CN115707084A

CN115707084A - Timing synchronization method and device

Info

Publication number: CN115707084A
Application number: CN202110903266.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 乔梁; 张佳胤; 石蒙
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-08-06
Filing date: 2021-08-06
Publication date: 2023-02-17

Abstract

The application provides a method and a device for timing synchronization, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the terminal equipment receives SSBs on at least two candidate synchronization information blocks (SSBs), wherein the at least two candidate SSBs comprise a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs are positioned in N continuous time slots, and N is a positive integer; the terminal equipment acquires a first value Q and a second value A, wherein the first value Q and the second value A are used for indicating that a second candidate SSB and a first candidate SSB have a quasi co-location QCL relationship; the terminal device determines the QCL relationship according to the first value Q and the second value A, and therefore the accuracy of timing synchronization is improved by setting the QCL relationship among a plurality of candidate SSBs.

Description

Timing synchronization method and device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communication technology, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for timing synchronization.

Background

The terminal device may detect a synchronization signal Block (SS/PBCH Block, or may be referred to as "SSB") sent by the network device at a location of the SSB, and may implement timing synchronization between the terminal device and the network device by demodulating the SSB. However, a system operating on a shared frequency band needs to support a Listen Before Talk (LBT) mechanism, that is, a network device needs to acquire an interference situation of a frequency band where a target channel is located before using a channel, and only when an interference level on the target frequency band channel is less than or equal to a preset threshold, the channel can be used.

Therefore, the network device may fail to send an SSB on some candidate SSBs, the network device may send the same SSB on multiple candidate SSBs, and the multiple candidate SSBs sending the same SSB may be considered to have a quasi co-location (QCL) relationship, for example, the multiple candidate SSBs correspond to the same downlink beam direction. Therefore, the present application provides a timing synchronization method, which improves the accuracy of timing synchronization by setting QCL relationships among a plurality of candidate SSBs.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a timing synchronization method and a timing synchronization device, which can improve the accuracy of timing synchronization.

In a first aspect, a method for timing synchronization is provided, where the method is performed by a terminal device or a chip for the terminal device, and the method includes: the terminal equipment receives SSBs on at least two candidate synchronization information blocks (SSBs), wherein the at least two candidate SSBs comprise a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs are located in N continuous time slots, and N is a positive integer; the terminal device obtains a first value Q and a second value a, where the first value Q and the second value a are used to indicate that the second candidate SSB and the first candidate SSB have a quasi co-located QCL relationship; the terminal device determines the QCL relationship according to the first value Q and the second value a.

Therefore, in the present application, the plurality of candidate SSBs may include a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB having a QCL relationship, and which first candidate SSBs and which second candidate SSBs have the QCL relationship may be indicated by the first value Q and the second value a, which may improve the accuracy of timing synchronization between the terminal device and the network device.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the first candidate SSB and the second candidate SSB having the QCL relationship satisfy a first condition that a remainder of an index corresponding to the first candidate SSB divided by the first value Q is equal to a remainder of an index corresponding to the second candidate SSB divided by the second value a.

Therefore, in the present application, the QCL relationship between the candidate SSBs can be flexibly configured by configuring the first value Q and the second value a, thereby improving flexibility of configuring the QCL relationship between the candidate SSBs.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the first candidate SSB is located in a first slot of first M slots of the N consecutive slots, the second candidate SSB is located in a second slot of last N-M slots of the N consecutive slots, and M is a positive integer.

Thus, in the present application, the first candidate SSB and the second candidate SSB having QCL relationship are respectively located in the first M slots and the last N-M slots of the N consecutive slots, that is, the second candidate SSB located in the last N-M slots can be used to transmit the SSB located on the first candidate SSB of the previous slot.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, N is equal to 40, M is equal to 32, the first value Q is a value in a set {8,16,32,64} or a set {2,4,8,16,32,48,56,64}, and the second value a is a value in a set {8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16}, a set {8,10,12,14,16} or a set {8,12,16 }.

For example, each of the 40 consecutive slots includes 2 candidate SSBs.

Thus, in the present application, candidate SSBs may be configured in each of 40 consecutive timeslots, and a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB having a QCL relationship may flexibly configure the QCL relationship between the candidate SSBs by configuring the first value Q and the second value a in a certain timeslot of the first 32 timeslots and a certain timeslot of the last 8 timeslots, respectively.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the N timeslots are divided into P timeslot groups including R consecutive timeslots, the first candidate SSB is located in a third timeslot of the first X timeslots in each timeslot group, the second candidate SSB is located in a fourth timeslot of the last R-X timeslots in each timeslot group, and P, R, and X are positive integers.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the N is equal to 40, the P is equal to 4, the R is equal to 10, the X is equal to 8, the first value Q is a value in a set {8,16,32,64} or a set {2,4,8,16,32,48,56,64}, and the second value a is a value in a set {8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16}, a set {8,10,12,14,16} or a set {8,12,16 }.

For example, each of the 40 consecutive slots includes 2 candidate SSBs.

Thus, in the present application, 40 consecutive timeslots may be divided into 4 consecutive timeslot groups, each timeslot group includes 10 timeslots, the first candidate SSB and the second candidate SSB having a QCL relationship are respectively located in one timeslot of the first 8 timeslots of the one timeslot group and one timeslot of the last two timeslots of the one timeslot group, and the QCL relationship between the candidate SSBs is flexibly configured by configuring the first value Q and the second value a.

In a second aspect, a method for timing synchronization is provided, which may be performed by a network device or a chip for the network device, the network device sending SSBs on at least two candidate synchronization information blocks SSBs, the at least two candidate SSBs including a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs being located in N consecutive time slots, where N is a positive integer; the network device sends a first value Q and a second value a indicating that the second candidate SSB has a quasi co-located QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the first candidate SSB and the second candidate SSB having the QCL relationship satisfy a first condition that a remainder of an index of the first candidate SSB divided by the first value Q is equal to a remainder of an index of the second candidate SSB divided by the second value a.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the first candidate SSB is located in a first slot of first M slots of the N consecutive slots, and the second candidate SSB is located in a second slot of last N-M slots of the N consecutive slots, where M is a positive integer.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the N is equal to 80, the M is equal to 64, the first value Q is a value in the set {8,16,32,64} or the set {2,4,8,16,32,48,56,64}, and the second value a is a value in the set {8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16}, the set {8,10,12,14,16} or the set {8,12,16 }.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the N timeslots are divided into P timeslot groups including R consecutive timeslots, the first candidate SSB is located in a third timeslot of the first X timeslots in each timeslot group, the second candidate SSB is located in a fourth timeslot of the last R-X timeslots in each timeslot group, and P, R, and X are positive integers.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, N is equal to 40, P is equal to 4, R is equal to 10, X is equal to 8, the first value Q is a value in the set {8,16,32,64} or the set {2,4,8,16,32,48,56,64}, and the second value a is a value in the set {8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16}, the set {8,10,12,14,16} or the set {8,12,16 }.

In a third aspect, a method for timing synchronization is provided, where the method is performed by a terminal device or a chip for the terminal device, and the method includes: the terminal equipment receives SSBs on at least two candidate synchronization information blocks (SSBs), wherein the at least two candidate SSBs comprise a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs are positioned in N continuous time slots, and N is a positive integer; the terminal device obtains a first value Q, where the first value Q is used to indicate that the second candidate SSB and the first candidate SSB have a QCL relationship, and the first candidate SSB is located in a target range, where the target range includes a part of time slots in which the first candidate SSB is located; the terminal device determines the QCL relationship according to the first value Q.

Therefore, in the present application, the candidate SSB having the QCL relationship with the second candidate SSB is located within the target range, that is, the second candidate SSB can be indicated to be a certain first candidate SSB in the target range by configuring the first value Q, and the accuracy of timing synchronization between the terminal device and the network device can be improved.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the target range includes slots in which Y first candidate SSBs are located before the slot in which the second candidate SSB is located, where Y is a positive integer.

Therefore, in the present application, the candidate SSB having a QCL relationship with the second candidate SSB is a certain first candidate SSB in the target range, and the target range includes the slots where the Y first candidate SSBs closest to each other are located before the slot where the second candidate SSB is located, that is, the SSBs transmitted on the certain first candidate SSB in the target range can be configured on the second candidate SSB, so that the accuracy of timing synchronization is improved.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the second candidate SSB having the QCL relationship and the first candidate SSB satisfy a second condition that the first candidate SSB is located in a tth timeslot in the target range, where T is equal to a remainder of an index corresponding to the second candidate SSB divided by the first value Q, and T is a positive integer.

Therefore, in the present application, the first value Q may indicate the timeslot in which the first candidate SSB having a QCL relationship with the second candidate SSB is located, thereby improving the accuracy of timing synchronization.

With reference to the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the method further includes: the terminal device receives first information from a network device, wherein the first information is used for indicating the position of the first candidate SSB in the Tth time slot in the target range.

Thus, in the present application, in the case that the tth timeslot includes more than one first candidate SSB, the network device may also send, to the terminal device, first information for indicating which first candidate SSB in the tth timeslot has a QCL relationship with the second candidate SSB.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the N timeslots are divided into P timeslot groups including R consecutive timeslots, the first candidate SSB is located in a third timeslot of the first X timeslots in each timeslot group, the second candidate SSB is located in a fourth timeslot of the last R-X timeslots in each timeslot group, and P, R, and X are positive integers.

With reference to the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the N is equal to 40, the P is equal to 4, the R is equal to 10, the X is equal to 8, the Y is equal to 16, and the first value Q is a value in a set {2,4,8,16} or a set {8,16,32,64 }.

For example, each of the 40 consecutive slots includes 2 candidate SSBs.

Thus, in the present application, 40 consecutive time slots may be divided into 4 consecutive time slot groups, each time slot group includes 10 time slots, the first candidate SSB and the second candidate SSB having the QCL relationship are respectively located in a certain time slot of the first 8 time slots of the certain time slot group and a certain time slot of the last two time slots of the certain time slot group, and the QCL relationship between the candidate SSBs is flexibly configured by configuring the first value Q.

In a fourth aspect, a method for timing synchronization is provided, which may be performed by a network device or a chip for the network device, and includes: the network equipment sends SSBs on at least two candidate synchronization information blocks (SSBs), wherein the at least two candidate SSBs comprise a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs are located in N continuous time slots, and N is a positive integer; the network device sends a first value Q indicating that the second candidate SSB has a QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB, and the first candidate SSB is located within a target range, wherein the target range includes a part of the time slots in which the first candidate SSB is located.

Therefore, in the present application, the candidate SSB having a QCL relationship with the second candidate SSB is located within the target range, that is, the first value Q may be configured to indicate that the second candidate SSB is a certain first candidate SSB in the target range, so that the accuracy of timing synchronization between the terminal device and the network device may be improved.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the target range includes slots in which Y first candidate SSBs are located before the slot in which the second candidate SSB is located, where Y is a positive integer.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the second candidate SSB having the QCL relationship and the first candidate SSB satisfy a second condition that the first candidate SSB is located in the tth timeslot of the target range, where T is a remainder of an index corresponding to the second candidate SSB divided by the first value Q, and T is a positive integer.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the method further includes: the network device sends first information to the terminal device, where the first information is used to indicate the position of the first candidate SSB in the T-th slot in the target range.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the N timeslots are divided into P timeslot groups including R consecutive timeslots, the first candidate SSB is located in a third timeslot of the first X timeslots in each timeslot group, the second candidate SSB is located in a fourth timeslot of the last R-X timeslots in each timeslot group, and P, R, and X are positive integers.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the N is equal to 80, the P is equal to 4, the R is equal to 10, the X is equal to 8, the Y is equal to 16, and the first value Q is a value in a set {2,4,8,16} or a set {8,16,32,64 }.

In a fifth aspect, a method for timing synchronization is provided, where the method may be performed by a terminal device or a chip for the terminal device, and the method includes: the terminal equipment receives SSBs on at least two candidate SSBs, wherein the at least two candidate SSBs include a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs are located in N continuous time slots, N is a positive integer, the first candidate SSB is located in a first time slot of first M time slots of the N continuous time slots, the second candidate SSB is located in a second time slot of last N-M time slots of the N continuous time slots, and M is a positive integer; the terminal device obtains a first value Q, where the first value Q is used to indicate that the second candidate SSB and the first candidate SSB have a QCL relationship; the terminal device determines the QCL relationship according to the first value Q.

Therefore, in the present application, the first candidate SSB and the second candidate SSB having QCL relationship are respectively located in a certain time slot of the first M time slots and a certain time slot of the last N-M time slots, that is, the second candidate SSB located in the last N-M time slots may be configured to transmit the SSB located on the first candidate SSB of the previous time slot, so as to improve the accuracy of timing synchronization.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in some implementations of the fifth aspect, the second candidate SSB and the first candidate SSB having the QCL relationship satisfy a third condition that a remainder of a division of an index corresponding to the second candidate SSB by the first value Q is equal to a remainder of a division of an index corresponding to the first candidate SSB by the first value Q.

Therefore, in the present application, the QCL relationship between the candidate SSBs can be flexibly configured by configuring the first value Q, thereby improving flexibility of configuring the QCL relationship between the candidate SSBs.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in some implementations of the fifth aspect, N is equal to 40, M is equal to 32, and the first value Q is a value in the set {8,16,32,64} or the set {2,4,8,16,32,48,56,64 }.

For example, each of the 40 consecutive slots includes 2 candidate SSBs.

Thus, in the present application, candidate SSBs may be configured in each of 40 consecutive timeslots, and a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB having a QCL relationship may be flexibly configured in a certain timeslot of the first 32 timeslots and a certain timeslot of the last 8 timeslots, respectively, by configuring the first value Q.

In a sixth aspect, a method for timing synchronization is provided, where the method includes: the network device sends an SSB on at least two candidate SSBs, wherein the at least two candidate SSBs include a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs are located in N consecutive time slots, N is a positive integer, the first candidate SSB is located in a first time slot of first M time slots of the N consecutive time slots, the second candidate SSB is located in a second time slot of last N-M time slots of the N consecutive time slots, and M is a positive integer; the network device sends a first value Q indicating that the second candidate SSB has a QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB.

Therefore, in the present application, the first candidate SSB and the second candidate SSB having QCL relationship are located in a certain time slot of the first M time slots and a certain time slot of the last N-M time slots, respectively, that is, the second candidate SSB located in the last N-M time slots may be configured to send the SSB located on the first candidate SSB of the previous time slot, so as to improve the accuracy of timing synchronization.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in certain implementations of the sixth aspect, the second candidate SSB and the first candidate SSB having the QCL relationship satisfy a third condition that a remainder of an index of the second candidate SSB divided by the first value Q is equal to a remainder of an index of the first candidate SSB divided by the first value Q.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in some implementations of the sixth aspect, the N is equal to 80, the M is equal to 32, and the first value Q is a value in the set {8,16,32,64} or the set {2,4,8,16,32,48,56,64 }.

In a seventh aspect, an apparatus for timing synchronization is provided, which may be a terminal device or a communication apparatus for a terminal device. The apparatus includes a transceiver unit and a processing unit, the transceiver unit is configured to receive SSBs on at least two candidate synchronization information blocks SSBs, the at least two candidate SSBs include a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs are located in N consecutive time slots, N is a positive integer, and further configured to obtain a first value Q and a second value a, the first value Q and the second value a are used to indicate that the second candidate SSB has a quasi-co-located QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB; the processing unit is configured to determine the QCL relationship based on the first value Q and the second value a.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in some implementations of the seventh aspect, the first candidate SSB and the second candidate SSB having the QCL relationship satisfy a first condition that a remainder of an index of the first candidate SSB divided by the first value Q is equal to a remainder of an index of the second candidate SSB divided by the second value a.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in some implementations of the seventh aspect, the first candidate SSB is located in a first slot of first M slots of the N consecutive slots, the second candidate SSB is located in a second slot of last N-M slots of the N consecutive slots, and M is a positive integer.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in some implementations of the seventh aspect, N is equal to 40, M is equal to 32, the first value Q is a value in a set {8,16,32,64} or a set {2,4,8,16,32,48,56,64}, and the second value a is a value in a set {8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16}, a set {8,10,12,14,16} or a set {8,12,16 }.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in some implementations of the seventh aspect, the N timeslots are divided into P timeslot groups including R consecutive timeslots, the first candidate SSB is located in a third timeslot of the first X timeslots in each timeslot group, the second candidate SSB is located in a fourth timeslot of the last R-X timeslots in each timeslot group, and P, R, and X are positive integers.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in some implementations of the seventh aspect, N is equal to 40, P is equal to 4, R is equal to 10, X is equal to 8, the first value Q is a value in a set {8,16,32,64} or a set {2,4,8,16,32,48,56,64}, and the second value a is a value in a set {8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16}, a set {8,10,12,14,16} or a set {8,12,16 }.

In an eighth aspect, an apparatus for timing synchronization is provided, which may be a network device or a communication apparatus for a network device. The apparatus includes a transceiver unit and a processing unit, the transceiver unit configured to transmit SSBs on at least two candidate synchronization information blocks SSBs, the at least two candidate SSBs including a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs being located in N consecutive time slots, N being a positive integer, and further configured to transmit a first value Q and a second value a, the first value Q and the second value a being used to indicate that the second candidate SSB has a quasi-co-located QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB; the processing unit is configured to determine a first value Q and a second value a.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in some implementations of the eighth aspect, the first candidate SSB and the second candidate SSB having the QCL relationship satisfy a first condition that a remainder of an index of the first candidate SSB divided by the first value Q is equal to a remainder of an index of the second candidate SSB divided by the second value a.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in certain implementations of the eighth aspect, the first candidate SSB is located in a first slot of first M slots of the N consecutive slots, and the second candidate SSB is located in a second slot of last N-M slots of the N consecutive slots, where M is a positive integer.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in some implementations of the eighth aspect, the N is equal to 40, the M is equal to 32, the first value Q is a value in the set {8,16,32,64} or the set {2,4,8,16,32,48,56,64}, and the second value a is a value in the set {8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16}, the set {8,10,12,14,16} or the set {8,12,16 }.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in some implementations of the eighth aspect, the N timeslots are divided into P timeslot groups including R consecutive timeslots, the first candidate SSB is located in a third timeslot of the first X timeslots in each timeslot group, the second candidate SSB is located in a fourth timeslot of the last R-X timeslots in each timeslot group, and P, R, and X are positive integers.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in certain implementations of the eighth aspect, the N is equal to 40, the P is equal to 4, the R is equal to 10, the X is equal to 8, the first value Q is a value in a set {8,16,32,64} or a set {2,4,8,16,32,48,56,64}, and the second value a is a value in a set {8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16}, a set {8,10,12,14,16} or a set {8,12,16 }.

In a ninth aspect, an apparatus for timing synchronization is provided, which may be a terminal device or a communication apparatus for a terminal device. The device comprises a transceiver unit and a processing unit, wherein the transceiver unit is configured to receive SSBs on at least two candidate synchronization information blocks SSBs, the at least two candidate SSBs include a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs are located in N consecutive time slots, N is a positive integer, and the transceiver unit is further configured to obtain a first value Q, the first value Q is used to indicate that the second candidate SSB has a QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB, the first candidate SSB is located in a target range, and the target range includes a part of time slots in the time slots where the first candidate SSB is located; the processing unit is configured to determine the QCL relationship according to the first value Q.

With reference to the ninth aspect, in some implementations of the ninth aspect, the target range includes slots in which Y first candidate SSBs are located before the slot in which the second candidate SSB is located, where Y is a positive integer.

With reference to the ninth aspect, in some implementations of the ninth aspect, the second candidate SSB having the QCL relationship and the first candidate SSB satisfy a second condition that the first candidate SSB is located in the tth timeslot in the target range, where T is a remainder of an index corresponding to the second candidate SSB divided by the first value Q, and T is a positive integer.

With reference to the ninth aspect, in certain implementations of the ninth aspect, the transceiving unit is further configured to receive first information from a network device, where the first information is used to indicate a location of the first candidate SSB in the tth timeslot in the target range.

With reference to the ninth aspect, in some implementations of the ninth aspect, the N timeslots are divided into P timeslot groups including R consecutive timeslots, the first candidate SSB is located in a third timeslot of the first X timeslots in each timeslot group, the second candidate SSB is located in a fourth timeslot of the last R-X timeslots in each timeslot group, and P, R, and X are positive integers.

With reference to the ninth aspect, in certain implementations of the ninth aspect, the N is equal to 40, the P is equal to 4, the R is equal to 10, the X is equal to 8, the Y is equal to 16, and the first value Q is a value in the set {2,4,8,16} or the set {8,16,32,64 }.

In a tenth aspect, an apparatus for timing synchronization is provided, which may be a network device or a communication apparatus for a network device. The apparatus includes a transceiver unit and a processing unit, the transceiver unit is configured to transmit SSBs on at least two candidate SSBs, the at least two candidate SSBs include a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs are located in N consecutive time slots, N is a positive integer, and is further configured to transmit a first value Q, the first value Q is used to indicate that the second candidate SSB has a QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB, the first candidate SSB is located in a target range, and the target range includes a part of time slots in which the first candidate SSB is located; the processing unit is configured to determine the first value Q.

With reference to the tenth aspect, in some implementations of the tenth aspect, the target range includes slots in which Y first candidate SSBs are located before the slot in which the second candidate SSB is located, where Y is a positive integer.

With reference to the tenth aspect, in some implementations of the tenth aspect, the second candidate SSB having the QCL relationship and the first candidate SSB satisfy a second condition that the first candidate SSB is located in the tth timeslot of the target range, where T is a remainder of an index corresponding to the second candidate SSB divided by the first value Q, and T is a positive integer.

With reference to the tenth aspect, in certain implementations of the tenth aspect, the transceiver unit is further configured to send, to the terminal device, first information, where the first information is used to indicate a location of the first candidate SSB in the tth timeslot in the target range.

With reference to the tenth aspect, in some implementations of the tenth aspect, the N timeslots are divided into P timeslot groups including R consecutive timeslots, the first candidate SSB is located in a third timeslot of the first X timeslots in each timeslot group, the second candidate SSB is located in a fourth timeslot of the last R-X timeslots in each timeslot group, and P, R, and X are positive integers.

With reference to the tenth aspect, in certain implementations of the tenth aspect, the N is equal to 40, the P is equal to 4, the R is equal to 10, the X is equal to 8, the Y is equal to 16, and the first value Q is a value in a set {2,4,8,16} or a set {8,16,32,64 }.

In an eleventh aspect, an apparatus for timing synchronization is provided, which may be a terminal device or a communication apparatus for a terminal device. The apparatus includes a transceiver unit and a processing unit, the transceiver unit is configured to receive SSBs on at least two candidate synchronization information blocks SSBs, the at least two candidate SSBs include a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs are located in N consecutive time slots, N is a positive integer, wherein the first candidate SSB is located in a first time slot of first M time slots of the N consecutive time slots, the second candidate SSB is located in a second time slot of last N-M time slots of the N consecutive time slots, M is a positive integer, and obtain a first value Q, the first value Q is used to indicate that the second candidate SSB has a QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB; the processing unit is configured to determine the QCL relationship according to the first value Q.

With reference to the eleventh aspect, in certain implementations of the eleventh aspect, the second candidate SSB and the first candidate SSB having the QCL relationship satisfy a third condition that a remainder of a division of an index corresponding to the second candidate SSB by the first value Q is equal to a remainder of a division of an index corresponding to the first candidate SSB by the first value Q.

With reference to the eleventh aspect, in some implementations of the eleventh aspect, N is equal to 40, M is equal to 32, and the first value Q is a value in the set {8,16,32,64} or the set {2,4,8,16,32,48,56,64 }.

In a twelfth aspect, an apparatus for timing synchronization is provided, which may be a network device or a communication apparatus for a network device. The apparatus includes a transceiver unit and a processing unit, the transceiver unit is configured to transmit SSBs on at least two candidate SSBs, the at least two candidate SSBs include a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs are located in N consecutive slots, N is a positive integer, wherein the first candidate SSB is located in a first slot of first M slots of the N consecutive slots, the second candidate SSB is located in a second slot of last N-M slots of the N consecutive slots, M is a positive integer, and is further configured to transmit a first value Q, the first value Q is used to indicate that the second candidate SSB has a QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB; the processing unit is configured to determine a first value Q.

With reference to the twelfth aspect, in some implementations of the twelfth aspect, the second candidate SSB and the first candidate SSB having the QCL relationship satisfy a third condition that a remainder of a division of an index corresponding to the second candidate SSB by the first value Q is equal to a remainder of a division of an index corresponding to the first candidate SSB by the first value Q.

With reference to the twelfth aspect, in some implementations of the twelfth aspect, the N is equal to 80, the M is equal to 32, and the first value Q is a value in the set {8,16,32,64} or the set {2,4,8,16,32,48,56,64 }.

In a thirteenth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided that may include a processing unit, a transmitting unit, and a receiving unit. Optionally, the sending unit and the receiving unit may also be a transceiver unit.

When the apparatus is a terminal device, the processing unit may be a processor, and the transmitting unit and the receiving unit may be transceivers; the apparatus may further include a storage unit, which may be a memory; the storage unit is configured to store instructions, and the processing unit executes the instructions stored by the storage unit to cause the apparatus to perform the method of the first, third or fifth aspect. When the apparatus is a chip within a terminal device, the processing unit may be a processor, and the transmitting unit and the receiving unit may be input/output interfaces, pins, circuits, or the like; the processing unit executes the instructions stored by the storage unit to cause the chip to perform the method of the first, third or fifth aspect. The storage unit is used for storing instructions, and the storage unit may be a storage unit (e.g., a register, a cache, etc.) in the chip or a storage unit (e.g., a read-only memory, a random access memory, etc.) in the device, which is located outside the chip.

When the apparatus is a network device, the processing unit may be a processor, and the transmitting unit and the receiving unit may be transceivers; the apparatus may further include a storage unit, which may be a memory; the storage unit is configured to store instructions, and the processing unit executes the instructions stored by the storage unit to cause the apparatus to perform the method of the second, fourth or sixth aspect. When the apparatus is a chip within a network device, the processing unit may be a processor, and the transmitting unit and the receiving unit may be input/output interfaces, pins, circuits, or the like; the processing unit executes the instructions stored by the storage unit to cause the chip to perform the method of the first aspect. The storage unit is used for storing instructions, and the storage unit may be a storage unit (e.g., a register, a cache, etc.) in the chip or a storage unit (e.g., a read-only memory, a random access memory, etc.) in the apparatus, which is located outside the chip.

In a fourteenth aspect, there is provided a communication device, comprising a processor and an interface circuit, wherein 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 transmit the signal from the processor to the communication device other than the communication device, and the processor is configured to implement the method in any possible implementation manner of the foregoing first aspect to the sixth aspect through logic circuits or executing code instructions.

In a fifteenth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, in which a computer program or instructions are stored, which, when executed, implement the method in any possible implementation manner of the foregoing first to sixth aspects.

A sixteenth aspect provides a computer program product comprising instructions that, when executed, implement the method of any possible implementation of the first to the sixth aspect.

A seventeenth aspect provides a computer program comprising code or instructions that, when executed, performs the method of any possible implementation of the first to the sixth aspect.

In an eighteenth aspect, a chip system is provided, where the chip system includes a processor and may further include a memory, and is configured to implement the method in any possible implementation manner of the foregoing first aspect to the sixth aspect. The chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

A nineteenth aspect provides a communication system comprising the apparatus of the seventh to twelfth aspects.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an example of a communication system to which the timing synchronization method of the present application is applied;

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an SSB;

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of the location of a candidate SSB;

FIG. 4 is a schematic flow chart diagram of a timing synchronization method provided herein;

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of the location of a candidate SSB provided herein;

FIG. 6 is a schematic flow chart diagram of another timing synchronization method provided herein;

FIG. 7 is a schematic block diagram of the location of another candidate SSB provided herein;

FIG. 8 is a schematic flow chart diagram of yet another timing synchronization method provided herein;

FIG. 9 is a schematic block diagram of the location of yet another alternative SSB provided herein;

fig. 10 to 13 are schematic structural diagrams of possible apparatuses provided in the embodiments 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: long Term Evolution (LTE) system, LTE Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system, LTE Time Division Duplex (TDD), universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) communication system, fifth generation (5G) mobile communication system or new radio access technology (NR), as well as future communication systems, wherein a 5G mobile communication system may include non-independent group (NSA) and/or independent group (SA).

The technical scheme provided by the application can also be applied to Machine Type Communication (MTC), long Term Evolution-machine (LTE-M) communication between machines, device to device (D2D) network, machine to machine (M2M) network, internet of things (IoT) network, satellite communication network, or other networks. The IoT network may comprise, for example, a car networking network. The communication modes in the car networking system are collectively referred to as car-to-other devices (V2X, X may represent anything), for example, the V2X may include: vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communication, vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) communication, vehicle to pedestrian (V2P) communication, or vehicle to network (V2N) communication, and the like.

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 Node B, or home Node B, HNB), a Base Band Unit (BBU), a satellite, a drone base station, an Access Point (AP) in a wireless fidelity (WiFi) system, a wireless relay Node, a wireless backhaul Node, a Transmission Point (TP), or a Transmission and Reception Point (TRP), etc., and may also be 5G, such as NR, a gNB in a system, or a transmission point (TRP or TP), a set of one or more antennas of a base station in a 5G system may include multiple antennas, 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., a home Node B, or home Node B), a Base Band Unit (BBU), a satellite, a drone base station, a wireless fidelity (WiFi), or the like, and may also be a wireless network Node B, a base station (BTS), or a base station (BTS) in a system, or a set of multiple antennas, a radio network panel, or a distributed Base Band Unit (BBU).

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

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

In the embodiments of the present application, a terminal device may also be referred to as a User Equipment (UE), an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user equipment.

The terminal device may 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 terminals may be: a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a computer with a wireless transceiving function (such as a laptop, a palmtop, etc.), a Mobile Internet Device (MID), a Virtual Reality (VR) device, an Augmented Reality (AR) device, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless terminal in unmanned driving, a wireless terminal in telemedicine, a wireless terminal in a smart grid, a wireless terminal in transportation security, a wireless terminal in a smart city, a wireless terminal in a smart home, a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (personal digital assistant), a handheld device with a wireless communication function, a computing device or other processing devices connected to a wireless modem, a PDA, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, an unmanned aerial vehicle, a personal digital assistant (PLMN) device in a 5G network, or a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) device in future, or a public land mobile network evolution (PLMN) device.

The wearable device can also be called a wearable intelligent device, and is a general name of devices which are intelligently designed and can be worn by applying a wearable technology to daily wearing, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothes, shoes and the like. A wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the clothing or accessories of the user. The wearable device is not only a hardware device, but also realizes powerful functions through software support, data interaction and cloud interaction. The generalized wearable smart device includes full functionality, large size, and can implement full or partial functionality without relying on a smart phone, such as: smart watches or smart glasses and the like, and only focus on a certain type of application functions, and need to be used in cooperation with other devices such as smart phones, such as various smart bracelets 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.

For the understanding of the embodiments of the present application, a communication system suitable for the method provided by the embodiments of the present application will be first described in detail with reference to fig. 1. Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a communication system 100 suitable for use in the method provided by the embodiments of the present application. As shown, the communication system 100 may include at least one network device, such as the network device 101 shown in fig. 1; the communication system 100 may further comprise at least one terminal device, such as the terminal devices 102 to 107 shown in fig. 1. The terminal devices 102 to 107 may be mobile or stationary. Network device 101 and one or more of terminal devices 102-107 may each communicate over a wireless link. Each network device may provide communication coverage for a particular geographic area and may communicate with terminal devices located within that coverage area. For example, the network device may send configuration information to the terminal device, and the terminal device may send uplink data to the network device based on the configuration information; for another example, the network device may send downlink data to the terminal device. Thus, the network device 101 and the terminal devices 102 to 107 in fig. 1 constitute one communication system.

Alternatively, the terminal devices may communicate directly with each other. Direct communication between terminal devices may be achieved, for example, using D2D technology or the like. As shown in fig. 1, direct communication may be performed between

terminal devices

105 and 106 and between

terminal devices

105 and 107 using D2D technology. Terminal device 106 and terminal device 107 may communicate with terminal device 105 separately or simultaneously.

The terminal apparatuses 105 to 107 may also communicate with the network apparatus 101, respectively. For example, may communicate directly with network device 101, such as

terminal devices

105 and 106 in fig. 1 may communicate directly with network device 101; it may also communicate with the network device 101 indirectly, such as terminal device 107 in fig. 1 communicating with the network device 101 via terminal device 105.

It should be understood that fig. 1 exemplarily shows one network device and a plurality of terminal devices, and communication links between the respective communication devices. Alternatively, the communication system 100 may include a plurality of network devices, and each network device may include other numbers of terminal devices within its coverage area, such as more or fewer terminal devices. This is not limited in this application.

Alternatively, a plurality of antennas may be configured as the network device 101 and the terminal devices 102 to 107 in fig. 1. 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.

Optionally, the wireless communication system 100 may further include other network entities such as a network controller, a mobility management entity, and the like, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto.

As described above, the technical solution of the present application can be applied to an NR communication system, and as the technology evolves, the usable frequency band is continuously increased. The division of the frequency band by NR is mainly divided into two parts, namely frequency band 1 (FR1) and FR2, wherein FR1 mainly refers to 450 MHz-6 GHz bandwidth, and FR2 mainly refers to 24.25 GHz-52.6 GHz bandwidth.

In addition, the 52.6GHz to 71GHz band (above 52.6GHz for short) is also included in the range of use of the later 5 generation mobile communication system (beyond 5.5G system). The part of the frequency band includes a licensed frequency band and an unlicensed frequency band, wherein the unlicensed frequency band may also be referred to as a shared frequency band.

In China, the frequency band within the range of 59 GHz-64 GHz is an unauthorized frequency band, and the rest are authorized frequency bands; for the United states, the frequency bands 57 GHz-71 GHz are all unlicensed frequency bands.

In the context of the fifth generation mobile communication technology, the technology deployed in the shared frequency band is collectively called radio unlicensed band (NRU). Besides NR systems, the common frequency band may also include other access systems such as radio detection and location (radio), wireless fidelity (wifi), bluetooth, and other different operators. Therefore, a system operating on a shared frequency band needs to support all or part of the following key technologies, namely LBT, transmit Power Control (TPC), and Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS).

The LBT mechanism refers to that various access devices need to acquire the interference condition on the frequency band where the target channel is located before using the channel, and the channel can be used only when the interference level on the target frequency band channel is less than or equal to a preset threshold value.

The TPC mechanism means that in order not to affect the normal communication condition of other access devices, a sending device operating on a shared grant cannot increase its own transmit power without limitation.

The DFS mechanism is that a system operating on a shared license needs to avoid a frequency band where a high-priority system is located in time and dynamically switches to a frequency band with lower interference to operate.

For a receiving device (e.g., UE) accessing different types of frequency bands, an SSB sent from a network device is first detected, where the SSB mainly includes a Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS), a Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS), and a Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH). The SSB is composed of a two-dimensional region of 4 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols in the time domain and 20 Resource Blocks (RBs) in the frequency domain. The UE can complete cell synchronization and rough symbol-level timing synchronization by demodulating the PSS and the SSS; timing synchronization of a system frame level can be completed by demodulating Master Information Block (MIB) information carried in PBCH, and related configuration information of system information block 1/remaining minimum system information (SIB 1/RMSI) is acquired, that is, type0-physical downlink control channel (type 0-physical downlink control channel, type 0-PDCCH) and Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) of SIB1/RMSI are demodulated by using a parameter (PDCCH-ConfigSIB 1), wherein control resource set (core) #0 is located in type 0-PDCCH.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic block diagram of an SSB. Referring to fig. 2, the pss is located at the middle 127 subcarriers of symbol 0; the SSS is located in the middle 127 subcarriers of symbol 2, and different subcarriers Set 0 may be Set at both ends of the SSS to protect the PSS and the SSS; PBCH is located at all subcarriers 0 to 239 on

symbols

1 and 3, and subcarriers 0 to 47, 192 to 239 on symbol 2.

The MIB is carried in PBCH in SSB. According to the standard TS38.213, when the subcarrier spacing of SSB is 120kHz, the starting sign position of the candidate SSB index in the field is: {4,8,16,20} +28 · n, n =0,1,2,3,5,6,7,8,10,11,12,13,15,16,17,18.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic block diagram of the location of a candidate SSB, where the candidate SSB is a resource location where the SSB may occur. Referring to fig. 3, a half frame includes 40 slots, each slot includes 14 symbols, and 2 slots of every 8 slots are blank slots, which can be used to transmit data of uplink traffic. That is, 32 slots of the 40 slots can be used for transmitting SSBs, 1 slot includes 2 candidate SSBs, and in a 5ms half frame, there are only 64 candidate SSBs.

The terminal device may detect, on the candidate SSBs, the SSBs sent by the network device, and may implement timing synchronization between the terminal device and the network device by demodulating the SSBs, it should be noted that the network device may fail to send an SSB on some of the candidate SSBs, so the network device may send the same SSB on multiple candidate SSBs, and multiple candidate SSBs sending the same SSB may be considered to have a quasi co-location (QCL) relationship, for example, the multiple candidate SSBs correspond to the same downlink beam direction. Therefore, the present application provides a timing synchronization method, which improves the accuracy of timing synchronization by setting QCL relationships among a plurality of candidate SSBs.

Fig. 4 shows a schematic flow chart of a method 400 for timing synchronization provided by the present application, which may be performed by a terminal device and a network device, or may also be performed by a chip in the terminal device and a chip in the network device. The method 400 may include:

s410, the network device sends SSBs to the terminal device on at least two candidate SSBs, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives SSBs on at least two candidate SSBs.

The at least two candidate SSBs include a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs are located in N consecutive time slots, N is a positive integer.

The first candidate SSB is located in a first slot of the first M slots of the N consecutive slots, the second candidate SSB is located in a second slot of the last N-M slots of the N consecutive slots, M is a positive integer.

The first time slot is a certain time slot in the first M time slots, and the second time slot is a certain time slot in the last N-M time slots.

The number of the first candidate SSBs is one or more, and the one or more first candidate SSBs may form a first candidate SSB group, which may be distributed in the first M slots of the N consecutive slots.

The number of the second candidate SSBs is one or more, and the one or more second candidate SSBs may form a second candidate SSB group, and the second candidate SSB group may be distributed in the last N-M slots of the N consecutive slots.

In one possible implementation, N equals 40 and M equals 32.

For example, 40 consecutive slots constitute a half frame of 5ms, the first candidate SSB is located in one of the first 32 slots, the second candidate SSB is located in one of the last 8 slots, two candidate SSBs are provided in each slot, that is, 80 candidate SSBs are provided in the half frame, and the starting symbol expressions of the 80 candidate SSBs may be: {4,8,16,20} +28 · n, n =0,1,2, …,19. The first 64 candidate SSBs of the 80 candidate SSBs are first candidate SSBs, and the last 16 candidate SSBs of the 80 candidate SSBs are second candidate SSBs.

It should be noted that, the 80 candidate SSBs and the slots in which the candidate SSBs are located may be numbered from 0, and then the indexes corresponding to the candidate SSBs are 0 to 79, and the indexes corresponding to the slots in which the candidate SSBs are located are 0 to 39, where the index corresponding to the first candidate SSB is 0 to 63, the index corresponding to the slot in which the first candidate SSB is located is 0 to 31, the index corresponding to the second candidate SSB is 64 to 79, and the index corresponding to the slot in which the second candidate SSB is located is 32 to 39.

The numbering is by way of example only and is not intended to limit the present application in any particular manner.

S420, the terminal device obtains a first value Q.

The first value Q is used to indicate that the second candidate SSB has a QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB.

It should be noted that the second candidate SSBs have a QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB, which is understood to mean that each of the second candidate SSBs has a QCL relationship with a part of the first candidate SSBs in the plurality of first candidate SSBs, or that the candidate SSB having a QCL relationship with the second candidate SSB is one of the plurality of first candidate SSBs.

In one possible implementation manner, the obtaining, by the terminal device, the first value Q includes: the terminal device receives the first value Q from the network device, and correspondingly, the network device sends the first value Q to the terminal device.

For example, the network device may send the value of the first value Q to the terminal device in a display manner, or send the value of the first value Q to the terminal device in an implicit manner, for example, a value set of the first value Q may be preset, and the network device sends a bit field for indicating which value in the value set the first value Q is.

Optionally, the first value Q is a value in the set {8,16,32,64} or the set {2,4,8,16,32,48,56,64 }.

For example, taking the first value Q as a value in the set {8,16,32,64}, the network device may use a two-bit field to indicate the value of the first value Q, for example, the field "00" is used to indicate Q is equal to 8, the field "01" is used to indicate Q is equal to 16, the field "10" is used to indicate Q is equal to 32, and the field "11" is used to indicate Q is equal to 64.

In another possible implementation manner, the terminal device obtains the first value Q according to the SSB.

For example, the terminal device analyzes SSBs on different candidate SSBs within the first time window according to a preconfigured initial default Q value, and after the SSBs are successfully analyzed, obtains a first value Q capable of indicating a QCL relationship. The first time window represents a Discovery Burst Transmission Window (DBTW), which may include SSB, RMSI, and other downlink information.

The first value Q may be used

And (4) showing.

S430, the terminal device determines the QCL relationship according to the first value Q.

In one possible implementation, the second candidate SSB having the QCL relationship and the first candidate SSB satisfy a third condition that a remainder of division of the index corresponding to the second candidate SSB by the first value Q is equal to a remainder of division of the index corresponding to the first candidate SSB by the first value Q.

For example, in connection with fig. 5, N equals 40, m equals 32, and the first value Q equals 64:

referring to fig. 5, the second candidate SSB with index 64 and the first candidate SSB with index 0 satisfy the third condition, the second candidate SSB with index 65 and the first candidate SSB with index 1 satisfy the third condition, and so on, the second candidate SSB with index 79 and the first candidate SSB with index 15 satisfy the third condition. That is, the second candidate SSB has a QCL relationship with the first 16 candidate SSBs of the first candidate SSB.

In other words,

have a QCL relationship, wherein,

for the index corresponding to the candidate SSB, Q is the first value Q, mod is the remainder function.

Thus, in the present application, by setting the QCL relationship of the second candidate SSB to the first candidate SSB, a plurality of second candidate SSBs can be used to transmit the same SSB as the first candidate SSB, thereby improving the accuracy of timing synchronization.

Fig. 6 shows a schematic flow chart of another method 600 for timing synchronization provided herein.

S610, the network device sends SSBs to the terminal device on at least two candidate SSBs, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives SSBs on at least two candidate SSBs.

In one possible implementation, N is equal to 40.

For example, 40 consecutive slots constitute a 5ms half frame, two candidate SSBs are set in each slot, that is, 80 candidate SSBs are set in the half frame, and the starting symbol expressions of the 80 candidate SSBs may be: {4,8,16,20} +28 · n, n =0,1,2, …,19.

The distribution of the first candidate SSB and the second candidate SSB may be in the following two ways.

Mode 1:

Optionally, when N equals 40 and m equals 32, the distribution is similar to that described in method 400 and will not be described again for brevity.

Mode 2:

the N time slots are divided into P time slot groups comprising R continuous time slots, the first candidate SSB is positioned in the third time slot in the first X time slots in each time slot group, the second candidate SSB is positioned in the fourth time slot in the last R-X time slots in each time slot group, and P, R and X are positive integers.

Alternatively, N is equal to 40, m is equal to 32, p is equal to 4,R is equal to 10, x is equal to 8, that is, 40 slots are divided into 4 slot groups, each slot group includes 10 slots, the first candidate SSB is located in a slot of the first 8 slots in each slot group, the second candidate SSB is located in a slot of the last 2 slots in each slot group, and each slot includes two candidate SSBs.

For example, if the slots where the 80 candidate SSBs and the candidate SSBs are located are numbered from 0, the indexes corresponding to the candidate SSBs are 0 to 79, and the indexes corresponding to the slots where the candidate SSBs are located are 0 to 39, where the indexes corresponding to the first candidate SSB are 0 to 15, 20 to 35, 40 to 55, 60 to 75, and the indexes corresponding to the slots where the first candidate SSB is located are 0 to 7, 10 to 17, 20 to 27, 30 to 37; the indexes corresponding to the second candidate SSB are 16 to 19, 36 to 39, 56 to 59, 76 to 79, and the index corresponding to the timeslot where the second candidate SSB is located is 8,9,18,19,28,29,38,39.

S620, the terminal equipment acquires the first value Q and the second value A.

The first value Q and the second value a are used to indicate that the second candidate SSB has a QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB.

It should be noted that the second candidate SSB has a QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB may be understood as that the second candidate SSB has a QCL relationship with a part of the first candidate SSBs in the first candidate SSB, or that the candidate SSB having a QCL relationship with the second candidate SSB is in the first candidate SSB.

The manner in which the terminal device obtains the first value Q is similar to that described in the method 400, and is not described herein again for simplicity.

Optionally, the terminal device obtains the first value Q and the second value a according to the SSB.

For example, the terminal device analyzes SSBs on different candidate SSBs within a first time window according to a preconfigured initial default Q value and an initial default a value, and after the SSBs are successfully analyzed, obtains a first value Q capable of indicating a QCL relationship. Wherein the first time window represents DBTW, which may include SSB, RMSI, and other downlink information.

Optionally, the obtaining, by the terminal device, the second value a includes: the terminal device receives the second value a from the network device, and correspondingly, the network device sends the second value a to the terminal device.

For example, the network device may carry the second value a in the PBCH, e.g. using the parameter ssb-subcarrieronoffset field in the MIB, or the control resourcesetzo field and the searchSpaceZero field in the pdcch-ConfigSIB1 to represent the second value a, the bit length of the used fields may be 2,3 or 4; alternatively, bit field representation in PBCH payload is used, for example, 2 bits of low order bits in the system frame. Alternatively, the network device may also carry the second value a in RRC dedicated signaling, for example, using the ServingCellConfigCommon SIB field or the ServingCellConfigCommon field of SIB1 for representation.

Optionally, the first value Q is a value in a set {8,16,32,64} or a set {2,4,8,16,32,48,56,64}, and the second value a is a value in a set {8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16}, a set {8,10,12,14,16} or a set {8,12,16 }.

Optionally, multiplexing a field for indicating the first value Q indicates a value of the second value a, or using one field to indicate values of the first value Q and the second value a at the same time.

For example, table 1 shows a configuration in which 3 bits are used to indicate the first value Q and the second value a.

Table 1:

bits	First value Q	A second value A
			000	8	6
001	16	12
			010	32	24
011	48	36
			100	52	50
101	56	54
			110	64	60
111	＞64	--

S630, the terminal device determines the QCL relationship according to the first value Q and the second value a.

In one possible implementation, the first candidate SSB and the second candidate SSB having the QCL relationship satisfy a first condition that a remainder of dividing the index corresponding to the first candidate SSB by the first value Q is equal to a remainder of dividing the index corresponding to the second candidate SSB by the second value a.

Taking fig. 7 as an example in which the first candidate SSB and the second candidate SSB are distributed in the manner 2, it is assumed that the first value Q is 32, the second value a is 12, the second candidate SSB with index 16 and the first candidate SSB with index 4 and 68 satisfy the first condition, the second candidate SSB with index 17 and the first candidate SSB with index 5 and 69 satisfy the first condition, and so on, the second candidate SSB with index 16 to 19 and the first candidate SSB with index 4 to 7 and 68 to 71 satisfy the first condition, the second candidate SSB with index 36 to 39 and the first candidate SSB with index 0 to 3, 32 to 35, 64 to 67 satisfy the first condition, the second candidate SSB with index 56 to 59 and the first candidate SSB with index 8 to 11, 40 to 43, 72 to 75 satisfy the first condition, and the second candidate SSB with index 76 to 79 and the first candidate SSB with index 4 to 7 and 68 to 71 satisfy the first condition.

It should be noted that the first candidate SSB having the same remainder of the first candidate SSB divided by the first value Q has a QCL relationship, and the second candidate SSB having the same remainder of the second candidate SSB divided by the second value a has a QCL relationship.

In other words,

results of (1) and

the first candidate SSB and the second candidate SSB having the same result have a QCL relationship, wherein,

is the index corresponding to the first candidate SSB,

and the index corresponding to the second candidate SSB is Q which is a first value Q, A is a second value A, and mod is a complementation function.

In one possible implementation, before step S520, the method 500 further includes: the network device determines the first value a and/or the second value Q.

Optionally, the network device may determine the first value a and/or the second value Q according to an uplink beam direction used by the terminal device to send the uplink service, or according to the traffic volume in the uplink beam direction.

As can be seen from the above example, the second candidate SSBs with indexes 16 to 19 and 76 to 79 are all QCL-related to the first candidate SSBs with indexes 4 to 7 and 68 to 71, in other words, the network device may design the first value Q and the second value a according to the uplink beam direction used by the terminal device to transmit the uplink traffic, or the traffic amount in the uplink beam direction, so that the SSB with a larger demand transmits using multiple candidate SSBs.

Therefore, in the present application, the QCL relationship between the second candidate SSB and the first candidate SSB may be flexibly set through the values of the first value Q and the first value a, so that a plurality of second candidate SSBs may be used to transmit the SSBs identical to the first candidate SSB, thereby improving the accuracy of timing synchronization.

Fig. 8 shows a schematic flow chart of another method 800 of timing synchronization provided herein.

S810, the network device sends SSBs to the terminal device on at least two candidate SSBs, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives SSBs on at least two candidate SSBs.

In one possible implementation, N is equal to 40.

The distribution of the first candidate SSB and the second candidate SSB is similar to that described in method 600 in equation 2, and for brevity, will not be described again.

S820, the terminal device obtains a first value Q.

The first value Q is used to indicate that the second candidate SSB has a QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB, and the first candidate SSB is located within a target range, which includes a portion of the slots in which the first candidate SSB is located.

It should be noted that the second candidate SSBs have a QCL relationship with the first candidate SSBs, which is understood to mean that each second candidate SSB has a QCL relationship with a certain first candidate SSB in the target range, or that the candidate SSB having a QCL relationship with the second candidate SSB is one of the first candidate SSBs in the target range.

Optionally, the first value Q is a value in the set {2,4,8,16} or the set {8,16,32,64 }.

In one possible implementation manner, the target range includes the first Y slots where the first candidate SSB is located, where Y is a positive integer, of the slots where the second candidate SSB is located.

It should be noted that the first Y timeslots in which the first candidate SSB is located of the timeslot in which the second candidate SSB is located may be understood as the timeslot in which the most similar Y first candidate SSB is located before the timeslot in which the second candidate SSB is located, and the timeslot in which the second candidate SSB is located and the timeslot in which the first Y first candidate SSB is located may be adjacent or not adjacent.

Alternatively, Y is equal to 16.

For example, the indexes corresponding to the first 16 first candidate SSBs of the slot where the second candidate SSB with the indexes of 16 to 19 is located are 0 to 15 (the target range includes the slot with the slot index of 0 to 7), the indexes corresponding to the first 16 first candidate SSBs of the slot where the second candidate SSB with the indexes of 36 to 39 is located are 20 to 35 (the target range includes the slot with the slot index of 10 to 17), the indexes corresponding to the first 16 first candidate SSBs of the slot where the second candidate SSB with the indexes of 56 to 59 is located are 40 to 55 (the target range includes the slot with the slot index of 20 to 27), and the indexes corresponding to the first 16 first candidate SSBs of the slot where the second candidate SSB with the indexes of 76 to 79 is located are 60 to 75 (the target range includes the slot with the slot index of 30 to 37).

S830, the terminal device determines the QCL relationship according to the first value Q.

In one possible implementation, the second candidate SSB having the QCL relationship and the first candidate SSB satisfy a second condition that the first candidate SSB is located in the tth timeslot in the target range, T is equal to a remainder of an index corresponding to the second candidate SSB divided by the first value Q, and T is a positive integer.

Taking the corresponding indexes of the first candidate SSB as 0 to 15, 20 to 35, 40 to 55, 60 to 75, and the corresponding indexes of the slot where the first candidate SSB is located as 0 to 7, 10 to 17, 20 to 27, 30 to 37; the indexes corresponding to the second candidate SSB are 16 to 19, 36 to 39, 56 to 59, 76 to 79, and the index corresponding to the time slot in which the second candidate SSB is located is 8,9,18,19,28,29,38,39 for example:

and the terminal equipment determines a target range according to the index corresponding to the second candidate SSB.

For example, referring to fig. 9, for example, the index of the second candidate SSB is 36, the target range includes time slots with time slot indices of 10 to 17, and assuming that the value of the first value Q is 8, T is equal to 36mod8=4, and the first candidate SSB having QCL relationship with the second candidate SSB with index of 36 is located in the 4 th time slot of the target range, that is, the time slot index is 13.

In this way, a third value C of the parameter may be defined, which may be the index of the slot corresponding to the first slot in the target range, or which may take the index corresponding to the first candidate SSB or the first slot in the target range. For example, when determining that the target range is a range including a time slot in which the first candidate SSB with an index of 20 to 35 is located (the corresponding time slot index is 10 to 17), the terminal device may determine that the third value C is 20 or 10, and if the third value C is the time slot index 10 corresponding to the first time slot in the target range, the time slot index of the time slot in which the first candidate SSB is located is T + C-1 (4 +10-1= 13); if the third value C is the index 20 corresponding to the first candidate SSB in the target range, the slot index (e.g., C/2) of the slot where the first candidate SSB is located may be determined, and the slot index of the slot where the target candidate SSB is located is T + C/2-1 (4 +20/2-1= 13).

Optionally, if the third value corresponds to the index of the candidate SSB, the value of the third value C may be {0,20,40,60}; if the third value corresponds to the slot index, the value of the third value C may be {0,10,20,30}.

In a possible manner, if there are two first candidate SSBs in 1 timeslot, a preconfigured manner may be used to indicate which first candidate SSB in the tth timeslot has a QCL relationship with the second candidate SSB, for example, the first candidate SSB in the tth timeslot has a QCL relationship with the second candidate SSB may be preconfigured.

In another possible manner, the method 800 may further include step S840.

S840, the terminal device receives the first information from the network device, and correspondingly, the network device sends the first information to the terminal device.

The first information is used to indicate a position of the first candidate SSB in the T-th slot in the target range.

For example, there are two candidate SSBs in 1 timeslot, the terminal device has determined, according to the first value Q and the target range, the timeslot (e.g., corresponding to the timeslot index of 13) where the first candidate SSB having a QCL relationship with the second candidate SSB (e.g., corresponding to the timeslot index of 36), the first information may indicate the position of the first candidate SSB in the T-th timeslot in the target range by one bit, for example, when the first information is bit "0", the index corresponding to the first candidate SSB is the first candidate SSB in the timeslot (e.g., the first candidate SSB having the index of 26), and when the first information is bit "1", the index corresponding to the first candidate SSB is the second first candidate SSB in the timeslot (e.g., the first candidate SSB having the index of 27).

Thus, in the present application, the accuracy of timing synchronization can be improved by configuring the target range such that the second candidate SSB has a QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB in the target range, even though a plurality of second candidate SSBs may be used to transmit the same SSB as the first candidate SSB in the target range.

Fig. 10 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 10, the apparatus 1000 may include a processing unit 1100 and a transceiving unit 1200.

Alternatively, the apparatus 1000 may correspond to the terminal device in the above method embodiment, or a component (e.g., a circuit, a chip, or a system of chips, etc.) configured in the terminal device.

It should be understood that the apparatus 1000 may correspond to a terminal device in a method according to an embodiment of the present application, and the apparatus 1000 may include a unit for performing the method performed by the terminal device in fig. 4, fig. 6 or fig. 8. Also, the units and other operations and/or functions in the apparatus 1000 are respectively for realizing the corresponding flows in fig. 4, fig. 6 or fig. 8.

Wherein, when the apparatus 1000 is configured to perform the method in fig. 4, the transceiver unit 1200 is configured to receive SSBs on at least two candidate synchronization information blocks SSBs, where the at least two candidate SSBs include a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs are located in N consecutive time slots, and N is a positive integer, and the transceiver unit 1200 is further configured to obtain a first value Q and a second value a, where the first value Q and the second value a are used to indicate that the second candidate SSB has a quasi co-located QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB; the processing unit 1100 may be configured to determine the QCL relationship based on the first value Q and the second value a. It should be understood that, the specific processes of the units for executing the corresponding steps are already described in detail in the above method embodiments, and are not described herein again for brevity.

When the apparatus 1000 is configured to perform the method in fig. 6, the transceiver unit 1200 may be configured to receive SSBs on at least two candidate synchronization information blocks SSBs, where the at least two candidate SSBs include a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs are located in N consecutive time slots, and N is a positive integer, and the transceiver unit 1200 may be further configured to obtain a first value Q, where the first value Q is used to indicate that the second candidate SSB has a QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB, and the first candidate SSB is located in a target range, and the target range includes a part of the time slots in which the first candidate SSB is located; the processing unit 1100 may be used to determine the QCL relationship from the first value Q. It should be understood that the specific processes of the units for executing the corresponding steps are already described in detail in the above method embodiments, and therefore, for brevity, detailed descriptions thereof are omitted.

Wherein, when the apparatus 1000 is configured to perform the method of fig. 8, the transceiver unit 1200 is configured to receive SSBs on at least two candidate synchronization information blocks SSBs, the at least two candidate SSBs include a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs are located in N consecutive time slots, N is a positive integer, wherein the first candidate SSB is located in a first time slot of first M time slots of the N consecutive time slots, the second candidate SSB is located in a second time slot of last N-M time slots of the N consecutive time slots, M is a positive integer, and the transceiver unit 1200 is further configured to obtain a first value Q, the first value Q is used to indicate that the second candidate SSB has a QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB; the processing unit 1100 may be configured to determine the QCL relationship based on the first value Q. It should be understood that the specific processes of the units for executing the corresponding steps are already described in detail in the above method embodiments, and therefore, for brevity, detailed descriptions thereof are omitted.

It is further to be understood that, when the apparatus 1000 is a terminal device, the transceiver unit 1200 in the apparatus 1000 may be implemented by a transceiver, for example, may correspond to the transceiver 2020 in the apparatus 2000 shown in fig. 11 or the transceiver 3020 in the terminal device 3000 shown in fig. 12, and the processing unit 1100 in the apparatus 1000 may be implemented by at least one processor, for example, may correspond to the processor 2010 in the apparatus 2000 shown in fig. 11 or the processor 3010 in the terminal device 3000 shown in fig. 12.

It should also be understood that, when the apparatus 1000 is a chip or a system of chips configured in a terminal device, the transceiver unit 1200 in the apparatus 1000 may be implemented by an input/output interface, a circuit, etc., and the processing unit 1100 in the apparatus 1000 may be implemented by a processor, a microprocessor, an integrated circuit, etc., integrated on the chip or the system of chips.

It should be understood that the apparatus 1000 may correspond to a network device in a method according to an embodiment of the present application, and that the apparatus 1000 may include a unit for performing the method performed by the network device in fig. 4, fig. 6 or fig. 8. Also, the units and other operations and/or functions described above in the apparatus 1000 are respectively for implementing the corresponding flows in fig. 4, fig. 6 or fig. 8.

Wherein, when the apparatus 1000 is configured to perform the method of fig. 4, the transceiver unit 1200 is configured to transmit the SSBs on at least two candidate synchronization information blocks SSBs, the at least two candidate SSBs include a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs are located in N consecutive time slots, N is a positive integer, and the transceiver unit 1200 is further configured to transmit a first value Q and a second value a, the first value Q and the second value a are used to indicate that the second candidate SSB has a quasi co-located QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB; the processing unit 110 is operable to determine a first value Q and a second value a. It should be understood that the specific processes of the units for executing the corresponding steps are already described in detail in the above method embodiments, and therefore, for brevity, detailed descriptions thereof are omitted.

When the apparatus 1000 is configured to perform the method in fig. 6, the transceiver unit 1200 may be configured to transmit the SSBs on at least two candidate synchronization information blocks SSBs, where the at least two candidate SSBs include a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs are located in N consecutive time slots, and N is a positive integer, and the transceiver unit 1200 may be further configured to transmit a first value Q, where the first value Q is used to indicate that the second candidate SSB has a QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB, and the first candidate SSB is located in a target range, and the target range includes a part of the time slots in which the first candidate SSB is located; the processing unit 1100 may be used to determine a first value Q. It should be understood that, the specific processes of the units for executing the corresponding steps are already described in detail in the above method embodiments, and are not described herein again for brevity.

Wherein, when the apparatus 1000 is configured to execute the method in fig. 8, the transceiver unit 1200 is configured to transmit the SSBs on at least two candidate synchronization information blocks SSBs, the at least two candidate SSBs include a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs are located in N consecutive time slots, N is a positive integer, wherein the first candidate SSB is located in a first time slot of first M time slots of the N consecutive time slots, the second candidate SSB is located in a second time slot of last N-M time slots of the N consecutive time slots, M is a positive integer, and the transceiver unit 1200 is further configured to transmit a first value Q, the first value Q is used to indicate that the second candidate SSB has a QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB; the processing unit 1100 may be used to determine the first value Q. It should be understood that the specific processes of the units for executing the corresponding steps are already described in detail in the above method embodiments, and therefore, for brevity, detailed descriptions thereof are omitted.

It is further understood that when the apparatus 1000 is a network device, the transceiving unit 1200 in the apparatus 1000 may be implemented by a transceiver, for example, may correspond to the transceiver 2020 in the apparatus 2000 illustrated in fig. 11 or the transceiver 3020 in the network device 3000 illustrated in fig. 12, and the processing unit 1100 in the apparatus 1000 may be implemented by at least one processor, for example, may correspond to the processor 2010 in the apparatus 2000 illustrated in fig. 11 or the processor 3010 in the network device 3000 illustrated in fig. 12.

It should also be understood that, when the apparatus 1000 is a chip or a system of chips configured in a network device, the transceiver unit 1200 in the apparatus 1000 may be implemented by an input/output interface, a circuit, etc., and the processing unit 1100 in the apparatus 1000 may be implemented by a processor, a microprocessor, an integrated circuit, etc., integrated on the chip or the system of chips.

Fig. 11 is another schematic block diagram of an apparatus 2000 provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 11, the apparatus 2000 includes a processor 2010, a transceiver 2020, and a memory 2030. Wherein the processor 2010, the transceiver 2020, and the memory 2030 are in communication with each other via the internal connection path, the memory 2030 is configured to store instructions, and the processor 2010 is configured to execute the instructions stored in the memory 2030 to control the transceiver 2020 to transmit and/or receive signals. Alternatively, the processor 2010 and the memory 2030 may be integrated together.

It should be understood that the apparatus 2000 may correspond to the network device or the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiments, and may be configured to perform each step and/or flow performed by the network device or the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiments. Alternatively, the memory 2030 may include a read-only memory and a random access memory, and provide instructions and data to the processor. The portion of memory may also include non-volatile random access memory. The memory 2030 may be a separate device or may be integrated into the processor 2010. The processor 2010 may be configured to execute the instructions stored in the memory 2030, and when the processor 2010 executes the instructions stored in the memory, the processor 2010 is configured to perform the steps and/or processes of the method embodiments corresponding to the network device or the terminal device.

Optionally, the apparatus 2000 is the terminal device in the previous embodiment.

Optionally, the apparatus 2000 is a network device in the foregoing embodiment.

The transceiver 2020 may include a transmitter and a receiver, among other things. The transceiver 2020 may further include one or more antennas. The processor 2010 and the memory 2030 and the transceiver 2020 may be devices integrated on different chips. For example, the processor 2010 and the memory 2030 may be integrated in a baseband chip and the transceiver 2020 may be integrated in a radio frequency chip. The processor 2010 and the memory 2030 and the transceiver 2020 may also be integrated devices on the same chip. This is not a limitation of the present application.

Alternatively, the apparatus 2000 is a component configured in a terminal device, such as a circuit, a chip system, and the like.

Alternatively, the apparatus 2000 is a component configured in a network device, such as a circuit, a chip system, and the like.

The transceiver 2020 may also be a communication interface, such as an input/output interface, a circuit, or the like. The transceiver 2020 may be integrated with the processor 2010 and the memory 2020 on the same chip, such as a baseband chip.

Fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device 3000 according to an embodiment of the present application. The terminal device 3000 can be applied to the system shown in fig. 1, and performs the functions of the terminal device in the above method embodiment. As shown in fig. 12, the terminal apparatus 3000 includes a processor 3010 and a transceiver 3020. Optionally, the terminal device 3000 further includes a memory 3030. The processor 3010, the transceiver 3020 and the memory 3030 may communicate with each other via an internal connection path to transmit control and/or data signals, the memory 3030 is used to store a computer program, and the processor 3010 is used to call and run the computer program from the memory 3030 to control the transceiver 3020 to transmit and receive signals. Optionally, the terminal device 3000 may further include an antenna 3040, configured to send uplink data or uplink control signaling output by the transceiver 3020 through a wireless signal.

The processor 3010 and the memory 3030 may be combined into a processing device, and the processor 3010 is configured to execute the program codes stored in the memory 3030 to implement the functions described above. In particular, the memory 3030 may be integrated with the processor 3010 or may be separate from the processor 3010. The processor 3010 may correspond to the processing unit 1100 of fig. 10 or the processor 2010 of fig. 11.

The transceiver 3020 described above may correspond to the transceiver unit 1200 in fig. 10 or the transceiver 2020 in fig. 11. The transceiver 3020 may include a receiver (or receiver, receiving circuit) and a transmitter (or transmitter, transmitting circuit). Wherein the receiver is used for receiving signals, and the transmitter is used for transmitting signals.

It should be understood that the terminal device 3000 shown in fig. 12 can implement various processes involving the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 2. The operations and/or functions of the modules in the terminal device 3000 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 appropriately omitted herein to avoid redundancy.

The processor 3010 may be configured to perform the actions implemented by the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiments, and the transceiver 3020 may be configured to perform the actions transmitted to or received from the network device by the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiments. Please refer to the description of the previous embodiment of the method, which is not repeated herein.

Optionally, the terminal device 3000 may further include a power supply 3050 for supplying power to various components or circuits in the terminal device.

In addition to this, in order to make the functions of the terminal device more complete, the terminal device 3000 may further include one or more of an input unit 3060, a display unit 3070, an audio circuit 3080, a camera 3090, a sensor 3100, and the like, and the audio circuit may further include a speaker 3082, a microphone 3084, and the like.

Fig. 13 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 4000 may be applied to the system shown in fig. 1, and performs the functions of the network device in the method embodiment described above. As shown, the base station 4000 may include one or more radio units, such as a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) 4100 and one or more baseband units (BBU) 4200. The RRU 4100 may be referred to as a transceiver unit, and may correspond to the transceiver unit 1200 in fig. 10 or the transceiver 2020 in fig. 11. Optionally, the RRU 4100 may also be referred to as a transceiver, transceiver circuitry, or transceiver, etc., which may include at least one antenna 4101 and a radio frequency unit 4102. Optionally, the RRU 4100 may include a receiving unit and a sending unit, where the receiving unit may correspond to a receiver (or called receiver and receiving circuit), and the sending unit may correspond to a transmitter (or called transmitter and transmitting circuit). The RRU 4100 is mainly used for transceiving radio frequency signals and converting radio frequency signals and baseband signals, for example, for sending indication information to a terminal device. The BBU 4200 is mainly used for performing baseband processing, controlling a base station, and the like. The RRU 4100 and the BBU 4200 may be physically disposed together or may be physically disposed separately, that is, distributed base stations.

The BBU 4200 is a control center of the base station, and may also be referred to as a processing unit, and may correspond to the processing unit 1100 in fig. 10 or the processor 2010 in fig. 11, and is mainly used for completing baseband processing functions, such as channel coding, multiplexing, modulating, spreading, and the like. For example, the BBU (processing unit) may be configured to control the base station to perform an operation procedure related to the network device in the foregoing method embodiment, for example, to generate the foregoing indication information.

In an example, the BBU 4200 may be formed by one or more boards, and the multiple boards may collectively support a radio access network of a single access system (e.g., a 5G 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 4200 further includes a memory 4201 and a processor 4202. The memory 4201 is used to store necessary instructions and data. The processor 4202 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 network device in the above method embodiment. The memory 4201 and the processor 4202 may serve one or more 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 base station 4000 shown in fig. 13 can implement various processes involving network devices in method embodiments. The operations and/or functions of the respective modules in the base station 4000 are respectively to implement the corresponding flows in the above-described method embodiments. Reference may be made specifically to the description of the above method embodiments, and a detailed description is appropriately omitted herein to avoid redundancy.

BBU 4200 described above may be used to perform actions described in the foregoing method embodiments that are implemented internally by the network device, while RRU 4100 may be used to perform actions described in the foregoing method embodiments that the network device sends to or receives from the terminal device. Please refer to the description of the previous embodiment of the method, which is not repeated herein.

It should be understood that the base station 4000 shown in fig. 13 is only one possible form of network device, and should not limit the present application in any way. The method provided by the application can be applied to network equipment in other forms. For example, including AAUs, and may also include CUs and/or DUs, or including BBUs and Adaptive Radio Units (ARUs), or BBUs; the network device may also be a Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) or other forms, and the present application is not limited to a specific form of the network device.

Wherein the CU and/or DU may be configured to perform the actions described in the foregoing method embodiments that are implemented inside the network device, and the AAU may be configured to perform the actions described in the foregoing method embodiments that the network device sends to or receives from the terminal device. Please refer to the description of the previous embodiment of the method, which is not repeated herein.

The present application further provides a processing apparatus, which includes at least one processor, and the at least one processor is configured to execute a computer program stored in a memory, so that the processing apparatus executes the method performed by the terminal device or the network device in any of the method embodiments described above.

An embodiment of the present application further provides a processing apparatus, which includes a processor and a communication interface. The communication interface is coupled with the processor. The communication interface is used for inputting and/or outputting information. The information includes at least one of instructions and data. The processor is configured to execute the computer program, so as to enable the processing device to execute the method performed by the terminal device or the network device in any of the method embodiments.

An embodiment of the present application further provides a processing apparatus, which includes a processor and a memory. The memory is used for storing a computer program, and the processor is used for calling and running the computer program from the memory so as to enable the processing device to execute the method executed by the terminal device or the network device in any method embodiment.

It is to be understood that the processing means described above may be one or more chips. For example, the processing device may be a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a system on chip (SoC), a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Network Processor (NP), a digital signal processing circuit (DSP), a Microcontroller (MCU), a Programmable Logic Device (PLD), or other integrated chips.

In implementation, the steps of the above method may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in a processor. 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. To avoid repetition, it is not described in detail here.

It should be noted 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 described above 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, 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 be appreciated that the memory in the embodiments of the subject application can be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or can 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 EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. Volatile memory can be Random Access Memory (RAM), which acts as external cache memory. By way of example, but not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM, enhanced SDRAM, SLDRAM, synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM), 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.

According to the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the present application further provides a computer program product, which includes: computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method performed by the terminal device or the method performed by the network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 3.

According to the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium storing a program code, which, when running on a computer, causes the computer to execute the method executed by the terminal device or the method executed by the network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 3.

According to the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the present application further provides a system, which includes the foregoing one or more terminal devices and one or more network devices.

The network device in the foregoing device embodiments completely corresponds to the terminal device and the network device or the terminal device in the method embodiments, and the corresponding module or unit executes the corresponding steps, for example, the communication unit (transceiver) executes the steps of receiving or transmitting in the method embodiments, and other steps besides transmitting and receiving may be executed by the processing unit (processor). The functions of the specific elements may be referred to in the respective method embodiments. The number of the processors can be one or more.

In the above embodiments, the terminal device may be taken as an example of the receiving device, and the network device may be taken as an example of the sending device. This should not be construed as limiting the application in any way. For example, the transmitting device and the receiving device may both be terminal devices or the like. The present application is not limited to a specific type of the transmitting device and the receiving device.

As used in this specification, the terms "component," "module," "system," 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. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a computing device and the computing device can be a component. One or more components can reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component can be localized on one computer and/or distributed between 2 or more computers. In addition, these components can execute from various computer readable media having various data structures stored thereon. The components may communicate by way of local and/or remote processes such as in accordance with a signal having one or more data packets (e.g., data from two components interacting with another component in a local system, distributed system, and/or across a network such as the internet with other systems by way of the signal).

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the 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.

It is clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one logical division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit.

The functions, 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 usb disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, the numbers "first", "second" … are only used for distinguishing different objects, such as for distinguishing different network devices, and do not limit the scope of the embodiment of the present application, and the embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto.

It should also be understood that in this application, "when …," "if," and "if" all refer to the corresponding processing by the network element under some objective condition, and are not time-critical, nor do they require certain deterministic actions for the network element to implement, nor do they imply that other limitations exist.

It is also understood that, in the present application, "at least one" means one or more, "a plurality" means two or more.

It should also be understood that in the embodiments of the present application, "B corresponding to a" means that B is associated with a, from which B can be determined. It should also be understood that determining B from a does not mean determining B from a alone, but may also be determined from a and/or other information.

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

Items appearing in this application as similar to "include one or more of the following: the meaning of the expressions A, B, and C "generally means that the item may be any of the following, unless otherwise specified: a; b; c; a and B; a and C; b and C; a, B and C; a and A; a, A and A; a, A and B; a, A and C, A, B and B; a, C and C; b and B, B, B and C, C and C; c, C and C, and other combinations of A, B and C. The above description is made by taking 3 elements of a, B and C as examples of optional items of the item, when the expression "item includes at least one of the following: a, B, … …, and X ", i.e., there are more elements in the expression, then the entry to which the item can apply can also be obtained according to the aforementioned rules.

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 conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application, and shall be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of timing synchronization, the method comprising:

the terminal equipment receives SSBs on at least two candidate synchronization information blocks (SSBs), wherein the at least two candidate SSBs comprise a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs are positioned in N continuous time slots, and N is a positive integer;

the terminal device obtains a first value Q and a second value A, wherein the first value Q and the second value A are used for indicating that the second candidate SSB and the first candidate SSB have a quasi co-location QCL relationship;

and the terminal equipment determines the QCL relation according to the first value Q and the second value A.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first candidate SSB and the second candidate SSB having the QCL relationship satisfy a first condition that a remainder of an index corresponding to the first candidate SSB divided by the first value Q is equal to a remainder of an index corresponding to the second candidate SSB divided by the second value a.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the first candidate SSB is located in a first slot of first M slots of the N consecutive slots, wherein the second candidate SSB is located in a second slot of last N-M slots of the N consecutive slots, wherein M is a positive integer.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein N is equal to 40, wherein M is equal to 32, wherein the first value Q is a value in a set {8,16,32,64} or a set {2,4,8,16,32,48,56,64}, and wherein the second value A is a value in a set {8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16}, a set {8,10,12,14,16} or a set {8,12,16 }.

5. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the N slots are divided into P slot groups comprising R consecutive slots, the first candidate SSB is located in a third slot of the first X slots in each of the slot groups, the second candidate SSB is located in a fourth slot of the last R-X slots in each of the slot groups, and P, R, and X are positive integers.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein N equals 40, P equals 4, R equals 10, X equals 8, the first value Q is a value in a set {8,16,32,64} or a set {2,4,8,16,32,48,56,64}, the second value A is a value in a set {8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16}, a set {8,10,12,14,16} or a set {8,12,16 }.

7. A method of timing synchronization, the method comprising:

the network equipment sends SSBs on at least two candidate synchronization information blocks (SSBs), wherein the at least two candidate SSBs comprise a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs are located in N continuous time slots, and N is a positive integer;

the network device sends a first value Q and a second value A indicating that the second candidate SSB has a quasi co-located QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first candidate SSB and the second candidate SSB having the QCL relationship satisfy a first condition that a remainder of an index corresponding to the first candidate SSB divided by the first value Q is equal to a remainder of an index corresponding to the second candidate SSB divided by the second value a.

9. The method of claim 7 or 8, wherein the first candidate SSB is located in a first slot of first M slots of the N consecutive slots, wherein the second candidate SSB is located in a second slot of last N-M slots of the N consecutive slots, and wherein M is a positive integer.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein N equals 80, M equals 64, the first value Q is a value in a set {8,16,32,64} or a set {2,4,8,16,32,48,56,64}, and the second value a is a value in a set {8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16}, a set {8,10,12,14,16} or a set {8,12,16 }.

11. The method of claim 7 or 8, wherein the N slots are divided into P slot groups comprising R consecutive slots, the first candidate SSB is located in a third slot of the first X slots in each of the slot groups, the second candidate SSB is located in a fourth slot of the last R-X slots in each of the slot groups, and P, R, X are positive integers.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein N equals 40, P equals 4, R equals 10, X equals 8, the first value Q is a value in a set {8,16,32,64} or a set {2,4,8,16,32,48,56,64}, the second value a is a value in a set {8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16}, a set {8,10,12,14,16} or a set {8,12,16 }.

13. A method of timing synchronization, the method comprising:

the terminal device obtains a first value Q, where the first value Q is used to indicate that the second candidate SSB has a QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB, and the first candidate SSB is located in a target range, where the target range includes a part of time slots in which the first candidate SSB is located;

and the terminal equipment determines the QCL relation according to the first value Q.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the target range comprises a slot in which the first Y first candidate SSBs are located before a slot in which the second candidate SSB is located, wherein Y is a positive integer.

15. The method of claim 13 or 14, wherein the second candidate SSB having the QCL relationship and the first candidate SSB satisfy a second condition that the first candidate SSB is located within a tth time slot in the target range, wherein T is equal to a remainder of an index corresponding to the second candidate SSB divided by the first value Q, and wherein T is a positive integer.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises:

the terminal device receives first information from a network device, wherein the first information is used for indicating the position of the first candidate SSB in the Tth time slot in the target range.

17. The method of any of claims 15-16, wherein the N slots are divided into P slot groups comprising R consecutive slots, the first candidate SSB is located in a third slot of the first X slots in each of the slot groups, the second candidate SSB is located in a fourth slot of the last R-X slots in each of the slot groups, and P, R, X are positive integers.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein N equals 40, P equals 4, R equals 10, X equals 8, Y equals 16, and the first value Q is a value in a set {2,4,8,16} or a set {8,16,32,64 }.

19. A method of timing synchronization, the method comprising:

the network device sends a first value Q indicating that the second candidate SSB has a QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB, the first candidate SSB being within a target range that includes a portion of the time slots in which the first candidate SSB is located.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the target range comprises a slot in which the first Y first candidate SSBs are located before a slot in which the second candidate SSB is located, wherein Y is a positive integer.

21. The method of claim 19 or 20, wherein the second candidate SSB having the QCL relationship and the first candidate SSB satisfy a second condition that the first candidate SSB is located within the target range for the tth time slot, the T being equal to a remainder of an index corresponding to the second candidate SSB divided by the first value Q, the T being a positive integer.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the method further comprises:

and the network equipment sends first information to terminal equipment, wherein the first information is used for indicating the position of the first candidate SSB in the Tth time slot in the target range.

23. The method of any of claims 19-22, wherein the N slots are divided into P groups of slots comprising R consecutive slots, the first candidate SSB is located in a third slot of the first X slots in each of the groups of slots, the second candidate SSB is located in a fourth slot of the last R-X slots in each of the groups of slots, and P, R, X are positive integers.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein N equals 80, P equals 4, R equals 10, X equals 8, Y equals 16, and the first value Q is a value in a set {2,4,8,16} or a set {8,16,32,64 }.

25. A method of timing synchronization, the method comprising:

the terminal device receives the SSBs on at least two candidate synchronization information blocks (SSBs), the at least two candidate SSBs comprising a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs being located within N consecutive time slots, N being a positive integer, wherein,

the first candidate SSB is located in a first slot of first M slots of the N consecutive slots, the second candidate SSB is located in a second slot of last N-M slots of the N consecutive slots, M is a positive integer;

the terminal device obtaining a first value Q, the first value Q being used for indicating that the second candidate SSB has a QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB;

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the second candidate SSB having the QCL relationship and the first candidate SSB satisfy a third condition that a remainder of an index corresponding to the second candidate SSB divided by the first value Q is equal to a remainder of an index corresponding to the first candidate SSB divided by the first value Q.

27. The method of claim 25 or 26, wherein N equals 40, M equals 32, and the first value Q is a value in the set {8,16,32,64} or the set {2,4,8,16,32,48,56,64 }.

28. A method of timing synchronization, the method comprising:

the network device sends the SSBs on at least two candidate synchronization information blocks (SSBs), the at least two candidate SSBs comprising a first candidate SSB and a second candidate SSB, the at least two candidate SSBs being located within N consecutive time slots, N being a positive integer, wherein,

the network device sends a first value Q indicating that the second candidate SSB has a QCL relationship with the first candidate SSB.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the second candidate SSB having the QCL relationship and the first candidate SSB satisfy a third condition that a remainder of an index corresponding to the second candidate SSB divided by the first value Q is equal to a remainder of an index corresponding to the first candidate SSB divided by the first value Q.

30. The method of claim 28 or 29, wherein N is equal to 80, M is equal to 32, and the first value Q is a value in a set {8,16,32,64} or a set {2,4,8,16,32,48,56,64 }.

31. A communications apparatus comprising at least one processor configured to execute a computer program stored in memory to cause the apparatus to implement a method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6, or 13 to 18, or 25 to 27, or 7 to 12, or 19 to 24, or 28 to 30.

32. A computer-readable storage medium comprising a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 6, or 13 to 18, or 25 to 27, or 7 to 12, or 19 to 24, or 28 to 30.

33. A computer program product, which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 6, or 13 to 18, or 25 to 27, or 7 to 12, or 19 to 24, or 28 to 30.

34. A chip system, comprising: a processor for calling and running a computer program from a memory so that a communication device in which the system-on-chip is installed performs the method of any one of claims 1 to 6, or 13 to 18, or 25 to 27.

35. A communications device, characterized by comprising means or modules for performing the method of any one of claims 1 to 6, or 13 to 18, or 25 to 27.