CN116134864A

CN116134864A - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN116134864A
Application number: CN202080104496.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 胡星星; 张宏平; 孙慧明
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-08-07
Filing date: 2020-08-07
Publication date: 2023-05-16
Also published as: WO2022027543A1

Abstract

The application provides a communication method and device, and relates to the technical field of communication. The method is used for reducing the power consumption of the terminal equipment. The method comprises the following steps: when a secondary cell group SCG of a terminal device is in a deactivated state, the terminal device acquires a first evaluation result of link signal quality of the SCG according to a first evaluation period; when the SCG is in an activated state, the terminal equipment acquires a second evaluation result of the link signal quality of the SCG according to a second evaluation period; and the terminal equipment monitors the wireless link of the SCG or performs a link recovery process according to the first evaluation result or the second evaluation result.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

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

Background

In the prior art, in the application of the dual-connectivity (DC) technology, when a terminal device does not need to use a secondary cell group (secondary cell group, SCG) to provide a communication service for itself, the SCG may be temporarily suspended (suspended), for example, the configuration of the SCG is suspended, and data transmission is not performed through the SCG, so that the energy consumption of the terminal device and the network device is reduced. In addition, when the terminal equipment needs to use the SCG to provide communication service for the terminal equipment, the terminal equipment can restore (restore) the configuration of the SCG and can also transmit data through the SCG so as to meet the requirement of the terminal equipment on the data transmission rate.

However, even under the condition that the terminal device hangs up the SCG, there may still be unnecessary high energy consumption because the terminal device may perform operations such as signal quality detection.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and device for reducing power consumption of terminal equipment.

In order to achieve the above objective, the embodiments of the present application provide the following technical solutions:

in a first aspect, a communication method is provided, the method comprising: when a secondary cell group SCG of a terminal device is in a deactivated state, the terminal device acquires a first evaluation result of link signal quality of the SCG according to a first evaluation period; when the SCG is in an activated state, the terminal equipment acquires a second evaluation result of the link signal quality of the SCG according to a second evaluation period; and the terminal equipment monitors the wireless link of the SCG or performs a link recovery process according to the first evaluation result or the second evaluation result.

In this embodiment, the terminal device adopts the evaluation periods corresponding to the condition of suspending the SCG and the condition of recovering the SCG respectively to evaluate the link signal quality of the SCG, and by setting the evaluation periods corresponding to different SCG states, both the power consumption of the terminal device and the accuracy of the evaluation result can be considered, so that the wireless link monitoring or link recovery process can be performed more flexibly. For example, in the case of suspending SCG, a longer evaluation period may be employed; in the case of recovering the SCG, a shorter evaluation period may be employed, and the power consumption of the terminal device in the suspended SCG state may be made lower than that in the non-suspended SCG state.

In one possible design, the method further comprises: the terminal equipment receives first indication information from network equipment; the first indication information is used for indicating the first evaluation period; the network device is a main node or an auxiliary node of the terminal device.

In the above design, the first evaluation period may be notified to the terminal device by the network device. In this way, compared with the method of determining the evaluation period in the prior art, the terminal device determines the first evaluation period, and the implementation method can avoid the influence of whether the measured cell configures parameters such as DXR, DRX period size and the like on the size of the evaluation period, so that unnecessary electric quantity consumption of the terminal device is avoided. In addition, in the present design, since the first evaluation period may be notified to the terminal device by the network device, an effect of controlling the size of the first evaluation period by the network device can also be achieved.

In one possible design, the method further comprises: the terminal equipment receives first indication information from network equipment; the first indication information is used for indicating a first scaling factor; the network device is a main node or an auxiliary node of the terminal device. The terminal device determines the first evaluation period according to a third evaluation period and the first scaling factor.

In the above design, the terminal device may determine the first evaluation period according to the first scaling factor from the network device, according to the third evaluation period and the first scaling factor (e.g. scale the third evaluation period according to the first scaling factor, thereby obtaining the first evaluation period). In this way, compared with the method of determining the evaluation period in the prior art, the terminal device determines the first evaluation period, and the implementation method can avoid the influence of whether the measured cell configures parameters such as DXR, DRX period size and the like on the size of the evaluation period, so that unnecessary electric quantity consumption of the terminal device is avoided. In addition, in the present design, the effect of controlling the size of the first evaluation period by the network device can also be achieved.

In one possible design, the first evaluation period is an evaluation period corresponding to a predetermined discontinuous reception DRX period.

In the above design, by using the evaluation period corresponding to the predetermined discontinuous reception DRX cycle as the first evaluation period, the size of the evaluation period can be prevented from being affected by whether the measured cell configures parameters such as DXR, DRX cycle size, and the like, thereby preventing the terminal device from consuming unnecessary power.

In one possible design, the method further comprises: reporting indication information corresponding to the first evaluation result to an upper protocol stack by a physical layer of the terminal equipment according to a first indication period; or according to the second indication period, the physical layer of the terminal equipment reports the indication information corresponding to the second evaluation result to an upper protocol stack.

In the above design, different indication periods may be selected according to the current state (i.e. the deactivated state or the activated state) of the SCG of the terminal device, so as to report the indication information to the upper protocol stack. Specifically, when the SCG is in a deactivated state, a first indication period is selected to report indication information to an upper protocol stack; and when the SCG is in an activated state, selecting a second indication period to report indication information to an upper protocol stack. For example, in the case of suspending SCG, a longer indication period is employed; in case the SCG is restored, a shorter indication period is used. In this way, the power consumption of the terminal device in the suspended SCG state is lower than that in the non-suspended SCG state. In one possible design, the method further comprises: the terminal equipment receives second indication information from the network equipment; the second indication information is used for indicating the first indication period; the network device is a main node or an auxiliary node of the terminal device.

In the above design, the first indication period may be notified to the terminal device by the network device. In this way, compared with the method of determining the indication period in the prior art, the method of determining the first indication period by the terminal device can avoid the influence of whether the measured cell configures parameters such as DXR, DRX period size and the like on the indication period, thereby avoiding unnecessary power consumption of the terminal device. In addition, in the present design, since the first indication period may be notified to the terminal device by the network device, an effect of controlling the size of the first indication period by the network device can also be achieved.

In one possible design, the method further comprises: the terminal equipment receives second indication information from the network equipment; the second indication information is used for indicating a second scaling factor; the network equipment is a main node or an auxiliary node of the terminal equipment; the terminal device determines the first indication period according to a third indication period and the second scaling factor.

In the above design, the terminal device may determine the first indication period according to the second scaling factor from the network device, according to the third indication period and the second scaling factor (e.g., scale the third indication period according to the second scaling factor, thereby obtaining the first indication period). In this way, compared with the method of determining the indication period in the prior art, the method of determining the first indication period by the terminal device can avoid the influence of whether the measured cell configures parameters such as DXR, DRX period size and the like on the indication period, thereby avoiding unnecessary power consumption of the terminal device. In addition, in the present design, the effect of controlling the size of the first indication period by the network device can also be achieved.

In one possible design, the first indication period is an indication period corresponding to a predetermined DRX period.

In the above design, the indication period corresponding to the predetermined discontinuous reception DRX cycle is used as the first indication period, so that the influence of whether the measured cell configures DXR, DRX cycle size and other parameters on the indication period can be avoided, and unnecessary power consumption of the terminal device can be avoided.

In one possible design, the method further comprises: when the SCG is in a deactivated state, the terminal equipment receives first information from a main node; the first information includes: activating transmission configuration indication TCI state information; and the activated TCI state information is used for the terminal equipment to receive the physical downlink control channel PDCCH of the SCG. The terminal equipment obtains a first evaluation result of the link signal quality of the SCG according to a first evaluation period, and the method comprises the following steps: and the terminal equipment acquires the first evaluation result of the link signal quality of the SCG according to a first evaluation period based on the reference signal corresponding to the activated TCI state information.

In the above design, the activated TCI state information may be transmitted to the terminal device by the master node transmitting the activated TCI state information to the terminal device when the SCG of the terminal device is in the deactivated state. Therefore, the terminal equipment can evaluate the link signal quality of the SCG according to the reference signal corresponding to the activated TCI state information, and the problem that the terminal equipment cannot acquire the activated TCI state of the SCG for receiving the PDCCH and cannot perform RLM or link recovery process on the SCG is avoided.

In one possible design, the first information is a first radio resource control, RRC, message including a second RRC message, the active TCI state information being included in the second RRC message; the second RRC message is an RRC message from the secondary node.

In the above design, when the SCG of the terminal device is in the deactivated state, the secondary node may send a second RRC message to the primary node, and the primary node may send a first RRC message including the second RRC message to the terminal device, so as to send the activated TCI state information to the terminal device. In addition, in the above design, the primary node does not need to parse the second RRC message, so that the effect of sending the active TCI state information from the secondary node to the terminal device can be achieved on the premise that excessive resources of the primary node are not occupied.

In one possible design, the first information is an RRC message or a MAC CE.

In the above design, the master node may send the active TCI status information to the terminal device by sending an RRC message or MAC CE.

In one possible design, the first information further includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate that the activated TCI state information is TCI state information of the SCG.

In the above design, by adding the third indication information to the first information, the terminal device is enabled to know whether the activated TCI state information included in the first information is TCI state information of the MCG or TCI state information of the SCG.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, the method comprising: the network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal equipment; the first indication information is used for indicating a first evaluation period or a first scaling factor; the network device is a main node or an auxiliary node of the terminal device. The first evaluation period is used for indicating the terminal equipment to acquire a first evaluation result according to the first evaluation period when the secondary cell group SCG is in a deactivated state; the first evaluation result is used for carrying out wireless link monitoring or link recovery process on the SCG; the first scaling factor is used for indicating the terminal equipment to determine the first evaluation period according to a third evaluation period and the first scaling factor.

In one possible design, the method further comprises: the network equipment sends second indication information to the terminal equipment; the second indication information is used for indicating the first indication period or the second scaling factor; the first indication period is used for indicating the terminal equipment to report the first evaluation result to an upper protocol stack by a physical layer of the terminal equipment according to the first indication period; the second scaling factor is used for indicating the terminal equipment to determine the first indication period according to a third indication period and the second scaling factor.

In a third aspect, a communication method is provided, the method comprising: the method comprises the steps that a primary node receives second information from a secondary node, wherein the second information comprises TCI (transmission configuration indicator) state information; the activated TCI status information is used for the terminal device to receive a physical downlink control channel PDCCH of an auxiliary cell group SCG of the auxiliary node; wherein the SCG is in a deactivated state; the master node sends first information to the terminal device, wherein the first information comprises the activated TCI state information.

In one possible design, the second information is a second radio resource control RRC message, and the first information is a first RRC message; the first RRC message includes the second RRC message.

In one possible design, the first information is an RRC message or a medium access control element MAC CE.

In a fourth aspect, a communication method is provided, the method comprising: the auxiliary node sends second information to the main node, wherein the second information comprises TCI state information for activating transmission configuration indication; the activated TCI status information is used for the terminal device to receive a physical downlink control channel PDCCH of an auxiliary cell group SCG of the auxiliary node; wherein the SCG is in a deactivated state.

In one possible design, the second information is an RRC message sent by the secondary node to the primary node, or the second information is an interface message between the secondary node and the primary node.

The technical effects of any one of the design manners of the second aspect to the fourth aspect may be referred to the technical effects of the different design manners of the first aspect, which are not described herein.

In a fifth aspect, a communication method is provided, the method comprising: the terminal equipment detects beam failure of a first cell in the secondary cell group SCG; wherein the SCG is in a deactivated state; the first cell is the PSCell or secondary cell SCell in the SCG; the terminal device initiates a random access procedure in a first partial bandwidth BWP of a primary secondary cell PSCell in the SCG.

In the above method, when the failure of the beam of the PSCell or SCell is detected under the condition that the SCG is in the deactivated state, the random access procedure is performed in the PSCell by the terminal device, so that the link recovery procedure for the PSCell or SCell can be successfully completed.

In one possible design, the first BWP is an initial BWP of the PSCell; the method further comprises the steps of: the terminal device switches from the first BWP to dormant dorman BWP of the PSCell after the random access procedure.

In the above design, by switching from the first BWP to the dormant dorman BWP of the PSCell, the PSCell can be restored to the deactivated state, so as to save the power of the terminal device, and simultaneously reduce the number of commands sent to the terminal device by the network side again to enter the deactivated state, and also reduce the overhead.

In one possible design, the first BWP is a dorman BWP of the PSCell.

In the above design, when the failure of the beam of the PSCell or SCell is detected in the case that the SCG is in the deactivated state, the terminal device may initiate the random access procedure at the dorman BWP of the PSCell, so that the link recovery procedure for the PSCell or SCell may be successfully completed.

In one possible design, when the first cell is an SCell, the method further comprises: after the random access process is successful, the terminal equipment sends a first medium access control element (MAC CE) to an auxiliary node; the first MAC CE is configured to indicate a beam failure of the first cell.

In the above design, when the SCG is in the deactivated state and the beam failure of the SCell (i.e. the first cell) is detected, the terminal device initiates the random access procedure in the first cell, and after the random access procedure is successful, sends the first medium access control element MAC CE to the secondary node, so that the link recovery procedure to the first cell can be successfully completed.

In a sixth aspect, a communication method is provided, the method comprising: when the SCG is in a deactivated state, the terminal equipment sends fourth indication information to the auxiliary node through the main node; the fourth indication information is used for indicating beam failure of the first cell in the SCG; the first cell is the PSCell or secondary cell SCell in the SCG.

In the above method, when the SCG is in the deactivated state, the terminal device may notify the secondary node of the failure of the beam of the first cell in the SCG by sending the fourth indication information to the secondary node through the primary node. The problem that the terminal equipment cannot inform the secondary node of beam failure of the first cell because the SCG is in the deactivated state is avoided.

In one possible design, the fourth indication information is an RRC message, or the fourth indication information is a MAC CE.

In the above design, the terminal device may inform the secondary node of the failure of the beam of the first cell in the SCG by sending an RRC message or MAC CE to the secondary node by the primary node.

In a seventh aspect, a communication method is provided, the method comprising: the secondary node of the terminal equipment receives a fourth indication message from the primary node of the terminal equipment, wherein the fourth indication message is used for indicating beam failure of the first cell in the secondary cell group SCG.

The technical effects of any one of the design manners in the seventh aspect may be referred to the technical effects of the different design manners in the sixth aspect, which are not described herein.

In an eighth aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device includes: the processing unit is used for acquiring a first evaluation result of the link signal quality of the SCG according to a first evaluation period when the SCG of the secondary cell group of the terminal equipment is in a deactivated state; the processing unit is further used for acquiring a second evaluation result of the link signal quality of the SCG according to a second evaluation period when the SCG is in an activated state; and the processing unit is also used for carrying out wireless link monitoring or link recovery process on the SCG according to the first evaluation result or the second evaluation result.

In one possible design, the communication device further comprises: a receiving unit, configured to receive first indication information from a network device; the first indication information is used for indicating the first evaluation period; the network device is a main node or an auxiliary node of the terminal device.

In one possible design, the communication device further comprises: a receiving unit, configured to receive first indication information from a network device; the first indication information is used for indicating a first scaling factor; the network equipment is a main node or an auxiliary node of the terminal equipment; and the processing unit is used for determining the first evaluation period according to the third evaluation period and the first scaling factor.

In one possible design, the processing unit further makes the physical layer of the terminal device report the indication information corresponding to the first evaluation result to the upper protocol stack according to the first indication period, or makes the physical layer of the terminal device report the indication information corresponding to the second evaluation result to the upper protocol stack according to the second indication period.

In one possible design, the receiving unit is configured to receive second indication information from the network device; the second indication information is used for indicating the first indication period; the network device is a main node or an auxiliary node of the terminal device.

In one possible design, the receiving unit is configured to receive second indication information from the network device; the second indication information is used for indicating a second scaling factor; the network device is a main node or an auxiliary node of the terminal device. The processing unit is further configured to determine the first indication period according to a third indication period and the second scaling factor.

In one possible design, the receiving unit is configured to receive the first information from the master node when the SCG is in a deactivated state; the first information includes: activating transmission configuration indication TCI state information; the activated TCI status information is used for the terminal device to receive the physical downlink control channel PDCCH of the SCG;

in one possible design, the processing unit is further configured to obtain, according to a first evaluation period, the first evaluation result of the link signal quality of the SCG based on the reference signal corresponding to the active TCI state information.

A ninth aspect provides a communication apparatus comprising: a sending unit, configured to send first indication information to a terminal device; the first indication information is used for indicating a first evaluation period or a first scaling factor; the network equipment is a main node or an auxiliary node of the terminal equipment; the first evaluation period is used for indicating the terminal equipment to acquire a first evaluation result according to the first evaluation period when the secondary cell group SCG is in a deactivated state; the first evaluation result is used for carrying out wireless link monitoring or link recovery process on the SCG; the first scaling factor is used for indicating the terminal equipment to determine the first evaluation period according to a third evaluation period and the first scaling factor.

In one possible design, the sending unit is further configured to send second indication information to the terminal device; the second indication information is used for indicating the first indication period or the second scaling factor; the first indication period is used for indicating the terminal equipment to report the first evaluation result to an upper protocol stack by a physical layer of the terminal equipment according to the first indication period; the second scaling factor is used for indicating the terminal equipment to determine the first indication period according to a third indication period and the second scaling factor.

In a tenth aspect, there is provided a communication apparatus comprising: a receiving unit, configured to receive second information from a secondary node, where the second information includes active transmission configuration indicating TCI status information; the activated TCI status information is used for the terminal device to receive a physical downlink control channel PDCCH of an auxiliary cell group SCG of the auxiliary node; wherein the SCG is in a deactivated state; and the sending unit is used for sending first information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first information comprises the activated TCI state information.

An eleventh aspect provides a communication apparatus comprising: a sending unit, configured to send second information to a master node, where the second information includes active transmission configuration indication TCI status information; the activated TCI status information is used for the terminal device to receive a physical downlink control channel PDCCH of an auxiliary cell group SCG of the auxiliary node; wherein the SCG is in a deactivated state.

In a twelfth aspect, there is provided a communication apparatus comprising: a processing unit, configured to detect a beam failure of a first cell in the secondary cell group SCG; wherein the SCG is in a deactivated state; the first cell is the PSCell or secondary cell SCell in the SCG; the processing unit is further configured to initiate a random access procedure in a first partial bandwidth BWP of a primary secondary cell PSCell in the SCG.

In one possible design, the first BWP is an initial BWP of the PSCell. And the processing unit is further used for switching from the initial BWP to the dormant dorman BWP of the PScell after the random access process.

In one possible design, the first BWP is a dormant dorman BWP of the PSCell.

In one possible design, when the first cell is an SCell, the communication apparatus further comprises: a sending unit, configured to send a first medium access control element MAC CE to an auxiliary node after the random access procedure is successful; the first MAC CE is configured to indicate a beam failure of the first cell.

In a thirteenth aspect, there is provided a communication apparatus including: a sending unit, configured to send fourth indication information to the secondary node through the primary node when the secondary cell group SCG is in a deactivated state; the fourth indication information is used for indicating beam failure of the first cell in the SCG; the first cell is the PSCell or secondary cell SCell in the SCG.

In a fourteenth aspect, there is provided a communication apparatus comprising: and the receiving unit is used for receiving a fourth indication message from the main node of the terminal equipment, wherein the fourth indication message is used for indicating beam failure of the first cell in the secondary cell group SCG.

A fifteenth aspect provides a communication apparatus, comprising: at least one processor and interface circuit that, when executed by the processor, cause the communication device to perform the methods provided in the first aspect and the possible designs, or the methods provided in the second aspect and the possible designs, or the methods provided in the third aspect and the possible designs, or the methods provided in the fourth aspect and the possible designs, or the methods provided in the fifth aspect and the possible designs, or the methods provided in the sixth aspect and the possible designs, or the methods provided in the seventh aspect and the possible designs.

A sixteenth aspect provides a chip comprising a processor which when executing computer program instructions causes the chip to perform the method provided in the first aspect and possible design, or the method provided in the second aspect and possible design, or the method provided in the third aspect and possible design, or the method provided in the fourth aspect and possible design, or the method provided in the fifth aspect and possible design, or the method provided in the sixth aspect and possible design, or the method provided in the seventh aspect and possible design.

A seventeenth aspect provides a computer readable storage medium comprising: computer software instructions; the computer software instructions, when run in a communication device or built into a chip of the communication device, cause the communication device to perform the methods provided in the first aspect and possible designs, or the methods provided in the second aspect and possible designs, or the methods provided in the third aspect and possible designs, or the methods provided in the fourth aspect and possible designs, or the methods provided in the fifth aspect and possible designs, or the methods provided in the sixth aspect and possible designs, or the methods provided in the seventh aspect and possible designs.

In an eighteenth aspect, a computer program product is provided comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method provided in the first aspect and in a possible design, or the method provided in the second aspect and in a possible design, or the method provided in the third aspect and in a possible design, or the method provided in the fourth aspect and in a possible design, or the method provided in the fifth aspect and in a possible design, or the method provided in the sixth aspect and in a possible design, or the method provided in the seventh aspect and in a possible design.

The technical effects of the method according to any one of the eighth to eighteenth aspects may be referred to the technical effects of the different designs according to the first to seventh aspects, and will not be described herein.

Drawings

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

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a period T1 and an evaluation period T2 indicated in radio link monitoring according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a second flow chart of a communication method according to the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a third flow chart of a communication method according to the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a fourth flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a fifth flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a second schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 13 is a third schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 15 is a fifth schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 16 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

Fig. 17 is a seventh schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 18 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application. In the embodiments of the present application, the words "first", "second", etc. are used to distinguish identical items or similar items having substantially identical functions and actions for the sake of clarity in describing the embodiments of the present application. It will be appreciated by those of skill in the art that the words "first," "second," and the like do not limit the amount and order of execution, and that the words "first," "second," and the like do not necessarily differ. Meanwhile, in the embodiments of the present application, words such as "exemplary" or "such as" are used to mean serving as examples, illustrations, or descriptions. Any embodiment or design described herein as "exemplary" or "for example" should not be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the use of words such as "exemplary" or "such as" is intended to present related concepts in a concrete fashion that may be readily understood. The term "and/or" in this application is merely an association relation describing an associated object, and means that three relations may exist, for example, a and/or B may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone. The term "plurality" as used in the embodiments herein refers to two or more.

In addition, the network architecture and the service scenario described in the embodiments of the present application are for more clearly describing the technical solution of the embodiments of the present application, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application, and as a person of ordinary skill in the art can know, with evolution of the network architecture and appearance of a new service scenario, the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application is also applicable to similar technical problems.

The related art to which the present application relates is described below:

1. dual connectivity technology

A terminal device (also referred to as a User Equipment (UE)) may communicate with multiple base stations in a wireless network, a technique known as dual connectivity (dual connectivity, DC), also known as multi-air-interface dual connectivity (multi-radio dual connectivity, MR-DC). The plurality of base stations in communication with the terminal device may be base stations belonging to the same radio access technology (radio access technology, RAT), e.g. the plurality of base stations are all fourth generation mobile communication technology (the 4th generation mobile communication technology,4G) base stations or the plurality of base stations are all fifth generation mobile communication technology (the 5th generation mobile communication technology,5G) base stations; in addition, the plurality of base stations communicating with the terminal device may also be base stations of different RATs, for example, one of two base stations communicating with the terminal device is a 4G base station and one is a 5G base station. In DC, the network side may provide a communication service for the terminal device using resources of a plurality of base stations, thereby providing a high-rate transmission service to the terminal device.

Among a plurality of base stations communicating with a terminal device, a base station having control plane signaling interaction with a core network is called a Master Node (MN) and other base stations are called Secondary Nodes (SNs) in DC. In addition to control plane signaling interactions, the master node and the core network may establish a data plane connection; the secondary base station may establish a data plane connection with the core network.

Wherein, the terminal equipment can receive the services of a plurality of cells at the same time under one node, and the set of cells for providing services for the terminal equipment by the MN can be called as a main cell group (master cell group, MCG); the SN is a set of cells that serve the terminal device and may be referred to as a secondary cell group (secondary cell group, SCG). The cells in MCG and SCG provide transmission resources for the terminal device together through carrier aggregation (carrier aggregation, CA) techniques. Each cell in the MCG and SCG may be referred to as a serving cell for the UE. Wherein, MCG and SCG respectively contain at least one Cell.

A primary cell (PCell) exists in the MCG of the terminal device. The PCell refers to a cell deployed at a primary frequency point and the terminal device initiates an initial connection establishment procedure, or the terminal device initiates a connection re-establishment procedure, or is indicated as PCell in a handover procedure.

There is one primary and secondary cell (primary secondary cell, PSCell) in the SCG of the terminal device. The PSCell refers to a cell in which the terminal device initiates a random access procedure at the secondary node, or a cell in which the terminal device skips the random access procedure to initiate data transmission during a secondary node change procedure, or a cell of the secondary node initiating random access during a reconfiguration procedure to perform synchronization.

In some protocols, for example, in New Radio (NR), PCell and PSCell are collectively referred to as a special cell (SpCell). When there are a plurality of cells in the MCG or SCG, cells other than the SpCell may be referred to as secondary cells (scells). In other protocols, the cells of the MCG and SCG other than the PCell are referred to as scells. In the present application, SCell is used to denote a cell other than SpCell in MCG and SCG unless otherwise specified.

In the current application, the dual connection can be classified into EN-DC, NGEN-DC, NE-DC, NR-DC and the like according to different structures of network deployment. Wherein:

the main node in EN-DC is a long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) base station eNB connected with a control surface of a 4G core network EPC, and the auxiliary node is an NR base station. In some scenarios, the NR base stations in EN-DC are also referred to as non-independent Networking (NSA) NR base stations, where terminal devices cannot camp on NR cells under the non-independent networking NR base stations. An NR base station capable of hosting a terminal device is called a stand alone networking (SA) NR base station.

The master node in NGEN-DC is an LTE base station ng-eNB connected with a control plane of 5G core network 5GC, and the auxiliary node is an NR base station.

The primary node in NE-DC is NR base station with control surface connection with 5G core network 5GC, and the secondary node is LTE base station.

The primary node in NR-DC is an NR base station connected with a control surface of 5G core network 5GC, and the secondary node is an NR base station.

Illustratively, fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a dual-connectivity communication system. The master node 102 is connected with the core network 101 by a control plane, and the terminal device 104 establishes wireless connection with the master node 102 and the auxiliary node 103. In addition, the master node 102 is also connected to the slave node 103.

The host node 102 and the core network 101 may be connected through an S1 or NG interface. The host node 102 and the core network 101 at least comprise a control plane connection, and may also have a user plane connection. The interface between the master node 102 and the core network 101 comprises S1-U/NG-U and S1-C/NG-C. Wherein S1-U/NG-U represents user plane connection and S1-C/NG-C represents control plane connection. The secondary node 103 may or may not have a user plane connection with the core network 101. When there is no user plane connection between the secondary node 103 and the core network 101, data of the terminal device 104 may be shunted by the primary node 101 to the secondary node 103 at a packet data convergence protocol (packet data convergence protocol, PDCP) layer. The primary node 102 may also be referred to as a primary base station or primary access network device and the secondary node 103 may also be referred to as a secondary base station or secondary access network device.

The above-described primary node 102 and secondary node 103 may be collectively referred to as a network device. The network devices include, but are not limited to: an Access Point (AP) in a wireless fidelity (wireless fidelity, wiFi) system, such as a home gateway, a router, a server, a switch, a bridge, etc., an evolved Node B (eNB), a radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), a Node B (Node B, NB), a base station controller (base station controller, BSC), a base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS), a home base station (e.g., home evolved Node B, or home Node B, HNB), a baseband unit (BBU), a wireless relay Node, a wireless backhaul Node, a transmission point (transmission and reception point, TRP, transmission point, TP), etc., may also be a 5G, such as a gcb in a new air interface (NR) system, or a transmission point (TRP, TP), an antenna panel of one or a group (including a plurality of antenna panels) of base stations in a 5G system, or may also be a network Node constituting a gcb or transmission point, such as a baseband unit (BBU), a base station having a roadside function, rsside unit (DU), etc.

The network device may employ a CU-DU architecture. That is, the network device may be composed of a CU and at least one DU. In this case, part of the functions of the network device are deployed on the CU, and another part of the functions of the network device are deployed on the DU. CU and DU are functionally sliced according to the protocol stack. As one implementation, a CU is deployed with a radio resource control (radio Resource Control, RRC) layer, PDCP layer, and a traffic data adaptation protocol (service data adaptation protocol, SDAP) layer in the protocol stack; the DU is deployed with a radio link control (radio link control, RLC) layer, a media intervening control (media access control, MAC) layer, and a physical layer (PHY) in the protocol stack. Thus, the CU has the processing capabilities of RRC, PDCP and SDAP. The DU has the processing power of RLC, MAC and PHY. It is to be understood that the above-described segmentation of functions is only one example and does not constitute a limitation on CUs and DUs. That is, there may be other manners of function segmentation between the CU and the DU, which is not described herein in detail in this embodiment.

The terminal device 104 is a device having a wireless transceiving function. Terminal devices 104 may be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, hand-held, or vehicle-mounted; may also be deployed on the surface of water (e.g., a ship, etc.); but may also be deployed in the air (e.g., on aircraft, balloon, satellite, etc.). The terminal device may be a User Equipment (UE). The UE includes a handheld device, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, or a computing device with wireless communication functionality. The UE may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer, or a computer with a wireless transceiver function, for example. The terminal device may also be a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless terminal in unmanned, a wireless terminal in telemedicine, a wireless terminal in smart grid, a wireless terminal in smart city, a wireless terminal in smart home, etc. Specifically, the means for implementing the functions of the terminal device 104 may be the terminal device, or may be a means capable of supporting the terminal device to implement the functions, such as a chip system.

For convenience of description, in this embodiment, the terminal device 104 is taken as an example of UE.

2. Partial bandwidth

Currently, in order to accommodate the capabilities of various UEs, the reception bandwidth and transmission bandwidth of one UE may not need to be consistent with the bandwidth of the cell. In one cell, the network side may configure a plurality of partial Bandwidths (BWP) for the UE and notify the UE of the BWP currently activated. The reception and transmission bandwidths of the UE may correspondingly change, and the location of the bandwidth may also correspondingly change, depending on the BWP the UE is currently activating. In dual connectivity or carrier aggregation, BWP for initial access is referred to as initial BWP (initial BWP) for PCell. For other cells, the initial BWP is the first BWP that the network side operates for the UE in the corresponding serving cell.

Currently, in carrier aggregation, when the amount of data that the UE needs to communicate is small, in order to save power for the UE and when there is data transmission in the following, the network side can schedule the UE quickly, and the dormancy BWP (dormant BWP) technology is introduced in the SCell. When the UE enters dorman BWP at the SCell, the SCell is still in an active state. The UE does not monitor the physical downlink control channel (physical downlink control channel, PDCCH) in SCell dormant BWP, does not transmit data in the physical downlink shared channel (physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH), and does not receive the physical downlink shared channel (physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH), thereby achieving the purpose of power saving.

3. Beam (beam)

A beam is a communication resource. The beam may be a wide beam, or a narrow beam, or other type of beam. The technique of forming the beam may be a beam forming technique or other means of technique. The beamforming technique may be embodied as a digital beamforming technique, an analog beamforming technique, a hybrid digital/analog beamforming technique. Different beams may be considered different resources. The same information or different information may be transmitted through different beams. Alternatively, a plurality of beams having the same or similar communication characteristics may be regarded as one beam. A beam may be formed by one or more antenna ports for transmitting data channels, control channels, and sounding signals, etc. One or more antenna ports forming a beam may be considered as a set of antenna ports.

The antenna port is a logical concept, and one antenna port may correspond to one physical transmitting antenna or may correspond to a plurality of physical transmitting antennas. In both cases, the receiver (receiver) of the UE does not decompose the signals from the same antenna port. Since, from the UE perspective, whether the channel is formed by a single physical transmit antenna or by a combination of multiple physical transmit antennas, the antenna port is defined by a Reference Signal (DMRS) corresponding to the antenna port, for example, an antenna port corresponding to a demodulation Reference Signal (de-modulation Reference Signal, DMRS), from which the terminal can obtain a channel estimate for the antenna port. Each antenna port corresponds to a time-frequency resource grid (time/frequency resource grid) with its own reference signal. One antenna port is a channel, and the terminal needs to perform channel estimation and data demodulation according to the reference signal corresponding to the antenna port.

The beams include a transmit beam and a receive beam. The transmitting beam may refer to the distribution of signal intensities formed in different directions in space after the signal is transmitted through the antenna, and the receiving beam may refer to the distribution of the antenna array for reinforcing or weakening the reception of the wireless signal in different directions in space.

In the current NR protocol, beams may be embodied by an antenna port quasi co-location (QCL) relationship. Specifically, the two co-beamed signals have a QCL relationship with respect to spatial reception parameters (spatial Rx parameter), namely QCL-Type D: { Spatial Rx parameter } in the protocol. The beam may be specifically represented in the protocol by an identification of various signals, such as a resource index of a channel state information reference signal (channel state information reference signal, CSI-RS), an index of a synchronization signal broadcast channel block (synchronous signal/physical broadcast channel block, which may be abbreviated as SS/PBCH block, or SSB), a resource index of a sounding reference signal (sounding reference signal, SRS), and a resource index of a tracking reference signal (tracking reference signal, TRS).

In general, one beam corresponds to one DMRS port or one transmission configuration number (transmission configuration index, abbreviated as TCI) or one TRP or one sounding reference signal resource indicator (SRS resource indicator, abbreviated as SRI) (for uplink data transmission), and thus different beams can also be represented by different DMRS ports or TCIs or TRPs or SRIs.

4. QCL relation

QCL relationships are used to denote that multiple resources have one or more identical or similar communication characteristics between them, and that the same or similar communication configuration may be employed for multiple resources having a quasi co-sited relationship.

Specifically, the signals corresponding to the antenna ports having the QCL relationship have the same parameters, or the parameters of one antenna port (may also be referred to as QCL parameters) may be used to determine the parameters of another antenna port having the QCL relationship with the antenna port, or the two antenna ports have the same parameters, or the parameter difference between the two antenna ports is less than a certain threshold. Wherein the parameters may include one or more of the following: delay spread (delay spread), doppler spread (Doppler spread), doppler shift (Doppler shift), average delay (average delay), average gain, spatial reception parameters (spatial Rx parameters). Wherein the spatial reception parameters may include one or more of: angle of arrival (AOA for short), average AOA, AOA spread, angle of departure (angle of departure AOD for short), average angle of departure AOD, AOD spread, receive antenna spatial correlation parameter, transmit beam, receive beam, and resource identification.

5. Transmission configuration indication (transmission configuration indicator, TCI)

The TCI is used to indicate QCL information of the PDCCH or PDSCH. For example, the TCI may be used to indicate which reference signal the DMRS of the PDCCH or PDSCH meets the QCL relationship, and the UE may determine the reference signal according to the TCI and receive the PDCCH/PDSCH with the same or similar spatial parameters as those of the reference signal.

6. TCI state of receiving PDCCH

The TCI state of the received PDCCH may be understood as a TCI state for receiving the PDCCH.

Specifically, the network side may indicate one or more control resource sets (control resource set, CORESET) in the PDCCH configuration for each Downlink (DL) BWP of the UE, where some protocols specify that the network side configures at most 3 CORESETs for each BWP of each cell.

In each CORESET, the UE may be configured with one or more TCI states (states) for receiving PDCCHs, which may be referred to as candidate TCI states. Wherein the TCI state may indicate a QCL type between the DMRS of the PDCCH and one or more reference signals.

In addition, the network side may indicate a search space (BWP) for each DL BWP of the UE in a PDCCH configuration of the BWP, wherein in some protocols, the network side configures at most 10 search spaces for each BWP of each cell. Each search space is associated with a CORESET. The UE then listens to the PDCCH according to these coress and corresponding search space configurations.

For example, after the network side notifies the UE of an active TCI state corresponding to a CORESET through a medium access control element (Medium Access Control Control Element, MAC CE), the UE may determine information of the DMRS of the monitored PDCCH according to the active TCI state. And then the PDCCH can be monitored according to the corresponding search space configuration.

Wherein the search spaces define how and where the UE searches for PDCCH (The IE SearchSpace defines how/where to search for PDCCH candidates), each search space being associated with one CORESET.

7. Suspension/store SCG

Currently, in the embodiment of the present application in the prior art, the UE suspends the SCG, which may be understood as that the UE suspends signaling and/or data transmission through the communication link of the SCG, but the terminal reserves or stores part or all of the configuration of the SCG.

Suspending the SCG means that the UE temporarily stops using the SCG for data transmission, but retains the configuration of the SCG. Specifically, when the UE does not need to use the SCG to provide services for itself or the UE does not need to use the SCG link, for example, when the data rate of the UE is low, the UE may suspend the SCG according to the indication of the network side, for example, the configuration of the SCG is reserved, and the data transmission is not performed through the SCG; when the SCG needs to be used for providing services for the UE or the SCG link needs to be used, for example, when the data rate of the UE becomes high, the UE can restore (restore/resume) the configuration of the SCG according to the indication of the network side, and perform data transmission through the SCG.

The suspended SCG may also be referred to as that the SCG is in a suspended state, or that the SCG is in an idle/inactive (inactive) state, or that the UE is in a dormant (inactive) state or an inactive state in the SCG, or the like. The recovery SCG may be referred to as a restore SCG or a resume SCG. The recovered SCG or the SCG when not suspended may also be referred to as the SCG being in a busy/active (active) state, or the UE being in a busy or active state in the SCG, etc.

Currently, discussion may implement a suspend SCG using the following method:

scheme one: a method of putting the UE into sleep (dorman) in the PSCell and SCell is adopted. For example, the suspend SCG is implemented by letting the UE enter dorman BWP in PSCell and SCell. In this way, the UE does not need to monitor PDCCH/PDSCH and also does not need to transmit PUSCH in PSCell and SCell.

Scheme II: the UE adopts a long discontinuous reception (long discontinuous reception, long DRX) method in SCG. In this way, the UE can save power by not transmitting and receiving data for a long time in the SCG.

In addition, the UE may not perform a random access procedure in the suspended SCG, i.e., not perform the SCG RACH.

8. Wireless link monitoring (radio link monitoring, RLM)

In the RLM procedure, the UE detects the downlink signal quality of the PCell and PSCell, and indicates to the higher layer a synchronization or out-of-synchronization indication every indication period. Wherein the UE typically monitors only the downlink signal quality of the active downlink BWP of the PCell and PSCell.

The implementation process of RLM will be described below by taking an example in which MN and SN are both NR base stations. It should be noted that, the UE monitors the downlink signal quality of the PCell and the PSCell independently, that is, the UE monitors the PCell and the PSCell in the following description. Specifically, the process of RLM may include:

s11, determining a reference signal for RLM.

In one implementation, the network side configures a Reference Signal (RS) set for RLM for each BWP of the primary cell and the primary and secondary cells of the UE (these RSs may be referred to as explicit RSs for RLM). The reference signals in the reference signal set may be CSI-RS or SSB. Wherein the reference signal set can have N at most _RLM The reference signals are used for radio link monitoring. Furthermore, the UE may perform radio link monitoring according to the reference signals in the reference signal set.

Wherein N is _RLM The maximum number of SSBs L that can be counted by the corresponding cell _max Determination, e.g. N _RLM And L _max The correspondence of (2) can be determined according to the following table 1:

TABLE 1

L _max	N _RLM
4	2
8	4
64	8

In another possible design, the network side does not configure the reference signal set for the UE, but the network side configures the TCI state for the UE to receive the PDCCH. Wherein each of these TCI states includes one or more CSI-RSs, wherein the RSs included in the TCI states may be referred to as implicit RSs of the RLM.

In this design, the network side may notify to change the active TCI state of the received PDCCH. Further, the UE may determine a reference signal included in the active TCI state according to the active TCI state of the received PDCCH. The UE may then perform radio link monitoring based on these reference signals. Wherein:

if the activated TCI state of the received PDCCH only comprises one reference signal, the UE uses the reference signal to carry out RLM;

if the active TCI state of the received PDCCH includes two reference signals and one of the RSs is set to QCL-type, the UE performs RLM with the reference signal set to QCL-type. (the network side will not set two reference signals to QCL-type for the UE).

In addition, in RLM, the UE typically does not employ aperiodic or semi-static reference signals for radio link monitoring.

In addition, in one cell, the UE can at most be based on N _RLM The radio link is monitored by the reference signals. Wherein N is _RLM The maximum number of SSBs L that can be counted by the corresponding cell _max Determination, e.g. N _RLM And L _max Is of (3)The correspondence may be determined according to table 1 above.

Specifically, the UE selects N from those active TCI states of the corresponding received PDCCHs in the cores associated with the search space set _RLM The RS are used for RLM. Wherein, the UE may be selected from low to high according to the period of the RS. If the RSs corresponding to the plurality of CORESETs have the same period, the UE selects from the index of CORESET from a small arrival.

And S12, the physical layer of the UE evaluates the link signal quality of the corresponding cell once in each indication period to obtain an evaluation result.

And in each indication period, the physical layer of the UE evaluates the link signal quality in one evaluation period before the physical layer of the UE evaluates the link signal quality, and an evaluation result corresponding to the indication period is obtained.

Wherein there may be multiple evaluation periods before one indication period evaluates the link signal quality. When evaluating the link signal quality in the indicated period, an evaluation period may be selected from the plurality of evaluation periods to evaluate the link signal quality within the evaluation period.

For example, in each indication period, the physical layer of the UE evaluates the link signal quality in the closest evaluation period before the end of the indication period, to obtain the evaluation result corresponding to the indication period.

Illustratively, let the indication period of RLM be T1 and the evaluation period be T2. Referring to fig. 2, the physical layer of the UE evaluates the link signal quality of the cell once per interval duration T1, i.e., the physical layer of the UE needs to be at T as in fig. 2 ₁ 、t ₂ 、t ₃ ……t _n The link signal quality of the cells is evaluated at the moment. In fig. 2, a rectangular box shows a time corresponding to each evaluation period when the evaluation period is T2.

Wherein, physical layer t of UE ₁ 、t ₂ 、t ₃ ……t _n When the link signal quality of the cell is evaluated at the moment, the link signal quality in the closest evaluation period T2 before the end of the indication period is evaluated. I.e. as in fig. 2, at t ₁ At the moment, the physical layer of the UE is based on the evaluation period N ₁ The acquired reference signal evaluates the link signal quality of the cell to obtain an evaluation result; at t ₂ At this time, the physical layer of the UE is for the evaluation period N ₂ The acquired reference signal evaluates the link signal quality of the cell to obtain an evaluation result; at t ₃ At this time, the physical layer of the UE is for the evaluation period N ₃ The inter-acquired reference signal evaluates the link signal quality of the cell to obtain an evaluation result … … and so on, at t _n At this time, the physical layer of the UE is for the evaluation period N _n And (3) evaluating the link signal quality of the cell by the internally acquired reference signal to obtain an evaluation result.

In one aspect, the size of the indication period used in RLM to evaluate the link signal quality is related to parameters such as whether the UE is configured with DRX in the current measured cell, the shortest period of RLM resources, and the size of the DRX period configured by the UE in the current measured cell. Specifically, the following two cases may be classified (see chapter 8.1.6 of 3gpp TS 38.133):

first, in the case that the UE does not configure DRX (i.e., no DRX) in the current measured cell, the shortest period of the RLM resource and the maximum value between 10ms are taken as the indication period.

Second, in the case that the UE configures DRX in the current measured cell, the maximum value between the shortest period of the RLM resource and the DRX period is taken as an indication period. Or, in the case that the UE configures DRX in the current measured cell, when the DRX cycle is less than or equal to 320ms, the maximum value of the shortest cycle of 10ms, 1.5×drx cycle, and 1.5×rlm resources is used as the indication cycle, and when the DRX cycle is greater than 320ms, the DRX cycle is used as the indication cycle.

On the other hand, referring to chapter 8.1 of 3gpp TS 38.133, the size of the evaluation period used for evaluating the link signal quality in RLM is related to parameters such as whether the UE is configured with DRX in the current measured cell, the DRX period configured by the UE in the current measured cell, the type of reference signal used for evaluation (SSB or CSI-RS), the frequency band in which the BWP of the current measured cell is located (FR 1 or FR 2), and the type of indication (synchronization indication or out-of-synchronization indication) sent to the upper layer protocol stack in the corresponding indication period. The following four cases are specifically classified:

first, when the reference signal adopted for evaluation is SSB and the frequency band of the BWP of the current cell under test is FR1, the evaluation period T of the synchronization indication _{Evaluate_out_SSB} And an evaluation period T of out-of-step indication _{Evaluate_in_SSB} This can be determined from table 2 below:

TABLE 2

Wherein, the value of P and whether the cell is configured with measurement gaps of the same frequency, different frequencies or different systems, and whether the measurement gaps are overlapped with the sending time of SSB are related.

Second, when the reference signal adopted for evaluation is SSB and the frequency band of the BWP of the current cell under test is FR2, the evaluation period T of the synchronization indication _{Evaluate_out_SSB} And an evaluation period T of out-of-step indication _{Evaluate_in_SSB} This can be determined from table 3 below:

TABLE 3 Table 3

Third, when the reference signal used for evaluation is CSI-RS and the frequency band where the BWP of the current cell under test is located in FR1, the evaluation period T of the synchronization indication _{Evaluate_out_CSI-RS} And an evaluation period T of out-of-step indication _{Evaluate_in_CSI-RS} This can be determined from table 4 below:

TABLE 4 Table 4

The value of P and whether the cell is configured with measurement gaps of the same frequency, different frequencies or different systems, and whether the measurement gaps are overlapped with the sending time of the CSI-RS. Mout and Min are parameters related to the transmission density and transmission bandwidth of the resources of the CSI-RS, i.e., the values of Mout and Min may be obtained based on the transmission density and transmission bandwidth of the resources of the CSI-RS, for example, when the transmission density of the resources of the CSI-RS is 3 and the transmission bandwidth is 24 PRBs or more, mout=20 and min=10.

Fourth, when the reference signal used for evaluation is CSI-RS and the frequency band where the BWP of the current cell under test is located in FR2, the evaluation period T of the synchronization indication _{Evaluate_out_CSI-RS} And an evaluation period T of out-of-step indication _{Evaluate_in_CSI-RS} This can be determined from table 5 below:

TABLE 5

The value of P and whether the cell is configured with measurement gaps of the same frequency, different frequencies or different systems, and whether the measurement gaps are overlapped with the sending time of the CSI-RS. N has a value of 1. If the transmission density of the resources of the CSI-RS is 3 and the transmission bandwidth is 24 PRBs or more, mout=20 and min=10.

Specifically, in each indication period, the physical layer of the UE evaluates the link signal quality of the cell according to the reference signal acquired in the previous evaluation period to obtain an evaluation result.

For example, the UE may compare the link signal quality during an evaluation period with Qout (Qout is used to define that the downlink radio link cannot reliably receive) and with Qin (Qout is used to define the level of out-of-sync block error rate (in-sync block error rate, BLERin)) and with Qin (Qin is used to define that the downlink radio link can reliably receive with a higher reliability than Qout is used to define that the downlink radio link can reliably receive.

And S13, after the evaluation result is acquired in each indication period, the physical layer of the UE transmits indication information corresponding to the evaluation result to an upper protocol stack.

The physical layer of the UE sends indication information corresponding to the evaluation result to an upper protocol stack, including: the physical layer of the UE sends a synchronization indication or an out-of-synchronization indication to an upper layer protocol stack. Wherein the upper protocol stack may be an RRC layer.

Specifically, when the link signal quality corresponding to all RSs of the RLM is worse than Qout, the physical layer of the UE sends an out-of-sync indication to the upper layer protocol stack. And when the link signal quality corresponding to any RS of the RLM is better than Qin, the physical layer of the UE sends a synchronization instruction to an upper protocol stack.

Optionally, the RLM further comprises: s14, when the RRC layer of the UE receives N310 continuous out-of-step instructions from the physical layer, the UE starts a timer T310. After starting the timer, the UE performs link signal quality monitoring with an evaluation period and an indication period corresponding to the assumed DRX is not currently configured until T310 times out or stops.

9. Link recovery procedure (link recovery procedure)

And under DC, if the MN and the SN are both NR base stations, the UE respectively performs a link recovery process in each service cell in the MCG or the SCG. In the link recovery process, the UE detects the downlink signal quality of each service cell in the MCG or the SCG, and when one service cell fails in beam, the UE executes corresponding operation so as to re-access the service cell.

For a description of the link recovery procedure, reference may be made specifically to section 6 link recovery procedure in the 3gpp TS 38.213 protocol.

Illustratively, the link recovery procedure is described below:

s21, determining a reference signal for a link recovery process.

In one implementation, the network side configures the UE with one CSI-RS resource set for the BWP of each serving cell of the UE

For link signal quality assessment during link recovery (CSI-RS in these sets of CSI-RS resources are all periodic).

At most two RSs are included.

In another possible design, for a certain BWP of a certain serving cell, if the network side does not configure this CSI-RS resource set for the UE

The UE uses the periodic CSI-RS in the active TCI state for receiving the PDCCH in the BWP as a CSI-RS resource set

And if two RSs are included in the active TCI state, then the RS with QCL-TypeD is taken as

Is provided.

Includes two RSs at maximum, and these RSs are all single-port RSs.

S22, the physical layer of the UE evaluates the link signal quality of the corresponding cell once in each indication period.

Similar to the RLM above, in each indication period, the link signal quality in one evaluation period before the physical layer evaluation of the UE obtains an evaluation result corresponding to the indication period. For example, in each indication period, the physical layer of the UE evaluates the link signal quality in the closest evaluation period before the end of the indication period, to obtain the evaluation result corresponding to the indication period.

On the one hand, the size of the indication period used for evaluating the link signal quality in the link recovery process and whether the UE is configured with DRX in the current measured cell,

The shortest period corresponding to each reference signal, the size of the DRX period configured by the UE in the current measured cell, and the like. Specifically, the following two cases may be classified (see chapter 8.5.4 of 3gpp TS 38.133):

first, in case the UE is not configured with DRX (i.e. no DRX) in the current measured cell

The shortest period corresponding to each reference signal and the maximum value between 2ms are taken as indication periods.

Second, in case the UE is configured with DRX in the current measured cell, it is described with reference to chapter 8.5 of 3gpp TS 38.133. For example, for SSB, if the DRX cycle length exceeds 320ms, then the cycle is the DRX cycle; if the DRX cycle length is less than or equal to 320ms, the cycle is max (1.5 x DRX cycle length,

the shortest cycle of SSB), i.e., (1.5 x DRX cycle length) and #, respectively

The shortest period of SSB);for another example, for CSI-RS, if the DRX cycle length exceeds 320ms, then the cycle is the DRX cycle; if the DRX cycle length is less than or equal to 320ms, the cycle is max (1.5 x DRX cycle length,

The shortest period of csi-rs).

On the other hand, as described in chapter 8.5 of 3gpp TS 38.133, in the link recovery procedure, the size of the evaluation period used for evaluating the link signal quality is related to parameters such as whether the UE is configured with DRX in the current measured cell, the DRX period configured by the UE in the current measured cell, the type of reference signal used for evaluation (SSB or CSI-RS), and the frequency band (FR 1 or FR 2) in which the BWP of the current measured cell is located. The following four cases are specifically classified:

first, when the reference signal used for evaluation is SSB and the frequency band of the BWP of the current cell under test is FR1, the evaluation period T _{Evaluate_BFD_SSB} This can be determined from table 6 below:

TABLE 6

Second, when the reference signal used for evaluation is SSB and the frequency band of the BWP of the current cell under test is FR2, the evaluation period T _{Evaluate_BFD_SSB} This can be determined from the following table 7:

TABLE 7

Wherein, the value of P and whether the cell is configured with measurement gaps of the same frequency, different frequencies or different systems, and whether the measurement gaps are overlapped with the sending time of SSB are related. N has a value of 8.

Third, when the reference signal used for evaluation is CSI-RS and the frequency band where the BWP of the current cell under test is located in FR1, the evaluation period T _{Evaluate_BFD_CSI-RS} This can be determined from table 8 below:

TABLE 8

Wherein, the value of P and whether the cell is configured with measurement gaps of the same frequency, different frequencies or different systems, and whether the measurement gaps are overlapped with the sending time of SSB are related. N has a value of 1.N has a value of 1. If the transmission density of the resource of the CSI-RS is 3, M _BFD ＝10。

Fourth, when the reference signal used for evaluation is CSI-RS and the frequency band where the BWP of the current cell under test is located in FR2, the evaluation period T _{Evaluate_BFD_CSI-RS} This can be determined from table 9 below:

TABLE 9

For example, the link signal quality and threshold Q for one evaluation period of the UE _out,LR (threshold Q _out,LR Defining the corresponding link signal quality when the downlink signal quality cannot be reliably received. For example, qout may correspond to a level of 10% of the transmission error rate corresponding to the transmission parameter defined by the protocol on the assumption that the transmission parameter of the PDCCH) and further obtain the evaluation result.

S23, after the evaluation result is obtained in each indication period, the physical layer of the UE sends indication information corresponding to the evaluation result to an upper protocol stack.

The physical layer of the UE sends indication information corresponding to the evaluation result to an upper protocol stack, including: the physical layer of the UE sends the indication of the beam failure to the upper layer protocol stack. Where the upper layer protocol stack may be the MAC layer.

Wherein, when the physical layer of the UE is used

All of the RS in (a) evaluate link signal quality to threshold Q _out,LR And if the difference is found, the physical layer of the UE sends a beam failure indication message to the higher layer.

S24, when the MAC layer of the UE receives the indication information of one beam failure of one service cell from the physical layer, the MAC layer of the UE starts or restarts a timer, and records the number of times of the currently received indication information of the beam failure plus 1. If the MAC layer of the UE receives the indication information of a certain number of beam failures of the serving cell before the timer is overtime, if the serving cell is a PCell or a PScell, the UE initiates a random access process in the cell; if the serving cell is an SCell, the UE triggers a beam failure recovery (beam failure recovery, BFR) procedure for the SCell. If the timer expires, the MAC layer of the UE sets the number of currently received beam failure indication information to 0.

The BFR process of the SCell is triggered by the UE, which comprises the following steps:

if the UE currently has uplink resources for uplink data transmission and the uplink resources can accommodate the BFRMAC CE of the SCell and the corresponding MAC subheader, the MAC layer of the UE generates a BFR MAC CE of the SCell and sends the BFR MAC CE to the network side (if the UE is the SCell of the primary node, the UE is sent to the primary node, and if the UE is the SCell of the secondary node, the UE is sent to the secondary node);

otherwise, if the uplink resource can accommodate the BFR MAC CE of the shortened (truncated) SCell and the corresponding MAC subheader, the MAC layer of the UE generates a shortened BFR MAC CE and sends the shortened BFR MAC CE to the network side (if the BFR MAC CE is the SCell of the master node, the BFR MAC CE is sent to the master node, and if the BFR MAC CE is the SCell of the auxiliary node, the BFR MAC CE is sent to the auxiliary node);

otherwise, triggering a scheduling request for SCell beam failure recovery, and then transmitting BFR MAC CE to (if the UE is the SCell of the master node, the UE is transmitted to the master node, and if the UE is the SCell of the auxiliary node, the UE is transmitted to the auxiliary node) by the UE.

The content carried in the BFR MAC CE mainly comprises: 1) Serving cell index: for indicating which serving cell detected the beam failure; 2) Signal quality is greater than or equal to a threshold Q _out,LR Is identified by the candidate beam.

As can be seen from the above description of the related art, in the present UE in radio link monitoring, the evaluation period for evaluating the link signal quality is determined according to whether the DRX is configured in the current measured cell, the DRX cycle configured in the current measured cell by the UE, the type of the reference signal (SSB or CSI-RS) used for evaluation, and the frequency band (FR 1 or FR 2) in which the BWP of the current measured cell is located. That is, the same method is used to determine the evaluation period, whether the UE hangs up the SCG or resumes the SCG. This results in the UE not matching the current state of the UE with the evaluation period used during radio link monitoring.

In view of the foregoing technical problems, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, which may be applied to the communication system shown in fig. 1. In the following embodiments, a terminal device included in a communication system is taken as an example of UE. As shown in fig. 3, the method includes:

s101, when the SCG of the UE is in a deactivated state, the UE acquires a first evaluation result of the link signal quality of the SCG according to a first evaluation period.

Wherein, the SCG is in a deactivated state, which may refer to a state in which the configuration of the SCG is suspended and the UE does not perform data transmission through the SCG. From the UE's perspective, the SCG is in a deactivated state, which may also be considered as the UE being in a deactivated state in the SCG. In the case that the SCG is in the deactivated state, the UE may suspend (or reserve) the configuration of the SCG but may not completely release the configuration of the SCG, so that when the UE needs to perform data transmission through the SCG, the SCG may be restored by using the configuration of the suspended (or reserved) SCG, so that the SCG may be restored to the activated state.

The first evaluation period specifically refers to a time length corresponding to the link signal quality reflected by each evaluation result when the link signal quality of the SCG is evaluated when the SCG of the UE is in a deactivated state. Taking fig. 2 as an example, if the first evaluation period is T2, when the SCG of the UE is in the deactivated state, the link signal quality of the SCG is evaluated each time during a period of time with a length of T2, so as to obtain an evaluation result.

S102, when the SCG of the UE is in an activated state, the UE acquires a second evaluation result of the link signal quality of the SCG according to a second evaluation period.

The second evaluation period is specifically a time length corresponding to the link signal quality reflected by each evaluation result when the link signal quality of the SCG is evaluated when the SCG of the UE is in an active state, which is similar to the first evaluation period.

In this embodiment, in the case of evaluating the link signal quality of the SCG, for example, in the case where the UE performs radio link monitoring of the SCG or performs a link recovery procedure for the SCG, the UE may acquire the result of evaluating the link signal quality of the SCG with an evaluation period corresponding to the current state in a state where the SCG is in a different state (deactivated state or activated state). By setting the evaluation period corresponding to different SCG states, the power consumption of the terminal equipment and the accuracy of the evaluation result can be considered, so that the wireless link monitoring or link recovery process can be more flexibly carried out. For example, in the case where the SCG is in a deactivated state, a correspondingly longer evaluation period; in case the SCG is in an active state, a shorter evaluation period corresponds. In this way, the energy consumption of the UE in the deactivated state of the SCG is lower than the energy consumption of the UE in the activated state of the SCG. In one embodiment, before executing S101 or S102, the UE may determine whether to execute S101 or S102 according to the current state (i.e., the deactivated state or the activated state) of the SCG of the UE, and further acquire the evaluation result of the link signal quality of the SCG according to the evaluation period (i.e., the first evaluation period or the second evaluation period) corresponding to the current state.

In this embodiment, the specific implementation process of this content may refer to the above description of radio link monitoring, where the link signal quality of the UE in one evaluation period before each indication period is evaluated in S12 and the corresponding description of the evaluation result corresponding to the indication period are obtained, or may refer to the link signal quality in one evaluation period before the physical layer evaluation of the UE in each indication period in S22 and the corresponding description of the evaluation result corresponding to the indication period in the above description of the link recovery process, where the link signal quality in one evaluation period before the physical layer evaluation of the UE is obtained and the corresponding description of the evaluation result corresponding to the indication period are not repeated herein.

In the embodiment, in the steps S101 and S102, it may be understood that the UE may obtain the result of evaluating the signal quality of the SCG link according to the evaluation period corresponding to the current state of the SCG. Thus, in some specific scenarios, for example, where the shortest period of the RLM resource is a specific value, or the DRX period is a specific value, the length of the first evaluation period corresponding to the SCG being in the deactivated state and the second evaluation period corresponding to the SCG being in the activated state may be equal. However, in a specific implementation manner, at least some scenes exist in the method provided by the application, the SCG is in a deactivated state and the SCG is in an activated state, and the lengths of the corresponding first evaluation period and the corresponding second evaluation period are unequal.

The network device in the invention can instruct the SCG of the UE to enter the deactivated state or instruct the SCG of the UE to recover from the deactivated state to the activated state through various existing technologies. The network device may be a primary node or a secondary node of the UE, which may not be limiting in this application.

S103, the UE monitors the wireless link or performs a link recovery process on the SCG according to the first evaluation result or the second evaluation result.

That is, when the method provided by the embodiment is applied to the scenario of RLM on SCG, if the SCG is in the deactivated state, the UE performs radio link monitoring on the SCG according to the first evaluation result; if the SCG is in an activated state, the UE monitors the wireless link of the SCG according to the second evaluation result.

Similarly, when the method provided by the embodiment is applied to the scene of performing the link recovery process on the SCG, if the SCG is in the deactivated state, the UE performs the link recovery process on the SCG according to the first evaluation result; if the SCG is in an activated state, the UE performs a link recovery process on the SCG according to the second evaluation result.

In this embodiment, according to the evaluation result (i.e., the first evaluation result or the second evaluation result), the SCG is subjected to radio link monitoring or to a link recovery process, which may refer to the description of the radio link monitoring described above, in which after the evaluation result is obtained in each indication period in S13, the physical layer of the UE sends a corresponding description of the indication information corresponding to the evaluation result to the upper protocol stack, or may refer to the description of the indication information corresponding to the evaluation result sent by the physical layer of the UE to the upper protocol stack after the evaluation result is obtained in each indication period in S23, which is described above, and is not repeated herein.

In one implementation, the method provided by the embodiment further includes:

and S104, reporting indication information corresponding to the first evaluation result to an upper protocol stack by a physical layer of the UE according to the first indication period. Or according to the second indication period, the physical layer of the UE reports indication information corresponding to the second evaluation result to the upper protocol stack.

That is, in this implementation manner, when the SCG is in the deactivated state, according to the first indication period, the physical layer of the UE reports the indication information corresponding to the first evaluation result to the upper layer protocol stack; when the SCG is in an activated state, according to the second indication period, the physical layer of the UE reports indication information corresponding to the second evaluation result to the upper protocol stack.

Through the implementation manner, the UE may enable the physical layer of the UE to report the indication information corresponding to the evaluation result to the upper layer protocol stack according to the indication period (the first indication period or the second indication period) corresponding to the current state when the SCG is in a different state (the deactivated state or the activated state).

For example, in case the SCG is in a deactivated state, a longer indication period corresponds; in case the SCG is in an active state, a shorter indication period corresponds. In this way, the energy consumption of the UE in the deactivated state of the SCG is lower than the energy consumption of the UE in the activated state of the SCG.

In the above step S104 of the present embodiment, it may be understood that the UE may report, to the upper protocol stack, the indication information corresponding to the first evaluation result according to the indication period corresponding to the current state of the SCG. Thus, in some specific scenarios, for example, the DRX cycle is a specific value, the length of the first indication period corresponding to the SCG being in the deactivated state and the second indication period of the SCG being in the activated state may be equal. However, in a specific implementation manner, at least some scenes exist in the method provided by the application, the SCG is in a deactivated state and the SCG is in an activated state, and the lengths of the corresponding first indication period and the corresponding second indication period are unequal.

When the method provided in this embodiment is applied to radio link monitoring, the upper layer protocol stack may specifically be an RRC layer. When the method provided by the present embodiment is applied to the link recovery procedure, the upper layer protocol stack may specifically be the MAC layer.

The first indication period may be understood as a period in which the physical layer of the UE reports indication information corresponding to the first evaluation result to the upper protocol stack. The second indication period may be understood as a period in which the physical layer of the UE reports indication information corresponding to the first evaluation result to the upper layer protocol stack.

For example, referring to the above-mentioned S12-S13, when the SCG of the UE is in the deactivated state, the UE acquires a first evaluation result of the link signal quality of the SCG in a first evaluation period before each first indication period, and after acquiring the first evaluation result in each first indication period, the physical layer of the UE reports indication information corresponding to the first evaluation result to the RRC layer.

The indication information corresponding to the first evaluation result may include: a synchronization indication or a step out indication. For example, when the first evaluation result indicates that all RSs of the RLM have link signal quality worse than Qout, the physical layer of the UE sends an out-of-sync indication to the RRC layer. And when the first evaluation result indicates that the link signal quality corresponding to any RS of the RLM is better than Qin, the physical layer of the UE sends a synchronization instruction to an upper protocol stack.

In addition, when the SCG of the UE is in an active state, the UE acquires a second evaluation result of the link signal quality of the SCG in a previous second evaluation period in each second instruction period, and after acquiring the second evaluation result in each second instruction period, the physical layer of the UE reports the instruction information corresponding to the second evaluation result to the RRC layer.

Wherein, similar to the indication information corresponding to the first evaluation result, the indication information corresponding to the second evaluation result may include: a synchronization indication or a step out indication.

For another example, referring to the above-mentioned S22-S23, when the SCG of the UE is in the deactivated state, the UE obtains a first evaluation result of the link signal quality of the SCG in a first evaluation period before each first indication period, and after obtaining the first evaluation result in each first indication period, if the first evaluation result indicates that the physical layer of the UE is used

All of the RS in (a) evaluate link signal quality to threshold Q _out,LR And if the difference is found, the physical layer of the UE reports the indication information (namely the indication information of beam failure) corresponding to the first evaluation result to the MAC layer.

In addition, when the SCG of the UE is in an active state,the UE obtains a second evaluation result of the link signal quality of the SCG in a second evaluation period before each second indication period, and after obtaining the second evaluation result in each second indication period, if the second evaluation result indicates that the physical layer of the UE is used

All of the RS in (a) evaluate link signal quality to threshold Q _out,LR And if the difference is found, the physical layer of the UE reports indication information (namely, beam failure indication information) corresponding to the second evaluation result to the MAC layer.

Wherein, in case the SCG of the UE is in an active state, the UE may determine the second evaluation period according to the manner of determining the evaluation period in the radio link monitoring or link recovery procedure described in S12 or S22 above.

Alternatively, in one implementation of the present application, the first evaluation period may be acquired by the indication information from the network device, and the following fig. 4 and fig. 5 respectively describe two specific implementations:

the implementation mode is as follows: as shown in fig. 4, the method in this embodiment may further include:

s105, the UE receives first indication information from the network equipment.

The first indication information is used for indicating a first evaluation period.

The network device may be a primary node or a secondary node of the UE. That is, the first indication information may be sent by the primary node to the UE, or may be sent by the secondary node to the UE, which may not be limited in this application.

Wherein the network device may send the first indication information to the UE through various techniques. For example, the network device may send any one of the indication message of the MAC CE or the RRC message or the L1 to the UE, so as to implement the network device to pass the first indication information to the UE.

In the implementation shown in fig. 4, the first evaluation period may be notified to the UE by the network device. The implementation method can avoid the influence of parameters such as whether the measured cell configures DXR, DRX period size and the like on the size of the evaluation period, thereby avoiding unnecessary electric quantity consumption of the UE, being particularly suitable for the scene that the SCG is in a deactivated state and DRX is not configured for the SCG, and avoiding the problem of high power consumption caused by the fact that the UE adopts the evaluation period corresponding to the non-DRX to evaluate the link signal quality. In addition, in the present implementation, since the first evaluation period may be notified to the UE by the network device, an effect of controlling the size of the first evaluation period by the network device may also be achieved.

The implementation mode II is as follows: as shown in fig. 5, the method in this embodiment may further include:

s106, the UE receives first indication information from the network equipment.

The network device may be a primary node or a secondary node of the UE. And the first indication information is used for indicating the first scaling factor.

Wherein, similar to the description in S105, the network device may transmit the first indication information to the UE through various technologies.

And S107, the UE determines a first evaluation period according to the third evaluation period and the first scaling factor.

The third evaluation period may be one of those adopted in the prior art. For example, the third evaluation period may be any one of tables 2 to 9, and the UE determines the evaluation period according to parameters such as whether the UE configures DRX in the current measured cell, the DRX period configured by the UE in the current measured cell, the type of the reference signal (SSB or CSI-RS) used for evaluation, and the frequency band (FR 1 or FR 2) where the BWP of the current measured cell is located. For another example, the third evaluation period is an evaluation period determined by the UE according to the table in tables 2-9 according to whether the UE is not configured with DRX in the current detected cell or according to a specific DRX period used by the UE in the current detected cell. In the present embodiment, the size of the third evaluation period may not be limited.

In the implementation shown in fig. 5, the UE may determine the first evaluation period according to the first scaling factor from the network device, according to the third evaluation period and the first scaling factor (e.g., scale the third evaluation period according to the first scaling factor, thereby obtaining the first evaluation period). In this way, the implementation manner can avoid the influence of parameters such as whether the measured cell configures DXR and DRX cycle, so as to avoid unnecessary power consumption of the UE, and is particularly suitable for a scenario that the SCG is in a deactivated state and DRX is not configured for the SCG, and can avoid the problem of high power consumption caused by using an evaluation cycle corresponding to non-DRX to evaluate the link signal quality by the UE. In addition, in the present implementation, the effect of controlling the size of the first evaluation period by the network device may also be achieved.

Alternatively, the first indication period may be acquired by the UE according to a predetermined rule. In one implementation, the first evaluation period may be an evaluation period corresponding to a predetermined DRX period.

For example, the first evaluation period may be an evaluation period corresponding to a predetermined DRX cycle in any of tables 2 to 9.

For example, the predetermined DRX cycle may be the maximum DRX cycle (e.g., 10240 ms) in the current protocol. As another example, the predetermined DRX cycle may be one DRX cycle greater than 320 ms.

Alternatively, in one implementation of the present application, the first indication period described in S104 may be acquired by the indication information from the network device, and two specific implementations are described in fig. 6 and fig. 7 below, respectively.

The implementation mode is as follows: as shown in fig. 6, the method further includes:

s108, the UE receives second indication information from the network equipment.

The second indication information is used for indicating the first indication period. The network equipment is a main node or an auxiliary node of the UE.

Specifically, after receiving the second indication information from the network device, the UE may determine the first indication period according to the second indication information. Then, according to the first indication period, the physical layer of the UE reports indication information corresponding to the first evaluation result to the upper layer protocol stack.

In this implementation, the first indication period may be notified to the UE by the network device. In this way, compared with the method of determining the evaluation period in the prior art, the UE determines the first indication period, and the implementation manner can avoid the influence of whether the measured cell configures DXR, DRX period size, and other parameters on the indication period, so as to avoid unnecessary power consumption of the UE. In addition, in the present implementation, since the first indication period may be notified to the UE by the network device, an effect of controlling the size of the first indication period by the network device may also be achieved.

The implementation mode II is as follows: as shown in fig. 7, the method further includes:

s109, the UE receives second indication information from the network equipment.

Wherein the second indication information is used for indicating a second scaling factor. The network equipment is a main node or an auxiliary node of the UE;

s110, the UE determines a first indication period according to the third indication period and the second scaling factor.

The third indication period may be one of indication periods used in the prior art. For example, the third indication period may be an indication period determined by the UE according to parameters such as whether the UE has DRX in the current measured cell configuration, the DRX period configured by the UE in the current measured cell configuration, and the period of the reference signal used in the RLM or link recovery process in the prior art. For another example, the third indication period is an indication period determined by the UE according to whether the UE is not configured with DRX in the current detected cell or according to the UE employing a certain DRX period in the current detected cell. In this embodiment, the size of the third indication period may not be limited.

In this implementation, the UE may determine the first indication period according to the second scaling factor from the network device, according to the third indication period and the second scaling factor (e.g., scale the third indication period according to the second scaling factor, thereby obtaining the first indication period). In this way, compared with the method of determining the evaluation period in the prior art, the UE determines the first indication period, and the implementation manner can avoid the influence of whether the measured cell configures DXR, DRX period size, and other parameters on the indication period, so as to avoid unnecessary power consumption of the UE. In addition, in the present implementation, the effect of controlling the size of the first indication period by the network device may also be achieved.

In still another implementation manner, in the method of this embodiment, the first indication period may be an indication period corresponding to a predetermined DRX cycle.

For example, the indication period corresponding to the predetermined DRX cycle may be an indication period corresponding to one predetermined DRX cycle in the manner of determining the indication period used in S12 or S22. For example, when the method provided by the present embodiment is applied to RLM, the first indication period may be a maximum value between a shortest period of RLM resources and a predetermined DRX period. For another example, when the method provided in the present embodiment is applied to RLM, the first indication period may be a maximum value of a shortest period of 10ms, 1.5×predetermined DRX period, and 1.5×rlm resource when the predetermined DRX period is less than or equal to 320ms, and the predetermined DRX period is taken as the first indication period when the predetermined DRX period is greater than 320 ms.

For example, when the method provided in the present embodiment is applied to the link recovery procedure, for evaluating link signal quality using SSB, if the predetermined DRX cycle length exceeds 320ms, the first indication period may be the predetermined DRX cycle; if the predetermined DRX cycle length is less than or equal to 320ms, the first indication period is max (1.5 x the predetermined DRX cycle,

The shortest period of SSB), i.e., (1.5 x predetermined DRX period) and #

The shortest period of SSB); for another example, when the method provided in the present embodiment is applied to the link recovery procedure, for evaluating the link signal quality using CSI-RS, if the predetermined DRX cycle length exceeds 320ms, the first indication period is the predetermined DRX cycle; if the predetermined DRX cycle length is less than or equal to 320ms, the cycle is max (1.5 x predeterminedIs used for the DRX cycle of (a),

the shortest period of csi-rs).

Wherein, the value of the preset DRX period can be determined according to the actual requirement. For example, the predetermined DRX cycle may be a large DRX cycle (e.g., 10240 ms) in the current protocol. As another example, the predetermined DRX cycle may be one DRX cycle greater than 320 ms. The present application may not be limited with respect to the value of the predetermined DRX cycle.

It should be noted that, in some scenarios, when it is not necessary to select different evaluation periods according to different states (deactivated states or activated states) of the SCG to evaluate the link signal quality of the SCG, but it is necessary to select different indication periods according to different states of the SCG to report the evaluation result to the upper protocol stack of the UE, the communication method provided in the present application may not execute the contents of S101-S103 until S107 is executed. That is, in some scenarios, in the method described above in the embodiments of the present application, the technical means described in S107 to S110 may be implemented independently without adopting the method provided in S101 to S103, so as to achieve the corresponding technical effects.

Furthermore, consider that: in one aspect, during RLM or link recovery procedures, the UE may need to determine a reference signal for the RLM or link recovery procedure based on the active TCI state of the received PDCCH of the SCG. On the other hand, the active TCI state of the received PDCCH is typically transmitted through a MAC CE carried on the PDSCH channel. While the SCG is in a deactivated state, the UE may not receive the PDSCH of the secondary node. This results in the UE being unable to acquire the active TCI state of the received PDCCH of the SCG, and thus unable to perform RLM or link recovery procedures on the SCG.

Thus, in one implementation, when the SCG of the UE is in a deactivated state, as shown in fig. 8, the method provided in this embodiment may further include:

and S111, the auxiliary node of the UE sends second information to the main node.

Wherein the second information includes active TCI status information.

The activated TCI state information is used for the UE to receive the PDCCH of the SCG. In other words, the active TCI state information indicates an active TCI state of the received PDCCH of the SCG.

The auxiliary node may obtain a reference signal (for example, CSI-RS) satisfying the condition through SRS from the UE, and further adjust an activated TCI state of the SCG for receiving the PDCCH, so as to use a TCI state corresponding to the reference signal satisfying the condition as the activated TCI state. That is, the auxiliary node determines the activated TCI state information included in the second information, and indicates the TCI state corresponding to the reference signal satisfying the condition.

Or, the UE may send the measurement result of the reference signal monitored by the UE in the SCG to the secondary node through the primary node, and then the secondary node may determine the content of the second information according to the measurement result of the reference signal monitored by the UE in the SCG.

And S112, the master node sends the first information to the UE.

Wherein the first information includes the active TCI status information described above.

S113, the UE acquires an evaluation result of the link signal quality of the SCG based on the reference signal corresponding to the activated TCI state information.

That is, in the above-described design, when the SCG of the UE is in the deactivated state, the activated TCI state information may be transmitted to the UE in such a manner that the activated TCI state information is transmitted to the master node by the secondary node and then the activated TCI state information is transmitted to the UE by the master node. In this way, it is avoided that the UE cannot acquire the active TCI state of the received PDCCH of the SCG, and cannot perform RLM or link recovery procedure on the SCG.

After combining the content of S111-S113 with the content of selecting different evaluation periods according to different states (deactivated states or activated states) of the SCG to evaluate the link signal quality of the SCG (e.g. S101-S103), S113 or S101 may specifically include:

And the UE acquires a first evaluation result of the link signal quality of the SCG according to the first evaluation period based on the reference signal corresponding to the activated TCI state information.

The specific implementation manner of obtaining the first evaluation result of the link signal quality of the SCG according to the first evaluation period may refer to the description related to S101. Then, after the UE obtains the first evaluation result, the radio link monitoring or link recovery procedure may be performed on the SCG with reference to the corresponding description of S103.

It should be noted that, in some scenarios, the UE may perform RLM measurement or radio link recovery in other manners instead of selecting different evaluation periods according to different states (deactivated state or activated state) of the SCG to evaluate the link signal quality of the SCG (i.e., S101-S103). When the UE does not perform RLM measurement or radio link recovery in the manner of S101-S103, the method provided in S111-S113 may be implemented separately to achieve the corresponding technical effect, which may not be limited in this application.

Different implementations of the first information and the second information in the above design are described below:

the implementation mode is as follows: the first information may be a first RRC message and the second information may be a second RRC message. Wherein the first RRC message includes a second RRC message, and the active TCI state information is included in the second RRC message.

That is, the active TCI state information may be sent to the primary node by the secondary node in an RRC message (referred to as a second RRC message). For example, when the secondary node is a CU/DU architecture, the DU of the secondary node may transmit the active TCI state information to the CU of the secondary node, and then the CU of the secondary node generates one RRC message (i.e., a second RRC message) and then transmits the second RRC message to the primary node. In addition, the second information may be carried in an interface message (e.g., s-node addition request acknowledge, s-node modification request acknowledge, s-node modification required) sent by the secondary base station to the primary node.

The master node then encapsulates the second RRC message into an RRC message (referred to as a first RRC message) to send to the UE in such a way that the active TCI state information is sent to the UE. Wherein the second RRC message is generated by the secondary node. The first RRC message is generated by the master node.

The implementation mode II is as follows: the first information may be an RRC message or a medium access control element MAC CE. In addition, the second information may be sent to the primary node in a manner that is perceivable by the primary node, e.g., the second information may be carried in an explicit manner in a cell in an interface message (e.g., s-node addition request acknowledge, s-node modification request acknowledge, s-node modification required) sent by the secondary base station to the primary node.

That is, in the second implementation manner, the secondary node may send the second information to the primary node in a manner that the primary node can sense, for example, in a manner of sending an interface message, so that the primary node can parse the second information to obtain the activated TCI state information carried in the second information. For example, when the secondary node is a CU/DU architecture, the active TCI state may be sent to the secondary node's CU by the secondary node's DU, then the secondary node's CU generates an interface message and then sends the second information to the primary node.

Then, after the master node analyzes the second information to obtain the activated TCI state information, the master node may implement sending the activated TCI state information to the UE by carrying the activated TCI state information in an RRC message or a MAC CE (i.e., the first information) and sending the same to the UE. For example, when the master node is a CU/DU architecture, after the master node obtains the active TCI state information by parsing the interface message, the CU of the master node transmits the active TCI state information to the DU of the master node, and then the DU of the master node generates a MAC CE and transmits the generated MAC CE to the UE.

Based on the second implementation manner, the first information may further include third indication information. The third indication information is used for indicating that the activated TCI state information is TCI state information of SCG.

In this case, the third indication information is also included in the first information in order to enable the UE to know whether the activated TCI state information included in the first information is the TCI state information of the MCG or the TCI state information of the SCG when the first information is the RRC message or the MAC CE.

Consider that: on the one hand, for the link recovery procedure, when the MAC layer of the UE receives indication information of a certain number of beam failures of the PSCell (i.e. the beam failures of the PSCell are described), the UE triggers the random access procedure in the PSCell; in addition, when the MAC layer of the UE receives indication information of a certain number of beam failures of the SCell in the secondary node (i.e., beam failures illustrating the SCell), the UE transmits a BFR MAC CE to the secondary node. On the other hand, in the current protocol, when the SCG is in a deactivated state, the method of how the UE initiates the random access procedure to the SCG is not yet determined, which results in that the UE cannot initiate the random access procedure in the SCG, and thus cannot complete the link recovery procedure to the PSCell; in addition, when the SCG is in a deactivated state, the UE may not transmit uplink data to the SCG, i.e., cannot transmit the BFR MAC CE.

Therefore, the embodiment of the application provides a communication method, which is used for enabling a UE to perform a random access procedure in a PSCell or enabling the UE to send a BFR MAC CE to a secondary node when a failure of a PSCell or a beam of an SCell is detected in a case that an SCG is in a deactivated state, so as to complete a link recovery procedure for the PSCell or the SCell.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 9, the method includes the steps of:

s201, the UE detects a beam failure of the first cell in the SCG.

Wherein, the SCG is in a deactivated state, and the first cell is a PScell or an SCell in the SCG.

Alternatively, the beam failure of the first cell in the SCG may mean that when the MAC layer of the UE receives a beam failure indication information of the first cell of an SCG from the physical layer, the MAC layer of the UE starts or restarts a timer, and records the number of times of currently received beam failure indication information plus 1. If the MAC layer of the UE receives a certain number of beam failure indication information of the first cell before the timer expires, it considers that the beam of the first cell in the SCG fails.

S202, the UE initiates a random access procedure in the first BWP of the PSCell in the SCG.

Wherein when the first cell is a PSCell, initiating a random access procedure by BWP of the PSCell in the SCG when the UE detects a beam failure of the PSCell. Thereby ensuring the smooth completion of the link recovery process for the PSCell.

When the first cell is an SCell, a random access procedure is initiated by BWP of the PSCell in the SCG when the UE detects a beam failure of the SCell. In this way, the UE may send uplink data to the SCG through the PSCell, that is, send the BFR MAC CE, thereby ensuring smooth completion of the link recovery procedure for the SCell.

Thus, in one implementation, when the first cell is an SCell, the method further comprises:

s203, when the random access procedure initiated at the first BWP succeeds, the UE transmits the first MAC CE to the secondary node.

The first MAC CE is configured to indicate a beam failure of the first cell.

In one implementation, the first BWP may be an initial BWP of the PSCell.

In one possible design, the method further comprises:

s204, after the first BWP initiates the random access procedure, the UE switches from the first BWP to the dorman BWP of the PSCell.

For example, when the first cell is a PSCell, after the UE initiates the random access procedure in the first BWP, the UE completes the link recovery procedure for the PSCell, and then the PSCell can be recovered to the deactivated state by switching from the first BWP to the dorman BWP of the PSCell, so as to save the power of the UE, and simultaneously reduce the command that the network side resends the command to the UE to enter the deactivated state, and also reduce the overhead.

For another example, when the first cell is an SCell, as described in S202 above, after the first BWP initiates the random access procedure, the UE may send a BFR MAC CE to the SCG through the PSCell to complete the link recovery procedure for the SCell. Then switching from the first BWP to the dorman BWP of the PSCell may restore the PSCell to the deactivated state, so as to save the power of the UE, and reduce the command of the network side to resend the dorman BWP to the UE, and also reduce the overhead.

In another possible design, the first BWP may be dorman BWP of the PSCell.

It should be noted that, when the communication method shown in fig. 3 is applied to the link recovery process, the communication method shown in fig. 9 may be applied to the method shown in fig. 3, so as to solve the technical problem solved by the method shown in fig. 9 in the method shown in fig. 3, and achieve the technical effect achieved by the method shown in fig. 9.

For example, in the method shown in fig. 3, when the SCG of the UE is in a deactivated state, the UE first obtains a first evaluation result of the contact signal instruction of the SCG according to the first evaluation period. And then the UE performs a link recovery process on the SCG according to the first evaluation result. In the link recovery process, if the MAC layer of the UE receives indication information of a certain number of beam failures of the first cell, it indicates the beam failure of the first cell. For example, after the first evaluation result of the previous first evaluation period is obtained in each first indication period, if the first evaluation result indicates that the physical layer of the UE is used in S107

All of the RS in (a) evaluate link signal quality to threshold Q _out,LR And if the difference is found, the physical layer of the UE reports the indication information of the beam failure to the MAC layer. When the MAC layer of the UE receives indication information of a certain number of beam failures of the PSCell, it indicates that the beam of the first cell fails.

Then, with the method shown in fig. 9, the UE may initiate a random access procedure through the first BWP of the PSCell in the SCG, so as to ensure that the link recovery procedure for the first cell may be successfully completed.

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method, which is used for completing a link recovery process for a PScell or an SCell when a beam failure of the PScell or the SCell is detected under the condition that the SCG of UE is in a deactivated state.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 10, the method includes the steps of:

s301, when the SCG is in a deactivated state, the UE sends fourth indication information to the auxiliary node through the main node.

The fourth indication information is used for indicating beam failure of the first cell in the SCG. Alternatively, the fourth indication information is used to indicate that the UE is ready to perform a beam recovery procedure in the first cell. The first cell may be a PSCell or SCell in SCG. Optionally, the indication of the beam failure of the first cell in the SCG means that when the MAC layer of the UE receives a beam failure indication message of the first cell of an SCG from the physical layer, the MAC layer of the UE starts or restarts a timer, and records the number of times of currently received beam failure indication messages plus 1. If the MAC layer of the UE receives a certain number of beam failure indication information of the first cell before the timer expires, it considers that the beam of the first cell in the SCG fails.

In addition, in the fourth indication information, the index of the candidate beam, which is measured by the UE in the SCell and has a signal quality better than a certain threshold, may also be carried.

S302, the auxiliary node receives a fourth indication message from the main node.

In the above method, considering that, in the link recovery process, when the MAC layer of the UE receives a certain number of beam failure information of the PSCell or SCell, whether the UE initiates a random access process in the PSCell or the UE sends a BFR MAC CE to the secondary node, the UE is configured to notify the secondary node of the beam failure of the PSCell or SCell. Therefore, in the above method, the UE sends the fourth indication information to the secondary node through the primary node, so that the secondary node can be notified of the beam failure of the first cell (PSCell or SCell) on the premise that the UE does not send uplink data to the secondary node.

It should be noted that, when the communication method shown in fig. 3 is applied to the link recovery process, the communication method shown in fig. 10 may be applied to the method shown in fig. 3, so as to solve the technical problem solved by the method shown in fig. 10 in the method shown in fig. 3, and achieve the technical effect achieved by the method shown in fig. 10.

For example, in the method shown in fig. 3, when the SCG of the UE is in a deactivated state, the UE first obtains a first evaluation result of the contact signal instruction of the SCG according to the first evaluation period. And then the UE performs a link recovery process on the SCG according to the first evaluation result. Wherein, in the link recovery process, if the MAC layer of the UE receives the indication information of a certain number of beam failures of the first cell, the MAC layer of the UE indicates the first cell The beam of the cell fails. For example, after the first evaluation result of the previous first evaluation period is obtained in each first indication period, if the first evaluation result indicates that the physical layer of the UE is used in S107

Then, with the method shown in fig. 10, the UE may further notify the secondary node of the beam failure of the first cell (PSCell or SCell) by transmitting the fourth indication information to the secondary node through the primary node, on the premise that the UE does not transmit uplink data to the secondary node.

It is understood that in the embodiments of the present application, the UE and/or the network device may perform some or all of the steps in the embodiments of the present application, these steps or operations are merely examples, and in the embodiments of the present application, other operations or variations of various operations may also be performed. Furthermore, the various steps may be performed in a different order presented in accordance with embodiments of the present application, and it is possible that not all of the operations in the embodiments of the present application may be performed. Embodiments provided herein may be related and may be referred to or cited with each other.

The above embodiments mainly describe the schemes provided by the embodiments of the present application from the perspective of interaction between devices. It should be understood that, in order to implement the corresponding functions, the UE or the primary node or the secondary node includes corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules for performing the functions. Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the elements of the examples described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is implemented as hardware or computer software driven hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

The embodiment of the application may divide the functional modules of the device (including the UE or the primary node or the secondary node) according to the above method example, for example, each functional module may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The integrated modules may be implemented in hardware or in software functional modules. Optionally, the division of the modules in the embodiments of the present application is schematic, which is merely a logic function division, and other division manners may be actually implemented.

Fig. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating a communication device 40 according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 40 may be a chip or a system on chip in the UE. The communication device 40 may be used to perform the functions of the UE referred to in the above embodiments. As one implementation, the communication device 40 includes:

a processing unit 401, configured to obtain, when the secondary cell group SCG of the UE is in a deactivated state, a first evaluation result of link signal quality of the SCG according to a first evaluation period;

the processing unit 401 is further configured to obtain, when the SCG is in an active state, a second evaluation result of the link signal quality of the SCG according to a second evaluation period;

the processing unit 401 is further configured to perform wireless link monitoring or link recovery on the SCG according to the first evaluation result or the second evaluation result.

In one possible design, the communication device 40 further includes:

a receiving unit 402, configured to receive first indication information from a network device; the first indication information is used for indicating the first evaluation period; the network device is a master node or a slave node of the UE.

In one possible design, the communication device 40 further includes:

A receiving unit 402, configured to receive first indication information from a network device; the first indication information is used for indicating a first scaling factor; the network equipment is a main node or an auxiliary node of the UE;

the processing unit 401 is further configured to determine the first evaluation period according to a third evaluation period and the first scaling factor.

In one possible design, the processing unit 401 is further configured to enable the physical layer of the UE to report, to an upper protocol stack, indication information corresponding to the first evaluation result according to a first indication period, or enable the physical layer of the UE to report, to the upper protocol stack, indication information corresponding to the second evaluation result according to a second indication period.

In one possible design, the receiving unit 402 is configured to receive second indication information from the network device; the second indication information is used for indicating the first indication period; the network device is a master node or a slave node of the UE.

In one possible design, the receiving unit 402 is configured to receive second indication information from the network device; the second indication information is used for indicating a second scaling factor; the network device is a master node or a slave node of the UE.

The processing unit 401 is further configured to determine the first indication period according to a third indication period and the second scaling factor.

In one possible design, the receiving unit 402 is configured to receive the first information from the master node when the SCG is in a deactivated state; the first information includes: activating transmission configuration indication TCI state information; the activated TCI status information is used for the UE to receive the physical downlink control channel PDCCH of the SCG;

in a possible design, the processing unit 401 is further configured to obtain, according to a first evaluation period, the first evaluation result of the link signal quality of the SCG based on the reference signal corresponding to the active TCI state information.

In one possible design, the first information is a first RRC message, the first RRC message includes a second RRC message, and the active TCI state information is included in the second RRC message; the second RRC message is an RRC message from the secondary node.

In one possible design, the first information is an RRC message or a MAC CE.

Fig. 12 is a schematic diagram illustrating the composition of another communication device 50 according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication means 50 may be a chip or a system on chip in a network device, such as a primary node or a secondary node of a UE. The communication means 50 may be used to perform the functions of the network devices involved in the above-described embodiments. As one implementation, the communication device 50 includes:

a transmitting unit 501, configured to transmit first indication information to a UE; the first indication information is used for indicating a first evaluation period or a first scaling factor; the network equipment is a main node or an auxiliary node of the UE; the first evaluation period is used for indicating the UE to acquire a first evaluation result according to the first evaluation period when the secondary cell group SCG is in a deactivated state; the first evaluation result is used for carrying out wireless link monitoring or link recovery process on the SCG; the first scaling factor is used for indicating the UE to determine the first evaluation period according to a third evaluation period and the first scaling factor.

In a possible design, the sending unit 501 is further configured to send second indication information to the UE; the second indication information is used for indicating the first indication period or the second scaling factor; the first indication period is used for indicating the UE to report the first evaluation result to an upper protocol stack by a physical layer of the UE according to the first indication period; the second scaling factor is used for indicating the UE to determine the first indication period according to a third indication period and the second scaling factor.

Fig. 13 is a schematic diagram illustrating the composition of another communication device 60 according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication means 60 may be a chip or a system on chip in the master node. The communication means 60 may be arranged to perform the functions of the master node as referred to in the above embodiments. As one implementation, the communication device 60 includes:

a receiving unit 601, configured to receive second information from a secondary node, where the second information includes active transmission configuration indicating TCI status information; the activated TCI status information is used for the UE to receive a physical downlink control channel PDCCH of an auxiliary cell group SCG of the auxiliary node; wherein the SCG is in a deactivated state;

a sending unit 602, configured to send first information to the UE, where the first information includes the activated TCI state information.

Fig. 14 is a schematic diagram illustrating the composition of another communication device 70 according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication means 70 may be a chip or a system on chip in the secondary node. The communication device 70 may be used to perform the functions of the secondary node as referred to in the above embodiments. As one implementation, the communication device 70 includes:

a sending unit 701, configured to send second information to a master node, where the second information includes active transmission configuration indication TCI status information; the activated TCI status information is used for the UE to receive a physical downlink control channel PDCCH of an auxiliary cell group SCG of the auxiliary node; wherein the SCG is in a deactivated state.

Fig. 15 is a schematic diagram illustrating the composition of another communication device 80 according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 80 may be a chip or a system on chip in the UE. The communication device 80 may be used to perform the functions of the UE referred to in the above embodiments. As one implementation, the communication device 80 includes:

A processing unit 801, configured to detect a beam failure of a first cell in the secondary cell group SCG; wherein the SCG is in a deactivated state; the first cell is the PSCell or secondary cell SCell in the SCG;

the processing unit 801 is further configured to initiate a random access procedure in a first partial bandwidth BWP of a primary secondary cell PSCell in the SCG.

In one possible design, the first BWP is an initial BWP of the PSCell. The processing unit 801 is further configured to switch from the initial BWP to a dormant dorman BWP of the PSCell after the random access procedure.

In one possible design, the first BWP is a dormant dorman BWP of the PSCell.

In one possible design, when the first cell is an SCell, the communication device 80 further includes:

a transmitting unit 802, configured to transmit a first medium access control element MAC CE to a secondary node after the random access procedure is successful; the first MAC CE is configured to indicate a beam failure of the first cell.

Fig. 16 is a schematic diagram illustrating the composition of another communication device 90 according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 90 may be a chip or a system on chip in the UE. The communication device 90 may be used to perform the functions of the UE referred to in the above embodiments. As one implementation, the communication device 90 includes:

A sending unit 901, configured to send fourth indication information to the secondary node through the primary node when the secondary cell group SCG is in a deactivated state; the fourth indication information is used for indicating beam failure of the first cell in the SCG; the first cell is the PSCell or secondary cell SCell in the SCG.

Fig. 17 is a schematic diagram illustrating the composition of another communication device 100 according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 100 may be a chip or a system-on-chip in a secondary node of the UE. The communication device 100 may be used to perform the functions of the secondary node referred to in the above embodiments. As one implementation, the communication device 100 includes:

a receiving unit 1001, configured to receive a fourth indication message from a primary node of the UE, where the fourth indication message is used to indicate beam failure of a first cell in a secondary cell group SCG.

It will be appreciated that, for a specific description of the functions of each unit in the above communications apparatus 40-100, reference may be made to a method embodiment, for example, a corresponding UE in the embodiment shown in fig. 3-10, or a description of related steps performed by a network device (a primary node or a secondary node), which is not described herein.

Fig. 18 shows a schematic diagram of the composition of a communication device 110. Wherein the communication device 110 includes: at least one processor 1101, and at least one interface circuit 1104. In addition, the communication device 110 may also include a communication line 1102, a memory 1103.

The processor 1101 may be a general purpose central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), microprocessor, application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of the programs of the present application.

Communication line 1102 may include a pathway to transfer information between the aforementioned components.

Interface circuit 1104 uses any transceiver-like device for communicating with other devices or communication networks, such as ethernet, radio access network (radio access network, RAN), wireless local area network (wireless local area networks, WLAN), etc.

The memory 1103 may be, but is not limited to, a read-only memory (ROM) or other type of static storage device that can store static information and instructions, a random access memory (random access memory, RAM) or other type of dynamic storage device that can store information and instructions, an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, EEPROM), a compact disc (compact disc read-only memory) or other optical disk storage, a compact disc storage (including compact disc, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc, blu-ray disc, etc.), a magnetic disk storage medium or other magnetic storage device, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. The memory may be separate and coupled to the processor via communication line 1102. The memory may also be integrated with the processor.

The memory 1103 is used for storing computer-executable instructions for executing the embodiments of the present application, and the processor 1101 controls the execution. The processor 1101 is configured to execute computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 1103, thereby implementing the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application.

Illustratively, in some embodiments, the processor 1101, when executing instructions stored by the memory 1103, causes the communication device 110 to perform S101-S104 as shown in FIGS. 3, 6-7, and S105 as shown in FIG. 4, S106 and S107 as shown in FIG. 5, S108 as shown in FIG. 6, S109 and S110 as shown in FIG. 7, S112 and S113 as shown in FIG. 8, and other operations that the UE needs to perform.

In other embodiments, the processor 1101, when executing instructions stored in the memory 1103, causes the communication device 110 to perform S105 shown in fig. 4, S106 shown in fig. 5, S108 shown in fig. 6, S109 shown in fig. 7, and other operations that the network apparatus needs to perform.

In other embodiments, the processor 1101, when executing instructions stored in the memory 1103, causes the communication device 110 to perform S111 and S112 as shown in fig. 8, as well as other operations that the master node needs to perform.

In other embodiments, the processor 1101, when executing the instructions stored in the memory 1103, causes the communication device 110 to perform S111 as shown in fig. 8, as well as other operations that the secondary node needs to perform.

In other embodiments, the processor 1101, when executing the instructions stored in the memory 1103, causes the communication device 110 to perform S201-S204 as shown in fig. 9, as well as other operations that the UE needs to perform.

In other embodiments, the processor 1101, when executing the instructions stored in the memory 1103, causes the communication device 110 to perform S301 as shown in fig. 10, as well as other operations that the UE needs to perform.

In other embodiments, the processor 1101, when executing the instructions stored in the memory 1103, causes the communication device 110 to perform S302 as shown in fig. 10, as well as other operations that the secondary node needs to perform.

Alternatively, the computer-executable instructions in the embodiments of the present application may be referred to as application program codes, which are not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application.

In a particular implementation, the processor 1101 may include one or more CPUs, such as CPU0 and CPU1 of FIG. 18, as an embodiment.

In a particular implementation, as one embodiment, the apparatus 1100 may include a plurality of processors, such as processor 1101 and processor 1107 in FIG. 18. Each of these processors may be a single-core (single-CPU) processor or may be a multi-core (multi-CPU) processor. A processor herein may refer to one or more devices, circuits, and/or processing cores for processing, for example, meter data (computer program instructions).

In a specific implementation, the apparatus 1100 may further include an output device 1105 and an input device 1106, as one embodiment. The output device 1105 communicates with the processor 1101 and may display information in a variety of ways. For example, the output device 1105 may be a liquid crystal display (liquid crystal display, LCD), a light emitting diode (light emitting diode, LED) display device, a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) display device, or a projector (projector), or the like. The input device 1106 is in communication with the processor 1101 and may receive input from a user in a variety of ways. For example, the input device 1106 may be a mouse, a keyboard, a touch screen device, a sensing device, or the like.

The embodiments of the present application also provide a computer readable storage medium having instructions stored therein that, when executed, perform the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product comprising instructions. Which when executed on a computer, causes the computer to perform the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application.

The embodiment of the application also provides a chip. The chip includes a processor. The computer program instructions, when executed by a processor, enable the chip to perform the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application. The instructions may come from memory internal to the chip or from memory external to the chip. Optionally, the chip further comprises an input-output circuit as a communication interface.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication system which comprises the first node and the second node.

The first node is configured to perform an operation that needs to be performed by the primary node of the UE in the foregoing embodiments of the present application, and the second node is configured to perform an operation that needs to be performed by the secondary node of the UE in the foregoing embodiments of the present application.

For example, the first node is configured to perform S111-S112 in fig. 8, receive the second information from the second node, and send the first information to the terminal device. The second node is configured to perform S111 in fig. 8, and to transmit the second information to the first node.

The functions or acts or operations or steps and the like in the embodiments described above may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented using a software program, it may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in accordance with embodiments of the present application are produced in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center by a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, digital subscriber line (digital subscriber line, DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device including one or more servers, data centers, etc. that can be integrated with the medium. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), or the like.

Although the present application has been described in connection with specific features and embodiments thereof, it will be apparent that various modifications and combinations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the application. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are merely exemplary illustrations of the present application as defined in the appended claims and are considered to cover any and all modifications, variations, combinations, or equivalents that fall within the scope of the present application. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present application without departing from the scope of the application. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims and the equivalents thereof, the present application is intended to include such modifications and variations as well.

Claims

A method of communication, the method comprising:

when a secondary cell group SCG of a terminal device is in a deactivated state, the terminal device acquires a first evaluation result of link signal quality of the SCG according to a first evaluation period;

when the SCG is in an activated state, the terminal equipment acquires a second evaluation result of the link signal quality of the SCG according to a second evaluation period;

and the terminal equipment monitors the wireless link of the SCG or performs a link recovery process according to the first evaluation result or the second evaluation result.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

the terminal equipment receives first indication information from network equipment; the first indication information is used for indicating the first evaluation period; the network device is a main node or an auxiliary node of the terminal device.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

the terminal equipment receives first indication information from network equipment; the first indication information is used for indicating a first scaling factor; the network equipment is a main node or an auxiliary node of the terminal equipment;

the terminal device determines the first evaluation period according to a third evaluation period and the first scaling factor.
The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining the position of the substrate comprises,

the first evaluation period is an evaluation period corresponding to a predetermined discontinuous reception DRX period.
The method according to any one of claims 1-4, further comprising:

reporting indication information corresponding to the first evaluation result to an upper protocol stack by a physical layer of the terminal equipment according to a first indication period;

or according to the second indication period, the physical layer of the terminal equipment reports the indication information corresponding to the second evaluation result to an upper protocol stack.
The method of claim 5, wherein the method further comprises:

the terminal equipment receives second indication information from the network equipment; the second indication information is used for indicating the first indication period; the network device is a main node or an auxiliary node of the terminal device.
The method of claim 5, wherein the method further comprises:

the terminal equipment receives second indication information from the network equipment; the second indication information is used for indicating a second scaling factor; the network equipment is a main node or an auxiliary node of the terminal equipment;

the terminal device determines the first indication period according to a third indication period and the second scaling factor.
The method of claim 5, wherein the step of determining the position of the probe is performed,

the first indication period is an indication period corresponding to a predetermined DRX period.
The method according to any one of claims 1-8, further comprising:

when the SCG is in a deactivated state, the terminal equipment receives first information from a main node; the first information includes: activating transmission configuration indication TCI state information; the activated TCI status information is used for the terminal device to receive the physical downlink control channel PDCCH of the SCG;

The terminal equipment obtains a first evaluation result of the link signal quality of the SCG according to a first evaluation period, and the method comprises the following steps:

and the terminal equipment acquires the first evaluation result of the link signal quality of the SCG according to a first evaluation period based on the reference signal corresponding to the activated TCI state information.
The method of claim 9, wherein the first information is a first radio resource control, RRC, message, the first RRC message comprising a second RRC message, the active TCI state information being included in the second RRC message; the second RRC message is an RRC message from the secondary node.
The method of claim 9, wherein the first information is an RRC message or a medium access control element MAC CE.
The method of claim 11, wherein the first information further comprises third indication information indicating that the active TCI state information is TCI state information of the SCG.
A method of communication, the method comprising:

the network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal equipment; the first indication information is used for indicating a first evaluation period or a first scaling factor; the network equipment is a main node or an auxiliary node of the terminal equipment;

The first evaluation period is used for indicating the terminal equipment to acquire a first evaluation result according to the first evaluation period when the secondary cell group SCG is in a deactivated state; the first evaluation result is used for carrying out wireless link monitoring or link recovery process on the SCG; the first scaling factor is used for indicating the terminal equipment to determine the first evaluation period according to a third evaluation period and the first scaling factor.
The method of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises:

the network equipment sends second indication information to the terminal equipment; the second indication information is used for indicating the first indication period or the second scaling factor;

the first indication period is used for indicating the terminal equipment to report the first evaluation result to an upper protocol stack by a physical layer of the terminal equipment according to the first indication period; the second scaling factor is used for indicating the terminal equipment to determine the first indication period according to a third indication period and the second scaling factor.
A method of communication, the method comprising:

the method comprises the steps that a primary node receives second information from a secondary node, wherein the second information comprises TCI (transmission configuration indicator) state information; the activated TCI status information is used for receiving a physical downlink control channel PDCCH of an auxiliary cell group SCG of the auxiliary node by the terminal device; wherein the SCG is in a deactivated state;

The master node sends first information to the terminal device, wherein the first information comprises the activated TCI state information.
The method of claim 15, wherein the second information is a second radio resource control, RRC, message and the first information is a first RRC message; the first RRC message includes the second RRC message.
The method of claim 15, wherein the first information is an RRC message or a medium access control element MAC CE.
The method of claim 17, wherein the first information further comprises third indication information indicating that the active TCI state information is TCI state information of the SCG.
A method of communication, the method comprising:

the auxiliary node sends second information to the main node, wherein the second information comprises TCI state information for activating transmission configuration indication; the activated TCI status information is used for receiving a physical downlink control channel PDCCH of an auxiliary cell group SCG of the auxiliary node by the terminal device; wherein the SCG is in a deactivated state.
The method of claim 19, wherein the second information is an RRC message sent by the secondary node to the primary node, or wherein the second information is an interface message between the secondary node and the primary node.
A method of communication, the method comprising:

the terminal equipment detects beam failure of a first cell in the secondary cell group SCG; wherein the SCG is in a deactivated state; the first cell is a primary secondary cell PSCell or a secondary cell SCell in the SCG;

the terminal device initiates a random access procedure in a first partial bandwidth BWP of the PSCell in the SCG.
The method of claim 21, wherein the first BWP is an initial BWP of the PSCell;

the method further comprises the steps of:

the terminal device switches from the first BWP to dormant dorman BWP of the PSCell after the random access procedure.
The method of claim 21, wherein the first BWP is a dormant dorman BWP of the PSCell.
The method according to any of claims 21-23, wherein when the first cell is an SCell, the method further comprises:

after the random access process is successful, the terminal equipment sends a first medium access control element (MAC CE) to an auxiliary node; the first MAC CE is configured to indicate a beam failure of the first cell.
A method of communication, the method comprising:

When the SCG of the secondary cell group is in a deactivated state, the terminal equipment sends fourth indication information to the secondary node through the primary node; the fourth indication information is used for indicating beam failure of the first cell in the SCG; the first cell is a primary secondary cell PSCell or a secondary cell SCell in the SCG.
The method of claim 25, wherein the fourth indication information is an RRC message or the fourth indication information is a MAC CE.
A method of communication, the method comprising:

the secondary node of the terminal equipment receives a fourth indication message from the primary node of the terminal equipment, wherein the fourth indication message is used for indicating beam failure of the first cell in the secondary cell group SCG.
The method of claim 27, wherein the fourth indication information is an RRC message or the fourth indication information is a MAC CE.
A communication device, the communication device comprising: at least one processor and interface circuit, which when executed by the processor, causes the communication device to perform the method of any one of claims 1-12, or any one of claims 21-24, or any one of claims 25-26, or any one of claims 27-28.
A communication device, the communication device comprising: at least one processor and interface circuit, which when executed by the processor, causes the communication device to perform the method of any one of claims 13-14, or any one of claims 15-18, or any one of claims 19-20.
A communication system comprising a first node and a second node; wherein:

the first node being adapted to perform the method of any of claims 15-18;

the second node being adapted to perform the method of any of claims 19-20.
A chip comprising a processor which when executing computer program instructions causes the chip to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 12, or any one of claims 13 to 14, or any one of claims 15 to 18, or any one of claims 19 to 20, or any one of claims 21 to 24, or any one of claims 25 to 26, or any one of claims 27 to 28.
A computer-readable storage medium, comprising: computer software instructions;

The computer software instructions, when run in a communication device or built into a chip of the communication device, cause the communication device to perform the method of any one of claims 1-12, or any one of claims 13-14, or any one of claims 15-18, or any one of claims 19-20, or any one of claims 21-24, or any one of claims 25-26, or any one of claims 27-28.
A computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 12, or any one of claims 13 to 14, or any one of claims 15 to 18, or any one of claims 19 to 20, or any one of claims 21 to 24, or any one of claims 25 to 26, or any one of claims 27 to 28.