig. 4, and fig. 5 are combined, it can be ensured that the terminal device reports the entire measurement result, and can also distinguish different measurement results of the TRP, so that the reported measurement result is finer, and the terminal device can directly perform mTRP transmission after being switched to the target cell, thereby improving communication reliability and transmission capacity.

It should also be understood that, in the specific implementation, some steps in fig. 3, fig. 4, and fig. 5 may be selected to be implemented, and the order of the steps in the diagrams may also be adjusted to be implemented, which is not limited in this application. It should be understood that the specific implementation of some steps or the order of adjusting the steps in the figures is within the scope of the present application.

Fig. 6 to fig. 8 are schematic structural diagrams of possible communication devices according to an embodiment of the present application.

As shown in fig. 6, the communication device 600 includes a processing unit 610 and a transceiving unit 620.

The communication apparatus 600 is used for implementing the functions of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 3, or the communication apparatus 600 may include a module, which may be implemented wholly or partially by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof, for implementing any function or operation of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 3. The communication apparatus 600 is used for implementing the functions of the first network device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 3, or the communication apparatus 600 may include a module for implementing any functions or operations of the first network device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 3, and the module may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof.

The communication apparatus 600 is used for implementing the functions of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 4, or the communication apparatus 600 may include a module, which may be wholly or partially implemented by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof, for implementing any function or operation of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 4. The communication apparatus 600 is used for implementing the functions of the first network device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 4, or the communication apparatus 600 may include a module, which is implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof, and is used for implementing any function or operation of the first network device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 4.

The communication apparatus 600 is used for implementing the functions of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 5, or the communication apparatus 600 may include a module, which may be wholly or partially implemented by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof, for implementing any function or operation of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 5. The communication apparatus 600 is used for implementing the functions of the first network device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 5, or the communication apparatus 600 may include a module for implementing any functions or operations of the first network device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 5, and the module may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof.

When the communication apparatus 600 is used to implement the function of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 3, the transceiver unit 620 is configured to receive first indication information from the first network device, where the first indication information is used to indicate whether to handover from the source cell to a target cell and whether to use multiple TRP transmissions, and the target cell is one of the candidate cells. The processing unit 610 is configured to perform data transmission in the source cell and/or the target cell according to the first indication information.

When the communication apparatus 600 is used to implement the function of the first network device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 3, the transceiver unit 620 is configured to send first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate whether to handover from the source cell to a target cell and whether to use multiple TRP transmissions, and the target cell is one of the candidate cells. The processing unit 610 is configured to generate first indication information according to the measurement result.

When the communication apparatus 600 is configured to implement the function of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 4, the transceiving unit 620 is configured to send a measurement result of a first reference signal through physical layer signaling, where the first reference signal is at least one reference signal in the source cell and the candidate cell; the transceiver unit 620 is further configured to send a measurement result of a second reference signal through MAC layer signaling or RRC layer signaling, where the second reference signal is at least one reference signal in the source cell and the candidate cell, and the second reference signal is different from the first reference signal; the transceiving unit 620 is further configured to receive first indication information from the first network device, where the first indication information is used to indicate whether to handover from the source cell to a target cell and whether to use multiple TRP transmissions, and the target cell is one of the candidate cells. The processing unit 610 is configured to perform measurement on the source cell and the candidate cell; the processing unit 610 is further configured to determine a first reference signal according to the signal strength of the reference signal.

When the communication apparatus 600 is used to implement the function of the first network device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 4, the transceiver unit 620 is configured to receive a measurement result of a first reference signal from the terminal device through physical layer signaling, where the first reference signal is at least one reference signal in the source cell and the candidate cell; the transceiving unit 620 is further configured to receive a measurement result of a second reference signal from the terminal device through MAC layer signaling or RRC layer signaling, where the second reference signal is at least one reference signal in the source cell and the candidate cell, and the second reference signal is different from the first reference signal; the transceiving unit 620 is further configured to send first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate whether to handover from the source cell to a target cell and whether to use multiple TRP transmissions, and the target cell is one of the candidate cells.

When the communication apparatus 600 is used to implement the function of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 5, the transceiver unit 620 is configured to send a measurement result to the first network device, where the measurement result includes a measurement result of the first TRP; the transceiving unit 620 is further configured to receive first indication information from the first network device. The processing unit 610 is configured to perform measurements on the source cell and the candidate cell; the processing unit 610 is further configured to determine a measurement result of a first TRP based on the measurement result of the beam level, where the measurement result of the first TRP is determined by beam measurement results corresponding to one or more reference signals transmitted by the first TRP, and the first TRP is any one of the TRP of the source cell or the candidate cell.

When the communication apparatus 600 is used to implement the function of the first network device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 5, the transceiver unit 620 is configured to receive the measurement result from the terminal device, where the measurement result includes the measurement result of the first TRP; the transceiving unit 620 is further configured to send first indication information indicating whether to handover from the source cell to a target cell and whether to use multiple TRP transmissions, the target cell being one of the candidate cells.

More detailed descriptions about the processing unit 610 and the transceiver unit 620 can be directly obtained by referring to the related descriptions in the method embodiments shown in fig. 3, fig. 4, or fig. 5, which are not repeated herein.

Fig. 7 is another schematic block diagram of a communication device 700 provided in an embodiment of the present application. The apparatus 700 may be a chip system, or may also be an apparatus configured with a chip system to implement the communication function in the foregoing method embodiments. 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.

As shown in fig. 7, the apparatus 700 may include a processor 710 and a communication interface 720. Communication interface 720 may be used, among other things, to communicate with other devices over a transmission medium such that the apparatus used in apparatus 700 may communicate with other devices. The communication interface 720 may be, for example, a transceiver, an interface, a bus, a circuit, or a device capable of performing a transceiving function. Processor 710 may utilize communication interface 720 to input and output data and to implement the communication methods described in the embodiments corresponding to fig. 3 or fig. 4 or fig. 5. Specifically, the apparatus 700 may be configured to implement the functions of the first network device or the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiments.

When the communication device 700 is used to implement the method shown in fig. 3, fig. 4 or fig. 5, the processor 710 is configured to implement the functions of the processing unit 610, and the communication interface 720 is configured to implement the functions of the transceiving unit 620.

Optionally, the apparatus 700 further comprises at least one memory 730 for storing program instructions and/or data. Memory 730 is coupled to processor 710. 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. Processor 710 may cooperate with memory 730. Processor 710 may execute program instructions stored in memory 730. At least one of the at least one memory may be included in the processor.

The specific connection medium between the processor 710, the communication interface 720 and the memory 730 is not limited in the embodiments of the present application. In fig. 7, the processor 710, the communication interface 720 and the memory 730 are connected by a bus 740. The bus 740 is shown in fig. 7 by a thick line, and the connection between other components is merely illustrative and not intended to be limiting. 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. 7, but this is not intended to represent only one bus or type of bus.

Fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device provided in the embodiment of the present application, which may be a schematic structural diagram of a base station, for example. The base station 800 may perform the functions of the first network device in the above method embodiments. As shown in fig. 8, the base station 800 may include one or more radio frequency units, such as a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) 810 and one or more baseband units (BBUs) (which may also be referred to as Distributed Units (DUs)) 820. The RRU 810 may be referred to as a transceiver unit, and corresponds to the transceiver unit 620 in fig. 6. Optionally, the RRU 810 may also be referred to as a transceiver, transceiver circuitry, or a transceiver, etc., which may include at least one antenna 8101 and a radio frequency unit 8102. Optionally, the RRU 810 may include a receiving unit and a sending unit, where the receiving unit may correspond to a receiver (or receiver and receiving circuit), and the sending unit may correspond to a transmitter (or transmitter and transmitting circuit). The RRU 810 is mainly used for transceiving radio frequency signals and converting the radio frequency signals and baseband signals, for example, for sending first indication information to a terminal device. The BBU 820 is mainly used for baseband processing, base station control, and the like. The RRU 810 and the BBU 820 may be physically located together or may be physically located separately, that is, distributed base stations.

The BBU 820 is a control center of a base station, and may also be referred to as a processing unit, and may correspond to the processing unit 610 in fig. 6, and is mainly used for completing baseband processing functions, such as channel coding, multiplexing, modulation, spreading, and the like. For example, the BBU (processing unit) may be configured to control the base station to perform the operation procedure related to the first network device in the above-described method embodiment, for example, generate the first indication information according to the measurement result, and the like.

In an example, the BBU 820 may be formed by one or more boards, and the boards may collectively support a radio access network of a single access system (e.g., an LTE network), or may respectively support radio access networks of different access systems (e.g., an LTE network, a 5G network, or other networks). The BBU 820 also includes a memory 8201 and a processor 8202. The memory 8201 is used for storing necessary instructions and data. The processor 8202 is configured to control the base station to perform necessary actions, for example, to control the base station to perform the operation procedure related to the first network device in the above method embodiment. The memory 8201 and processor 8202 may serve one or more single boards. That is, the memory and processor may be provided separately on each board. Multiple boards may share the same memory and processor. In addition, each single board can be provided with necessary circuits.

It should be appreciated that the base station 800 shown in fig. 8 is capable of implementing the various processes involving the first network device in the method embodiments shown in fig. 3, 4 or 5. The operations and/or functions of the modules in the base station 800 are respectively for implementing the corresponding flows in the above method embodiments. Reference may be made specifically to the description of the above method embodiments, and a detailed description is omitted here where appropriate to avoid repetition.

The BBU 820 described above may be used to perform actions described in the previous method embodiment that are implemented internally by the first network device, while the RRU 810 may be used to perform actions described in the previous method embodiment that the first network device sends to or receives from the terminal device. Please refer to the description in the previous embodiment of the method, which is not repeated herein.

The present application further provides a computer program product, the computer program product comprising: a computer program (also referred to as code, or instructions), which when executed, causes a computer to perform the method performed by the terminal device or the method performed by the first network device in the embodiments shown in fig. 3 or fig. 4 or fig. 5.

The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program (also referred to as code, or instructions). When said computer program is run, it causes the computer to perform the method performed by the terminal device or the method performed by the first network device in the embodiments shown in fig. 3 or fig. 4 or fig. 5.

An embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, which includes the terminal device and the first network device as described above.

It should be understood that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capability. In implementation, the steps of the above method embodiments may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The processor may be a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, or discrete hardware components. The various methods, steps, and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented or performed. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. The steps of the method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware decoding processor, or implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the decoding processor. The software module may be located in ram, flash memory, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, etc. storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in a memory, and a processor reads information in the memory and completes the steps of the method in combination with hardware of the processor.

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, and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (dynamic RAM, DRAM), synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), SLDRAM (synchronous DRAM), and direct rambus RAM (DR RAM). It should be noted that the memory of the systems and methods described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

As used in this specification, the terms "unit," "module," and the like are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, firmware, a combination of hardware and software, or software in execution.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks and steps (step) 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 implementation. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application. In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus, device 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.

In the above embodiments, the functions of the functional units may be fully or partially implemented by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions (programs). The procedures or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the present application are generated in whole or in part when the computer program instructions (programs) are loaded and 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, for example, from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via wire (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, digital Subscriber Line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device, such as a server, a data center, etc., that incorporates one or more of the available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a Digital Versatile Disk (DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), among others.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application 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 U disk, a removable hard disk, a ROM, a 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 communication method is applied to a terminal device or a chip in the terminal device, and the method comprises the following steps:

receiving first indication information from a first network device, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating whether to switch from a source cell to a target cell and whether to use a plurality of Transmission Receiving Points (TRP) for transmission, and the target cell is one of candidate cells;

and carrying out data transmission in the source cell and/or the target cell according to the first indication information.

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

receiving configuration information from the first network device, the configuration information being used for measuring the source cell and the candidate cell;

and sending the measurement result to the first network equipment.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating whether to handover from the source cell to a target cell and whether to use multiple transmission reception points, TRP, for transmission, comprising:

the first indication information includes N bits, where N is a positive integer, and the N bits are used to indicate:

handover to the target cell but without using multiple TRP transmissions; or

Switching to the target cell and transmitting using a plurality of TRPs, the plurality of TRPs being TRPs in the target cell; or

Switching to the target cell and transmitting using a plurality of TRPs, the plurality of TRPs including a TRP of the target cell and a TRP of the source cell and/or the candidate cell; or

A cell is not handed over and a plurality of TRPs are transmitted, the plurality of TRPs including a TRP of the source cell and a TRP of the candidate cell.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first indication information further comprises at least one Transport Configuration Indication (TCI) state, each of the at least one TCI state to indicate one TRP.

5. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the first indication information indicates whether to handover from the source cell to a target cell and whether to use multiple TRP transmissions, comprising:

the first indication information comprises at least one TCI state, and the at least one TCI state is used for indicating that:

handover to the target cell but without using multiple TRP transmissions; or

6. The method of any of claims 3 to 5, wherein the first indication information is carried in physical layer signaling or medium access control, MAC, layer signaling.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the N bits are carried in MAC layer signaling, the N bits being a Logical Channel Identification (LCID).

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

receiving second indication information, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating a plurality of candidate operations, any one of the candidate operations is used for indicating whether the terminal device switches a cell and at least one TCI state, and each TCI state in the at least one TCI state corresponds to one TRP; and the first indication information is used for indicating one operation in the candidate operations.

9. The method of any of claims 2 to 8, wherein the sending the measurement result to the first network device comprises:

sending a measurement result of a first reference signal through physical layer signaling, wherein the first reference signal is at least one reference signal in the source cell and the candidate cell;

sending a measurement result of a second reference signal through MAC layer signaling or Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer signaling, wherein the second reference signal is at least one reference signal in the source cell and the candidate cell, and the second reference signal is different from the first reference signal.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

determining the first reference signal according to the signal strength of the reference signals, wherein the reference signals are a plurality of reference signals in the source cell and the candidate cell.

11. The method of any of claims 2 to 10, wherein the measurement comprises a measurement of a first TRP determined from beam measurements corresponding to one or more reference signals transmitted by the first TRP, the first TRP being any one of the TRP in the source cell or the candidate cell.

12. A communication method applied to a first network device or a chip in the first network device, the method comprising:

generating first indication information according to a measurement result, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating whether to switch from a source cell to a target cell and whether to use a plurality of TRP transmission, the target cell is one of candidate cells, and the measurement result is obtained by a terminal device based on the measurement of the source cell and the candidate cells;

and sending the first indication information.

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

sending configuration information to the terminal device, wherein the configuration information is used for measuring the source cell and the candidate cell;

and receiving the measurement result from the terminal equipment.

14. The method of claim 12 or 13, wherein the first indication information is used to indicate whether to handover from the source cell to a target cell and whether to use multiple TRP transmissions, comprising:

handover to the target cell but without using multiple TRP transmissions; or

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the first indication information further comprises at least one TCI state, each of the at least one TCI state to indicate one TRP.

16. The method of claim 12 or 13, wherein the first indication information is used to indicate whether to handover from the source cell to a target cell and whether to use multiple TRP transmissions, comprising:

handover to the target cell but without using multiple TRP transmissions; or

17. The method of any one of claims 14 to 16, wherein the first indication information is carried in physical layer signaling or MAC layer signaling.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the N bits are carried in MAC layer signaling, the N bits being an LCID.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises:

sending second indication information, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating a plurality of candidate operations, any one of the candidate operations is used for indicating whether the terminal device switches a cell and at least one TCI state, and each TCI state in the at least one TCI state corresponds to one TRP; and the first indication information is used for indicating one operation in the plurality of candidate operations.

20. The method of any of claims 13 to 19, wherein the receiving measurement results from the terminal device comprises:

receiving a physical layer signaling, wherein the physical layer signaling carries a measurement result of a first reference signal, and the first reference signal is at least one reference signal in the source cell and the candidate cell;

receiving MAC layer signaling or RRC layer signaling, where the MAC layer signaling or RRC layer signaling carries a measurement result of a second reference signal, where the second reference signal is at least one reference signal in the source cell and the candidate cell, and the second reference signal is different from the first reference signal.

21. The method of any of claims 13 to 20, wherein the measurement comprises a measurement of a first TRP determined from beam measurements corresponding to one or more reference signals transmitted by the first TRP, the first TRP being any one of the TRP in the source cell or the candidate cell.

22. A communication apparatus, characterized in that it comprises means for performing the method according to any of claims 1 to 11.

23. A communications apparatus comprising a processor and a memory, the processor and the memory coupled, the processor configured to control the apparatus to implement the method of any of claims 1 to 11.

24. A communications device comprising a processor and interface circuitry for receiving and transmitting signals from or sending signals to other communications devices than the communications device, the processor being operable by logic circuitry or executing code instructions to implement the method of any of claims 1 to 11.

25. A communication apparatus comprising means for performing the method of any of claims 12 to 21.

26. A communications apparatus comprising a processor and a memory, the processor and the memory coupled, the processor configured to control the apparatus to implement the method of any of claims 12 to 21.

27. A communications device comprising a processor and interface circuitry for receiving and transmitting signals from or sending signals to a communications device other than the communications device, the processor being operable by logic circuitry or executing code instructions to implement the method of any of claims 12 to 21.

28. A communication system comprising a communication apparatus according to claim 22 and a communication apparatus according to claim 25; or, the communication device of claim 23 and the communication device of claim 26; or a communication device according to claim 24 and a communication device according to claim 27.

29. A computer-readable storage medium, in which a computer program or instructions are stored which, when executed by a computer, implement the method of any one of claims 1 to 21.

30. A computer program product, characterized in that it comprises instructions which, when executed by a computer, implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 21.